Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-08-23
sPuRGEON.
Description of the Great English
stf7aa Preacher. u

Gazette says eeA -f.
1t was little after half-past ten on a
warm Sunday morning that our party,
four in all, entered the yard of the large
and plain, yet not unsightly building
which Mr.. Spurgeon calls his tabernacle.
About the closed front doors we're
crowded q hundred or more persons,
although service was not to begin until
eleven. A good many people, presuma-
bly, pew-holders, were entering a side
door. As we came up we were accosted
by a grave and elderly man, who asked
us if we were not strangers, and if we
did not want to get in. Receiving, Of
course, an Affirmative answer, he called
up parsonage, looking like policeman
in undress uniform, who told us that he
would let us in at the side door with the
pew-holders, adding that he hoped we
would contribute to Mr.. Surgeons col
lege, or theological seminary, handing
us blank envelopes as he spoke, and
reiterating this request as we passed
in. The Tabernacle is designed to
economize space for the greatest good
of the greatest number. 1t is. well light
ed, and constructed on the soundest
acoustic principles. 1t has two gale
ries, which run all around the house.
There are seats on the platform, from
which the preacher speaks, and seats in
the aisles at the end of each pew, To re-
turn to our party: we found that a mere
admittance did not ensure seats, but we
we're given some on the condition that
their lawful occupants did not claim
them, and were fortunate enough not to
be disturbed II is rule Of the chapel
that all pew or stockholders who are not
in their places when the doors are
thrown open, forfeit all their pre-emp-
ton rights, and must take their chance
with the crowd that then pours in like a
food. 1t was not many minutes before
every seat on the ground floor and the
first gallery was filled, while by the time
the sermon began there was not vacant
standing place in any part of the house
from which the preacher could be seen
as well as heard.
MR.. SURGEONS PERSONAL APPEARANCE
is not prepossessing, He is an ordinary
looking English man-in both literal
and figurative applications of the ad-
.jective-fat and nearly forty. He can
not be said to be graceful, but he is per-
fectly at ease; using few gestures. and
never declaming, much less ranting, but
still impressive in his simplicity. His
opening prayers we're remarkable. OBJ
viously extemporized, they were neither
reports to the Deity of what was going
on in all parts of His dominions, nor
hackneyed paraphrasers of Scriptursl
language They were supplications,
expressed in clear English, embroidered,
if the term is admissible, with just
enough biblical metaphor to relieve their
excessive plainness and in a new and
graceful pattern. They were imaginative
rather from the novel, yet by no means
grotesque manner, in which they pre-
sented old truths, than for any real
strangeness of thought. In read
ing the first chapter of Isaiah, and
commenting as he read, he would have
rendered it difficult for his hearers to
determine what was Isaiahs and what
Surgeons were it not the practice of
his congregation to open their Bibles as
soon as he begins. to read. His sermon
was based on the third verse of the
chapter previously read, and was in
tended to set forth the folly of want Of
consideration in religious affairs. 1t
was apparently extemporaneous; at all
events, it was delivered with only a
small piece Of note paper, lying on the
desk bywhich the preacher stood. 1t
was very carefully divided into heads;
not differing in this respect or in most
of its language or ideas, from dis
course which might be delivered by any
respectable Baptist or Presbyterian min
lister on the same subject There was
nothing declamatory; there were no
personal appeals, peculiarly pungent or
we'll taken in themselves, and there was
an occasional outcropping Of such high
Calvinistic views of the sinners inability
as were calculated to discourage rather
than further any efforts on his part to-
ward amendment.
Looking at
a ~ THE SERMON
from the foregoing points of view alone,
/ should agree with those who don't "see
much in Mr., Spurgeon, l." This Judgment,
however, would involve the preference
of the opinion of few score of scantily
informed critics to the fond admiration
of thousands, evidenced and sustained
by their regular attendance What, then,
are the influences by which Mr.. Spur
geon holds together the largest Protest
ant congregation in London, embracing
some people of high social position, and
many of more than ordinary intelli-
gence2 How does he succeed, not only
in retaining their confidence, but in set
ting them all at work in the various de-
partments of missionary labor2
To say that he has executive ability
would be to utter a truism; TO mention
the fine congregational singing, led by
half dozen preachers, without the aid
of any instruments, would elevate a
subsidiary to a primary influence, To
come to the real sources Of Mr.. Spur
geon's pulpit powers, they may be set
down as follows: First, he is thoroughly |
in earnest, both in his beliefs and in his
expressions. He has no doubt about the |
Of the Bible or the correct |
ness of his deductions from it. Having |
-. "a - 4 & II