The Metropolitan Tabernacle

minister—what then? Why, this Church will become two, or three, or four thousand strong! It is easy enough in God to double our numbers, vast though they be. We shall have the lecture-hall beneath this platform crowded at each prayer-meeting, and we shall see in this place young men devoting themselves to God; we shall find young ministers raised up, and trained, and sent forth to carry the fire to other parts.... If God shall bless us, he will make us a blessing unto all. Let but God send down the fire, and the biggest sinners in the

neighbourhood will be converted. ¹ W hen the size of the congregation grew beyond the New Park Street facility, they decided that a new and much larger place of worship and church life was needed. During a nearly three-year stint at the Surrey Gardens Music Hall a location in Newington was procured, and the site was prepared. On Tuesday August ¹⁶, 1859 the first stone was laid. The ceremony included the reading of a brief history giving information about each of the pastors for the 207-year history of the church.

Faithfulness, Hiddenness, and Expansion

William Rider, Benjamin Keach, Benjamin Sinton, John Gill, John Rippon, Joseph Angus, James Smith, and William Walters all had served with distinction and had preached with faithfulness the doctrines of grace. Fresh venues of worship had often been called for through the years in light of a variety of circumstances. Beginning in a time of repression, "their meetings were held by stealth. Being unlawful for them to gather together for worship in a suitable edifice, they were compelled to go from house to house, observing the strictest

secrecy." ² During Keach's time, the church became numerous and constructed a large and commodious building in Goat's Yard Passage, Fair Street, Horseliedown. This facility was expanded during the time of Benjamin Stinton.

A baptistery was constructed to avoid the difficulty of finding pools and rivers at appropriate times and seasons and "for the more decent administration of the ordinance." In 1718, at the cost of £160, the baptistery was enlarged, and renovation of the meeting house, including the addition of three vestries eleven feet square, was accomplished. Under John Gill, in October 1757, a new meeting house for the church and congregation was built in Carter Lane, Tooley Street.

During the closing years of Dr. Rippon's life, on February ⁷, 1830, the congregation worshipped for the last time at the old meeting house in Carter Lane. They surrendered it to the City for the approaches to the new London Bridge. For three years, the church assembled in different buildings through the kindness of other churches. Eventually, in answer to many prayers, they purchased a piece of freehold ground in New Park Street, where they erected a chapel which opened free from any debt or encumbrance on May ⁶, 1833. After Rippon's death three pastors came and went in less than twenty years, all of them still serving in ministry at different places.

The reciter of the history summarized the five years of Spurgeon's ministry with a sense of awe and blessing. Many saints, converted under the ministries of others, were wandering without a place to be fed. Spurgeon presented to them a lush pasture of nutritious food for sheep. "Many such were gathered into the fold of our fellowship," said B. W. Carr; "Here their souls have been restored, while they have found the Presence of the Good Shepherd, who makes us to lie down in green pastures and leads us beside the still waters." The work of conversion also was great as the Holy Spirit accompanied "the preaching of the Gospel with Divine Power, that almost every sermon proved the means of awakening and regeneration to some." The church thus became "an asylum for the aged, as well

as a nursery for the babes of our Savior's family." ³ This continued blessing had made necessary this day of laying the first stone for a new place of ministry.

A Time to Gather Stones Together

The day's speakers included Spurgeon's father, his younger brother, James, Sir Morton Peto, the Lord Mayor of London, pastors from the north and south and west of London and a peculiarly jocular Anglican that displayed an infectious evangelical ecumenicity, Joseph Payne. He had enjoyed, one occasion, being introduced as a person that "belongs to nobody because he belongs to everybody." A master of alliteration, rhyme, acrostics, and anecdotes, Payne used them all in regaling the crowd with his speech of admiration for Spurgeon.

Spurgeon would not mumble, grumble, stumble, or crumble, but would pray and believe, persist and receive. He commented that he did not see the familiar initials CHS anywhere and wanted to make sure that their significance did not pass unnoticed. "Now, what does C.H.S. mean? Why, it means first, "Charles Haddon Spurgeon." But I do not mean that! C.H.S. means a Clear Headed Speaker, who is Clever at Handling Subjects in a Cheerful-Hearted Style. He is a Captain of the Hosts of Surrey. He is a Cold-Hating Spirit. He has ChapelHeating Skill. He is a Catholic Humbug-Smasher; he is a Care-Hushing Soother.

He is a Child-Helping Strengthener—he is a Christ-Honoring Soldier, and he is a Christ-Honored Servant. Those are all the C.H.S's and a very good set of

C.H.S's they are!" ⁴ In a poem of nine stanzas that Payne wrote for this occasion, he sought to set forth both his gratitude and his hope embodied in the construction of the Tabernacle. The last two stanzas continued the demonstration

of his love for Spurgeon.

Friend Spurgeon, the clearest of preachers I know,

Look on to the time when your language shall flow

Like a beautiful stream, without thickness or silt,

In the great Tabernacle that is to be built.

And thousands delivered from sin and from Hell,

In mansions of Glory forever shall dwell,

Who heard of the blood which for sinners was spilt,

In the great Tabernacle that is to be built. 5

Another interesting adornment in this stone-laying ceremony was in the presence of Rev. J. Bloomfield, a man of the hyper-Calvinists. Bloomfield commended Spurgeon for his zeal and his clear affirmation of the atoning work of Christ.

Though he had lost members to Spurgeon's congregation, he was glad that so good a man would be their teacher now and he prayed that both they and he would prosper in the gospel. When some of his friends denied that God could bless a ministry like Spurgeon's, Bloomfield responded, "I ask any man to look

at the vast numbers that have testified before delighted audiences to the way in which the ministry of Mr. Spurgeon has been blessed to them—and I ask if God has not honored him?" In view of the seal of the Spirit on his ministry, "Where is the man who dares to speak against the success which he has realized so largely in his work?" Bloomfield loved his friends that had spoken harshly of Spurgeon, but had "always hated their harshness." So he had told them to their faces and "would tell them again." "I hate their bigotry," he confessed, "while I love the Truth of God they preach." He asked that divine blessing rest on the "ministrations of our excellent friend and honor him with increasing and

abundant success, for His own sake. Amen." ⁶ Money-raising efforts penetrated all the ceremonies with good-natured appeals, a large gift from an anonymous 83-year-old Anglican benefactor that included a £2,000 challenge grant. Any that so desired could lay a brick if they were willing to pay a shilling for the privilege of doing so. When the proceedings closed, a note was added to the transcript to be circulated as the

weekly sermon concerning the continued need for financial help.

The Committee thinks it necessary to add, that notwithstanding the very great assistance afforded upon

this occasion, their enterprise is very far from accomplishment. The freehold ground has been

purchased and paid for; the excavation and throwing in of concrete for foundations have also been

completed. And when this expense shall also have been fully defrayed, the Committee will find

themselves with about 10,000 pounds in hand. The present contract for the erection of the building is

20,000 pounds, which does not include lighting, boundary walls and necessary furniture. The

Committee therefore earnestly appeals to the Church of Christ for help in their arduous undertaking.

Subscriptions will be joyfully received by the Rev. C. H. SPURGEON. Or by Mr. T. COOK, Hon.

Sec., New Park Street Chapel, Southwark, S.E.

A Church for London

Ministry outside the walls of New Park Street had made Spurgeon's preaching an attraction, or a distraction, to all of London. The next two years would only serve to increase the truly metropolitan character of the congregation that would gather there and make the ministry more profoundly city-wide. The name itself, changing from a localized nomenclature like "New Park Street" to a pronouncement like "Metropolitan," showed Spurgeon's consciousness of the mission of the church and his intention to make a gospel siege upon the entire city.

From his first visit in December of 1853 Spurgeon had been a keen observer of London life. The city would be a mission field as well as a base for a mission to the world. It would be the rich, virtually exhaustless, source of listeners to a divinely revealed gospel of salvation for sinners providing the constant proving of his divine call. It would be the bane of mental and physical health and the constant demonstration of the corrupting power of sin in concentration.

Spurgeon wrote to great heights of literary accomplishment when he sought to describe the most appalling features of the inclemency of London's atmosphere.

As an opening illustration of the biblical position that life is a vapor, Spurgeon described a trip in a London fog at noonday as moving "through a mass of vapor looking almost as thick as melted butter." The "stinging savor of smoke made our eyes run with tears, and a most uncomfortable clinging cobwebby dampness surrounded us like a wet blanket." This sent a cold chill to the very marrow of his bones and produced a darkness that, "like a black pall, hung horribly over every street." Even the many lamps in the shops, burning as if night had set in, could not put cheer in the gloomy fog that "sensibly affected all the organs of our body." Other passengers were few, and those few "flitted before us like shadows, or passed shivering by us like wet sparrows looking out for shelter in a

heavy rain." ⁷ Twenty-six years later James Spurgeon would describe the setting of the Pastors' College in equally dismal terms. Noting that the health of the students during the year had not been worse than might be expected in the midst of such a severe and protracted winter, he reminded his readers of what they knew only too well: "Our College is not uplifted above the fog of London, but lies near the centre of the smoky metropolis—in the heart of England and the world." That

location is good for many reasons, "but in the matter of health it is trying." ⁸ Kruppa believed that Spurgeon idealized the country and saw the city as a

place for the concentration of vice and filth. ⁹ Perhaps some of his evaluations arose from a tendency to epitomize into caricature the rural/urban conflict in

values, style of life, healthy atmosphere, stress levels, and character development. Some of it, though, arose out of the sober observation that Spurgeon made about human nature in any situation. Lostness and spiritual disinterest, slovenly habits and personal apathy, were just as prominent in Waterbeach as in London, simply on a smaller scale. In London, however, the concentration of population led to an accumulation of social problems and the exacerbation of sinful activities when encouragement toward them found multiplication in groups of like-minded people, and the development of entrepreneurial ventures in vice. The quest for money combined with the corruption of leadership and talent created pockets of crime and vice that seemed impenetrable. This was a source of special distress for Spurgeon as he viewed the growth of corruption as rampant and massive compared to the growth of the power and fervent gospel ministry of the churches. In a soulful lamentation over London's desperate lostness, Spurgeon introduced a lengthy review of The Seven

Curses of London.

We wish every Christian man could be made aware of the vice, the destitution and the misery which

surround him; it would make him a better servant of the Lord. We are a vast deal too comfortable. We

simper with complacency at the good which we are doing, when, like Mrs. Partington's mop, we are

scarcely pushing back one wave of the seething ocean of iniquity around us. At our pious gatherings

we half persuade ourselves that the world is being converted, and that gross vice is a rara avis in the

land, and all the while the devil, with almost undisputed sway, rules the masses, and devours them at

his will. Those lines of first-class residences, those long terraces of respectable houses, those miles of

pretty villas, those leagues of busy shops—one rides along them by the hour, and feels that London is

great, flourishing, wealthy, orderly; ay, but turn out of that broad thoroughfare, stop at Paradise Court

or Rosemary Alley, take your walks abroad where many poor you see, note the ragged children, the

filthy Irishwomen, the harlots, the drunkards, the swarms of villainous-looking big boys; and now, as

you return, sick from the reek of gin and the mustiness of rags, you learn that London is poor,

wretched, lawless, horrible. 10

James Greenwood, the author of the book under review, stated that the first curse of London was neglected children. Three-hundred fifty thousand children under the age of sixteen were dependent on parish authorities for their maintenance.

