C. H. Spurgeon and the Metropolitan Tabernacle

Nor is neither this all, nor can all been told. An army of colporteurs at this present moment covers our country; ninety or more men are going from house to house with the word of God and pure literature, endeavoring to enlighten the dark hamlets, and to reach the neglected individuals who pine alone upon their sick beds. Priestcraft is thus assailed by an agency, which it little expected to encounter. Where a Nonconformist ministry could not be sustained for want of means, a testimony has been kept alive which has sufficed to fetch out the chosen of the Lord for amid the gloom of superstition, and lead the Lord’s elect away from priests and sacraments to Christ and the one great sacrifice for sin. This work grows and must grow from year to year. The poor but faithful ministers of our Lord have had some little comfort rendered to them by a quiet, unobtrusive work, which has supplied them with parcels of useful books: a work which is only ours, and yet must truly ours, because it is performed in constant pain and frequent anguish by her who is our best of earthly blessings. The Book Fund has a note all its own, but we could not refrain from hearing it as it swells the blessed harmony of service done during the twenty-five years. “She that tarried at home divided the spoil.” Time would fail us to rehearse the whole of the other enterprises, which have sprung up around us, and were we inclined to do so and to become a fool in glorying we should not be able, for bodily weakness pluck us by the sleeves and cries “Forbear.” We will forbear, but not till we have exclaimed, “what hath God wrought!” Nor till we have noted with peculiar gratitude that to us is doubly fulfilled the promise, “Instead of the fathers shall be the children.” Our sons have already begun to fulfill our lack of service, and will do so more and more if out infirmities increase. It was right and seemly that at the close of this period of twenty-five years some testimonial should be offered to pastor. The like has been worthily done in other cases, and brethren have accepted a sum of money which they well deserved, and which they have very properly laid aside as provision or their families. In our case it did not seem to us at all fitting that the offering should come into our own purse; our conscience and heart revolted from the idea. We could without sin have accepted the gift for our own need, but it seemed not to be right. We have been so much more in the hands of God than most, so much less an agent and so much more an instrument, that we could not claim a grain of credit. Moreover, the dear and honored brethren and sisters in Christ who have surrounded us these many years have really themselves done the bulk of the work, and God forbid that we should monopolize honor which belong to all the saints! Let the offering come by all means, but let it return to the source from whence it came. There are many poor in the church, far more than friends at the distance would imagine many of the godly poor, “widows indeed,” and partakers of the poverty of the poverty of Christ. To aid the church in its holy duty of remembering the poor, which is the neatest approach to remembering Christ himself, seemed to us to be highest use of money; the testimonial will, therefore, go to support the aged sisters in the Almshouses, and thus it will actually relieve the funds of the church which are appropriated to the weekly relief of the necessitous. May the Lord Jesus accept this cup of cold water, which is offered in his name! We see the Lord’s servants fetching from us, water from the well of Bethlehem which is within the gate, and as we see them cheerfully and generously setting it at our feet we thank them with tears in our eyes, but we feel that we must not drink thereof; it must be poured out before the Lord. So let it be. O Lord accept it!