DEATH OF NOTED PREACHER.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17460, 22 May 1922, Page 2

DEATH OF NOTED PREACHER.

THE LATE REV. A. G. BROWN. (fbom oub own correspondent.) LONDON, April 5. A well-known Baptist leader, the Rev. Archibald Geikie Brown, died at Easton, near Stamford, on April 2nd, at the age of 77. Co-pastor with the Rev. Thomas Spurgeon at 'the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Mr BroWn succeeded to the pastorate and became one oi the leading Nonconformist preachers in the country. He had served at Bromley, East -London Tabernacle, and \fest Norwood; he built the East London Tabernacle, with accommodation for 3500 people, and opened it free of debt. , As a lad he came under the influence of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who at that time was drawing great crowds to the Surrey Gardens Music Hall to hear the Gospel. He was baptised by Spurgeon in 1861, and, having been trained at the Pastors' College, foundeti a Baptist Church at Bromley. Kent, where he ministered for three years.In 1866 he accepted an invitation to the pasto'rate at Stepney Green, where his fervent evangelical preaching made a deep impression. In 1872 the congregation had to face the building of a large church, and tho ®ast London Tabernacle was erected. There Mr Brown's greatest work was done. Every Sunday evening he drew congregations of nearly 3000 people, while his Saturday evening prayqr meetings were felt to be such an aid in their spiritual life that seldom were the meetings attended by less than 1000, and at times the numbers reached 1500. While in East London he founded and endowed orphanages for boys and girls, purchased a large block of buildings, and rented it out to aged couples, and initiated many other movements for the bertent, spiritual and material,-of the people. As the years passed, the intense pressure began to tell upon Mr Brown, who, in 1887, had withdrawn with Spurgeon ■ from* the Baptist Union, owing to the "Down Grade" controversy. In 1889 he raised an angry controversy by a pamphlet called "Ihe Devil's Mission -of Amusement," in which he inveighed against the increasing practice of providing amusement in connexion with the Church. He was ordered a long rest, but subsequently resumed work at Chatsworth Road, West Norwood, where he built up a large church, adding no fewer than 600 new members in the first four years, of his ministry. After ten years he returned to the "place of worsmp of his youth, and took up the heavy burden of the pastorate of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in its hour of need on the resignation of the Rev. Thomas Spurgeon, but only remained there for three years. During the later years of his life Mr Brown preached in the "United States, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa. He was a strong, resolute man. and a forcible, simple, and direct preacher, "untroubled by doubts and fears, delivering the Gospel message pure and simple, and without relying on any adventitious aid for its effect. "The Times" says he will be remembered as an expository preacher, an evangelistioal pastor, and a man of strong convictions and character. He was married five times; his fifth wife died last month. His first marriage was in 1865, to Miss Amelia Brigg. One of his sons, the Rev. Douglas Brown, has become well known as a Baptist minister and the leader of a religious revival which began in East Anglia.