After the recitation of moving anecdotes designed to illustrate how desperate the situation was, Spurgeon remarked: "If these things be true of children left under the care of poor penniless widows, what a plea we have for our orphanage, and how grateful should we and our band of helpers be that we are allowed to do a

little to prevent such misery." ¹¹ The second curse of London Greenwood listed as "Professional thieves," numbered at ²⁰,000, "little short of the membership of all the Baptist churches in London." The difference, as Spurgeon observed, that among the number of thieves, "every individual member of this synagogue of Satan is an earnest,

genuine, worker in the evil cause."

Professional beggars constituted the third curse, and Spurgeon felt that he could more than confirm Greenwood's statement. Spurgeon had seen enough of it to know that mendicancy was a profitable trade for the idle and vicious and

supported an "army of the vilest loafers that ever disgraced a city." ¹² To alleviate the fourth curse, Greenwood advocated the licensing of "fallen women" and Spurgeon took time to register his disagreement. That policy in France had not improved the moral condition of the country or relieved the misery of its subjects. "May God avert from England," Spurgeon prayed, "the abiding pestilence of systematic debauchery, by which sin is made easy, and the

path to hell more fascinating than ever." ¹³ The fifth in this list of curses was drunkenness, related to all the others, "often their mother and always their nurse." Though Spurgeon opposed the prohibitionist, teetotal viewpoint, he had no sympathy for drunkenness and wanted every effort to diminish that curse to have its own measure of success.

Evidently, Greenwood made light humor at the expense of the strict prohibitionist group and Spurgeon took exception to his comments. "Their object is so praiseworthy," Spurgeon replied, "and the need of every wellintentioned effort so manifest, that it is a pity to throw cold water on any earnest temperance. If teetotalers are rather too prone to treat contemptuously the efforts of those who do not adopt their modes of operation, there is the more reason why the true temperance but non-teetotal man should behave with courtesy to his more irritable fellow worker, for whom he is bound to entertain a kindly esteem." The numbers of beer houses and gin palaces exceeded any estimation of what moderation might demand for the public good. The Bacchanalian missionary soon has his way and establishes an all-surrounding omnipresence of the stimulant that propagates the craving for more. "The accursed habit of intoxication lies at the root of the main part of London's poverty, misery, and

crime." ¹⁴ A sixth curse on London was the "betting gambler." So sly and deceitful was the promise of quick wealth for the price of a few postage stamps that the trade in betting had increased greatly in twenty years. A tribe of "blacklegs" and others feeds upon "this growing vice, swarming about it like flies around carrion." Spurgeon knew of the practice and had heard the voices of street urchins shouting the odds. Marvelous are the fortunes to be won but "more marvelous still is the senseless folly which can be duped by such manifest

quackery." ¹⁵ He spent four more pages of text alternating between his and Greenwood's observations on the fever pitch enthusiasm reached on the days

and hours of horse-races and the deceit used by certain "betting men" to take others for large sums of money.

For the seventh curse, the waste of charity, Spurgeon had little space and less heart to devote to its discussion. A hint of the nature of this problem appears in an article on "Theatre Preaching" in which the author Edward Leach made note of a "few men, calling themselves preachers and teachers, who actually live upon the money they obtain for charitable purposes, instead of devoting the

whole to the object for which they professed to gain it." ¹⁶ Spurgeon saw to it that The Sword and the Trowel published articles on work being done for the gospel in each of these levels of London perversity. But some remedy for all these rested in the power of his readers by devoting themselves to support "those efforts which we ourselves are making to educate the orphan, and to instruct a ministry capable, in God's strength, of dealing with these

tremendous evils." ¹⁷ If Spurgeon could have added another curse, he probably would have selected the theatre. The moral tone of the theatre was too bad for mending and the character of drama is such that the tendency always is toward quick corruption.

While some advocated Christian attendance in order to raise the moral level, Spurgeon thought that was like advocating pouring a bottle of lavender water into the great sewer to improve its aroma. That which has such an attraction to the harlot and the debauchee should never be recommended as a school of virtue.

Spurgeon claimed that he had never entered a theatre during the performance of a play, but when coming home from a distant engagement he had passed by and seen enough to "pray that our sons and daughters may never go within the doors." Should that practice ever become a habit among church members, Spurgeon believed it would prove the death of piety. "Who can suppose," he asked, "amusement surrounded with the seductions of vice to be fit recreation for a pure mind? Who could draw near to God after sitting to admire the performances of a wanton woman, and I am told that some who have dazzled

London society are such." ¹⁸ London newspapers might belittle and lampoon Spurgeon, but London society would kill the soul.

The answer for "fallen women" was not licensing but redemption. Spurgeon carried an article by Edward Leach on "Homes with No Name," about houses that seek the restoration and reclamation of these girls that the city had crushed.

He described how well-kept these houses were and how industriously occupied the young girls were that had been housed there. Writing about this, Leach confessed, almost forced one to go beyond the limits of propriety and modesty in language in addressing a subject matter that was so insidious. Ignoring the

reality could have sad consequences, but "infinitely worse evils" could come from "exposing it in all its ghastly organizations to the innocent mind." Since the sin was increasing and its victims growing in numbers, and "since the exertions which Christian philanthropy should put forth are so imperatively necessary, and so inadequate" he took the challenge to deal with it "in terms as delicate as our

vocabulary will allow." ¹⁹ Leach went on to discuss how the problem was addressed by Christian philanthropists through the formation of homes, the tenderness and compassion of Mrs. Thomas, the woman most responsible for the organization and procedures used in the homes, and the love that the inmates of these houses had for her. Reclamation is difficult but many incidents of real conversion continued to encourage those involved in the work. No one should diminish the reality of sin in the choices made by the fallen women, but Leach also pointed to the reality that an abusive home life riddled with all the dissipation of poverty pressed many young girls to find both affection and support in the life of the streets. Leach asked, "Upon whom can the burden of their sin fall, but upon the parents who make these children domestic drudges, and buffet them about, and

brutally and coarsely assail them?" ²⁰ Spurgeon recognized the poverty of the lower classes of London and sought to put it into theological context in his preaching. As a matter of covenant faithfulness Spurgeon believed that "God has never suffered his people to starve." The meeting of temporal needs as promised under the old covenant "is as true under the new covenant as under the old." The one that feeds insects as well as the prowling lion will not permit his "home-borne ones, those who are nearest his heart, to perish for lack of nutriment." As he surveyed the congregation he recognized that some "have been brought so low by poverty and affliction that you are qualified to speak." They had experienced "an empty cupboard with an empty stomach" and wondered where their supplies would come from. He knew that others compounded that difficulty with the reality that

they were "houseless and homeless." ²¹ In ways almost miraculous, through a series of providences, God has provided for these so that they can say that his covenant never fails. God's faithfulness never diminished, however, the necessity for observation of need and compassionate action on the part of his people. London was a particularly ripe place for the exercise of such graces.

Systems that contributed to this grinding poverty must be challenged.

Spurgeon made social comment on both the pollution and the repression of London and England generally through unconscionable industry. In 1856 Spurgeon spoke to the weavers of Spitalfields and used their plight to make a

point in a sermon entitled "Songs in the Night." He looked to a time when "the sweet Sun of righteousness will arise with healing beneath his wings, that the oppressed shall be righted, that despotisms shall be cut down, that liberty shall be established, that peace shall be made lasting, and that the glorious liberty of the gospel of God shall be extended throughout the known world." One of the wrongs that would be righted and the oppressed that would be set free would be that group of weavers who "are generally ground down within an inch of their lives." Their masters, Spurgeon wryly surmised, must intend that their bread should be very sweet on the supposition that "the nearer the ground the sweeter the grass," because none had to get their sustenance nearer the ground than those poor weavers. Spurgeon referred to a study from the House of Commons that reported the average wages of this group was seven to eight shillings a week.

Their work, of course, was on "expensive articles, which my friends the ladies are wearing now, and which they buy as cheaply as possible." But surely, Spurgeon proposed, "they do not know that they are made with the blood and bones and marrow of the Spitalfields weavers, who, many of them, work for less

than man ought to have to subsist upon." ²² With the massive gathering at the Fast Day sermon in 1857, Spurgeon refused to miss the opportunity to talk about the "class sins" of England, particular the "sins of the rich." Workers' wages fall far below their value to their masters and cannot provide a living for the families dependent on them. The factory or the business is like a cauldron and every type of worker may be thrown in. "Put them in: heap the fire, boil the cauldron; stir them up; never mind their cries. The hire of the labourers kept back may go up to heaven: it does not matter, the millions of gold are safe. The law of demand and supply is with us, and who is he that would interfere." Would anyone step forward to dare prevent the grinding of the faces of the poor? The seamstress, the tailor, and the artisan all are owned by their lords and masters, are they not? But they shall get the ear of

God and his rod shall certainly fall. ²³ Preaching in 1872, Spurgeon, speaking on the blessings of the covenant in changing the sinner's heart, illustrated with a statement of social ethics: "Look at our brooks and rivulets which have been, by a lax legislature, so long delivered over to the tormentors to be blackened into pestiferous sewers—if we need to have them purged it is of no use to cast chloride of lime and other chemicals into the stream—the only remedy is to forbid the pollution, to demand that factories

shall not poison us wholesale." ²⁴ Spurgeon could see that sin destroyed not only the soul but would assault the very earth; and England, especially London, was reeling through blows of greed on its environment.

