Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) was raised in a Christian family. His father and grandfather were both pastors. When he was fifteen, he decided to visit every house of worship in Colchester, England, to learn the way of salvation. On Sunday morning, January 6, 1850, he set off to hear a certain preacher recommended to him. A blinding snowstorm forced him to change course and seek refuge in the Primitive Methodist Church on Artillery Street. The only thing Charles knew about Primitive Methodists is that they sang so loud they made your head hurt. A dozen or so people had braved the elements to attend worship that morning. The preacher was snowed in, so an elder took his place. Charles remembered him as a thin-looking cobbler who wasn’t very good with words or diction. Not very promising, I’d say. The fill-in preacher read from Isaiah 45, “Look to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other” (Is. 45.22). He then added the commentary, “Many of you are looking to yourselves. It is no use looking there. You will never find comfort in yourselves. Look to God and be saved.” The elder then paused and pointed in Charles’ direction, “Young man, you look rather miserable.” Charles said of that moment, “Well, I did [feel miserable], but I wasn’t accustomed to such remarks made from the pulpit on my personal appearance.” Still, the elder did not let up, “Young man, you will always be miserable if you do not obey this text. But if you obey it, you will be saved. Look to Jesus! Look! Look! You have nothing to do but look and live.” Charles did not recall another word the cobbler said. “I was possessed with the thought of look and live. I saw at once the way of salvation. I saw what a Savior Christ was, and I believed.” Charles walked home, feeling as pure and clean as the new-fallen snow. When he arrived home, his mother exclaimed, “Something marvelous has happened today.” Indeed, it had. Charles became one of the greatest preachers of the modern era. A portion of a prayer that accompanied one of his sermons draws us into prayer: