His oratory skills are said to have held his listeners spellbound in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and many Christians hold his writings in exceptionally high regard among devotional literature.

On his way to a scheduled appointment, a snowstorm forced him to cut short his intended journey and to turn into a Primitive Methodist chapel in Artillery Street, Newtown, Colchester, where he believed God opened his heart to the salvation message.

In the same year, he was installed as pastor of the small Baptist church at Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, where he published his first literary work, a Gospel tract written in 1853.

His preaching, although not revolutionary in substance, was a plain-spoken and direct appeal to the people, using the Bible to provoke them to consider the teachings of Jesus Christ.

[10] On 8th of January 1856, Spurgeon married Susannah, daughter of Robert Thompson of Falcon Square, London, by whom he had twin sons, Charles and Thomas born on September 20th, 1856.

To the hum, rush, and trampling of men, succeeded a low, concentrated thrill and murmur of devotion, which seemed to run at once, like an electric current, through the breast of everyone present, and by this magnetic chain the preacher held us fast bound for about two hours.

It is enough to say of his voice, that its power and volume are sufficient to reach everyone in that vast assembly; of his language that it is neither high-flown nor homely; of his style, that it is at times familiar, at times declamatory, but always happy, and often eloquent; of his doctrine, that neither the 'Calvinist' nor the 'Baptist' appears in the forefront of the battle which is waged by Mr. Spurgeon with relentless animosity, and with Gospel weapons, against irreligion, cant, hypocrisy, pride, and those secret bosom-sins which so easily beset a man in daily life; and to sum up all in a word, it is enough to say, of the man himself, that he impresses you with a perfect conviction of his sincerity.Spurgeon's work went on.

Spurgeon noted: In 1857, a day or two before preaching at the Crystal Palace, I went to decide where the platform should be fixed; and, in order to test the acoustic properties of the building, cried in a loud voice, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."

He was smitten with conviction on account of sin, put down his tools, went home, and there, after a season of spiritual struggling, found peace and life by beholding the Lamb of God.

Years after, he told this story to one who visited him on his death-bed.On 18 March 1861, the congregation moved permanently to the newly constructed purpose-built Metropolitan Tabernacle at Elephant and Castle, Southwark, seating 5,000 people with standing room for another 1,000.

He never gave altar calls at the conclusion of his sermons, but he always extended the invitation that if anyone was moved to seek an interest in Christ by his preaching on a Sunday, they could meet with him at his vestry on Monday morning.

His weekly sermons, which sold for a penny each, were widely circulated and still remain one of the all-time best-selling series of writings published in history.

Go on, ye warriors of the cross, for the King is at the head of you.On 5th June 1862, Spurgeon challenged the Church of England when he preached against baptismal regeneration.

It was during this period at the new Tabernacle that Spurgeon found a friend in James Hudson Taylor, the founder of the inter-denominational China Inland Mission.

He also aided in the work of cross-cultural evangelism by promoting "The Wordless Book", a teaching tool that he described in a message given on 11 January 1866, regarding Psalm 51:7: "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."

[15][16] On the death of missionary David Livingstone in 1873, a discoloured and much-used copy of one of Spurgeon's printed sermons, "Accidents, Not Punishments,"[17] was found among his few possessions much later, along with the handwritten comment at the top of the first page: "Very good, D.L."

[26] The event was called ‘one of the largest bazaars and fancy fairs ever held in South London’[27] – in one day 1,000 was raised[28] – a lot considering entry was sixpence.

Spurgeon's own regular contributions to them meant that he left his wife only 2,000 pounds, when he died, despite having earned millions from his published sermons and books.

I like the Hospital Sunday movement, for all Christian people can meet, as we are met here to-night, on one platform.A controversy among the Baptists flared in 1887 with Spurgeon's first "Down-grade" article, published in The Sword & the Trowel.

[36] In the ensuing "Downgrade Controversy," the Metropolitan Tabernacle disaffiliated from the Baptist Union, effectuating Spurgeon's congregation as the world's largest self-standing church.

Spurgeon framed the controversy in this way: Believers in Christ's atonement are now in declared union with those who make light of it; believers in Holy Scripture are in confederacy with those who deny plenary inspiration; those who hold evangelical doctrine are in open alliance with those who call the fall a fable, who deny the personality of the Holy Ghost, who call justification by faith immoral, and hold that there is another probation after death… It is our solemn conviction that there should be no pretence of fellowship.

[38] Spurgeon alleged that an incremental creeping of the Graf-Wellhausen hypothesis, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, and other concepts were weakening the Baptist Union.

[45] He lost support from the Southern Baptists, sales of his sermons dropped, and he received scores of threatening and insulting letters as a consequence.

[45]In a letter[47] to the Christian Watchman and Reflector[48] (Boston), Spurgeon declared: I do from my inmost soul detest slavery… and although I commune at the Lord's table with men of all creeds, yet with a slave-holder I have no fellowship of any sort or kind.

[49][50]Like other Baptists of his time, despite opposing Dispensationalism,[51][52] Spurgeon anticipated the restoration of the Jews to inhabit the Promised Land[broken anchor].

Police controlled the crowds waiting to get in during the day, and to help with order, at the end of services people left through a back door.

[61] On the day of the funeral, eight hundred extra police were on duty along the route the cortège took,[64] from the Metropolitan Tabernacle, past the Stockwell Orphanage and to the Norwood Cemetery.

As the cortége passed the Stockwell Orphanage it stopped briefly while the children sang a verse of one of his favourite hymns “For ever with the Lord,” with the refrain “Nearer home.[68]”.

[71] A special collection of Spurgeon's handwritten sermon notes and galley proofs from 1879 to 1891 resides at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama.

Spurgeon's personal Bible, with his handwritten notes, is on display in the library of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY.