Being Faithful without Revival

This excerpt is taken from Iain H. Murray, Archibald G. Brown: Spurgeon’s Successor (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2011) and constitutes chapter 13 of that volume.

BROWN had spoken to the main need of the church in a letter to all the members at the beginning of 1908, headed ‘Remember Jesus Christ’ (2 Tim. 2:8). In it he wrote, ‘Is there nothing that will preserve holy boldness, enthusiastic activity, and overflowing joyfulness? Yes, there is. The recipe is found in remembering the living Jesus.’ Even while he sought to preach that truth to himself, he was not wholly able to dismiss from his mind the crisis in which he had suggested his resignation to the deacons in December 1907. The stress that had been present in the closing years of his ministry at the East London Tabernacle was recurring. There was less of the buoyant spirit that marked earlier years and a lack of confidence—never previously one of his characteristics—began to appear. At the deacons’ meeting of October 13, 1908, it is recorded: ‘He reviewed the events since the time of the invitation to him to become Co-Pastor with Mr Thos Spurgeon and expressed his willingness for a revision of the present position if the brethren had any doubt as to the confirmation by the Holy Spirit of his appointment to the Pastorate.’

When the assurance he looked for on this occasion was immediately and emphatically given, ‘he expressed his gratitude to the Lord for the help given in the trying circumstances of the commencement of his work.’ To underline their united support, the deacons went on to record this resolution:

We do most heartily thank the Lord for his goodness in delivering the Church in the time of her great trouble and we record our affection and esteem for our beloved Pastor and our joy that we are permitted to co-operate with him.¹‘Her great trouble’ would appear to refer to the disagreement of December 1907.

But Brown’s sense that he was not to be long in this role did not leave him. At the deacons’ meeting on May 3, 1909, when it was proposed that the second anniversary of his pastorate ‘be observed by a Public Meeting’, he said that this was not his desire. A few weeks later the brethren (deacons and elders) received this letter from him, written on May 26:

My dear Brethren,

Next month I complete two years of service at the Tabernacle, and after much thought and prayer I have been led to the decision not to prolong the same. I can honestly say that ‘I have done my best.’ From the commencement however there have been difficulties that I never dreamed of and the conviction has been deepened during the past few months. My heart-felt wish and prayer is that God may send you some man unburdened with my ‘years’ and equipped with special grace for the great work. For all blessing bestowed during the two years I devoutly praise God and give him the glory. For the many kindnesses received from you, personally, and also by my dear wife I return deepest gratitude.

Believe me, yours most faithfully,

Archibald G. Brown.

At a deacons’ meeting on June 7, 1909, the letter was taken up and amplified by Brown, ‘laying particular stress upon what he deemed to be the lack of enthusiasm in the Church as indicated by the comparatively small attendances on Sabbath mornings and also the fewness of candidates for membership’. After much to the contrary was said by the deacons, who instanced the many blessings being experienced under his ministry, Brown agreed ‘to consider the matter carefully, and to give an answer after his holiday’. He was to have four Sundays off the next month, to which the deacons added a further two Sundays, ‘as Pastor A. G. Brown had recently passed through a severe family trial and was in a low and depressed condition of health’.²‘The severe family trial’ refers to a great disappointment Brown had over the conduct of one of his children. Such was the concern and sympathy of the deacons that they met, together with the elders on June 21, to discuss the situation further. Once again, support for Brown was unanimous and five of them were asked to draw up a letter to him. This was done the next day and warrants being given here in full:

June 22, 1909

Beloved Pastor,

We the Elders and Deacons of the Metropolitan Tabernacle Church send you our most cordial greetings in the Lord.

We know your objection to long and wordy communications, but we must ask your patience while we say to you what is burdening our hearts.

