Prologue

BOOKMAN: With that said, so shall we begin with our historical tale: Charles Haddon Spurgeon sat in the parlor of what was referred to as the ‘New’ Helensburgh House, 99 Nightingale Lane, which was located in the Clapham area, west of Brixton. Why was it called the ‘New’ Helensburgh house? In 1869, the ‘Old’ Helensburgh house was torn down and upgraded with ‘modern amenities’ (indoor water.) Eleven years later, in 1880, Charles and his beloved wife, Susannah, relocated to a property that he saw for sale while on a stroll: The property was called the Westwood on Beulah Hill, and located in Upper Norwood, an area that returned them to fresh air and a rural environment. Those were qualities that the ‘New’ Helensburgh house no longer offered with the spread of the London suburbs. Nevertheless, the move to Westwood came later. Charles and Susannah resided in the ‘New’ Helensburgh house when this conversation took place. The only other thought that occurred to me about the historical reference to the ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Helensburgh house was if Pastor Spurgeon ever used the references in metaphor for a sermon. I have yet to read all 3,600 of his sermons so I don’t know if he did or not. However, he was known to apply metaphors as liberally as some sprinkle salt to make a poor piece of meat savory. As a metaphor, I could very well imagine him describing the change in the ‘old’ man to ‘new’ man when he believed on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly, that man acquired ‘new’ amenities as he experienced the flow of living water, which the Holy Spirit quickened and brought indoors to his soul; not to speak of the gifts and fruit of the Spirit that the ‘old’ man could never possess.   

CHARLES: I saw you walking in the garden earlier. I rejoice knowing that you felt able to go outdoors. 

SUSIE: Yes, as I rejoice – believe me. Oh, I wanted to tell you – the Crocus are popping up! 

CHARLES: One of the first perennials to pop up in spring… lovely to hear.

SUSIE: Lovelier to see, Tirshatha. You should go out and see for yourself, but be sure to use your cane.

CHARLES: Yes, wifey. 

CHARLES:  Your mail—Book Fund I presume—most of it. Joseph delivered it a few minutes ago. 

SUSIE: Did I tell you Jehovah answered our prayer for the Book Fund? I received an anonymous donation of £100 the day before yesterday. When you left Wednesday, the balance was a scant £2, six pennies. 

CHARLES: Jehovah-Jireh, our provider… 

Never early, never late…
If in God’s will, our Lord will sate.

SUSIE: Have you chosen your topic for your sermon tomorrow?

CHARLES: Revival. Revival seemed most timely and useful.

SUSIE: Revival, yes. I heard that William Olney prayed most fervently for revival Wednesday at the prayer meeting.

CHARLES: Fervent, to say the least. In consideration of his prayer, I could hardly turn aside the subject now could I?

CHARLES: Yes, well… As I teach my students, they should always choose a topic most dear and meaningful to the prayers and needs of their congregation. To preach on a topic that has little application to their needs is like putting a bandage on a non-existent or already healed wound.

SUSIE: This letter? America! West Virginia.

CHARLES: Apparently there is a fragrance?

SUSIE: Yes, a lovely fragrance… perfumed by the minister’s wife no doubt. 

CHARLES: One can only hope. Of course, if the letter was posted from Paris,  I could only wonder.  

SUSIE: Yes, that is a thought, t’isn’t it? Did William say what prompted his prayer for revival?

CHARLES: You heard what happened in Edinburgh.

SUSIE: Yes, I heard two evangelists led a revival in Newcastle and they went on to Edinburgh.

CHARLES: Apparently the Holy Ghost continued with them and revival caught fire there too. Thousands of Scots responded to Christ—came out during the weekdays—ordinary meetings. Hearts inflamed. People cried, “What must we do to be saved?”

SUSIE: I take it your gout has returned to your left leg? I saw you grimace and redistribute your weight to your right leg. 

CHARLES: How could I e’re preach with authenticity if I was not so afflicted? Our Lord suffered, why should I not? 

SUSIE: Have you chosen your scripture for tomorrow’s sermon?

CHARLES: So many scriptures to choose from. ‘Tis an embarrassment of riches. From beginning to end, Genesis to Revelation, the Scriptures are replete with Jehovah’s covenant promise of redemption. No sooner did Adam sin than Jehovah revealed his plan to put enmity between the woman and the serpent.

SUSIE: You chose Genesis 3:15?

CHARLES: No.

SUSIE: Why mention it then?

CHARLES: Oh, only because I marvel at God’s eternal preparation of things… of ordering life, commanding order and answering questions before any were asked.

SUSIE: Ordering life… as he ordered the rising of the Crocus, then Camellia, Daffodil…

CHARLES: … Dogwood, Lilies, and Dahlias – all at the appropriate time and season. Indeed, there is much to be learned from God’s creation of time and the passing of seasons.

SUSIE: Yes, let all of creation sing in lovely song and sonnet, but which Scripture did you choose, or should I choose it for you?   

CHARLES: No, not today. Oh, I chose, but how does one choose that one flower among such a beautiful field of God’s plantings? Indeed, the Scriptures provide many seasons, colors, and sweet-savoring fragrances of God’s promises.

Of roses and lilies…
How does one choose?
Each color and fragrance delights…
I choose what is really –
The best of the best…
The One that God’s Spirit alights.

SUSIE: So, tell me -… the best of the best?

CHARLES: Isaiah 44:3-5. The Bible is opened to the passage. 

SUSIE: So you can ‘lie’ and ‘soak.’ That is what you have told your students… how you like to “lie and soak in your text” as you prepare for your sermons?

