PREACHING IN BELFAST
In
August, 1858, Mr. Spurgeon paid his first visit to Ireland, and
preached four sermons in Belfast. He gave his services freely, in order
that the whole of the proceeds might help the Young Men’s
Intellectual Improvement Association to build new school-rooms. That he
was in a very unfit state of health for making such an effort, is
evident from his remarks at the Music Hall service on the Sabbath
morning after his return. Preaching on the words, "As thy days, so
shall thy strength be," he said: — "Children of God, cannot you
say that this has been true hitherto? I can. It might seem egotistical
if I were to talk of the evidence I have received of this during the
past week; but, nevertheless, I cannot help recording my praise to God.
I
left this pulpit, last Sunday, as sick as any man ever left the pulpit;
and I left this country, too, as ill as I could be; but no sooner had I
set my foot upon the other shore, where I was to preach the gospel,
than my wonted strength entirely returned to me. I had no sooner
buckled on the harness to go forth to fight my Master’s battle,
than every ache and pain was gone, and all my sickness fled; and as my
day was, so certainly was my strength.."
The
first sermon was an earnest appeal to the undecided; the text was Mark
12:34: "And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, He said unto
him, Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God." Twenty-three years
afterwards, Mr. Spurgeon received, from a missionary, the following
cheering note: — "Your first sermon in Belfast caused me to
decide finally to enter the ministry. Since then, I have given ten
years to mission work in Damascus, where I built the first church ever
erected for the spiritual worship of the true God in that city. I built
two churches on Mount Hermon, and again and again I have preached there
your sermons in Arabic; one of them was delivered on the top of Mount
Hermon at a picnic given to our different villagers."
The
second discourse was upon a subject of which Mr. Spurgeon was
especially fond. In those early days, if he was preaching several
sermons at any place, one of them was almost certain to be founded upon
Revelation 14:1-3 — and in the course of the sermon, Mr. Spurgeon
usually introduced a few sentences describing his love for the harp. It
was so at Belfast, as the following extract shows: — "John says,
‘I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps.’
Surely, of all instruments, the harp is the sweetest. The organ has a
swelling grandeur, but the harp has a softness and sweetness about it
that might well make it a fit instrument for a royal musician like
David. I must confess that a harp has so great a charm for me that I
have sometimes found myself standing in the street, listening to some
old harper making music on his harp. I have bidden him come into the
house and play to me, that I might prepare a sermon while he played;
and I have found comfort, and my heart has been stirred within me, as I
have listened to the thrilling strains. The singing in Heaven has all
the tender melody of the harp, while it thunders like the rolling sea.
Why is this? Because there are no hypocrites there, and no formalists
there, to make a jarring noise, and spoil the harmony. There are —
"‘No groans to mingle with the songs
Which warble from immortal tongues.’
No
pain, nor distress, nor death, nor sin, can ever reach that blessed
place; there is no drawback to the happiness of the glorified spirits
above. They all sing sweetly there, for they are all perfect; and they
sing all the more loudly, because they all owe that perfection to free
and sovereign grace." The text of the third sermon was Matthew 28:5:
— and was specially aimed at finding out and comforting true
seekers. The last of the four services was held in the Botanic Gardens,
when it was estimated that 7,000 persons heard the discourse delivered
from Matthew 1:21: "Thou shalt call His Name JESUS: for He shall save
His people from their sins." Towards the end of the sermon, Mr.
Spurgeon told the story of Jack the Huckster, whose theology was
comprised in the familiar lines, — "I’m a poor sinner, and nothing at all, But Jesus Christ is my All-in-all."
In
closing the service, the preacher said: — "I have to thank you
all for the kindness with which I have been received, and especially I
have to thank the ministers of Belfast. I never was in a town in my
life where I met with such a noble body of men who love the good old
truth, and I can say that I love every one of them. I thank them for
all the kind things they have said to me and concerning me, and I wish
them and all my friends a hearty good-bye, and may the day come when we
shall all meet in Heaven!" Mr. Spurgeon went to Ireland many times
after this, and Irish friends contributed very generously to the
building of the Tabernacle. (Autobiography Vol 2: pp 359-362)
MISSIONARIES TROUBLED IN IRELAND AFTER PREACHING - SPURGEON NOT VERY SYMPATHETIC!
Again:
we have not enough self-denial, and that is one reason why we do not
prosper. Far be it from me to say aught against the self-denial of
those worthy brethren who have left their country to cross the stormy
deep and preach the Word. We hold them to be men who are to be had in
honour; but still I ask, where is the self-denial of the Apostles
now-a-days? I think one of the greatest disgraces that ever was cast
upon the church in these days was that last mission to Ireland. Men
went over to Ireland, but like men who have velour’s better part,
brave bold men, they came back again, which is about all we can say of
the matter. Why do they not go there again? Why, they say the Irish
"hooted" them. Now, don’t you think you see Paul taking a
microscope out of his pocket, and looking at the little man who should
say to him, "I shall not go there to preach because the Irish hooted
me?" "What!" he says, "is this a preacher?-what a small edition of a
minister he must be, to be sure!" "Oh! but they threw stones at us; you
have no idea how badly they treated us!" Just tell that to the Apostle
Paul. I am sure you would be ashamed to do so. "Oh! but in some places
the police interfered, and said that we should only create a riot."
What
would Paul have said to that? The police interfering! I did not know
that we had any right to care about governments. Our business is to
preach the Word, and if we must be put in the stocks there let us lie;
there would come no hurt of it at last. "Oh! but they might have killed
some of us." That is just it. Where is that zeal which counted not its
life dear so that it might win Christ? I believe that the killing of a
few of our ministers would have prospered Christianity. However we
might mourn over it, and none more than myself, I say the murder of a
dozen of them would have been no greater ground for grief than the
slaughter of our men by hundreds in a successful fight for hearths and
homes. I would count my own blood most profitably shed in so holy a
struggle. How did the gospel prosper aforetime? Were there not some who
laid down their lives for it; and did not others walk to victory over
their slain bodies, and must it not be so now? If we are to start back
because we are afraid of being killed, heaven knows when the gospel is
to spread over the world-we do not. What have other missionaries done?
Have they not braved death in its direst forms, and preached the Word
amid countless dangers? My brethren, we say again, we find no fault,
for we, ourselves, might err in the same manner; but we are sure we are
therein not like Paul. He went to a place where they stoned him with
stones, and dragged him out as dead. Did he say, "Now for the future I
will not go where they will ill-treat me?" No, for he says, "Of the
Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten
with rods, thrice I suffered shipwreck." I am sure we have not the
self-denial of the Apostles. We are mere carpet-knights and
Hyde-park-warriors. When I go to my own house and think how comfortable
and happy I am, I say to myself, "How little I do for my Master! I am
ashamed that I cannot deny myself for his truth, and go everywhere
preaching his Word." I look with pity upon people who say "Do not
preach so often; you will kill yourself." O my God! what would Paul
have said to such a thing as that? "Take care of your constitution, you
are rash, you are enthusiastic." When I compare myself with one of
those men of old, I say, "Oh that men should be found calling
themselves Christians, who seek to stop our work of faith and labour of
love, for the sake of a little consideration about the
‘constitution,’ which gets all the stronger for preaching
God’s Word." … We cannot be put to death now without a
noise being made. The murder of two or three ministers in Ireland would
provoke a tumult through the country, the government would have to
interpose the orderly of the land would be up in arms, and then we
might preach with an armed constabulary around us, and so go through
the land, provoking the priests, startling antichrist, and driving
superstition to its dens for ever. (2:76)
THE IRISH EXPEDITION STILL RANKLED SPURGEON A YEAR AFTER HE LAST MENTIONED IT!
Why
do not our friends go to Ireland to preach the gospel? Ireland is a
disgrace to the Protestant church. Why do not they go and preach there?
