Chapter 68: James Archer Sturgeon, Co-Pastor

Chapter 68.
James Archer Sturgeon, Co-Pastor A Co-Pastor needed—Mr. J. A. Spurgeon's Work at Croydon—Routine Work at the Tabernacle—Sympathy between the Brothers—The College—Spurgeon quotes from his Favourite Authors.

The severe illness from which Mr. Spurgeon suffered in the fall of 1867 had the effect of impressing his friends with the fact that the strain of the pastorate of the Metropolitan Tabernacle was becoming too great for one man's strength. Although he was only thirty-three years of age, the pastor was really old in service, while his features showed that excessive labour was beginning to tell upon his constitution. It was true that the gout, to which he was subject, was supposed to be hereditary; but, according to medical testimony, mental effort had more to do with the disease than anything else. When they took these things into consideration, the deacons at the Tabernacle came to the conclusion that the most common-sense thing to do would be to provide their pastor with such permanent assistance as would relieve him of a part of the burden which had become too heavy to be borne by one alone. Then a rumour of a co-pastor having been elected became current; and while remarking that this report was quite true, The Freeman added: "His brother has been appointed to the office; and though, should God spare his life, the pulpit will continue, as ever, to, be occupied by the pastor, he will be largely assisted by his brother, whose help for years past in the College and the other organisations has been as valuable as it has been—so far as the public is concerned—unperceived."

Mr. James Spurgeon, who was thus appointed to an arduous and responsible office, was three years the junior of his brother, and was consequently just about thirty years of age. He enjoyed considerable educational advantages in youth. Mr. and Mrs. John Spurgeon were well content to make great sacrifices on behalf of their children; and the younger son benefited by passing through the four years' curriculum of Regent's Park College. Following the example of his brother, he very early engaged in Sunday-school work; and he was baptised by immersion at the age of fourteen at the Baptist Chapel, Colchester. At sixteen years of age he preached his first sermon at Vernon Chapel, King's Cross; and was afterwards a frequent substitute for his brother, some of his early discourses being published. At the date at which we have now arrived, Mr. James Spurgeon had done some good service, besides having earned a high reputation as a popular preacher. In the course of our narrative, something has been said of the work he did both at Southampton and at Notting Hill, where the churches still remain in a flourishing condition. His connection with West Croydon commenced in 1868, or just after he had accepted the office of co-pastor at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. There seemed to be a fine opening for a preacher of ability and enterprise in this southern suburb, and now the man appeared who possessed the qualities which would ensure success. The parish, thirty-six miles in circumference, was one of the largest in the vicinity of London, and, especially in former years, the entire area well merited the name of umbrageous Croydon. The growth of the parish in population has been great and rapid, however, so that roads and villas now cover what once were fruitful gardens or pleasant fields.

Several Strict Communion Baptist churches had flourished in Croydon for a good many years; but at length a number of friends decided on making the attempt to gather a congregation on a more liberal basis, that of strict membership but open communion, such as had proved so abundantly successful at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. From the first, Mr. Spurgeon showed the liveliest interest in his brother's enterprise, and always found pleasure in preaching for him. When Mr. James Spurgeon consented to take the pastorate for three months, the congregation was in such a low condition that one minister had left because he could not be supported, and it was debated whether or not this small community should be dissolved. The services were being held in an iron chapel in the Wellesley Road; but this became overcrowded when the new pastor commenced his labours, and the services were removed to the Public Hall. This also became crowded; and a committee to make arrangements for the erection of the present beautiful sanctuary at the junction of White Horse and St. James's Roads was formed. Satisfactory progress was made, for the people of Croydon seemed to be aroused to action. In May, 1870, C. H. Spurgeon laid the memorial-stone of the lecture-room, to seat five hundred persons, and which was called St. James's Hall. This involved an outlay of £1,650; and as the building became at once crowded, it was resolved to proceed immediately with the erection of the present chapel, which is planned for the accommodation of over a thousand persons. Including some additional rooms which have since been erected, the cost of the chapel has been about £10,000. The week-day work which Mr. James Spurgeon undertook at the Tabernacle did not prevent his thus building up a large church, as it were, with his left hand. His appointment as assistant to his brother had not been made a day too soon. The truth was, that at this time the Tabernacle had become a great hive of workers, and the great institutions now connected with the church—to say nothing of its network of mission-stations in the surrounding neighbourhood—afforded ample scope for a first-class man to work to advantage as organiser and general overseer. Though separated by a distance of some miles, the church at Newington and that at Croydon were in heartiest sympathy. The Orphanage and the College were dear to both; and while the people at the Tabernacle were privileged to enjoy the ministry of C. H. Spurgeon, the congregation at Croydon was hardly less interested in his work. The suburban church was, in its way, as aggressive as the larger congregation; for no sooner was the new chapel erected than endeavours were made to reach the poor of the surrounding district, mission stations being established that speedily became centres of influence which benefited the whole town. Like their friends at Newington, all the people were encouraged to do something. A town missionary was also engaged, for whose services an iron chapel was erected, while the Sunday-school work was greatly extended. In a word, this church at West Croydon became one of the most prosperous stations of the Baptist denomination in the neighbourhood of London.