CHARLES: So, you have heard.

SUSIE: Not much I have not heard when your students come to visit. They inform me on your Friday lectures. 

CHARLES: No doubt… not that you are not aware how I feel when you read to me.

SUSIE: Oh?

CHARLES: Yes, I feel as if I am bathed in a bath of Jehovah’s living water – God’s Word streaming into the basin of my heart from your lovely lips. 

SUSIE: Basin of your heart… my lovely lips… goodness… you make me out to be a water spigot.

CHARLES: Well? Let the water flow.

SUSIE: So be it then – Isaiah 44:3-5. “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses. One shall say, I am the Lord’s; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel.”

SUSIE: Do you know whom I thought of when I read the passage? The woman at the well, and how Jesus told her that if she had known to ask, he would have given her living water. Then again, I am sure you thought of her.

CHARLES: No, not at all. T’isn’t to say that our Lord’s meeting with the woman was not a foreshadowing of the Day of Pentecost.

A woman scorned,
Adorned of grace –
Reborn…
Of blood and water.

SUSIE: Jesus, the living water.

CHARLES: Indeed, life giving. 

(CHARLES starts to cough)

SUSIE: Charles? I pray you aren’t ill. T’was a long winter that you spent in France,  and your congregation longs to hear you preach again tomorrow. You only returned from Mentone two weeks ago. 

CHARLES: Yes, I know, and I plan to preach. Except for the gout, I am fine. Now, please, if you would be so kind to read again the passage, but this time, verse by verse so that I can lie and soak?  

CHARLES: Please, continue… verse 4.

SUSIE: “And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses.

CHARLES: Did you know the grass in the east springs up without any sowing… cultivating… or any other attention? It comes up of itself from the fruitful soil. 

SUSIE: And you mean by that metaphor?

CHARLES: Who I am… who we are.. the church of Christ… God – and God alone – is the absolute monarch of the hearts of men. How vital the Spirit… how fertile the field… how rich the soil is a matter of God’s preparation… not only of the soil of the sinner’s heart but those ministers called to cultivate the hearts of those God commends to them. 

SUSIE: As Jesus said in his parable… soil yielding thirty – sixty – hundred fold.

CHARLES: Yes, and how I long to bring in a hundred fold, but longing is one thing. 

CHARLES: Did you know some denominations joined the revival in Edinburgh?

SUSIE: Yes, I heard. Are you suggesting churches must come together for revival?

CHARLES: No – not necessarily, but t’would be lovely if all of God’s people gathered together in praise and thanksgiving… If we did, that would certainly suggest that Jehovah had sown for a plentiful harvest. 

SUSIE: Yes, but does our coming together guarantee revival?

CHARLES: No, still…  if everyone of us is at work – nothing to kick at — Church of England, Independents, Methodists, and Baptists — not a single squadron left behind; if we have our guns ready, and are standing, shoulder to shoulder, ready to make a tremendous charge against the common enemy. 

SUSIE: Curious.

CHARLES: What is?

SUSIE: T’was calm when I walked through the garden earlier. Now? The wind is howling as if it wanted to cleanse London’s skyline from the soot and smoke. The Lord did describe the Holy Ghost as the wind… From whence did it come? Where would it go? When? With what force and effect and how many souls are saved?

CHARLES: Would be much simpler if Jesus described revival as a sign to be taken from the ocean tide. Yes, we could see the water rising and sense the tide was returning to replenish the sands taken from us in past generations and returned to the deep. 

SUSIE: We live in hope and hope does rise. 

CHARLES: And hope recedes as does the tide. Poetic, I’d say.

SUSIE: I remember your sermon on John 4:35, “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” Then, you asked the congregation, ‘What sign did Jesus give to his disciples when he uttered those words that might effect an immediate gathering of souls?’ Do you remember your answer?

CHARLES: First, there was this sign — that once the Savior preached that sermon, the whole of his congregation was converted. 

SUSIE: As you hope to see the whole of our congregation come to Christ. 

CHARLES: Yes, the whole of them. Of course, I know that not all will come. Now for the last verse? 

SUSIE: “One shall say, I am the LORD’S; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD, and surname himself by the name of Israel.”

CHARLES: Those names…

SUSIE: Jacob and Israel?

CHARLES: Yes, I think about George Whitefield, John and Charles Wesley. Do you think I am over-spiritualizing equating Jacob and Israel’s names to Whitefield and the Wesley’s?

SUSIE: No, not at all, but I would not exclude your name or D.L. Moody’s from Jehovah’s list.

CHARLES: I will defer to Jehovah on that judgment.

SUSIE: I am only saying – as some said they followed Paul… others, Apollos. Many say they follow you, and Pastor Moody in America.

CHARLES: Matters not to me as long as they follow Jesus. I have no doubt D.L. would say the same of himself, as well as, Whitfield and the Wesleys. 

SUSIE: If you ask me, I would not be surprised if your name was not mentioned in the midst of that revival.

CHARLES: Where? In Newcastle? Edinburgh?

SUSIE: You do have a presence throughout England, if not the world, Tirshatha.

CHARLES: I suppose – in some manner of influence, but I would have preferred being there in Newcastle and Edinburgh and hearing the people cry out, ‘What must I do to be saved?’ O, what a blessed cry to hear lifted heavenward!

SUSIE: As if your answer to the masses would not have come automatically:

CHARLES AND SUSIE ‘Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.’

SUSIE: Of course, Isaiah 44 does not mention Jesus by name.

CHARLES: Neither does Isaiah 45 say to look to Jesus, and be ye saved! 

