Here we see Spurgeon at his most relaxed and humorous.

Speaking of these informal lectures on Friday afternoons at the College, one of Spurgeon’s former students and a close friend said this: “In the presence of his students he seemed to be as much at home, and as free from all restraints, as in the quiet seclusion of his own home. Many a time when listening to him in college I felt that the world outside, having only his works or having heard him preach, did not know Spurgeon. There were elements and powers in him which only those who saw him often in his presidential chair were acquainted with. In the pulpit, as he himself has said, there was often the necessity to repress certain tendencies of his nature, such as wit, sarcasm , and mimicry; but in the college these were allowed full play, so that his talks were not more instructive than they were entertaining and amusing. The absolute humanness of the man too was seldom seen as in college. If each student had taken notes of his wise and witty utterances, Dr. Pierson's remarks would prove to be most true. He says : ‘If the history of his humour alone could be written, it would fill volumes, and it would be a great contribution to the innocent merriment of the human race as well as a great revelation of character. He had an anecdote for any and every new emergency, and many of his stories carried all the force of argument and illustration combined .’” (W. Williams: Personal Reminiscences of CH Spurgeon)

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