Chapter 83: Another Illness

Chapter 83.
Another Illness

Opening of the Year 1871—Colportage—Illness—W. H. Burton—James Grant—The Toller Jubilee—Punshon at the Tabernacle—"Silver Trumpets"—The Orphanage—The East London Tabernacle—Spurgeon "a Regular Pope."

At the opening of the year 1871 Spurgeon acceded to the request of the Working Men's Lord's Day Rest Association to write a circular on behalf of Sunday letter-carriers; and copies of this were sent to Baptist ministers throughout the country. It was observed that numbers of letter-carriers walked eighteen or twenty miles a day seven days a week; and the example of the Government of a great country in thus overworking twenty thousand of its servants was decidedly bad. Pastors of churches were invited to send petitions in favour of a motion in the postmen's favour which was to be brought forward in the House of Commons. The February special meetings at the Tabernacle appear to have been especially hearty. Monday, February 20, was observed as an all-day prayer-meeting; and, beginning before sunrise, the assembly continued in prayer during fourteen hours. The annual supper of the College, which was given towards the end of March, had about four hundred guests, and the collection amounted to £1,456. In the course of his address to the subscribers Mr. Spurgeon referred in a happy strain to the continued success of the institution. About two hundred and forty men had entered pastorates to this date, including the two Jews who were now-employed as missionaries by a Jewish society. The College was still open to the poorest, and many of the students could never have been educated at all save for such an agency. Perhaps the most remarkable speech at the supper was what may be called the recantation of the late Dr. Samuel Manning of the Religious Tract Society.

Dr. Manning confessed that he had always looked upon Mr. Spurgeon himself with homage and affection, and upon his work with admiration; but he admitted that with regard to his College he had thought and felt, and he was afraid had said in his ignorance, some adverse things, and had looked upon it with suspicion and distrust. He thought it was the part of a true man to say that now, after all he had heard that evening, he entertained no longer any such feeling. He had been greatly struck with the aggressive character of their work. It was a great thing for them to break down some of the conventionalisms which had bound some of their churches hand and foot. Again, he rejoiced in the power of strong conviction that the young men had shown that evening. They had spoken as men who knew what they believed, and believed it with all their hearts. He had also observed with pleasure the naturalness and simplicity of the students who had addressed them. He had had an impression that the young men of the Pastors' College were but dim reproductions of the pastor—little Spurgeons—an impression, he might say, that very commonly prevailed, nor did he wonder at it; but he candidly confessed that now his mind was entirely disabused of that notion. Each speaker had been himself in manner, although it was easy to see that they had all caught Mr. Spurgeon's spirit.

Mr. Spurgeon got through the heavy last day's work of the Conference week with tolerable comfort. In addition to preaching regularly at the Tabernacle during the first quarter of the year, he issued the brochure, "The Royal Wedding," in commemoration of the marriage of the Princess Louise, and nearly ten thousand copies were sold in a fortnight. With the opening days of April, however, the symptoms of overwork were once more apparent; for the gout, from which the preacher had been almost or altogether free since the year 1869, again distressed him. An engagement in connection with the London Baptist Association at Downs Chapel, Clapton, could not be kept, and other preachers were heard at the Tabernacle. On the 9th of April the last service was held at Devonshire Square Chapel, of which Mr. W. T. Henderson was pastor; and so warm an interest did Mr. Spurgeon feel in this ancient congregation that he had arranged to preach the opening sermon in the new chapel at Stoke Newington at the latter end of June. That sermon was not preached, nor could the tour on the Continent, which had been arranged for the months of May and June, be undertaken. The colporteurs who assembled at the Tabernacle on April 17 also missed the presence of their President, although a good account was given of the year's work. On Sunday, the 16th, the National Temperance League had a crowded meeting at the Tabernacle in the afternoon, when Mr. Charles Garrett preached a teetotal discourse from the words "Prepare ye the way of the Lord." The service was a memorable one, the main part of those present being men. "Mr. Garrett very wisely made no attempt to vary from his usual style, and his sermon told on the vast and miscellaneous congregation with remarkable effect," we find it remarked. "The responses at different points in the sermon were not always such as are usually heard in our places of worship, indicating the pleasing fact that there were those present who were not much accustomed to public worship."