A year or so ago a number of our brave ministers went over there to
preach; they did right bravely; they went there, and they came back
again, and that is about the sum total of the glorious expedition
against Popery. But why come back again? Because they were stoned, good
easy men! Do they not think that the gospel ever will spread without a
few stones? But they would have been killed! Brave martyrs they! Let
them be enrolled in the red chronicle. Did the martyrs of old, did the
apostles shrink from going to any country because they would have been
killed? No, they were ready to die, and if half a dozen ministers had
been killed in Ireland, it would have been the finest thing in the
world for liberty in future, for after that the people dare not have
touched us; the strong arm of the law would have put them down, we
might have gone through every village of Ireland afterwards, and been
at peace; the constabulary would soon have put an end to such infamous
murder it would have awakened the Protestantism of England to claim the
liberty which is our right there as we give it elsewhere. We shall
never see any great change till we have some men in our ranks who are
willing to be martyrs. That deep ditch can never be crossed till the
bodies of a few of us shall fill it up; and after that it will be easy
work to preach the gospel there. Our brethren should go there once
more. They can leave their white cravats at home and the white feather
too, and go forth with a brave heart and a bold spirit, and if the
people mock and scoff, let them mock and scoff on. (3:131)
REFERENCE MADE TO THE MASSACRE OF IRISH PROTESTANTS
It
was a remarkable thing that in the massacre of the Protestants in
Ireland, a long time ago, there were thousands of Quakers in the
country, and only two of them were killed; and those two had not faith
in their own principles; one of them ran away and hid himself in a
fastness, and the other kept arms in his house; but the others,
unarmed, walked amidst infuriated soldiers, both Roman Catholics and
Protestants’ and were never touched, because they were strong in
the strength of Israel’s God, and put up their sword into its
scabbard, knowing that to war against another cannot be right, since
Christ has said, "Resist not evil; if any man smite thee on one cheek,
turn to him the other also." "Be kind, not only to the thankful, but to
the unthankful and to the evil;" "forgive your enemies;" "bless them
that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you." (3:144)
[Related again in Words of Wisdom p. 39)
A BRIEF MENTION TO THE 1858-59 REVIVAL IN IRELAND
We
have heard but lately of a good work among the Ragged School boys of
St. Giles’s, and our soul has been glad on account of that; and
the news from Ireland comes to us like good tidings, not from a far
country, but from a sister province of the kingdom. (5:278)
DETAILED REPORT OF REVIVAL IN A SCHOOL 1859
I
will tell you here an incident of the revival. It is one I know to be
correct, it is told by a good brother who would not add a word
thereunto, I am sure. It happened, not long ago, that in a school which
is sustained by the Corporation of the City of London, in the north of
Ireland, one of the bigger boys had been converted to God; and one day,
in the midst of school, a younger youth was greatly oppressed by a
sense of sin, and so overwhelmed did he become that the master plainly
perceived that he could not work, and, therefore, he said to him, "You
had better go home, and plead with God in prayer in private." He said,
however, to the bigger boy, who was all rejoicing in hope, "Go with
him; take him home and pray with him." They started together: on the
road they saw an empty house; the two boy went in and there began to
pray; the plaintive cry of the young one, after a little time changed
into a note of joy, when, suddenly springing up, he said, "I have found
rest in Jesus, I have never felt as I do now; my sins, which are many,
are all forgiven." The proposal was to go home; but the younger lad
forbade this. No, he must go and tell the master of the school that he
had found Christ. So hurrying back, he rushed in and said, "Oh! I have
found the Lord Jesus Christ." All the boys in the school, who had seen
him sitting sad and dull upon the form, remarked the joy that flashed
from his eye, when he cried "I have Christ," The effect was electric
The boys suddenly and mysteriously disappeared; the master knew not
where they were gone; but looking over into the playground, he saw by
the wall were a number of boys, one by one, in prayer asking for mercy.
He said to the elder youth, "Cannot you go and tell these boys the way
of salvation — tell them what they must do to be saved?" He did
so, and the silent prayer was suddenly changed into a loud piercing
shriek, the boys in the school understood it, and, impelled by the
Great Spirit, they all fell on their knees, and began to cry aloud for
mercy through the blood of Christ. But, this was not all. There was a
girls’ schoolroom in the same building over head. The ear had
been well tutored to understand what that cry meant, and soon
interpreted it, and the girls too, affected by the same Spirit, fell
down and began to cry aloud for the forgiveness of their sins. Here was
an interruption of the school! Was ever such a thing known before in a
school-room? Classes are all put aside, books forgotten; everything
cast to the winds, while poor sinners are kneeling at the foot of the
gross seeking for pardon. The cry was heard throughout the various
offices attached to this large school, and it was heard also across the
street, and passers by were attracted — men of God, ministers and
clergymen of the neighbourhood were brought in — the whole day
was spent in prayer, and they continued until almost midnight; but they
separated with songs of joy, for that vast mass of girls and boys, men
and women, who had crowded the two school-rooms, had all found the
Saviour. Our good brother, Dr. Arthur, says, that he met with a youth
while travelling in Ireland, and he said to him, "Do you love the
Saviour?" And he said, "I trust I do." "How did you come to love him?"
"Oh," said he, "I was converted in the big school-room that night. My
mother heard that there was a revival going on there, and she sent me
to fetch my little brother away; she did not want him, she said, to get
convinced; and I went to fetch my brother, and he was on his knees
crying, ‘Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner.’ I stopped,
and I prayed too, and the Lord saved us both." Now to what are we to
attribute this? I know many of the brethren there — the
Presbyterians and others — and I do not think there is any
difference or any superiority in their ministry over anything we can
see or hear in London, and I think they themselves would subscribe to
the truth of what I assert. The difference is this: there has been
prayer there; living, hearty prayer has been offered continually,
perhaps by some who did not live in Ireland. God alone knows where that
revival really begun. Some woman on her bed may have been exorcised in
her soul for that district, and may have been wrestling with God in
prayer; and then the blessing has descended. And if God will help you
and help me to lay near to heart the neighbourhood in which we live,
the family over which we preside, the congregation we have to address,
the class we have to teach, the labourers we employ, or any of these,
surely then by mighty prayer we shall bring down a great blessing from
high; for prayer is never lost; preaching may be, but prayer never is.
Praying breath can never be spent in vain. the Lord send to all the
churches of Great Britain, first of all, the power of prayer, and then
shall there come conversions of multitudes of souls through the
outpoured energy of the Holy One of Israel! (6:288)
A MISTAKE IN NORTH OF IRELAND REVIVAL REGARDING THE NEED OF MINISTERS SOON REMEDIED:
The
ploughman is wanted, even after the harvest, and the treader of grapes
is wanted, however plentiful the vintage; the greater the success the
more need of instrumentality. They began at first to think in the North
of Ireland that they could do without ministers! but now that the
gospel is spread, never was there such a demand for the preachers of
the gospel as now. Proudly men said in their hearts, "God has done this
without the intervention of man." I say, they said it proudly, for
there is such a thing as proud humility; but God made them stoop. He
made them see that after all he would bless the Word through his
servants — that he would make the ministers of God "mighty to the
pulling down of strongholds." (6:296)
Note: This is a theme during the Irish Revival to which Spurgeon returned again and again. Summaries of other comments include:
Every
now and then there creeps up in the Church a sort of striving against
God’s ordained instrumentality. I marked it with sorrow dating
the Irish Revival. We constantly saw in some excellent papers remarks
which I thought exceedingly injurious, wherein it was made a subject of
congratulation that no man was concerned in the work, no eminent
preacher, no fervent evangelist; the whole was boasted to be conducted
without human instrumentality. That was the weakness of the Revival,
not its strength. (8:443)
[After
associating the Reformation as a work of God through Luther etc., CHS
continues]"…I used to notice a remark which was made concerning
the revival in the north of Ireland, that there seemed to be no
prominent instrumentality. The moment I saw that, I mistrusted it. Had
it been God’s work more fully developed through instrumentality,
I believe it had not so speedily come to a close." (10:569)
One
of the greatest injuries to the revival in the North of Ireland a few
years ago was that it was made to be a kind of show-thing, and people
said, "Come, see my zeal for the Lord of Hosts," and after awhile the
glory departed, not because the workers on the spot themselves desired
any such vain-glorying, but because some who were not of a like spirit
gave occasion to the flesh, in this respect. (59:3364)
AN INCIDENT ON THE STEAMBOAT CROSSING OVER FROM IRELAND
A
friend on board the steamboat, when we were coming across from Ireland,
asked one of the sailors, "Would you like a nigger song?" "No," said
he, "I do not like such things." "Would you like a dance?" "No," said
he, "I have a religion that allows me to swear and be drunk as often as
ever I please, and that is never: for I hate all such things with
perfect hatred." Christian men keep from sin because their nature
abhors sin. Do not imagine we are kept back from sin because we are
terrified with threats of damnation, we have no fear, except the fear
of offending our loving Father But we do not want to sin — our
thirst is for holiness and not for vice. But if you have a kind of
religion that always keeps you in restraint, so that you say, "I should
like to go to the theater to-night if I dare," — if that is what
you say, depend upon it, your religion is not of much value." (6:303)
[Mentioned again: 50:2902]
THE WISDOM OF YOUNG CONVERTS FROM THE NORTH OF IRELAND REVIVAL
Come
as thou art to Christ. Many say, "But I cannot come." I remember a
saying in the North of Ireland, in the revival, which just hits the
mark. The young converts will say to one another, when one says, "I
cannot come." "Brother, come if you can, and if you can’t come,
come as you can." Will you not come, when by coming to Christ you may
save your soul? We do not know what faith is when we say to ourselves,
"It is a something so mysterious I cannot reach it." Faith is trusting
Christ. It is the end of mystery and the beginning of simplicity; the
giving up of all those idle feelings and believings that aught else can
save the soul, and the reception of that one master thought, that
Christ Jesus is exalted on high to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give
repentance and remission of sins. (6:312)
CHS NOT HAPPY WITH CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE 1859 NORTH OF IRELAND REVIVAL
I
am afraid some Christians in London have fallen into the same error of
wanting to see signs and wonders. They have been meeting together in
special prayer-meetings to seek for a revival; and because people have
not dropped down in a fainting fit, and have not screamed and made a
noise, perhaps they have thought the revival has not come. Oh that we
had but eyes to see God’s gifts in the way God chooses to give
them! We do not want the revival of the North of Ireland, we want the
revival in its goodness, but not in that particular shape. If the Lord
sends it in another, we shall be all the more glad to be without these
exceptional works in the flesh. where the Spirit works in the soul, we
are always glad to see true conversion, and if he chooses to work in
the body too in London, we shall be glad to see it. If men’s
hearts are renewed, what matter it though they do not scream out. If
their consciences are quickened, what matters it though they do not
fall into a fit; if they do but find Christ, who is to regret that they
do not be for five or six weeks motionless and senseless. Take it
without the signs and wonders. For my part I have no craving for them.
