Spurgeon a New Biography #3 — C.H. Spurgeon

Moreover, the New Park Street people had already appointed a committee to make plans for the construction of a new and very large church, and the catastrophe moved them to work and pray to see the planning completed and the actual construction begun.

And Spurgeon benefited within himself. The opposition taught him to sacrifice even his reputation for Christ. If I must lose that too, he wrote, then let it go. It is the dearest thing I have, but it shall go too, if, like my master, they shall say I have a devil and am mad.

The experience, heart-rending though it was at the time, brought him into an increased maturity, and it was a wiser Spurgeon who led his church forward. Undoubtedly, some would like to think of Spurgeon as a man who seldom disagreed with anyone and who was always widely loved and admired.

But in his doctrinal emphasis, he ran contrary to many, and for this reason, in addition to his unusual zeal, he became an object of ridicule and reproach, and some years were to elapse before the nation began to recognize his true qualities and to know his extraordinary worth.

Revival in London

Chapter 8 now, entitled, Revival in London. And it too is prefaced by a quote from Spurgeon himself, written in January 1860. Here's the quote. There was a specimen before me of the plowman who overtook the reaper, of one who sowed the seed, who was treading on the heels of the men who were gathering in the vintage, and the like activity we have lived to see in the church of Christ.

Did you ever know so much doing in the Christian world before? There are gray-headed men around me who have known the church of Christ sixty years, and they can bear me witness that they never knew such life, such vigor and activity as there is at present.

And now Chapter 8, again entitled, Revival in London. For three years Spurgeon used the Surrey Gardens Music Hall as the site of his morning service, and the evening congregation continued to meet, though terribly overcrowded, in the New Park Street Chapel.

These were years of tremendous labor, and also of great blessing. A congregation of an unusual nature was drawn to the great hall. Among them were many persons of learning and position, and a large number were middle-class citizens, people whose possessions were sufficient to afford them a very comfortable manner of life.

But there were numerous poor in London in those days, and among them poverty was the daily lot, sickness was frequent, and drunkenness, immorality, and thievery abounded. Life was hard, suicides were not uncommon, and most had long been forced to say, No man careth for our souls.

Hundreds from this poor class came to hear Spurgeon. The first experience many of these people had with Spurgeon was during the cholera epidemic. He had not tried to escape the contagion, but had gone freely to the homes of the sick.

He had shown kindness, prayed for the suffering, comforted the mourners, and buried the dead. News of his actions had spread around the entire area, and people recognized that here was a preacher who truly cared about them.

The attention thus drawn to Spurgeon was increased by the campaign of opposition against him. His name was on many tongues, and it was spoken so frequently in contempt and with such bitter accusations that many people were moved by curiosity to go to hear him.

Moreover, going to the hall did not seem like going to so forbidding a place as a church. And as they listened, they found he did not speak in some difficult style, but he spoke their language, the tongue of a common man.

He used words they knew well, and illustrations they could understand, and he seemed to be talking to each one personally. Above all, he had a message that reached many hearts as he told of the new life that could be had in Christ.

In seeking to reach these people, indeed in every aspect of his ministry, Spurgeon was characterized by an earnestness that almost defies description. Some authors have assumed that he was little more than an entertainer.

They picture him as a man who went to the pulpit in a jovial manner, made people laugh and feel good, and who regarded preaching as something of a casual pastime. Nothing can be further from the truth.

Certainly, Spurgeon had a gift of humor, and at times it came into play as he preached. A Scottish minister, after hearing him, said his speaking was enlivened here and there with a flash of wit that was like the gleam of sunshine on the ripples of a river.

But to suppose that Spurgeon told jokes in the pulpit or treated the work of preaching lightly is to reveal an utter ignorance of the man and of his concept of the ministry. In speaking to his students on how the pulpit's power for good may be destroyed, he said, It may be done by putting empty-headed men in the pulpit, men who have nothing to say, and say it, or frothy, feathery men who introduce a joke in the pulpit for joking's sake.

