The Conversion of Charles Spurgeon
Written by: Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Sunday Morning Sermon:
"There is a power in God's gospel beyond all description. Once I, like Mazeppa, lashed to the wild horse of my lust, bound hand and foot, incapable of resistance, was galloping on with hell's wolves behind me, howling for my body and my soul as their just and lawful prey. There came a mighty hand which stopped that wild horse, cut my bands, set me down, and brought me into liberty. Is there power in the gospel? Ay, there is, and he who has felt it must acknowledge it."
"He lifted up His cross, using it as a hammer; at the first blow, the gate of my prejudice shook; at the second, it trembled more; at the third, down it fell, and in He came; and He said, "Arise, and stand upon thy feet, for I have loved thee with an everlasting love." The gospel a thing of power! Ah! that it is. It always wears the dew of its youth; it glitters with morning's freshness, its strength and its glory abide for ever. I have felt its power in my own heart; I have the witness of the Spirit within my spirit, and I know it is a thing of might, because it has conquered me, and bowed me down."
"In my conversion, the very point lay in making the discovery that I had nothing to do but to look to Christ, and I should be saved. I believe that I had been a very good, attentive hearer; my own impression about myself was that nobody ever listened much better than I did; but the good news that I was, as a sinner,
to look away from myself to Christ, as much startled me, and came as fresh to me, as any news ever heard in my life."
"When, for the first time, I received the gospel to my soul's salvation, I thought that I had never really heard it before, and I began to think that the preachers to whom I had listened had not truly preached it. But, on looking back, I am inclined to believe that I had heard the gospel fully preached many hundreds of times before, and that this was the difference,—that I then heard it as though I heard it not; and when I did hear it, the message may not have been any more clear in itself than it had been at former times, but the power of the Holy Spirit was present to open my ear, and to guide the message to my heart."
"I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair until now had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm, one Sunday morning, while I was going to a certain place of worship. When I could go no further, I turned down a side street, and came to a little Primitive Chapel. In that chapel there may have been a dozen or fifteen people. I had heard of the Primitive Chapel, how they sang so loudly that they made people's heads ache; but that did not matter to me. I wanted to know how I might be saved,"
"LOOK UNTO ME, AND BE YE SAVED, ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH; FOR I AM GOD AND THERE IS NONE ELSE."Isaiah45:22
"The preacher began thus—"My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, 'Look.' Now lookin' don't take a deal of pains. It ain't liftin' your foot or your finger; it is just, 'Look.' Well, a man needn't go to College to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. Anyone can look; but then the text says, '
Look unto Me.' Ay!" said he, in broad Essex, "many on ye are
lookin' to yourselves, but it's no use lookin' there.
You'll never find any comfort in yourselves."
"Then the good man followed up his text in this way:—"
Look unto Me; I am sweatin' great drops of blood.
Look unto Me; I am hangin' on the cross.
Look unto Me; I am dead and buried.
Look unto Me; I rise again.
Look unto Me; I ascend to Heaven.
Look unto Me; I am sittin' at the Father's right hand.
O poor sinner, look unto Me! look unto Me!"
"Then, lifting up his hands, he shouted, "Young man, look to Jesus Christ.
Look! Look! Look! You have nothin' to do but to
look and live." I saw at once the way of salvation. I know not what else he said,—I did not take much notice of it,—I was so consumed with that one thought. Like as when the brazen serpent was lifted up, the people only looked and were healed, so it was with me."
"There is a Fountain Filled with Blood"
"Ever since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die."
