The

Sword and the Trowel

A Record

OF

Combat with Sin & Labour for The Lord

Edited by C. H. Spurgeon

1877

“They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me.”—Nehemiah 4:17, 18.

London:

PassMore & Alabaster, Paternoster Row,

and all booksellers.

Preface

IN this magazine the reader has not only the history of those religious and charitable agencies which have found their centre at the Tabernacle, but an outline of the religious condition and activity of the period. This we would now summarize. At no time was so much being done in so many ways for the spread of religion of one kind or another; the reign of stagnation has ended, and everywhere things are on the move as to spiritual matters. This is so far good, for anything is better than lethargy; but we are naturally anxious to discover the result of all this stir: does error flourish, or does truth prevail? This, then, is our judgment, formed from observing our part of the spiritual world. Rome compasses sea and land to make one proselyte, and she snatches up here and there a pauper or a peer, but we do not believe that she gains so many as she loses. Our own observation can readily be corrected by that of others, but it leads us to the opinion that Popery pure and simple is not making much headway in England. We once lost a member to the Church of Rome, and we are informed that he has now deserted it: we cannot remember another instance, but we have baptized many Catholics who have not only escaped from the errors of their former creed, but are most decided and established believers in the great doctrines of grace. In fact, before the steady preaching of the gospel, and in the neighbourhood of an earnest church, the hold of Popery upon the mind is in many cases relaxing, and in not a few it is gone for ever. There is far more reason to fear the Ritualistic party in the Anglican Establishment: these double-faced gentlemen are making good their ground in the English Church, and are becoming more firmly planted every day. They gain both by their defeats and their successes, and advance none the less surely in places where apparently they are repressed. It is their connection with the National Church which is their strength, allowing them, under the prestige of authority, to lead men astray. Our Episcopalian neighbours at first disliked the Popish revival, then they tolerated it, next they excused it, and now to a large extent they admire it. It seems incredible that in so short a space a body of daring men should have set up the old idols, and brought back the entire Romish paraphernalia; if within the next ten years the church should reunite with that of Rome we should not be one whit astonished—nothing but the secular interests involved therein, and the dread ...