Clowning in the pulpit called down his strongest denunciations. In his regular Sunday work, he spent some time before the beginning of the services alone with God, feeling the awesome responsibility of preaching the gospel to lost mankind, and pouring out his soul in prayer.

On some occasions he seemed unable to go out and stand before the people, and the deacons found it necessary almost to lift him from his knees as the moment for commencing the service drew near. Yet he went forth, always right on time, and as he stood before the congregation he experienced a great sense of power from on high.

He preached with confidence, with clear instruction and heartfelt pleading. But as soon as the service was concluded he hastened away to his vestry, there to groan out before God his sense of failure.

He could not be alone for long, for people came lining up before the vestry door, some coming as visitors from afar to greet him, but others coming to tell him they were in sore spiritual need and wanted him to show them the way to the Savior.

Spurgeon spoke out against the kind of minister who, before preaching, can be a jolly fellow, happily greeting the people, and who, after the service, can gather jovially with him at the door, having fair words for all.

His place at such a time, he declared, is with God, weeping out the failure of his preaching and pleading that the seed sown in hearts might take root and bring forth fruit unto eternal life. This earnestness characterized the whole service, the singing, the scripture reading, and the preaching, but it was especially evident as Spurgeon led the congregation in prayer.

Throughout his entire ministry, many hearers remarked that, moved as they were by his preaching, they were still more affected by his praying. D. L. Moody, after his first visit to England, being asked upon his return to America, Did you hear Spurgeon preach? replied, Yes, but better still, I heard him pray.

Spurgeon asked that no one take down his prayers in shorthand, declaring prayer was too solemn an activity to be subjected to reporting, but at times the request went unheeded. His prayer at the watch-night service in 1856 was recorded, and we may sense something of his tremendous earnestness as we read it.

O God, save thy people, save thy people! A solemn charge hast thou given to thy servant. O Lord, it is too solemn for such a child. Help him, help him by thine own grace to discharge it as he ought. O Lord, let thy servant confess that he feels his prayers are not as earnest as they should be for his people's souls, that he does not preach so frequently as he ought with that fire, that energy, that true love for men's souls.

But O Lord, damn not the hearers for the preacher's sin. O destroy not the flock for the shepherd's iniquity. Have mercy on them, good Lord, have mercy on them. O Lord, have mercy on them. There are some of them, Father, that will not have mercy on themselves.

How we have preached to them and labored for them. O God, thou knowest that I lie not. How have I striven for them that they might be saved. But the heart is too hard for man to melt, and the soul, made of iron, too hard for flesh and blood to render soft.

O God, the God of Israel, thou canst save. There is the pastor's hope, there is the minister's trust. He cannot, but thou canst, Lord. They will not come, but thou canst make them willing in the day of thy power.

They will not come unto thee that they may have life, but thou canst draw them, and then they shall run after thee. They cannot come, but thou canst give them power. For though no man cometh except the Father draw him, yet if he draw him, then he can come.

O Lord, for another year has thy servant preached, thou knowest how. It is not for him to plead his cause with thee. But now, O Lord, we beseech thee, bless our people. Let this, our church, thy church, be still knit together in unity.

And this night, may they commence a fresh era of prayer. They are a praying people. Blessed be thy name, and they pray for their minister with all their hearts. O Lord, help them to pray more earnestly.

May we wrestle in prayer more than ever, and beseech thy throne until thou makest Jerusalem a praise, not only here, but everywhere. But Father, it is not the church we weep for, it is not the church we groan for, it is the world.

O faithful promiser, hast thou not promised to thy son that he should not die in vain? Give him souls, we beseech thee, that he may be abundantly satisfied. Hast thou not promised that thy church shall be increased?

O increase her, increase her. And hast thou not promised that thy ministers shall not labor in vain? For thou hast said, As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, even so shall thy word be, it shall not return unto thee void.

Let not the word return void tonight. But now may thy servant in the most earnest manner, with the most fervent heart, burning with love to his Saviour, and with love to souls, preach once more the glorious gospel of the Blessed One.