SUSIE: Still, people do quibble over such issues.

CHARLES: Those who suffer darkness and unbelief – yes. “He that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son,” and what better record did Jehovah give us than the prophet Isaiah?

SUSIE: You quote 1 John. 

CHARLES: Yes, 1 John 5:10, and in Isaiah 44 we have the promise of the Holy Ghost being poured out upon the people.   

SUSIE: As occurred on the Day of Pentecost, and 3,000 men believed. 

CHARLES: Yes, and that, my dearest, is where we must never underrate the importance of our Lord’s ascension.

SUSIE: Why do you say that? 

CHARLES: Oh, there are some who act as if the Holy Ghost departed the church ages ago.

SUSIE: Leaving our churches lifeless…

CHARLES: Our cemeteries were meant to remain outside our parishes wifey, not inside… men and women seemingly alive… preaching, teaching Sunday school and listening to lifeless words.   

SUSIE: Revival will come dear.

CHARLES: Yes, as the Crocus will pop up from the wintry waste; that is, if Jehovah wills us to experience another spring.

SUSIE: You have reason to doubt?

CHARLES: Ne’re to doubt God. As to question my own effectualness in preaching? You know I question that, all too often.  

SUSIE: Yes, and your self-doubt assails you.

CHARLES: We are instructed to walk circumspectly dear.

SUSIE: Well, Jehovah can use even those who mourn Bah Humbug!  

SUSIE: Tirshatha, now I must ask. How was your trip to Burwell? You arrived home late, and I would have asked about it then if I was awake. 

CHARLES: Now? 

SUSIE: You have this air of somberness about you… not the air of depression that debilitates and beckons you to stay in, but an air that does not make it a cheerful walk outdoors. 

CHARLES: No… no… no cheerful, victorious walk today in any brightness. When I arrived in Burwell, I learned that a farmer’s son was crushed under the wheel of an ox cart. The lad was buried yesterday afternoon.

SUSIE: The child was crushed? Oh, my.

CHARLES: The farmer’s oxen lurched forward, and the lad fell beneath the wheels. The farmer’s family, neighbors and church members attended the funeral. Given the circumstances, Pastor Barclay and I decided not to hold the evening service. 

SUSIE: How old was the lad?

CHARLES: Six years.

SUSIE: If you didn’t have a service, what did you do?

CHARLES: Matthew and I had dinner together, talked for awhile, and I made my way home.

CHARLES: I must say, the carriage ride from Burwell to Cambridge inspired me. 

SUSIE: Oh?

CHARLES: Yes, the night was crisp, cool, and clear… crystal clear. I chose to sit beside the driver to gaze into the night sky.

SUSIE: Instead of sitting inside the coach? Perhaps that accounts for your cough.

CHARLES: Perhaps. T’was inspiring though and worth the 12 mile ride to the Cambridge rail station. I saw a glimpse of revival in the heavens – where the stars were most heavily populated.

SUSIE: No doubt, over Edinburgh.

CHARLES: Yes, I suppose the stars were to the northwest. Anyway, then I looked and saw those less populated regions… darkness… fewer stars… less light.

SUSIE: Towards London, I assume?

CHARLES: Yes, but I thought more specifically about our congregation. What I see… what I cannot… what I want to believe of those who attend our services, but in their sloth to serve the Lord they profess, they give me cause to wonder.

SUSIE: Are they truly saved?

CHARLES: There are so many moments in time, wifey… every moment could offer the onlooker a different view towards heaven or hell.

SUSIE:  What matters is the final state and destination of a man’s soul, and that judgment God shall make.

SUSIE: And for that reason, we shall pray that your sermon is effectual – regardless how you might feel about it later.  

CHARLES: A sermon is only as effectual as the prayer that precedes it.

SUSIE: And, as you said, ‘the prayers of the church measure its prosperity.’ 

CHARLES: Yes, and I believe that. I have seen God work mightily through the prayers of our people. 

SUSIE: Why are you somber then?

CHARLES: If I only looked to my own church, I suppose I wouldn’t be given our deacons and congregation. 

SUSIE: So, are you thinking about your trip to Burwell? 

CHARLES: Yes.  Pastor Barclay… Matthew wants the best for his congregation as I want for mine. 

SUSIE: I know you care deeply for Pastor Barclay, as you do for all of our ministers who labor for Christ. 

CHARLES: What can I say? I am a country boy. My father, grandfather were country ministers. Jehovah gave me a heart for ministers who are paid a pittance… with hungry and poorly clothed families… barefoot children… ill-provisioned in Gospel literature. Still, even knowing this is true, some would ask, ‘what is Matthew’s church to me?’ My answer? The night sky is one sky – regardless whether densely or sparsely populated. Indeed, all the stars that went rogue have fallen – the sons of God cast out of heaven – a third of that heavenly host.

SUSIE: And now they dwell here on earth among us.

CHARLES: Yes, but O how those who have died have wonderfully ascended with Christ in spirit, and all of his church, one day bodily! Jehovah’s blood repopulated the heavens!

SUSIE: And hence, we fight the good fight.

CHARLES: And we pray that our heavenly Father will pour out the Holy Ghost on the dead in sin… yes, that many souls are quickened to life… that the despondent are consoled… the ignorant are enlightened… Still, I wonder… this is not the first we have prayed for a revival. Human nature as it is, we lose heart when prayers go unanswered.

SUSIE: Have you lost heart Tirshatha?

CHARLES: Somewhat – yes.