During the last twenty-four years of his brother's life, Mr. James Spurgeon did a vast amount of daily routine work at the Tabernacle, of which the outside public heard little, and knew less, but in the doing of which he proved the most effective assistant to the senior pastor that could possibly have been provided. There was always the most complete harmony between the two brothers; and the elder rated very highly the abilities of the younger. Self-confident as he was, the senior pastor would often hesitate to act without taking the advice of his colleague. It was to the latter that the partially incomprehensible letter from Mrs. Hillyard respecting the founding of the Stockwell Orphanage was shown. "Brother, will you stand by me if I engage in this new enterprise?" asked the senior pastor before he had finally made up his mind about what it would be best to do. "Like the steel to the blade," was the answer, and the work went forward. The Orphanage alone, with its five hundred and fifty inmates, and an expenditure of £1,000 a month, demands no small amount of business skill in its management. Once a fortnight, at eight o'clock a.m., the trustees have met in their board-room, and the Vice-President was rarely absent. Such constant and responsible service had of course become altogether impossible to Mr. Spurgeon himself; but to have it efficiently discharged by his brother was not only an immense relief to him, it excited his liveliest gratitude.

Sensitive as he was to the last degree, however, the senior pastor took careful notice even of little things, and at times even straws upon the stream, as showing the tendencies of the people, would give him some trouble, especially as he desired that the junior pastor should have the credit for being what he was, and for doing what he did. "Brother," remarked he one day, "I am taking from you your very name—they call you Mr. James." That was strictly true; indeed, the co-pastor really had three names, and by the name they gave him, persons at once showed themselves to be members at Croydon or at the Tabernacle, or outsiders. At the Tabernacle the co-pastor was Mr. James, at Croydon he was Mr. Spurgeon, among outsiders he was recognised as Mr. James Spurgeon. This did not please the senior pastor, who was consoled to think that a remedy might one day be found. "Brother," he added, "if ever the Americans offer you a doctorship you must accept it, and then Dr. Spurgeon will be a sufficient distinction from Mr. Spurgeon." Since the death of the great preacher it has really happened that the syndicate of Colegate University, U.S.A., has conferred on the younger brother the well-merited diploma of LL.D. as a recognition of his skill in ecclesiastical law. Some who are more accustomed to give expression to mere prejudice rather than to sober sentiment, have misrepresented this compliment through misunderstanding it. "Dr," is supposed not to go well with the name of Spurgeon, and if so it is pronounced a disfigurement. It is true that Mr. Spurgeon himself would not have accepted such a distinction; but, at the same time, it was strictly in accordance with the senior pastor's wishes that his brother should do so. The brothers appeared to be at one in everything; but the chief reason of their being able to work in unison as they did was that they were agreed in doctrine. If the influence of the patriarch of Stambourne was still perpetuated by Mr. Spurgeon, the equally Puritanical faith of the latter's brother was inspired by the home-teaching of his father and mother at Colchester. Many extracts from discourses of the great preacher have been given; and probably the most interesting way of showing how exactly his co-pastor agreed with him in point of doctrine, will be to give a passage from a sermon preached by Mr. James Spurgeon soon after his appointment to the co-pastorate at the Tabernacle. The title is, "Look and be Saved," the text being that of the famous "Look" sermon which was instrumental in C. H. Spurgeon's conversion in the Primitive Methodist chapel at Colchester:—