Come Holy Spirit, we can do nothing without thee. We solemnly invoke thee, great Spirit of God, thou who didst rest on Abraham, on Isaac, and on Jacob, thou who in the night visions speakest unto men.

Spirit of the prophets, Spirit of the apostles, Spirit of the church, be thou our Spirit this night, that the earth may tremble, that souls may be made to hear thy word, and that all flesh may rejoice together to praise thy name.

Unto Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the Dread Supreme, be everlasting praise. Amen. The essence of Spurgeon's theology is revealed in this prayer. He recognized that the human heart is set against God, and that so severe is the nature of sin, that unregenerate man will not and cannot come to God of himself.

Man is lost in sin, and such is his condition that he can in no way help himself. Yet Spurgeon found assurance in knowing that Christ on the cross accomplished the full salvation of all whom God would call, and that God makes unwilling men willing in the day of His power.

He regarded himself as responsible to preach the gospel to them all, to every creature, and to do so as zealously as if the outcome depended entirely on himself. He knew that salvation is of the Lord, and that as he went on with a mighty task, he could be confident that the word would not return void, but that God would use it to bring about the salvation of souls.

Christ-Exalting Preaching and Evangelistic Appeals

His was a theology not limited by the response of man. It depended upon God, and it was to Spurgeon a theology of victory. The earnestness manifested in his praying characterized also Spurgeon's preaching.

His first aim was that of bringing glory to Christ. In mentioning the strain he frequently experienced when he first began to preach in Exeter Hall, Mrs. Spurgeon wrote, I remember the Sunday evening when he preached from the text, His Name Shall Endure Forever.

It was a subject in which he reveled. It was his chief delight to exalt his glorious Savior, and he seemed in that discourse to be pouring out his very soul and life in homage and adoration before his gracious King.

But I really thought he would have died there in face of all those people. At the end of the sermon he made a mighty effort to recover his voice, but utterance well nigh failed, and only in broken accents could the pathetic proration be heard, Let my name perish, but let Christ's name last forever, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, crown him Lord of all.

You will not hear me say anything else. These are my last words in Exeter Hall for this time, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, crown him Lord of all. And then he fell back, almost fainting, in the chair behind him.

Together with his love for the Lord, Spurgeon's preaching manifested a great love for the souls of mankind. Christians were fed, and needy saints were comforted under his ministry, but above all sinners were pleaded with to come to Christ.

One of his early sermons closed with, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned. Weary sinner, hellish sinner, thou who art the devil's castaway, reprobate, profligate, harlot, robber, thief, adulterer, fornicator, drunkard, swearer, Sabbath-breaker, list, I speak to thee as to the rest, I exempt no man.

God hath said there is no exemption here. Whosoever believeth in the name of Jesus Christ shall be saved. Sin is no barrier, thy guilt is no obstacle. Whosoever though he were as black as Satan, though he were guilty as a fiend, whosoever this night believes shall have every sin forgiven, shall have every crime effaced, shall have every iniquity blotted out, shall be saved in the Lord Jesus Christ, and shall stand in heaven safe and secure.

That is the glorious gospel. God applied to your hearts and give you faith in Jesus. Almost every sermon contained, especially toward its close, an entreaty of this nature, warning, begging, pleading, urging the sinner to come to Christ.

Spurgeon took further steps in directing souls who had come to Christ and were therefore ready for baptism and membership in the church. He did not ask people to walk to the front of the auditorium, raise a hand, sign a card, or perform any outward action.

But throughout each sermon, and especially as he drew it to its close, he pleaded with unsaved hearers to believe on Christ, and he expected them to do so then and there. At times he told them to go quietly to their homes, to go to a room alone, and to stay there seeking the Lord till he planted faith and repentance within their hearts.

Testing Conversion and Receiving New Members

During his first years in London, he made himself available every Tuesday afternoon that persons who were in trouble about their souls might seek his advice, or those who had recently come to know Christ might tell him of their experience.

