Chapter 55: The Sword and the Trowel

Chapter 55.
"The Sword and the Trowel"

Starting a Magazine—Prospects of Success—Dr. dimming—The College—Temperance—Spurgeon and "The Prophets"—Some Reminiscences.

At this time Dr. dimming ranked as "The Times Bee-Master;" and in a work on bee-keeping he made some remarks on Spurgeon and the baptismal controversy which were not at all approved at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. "I wish that somebody would send Mr. Spurgeon a super of good honey. Three months' diet on this celestial food would induce him to give up those shockingly bitter and unchristian tirades he has been lately making against the clergy of the Church of England." In answer to this prescription issued for his benefit, Mr. Spurgeon recommended that his brother of Crown Court should give less honey and more salt in his public ministrations. If he saw the reasonableness of this, and liked to follow the advice, Dr. Cumming was promised that a brick of the best salt should be sent to him carriage paid. The first wedding that took place in the new Tabernacle was solemnised at the opening of 1865, Mr. G. D. Evans, who had been educated in the College, being married to Miss Sarah Hockett. Some two or three thousand persons assembled to witness the ceremony, and in the name of the Church the pastor presented the happy pair with a family Bible. It is to be regretted that Mr. Spurgeon's wedding addresses and prayers were not all taken down. For several years it was Spurgeon's custom to preach on the first Sabbath morning of each year from a text of Scripture selected by "an esteemed brother," who was a clergyman of the Established Church. On New Year's morning, 1865, the subject was "True Unity Promoted," the text being Eph 4:3, "Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." The annual week of prayer, at the beginning of the year, was also observed as usual, the weekly prayer-meeting at the Metropolitan Tabernacle being crowded and pervaded by much fervour. This gathering was, according to arrangement, the central one for London, and really commenced at three o'clock in the afternoon. On successive evenings similar meetings were held in other chapels in various parts of London, these being visited by Mr. Spurgeon, who appears to have given an address at each place. Edward Leach, Mr. Spurgeon's literary assistant, thus referred to these gatherings, which appear to have been remarkable for their fervour:—

"'A little cloud... like a man's hand.' A few ministers who had set their congregations the bad example of not knowing much of one another, formed themselves into a little society. Once a month they met for conference and prayer at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, under the presidentship of C. H. Spurgeon. Expectancy should always follow prayer. A blessing was expected. First it came as a little cloud. An earnest spirit of revival then manifested itself in the central church. The flame spread. The new year approached. It was decided to open it with a special week of prayer. The first day 6,000 souls filled the Tabernacle, earnest addresses were delivered, sobbed-out petitions presented to the Throne of Grace, and the Holy Ghost descended, making saints feel intensely their miserable insignificance, and sinners their wretched condition, as unsaved and undone.... On the Tuesday following the second great meeting, Sabbath-school teachers met at Upton Chapel, where the Rev. G. D. Evans labours so acceptably, and invoked the Divine blessing on this means of extending the Saviour's kingdom. On Wednesday evening meetings were held simultaneously at the houses of at least fifty-five members of the Tabernacle church, where earnest souls sought unitedly for the blessing of revival upon the Christian churches.... The Baptist denomination, unfortunately, has much to answer for. Its lukewarmness for years past is most incredible. Its slothful-ness, its lack of care for sinners on the one hand, and its wilful perversion of doctrine and blindness in preaching free-grace invitations on the other, have, we fear, caused it to be a byword in the land. And yet out of these dry bones God is creating, and will more abundantly create, new, young, and invigorated life. The Baptist churches of England will soon have to bear a mighty witness for God. Some of them, headed by Mr. Spurgeon, have made a valiant stand for truth against the Popish dogmas of baptismal regeneration and priestly absolution. Other antichrists have to be dethroned, and these most of all, for though they have had a severe bruising, the mortal stab has yet to be given." At the beginning of this year, a testimonial, amounting to £3,000, and supplementary to a donation of £500 previously subscribed, was presented to Dr. Campbell. As already intimated, Mr. Spurgeon subscribed liberally to this fund; and we find that he referred to the veteran journalist and his friends in genial terms.

One of the chief things to be noted in connection with the year 1865 is the issue of Mr. Spurgeon's magazine, The Sword and the Trowel, which commenced in January, and has been continued until the present time. It would appear that during some years previously there was an inclination to found such a monthly periodical; but one objection was, that it would have a tendency to injure the sale of The Baptist Magazine, the recognised monthly organ of the denomination, which had already been in existence for over half a century. When he became joint-editor of that venerable publication, Mr. Spurgeon's attention was diverted from the enterprise which had suggested itself to his mind; but now that an experiment, which had ended in failure, had been made, he was more at liberty to follow his own inclination. The constituency at the Metropolitan Tabernacle was at that time almost large enough in itself to be represented by an organ of its own; but when to this was added the large number of friends throughout the country who ranked as friends of Mr. Spurgeon, the prospect of success was encouraging. The circulation attained ranged from ten to fifteen thousand, and till the editor's death this was well maintained. Of course, the success of such a venture could have been more striking had "success," as conventionally understood, been the one aim of the projector. Mr. Spurgeon had his own notions, however, concerning what such a magazine should be, and the path marked out would not be departed from for the sake of any temporary advantage. The magazine would not be undenominational, for example, and that alone would be likely to bar its progress in many quarters. As regarded the staff, the editor depended mainly upon himself, well knowing that his own name would attract buyers in the book-market quite as readily as the most brilliant list of contributors. Thus, in the very first number, he commenced the exposition of the Psalms, which, as "The Treasury of David," in seven volumes, is no doubt his greatest literary achievement. He was helped by several competent friends who surrounded him, some who had passed through the College being of the number, while Mr.

Rogers, the Principal of that institution, assisted in the editorship. One of the early contributors was Edward Leach, who became subeditor until the end of 1871, when he resigned his position and accepted the editorship of The Freeman. On March 6, what appears to have been the first conference of the Pastors' College was held, and this has been continued annually until the present time. It was felt that some bond of union was needed to hold together those who had been educated in the College, and consequently an Association was formed. It was proposed and agreed upon that the members of this brotherhood should believe in the doctrines of grace, in believers' baptism, and that they should be earnest in their endeavours to extend the kingdom of Christ. There appear to have been nearly 140 members present. On Wednesday, March 8, a tea and a supper were given by a friend, who continued the practice for some years; and the President appears to have been quite in his element as he described the character of the work in progress. The surroundings were of a kind to make him cheerful; for among those present were not only some of the best men who had gone forth from the College, the work promised to extend in all directions in a way which at first could not have been anticipated. Mr. Spurgeon went over the old story of how he had commenced with one student; and how the supplies from America, on which he had depended, suddenly fell off in consequence of his anti-slavery views. The President added:—

"The funds of the College got very low, and when they were at the lowest, some lady unknown sent a cheque for £200, and afterwards another for £100 was sent. The number of students is now ninety-three, and means has never yet been wanting for their support. The weekly offerings of the church began at £3, and now they are £50 or £60 per week. Money, in fact, is sent from all parts of the world. The number of students settled over churches during the past year is about thirty. A fund has been established, which now amounts to £5,000, to assist in the enlargement and rebuilding of chapels, on the principle of advances without interest, repayable by instalments extending over a series of years. The expenditure of the College is now about £3,500 a year. About sixty-two of the students of the College are now settled as pastors of churches in various parts of the country."

Ministers, such as Mr. Grange of Landport, and Mr. Medhurst of Glasgow, gave accounts of their work, which were regarded as the best possible testimony to the success of the College. The health of the Queen was drunk with loyal enthusiasm, and then followed a toast in honour of the friend who provided the supper. There were 300 guests at the tables, the pastor's father being of the number. On Tuesday, March 14, the Tabernacle was densely crowded, the attraction being "Sermons in Candles," illustrated by emblems and dissolving views. Mr. Charles Gilpin occupied the chair, the lecture being given on behalf of the Band of Hope Union. Mr. W. R. Selway, the scientific lecturer to the College, appears, as we have said, to have been an ardent total abstainer, and both among the students of the College and among the congregation generally, he did what he could to advance teetotal principles. On that evening he had the satisfaction of inaugurating a Band of Hope in connection with the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and the first members to be received were the twin sons of the pastor, who were then eight years and a-half old. The two boys stood forward, and, amid the loud applause of the congregation, Mr. Selway placed around the neck of each a Band of Hope medal. "Master Charles, in a clear voice, which was distinctly heard by nearly, if not quite, all present, thanked the audience for the kind way in which they had welcomed him into the Band of Hope, and said he hoped he should always be a teetotaller. Master Thomas said: 'My dear friends, I thank you for your kindness, and hope I shall grow up to be an honourable man, and to keep my promise.'" The chairman confessed to being deeply moved by this incident. In reply to a vote of thanks, Mr. Spurgeon said: "I am not a teetotaller myself, and it is not likely that I ever shall be. I believe, however, that if children are brought up to abstain from alcoholic liquors they will never need them; and therefore I think it right that they should have no instruction in the use of them from their parents. I will go quite as far as that with the Band of Hope, and knowing that the society does a great deal of good, I am glad to help it as much as I possibly can." On the following evening Mr. Spurgeon was again at the Tabernacle, and presided at a meeting of evangelists, who, working in connection with the church and congregation, carried on a most genuine and far-reaching work. The present Mr. W. J. Orsman, of the London County Council, as the honorary secretary, gave an account of what was being done. Quite apart from students trained in the College, there were some fifty young men who, in various ways, voluntarily devoted their leisure hours to evangelistic service, preaching in cottages, halls, or in the open air, as opportunity offered. There were also about eighty others of both sexes who, on each Sabbath, took Spurgeon's sermons bound up as loan tracts, and left them at the houses of the poor and the working people who liked to receive them. A branch of the British and Foreign Bible Society had also been established, by which means over 1,100 copies of the Scriptures had been circulated in the course of two months. Among those who gave addresses on that occasion were Judge Payne and Gawin Kirkham, both being valued friends of the pastor. Mr. Spurgeon was always cheered by those who laboured in this disinterested manner, the work of Mr. Orsman being especially valued. On April 24 Mr. Spurgeon attended a meeting of the United Methodist Free Church at Exeter Hall, when a notice of a coming lecture on "Mind Your P's and Q's" afforded him an opportunity of indulging in some humorous remarks:—