You have expressed to many a feeling of dissatisfaction with the condition of things at the Tabernacle since your acceptance under such trying circumstances of the Pastorate of the Church and you have so plainly declared your discomfort and uneasiness, that we cannot quietly stand by and see you suffer in mind as we know you are doing. Now it is no exaggeration nor fulsome flattery to say that since you have been our Pastor you have bound to yourself very closely the heart of the Church—both Officers and members. Your election was unanimous and after your two years of gracious ministry, the choice of yourself as our Leader would be even more enthusiastic now. But this is a small thing compared to the more important matter we now mention, God has set the unmistakable seal of his Divine favour upon your work among us. We know you rejoice in the frequent additions to the membership. Moreover the testimony of experienced Christians in the Church, and of workers not only in the Tabernacle and its Schools, but in its Missions, is repeatedly heard to the effect that your expositions of the Divine Word feed their souls and establish them increasingly in the faith. We fear you hardly recognize the extent of the blessing which our gracious God has vouchsafed.

We cannot live in London today without being too well aware of the decreasing attendances at the Places of Worship and the growing dearth of conversions. Is it not for us all to magnify the grace of God in your ministry which yields such results, rather than to look upon discouragements which do but slightly reflect the state of things all around us. But even more than all this: you are called to a great task at an age when most men are seeking rest. You are filling a position which the greatest preacher of his day, when younger than yourself, found a heavy burden. But the importance of the position is as honourable as the work is arduous. The Church at the Metropolitan Tabernacle needs your wise strong guidance and powerful exposition of the Word, more than language can express. We entreat you do not let disappointments of any sort or size, blind your mind to the clearly Divine Call to one of the highest places in the field, for which your past experience and God-given powers have so exceptionally fitted you.

The fight will thicken before victory is assured; and Oh! how necessary it is for such accredited leaders as yourself to hold the fort in the face of the rising tide of infidelity and materialism.

Satan will weaken God’s hosts and steal the heart from the bravest if he can. He will multiply temptations and inducements to surrender; not only our field of service, but our homes and our social circles will yield him arguments to hinder us, at the time when our Lord needs us the most. Will you not hearten us by a new manifestation of prayerful faith and the zeal you have exhibited ever since your early ministry, to do battle more vigorously with the powers of evil? The Master we adore and love is by your side! Your Church is with you! Difficulties of every shape and complexion are but tests of holy courage. There is a sound of a Divine ‘going’ in the congregation!³‘Going’, an allusion to the words of 2 Samuel 5:24 in the King James Version. Sinners are being saved!Saints are reviving in faith and zeal! Dear Pastor, accept our affectionate assurance that we believe God has chosen you to stand for him in this mighty war.

We shall not fail to bear you up in daily intercession, earnestly crying to God that he will incline your heart to continue as the beloved Pastor of this great Church.

With our united love,

We are, dear Pastor, on behalf of the Officers of the Church.

To this fine letter Brown replied on June 24:

Words cannot tell all I feel in the way of loving gratitude for the letter received from the united courts of the deacons and elders.

Your verdict on the two years of work is such a contrast to that passed by my own heart that I am staggered. Let me in quiet think over the letter when mental weariness, the result of heart depression, shall have passed away through a little rest. That God may reward you all for your loving consideration is the heart-felt prayer of yours most gratefully.

At the deacons’ meeting on September 6, 1909, the first after Brown’s return from his summer break, he raised a significant question before speaking of his decision. He wanted ‘to know the views of the brethren in respect to the duties comprised in the office of the Pastor, and asked whether these included any responsibility in regard to the oversight of the Institutions’. He was assured he had no responsibility, except for the Colportage Association. The College and the Orphanage were managed by separate bodies of trustees. All that was expected was that he kept ‘in close touch’ with the Institutions. It was then minuted that ‘the Pastor’s duties comprise the preaching of the Word, and looking after the spiritual interests of the Church’. On this understanding he said he was willing to continue in the work.

They must have seemed long years since his arrival in the summer of 1907 and not ones he would have wished to live again. When the interviewer, already quoted, met Brown in the vestry of Chatsworth Road Baptist Chapel in December 1900, he said of his appearance: ‘Mr Brown has changed little in recent years save that hair and whiskers have assumed a decidedly grey tinge. The same erect, broad-chested figure, frank manly face and clear eye.’ Not all that could have been repeated ten years later when his hair had changed to silver white. He had been through the most testing period of his ministry.

