THE PUBLISHERS TO THE PUBLIC.

I. These pages contain a narrative of facts likely to interest many persons. II. Young persons will find an instructive example in these pages they may imitate with great personal advantage.

III. To young Ministers of the Gospel, the example of the earnest life of this faithful Preacher, as set forth as a model, they may imitate with advantage to themselves and to their churches. *

IV. The narrative will suggest many practical lessons which the intelligent reader will adopt for self-improvement.

V. Seeking only to do good by disseminating truth, the narrative is commended to the Christian church universal, and to the best judgment of the public generally.

LIFE AND MINISTRY OF THE REV, C. H, SPURGEON. INTRODUCTION.

POPULAR favor has seldom been shown to any man so extensively, and so spontaneously, as it has been to the Rev. Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Although some of the worst feelings of human nature have long been in active exercise to check the benevolent labors of this philanthropic youthful divine, yet an overseeing and an overruling Providence has directed the issue. The favors of friends and the frowns of foes have together resulted in promoting the great work for which this modern "Whitefield seems especially raised up, namely, to preach the gospel in a manner which shall secure its welcome to the hearts of multitudes who have hitherto disregarded it.

Many have been the inquiries which have been made respecting Mr. Spurgeon's antecedents. One asks to which of the universities he belongs ; another wonders how so young a man obtained holy orders ; a third puts the question plainly, Who ordained the young man? A page would not suffice to enumerate the interrogatives we have ourselves heard from all classes of people ; from the plain-spoken Englishman, from the penetrating Scotchman, from the mirthful son of Erin, and from not a few of our transatlantic brethren. Indeed we have had this kind of verbal investigation continued, with the greatest possible relish by the inquirer, for an hour together, without any apparent abatement in interest. In some instances, the desire for information has led to a succession of queries so varied and so strange, that a prudent man would rather remain silent than try to satisfy such prurient curiosity. In this great London, thousands of voices have repeated the question in one day—" Who is this Spurgeon?" and, to many, a negative was not an answer ; so that where positive information of a reliable kind could not be obtained, imagination has too often supplied its place, to the injury of both the subject of this sketch, and the work in which he is engaged. So intense was the desire for information respecting Mr. Spurgeon during several months, that whoever would risk a few pages of biographical anecdotes, historical incidents, or doctrinal peculiarities, at the price of a penny, was sure to sell the work by thousands. These transient phantoms have now all passed away, having satisfied the mere inquisitor ; while the seekers after knowledge are still eagerly desiring to know more. The number of these is still a multitude. Were it otherwise, we should not see, each successive Sunday morning, from ten to twelve thousand persons, some from every part of London and its expansive suburbs, including many from the provinces, gathered to worship in the great Surrey Music Hall. Nor is this spirit of inquiry unnatural or wonderful. The wonder would be far greater were it otherwise. In the Church of England, such instances of youthful divines and youthful oratory are unknown. In the established Church, the best read student, the most fluent orator, the soundest divine, or the most earnest Christian in our universities, must pass his twenty-third year before he is allowed to exercise his gifts in publicly calling sinners to repentance. Our Southwark divine, on the contrary, before twenty-three summers have swept over his head, has not only been allowed to preach publicly, and with authority, but with a power and a success which, considering the shortness of the period, really has no parallel. Long before an English churchman is considered of sufficient age and discretion to be presented to the bishop for ordination, our modern Wbitefield has been a successful preacher for several years ; so successful, indeed, that there are numerous towns and villages in the land in which his well known voice has pealed out its " come and welcome" to congregations numbering not hundreds only, but repeatedly ten thousand persons, and from among whom some hundreds have been gathered out of the world and infolded in the church of Christ.

We have met and conversed with English clergymen who are well aware of the secret of the success of this eminent preacher, and who righteously covet, to some extent, his gifts and his honors. There is a charm about the young man which wins the good-will at the least of by far the greater majority of those who hear him. The existence of this charm is patent to the world, and its influence is already felt in every country where the Saxon character and the English language exist. There is one country where the good done by this laborious minister would not be recognized—but it is because Italian, not Saxon, blood flows in the veins of the inhabitants.

