Mary King

 

Encourage young believers 

I don’t suppose the name of Mary King will mean a lot to you. She is described as a “big sturdy woman” who worked in John Swindell’s  school in Newmark in Suffolk

in the mid 19^th century. She was known to all who worked there simply as “cook” and might have died in poverty later on, except for the charity of one who had been a shy young usher in the school. This young usher had been under deep conviction of sin and Mary helped and impressed him greatly.

Mary was a fond reader of The Gospel Standard magazine, edited by JC Philpott and read by the stronger Calvinists within the Strict and Particular Baptist denomination. (So called because they were strict in who could partake of communion and particular in their views of the purpose and extent of the Atonement.) Being unable to find a church suited to her theology, she attended a somewhat liberal chapel where (she said) she had to scratch like an old hen in a pile of rubbish looking for corn. However, she claimed to have found this mental challenge and exercise to be of spiritual value to her because it exercised her spiritual faculties and therefore warmed her spirit.

The young usher who benefitted so much from her help was CH Spurgeon. He mentioned her with evident fondness on several occasions from the pulpit in later years. “She liked something very sweet indeed, good strong Calvinistic doctrine; but she lived strongly as well as fed strongly. Many a time we have gone over the covenant of grace together, and talked of the personal election of the saints, their union to Christ, their final perseverance, and what vital godliness meant; and I do believe that I learnt more from her than I should have learned from any six doctors of divinity of the sort we have nowadays.”

The final link in the chain in Spurgeon’s conversion was an old (and unknown) Arminian preacher in a well-known scenario often referred to when preachers expound Isaiah 45:22 (“Look unto me and be ye saved…”). However, the ground (under God) had been well prepared by this godly lady. From a human point of view, Spurgeon’s ministry could well have been rooted in Arminian/Wesleyan doctrine. However, God decreed otherwise. The seeds which Mary King sowed in her heart-to-heart chats with the young man led not only to his conversion, but his Calvinist ministry.  

The Gospel Standard ministry was a Hyper Calvinist one – denying the free offer of the gospel and the sinner’s duty to both repent and believe the gospel. Many Hyper Calvinists gave the young pastor a hard time when he preached both his Calvinist soteriology (all 5 points) and the free offer etc. They called him a mongrel Calvinist. However, Spurgeon made more of an impact for the teaching of sovereign grace than they ever would. He did not trim the doctrines – he would later complain about those who were Calvinist in the study but Arminian in the pulpit – but he possessed the great gift of making them accessible to the minds of his hearers. Perhaps he remembered his own struggle with them and the gospel in general as a young usher and the little known but kindly lady who evidently had the gift of simple communication. Every benefactor of Spurgeon’s ministry (under God) stands in her debt. 

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