8/12/2019 1991 Issue 2 - Contrasting Reformed & Liturgical Worship: The "Tabernacle" and the "Abbey" - Counsel of Chalce

1/3

not vast audience-room, with plenty

of

windows and no

. stained glass, every foot of room economized skillfully,

and

two

commodious galleries circling around the

whole,

one above another. The se ts are fairly good the interior

sufficiently solid, neat

and t;lsteful.

One's.common sense

tells him that here the most has been malieof the money

givenbyGod'peopletoprovideworshipping-r00l]1fort\Ie

most sows possible. Already at three-quarters of an hou

before the beginning, afew of the

regu1ar

;tttendants

are

in

. '. their pews; and the strangers

are

beginning to line the

. . .folding-seats in the aisles andthe benches againstthewall

The Tabernacle and the Abbey

byRL abney

Spurgeon's tabernacle, on "London Road," south

of

the

Thames and Westminster Abbey, may fairly stand as the

representative of "Anglicanism" and "Dissent" in England.

Around

the former more Protestant influences

are

centered

than around any othernon-established place ofworshl.p. The

latteris the Mecca ofEnglish Episcopacy;more even thanSt.

Pau1' S, the virtual cathedral of the metropolitan diocese,

because in the heart of the inhabited city, and beside the

''Palace of Parliament," or, as we should

call

them, the

"capitolbuiIdings" of he Empire. Westminster s, moreover,

a fair type

of

Anglicanism, because its "Moderate" and

"Broad

Church

Dean

Dr.

Stanley, keeps out the

exceSses of

ritualism, and directs his worship along those medium lines

acceptable to the average church

tnarl

, tis proposed

to

let the

experiences

of

an attentive observer on the &;nne Sabbath, as

he passed from the one to the other sanctuary, tell their slOry

plainly and simply, touching the two types ofChristianity.

The

Tabernacle Building

But at one quarter of an hour before, the regu1ar inflow

begins with a tide continually increasing. At five minutes

before 11 o'clock a

signal.

is made by a deacon from the

fartherendby a simple clapping ofhandS; whereupon the

strangers by a universal invitation, enter ihe pews and fill

up every vacant seat. The places they leave are at once

refilled,

and

floor and both circuits

of galleries re

a solid

mass of human faces, waiting with an expectant look fo

the

beginning

of

the

serVices.

.

'.

The Services

Precisely at

11

o'clock Mr. Spurgeon hobbled-into his

platform, betraying by his gait and

by

his leaning upon

every object along hisway-the infirniityunder which h

has suffered, a species of rheumatism in hi.s

feet. It

i

unpleasanuo see thathis enforced

inactivity

has increased

his corpwency. Otherwise

he

is ,the s me figure with

which engravings have

m d ~

the Christian world

acquainted,

with

a beard covering

his

massive chin,

bu

without a gray hair, and withhis natural fon:e not

abated

nor his eye dimmed. After an instant of silent lYorship, h

.began his prayer of invocation, which was much longe

than

ours.

Then followeda

hymn,

sung.by the whol

mighty throng, like the voices of many waters

with no

instrument of any kind and no guidance save that of

purely nonprofessional precentor. ' No mechanical sound

could possibly have been added to that chorus of sentien

voices without marring the real effect both as an act o

worship and

an act

of

noble

art.

Then

the

Scriptures were read

at

length and expounded

Mr. Spurgeon's person and preaching have

been

too often briefly. There were two more hynms divided by along bu

describedtoneedpainting. The visitor

finds

the ''Tabernacle'' seasonable and appropriate"prayer,

and

then the sermo

simply a very large and seemly church

of

stone without a and the benediction. The devotional services occupied

steeple, separated from the Streetby a plain, strong railing

of

forty-five minutes, andthe sermon fifty. Those

who

chos

iron, with an area often yards breadth, and then a portico of to partake of he Lord'sSupperthenwent to thehasemen

simple Greek architecture, much like that adorning the Tabb lecture-room, and joined inthat ordinanCe. The Church

i

street church in Petersburg, VA. WithinhefindsalargebUl a Free Communion Baptist

Church,

and all Christian

The

Counsel

of Chalcedon Februl ryiMarch 1991

Page

46

8/12/2019 1991 Issue 2 - Contrasting Reformed & Liturgical Worship: The "Tabernacle" and the "Abbey" - Counsel of Chalce

2/3

were invited to partake.

