Where Love Shines (29 page)

When Charles Spurgeon began preaching, however, in that rich, powerful voice, all awkwardness disappeared. Jenny forgot everything else and fell as fully under his spell as the other 23,000 listeners. “We are gathered here in this great Palace built to symbolize the achievement of our age—the success of industrialization, the wealth and power of our nation. What better place to declare to you that we are also a nation of sinners? All around us we see people acquiescing to the faith. But that is the problem—such is not faith at all. It is mere assent.

“Assent is not saving faith. It will not save souls. It will not save our nation. All around us are unbelieving minds that have been blinded by the god of worldly success so that they do not see the splendor of the Gospel that shows forth the glory of Christ.”

Jennifer gripped her hands so tightly her fingers ached. She wanted to pray, but the strength of her feeling blotted out any words her mind might form.

“I say to you that the time has come, the time for the kindling of true faith in the hearts of the people. It is time for those who have blinded themselves to the light of Christ to open their eyes. Christ must be our sun. Christ must be the center of our lives.”

Please, God, a miracle.

“Let the name of the Lord be declared in Zion, for He will arise and have mercy on England. The appointed time has come.”

Yes. Yes, so be it.

The service ended, but Jennifer sat, coming back as if from a long distance. Gradually the words of those around her penetrated her consciousness.

“Mr. Spurgeon was only ten years old when a godly man prophesied that he would preach the Gospel to thousands in Rowland Hill’s Surrey Chapel. I understand he has done that.” Lady Eccleson, who was sitting behind them, spoke to a gentleman Jennifer did not know.

Jennifer’s mother joined in. “I have even heard Spurgeon called the Modern Whitefield.”

“Comparisons to Whitefield and Hill are all very well,” Lady Eccleson’s friend said, “but I should style him the greatest preacher since the days of Saint Paul.”

Jennifer couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The great preacher that their day so needed, the voice crying in the wilderness that had not yet come to her own generation, the preacher like those of the past for whom she had prayed—perhaps God
had
sent His torchbearer.

The crowd moved on, but Jennifer’s amazement held her. She had been so blind. God was working all the time, preparing the way, but she had seen only the problems, only the smallness of her own efforts. Her stumbling block had been her own lack of vision.

She turned to Richard, still sitting beside her in the emptying hall, waiting patiently behind his dark glasses. “Oh, Dick!” She grabbed his arm. “Wasn’t it wonderful?”

As she spoke, the last cloud scudded away, and the sun shone in an aureole of light through the thousands of glass panes forming the building. It was like being inside a diamond with a light turned on it. Jenny gasped at the brightness and jumped to her feet. “Come. We must get you to a darker place.”

Still holding his arm, she moved in front of him toward the aisle. Her one thought was to get Richard out of this shrieking, springing light.

Her very concern brought the disaster. As Richard rose, the fringe of her cloak caught on his glasses. Jenny pushed ahead, and her mantle ripped the protecting shades from his eyes. Jennifer gave a cry of alarm as they crashed to the floor. “Oh, no. No!”

For an instant she was back in Scutari as the final bandage dropped from Dr. Menzies’ fingers. She saw the bright rays piercing the blue-gray eyes. She heard again Richard’s cry.

She thrust her hands out to cover his eyes.

But he caught her wrists.

“Richard, what is it?”

He blinked and squinted against the light. His eyes watered. But he did not cry out in pain. He did not close his eyes.

Jennifer held her breath as Richard let go of her wrists and gently cupped her face in his hands. “Jenny, my dear Jenny. You are beautiful.”

She smiled her joy. But her own eyes were too blurred with tears to see him clearly.

All around them the shimmering building vibrated as the organ pealed forth the postlude: “Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.”

The disastrous Crimean War was ended by the Treaty of Paris on 30 March 1856. It was proclaimed a victory for Britain and her allies. Total casualties for the British Empire were 21,097, of which: 2,755 were killed in action; 2,019 died of wounds; and more than 16,000 died of disease. Terrible as these losses were, they are a fraction of losses by British allies who did not have Florence Nightingale.

Dr. Pannier’s crimes are modeled on the celebrated case of Dr. William Palmer (who did not serve in the Crimea as far as I know). The Palmer trial was the first in history to be granted a change of venue. Palmer was hung at Stafford on June 14, 1856. At the sale of his stable one of his horses was purchased by Prince Albert.

Spurgeon’s sermon at the Crystal Palace was actually delivered on October 7, 1857 (about a year and a half later than I have portrayed it). Not all the words I gave Spurgeon here are taken from that sermon but are much in the spirit of his preaching.