Let me see God’s work done in God’s own way — a true
and thorough revival, but the signs and wonders we can readily dispense
with, for they are certainly not demanded by the faithful, and they
will only be the laughing-stock of the faithless. (6:438)
CHS
commented again on these physical manifestations: "In the early years
of his ministry he was the witness of strange scenes, when the revival
took the same form as it did a few years ago in certain parts of the
north of Ireland, and was accompanied by physical manifestations. The
phenomena then presented were very remarkable, but we must confess that
we have no faith in their spiritual character, and are sorry to hear of
their occurrence. After a while the shoutings and contortions came to
an end, and the work proceeded steadily and after the usual fashion.
Amid all the excitement Berridge never lost his head or became a
fanatic, neither was he exalted above measure, but remained one of the
humblest and most genuine of men." (Eccentric Preachers p. 61)
SAW IRISH GUARDS POORLY TREATED BY THE POPE - PRAYS THAT IRELAND WILL SHAKE OF THE HEAVY CLOUD OF ROME
At
Aix-la-Chapelle I saw another batch of the Pope’s guards —
they were very carefully looked after, and required it I do not doubt.
They were the light sort for fighting, if all accounts be true, and
although I thus speak of them, I feel indignant at the abominable
manner in which they have been treated. True hearts have been rejected
by the chief-priest, but the day will soon come when he would give all
Rome to get a few hundred of such true fellows as these Irish lads.
Beyond a question, their motive entitled them to the best of treatment
from those whom they volunteered to serve. It has been a sad, sad
affair. I pray God the day may come when Ireland, the real Emerald
Isle, first gem of the ocean, may shake off the cloud that now hangs so
heavily upon her, and when her brave sons — for brave they are
— may find better work than to uphold a rotten throne, which I
pray may fall; and may Garibaldi be the means of shaking it! (6:331-332)
SPURGEON PREACHING IN DUBLIN
…this
week I have seen, I repeat, what mine eyes have never before beheld,
used as I am to extraordinary things. I have seen the people of Dublin,
without exception, from the highest to the lowest, crowd in to hear the
gospel. I have known that my congregation has been constituted in a
considerable measure of Roman Catholics, and I have seen them listening
to the Word with as much attention as though they had been Protestants.
I have seen men who never heard the gospel before, military men, whose
tastes and habits were not likely to be those of the Puritanic
minister, who have nevertheless sat to listen; nay, they have come
again — have made it a point to find the place where they could
hear the best — Have submitted to be crowded, that they might
press in to hear the Word, and I have never before seen such intense
eagerness of the people to listen to the Gospel. I have heard, too,
cheering news of work going on in the most unlikely quarters —
men who could not speak without larding their conversation richly Irish
oaths — have nevertheless come to hear the Word; they have
listened, and have been convinced, and if the impression do not die
away, there has been something done for them which they will not forget
even in eternity. (6:296)
SPURGEON ON THE FERRY TO DUBLIN
But
the most pleasing thing I have seen is this, and I must tell it to you.
Hervey once said, "Each floating ship, a floating hell." Of all classes
of men, the sailor has been supposed to be the man least likely to be
reached by the gospel. In crossing over from Holyhead to Dublin and
back — two excessively rough passages — I spent the most
pleasant hours that I ever spent. The first vessel that I entered, I
found my hands very heartily shaken by the sailors. I thought, "What
can these sailors know of me?" and they were calling me "brother." Of
course, I felt that I was their brother too; but I did not know how
they came to talk to me in that way. It was not generally the way for
sailors to call ministers, brother. There was the most officious
attention given, and when I made the enquiry "What makes you so kind?"
"Why," said one, "because I love your Master, the Lord Jesus." I
enquired, and found that out of the whole crew, there were but three
unconverted men; that though the most of them had been before without
God, and without Christ, yet by a sudden visitation of the Spirit of
God they had all been converted. I talked to many of these men, and
more spiritual, heavenly minded men I never yet saw. They have a
prayer-meeting every morning before the boat starts, and another
prayer-meeting after she comes to port; and on Sundays, when they
lay-to off Kingstown or Holyhead, a minister comes on board and
preaches the gospel; the cabins are crowded; service is held on deck
when it can be; and said an eyewitness to me, "The minister preaches
very earnestly, but I should like you to hear the men pray; I never
heard such praying before," said he, they pray with such power, as only
a sailor can pray." My heart was lifted up with joy, to think of a ship
being made a floating Church — a very Bethel for God, When I came
back by another ship I did not expect to see the like; but it was
precisely the same. The same work had been going on. I walked among
them and talked to them. They all knew me. One man took out of his
pocket an old leather covered book in Welch — "Do you know the
likeness of that man in front?" said he, "Yea," I said, "I think I do:
do you read these sermons!" "Yes, sir’" replied he, "we have had
your sermons on board this ship, and I read them aloud as often as I
can. If we have a fine passage coming over, I get a few around me, and
read them a sermon."
Another
man told me a story of a gentleman who stood laughing when a hymn was
being sung; and one of the men proposed that they should pray for him.