SUSIE: For those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength…

CHARLES: Yes, they shall mount up with wings as eagles. Yes, as I shall, but t’is the waiting and longing for Jehovah and his Spirit to move mightily among the lost… so many souls to be fed… across England, Ireland, Scotland… as you mentioned… Hudson laboring in China… 

SUSIE: Charles? I once heard you preach how the one farthest from Christ – at the far end of the earth – may be the one who sits at your side.

CHARLES: Yes, I remember… I preached that sermon on January 6, 1856. We married two days later. 

SUSIE: Why the smile?

CHARLES: Oh, I was just thinking about what you thought of me when I first took the pulpit at New Park Street. 

SUSIE: Should I remember that?

CHARLES: Are you telling me you can’t? I was a country boy… badly trimmed hair… blue pocket handkerchief with white spots. Of course, you did marry me. And, yes, that is another reason I believe in the doctrine of irresistible grace.

SUSIE: You were irresistible?

CHARLES: No – not me, but God’s drawing you closer to him, and thus, to me. And? When I asked you to marry me? T’was an effectual call. You accepted. You do know we have been talking all along about revival, marriage, and implicitly the great doctrines of salvation.

SUSIE: Hmmm. So you saved me?

CHARLES: If any person could save another, I would say that you saved me wifey.

SUSIE: Poo! What does any of your blithering have to do with the price of butter? 

CHARLES: Actually, nothing – considering in Jehovah’s economy there is no price or cost to us in such a great betrothal of Bridegroom and bride – t’is grace alone. Indeed, our betrothal was like those who are irresistibly and effectually drawn to Christ, as I know there was no other Savior or woman in the world for me. 

SUSIE: … Drawn to my Savior, I accept, but there were millions of woman dear…

CHARLES:  T’was all by the quickening of the Holy Ghost, wifey, who inclined our hearts to Christ, and to each other. 

SUSIE: Our marriage – a C.H. Spurgeon metaphor. HA! Still, you do have a way with words, C.H. Spurgeon.

CHARLES: T’is true.

CHARLES:  Indeed… that is what prompts men to cry out, ‘What must I do to be saved!’

SUSIE: Or what must I do to be married?

CHARLES: I suppose so.

SUSIE: T’was said in jest.

CHARLES: I know, but I have heard that cry… recently in fact. 

SUSIE: Really? Who asked you ‘What must I do to be married?’

BOOKMAN: While Susie was amused to think that someone asked Charles ‘what must I do to be married,’ she too heard the tortured lament of young girls who thought they would become a spinster.

As for Pastor Spurgeon, he was in the vestry of the Metropolitan when John Pritchard went to him. John was a member of the congregation and had five daughters. John and his wife, Maggie, were fine Christians. They raised the girls in a Christian home, but still faced a difficult time with them. Agatha and Alma were twenty-one. Clara and Cora were twenty, and Josephine was eighteen. Twins, twins and thankfully God partially answered their prayer. They asked for a son, but if a daughter, their prayer was, ‘Please Lord, let there only be one! One more and done, we yield the son.’ 

CHARLES: John Pritchard came to me and asked about his five unruly daughters.

SUSIE: John came to you? Why, Maggie came to me. What did he ask?

CHARLES: He asked if he had sinned and was being chastened because of his daughters. I told him, as far as I knew, he and Maggie prayed with them, read the Bible and taught them about Jesus.

SUSIE: Which is what I told Maggie. Did what you say bring him comfort?

CHARLES: No. He asked a second time, ‘Why then does it seem I am being chastened?’ I told him I thought that what he was going through was temporary. His daughters would marry in time… they are all attractive… in respects other than temperament.

SUSIE: Yes, they are so unruly. They stomp their feet… pull each others hair…

CHARLES: And as Matthew Henry said, “If religion has done nothing for your tempers, it has done nothing for your souls.”

SUSIE: Did you tell John that?

CHARLES: No – no, no. All I did was reassure him the girls would marry… (Beat) Between you and me – eventually they will… well, hopefully. I did ask him though if he planned to warn any suitors who asked him for their hand in holy matrimony.

SUSIE: What did John say?

CHARLES: It took a moment for him to answer, but he said that he would… ‘caution’ them.

SUSIE: Even if that meant that none of them returned to the courtship? Hmmm.

SUSIE What? You are smirking.

CHARLES: I am grateful.

SUSIE: Since when does your gratefulness produce a smirk? Now stop. T’is grating sure enough…

CHARLES: So, I smile? I praise God for you. All women, and wives such as you should be praised – heaps and boundless heaps!

SUSIE: Boundless heaps, indeed. 

CHARLES: Why do you answer that way? You have always been a helpmate… one with a keen eye and ear – not for a serpent – but a Savior; ne’re difficult or unruly as one of Pritchard’s daughters. (Beat) Of course, you are married to me.

SUSIE: You are so full of yourself – Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

CHARLES: But you love me.

SUSIE: And pray tell, why do you think I do? And please, do spare me any metaphors.

CHARLES: Well, you love me because Jehovah’s grace created in me a man who would not compromise one jot or tittle of God’s word, and God gave me a wife that he knew would not compromise in having any less of a man.

SUSIE: Oh, is that right?

CHARLES: The moment I saw you sitting by your parents at New Park Street Chapel, Jehovah promised me.

SUSIE: Hmmm.

CHARLES: Upon every promise the blood of Jesus Christ has set its seal – making it “yea and amen” forever.

SUSIE: So I am a ‘yea’ and ‘amen’ now.

CHARLES: You always have been wifey. Yes, Jesus is the ‘yea and amen’ of our marriage. 

