Archibald G. Brown: Spurgeon's Successor by Iain H. Murray

Archibald Brown: Spurgeon’s Successor,

Iain H. Murray, Banner of Truth Trust, 2011, 405pp.

At the 2011 Banner Ministers' Conference Iain Murray gave an address on Archibald Brown (1844-1922). Few of us knew anything much about the subject of his talk. But by the end we wanted to know more about this remarkable servant of God. With the publication of this excellent biography this longing is more than fulfilled.

Brown was converted at the age of sixteen. A friend of his, Annie Bigg (later to become his first wife), invited him to an evangelistic meeting. The speaker, Arthur Blackwood asked if Brown were a Christian. When he replied, "no", the evangelist said, "how sad". This affected him deeply. Brown was convicted of sin and then soundly converted while sitting under a tree. Full of joy, he threw his cap in the air, which then got stuck in the tree. His first act as a Christian was to retrieve his hat.

Brown trained for the ministry under C. H. Spurgeon at the Pastors’ College. He became great friends with the famous London preacher and stood with him during the Down-Grade controversy. Spurgeon was no great fan of physical exercise, but he said that he would walk four miles to hear Brown preach.

Brown’s first pastorate was in Bromley, Kent. After that he served several London churches, ministering in Stepney Green Tabernacle, East London Tabernacle, Chastsworth Road Chapel and the Metropolitan Tabernacle.

However, the 'Spurgeon's Successor' tag, while true is a little misleading. Brown was only pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle from 1907-1910, initially serving as co-pastor with C. H. Spurgeon’s son, Thomas. Browns’ longest and most fruitful period of ministry was spent in the East End of London from 1866-1897. Revival in the Stepney Green Tabernacle necessitated the building of East London Tabernacle to accommodate the large number of converts that had been added to the church. Congregations of 3,000 people thronged to hear him preach. 

The East London Tabernacle was a true community church. Murray movingly details Brown’s attempts to minister to the poverty-stricken people of the East End. He appointed nine missionaries to reach into the community with gospel hope and practical help. Brown was a fervent evangelist. His ministry touched all kinds of people. The record of his converts includes prostitutes, thieves and other criminals.

The preacher experienced personal tragedy, losing four wives to the grave, before dying himself shortly after his last wife, Edith was taken to glory.

Brown knew times of revival in the earlier period of his ministry.  As the 20^th century wore on he was faithful to the gospel in days of general decline. He remained a staunch Calvinist when Calvinistic theology was rapidly going out of fashion.

Iain Murray had produced a masterly biography of Archibald Brown, giving a vivid portrait of his times and capturing something of the essence of this undeservedly forgotten minister of Christ. His life is full of lessons for our situation today. Brown lived to preach the gospel in season and out of season. And so should we. 

* Reviewed for Evangelical Times.

Heroes by Iain H. Murray

Heroes, by Iain H. Murray, Banner of Truth Trust, 2009, 303pp

Here Iain Murray pays homage to some of his spiritual heroes and seeks to draw lessons from their lives. He offers an unashamedly exemplarist style of biography that is at odds with the more critical writing of some contemporary Evangelical scholars. He takes exception to Harry S. Stout's work, The Divine Dramatist: George Whitefield and the Rise of Modern Evangelicalism, charging him with sharing the naturalistic presuppositions of unbelieving historians. For Murray the purpose of Christian biography is not to do a hatchet job on the subject, mercilessly exposing their faults and failings. He knows very well that saints are also sinners and uncritical adulation of great preachers must be avoided. But we still have much to learn from the example of those who have gone before us.

In the opening chapter, the writer returns to the the subject of one of his full length biographies, considering Jonathan Edwards, The Man and the Legacy. Drawing on scholarly work that was not available to him when he wrote the biography, Murray offers a compact and compelling account of Edwards' life. He commends Edwards to his readers as a theologian of revival and Christian experience. Edwards' ministry is an abiding witness to the fact that Calvinistic orthodoxy is not enough on its own. We need the presence and power of the Holy Spirit to make the preaching of sovereign grace effective in advancing the gospel of salvation.

In George Whitefield and Christian Unity, Murray highlights the 18th century evangelist's catholicity of spirit. Whitefield held fast to his theological and ecclesiastical distinctives as a Calvinistic Anglican clergyman. But he had a deep love and regard for all true believers. We have a lot to learn from Whitefield on the importance of keeping the main thing the main thing. A winsome catholicity of spirit will do more good than angry bigotry in commending the doctrines of grace to a wider Evangelical world.

