“If you once get to nature’s God, and believe Him and love Him, it is surprising how easy it is to hear music in the waves, and songs in the wild whisperings of the winds, to see God everywhere, in the stones, in the rocks, in the rippling brooks, and to hear Him everywhere, in the lowing of cattle, in the rolling of thunders, and in the fury of tempests. Christ is to me the wisdom of God. I can learn everything now that I know the science of Christ crucified.” (Charles Spurgeon, Autobiography, The Early Years

Charles Spurgeon was only sixteen years old when a snow storm kept him from attending church on a Sunday morning. As he struggled in the snow, he came to a small chapel of Primitive Methodists who were meeting in spite of the storm. Only a few were present , and a lay speaker preached on the text, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” (Isaiah 45:22, KJV) The speaker went on to say, that seeking God was futile; that salvation required only one thing: “Many of you are looking to yourselves, but it’s no use looking there. You’ll never find any comfort in yourselves. Some look to God the Father. No! Look to Him by and by. Jesus says, “Look unto Me!”

It was then that Charles experienced what he had been so earnestly seeking: the regeneration that comes from Jesus’ own words: Very truly I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless they are born again.” (John 3:3) The “new birth” brought to him a sense of newness of life,of another dimension to life that he had never before found. Many years later Charles’ father, an Independent minister, wrote of the evening of Charles’ trip to the Primitive Methodist Chapel: “We sat up long into the night, and he talked to me of his being saved which had taken place that day, and right glad I was to hear him talk. In the text, ‘Look,Look, Look’, Charles said to me, holding up his hands, “I found salvation!”

The memory of that experience never left Spurgeon. It formed a well that grew deeper and clearer throughout his life and ministry. His sermons were attended by all classes of people , from members of the British royal family, to homeless street people. On one occasion he preached to twenty three thousand people without amplification. It is estimated that in his lifetime he preached in person to ten million people . Many more millions were reached by his writings and the publication of his sermons.

Spurgeon walked in prayer: spontaneous, clear, and real. He knew the God of nature, and he loved Him.

Love in Him,

Prue