SUSIE: So, that is how you see us?

CHARLES: Yes.

SUSIE: (Dubiously) And you meant everything that you said just now – exactly as you said it?

CHARLES: I believe so – yes. Did I misspeak?

SUSIE: Oh, perhaps I see our lives a little differently than you do.

CHARLES: Do you? How is that?

SUSIE: What you said, and I quote: “Jehovah would not have given ME any less of a man?”

BOOKMAN: With that said, she turned away, and he went to stand behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. He stared at her momentarily as he considered her question. He smiled, lowered his head, then raised it to look at her.

CHARLES: Well, perhaps I could amend what I said, and said that God would not have given me any less of a woman. T’is true either way.

END OF SCENE ONE

SCENE TWO – SEND THE WIND!

BOOKMAN: As scene two opened, Charles and Susie were again together in the parlor, which to them was their secret garden. After the close of scene one, she left with a laugh to attend to a matter in the kitchen and to bring him a cup of tea. She enjoyed waiting upon her husband when she was physically able, and all too often was bed ridden. During those ‘downtimes’ she had to rely on her household staff. Thus, when able, her activity was instructive to her staff as what a good Christian wife should do and gave them a respite. Besides, she and Charles both feigned acting like Grandees – those of high rank – who lived their lives to be served, rather than serve.  

BOOKMAN: Susie sat at a small writing table and finished writing a letter. From time to time, she looked at Charles and wondered if the lightheartedness they previously shared had faded away as the smoke of London chimneys passed in the night. T’was then he finished his cup of tea and put the cup and saucer on his side table. 

CHARLES: I meant to ask earlier. How many requests did you receive on your Book Fund?

SUSIE: Fifteen requests for sermons… ten of those for past editions of the Sword and the Trowel. 

CHARLES: Did you know that some people say that we call too much upon the Holy Ghost?

SUSIE: As opposed to not at all? Really? Why do you mention that now? 

CHARLES: Oh, thinking about the sermon. Quite a spectrum of views I say among the religious  – how wide that pendulum swings from left to right… how distant that swing can be from center.

SUSIE: By center you mean the Bible…

CHARLES: Yes, of course… rightly divided. T’is what brings unity to diversity; hence, we have our universities… the Scriptures central to all other subjects.

SUSIE: I heard some suggest that we make too much noise proselytizing… our street ministers always clamoring to convert people to Christianity.

CHARLES: Really? You equate NOT calling out to Jehovah the same as calling out TOO MUCH for the Holy Ghost?

SUSIE: Well? It IS OUR Calvinist pendulum and bob that we preach is the rightly divided, stopping center for correction in its earthly swing – left to right! I have heard some say why preach at all? If God predestined a man to salvation, Jehovah would inevitably draw men to Christ without our involvement.

CHARLES: Yes, asserted smugly by those who do not understand the true nature of God’s sovereignty and grace.

SUSIE: So? Please explain why we cry out to the Holy Ghost for revival in our evangelism?

CHARLES: Explain? Must I think to breathe? No, but to draw in deeply… now that is more deliberate and necessary to go beyond the shadow. 

SUSIE: Is that your answer? To go beyond the shadow… hmmm.

CHARLES: I know what you are doing… you are goading me, but yes, I intend to bid everyone tomorrow to go beyond the shadow… cry out for more of his blessing and power to refresh us! Go deeper! Oh, to breath in deeply his spirit… what a grand thought that is!

SUSIE: How grand indeed.

CHARLES: Of course, no grandee would think it. The pendulum bob could very well knock them on their noggins… going left, then right… making them appear to us daffy, which they are. What would they say? They would say those knocks were good for them! Each knock embedded their free thinking thoughts deeper where they lay… certainly the drubbing was not meant to free them from their idiocy.

SUSIE: You mean to bring them back to center.

CHARLES: Those given the ears to hear, yes. 

BOOKMAN: Charles studied his wifey intently for a moment and smiled. Admittedly, he was emotionally engaged… impassioned, and he felt alive. He knew what she did, and he appreciated the knock she gave him on his own noggin.

CHARLES: Yes. But you know me, wifey. I am suspicious of any Christian who discounts the necessity of the Spirit to quicken the dead and who looks to any other means, such as their good works. We call out to him because HE first called out to us. Left to us, we would ne’re call out. No, t’was Adam who hid his nakedness in the bushes… T’was early in the morning that Jehovah sought him… called out to Adam, ‘Adam? Where art thou?’

SUSIE: There are those who say we must call out for the Holy Ghost, but I have heard some ask, ‘Must we call out for him? Is he not present?’ 

CHARLES: Well, that is true. The Holy Ghost is a permanent resident in every true believer.

BOOKMAN: He sat upright and looked at her. He rarely slumped when he sat, if he did, he corrected himself. To lean back straight was one thing, to slump another. Weak men and sinners slumped in genuflection to their flesh – indeed, they bowed to their laziness and lack of discipline. Thus, when he sat, Charles sat straight up, and if for any length of time, he reminded himself to get up and walk to the window.

CHARLES: Besides, what if we do ask for an outpouring of the Spirit? That is the language we frequently use in our supplications… knowing how great our dependency is upon the workings of God’s Spirit in all of our labors. True, our cries may seem excessive. Nevertheless, to say that we desire more of him is most excellent as an expression of our hearts longing and love for Him. You know I call out for him continually. Is that excessive?

SUSIE: Why the smile?

