Chapter 61: Church and State

Chapter 61.
Church and State The Liberation Society—Spurgeon on the State Church—Misrepresentations—Visit to Scotland—The Sabbath Question—Spurgeon at the Free Church General Assembly—Address on Home Evangelisation.

On Wednesday evening, May 2, the Liberation Society held its annual meeting at Hanover Square Rooms, and Mr. Spurgeon was among the speakers. Those chiefly interested in such a meeting seemed to be in good spirits, for the principles of religious freedom appeared to be making progress. Although church-rates were not yet finally abolished, and would hold on until July, 1868, the principle of abolition had been once more reaffirmed by the House of Commons after an appeal to the constituencies. Thus it was thought that the cause represented by the Liberation Society should be advocated with increased earnestness, and it was a resolution worded to that effect which Mr. Spurgeon moved. On rising he was greeted with loud cheers, and he was apparently in one of his happiest moods while discoursing on the characteristics of a political Dissenter:—

"There is an old proverb that if you give a dog a bad name they will hang him; but this does not hold true as to men unless they are of the doggish stamp. All sorts of bad names have been given to those in connection with the work of this society, and they are called by the terrible name of 'political Dissenters.' It used to be bad enough to be a Dissenter, but now certain of them are picked out as being troublesome, radical, noisy boys, who must be at once put down because they are 'political Dissenters;' and there are even some of their own brethren who are mightily afraid of the title, and creep like snails into their shells when it is applied to them. A political Dissenter, according to some people, must be something very horrible; but I have been looking round the meeting, and I see that it is composed of some of our most earnest deacons and evangelical ministers, and I am persuaded that they are as spiritually minded a body of men, and as active in the spread of the Gospel, as any that could be brought together. I intend spending a few moments in expostulating with those of my brethren who think that it is wicked thus to agitate, and especially to teach, anything political. Some of these are superfine, hot-pressed, spiritual minded people. I myself was met by a man of this sort when I was returning from going to vote at the last election, who told me that he wondered how I could interfere in politics, because I was not a citizen of this world, but was a stranger and an alien. I replied that this was true of my spiritual nature, but not of the carnal nature. The man went on arguing the matter, but such people are perfectly absurd and inconsistent; for if they were attacked in the streets they would cry for the police, which they have no right to do according to their own dogma. If their property was in danger they would employ a solicitor to take the case into court, but the judge might very justly tell them, as they are not citizens, they have no rights. I hold it to be a dishonest thing to join a community and enjoy its privileges without discharging its duties; and insomuch as in this country we do, happily, enjoy very great privileges as citizens, we are bound, as honest men, to discharge the duties which devolve upon us as citizens. I hold that in this, as in some other respects, we are very much like sailors on board a ship, where each one is bound to do his duty. What is the State but a goodly ship?—and we are borne across the billows of life in it, and surely, whenever a crisis comes, we ought to take our fair share of the work." The speaker then had a word with those who maintained that engaging in the business of the world would act as a damper to their spiritual-mindedness. If, however, they were so spiritually minded that they could not take any part in abolishing what was oppressive and erroneous, they ought to be consistent throughout, and not to claim any assistance from the State in the way of protection. Mr. Spurgeon proceeded:—

"Another class of people are those terrible conservative brethren who have sung to us as their lullaby those famous words, 'As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, Amen.' These people are all for peace, and would do anything for a quiet life. They are very amiable, but their amiability is only gilded weakness. It is said of some that they are 'as easy as an old shoe,' and if they are so, they are worth no more than old shoes. But this wish to lead a quiet life savours of a very base kind of selfishness. If they had a principle which they would uphold, and about which they would not be silent, they might make up their minds that between here and heaven there is stormy weather for them, and that they will have to sail among many rocks, and have to feel their keel grating upon the quicksands. How is it possible to do anything for light without coming into collision with darkness, or to do anything for truth without being antagonistic to error? Though some may think it to be a very pleasant grace to be very quiet, there are other virtues in a Christian soldier besides a retiring disposition. I very much question whether a court-martial would think it a good excuse if a man were so extremely modest as to consider himself unworthy of the attention of the gunners on the opposite side. We are sometimes told that Jesus Christ would never have interfered in this question. I am not so sure about that; but I never could believe in the Jesus Christ of some people, for the Christ in whom they believe is simply full of affectionateness and gentleness, whereas I believe that there never was a more splendid specimen of manhood, even in its sternness, than the Saviour; and the very lips which declared that He would not break a bruised reed uttered the most terrible anathemas upon the Pharisees, who formed the State Church in that day. These people themselves seem to lack manly vigour, but this should not be; and I would that they were rather like Job's war-horse, smelling the battle from afar."