It is to the credit of the deacons and elders that the troubles repeatedly discussed in their courts never reached the ears of the members of the church. The preaching they heard from Sunday to Sunday gave them no suspicion of any resignation, nor was there any note of depression in the sixteen sermons preached at this time and published under the title, The Full-Orbed Gospel. In accordance with its title, the book shows AGB was riding no hobby-horse. One of the sermons however leads us into a subject which clearly exercised him at this date. As he reminded the church in the sermon, ‘A Sound from Heaven’, the year 1909 brought them to an important anniversary:

The sound from heaven came in 1859; that sound was maintained, in 1860, and indeed all through the 60s, the days were days of wonder and joy in the mighty working of God. I am very glad that revival is going to have its jubilee, and be remembered. Perhaps it will enable some of the Churches today to see how far we have fallen . . . All honour to dear Charles Haddon Spurgeon—we love his memory—but let it be remembered that Charles Haddon Spurgeon was living in that revival age. When was this building reared? It was reared when the flames of revival were sweeping through London.

The church upon which there came ‘a sound from heaven’ (Acts 2:2), he preached, was a complete congregation (‘they were all in one place’); they were all in unity (‘with one accord’); and a people ‘steeped in prayer’. What was needed, as he repeatedly said at this period, was that ‘the whole membership will join in devout and constant supplication for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit’s reviving power’. In a sermon on ‘The Supply, Fellowship and Worship of the Spirit’, he went over the relationship between the giving of the Spirit and prayer, as stated in Paul’s words, ‘through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ’ (Phil. 1:19). Beginning with the axiom, ‘All Christians are not equally filled with the Spirit’, he urged that it is through prayer that other Christians receive a fuller supply of the Holy Spirit, and that it is fellowship with the Holy Spirit that is at the heart of a living church. Adhering to a tradition, and belonging to a denomination, he warned, was no substitute. Not that he believed the division of the church into denominations was necessarily detrimental to spiritual health: ‘I believe it is a good thing, for one denomination looks after some doctrine that would be neglected if it were not made her speciality; but the moment one denomination interferes with Spirit-sharing and fellowship in the Holy Ghost, it becomes a curse and not a blessing.’

Building on an illustration used by James Hamilton, he contrasted churches without the anointing of the Spirit with those enjoying his favour: the first are like little isolated pools between the rocks on the sea shore when the tide is out:

The little shrimp in this pool knows nothing about the little shrimp in the other pool, although only separated from it by a small ridge of rock. Every little shrimp is living in its own world. But by-and-by the tide begins to flow in, and it fills up all the separate pools until all the little pools become lost in the mighty ocean, and the little shrimps are no longer in their isolated pools, they are all in the great fullness of the ocean. So it is with us: when the religious life is low and ebbing, how big our little pools look! How little fellowship there is with others round about us! . . . You will never have fellowship with anyone so delightful as fellowship in the Spirit. That is the charm of the prayer-meeting . . . Did we not realise at our prayer-meeting last Monday how really the Holy Ghost just came in and took possession of the meeting? . . . I was so glad to hear that somehow the Spirit of God had laid hold of the teachers in the school this morning, and they said, ‘Let us have a quarter of an hour’s prayer before we begin teaching.’ That is the right thing—the supply of the Spirit through prayer. Then let us ask God to give us the fellowship of the Spirit. Oh, dear little shrimp, do come out of that little puddle of your own! Do not be so small; do not live in a clique; ask God to let you know what it is in the power of the Holy Ghost to allow you to have fellowship with all those in whom the Spirit dwells.⁴God’s Full-Orbed Gospel, pp. 138-45.

As already mentioned, Brown was now a Vice-President of the Pastors’ College, and at the annual College Conference in 1908 he had pressed the need of the Holy Spirit in their midst. The Principal, Dr McCaig, reported in The Sword and the Trowel, that after other proceedings, ‘Mr Brown gave his address on “How to Secure a Revival”. Our brother spoke with great power and feeling, and brought his subject home to the hearts of the brotherhood in a very forceful way.’ In that address he laid down six principles:

1. As ministers we must be right ourselves with God.
2. There must be absolute separation from the world in all the methods adopted.
3. We are not to accept the help of hell to cast out demons.
4. Strict limitation to the divinely provided means, viz., ‘The Book and the Holy Ghost’.
5. Freedom from all complicity with error.
6. Wait on God until he send the atmosphere of revival, that will produce the desired results without any ‘forcing’ on our part.

