The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1891. THE REV. MR SPURGEON.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XII, Issue 2458, 11 September 1891, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1891. THE REV. MR SPURGEON.

It is scarcely too much to say that the daily bulletins of the state of the Rev. Mr Spurgeon during his long illness have been of interest to a wider circle of readers than any of the stirring news cf wara and rumors of wars, wrecks and famine, that has been cabled to the colonial press during the same period. Mr Spurgpon's life efforts have been devoted not alone to a sect or to religion, but to humanity, and their value has been immense. Of his fiftyseven years' life forty years have been devoted to the prer.chingof the Gospel, he having been appointed pastor at Waterbeach in 1851, and prior to that time he had conducted services in the villages round about Cambridge. He preached in London for the first time in 1853, and the ordinary places of worship of the Baptist denomination soon proving too small for the crowds that were attracted, his services a couple of years later were held at Exeter Hall, and the Great Hall of the Royal Surrey Gardens. The terrible disaster that occurred at the latter hall through a false alarm of fire being raised at one of his services will be remembered by many of our readers. In 1861, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, with accommodation for six thousand hearers, was built at a cost of £32,000, and there Mr Spurgeon had done the greatest work that has been accomplished by any modern divine. Of his published sermons 25,000 of each issue are sold, and they are translated into several languages. He has received testimonials in money to the amount of £11,000, not one penny of which has he retained for his own use. The Pastor's College, for students for the ministry; the Colportage Association ) the Book Fund, from which ministers of various denomination? have received upwards of 80,000 volumes free of cost—the only condition being that the applicants should be too poor to pay for the books themselves ; the Stockwell Orphanage, and other institutions owe their existence to Mr Spurgeon's beneficence. Mr Spurgeon's catholicity of opinions led to his four years ago severing his connection with the Baptist ffnioi, which caused a long and bitter controversy in the English papers. No wonder that' all the world feels sympathy with Mr Spurgeon in his illness. Addresses and resolutions of sympathy and prayers for his recovery were offered by all denominations and all classes,, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, the first ecnles'astic of the British Empire visited the sufferer's bedside. The tidings of the rev. gentleman's recovery have been received with joy, and the hope that he will bfc fully restored to health to. continue his important work will be universally echoed.