"Going back again to my old figure of the fire. The fire-escape came round near the house. Too short! They ran up the fly-ladder, and just as the man was going to mount it, that he might rescue a poor woman shrieking in the five there, it broke and she was lost. And if men had to work out their own and others' salvation, just when the test came it would break. I want something beyond man-made earth to build upon. I want the Rock of Ages; and if I had to depend upon any human arm, though it were a Samson's, he might lose his seven locks of strength and have his eyes put out. If I had to depend upon human wisdom, it might be a Solomon's, who played the fool. If I had to depend upon boldness, it might be a Peter's, who trembled before a. maid. And so all through I find the greatest men fail in their greatness. The most patient of men, like Moses, speak unadvisedly with their lips. Men after God's heart, like David, fall into the foulest of sins. I find, I say again, that men fail in their very strength. How much more do they fail in their weakness? And if I had to depend upon men I should be lost, for, in the testing, that hour of direst need would be the hour I should find out that they were worthless and I was lost. Did you ever hear of anything more desperately deceptive than the account the other day of someone who had sold bad life-belts—manufactured without any cork being put into them at all, so they would not float themselves, much less hold up drowning men who might try to cling to them; and thus a ship's crew had been provided with life-belts that would not float. Did you ever hear of anything more vile than the giving of sailors, as medicine, a mixture which had no lime-juice at all, so that when the mariners might be out in the wide ocean, and began to drink that which they hoped would keep them from their dread disease of scurvy, they would find that they had some decoction that would not meet the case at all? You see, then, that we have no security against man's guilt and deliberate deception. I must turn to a God, and when I have one who can neither fail nor sin, I can rest upon Him in perfect confidence, and when He says, 'Look unto me and be ye saved,' there is a salvation which I need not be afraid to venture upon. 'Look unto me and be ye saved, for I am God.'

"Furthermore, recurring to the figure once again, the fire-escape and the friends about did manage to get out some three or four, but one of them nearly burnt to death. They saved partially, but there are the scars and the weakness to the end of life. It was a partial salvation, and if I had to deal with a man, however perfect, I must deal with a finite being. He never can render service more perfect than himself, and more lasting than he is. His work must be limited by the bounds which limit himself. I want, therefore, someone who for extent and for endurance will be able to say, 'I am God, a God that can never die; whose ear can never be deafened with lapse of time; whose head can never be frosted with a winter of old age; whose arm can never be palsied with gathering infirmities;' in a word, I want one who lives not under the conditions of time but of eternity. 'I am a God,' says our Saviour. 'Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am a God, and there is none else.' You see, then, that we must have a God. We have a God in our Lord Jesus Christ. Without Him you may leave me to face with angelic power and purity—with all that earth or heaven itself can supply; but in the creature I must have the inevitable created weakness. I want God's might, uncreated strength, and then I can venture my soul's eternal salvation, and believe that I shall be saved. Now it is unto this God in human flesh—to this man, Christ Jesus—we must approach if we would find salvation." On leaving the people at Notting Hill, whom he had served for some time in the pastorate, Mr. James Spurgeon was presented with a gold watch. His people parted from him with regret, but willingly made the sacrifice on behalf of the great church at the Metropolitan Tabernacle.