Mr. Spurgeon thought he was sufficiently recovered on Sunday, April 23, to preach, and during that week he also conducted the week-night Thursday evening service on the 27th; but he should have reserved his strength. Weeks of pain and weariness followed; and it was thought that the cold weather of June retarded his recovery. When he again stood in his place on the 2nd of July, the Tabernacle pulpit had been supplied by other preachers on thirteen Sundays during six months. But even while laid aside from active service Mr. Spurgeon continued to feel the greatest interest in the progress of his College men. At this time the late Mr. W. H. Burton, a successful preacher and an admirable man in all respects, was pastor of Kingsgate Street Chapel, Holborn. He occupied a difficult position in one of the byeways of London, and the church was one of those which had seen better days. He and his people were making an effort to raise six hundred pounds by a bazaar, but a terrible fire which had just happened not only drove many of the people from their homes, but even the goods collected for the sale were in great part consumed. In reference to Mr. Burton and his work Mr. Spurgeon wrote:—

"I wish that by some miraculous touch I could turn the mud of old Eagle Street into gold, and pay off the many hundreds of liabilities at once; then the church could do something for poor Mr. Tweedlepipes, who here sells his redpoles and linnets; and even Sairey Gamp might be saved from being so much 'dispoged' to the liquid which has supplemented the Bohea in her teapot. The little sinners without shoes and stockings and with well-ventilated breeches, who turn themselves into wheels down the streets at the back of Kingsgate Street, would indirectly be blessed if this debt could be discharged. Those who worship amidst suburban loveliness, where the luxury of their meeting-houses reveals their wealth, should not forget their struggling brethren who, with so much more to do, have so much less to do it with."

It was at or about this time that Spurgeon's old friend, James Grant, retired from the editorship of The Morning Advertiser, and received a testimonial from friends amounting to eleven hundred pounds. I have not seen the list of subscribers, but have no doubt that among them was found the name of the great preacher, whom the veteran journalist befriended on his first coming to London. On Sunday, July 16, the thousandth sermon in the printed series was preached at the Tabernacle, the text being the cry of the prodigal son in St. Luk 15:17 : "And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!" When the discourse was published on the Thursday following, its appearance was justly considered to represent a unique fact in the history of preaching. The preacher had at that date been in London during seventeen years, and it was supposed that some twenty millions of the printed discourses had been scattered among the English-speaking communities of the world, this being in addition to the reprints in newspapers. Translations of certain sermons had also been made into German, French, Swedish, Dutch, Italian, Welsh, Hungarian, Russian, Danish, Spanish, Teluga, Malagasy, Maori, and Gaelic. In a time of more than ordinary weakness this world-wide circulation of his utterances was no small consolation to the preacher himself. The denominational organ reflected the popular sentiment in regard to this matter when it said:—

"In his sufferings and the retirement, total or partial, which they enforce it is something to know that he has the thanks, the sympathy, and the prayers of thousands whom his living voice has never reached, and who would regard the loss of their weekly printed sermons as a serious spiritual privation. They have been weekly 'letters, weighty and powerful,' in thousands of Christian homes; and thousands of invalid Christians, unable to repair to the House of God, have found their own houses made Bethels by these welcome preachers.

"But the fact itself of one Christian teacher being endowed with the gift implied in all this is in itself a marvel. Possibly there have been a few Christian preachers who might with similar press facilities have done the same. Probably a Chrysostom whose generally extemporised discourses were, like Mr. Spurgeon's, taken down by shorthand writers, might have done it—a truly noble predecessor. But, as a fact, our brother is the first Christian teacher whose sermons through so many years have sustained the ordeal of weekly publication.... Let us thank God, and take courage; 'the good old Gospel' has its thousands who rejoice in it yet."

