aq lLES haddon »URGEON THE ^LITTLE LIBRARY OF BIOGRAPHY CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON By A. CUNNINGHAM BURLEY LONDON: THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY 65 St. Paul's Churchyard and 4 Bouverie Street, E.C.4 MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN Printed by Wm. Clowes and Sons, Ltd. London and Beccles. CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON Charles Haddon Spurgeon was one of the outstanding personalities of the Vi£lorian era. He was one of the few ministers who had a world-wide audience — a preacher who had only to whisper to be heard of all men. His life and work are one of the cherished possessions of the scattered English- speaking peoples and is a living link which binds many of them together throughout the length and breadth of the earth. It is safe to say that when the hiftory of the w^onderful nineteenth century comes to be written, Spurgeon 3 107700'* 4 CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON will ^and out as one of the moft force- ful individuals that England has ever seen. Although he passed away as long ago as the year 1892, yet he Still lives in the admiring remembrances of multitudes who heard him. Many of his con- temporaries are dead, and although the number of those who came under his spell is daily diminishing, there is no need to fear that Spurgeon is becoming a back number or a fading memory. He will live as long as England lives, because he so laboured and wrought during his all too brief lifetime, as to keep the soul of England alive. In the kind Providence of God, Spurgeoji was born of wise and tender Christian parents. His birthplace was the ancient and obscure village of BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD 5 Kelvedon in Essbx. His birthday was June 19, 1834. His parents, John and Eliza Spurgeon, brought up a large family in true Puritan fashion, and it is no wonder that their two sons, Charles and James, should have become dis- tinguished minivers of the Gospel. C. H. Spurgeon (like R. L. Stevenson) was specially favoured in coming under the bracing influence of a venerable mini^erial grandfather. At the old Stambourne manse there were many things to appeal to the impressionable mind of a growing child. Those who looked after him were persons of singular simplicity and lovers of inno- cent habits, and allowed him to have the run of the miniver's library and the privilege of meeting the payor's friends. 6 CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON One of the mo^ notable visitors to the place was the Rev. Richard Knill, missionary at St. Petersburg. Being a soul- winner, he spied out the small boy and took the opportunity of speaking winsomely to him about the love of the Lord Jesus and the joy of loving the Saviour in the enchanted days of child- hood. Then followed a mo§t remark- able thing. Mr. Knill took the child on his knee in the presence of all the family and said, solemnly and pro- phetically, " This child will one day preach the Gospel to great multitudes." He then extracted a promise from the boy (supported by the gift of a sixpence) that when, in years to come, he should preach in Rowland Hill's Chapel, he would give out the hymn : " God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform." SCHOOLDAYS 7 This promise was fulfilled because the prophecy came true. Spurgeon, without seeking to preach in Surrey Chapel, was incidentally asked to do so, and he addressed a gathering of chil- dren on the condition that they should sing William Cowper's great hymn. It was done, to the indescribable emotion of the preacher. Spurgeon's schooldays were spent happily and profitably at Colchester, Maid^one, and Newmarket. Being an indu^rious boy, he never felt the bite of a schoolma^er's cane, but qualified in Latin, Greek, and French. Above all, he became an expert penman and laid the foundation for that beauti- ful, educated handwriting that became in after-life the envy and despair of his friends. Several of his copybooks are 8 CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON ^till in existence and their careful entries give a more vivid sense of his person- ality than almost anything else that can be mentioned. HIS CON\rERSION The Story of Mr. Spurgeon's conver- sion is almost too well known to bear repetition. Yet no sketch of his life would approach completeness if no reference to this pivotal experience were made. , The grace of God which had pursued him with many benediftions since his childhood and had encom- passed him as with a shield, now began to work more powerfully upon him. For some little time he had been hoping and groping in the shadows of spiritual uncertainty. But on the morning of January 6, 1850, the lad rose early to HIS CONVERSION 9 pray and to read in the hope of finding re§t for his troubled soul. Driven forth into a thick, blinding snow^orm, with distress and darkness filling his mind, he entered the Primitive Methodist Chapel in Artillery Street, Colchester. There was a meagre con- gregation in the spacious vacant pews, and, to use Spurgeon's own words, " The preacher was a poor uneducated man who had never received a training for the ministry and probably will never be heard of in this Hfe. He was a shoemaker, a tailor, or something of that sort." But the unknown, un- lettered man announced his text, " Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." Of exposition there was none, but of personal, pointed application there was a great deal. lO CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON Fastening his eyes on the dejeded- looldng lad under the gaJlery, the preacher exclaimed in loud