Although Mr. Spurgeon's severe illness in the latter part of 1867 came as an affliction to his people, there was no abatement in the vigour with which the work at the Tabernacle was carried on. On Wednesday evening, November 27, there was another meeting of Mrs. Bartlett and her class similar to those previously noticed. Hundreds of girls and women attended, and when they sat down to tea they were waited upon by the students of the College. A sum of £100 was presented to the College funds—the collection of a few months; and Mr. Spurgeon presented the leader of the class with several volumes of his own sermons handsomely bound, in addition to some other things. A large number of friends also assembled at the annual social tea-meeting of the College on December 10, the Tabernacle being nearly filled at the business gathering later in the evening. Mr. Spurgeon presided, and said that the work, so far, had been especially blessed of God, and thus appeared to be providential. To that date twenty-eight pastors had been settled in England, four were in Scotland, one was in India, and thirty-five, who were still preparing for future service, were preaching at various stations in the suburbs of London. Friends were heartily thanked for assistance in the past, and they were encouraged still to continue their aid by the President expressing the hope that he would be enabled to send a preacher to every town in England. From some quarters came complaints of there not being ministers enough; but on the other hand there were old fogies who grumbled at there being too many young preachers. It was not so with their church, however, for they saw in every faithful preacher who was able to raise a congregation a true servant of the Lord. It had to be confessed that during the pastor's late illness the subscriptions had somewhat fallen off; but compensation for minor difficulties was being found in the assistance which was now being rendered by Mr. James Spurgeon, who, on coming forward, was accorded something like an ovation. Several students also spoke, but the great attraction of the evening was Mr. Spurgeon's lecture on "The Holy War." As I have already shown, this work was his favourite so far as Bunyan was concerned; and on this occasion a series of brilliant dissolving views imparted additional interest to the subject. At the end of the year 1867 the almshouses near the Tabernacle were completed. There were twelve rooms for as many aged women, and, at a deacons' meeting held at Christmas, eight were elected out of about twenty applicants. The lack of endowment grieved Mr. Spurgeon's heart, however, for at this time the only fund available was the Poor Fund of the church, from which half-a-crown a week was allowed to each inmate. The endowment for which Mr. Spurgeon pleaded never came, until, in one handsome sum of £5,000, he gave it himself. The watch-night service on December 31 was a crowded meeting in the Tabernacle, and, as was usual, this was opened by the singing of Charles Wesley's familiar hymn, "Ye virgin souls, arise."

Mr. Spurgeon gave two addresses, one to church members, and another to the unconverted who might be present. For some minutes before the minute-hand of the clock touched the hour of midnight there was unbroken silence, after which the new year was welcomed with the Doxology. At six a.m. on New Year's day, Mr. James Spurgeon presided at a prayer-meeting. At this time the membership of the church had reached a total of 3,634, the clear increase for the year 1867 being 224 members. When the denominational newspaper, The Freeman, became the property of a limited liability company, Mr. Spurgeon showed his interest by contributing several papers, which were given under the general heading of "Saturday Evening." The articles chiefly consisted of extracts, and these were arranged so as to bring before the reader "one class of authors, and then another." The contributor added, "I cannot promise to confine the matter to the Saturday evening's peculiar nearness to the day of rest; but I will give some of the cream of religious literature from all sources, and possibly from authors but little known." A few sample extracts may not only be of general interest, they may prove some index to the old or little-known authors for whom, in his prime, Mr. Spurgeon harboured admiration. The first series had special reference to the Person and work of Christ; and the following, by McLaren, is from Bertram's "Parables of Divine Poesy":—

"They tell us that in some trackless lands, when one friend passes through the pathless forest, he breaks a twig ever and anon as he goes, that those who come after may see the traces of his having been there, and may know that they are not out of the road. Oh! when we are journeying through the murky night and the dark woods of affliction and sorrow, it is something to find here and there a spray broken, or a leafy stem broke down with the tread of His foot and the brush of His hand as He passed."

We find old Adams credited with the fine saying that "Conscience is God's spy and intelligencer in our bosoms and bedchambers; a most exact notary of whatever we think or do." A special favourite would appear to have been Sibbes the Puritan, whose works at one time were not always easily procured. This able divine is quoted as saying:—"When Satan cometh to us, he findeth something of his own in us, which holdeth correspondency and hath intelligence with him; there is the same enmity in our nature to God and goodness in some degree that is in Satan himself; whereupon his temptations fasten for the most part some taint upon us." At one time Spurgeon and John Ruskin were well acquainted, and each learned something from the other; for while you might readily have found "Modern Painters" and "The Stones of Venice" in the preacher's library, the author of those works listened to many sermons at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. In his selections of readings for Saturday evenings we find that Spurgeon was captivated by the following passage from Ruskin on Truth and Falsehood:—