Charles Waters Banks and certain of his followers were more than usually pleased with Spurgeon at this time. Especially had a sermon on the work of the Holy Spirit pleased them, so that the preacher was looked at more hopefully. Only a little while before the thousandth sermon was published Mr. Spurgeon had suffered so much from gout that when he wrote a few lines to his people he did so while propped up in bed. In the course of a review article Mr. Banks wrote:—

"We were at a public meeting the other evening when Mr. John Wheeler, an Essex divine of no mean order, expressed his sincere hope that the long and severe physical trial through which Mr. Spurgeon had passed had been sanctified to the still greater purifying of his mind, which to Mr. Wheeler was clearly evidenced in that sermon, 'The Withering Work of the Spirit.' We gratefully sympathise with Mr. Wheeler, having ourselves read that sermon with the same holy and pleasing persuasion.... We mentioned this sermon, 'The Withering Work of the Spirit,' to a rising minister of our own particular section, and begged of him to read it. He said he had almost made a vow never to read another of Mr. Spurgeon's sermons, because in some he had seen such positive contradictions. We shall not dispute that point; but, as for ourselves, we ask all who look for the mercy of God in Christ Jesus to 'forget those things that are behind.' So for Mr. Spurgeon we say, although his Open Table and his occasional free-will must be grievous to some of us, and although his former onslaughts upon the Evangelicals in the Church have been offensive to them, still, after all, we cannot think there is one real Christian in his right mind but does believe the Lord has raised up, and holden up, this living messenger for the accomplishment of a great work in Zion." In the summer of 1871 there was some flutter of excitement respecting a proposed legalisation of an exchange of pulpits between clergymen of the Established Church and Nonconformist ministers. The Church Herald went so far as to express the fear that Mr. Gladstone was disposed to open the pulpits of St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey by Royal Warrant. Mr. Cowper-Temple also introduced his Occasional Sermons Bill in the House of Commons; and this, which also bore the name of Mr. Thomas Hughes, consisted of two clauses. The first clause simply gave the Bishops power to license such preaching, while the second clause allowed of such services being held either with or without the Prayer-Book form of prayer. Certain Anglicans professed to fear that the Royal Prerogative might be dangerously extended. But why be jealous in regard to that, since the Queen was the head of the Establishment? asked The Freeman, and then continued:—

"Royal Warrants play a principal part in State Churchism. Whether Mr. Gladstone has the dark designs imputed to him is quite another matter. We acquit him of any sinister purpose. He is an upholder of the Established Church. But even if the Premier were to advise the Crown to open the pulpits of the Establishment to Mr. Spurgeon and Mr. Newman Hall, he would not be guilty of a crime.... Should Mr. Gladstone wait till Dissenters ask him before he issues a Royal Warrant such as The Herald dreads, our contemporary need not be alarmed about the future. Exclusiveness by the Church is a help to Nonconformity. Like the Hebrews, 'the more we are oppressed,' or proscribed, 'the more we multiply and grow.'"

Among the interesting engagements of this summer which Mr. Spurgeon's prolonged illness obliged him to set aside was that of the Toller Jubilee at Kettering on July 19. Mr. Thomas Toller, pastor of the Independent Chapel in the town, had held his office for half a century, and a testimonial of seven hundred guineas was presented to him. The service was taken by Dr. Binney, who sat while giving his sermon, and whose unfortunate habit of dropping his voice at the end of a sentence made him inaudible to the greater part of his audience. As was the case with many other of the Dissenting leaders, Dr. Binney had found reason to modify his opinion of the Baptist preacher since the days when he had looked upon him as an upstart adventurer. "I have no doubt my hearers are much disappointed at not hearing Mr. Spurgeon, who is a noble fellow and whom I love very much," he said; "but that which is a disappointment to you has been the means of bringing me here—a circumstance which I cannot regret, although I regret the cause which has kept Mr. Spurgeon away." The death of Mr. Thomas Cook, who had rendered good service whilst the Tabernacle was being built, was an affliction. Mr. Cook was a man of faith and energy; and he and Mr. Spurgeon had prayed for a blessing to rest on the work of the future before the chapel was finished, kneeling together in the unfinished building after the workmen had left.

Towards the end of July the representatives of the United Methodist Free Churches invited Spurgeon to attend their Annual General Assembly, and in his reply reference was made to the death of the deacon just mentioned:—

"To the Assembly of the United Methodist Free Churches.