These were glorious occasions to him, and he rejoiced to point a seeking one to the Lord or to hear a testimony of the transformation of a life. In turn, on Tuesday evening, as the church gathered for prayer meeting, he presented the names of those he had reason to believe were truly born again, and often the person was there to tell of his experience before the large company.

The church then voted to receive these ones for baptism and church membership, and that happy task was almost the only business of the church. Before long, however, the number of persons who came to Spurgeon proved so large that he found it necessary to change his procedure.

Names of persons who were known to be seekers or who claimed to have recently come to Christ were presented at the Tuesday evening meeting, and in each case a man whom the church called a messenger was appointed to visit the person in order, as far as possible, to ascertain the spiritual condition.

The messenger wrote a report of his dealing with this person and entered it in a book entitled Record of Inquirers, which was kept by the church. The work done by the messengers reveals that they had developed a marvelous spiritual maturity.

Undoubtedly when Spurgeon first came to New Park Street, the men of the church were little accustomed to dealing with inquiring souls. But under Spurgeon's instruction they learned to perform the sensitive task, and, as one reads their reports, it is impossible not to be struck by their wisdom.

In dealing with a person who testified he had come to know the Lord, the messenger looked for three marks of true conversion. One, had the person, knowing himself to be a sinner and unable to do anything toward saving himself, gone to God, begging for mercy, and had he entirely trusted his soul to Christ, believing in the saving merit of his death upon the cross?

This individual experience of the soul with God was the unalterable and basic necessity, and without it there was no recognition of the person as truly converted. Two, had the person entered into newness of life, experiencing a change of affections, victory over sin, a love for the word of God, and a desire to win others to Christ?

Three, did he or she possess a basic understanding of the doctrines of grace, recognizing that salvation did not begin with himself or his own will, but with God's choice and God's action, and that God who saved him would keep him through time and through eternity?

The messengers dealt very tenderly and understandingly with these babes in Christ, and the reports of their visits possess a spiritual richness that is rare in Christian literature. In cases in which the messenger was satisfied on these three matters, he expressed his rejoicing in the report, and wrote at the bottom of the page, Give him or her a card to see the pastor.

But when he was not satisfied, the report might read, in the case of a woman, Recommend her to attend Mrs. Bartlett's class. I will see her again in three months. A man would be directed to one of the men's classes, and in some instances two and three dates on which further visits were made were written in.

But there were several instances in which the messenger was not satisfied that the person was truly saved, and each year a list of refusals containing perhaps sixty or seventy names was pasted into the front of the book.

Spurgeon was still available each Tuesday afternoon to meet with inquirers, but the work of the messengers had already done much toward saving his time. On several occasions he remarked on the joy he had in hearing the testimonies of these new Christians, and he was often in tears as he heard them tell of the work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts, of their struggles with sin and their victories over it, and of their new life in Christ.

Many mentioned the very sermon under which their hearts had been smitten with a realization of their need, and some even spoke of a text he had used or a single statement he had made that was used of the Lord to awaken them and draw them to himself.

He gave encouragement and advice. In these interviews he came to know the persons individually, and this acquaintance enabled him, even when the membership rose to six thousand, to remember almost every one of them by name.

On various occasions he was so lost in joy in hearing the accounts of conversion that he forgot all about supper, and he was sorry when the hour for the prayer meeting arrived and he had to leave several individuals to be dealt with the following week.

Those names were presented to the church that evening. The people joined him in rejoicing as they heard the new converts, and several each week were received for baptism and membership. Sometimes the number was as low as twelve, and often as high as twenty and more.

In his extraordinary earnestness, Spurgeon could not do less than exercise this great care in dealing with souls. He truly believed in hell, and he recognized the awful possibility should he give some person cause to believe he was saved if there was no evidence that it was so.

Moreover, membership in the church was never allowed to become a mere formality. Members were given tickets, one of which must be presented at each communion service, and the names of any who were absent four months without good cause were removed.

