SPAIN. 



MTUGEON, rilAKLKS II. 711 



>.r>89 tons entered tho t>orts. and 401 vessels 



f llx II* ton< cleared. 'I ho difficulty between 

 i lie I'niied States Government and Spam regard- 

 ing the American missionaries in Hie Caroline 

 Islands was settled satisfactorily in April, 1*92. 

 The Spanish (iovermncnt consents to the return 

 of the missionaries to the islands, and undertakes 

 that their propaganda shall not IK; interfered 



with, on the c lition that tho missionaries do 



not interfere in local government matters or in 

 questions between tho island authorities and the. 

 nati 



The jwssessions in Africa embrace Rio de Oro, 

 Adrar. Ifni. Fernando Po, Annabon, Corisco. 

 Klol-ey. and San Juan. The total area is 243,877 

 square miles and the population is 136.000. 



srUHJl-OV CHARLES HADDON, an Eng- 

 lish Baptist clergyman, born in Kelvedon, Essex, 

 Knirland. June 19, 1834; died in Mentone, 

 Franco, January 31. 1892. His father, the Rev. 



CHARLES H. BPURGEON. 



John Spurgeon, who still survives, and his 

 grandfather, the Rev. James Spurgeon, were 

 ministers of the Independent, or Congregational, 

 denomination. Charles received his education at 

 Colchester and Maidstone, and at a very early 

 age his scholarship was conspicuously above the 

 average. In his sixteenth year he was engaged 

 as nshor in a school at Newnuirket. During his 

 residence there his religious convictions became 

 settled, and. as he had embraced decided views 

 on the subject of immersion as the proper mode 

 of baptism, he united with the Baptist church in 

 Nehain, a village seven miles distant. After 

 spending a year at Newmarket, he removed to 

 the university town of Cambridge, where he 

 again held the place of usher in a well-known 

 private school, lie had already begun to speak 

 in religious meetings, and soon developed so 

 marked a capacity for such service that before he 

 was eighteen lie became pastor of the Baptist 

 church at Waterbeach. a village five miles north 

 of Cambridge. His ministry there lasted for two 

 years, but the compensation he received was so 

 meager that he was obliged to eke out his sup- 

 pori l>y continuing his duties as usher in the 

 Cambridge school. 



In 1853. when he was just turned nineteen, 

 young Spurgeon, to his own great surpn 

 ceived a (all to the past unite of the Neu I'.irk 

 Street Mapiist church in Sonlhwark, London. 

 The congregation, whi'-h in former year- h;id 

 been large, wus greatly run down. The income 

 was no longer sullicicni to meet a pastor's salary 

 and pay the ordinary expenses of the place, anil 

 no definite pecuniary inducement could lie offered 

 to the new preacher Hut his success was un- 

 mistakably assured from the first Sunday of his 

 pri, idling in London. The New Park Street, 

 chapel, although capable of seating 1,200 per- 

 sons, soon became intolerably crowded, and 

 plans were promptly made for its enlargement. 

 Meanwhile the congregation moved to Exeter 

 Hall, and that commodious auditory was 

 thronged at every service. When they returned 

 to the remodeled chapel, in spite of all that had 

 been done to increase its accommodations, they 

 found themselves more inconvenienced than be- 

 fore. The project of a great metropolitan taber- 

 nacle was then formed. To collect the necessary 

 funds for this enterprise, and to complete the 

 immense building, occupied five years. During 

 that time Mr. Spurgeon preached chiefly in 

 Exeter Hall and in the Surrey Gardens Music 

 Hall. At the latter place, on the evening of his 

 first service there, a false alarm of fire created a 

 panic in which seven persons were killed and 

 many others were seriously injured. Contribu- 

 tions towards the tabernacle were received from 

 all parts of Great Britain, the indefatigable 

 pastor traveling far and wide, preaching and 

 collecting money. In May, 1861, the edifice .was 

 completed, paid for, and opened for worship. 



The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, 

 which has been one of the sights of London for 

 thirty years, is 146 feet long, 81 feet broad, and 62 

 feet high. It contains, with its double galleries, 

 5.500 sittings, and will hold 6,000 persons without 

 excessive crowding. There are also in the build- 

 ing a lecture hall, holding about 900, a schoolroom 

 for 1,000 children, six class-rooms, three vestries 

 for pastor, deacons, and elders, a young men's 

 class-room, and rooms for other purposes con- 

 nected with the multiform work of which the 

 church is the center. The district in which it is 

 situated is described as including "some of the 

 worst, most degraded, and most dangerous spots in 

 all London." The influence of Spurgeon and his 

 Tabernacle has gone far to transform this neigh- 

 borhood. Acres of slums have been cleared ; 

 drinking-shops have been closed ; fostering tene- 

 ments have given way to model dwellings : while 

 outcasts without number have been reclaimed, 

 and the deserving poor have been assisted in 

 earning a decent livelihood. "The whole quar- 

 ter," says a competent observer, " has been con- 

 verted from a scene of sordid poverty and the 

 lowest forms of vice to one of healthful peace and 

 comparative prosperity." 



Asa preacher. Mr. Spurgeon was characterized, 

 first of all, by intense and never-flagging earnest- 

 ness. His speech was always that of a man who 

 had something to say of supreme importance to 

 himself and to those whom he addressed. He 

 used no set religious phrases ; he discarded con- 

 ventions and formalities ; his manner was con- 

 versational, not rhetorical. He made no at tempt 

 to be eloquent ; he was only profoundly and 