Mr. Spurgeon went on to show that many Dissenters did not heartily join in the work of the Liberation Society for want of thought. The government was in the hands of the people, however, and if the principles of the Constitution were not carried out, the people were responsible. Unless they protested, they were all really responsible for church-rates, for Maynooth, for Dissenters being excluded from the universities, and for State Church persecution. It was then asked:—

"Is there anyone here who would like to be accountable for the action of the Established Church in relation to the burial of unbaptised infants? A singular instance of this has just occurred. A poor woman in the country had three children at a birth, and, as they were likely to die, the curate was sent for to baptise them. The curate was busy, and did not go, and during the night two of the children died. Next morning the curate baptised the child left alive, which soon after died, and the mother asked if all three might be buried in one coffin. The curate consented, but the evangelical rector heard of it, and would not allow the service to be read over the two who had died during the night! The three children were put into one coffin, and when they got to the church the two were taken out and left on the belfry stairs while the service was read over the other; some dirt was thrown in, which was afterwards removed, and the two other children placed in the coffin. Could there be an atrocity so fearful? Yet these men were only acting in accordance with the regulations of the Church of England, and every one of you present will have a share of the responsibility of such an enormity if you do not fearlessly enter your protest against it. I take it to be the duty of a Christian man either to join this society, or in some other form to advocate its principles, not only on the considerations which I have already ventured to offer, as to escaping from responsibility of sin, but from the very highest principles of our religion. I look upon the society as a most potent and impressive declaration against persecution. They stand up boldly and declare their hearts and consciences are God's, and God's alone, and that none on earth shall interfere with them or control them. I look upon the society, too, as lifting up a very bold testimony in the face of all men for the spirituality of religion. The day has gone by for controlling religion by the rack and the stake, but the same spirit still remains, and men are foolish enough to imagine that they would legislate for spiritual things by Acts of Parliament, whereas the spirit of true religion is too divine, too mysterious to come tinder the domination of man."

Such were the principles by which, according to Mr. Spurgeon, Nonconformists would have to sink or swim. Amid hearty cheers, he finished up by urging all to increased diligence in the common cause, expressing the belief that in the end victory would be with truth and right. This speech attracted much attention, and in some quarters was misquoted; for the popular preacher was made to say that he wished the Church of England was worse than she was, in order that she might the more speedily come to an end. On being questioned by a correspondent in regard to this matter, however, Mr. Spurgeon wrote in reply:—"I entirely repudiate the language imputed to me; but it probably suggested itself from a misunderstanding. In view of the Tractarianism which the so-called Church of England fosters, and the general mischief which the State Church works, I am sorry that so many good men continue to give it the sanction of their presence; and I wish they were all gone from her, that the evils might become too glaring to be borne with any longer. I have no hostility towards Evangelical Churchmen, but the reverse; and it is for their real benefit that I wish to see that unhallowed union of Puseyism and Evangelism, which goes by the name of the Church of England, entirely abolished. A Free Episcopal Church might then win for itself the esteem of all believers."

