First Report of the Book Fund, 1876
By G. H. Pike
A SHORT PREFATORY LETTER BY C. H. SPURGEON.
To the Subscribers of the Book Fund,
My dear Friends,
ERSONALLY I thank you all for aiding my most precious wife in the work of furnishing books to poor bookless ministers. Not only have you been doing immense service to the pulpits of our land, and also in the most efficient manner benefiting many congregations, but you have incidentally supplied my dear suffering companion with a happy work, which has opened channels of consolation for her, and imparted great interest to the otherwise monotonous life of an invalid. She has entered into this most gracious work with great zest, and continued in it with unflagging perseverance, and, while it has frequently cost her exertion beyond her strength, it has also relieved her weary hours, and helped her to forget a portion of her pains. Such an alleviation of her affliction is the most suitable and effective that could have been devised by the wisest affection; for it destroys the horrible suspicion of being useless, which, to a heart full of zeal, is as a sword in the bones. No woman has ever more readily entered into all her husband’s plans for the extension of the Ten Years of my Life
Redeemer’s kingdom, nor more readily spared him from her side when called away upon “the King’s business.” Incessant occupations demanded by my sphere of labour give me but scanty opportunity to pay the attentions which are the natural due of a sickly wife; but so far from complaining because of this, she surrenders me with real heroism. Nor is this all, nor the ten thousandth part of what I could write, but I forbear; for if I say more, I fear that my prefatory letter will be “declined with thanks.”
Before starting for the Continent, the little Report for the Book Fund was talked over, and I persuaded my beloved one not to attempt to write the account herself; for I have seen, with much pain, at what cost every line of her writing is produced. Readers of The Sword and the Trowel will regret the loss of an article from her pen, for she writes admirably; but their sympathy with a painful sufferer will lead them to agree with me that the pleasure of reading is too dearly bought when it costs the writer great anguish. I requested one of the staff of the magazine to prepare materials for the little history which follows this note, and I submit it to the kind subscribers as the best substitute which it is in our power to offer for the acknowledgments which Mrs. Spurgeon would gladly tender from her own pen, if she were able to do so. In her name I earnestly thank every donor.
You have wrought a good work in aiding this fund; a work which Christians will appreciate in proportion to their intelligence. The least educated see the benefit of distributing bread and garments, but the more spiritual and thoughtful know that to preachers of the gospel books are quite as much a necessity. The mind, like the soil, needs feeding. The thought which springs from an unaided intellect may be for a time as fresh and vigorous as the first growth of virgin soils, but this cannot last long. To produce crop after crop, especially for fifty-two harvests in a year, if these are to be of any value, something must be put into the man’s soul upon which his brain can feed. Without reading on the part of the sermonizer, discourses must sooner or later become stale and unprofitable. How can a man make bread without flour, or build houses without bricks?
Instead of finding fault with a bookless preacher, who has to beat his brains for new subjects, and then finds it hard to treat them with any freshness, it would be far wiser to send him a present of suggestive volumes. To whip the horse is both unjust and unwise when a feed of corn is really wanted.
It may be said that good men should rely upon the Spirit of God. So they should; but He works by means, and full often while perusing “the books and the parchments” the Lord’s poor servants are conscious of the divine influence. Man does not live by bread alone, and yet we give the hungry man a loaf; and even so, while the mind must be spiritually instructed by the Holy Ghost, it is ours to furnish books by which the Word of God may be better understood.
Nor is this all; for in scattering the volumes supplied by The Book Fund much happiness has been created, and other useful purposes have been answered. Little can it be told, with paper and ink, how much joy this donation of helpful books has caused, and how much of generous feeling towards poor ministers has been incidentally evoked thereby. Anything which turns the attention of Christian people to the pressing poverty of many of our preachers of the gospel is a good thing, and must tend to remedy the crying evil. The Book Fund, from its peculiar character, has excited special interest in this direction, and hundreds of pounds have found their way to the homes of the Lord’s ministers which else would never have come there.
Dear friends, I pray you help Mrs. Spurgeon still, and she will be gratified to be your happy almoner.