England was not immune to the scenes of riot and anarchy that followed the Franco-Prussian War. The damage wrought by the German army was nothing compared to that of republican upon republican. No building, no monument to patriotism or French heroism, was sacred but all experienced the fury of the opposing mobs. Homes were wrecked and devastation ruled. How happy that one may view this from afar, so an Englishman might muse, with the knowledge that unrest and civil war has long been unknown to the peaceful homes of England. At times Spurgeon wondered what France might have become had it embraced the Reformation, if an intolerant Catholicism had not remained in the ascendancy, had the Huguenots not been treated so mercilessly. Spurgeon

warned, however, that "what has been done in Paris, may be done in London." ²⁵ The English character, that is the Anglo-Saxon blood, is not so superior to the French, the Gauls, that they are incapable of such bitter and severe reprisals for unjust treatment. One does not have to look too deeply into English history to find the sinister in the English character. Sir Walter Raleigh, for example, was "a brilliant courtier, a daring adventurer, an assiduous investigator in scientific discovery, the redoubtable annihilator of the navies of Spain, the munificent colonizer spending for his country £40,000 of his own fortune in endeavours to plant colonies across the Atlantic, a foremost literary genius in England's most splendid literary age." He managed to survive the dangers of the court of the "great penurious, capricious Queen Elizabeth" but ran afoul of her cousin James and "was unjustly beheaded in the reign of her poor, driveling successor, James

I." ²⁶ In the present, Spurgeon referred to the work of the Nine Elms Mission that did a "noble and extremely difficult work." He had learned of the "all but incurable deceit which characterizes many of the criminal class." If he had not learned it from Scripture, he certainly could have learned from London "the

terrible needs of human nature." ²⁷ St. Giles had been a place especially known for its small pockets, and some large, of organized crime. The Christian mission superintended by George Hatton had transformed it so that it did not resemble the St. Giles of two decades previous. A visitor, however, who explored its rookeries might wonder if it could ever have been worse. "The grinding poverty from which so many suffer, the total neglect on the part of myriads of others of their best interests, and the neglected children who swarm on all sides, make up a picture well calculated to inspire us with despair were we not assured that even in St. Giles matters are on the mend, the present condition of the people being a marked contrast to the

unrestrained savagery of former times." ²⁸ After seventeen years of general work in the area, Hatton began to concentrate specifically on the question, "What shall

be done with the criminal classes?" Thieves and their confederates headquartered in St. Giles began to draw special attention, so that some began to request help in leaving that manner of life. On other occasions, discharged prisoners gravitating toward their old element found both caution and help in escaping the sucking power of criminal activity and camaraderie. Some had breathed the air of criminality since childhood and the road to respectability was blocked with seemingly insuperable obstacles. Ease, of a sort, and immediate gain awaited them. Hatton sought to make first contact with released prisoners by setting up right outside the prison gates a breakfast for prisoners released on each day of the week. In one year, of ⁵,274 persons that were released from Coldbath Fields, ³,121 accepted the invitation to breakfast, and ¹,125 signed the temperance pledge. He started with one, found it successful, and eventually spread it to three and would soon "cover the entire ground of the Metropolitan male local prisons." The work found such sympathy in many parts that many ways have been found to restore these men to respectable life and many "have experienced a saving change through grace." Hatton and his useful helper Mr. Wheatley were becoming recognized as "masters of the art of reclaiming criminals." Who can estimate the difference made in many lives when one person, formerly destructive, now contributes and is a force for right rather than

one that preys upon society? ²⁹ J. Burnham, a Metropolitan Tabernacle evangelist, described the living conditions of the people that came out to the hop gardens to pick. Naming their residences as "London haunts," Burnham described their homes—"hardly worth the sacred name"—as "the abodes of wretchedness and filth; poverty, sin, and misery their constant companions." Besides such an unsavory home, they lived "shut in, for the greater part of the year, in dirty, narrow courts, where the sun scarcely ever finds its way," in conditions too crowded even to be decent. Hop picking time, therefore, becomes a luxury. These oppressed humans "turn out for three or four weeks into the beautifully fresh and invigorating air of the hop

gardens," where their humanity rises and they laugh and sing. ³⁰ One of Spurgeon's sons, Charles, pastor at Greenwich, proved to be as keen an observer of human nature and as profound a lover of sinners as his father. He specialized in making presentation of slices of life in a variety of places where he ministered and traveled. A visit to the United States resulted in a number of talks illustrated with pictures he arranged to have taken of places and people. He did the same for London society and entitled his presentation "Street Characters and Cries." Each of these characters allowed themselves to be photographed in action at their particular vocation. He began with the "sweep" whose early street

cry did not quite suit everybody. Then would come the Muffin man with his muffled bell. He had an image and comment about the bare-footed gamin with his cigar-lights, the street musician blowing a popular air along with the "crossing-sweeper" and the milkman. The cat's meat man, the wild rabbit seller, and all the costers with vegetables and flowers made their appearance in Charles' presentation. Soon would come the coal man with his "'ere ye are, a shilling a hundred, best coal." Further musical productions came from "pianoorgan grinders and the blind fiddlers and niggers." Mixed in with the colorful groups were vendors of hot pies and water cress, baked potatoes and shrimps, ginger-bread, and herrings. Set up for business were the scissors-grinder and the chair mender and "boys of the black-shoe brigade," along with a variety of news-boys. Giving an additional splash of true urbanity were the cabmen, busmen, railway men and the frequent interruptions of the fire-brigade, engine, horses, and all. Spurgeon of Greenwich included the open-air preacher as a participant in this city scene of "Street Characters and Cries." CHS hoped that the latter would never disappear from London life until every man woman and child was found in a regular place of worship, though he felt that drums and

brass music that destroy the peace of our Sabbaths could be dispensed with. ³¹ Much information about the economy, social status, moral tone, and living conditions of the various districts of London entered the pages of The Sword and the Trowel as the ministries of College men were discussed. G. Holden Pike, taking information from The City Mission Magazine, gave a description of an area behind Shoreditch Church, giving his article the title "A Picture of Shoreditch." Assuming that this district was Shoreditch, he described it as one of the most overcrowded and poverty-stricken areas of London. A man must have a constitution of steel and the heart of an angel to survive in ministry there, so the Trowel reported. One of the City Missionaries seeking to evangelize there was killed in a drunken brawl in one of its back streets. Its immediate appearance is one of flourishing gin palaces, narrow streets, and reeking courts. A closer examination shows that a number of skilled artisans, "workers in wood, leather, and iron," are there, whose workshops are numerous and have carved out a healthier region for sleeping and constitute "quite the upper classes in the back slums of a place like Shoreditch." Multitudes of others, however, are far below this group "whose work is as precarious as it is ill-paid, or who in an almost literal sense have to pick up their livelihood in the streets." In addition "there is the unnumbered horde of the fallen and the criminals, thieves, cadgers, and nondescripts" of all sorts. The streets are filthy but the houses are filthier yet, and the "most common sanitary rules are ignored until an occasional epidemic sweeps the people into the grave as with the besom of destruction." Houses

domicile multiple families, one family per room, making some houses the abode of twelve to sixteen families. The living quarter often has to double as a workshop. The normal outlets at the back of houses are no longer open space but are built upon by replacing small houses with large ones so that houses back upon each other with little space between. The hard living conditions are

matched only by the ignorance of the population of genuine religion. ³² Spurgeon received a letter of objection because the streets described were not really in Shoreditch. Spurgeon noted the legitimacy of the authorities' indignant reaction and pledged to investigate. He found that the only error was in the title and regretted any offense that had come as a result of that mistake. The mistake was natural, however, not unlike geographical mistakes made in other London periodicals when seeking to isolate the precise district in which certain neighborhoods lie. Spurgeon sent "an impartial gentleman to make diligent search" and the facts of the article concerning the conditions of the section under scrutiny were accurate. "What our commissioner saw and smelt with his own eyes and nose would be rather more startling than our constituents would care to read about." Spurgeon had a list of courts, places, and streets with an estimation of the number of families per dwelling and an eyewitness account of the sanitary conditions. "We are surprised that a pestilence is not created in such places."

Designated the place as Shoreditch was technically wrong, but giving the description of the place in question was accurate. ³³ One of Spurgeon's students,

Mr. Cuff, had begun work there and set up a chapel. ³⁴ By January 1880 Spurgeon was able to report that a Tabernacle, the Shoreditch Tabernacle, was completed and soon would be debt-free. Mr. Cuff had continued his ministry there and God had raised up a church. "The pastor's work in Shoreditch has attracted very general interest, and well it may, for if a strong and efficient Baptist church can be sustained amid the poverty of Shoreditch, it will be an encouragement to all who work for Christ in our great city." Archibald Brown had done a like work in Stepney, demonstrating "what

earnest preaching of the simple gospel will do!" ³⁵ Spurgeon issued a benediction on Cuff, his labors, and the church along with an emphasis on the character of the section of London in which the work was being done. "God bless you Brother Cuff, and God bless all those who help you. May you all go from strength to strength; and may the new Tabernacle be as a city of refuge to Shoreditch, and Bethnal Green, and all those swarming regions of poverty and sin." This kind of work expressed precisely the vision that Spurgeon had for the Metropolitan Tabernacle and its ministries in this complicated London where God had placed him to minister. As he continued his commendation of Cuff, he

turned to the human source of Cuff's preparation and encouragement: "God bless also the College from which you sprang, and raise up friends who will see that the mother hive never lacks for money, and that as God sends new men

there are all the supplies for their education and maintenance." ³⁶ Spurgeon was always frank about the difficulties of London life and the various political and religious challenges of being an Englishman. No doubt, however, that he loved the country and the heritage of being a Protestant and a Dissenter, but an Englishman. When he saw an evaluation from an outside observer, Spurgeon found joy in sharing how the non-Englishman viewed the English character and contribution. Philip Schaff, the American biblical scholar who became one of the foremost historians of the church, visited the Bible lands, and, from letters written back to his friends and colleagues wrote a book entitled Through Bible Lands: Notes of Travel in Egypt, the Desert, and Palestine. He took advantage of his travels to make comparisons of the various people involved in what was called the "Eastern Question." He preferred the Czar, Alexander II, to the Sultan, but English rule to both of those. Spurgeon enjoyed Schaff's comments and shared them with the readers of The Sword and the

Trowel:

But I greatly prefer the constitutional scepter of England to the despotic government of Russia, which

tolerates or persecutes Roman Catholics and Protestants as the interests of the State require. England is

everywhere, at home and abroad, the friend and protector of civil and religious liberty, as well as of

material progress, and allows fair play to missionary activities without distinction of sect. She has,

moreover, shown a wonderful skill and success in planting colonies and ruling heathen and

Mohammedan races. Her rule in India no matter how acquired, has been a blessing to the Hindoos,

giving them peace and prosperity, and, without interfering with their religion, has opened the way for

the orderly introduction of Christianity. Her motives, including the secret convention with Turkey,

may have been purely selfish, but it is an undoubted fact that the interests of England are identical with

the interests of constitutional freedom and an enlightened civilization. Wherever the British flag waves

there is security of life and property and the rights of men; there is freedom of speech and of the press,

there is vigorous and honest administration of justice, there is commercial prosperity, there is the

literature of Shakespeare and Milton, there we find an open Bible and a free pulpit, the purity and

dignity of woman, and the blessing of a Christian home. Viewed from this point of view, the English

protectorate of Turkey, which may result sooner or later in annexation, promises to be in the end as

great a benefit to the Turks and Arabs as England's reign in India has been to the Hindoos. She has,

indeed, assumed an enormous responsibility and a most difficult task. It will tax all her capital and

energy to lift Turkey out of the chaotic confusion and bankruptcy in which she is left after an

exhaustive war. But she is better fitted for the task than any other government on earth, and she will

have the hearty sympathy and co-operation of all true friends of those classic lands now fearfully

prostrated, but destined to see a day of resurrection to new life. It may be doubted, indeed, whether the

Turk can be truly reformed without ceasing to be a Mohammedan. In the transforming process he must

become either an infidel or a Christian. We hope and pray that before long he will transfer his

allegiance from the false prophet of Mecca to the true Prophet of Nazareth. 37

Perhaps it was purely coincidental, but nevertheless ironical that Spurgeon included, one-half column removed, a review of a book entitled The Young Rebels which he described as an "amusing story" that occurred in America during "the war which liberated the colonists from the yoke of George the Third." Boys would be "pleased with the incidents and improved by the

lessons." ³⁸ Whatever difficulties George III might have created for England, Spurgeon had high esteem for the family of Victoria. "We rejoice," he said "in all the good which can be said of the royal family, and it is not a little." Victoria had nine children, forty-two grandchildren, and scores of great-grandchildren, most of whom were well-placed eventually among the royalty of Europe. Their second child, Edward, born in 1841, rebelled against the strict discipline imposed on him by Victoria and Albert, indulging freely in wine, women, and frivolity, a style of life that even marriage at the age of twenty-two did not impede. His wife, Princess Alexandra of Denmark, ignored his unfaithfulness though it caused divorces in other families. Spurgeon, who was well aware in 1879 of the reputation of this member of the royal family, acknowledged that "rumour continually babbles of one at least whose life casts a dark shade over the glory of the royal house." At that time he discreetly held judgment in abeyance, only commenting: "Whether those rumours speak truth or not we cannot tell; but if they do—shame on the profligate! Happy is the land which has virtue on its throne; but woe to the nation whose princes can justly be charged with licentious folly!" He earnestly hoped that such a calamity would "never overshadow our beloved country." Like a loyal Englishman, he wrote, "Long live the queen," and added, "and may all her sons be like their father, whose memory is still sweet and blossoms from the dust." While other nations were "darkened with the smoke of smouldering discontent," Spurgeon believed that it was good to "foster loyalty, and say the best that can be said of a beloved queen and her royal issue."