Late in the spring of 1866 Mr. Spurgeon again visited Scotland, and being in Edinburgh during the sitting of the Free Church Assembly, he attended some of the meetings. He probably listened with interest to Dr. Candlish's great speech on the Union question; and he also heard the arguments for and against the Glasgow morning newspaper compositor who had appealed to the Assembly against a sentence of excommunication for Sunday labour pronounced by the local Presbytery. A large part of the people of Edinburgh is always greatly interested in these annual reunions of the Free Church; but to judge of the interest he excited by the eagerness there was to hear him, Spurgeon eclipsed the General Assembly, while at that Assembly itself he was, to the majority, the principal figure. When it was known that the great London preacher would occupy the pulpit of his old friend, Dr. Candlish, at Free St. George's, on the afternoon of Sunday, May 27, the demand for tickets was enormous, and a vast crowd assembled, which could not be held in check; for many who had no tickets climbed over the iron railings, and so entered the building. In the evening, when Mr. Spurgeon preached in Dr. Thomson's United Presbyterian Church, the scene was, if possible, even more animated; for one door, which barred the encroaching crowd, was broken down. As regarded the Sunday labour case, in which Mr. Spurgeon manifested great interest, The Freeman thought that "the appellant, who argued his own case very ably, had clearly the best of it." The undaunted compositor maintained that Free Church ministers who read the newspapers on Mondays were really the employers of the printers, and as such were answerable for the Sunday evening work. Moreover, those who employed servants for purposes even less necessary than newspapers, could not throw a stone at a compositor. The man even dared to affirm that there were Free Church ministers who on Sunday prepared their sermons for The Daily Review —a Sabbatarian paper, the action of which did not agree with its avowed principles. More than this, he was able triumphantly to flourish in the face of the august assembly The Daily Review of that morning, which contained a full report of Mr. Spurgeon's address in Dr. Candlish's own church of the day before—an achievement of Sunday labour on the part of reporters and compositors. In common with those who had excommunicated him, the compositor acknowledged the necessity of keeping the Fourth Commandment. The Freeman thought that "if he had insisted that in keeping, according to Jewish hours, from Saturday evening to Sunday evening, he was nearer the exact observance than they, we do not see what their answer would be; for Paul at Troas appears to have begun the Sunday at evening and sailed the next morning." The compositor was thought to be a right-minded man, and it was held by many that Dr. Candlish and the General Assembly would have acted more wisely if they had been guided by the Apostle Paul's ecclesiastical law—"Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind."

If Mr. Spurgeon did not take this view of the case it was because he sat in the Assembly Hall during the trial and was in possession of all the particulars. After he had listened to both sides he had a presentiment that the matter would be misrepresented. The Assembly did not seek out the case, and would have been glad not to be troubled with it. Further, it was not a case of working merely a few hours on Sunday evening; the man worked a great part of the Sunday, and at type-setting which could easily have been done on Saturday, which day he preferred for his weekly holiday, however. If any error had been made, Mr. Spurgeon thought it to have been on the side of leniency. The entire General Assembly anticipated with extraordinary interest the address on Home Missions which, according to arrangement, Mr. Spurgeon was to give on the evening of Tuesday, May 29. The bare mention of this had drawn forth a hearty cheer, and several speeches were shortened in. order to give the great preacher ample time in which to work out his subject. He began by conveying the Christian salutation of his own people to the Free Church of Scotland, and then continued:—

"The significant circumstance is that I am here as a Baptist. You have seen the shepherd gather the sheep from the hills—gather them into one flock, just when the storm was coming on. Here, I think, the Shepherd of Israel is gathering us together, for doubtless a storm is lowering. We may hear His voice calling, 'Come ye closer together, and confess yourselves to be one flock, for the time of tempest is near.' The Captain seems to say, 'Close your ranks, my soldiers: let every man draw nearer to bis brother man;' and if some of you do not belong to the same regiment, still let all strive as brethren to get closer together, and nearer yet to the common standard. I can remember, some years ago, when I was in Scotland, in coming hither we came to a certain water which divided the two countries. We passed it so rapidly that it scarce made any difference at all. I hope that our different views upon baptism may be no more formidable a barrier to communion. I have gone from Scotland to England in former years, and when we passed the boundary my luggage was a little rudely shaken before I entered England. My countrymen were afraid of my taking with me a more fiery spirit than I should be allowed to carry. I have never had my bags shaken in coming this way; you were not afraid of my bringing among you the water in which I take delight. I can go back, and hope, without being overhauled for it, to take with me some of your strong spirit. I need not explain that I do not mean whiskey, but some of your stern, strong spirit of orthodoxy and firmness which I think infinitely better." In the course of an ample address, Mr. Spurgeon showed what was the object of home mission work. All classes were to be sought; no place was to be left unoccupied. The so-called hopeless class were singularly hopeful; and reclaimed sinners, in the hand of God, made the best agents for the reclamation of others. It was then shown that, to be successful, great movements have to begin with the common people:—