and boifter- ous tones, " Young man, look to Jesus Christ. You have nothing to do but to look and live." That was the supreme moment. Spurgeon said that he could almosT: have looked his eyes away through sheer rapture and relief. About four months later he was baptized in the River Lark at Isleham Ferry, by Rev. W. W. Cantlow, on !May 3, 1850. There is no portion of the hiftory of men of power more interesting than that which tells how and when they first showed signs of their Strength. This interest is not lacking in the early life of Mr. Spargeon. On the Satur- day following his baptism, he was HIS FIRST SERMON II found eagerly di^ributing trails. The day following he was in the Sunday School, and a few months later we find him delivering a missionary address to an admiring and appreciative audience. Then came his Rtit sermon (an extem- poraneous effort) in the little cottage at Teversham. It was an exhilarating experience, enjoyed by speaker and cottagers alike, and there were not wanting those, even in that far-off day, who saw in Spurgeon's EtSt sermon the dawn of that popularity which was the beginning of his long and undisputed leadership in religious circles. The country people liked his preaching because of its originaHty, freshness, and vigour. Moreover, the youthful preacher had the bloom and dew of early manhood upon him, and it was no 12 CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON Wonder that his growing fame as an Evangel i^-pa§tor in the Fen Di§tri£l should have ultimately reached Lon- don. He had been labouring with phenomenal success for several months as Pastor of the Waterbeach Baptist Church when an overture reached him to become the Minister of New Park Street Chapel, Southwark. But this young man of twenty was reluftant to leave his affe6lionate little flock in the country for a decaying and unknown cause in London. He came, however, and the im^mediate effect was tremen- dous. His preaching captured the hearts of his hearers. His name spread far and wide, and all sorts of people flocked from all kinds of places to hear him. Within one year the great empty chapel had to be enlarged and CALLED TO LONDON 1 3 Exeter Hall had to be requisitioned to accommodate the multitudes that crushed in to hear him. Not that there was anything very bewitching about his personal appearance. His face was heavy with eyelids that drooped as with weight. The nose, cheeks, and lips had a pecuhar, sallow, alabaster colour, whilst his broadcloth clothing seemed to hang loose and formless from his corpulent figure. It was when he began to speak that the assembled ho§ts heard one of the mightiest voices that has ever sounded from a Christian pulpit. There was a clarion sweetness about it that filled the largest building in which Spurgeon held forth. In the Cry^al Palace twenty-four thousand persons listened to that voice without effort. Twelve 14 CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON thousand heard it in a field off King Edward's Road, Hackney, while Exeter Hall, Surrey Music Hall, and the va§l Agricultural Hall at Islington echoed with its music and its power. THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE In the year 1861 the MetropoUtan Tabernacle was opened for public wor- ship. It was also designed to accom- modate about seven thousand hearers, which was Spurgeon's average con- gregation for many years. The fires of his oratory burned brighter in the early seventies, when he was nearly forty years of age and had been miniftering to his people for about twenty years. But since his settlement in London his printed sermons had been Steadily pour- ing from the Press. These printed THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE I 5 discourses constitute a literary marvel. Their publication began in the year 1855, and the yearly volumes ran on long after his death in 1892. They may be divided into three groups, corresponding with Isaiah's prophetical classification. There are those that represent the youthful period, when the young preacher mounted up with wings as an eagle. They contain wonderful flights of imagination and impassioned appeal. These are fol- lowed in the mid-seventies by those zenith discourses when the great preacher could run and not be weary, when nothing seemed to tire his magnificent vitality. Then came the later sermons with the sunset touch upon them, embracing the la§t fifteen years of his miniftry, when by the help 1 6 CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON of the Eternal Spirit he walked and did not faint. Altogether, a wonderful achievement. By means of these dis- courses and a whole Hbrary of other expository and devotional works, Spurgeon made an abiding contribution to the religious thought and knowledge of his times. His name, however, is not only associated with an unequalled pulpit and literary record ; it is conne£led with benevolent and educational in- stitutions of which he was the chief force and the guiding genius. He did not divorce his pulpit utterances from practical efforts. The Tabernacle with its vast congregations was certainly one of the great attradlions of London, but Spurgeon's influence took a much larger range than that of preaching to ORPHANAGE AND COLLEGE 1 7 massed thousands week by week. He knew that sermons (like newspapers) have a very short life. Like the manna in the wilderness they lose their savour and power of nutriment on the second day. So Spurgeon sought to translate his burning words into living activities that would bless the children of m.en for generations to come. He not only gathered a Church of over five thousand members ; he also founded an Orphan- age for