Parker and Gandhi

According to Gandhi's biographer Joseph K Doke, who was a Baptist minister himself, Gandhi only heard Spurgeon the once. In his book Gandhi and the nonconformists: encounters in South Africa (1986) James D Hunt says of Gandhi's period in London

 

There he heard the Baptist evangelist Charles H. Spurgeon but did not find him enlightening. He was most attracted to the Congregationalist Dr Joseph Parker (1830-1902), whose huge City Temple (seating 2,500) was located near to the law courts. Gandhi attended the Thursday noon services designed for businessmen and shopkeepers during their lunch hour. "It was his appeal to the thoughts of young men that laid hold of me," he reported, "and I went again and again." Parker was moderately liberal, a famous preacher who used common-sense anecdotes and had a rousing emotional delivery.

Years later, Bishop Frederick Fisher in India reported a tale of these times. There is very strong gossip among his friends that he at one time presented himself to the City Temple in London for membership, but was discouraged by the officiary because he could not answer all their theological questions to their satisfaction.