CHARLES: Oh, the wonderful… profound mysteries of God! Is a man saved or not? When a man is born of a woman, he has life. We can count his fingers and toes, as we counted the fingers and toes of our sons, Thomas and Andrew. And throughout life, we will continue to possess our fingers and toes…well, that is if Jehovah bids us to keep them and not lose them for his sake. Now, if a man is born again, was he not born as every other man who claims to be born again by the quickening of God’s Spirit? Quickened, he looked to Jesus and believed as a matter of free grace. That is true whether or not he knew how his new life came to be in that blessed moment. 

SUSIE: But what about later?

CHARLES: Yes, later. That is where the squabbling begins and the pendulum swings from center… away from what is rightly divided… weighed and measured… where God’s Word is the fulcrum and all time is Today. 

SUSIE: We can hardly avoid squabbling.

CHARLES: We can if we hold fast to Christ and loosely to the doctrine in which we ourselves clothe him. Naked, Jehovah clothed Adam. We should remember that. I fear many will sink to the bottom of their religion’s ocean who clutch to the weight of their onerous doctrine. They should be reaching for the hem of his garment, which extends from Christ’s throne to earth as the only life line Jehovah offered to man, with the manger, cross, tomb and Christ’s ascension the conduit between heaven and earth.

SUSIE: You mentioned George Whitfield and Charles Wesley earlier. You once said they presented distinctions without a difference. You said that both men zealously defended opposing views but neither could deny the vital godliness of the other.

CHARLES: Yes, the godliness of both men is without question. They held Jesus first and foremost in their lives. Now, how is it that you remember a sermon that I preached so long ago?

SUSIE: Your ‘Exposition of the Doctrines of Grace.’ I recently sent the conference notes to a minister in India.

CHARLES: I take it that you read the exposition before you sent it?

SUSIE: Yes, as I read most of your sermons and articles when I have the time… which I have plenty of… bed ridden as I often am. 

CHARLES: Well, that explains it. Anyway, as you know, I have always believed Calvinism is less difficult to accept than any rival system – Arminian, Thomist… Molinist.

SUSIE: Less difficult, maybe, in accepting the doctrine of God’s sovereignty and how one comes to be saved by providence. Who would God be if not in control of all things? Yes, but Calvinism is quite harsh emotionally for those whose loved one died but was not chosen.

CHARLES: Not that I disagree, but why do you say that now?

SUSIE: She asked if what you taught was wrong – that Jehovah could find favor and save a man for his kindness and goodness.

CHARLES: What did you say to her?

SUSIE: I held her, and as we wept together I whispered, ‘no, the Word of God is true – t’is Christ alone, by grace and faith alone; not works.’

CHARLES: Indeed, Calvinism is a bitter pill… especially when a loved one has died, and they did not look to Christ. We ask ourselves, ‘Why is one saved and another is not?’ Did God chose one and not another? We may not ask that question out loud, but we think it.

SUSIE: I have thought about it – many times.

CHARLES: We are all born Arminian and sinners, wifey. T’is easier to assert man’s free will and that a man chose not to believe. That explanation has more emotional and intellectual appeal to human reasoning, but human reasoning does not preserve God’s sovereignty and his right to have loved Jacob and not Esau.

SUSIE: Lucy was with Colin at his bedside.

CHARLES: Where were the children?

SUSIE: She took Alice and little Ben to her sister’s house.

CHARLES Yes – good. And? No doubt she had more to say.

SUSIE: Yes, well, Colin insisted that his generosity would compel God to accept him. Then, at his last breath, he cried out, ‘God must accept me! He must!’ His cry scared her. She never heard him cry in such a hideous manner.

CHARLES: How many times have we witnessed the horror of death in the faces of those who died without knowing their fate?

SUSIE: Too many. Cholera epidemic… sickness… old age.

SUSIE: Shall I write those words and thoughts down for you? 

CHARLES: As you wrote down my sermon while I was fast asleep in bed? 

SUSIE: T’is one matter to have someone fall asleep in church during a sermon… another for the minister to be asleep and preach it.

CHARLES: T’was a good sermon. If not, you would have slept through it too. T’is curious to why that sermon would come to mind: Psalm 110, verse 3: “Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power…” Extraordinary timing indeed.

SUSIE: Extraordinary? In what way?

CHARLES: What we are talking about…

SUSIE: …about revival and the Holy Ghost coming as the wind… 

CHARLES: Yes, and now you remind me of Psalm 110:3 and ‘the day of Thy power.’

SUSIE: Why do I suspect there is more to it than that? 

CHARLES: Because you know me. Yes, I was thinking about the numbers who are drawn… the hundreds that cried out ‘what must I do to be saved!’ in Newcastle and Edinburgh.

SUSIE: The hundreds? I heard thousands were drawn to hear the Gospel. 

CHARLES: Yes, perhaps, but what is a revival in number? Is it the number of those drawn with an interest to hear the preacher? I think of when I first came to London… how many came to hear me… came for the show. Or, is a revival manifest in the number of souls actually converted? If that is the answer, is a revival manifest in the conversion of one, two – twenty, two thousand? Twenty thousand souls won for Christ? Yes, this notion of revival prompts me to think of Matthew Barclay. 

SUSIE: Pastor Barclay?

CHARLES: The numbers in the countryside are certainly not as the numbers in our urban areas.

CHARLES: He told me that his church added two people this past year. He was content with that number and so were his deacons.

SUSIE: Added, but how? Did he say? Were they new converts?

CHARLES: That was the impression that he gave me, but thinking about it, he was quick to change subjects.

SUSIE: He was satisfied with that number? Did you ask? Why not?