Chapters are devoted to the famous John Newton and the not so well known (outside of Wales) Thomas Charles. Murray gives skillful pen portraits of both men. Lessons from the life and ministry of the two preachers are helpfully applied.

The story is told of Two Men and an Island, the two men being William Hepburn Hewitson and Robert Reid Kalley, and the island being Madeira. God mightily used the sacrificial labours of these two missionary pioneers. Many Madeiran people were converted in the face of intense persecution from the Roman Catholic infuenced authorities.

Controversially, Murray includes a chapter on Charles and Mary Colcok Jones. Charles was an evangelist to slaves in the the American "Old South". The problem is that he was also the owner of a large plantation manned by slave labour. Jones undoubtedly had a deep concern for enslaved people and did all he could to reach them with the gospel. His efforts were blessed and many blacks were converted under his ministry. But his work was compromised by the fact that he was a slave owner preaching to slaves. He believed that slavery should be gradually phased out and distanced himself from the more impatient emancipationists in the North. While we cannot doubt Jones' genuine love for slaves, his ownership of enslaved black people makes him a badly conflicted hero.

Finally, Murray gives a stirring account of Spurgeon as an Evangelist. Such were the exceptional gifts possessed by the preacher, we might think that we have little to learn from his example. But Spurgeon was a model evangelist. He was a man of prayer who depended upon the Holy Spirit as he proclaimed the gospel of salvation in the great Metropolitan Tabernacle. We may not be as eminently gifted as the Victorian pastor, but as M'Cheyne reminds us, "It is not great gifts that God is pleased to bless, but great likeness to Jesus." Spurgeon calls us to be men of God if we would be used by God.

I was a little unwell when I read this book. It was a real tonic and encouragement to me as well as being very challenging. In an age of jaundiced cynicism we could do with some heroes. Murray has succeeded in bringing to life some of the great heroes of the Christian Church, "whose faith follow considering the outcome of their conduct. Jesus Christ is the same yesteday, today and for ever." (Hebrews 13:7 & 8).

Lectures to my Students by C. H. Spurgeon

Lectures to my Students, by C. H. Spurgeon,
Banner of Truth Trust, 2008, 911pp.

All three volumes of Spurgeon’s famous lectures plus Commenting and Commentaries have been included in this book. The preacher originally gave these talks to his students on Friday afternoons at the end of a full week of studies. He deliberately adopted a lively and humorous style to maintain their attention. The lectures are shot through with the ready wit and wisdom of the C. H. Spurgeon. One can imagine his students chuckling as he ridiculed the preacher who proclaimed of the love of God with clenched fists or poked fun at men who spoke in an unnatural “parsonic” voice. But there is also a high seriousness in these addresses. Spurgeon’s aim was to train men to be earnest, soul-winning preachers of the Gospel. He is deeply searching in his treatment of subjects like the minister’s self watch, the call to the ministry, the life of prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit in connection with our ministry.

The lectures are packed with good advice on gaining the attention of a congregation, extemporary speech and open air preaching. Spurgeon also devotes a talk to need for ministers to have a ‘blind eye and deaf ear’ so they don’t succumb to pastoral paranoia. His insistence that pastors must strive to become pastor-theologians and that sermons should be packed with sound doctrine is most welcome.

The best material is found in the first two series of lectures, prepared for the press by the man himself. The posthumously published third series is entirely devoted to ‘The Art of Illustration’. The preacher makes some telling points on the need for good sermon illustrations. But on the whole, this series does not match the vitality and vigour of the earlier talks. Several lectures consist of Spurgeon providing example after example of illustrative matter. He quotes older writers, lengthy pieces of doggerel, Aesop’s Fables, and chunks from various ‘Cyclopedias of Illustrations and Anecdotes’. Some of these illustrations may be of use to the contemporary preacher, but many are slightly quaint and old fashioned.

Men thinking about entering the ministry and theological students should read this book. Lay preachers would also benefit from Spurgeon’s counsels. More experienced ministers will find help here too. The chapter on The Minister’s Fainting Fits will be a tonic to many a weary pastor. Those feeling a little stagnant and jaded will be roused to fresh growth and development by The Necessity of Ministerial Progress.