"Brethren in Christ,—Your letter, dated July 28, has only reached me on the evening of this day (31), hence my apparent neglect in answering is not a real one. I thank you heartily for the kind invitation, and should have endeavoured to avail myself of it but for two personally painful reasons. First, I am not yet equal to an 'Assembly dinner.' The glow of fraternal excitement would utterly overcome me. What little strength I have—and it is yet but little—I spend in preaching, and you will all agree it is the best form in which to lay it out. Second, at the hour of your love-feast I shall be on the way to a grave which is to hold the dear remains of a deacon, worthy and beloved, who has lately fallen asleep in Jesus. So I cannot be with you in person; but I have paused at this moment to breathe a prayer that the Lord's love, light, and life may abound in your holy gatherings, and that you may return to your spheres of labour clothed with the Holy Spirit's power. I know not in what better way I can serve you. May we, dear brethren, be all the more quickened to the fullest degree of spiritual life. We require all the spiritual energy that can be had, in order that our work for the Lord may tell upon our times. We must press hard on the graving-tool or it will leave no mark on this age of brass, and we cannot throw out more force than is first placed within us from above. Few of us rise to the sacred ardour of flaming love which Jesus' wounds claim of us. Conscious that I fall far short, I look anxiously to see the uprise of heaven-born zealots who shall be eaten up with the zeal of the Lord's house. Whether the Lord sends these to the United Methodist Free Churches or to the Baptists, we shall all be the better for them. Therefore we will join in praying for the coming of such, and aim to be such ourselves. Excuse this little written speech, and believe me to be, to you and all who love our Lord, a true brother and hearty well-wisher.

"C. H. Spurgeon."

It was a rare thing indeed for the pastor to hear a sermon in the Tabernacle; but on Tuesday evening, August 22, he and his deacons were among the crowd who heard a discourse from William Morley Punshon. The chapel was lent for the occasion, and the collection was on behalf of the Metropolitan Wesleyan Chapel Building Fund. The aisles and every standing-place appear to have been packed with listeners. The sermon was founded on Rom 7:22 : "But now being made free from sin," etc., and produced a deep impression. At a large gathering which followed a tea-meeting on Thursday, September 7, Mr. Spurgeon seemed to have regained his usual health. As chairman he addressed his friends in a very direct way, e.g.:—

"There is one thing that I think you perfectly understand, and that is the necessity for keeping up the College. You have proved how well you understand it from the way in which week after week you support it. I ought to say how glad I was, when lying on a bed of sickness, to see how your interest, instead of diminishing, seemed rather to grow stronger. Since I have been better I have seen each week some occasion for gratitude, and when I find there has been given eleven or twelve pounds absolutely in coppers, forty or fifty pounds in fourpenny and threepenny pieces, I know how many have given, and how hearty is the love of our friends for the work. Truly, my brothers and sisters, you do well to help it, for God blesses it. I once knew a gentleman who used to get reports from various societies, and would see how many conversions had been made in the year. He would then divide the amount of money subscribed by the number of conversions and ascertain how much each cost. If he found they were expensive he did not subscribe, but if he saw there was a good deal of work done for a little money, he then would give his five pounds. I do not quite approve of this method myself—it is too arithmetical. Still, there is something in it." The fact that in six years the churches associated with the College had secured sixteen thousand four hundred and fifty members was mentioned with great satisfaction as being the best kind of return. It was added that applications were constantly being received from young men in France, Germany, and the United States who wished to become students; but these applications were commonly discouraged, because it was thought that such ought to be educated in their own country. Those who were received and went out into the world were encouraged to form new churches. "I woke this morning very early," added Mr. Spurgeon, "and found I had been counting the number of churches on this side of the river which had sprung from the College, and I found that in the south of London there were just twenty churches, all of which owed their existence to the College—no little work to have done. I cannot say how many there are on the other side of the water, hut the work done by our brethren there is in no way diminishing. It is always an expensive work to form a new church; but, though it be expensive, it is the right work to do." As it was the week-night service a sermon was expected, and the preacher said he would make up for a short discourse by a long text, this consisting of Num 10:1-10—the description of the silver trumpets of the Israelites: the use which God made of them; and then was shown the analogy between these trumpets and the Christian ministry. The trumpets were symbols of the Gospel ministry, and only when God blew through them could a certain and stimulating sound be produced. The trumpet was the most suitable instrument, because it sent forth a heart-stirring sound which could be heard afar off. Then a reference was made to the importance of a clear and bold utterance on the part of preachers. "I cannot bear to see," he said, "a great big fellow, six feet high and stout in proportion, mumble out his words as if they were for the benefit of a few flies buzzing round his nose, and consequently utterly regardless of the people in the far end of the gallery. Speak out boldly in a trumpet-tone, compelling attention, and constraining men to listen."

