The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1894-01-04
rha,ate c. II. spurgeon.

The name Of the late Charles Had
don spurgeon, the famous English
Baptist preacher, has been, for years
50 familiar to thousands in the
United States, that few particulars
concerning that eminent man will be
Of interest to our readers.
Mr.. Sturgeon was born on the 18TH
Of June, 1884, at Kelvcdon, in Essex.
His parents were Of the respectable
middle-class-thc great backbone OF
all sound society. Many are the
stories told by loving friends Of his
infant precocity, all of them tending
to mark him ont as a. worker lor
Christ. "When WAS a young child
staying with my grandfather he
once told his hearers, "there came to
preach in the village Dir. knil], who
had been q missionary to st. Peters
burg, and a mighty preacher of the
GOSPEL. MIR. knill took nae on his
knee and ssid this child will one day
preach the gospel, and he will preach
it to great multitudes.' - FOR four
years he wss at SCHOOL at Colchester,
in Essex, and thence he went to a
college at Maidstone, in Kent. 1T
was generally said that education
in the academic sense had not much
attraction for him. }Sut That he was
better equipped than many believed
vas proven by an advertisement in
serted by i'}n4, qYer forty years ago
in a Cambridge newspaper, @Hhttch
run thus:
"No. 60 UPPER PARK STREET, CAM
BmDcH.-Alr. c. II. Sturgeon begs
to inform his numerous friends that,
after Christmas, lie intends taking
six or seven young gentlemen as day
pupils. He will endeavor to the ut
most to impart a good commercial
education. The ordinary routine
will include arithmetic, algebra, ge
ometry, and mcnsuration; grammar
and composition, ancient and mod
ern history, geography, natural his
tory, astronomy, scripture, and draw
ing; Latin and the elements of Greek
and French i required Terms, is,
ii $3.50 per annum,:'
Mr.. spurgeon was assuredly the
last man to propose what he could
not make good.
He was brought up among congre-
gationalists, but early in life he had
inclinations toward scepticism.
"Therc was an evil hour" he said,
Sin which ] dipped the anchor of my
faith; ! cut the cable Of my belief; I
no longer mooredmyself to the coast
Of Res elstion; allowed my vessel to
drift before the Wina, aad thus start
cd on, the voyage Of infdelity; 1 said
to reason, DE thou my captain';l said
to my own brain, 'be thou my rudder,'
and | started on my mad voyage. .
Happily for himself, and for count
less millions of the human race, he
was drawn from SO dangerous a cur
rent, and when 16 years of age joined
the Baptists. He has told the story
of his conversion in that simple di-
rect English, in which lie has been
since Bunyan. In
1851 he was publicly baptised in a
river at lslelsalwl ~, a g>yiillssgc near New
Market, in Cllalnbriagesl!lgs. As al
boy preacher, and when but little
over 16, his racy style took exceed
style which has been made
familiar, even to those who have not
read his sermons, by his ''John
Plougllman's Talk" and by numer
Gus more ~ less apocryphal anec-
lotes. IN the villages sgound Cam
bridge he was always sure Of an at
tenlive audience, and he was soon
offered the passionate Of the little Dap
list chapel at Waterbeach. Thence
he went to London to take charge of
the New Park Street Baptist Chapel
in Southwark, the invitation to
which passionate so surprised him
that when, in 1853, hs opened the
letter Of irritation, he thought III
must be intended for some other per-
son. In London, his success was as
,ured The Park Street Chapel was
always crowded, and the fame Of the
.oung pastor rapidly spread abroad.
L was at this time that he printed
lis iirsf sermon, entitled, rs il not
wheat harvest to-dag2|s T was
he iorerunner Of about 5000 !