Likewise, the names of those who ceased to live in London, in those days many an Englishman emigrated to Australia, Canada, and other lands, were deleted, and the principle that, except in the case of shut-ins, membership must be active was rigidly maintained.

The new members were, very largely, people who did not come from other churches. The vast majority were men and women who had never been in the habit of attending church, but they came, especially to the music hall, heard the gospel, and were converted.

Many of these represented marvelous transformations, drunkards, harlots, and thieves with lives changed and homes made anew, men and women who once did not know God, but now were happily living for the Lord and serving Him.

Revival's Wider Influence

The blessing experienced under Spurgeon's ministry soon affected other churches. Although at first there had been the loud outcry against him, as time passed and as people read his sermons and saw his work, their opinions began to change.

By the time he had been in London three years, some of the papers wrote of him very favorably, and certain of the great literary and political figures of the nation frequently dropped into the services.

His fervor gradually had an influence on religious conditions in general. Several ministers who had been sorely lacking in zeal began to labor with diligence. Special evangelistic efforts were conducted in many quarters, and some even followed Spurgeon in holding meetings in Exeter Hall.

He spoke of his church as the advance guard of the times. I cannot help observing that during the last four or five years a wonderful change has come over the Christian mind. The Church of England has been awakened.

Great services have been held. I cannot help remembering that God honored us to let us stand in the front of this great movement. From our example, the blessed fire has run along the ground and kindled a blaze.

When I first heard that clergymen were to preach in Exeter Hall, my soul leaped within me. When I heard that Westminster Abbey was opened for the preaching of the gospel, and then St. Paul's Cathedral, I was overwhelmed with gratitude and prayed that only the truth as it is in Jesus might be preached in these places.

A year later, he asserted, The times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord have at last dawned upon our land. Everywhere there are signs of aroused activity and increased earnestness. A spirit of prayer is visiting our churches.

The first breath of the rushing mighty wind is already discerned, while on rising evangelists the tongues of fire have evidently descended. He spoke of the blessing God had bestowed upon his ministry as Yet he and his people were anticipating a still larger in-gathering, for the days of their meeting in rented halls were almost ended.

Building the Metropolitan Tabernacle

As 1861 dawned, they were ready to enter their new church home, the great Metropolitan Tabernacle. But now we begin another subsection of the book entitled, The Long Period of Mature Ministry, and the dates are 1861 to 1886.

And it begins with chapter 9, the Metropolitan Tabernacle. And here's a quote at the beginning of chapter 9 from his first sermon in the Metropolitan Tabernacle dated March 31st, 1861. Here's the quote.

Let God send the fire of his spirit here, and the minister will be more and more lost in his master. You will come to think less of the speaker, and more of the truth spoken. Suppose the fire should come here, and the master be seen more than the minister.

What then? Why this church will become two, three, and four thousand strong. 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 ministers raised up and trained, and sent forth to carry the sacred fire to other parts of the globe. If God shall bless us, he will make us a blessing to multitudes of others. Let God but send down the fire, and the biggest sinners in the neighborhood will be converted.

Those who live in dens of infamy will be changed. The drunkard will forsake his cups. The swearer will repent of his blasphemy. The debauched will leave their lusts. Dry bones be raised, and clothed afresh, and hearts of stone be turned to flesh.

That's the quote. Now let's begin chapter nine, the Metropolitan Tabernacle. Spurgeon had been in London merely two years when plans were begun to build a large new church. Despite the enthusiasm in his ministry manifested by the deacons and the people, some questioned the wisdom of this action.

Just thirty years earlier, Edward Irving, the Presbyterian orator, had taken London by storm and a magnificent church had been erected for him. But he had quickly faded from public attention, and there were those who said the same would be true of Spurgeon, and that his people too would be left with a nearly empty building and a huge debt.

Nevertheless, the vast majority were strongly in favor of going forward with the project. An excellent piece of property was acquired at Newington Butts, an area south of the Thames at a busy junction of three roads, at the cost of five thousand pounds.

