CHAPTER XCT. ^Public Mm% Ittttxs m {Continued}. aiib Ipri&att Letters Concerning Legacies. HE to an the value of estate following relating" letter, as a specimen of many which Mr. Spurgcon had may be inserted matters with on reference other occasions, financial to write, to to have been he ought about which never troubled.
several In to him which he thought instances, when money was bequeathed testatrix, he should have gone testator or of the the relatives to often grieved him hesitation, and that he to them without the it over paid least it to have Institutions, which ought the same not do with to his could legacies, left had he simply here to needy referred case to been the In given relations.
to, refuse what he regarded as an unjust and unreasonable demand : " Clapham, " June " Dear Sir, makes me "Although residuary legatee Mr.
his certainly will 's that he left the money to me because absolutely, he gave the solicitor to understand it for religious and it to myself, but would use he was sure appropriate I should not it was sent by his solicitor.
This request he also wrote me, and charitable purposes. leaving his money as he desired, thereThe Law of Mortmain prevented him from to my in my hands, very much any on discomfort.
he shall not, put fore it estate, but carry out the for myself from testator's accept a farthing account, this known wish.
to my making awards to claimants to be any barrier " I do consider not this who may have moral is not to claims of a sound character against the estate, for it Hence my mind to give to religion or charity I have, to till justice has been done.
the best of my judgment, with the kind advice of the executors, met each claim, not is now no balance remaining to be kind, and of a moral legal, but only of a there be no more There to be not worth mentioning.
disposed or so small will as of, and, consequently, the claims existence of two lives of available during funds the ; if they can be attended to at any time.
and others must wait, even Mr. "The executors do not believe in the claims of Mr. ; but they, as gentlemen, convince me advise me convince them, you would if you and with impartiality, ;
autobiography. spurgeon's io8 H. to disburse money which have not cannot be expected received, from an only which have no by with an personally connection, estate profitable utter left stranger.
I see no grounds for your severe language towards me ; and as for vour threat " I am the matter abroad, concerned, to publish nor neither so as court far fear publicity in any of my actions if the simple truth be published, and, case, in this it ; public think of my proceeding.
will little concern me what I am the the gainer of much trouble and annoyance by this unhappy legacy, and nothing more.
" Yours truly, " C. H. Spurgeox." " P.S. — Please send future letters on this business to the executors."
One of many letters, which had to be written at a later period with reference to great fortunes said to have been left to Mr. Spurgeon, may also be given : " Westwood, " March 18S4.
*' Dear Sir, " In speaking of a supposed large fortune left to me, you very wisely say, ; — much smoke from Several times, such rumours have gone abroad 'If it is so !' a In the present case, there may be something 'but how very small little none fire.
; to me This rumour begging letters and can most brings requests of the tell' for my many amazing kind a measure, stops enterprises, and and, supplies so in ; causes me much in your paper say Please, trouble.
therefore, the that laro-e With many thanks for your kind remarks, is a myth. fortune " am, " Yours in much weakness, " C. H. Spurgeon." Correspondence re Lectures and Sermons in the United States. the year 1873, Mr. Spurgeon, In church and in addressing congregation, his made the following reference to a proposal which he had received : letter from a gentleman well known in America, giving me the offer had " a On twenty-five dollars these terms, the twenty-five nights for lectures.
would give me ^5,000, and in a hundred I should have nights Besides ^'20,000.
for as many more I should be allowed nights as chose, so lecture this, to that the persons who might, in the course of a year, be worth ^40,000, and no doubt What undertook arrangement would the you do amount.
earn times ten that suppose was my answer ' If you were to multiply it a hundred I wrote, to this offer ?
p. 109SPURGEON S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. H. times, and again a hundred should as easy to decline as I do now, times, feel it when cross the ocean to lecture upon any subject I cannot I say that whatever.
