On June 19th, 1834 Charles Haddon Spurgeon was born. His father was twenty-four years old. He was a clerk in a coal yard and also a minister. His name was John Spurgeon. His mother was nineteen when he was born and her name was Eliza Jarvis. She gave birth to nineteen children but only eight survived, two boys and six girls. Due to what was probably bad housing Charles was sent to live with his grandparents, Reverend and Mrs. Spurgeon and his aunt Ann. He was only a baby at the time. His grandfather most likely had an influence on his path in life. He ministered for years and Charles would go each Sunday to listen to him preach the Gospel. .
In 1841 Charles went back home to live with his parents. On Sunday evenings instead of going to service his mother would sit the children around the table and each one would take turns reading from the Bible. After each passage their mother would explain what it meant. Afterwards they would all pray together. This was then followed by her reading them to sleep from either Alarm to the Unconverted or Call to the Unconverted. In the Summer of 1844 Charles was deeply changed. Reverend Richard Knill came for a three day visit. He was very fond of Charles and prophesied that some day Charles would be a great preacher and preach the Gospel to thousands of people. When Charles was fifteen in 1849 he went to Newmarket, Cambridgeshire, as an assistant teacher. He excelled in Latin, Greek and philosophy. For years Charles had been spiritually tormented, longing for the reality of Christ's love to be upon him. He surrendered to grace on Sunday, January 6th, 1850. It was a very snowy day!.
as he woke up early for prayer. He set out for a Colchester church his mother had recommended but the weather compelled him to turn down a side street. It was here that he came upon the Primitive Methodist Church in Artillery Street. It was definitely a choice God had made. There were very few people who had made it in due to the storm, even the appointed minister had been snowed in.