"I believe I am historically right in saying that wherever the Reformation was carried on only, or mainly, by the nobility, it did not succeed. You hear much of Anne of Bohemia, but you do not hear of the peasant people of that country largely taking part in the work of the Reformation; and where is the Gospel in Bohemia now? The Spanish nobles also took the most active part in the work in Spain, and though there were noble martyrs among them, the lower class did not take part in the work; and where is it now? But in the Reformation in Scotland, under John Knox, it was not only the lords of the congregation, but some of the peasants were the first to draw their blood to sign the covenant, and the work then begun stands now. You have in the midst of you still John Knox's house, and the house, though not now in an aristocratic neighbourhood, would not be on that account, I daresay, objectionable to honest old John. He would be as glad to preach the Gospel to the dwellers there as to those in your new town. The spiritual interests of those on that side of the town would be as dear to him as the spiritual interests of those in the highest circles in the land." The Assembly was warned of the insidious encroachments of Romanism, to resist which the churches south of the Tweed needed to be up in arms, but it was not apprehended that there was much danger of the Pope gaining any ascendancy in Scotland. "When I walked through the ruins of your abbeys, I fancied the nests had been so effectually pulled down that the birds could not come back again," said Mr. Spurgeon; "and if they be built again, if you do not pull them down in a literal sense, you will down with them in a sense far from metaphorical, even though it be spiritual." There was still danger, however, in latitudinarian laxity. The most effective of home missionaries were the pastors of churches; the working of the whole agency depended very much upon the pulpit. The Edinburgh Castle noonday time-gun then supplied a telling illustration:—

"I was sitting over there yesterday, when this house seemed to shake with a terrible sound. I soon perceived what it was when all the brethren pulled out their watches to see if they corresponded to the hour-gun. Now, I thought to myself this is how I should like to preach; I would like to startle all my hearers into seeing whether they are right in the matters which concern their souls. But how can I do that? The electric wire brings down the force by which the gun is fired. The sun gives the time of day, and soon you get it flashing along the wire. Union to the everlasting Sun of Righteousness will enable us to deliver ourselves with a force more startling, and our hearers will soon learn not only where we are, but where they are themselves. How necessary is it that we should be right, for how many hundreds set, not their watches, but their lives, by what we have told them on Sunday. And, in addition to being right, how necessary is it that we should speak with force, so that those who do not want to hear may be made— A word was said on the most effective way of putting things in the pulpit. On the preceding day reference had been made in the Assembly to hot dinners on Sundays, but while such might be "very terrible things," they were by no means so mischievous as "cold divinity on Sundays."

"Always let us have the doctrines of grace served up thoroughly hot and warm. There are sleepy people in our congregations. That is sometimes their own fault, for they go to sleep before we begin to preach. There is an old story of a minister who recommended an old lady to use Snuff in church, and she suggested to him that it would be better to put the snuff into the sermon. I would recommend a little snuff in the sermons—a lively and warm way of presenting the truth before the hearer's mind. Sermons should be as much as possible simple in style. You would not have a man say that 'Deity is my pastor, I shall not be afflicted with deprivation;' but, 'The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.' You don't like the Psalms put into any shape so well as your good old rugged metre. Though there may be prettier ways of putting the Gospel, the plain, old rugged way will take the ear, and be the readiest way to the heart."