am a minister of the gospel, and never for money, and do not intend to do lectured so now.' Although the refusal was so emphatic, other offers continued to come. In " The some American appeared paragraph a papers Mr. Rev. in stating that Spurgeon writes that he will visit the United States the autumn." This in elicited the following letter : "Boston, Mass., U.S.A., "Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, "June " Dear Sir, We have tried so long, and so hard, " Is the above paragraph true for ? so many secure you, that we thought it impossible, and long since gave years, to We up agents hope.
agents) (exclusive are leading the for lecturers in all all of America, and we and do country, the nine-tenths business of the lecture are We for what we you a thousand responsible give in gold will dollars offer.
for every lecture you in America, and pay all your expenses to and deliver from will your home, and place you under the most popular auspices Will this country.
in you come ? " Yours truly, "The Redpath Lyceum Bureau." To this communication, Mr. Spurgeon replied : " Clapham, " London, "July " Gentlemen, I cannot imagine how such a paragraph should appear in your papers, " except by of a hard-up never had any invention deliberate Editor, idea of for leaving home for some As for America to come.
to you time said before, if I am not a lecturer, nor would I receive money for preaching. could come, "Yours truly, " C. H. Spurgeon." first of which Mr. Spurgeon answered In 1878, two other invitations came, the I have not the slightest idea of visiting America. I should do thus If ever so, for money. I could not preach or lecture Excellent as your services doubtless are to those who need them, they could not possibly be needed by me.
I should regard
AUTOBIOGRAPHY. SPURGEON S IIO H. I were, as a servant of God, to use it as an utter prostitution of any gifts I possess if them to make money for myself in the way in which lecturers very properly do."
request was :^" I am to any engagement not open The the second reply to consider your for a in America.
could not preach offer or lecture either to to refusal, and can only occasions given a positive I have on several single moment.
I am not to be hired for any money." it in the plainest terms. repeat Major Pond England when was was made with Another in in effort interview, and Mr. Spurgeon, asking for an the former wrote Dr. Talmage, and to to whom the man saying, among other things I would pay the I want to see compliment to offer fifty thousand dollars for speaking fifty nights in my country, and to my countrymen."
To this note, Mr. Spurgeon replied : " Nightingale Lane, " Balham, " Surrey, " June 1S79.
" Dear Sir, I am not at all afraid of anything you could say by way of tempting me " to preach or lecture for money, for the whole of the United States in bullion would It would only waste your time and mine not lead me to deliver one such lecture.
pleasantest men upon that you are one of the for you to see me, though feel sure I trust you will not Your good-natured is so admirable that pertinacity the earth.
; but be content to have my acknowledgment it upon an impossible object waste if success could have been achieved, you would have achieved it.
that, " Yours truly, " C. H. Spurgeon." 1S83, a syndicate in the United States, without even asking for Mr. Spurgeon's In transmission, by telegraph, Lord's-day of or consent, arranged his for the opinion a number morning sermons, and their publication on the following day, of papers in and Louis, having an aggregate Philadelphia, Chicago, Cincinnati, Boston, St.
in The experiment was doomed to be a failure, for the circulation of a million : — " Cable copies.
Sunday morning Spurgeon's were English agents the instructions to The attempt to insert those words in the reportsermons, omitting the little words.'' Atlantic produced such strange a that : — " Sermon a hash, but pretty on result the other of side the received first copy he received Mr. Spurgeon wrote on the to New and then York, and double transmission hurry to considering the well In reply to a complaint that the arrangement involved a great increase Cincinnati."
in Sabbath labour, the Pastor wrote :
p. 1: SPURGEON S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. H. " Westwood, "June " Dear Sir, that my Sunday morning sermons are taken by the United " It true is in the papers on Monday States Press Association, and are cabled so as to appear I have no more occasions Sunday work, So morning.
but regret far as this it ; in any way consulted in the matter, I have never been to do with it than you have.
and so I have not entered into any enquiry as to the labour involved. " Yours truly, " C. H. Spurgeon." in The bivord Pastor was able to Only a few weeks elapsed before the write — " The sermons were not long telegraphed to America, so that our and the T^-owel desecrated may feel friends who their minds Sabbath would be the feared that We are not sorry for the sermons which we saw in the American papers relieved.