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No matter what the glory or the difficulties of the royal family, the possibility of "smouldering discontent" always roamed the streets of London. G. Holden Pike described the destitution of much of London society in an article entitled "The Bitter Cry of London." In the same context in which he wrote of the "horrible condition of our wretched City," and the "present condition of the miserable classes of the metropolis," he could picture a London that was "on the mend." Pike pointed to work by the London Congregational Union, the home mission work of the Baptists, the City Mission, and the Ragged School Crusade as having aided at different times to relieve pressures from a "volcano which was ready at any moment to burst into conflagration." Further relief of the great

difficulties that still plagued the city must come from an accurate analysis of the situation. Not drink alone, but proper wages, housing, labor conditions, and job market combine with a spiritually destitute populace to make for a many-sided problem. Though the gospel is the cure for a wrong people, wrong circumstances still play a major role in perpetuating difficulties. "One room life in narrow, crowded streets, or still more foetid courts, would soon drive self-respect and

energy out of the hearts of most of us." ⁴⁰ The system of middlemen makes the wages of those near the bottom of labor hardly survivable, and an overcrowded labor market gives them little bargaining power. The answer for the jobless, so Pike suggested, would be "a system of emigration" to Canada where workers

would be welcome and wages would be livable. ⁴¹ Most of the destitute, however, were caught inextricably where they were, and the prospect of emigration to a better place was not even a dream. The mountain would not budge, so Spurgeon must go to the mountain. This new building, soon to be unveiled in 1861, would be the launching place. It would be the center of consistent energetic efforts to place the gospel before every level of London society and provide an alternative life displacing every London vice. Its doors would be open from early morning until around ¹¹:00 at night with the various activities on its campus and the numbers of groups assembling there and then dispersing into the city for a variety of evangelistic operations.

This constant activity, the hustling and bustling of group after group, the services on Sabbath and three times during the week, the meeting of the College and the night school, all challenged the upkeep of even such a sturdy and usable facility. By 1867 and 1883, the Tabernacle was in much need of cleaning. In 1867 they dismissed to the Agricultural Hall for five weeks, an event to be described below. For the month of August 1883, it dismissed its morning and evening service to the Exeter Hall. This was the fourth time that the congregation, now greatly altered and increased, had made this temporary transition. The expansion of New Park Street, the building of the Tabernacle, the first period of cleaning of repairs, and now its cleansing again had made pilgrims of the congregation. For those that could not make the trip, the lecture hall at the Tabernacle would be open for services, with John Spurgeon, Sr. filling the first spot. The Monday prayer meeting would also convene in the lecture hall, and the Thursday evening sermon would be in the chapel of Mr. Newman Hall. The proposal for Exeter was that the morning service would be for seat-holders but the evening service would be reserved solely for outsiders to be seated on a first come first serve basis. "Our hope," Spurgeon explained, "is that we shall gather a new contingent for our army." He wanted outsiders to hear the word and feel

its power; the congregation prayed for an ingathering and returned to Exeter

"with the joyful expectation of a season of grace." ⁴² Spurgeon reported that conversions had been met with at each service and "hearts have been stirred up to seek the Lord with deeper earnestness." He expected more to follow.

The congregation would return to the Met on September ⁶ for the Thursday evening service to which nearly ⁴,000 persons came. The following Sunday, September ⁹ "every available inch of space" was occupied. For the evening of the ninth, "nearly as many people were shut out as were accommodated in the

building." ⁴³ The improvement of the surroundings confirmed his confidence that the amount spent in cleaning had been well invested. A balance of £1,100 still remained and Spurgeon insisted that givers come through, and come through quickly, for "We have never been in debt, and we do not intend to begin that system now." It could not be delayed, however, the "Central-house itself must

not be neglected." ⁴⁴ More than £1,200 was collected in that single effort providing complete satisfaction of the cost plus something for "other needful expenses." Happily he could report, "Thus, at one stroke, all shade of debt was

averted." ⁴⁵ In October 1885, after more than thirty years of ministry in the city, Spurgeon preached in a prayer meeting about the need for revival. It is clear that he felt almost despair about the spiritual and moral and cultural condition of London. It was more than messy fog, and dampness, and frost, and filthy smoke and rivers that bothered him about the city. A breakdown in doctrine had led to a breakdown of discipline in the home and the children are as "dressy, as gay, as godless as the children of the non-religious!" The reciprocal effects in society as a whole outraged Spurgeon. "This is a great difficulty to our poorer friends in this loathsome city, which is becoming as polluted as heathendom." A Christian mother had recently brought her child to the city for better opportunity and soon was horrified to hear him use profane language, being evidently unaware of its meaning. He learned it in the street close to his mother's door. If children cannot walk and run the streets without being morally polluted, where can the children of working people go? "All around us vice has become so daring," Spurgeon noted with distress and alarm, "that a blind man may almost be envied; but even he has ears, and will therefore, be vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked." When asked how to avoid such degrading influences, given the virtually irreversible dynamic of city life, Spurgeon simply advised people to stay in the country. Those that presently live in the "breezy country village" should stay there, "and not come into our close streets, and lanes, and courts, which reek with blasphemy and dirty talk." Spurgeon, the natural rhetorician,

master of simplicity in language, and punctilious watchman over his own lips, could not fathom why working men in their ordinary conversation would use "such abominable expressions, which have no useful meaning, and are simply

disgusting?" ⁴⁶ London not only had torn away the comeliness of the Tabernacle, it had smitten the spirit of Spurgeon.

In 1861, however, all the powers of nature, unceasing activity, and accumulating evil had not yet darkened his spirit, and a new building, symbolizing new possibilities and embodying an aggregate of past success, was ready to be put into service.

A Light Shining in a Dark Place

When the newly constructed Metropolitan Tabernacle opened in 1861, Spurgeon could not have anticipated the emotional weight that would press on him by 1885 with moral decline in the city and among the churches and theological decline as the accepted standard of modern Christian ministry. He believed that the completion of the construction of the Tabernacle signaled an advance for the gospel in the whole city. The building was baptized with a series of services involving every relevant sphere of interest in the progress of Spurgeon's ministry. Henry Vincent called the impressive building, "the noblest temple ever

raised by Non-conformist zeal." ⁴⁷ The two-week-long inaugural services showed it to be the concretion of the noblest vision for gospel proclamation ever conceived in the mind of one non-conformist minister. These services climaxed with a celebration of the exuberant grace of God toward sinners though a series of messages on the distinguishing doctrines of sovereign, effectual, irresistible grace. The denoument ensued with a proclamation that none of the elect shall be absent in the final census, that the whole world, therefore, is the field of legitimate labor for God-called, Spirit-gifted gospel teachers, and that an assurance of one's standing before God in salvation is not only possible and a great privilege of grace, but the duty of all to seek and not to rest content until it is attained.

A prayer meeting convened at ⁷ am March ¹⁸, 1861, was attended by ¹,000 people. Spurgeon and several others prayed and a hymn was sung that narrated "that joyous gospel which we trust will long be proclaimed within our hallowed walls." The song of a present salvation founded upon an eternal covenant sung on this day would echo through the walls at Newington for the next thirty-one

years of Spurgeon's ministry—and beyond.

Saved from the damning power of sin,

The law's tremendous curse,

We'll now the sacred song begin

Where God began with us.

We'll sing the vast unmeasured grace

Which, from the days of old,

Did all his chosen sons embrace,

As sheep within his fold.

The basis of eternal love

Shall mercy's frame sustain;

Earth, hell, or sin, the same to move,

Shall all conspire in vain.

Sing, O ye sinners bought with blood,

Hail the Great Three in One;

Tell how secure the cov'nant stood

Ere time its race begun.

Ne'er had ye felt the guilt of sin

Nor sweets of pard'ning love,

Unless your worthless names had been

Enroll'd to life above.

O what a sweet exalted song

Shall rend the vaulted skies,

Then, shouting grace, the blood-wash'd throng

Shall see the Top Stone rise.

One week later, another prayer meeting was held. That afternoon, March ²⁵, Spurgeon preached the first sermon in the newly constructed Tabernacle.

Spurgeon set forth an uncompromising Christocentric purpose in his preaching ministry at the Tabernacle. He pronounced the now famous words: "My venerable predecessor, Dr. Gill, has left a body of divinity, admirable and excellent in its way; but the body of divinity to which I would pin and bind myself forever, God helping me, is not his system of divinity or any other human treatise, but Christ Jesus, who is the sum and substance of the gospel; who is in himself all theology, the incarnation of every precious truth, the all-glorious

personal embodiment of the way, the truth, and the life." ⁴⁸ One that preaches Christ must preach his full deity, his full humanity, that he is the only mediator between God and man, that he is the only lawgiver for the church, that he is the only king of the church. This Christ must be preached doctrinally, experimentally, and practically. He must be preached comprehensively—not just five strings, well-plucked till virtually worn out—but all the strings, the entire doctrine of Christ in all his beauty. This theme alone can reconcile the affections of the very diverse commitments that have existed among the great men of the various denominations. The theme of Christ unites them, though they might never have found fellowship in life, their unity since death has been founded

solely on their common love for and trust in a perfect Savior. ⁴⁹ The Monday evening service, consisting of an "Evangelical Congratulation" delivered by W. Brock, seconded Spurgeon's emphasis on the preaching of Christ, propounded the renovating power of the gospel to fallen humanity, defended the holy tendency of preaching the doctrines of grace, and commended a full evangelical ministry brimming with intellectual and doctrinal integrity. "It is a vile and wicked calumny," Brock said with a peculiarly Spurgeonic emphasis, "that our doctrines of grace lead to licentiousness." "Never was there

anything more palpably contrary to the truth." Interspersed were comments about the particular impact that the ministry in the Tabernacle would have. "We know that the place will be the birthplace of precious souls through successive generations; we know that the place will be like a great big human heart, throbbing, pulsating with beneficence and benevolence, obtained directly from the cross of Christ; and this great big human heart will be propelling far and near a thousand of influences, which shall be for 'glory to God in the highest, for

peace on earth, and good will towards men.'" ⁵⁰ Brock viewed Spurgeon as competent naturally and as prepared by experience, education, intellect, and laborious personal study as the statesman in the senate house, the advocate at the bar, and the lecturer on the platform of an Athenaeum. He will be eloquent and mighty in the Scriptures, but preeminently he will "stand here a fellow-worker with God, so that the word will be in demonstration of the spirit and in power." The human would be confirmed by the superhuman, the natural accompanied by the preternatural, and the earthly given blessing by the heavenly. "With all that may be persuasive or argumentative or pathetic, with all that may be properly and intentionally adapted to commend the truth to every man's conscience in the sight of God, there will be the energy whereby God is able to subdue all things unto himself."