"We are too much in the habit of looking at falsehood in its darkest associations, and through the colour of its worst purposes. That indignation which we profess to feel at deceit absolute is indeed only at deceit malicious. We resent calumny, hypocrisy, and treachery, because they harm us, and because they are untrue. Take the detraction and the mischief from the untruth, and we are little offended by it; turn it into praise, and we may be pleased with it. And yet, it is not calumny nor treachery that does the largest amount of mischief in the world; they are continually crushed, and are felt only in being conquered. But it is the glistening and softly-spoken lie; the amiable fallacy, the patriotic lie of the historian, the provident lie of the politician, the zealous lie of the partisan, the merciful lie of the friend, and the careless lie of each man to himself, that east that black mystery over humanity, through which we thank any mail who presses, as we would thank one who dug a well in a desert; happy that the thirst for truth still regains with us, even when we have wilfully left the fountains of it."

Spurgeon always professed great admiration for the character and work of John Wesley, and it was apparently a rare pleasure to be able to quote from the great Wesleyan leader anything which seemed to favour his leaning towards the doctrines of grace as understood by Calvinists. Such, for example, as "Grace does not depend on any power or merit in man; no, nor in any degree, neither in whole nor in part. It does not in anywise depend either on the good works or righteousness of the receiver; nor on anything he has done, or anything he is."

Before he had proceeded very far in his selection of passages on the Person and work of Christ, Mr. Spurgeon wrote:—

"For 'fat things full of marrow and wines on the lees well refined' upon the Person and work of the Lord Jesus, there are a few names upon our list to which we accord a very high position. They contemplate the Redeemer's sufferings and subsequent glory, it is true, from all points of the spiritual compass; but their gaze is so distinctly and constantly fixed upon Him that their other views are but addenda to their being, and the soul of their character comes out when considering Him in whom they live. In reading the works of this school, the spiritual heart feasts with Jesus and feels the reality of His love, even when the head might raise questions and be moved to controversy. It is marvellous how much vitality of love to Jesus may occasionally be found amid the corruption of false doctrine and the rubbish of superstition, like a fair flower blooming upon a heap of decay. Our extracts will, we trust, be in themselves good and sound, but we by no means intend, by quoting them, to give any sort of opinion upon the author's works or character; it will be for the reader to get what he can from the handful of corn which we glean from the fields; we cannot be answerable for the poisonous weeds which perhaps may have grown among the wheat.

"It is not in our power to quote always from rare authors, and it is needful for completeness to levy contributions upon those which are commonly known. Our task is so entirely a labour of disinterested lore that we hope our brethren whose range of reading is wider than ours will have patience with us when we produce passages with which they are perfectly familiar, remembering that there are in all circles those who still need an introduction to those very books which we look upon as our familiar friends. There will be little or no order preserved, the fact being that we have not the time to attain it; and the choice lies between doing it as we can or not at all." Of Thomas Hooker, an old favourite, it is remarked:—

"Thomas Hooker, the author of the following passage, was born at Marfield, in Leicestershire, in 1586, and became a popular preacher in London. In 1626 he removed to Chelmsford, and being silenced for Nonconformity he opened a school, and had John Eliot, afterwards the Apostle to the Indians, as his usher. In 1633 he settled in America and founded Hartford. His 'Survey of the Sum of Church Discipline' was published by Thomas Goodwin in 1648. His 'Application of Redemption, by the Effectual Work of the Word and Spirit of Christ, for the Bringing Home of Lost Sinners to God,' was printed for the author, and recommended by T. Goodwin and Philip Nye. His most popular work is 'The Poor, Doubting Christian drawn to Christ.' A seventh edition was published at Boston in 1743." This is one passage from the quotation referred to:—

"You know always it is the privilege of kings and princes that all the coin that comes from their mint, and is coined with their stamp, is warrantable; but if there be any other coin that comes from any other mint the king will not allow of it. Just so it is with this love; it is the privilege of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God's love, to mint and to coin love that may be current love indeed, that He may take for good payment.... Canst thou say I love the Lord because He hath loved me? Then thy love is of a right metal; and know it for ever that that God who cannot but love Himself, cannot but like that love which came from Himself, who is the God of all love, and which comes from His own Divine nature." In quoting John Willison, it is said that many of his meditations on sacramental occasions "are peculiarly rich with devotion and the spirit of communion."