A design for the building to seat three thousand six hundred, and to have temporary seating and standing room for almost two thousand more, was accepted. The new church was to be called the Metropolitan Tabernacle.

Spurgeon made much of the fact that the architecture was Grecian, a relationship, he said, that was clear to the evangelical heart, for the New Testament was written in Greek. Much time was consumed in these preliminary arrangements, but meanwhile Spurgeon was, if possible, busier than ever.

Among other activities, he now addressed the largest gathering of his entire career. There had been a mutiny in India against Britain's rule over that land, and a service of national humiliation was planned.

It was to be held in the Crystal Palace, and was to be addressed by the one man with voice enough to reach the expected gigantic audience, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The day before the service he went to the palace to weigh up the task he was facing.

The building had not been planned with any thought of meetings, and in order to test the acoustics he repeated several times the scripture, Behold the Lamb of God which take away the sin of the world.

His words were heard by a man who was working somewhere in the building. That man came to him some days later to say the message of the verse had reached his heart, and he had come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.

The people attending the service counted at turnstiles as they entered, numbered 23 ,654. This was undoubtedly the largest indoor congregation ever reached with the human voice in all history until that time.

As he preached, Spurgeon was critical of England's actions in India. He called for national repentance and humiliation. There were no words of condemnation for the government in that sermon. He impeached their treatment of India, and reminded them that only righteousness could exalt a nation.

An offering was received to help persons wounded in the mutiny, and it amounted to 675 pounds. Following the service, held on a Wednesday evening, Spurgeon was so exhausted that he slept two nights and a day.

He did not wake up till Friday morning. Spurgeon's chief project during that time was raising money for the new tabernacle. The estimated cost was 13 ,000 pounds, and he held to the principle that there must never be any debt in doing the Lord's work.

This place must be entirely paid for before it was opened, and he was prepared to take upon himself the responsibility of providing a considerable portion of the costs. To begin, he gave a series of weeknight lectures in Exeter Hall.

His subjects were of general educational interest, and at each meeting, an offering was received. He also accepted as many as possible of the numerous invitations he received to come and preach. When the journey was short, he traveled by horse and carriage, but for the longer trips he went by train, and that could be a grimy and exhausting experience.

When being put up for the night in someone's home, he asked for a quiet place, and said, It is the lionizing that tires me, and he sought escape from the pressure of the crowd. The story is told that when staying in a small hotel one night, he asked that he be awakened at five in the morning to catch a train.

At three, a youth knocked upon his door, and when Spurgeon finally answered, the lad said, Just to let you know, sir, that you have only two more hours to sleep. In accepting these invitations, Spurgeon suggested to each pastor that half the amount received in the offering go to the work of that church, and the other half be used toward the construction of his new tabernacle.

This was always an agreeable arrangement, but sometimes he saw some special need. For instance, a farmer who had suffered years of crop failure, or a minister who was trying to bring up a family on sixty pounds a year, and he devoted the whole to meet such a necessity.

This labor took Spurgeon to Ireland for some days of meetings. Many of the people at first considered him inferior to their own great evangelist, Gretton Guinness, but before long they forgot the human comparison and were much drawn to the gospel Spurgeon preached.

The heavy agenda of traveling and preaching he had set for himself soon proved too much for him to bear. After his return from Ireland he was too ill to continue, and was laid aside for nearly a month.

This was the first indication of the breaking down of his health, and a sign that throughout the rest of his life his labors would often be conducted under severe physical difficulty. Nevertheless, as soon as he was able, he became fully active again.

On the afternoon of August 15, 1859, the foundation stone of the tabernacle was laid. Although it was a weekday, Tuesday, some three thousand persons were present, and esteemed Christian baronet Sir Morton Pateau was in the chair.

Spurgeon and his father each gave an address. A large ceramic jar containing a Bible, a copy of the Baptist Confession of Faith, Dr. Rippon's hymn book, and the program of the day's proceedings were placed beneath the stone.

