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Mid Life
AFTER the preacher and his wife had been living in
Helensburgh House, Nightingale Lane, for close upon a dozen years, the
building was found altogether too small and inconvenient for a man whose
work needed a very large library and consequently much space to store his
books. The old house was loved for its happy associations by both husband
and wife, but, realizing the need for a more commodious dwelling, it
was, after due consideration, decided to pull down the building and
erect a new Helensburgh House which should meet the altered and increased
needs of the preacher and his wife. The demolition took place in 1869,
and on the site arose a handsome house with ample room for all the
requirements of its owners. Mr. and Mrs. Spurgeon had always been
lavishly generous with their money, and had at all times given every
available pound that they possessed to one or other of the great causes
which they had at heart. A few of their wealthier friends therefore came
to the conclusion that it would be unfair to let them be saddled with the
cost of the new house, which was only rendered a necessity because of the
unselfish labors and extraordinary energy of the pastor in ever
increasing his efforts for good, and these friends determined to defray
the principal part of the cost as a token of their esteem and
appreciation. Mr. William Higgs, the builder of the Metropolitan
Tabernacle, built the new Helensburgh House, and no efforts were spared
to make it a worthy gift and a suitable dwelling for the devoted
minister and his invalid wife.
Some time before the building was ready
for occupation, the preacher met the donors, and Mrs. Spurgeon, who had
been staying at Brighton since the demolition of her old home, came up
to London in order to be present at the gathering. C. H. Spurgeon made a
dainty little speech, thanking his kind friends for their gift and paying
a loving tribute to their generosity. “My wife and I,” he concluded,
“have firmly resolved that we will never go into debt for anything, yet
you know something of the continuous claims upon us in connection with
the work of the Lord,” and he explained that the reason why he was
not rich was that he refused to avail himself of many opportunities of
acquiring wealth, such as by a lecturing trip to America, when he could
have obtained more money in a few weeks than he was likely to receive
through his ministry in many years. “There is no intent on my part to
rest now that I have a new house. If possible, I shall work harder than
ever before and preach better than ever,” and all that the speaker
uttered for himself, he declared, his wife re-echoed. After this
interesting meeting, Mrs. Spurgeon, who was at great sufferer at the
period, went back to Brighton, where Sir James Y. Simpson, of Edinburgh,
performed a difficult operation upon her that had the effect of giving
her some relief from pain and resulted in a slightly better state of
health. Meanwhile her husband took upon himself the whole duty of
furnishing and preparing the new house for habitation. How lovingly he
did this work, and how carefully he sought to please his wife in all
that he performed, the following letter which Mrs. Spurgeon received
will show: — “My Own Dear Sufferer, — I am pained indeed to learn from T
— ‘s kind note that you are still in so sad a condition. Oh, may the
ever merciful God be pleased to give you ease! “I have been quite a long
round today — if a ‘round’ can be ‘long.’ First to Finsbury to buy the
wardrobe, — a beauty. I hope you will live long to hang your garments in
it, every thread of them precious to me for your dear sake. Next to
Hewlett’s for a chandelier for the dining-room. Found one quite to my
taste and yours. Then to Negretti and Zambra’s to buy a barometer for my
own very fancy, for I have long promised to treat myself to one. On the
road I obtained the Presburg biscuits and within their box I send this
note, hoping it may reach you the more quickly. They are sweetened with
my love and prayers. “The bedroom will look well with the wardrobe in
it; at least, so I hope. It is well made, and, I believe, as nearly as
I could tell, precisely all you wished for Joe Mr. Joseph Passmore had
given this as a present is very good, and should have a wee note whenever
darling feels she could write it without too much fatigue; but not yet. I
bought also a table for you in case you should have to keep your bed. It
rises or falls by a screw, and also winds sideway’s, so as to go over the
bed, and then it has a flap for a book or paper, so that my dear one may
read or write in comfort while lying down. I could not resist the
pleasure of making this little gift to my poor suffering wifey, only
hoping it might not often be in requisition, but might be a help when
there was a needs-be for it. Remember, all I buy, I pay for. I have paid
for everything as yet with the earnings of my pen, graciously sent me in
time of need. It is my ambition to leave nothing for you to be anxious
about. I shall find the money for the curtains, etc., and you will amuse
yourself by giving orders for them after your own delightful taste. “I
must not write more; and, indeed, matter runs short except the old, old
story of a love which grieves over you and would fain work a miracle and
raise you up to perfect health. I fear the heat afflicts you. Well did
the elder say to John in Patmos concerning those who are before the
throne of God, ‘Neither shall the sun light on them nor any heat.’ —
Yours to love in life and death, and eternally, C. H. S.” When everything
was ready, Mrs. Spurgeon’s health for a time forbade her returning from
Brighton, and her husband had to inhabit the house alone. But when at
last she could take up her abode once again in Nightingale Lane she
found that the loving care of her husband had forgotten nothing that
could in any way conduce to the comfort of an invalid almost entirely
confined to her couch. “Never,” she wrote, “will the rapture with which
he welcomed her home be forgotten, nor the joyful pride with which he
pointed out all the arrangements he had made so that her captivity should
have every possible compensation and alleviation. There was a
cunningly-contrived cupboard in one corner of the room into which he had
gathered all the details of his loving care for her. When the doors were
opened, a dainty washing apparatus was disclosed with hot and cold water
laid on, so that no fatigue in ascending and descending the stairways
should be necessary, and even the towels were embroidered with her name.
