that in
these days there is very little worth hearing." He took my brother Hall,
and myself out into his garden and conservatory and down to a rustic
arbor, where we sat down and told stories. There were twelve acres of
land attached to "Westwood," and he had us into the meadow, where we
laid down in the freshly mowed hay and inhaled its fragrance. Mrs.
Spurgeon, a most gifted and charming lady, had a dozen cows and the
profits of her dairy then supported a missionary in London; and the milk
was sent around the neighborhood in a wagon labeled, "Charles H.
Spurgeon, Milk Dealer." After our return, the great preacher showed us a
portfolio of caricatures of himself from _Punch_ and other publications.
At six o'clock we took supper and then came family worship--all the
servants being present Mr. Spurgeon followed my prayer with the most
wonderful prayer that perhaps I have ever heard from human lips, and I
said afterwards to my friend Hall, "To-night we got into 'the hidings of
his power,' for a man who can pray like that can outpreach the world."
In the soft hour of the gloaming we took our leave, and he went off to
prepare his sermon for the morrow.

Spurgeon's power lay in a combination of half a dozen great qualities.
He was the master of a vigorous Saxon English style, the style of
Cobbett and Bunyan and the old English Bible. He possessed a most
marvelous memory--it held the whole Bible in solution; it retained all
the valuable truth he had acquired during his immensely wide readings
and it enabled him to recognize any person whom he ever met before.
Once, however, he met for the second time a Mr. Partridge and called him
"Partridge." Quick as a flash he said: "Pardon me, sir, I did not intend
to make _game_ of you," He was a man of one Book, and had the most
implicit faith in every jot and tittle of God's Word. He preached it
without defalcation or discount, and this prodigious faith made his
preaching immensely tonic. His sympathies with all mankind were
unbounded, and the juices of his nature were enough to float an ark full
of living creatures. Joined to these gifts was a marvelous voice of
great sweetness, and a homely mother-wit that bubbled out in all his
talk and often in his sermons. Mightiest of all was his power of prayer,
and his inner life was hid with Christ in God. As an organizer he had
great executive abilities. His Orphanage, dozen missionary schools and
theological training school will be among his