51

At a special meeting of contributors on Tuesday evening, March ²⁶, speakers gave many words of admiration for the structure and its capacious magnificence.

Such grandeur of space seemed particularly appropriate for Spurgeon who could not be limited to a small number or a small space. Rejoicing in that increased exposure this new setting would give to the doctrines so faithfully preached by Spurgeon—election, effectual calling, justification by the righteousness of Christ, all centering on the atoning sacrifice of Christ—one speaker said that it was no use trying to confine the eagle to a little cage for either he would break his wings or break the cage. He rejoiced that "it was not the wings of the eagle which had been broken, but the cage." Now the noble bird would have sufficient room to career through the firmament.

Spurgeon's immutable resistance to debt went on full display as he reiterated a vow never to enter the facility until debt free. Of a total needed of £4,200, including several superficial internal amenities, a collection of something more than £3,700 had been collected. This allowed the congregation to enter and complete the installation of carpet and some fittings as money became available.

Upon this announcement the congregation rose to sing the doxology "with

enthusiasm at the request of the rejoicing pastor." ⁵² More important than this debt-free status, however, in Spurgeon's desires was

an increase in prayer for his faithfulness in ministry. Interspersed with exclamations of confidence in God, Spurgeon laid his requests for prayer before the congregation of contributors. "What am I to do with such a work as this upon me? It is not the getting-up of this building; it is not the launching of the vessel —it is keeping her afloat." How could he as a young man, a feeble child, go in and out among such a people? "More than I have done to advance His Gospel, I cannot promise to do, for God knoweth I have preached beyond my strength, and worked and toiled as much as one frame could do; but I hope that in answer to your prayers I may become more prayerful, more faithful, and have more power to wrestle with God for man, and more energy to wrestle with man for God." He felt compelled to call upon all those that had benefited spiritually from his

ministry to pray for him:

If you have been edified, encouraged, or comforted through me, I beseech you carry me before God.

And especially you that are my spiritual sons and daughters, begotten of me by the power of the Holy

Ghost, you who have been reclaimed from sin, you who were wanderers in the wild waste until Jesus

met with you in the Music Hall, in Exeter Hall, or in Park Street—you, above all—you must pray for

me. Oh, God, we pray Thee, let multitudes of the vilest of the vile here be saved. I had rather die this

night, on this spot, and end my career, than lose your prayers. My aged members, deacons, and elders,

will not you be more earnest than ever? My younger brethren, my co-equals in age, comrades in battle;

ye, young men, who are strong to overcome the wicked one, stand up with me, shoulder to shoulder,

and give me your help. 53

Mr. Moore, a churchman, spoke last in the meeting indicating that he had followed and marveled at Spurgeon even in the earlier days when he was not considered as sane as he was now. Had the responsibility of raising such a building debt-free fallen on the shoulders of a churchman, the process would have dragged on for ten years. Spurgeon, he believed, had done "the Church of England more good than any clergyman in it" and that neither St. Paul's, nor Westminster Abbey, nor the theatres, would be open for Sunday preaching without his influence.

The next evening, Wednesday March ²⁷, representatives of the neighboring churches came together. More than ⁴,000 people from these churches assembled for this meeting chaired by Dr. Edward Steane. Steane had been active for years as a secretary in the Evangelical Alliance. In 1852 he edited a volume entitled

The Religious Condition of Christendom. ⁵⁴ He viewed Romanism and infidelity as the two great enemies of evangelical Christianity and would obviously be pleased that such a Hercules of evangelical truth, so fearless in confronting destructive error, was now situated with such abundant opportunity for influence in the city of London. He surveyed the structure with a sense of awe, wonder, and gratitude—"the largest sanctuary which had ever been reared by such

churches as theirs to the service and glory of God." ⁵⁵ Steane further indicated his pleasure by noting that "providence might have brought a brother who would have been an element of strife and discord, but God's grace had brought a brother among them, with whom they were one in feeling, one in doctrine, one in heart, one in sympathy, and one in Christ."

When Spurgeon responded to the celebrative introductory remarks of Steane that included a standing expression of love from both ministers and laity of the surrounding churches, he marked his experience as filled with grace and hope that such kindness had been his consistent experience from these neighbors.

Spurgeon felt that it "was not easy for people to love him" since he often preached some "very strong things." The strength of his language, however, conformed to the needs of a shallow and careless age, and, by divine blessing, he found greater love and esteem from a variety of friends than if he attempted to speak smoothly. Spurgeon hoped for quarterly meetings of the various ministers that they might pray together and encourage each other in ministry to the glory of Christ. William Howieson offered Spurgeon "Godspeed" and multiplied blessings though, as the closest neighbor to the new Metropolitan Tabernacle, he stood to lose the most members. He hoped that every pastor would now "horse

the old coach better" to meet the new competition. ⁵⁶ Howieson believed that the presence of Spurgeon in the Tabernacle would make all of his neighbors better preachers. Steane added that such an impetus to improvement, not only intellectually and functionally, but also spiritually, would serve the cause of the kingdom well. His tenure of forty years as a pastor taught him something of the

unique challenges faced by a gospel preacher.

He knew they were in danger of neglecting their own hearts, whilst they were professedly taking care

of the souls of others; that they were tempted to substitute a critical study of the Scriptures as ministers

for a devout and daily perusal of them as Christians; that they were apt to perform or discharge the

duties of their office in a professional sort of way, instead of feeling themselves the power of those

truths which they declare to others; that they were in danger of resting satisfied with a fervour and

elevation of soul in public, instead of a calm and holy communion with God in private. If they were to

give way to those things, then as the result of diminished spirituality, there would be a barren ministry.

57

As more ministers in the surrounding area contemplated what it meant that Spurgeon, now outfitted with a facility of massive proportions, would have on their congregations, they emphasized their joint interest in the gospel success of all congregations. They had not come to place altar against altar but to publish the same God, the same gospel, the same Christ, the same atonement as an open fountain for the cleansing from sin. Punctuating these tributes were notices of Spurgeon's unusual natural gifts and acquired skills as well as the profound

aptness of such a structure as the Tabernacle for his use. Spurgeon had a "powerful and eloquent voice, and was well able to arouse the indifferent, and to make those who were careless and unconcerned thoughtful with regard to their

souls." ⁵⁸ The free-will gifts that purchased the Tabernacle came from those that recognized the "spiritual gifts with which God had endowed their friend, and were desirous that a building should be reared capable of holding as many

thousands as could be conveniently reached by his diapason voice." ⁵⁹ Newman Hall, pastor at Surrey Tabernacle, indicated the impressiveness of Spurgeon and the new setting, as a rhetorical device in pointing beyond both to

the preeminence of Christ:

It is not the splendour of architecture, nor your glorious portico and majestic columns; not this graceful

roof and these airy galleries, and these commodious seats so admirably arranged for worship and for

hearing; it is not the towering dome, or the tapering spire emulating the skies; It is not clustering

columns and intersecting arches through which a dim religious light may wander; it is not all these—

though I do not despise the beauties of architecture—which is the glory of the church... It is not the

splendor of the pulpit—the eloquence that can wave its magic wand over a delighted audience till

every eye glistens and every heart beats with emotion—the erudition that from varied stores of

learning can cull its illustrations to adorn the theme—the novelty of thought, and sentence, and

argument that can captivate the intellect and satisfy the reason—the fancy that can interweave with the

discourse the fascinations of poetry and the beauties of style; no, it is not any one of these, nor all of

these together. But it is Christ in his real and glorious divinity; Christ in his true and proper humanity;

Christ in the all and sole sufficiency of his atonement; Christ in His in-dwelling spirit and all

prevailing intercession. This is the glory; and without this, though we had all other things, Ichabod

must be written on the walls of any church. 60

On Good Friday, March ²⁹, Spurgeon preached on Romans 3:25 on Christ Set

Forth as a Propitiation, to what he referred to as an "immense assembly." ⁶¹ On that evening he preached again out of Song of Solomon: "My beloved is mine, and I am his." Entitled The Interest of Christ and His People in Each Other, the sermon emphasized how Christ had made the church his own ("I am my Beloved's) and the embedded reality that such a claim makes the Beloved one ours ("And He is mine"). As he worked out the implications of this joint interest of Christ and his people, Spurgeon applied it to the opening opportunity for missionary labors in China. "Now, I do honestly avow," he stated in a moment of surprising revelation, "if this place had not been built, and I had had nothing beyond the narrow bounds of the place in which I have lately preached, I should have felt in my conscience bound to go to learn the language and preach the Word there." In God's providence, however, it had been built and he knew that "I must here abide, for this is my place." Others would not have such a gracious tie to keep them from answering to such an opportunity to show that indeed they do belong to Christ. A full persuasion of that reality would "make life cheap, and

blood like water and heroism a common thing, and daring but an every-day duty,

and self-sacrifice the very spirit of the Christian life." ⁶² On Easter Sunday evening, March ³¹, on the first Sunday that the Tabernacle held the Sabbath service, Spurgeon preached from 2 Chronicles 5 and ⁷ on the dedication of the Temple during the reign of Solomon. The elaborately appointed Temple, constructed at immense expense, received the presence of God in the cloud and in the fire, the same presence that accompanied the people in the wilderness wanderings. Had that evidence of the divine presence not invaded and filled the temple, the entire ceremony and effort would have been in vain. So it must be with the Metropolitan Tabernacle. When the glory fell, the people fell to praise and said, "For his mercy endureth forever." "This is a grand old Calvinistic Psalm," Spurgeon commented and proceeded to drive the point

home:

What Arminian can sing that? Well, he will sing it, I dare say; but if he be a thoroughgoing Arminian

he really cannot enjoy it and believe it. You can fall from grace, can you? Then how does his mercy

endure for ever? Christ bought with his blood some that will be lost in hell, did he? Then how did her

mercy endure for ever? There be some who resist the offers of Divine grace, and after all that the Spirit

of God can do for them, yet disappoint the Spirit and defeat God! How then does his mercy endure for

ever? No, no, this is no hymn for you, this is the Calvinists' hymn. 63

On Tuesday, April ², the London Baptist Brethren gathered for a celebration of this achievement, which, rightly so, they viewed as a significant accomplishment for the whole denomination. Spurgeon saw this meeting as an opportunity to promote "our success as a united body." The church belonged to "all the Baptist denomination," not to any one man or one church in particular, but first to God

and next "to those who hold the pure primitive ancient Apostolic faith." ⁶⁴ Spurgeon allied himself to the historic Baptist principle of liberty of conscience as well as the view of Baptist origins that saw Baptists, not as descending from Rome, but as existing in an independent and constant stream of witness in an "unbroken line up to the apostles themselves." Baptists were "persecuted alike by Romanists and Protestants of almost every sect," whereas Baptists had never been persecutors. They had never, nor do they now, "held it to be right to put the consciences of others under the control of man." Though willing to suffer, they desired no assistance from the state and consistently refused to "prostitute the purity of the Bride of Christ to any alliance with government, and we will never make the Church, although the Queen, the despot over the consciences of men."

