SPRUNER VON MERTZ 



SPURGEON 



663 



treacle, and ten or eleven gallons of water, with 

 about half a pint of yeast. Various spices are 

 used for flavouring. A similar beverage is made 

 largely in the north of Europe, from the buds oi 

 the Norway Spruce ( A bies excelsa), and is known 

 as Black Beer, that of Danzig being the most 

 famous. 



Spruner von Mertz. KARL, author of some 

 useful historical atlases, was born at Stuttgart on 

 loth November 1803, joined the army of Bavaria, 

 nd taught geography in the Bavarian cadet 

 college from 1855. His name is associated with 

 a well-executed, and painstaking and accurate, 

 Historisr.h-geoqraphische Haiulatlas, in three parts 

 ( 1853-64), embracing in all 139 maps ; besides this 

 he published historical atlases of Bavaria (1838), 

 Austria (1860), and Germany (1866), and a few 

 historical works dealing with Bavaria. He received 

 the rank of General-lieutenant in 1869, and retired 

 in 1886. He died at Munich, 24th August 1892. 



Spur, an apparatus fastened to the heel of a 

 horseman, for goading the horse. It is much less 



Various Kinds of Spurs 

 (From Antiquarian Museum, Edinburgh) : 

 1, bronze prick spur found at Llnlithgow Palace ; 2, iron spur 

 found near Bannockburn ; 3, bronze spur found at Col- 

 cheater ; 4. brass spur found at Culloden ; 5, spur found at 

 Halidon Hill ; 6, spur found in making a drain in High 

 Street, Edinburgh, 



used than formerly, and the modern apparatus, 

 having only minute serrations on its rim, does not 

 possess the cruel effect of the formidable spiked 

 spurs of old times here illustrated. All cavalry 

 soldiers wear spurs, but their use, except in the 

 heat of an actual charge, is discouraged as much as 

 possible. In the age of chivalry spurs were an 

 essential ensign of knighthood, the spurs of knights 

 (eqvites aurati) being golden or gilt, while those 

 of squires were of silver. In the degradation of a 

 knight a ceremony rarely performed, hut revived 

 in effigy in the case of Lord Dundonald (1814) 

 one part of the proceedings consisted in hacking 

 the spurs from his heels. Till into the 19th century 

 knights of the shire might enter the House of 

 Commons wearing spurs. 



Spurge (Euphorbia), a genus of plants of the 

 natural order Euphorbiacece, having monoecious 

 naked flowers, the male flowers membranous, and 

 surrounding a tricoccous stalked female flower, the 

 whole placed within a cup-shaped involucre. The 

 fruit has three valves and three cells, the cells one- 

 seeded, and bursting elastically. The species are 

 very numerous, natives of warm and temperate 

 climates, mostly herbaceous, but some of them 

 woody. About twelve species are natives of 

 Britain. All contain a resinous milky juice, which 

 in most is very acrid. Several tropical species are 

 .cultivated for their great beauty in hothouses. 



ftpnrge Laurel. See DAPHNE. 



Spurgeon, CHARLES HADDON, the greatest 

 Nonconformist preacher of his day, the son of an 

 Independent minuter, was born at Kelvedon, 



Essex, 19th June 1834. He was educated at Col- 

 chester and Maidstone, and in 1849 became usher 

 in a school at Newmarket, where he studied French 

 and Greek. He narrowly escaped receiving a 

 college training a little later, but gradually grew 

 into his great sphere of usefulness and influence 

 without the help of the schools. His leisure time at 

 Newmarket was spent in religious work, and he 

 began to give addresses in the halt of the Independ- 

 ent chapel. In 1850 he removed to Cambridge, con- 

 nected himself with the Baptist church there which 

 had been presided over by Rol>ert Hall, and was 

 received as a member of the Lay Preachers' Associa- 

 tion. His first sermon was preached in a cottage 

 at Tevershaiii, about 4 miles from Cambridge. 

 In his eighteenth year he had a call to be pastor 

 of the Baptist chapel, Waterbeach, and soon the 

 small congregation was doubled. In 1853 he was 

 invited to preach in New Park Street Chanel, 

 London, and in 1854 he was unanimously called 

 to become pastor of the church. His sermons, 

 which were issued in weekly numbers from the 

 beginning of 1855, have been translated into most 



in the Surrey Music Hall in the interim. A panic 

 occurred (19th October 1856) while Spurgeon was 

 preaching in the latter place, and when 7000 persons 

 were assembled ; seven persons lost their lives, and 

 many were injured. At a service in the Crystal 

 Palace, on a day of national humiliation in connec- 

 tion with the Indian Mutiny, Spurgeon preached 

 to an audience of about 24,000. The vast Metro- 

 politan Tabernacle was erected ( 1859-61 ) ; it cost 

 31,000, and has accommodation for about 6000 

 persons. Strangers flocked thither from all parts 

 of the world to hear the popular preacher. In 1879 

 he received a pastor's silver-wedding testimonial of 

 over 6000 ; a further sum of aliout 5000 was 

 presented to him on his attaining his fiftieth year, 

 all of which he devoted to benevolent schemes. 

 In his later years he was a martyr to gout and 

 rheumatism, and repeated attacks of illness and 

 prostration led to his wintering in the south of 

 France. He died at Mentone, 31st January 1892. 

 A musical voice, clearness, directness, independence, 

 and simplicity of style, combined with humour, 

 common sense, a rich store of anecdote and con- 

 tinuous hard work, aided in keening him in the 

 front rank. He has been described as a ' hard- 

 headed Englishman, full of sense, at moments so 

 brightly expressed that it had all the effect of wit,' 

 and of deep and genuine piety, if of narrow 

 theology. The religious world learned with a 

 shock of surprise in October 1887 of Mr Spurgeon's 

 withdrawal from the Baptist Union, because no 

 action would be taken by its leaders against per- 

 sons charged with fundamental errors, whom he 

 thought on the 'down-grade' theologically and 

 spiritually. 



Preaching was only one form of Mr Spurgeon's 

 many-sided activity ; his pen was as active as his 

 mind and tongue, and many benevolent and 

 useful institutions have grown up around the 

 Metropolitan Tabernacle. The most important of 

 these are the Almshouses, Pastor's College ( 1856), 

 Stockwell Orphanage (1867), and a system of col- 

 portage, and book fund for ministers. He proved 

 an excellent administrator, and his orphanages 

 were models of_ good management. A publishing 

 firm has found its main employment in dispersing 

 liis publications. 



Mr Spurgeon, besides his weekly sermons and a 

 monthly magazine, Sword and Trowel (1865), gave to 

 the world upwards of a hundred volumes. He always 

 preached extemporaneously, and had his notes written 



