An Unknown Preacher

With an autobiographical narrative Charles Spurgeon, a great 19th century preacher known as the "Prince of Preachers, tells of a Sunday morning when a blinding snowstorm sent him not to the church of his choice, but to a Primitive Methodist chapel.  On that day he marked as the day of his conversion he wrote,  "The minister did not come that morning, he was snowed up, I suppose.  At last, a very thin-looking man, a shoemaker or tailor or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach.  Now, it is well that preachers should be instructed, but this man was really stupid.  He was obliged to stick to his text for the simple reason that he had little else to say. The text was 'Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth!' (Isaiah 45:22)...

 

... When He managed to spin out ten minutes or so,   he was a the end of his tether....fixing his eyes on me, he said, 'Young man, you look very miserable...look to Jesus Christ.  Look!  Look! You have nothing to do but to look and live!'  I know not what else he said.  I did not take much notice of it, I was so possessed by that one thought...When I heard that word 'Look'...I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away...There and then, the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away..."

While it is a great conversion story, what really struck me was the Primitive Methodist lay preacher.  He bears no name in the story and is written about in a rather uncomplimentary fashion, but God used Him to cement the transformation of a young man's search.  The young man who happened into that place of worship that day would preach to untold numbers, have a powerful widespread ministry, and his life and sermons would have a life span far beyond the years he lived.  I wonder about that preacher that launched Spurgeon in his ministry.  Did Spurgeon ever go back later in his life to find him, or did he become one of those who did an extraordinary work for God, but never knew it.