; that we would not may have been battered and disfigured ours, but they were so of transmission, the eggs were broken, and the have owned them.
In the process We much prefer to revise and publish for ourselves very life of them was crushed.
; their usefulness becomes of publication"are permanent, and in the forms these as long run greater than would come of a wide scattering of faulty reports."
Four years later, another attempt was made to arrange for the early publication, on an extensive scale, of summaries of Mr. Spurgeon's sermons but this also failed.
; He was unable even to entertain the proposal made to him following the letter, in would for he never knew "ten days in advance" what the subject of his discourse the same objection as on there might not have been be otherwise, case, this in ; of Sunday any increase not have effort need involved the former occasion as the labour : " New York Syndicate Bureau, " No. I, William Street, " New York, " Sept. " Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, " Dear Sir, perfected by which we " W^e have arrangements about are publish, to every Monday morning, a synopsis country, of this the of large the cities in all The idea to get advance notes of sermons of six of the leading clergymen here.
is, advance), and send them our out syndicate the sermons (about ten days to ol in is necessary to get the matter so far in advance as we have to reach newspapers.
It Those we intend publishing Brooks, of Boston are. Rev. San Francisco. Phillips ;
p. 112SPURGEONS AUTOBIOGRAPHY. H. Hall. New York Dr. Talmage, Brooklyn Cardinal Gibbons, Baltimore Dr. lohn ; ; ; Newman, Most Washington and Archbishop John Rev.
Rev. the Ryan, P. ; Philadelphia. " While negotiations have been going on, we have received numerous requests a weekly synopsis of your sermon, and from our subscribing Editors thinking for that there might be an inducement in having your congregation increased into the in the beneficial influence of your sermons, millions, with the corresponding increase we have thought it wise to approach you on the subject.
" Could you not ten days in advance, the cable, at our expense, about ideas of The vour sermon each week e.xact phraseology is not necessary, as the ideas are ?
this courtesy, we would be For Cable, say 250 to 300 words. all that are wanted. If you pleased to forward, each week, our cheque at the rate of a year.
think ' Yes favourably of the matter, kindly cable the one word ' to our registered address, * Exactness, New York,' and we will write you that may be to any detail in regard Hoping that you will render a favourable decision, necessary. " We are, " Yours very truly, " Chas. R. Brown, Editor." States, who had ever worshipped Any friends from at the Metrothe United politan Tabernacle, and who saw, in The Neiv York Herald, January 9, 1888, the report the day before, must have been somewhat surprised in that building of the service long cablegram to have been purporting at what course they read.
of a In the : — "There were received from the Heralifs London bureau, the correspondent said fully five thousand in the audience to greet the Tabernacle orator on his return from He looked remarkably better than when I interviewed him two months Mentone. AfUr a gra^td voluntary from the Herald on ago organ, the departure. his for during which the congregation silently studied the countenance of the great Baptist 103, best known in music the audience standing, they sang Psalm preacher, he and ' Benedice anima mea.' Then an assistant read the second chapter of the as first first giving the revisers' head-notes summarizing the contents of the Epistle of John, repute,, had sung a hymn in which is of high After the there : — choir, zvhich chapter.
zvas a charming contralto solo, Mr. Spurgeon preached from the text ye abide It ' in Me, and My words will, and ask what ye it shall be done abide in you, ye shall unto you.' — John xv.
7." The words indicate some few these inaccuracies of the printed in italics in As there was there was no "organ" or "choir" at Tabernacle, so the sentences.
