Meeting Trouble

Never meet trouble half-way; it will come soon enough, and then you will meet where God meant you should meet it, and where He will help you.

-       Spurgeon[1]

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[1] The most widely popular of English preachers in the nineteenth century was without question, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He was born in Kelvedon, Essex, England in 1834. Both his father and grandfather being pastors, young Spurgeon was raised in the knowledge and understanding of the Christian gospel, but it was not until a stormy January night in 1850 that he was converted. In August of the same year, Spurgeon preached his first sermon to a small gathering of farmers.

A year later he was called to pastor a village church; in 1854, in his nineteenth year, he was installed as shepherd over the flock of the New Park Street Chapel, Southwark, London, later to become the Metropolitan Tabernacle. In 1855 Spurgeon published his first sermon; his last was not published until 1916, 24 years after his death. During his pastorate at London, Spurgeon ministered to a congregation of almost 6,000 people each Sunday, published his sermons weekly, wrote a monthly magazine, and founded a college for pastors, two orphanages, an old-folks home, a colportage society, and several mission stations.

His body wracked by pain in the later years, and his ministry attacked by his opponents, Spurgeon continued to preach the gospel until his death in 1892. (Source: C. H. Spurgeon: an audio archive – mountzion.org)