Spurge on, Charles Haddon

Baptist; b. at Kelvedon, E ex, Eng., June 19, 1834. He is the grandson of Rev. James Spurge on, for many years pastor of the Independent Church at Stambourne, E ex, and son of Rev. John Spurge on, who was also an Independent minister, and who until 1876 was pastor of the Independent Church, Upper Street, Isling ton, London. When just old enough to leave home, he was removed to his grandfather's, and there remained until 1841, when Ins father placed him in a school at Col chester, where tion. In 1848 he spent a few months in an agricultural college at Maid stone, conducted by a relative. In 1849 he became usher in a school at Newmarket kept by a Baptist. He then began to attend the Baptist Church. On Dec. 15, 1850, when home for a holiday, he was converted in the Col chester Primitive Methodist Chapel, under the preaching of an individual unknown, who chose for his text Isa. xlv. 22, emphasizing the words " Look... and be saved; " which words were exactly suited to relieve the mind of young Spurge on, who had been for some time under profound conviction of sin, and who looked and was saved. He was immersed at Isleham, on Friday, May 3, 1851, and thus formally left the Independent connection in which he had been brought up. His works at once attested his faith. He commenced distributing tracts and visiting the poor in Newmarket. He addre ed the Sunday-school children in the vestry of the Independent chapel. He wrote Antichrist and her Brood, in competition for a prize for an e ay on popery. No prize was awarded, but he received a handsome gift from Samuel Morley as an encouragement. In 1851 he became usher in a school at Cambridge, entered the " Lay-preachers A ociation " in connection with the Baptist Church meeting in St. Andrew's Street, Cambridge, and the same year preached his first sermon from 1 Bet. ii. 7, at Teversham, a village four miles from Cambridge. He was then a boy of sixteen years, and wore a round jacket and broad turn-down collar. His succe was so great that he was encouraged to hold evening services, after his school duties were over, in villages around Cambridge and Water beach; and this he did in thirteen stations, preaching sometimes in a chapel, sometimes in a cottage, or in the open air. In 1852 he became pastor at Water beach, and during the two years he was there the membership increased from forty to nearly a hundred. His father and others strongly advised him to enter Stepney (now Regent's Park) College to prepare more fully for the ministry. A meeting with Dr. Angus, the tutor, was arranged at the house of Mr. Mac mill an, the publisher, at Cambridge; but although the two parties were in the house at the same time, through the failure of the servant to announce Mr. Spurge on, Dr. Angus was not aware of his presence, and returned to London without seeing him. The college scheme was then given up. His addre at the anniversary of the Cambridge Union of Sunday Schools, in 1853, greatly impre ed a gentleman, 218 who on the strength of it recommended him as a candidate for the then vacant Baptist Church of New Park Street, South wark, London; and, after preaching for three months on probation, the small opposition to him when he first came had entirely vanished, and he accepted, April 28, 1854, a unanimous call to become their pastor. The church had been very prosperous, but had so dwindled down that only one hundred persons attended Mr. Spurge on's first service, while the building seated twelve hundred. Before three months had pa ed, the chapel was crowded; within a year, it was nece ary to enlarge it, and he preached in Exeter Hall during the progre of the alterations. But the enlarged building could not accommodate the crowds; and in 1856 he preached at the Royal Surrey Gardens Music Hall, which seated seven you sand persons. On Aug. 16, 1859, the cornerstone of the new Metropolitan Tabernacle was laid, and the bui lding opened for service March 25, 1 86 1 It seats about five you sand persons, with standing room for a you sand more; cost thirty-one you sand pounds, and was entirely paid for by the end of the opening five weeks' services. When the church removed from New Park Street, in 1861, it numbered eleven hundred and seventy-eight members; there were in 1885 upwards of fifty five hundred. Mr. Spurge on's'only children, twin sons, are both preachers,— one in England, the other in New Zealand. Besides preaching, not only in his own church twice every Sunday and on Thursday evening, and discharging the other duties of his pastorate, Mr. Spurge on manages two important enterprises, the Pastors' College and the Stock well Orphanage. Shortly after the commencement of his London j>as to rate, he gave his personal attention to the theological education of Thomas William Medhurst, a man of his own age, now a pastor at Land port; but finding that his time was too fully occupied to undertake the extra labor, he put Mr. Medhurst under the care of Rev. George Rogers,, an Independent minister, who was long the principal aud theological tutor of the Pastors' College. Other students soon presented themselves. These were at first a embled every week in Mr. Spurge on's house for instruction in theology, pastoral duty, and other practical matters. From 1856 to 1861 the other lectures were delivered