Earnestness and hard work were insisted upon. And then came the importance of the prayer-meeting. "Go into a cotton-mill; see all its departments in operation; walk along the rooms; wander out by that door, and in the outside you may see an ugly shed, with a black-looking machine, making black smoke that is spoiling the blue sky. In that engine-house is the motive power." References were made to the Sunday-school, to female agency—the wonderful work of Mrs. Bartlett being mentioned—and to the work of adults in the church. In connection with the latter were given some personal reminiscences:—

"Somebody asked me how I got my congregation. I never got it at all. I did not think it my business to do so, but only to preach the Gospel. Why, my congregation got my congregation. I had eighty, or scarcely a hundred, when I preached first. The next time I had two hundred: everyone who had heard me was saying to his neighbour, 'You must go and hear this young man.' Next meeting we had four hundred, and in six weeks eight hundred. That was the way in which my people got my congregation. Now my people are admitted by tickets. That does very well; a member can give his ticket to another person and say, 'I will stand in the aisle,' or 'I will get in with the crowd.' Some persons, you know, will not go if they can get in easily, but they will go if you tell them that they cannot get in without a ticket. That is the way in which congregations ought to bring a congregation about a minister. A minister preaches all the better if he has a large congregation. It was once said by a gentleman that the forming of a congregation was like the beating up of game, the minister being the sportsman. 'But,' he said, 'there are some of our ministers that can't shoot.' But I really think I could shoot a partridge if I fired into the middle of a covey, and I might not do so if there were only one or two."

It was insisted that the Church needed to be aggressive. "O, that word Church!" he wished that there was another word for it, for in England it simply meant "a heap of bricks and a spire;" but that could hardly have been the kind of church which fell on Paul's neck. It was in connection with giving to the cause that Mr. Spurgeon then told a story in his most effective manner:—

"A certain merchant had been waited upon during the day by someone for a subscription for a society. He replied, as some merchants do, 'I cannot., for I have so many calls.' At night, when he got home, and his wife and family had retired to rest, he drew a chair in front of the fire and sat down, and as he sat looking into the fire he thought thus:—I refused that good man a subscription to-day. I have refused subscriptions before, and told the people I had so many calls. There was a time when I gave more than I do now. The reason was because I built this new house. The other house was very good; still, my wife thought it was not quite the thing. We went to the new house, had to get new furniture, and then got into a new circle. The girls want more for dress, and the boys want more. My expenses have risen, and I am afraid I am entrenching upon what I have been giving to the cause of God. He is then supposed to fall asleep—whether he did so or not I am not here to say—but as he sat by the fire in came a stranger, a singularly mild and majestic-looking man. He came up to the merchant, and said to him, presenting a paper, 'I am come asking a subscription for foreign missions.' He asked it very tenderly, and the merchant, with a good deal of hesitancy, said, 'Really, you must excuse me; I cannot, I have so many calls.' The stranger looked very sad. There was no anger in his face, but there seemed great grief. He took out another paper, and said, 'You do not give anything to foreign missions; will you give something towards home evangelisation? There are many heathens at home.' The merchant again said, 'I can't afford it; besides, I think there is more said about home heathenism than is necessary.' 'Well,' said the stranger, who seemed to look more sad than ever, 'there is the Bible Society; will you give something to it?' He was a little vexed, and said, 'I really do not like to be pressed in this way; I can't give.' The stranger looked sadder than ever; but in a moment seemed to change, and there stood before the merchant one like unto the Son of man. And he said to him: 'Five years ago your little child lay sick, near unto death. You went upstairs into your chamber; your heart was bowed down with bitterness, and you prayed that that dear one might live, your soul being bound up in the life of that child. Who raised your darling to life and spared her to your house?' The merchant covered his face with his hands. 'Ten years ago,' said the same soft, tender voice, 'you lay upon what seemed to be your dying bed. Your affairs were then in a bad state, and if you died you left your children penniless. You turned your face to the wall, and prayed that you might be spared until, at least, you might leave your children something. Who heard your bitter cry, and raised you up?' The merchant was more confused than ever. 'Fifteen years ago, in a certain chamber, you knelt, a broken-hearted sinner, with a weight of sin on your conscience and soul. Filled with bitterness, you cried for mercy. Who came to you and said, "I have blotted out your sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud your iniquities," and opened His heart to wash you from your iniquities?' There was no reply, except a sob. 'If thou wilt never ask anything of me again I will never ask anything of thee. Thou shalt not be troubled with my many calls if I am not troubled with thine.' The merchant fell on his face before the stranger—'My God, my Lord, forgive me, and take all that I have.' And lo! it was a dream—but not a dream, for his life was changed thereby."