It is conceded reluctantly and resentfully by those who
are not of it, but it is conceded.
On Spurgeon, therefore, rained down during most of
his long ministry the kind of critical comment which the
superior person or sect commonly bestows on him whom
he thinks inferior. I used sometimes to wonder whether,
had the preacher of the Tabernacle been a clergyman of
the Church, we should have heard so much about his
vulgarity, his irreverence, his coarseness, and other sins
against the proprieties. There is no use in wondering.
It is impossible to conceive of Spurgeon in a surplice, or
as anything but what he was — a free and independent
minister of what he believed to be true religion. He
had a mission. He was tremendously in earnest. He
believed himself sent into this world to save the souls
of his fellow-men from damnation, in which also he be-
lieved ; and he did not care how he saved them so long
as they were saved. Out of these convictions and im-
pulses came his strength and also his weakness. He
would do anything to get hold of his audience; tell a
story, or crack a joke, or use the homeliest illustration,
or treat the God whom he worshipped with what others
sometimes thought blasphemous familiarity.