CHARLES: I was preoccupied asking myself – ‘Was I satisfied?’ As I told my students, a minister must see ‘some’ come to Christ under their effort. Then, I asked myself, ‘what is some?’ 

SUSIE: The Tabernacle did add four hundred souls last year.

CHARLES: Yes, but what is four hundred? Were they all sinners or those who were already in Christ’s fold but were merely looking for another pasture? You know how many come to the Tabernacle to hear me, and I have urged them to return to their own parishes so we have the room for those who are truly in need to hear the Gospel. 

SUSIE: So, you ask yourself, ‘What is four hundred out of four million lost souls?’

CHARLES: Yes, and should we ever settle for what is a common number? Yes, we marvel.. I marvel… at even one soul being saved, and we should marvel, but does not the infinite value of Christ’s blood demand far more than the one or two in Burwell, or in our case, the four hundred drawn to us at the Metropolitan? Of course, I must always consider what Scripture says: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”

SUSIE: Then, that is your number – many. Well? You were looking to quantify the number were you not?

CHARLES: Whatever many may be..  t’is a matter of God’s discretion. Still, I can no more know the number of God’s elect that any man knows the day that Christ shall return. Suffice it to say, many shall they be in countless number… as the sands on the sea shore. 

CHARLES: As for Matthew, he will read the sermon I will preach tomorrow.  No doubt he will glean from it what we discussed when I was with him. 

SUSIE: Thousands will read your sermon.

CHARLES: And there are many who will respond as God knew they would from all eternity… some will hear the still small voice of God and respond obediently; while others will not.   

SUSIE: Will not. How often have those words and not understand the rebellion inherent in them. 

CHARLES: T’is the great controversy – God’s will for us versus our own will. While salvation hinges upon the will of God for each of us, and not upon our own will, our will does have its proper place in the matter.  

SUSIE: “…it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.”

CHARLES: Yes, which speaks to God’s will for our salvation. And yet we are told, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”

SUSIE: Which speaks to man’s will – my will.

CHARLES: Which water you took freely, and I praise God for that. 

SUSIE: I well remember your sermon, God’s Will and Man’s Will. T’is often requested from members of our Book Fund.  

CHARLES: And you wonder why I adore you? What a blessing you are to me during our Saturday sessions wifey! What greater an opportunity and sacred a venue when the two who are gathered in his name are husband and wife that converse and share his presence in their own home! 

SUSIE: As I rejoice Tirshatha, and am honored to be your helpmate. Now, as for your sermon tomorrow. If you are praying for revival in light of the success that Jehovah has granted you, then surely other ministers will ask themselves.

CHARLES: Or they should be asking.

SUSIE: And they will.

CHARLES: Oh, rising tide of my affections, how can you be so certain?

SUSIE: I know your global readership… truly they are men and women of God who are sensitive to his Spirit, and examine themselves first in the light of God’s Word. 

CHARLES: Yes, but will Jehovah’s Spirit move within our readers for them to know how much more work must be done? Does any man know what lies and soaks before us in human suffering before men are drawn to the cross and repent? How many walk the Via Dolorosa, and find no one coming along side? 

SUSIE: I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

CHARLES: Yes, I can do all things through Christ and that is what we teach is God’s promise. Of course, before I left him, I tried to challenge Matthew to more rigorously seek and trust God for his favor. That, and to preach, preach, preach the Gospel everywhere. 

SUSIE: Why am I not surprised?

CHARLES: I told him a minister may be slow in utterance… like Moses – the leader of the people may be a man of stammering speech… or, like Paul his appearance may be uncomely… his speech contemptible but that does not matter when the Spirit of God is upon him.

SUSIE: Was Pastor Barclay slow of speech? Uncomely?

CHARLES: No, he was quite articulate and handsome actually.

SUSIE: Articulate and handsome? But you said…

CHARLES: That, my dear, was how he described himself – slow of speech, uncomely. Of course, I understand how that happens when a minister is overtaken with doubt.

SUSIE: Did you say anything else?

CHARLES: Only that I pointed to his church, and told him that a church may be very small – and the members may be very poor – and many of the members illiterate, but the Lord – by the hand of the feeblest – shall do his greatest deeds, and bring to himself renown. Preaching to the poor… why would they be drawn?

SUSIE: There is a greater eloquence, Tirshatha. 

CHARLES: Yes, I dare say, as the Holy Ghost moved men to speak.

SUSIE: Did you meet with his deacons?

CHARLES: Two, briefly. He needed a William Olney. Matthew had the customary choice of deacons – the wealthy farmers who could fill the offering plate… that is, if so led, but left the pews woefully empty of sinners.

CHARLES: Oh, my wifey – my dearest wifey! How long have we been married? How grateful I am for you.

SUSIE: Whatever do you mean?

CHARLES: Are you fishing?

SUSIE: Well! What if I am?

CHARLES: Fine, then, good fisher. You know me and wherever I travel, you are there for you are in prayers. If I find myself sitting in the furnace with Daniel’s three, where are you? You are there. Should I find myself on the top of Mount Sinai sitting in a cave hearing the still small voice of God, do I expect to find you there listening? No, but there you are. No doubt, if ever I turned my back on Nineveh, I would likely find you in the belly of the whale.

SUSIE: A whale’s belly indeed. What is it that you desire dear?

CHARLES: Revival for me, and those in our congregation… all of the lost souls in London… Matthew in Burwell – all of England. I ask myself over and over again, why the church of God – which is now in a pitiful minority – should not become a triumphant majority across the entire world.

SUSIE: Jehovah did say, “They shall spring up as the grass.”

