the London Missionary Society. Naturally, the precocious boy of ten years of age became the object of his attention. After talking to him for a while, he asked him to read; and was so pleased, that laying his hands on the child's head, he said, "I have heard old ministers and young ones read well, but never did I hear a little boy read so correctly before. I hope he will one day fill Rowland Hill's pulpit." The little boy and the preacher had pleasant talks in the garden, where, in a large yew arbour, they knelt down together, and the preacher poured out fervent and earnest intercession for the boy's salvation. Mr. Knill's stay extended from Friday to Monday, during which time he and his young friend were almost always together; and the talk for the most part was about Jesus, and the importance and advantages of becoming his disciple while young. On the Sunday, the sermons for the Missionary Society were preached; and the next day the man of God took his departure, but not before he had uttered his strange prediction.

Mr. Spurgeon thus speaks of that prediction:-"In after years he (Mr. Knill) was heard to say he felt a singular interest in me, and an earnest expectation for which he could not account. Calling the family together, he took me on his knee, and I distinctly remember his saying, 'I do not know how it is, but I feel a solemn presentiment that this child will preach the Gospel to thousands, and God will bless him to many souls. So sure am I of this, that when my little man preaches in Rowland Hill's chapel, as he will do one day, I should like him to promise me that he will give out the hymn commencing

'God moves in a mysterious way

His wonders to perform.'

This promise was of course made, and was followed by another, namely, that at his express desire I would learn the hymn in question, and think of what he had said.

When I had

"The prophetic declaration was fulfilled. the pleasure of preaching the word of life in Surrey chapel, and also when I preached in Mr. Hill's first pulpit at Wootton-under-Edge, the hymn was sung in both places. Did the words of Mr. Knill help to bring about their own fulfilment I think so. I believed them, and looked forward to the time when I should preach the word. I felt very powerfully that no unconverted person might dare to enter the ministry. This made me the more intent on seeking salvation, and more hopeful of it; and when by grace I was enabled to cast myself on the Saviour's love, it was not long before my mouth began to speak of his redemption. How came that sober-minded minister to speak thus to and of one into whose future God alone could see? How came it that he lived to rejoice with his younger brother in the truth of all that he had spoken? The answer is plain. But mark one particular lesson: would to God that we were all as wise as Richard Knill in habitually sowing beside all waters. Mr. Knill might very naturally have left the minister's little grandson on the plea that he had other duties of more importance than praying with children; and yet who shall say that he did not effect as much by that simple act of humble ministry as by dozens of sermons addressed to crowded audiences. To me his tenderness in considering the little one was fraught with everlasting consequences, and I must ever feel that his time was well laid out."

During Mr. Spurgeon's first residence with his grandfather and maiden aunt at Stambourne, the latter, who had special charge of him, took great pains to train his character aright, and to inspire him with a love for all that was good. We are not, therefore, surprised to find that he took a deep interest in religious books, and cherished an early attachment to the house of God. He never indulged in untruth. His familiarity in childhood with the stories and pictorial

illustrations of religious persecution, in the past history of our country, begat in him an early hatred of religious intolerance. While yet a youth, he was often found reading aloud alone; or he would address, in imitation of a preacher, his brother and sisters. In spite of all this, he gave evidence of the possession of strong passions and a determined will. This occasioned at times considerable anxiety to his parents, and constrained them earnestly to pray that God would bring him under the gracious and subduing influences of his Holy Spirit.

After spending four years at a respectable school in Colchester, where he appears to have been a diligent and successful scholar, he spent part of the year 1848 in an agricultural college at Maidstone. The following year he became a teacher in a school at Newmarket, kept by a gentleman who was connected with the Baptist denomination. He already knew something of the Latin, Greek, and French languages; and while at Newmarket he pursued their study. At this time he was sorely tempted by unbelief, and beset by such mental difficulties, that from doubting some things he came to question everything. Speaking in after years, in one of his sermons, of a freethinker, he says, "I, too, have been like him. There was an evil hour in which I dipped the anchor of my faith: I cut the cable of my belief: I no longer moored myself hard by the coast of Revelation: I allowed my vessel to drift before the wind, and thus started on the voyage of infidelity. I said to reason, Be thou my captain; I said to my own brain, Be thou my rudder; and I started on my mad voyage. Thank God! it is all over now; but I will tell you its brief history: it was one hurried sailing over the tempestuous ocean of free-thought." The day of his deliverance, however, drew nigh; and, through faith in Christ Jesus the Saviour, he was able to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

CHAPTER II.

Conversion and Entrance on the Ministry.

OD employs various agencies to bring men to himself; but He honours in the most marked and distinguished manner what Edward Irving calls "the ancient ordinance of preaching." In the apostolic age, though the preaching of the cross was to them that perished foolishness, to them who were saved it was the power of God. The same is true in our own day. And it is not always the most learned preachers who are most successful in winning souls. In this great work God often destroys the wisdom of the wise, and brings to nothing the understanding of the prudent; thus He proves that the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Mr. Spurgeon was brought to Christ on Sunday morning, December 15th, 1850, in a Primitive Methodist chapel in Colchester, under a sermon preached by a Mr. Robert Eaglen, from Isaiah xlv., 22, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else." The sermon was evidently one of the right sort. Christ crucified was the theme; and the preaching was not

with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect-not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. One who has seen the outline of the sermon says:-" Very many besides the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon have been converted through the preaching of this sermon. But no preacher will be surprised at this; for, from the meagre outline, it is clear that the structure and matter of the discourse are such as to make it a polished shaft in the quiver of any spiritual archer."

We cannot do better than give, in this connexion, Mr. Spurgeon's own account of his conversion. He has furnished more than one, such is his desire to glorify the riches of Divine grace. Substantially they are all alike, though some enter more into detail than others. Two or three versions we here present to our readers. This is the first :-"I do love, as best I can, to preach the doctrines of grace; and then to close it up by preaching simple faith in Jesus Christ. Ay, my dear brethren, what years some of us have had to pass through before we understood this truth. For five years my young heart was wrung with sorrow of the deepest kind. I know the reason now. I went to every place I could for five years, with as earnest a desire as ever man had to find the way of salvation; how attentive I was; I listened and longed to hear how I could be saved.

"One Sunday I heard what is called a practical sermonmuch about what God's people ought to do. I felt I could do nothing. I wanted to know first how I must be saved -not what I must do. Next Sunday I went again; the sermon was on the precious doctrine of electing love. There was nothing for a trembling sinner who wanted to know his title to these things. I went again, and an experimental sermon was preached-full of deep experience. There the poor child wanted to put his foot into the stream, and was