But

the sermon? It

was

quiet

fluent

sensible, scriptural,

Old School boldly Calvinistic, dignified, edifying-just

such preaching

as

one hears in many Southern pulpits,

with

here and there a little gleam quickly repressed, of the

tendency to humor native to the man; usually classic in its

orthoepyandgrammar. The onlyword inwhichthe English

plebeian enmity

to

the was

betrayed,

was

when

he

told

us

that it

was

'Ospital Sunday in ll London churches, andthat

the collection would be for the

sick.

Spurgeon's voice is a

clear tenor sustained without straining on a rather too

equable pitch, with the perfection ofdeliberationanddistinct

articulation, but with a marked accent of those

vivid

staccato emphases which

are

so characteristic of our

Americanextemporepreachers. Everysy11ablewasaudible

from

the beginningto the close byeveryman. On hewhole

the characteristic of the whole performance

was

not

brilliancy, notgenius but robust, good sense scripturalness,

and

sustained

propriety.

The experienced hearer cannot

well avoid raising the question, Is there that in these

performances

which

accounts for the sustained throng?

And he cannot

avoid

answering, There is not. It is a good

performance; very good but in no sense better than our

good

American preachers who never draw more than

few

hundreds.

The Secret ofHis Success

Whence then Spurgeon' sthousands? Perhaps the solution

he

would prefer

to

have given,

would

be

from God's

answer to

believing prayer, blessing customary exertions.

I conceive that under this higher solution the instrumental

ones

are

these:

First London has four millions of people,

and

many hundreds of thousands of church-goers. Hence it

does

not require a very great relative elevation of one

reputation

above others

to collect at one spot enough of

these

multitudes to

make

agreatcrowd. Inanordinarydish,

filled with liquid a change of levelby one-tenth ofan inch

wouldremoveafew hundred

drops

tothepointofdepression

Butinalake of

many

acres ' extent, that

same

change oflevel

limited to one-tenth of an inch, would displace a great mass

of water; there

is

a large surface from which it would

flow.

Secondly, good preaching is so scarce in England where the

Dissenters, who are animated,

are

too often rough. and

offend good taste and the Anglicans, who have scholarly

culture are usually utterly ruinedby their intoning whine

and

doctrinal indifference, that a little excellence counts for

agood deal. Thirdly Spurgeon's executive ability, tactand

strength ofwill evidently

serve

himgreatly in sustaininghis

ascendancy. He is

as

much ofan organizer and general

as

preacher.

But on the whole here

was

true, living, edifying worship

and

proc1arnation

of God's word in the Tabernacle. Here

are more than three thousand communicants and

five

thousand worshippers every Sunday. Here is the Pastor's

College, which is really a theological seminary, giving

instruction for the pastoral work to one hundred and ten

young men at a weekly expense of $590.00. Here are two

orphan asylums

one

for boys and one for girls, continually

en1argingthemselves.

Hereisagreatprintingworkspreading

sermons, religious newspapers and tracts

as

far as the

English language is spoken This is what Spurgeon has

done. Doubtless there

are

blemishes inhis work. Doubtless,

like

ll

other works ofpro

mise

itpresents more flowers than

fruit. Some of its blemishes

are

obvious to the sensible

spectator. For instance, of the five thousand worshippers

and more than three thousand communicants, not more than

four orfive hundred at

most

joined in the Lord's Supper.

Nor indeed, did the pastor seem to expect more, as he held

the service inaroom which could only contain that number.

Nor

was

there all the reverence and tenderness which

one

would desire to see in this sacred ordinance. But after ll

deductions, there is visible a mighty energy for good.

Westminster Abbey

At 3 o'clock

P.M.

the afternoon service is celebrated

with

a sermon in Westminster

Abbey

forthe general public.

The

pile is hoary, venerable, vast, full of impressive

reminiscences, with every second slab on which the

worshipper treads, the grave stone of one who

was

famous

in history; and every compartment along nave and aisle

crowdedwith the monuments of statesmen, warriors, artists

poets, witsactors andfiddlers. Itoccupies, withitsdeaneries,

canonaries, college and chapels, whole acres of ground in

the heart of London, which would now cost millions of

pounds. Inits lofty naves and towers, its countless pinnacles

and buttresses, its labyrinths of corridors, courts and

crypts

t

contains probably enough cut stone to build ten (possibly

twenty) such Tabernacles

as

Spurgeon's. Its lofty vastness

so utterly surpasses the possibilities of vocal worship by any

human voice, that some small part only is used at anyone

time on Sunday afternoon only the transept and

choir.

