Baptist Chapel Waterbeach - Spurgeon (1851)
This was Spurgeon's first appointment as pastor at 17. There were 40 to begin with, but within 2 years there were 400.
"I once knew a village, perhaps in some respects one of the worst in England – where many an illicit still was yielding it’s obnoxious liquor… and where in connection with that evil, all manner of riot and iniquity was rife.
They went into that village a lad, who had no great scholarship, but who was earnest sineeking the souls of man. He began to preach there and it pleased God to turn the whole place upside down. In a short time the little church chapel was crammed, the biggest vagabonds in the village were weeping floods of tears and those who had been the curse of the parish became its blessing. Where there had been robberies and villainies of every kind, all around the neighbourhood, there were none, because the men who used to do the mischief were themselves in the house of God, rejoicing to hear of Jesus crucified.
I am not telling an exaggerated story, nor a thing I do not know, for it was my delight to labour for the Lord in that village. It was a pleasant thing to walk through that place, when drunkenness had almost ceased, when debauchery in the case of many was dead, when men and women went forth to labour with joyful hearts, singing the praises of the ever living God; and when, at sunset, the humble cottager called his children together, read them some portion of the Book of Truth and then together they bent their knees in prayer to God. I can say with joy and happiness that almost from one end of the village to the other, at the hour of eventide, one might have heard the voice of song coming from nearly every roof-tree….
I do testify, to the praise of God‘s grace, that it pleases the Lord to work wonders in our midst. He showed the power of Jesu's name, and made me a witness of that gospel which can win souls, draw reluctant hearts and mould afresh the life and conduct of simple men and women."
"The Early Years," by Iain Murray editor. Banner of Truth 1962
Additional Information
Spurgeon came here in 1851, but the chapel was rebuilt in 1863.