They did, and that man was suddenly smitten down, and began on the quay
to cry for mercy, and plead with God for pardon. "Ah! Sir," said the
sailors, "we have the best proof that there is a God here, for we have
seen this crew marvellously brought to a knowledge of the truth, and
here we are, joyful and happy men, serving the Lord." (6:296)
SPURGEON SEES SOME IRISH SOLDIERS OF THE POPE
On
board our ship, from London to Antwerp, there were a considerable
number of Irishmen, who were going out to be a part of the Popish
Legion. I hope they were not fair specimens of the bulk. There is such
a dash of chivalry about that enlistment of these brave crusaders, that
I looked for fine noble fellows. This company could by no means warrant
me in giving such a description. I felt exceedingly grateful to the
Pope for finding some occupation for such a company. The captain said,
"There ain’t but one man among them, sir, as would cut up for a
mop," and first appearances seemed to justify the opinion, whatever
that expressive phrase may mean. They were the most irregular set of
regular troops I had ever seen. Their luggage was the least expensive
that ever the captain carried, for out of the whole batch, I was told
that, no mate had more luggage than he could carry in a pocket
handkerchief. As they ware going along, they were down on the deck
playing at cards — I suppose that was to qualify them for the
service of his holiness; but as soon as the ship began to roll they
played quite other cards. What this new occupation was I leave to your
imagination. (6:354)
SPURGEON FEARED FOR THE IRISH REVIVAL
Now
I am afraid our Churches have for a considerable period been just in
this state; have been sometimes hot and sometimes cold. Look at our
revivals everywhere — the American revival, it is a great wave
and then dry sand. Look at the Irish revival; I fear that in the end it
will come to the same amount. Almost everywhere there have been great
stirrings. As if a holy fire had fallen, and was about to burn up all
the stubble, all men stand in wonder at it, but it ceases, and a few
ashes remain. The fact is, the Church is not healthy, she has
intermittent fits of health, she has starts of energy, she has
paroxysms of agony; but she does not agonise for souls, she is not
always earnest, she is not always busy. Well did Paul need to say to
this age as to his own, "Continue in prayer," not one week, but every
week, not for such a season, but at all seasons. Be ye always crying
out unto the Lord your God. (7:354)
SPURGEON'S SERMONS SPREAD DISCREETLY IN IRISH TOWNS BEFORE THE PRIEST COULD STOP HIM
A
friend has scattered a large number of sermons in the colleges and
towns of Ireland. Working with great discretion, he sowed the seed so
rapidly in each place, that before the foul bird, the Popish priest,
could hasten to stop him, the work was done. Our friend’s
adventures in some of the Irish towns prove that religious liberty is a
thing yet to be understood by that priest-ridden people. We shall, we
are sure, hear of this sowing in years to come. (8:PREFACE)
Many
singular things have happened in connection with the publication of the
sermons. One brother, whose name I must not mention, purchased and gave
away no less than 250,000 copies. He had volumes bound in the best
style, and presented to every crowned head in Europe. He gave copies,
each containing twelve or more sermons, to all the students of the
Universities, and to all the members of the two Houses of Parliament,
and he even commenced the work of distributing volumes to the principal
householders in the towns of Ireland. May the good results of his
laborious seed-sowing be seen many days hence! The self-denial with
which this brother saved the expense from a very limited income, and
worked personally in the distribution, was beyond all commendation; but
praise was evaded and observation dreaded by him; the work was done
without his left hand knowing what his right hand did.(Autobiography
Vol 2:177)
SPURGEON'S OPINION WHY THE REVIVAL CEASED IN IRELAND
The
revival has to a great extent ceased in many places. I fear me it is
because they did not diligently use its influence. In Ireland how much
of revival there was, but the Holy Spirit withdrew necessarily because
it was held up as a curiosity. Every newspaper reeked with the news of
the revival; people went from England to see it; it could not last
then. God never does His great works to be stared at, to be held up as
curiosities. The thing was ruined the moment men began curiously to
talk of it and spread abroad the news thereof as of a phenomenon worthy
of philosophical investigation. These good things should never be made
a subject of "Come, see my zeal for the Lord of Hosts;" while the good
work goes on we should be so hard at work for the Master, that we have
not time to put into every penny newspaper the tale of what God is
doing. (8:465)
SPURGEON COULD NOT SUFFICIENTLY BLESS GOD FOR THE IRISH REVIVAL
Still,
dear friends, we have not dwelt upon a leading reason why the Holy
Spirit descended at this special season. "They were all with one accord
in one place." We have been expecting to see the days of heaven upon
earth. Our soul has longed to hear the voice of God thundering out of
heaven. We have hoped for days such as our fathers have told us
comforted them in the old time. We looked to see thousands born in a
day; alas, the vision cometh not. But look at our country! We have had
spasms of revival; that is as much as I can say. Even the Irish
revival, for which we can never sufficiently bless God, was but as a
passing cloud; it was not an abiding, resting shower, and so with all
the shakings we have had in these later times. We have had but glimpses
where we wanted sights; we have had but twilight where we needed the
sacred, everlasting noon. (9:511)
SPURGEON - HOW THE IRISH REVIVAL WAS SERIOUSLY DAMAGED
Revivals
have often been spoiled, either by persons boasting that such-and-such
a minister was the means of them, or else, as in the case of the North
of Ireland, by boasting that the work was done without ministers. That
revival, mark you, was stopped in its very midst and seriously damaged
by being made a kind of curiosity, and a thing to be gazed at and to be
wondered at by persons both at home and abroad. God does not care to
work for the honour of men, either of ministers or of laymen, or of
Churches either; and if we should say, "Ah! well, I should like to see
the presence of God with us that we may have many conversions, and put
it in the Magazine, and say, that is how things are done at the
Tabernacle," why we should not have a blessing that way. (10:597)
DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE CAN REACH THE IRISH MAN WITH HIS POPERY
Has
not he lately given you an instalment of what he can accomplish, in the
revival which seemed to shake the North of Ireland? It is true it
occurred in a part where Romanism is less strong; but the same power
which can move the stolidity of Protestantism, can stir the fiery zeal
of what is genuine religion in its way- I mean genuine, though
mistaken, because like Paul they think they do God service. The hearty
spirit of the Irishman with his popery, may certainly be reached by
divine omnipotence, as well as the soul of the Irishman of the North
with his much colder creed. (11:629 Sermon On Behalf Of The Baptist
Irish Society)
KEEP A CORNER AT LEAST OF IRELAND FOR GOD AND FOR HIS CHRIST
…if
we forsake Ireland, we might relinquish all hope of the Papacy falling;
but we keep our foothold, at least we take our stand on the rock; we
have taken the seizin of the land, and, though little, it is like the
handful which William the Conqueror took up when he said, "I have taken
the seizin of England hereby;" and though you may amalgamate the
management of this Society with another, you will not give up the
distinctive aim and object of the Society, which is to keep a corner at
least of the Emerald Isle for God and for his Christ. (11:629 Sermon On
Behalf Of The Baptist Irish Society)
MAN SAVED AT 104 IN IRISH REVIVAL
There
is an authentic instance of a man converted to God at the age of a
hundred and four, during the last Irish revival, who walked some
distance to make a confession of his faith in Jesus
Christ…(11:664)
CHRIST DOES NOT NEED CAESAR OR HIS PENNIES TO HELP HIM IN IRELAND
The
gospel is quite able to take care of itself, without your hierarchies,
and tithes, and royal headships; you encumber the church with your
bulwarks of wood, and hay, and stubble; you clog our David with the
royal armour. My Lord Jesus Christ can do well enough in Ireland
without Caesar or his pennies; he needs you not to drain wealth from
those who serve another Lord in order to uphold his cause; he hates
your robberies, which ye call burnt-offerings; he always has taken care
of himself and his ministers, and will continue to do so…And so
in England and Ireland, state alliance is bringing the gospel into
jeopardy, but if that alliance can be broken which is the worst of
ills, then the gospel in its grandeur of unaided might will confound
all adversaries. (14:807)
IRISH SLITTING EACH OTHER THROATS
In
the times of the massacre in Ireland:, when Protestants took a town,
they generally cut the throats of the Catholics; and when Roman
Catholics took a town, they always returned the compliment by killing
the Protestants, but the cry always was — "Spare the Quakers!
Spare the Quakers!" They had hurt no one; they had taken up no arms.
Strange to tell, through that long and bitter warfare only three
Quakers* died, and those three had fled from their homes to find a
refuge in a neighboring castle with the troops. Of course they rested
on an arm of flesh and it failed them.(15:902)
* Spurgeon previously records the number of Quakers as two (3:144)
HARD MEN WANTED!
They who wear soft raiment will never win Ireland, or Africa, or India, for Christ. (16:929)
THE IRISH REVIVAL EXPERIENCE OF BEING STRUCK DOWN ABUSED
"Nay,"
says another, "I should like to feel an extraordinary sensation; if
under the sermon to-night I should be struck down, as I have heard some
have been in the Irish revivals; if I felt some remarkable physical,
mental, or spiritual emotion, such as I have never experienced before,
I should say that this was the finger of God." My dear hearer, why be
so foolish? God’s word tells you that if you trust Jesus Christ
you are saved. Is not God’s word enough? Will you not take the
assurance of God without laying down this and that as a condition for
your Saviour? Some of you talk and act as if the great God must do what
you like, or else you will not believe him. (16:936)
IRISHMAN WHO THOUGHT IT BETTER TO BE A PROTESTANT HERETIC AND GO STRAIGHT TO HEAVEN
…Even
Popes reputed to be remarkable for holiness and even infallibility,
have when they died gone somewhere, I know not where, but somewhere
where they have needed that the faithful should pray for the repose of
their souls. That is a very poor look-out for ordinary people like
ourselves; for if these superlatively good people are still uneasy in
their souls after they die, and have in fact, according to their own
statements, gone to purgatorial fires or to purgatorial chills, to be
tossed, as certain of their prophets have informed us, from icebergs
into furnaces, and then back again, until by some means, mechanical,
spiritual, or otherwise, sin shall be burnt out, or evaporated from
them; if that be their expectation, I think I should be inclined, as
the Irishman said, to become a Protestant heretic, and go to heaven at
once, if there be so sorry a prospect for the Catholic. (16:946)
JOY OF THE HOLY GHOST ON IRISH FACES
I
was told by one who watched the revivals in the north of Ireland years
ago, that he never saw the human face look so lovely as when it was lit
up with the joy of the Holy Ghost during those times of refreshing.