In reviewing what Spurgeon had to say on preaching and the ministry, I feel a bit like a painter and decorator being asked to pass comment on a Rembrandt masterpiece. It has been a tough job, but someone had to do it. The Banner of Truth Trust is to be congratulated on the publication of this handsome reprint. [Reviewed for Protestant Truth magazine].

Spurgeon on presuppositional apologetics

John Frame offers this definition of the presuppositional approach to apologetics:

"It takes account of what Scripture says about our obligation to presuppose God's revelation in all our thinking about the unbeliever's suppression of the truth, and it understands that according to Scripture the goal of apologetics must be to convince people that God's revelation is not only true, but the very criterion of truth, the most fundamental certainty, the basis for all intelligible thought and meaningful living." (New Dictionary of Christian Apologetics, IVP, 2006, p. 578).

When reading Surgeon's Lectures to my students the other day, I came across this remarkable piece of pre-Van Til presuppositionalism:

"...the sceptic cries, 'What I want is facts.' These are our facts: let us not forget to use them. A sceptic challenges me with the remark, 'I cannot pin my faith to a book or a history; I want to see present facts.' My reply is, 'You cannot see them, because your eyes are blinded; but the facts are there none the less. Those of us who have eyes see marvellous things, though you do not.' If he ridicules my assertion, I am not at all astonished. I expect him to do so, and should have been very much surprised if he had not done so; but I demand respect to my own position as a witness to facts, and I turn upon the objector with the inquiry - 'What right have you to deny my evidence? If I were a blind man and were told by you that you possessed a faculty called sight, I should be unreasonable if I railed at you as a conceited enthusiast. All you have a right to say is - that you no nothing about it, but you are not authorised to call us liars or dupes. You may join with the revellers of old and declare that the spiritual man is mad, but that does not disprove his statements.' Brethren, to me the phenomena which are produced by the Spirit of God demonstrate the truth of the Christian religion as clearly as the destruction of Pharaoh at the Red Sea, or the fall of the manna in the wilderness, or water leaping from the smitten rock, could have proved to Israel the presence of God in the midst of her tribes." (Lectures to my students, C. H. Spurgeon, Banner of Truth Trust , 2008 reprint, p. 224-225).

Spurgeon on why pastors should be theologians

In his Lectures to my students, recently reprinted by the Banner of Truth Trust, Spurgeon insists,
"Brethren, if you are not theologians you are in your pastorates just nothing at all. You may be fine rhetoricians, and be rich in polished sentences, but without the knowledge of the gospel, and aptness to teach it, you are but a sounding brass and tinkling cymbal." (p. 78)

Pastors should strive to be pastor-theologians. Ministerial training should not simply give men Bible handling skills. Ministers of the Gospel must learn to think theologically so that they can teach the people of God the whole counsel of God. The ability to do this is best cultivated by careful and prayerful reflection on Scripture in conversation with the great theologians of past and present. Pastors will profit from reading the classics like Augustine's Confessions, Calvin's Institutes and the great Puritan works. But we also need to keep abreast of newer works like The Holy Trinity by Robert Letham (P&R) and The Drama of Doctrine by Kevin Vanhoozer. He who walks with the wise will (hopefully!) become wise.

Spurgeon on imperialism and the gospel

Following a friendly exchange with Michael Westmorland White in the comments on this post, here is an extract from one of Spurgeon's sermons on Zechariah 4:6. The great Victorian preacher argues that imperialism is no friend of the gospel.

First, let us consider that collected might to represent human armies. The church, we affirm, can neither be preserved nor can its interests be promoted by human armies. We have all thought otherwise in our time, and have foolishly said when a fresh territory was annexed to our empire, "Ah! what a providence that England has annexed Oude,"—or taken to itself some other territory—"Now a door is opened for the Gospel. A Christian power will necessarily encourage Christianity, and seeing that a Christian power is at the head of the Government, it will be likely that the natives will be induced to search into the authenticity of our revelation, and so great results will follow. Who can tell but that, at the point of the British bayonet, the Gospel will be carried, and that, by the edge of the true sword of valiant men, Christ's Gospel will be proclaimed?" I have said so myself; and now I know I am a fool for my pains, and that Christ's church hath been also miserably befooled; for this I will assert, and prove too, that the progress of the arms of a Christian nation is not the progress of Christianity, and that the spread of our empire, so far from being advantageous to the Gospel, I will hold, and this day proclaim, hath been hostile to it.