I am, yours gratefully,
C. H. SPURGEON.
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1876,
HE BOOK FUND, with which the name of Mrs. Spurgeon is intimately associated, originated in a very simple and unexpected manner. On the day of its birth nobody suspected that so promising a child was born into the world its growth has far surpassed its parents’ expectation. The Fund sprang up as suddenly as Jonah’s gourd, and under its shadow many a man of God has found refreshment; but no worm is at its root, and therefore it has not in the same speedy manner passed away. It was time that some generous agency should endeavour to lessen the grievous book famine now existing among poor Nonconformist pastors, and this came at the nick of time to alleviate the distress at once, and perhaps to open up for the future a large and permanent source of supply. Who knoweth? No company of sympathetic philanthropists drew up the programme, appointing, as they would have been bound to do, a committee, a treasurer, and a secretary; but with twain, who are truly one, it commenced, and by one it has been carried on. The suggestion to distribute books to ministers arose out of the casual pleasantries of a summer day, to be at once adopted as though it had been a message direct from heaven.
No sooner was the work of distribution commenced than gifts flowed in, and, at the same time, unexpected evidence of the vast need to be met excited greater ardour in the invalid worker into whose hands the task had fallen. In the sick chamber there was a delicate, carefully nurtured lemon plant, which had sprung from a pip which had been sown in the preceding winter. While it was very, very small it ‘was the object of many pleasantries, and its apparent non-progressiveness was the theme of many a merry remark, against which the invalid always protested. It did grow,, and it would grow, she was quite sure. Somehow or other this lemon plant came to be looked upon as the emblem of the Fund. First came the shoot, then the fragile stem, next the tiny leaves. The health of the tree was good from the first, and at last its development could not be doubted. A wish was expressed that the Book Fund and the exotic might thrive together, that indeed every leaf should presage a hundred pounds* worth of literature dispensed among needy Pastors. The Fund has prospered beyond expectation 3 still it has not kept pace with the robust vigour of the growing lemon tree, which has now no less than forty leaves to match with less than twelve hundreds subscribed for ministers* books.
Donations continued to be sent unsolicited, so that the originally confined area of operation was necessarily widened. Students as well as Pastors were supplied with the “Lectures *’ 3 and after a little experience more costly volumes, such as “The Treasury of David,** were included in the presents. The interest which the work of Book donation excited was both keen and widespread 3 for Pastors whose scanty stipends hardly allowed of even an occasional volume being added to their bare shelves saw that a door of hope was opened, and that at least for once they might feed in fresh fields and pastures new. Men who had preached the gospel according to their ability with a Bible, a Concordance, and sundry volumes collected in earlier and perhaps happier years, hailed the promised boon with a fervour which necessity alone could enable us fully to understand. A supply of books to these needy, thoughtful men, was like giving mulberry leaves to silkworms, or feeding a fire with fuel. No one can tell the hunger of the heart for books but those whose tastes are literary, whose occupations are mental, and whose purses are bare. Strong is the temptation to set prudence on one side and purchase a volume of which the reviewers speak so highly 3 but no, the children must have shoes, and the threadbare coat must be replaced by a fresh Sunday*s best. The books must go and the brain must starve, yet there must be sermons made and fresh matter brought forth. Is not this hard — this making of bricks without straw? Yes, it is hardest to those who least deserve to suffer it, and would best repay abundant help.