five hundred fatherless children, e^ablished a College for the training of young rnini^ers, and endowed a block of Almshouses for the permanent benefit of aged members of his con- gregation. Herein we see the rare distinctiveness of the man. There were other great preachers at home and abroad who 1 8 CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON were Spurgeon's contemporaries, but he differed from them in one vital particular. He sought to perpetuate himself and his message by means of a College, an Orphanage, and a Col- portage Association. Others might feel it sufficient to preach, to pass away, and to let the future take care of itself. But Spurgeon could not re^ content until he had founded Institutions which should enshrine his memory, embody his ideas, and express his spirit. If little children could be reared and young preachers could be trained.in the teach- ings of grace as Spurgeon understood them, he w^ould again go forth into thousands of Hves long after his own life on earth had ended. To this fa£l Spurgeon owes the lasting sub- Stance of his fame. In defence of his SUSTAINED POPULARITY 1 9 College he wrote : " To help young preachers to ^udy the Scriptures and to become more efficient ministers is one of the noblest works that ever moved the heart of man." In vindica- tion of his Orphanage he remarked : " The objeds of our care are not far to seek. They are at our gates ; widows worn down . . . and children half famished. We cannot look at them without pity. We will work for them through our Orphanage, as long as our brain can think, our pen can write, and our heart can love." Thus Spurgeon's name is preserved from oblivion because his mini^ry is con- tinued and his benevolence is repro- duced. A more indefatigable worker never hved than C. H. Spurgeon. He never 20 CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON preached except to full pews and crowded congregations. Gaining the public ear as a boy-preacher he never lo§t it for a moment. His life-long grasp of success was tremendous. There seemed to be a touch of greatness about everything connected with him. Greatness of character, greatness of genius, with such spiritual depth and wisdom as are rarely found in any Chri^ian teacher. HIS FRIENDS AND HELPERS Obviously there mu§t have been underlying reasons for all this. Such a position, so prolonged and unchal- lenged, could never have been main- tained except by the gtridleSt economy of time and the closest attention to duty. But Spurgeon was rich in COLLEAGUES 21 friends and helpers. He had around him from the very beginning of his mini^ry some of the mo§t ungrudging helpers that any minister could wish to have. His diftinguished brother. Dr. James A. Spurgeon, was a con- ^ant strength and inspiration to him. His deacons and elders were men of good will, giving large margins of their time and thought in furthering the manifold v/ork at the Tabernacle. His colleagues at the Orphanage and College delighted to spend themselves in sacrificial service for their President, whilst his Secretaries and clerical helpers did an enormous amount of desk work that greatly relieved the daily burden of one who was already overloaded. By many gracious gifts and tender acknowledgments, Spurgeon 22 CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON admitted that he owed much of liis ascendancy as a leader and author to the unflagging loyalty of his co- labourers. Moreover, he was blessed with a wife who for many years was able to give her time and Strength to advance the welfare and happiness of her distinguished husband. She was ever at his side, nursing him in illness, accompanying him on holidays, and encircling him with all the tender affeftion that a wife could be^ow. They led a sheltered and beautiful life together in a pleasant house perched on the Beulah Hill at Norwood. Surrounded with ample grounds, it enabled him to enjoy the beauties of Nature and to spend long hours with books, flowers, bird-notes, and healing PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 23 sileaces. The perpetual strain of pro- duction, week by week, was amazing, but the retreat afforded by Westwood and the joy of reaching so many thousand hearts were a great support. There ftill remains much about Mr. Spurgeon's genius and personality that defies analysis, but it goes a long way towards revealing the source of his power if we boldly describe him as an " overflowing man." Many of the fineft qualities of mind and heart repose upon a physical basis. Spur- geon was able to render immense service because he was so vitally alive and so intensely human in everything that he said and did. He vv^as rich in those overwhelming sympathies which are at the root of noble character. During the Vidorian Era, two men, in 24 CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON particular, ^ood out in all the §lronge§t and be^ elements of English man- hood — John Bright and Charles H. Spurgeon. Nobody surpassed them in downright genuineness of character and conduft. Spurgeon's personality seemed to exercise an influence almost as great as his preaching. Everybody knew that he was absolutely free from anything like meanness, selfishness, or duplicity. He §tood out conspicuously as a commendable specimen of lofty behaviour, of unimpeachable redi- tude, and of benevolent aims ; a kind of human kaleidoscope, at every turn falling into new and beautiful shapes. HIS NATURALNESS Nor is this to be wondered at. Spurgeon seemed to have inherited a HIS NATURALNESS 25 particularly simple and Straightforward temperament. Indeed, his natural- ness seemed to be his outstanding charm. He was not one man in the