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Peoembeb 6,1856.] THE LEADER. 1155
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A -" SUNDAY MORNDTG EXPEDITION IN J SEAR...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Peoembeb 6,1856.] The Leader. 1155
Peoembeb 6 , 1856 . ] THE LEADER . 1155
A -" Sunday Morndtg Expedition In J Sear...
A - " SUNDAY MORNDTG EXPEDITION IN J SEARCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM . n ¦\ 7 b have received the following curious letter , b which , we tliink , will be read with interest : — £ ( 7 ' o the Editor of the Leader . ') t ; gut , — -Tradition tells us that once ujion a time a preacher £ commenced Iii 3 sermon by assuring his congregation , that ' the church would be much more crowded were he to ad- y vertize his intention of dslivering a discourse while 1 standing upon his head , dressed in a cherry-coloured suit L of velvet . To every man desirous of setting up an h Ebenezer for himself , some new fashion of eccentricity is n necessary , and the most successful ¦ will be tlie one which c is the least conventional . These extravagances of man- t ner , so long as the doctrine remains unaffected , must not s be unreservedly condemned ; for they oftentimes attract b to the House of God the idle aud the curious , who coming f there to scoff , remain to pray . My own experiences are L a case in point , in a minor degree . In common with the a rest of the world , that is , of London , I had heard of the £ New Park-street Apostle , and -was moved by curiosity to t behold and listen to a man who had drawn together a * larger assemblage thaii Jullien . Already , indeed , I had i been enabled to form some idea of . tlie matter of bis ser- , mons , from having invested sixpence in the purchase of ] half a dozen . Some of his peculiarities , also , thus be- came known to me . I -was aware that he frequently dramatized little scenes in which the Persons of the Tri- nity were somewhat profanely introduced . " Oh ! me- thinks , " he once exclaimed-, " there is nothing that should grieve a Christian more than to know that Christ has been wounded in the house of his friends . See , there come 3 my Saviour with bleeding bawds anil feet . 'Oh , my Jesus , my Jesus , who shed that blood ? Whence comes that wound ? AVhj lookest thou so sad ? ' He replies , I have b-een wounded , but guess where I received the blow ? ' ' "Why , Lord , sure thou . wast wounded in the gin-palace ; thou vast wounded where sinners meet , in the seat of the scornful ; -thouwnst wounded in the infidel hall . ' '' No , I was not , ' saith Christ ; 'I was wounded in the house of ihy friends ; these scars were made by those who . sat at my table , and bore my name , and talked my language ; ' they pier ced me and crucified me afresh , and put me to an open shame . ' Far worst of sinners they that pierce Christ thus whilst professing to befriends . Caisar wept not until Brutus stabbed him ; then was it that h « was overcome , and exclaimed , \ Et tu , Brute !—And thou , hast thou stabbed me !'" Mr . Spurgeon's classical allusions are sometimes peculiar , and assumea " Modern garb . It is thus he adduces an illustration from the battle of Thermopylae : — " When a small band of Protestiuits were striving for their liber ties in Switzerland , they bravely defended a pass against an immense host . Thougli their dearest friends were slain , and they were themselves weary and ready to drop with fatigue , they stood firm in the defence of the cause they had espoused . On a . suddeii , however , a cry was heard—a dread and terrible shriek . The enemy was winding up a steep acclivity , and when the commander turned his eye thither , oh , how his brow gathered with storm ! He ground his teeth , and stamped his foot , for he knew that some caiti If Protestant had led the blood-thirsty foe up the goat-track to slay his friends ; then turning to Ms friends , he said ' On ! ' and like' a lion on his prey , they rushed upon his enemies , ready now to die , for a friend had betrayed them . " His application of well-known anecdotes , slightly distorted , is sometimes amusing . Poor Mavie Antoinette and her bonbons aie thus iuadc to do duty on one occasion : — "I have heard of a lady who never knew poverty in all her life , and consequently she could not sympathize with the poor . She hear < t -the complaint that bread was extremely dear , wlien it was running up to fourteen pence a loaf . ' O ! i ! ' she said , ' I have no patience with the poor people , grumbling about tho dearncss of bread-If bread is so dear , let them live on penny buns ; thoy are always chonp enough . ' " At other times he quotes some homely incident from every-day life , after this fashion : — : "It is astonishing for how little a man . will sell his own soul . I remember an anecdoto—I believe it is truo ; I had almost said I liopo it is . A minister going across some fields , met a countryman , and said to him , 'Well , friend , it is a mo . st delightful day V 'Yen , sir , it is . ' And having spoken to him about the beauties of the scenery and so forth , he said , ' How thankful we ought to be for our mercies ! I hope you never come out Without praying ? ' 'Pray , sir ! ' auid ho , ' why 1 never pray ; I have got nothing to pray for . ' ' What a strange man , ' said tho minister | ' don ' t your wife pray V ' If she likes . * ' Don't your children pray V ' If they like , they do . ' ' Well , } -ou moan to say you do not pray , ' said tho minister ( as I tliink , not very rightly , no doubt ho Bnw the man was suiicr . stitious ) . 'Now , 1 will give you hnlf-n-crown . if you will promise mo not to pray ns long ns you live . ' 'Very well , ' said the man , ' 1 don ' t Bee what 1 have got to pray for ; ' and he took the liall ' - nu ? > ^ hon he wont liomo , tliu thought struck hir . i , I iTKr navo " ¦ done ? ' And / something wild to hiu ) , Well , John , you will die soon , and yuu will want to pray then ; you will have to attind beforo your Judgo ,
¦ . , nd it will be a sad thing not to have prayed . " Thoughts f this kind came over him , and he felt dreadfully ' liserable ; and the more he thought , tae more miserable ] ue felt . His wife asked him wliat was the matter .. He i ould hardly tell her for some tune ; at last he con- i sssed ba had taken half-a-crown not to pray again , and < bat was preying on his mind . The poor ignorant soul 1 bought it was the evil one that had appeared to him . 1 Ay , John , ' said she , ¦ ' * sure enough itwasthe devil , and i r hare sold your soul to him for that half-crown . ' : The poor creature could not work for several days , and ' ie became perfectly miserable , from the conviction that ie had sold himself to the evil one . HoTrever , the ninister knew what he was about , and there was a barn jlose by . and he was going to preach there ; he guessed he man would be there to ease his terror of mind , and ure enough he was there one Sabbath evening , and he icard the same man who gave him the half-crown take or his text these words , ' " What shall it proiit a man if ie gain the whole world and lose his own soul ?" . ' Ay , ' aid he , ' what will it profit the man who sold his soul or half-a-crown ? ' Up gets the man , crying out , ' Sir , ; ake it back ! take it back I' ' Why , ' said the minister , ; you want the Half-crown , and you said you did not need to pray . ' ' But , sir , ' he said , ' I must pray ; if I ilo not pray , I am lost ; ' and after some testing by parleying , the half-crown was returned , and . the man was on his knees praying to God . " But although Mr . Spurgeon thus indulges in what may be termed the pre-Raplia . elite school of narrative , he ! is by no means an admirer of that school of painting . His criticism on Mr . Hunt ' s " Scapegoat" is unique :- — " There was this year exhibited in the -Art Union a fine picture of the scapegoat dying in the wilderness ; it was represented with a burning sky above it , its feet sticking in the mire ,, surrounded by hundreds : of skeletons , and there dying a doleful and miserable death . Now , that was just a piece of gratuitous nonsense , for there is nothing in the Scripture that warrants it in the least degree . The rabbis tell us that this goat was taken by . a man into the wilderness , and there tumbled down a high rock to die ; but , as an excellent commentator tells us , if the man did p \ ish it down the rock , he did more than God ever told . hiin to do . God told him to take a goat and let it go ; as to what became of it , neither you 3 iqr I know anything ; that is purposely left . ¦ . .. , ' ¦ ¦ ¦; . - - .. . ¦ '¦¦ " ¦¦ ¦ ' . ' ; ¦ :. ¦ - . ;¦¦; : : ; : ¦; . : V Mr . Spurgeon is , of course , a believer in the pleasant doctrine of election by grace . Some persons , he says , consider it rather unfair that , as all God ' s creatures are his children , any portion of them should ba " sent to hell ; " but he has " got a small question" to ask of such unreasonable beings : — . " How do you explain this : . that if the devils and fallen angels are all lost , and yet , according to your own showing , fallen men have all a chance of b & ing saved ? How < k > you make that out ? ' Oh ! ' say jou , ' that is a different matter ; I was not calculating about the fallen angels . ' But if you were to ask the devil about it , he Ayould not tell you it was a different matter ; he would say , ' Sir , if all men are God ' s children , all devils are quite as much so . I am sure they ought to stand on the same footing as men , and a fallen angel has as much right to call himself one of God ' s children as a fallen man . ' And I should like you to answer the devil on that subject on your own hypothesis . Let Sataii for once ask you a question : ' You say it is unfair of God to send one of his children to hell , and take another to heaven . Now , you have said all creatures are hia children . "Well , I am a creature , auil therefore I am his child . I want to know , my friend , ' says Satan , ' how you make it just that ray Father should send , me to hell , and let you go to heaven ? ' Now , you must settle that question with tho devil ; I will not answer for you . " Boanerges' photograph of the infernal regions ia not inviting : — " Thereis a place , " he says , " as much "beneath imagination as heaven is above it ; a place of murky darknnss , whoro only lurid Uamoa make darkness visible ; a place whero beds of llamo are the fearful couches upon which spirits groan ; a place whore God Almighty from his mouth (!) pours a stream of brimstone , bundling that ' pile of wood and of much smoke ' which t ] od has prepared of old as a Tophct for the lost aud ruined . There ia a spot , whoso only sights are scenes of fearful woe ; there is a place , I do not know where it is , it is somewhere , not in the bowels of this earth I trust—for that were a sad thing for this world to have hell within its bowels ; but somewhere , in a far-oil ; world , there ia a place whero the only music is the mournful symphony of damned spirits ; whoso howling , groaning , moaning , wailing , and gnashing of teeth make up tho horrid concert . There is a place , where demons ily , swift as air , with whips of knotted burning wire , torturing poor souls , who . ^ e tongues , on lire with agony , burn , tho roofs oi months that shrieks ( sic ) for drops of water—that watoi . nil denied . There is n place , where soul and body endure as much of inilnito wrath ad tho finite can bear where the inflictions of justice crunh tho soul , where tin continual flngcllatioiiH of vengeance bent the ilesh where , tho i crpotual pourings-out of tho vials of elcrna wrath , scald the spirit , and wliero tho cuttings of th < swuril strike dcop into the iimcr num . Ah ! suv , 1 can not picture thin ; within an hour . sorno of you inn ; Uuow it . " ¦
. Is it a minister of the Christiana' God , or of the blood-dripping goddess Bhowanee , who otters these impious ravings ? And taen this place , irhich . is soaecrlLere , happens to be so dreadfully easy of access , that the reverend gentleman could find no better illustration of the rapidity of descent than by eliding ; down the banisters from the pulpit . As a type of the difficulty of the asceat to the celestial regions , he warped himself up again handover li and . So , at least , it is currently reported by some who profess to hare beheld the scene with their own eyes , and—in the words of Mr .. « Tqles Janin— -I would add , " I believe the story to be true , though I heard it from an eye-witness . " His dialogues with the Deity are , hoivever , even more startling than his pulpit gymnastics . On these occasions he assumes the God , affects to nod , or rather to speak ia a . proud , overbearing maaner , no doubt in the way £ n which he would himself act were he invested with , rank and power . The poor mortal is represented as cringing and trembling , with bending form and faltering voice . Here is a particularly mild example of such a dialogue : — " Beloved , God has power to fulfil the promise , ' I will be their God . ' ' Oil ! ' cries the sinner , 'I will riot have thee for a God . ' ' Wilt thou not ? ' says he , and he gives him over to the hand of Moses ; Moses takes him a little and applies the club of the law , drags him to Sinai , when the mountain totters over his head , the lightnings flash , and