(18:1078)
HUMOROUS IRISH REMARK
Dear
young friends, you may rest assured that nothing can happen to you so
blessed as to be converted while you are young. I bless God for my
having known him when I was fifteen years of age; but I have often felt
like that Irishman who said that he was converted at twenty, and he
wished it had been twenty-one years before. (19:1138)
ILLUSTRATION OF THE IRISH FAMILY
We
have heard of a poor Irish family on shipboard, very numerous and very
needy: a kind friend proposed to the father to give up entirely one of
the little ones to be adopted and provided for. It was to be entirely
given up, never to be seen again, or in any way claimed as their own,
and the parents were to make a selection. It is a long story, but you
know how the discussion between the parents would proceed. Of course
they could not give up the eldest, for the simple reason that he was
the firstborn. She second was so like the mother; the third was too
weak and sickly to be without a mother’s care. So the excuses
went on throughout the whole family, till they came to the last, and no
one dared even to hint that the mother should be deprived of her
darling. No child could be parted with; they would sooner starve
together than renounce one. (19:1148) [Repeated again: 23:1336]
IRISH REVIVAL - GENUINE
They
are waiting for a revival. We have heard glad tidings, in which we
rejoice, of great revivals in different parts of England, Scotland, and
Ireland; and there are some who say, "Oh, if a revival would come here,
we should be converted;" or it runs thus, "If the two honoured servants
of God were to come here, and hold services, then, surely, we should be
converted." They look to men and excitements. I thank God for every
genuine revival, and whenever he works I rejoice in it; but for any man
to suppose that the gospel command is suspended for a time until a
revival comes, is to suppose a lie. (21:1211)
AN AWAKENING IN IRELAND - GOD'S ORDERLY WORK
There
is a good work going on in the north of England, there is a revival in
Scotland, there is an awakening in Ireland, there is a stir in the
midland counties; but does it not look very like a scramble? Do we not
seem to tumble over one another instead of doing our work in soldierly
order? A good work springs up in one place on a sudden, while religion
is dying out in other quarters; the people are satiated yonder, and are
starving only a little way off. We do not get at the masses as a whole,
or see the church progress in all places. Let us not however judge too
hastily, for Jesus makes his order out of our disorder. (21:1218)
ST PATRICK AND THE SNAKES - AN ILLUSTRATION OF HOW WE SHOULD DEAL WITH REVIVED POPERY!
I
do believe, brethren, that if the atonement of Christ had been properly
preached in the churches of England some years ago, we should not now
be pestered with this revived popery; but there has been a great deal
of mystification upon the doctrine of satisfaction for sin, a great
deal of keeping back of the grand doctrine of vicarious sacrifice, and
therefore as men want a Saviour and a sacrifice, if you do not present
them the true one they will go off to find a false one, and they do
find such a false one in the priestcraft of the Roman and Anglican
churches. Keep up the preaching of the one finished sacrifice and the
dragon must fly. As St. Patrick is said to have driven out all the
venomous creatures from Ireland, so let Jesus Christ come, and all the
serpent’s seed fly before him — they cannot bear the great
truth of the atoning death of the Son of God. (21:1237)
IRISH GUILE USED OFTEN AS A WARNING
Yet
a fellow gets up who never tried prayer, and says it is of no avail. We
find it hard to have patience with him. How does he know? He reminds me
of the Irish prisoner who was brought up for murder, and half-a-dozen
people swore that they had seen him do the deed. "Your lordship," said
he, "I could bring ten times as many that didn’t see me do it."
Yes, but that was no evidence at all; and in the same way these people
have the impudence to set up their theory on no better grounds than the
fact that they do not pray and God does not hear them. What is the good
of such evidence? We knew he could not hear them if they did not pray.
(21:1221) [Used again 27:1611/33:1979/44:2575] "I have told you, more
than once, what the Irishman said when there were five witnesses to
prove that he had committed murder…"[45:2624]
PRIEST TOOK AWAY TESTAMENT FROM AN IRISH BOY
A
priest took a Testament from an Irish boy. "But," cried the boy, "you
cannot take away those six chapters of Matthew that I learned by
heart." They may take away our books, but they cannot take away what we
have fed upon and made our own. "His flesh is meat indeed, his blood is
drink indeed," for when we have fed upon him our Lord Jesus remains in
us the hope of glory. Hold fast the truth, O believers in Jesus, for it
is your treasure. (24:1418) [Repeated again in 40:2350 only it was 10
chapters]
SOME CHURCHES FIGHT LIKE IRISH WAKES
I
thank God that we have enjoyed peace as a church these many years, but
I have known certain churches where peace would be a novelty, a novelty
which I recommend them to try. Some little churches seem to think that
they must have an angry discussion every month, or else they are living
beneath their gospel privileges. This leads to heart-burnings, and
promotes splits and divisions, and these are as frequent among them as
fights at an Irish wake. (26;1558)
IRISH LAD'S DEFINITION OF HOLINESS
What
is holiness? I know what it is, and yet I cannot in a few words define
it. I will bring out its meaning by degrees, but I shall not do better
than the poor Irish lad who had been converted to the faith. When he
was asked by the missionary, "Patrick, what is holiness?" "Sir," said
he, "it is having a clean inside." Just so. Morality is a clean
outside, but holiness is being clean within. (27:1618) [Repeated again:
42:2495]
HUMOROUS STORY OF IRISH MAN FINDING A SOVEREIGN
"Ah,"
says one, "but I know a little about revival meetings and conversions.
Don’t you know what a lot were converted, and what became of
them?" I know what you are thinking about, but I heard a friend tell a
good story in reference to that matter. He said that, notwithstanding
that we have to strike off a discount from our converts of those that
are not genuine, yet the revivals are worth having, for there is a real
gain in them; for, said he, the objection is something like that of an
Irishman who had found a sovereign which was short in weight, so that
he could only get eighteen shillings for it. The next time he saw a
sovereign lying on the ground be would not pick it up, for, he said, he
had lost two shillings by the other. Everybody laughs at him as, acting
ridiculously. So it is with objectors to revivals and special services.
Suppose you do have to strike off the two shillings’ worth, yet
the eighteen shillings are clear gain; and why should you be the bad
two shillings, my friend? (27:1579) [Mentioned again in 38:2265 with
the comment: "So he passed on, and left it where it was. I cannot
imagine an Irishman being so unwise; certainly, no Scotchman would have
been; and I think no Englishman."]
WILD IRISH QUARRELLING
God
puts us where we can best serve his cause and bless our age. If you had
your choice, perhaps, if you had to be a street lamp, you would like to
be a lamp in Hyde Park, to shine upon the nobles who pass that way. But
the poor souls want lights far more down that blind alley, down that
den of a court, where wild Irish are quarrelling, or drunkards
murdering their wives. He that loves God, if he had his choice, might
sooner choose to shine in the worse place than in the better. (27:1594)
FEARFUL ASSASSINATIONS IN IRELAND
When
we heard of those fearful assassinations in Ireland, the news reached
the bulk of us on the Sabbath-day, and men of God went to their
loop-holes of retreat, and shot up to heaven prayers for poor Ireland.
It was the best thing that could be done. I have more faith in prayer
than in police and prisons. In any time of national need the men that
save a nation are the men of prayer. What, not the wise statesmen?
Certainly, wise statesmen; but who makes them wise? (28:1694)
AN IRISH MAN'S BAD CHARACTER
First,
if you want to find salvation to-night, take the text as a sort of
spiritual guide-book, and plead your need. Do not say anything about
your merits: the less said about them the better. Your position is like
that of the Irish servant, who said, when asked for his character, that
the gentleman at his last place told him he would do better without his
character than with it. You are just in that case, only that you will
be asked for your character, and the best thing you can do is to say,
"My character is as bad as it can be"; and then plead for mercy.