" voluntary Spurgeon " contralto and Mr. read himself nor " neither solo." ii., so his "assistant" had no opportunity expounded John xv. i John
p. 4SPURGEON S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. The "giving was of head-notes." so the the stated revisers' correctly, text it, and must been have one were which references chapters the of read, to to the number sung Psalm matter with telegraphed, but of the the descriptive in ; the "cablegram " must have been inserted by someone who knew nothing about the mode of worship adopted at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, however familiar he might be with the practices prevailing on the other side of the Atlantic.
Consolatory Letters. was Spurgeon and sorrowing comforter Mr. a true of the his suffering ; disposition, made him his own sympathetic afflictions, added frequent personal to written to a lady who "a succourer of many."
This cheering and helpful note was had told him of her many trials : " Westwood, " March '81.
" Dear Friend, school, — by no means " You seem to me to be pleasant night the in ; — but a wise Teacher, and holidays, and no cakes and lessons, few a sugar-sticks is much guarantee of becoming This well-trained better a time.
disciple clue in than to be pampered with joyous excitements, and to be thereby really weakened in How as He trusting Him you honour by could revealed Christ, in faith.
is if you were always having new revelations over and above His Word Scripture, ?
A certain measure of darkness Too much sight renders is needful impossible.
faith for He who has redeemed you Be of good comfort for the full exercise of faith.
; cost Him hope you much. which recover has yet not so lose that will will I know how Why, you are only a young But at thirty-seven strength.
yet girl ! The Lord ever your be sink, and one Methuselah. old as as the feels spirits Comforter ! " Yours, with much to do, " C. H. Spurgeon." One William friends was Mr. and most Spurgeon's of Mr. intimate dearest Higgs, the builder of the Tabernacle, and a deacon of the church worshipping there.
Higgs, when her The dear husband was Mrs. from following extracts to letters will show how fully the Pastor sympathized with her and the whole " called home," : — of the bereaved family "Westwood, " January " Dear Friend, " How I could come and join you even in your I wish that grief, if H 4
p. 114! SPURGEON S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. H. Ah, me I am too lame to move. ! what a blow could not give you But comfort ! We were it would come just now. Doubtless it, but did not think all afraid of it is He was a dear soul to us is a sharp gash all, but ; but in the heart. best as is it it I beg the Lord to bear you up under this the heaviest of all specially to you.
trials. There His and our well with wearinesses him. pains comfort. All is is will come as soon as over, and he rests. I can travel, but this swollen are right foot holds me like a fetter of iron.
" Loving sympathy to every one of you. God bless you ! " Yours ever heartily, " C. Spurgeon." H. " Westwood, " January 6, " Dear Mrs. Higgs, and G "L told me have now about our dear one's death.
all I wonder how he The Lord has dealt well with him. lived so long to cheer us all : it would have been and feel relieved that he lived no longer, anguish great to for He has gone at the right time. The Lord will be your comfort and him. help. found my foot would let me go up meant to go to you this morning, not but and down from you and your sorrowing be kept double pain a steps.
to It is . We shall all meet again. Can we Let us bless God. family. ^. " Your loving friend, " C. H. Spurgeon." When Pastor T. W. Medhurst lost a daughter, Mr. Spurgeon wrote to him : "Westwood, " Dear Friend, " May you be Now that you and sustained under your heavy trial !
is made companion most which your your dear void are the realizing in fully may you your household, ' It hearts consolations flowing living find into is !
knows and under well,' and Lord from worships the cloud. so the faith is it ; How ; and other day that you were married It seems has but flown time the !
now Dear Caleb Higgs, you bereaved an daughter. of old are too, a father, is gone home long ago. " We business we meet above our Lord's before long. then, shall Till in Himself delight. solace, and find in will " Yours ever heartily, Spurgeon." "C. H.
' SPURGEON S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. H. with whom The letter was an Oxfordshire following clergyman, written to Mr. Spurgeon had long been ; he was always deeply personal close friendship in Mr. Abraham's on under oaks open-air farm the services interested the (see in all whom he could III., page 365), and induced to be present: Vol.
influence " West wood, "June " Dear Friend, Mr. Abraham that you were "I casually heard I had from but no> kindly given me it was a serious matter Mr.
