Increasing Usefulness
The Christian’s sympathy should ever be of the widest character, because he serves a God of infinite love. When the precious stone of love is thrown by grace into the crystal pool of a renewed heart, it stirs the transparent life-floods into ever-widening circles of sympathy: the first ring has no very wide circumference — we love our household; ‘’for he who careth not for his own household is worse than a heathen man.” But mark the next concentric ring — we love the household of faith: “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” Look once more, for the ever-widening ring has reached the very limit of the lake, and included all in its area, for “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks are to be made for all men.” A follower of Jesus means a friend of man. A Christian is a pliilanthropist by profession, and generous by force of grace; wide as the reign of sorrow is the stretch of his love, and where he cannot help he pities still. — C. H. Spurgeon.
‘“P^HE multifarious work under the care of and “Sirs. Spur- -L geon is ever widening; the cloud like a man’s hand spreads everywhere and pours its refreshing rain on all lands. During a recent visit to the Tabernacle, the College, and the Orphanage we were again eye-witnesses of the working of these famous institutions. Nor were we less interested in Mrs. Spurgeon’s special ministry of love, who kindly explained to us her manner of book-keeping, which also revealed her spirit of hook-givirig.
Personal interviews with these great souls, and visits to their hospitable home, enable us to speak of that we do know, and testify of that we have seen. Mr. Spurgeon is still foremost in every good woik, the true friend of all real reform.
The Earl of Shaftesbury, identified with so many benevolent enterprises for many years, regretting his enforced absence from one of ]Ir. Spurgeon’s annual school-meetings, in his apologetic letter refers to Mr. Spurgeon and his work in the most unqualified approval. This is the warm word from this truly noble-man.
24 Grosvexor Square, W. October 13. Dear Kirk, — If you have an opportunity, pray read this letter to the m.eeting to be held at ]Ir. Spurgeon’s Tabernacle on ]Ionday, 16th. I am much grieved that I am unable to be present My attendance at the Quarter Sessions for the County of Dorset is required on the following day; and it is an official duty that I cannot well set aside. I am grieved; because there is no man in the country whose opinion and support in such matters I prize
See page 519.
more highly than those of my friend, Mr. Spurgeon. It would give me singular pleasure, after nearly forty years of work in the Ragged-school cause, to have the testimony and counsel of so valuable a man. Few men have preached so much, and so well; and few ever have combined so practically their words and their actions. I deeply admire and love him, because I do not believe that there lives anywhere a more sincere and simple servant of our blessed Lord. Great talents have been rightly used: and, under God’s grace, have led to great issues.
Yours truly,
Shaftesbury.
While theorizers of reform are airing their nothings, and students of philosophy are chasing shadows, this great, generous. Christian man preaches the gospel of certainties, feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, shelters the orphan, comforts the widow, educates the ignorant, encourages the ministry, and stimulates colporteurs, evangelists, missionaries, and churches, by voice and pen and godly example.
TJie church, over whom the Holy Ghost hath made him overseer, flourishes like the green palm-tree. JMonthly additions swell its membership. The hand of the Lord is upon His servant, and many are led from sin to holiness. Thousands still hang breathlessly on his lips, and the skilful voice uttercth no uncertain sound.
The weekly printed sermons migrate to many lands. Translations of them into foreign tongues become more numerous. Reports of their usefulness come from distant fields. Re-printed, re-read, and re-preached, they carry the light of life to the ends of the earth.
A Baptist minister writes to him as follows: “You ought to be a happy man. When in Scotland, some time ago, I got lost in a Glen-something; The folk there had never heard of the late lamented Bcaconsfield; * happy is the people that is in such a case! ‘They had no notion of Gladstone; but you should have seen them wake up when I mentioned your name. They had a sort of knowledge of that name, for they read your sermons, and fetched a lot out to show me that they did so. I assure you, I never saw any man’s works with such signs of use upon them. There was no kirk in the glen, so on Sundays they got together and had a service, the scholar of the place reading the sermon. One very old man said he ’ wad shoost gang on his twa honds and knees a’ the way to Glasguh to get a sight o’ ye.’ I doubt if he could have done half a mile any way, but there was a look in his eye that you would have been comforted to see.”