The m in nave presents this sign that it also

is

sometimes

used for the liturgical worship, that having, like the popish

churches, no pews nor seats t s supplied with a vast thicket

The Counsel of Chalcedou February/March 1991 Page 47

8/12/2019 1991 Issue 2 - Contrasting Reformed & Liturgical Worship: The "Tabernacle" and the "Abbey" - Counsel of Chalce

3/3

saw in an oid Kentucky slave cabin

(andnotawhitc1eaner),notbottom:d

indeed with "white .oak splits" or

cords oftwistedcom-shuck, butwith

aspeciesof

coarse

flag, forEngland

is not blessed with Indian

cOm,

and

her oaks are

n

far too "snarly" to

make

a "split."

Punctually at 3 o'clock I went, and

was shown by a circuitous way into

the westem transept. I secured a chair

about half

way

o the pulpit About a

thousand people were present; a few

apparently wrappedintheecstasies of

aesthetic devotion, the major part

patientanddecent, andalrugerilinority

wa kingaboutthevastouterspacesof

the church

and going and coming .

whenever they pleased Everything

wa

s chanted or intoned, except the

lessons of he day. I was about

s

near

the choir and pulpit

as

the average halfof the

audieJtce

, and

being blessed with at least ordinary hearing, I made every

effort which close attention could contribute. But what, with

. the solemn reverberations through "long-drawn aisle and

fretted arch," and

the

disgusting whine

of he

"intoning," and

the profane, mechanical rapidity

of

the chants, and the

despica

ble

school-boy reading of the

r i ~ s

bred

of

intoning and ecclesiastical starch, absolutely not Olle whole

seiltence

of

he service was audible to

me

or those around

me.

In

most sentences

not

a wold

was

audible: My practiced ear,

almost

as

familiar with the words

of

Scripture

as

though

they

had been memorized, caught barely enough

of

he "lessons

of

the day" to surmise that the first was from 1 Samuel (about

Samuel and Eli) , and the second from James .But I am

persuaded that the ordinary laymen near me never guessed

even what portions

of

Scripture were read. The "priests"

conducting the liturgical service imitated the indecimthasteof

the challting boys usually "cutting in" with their rattling

"intone" upon the responses, some syllables before the latter

were completed, notwithstanding the worshippers, who had

prayer books (and knew their places), did their best

to

go at a

hard gallop and get out

of

their reverences' way.

Of he

sermon, which speedily became quite declamatory, we

were able to hear some sentences and a number

of

words, but

no

consecutive paragraph. I caught enough to learn that the

text was, "The poor ye have always with

you,

and that the

preacher was endeavoring to accommodate this fact

to the

demands of Hospital Sunday in London. When all was over

The

Counsel

of Chalcedon FebruarylMarch 1991

Page

48

Non-Profit

U.S.

Post

P ID

BULKRA

Permit No

.

the beadles, most impressively draped in surplices, wer

stationed at the doors who obtruded gorgeous, massive gol

plates

tow

feet broad, to receive the alms

of

the retirin

worshippers. A few shillings and six-pences had begun whe

I passed, to dot the lustrous surfaces with a decidedly sordi

look. I had cast in

the

little I felt I could contribute forthe sic

inLondonhospitals,among Spurgeon's peopleintheforenoon

where the cheap wooden boxes were receiving apparently,

a

eager and universal tribute. Utterly discouraged

and

repelle

by

the splendid dishes

of

gold

, I

passed

them

by,

sayin

inwardly to myself, if you would sell the

female

garmen

which disfigure your manhood,

and

sell those useless gol

dishes,andglvetothesufferingpoor,thenlwillgladlyaddm

h u m b l e m i ~

So far as

the

audible voice is oldained byGod as aninstrume

of

worship and instruction, this service mightas well been, lik

the popish, in a dead language. A few drew edification, Ihope

.from their Psalters. A

few

evidently .

mistook the

mer

aesthetic impression

of

ecclesiastical architecture

and

"man

millinery, and the pealing echoes

of

harmonic sounds, fo

spiritual edification. To the most it

was

evidently

but

ceremony, decent and dreary. And this is

what

Westminste

is doing to save souls, with her immense

real

estate, he

princely revenues, her battalion of deans, canons, priest

deacons, organists

and

choristers.

The Sabbath began with

me

happily, cheerily, devoutly;

ended witha chill, like that of he crypt-corridors, surroundin

the scene

of

the ghostly pantomime. n