ANDOVER THEOL SEMINART JAN 13 1906 56,248 LITHOTYPED BY THE AMERICAN STEREOTYPE COMPANY, .28 PHENIX BUILDING, BOSTON. PRINTED BY D. S. FORD AND CO. INTRODUCTION. IN perusing the present volume of Sermons, the reader will nowhere find their author rising in a chilling fog of lugubrious cant, or simpering out inane formalism after the following mode: "Dearly beloved brethren, and my esteemed and respected friends: Permit me to invite your serious and solemn attention to that portion of celestial truth which you will find recorded in the one hundred and seventy-seventh verse of the sixtyrinth chapter of Saint Ichabod's sixteenth epistle to the Simpletons." On the contrary, he comes directly before the people, impelled by something acutely felt, and which needs to be speedily uttered, so that he may, as soon as possible, pass on to a yet fresher and wider space, wherein he may think more and speak better to the accumulating crowds, who always press towards frank hearts and free lips. Without doubt, in this instance, we have to do with one who uses his own observing and reflecting powers, while he reverently seeks divine aid, and is as original in his conceptions as he is untrammeled in their utterance. Let us glance at the biography of our preacher, the scene of his preaching, and the chief elements of his power. Rev. C. H. Spurgeon was born at Kelvedon, in Essex, on the 19th of June, 1834. His father and grandfather are both living, and are Independent ministers. It is further stated in the London "Patriot," that the subject of this sketch received his early education at Colchester, and also passed a year in the Agricultural College at Maidstone, where he added to his previous knowledge some insight into natural science. Thus equipped, he began the business of life as usher in a school at Newmarket; whence he removed to Cambridge, where he held a similar appointment in a day school, employing the ampler leisure thus secured in improving his own mind. While at Newmarket,he began to address the Sunday-school children, and that in such a style as attracted grown-up hearers. At Cambridge the practice was continued, with the addition of Sunday evening sermons in the surrounding villages. The Baptist church, at Waterbeach, called this young Timothy to be their pastor. He accepted the invitation; and, while the chapel was crowded, the church was doubled under his ministry. On the week-days, eleven villages shared the advantage of his sermons, which, in one year, amounted to as many as there are days in the year. In January, 1854, Mr. Spurgeon was invited to undertake the pastorate of the Baptist church in New Park street. Not content with discharging the duties of that office, he preaches in many other places during the week. New Park street Chapel stands on the Surrey side of the Thames, near Southwark Bridge, a locality which the untravelled hereabouts will better understand by being told that it almost exactly corresponds with the Brooklyn end of Catherine Ferry. It was on this spot that the great expositor Gill, and the hymnologist Rippon, preached and sung to successive generations long before the advent of the present popular preacher and his immense auditory. The edifice now occupied is a plain and substantial one, with a portico of eight debased Ionic columns, in pairs, carrying a heavy romanesque story, and otherwise nearly as uncouth as modern church architecture in general, and "dissenting" chapels in particular. But, like its huge neighbor, Barclay and Perkins' brewery, it has the merit of great size, and certainly should be regarded as of much more salutary use. As in almost all the great cities of Europe and America, the old and empty churches of London are at the east end, while all the thrift is "progressing" towards the west. But stiff |