712 SPURGEON, CHARLES H. 



STEVENSON, ADLAI E. 



urgently real. By natural gift he had extraordi- 

 nary fluency of utterance. By study of the Eng- 

 lish Bible and the religious literature of the 17th 

 century, he acquired an unparalleled mastery of 

 pure and nervous Anglo-Saxon. His voice was 

 of astonishing volume, sonorousness, and power, 

 and singularly sweet in tone. Without apparent 

 effort he made himself easily heard by the great 

 audiences to whom he habitually spoke, and upon 

 occasion by still larger assemblages. In May, 

 1867, while the Tabernacle was undergoing re- 

 pairs he preached for five Sundays in the Agri- 

 cultural Hall, a place "like uninclosed space for 

 vastness," and his congregation numbered not 

 fewer than 12,000 persons ; and once, in the 

 Crystal Palace, at Sydenham, he had an audience 

 of more than 20,000. His doctrinal position was 

 emphatically Calvinistic ; he had no toleration 

 for what he esteemed the undue laxity of some 

 modern theologians. He even withdrew from the 

 Baptist Union of Great Britain on account of 

 theological tendencies which he disapproved in 

 some of the churches composing that body. He 

 never ceased, howevei-, to command the respect 

 and love of those whom he most streimously an- 

 tagonized. His exalted Christian spirit and his 

 heroic life of practical self-devotion, far more than 

 his credal attitude, determined the estimate in 

 which he was held, not only by his fellow Baptists, 

 but by the leading spirits of all communions, 

 including Dean Stanley, Archbishop Tait of Can- 

 terbury, and Cardinal Manning. 



Mr. Spurgeon's achievement as an author was 

 scarcely less phenomenal than as a preacher. He 

 published, by actual count, more than 2,200 

 sermons, of which literally millions of copies 

 were sold and eagerly read in all parts of the 

 world. He issued a voluminous commentary on 

 the Psalms, entitled "The Treasury of David," 

 the preparation of which covered a period of 

 twenty years ; and he edited a monthly magazine, 

 "The Sword and the Trowel." In addition to 

 the many volumes of his sermons, he published 

 three large books of family devotions, and a num- 

 ber of smaller works, such as "John Ploughman's 

 Talk " and "Pictures." " Feathers for Arrows," 

 " Lectures to My Students," "Commenting and 

 Commentaries." The popularity of these writ- 

 ings is indicated by the fact that " John Plough- 

 man's Talk " has reached a sale of 320,000 copies, 

 while of its sequel, the " Pictures," 100,000 copies 

 have been sold. It is stated on good authority 

 that Spurgeon's printed books, including " The 

 Sword and the Trowel," comprise nearly one 

 hundred volumes. Prof. William C. Wilkinson 

 remarks that, "in the capacity of author alone 

 this fecund genius did enough to give him un- 

 challenged rank among the most successful 

 literary men of his generation." 



A third aspect of Mr. Spurgeon's career which 

 challenges admiration was his faculty for organ- 

 izing and administering important enterprises. 

 Besides directing the affairs of a church of 6,000 

 members, he was the originator and active head 

 of a Pastors' College, which in 1890 had sent out 

 nearly 1,000 preachers, missionaries, and evan- 

 gelists. He also founded an Orphanage at 

 Stockwell, where 500 boys and girls are cared for 

 in large separate families, instead of being 

 massed together on the workhouse system. For 

 the benefit of the aged poor connected with his 



church he built, not far from the Tabernacle, a 

 group of almshouses, in which there are alsc- 

 quarters for a ' ragged school " of nearly 400 

 children, with daily sessions and a resident 

 schoolmaster. He established a Colportage Asso- 

 ciation, which employs more than fifty men and 

 has sold many thousand pounds' worth of relig- 

 ious books. There is a Tabernacle Building 

 Fund, for lending money without interest to aid 

 poor churches in building houses of worship; a 

 Book Fund, administered by Mrs. Spurgeon, for 

 supplying needy ministers of all denominations 

 with books ; a Church Poor Fund, which distrib- 

 utes annually about $5,000 ; and there are missions 

 to the number of twenty-five or thirty carried on 

 under the auspices of the Tabernacle. Mr. 

 Spurgeon's brother, the Rev. James A. Spurgeon, 

 became his co-pastor in 1867, and remains in 

 charge of the church's affairs. The pulpit is at 

 present supplied by the Rev. A. T. Pierson, D.D., 

 a Presbyterian clergyman of Philadelphia. Two- 

 sons of Mr. Spurgeon, his only children, are 

 pastors of Baptist churches, one in Australia 

 and the other in the vicinity of London. Mr. 

 Spurgeon died at Mentone, whither, as often 

 before, he had been driven to retire for rest and 

 possible recuperation, by the painful disease of 

 gout, from which he suffered much in his later 

 years. 



STEVENSON, ADLAI EWING. twenty- 

 third Vice-President of the United States, born 

 in Christian county, Ky., Oct. 23, 1835. He was 

 educated in the common schools of that State 

 and afterward at Centre College in Danville. Ky., 

 and at the Illinois Wesleyan University. When 

 he was seventeen years old, his parents removed 

 to Bloomington, 111. His attention was first 

 attracted to politics in the Know-Nothing cam- 

 paigns in Illinois, and while yet a boy. before he 

 had attained his majority, he endeared himself 

 to the large Irish and German population of his 

 section by his able and eloquent speeches in 

 denunciation of the prescriptive policy of the 

 Know-Nothings. At Bloomington he began the 

 study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 

 May, 1857. He then removed to Metamora, 

 Woodford county, 111., where he began the prac- 

 tice of his profession, appearing frequently 

 before the courts of Woodford and McLean coun- 

 ties, especially at Bloomington. His legal abili- 

 ties attracted the attention of the Circuit Judge, 

 who appointed him Master in Chancery, which 

 office he held from 1860 to 1864. In the latter 

 year he canvassed the State for the Democratic 

 candidates for electors, of whom he was one. 

 He was at the same time a candidate on the 

 Democratic ticket for the office of Prosecuting- 

 Attorney for the "23d Judicial district and was 

 elected, serving one term of four years. He 

 then returned to Bloomington, which has ever 

 since been his home. Here he resumed the prac- 

 tice of law, forming a partnership in January, 

 1868, with James S. Ewing, a relative, as senior 

 member of the firm of Stevenson & Ewing. 

 This partnership still exists. He was one of the 

 earliest advocates of currency reform and was 

 nominated for Congress on that issue in 1874 by 

 the Democrats of the Bloomington district. He 

 drew to his support many Independents, and, 

 although his district had been Republican by 

 3,000 majority, after a very' exciting canvass he 