We will just confine our attention for a moment or two to India. I believe that British rule there, has been useful in many ways. I shall not deny the civilizing influence of European society; or that great things have been done for humanity; but I do assert, and can prove it, that there would have been greater probability of the Gospel spreading in India if it had been let alone, than there has been ever since the domination of Great Britain. Ye thought that when Christians, as ye called them, had the land, they would favor religion. Now I will state a fact which ought to go through the length and breadth of the land; it does not rest on hearsay, I was informed of it a little while ago by a clergyman, upon whose memory the fact is vividly impressed. A Sepoy in a certain regiment was converted to God by a missionary. He proposed to be baptized, and become a Christian. Mark, not a Christian after our way and fashion, as a Baptist, or an Independent or a Methodist; but a Christian according to the fashion of the Episcopalian church established in this realm. He was seen by the chaplain, and was received as a Christian. What think you became of that Sepoy? Let the East India Company blush for ever, he was stripped of his regimentals, dismissed the service and sent home, because he had become a Christian! Ah! we dreamed that if the; had the power they would help us. Alas! the policy of greed cannot easily be made to assist the Kingdom of Christ.

But I have another string to my bow, I believe that the help of Government would have been far worse than its opposition, I do regret that the Company sometimes discourages missionary enterprise; but I believe that, had they encouraged it, it would have been far worse still, for their encouragement would have been the greatest hindrance we could receive. If I had to-morrow to go to India to preach the Gospel, I should pray to God, if such a thing could be, that he would give me a black face and make me like a Hindoo; for otherwise I should feel that when I preached I should be regarded as one of the lords—one of the oppressors it may sometime be added—and I should not expect my congregation to listen to me as a man speaking to men, a brother to brother, a Christian full of love, but they would hear me, and only cavil at me, because even my white face would give me some appearance of superiority. Why in England, our missionaries and our clergymen have assumed a kind of superiority and dignity over the people; they have called themselves clergy, and the people laity; and the result has been that they have weakened their influence. I have thought it right to come amongst my fellow men, and be a man amongst men, just one of themselves, their equal and their friend; and they have rallied around me, and not refused to love me. And I should not expect to be successful in preaching the gospel, unless I might stand and feel that I am a brother, bone of their bone, and flesh of their flesh. If I cannot stand before them thus, I cannot get at their hearts. Send me, then, to India as one of the dominant ruling race, and you give me a work I cannot accomplish when you tell me to evangelise its inhabitants.

In that day when John Williams fell in Erromanga, ye wept, but it was a more hopeful day for Erromanga than the day when our missionaries in India first landed there. I had rather go to preach to the greatest savages that live, than I would go to preach in the place that is under British rule. Not for the fault of Britain, but simply because I, as a Briton, would be looked upon as one of the superiors, one of the lords, and that would take away much of my power to do good. Now, will you just cast your eye upon the wide world? Did you ever hear of a nation under British rule being converted to God? Mr. Moffat and our great friend Dr. Livingstone have been laboring in Africa with great success, and many have been converted. Did you ever hear of Kaffir tribes protected by England, ever being converted? It is only a people that have been left to themselves, and preached to by men as men, that have been brought to God. For my part, I conceive, that when an enterprise begins in martyrdom, it is none the less likely to succeed, but when conquerors begin to preach the gospel to those they have conquered, it will not succeed, God will teach us that it is not by might. All swords that have ever flashed from scabbards have not aided Christ a single grain. Mahommedans' religion might be sustained by scimitars, but Christians' religion must be sustained by love.

The great crime of war can never promote the religion of peace. The battle, and the garment rolled in blood, are not a fitting prelude to "peace on earth, goodwill to men." And I do firmly hold, that the slaughter of men, that bayonets, and swords, and guns, have never yet been, and never can be, promoters of the gospel. The gospel will proceed without them, but never through them. "Not by might." Now don't be be fooled again, if you hear of the English conquering in China, don't go down on your knees and thank God for it, and say it's such a heavenly thing for the spread of the gospel—it just is not. Experience teaches you that, and if you look upon the map you will find I have stated only the truth, that where our arms have been victorious, the gospel has been hindered rather than not; so that where South Sea Islanders have bowed their knees and cast their idols to the bats, British Hindoos have kept their idols, and where Bechuanas and Bushmen have turned unto the Lord, British Affairs have not been converted, not perhaps because they were British, but because the very fact of the missionary being a Briton, put him above them, and weakened their influence.

