13 JANUARY 1950, Page 4

To the reminiscences evoked by the anniversary of Charles Haddon

Spurgeon's birth I can only contribute one story—and for that I cannot claim originality. Dr. Spurgeon, walking in the neighbourhood of his Metropolitan Tabernacle in South London, saw on a fishmonger's slab a curious fish which caught his interest. He stopped and asked the proprietor of the establishment about it. Spurgeon was better-known than he realised. Hence the reply: "Well, Sir, we call that a Baptist fish, because it goes bad so soon

after coming out of the water." JANUS.