"I am very glad to be here, but am sorry I have to speak, having already spoken twice during the evening and hurried from one meeting to another. But then one is always at home with Methodists—because they are full of warmth; and more at home still with those Methodists who are quite free; and again, with those Methodists who are not, like Mahomet's coffin, hanging half-way between heaven and earth, with regard to the State Church, and not knowing where they are. I am glad to be among you because I know you are sound in that matter, and that when that question comes to be fought out we shall find you, having been true to principle in other things, true in this; and you will not, when the time comes for the fresh Reformation, act on the plea of Erasmus, 'Are there not good people in it, and must it not be spared?' whereas from pinnacle to foot-stone it must be pulled down."

Reference was then made to the great work in which the Primitive Methodists were engaged. Mr. Spurgeon enlarged on the miracle of the loaves and fishes, showing that the lesson taught to believers in this age was that substance, talents, and all things available, must be consecrated to the work:—

"The United Methodist Free Churches must take stock. How many loaves and fishes have they? Bring them, though they may some of them be barley loaves—little fishes, though some of them may chance to be;—bring them to the Master's hand, and He will bless and break, and there will be enough for all the millions; yes, enough and to spare. The resolution recognises the claims of the ignorant, benighted, and spiritually destitute millions both at home and abroad. That is enough; if a Free Methodist recognises a claim, he says, 'I intend to pay you.' If you cannot pay just now all the claim, if you keep on recognising it at every collection and every opportunity, the debt will hold good at law, and it will still be right to recognise it. The churches at home have been blessed by having kept before them, by means of missions, the duty which they owe to Christ. I like missions most of all for this peculiar reason of my own—they secure an issue for the higher spiritual life of their churches. There are brethren whose prayers seem as if they shake the gates of hell and open the doors of heaven—brethren who have communed with Christ till you know they have been with Him. If we have not missionary work, these people will be thorns in our sides. As the walls of Jericho are invested, so are we going round the walls of heathendom. Let us not expect so much for the present, but wait for the future, remembering that the measure of what we should do must be the claims which we recognise, rather than the results which we may expect. This is God's work, and our work under God, and we must undertake it as for death and life, with time before us fleeing, and eternity behind us hastening on. We must all take our places by prayer, by gifts, by efforts—by all means we must all be at it; but we will never bring down the walls of this Jericho except by prayer and faith. The text says something about hastening on the coming of the kingdom. I cannot quite get into that part, but I will just illuminate you a little as to my own view of the second coming of the lord if you will bear with me. This I do by graphically comparing our position to that of Prince Immanuel's troops when they fought outside the walls of Mansoul with Diabolus and his crew, ere the shrill sound of the trumpet heralded the approach of the Lord Himself. I assure you, in conclusion, that I am thrice happy to be here; let us still go on and conquer both at home and abroad, having as our motto still that of John Wesley, 'The best of all is, God is with us.'" In consequence of his leaving England early in the month of May, Mr. Spurgeon did not do much in the way of speaking at the religious anniversaries. Indeed, he was showing signs of great weariness, and may have hurried away to escape the ordeal; for notwithstanding the seeming ease with which he got through such work, it was always a heavy trial of strength to him. Before taking some weeks of needed rest, however, he preached a fine discourse on behalf of the Baptist Irish Society. A quarter of a century ago, a certain school of theologians, who also became prophets, were looking forward with great interest to the year 1866, predicting, with some confidence, that it would be "a year of wonders." On one occasion the subject of Mr. Spurgeon's sermon was Joshua and his army encompassing the walls of Jericho. The modern Jericho was believed to be Romanism; her walls were destined to come down, and when that happened, the glory of the kingdom of Christ would shine out more resplendent than ever. A friend, who had a brother labouring in Ireland, was attracted to the Tabernacle to hear this discourse, and he wrote down the impressions which were made upon his mind:—

