SLANDER by James White

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, February 5, 1880

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 6

SLANDER

By James White

An exchange says, “Spurgeon, the noted clergyman of London, has been more ridiculed and abused than any other preacher in Great Britain. During the early part of his career—he is but forty-five now—his sermons on regeneration by baptism excited a world of opposition and censure, and he was for many months attacked all along the line of established orthodoxy, hundreds of papers and pamphlets devoting themselves to the exposure of the arrant theologic quack, as they were fond of calling him. The illustrated weeklies caricatured him in every conceivable way also, without disturbing his equanimity in the least. Indeed, he seems to be one of the very few men who are not troubled by journalistic criticism or condemnation. He appears, on the contrary, to enjoy it. He keeps in his library at Nightingale-lane, Clapham, several bulky volumes filled with newspaper clippings, in which he is denounced as a mountebank, hypocrite, blasphemer, villain, and he grows merry over them when he exhibits his volumes—he names them his treasury of abuse—to any of his visitors. He has made it a rule never to reply to anything said of or about him in the public prints. If he had attempted to deny the stories told to his disadvantage, he would, he says, have been prevented from doing anything else, and it would, he adds, be very unprofitable for a man to occupy all his time in trying to disprove that he is a humbug and a scoundrel.”

“Spurgeon is known as a Baptist, but he does not strictly represent that sect. He calls himself a Particular Baptist of an advanced school of thought; and what he believes, his immense Tabernacle congregation believes without demur or distrust. It has often been alleged that his creed is Spurgeonism, and that his followers are Spurgeonites, and the allegation is pretty nearly true. He does not affect the merely clerical character. He does not like to be addressed as Reverend, or to be ranked as a clergyman. ‘I am a preacher, and I try to do good by preaching; that is all there is of my ministry,’ he has proclaimed more than once. No man is more tranquil, sincere, and contented. ‘I do the best I can,’ he says, ‘and leave the rest to God.’ He has the most absolute faith in prayer. He feels sure that prayer will bring everything that is desirable. Whenever he wants anything, from physical or spiritual strength to money for his church or for some charitable purpose, he prays for it, he avers, and it always comes in due season. Still he does not neglect work. He is one of the hardest workers in all London, performing every day labor enough for half a dozen men.”

No man who has acted a prominent part for God and humanity has escaped the bitterness and vileness of the tongue of slander. They said of Jesus Christ, whose great heart of love and benevolence ever sympathized with human woe, that he had a devil, that he cast out devils through Beelzebub, the prince of devils. Said Christ, “Ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.” “It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?” Matt. 10: 22–25.

The first apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ learned by bitter experience that the words of their Lord were true, and the millions of holy martyrs for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ all along the ages of the persecution of the church, shared with their Master the tongue of slander and the cruel power of wicked men and devils brought to bear upon them. They have all been sustained by the promise, “If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him.”

We have nothing to say in praise of Spurgeon’s general habits, or of his piety. His smoking to the glory of God we shall attribute to the lusts of the flesh and the grossness of poor human nature; but he really seems to have a happy way of meeting those who do not like him.

There is a blessed, sanctified spirit of resignation under abuse in the words of Christ to his church: “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake; for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in Heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” Matt. 5: 10–12.

The apostles did not become martyrs in advance, and make themselves unhappy by dwelling on their sufferings for the name of Christ in a melancholy manner. It is said of Peter and John, that “they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.”

In no period of the Christian church may we expect the tongue of slander to walk through the earth with such bitterness as in the last days, when a message of restitution shall go forth in vindication of the downtrodden commandments of God and testimony of Jesus Christ. Here the wrath of the dragon will be literally poured upon those who act a prominent part in the work. “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Rev. 12: 17.

God help us to bear what is coming upon us. If we endure reviling with Christian meekness, it will discourage and dishearten those who would otherwise rejoice and take courage in their villainies. Their very object is to make us feel badly and throw us under a cloud of discouragement. If we would assist them in their work, then we should yield to the force of their bitter words. If we would successfully meet them and secure the blessing of God, we should rejoice that we are worthy to suffer for the name of Christ.

J. W.