New Park Street Chapel was empty when Charles Spurgeon began preaching there. Within a few months such crowds gathered to hear the twenty-year-old country lad preach that the chapel was enlarged. The remodeled chapel instantly proved too small. While his great tabernacle was being built, Spurgeon preached regularly to a congregation of 10,000 meeting in a music hall. In 1861 the Metropolitan Tabernacle was opened. Spurgeon preached there until his death, filling its 6,000 seats several times a week. The church also sponsored a pastors’ college, an orphanage, and other charities, some of which continue to this day. More than 2,500 of Spurgeon’s sermons were published, and many are considered classics of the faith. He and Susannah had twin sons, Charles and Thomas.

While the sweeping revival Jennifer envisioned had to wait another generation, the ministry of Charles Haddon Spurgeon is often cited as part of the groundwork for the great reawakening that swept England and America in the late nineteenth century.

I have been a friend of All Souls for many years. Their vibrant work continues today in the heart of London and around the world.

—DFC

Altick, Richard D.
Victorian Studies in Scarlet
. (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1970).

Beeton, Isabella.
Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management
. (1861.) First edition facsimile (New York: Exeter Books, 1986). A treasury of remedies and recipes. Almost all medicines referred to in this book are based on Mrs. Beeton’s suggestions.

Cook, Sir Edward.
The Life of Florence Nightingale
. 2 vol. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1914). Copious direct quotations from newspapers and letters.

Cook, Richard Briscoe.
The Wit and Wisdom of Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon
. (Baltimore: R. H. Woodward & Co., 1891).

Hodder, Edwin.
The Life and Work of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, K.G.
3 vols. (London: Cassell & Co., 1886). The authorized biography. Very complete.

Pollock, John.
Shaftesbury, The Poor Man’s Earl
. (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1985). Excellent. Most of my quotations of the earl’s own words, especially in chapters 7 and 10, are taken from this source.

Selby, John.
Balaclava: Gentlemen’s Battle
. (New York: Atheneum, 1970). Particularly helpful maps and pictures.

Spurgeon, Charles H.
All of Grace
. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1976). A collection of his sermons.

Woodham-Smith, Cecil.
The Reason Why
. (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1960). Gripping account of the charge of the Light Brigade.

____ .
Florence Nightingale
. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1951). The definitive biography

Read the complete
Where There is Love
Series:

Where Love Begins

Catherine Perronet’s world is shaken when she learns Charles Wesley is engaged to marry another. After all, Catherine’s initials were on the list John Wesley gave to his brother listing acceptable matrimonial candidates.

And that’s not all that’s wrong in Catherine’s world. As teacher at a Methodist Society school in London, she sees her brother beaten while preaching in the open air, her favorite pupil forced to leave school because of his family’s poverty, and a prisoner receive his death sentence in Newgate Prison. Catherine undertakes the joys and hardships of a circuit-ride preaching tour to Canterbury where a French invasion threatens then must face the terrors of the Great London Earthquake before coming to an understanding of the gentle calling God has for her.

Where Love Illumines

Mary Tudway is forced to choose between two worlds: the pleasurable life of her high society friends Sarah Child, heiress of Osterley Park, and the Bishop of Raphoe and his dashing Nephew, Roger; or the life of faith and service represented by the Countess of Huntingdon, her lovely daughter Selina and the witty but devout Rowland Hill.

The story moves through the fashionable worlds of London and Bath as the death of one friend, the elopement of another and the startling unveiling of the Highwayman of Hampstead Heath play their parts in Mary’s finally making a choice of lasting value.

Where Love Triumphs

Brandley Hilliard, baronet’s son, brilliant classical scholar and cripple finds his carefully ordered world turned upside down by the delightful Elinor Silbert, daughter of the Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge. And his conflicts increase when Elinor’s head is turned by the debonair Marquess of Widkham.

Brandley’s search takes a destructive turn until Charles Simeon, Fellow of King’s College, takes the young gownsman under his wing and shows him a life beyond any his academic pursuits had taught him.

Where Love Restores

The disapproval of Granville Ryder’s father the Earl of Harrowby leaves Granville believing he cannot be accepted by his heavenly Father or accomplish anything of worth. Even his special friendship with Georgiana, daughter of the Duke of Beaufort, is almost destroyed by Granville’s conflicts.

In a story that moves from Cambridge to the Midlands, to London to Wales, the counsel of Charles Simeon, the example of William Wilberforce and the terrors of the Cato Street Rebellion (more dangerous than the notorious Guy Fawkes Plot) lead Granville to reconciliation and love. This is the most entirely historical of the series. Even the animals are a matter of record.

Where Love Shines

“Half a league, half a league/ Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death/ Rode the six hundred.” Lieutenant Richard Greyston seeks heroic glory in the Charge of the Light Brigade. Jennifer Neville goes to Scutari as one of Florence Nightingale’s nurses dreaming of wiping the brows of the wounded. Richard winds up blinded and Jennifer spends her days carrying slops as mice fall from the walls of the hospital.