"The Life of Jesus Christ in Glory," from the French of Nouet, also came in for some attention. Mr. Spurgeon remarks that this work "is Romish in some degree, but withal full of spiritual life and gracious insight into divine truth." Ample extracts are made, and as a sample, take this striking passage on the resurrection of Christ:—

"Consider that Christ arose at the break of day, when the sun seems to make all the beauties of nature revive, and in springtime, when the fruits and flowers of the earth spring up afresh. 'My flesh hath revived.' Nothing blossoms anew which hath not blossomed before. The flesh of the Lord was as an opening flower when it came forth from the Virgin's womb; it unfolded itself anew when it burst from the sepulchre, and like a flower exhaled upon mankind the sweet odour of immortality. Observe that our Lord died at three in the afternoon, when the day was closing, and rose again about three in the morning, when the sun was rising. St. Chrysostom says that the sun had fled before nightfall, when the Saviour of the world was nailed to the cross; but that when He rose again it indemnified itself by forestalling the night, and in its turn chased it away earlier than its wont, in order to restore to the day of the resurrection those three hours of which the darkness had robbed the day of the passion."

Then follow Isaac Ambrose, and James Durham, who "was sometime minister of the Gospel at Glasgow, and solemnly called to the public profession of divinity in the University there, and also his Majesty's chaplain in ordinary when he was in Scotland." The extracts are from Durham's work, published towards the close of the seventeenth century and entitled, "Christ Crucified; or, the Marrow of the Gospel, evidently holden forth in seventy-two sermons on the whole fifty-third chapter of Isaiah."

Richard Alleine's "Heaven Opened," published in 1665, also received attention; as did a man of quite a different school—Dr. Mason Neale. Lest he should be misunderstood in reading and quoting from such an author, Mr. Spurgeon writes:—

"In my copy of Dr. Neale's lectures to the sisters of a religious house, I find I have written as follows:—'Here is a lion—slay it. Here is honey—eat it. Samson on the way to his marriage feast, with the Spirit of the Lord upon him, is the man. Weak reader, begone, this is a book only for lion-killers and honey-eaters.'—1858.

"No reader will suspect me of any kind of leniency towards Puseyism; I can relish a sweet flower, but loathe the dunghill on which it grew. The author here quoted is frequently babyish and namby-pamby in his remarks; but frequently there is an unction about his writing which gives one the hope that he was a better man than his creed."

Then follow Alexander Grosse, B.D., 1647, and Samuel Rutherford, who was very highly valued. Less known was "Solomon's Sweet Harp; consisting of fine words, touched with the cunning hand of his true skill, commanding all other human speech; wherein clergy and laity may learn how to speak. Preached of late at Thetford, before his Majesty, by Thomas Walkington, Bachelor in Divinity and Fellow of St. John's College in Cambridge. Imp. 1603."

Some selections were also made from Thomas Walkington, which prove him to have been one of the quaintest wits of the reign of James I. Take this example:—

"We may see the difference of old wise men and young fools in the very wheels of a clock; the great wheels turn about the slowest, and the lesser run about the fastest; but we see the great ones are the cause of motion in the less, and the less be sooner worn by much. Which should make our greener heads more highly to esteem the hoary hairs in whom time has treasured up a greater portion of wisdom by their long experience."

These passing references to a number of old authors—familiar friends of Mr. Spurgeon's, and from whose pages he was able to give telling extracts—will help the reader to understand the character of the great preacher's reading. He appeared to like making extracts from them; for while he confessed that he did so because he had not time to write original matter, he probably thought that such examples of old world wit and wisdom as he was enabled to give were really better fare for modern readers than the best original writing that could be offered.