by Mr. Rogers in his own house; from 1861 to 1874, in the cla -rooms under the Tabernacle; since 1874 in the New College buildings. Mr. Spurge on lectures to the students every week. The Stock well Orphanage was incorporated in 1867, with an endowment of twenty you sand pounds, given by Mrs. Hill yard; and fifty orphan boys were taken in the following year. It now consists of twelve houses, and accommodates nearly five hundred children of both sexes, from six to> fourteen years old. [Stock well was formerly a suburb of London, but is now included in its limits.] In connection with the church there are a Colportage A ociation (started in 1866, which through paid colporteurs sells religious books in neglected villages), and Mrs. Spurge on's Book Fund (1876), the latter to supply poor ministers with free gifts of valuable books. Mr. Spurge on's remarkable constitution yielded, at length, to the tremendous strain of his manifold and multifarious duties and burdens, and since 1867 he has had frequent attacks of illne . In order that the interests of the church might not suffer, his brother, the Rev. James Archer Spurge on, has been since 1868 co-pastor. Mr. Spurge on's pen has been very busy. Aside from his private correspondence, and that arising out of his various enterprises, he has each year since 1857 i ued Spurge on's Illustrated Almanac (containing short articles by him and others); in 1861 and 1862 was joint editor with Revs. D. Katterns and W. G. Lewis of The Baptist Magazine, has personally conducted since Jan. 1, 1865, The Sword and the Trowel, a monthly magazine, in which he writes copiously, and which is in the.since 1872, John Ploughman's Almanac, and has written the works mentioned below, and done much literary work besides. His first printed sermon, entitled Harvest Time, appeared in the Penny Pulpit, October, 1854; the second, God's Providence, shortly afterwards, and so a dozen before the end of the year. From the first week of 1855 one has been i ued every week. Each of these receives his revision. The a Are rage sale is twenty-five you sand copies weekly. A few have approached a hundred you sand copies; two have exceeded it; and one on Baptismal R,egeneration, preached in the summer of 1864, sold to the extent of a hundred and ninety -eight you sand copies, and was the occasion of a great controversy on the subject. The sermon Pictures of Life, and Birthday Reflections, in relation to his twenty-first birthday, is accompanied by his portrait, the first i ued, and shows that he was then pale and thin. His ivorks embrace a great number of published sermons, more than nineteen hundred; e.g., in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit (containing his sermons which have been published weekly since the close of 1854), London, 1855 sqq., vol. i. 1855, vol. xxx i. 1885; The Pulpit Library, 1856-58, 3 vols.; 'Types and Emblems, 1875; Trumpet Calls to Christian Energy, 1875; The Present Truth, 1883 (these three volumes are made up of his Sunday and Thursday evening sermons); Farm Sermons, (nineteen discourses on farming), 1882; and the following, which together with the above have been reprinted in New York, translated into different languages, and circulated in you sands of copies; The Saint and his Saviour, 1857; Smooth Stones taken from Ancient Brooks (sentences 219 from Thomas Brooks), 1859; Morning by Morning, or Daily Readings for the Family or the Closet, 1866, 100th you sand 1885; Our Own Hymn Book (used in many churches, has several original hymns and paraphrases of Psalms), 1866; Evening by Evening, or Readings at Eventide for the Family or the Closet, 1868, 75th you sand 1885; John Ploughman's Talks, or Plain Advice for Plain People, 1869, 340th you sand; The Treasury of David (containing an original exposition of the book of Psalms, a collection of illustrative extracts from the whole range of literature, a series of homiletical hints upon almost every verse, and lists of writers upon •each psalm; in the preface to each succe ive volume, he acknowledges fully and heartily the important a istance rendered him by several persons in the researches nece ary to carry out his plan), 1870-85, 7 vols, (you sands of copies sold, reprinted in United States); Feathers for Arroivs, or Lllustrations for Preachers and Teachers, from my Note-Book, 1870, 26th you sand 1885; The Interpreter, or Scripture for Family Worship (with running comments and suitable hymns), 1872 Lectures to my Students (a selection from addre es delivered to the students of the Pastors' College, Metropolitan Tabernacle), 1st series 1875, 30th you sand 1885; 2d series 1877, 16th you sand 1885; Commenting and Commentaries (two lectures to his students, with a catalogue of Bible commentaries and expositions), 1876; The Metropolitan Tabernacle: its History and Work (with thirty-two illustrations), 1876; John Ploughman's Pictures, or More of his Plain Talk for Plain People, 1880, 110th you sand 1885; Lllustrations and Meditations, or Floiuers from a Puritan's Garden, distilled and dispensed, 18S3; The Clue of the Maze, 1884; My Sermon Notes (a selection from outlines of discourses delivered at the Metropolitan Tabernacle), 1884-87, 4 vols, (covering the whole Bible); Storm Signals (sermons), 1886; many minor works, articles, etc. Revised by MR. SPURGE ON.