Hush thy trump, O war; put away thy gaudy trappings and thy bloodstained drapery, if thou thinkest that the cannon with the cross upon it is really sanctified, and if thou imaginest that thy banner hath become holy, thou dreamest of a lie. God wanteth not thee to help his cause. "It is not by armies, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord."

Preached on Sunday 31st August 1857, Sermon no. 149 (here)

Biblical Protestantism: Part 2 Protestant Evangelicals

Part of the problem with Evangelicalism today is that we have forgotten our origins in the Protestant Reformation. The times are certainly a changing. Evangelicalism is in danger of losing its doctrinal clarity. In his book The Gagging of God, (Apollos, 1996) Don Carson devotes a chapter to The Changing Face of Western Evangelicalism. He argues that the Evangelical world is “fraying, fragmented and frustrated”. The early years of the 21st Century represent a watershed moment for Evangelicalism. Old certainties are being challenged from within the camp. Truths that were once regarded as essential and indispensable to faithful gospel preaching are now regarded by some as mere matters of emphasis and opinion. The Evangelical movement no longer coheres around an agreed doctrinal and spiritual centre.

We need to go back to the great truths rediscovered at the Reformation if evangelicalism is to have a future as a movement that is faithful to the biblical gospel. We do not go back to the Reformation as an arbitrary point in Church history. The Reformation was an attempt to re-form the Church’s life and teaching in the light of the New Testament. Chris Sinkinson discusses the changing shape of evangelicalism and says,

If we take the Reformation as our starting point then evangelicalism is born out of a theological rediscovery. Of course there is a breadth to the Reformation but the breadth is held together by a shift in the location of authority from church councils and traditions to the Bible. Ultimately, to be evangelical is to be biblical in our approach to the knowledge of God and life.

As a movement stemming from the Reformation, evangelicalism is essentially creedal. Not only that, there are clear doctrinal commitments that make up the creed. (Table Talk, Issue 14. Summer 2005, Published by Affinity)

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The doctrinal foundation of the evangelical movement is found in the Bible-based creeds and confessions of the Reformation and Puritan periods: The 39 Articles of the Church of England, Westminster Confession of Faith, Savoy Declaration and 1689 Baptist Confession. These confessions differ on matters such as church government and baptism, but they all give expression to the great biblical doctrines that were rediscovered at the Reformation.

Evangelical doctrine, rooted in these Confessions, is not ill-defined and endlessly flexible. Spurgeon said of the 1689 Confession. “This ancient document is a most excellent epitome of the things most surely believed among us”. May we continue to hold fast our profession.

But what truths lay at the heart of the Reformation? The Theology of the Protestant Reformers crystallises around five great principles. Sola Scriptura, Solo Christo, Sola Fide, Sola Gratia and Soli Dieo Gloria. This series will continue with a consideration of the Five Solas of the Reformation and their value for us today.

English Baptist History

C H Spurgeon - an influential English Baptist

Graham Beynon has published an excellent article at The Theologian

The Rise and Development of the English Baptists.

He discusses the origins of Baptist churches in England and deals very helpfully with the movement's battle with hyper-Calvinism.

Check it out here

The Word and the Spirit by C. H. Spurgeon

This book contains ten well-chosen and sensitively edited sermons, prepared by Michael Daly. A stimulating and helpful foreword written by Michael Haykin, deals with Spurgeon’s teaching on the Holy Spirit.

As we might expect from “the prince of preachers”, these sermons are heart-stirring and captivating expositions of the word of God. Their message is as relevant now as when they were first preached. In the first sermon, Spurgeon speaks to “those who wait for signs and wonders” and concludes with these words, “Oh, that you would this very day end these follies and these sins, believing in Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit!” It is as if the preacher set out to demolish the contemporary signs and wonder’s movement with its emphasis on the spectacular.

What shines through in each of the messages is the preacher’s boundless confidence in the Word of God and the Spirit of God. By Word and Spirit the kingdom of God is advanced, as sinners are convicted of sin and converted and saints built up in the faith.

In an age of quick fixes as churches lurch from programme to programme to find the secret of growth and success, Spurgeon speaks directly to us,

You all draw up your plans and say, ‘Now if the church were altered a little bit, it would go on better.’ You think if there were different ministers, or a different church order, or something different, then all would be well. No, dear friends, it is not there the mistake lies; it is that we need more of the Spirit of God.

All Christians, especially ministers should read this beautifully produced and encouraging selection of Spurgeon’s sermons. Publisher Evengelical Press 240 pages.