Charles Spurgeon

Charles Haddon Spurgeon was an English Particular Baptist preacher, often called the Prince of Preachers. Born in Kelvedon, Essex, he came to personal faith in Christ at age 15 during a snowstorm, when he turned into a Primitive Methodist chapel in Colchester and heard the words of Isaiah 45:22. He preached his first sermon in the winter of 1850–51, and in 1854, at only 19 years old, he became pastor of New Park Street Chapel in London. His plain-spoken, direct preaching quickly made him famous, and the congregation outgrew its building, moving first to Exeter Hall and then to Surrey Music Hall. In 1861 the church moved permanently to the newly built Metropolitan Tabernacle, which seated 5,000 people with standing room for another 1,000. Spurgeon remained pastor there for 38 years, preaching several times each week. He also founded a Pastors' College, later renamed Spurgeon's College, and encouraged his congregation to care for the poor of Victorian London. Under his leadership the church built almshouses and the Stockwell Orphanage, and supported many other societies and institutions. Spurgeon suffered from poor health for much of his life and often rested in Menton, France. He died there in 1892 at the age of 57, and his body was returned to England, where an estimated 100,000 people passed by him as he lay in state or attended his funeral services.

Based on the Wikipedia article “Charles Spurgeon” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Spurgeon), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Portrait: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Haddon_Spurgeon_by_Alexander_Melville.jpg