65

Sir Morton Peto, member of the House of Commons and a Baptist, chaired the meeting. He joined Spurgeon in celebrating the commitment that Baptists had

fervently maintained to liberty of conscience and viewed the erection of the Tabernacle as a splendid monument to the voluntary principle—that Christ's people would love him and seek the proclamation of his name without the forceful exaction of monetary aid from an unwilling people. J. Howard Hinton spoke and, as others had done in other services, pointed to some of the unique gifts of Spurgeon. "Long may the life be spared which is so devotedly and laboriously spent; the intellectual powers which acquire and supply so large an amount of Evangelical truth; and the magnificent voice which, with so much

facility, pours it into the ear of listening thousands." ⁶⁶ His theme brought attention to the necessity of the work of the Spirit, "wherein lies the entire success of the Evangelical ministry." Present day conversion indicated that only small measures of the Spirit were being given but a time would come in accordance with God's sovereign pleasure and power when the "whole world

may be rapidly subdued to God." ⁶⁷ Alfred Thomas spoke about the necessity of maintaining the integrity of the Baptist ordinances, a Mr. Dickerson spoke of the differences that existed from the time of Benjamin Keach to the time of the building of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and Jabez Burns reminded those gathered that the Baptist principle of personal responsibility had built not only the Tabernacle but provided the compulsion for a free church in a free society. Burns also reminded that the Baptist commitment had been tested when Roger Williams founded Rhode Island, "where he gave the utmost freedom of conscience, and did not demand from any of those who chose to dwell with him the least infringement of their

Christian liberties." ⁶⁸ Spurgeon commended a bill of Peto concerning the burial of unbaptized persons, encouraged the brethren to support efforts to provide good literature for preachers, and proposed an aggressive church-planting initiative among the Baptists. Baptists should not cower in shame before any Englishman because they possessed the poetry of Milton, the allegory of Bunyan, and the pastoral ministry of Robert Hall. He noted the distinctions that existed even among the group gathered as a show of strength. "Here am I a strict Baptist, and open communion in principle; some of our brethren are strict in communion, and strict in discipline; some are neither strict in discipline not in communion. I think I am nearest right of any, but you all think the same of

yourselves, and may God defend the right." ⁶⁹ On April ³ representatives of the various denominations met for the purpose of celebrating Christian unity. The speakers kept to the subject of unity in diversity. The spirit of the meeting was established when the chairman, Edward Ball of Cambridgeshire, emphasized his desire that all Christians adopt the great

maxim "that in essentials they should have unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and

in everything they ought to have charity." ⁷⁰ They should have "large eyes for each other's excellencies, and small vision for each other's defects." When praying and praising and distributing the Bible they put aside the points of division and labored together for the preeminence of Christ and his Word.

W. G. Lewis of Bayswater was bold enough to announce that he could have no unity with a man that did not hold to the inspiration of God's sacred Word.

Nor did he find sufficient ground for unity with one that denied the "utter degeneracy of the entire human race in consequence of sin." The same held true for the necessity of deep conviction of sin in order to understand salvation, the atonement of Christ, the deity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity. While liberty in non-essentials should be observed, one must not forget that true unity cannot exist merely in such freedom as a passive requirement, but must actively

embrace those truths that are considered essential. ⁷¹ Octavius Winslow took the pulpit on the evening of April ⁴ and preached about "Christ's Finished Work", based on the words of Jesus recorded in John 19:30: "It is Finished." Winslow echoed Spurgeon's emphasis on the cross and forecast what Spurgeon's message would be for the next thirty years. Like Spurgeon, Winslow believed that the power of contending earnestly for the truth resided in the "simple, bold, uncompromising presentation of the Atoning and finished Sacrifice of Christ—the uplifting, in its naked simplicity and solitary, unapproachable grandeur, of the Cross of the Incarnate God, the instrument of the sinner's salvation, the foundation of the believer's hope, the symbol of pardon, reconciliation, and hope to the soul; in a word, the grand weapon by which error shall bow to truth, and sin give place to righteousness; and the kingdoms of this world long in rebellion against God, crushed and enthralled, shall yield to Messiah's scepter, spring from the dust, burst their bonds, and

exult in the undisputed supremacy and benign reign of Jesus." ⁷² Christ's cry was the cry of a sufferer, the language of a Savior, and the shout of a conqueror.

Nothing may be placed beside the completed work of Christ as an aid or supplement in his role of suffering and conquering Savior. Adding to the accumulating hopes and admonitions concerning the future occupation of the Tabernacle, Winslow concluded: "And now from my heart I ask the blessing of the triune God upon my beloved brother, the grand substance of whose ministry I believe from my very soul is to exalt the finished work of Jesus. And I pray that this noble edifice, reared in the name and consecrated to the glory of the triune God, may for many years echo and re-echo with his voice of melody and of power in expounding to you the glorious doctrines and precepts of Christ's

one finished atonement." ⁷³ After services on Sunday, April ⁷, the congregation gathered on Monday evening to have their time of inaugurating their new place of worship.

Spurgeon's father, John Spurgeon, served as chairman and conveyed regrets from his own father for not being there. The joy of the occasion might indeed be his death, and he wanted to die in his own church.

James Smith, a former pastor at New Park Street, reveled in the theological heritage of the church and its perennial usefulness in the conversion of sinners.

His prayer while he was pastor that God would "cram the place" had been fulfilled under Spurgeon; the blood-stained banner of the cross was continually unfurled in the preaching and the baptismal waters did not rest.

Spurgeon himself spoke about peculiarities of the church in its maintenance of an eldership as a separate office from the deacons, thus avoiding an unbiblical amalgamation found in many churches. This arrangement had made him "the happiest man on earth, and when he had any troubles, it was very seldom they came from the Church." In addition, he maintained a strict policy about baptism and church membership, opposite to many of the churches of the Baptist Union, but an open policy toward communion. This was just as it should be he believed

—strict discipline and unlimited fellowship with all the church of God. ⁷⁴ He illustrated both the strictness and the openness on the next two evenings. Stowell Brown preached a sermon on Christian Baptism on Tuesday. On Wednesday Spurgeon exemplified the "unlimited fellowship" by presiding with ministers of other churches in celebrating the Lord's Supper at the Tabernacle with believers

from "all denominations." ⁷⁵ He maintained this open communion view throughout his ministry.

As Spurgeon continued his analysis of the peculiarities of his congregation, he pointed to their advocacy of a specific confession of faith, as any lively church should. When life appears so does definite belief. "Creedless men were like dead limbs and would have to be cut off." In his congregation, Spurgeon proposed that it would be difficult for anyone to confute even the youngest member of the church "on any of the five points." They all loved the doctrines of grace. Even with such a strong policy doctrinally, he had been accused by some of preaching Arminian sermons. Should it appear that way to some, he did not bother to correct the impression—Calvinism, Arminianism, Fullerism, or Mongrelism— none of the names were material to him in comparison with clarity, candor, and faithfulness in proclamation of the Bible. The Word of God defied all restricted systems and one day would appear thoroughly consistent and be displayed in beautiful harmony, although presently the narrow constriction of the human

mind might not be able to discern it.

In addition to these happy conditions of the church, Spurgeon pointed to three strengths. Prayerfulness consistently bolstered all the work. Young converts were zealous for truth and action. Great unity characterized all that they did as a congregation. The danger, of which all were aware, was "that they might grow proud and be lifted up." Some, he indicated, were very anxious about him on that point, but he knew that divine grace, not advice from conceited individuals,

would cure the evil. ⁷⁶ William Olney represented the deacons in giving a detailed catalogue of things for which to be thankful. Prominent among these blessings stood the "goodness of God in sparing to them the life of their beloved pastor, who had been engaged in very arduous and incessant labour for the last seven years, and yet was among them then in every respect a better and happier man for all his

labour in the Master's cause." ⁷⁷ The blessings he noted had prepared them for the reception of more and gave particular importance to the text, "Unto

whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required." ⁷⁸ Another of the former pastors, Joseph Angus, followed Olney with another load of advice, though "Mr. Spurgeon had told them they were overdone with advice." He would follow the deacon rather than the pastor on this occasion and continue with admonitions in light of the massive blessings and the golden future of opportunities. Spurgeon was doing a work that none of his predecessors from Gill on forward had been permitted to do. They should maintain their commitment to the old doctrines and a large-hearted catholic spirit. Such was the soundness of their creed and the scripturalness of their doctrines. "They held firmly to the views of John Calvin; they held the spirituality of the Christian church, and saw clearly into the meaning of the ordinances." This they should continue and "be always ready to give their hand and heart to all who loved the

Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and in truth." ⁷⁹ Spurgeon then presented framed testimonials to two deacons that had been members of the church for more than fifty years and deacons for twenty-five and twenty-two years respectively, James Low and Thomas Olney.

In his sermon on Christian Baptism, Stowell Brown showed the prominence of believers' baptism in the Scripture and in early church history. He indicated that every attempt to support infant baptism biblically was remote and weakly inferential and employed a group of biblical references that had far more compelling applications and interpretations than their employment in defense of infant baptism. He acknowledged that their view of baptism made Baptists distinct from a large group of other denominations but that hardly justified the

charge that Baptists made too much of baptism. The charge may be made with justice when Baptists say that baptism regenerates the soul, or that persons are made members of Christ, children of God, and heirs of the kingdom of heaven, by receiving it; when Baptists rush to baptize the sick and the dying while refusing a right to Christian burial to those that die unbaptized. When that happens, Baptists will deserve to be told that they "do most monstrously exaggerate the importance of this ordinance." Obedience to God and avoiding error justified the Baptist separation from Christian brethren on the grounds of differences on baptism. "A thing may not be essential, and yet it may be very far from unimportant." Brown emphasized that Baptists regarded infant baptism as the "main root of the superstitious and destructive dogma of baptismal regeneration." It stands as "the chief corner-stone of State Churchism," another error that Baptists oppose. They regard the practice unscriptural, "and to everything that is unscriptural we, as disciples of Jesus Christ, must be opposed; and we do trust that all who differ from us, and however widely they may differ, will still admit that we are only doing what is right in maintaining what we believe to be the truth of God with reference to this matter." ⁸⁰

The Doctrinal Matrix

Visible testimony to Spurgeon's recitation of the church's commitment to a confessional stance on the doctrines of grace came on the afternoon of April ¹¹.

