The Boy Preacher of Southwark

In the winter of 1854, a nineteen-year-old walked into New Park Street Chapel in Southwark, London, and stepped behind a pulpit that had intimidated seasoned ministers for decades. Charles Haddon Spurgeon had been preaching since age fifteen, when a January snowstorm detoured him into a Primitive Methodist chapel in Colchester. A lay preacher pointed at the shivering boy and said, "Young man, look to Jesus Christ." That moment set his life ablaze.

But when the deacons of New Park Street called him to be their pastor, Spurgeon was certain they had the wrong man. He was barely out of boyhood. He had no seminary degree. London's religious establishment mocked him as "the boy preacher." One prominent critic dismissed him as an Essex lad with more zeal than sense.

Spurgeon came anyway. And God did exactly what He promised Jeremiah He would do — He touched the young man's mouth and filled it with words that shook a city. Within two years, no building in London could hold the crowds. Spurgeon preached to an estimated ten million people in his lifetime, founded orphanages and a pastors' college, and wrote volumes that still nourish the church today.

When the Almighty told Jeremiah, "Do not say, 'I am too young,'" He was not offering a pep talk. He was stating a fact about how He works. God does not wait for His servants to feel ready. He calls, He equips, and He fills the mouth He has chosen.