(28:1695)
A DYING LAD IN IRELAND TRUSTING IN GOD
Never
despise the most ragged child. A clergyman in Ireland, ministering to a
little Protestant congregation, noticed for several Sundays, standing
in the aisle near the door, a very ragged boy, who listened to the
sermon most eagerly. He wished to know who the boy could be, but he
always vanished as soon as the sermon was over. He asked a friend or
two to watch, but somehow the boy always escaped, and could not be
discovered. It came to pass one Sunday that the minister preached a
sermon from this text, "His own right hand and his holy arm hath gotten
him the victory," and after that time he missed the boy altogether. Six
weeks elapsed, and the child did not come any more, but a man appeared
from the hills, and begged the minister to come and see his boy, who
was dying. He lived in a miserable hovel up in the mountains. A
six-mile walk in the rain, through hogs and over hills, and the
minister came to the door of the lint. As he entered, the poor lad was
sitting up in bed, and as soon as he caught sight of the preacher he
waved his arm and cried out, "His own right hand and his holy arm hath
gotten him the victory." That woos his closing speech on earth, his
dying shout of triumph. Who knows but in many and many a case the
Lord’s right hand and holy arm have gotten him the victory,
despite the poverty and the sin and the ignorance that may have
surrounded the young convert? Let us not therefore despise grace
wherever it is, but heartily prize what we are apt to overlook.
(29:1745)
AN ECCENTRIC IRISH CLERGY MAN
One
fine old Irish clergyman has frequently sought to instruct me in the
art of being immortal, and he has been grieved and angry because I
never set much store by the long life which he offered me. Though an
old man, he assured me that he should never die; he expected in a short
time to throw out all the infirmities of his years in the form of a
rash, and then he should be as vigorous as ever. Alas! the good rector
is buried, and his crazy brain is at rest. It is appointed unto men
once to die. I should have thought that since so many of the excellent
of the earth have fallen asleep, nobody would ever have been so mad as
to raise a question about its being the common lot. Our crowded
cemetery supply ten thousand arguments why each one of us may expect to
die in due time. (29:1719)
IRELAND COWERS UNDER THE SHADOW OF THE POPE - WHAT CAN BE DONE TO RESCUE HER NOW?
When
I think of the neglects of our own ancestors I am anxious that we take
warning by them. There are at this moment straths in the Highlands
which are thoroughly Romish. Why? They were not carefully evangelised
at the time of the Reformation. If the workers of that period had done
their work thoroughly there would have been no Romish valleys in
Presbyterian Scotland. Ireland still cowers under the shadow of the
Pope; there was a hopeful time when better things were promised, but
this was allowed to pass by; and what can be done to rescue Ireland
now? Times do not tarry, and tides do not wait; and if we do not avail
ourselves of them while they are with us, our descendants may lament
our neglects.(30:1778)
IRISH MAN'S REPLY TO PRIEST WHO TRIED TO STOP HIM FROM READING THE BIBLE
Here
I go into one place of worship, and I see a pretty little
dolls’-house at the further end, and people are bowing down
before some paper flowers and candlesticks. Around the building I see
pictures of virgins and saints, but he who has read his Bible enters
not into this modern idolatry. A priest once said to a poor Irishman,
"There will be no good come of your reading the Bible." "Why," replied
the man, "it is written, ‘Search the Scriptures.’ Please,
your Reverence, I was just reading ‘Ye shall read it to your
children,’ and the priests have no children: how can you account
for that?" "Ah!" replied the priest, "the like of you cannot understand
the book." "Well," said the man, "if I cannot understand it, it will do
me no harm; and if I can understand it, will do me great good." Just
so: the Bible is a very dangerous book to superstition, but to nothing
else. Spread it, then, to the winds of heaven; and read it, every one
of you. To the law and to the testimony; if we speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in us. (31:1866)
ENGLISH TRAVELLER SAVED IN IRISH TOWN
One
of our evangelists tells of a man who was converted in a small Irish
town, and it was afterwards discovered that he, and the preacher who
led him to Christ, resided but a few hundred yards from each other in
London. They had never met in this great city, where neighbors are
strangers to each other; nor was it likely that they over would have
been brought into contact with one another here; for the man, who was a
commercial traveller, was too careless ever to attend a place of
worship in London. But to sell his goods he went to Ireland, where,
also, went the evangelist to preach the gospel; and being somewhat at a
loss to know what to do with his time, he no sooner saw the name of a
preacher from London announced, than he determined to attend the
service, and there he met with Christ. (37:2222)
IRISHMAN CAUSED SPURGEON TO SLEEP IN!
I
was once in a country town, and I said to my host, when I went to bed,
"I have to be in London to-morrow, and I cannot get up in time for my
work unless I leave by a train which I can catch readily enough if you
wake me at six o’clock." Well, my host was an Irishman, so he
woke me at five o’clock; and when I sat up in bed, I said, "What
is it?" He said, "You have only another hour to sleep." The consequence
was that I missed my train. If he had only wakened me at the proper
time, and said, "Now you must get up," I should have dressed at once;
but as he said, "You have only another hour to sleep," of course I
slept that hour, and another one as well, for I was weary. The same
principle applies to you. If I say to you, "Go home, and think it over
all the week," I shall be giving you a week in which to remain in
rebellion against God; and I have no right to do that. I shall be
giving you a week in which you are to continue an unbeliever; and he
that is an unbeliever is in peril of eternal ruin, for "he that
believeth not shall be damned." Worse than all, the week may lead to
many other weeks; to months, perhaps, and years; perchance to a whole
eternity of woe. I cannot give you five minutes. God the Holy Ghost
speaks by me now to souls whom God hath chosen from before the
foundation of the world, and he says, "To-day, if ye will hear his
voice, harden not your hearts." (37:2231)
A QUALIFIED IRISH BLESSING
I
have heard of a traveller who was followed by a beggar, in Ireland, who
very importunately asked for alms. As long as there seemed a chance of
getting anything, the old woman kept saying, "May the blessing of God
follow your honour all through your life!" but when all hope of a gift
was vanished, she bitterly added, "and never overtake you." But the
blessings which God has for his chosen are not of that slow-footed kind
which never catch us up. It is written, "All these blessings shall come
on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the
Lord thy God." (38:2238)
EFFECTUAL CALLING AND THE IRISH
Oh!
how I rejoice to preach a gospel that does not borrow strength from me,
but gets its power from God! What a consolation that, go inhere we may
to preach God’s Word, if God wills it, that Word shall be
rendered effectual amongst the very worst of men,— amongst
mockers, scoffers, and despisers! Why is it that men go not to preach
the Word amongst the Romanists of Ireland? Because they say they will
not hear them. Oh! But they would; and we should at least free
ourselves from their blood, if we did but stand up, and testify the
Word; and however unwilling they might be, God could yet, by his
abundant grace, change their hearts. (45:2629)
THE PHOENIX PARK MURDERS
Now
take another view of the picture presented by our text. We have lately
had, over in Ireland, a terrible proof that the justification of
outrage leads on to murder. Certain persons say, "We never meant to
urge our countrymen to commit the crime of murder, and we are shocked
at the Phoenix Park tragedy. We wash our hands in innocency, for we are
clear of guilt in this matter. We denounce it, we have no part in it;
we abhor it." So they say; but what led up to that awful deed of blood?
When men have used expressions in which they have not condemned, but
have almost justified outrage and murder in other cases, what could
come of it but that their disciples should go a little beyond what
their masters may have intended? (45:2632)
DON'T PREACH THE GOSPEL AS IF YOU WANTED AN IRISH MAN TO FIGHT OVER IT
There
are some, I believe, who preach the. doctrines of grace very much as a
dog of mine acts with his rug. When I go home to-night, he will bring
it out, and drag it up to my feet, just because he wants me to try and
take it away from him, that he may growl over it. So have I seen some
people preach the doctrine of election, and other truths like it, as if
they wanted some Arminian to try to run away with them, or have a fight
over them. Now that is not the way which Christ teaches us to preach;
he never bids us proclaim the gospel in such a way that we seem to want
to make an Irish fight over it. No, no, no; go direct to Christ for
truth, and you will preach it strongly, honestly, openly, positively,
but you will always preach it with love. (46:2674)
IF ONLY THE IRISH WOULD READ THE BOOK OF PROVERBS
Every
Scotch child used to be taught the Book of Proverbs, it was one of the
class-books of Scotch schools; and I have heard it said that this
particular form of instruction has largely helped to make our Scotch
friends so sharp and cute; and I should not wonder if that is the case.
They certainly are as wise a race of people as we are likely to meet
with. I wish our Irish friends also would study the Book of Proverbs.
