Spurgeon's Birth Place

I called at Kelvedon in Essex in the spring. It was a fairly ordinary cottage I had come to see, though the village was pretty and appeared quintessentially English. The parish church was rather impressive, though the one-time occupant of my quarry was unlikely to have darkened its doors very frequently, for he was a nonconformist. More than that, he was arguably the greatest preacher of the nineteenth century, the celebrated minister of London’s New Park Street Chapel and the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. Even the irreligious knew C.H. Spurgeon and respected his oratory if not his message. And he was born here, in this very cottage, back in 1834.

A greater place to visit, for it is of greater significance, was the place of his second birth, but alas, my knowledge and itinerary did not provide for it. The time and place upon which a man or woman confesses sin to God and accepts His glorious offer of forgiveness through Jesus Christ is more important than one’s actual birth, for without it, one will not even glimpse the Kingdom of God.

Conversion is the mysterious work of the Spirit upon the soul. That great change could not be produced by the fear of imprisonment, the authority of law, the charms of bribery, the clamour of excitement, or the glitter of eloquence.

-Charles Spurgeon.

Jesus answered and said unto him, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

Nicodemus saith unto him, "How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?"

Jesus answered, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit."

-John 3:3-8