CHARLES: Yes, he did. Did you know the grass in the east springs up without any sowing… cultivating… or any other attention? It comes up of itself from the fruitful soil.

SUSIE: And the Church must be that fruitful soil – not just the minister in his tearful sowing, but his congregation.

CHARLES: Yes, see? Here you are on Mount Sinai with me! The tears of a caring congregation in prayer are as a soft rain upon a dry field, God’s answer to us drawing forth the seed to break ground for a new harvest.

SUSIE: If we see with the eyes of Jesus…

CHARLES: Then we shall see what he saw when he saw the grief of Mary and Martha over their brother, and when he looked upon Jerusalem. 

SUSIE: Oh, for earnest prayer! Fervent and frequent, tears flowing as from a deep spring of living water. 

CHARLES: And, if indeed earnest, then acted upon by us doing… going… defending the truth that is in us. Yes, I intend to mention that tomorrow. That, and revival is certainly more than to win souls for Jesus… t’is keeping the souls already won afire – wanting more of Jesus and crying out for the Holy Ghost.

SUSIE: You should rest. 

CHARLES: Yes, my gout is flaring.

SUSIE: I will get your medicine. 

CHARLES: That would be lovely.

CHARLES: I see them you know.

SUSIE: Who?

CHARLES: Our congregation… I see them from the pulpit. I see one who is the son of a deacon, but we expected him to give his heart to Jesus.

CHARLES: And another. He is not the child of a believing family, but comes right out from an ungodly one.

CHARLES: Ah, there is a man that has grown up and is ripe in years – having followed after folly – and confirmed himself in sin. Still, he comes forward. Why? For the grace of God has called him.

SUSIE: So, you see your congregation as you did the night sky… 

CHARLES: Indeed, I see the shining stars, but then there are those who sit in darker regions… where pews are either empty or occupied without the light of Christ shining e’re so brightly… lives so blurred to me to not know their true Christian form and figure… I wonder if they shall e’re come out of the darkness and into the light.

SUSIE: Yet, they come and listen…

CHARLES: As did the scribes and Pharisees.

SUSIE: As you saw Colin Barrett sit beside Lucy, Alice and little Ben?

CHARLES: Perhaps, but only Jehovah knows for certain why Colin did not come.

SUSIE: Still, he accomplished good.

CHARLES: A tare is not a bad thing, wifey, just a dead thing to God that appears fruitful and useful to us. I tried to tell Colin that his giving to the orphanage was appreciated – that we were all orphans. And to that, I told him we had a heavenly Father who gave us a greater gift – to not only feed and shelter us, but to adopt us! T’wasn’t enough to convince him. 

SUSIE: For many are called, my dear, but few are chosen.

CHARLES: Choosing, wifey, is God’s doing, and for that, I am grateful. I would not want to carry the burden of choosing who is saved and who is left – condemned already. Nevertheless, I say, Lord call whomsoever thou will, let your Holy Ghost alight on them, but do call many for Jesus’ sake.

SUSIE: Charles? I should get your medicine.

CHARLES: Yes, but first – please – we have spoken of prayer, now let us.

CHARLES: Heavenly Father, please comfort Lucy Barrett and the children in the loss of their beloved husband and father. Sometimes there are no words, and all we can do is hold each other and weep. For Pastor Barclay, I pray that you bring him just one deacon as you brought Moses his brother Aaron, and to me William Olney. Indeed, a minister’s words do seem thick when spoken in a musty closet – such are churches without windows and open doors, and when our words fall upon empty pews, the preacher may see himself as uncomely in the eyes of those few who are there. I know, because I have felt that way myself. Grant us revival, Oh Lord… and this, I ask…

SUSIE: But, dear, what about John and Maggie Pritchard?

CHARLES: And his five daughters?  As I said, sometimes there are no words… All I can say to that is, when and where the wind blows… do come, do come quickly O Lord and flood this dry land, and may John and Maggie find the edge of God’s Word sharpened and their daughters graciously affected…

SUSIE: And tamed.

CHARLES: Yes, by strong and loving Christian husbands, as Christ loves us and his bride, the church. Do this for Christ’s sake… Amen.

CHARLES: O victory, where is thy sting in death, though struggles be in life? 

SUSIE: Pardon me?

CHARLES: My leg – O that hurts.

SUSIE: You may very well deserve your pain for laughing as you did about the Pritchard’s situation.

CHARLES: My laughter did not make my prayer any less sincere, wifey. I take no joy in any man’s affliction, though I might find light-heartedness in knowing its not my own, and when I do, I seek God’s forgiveness for that. Besides, are you not now making light of my current moaning?

SUSIE: Of course, but you did say, “A light heart can bear heavy burdens” 

CHARLES: I said that, did I? Hmm. Well, this has been a day of light and darkness… humor and melancholy… which is, after all, as we knew it would be from the beginning. Now, please… if you would be so kind wifey… my medicine? 

BOOKMAN: As Susie left the parlor to get Charles’ Colchicine, she knew that he would need to rest, and they would resume their conversation later that evening. There were side affects to the medication. which she prayed would not go beyond a headache. Otherwise, our conversation, Return from Burwell, is concluded. We hope and pray that we can write a number of conversations which share the story of Charles Haddon Spurgeon with our 21st century audience. More importantly, we pray to share the story of C.H. Spurgeon’s Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who is the only begotten Son of God and coming King of kings, and Lord of lords. We pray that as you look to the cross you are able to glean some spiritual sustenance for your eternal benefit and to God’s glory. Better than that, lift up thine eyes and let us go joyfully!  

Good night.

THE END