If it would make them as cool as it has made our Scotch friends, it
might improve them without taking away. any of their natural humour and
warmth of heart. (46:2679)
WHY SPURGEON ONCE REFUSED TO COME TO IRELAND
I
refused, on one occasion, to go to Ireland when invited to do so by a
brother, who gave, as the reason why he wished me to go, that by going
there I should greatly increase the Baptist denomination. "No," I said;
"I would not go across the street, much less across the sea, merely to
make people Baptists" Wherever I may be, I endeavour, as in the sight
of God, so to deal with men as to bring them to Christ, leaving the
Spirit of God further to take of the things of Christ, and reveal them
unto them. (47:2737)
SPURGEON'S THOUGHTS ON THE IRISH SCHOOLS
Dear
friends, I beg you continually to practice this holy work of mutual
exhortation, stirring one another up to greater devotion to our Saviour
and his service. We do not think it wise to have public meetings of
this kind, because such gatherings are apt to be like the Irish school,
where they had not any schoolmaster, and nobody knew anything, and they
taught one another! That is the general style of things where everybody
speaks; or, when the meeting is more profitable, it is because there
are one or two present who really are the instructors of the rest, even
though they may not nominally be called so. (47:2713)
CHS
later identified the Plymouth Brethren by the same illustration: "It
has been the forgetfulness of this truth which has been the origin of
something I heard alluded to just now, only I sometimes make a mistake,
and say the Davenport Brothers instead of the Plymouth Brothers.
There is something to do with tying knots in both cases, and slipping
out of them. I believe if we keep our churches awake we have no great
evil to fear from them, for their proposals are too wild. If all should
be mouth, as they propose, what is the result? — a vacuum. Their
plan of having no minister to instruct them, but each instructing the
other, reminds me of the Irish school when it had no schoolmaster,
about which one of the scholars said,. "‘None of us know nothing,
and we all teach one another." (Speeches at home and abroad p.55)
MILK YOUR OWN COW !
Do
not care so much about all other books in the world as about the Word
of God; drink continually at the fountain-head. You have heard, I
daresay, of the Irishman who was converted to Christ; and whose priest
told him that he had better not read the Bible, because it had done so
much mischief to unlearned readers, adding, "I will give you the milk
of the Word, and will bring it to you." "Well, sir," said Pat, "I will
be very much obliged to you if you will do so; but, still, I mean to
keep a cow myself, and so I shall be sure to get the milk pure." That
is the right thing for you also to do, keep a cow yourself. When you
come here, I will do my best to give you the unadulterated milk of the
Word; still, I would advise you also to keep a cow yourselves. (47:2713)
SPURGEON WITNESSED TO AN IRISH MAN ABOUT SUBSTITUTION
One
evening when sitting to see enquirers, there came an Irishman upstairs.
"Well, Pat," I said. "How’s your reverence?" said he.
"Don’t call me reverence, "I said," because I am no reverence at
all: but how is it you have not gone to your priest?" Said he, "I have
come here to ask you a question, and if you can answer it, that will
do." "Well, what is the question?" "Why, you said, last Sunday, that
God would forgive sin; what I want to know is how that can be, for I
have been such a great sinner that if he doesn’t punish me, he
ought." Well, I thought I had got a sinner to deal with, and one who
spoke from his heart what he felt. I said, "God pardons sinners for the
sake of Jesus. "But he replied, "I do not know what you mean." I told
him that Jesus Christ died, and that for the sake of that, God pardoned
sinners. Still he could not comprehend, and he said, "I want to know
how God can be just: he ought to punish sin, and yet he does not; how
can that be?" "Well," said I, "suppose you had been committing a
murder, and the judge were to say you must be hanged." I should deserve
it," said he. "Well, how is Pat to be got off, and yet the sentence to
be carried out?" "Faith!" says he, "that’s what I don’t
exactly see. "Well, "I continued, "suppose I go to the Queen, and say,
‘Please, your Majesty, I am very fond of this poor Irishman; I
admit he ought to be hanged, but I want him to live: will you be so
good as to have me hanged instead?" Well, she couldn’t say,
"Yes," Pat; but suppose she did, and suppose I went to prison and were
hanged instead of you, the murderer, would the Queen be unjust in
letting you go afterwards? "Faith!" says he, "I shouldn’t ask
that; how could she meddle with me afterwards? because I should say
gentleman was hung for me, and sure enough I was free. But," he added,
"I don’t see what that has to do with the matter." "Why just
this," said I, "Jesus Christ loved sinners so much that rather than
they should perish he was content to die himself instead of them; and
now, since Christ died for sinners, can you not see how God can be just
in letting sinners go free?" "Oh, yes," says he, "I see it now; but
then how am I to know that Christ died for me, so that I cannot be
punished? You say there are some people that Christ died for, so that
God could not punish them; then how am I to know whether I belong to
them?" "Why, by this are you a sinner? Because if you are not in the
matter of compliment, but if you are really so, and feel it, then
Christ died in your stead, and you cannot die because God will never
enforce the sentence twice; he will not ask payment first at the
bleeding Surety’s hands and then at ours." I think I see that man
putting his hands together, and saying, "There! that’s Bible, I
know, that’s true, that must be true; no man could have made that
up; that’s wonderful; I know it’s God’s Bible, for it
just fits me; I am a poor sinner, and God has pardoned me." And he went
on his way rejoicing. (49:2841) [Mentioned first in 41:2408 Mentioned
again in 61:3446 with the words: "Is it really so?" said he. "It is in
the Bible," I replied. "Then the Bible must be true," said he, "for
nobody but God could have thought it. Later again CHS recalled it and
said: "I believe my Irish friend found peace that day" It is also
mentioned in his Autobiography Vol 1:68]
IRISH MAN LOOKING FOR A FIGHT
Little
pots soon boil over; and I have known some professing Christians, who
are such, very little pots, that the, smallest fire has made them boil
over. When you never meant. anything to hurt. Their feelings, they have
been terribly hurt. The simplest remark has been taken as an insult,
and a construction put upon things that never was intended, sad they
make their brother offenders for a word, or for half a word, aye, and
even for not saying a word. Sometimes, if a man does not see them in
the street through being short-sighted, they are sure he, passed them
on purpose, and would not speak to them because they are not so well
off as he is. Whether a thing be done ca: be left undone, it, equally
fails to please them. They are always on the alert for some cause of
annoyance, and almost remind one of the Irishman at Donnybrook Fair,
trailing his coat in the dirt,, and asking for somebody to tread on it,
that he may have the pleasure of knocking that somebody down. When I
hear of anybody like that losing his temper, I always pray that he may
not, find it again, for such tempers are best lost. (53:3065)
REVIVAL…"ESPECIALLY IN IRELAND"
A
few years ago, the churches of our land, and especially the churches of
Ireland, had a visitation of grace, when many were converted to God;
and in this church we have had a revival that has lasted all the years
of our pastorate. We have had no special season of revival, there has
been a continual revival, practically all the time, at New Park Street,
at Exeter Hall, at the Surrey Gardens, and here in this Tabernacle.
(56:3221)
JUST AS PATRICK DROVE THE SAKES OUT OF IRELAND, CHRIST DRIVES SERPENTS OUT OF THE HUMAN HEART
They
say that St. Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland. Ah! but
Christ drives all the serpents out of the human heart when he once gets
in. If he does but sprinkle his blood upon our hearts, we become new
men, — such new men as all the rules of morality could not have
made us, such new men as they are who, robed in white, day without
night sing Jehovah’s praise before his throne. (58:3293)
USE OF THE SHAMROCK TO ILLUSTRATE THE TRINITY IS THE BEST ILLUSTRATION ALTHOUGH FLAWED
Many
attempts have been made by divines to find parallels in Nature to the
Unity and the Trinity of God, but they all seem to me to fail. Perhaps
the very best one is that of St. Patrick, who, when preaching to the
Irish, and wishing to explain this matter, plucked a shamrock and
showed them its three leaves all in one — three, yet one. Yet
there are flaws and faults even in that illustration. It does not meet
the case. It is a doctrine to be emphatically asserted as it is
expounded in that Athanasian Creed; the soundness of whose teaching I
do not question, for I believe it all, though I shrink with horror from
the abominable anathema which assert that a man who hesitates to
endorse it will "without doubt perish everlastingly." (62:3519)
IRISH MAN'S SOLUTION TO A SHORT BLANKET USED TO ILLUSTRATE THOSE WHO HAVE NO FIXED CREED
Some
men have no creed, or, if they have, it is altered so often that it is
of no use to them. It must be like the blanket of a gentleman who came
from the Emerald Isle, of which he said, "See here! Our skipper has
given me a shamefully bad blanket. Just look at it: it is too long at
the top, and it is too short at the bottom; it gets over my head, and
yet my feet are always cold. I cut a whole foot off the top, and I
sewed it on to the bottom, but it is not altered a bit; it still comes
over my eyes, and is too short to cover my feet." That is what certain
"thinkers" do, with their creed; they keep cutting it off at one end,
and putting it on at the other, but it never gets right; it is always
forming, never formed. (An all round ministry: p117-118) [A similar
thought appears in John Ploughman's Talk p.78: "Pray excuse me for
spinning this long yarn, for as I pulled, it came. My talk seems like
the Irishman's rope which he could not get into the ship because
somebody had cut the end off.]