He had thought of everything; and there were such tender touches of
devoted love upon all the surroundings of the little room that no words
can describe her emotions when first she gazed upon them, and afterwards
when she proved by practical experience their exceeding usefulness and
value.”
During her sad illness at this time, Mrs. Spurgeon had one very
remarkable instance of a desire of hers being granted by what cannot
but be accepted as a Divine interposition. Her husband often used to ask
if there were anything she would like him to get for her. The usual
answer was a negative. But one day in a half-bantering tone she said, “I
should like an opal ring and a piping bullfinch!” Her husband was
surprised, but replied, “Ah, you know I cannot get those for you!” For
several days the curious request was laughed over, and then it passed
from the memories of both husband and wife. Mrs. Spurgeon herself shall
tell the sequel of the story. “One Thursday evening, on his return from
the Tabernacle, he (the preacher) came into my room with such a beaming
face and such love-lighted eyes, that I knew something had delighted him
very much. In, his hand he held a tiny box, and I am sure his pleasure
exceeded mine as he took from it a beautiful little ring and placed it on
my finger. ‘There is your opal ring, my darling,’ he said, and then he
told me of the strange way in which it had come. An old lady whom he had
once seen when she was ill, sent a note to the Tabernacle to say she
desired to give Mrs. Spurgeon a small present, and could someone be sent
to her to receive it. Mr. Spurgeon’s private secretary went accordingly
and brought the little parcel, which, when opened, was found to contain
this opal ring. How we talked of the Lord’s tender love for His stricken
child and of His condescension in thus stooping to supply an unnecessary
gratification to His dear servant’s sick one, I must leave my readers to
imagine; but I can remember feeling that the Lord was very near to us.
“Not long after that I was moved to Brighton, there to pass a crisis in
my life, the result of which would be a restoration to better health, or
death. One evening, when my dear husband came from London, be brought a
large package with him, and, uncovering it, disclosed a cage containing a
lovely piping bullfinch! My astonishment was great, my joy unbounded, and
these emotions were intensified as he related the way in which he became
possessed of the coveted treasure. He had been to see a dear friend of
ours, whose husband was sick unto death, and after commending the
sufferer to God in prayer, Mrs. T___ said to him, ‘I want you to take my
pet bird to Mrs. Spurgeon; I would give him to none but her; his songs
are too much for my poor husband in his weak state, and I know that
“Bully” will interest and amuse Mrs. Spurgeon in her loneliness while you
are so much away from her.’ Mr. Spurgeon then told her of my desire for
such a companion, and together they rejoiced over the care of the loving
Heavenly Father who had so wondrously provided the very gift His child
had longed for. With that cage beside him the journey to Brighton was a
very short one, and when ‘Bully’ piped his pretty song and took a hemp
seed as a reward from the lips of his new mistress, there were eyes with
joyful tears in them and hearts overflowing with praise to God in the
little room by the sea that night, and the dear Pastor’s comment was, ‘I
think you are one of your Heavenly Father’s spoiled children, and He
just gives you whatever you ask for.’ “Does anyone doubt that this bird
was a direct love-gift from the pitiful Father” asks Mrs. Spurgeon. “Do
I hear someone say, ‘ Oh! it was all “chance” that brought about such
coincidences as these’? Ah, dear friends, those of you who have been
similarly indulged by Him know of a certainty that it is not so. He who
cares for all the works of His hand cares with infinite tenderness for
the children of His love, and thinks nothing which concerns them too
small or too trivial to notice. If our faith were stronger and our love
more perfect, we should see far greater marvels than these in our daily
lives.”
Although so weak and ailing and confined to her bedroom for
such long periods of time, Mrs. Spurgeon was a faithful trainer of her
twin sons in the Christian doctrine, and she had the joy of seeing them
both brought to the Lord at an early age. “I trace my early conversion,”
Pastor Thomas Spurgeon has written, “directly to her earnest pleading
and bright example. She denied herself the pleasure of attending Sunday
evening services that she might minister the Word of Life to her
household. There she taught me to sing, but to mean it first, — “‘I do
believe, I will believe, That Jesus died for me; That, on the cross, He
shed His blood
From sin to set me free.’ “My dear brother was brought to Christ through
the pointed word of a missionary; but he, too, gladly owns that
mother’s influence and teaching had their part in the matter. By these,
the soil was made ready for a later sowing.” On September 21st, 1874, the
sons were baptized by their father at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in the
presence of an immense concourse of people, and Mrs. Spurgeon was herself
an eye-witness of this open confession of faith made by her boys. On that
occasion she was presented by the Church with an illuminated address, in
which hearty thanks were expressed “to Almighty God for calling so early
in life to the fellowship of the saints the two sons of our beloved and
honored pastor,” and praising “Our gracious Lord that it should have
pleased Him to use so greatly the pious teachings and example of our
dear sister, Mrs. Spurgeon, to the quickening and fostering of the Divine
Life in the hearts of her twin sons, and we earnestly pray,” concluded
the address, “that amidst her long-continued sufferings she may ever be
consoled with all spiritual comfort and by the growing devoutness of
those who are thus twice given to her in the Lord.”
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