Tiger Woods had won the Masters....and was ranked number one in the world....at twenty-two years of age....in addition there are those who accomplish so much at a young age that are child prodigies....who somehow become experts in an adult arena.....generally before the age of ten. Mozart was one such child prodigy. Bobby Fischer was giving multi-board exhibitions of chess at the age of thirteen.
Charles Spurgeon was not a child prodigy....but what he accomplished....the ability to amazingly and wonderfully preach the gospel of Jesus Christ....and take London by storm....before the age of twenty....would be incomprehensible if not for the knowledge of the great workings of the Holy Spirit in the minds and hearts of men.Spurgeon's father and grandfather were Nonconformist ministers.....but Charles by his own admission had no saving faith at the age of fifteen. It was a winter storm that forced him to stop into a small Primitive Methodist church instead of making his way to his own church.....a task that he would do because it was expected of him. The church minister could not even make it.....and a simple and untrained elder took the pulpit....and picked a verse to struggle with....that happened to be Isaiah 45:22...."Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else."
Spurgeon's eyes and heart were opened that morning.....four years later he was called to pastor London's well-known New Park Street Chapel. I listen to his sermons often....I listened to one a few hours ago.....that he preached at twenty-two years of age.....and wonder.....how could he know so much.....how could he have such abilities.....and knowledge.....at such a young age.....with no formal training? Of course I know why.....God had gifted him for a purpose.....a gift that keeps giving....with as much power as it had at first....and this over a century and a half later!
If you would like a better introduction.....there is a wonderful little....(sixty-nine minutes).....documentary/film titled....C. H. Spurgeon: The People's Preacher....that you can easily Google and watch. What else do you have to do that is so important? Go ahead....microwave some popcorn....gather round the kids....and the better half....sit back.....and give it a try.
