Charles Haddon Spurgeon, "Prince of Preachers," preached his last sermon at the Tabernacle in London on June 7, 1891.
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| Spurgeon preaching at the Surrey Music Hall circa 1858 |
One January day in 1850, a snow storm made the 15-year-old Charles Spurgeon seek shelter in a Primitive Methodist chapel in Colchester, Essex. He was converted from nominal Anglicanism while listening to a local preacher there. The text that moved young Charles was 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."
In 1854, three months before his 20th birthday, Spurgeon was appointed Baptist pastor at New Park Street Chapel, in Southwark, London. At the time it was the largest Baptist congregation in the city, but numbers had dwindled for several years.
Spurgeon quickly gained fame for his directness in preaching, which seemed to some to border on irreverence. Charles Spurgeon's sermons were so popular that in 1861 a new hall, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, near the Elephant and Castle, London, was built to accommodate his expanding congregation. It seated 5000 people with standing room for another 1000.
