By Elizabeth Prata

In Spurgeon’s Evening devotional for September 30, he writes:

A living, loving, gospel sermon, however unlearned in matter and uncouth in style, is better than the finest discourse devoid of unction and power.

Evening Devotional, Spurgeon

I can imagine that Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher of the 1800s, was thinking of his own conversion as he wrote this devotional. It was a snowy January day in 1850. The young lad had been raised by a loving father who preached the Gospel rightly. His mother had given him loving instruction at her knee since Charles was a babe. Charles was sent to live with his Grandfather for a period, and his grandfather was also a preacher, with many coming to conversion under him. His grandfather also had inherited a fabulous library as preacher, and Charles read theological books voraciously. As a teen Charles himself attended a Congregational church, and he read the Bible diligently.

Charles had a good education and access to eloquent teachers and preachers. Yet he was miserable and disturbed in his soul that he was not saved. He made a vow to himself that he would visit every Congregational Church in his area until he found someone who would tell him the way to heaven and how to be released from the condemnation of the Law. He felt the Law’s condemnation acutely, painfully, almost physically.