In his magazine Mr. Spurgeon writes: “A Christian man, who used to attend our services at the Surrey ]Iusic Hall, recently felt moved to read the sermons on the green of the village where he lives, and in the adjoining town. With the help of a few friends he has conducted a full service at each place on Sunday afternoons and evenings. In the village he has gathered from 200 to 300 people together, and in the town his congregations have ranged from 400 or 500 up to 900 or 1,000. He says that the people have been very attentive, and that from the many encouraging expressions he has received, he is sure God is blessing the work. His great regret is that he did not commence the effort before. When the weather gets too cold for open-air services he hopes to secure a large building in which to continue the reading of the sermons through the winter. Are there not many other places where those who have been blessed by the reading of the sermons might with great advantage to many people carry on similar services?”
Another illustration of the usefulness of his printed sermons is from his own pen.
“A friend in Dorset, who reads our sermons at the village services which he conducts, writes that recently the Lord was pleased to bless the word to a young man, who is now rejoicing in his Saviour. The sermon read on that occasion was, ‘Vanities and Verities’ (No. 1,379). He also adds: ‘Last Sunday evening I was in another village, and two of God’s children came to me, after the service, to say how much the Word was blessed to their souls. One old saint especially remarked that she did not know when she had been so lifted up. The subject was, ‘For Whom is the Gospel Meant?’ (No. 1,345). So you see, my dear sir, that God js
g LIFE AND LABORS OF C. H. SPURGEON.
pleased to bless the Word, not only as it falls from your lips, but years after, when it is read by other people.’”
He who has sown with liberal hand the true grain is gathering now from divers countries many golden sheaves.
The College progresses favorably. New students are being sent forth throughout Europe, to Asia, to Africa, to America, infused with the spirit of the president, — nay rather, with the Spirit of the Lord, — achieving conquests in the gospel everywhere.
We subjoin a letter to Mr. Spurgeon, which speaks loudly for him and the college now so thoroughly established.
Dear Brother, — A friend having put into my hands the May number of your excellent magazine, the “Remarks by the Rev. George Rogers,” on your college, caught my eye, and I read the page with intense interest. It somewhat lifted off a burden which had been weighing heavily on my heart and conscience for some little time, as it testified that one college in London, at least, intended to teach faithfully the foundation-truths of the gospel of God; and “not to introduce any modification of its course of studies, to suit what are called the demands of the age’’
A fortnight or three weeks ago one of our foremost religious journals sounded a flourish of trumpets, because there had been afforded “■ a happy indication that the days of bigotry were drawing to an end.” This referred to a meeting for discussion, held in one of our metropolitan denominational colleges, and presided over by the leading and most prominent minister of the Unitarian body in London — a man of splendid talents, most fascinating eloquence, great learning, and the highest social character. His writings are considered, from an intellectual and literary standpoint, as of the greatest excellence. Had he been an obscure, ignorant, uninfluential person, the danger would not be so imminent. Mr. Rogers says of your college ‘* that it adheres to the Puritanic in distinction from Germanic theology; “this is, in the estimation of many, its honor and glory; but the students in the college referred to are led to fraternize with the most influential teacher of Unitarianism, and recommended to read his books! What is this but leading our future ministers into temptation? It is teaching them to break down the barriers which now separate the believers in Christ’s Godhead from those who esteem him as only a mail, — true, the ideal man, the hohest, wisest, highest man among men, but still a man, — thereby making us, who worship him as “God over all” idolaters.
The Unitarian also denies that fundamental doctrine of the cross, “He was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification” — the atonement offered for our sins by the God-man. Are our students for the ministry to be taught that these two foundation-truths of God’s Word are of so little importance that those who persistently oppose them may be bidden God-speed? Through evil report and through good report, I would a thousand times say” No!’’
Had I a thousand pounds at my command, I would cheerfully, notwithstanding my different view from yours of baptism, hand it over to the treasurer of your college, for in the words of patriarch Rogers, “Its work is not done, but rather only begun.”
Yours in gospel bonds,
A Congregational Minister.
The Orphanage, and other institutions originated and directed by Mr. Spurgeon’s brain and heart, are also flourishing.
The Book Fund and its work, with the Pastor’s Aid Society, are the channels through which Mrs. Spurgeon’s good-will carries blessing to body and mind. Nor can this work be over-estimated.
The books furnish poor preachers with brain-food, check the tendency towards ?^;^gospel theology, and encourage evangelical religion throughout the land.