Brown clearly believed that confidence in their spiritual health was not warranted. While evangelism and missions were in vogue in many Baptist churches, and the immediate announcement of ‘converts’ was becoming more common, the annual ‘Statistics of the Churches’ for 1907 were disquieting. The churches pastored by men from the Pastors’ College showed an average increase of about 3 members per church, losses were heavy: 2,683 by dismission to other churches; 108 by exclusion; 2,360 by erasure for non-attendance. Compared with figures kept for earlier years, these showed a failure to retain those who became church members.⁵Annual Report of the Pastors’ College, the number of pastors making returns for the year being 419. The number of pastors, missionaries, and evangelists, trained at the College, and at this date in service, stood at 689. This would include men overseas, whose statistics are not included. S&T, 1908, pp. 308-9.

‘Arrested Progress’ was a theme for the 1909 College conference. In the main address on that theme, the speaker, Pastor E. Roberts, had this to say:

It is not wide of the mark to ask whether some of these modern methods do any more than capture emotional professions. The secretaries of our associations can tell us that one column in the statistical returns of our churches has grown in gigantic size, viz., the erasures column. I believe I am right in saying that more than half of the net decrease last year can be found in the erasures column of the LBA. I believe from this cause alone the Baptist churches of London alone lost more members last year than the early church gained on the day of Pentecost . . . Is that evil to be looked for on the surface or must we not go far deeper? Does not such wholesale slipping away point to a large amount of superficial conversions? There must be something better than the measures which produce such transient results.⁶S&T, 1909, p. 326.

Whether or not Brown had a hand in asking Roberts to speak, there can be no doubt that the above words represented his own concerns. Outside the churches of the Pastors’ College men the situation was worse. In 1908: ‘The Free Churches report a decrease of 18,000, our own Baptist Church of 5,000. The Methodist Recorder describes the last annual census of Wesleyanism as “distressing in the extreme”.’⁷S&T, 1908, p. 400.

Despite the trials he felt, Brown’s years at the Metropolitan Tabernacle were filled with endeavour, and were certainly not without conversions. James Ellis, who was a contemporary and an eye-witness, says, ‘Mr Brown at the Tabernacle proved a great success.’ In his three years to June 1910, the additions to the Tabernacle membership numbered 454. If this did not stop the declining membership it certainly arrested the pace of the fall.⁸At the end of 1909 the church roll stood at 2,796, having been 2, 893 the previous year. It should be remembered that membership figures on church rolls can differ considerably from attendance figures. At their meeting of June 7, 1909, the deacons recorded that numbers attending on Sunday mornings had not decreased compared with two years earlier, ‘whilst the Sunday evening services had increased and were very good’.

Brown’s sermon record for 1910 shows he was often conscious of much help from God, and notes included in The Sword and the Trowel by its editor confirm this: ‘The Pastor has been sustained and helped in the preparation and proclamation of the Truth in a very gracious manner, so that the Word has been pleasant and profitable to God’s people; whilst many, who had hitherto remained outside the family circle, have become participators in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.’⁹S&T, 1910, p. 567.

But his sermon record for 1910 also notes concerns. While entries such as ‘Good gathering’, and ‘Large gathering’, predominate, there are also notes of ‘Poor gathering’; ‘Sweet subject. Congregation slack’; and ‘Poor gathering but joy in preaching.’ On a mid-week service on August 25, when he preached on ‘But if not’, from Daniel 3:18, he noted, ‘Largest Thursday gathering yet. Baptism. Good time.’ Attendance was evidently prone to fluctuate.

By 1910 the question whether his health could sustain the ministry was again forcing its attention on him. The year did not begin well. He was absent from the deacons’ meeting of January 3 on account of influenza, and at the meeting on the January 24 it was recorded ‘that Pastor A. G. Brown was very unwell, and that his medical man had forbidden him to preach for a month.’ When the summer came, his health required him to be absent on Sundays from June 26 to August 7. On returning he noted in his sermon record, ‘Had a most delightful holiday and feel better for it.’ But this improvement did not last and on October 6 he wrote a letter of resignation:

Beloved Brethren,

After many weeks of constant thought and prayer, I have been led to the definite decision of retiring from public life, so far as a stated pastorate is concerned.