Sermons on the five doctrines as represented by the acronym TULIP were preached. Before those messages, Spurgeon gave an impassioned defense of the system as a whole. Calvinists did not differ in essentials with evangelical Arminians such as Primitive Methodists and Wesleyans. Between Protestant and Papist, between Christian and Socinian, essential differences existed that altered the very substance of the faith. Calvinists and Methodists, though disagreeing in the formal construction of their doctrine on certain issues, often expressed themselves on issues of prayer and salvation experience with harmonious sentiments. Spurgeon pointed to Wesleyan hymns that embodied Calvinist truth.

Spurgeon found election, final perseverance, and effectual calling set forth in strong terms. Against Calvinism straw men abounded; and Spurgeon was not short of answers to these false representations. Addressing objections concerning the damnation of infants, fatalism, sovereign and unmerited reprobation, failure to preach the gospel to the unregenerate, and enmity to revivals, Spurgeon cleared away false allegations. He made it clear that hyper-Calvinism would not drive him away from true Calvinism. He spoke of it as he found it in Calvin's Institutes and in his expositions. "I have read them carefully," he informed his listeners. And his system was taken from the source and not from the common repute of Calvinism. Nor did he necessarily care for the name, Calvinism, but for the "glorious system which teaches that salvation is of grace from first to last."

Spurgeon noted, for his own part, that he found that preaching these doctrines had not lulled his church to sleep, "but ever while they have loved to maintain these truths, they have agonized for the souls of men, and the 1600 or more whom I have myself baptized, upon profession of their faith, are living testimonies that these old truths in modern times have not lost their power to

promote a revival of religion." ⁸¹ Calvinism also has strengths of "little comparative importance" that nevertheless "ought not to be ignored." The system was "exceedingly simple" and thus easily accessible by unlettered minds. At the same time it "excites thought" and has been a challenge to the most active and far-reaching minds in intellectual history. Calvinism is "coherent in all its parts," and fits so well together that the more pressure that is applied "the more strenuously do they adhere." Spurgeon asserted that "You cannot receive one of these doctrines without believing all." Consent to any of these doctrines in its true form made the others follow of necessity. Though, as stated above, one might listen to his

preaching on some occasions and think that he preached Arminianism, he did not accept the idea that any doctrinal contradictions existed in Scripture, and when considered in their most unadulterated form every point in the doctrines of grace arose from the biblical logic of human sin and salvation by pure grace. His

emphasis on this was insistent:

Some by putting the strain upon their judgments may manage to hold two or three points and not the

rest, but sound logic I take it requires a man to hold the whole or reject the whole; the doctrines stand

like soldiers in a square, presenting on every side a line of defence which it is hazardous to stack, but

easy to maintain. And mark you, in these times when error is so rife and neology strives to be so

rampant, it is no little thing to put into the hands of a young man a weapon which can slay his foe,

which he can easily learn to handle, which he may grasp tenaciously, wield readily, and carry without

fatigue; a weapon, I may add, which no rust can corrode and no blows can break, trenchant, and well-

annealed, a true Jerusalem blade of a temper fit for deeds of renown. 82

More important than these reasons, Spurgeon saw the doctrines as purely biblical and thoroughly consistent with Christian experience. These doctrines created neither sloth nor coldness nor corrupt lives, but zeal for truth and holiness. After John Bloomfield preached on "Election" and Evan Probert preached on human depravity, the meeting adjourned until half past six. Spurgeon again took the floor to introduce the final three speakers and briefly introduced the sessions with another defense of the Calvinistic scheme of salvation. It is easy to raise objections against the system, Spurgeon conceded, as it is easy to raise objections against virtually anything, even one's own existence. But objections against Calvinism were not a tithe of the difficulties that might be pointed out in the opposite scheme. They do not unfold every aspect of the depth of divine wisdom or exhaust the fountains of God's purpose, but they do serve as a safe and consistent biblical guide that shall find every wave a friend to speed our ship on its journey toward the fullness of the divine glory.

J. A Spurgeon preached on particular redemption, James Smith on effectual calling, and William O'Neill on the final perseverance of believers. Prior to the final presentation by O'Neill, Spurgeon had a further comment to make on the purpose of the day's messages. He had observed that some seemed not to have sufficient patience to listen to a doctrine fully brought out. They wanted illustrations, anecdotes, and metaphors. John Newton spoke of these doctrines like lumps of sugar that could not well be given undiluted to the people but must be diffused throughout all the sermons. This day, however, was purposefully given over to the exposition of these doctrines in undiluted form so that the overall impact of their truth might be felt at once. That fact called for one final apology for the emphasis of the day:

Has it never struck you that the scheme of doctrine which is called Calvinistic has much to say

concerning God? It commences and ends with the Divine One. The angel of that system stands like

Uriel in the sun; it dwells with God; he begins, he carries on, he perfects; it is for his glory and for his

honour. Father, Son, and Spirit co-working, the whole Gospel scheme is carried out. Perhaps there may

be this defect in our theology; we may perhaps too much forget man. I think that is a very small fault,

compared with the fault of the opposite system, which begins with man, and all but ends with him.

Man is a creature; how ought God to deal with him? That is the question some theologians seem to

answer. The way we put it is—God is the Creator, he has a right to do as he will; he is Sovereign, there

is no law above him, he has a right to make and to unmake, and when man hath sinned, he has a right

to save or to destroy. If he can save, and yet not impair his justice, heaven shall ring with songs; if he

destroy, and yet his goodness be not marred, then hell itself with its deep bass of misery, shall swell

the mighty rollings of his glorious praise. We hold that God should be most prominent in all our

teaching; and we hold this to be a guage [ sic ] by which to test the soundness of ministers. If they exalt

God and sink the sinner to the very dust it is all well; but if they lower the prerogatives of Deity, if he

be less sovereign, less just, less loving than the Scripture reveals him to be, and if man be puffed up

with that fond notion that he is anything better than an unclean thing, then such theology is utterly

unsound. Salvation is of the Lord, and let the Lord alone be glorified. 83

On the Sunday subsequent to these Thursday expositions, Spurgeon preached a message that summarized the emphases of the day. In "The Last Census," based on Psalm 87:6, "The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there," Spurgeon focused on what is written, whose names will not be there, whose names will be there, who will do the writing, and for what purpose is the writing done. He emphasized the individuality of the judgment, that fatal power of final impenitence, the certainty of salvation for all that flee to Christ, the perfect equity of God in determining the contents of the writing, and the truths demonstrated and mysteries solved when the writing is done. All God's jewels, all his sheep, and the names in the Lamb's book of life will be written. Satan will discover that he has gained not even one of them. Satan finally was overcome even in Job on the dunghill, David on the rooftop, and Peter in Pilate's Hall. The great Shepherd of the sheep preserved them in gentle proddings or startling reprimands but always in harmony with a subdued and humbly compliant will. The decree of God and the acts of man will be seen as in

perfect consonance.

[A]nd how strange shall it seem as that great sealed book is now unclasped, it is found that all who

were written there have come, nay come as they were written, come at the hour ordained, come in the

place predestinated, come by the means foreknown, come as God would have them come, and thus

free agency did not defeat predestination, and man's will did not thwart the eternal will. God is

glorified and man free. Man—the man as he proudly calls himself—has obeyed God as truly as though

he knew what was in God's book, and had studied to make the decree of God the very rule and method

of his life. Glorious shall it be when thus that book shall prove the mystic energy which went out from

between the folded leaves—the mysterious Spirit that emanated from the eternal throne—that unseen,

unmanifested, sometimes unrecognized mysterious power, which bowed the will and led it in silken

chains, which opened up the understanding and led it from darkness into light, and melted the heart

and moved the Spirit, and won the entire man to the obedience of the truth as it was in Jesus. 84

Having inundated the first weeks of Tabernacle meetings with strong

affirmations of Calvinistic truth, "with shouts of sovereign grace," ⁸⁵ always with the evangelistic emphases that he felt were embraced within the system, Spurgeon followed on April ²¹ with a sermon on the Great Commission entitled "The Missionaries' Charge and Charta." Spurgeon admitted that he had seriously considered if it were his duty to leave England where so many churches and ministers existed to go to a land of pioneer labors. "I solemnly feel that my position in England will not permit my leaving the sphere in which I now am, or else tomorrow I would offer myself as a missionary." He indicated that one burden of his prayers was that many from that church would go as missionaries, a prayer fulfilled exponentially. In relating that prayer he again said: "I have questioned my own conscience, and I do not think I could be in the path of duty if I should go abroad to preach the Word, leaving this field of labour; but I think many of my brethren now labouring at home might with the greatest advantage surrender their charges, and leave a land where they would scarce be missed, to go where their presence would be as valuable as the presence of a thousand such

as they are here." ⁸⁶ In closing the message he made a similar statement as he called for others to feel a fire that could not be quenched to go where others had not gone. "Brethren, I envy any one among you—I say again with truth, I envy you—if it shall be your lot to go to China, the country so lately opened to us. I would gladly change places with you. I would renounce the partial ease of a settlement in this country, and renounce the responsibilities of so large a

congregation as this with pleasure, if I might have your honours." ⁸⁷ Between these bookends of missionary desire Spurgeon loaded a missionary theology. He showed that Jesus' command to teach all nations was a generous and gracious manifestation of love and divine condescension. The simple and singular method of teaching brought together the nature and needs of men with the message and prerogatives of God. As children we need to be dealt with gently and patiently and as ignorant and rebellious we need to have our lies replaced with truth and our recalcitrance replaced with child-like submission. If they will not be taught they will not enter the kingdom of heaven. In spite of all obstacles—ignorance and sophistication, barbarity and passivity, degradation and culture, literate and

illiterate—teach them.

