CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON

Evening Star, Issue 17191, 5 November 1919, Page 6

CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON

Iheve was a good attendance of the members of the Young People’s Institute and their friends in the Hanover Street Baptist School Hall last night at a limeiichr- lecture delivered by the president (Rev. R. H. Knowles Keihpton) on ‘ C. H. Spurgeon, England's Greatest Preacher and a King of Men.' The, lantern was manipulated by Mr W. Simpson, and iu addition to the set ot views illustrative of the life of the eminent preacher, some excellent views of London were thrown on the screen. Mr J. Jackson Pnrdie Presided, and during the evening several songs were rendered by members of fhe institute. Mr Kemptcn traced with great clearness the marvellous career of Mr Spurgeon, from his birth at Kelvedon, in Essex, iu 1834, until hi? death at Mentone in 1830. dwelling especially on his power and popularity as a preacher, first at Waterbeach. then at New Park street, London, and during the greater part of his life at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, which was erected at- a- cost of £52,000 to accommodate - the enormous crowds who thronged to hear him. Views were shown ■of Exeter Hall and Surrey- Music Hall, where tho services were held while the Tabernacle was building, also of the Crystal Palace, where as a young man Spurgeon preached once to’ an audience of 26.000 on the Fast Day appointed in connection with the Indian Mutiny. Tho lecturer stated that in the whole -history of tho Church there was no parallel to the circulation of Mr Spurgeon’s sermons; it had been estimated that 150.000,000 had been printed in 46 languages. .Sixty-two bound volumes, each containing 60 sermons, had been issued, and the weekly sermon had been printed for 25 years after the great preacher had died. 'Mr Spurgeon’s work as founder of the Pastors’ College, in which nearly a thousand Baptist ministers had been trained; of the Stockwell Orphanage, in which thousands of destitute children had been cared for ; also of the Colportage Society, which had distributed enormous quantities of -evangelical literature throughout -the Kingdom —was also finely delineated. Reference was made to tho storm of abuse and calumny through which Mr Spurgeon had passed in his early days, ami to the unbounded popularity he enjoyed to the very end of his unrivalled ministry. His evangelical zeal never wavered, and his loyalty to conscience never relaxed throughout his career, and when his life closed at Mentone tho whole Empire mourned his loss. At the close of the lecture a warm veto of thanks was accorded to Mr Kempton, on the motion of Mr H. H. D river, supported by the Revs. G. I). Cox and Charles Dallaston, who had all been brought into close association with the eminent- preacher.