Just as the trumpets were of silver—a pure metal—so was the ministry of the Gospel to be pure and without alloy. The true minister was ever of the same voice, never unsaying on one day what he had said on another; and as the trumpet called the people together, so was it the minister's duty to get the people together to hear. "If they will not come in to us we must go out to them. There ought to be no difficulty in getting a congregation in London when we see the number of people in the streets, especially on the Sabbath-day. I wish all those vacant plots of ground to be let for building could be procured from the owners at a small rent, or, better still, no rent at all, and used every Sabbath-day for preaching—our evangelists would find plenty of work; and there is so much to do that one might almost desire to see a street burned down to get a space to preach in." The Stockwell Orphanage continued to make progress, and on September 20, when the annual meeting was held, there were two hundred boys in residence, while the endowment fund amounted to £23,608. In addition to Mr. Spurgeon's address, one was given by Mr. Thompson, rector of the parish in which the Orphanage is situated. A bazaar, a display of fireworks, and other entertainments contributed to the enjoyment of the evening. The East London Tabernacle, Burdett Road, Bow, designed for the accommodation of three thousand persons, was opened about this time; and from that day to this Archibald G. Brown has preached to a full congregation, besides carrying on a wonderfully comprehensive home mission. One of the earliest sermons preached in this chapel was by Mr. Spurgeon, who regarded with some pride this largest building ever erected in connection with the College. Mr. Brown, senior, a deacon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, was a munificent contributor to the building fund; and whenever he was in low spirits, Mr. Spurgeon had only to remind him of what was being accomplished by his son to revive him. Among the chapel-building enterprises of the year was Mr. Spurgeon's second chapel in connection with his presidency of the London Baptist Association, as previously mentioned. He was unable to secure a site in the Wands-worth Road, as he desired, but asked permission of the committee to erect a chapel at Balham.

Reference in passing may be made to Field-Marshal Sir John and Lady Burgoyne, who, as attendants at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, both died within a few weeks of each other in the fall of 1871. As an officer in the British army Sir John served under Abercromby in Egypt and under Wellington in the Peninsula. In the year 1858 Lady Burgoyne passed from the Church of England into the Baptist communion, and thus early attended the ministry of Mr. Spurgeon. According to The Freeman she was an indefatigable Christian worker. "By visiting the sick and afflicted, by correspondence with those at a distance, by circulating tracts, magazines, and good books, by the regular distribution through the post of a large number of Mr. Spurgeon's sermons every week, and in many other ways, she diligently improved every opportunity of labouring for Christ." The only son of Sir John and Lady Burgoyne was commander of The Captain, which went down on September 7, 1870. It was their daughter who was the first wife of the present Dr. J. A. Spurgeon. At various times and in many ways Spurgeon was a living illustration of the truth that it is impossible to please everybody, and that a popular character who should attempt that feat would end in pleasing no one. While too high a Calvinist for many who were supposed to be members of Calvinistic denominations, he was still a mere Arminian or duty-faith man to others. Some would have had him get more money, and do more for the poor and for indigent ministers; others would have been glad for persons to believe that the Tabernacle mainly existed for getting money, of course concealing the fact that the pastor himself gave more away to the institutions than anybody else. As a pastor his rule was firm and peaceful; but that did not satisfy those who would represent him as overbearing and despotic. "We know, on good authority," remarked The Westminster Review, "that some of his own deacons describe him as 'a regular Pope,' popular though he be with them, and that he at one time had thoughts of introducing the Presbyterian form of church government among the Baptists." Some years later there were those at Menton who would say, "There goes the English Pope," when the preacher was out for one of his drives. If Spurgeon was a despot in any sense at all his rule was as benevolent as that of Cromwell; like the great Protector, he governed for the good of all.