Rochfort ; but has idea that further I am The about news. very you do sad but will be sure feel not. loss It, ours, and Heaven and you gain. will " Dear nothing now to go home you have do ; and loving brother, but to You what a home at home where will be for you have quite lived love, all is !
shall soon come hobbling element, and blessed with are that in after filled it.
We are bound you, and you whether each other gravitate shall find out. to to We love the same Lord, and the same blessed truth. here or in glory. " Mav the everlastinoarms be underneath vou for vou breathe a prayer, — lovine, !
' Lord, comfort Thy dear departs, may servant, and when he tender it be across a dried-up river into the land of living fountains !
I am this we fifty next Thursday, and you " near your are In are Jubilee. I commit you, Father's hands alike; but Jesus is the highest joy. Into the 'until the shadows the day break, and away.' flee "Your loving brother, " C. H. Spurgeon.' The good man did not linger long, and in the August number of The Sword and the Tj'owel Mr. Spurgeon following note inserted the brother.
He Rev. Thomas Curme, Oxon., of Sandford, has passed reward. vicar his to was a sweet Christian, of calm and serene of love and humility, yet firm spirit, full When the denouncer of Baptismal Regeneration as a rock in the doctrine of grace.
' How was shunned by many of the clergy, one of his brethren asked Mr. Curme, so much in company with Spurgeon you gentle answer His spend can time .-^ ' with me than is more should was, that he ' It wonderful should that associate meet with us was constituted one wonderful, and His the joys of him.' love to He was beloved all who knew him, and we were one with him of our of in life.
He passed away full of years, ripe for his rest." the faith which is in Christ Jesus. When the mother of one of "our own men" was "called home" just after her son's recognition service at Luton, Mr. Spurgeon wrote to him from Mentone :
p. 1! AUTOBIOGRAPHY. SPURGEON S H. " Dear Mr. Feltham, such a great joy to sorrow mother, "It but also a great lose a to is passed away under happier circumknow She not have could is well with her.
it settled, and She must her son been glad then happily have so see to stances.
No sickness, no fierce pain to be with her Lord lingering gladder ever.
for still ; I envy her as much as dismission, and instant admission the but gentle glory.
into The Lord be with you and your beloved, and comfort you to the I dare. full " Your sympathizing friend, " C. H. Spurgeon." The "grandmother" mentioned of was, following the so tenderly letter in Bartlett who conducted the long large the Mrs.
Bible-class so at the course, Tabernacle : " Mentone, " Dec. " Dear Mr. Bartlett, ; but you you your little " the departure sorrow over of with Lillie She was a dear is honey with child, ready to take the there that will gall.
feel Grandmother messenger receive her the shining her a with place ones.
as will from you. " May peace and consolation flow into the heart of yourself and wife send !
your pain little cheque cannot ease you but the expense. ease there a to is ; We Receive my hearty sympathy. ' another Comforter ' who will do can and so. ; we The the same one outrun all going has us her way. catch shall are little up soon. " Yours very heartily, " C. H. Spurgeon. When " called home," Mr. Spurgeon Habershon was of Dr. O. the wife S. wrote to Miss Ada R. Habershon : " Westwood, "April 30, " Dear Friend, loss, — which your with deep of your " heard dear regret father's is I do not wonder that the beloved man is a crushing is not well. mother's gain. It The Holy The Lord Himself sustain him stroke, and he has a tender heart.
! is such need of Ghost Himself has undertaken the office of Comforter because there only God such work do can family, and comfort because as the tried in is it I commend you to the ' other not expect could see Comforter.' to effectually.
p. 1SPURGEON S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. ' H. You cheer me you is very kind of you to write me. the College supper, but at it much by the reminder of the use of The Cheque Book to the dying one. God be praised ! 1 may send you my Christian " hour love of sorrow, for great this in feel sympathy with you and your father, and a hallowed oneness of heart with you in the May a sweet hush for His Name.
