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."…