St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-02-09
STORIES OF sPURGEON.
"reminiscences Of the Late Flo
quent London Preacher.

The late Mr.. Sturgeon was neither an
ascetic nor bigOt, yet he held very de-
cided views touching the value and
effect of the theater, regarded from the
moral and religious point of view, says
tine Chicago News.
This was brought out on the occasion
of his jubilee, some eight or nine years
ago, when the press of England rang
out with the praise of dissenter who
not many years before had been merci-
lesslv carlcatured and scathingIy criti-
clSed. The representative of London
newspaper called upon the great
preacher, big with an idea of his own.
"The ideal church." said the visitor.
as he reports the interview himself.
will run theater and public house.
You have not got to that?"
NO." said Mr.. Spurge0n; ''we have
not got beyond the coffee house yet. AS
for the theater. don't know what the
ideal theater may be, but we have moth
ing whatever i'll common with the the
alter as it exists"
Exactly so, but will you ever have
the ideal theater until it is run by the
Christian church,"
They will never get it from me-"
said Mr.. Spurgeon. ''Our aim is to
matters we don't go on theory; we look
at facts, and we have seen too often the
trail of the theater across the Christian
home to have the slightest doubt as to
whether it is an institution that makes
for righteousness or the reverse. 1t in
PRODUCES the young men to what is
called gayety, and familiariZes the
young women with things which are by
10 means calculated to preserve their
mOdesty. If man should come to me
and say: MIR. Sturgeon, may | go to
the theater?' l would reply: do you
want to go 10 the theater? If so, you
must go, and take it as an evidence that
you need grace in your heart"
Mr.. Spurgeon used frequently to visit
Monaco, but he kept away from the gar
dens of the gambling hell. Those gar
dens are the most beautiful in the
world. When asked why he kept away
from them he said: Not because l
think there is any danger of my passing
through the gardens of the gambling
tables. No! But friend of mine once
related the following incident: One
day nj. Blanc met me and asked me how
it was l never entered his grounds.
We'll, you see," said l, Il never play,
and as make no returns whatever to
you hardly feel justified in availing
grounds" You make great mistake"
said M. Blanc. ''If it were not for you
and other respectable persons like yonr-
self who come to my grounds l should
lose very many Of my customers who
attend my gambling saloons. Numbers
of persons who would not have thought
of entering my establishment feel quite
safe in following you into my garden,
and from thence to the gaming table the
transition is very easy" After L heard
that" continued Mr.. SpurgeOn, Il never
went near the gardens. And" he
added. 1.-THE same argument applies to
the theater."
His retirement from the Baptist union
some years ago OccaslODed great:re-
ligious sensation. He took his church
with! him when be went. and he did no
mi nee words in speaking of the union
1T is wretched spectacle" he said,
s'tO see prOfeSSedly orthodox Christians
publicly avOwlng their union with those
who deny the faith and scarcely con-
cealing their contempt for those who
cannot be guilty of such grave disloyalty
to Christ" He said that these Christian
unions "begin to look like confederacies
of evil" with which he could have moth
ing to do.
Those who did not like the great
plCdSNOt odtu tidG Ht WIS ali OTdlOT OIL
the second rank, rising above it only
in Cobden-like directness and felici-
tOuS homelinesS of illustrations Nor
was he an organizer like Wesley, these
unfriendly critics were wont to say.
For Wesley from the first looked far be-
You'd the largest of congregations. while
Sturgeon confined his vision and his
efforts to his own flock. They said also
that as moralist he had not
added an idea to the previously
existing reservoir. Yet all had to
admit that he had succeeded
amazingly, because" as the Spectator
remarked, first of all he has crystal
liZed and SOlidified the rather LIQUID
faith which was in tens of thousands of
ordinary Englishmen. That faith"
continued the Spectator, ''exists in
millions OF Englishmen also, and the
spectators and statesmen who doubt it
cannot do better than attend the Taber-
nacle (Mr. Surgeons church) and
watch the commonplace faces there. He
is nearer the people than Matthew AT.
mold or Mr.. Bradlaugh.''