The fact has been proved, brethren, that there are no nations incapable of being taught, nay, that there

are no nations incapable afterwards of teaching others. The Negro slave has perished under the lash,

rather than dishonour his Master. The Esquimaux has climbed his barren steeps, and borne his toil,

while he has recollected the burden which Jesus bore. The Hindoo has patiently submitted to the loss

of all things, because he loved Christ better than all. Feeble Malagasay women have been prepared to

suffer and to die, and have taken joyfully suffering for Christ's sake. There has been heroism in every

land for Christ; men of every colour and of every race have died for him; upon his altar has been found

the blood of all kindreds that be upon the face of the earth. Oh! Tell me not they cannot be taught. Sirs,

they can be taught to die for Christ; and this is more than some of you have learned. They can rehearse

the very highest lesson of the Christian religion—that self-sacrifice which knows not itself but gives up

all for him. 88

Emphasizing the unique position of Baptists in fulfilling this commission purely and in the order given because of their enduring ecclesiological conviction that teaching always should precede baptism, he told his hearers "we ought to be first and foremost, and if we be not, shame shall cover us for our unfaithfulness." He held up the call insistently before his congregation: "I hear that voice ringing in the Baptist's ear, above that of any other, 'Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the

Holy Ghost.'" ⁸⁹ Christ's commission reflected the history of the church in its reflection of Christ's suffering. The church never could "plough a wave without a spray of gore." The church must suffer to reign, must die to live, must be stained in red to be clothed in purple, and must be buried and forgotten in order to be delivered of the man-child. It was by death that Christ became the mediator possessed of all power for the redemption of his people. Thus, the church has a right to all places; no place can take from it its right to teach. "Do ye pass decrees forbidding the gospel to be preached? We laugh at you!" Gospel heralds have rights without limits, and may not be forbidden by any earthly power to omit obedience to the risen Lord because his authority extends to all places throughout all times. The heralds of peace and salvation may not set their foot on any place to which Christ does not have the right. Resolutions against such are mockeries and waste-paper. "The church never was yet vassal to the state, or servile slave to principalities and powers, and she neither can nor will be."

Because Christ not only has right, but he has might. He has might to change the hearts of princes and rule by Providence to open nations through revolution or through increase of technology. In addition he has might in heaven. Cherubim and seraphim bow before him, he may grant the plentitude of the Spirit and clothe his ministers with power, and he has unrestrained warrant to intercede with the Father.

At the time of this message, ¹,600 church members heard him while the entire congregation was ⁶,000. He pleaded with them all, member and listener alike, to consider the implications of there being none in such a congregation willing to go:

Jesus! Is there not one? Must heathens perish? Must the gods of the heathen hold their thrones? Must

thy kingdom fail? Are there none to own thee, none to maintain thy righteous cause? If there be none,

let us weep, each one of us, because such a calamity has fallen on us. But if there be any who are

willing to give all for Christ, let us who are compelled to stay at home do our best to help them. Let us

see to it that they lack nothing; for we cannot send them out without purse or scrip. Let us fill the purse

of the men whose hearts God has filled, and take care of them temporally, leaving it for God to

preserve them spiritually. 90

Spurgeon was determined that the Metropolitan Tabernacle would be home to a joyful, clear, and full presentation of the doctrines of grace. From there, the neighborhood, the city, the country, the kingdom and the world should hear the same message—the successful execution of an eternal purpose proposed by the Father to honor the Son with a people gained by dint of his own grace and perfect conformity to the wisdom, justice, and holy love of the Father. The opening of the Tabernacle served to announce that message as the foundation for all that would be done and preached there and culminated with an impassioned proclamation of the certain success of the divine undertaking with a fervent plea for God's people to be the means of its world-wide advance.

Recess for a Needed Repair

The constant use of the Tabernacle from seven in the morning until eleven at night, sometimes with thousands of people present crammed into close quarters, being lighted by gas lamps, cooking being done in the kitchen for meals at all times of the day, and every inch having a virtually unending flow of traffic, after six years some thorough refurbishing was necessary. For five weeks, therefore, in 1867, March 24–April ²¹, Spurgeon held forth in the Agricultural Hall in Islington. This hall had not been built for oratory but for the display of farm implements and animals and for the showing of the garden products of English agriculture. For the sake of an opportunity to reach thousands that might never hear a gospel message outside this particular venue, Spurgeon decided to have ¹⁵,000 seats installed with standing room for about ³,000 more. So uncongenial were the facilities for oral address that many predicted an utter failure of this astonishing attempt. Only the Fast Day service in the Crystal Palace in 1857 exceeded the size of the crowds that pushed into the available space to hear Spurgeon for these five Sundays. None complained of not being able to hear.

The handling of such a crowd—estimates from ¹⁵,000 to ²⁵,000 have been given—did not get out of hand but proceeded with remarkable facility and

cordiality. ⁹¹ In the American edition of Spurgeon's Sermons, the heading for the first of these sermons says, "The following five sermons... were delivered in the Agricultural Hall, Islington, to an audience never numbering less than twenty thousand persons. It will be observed that they are very simple, and were

intended to be." ⁹² Often in the sermons Spurgeon referred to the size of the crowd and the unusual venue, using phrases like "the sight of this vast arena and of this crowded assembly," or "never before was such an audience gathered to hear one man." In reference to the normal use of the Agricultural Hall compared to the pool by the sheep market in Bethesda, Spurgeon noted, "If the physical infirmities of Jerusalem intruded into the sheep market, I shall ask no excuse if, on these Sabbath days, the spiritual sickness of London should demand that this spacious place, which has hitherto been given up to the lowing or cattle and to the bleating of sheep, should be consecrated to the preaching of the gospel, to the

manifestation of the healing virtue of Christ Jesus among the spiritually sick." ⁹³ For that reason he expressed a desire that "there should be more converted in this

place than ever were converted at one time in any place since the world was." ⁹⁴ The messages even on paper express such a passion and energy that one need not wonder that Spurgeon required some days to recuperate from the energy

extended, physical, intellectual, and spiritual, to such an enormous group after each of the five Sunday morning services. In an extended appeal to the unconverted to come to Jesus, Spurgeon exhibited the emptying effect that such a sight of massive numbers combined with his belief in their eternal destiny had on him. "Oh, if I could know how to preach the gospel so that you would feel it, I would go to any school to learn!" Even beyond submitting himself to the instruction of others, Spurgeon was willing to "consent to lose these eyes, to get greater power in my ministry; ay, and to lose arms, legs, and all my members."

On he went, "I would be willing to die if I could but be honoured by the Holy

Spirit to win this mass of souls to God." ⁹⁵ This deep sense of responsibility led him also to punctuate his addresses with deeply emotional calls to prayer from those that were converted and especially from his own church members: "Brethren pray for us. If you, the members of the church, do not pray for me, I feel I shall have much to lay to your charge. Never was any one called to so great a work as this. I have this morning twenty thousand claims upon your prayers. I beseech you by the living God pray for me. It were better for me that I never were born to have this responsibility upon me if I have not your prayers."

96 In the fourth week again he urged, "I pause to ask, on my account, the prayers of God's people yet again, that the Holy Spirit may be my helper this morning.

Oh deny not my earnest request!" ⁹⁷ The sermons were heavy with illustration and with very plain anecdotes and were all designed to bring the lost to evangelical repentance and an unadorned submission to Christ for pardon. This style, however, did not keep Spurgeon from his usual doctrinal themes. Total depravity, election, effectual calling, the perfection of Christ's person as a redeemer embodying in one person both eternal deity and true, though sinless, humanity, the eternal states of heaven and hell, the immediate moral responsibility of every person to turn from wickedness, profanity, drunkenness, pride, self-righteousness, and every other form of unbelief and to see in Christ the only perfection of righteousness that God can accept as consistent with his law and his holiness. He dealt with the events of death both for the saved and the unsaved, the nature of the disembodied condition of the Christian's spirit before the resurrection and the glorious character of eternal life after the resurrection. He talked about the obligations that were necessarily intrinsic to the pastor's calling, the travesty of those that would not preach the fullness of truth and work for the conversion of their hearers, and the urgency of zealous young men with gifts and zeal to make the ministry their aim.

The popular and accessible narrative style did not diminish Spurgeon's intent

to set the gospel forth in all the splendor of its being the manifest wisdom of a sovereign and infinitely glorious God to save a people upon whom he himself had set his heart from before the foundation of the world. In the case of the lame man at the pool of Bethesda, "Our Lord acted according to his own eternal purpose, doing as he pleased with his own; he fixed the eye of his electing love upon that one man, and, going up to him, he gazed upon him." Jesus yearned for the healing and the salvation of that one out of all the sick that were gathered there because his bowels of compassion had been upon him from eternity past. "I know not whom Christ intends to save this morning by his effectual grace," Spurgeon remarked, but knew that his commission was to give the general call even though only God himself can bring that "irresistible grace" that distinguishes one from the other to bring salvation. He admonished his hearers not to "kick at this doctrine," for it was true, and their resistance to that gospel only showed their perversity and their unwillingness to be saved in God's way.

They should not quarrel with God for "bestowing on others that which you do not care to receive." He went on to assure them that "if you desire his mercy, he will not deny it to you; if you seek him he will be found of you; but if you will

not seek mercy, rail not on the Lord if he bestows it upon others." ⁹⁸ On the first Sunday back in the Tabernacle Spurgeon preached from 2 Kings 3: "Make this Valley Full of Ditches." He spoke of the absolute necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit for the success of the church and that each person must not only work for the glory of Christ, but live in constant expectation that God would fill his church with converts. He referred to the just-completed services at the Agricultural Hall: "I have been greatly rejoiced at some of the conversions at the Agricultural Hall. I hoped to have heard of many who never went to a place of worship getting a blessing." He was confident that he would hear of them, but the remarkable phenomenon was that conversions came from "those who have been here before, or who have been regular attendants elsewhere for years." He did not go abroad to look for his own children but, "they say if you want to know something about your own house, you must go away from home." He wondered that, if to be the instrument of conversion for some of them, he must needs go afield. He referred again to the recent odyssey to the north, reflecting the added pressures to himself and his congregation, but all in the quest for expanded usefulness: "God knows with what earnest desires and endeavors I went to the Agricultural Hall to preach the Gospel, and with how simple and sincere a motive you went there, too! We certainly did not journey so far for our own comfort, but for the honor and glory of our Master. And God's Word must be followed with a blessing."

With all the anticipation of large numbers of conversions, it seems that

Spurgeon had come to some point of a spiritual let-down and needed the assurance of a divine promise that indeed the ditches would be filled with water.

Had not God led them there? Does God do such things without granting fruit? "But I cannot and will not harbor a mistrustful suspicion about the blessing of God resting upon that action," Spurgeon insisted with a spiritual fierceness and adamant refusal to be disturbed by immediate appearances of meager fruit. He knew that, along with him, "many of you are really solemnly in earnest with an Apostolic earnestness!" He protested not to prophesy, but to believe the divine providence and promise, that God will not withhold the evident work of his Spirit, for he would not have his people seek his face in vain. The church's earnest prayers and labors would neither be just air or a dream but the travail would bring forth children. God's own faithfulness was on the line. "The earnest agony of a living Church must bring forth fruit unto God, or else the Bible is no longer reliable, and the promise of God no longer sure. But He changes not, and

therefore we will look for the blessing, knowing that it must come." ⁹⁹ Perhaps the journey had made him more cognizant of the urgency of concentrated ministry right there, right in the newly refurbished Metropolitan Tabernacle, for he insisted, "We must have the blessing in this particular Church! It were enough to break one's heart even to suppose it possible that we should not!" The following years would show that the blessing in that particular church would not diminish, but would only expand, and expand in such a way that Spurgeon would embrace death itself rather than shun the filling of the

ditches.