AN IRISHMAN WHO HAD A SEARCH WARRANT TO READ THE BIBLE
That
is a good story of the boy in Italy who had his Testament seized, and
who said to the gendarme, "Why do you seize this book? Is it a bad
book?" "Yes," was the answer. "Are you sure the book is bad?" he
enquired; and again the reply was, "Yes." "Then, why do you not seize
the Author of it if it is a bad book?" That was a fine piece of sarcasm
at those who had a hatred of the Scriptures, and yet professed to have
love to Christ. That is another good story of our friend the Irishman,
who, when he was asked by the priest what warrant an ignorant man such
as he was had for reading the Bible, said, "Truth, but I have a
search-warrant; for it says, ‘Search the Scriptures; for in them
ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of
me.’" (Lectures to my Students Vol 2 p.60)
AN INCIDENT FROM THE LIFE OF GIDEON OUSELEY RELATED AT LENGTH AS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF EVANGELISM
The
life of Gideon Ouseley, by Dr. Arthur, is one of the most powerful
testimonies to the value of outdoor preaching. In the early part of the
present century, from. 1800 to 1830, he was in full vigor, riding
throughout the whole of Ireland, preaching the gospel of Jesus in every
town. His pulpit was generally the back of his horse, and. he himself
and his coadjutors were known as the men with the Black caps, from
their habit of wearing skull caps. This cavalry ministry was in its
time the cause of a great revival in Ireland, and gave promise of
really touching Erin’s deep-seated curse — the power of the
priesthood, and the superstition of the people. Ouseley showed at all
times much shrewdness, and a touch of common-sense humor; hence he
generally preached in front of the apothecary’s window because
the mob would be the less liberal with their stones, or next best he
chose to have the residence of a respectable Catholic in his rear, for
the same reason. His sermon from the stone stairs of the market house
of Enniscorthy was a fair specimen of his dexterous method of meeting
an excited mob of Irishmen.. I will give it you at length, that you may
know how to act if ever you are placed in similar circumstances:
— "He took his stand, put; off his hat, assumed his black velvet
cap, and, after a few moments spent in silent prayer, commenced to
sing. People began to gather round him, and, during the singing of a ew
verses, were quiet, and apparently attentive, but soon began to be
restless and noisy. He then commenced to pray, and quietness for a
short time followed; but presently, as the crowd increased, it became
uneasy, and. even turbulent. He closed his prayer, and began to preach;
but evidently his audience were not disposed to hear him. Before many
sentences had been uttered, missiles began to fly — at first not
of a very destructive character, being refuse — vegetables,
potatoes, turnips, etc.; but before long harder materials were thrown
— brickbats and stones, some of which reached him and inflicted
slight wounds. He stopped, and, after a pause, cried out, ‘Boys
dear, what’s the matter with you to-day? Won’t you let an
old man talk to you a little?’ ‘We don’t want to hear
a word out of your old head,’ was the prompt reply from one in
the crowd. ‘But I ‘want; to tell you what, I think, you
would like to hear.’ ‘No, we’ll like nothing you can
tell us.’ ‘How do you know? I want to tell you a story
about one you all say you respect and love.’ ‘Who’s
that,’ ‘The blessed Virgin.’ ‘Och, and what do
you know about the blessed Virgin?’ ‘More than you think;
and I’m sure you’ll be pleased with what I have to tell
you, if you’ll only listen to me.’ ‘ Come
then,’ said another voice, ‘let us hear what he has to say
about the Holy Mother.’ And there was a lull, and the missionary
began: ‘There was once a young couple to be married, belonging to
a little town called Cana. It’s away in that country where our
blessed Savior spent a great part of his life among us; and the decent
people whose children were to be married thought it right to invite the
blessed Virgin to the wedding feast, and her blessed Son too, and some
of his disciples; and they all thought it right to come. As they sat at
table, the Virgin Mother thought she saw that tile wine provided for
the entertainment began to run short, and she Was troubled lest the
decent young people should be shamed before their neighbors; and so she
whispered to her blessed Son, "They have no wine." "Don’t let
that trouble you, ma’am," said he. And in a minute or two after,
she, knowing well what was in his good heart, said to one of the
servants that was passing behind them, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do
it." Accordingly, by-and-by,, our blessed Lord said to another of them
— I suppose they had passed the word among themselves. — "
Fill those large water-pots with, water." (There were six of them
standing in a corner of the room, and they held nearly three gallons
apiece, for the people of those countries use a great deal of water
every day.) And, remembering the words of the Holy Virgin, they did his
bidding, and came back, and said, "Sir, they are full to the brim."
"Take some, then, to the master, at the head of the table," he said.
And they did so, and the master tasted it, and lo and behold you! it
was wine, and the best of wine too. And there was plenty of it for the
feast, ay, and, it may be, some left to help the young couple setting
up house-keeping. And all that, you see, came of the servants taking
the advice of the blessed Virgin, and doing what she bid them. Now, if
she was here among us this day, she would give just the same advice to
every one of us, "Whatsoever he saith to you, do it," and with good
reason too, for well she knows there is nothing but love in his heart
to us, and nothing but wisdom comes from his lips. And now I’ll
tell you some of the things he says to us. He says, "Strive to enter in
at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will strive to enter in,
and shall not be able."’ And straightway the preacher briefly,
but clearly and forcibly, ex-pounded the nature of the gate of life,
its straitness, and the dread necessity for pressing into it, winding
up with the Virgin’s counsel, ‘ Whatsoever he saith unto
you, do it.’ In like manner he explained, and pressed upon his
hearers, some other of the weighty words of our divine Lord, —
’ Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God’; and, ‘If any man will come
after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow
me,’ — enforcing his exhortation in each instance by the
Virgin’s counsel to the servants at Calla. ‘ But no,’
at last he broke forth ‘no:; with all the love and reverence you
pretend for the blessed Virgin, you won’t take her advice, but
will listen willingly to any drunken schoolmaster that will wheedle you
into a public-house, and put mischief and wickedness into your
heads.’ Here he was interrupted by a voice, which seemed to be
that of an old man, exclaiming, ‘True for you, true for ye. If
you were tellin’ lies all the days of your life, it’s the
truth you’re tellin’ now.’ And so the preacher got
leave to finish his discourse with not a little of good effect."
(Lectures to my students Vol 3:72-74)
NOT MUCH CAN BE DONE WITH FURIOUS IRISH PAPISTS
The
best tact will not always avail to prevent disturbance; when men are
drunk there is no reasoning with them, and of furious Irish Papists we
may say much the same. Little is to be done with such unless the crowd
around will cooperate, as oftentimes they will, in removing the
obstructer. (Lectures to my students Vol 3:95)
IRISH PREACHER BROKE A CHAIR DENOUNCING THE POPE
An
Irish thunderer of my acquaintance broke a chair during a declamation
against Popery, and I trembled for the table also. (Lectures to my
students Vol 3:120)
THE AFTERMATH OF THE IRISH REVIVAL
And
now in these days we have had another season of refreshing. God has
been pleased to pour out His Spirit upon men again. Perhaps the late
revivals have almost rivalled Pentecost — certainly in the number
of souls ingathered, they may bear rigid comparison with that feast of
firstfruits. I suppose that in the north of Ireland, in Wales, in
America, and in many parts of our own country, there have been wrought
more conversions than took place at the descent of the Holy Spirit. The
Lord's people are alive and in earnest, and all our agencies are
quickened with new energy. (Teachings of Nature p.87)
EVANGELISTIC ASSOCIATION REPORT
Mr.
Lardner referred to the open-air services of Lock's Fields, Walworth,
of how the brethren had been threatened and insulted by the Irish, and
protected by the English, and of the anxiety of-the people living in
Cork Free Presbyterian Church, 10 Briarscourt
(Annex) Shanakiel, Cork, Ireland