Necessitous as they were, numbers of Pastors hesitated before sending in their applications; but modesty was at length so far overcome that at last they not only asked for the books, but frequently made a confidante of their new friend, heart and soul seeming to find relief in speaking of life trials or family sorrows to one who would heartily sympathize, and, where possible, relieve. Though poverty was known to abound among ministers of all denominations, its extent was under-estimated, and we shall not now incur the charge of writing a sensational story by giving that full, unadorned revelation which the materials in hand would allow. The case is bad as bad can be. To generous hearts there was something depressing in the eager joy, as, well as in the vehemently expressed thanks, with which the gifts were received. Coming from professional men, who are expected to walk abroad in gloves and broadcloth, the language used was terribly indicative of that grinding economy which is only another name for continual self-denial and concealed want. It was a new experience when gifts of small pecuniary value were magnified in such terms as have abounded in many an acknowledgment. One is completely broken down, melted into tears, at the sight of the “great gift.” Another acknowledges with “ten thousand thanks” “The Treasury,” for which he had long sighed in vain. One recipient has not had a new book come across his threshold for three years; while others speak of sick wives and impoverishing doctor bills as absorbers of their small means. Salaries small enough are spoken of as unpaid for months after they are due, and wives are described as keeping no servant, washing, and making all the clothes,, and yet as not having enough for housekeeping to allow of the purchase of meat, except as a luxury. In such cases the purchase of even a cheap magazine has necessitated self-denial at the scanty table, and the thought of a new book has been far away. What are rich Christians thinking; of, that they allow the Lord’s servants thus to be mentally, starved? Do they expect men to work without tools? Do they hope to reap where they have not sown?
The position of Nonconformist pastors in sparsely inhabited country districts is extremely difficult, and ought to; command the sympathy and help of all their brethren. On account of their position appearances have to be studied, and much of their scanty means must thus be expended-Even their rustic audiences would hardly bear to see the pastor in a smock frock and his children barefooted. Such is the consummate art with which home poverty is often concealed that friends on the spot are not aware of their pastor’s necessities. If they would but think a little they would soon perceive how hard the pinch must be; but that is exactly what many hearers are not anxious to do. Where ignorance saves their pockets, they think it folly to be wise. Because he enjoys apparent health they conclude that their minister has a well furnished table; and while his sermons are of tolerable quality no one suspects that he suffers from scarcity of literature. The art of concealing one’s family privation may be even more strikingly exemplified. We have known of a good man — a Baptist pastor — whose example of liberality would have delivered him from the ordeal of being pinched and worried, had it only been copied by those around him. Sinners were converted through his earnest evangelical sermons; the young revered him as a father, not seldom crowding his tea-table on Sabbath afternoons; elderly people valued his ministry more than they suspected until death abridged their privileges; and yet this zealous teacher of the church never had a pound to spare for books during the later years of his life. His course was an unceasing warfare with adverse circumstances, a rugged, thorny, uphill path of daily self-denial, in which flesh and blood at length succumbed, worn out with cares which he concealed, crushed with burdens of which he never spoke. The Book Fund, which could have supplied the dire needs of his thoughtful mind, did not then exist; and the case is only quoted as an example of hundreds of others that the Fund now seeks to relieve. If we cannot lift all burdens from the hearts of our brethren, nor even supply all their urgent needs, let us at least keep them going with fresh thought Let us furnish the library if we cannot fatten the larder. By other deficiencies the good man is made lean himself, but want of books starves the congregation. Perhaps if the worthy brother reads more.
he will by God’s blessing preach better, and then the people will love him more, and do more for him, and so the full book-shelves will lead to the filling of the pantry and the coal cellar. At any rate, the Fund aims at this, and it has an ambitious programme, which, with God’s blessing, it means to carry out
From August, 1875, to the second week in December, 1876, the donations amounted to ^926, the sum having reached ^1,000 before the close of the year. This money represented the free gift of over five thousand volumes, three thousand one hundred and sixteen of which were the larger works by Mr. Spurgeon, the remainder having been books of a miscellaneous kind — new and second-hand, while a few were the pastor’s smaller productions. Seven hundred and ten applicants have received grants of from four to eight volumes each; and, meanwhile, the working expenses have been reduced to a minimum; for the postmaster and the carrier are the only servants employed who receive remuneration. Beyond postage and carriage there are literally no expenses incurred, Mrs. Spurgeon combining in one person the offices of corresponding secretary, treasurer, and manager in general. What has been already accomplished has given abundant cause for gratitude to God, but greater things remain to be done in the future.
The work is capable of indefinite enlargement so long as the strength of the suffering one shall hold out May it be greatly increased and long preserved is the prayer of all who perceive the great value of that fountain in the desert which is opened in
Mrs. Spurgeon’s Book Fund.