pulpit and another out of it. If you saw him in liis garden one day and in his Tabernacle the next, you saw the same man. He insisted on being him- self in all situations and under all circumstances. He was not a mosaic or a weak imitator of others. He never reminded you of somebody else. AfFedation was a quality altogether remote from his transparent nature. To his Students he said : " Gentlemen, be yourselves, but in being yourself don't be a fool." James Payn once remarked that one of the secrets of Spurgeon's power and popularity was eloquence combined 26 CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON with what Luther and Latimer posses- sed, earnest rehgious humour. There can be no doubt that this power was enjoyed by him, and like everything else about him, it was perfedly natural. Not that he deliberately went out of his way to shine by saying funny or smart things, but to him a witty some- tliing, even in the pulpit, was by no means so unpardonable as a witless nothing however solemnly it may have sounded. He was not ashamed to be reckoned in the same succession as Sydney Smith, Rowland Hill, and John Berridge — men who sometimes gave loose rein to their wit and were eminently successful in their mini^ry. HI*S HUMOUR HIS HUMOUR At Guildford, for in^ance, on one occasion, Spurgeon preached to an overflowing congregation. The hall was packed and many persons were compelled to ^and. But Spurgeon's sympathetic humour did not fail him. He quietly remarked, with his invincible smile, " I am sorry so many of you will have to ftand all through the sermon, but I shall have to do the same myself, so I know you won't mind." Again, when addressing a meeting at a country chapel, one of the benches gave way with a crash. He promptly improved the occasion by warning his hearers not to trust to forms and ceremonies ! One safeguarding word needs to be said. Whilst Mr. Spur- 28 CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON geon's friends knew him as genial and jocular, it would be a profound mistake to regard him as a humorist in the pulpit. Mark Twain has reminded us that real humour is only found in the mo§t serious natures. Spurgeon could sometimes give vent to his ready wit, but no preacher was more uniformly earned, reverent, and solemn in his appeals to the unconverted. Empty drolleries and cheap witticisms could neither have drawn nor held the mighty congregations that waited upon that long-su§tained ministry. Even when a few spontaneous oddities mingled with his message, it was still the truth that he was declaring, and as Dr. Robertson Nicoll justly reminds us, '' Spurgeon was not afraid to employ a i je§t or a honiely proverb in his preach- | DOWN-GRADE CONTROVERSY 29 ing, but he was as far from vulgarity as the Apo^le Paul himself. He was so con^antly in the presence of the auguft themes of the Christian ministry that it was never possible for him to descend into mere levity or to court a grin." So much, therefore, in praise of Mr. Spurgeon's humour and human- heartedness. Spurgeon's health began definitely to give way when he was fifty-three or thereabouts. His marvellous vitality was on the ebb, compelling him to spend his remaining winters away in the South of France. The disease which ultimately proved fatal was aggravated by worry. The great preacher in his later years believed that he saw signs of religious degeneracy and decaying faith. He felt very 30 CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON keenly the flagrant departures from sound dodlrinal teaching on the part of some of his pulpit contemporaries. This led him into a well-intentioned controversy which exhausted his laft resources of ^rength. He seemed to reach a point where pressure of anxiety increased as rapidly as ftrength failed. For many years a sufferer, his end was hastened by the apprehension he felt for the future of Christ's Kingdom on earth. The torments of the Down- Grade Controversy retarded his re- covery by neutralizing the aftion of those remedies wliich were meant for his restoration. The end came on January 51, 1892. Spurgeon had been fighting a losing battle with an insidious disease in the sleepy littJe sun-drenched town of CLOSING DAYS AND DEATH 3 1 Mentone. Gradually relapsing into unconsciousness, he fetched a deep, deep sigh, and shortly before midnight passed peacefully away. The news of his death travelled quickly, and the arrival of his coffin in England was marked by overwhelming manifesta- tions of sorrow. Fifty thousand per- sons viewed the calm face of their friend and benefadlor with a grief that seemed to say : " Why could not the grave forget thee — and lay low Some less majeftic, less beloved head ? " In thinking back over the subsequent years we may regard Mr. Spurg^on as a man whose life enriched the world and whose death was an unspeakable loss. We may safely reckon him 32 CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON among the builders of his century, a watchman of his period ; a man of philanthropy and a preacher of right- eousness who deserved the world-wide popularity that came to him, all unsought. Although his work on earth is done, yet his life has passed into many other lives and will continue to do so. Thus we cannot wholly lose him. Of him we may truthfully and thankfully say what Richard X^'atson Gilder wrote of John Wesley : "In those clear, piercing, piteous eyes behold The very soul that over England flamed ! Deep, pure, intense ; consuming shame and ill ; Convicting men of sin ; making faith hve ; And, — this the mightiest miracle of all, — Creating God again in human hearts." 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