Though a hard-working, constantly employed man, in the walks of literature of the most important kind, Mr. Spurgeon neither frets nor fumes like the late Carlyle. The crowing of the cock or baying of the hound calls forth no anathemas from his lips. Poor Carlyle! he saw the wrong side of things, with “a jaundiced eye;” and the ‘’man of genius” kept his suffering wife in constant mental torture with his unhappy and uncertain temper. How different with this other man of genius, into whose heart has come the sweet peace of Christ through an intelligent faith, and whose soul is kept calm amid many a storm. The furnace of suffering has refined him, and long acqaintance with pain makes him tender and patient toward others. And Mrs. Spurgeon, brave lady, writes as one who also knows the secret of quiet confidence, having her dwelling-place under the shadow of the Almighty. We have wished that the tried W’ife of the Chelsea Sage had given us to know that she too heard the hush of the great Christ upon her ruffled spirit. Surely then her letters would betray less of poignant grief and bitter disappointment. Herein doth lie the peace of the worthy inmates of Westwood, that they know the Lord, and are known of Him.
An extract from Mrs. Spurgeon’s pen will have its influence for good upon our readers: —
“Yesterday deserves to be noted as a dies non; for that good gift of God, of which Solomon says, ‘Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun,’ was blotted out and obscured by an almost Egyptian darkness which fell upon us for long and wearisome hours. At 3.30 P. M. midnight had taken the place of ’ the perfect day,’ and spread her sable wings over the reluctant earth prematurely. From the high tower at Westwood, nothing could be seen all around but black, lowering masses of dense darkness, which hung like funeral palls from the sky, and now and again lifted their fearful folds only to reveal a deeper and denser gloom beyond. Here and there the glimmer of a near gaslight could be discerned; but not a ray of Heaven’s sweet beams pierced through the dreadful overshadowing, and a stillness more awesome than that of a real night hushed all familiar sounds. As hour after hour passed by, no enlightenment was vouchsafed us, nor could we tell when true night came to dispossess the rival darkness of the sceptre it had so strangely usurped.
“Into all this dismal murkiness came two letters from Mentone, telling of a placid sea, warm breezes, and clear, bright skies, —
* Curtains of azure, and crystal wall, And dome of sunshine high over all’ — letters so full of joy, and good spirits, and glad delight, that for a moment the unbidden tears would slather, from the sheer loneine I had to be in the sunshine too I But when the shutters were closed, the curtains drawn, and the dreary scene without excluded, I found I was in the land of Goshen still, and had ’ light in my dwelling;’ for, like a star — better seen from the depths of a well than from higher ground — shone the conspicuous mercy that my beloved was spared this doleful experience. I knew the fearful darkness was not likely to stretch its hideous arms so far as the fair shores of the Riviera, and I blessed God for the comfortable certainty that over there the beauty and the splendor of an unclouded heaven were doing their sweet restful work on a tired heart and brain. So my gloom was dispelled by the light of my husband’s happiness; for from the South land the sunbeams, imprisoned in his precious letters, travelled a thousand miles to cheer me, and by their gladsome message turned my night into day.
“I wonder whether this is a faint picture of the comfort wherewith God sometimes consoles his bereaved children, by enablincr them to realize the unspeakable blessedness of those who ha-e gone before. Temporary separations by distance are but the foreshadowings of a sterner parting, which, sooner or later, must divide us from those whose love seems to be our verv life. Happy they who can look beyond the grim darkness of such a sorrow, to the unsullied light and bliss which the hope of eternal reunion affords.”-
As a matter of historical interest, ]Ir. Spurgeon’s description of the family reunion is worthy of record. We hope it will incite the prayer that joy, prosperity, and usefulness may be the portion of each member of this interesting and benevolent household.
“It may not be thought unworthy of mention here that on IIonday, IIay 14, our honored FATHER and MOTHER were spared to celebrate their Golden Wedding-day with us at Westwood. All their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren were present, with the exception of our beloved son Thomas, and the company consisted of thirty-two persons in all. Of this household seven are preachers of the gospel. Very gracious has the Lord been to us as a family, for from a remote ancestry the fear of God has ruled the house, and a blessing has rested upon it because of the Ark of the Lord. The past was reviewed with praise, the present enjoyed in happy unity of love, and the future expected with hope. Our own dear departed grandfather, so long an honored winner of souls, used to rejoice in five of us as ministers of Christ; but now * we are seven,’ and there are others among us who occasionally bear witness for the truth in public. May all our friends have a like blessing; and may young people commencing life be wise enough to perceive that family piety and domestic- happiness must go together: let them not expect the first without the second.”