The circumstances attending the conversion of the young man Charles Spurgeon were quite extraordinary. He went one Sunday morning during a snowstorm to the wrong church to hear a sermon from a poorly educated man preaching in the place of the appointed preacher who failed to turn up. Spurgeon would not have chosen such a church as the Primitive Methodist Church to attend, nor would he have willingly listened to a poor illiterate man preach, but the sovereign Lord had other ideas.
Charles Spurgeon had come from a good heritage of the Spurgeon line and his grandfather was James Spurgeon, a minister of the Gospel. Charles's own father was also a preacher of the Gospel. And Charles had a godly mother who prayed earnestly for her eldest son Charles to be saved in Christ. This mother was very much like Monica, the mother of Augustine of old, also like Susannah Wesley who prayed and counselled her children in the ways of God. But even though Charles Spurgeon had read his grandfather's Puritan books in the library, he was resistant to the Gospel. It would take a sovereign God to bring the horse to water and have him drink.
So it was that Charles as a lad of 15 or so listened to the direct preaching of a simple preacher who could not speak the Queen's English. The text was from Isaiah 45:22 - "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." The preacher pointed to the young man Charles saying, "Young man, you look miserable. Look to Christ. Just look and look at Him and nothing else!" Words to this effect. It took a Primitive Methodist preacher to be so boldly direct and personal. But God's arrow found its mark.
Spurgeon testified later that he looked to Jesus with all his might, and was saved that morning.
Spurgeon went on to become the Boy Preacher of London and in due time "The Prince of Preachers" (as he is called in a Christian Radio Broadcaster). He became a mighty man of God in the nineteenth century Britain. His sermons are still read and heard even today.
Andrew Loh.
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