Mr. Spurgeon's popularity is both wonderful and natural. There exists but few instances, in either ancient or modern times, of men, so young, producing an influence for good to his fellow-men on so large a scale, as in the instance before us. One of the youngest persons ever sent out into the work of the ministry among the Methodists was the late learned Dr. Adam Clarke. "While yet a "youth in his teens," we find him appointed to a circuit so wide, that he had to preach in a different place, once at the least, during every clay in each successive month. Although tall in person, yet so slender, he was generally denominated "the little boy" preacher. There are many points of resemblance in the early preaching career of this eminent scholar, divine, and Christian, to those connected with Mr. Spurgeon. The almost tender years of both preachers prompted many to go and hear for themselves. In both cases, large multitudes of young persons of both sexes gathered together and formed a large proportion of the preacher's audience. In both cases many persons of age and experience stood aloof for a time, throwing out innuendoes, cautions, and warnings, and in both cases such men lived long enough to acknowledge their error.

Another preacher among the "Wesleans presents to us, in some respects, a parallel case to Mr. Spurgeon's. Of the Rev. Richard Watson, we read, that " impelled by a conviction of duty, and an intense zeal for the spiritual good of mankind, the day after he was fifteen years of age, Richard Watson preached his first sermon in a cottage a few miles from Lincoln." He continued to preach, prompted by the same excellent motives, with great success, for nearly forty years. There is, however, one point in the cases of these preachers which deserves notice more particularly. In many points, the career of the two young Methodist preachers, and the young Baptist minister, very nearly agree ; in age, learning, zeal, piety, and success, they are all three remarkable, and are very near parallels. In the opposition to which they were all subject, and the persecution which was carried on against them with a very high hand, they are not dissimilar, excepting in this particular. The persecutors of the last century were the ordained clergy ; Mr. Spurgeon's persecutors are— not the clergy, though report represents some of them as jealous, others as envious—but persecution has come only from the press, or from that portion of it which would like to make religion a lifeless formality, and which shrinks alike from both conscience and eternity.

The clergy of our day not only do not persecute the Southwark evangelist, they rather seek and embrace every occasion which offers to go and hear for themselves, and where they can not go and hear, we know that very many of them read Mr. Spurgeon's published discourses with great satisfaction and pleasure. Here then we think we have an instance of true greatness, a young divine, whose powerful voice, whose untiring zeal, whose ardent love of his work, prompt him to "labors more abundant" in trying to do good alike to the bodies and the souls of the greatest number of his fellow-creatures. In the late Eev. William Jay, we have another instance of a very young man giving himself to the service of the ministry. In an old, almost forgotten book, called "The Triumph of Faith," we find a reference to the employment of young Jay, at about the age of sixteen, in publicly proclaiming the truths of the gospel to perishing sinners. His career of usefulness, on a large scale, continued for more than half a century. Nor is our good friend of New Park-street alone in our own times, as a very young man, raised up by Almighty God to rouse the slumbering churches of England. Pastors of churches ! ye who have had flocks without increase for many years past, God calls you, by the example of these young men, to try the power of faith— living, acting faith. Try it ! God has owned and prospered the zealous labors of these young men, and he will continue to own them. Imitate their example. Let your motto be—onwards ! Faith is a very powerful agency ; use it, test it, exhaust it if you can ; faith removes mountains, and " laughs at impossibilities." Great revivals of religion have generally emanated from the zeal, pains-taking, and self-denial of young persons. The two Wesleys were young when, one hundred and sixty years ago, they commenced their great work. Whitefleld was young when his extraordinary labors and eloquence were the means of gathering multitudes out of the world and enfolding them in the church of Christ. Jay, Clarke, Finney, and many others might be named in proof of this point, and such results should be looked for more than they have been, as evidence of dutiful obedience to that God who, having forgiven much, deserves diligent and earnest service in return.

NEW PARK-STREET CHAPEL.

This edifice, now so well known by multitudes in every part of England, is quite of modern construction, not having existed a quarter of a century, while the church formed within its walls, is venerable alike for both age and influence. From the early annals of nonconformity, we learn, that as early as the year 1652, a division took place in one of the oldest Baptist churches in London, owing to some practices in which the members could not agree. In those troublous times, large bodies of Dissenters could not meet together without peril ; nor could small bodies make much ado about their disagreements, fearing the strong arm of an unjust power, exercised very unscrupulously at that period, against all who did not belong to the church of the state. We shall not here trace the outline of the disputes referred to ; it may suffice to say, that, according to Crosby, certain practices, considered to be disorderly, caused the division referred to, and several members united themselves together, holding their meetings from time to time at each other's houses, by private arrangement, in the parish of Horsleydown, Southwark. The chief brother, or elder, connected with the seceders, was a Mr. William Eider. Under his pastoral care and advice, they were formed into a small church, and for a period of five years maintained " the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace." Though few in numbers, they were of considerable influence, some of the members being among the merchants of that age, and what was of greater importance, the congregation had a character for sound judgment, united with solid and earnest piety. Such influences, in those times, in their judicious exercise, never failed to accomplish much lasting good. In the selection of their pastor depended mainly their success, though their existence, as a church, never seems to have been in peril.

In the year 1668, a change took place in the pastorate of this small church. A self-taught man, a native of Buckinghamshire, then not thirty years old, although experienced as a pastor, was called to preside over the little Zion. Benjamin Keach, who was baptized by immersion in in his fifteenth year, and who, at the age of eighteen was called to the ministry, after enduring losses, bereavements, punishment in the pillory, and who, in the midst and through all his severe trials, was faithful alike to his great Master and to his principles, was called from the country to preside over this flourishing church, in 1668. For a period of thirty-six years, this exemplary divine ministered to their spiritual wants, and during several years, he was much occupied in writin r and publishing works in defense of the principles he be ieved and preached, which works remain to this day an honor both to the head and to the heart of that good man. His whole life seems to have been one of earnestness, and his aim, to set forth the vital power of personal religion. As a Christian, as a divine, as an author, and as a controversialist, Benjamin Keach must rank among the giants of those days. He died July 18, 1704, aged sixty-three, and his body was laid in the burial ground belonging to the Baptists, in the Park, Southwark. In the early part of his ministry, the church had met for worship in a private house in Tooley-street, and in that dwelling-house was this man of God solemnly ordained by prayer and the laying on of hands. A few years later we find the king, Charles II., granting privileges to Protestant Dissenters, one of which enabled the congregation to erect a meetinghouse upon the Horsleydown, on the east side of old London Bridge. The blessing of God was so abundantly shown, in answer to simple faith and earnest prayer, that the new preaching place soon became too small, and a larger edifice was set up, in which accommodation was provided for nearly a thousand persons. Here, however, division entered, and some of the members left Mr. Keach and joined themselves into a body, forming a church which established itself, and still exists, at Maze Pond, close to the terminus of the Brighton railway.

Mr. Benjamin Stinton was then chosen pastor of the church. In sorrow had this church originated, and through sorrowful times had it struggled and survived. The name of Benjamin belonging to its two early pastors, is indicative of the character of the times, and the origin of its existence. Benoni, the son of sorrow, was altered by the patriarch Jacob to Benjamin, the son of my right hand ; and truly did these two Benjamins show themselves to be workers or helpers together with God as dutiful and diligent sons, in the great work of preaching the gospel. Mr. B. Stinton died in the year 1719.

His successor was the eminent and learned John Gill, D.D., F.A.S. This excellent scholar and divine was born November 19, 1697, at Kettering, and had been the pastor of a Baptist church in that place. He removed to Higham Ferrers in the year 1717, and thence to the church assembling at Goat-street, Horsleydown, where he was ordained its pastor, March 22, 1719. A difference at once arose on the selection of Dr. Gill, the majority of the members being against the doctor, and another separation was the consequence. When the lease of the old chapel had expired, the majority formed themselves into another church, and erected for themselves another meeting-house in Unicorn Yard ; while those forming Dr. Gill's section assembled in the old chapel until the year 1757. It then became necessary to enlarge their borders. Another new chapel, or meeting- house, as they were then designated, was erected for the doctor's congregation, in Carter Lane, Tooley-street, near to London Bridge. The learning and piety of this eminent divine soon attracted a large congregation, and the reward of a sanctified intellect was—a numerous and influential church, standing prominently out as one of the chief Baptist congregations in the land. Dr. Gill was the author of several important works. His great work was an exposition of the Bible, in nine folio volumes ; his other works are still considered worthy of a prominent place in the library of the theologian and the scholar. The blessing of divine Providence rested eminently on this flourishing cause, and the pastor lived to celebrate his jubilee as minister of that church and people. For the long period of fifty-two years was the gospel-trumpet sounded among that favored people by this venerable man ; and never were the doctrines of free grace more successfully and plainly preached than during the protracted ministry of this eminent servant of God. Dr. Gill died after a lengthened illness, October 14, 1771.

Another separation took place at this period, many of the members withdrawing, and forming a church in Dean-street; which afterward established itself in Trinity- street, where it still flourishes.

A young man, of only twenty years, from the Baptist Academy at Bristol, was invited to preach in the now destitute church of Carter Lane, for seven Sundays.