The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-02-01
CAREER OF A GENIUS.
An Inspired Man Who Devoted His Life te
the Saving of Souls.

An Inspired Man who Devoted His Life to
the Saving of Souls.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was born in
the village of Kelvedon. in Essex. England,
June 10, 1854 Though only fifty-sev
years old, he had borne the reputation for
thirty years, nearly, as the greatest of liv-
ing preachers For more than thirty years
the preacher whose spoken words were
heard by more persons than were those of
any other preacher who used the English
language to convey what he thought and
felt, was quite as wonderful as q
worker as he was q talker. says the
Brooklyn Eagle. At the age of twenty
seven he addressed weekly an average con-
gregation of six thousand souls. He once
preached to congregation of $4,000 at the
Crystal Palace, near London. When. dur
ing the progress of repairs at his MetrOpOl-
itan Tabernacle, he preached In the Agri-
cultural Hall, Islington, his audience num-
every service. He began preaching when
he was sixteen years old. de had, there
fore. been at it forty-one years. and al
though he was still Young man when he
was taken with his last illness. he was an
old preacher and his breakdown and his
dying at fifty-seven Is not thing for sur
prise He had overworked himself and he
had overdone the tasks which he felt hs
was called on to do
This man. who W as one Of the pulpit lions
of London, the great size of whose church
and the great number of whose audiences
made him known every where, was also
master of two or three gifts by which he
was able to put forth such long and strong
labor for the souls of men and women in
the world. He had a Puritan ancestry.
His father was q preacher. His fathers
father was q preacher. His mother was q
praying woman and she came from a
~ 60 hon oil he.
of Charles / and Charles ii the Surgeons
were hunted. beaten and jailed because
they would worship God in q simple and
direct way. and would believe that the BIZ
BILE and not the church was their guide,
and that they themselves, not the priest
hood, were the ones who had q right to de-
termine what the Scriptures said concern
ing God and man and the relations IN
which they stood to one another. Strong
and devout men have been given to the
world by persecution, and the Spurgeons
were OF that number. As soon as Charles
Spurgeon was old enough to know and feel
anything at all religion became the only
thing on earth worth regarding, except the
right to have it at first nand and to have it
free.
PLUNGED INTO DESPAIR.
There were other things which made in
his favor. Just as he began his teens, he
was plunged into despair. such as George
Fox, John Wesley and John Bunyan met,
by the idea that Gods smile had been taken
away from him, that sin held him and hell
waited for him. He came out of this state
to sense of pardon, adoption and saliva
tion. As soon as he came out Of It, he was
so to speak. set on fire with a wish to bring
others out where he was. So at sixteen he
began preaching. He was called 1.-THE boy
preacher" because he was q boy. but he
never liked that name. for he did not want
90. k.... lxr eo1 l-nA
or q genius. Now, it must not be thought
that he mad no schooling. His father knew
n great deal and his grandfather knew
more than his father did. His mother was
also q woman of great sense and vast
faith. These three taught him all they
knew and got nIm TO read aud study
much else beside. So he was STEPPED in
the Bible and in the books which told
about the Bible. Thus. when he began
preaching he had come TO know pretty
much all that was needed for that work
on the lines he trod. For the rest, the
work itself was . sort OF school 20 him.