In the evening another meeting was held. That day the offering was well over four thousand pounds. Spurgeon was also devoting to the tabernacle the income derived from the sale of his sermons. A sermon was published each week and was circulated among subscribers throughout the British Isles, in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and translations were being made into German, Dutch, French, Italian, and Swedish.

There was also a very large circulation in America. Moreover, at the end of each year a volume containing fifty-two sermons was produced, and for that there was a similar international demand. The Americans were not satisfied merely to read Spurgeon, they wanted to hear him too.

He received several invitations to visit the United States. The first offered him ten thousand pounds to preach four discourses in the splendid and spacious Music Hall of New York. Whether or not he decided to go we do not know, but a London paper said he did, and announced, he will leave England in April and will preach at Rochester, at Boston or Philadelphia as well as at New York.

Another journal said he would not accept the ten thousand pounds, but would go on an independent basis. The idea was soon dropped by both sides. A young black man who had escaped from a slave owner in South Carolina was then in England giving talks on his experiences.

He was a true Christian, and Spurgeon had him come to an evening service and tell of his sufferings and his escape. The matter of slavery was then sorely dividing America and leading towards civil war, and Spurgeon's action brought strong criticism upon him.

Persons in both North and South demanded that he clearly declare his position on the matter, and in reply he wrote an article for an American publication, quote, I do from my inmost soul detest slavery, and although I commune at the Lord's table with men of all creeds, yet with a slave holder I have no fellowship of any sort or kind.

Whenever one has called upon me, I have considered it my duty to express my detestation of his wickedness, and I would as soon think of receiving a murderer into my church as a man-stealer. Of course, such statements drew a storm of protest, especially in the southern states.

Effigies of Spurgeon were burned in several places, his American publishers suspended the printing of his sermons, and various papers urged readers to destroy any they might possess and to forego all purchase of his publications in the future.

Thus, the income from America was largely cut off. Spurgeon had recognized his statements would provoke severe opposition, so their reaction was no surprise. But being so strongly moved against slavery, he could do nothing else, and he willingly suffered this financial loss.

Nevertheless, money came in steadily from other lands. In his task of preaching the gospel and raising support, Spurgeon spent some days in Wales, was at Bristol and Birmingham, and took a trip to Scotland, ministering in various places in England on the way.

He visited Europe and was warmly received in Paris where he preached by means of an interpreter, and in one of the great experiences of his life, he preached in Calvin's pulpit in Geneva, Switzerland.

And from all these journeyings, he came home with added funds toward the new building. Providentially, one of the deacons of the church, William Higgs, was a successful contractor. He was a man of pronounced Christian character who also excelled at his profession, and he was awarded the contract for the construction of the tabernacle.

Between Higgs and Spurgeon there was the happiest relationship, as stone by stone the great new structure took shape. Construction lasted nearly two years, and the cost, which had been estimated at thirteen thousand pounds, became thirty-one thousand pounds.

Just before the building was ready to be opened, since the entire costs had not yet been met, a great bazaar was held to raise the remaining amount. This action caused questioning in many evangelical minds then, and it will do the same today.

But Spurgeon believed in the practice, and the receipts from the bazaar enabled him to open the building free from all debt. The first Sunday service in the Metropolitan Tabernacle was held on Sunday, March 31, 1861.

Of course, this was a high day for Spurgeon. He was only twenty-six, yet under his leadership his congregation had grown from the eighty or so he first addressed in London, to six thousand or more, and from New Park Street Chapel to this great edifice, the largest nonconformist church in the world.

Yet, his joy lay not especially in these accomplishments, but in the fact that he would now have a church home, a building in which the activities of his people would center, in which they would be built up in the things of God, and to which outsiders would be drawn in great numbers to hear the gospel and to enter the Christian life.

The Tabernacle was admirably planned to meet the needs of Spurgeon's ministry. In addition to the floor level referred to in those days as the area, there were two galleries. The whole had seating for about three thousand six hundred.