At Spurgeon’s Tabernacle—Two Years as a Substitute

Chapter 13, 1891-1893

It was a remarkable chain of circumstances that led Arthur T. Pierson, for thirty years prominently identified with the Presbyterian Church in America, to leave his own country for the pulpit of the leading Baptist Church in the world. The Metropolitan Tabernacle of London had become famous under the unique ministry of Pastor Charles H. Spurgeon. Not only did he preach each Lord’s Day to audiences of five or six thousand people, but his sermons were printed and sent to the farthest corner of Christendom; his Orphanage, his Pastor’s College, and other enterprises, formed a vast organization which required skillful management and a large income. When therefore, in the spring of 1891, the sad news became known that Pastor Spurgeon was stricken with Bright’s disease* and was dangerously ill, the whole Christian world was deeply moved. Many were praying for his recovery and all were perplexed to know where a successor to such a man could be found.

Chain of Circumstances

On the sixteenth of July word was cabled to America, and reached the Bible conference at Niagara-on-the-Lake, that Mr. Spurgeon was dying. Immediately a group of Christian men met for an hour to pray that God would spare this great man for further service. The next day cablegrams announced his

*Kidney disease—PCAM.