Lord, and faith of our on service your in fall hearts ! " Yours very truly, " C. H. Spurgeon." Miss Habershon The Mr. thus Spurgeon's volume, explains the allusion to : — " My dear mother read Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith and, during it daily ; The it was her last read to her as long as she could bear portion illness, last it.
my dear father read to her was on April 8,— she asleep on the the : — fell is no more work words were for you singularly appropriate to do ' If there for it cannot distress you that He your Master, is about to take you home.'" A few months " Come up Habershon the summons, Dr. received also later, During his last illness, his daughter wrote to inform Mr. Spurgeon, and he higher."
replied as follows : " West wood, " Aug. " Dear Friend, " You are now tried indeed, but all-sufficient grace will bear you throuo-h.
desire my tenderest is now going home, to your If he love suffering father.
congratulate him upon the vision which will soon burst upon him. If he tarries with We have not the pain of choice. it will be us a little longer, profitable for you. It is a great mercy that we are not placed in the perplexing dilemma of choosing either or others, whether we May you pray for you for ourselves or both.
live die. maintain the peace which now rules you, and find it even brightening into joy in the Jesus said to the women at the sepulchre, 'All Lord's will All is well.
hail.' ! " Yours most heartily, " C. H. Spurgeon." Mr. and Spurgeon's presence address comforted the greatly funeral the at mourners ; and in thanking him. Miss Habershon consulted him with regard to the future, and received the following reply : " Westwood, "Sept.
" Dear Friend, " It would seem to be wise advice which would lead your brother to take your profession, a measure o{ pi-estige is valuable, and house.
Iii the father's this
You and your sister will be rightly led, for you look up ; and is a finger which there never misleads.
Your " It was a great solace to be able to do anything to comfort your heart.
far more thanks but deserve than endeavour did are honestly to bear a ; I pray our Lord to impress on some for whom we testimony which anxious.
felt " In life, the power to these crises of is greater than that of activity sit still HE I commend you the Good which frets into restlessness.
Shepherd. to will direct your path. " Yours very heartily, " C. H. Spurgeon." chapter may be with a brief mention of the manner This appropriately closed in which Mr. Spurgeon voluntarily increased his correspondence to a very considerblessing to many of those able extent, and thereby became the means of untold to whom he wrote.
At one of the meetings during the College Conference of 1890, a very touching prayer was presented by Dr. Usher, who pleaded with great earnestThe beloved President was ness for the salvation of the of the brethren.
children much moved by the pe.xtion, and it evoked ; and he hearty response which the at all the ministers' sons and daughters whose fathers intimated once offered to write to Two their wish for him to do so by sending to him their children's names and ages.
written and lithographed, — one the older boys and girls, letters were the other for ones, — the name in by and every date the instance, being, for in filled little folk, at home and In this way, many hundreds of young Mr. Spurgeon himself abroad, received a direct communication from the dear Pastor, and he had the joy of the Holy Spirit had large number of reading the that testifying replies a to fact richly blessed the effort to the salvation of the youthful recipients.
the whole arrangem.ent was, there remained a finishing Thoughtful and kind as The which no one could give as our Mr, touch lovingly Great-heart.
so litho" father and mother " graphed contained references elder children the to to letter " mitherless bairns" whose which made desired for the fathers it scarcely suitable The facsimile, them to have a share in the favour letter from Mr. Spurgeon.
of a will show how and made lovingly he read on pages 118 and it through, the it to the dear girl who ; and he did this on necessary alterations to adapt received it his own birthday, when he was overwhelmed June with contributions for the before he went up to the to be acknowledged all had Orphanage, which Festival at Stockwell, at which he was expected to make several speeches.
Surely, even he could hardly have given a more convincing proof of his delight in imparting pleasure to others whatever mi^ht be the cost to himself.