You will, I am sure, remember that when I came into your midst as Pastor, it was simply to try and fill the gap until some younger man could be found. This I have tried to do to the best of my power and amid many difficulties, and I gratefully acknowledge the measure of blessing granted of the Lord. At the same time I am painfully conscious of much weakness and failure. For all the kindness I have experienced, both from the Deacon’s Court and also the Elders, I am more than grateful, and as I retire into private life I shall carry with me many a happy memory that will abide for my remaining days . . .

The difficulty he had in writing these words is probably indicated by the fact that it was not until seven days later, on Thursday, October 13, that his sermon record has this note, ‘This evening I handed in my resignation having decided to retire into private life.’ Against the previous Sunday evening, when he preached on ‘Hadad died also’ (1 Chron. 1:51), his sermon record had this entry, ‘Striking theme. Great slump in congregation.’

His resignation letter went first to the deacons. Instead of proceeding to give it the church they asked (October 17) ‘for time to make mature deliberation . . . the fact that his ministry had resulted in so much blessing to themselves and the Church generally made it difficult for them to approach the subject calmly.’ Two days later they decided to ask Brown to meet with them and the elders on October 31, and queried what assistance could relieve him of some of his heavier duties. This invitation the pastor declined, convinced as he told William Olney (chairman) ‘that his health and age precluded the possibility of the retention of the pastorate’. Regretfully, at the October 31 meeting, Olney counselled the letter of resignation should go before the church. No resolution for the church was drawn up, so ‘that whatever action is taken at the meeting shall be the spontaneous action of the membership.’

On the Lord’s Day, November 13, Brown noted in his sermon record, ‘Taken ill in the reading, but returned to preach.’ The evening service was taken by Edwards, his assistant. Yet, not surprisingly, when a church meeting met the next day, and the resignation letter read, there was resistance to its acceptance. It was the first time they had ever heard that the subject had ever been raised. A fine resolution was drawn up, enumerating the reasons why his ministry meant so much to them; recording their ‘profound and loving sympathy’; asking for any suggestion how ‘the strain and burden may be lightened’ for him; and affirming, ‘it would rejoice our hearts if it were possible for him to reconsider his decision’. They also noted, with gratitude, ‘that if any period of our Pastor’s Service has been more blessed and more evidently full of power than another, it has been during the last three months; so that although God has permitted physical suffering, he has also granted special spiritual power’.

Reconsideration of his resignation decision was out of the question, as he wrote to a special meeting of the church on November 25, 1910:

I would gladly do anything you ask that is in my power, but your request in the closing paragraph,—‘to reconsider my decision’—is impossible. Had I arrived at it hastily, and with little, if any, seeking of God, it would be different. It is not the result of emotion, but conviction. It has been arrived at through no little heart-agony, and the arguments of advancing age and ill-health retain all their force. The suggestion of lightening the work is very kind, but does not meet the case. Whoever is pastor should, in my judgment, be really so, and do the work.¹⁰British Weekly, December 1, 1910.

Brown was able to resume Sunday services, but not the mid-week ones, till Sunday, December 4, when his sermon record read: ‘At home ill.’ But he was out to preach the following Thursday on ‘Ye Have an Unction’ (1 John 2:20, ‘Very wet night. Poor gathering’). The next Sunday, he took, ‘The Cup of Trembling in Gethsemane’ in the morning (‘Had a remarkably good time’), and ‘Peace, Perfect Peace’, in the evening (‘Made a glorious theme’). After one more Thursday evening, and this time, ‘Large congregation’, his ministry at the Tabernacle closed on Sunday, December 18, 1910, with the texts Ephesians 3:21, ‘Unto Him Be Glory’, and Acts 20:24, ‘The Ministry Received’. The sermon record, kept during his three pastorates, closed with this note: ‘The Tabernacle was crammed in every part. I felt the power of God. Thus ends my pastorate at the Met. Tab.’