"The divisions of Mr. Spurgeon's sermon were Work, Wait, and Win. It was well calculated to stimulate zealous souls to action; and there is no immediate necessity for finding fault with Christian people for overmuch working; there has been so little done by Protestants and so much done by Papists, and all the dark and death-like forces, that really we seem to need some stimulants to set us going. There was one point in Mr. Spurgeon's sermon I distinctly noticed. Referring to the 'signs of the times,' he said, there always had been 'signs of the times,' which remark was quite true; but the sweeping sentence was this: Mr. Spurgeon did not believe in the near approach of any remarkable crisis, for many reasons; one was, because all the prophets said we were fast approaching the end; 'but,' said he, 'all the prophets are liars;' of course, he meant those prophets who made a profit out of their prophesying. As I do not know who these prophets are, I will not say much. Dr. dimming has, doubtless, made large sums by his literary productions; but, having carefully read some of his works, I am not prepared to pronounce all his predictions false. The fact is, Dr. Cumming in England and Mr. Baxter in America are two great collectors of the testimonies and predictions of all the students of prophecy for many centuries; and it is remarkable that multitudes of grave, gracious, and intelligent writers have all thought that ere 1875 has come solemn changes would be seen, and that 1866 did stand in their eye as a great culminating period. I am afraid of that spirit—'Where is the promise of His coming?' etc. etc. And to pronounce 'all the prophets as liars' came to me exceedingly harsh; yea, more than that, it was calculated, I feared, to influence thousands of minds, and lead them in a wrong direction."

Mr. Spurgeon continued to manifest great interest in the prosperity of the Baptist interest at Winslow; and at the beginning of May he again visited and preached two sermons in the little town in which his distinguished predecessor in the pastorate, Benjamin Keach, had laboured in the seventeenth century. About forty of the leading people dined together, and the balance-sheet of the building fund showed that the chapel—the memorial-stone of which Mr. Spurgeon had laid about a year previously—had cost £638. He not only encouraged the enterprise by his presence, he successively gave several handsome donations to the building fund.

Some few weeks after this a visit was paid to a village in Berkshire, which is still vividly remembered by Mr. Goldston, of Hastings, who was present, and who supplies a description of the scene. Mr. Goldston was then living at Caversham, near Reading, but he afterwards removed to London and became a member and an elder of the Metropolitan Tabernacle. I much regret that other friends have not preserved similar records of many other days which were equally memorable. Mr. Goldston writes:—"A few miles from Caversham is a village called Pepphard. Here, in the summer of 1865, the usual annual gathering was held, when the country churches for miles round met to make a holy-day of their annual holiday. A religious service is held in the open air, and a collection is made for the village minister. On this occasion Mr. Spurgeon had promised to preach.

"For months previously the people had talked of his coming; yet there was a doubt, as gout had already prevented his fulfilling some engagements. However, although suffering in the right foot and in great pain, the beloved servant of God was able to take the journey.

"To describe the scene on our way from Beading to Pepphard, with the increasing multitude of pedestrians, and the hundreds of vehicles from Henley, Beading, Wokingham, Bracknell, and other places, would be to say, 'it was like going to Henley Regatta.' The opportunity was limited, as there was to be but one sermon, and that in the afternoon; consequently, the privilege was a rare one for the country people, and they were determined to be there in time. But haste was impossible, for it was difficult for one conveyance to pass another in those narrow country lanes.

"Assembled in a spacious meadow, surrounded by all that is beautiful of nature's bounty, in farms, fields, flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, it was a fitting time to have the mind 'drawn up to Nature's God.' On this occasion, also, a waggon was used as a platform, and the opening prayer brought sweet calm with holy expectation.

"The preacher took for his text the words, 'Thy name is as ointment poured forth,' Sol. Song of Solomon 1:3. It was one of his happiest seasons. One said to another, referring to the preacher, 'He gets deeper down than most of us, sir.' 'Yes; he do put the spade in deep, don't he?' was the reply.

"This sermon occupied nearly an hour in its delivery, and the people (although standing all the time) gave no evidence of weariness or of inclination to leave; and it was said that the preacher's voice could be heard at a distance of more than a mile. Twenty-five years and more have passed since that day; but there are still living in the villages of Pepphard and Caversham, also in the town of Beading, those who saw more of Christ that day than they had ever seen before." At this period visits of this kind were continually being made to country congregations, and the results, in the way of stimulating local revivals of religion, are no doubt visible even in the present day. That the preacher was wearing out faster than he supposed must now be recognised; but his temperament was such that, so long as health and strength held out, he could hardly rest save by changing his work.