thunders bellow , and then the sinner cries , ' 6 God , save me ! ' 'Ah ! I thought thiou vrouldst not have me for a God . ' 'O Lord , thou shalt lie my God , ' says the poor trembling sinner , ' I have put away my ornaments from me ; O Lord , what wilt thou do unto me ? Save me ! I will give myself to thee . Oh ! take me ! ' ' Ay , ' says the Lord , 'I knew it ; I said that I will be their God ; and I have Tr * ade thee willing in the day of my power . '" Mr . Spurgeon's last avatar took place more tban a century ago . A . writeT of some amusing sketches af the S cotch , in the London Magazine for January , 1755 , mentions a Presbyterian Minister ( i . e . Mr . S . as-he ' us « d to was' ) who delivered himself of the following dialogue relating" to the fall of man : — - . "( First he spoke i » a low voice ) : —' And the Lord God came into the garden and said , " Adam , where art ? " ( Then loud and angrily ) , " Adam , -where art ?" ( Low and humbly ) , "lo , here am I ,. Lord ! " ( Yioleatly ) , *' And what aTe ye deeing there ? " ( With a fearful , trembling accent ) , " Lord , I was nacked and I hid mysel ' . " ( Outrageously ) , ' * ' N " acked I Aud what then ? Hast thou eaten , " '" & c , & c . ' Is it surprising , then , ' Mr . Editor , that I should have laid my head on my pillow last nignt with the fixed determination of beholding on the morrow this mysterious individual , seemingly doomed to appear once in every century upon earth for the amusement of the idle , the amazement of the iguorant , and the disgust of the conventional ? In my previous wanderings in search of the New Jerusalem—the Luilding which , by the way , a late distinguished officer of the Bengal army seriously assigned to the souls of Freemasons—no sooner have I sighted the Cape of Good Hope than contrary winds have driven me right across an ocean of doubts to Cape Horn , and there abandoned me to my fate amidst floating icebergs . It was , therefore , with peculiar satisfaction that I looked forward to the prospect of discovering a northwest passage under the guidance of such a skilful commander . Early on this Sabbath morning , as I awaked from a troubled dream , from pure indigestion bred , I found a piercing north-east wind was rushing into my garret through the broken pane which furnishes tho sole means of ventilation . Hastily closing tho aperture with my last week ' s stockings , I proceeded to make my toilette with unusual care , in the hope of fascinating sonio one of the cheerful , well-endowed widows , vulgarly regarded as tho ,-pillars ( or pillows ?) of the rum-and-religion , tca-ancl-tabernacle , cliapel-and-crumpeta interest . My nearest ncighhour , tho sky , was veiled from mortal -view by a grey mantle of smoke provided by the fires of the rich for the comfort of those who cannot have fires of thoir own . The subj accnt tiles were spotted with hoarfrost , suggestive of the senility of the year ' 56 , svgges-1 tivo of minco-pies aud mistletoe , suggestive also of the tailor no longer cringing . Far away to the south-caet Dan Phcebus was coming out of the German Ocean , with hie honest face all in a glow from his cold ablutions . And now bohold mo equipped for conquest . One laat Boarching gnzo into the tarnished mirror , oho last vahi effort to twist tho horns of my hair into a curl , ono last touch to my patent leather Alberts with sweet oil rubbed in with an old tooth-brush , and I descend into the streets . How changed from tho hustle mid throng of 1 yesterday . Thero is so much spare room on tho pave' jnent , that m-overyfcody'fl-way boys prefer playing in < tho middlo of the road . Tho very curs gambol about f as in the main street of a village . Pausing an instant to r admire the latest Parisian novelty in front of Furnival ' a Inn , and to murmur a blessing on tho Tlnuis for prevent-? ing the exportation of iron to Russia , and thus enabling 3 -uhi to adorn our streets with such graceful monuments , » I hurry onwards to Blackfriarft-bridge -without let or 1 hindrnnce . The salt tide rushing up broko in tiny 0 wavelets , giving itself aira because it came from " tho mighty ocean . Groat lumbering barges drifted y carelessly and cluniRily up th « stream , too- lazy I or too boorish even to look nt tho fussy httlo
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 6, 1856, page 3, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06121856/page/3/
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