Spurgeon's Discovery of Sovereign Grace

At the age of sixteen, Charles Spurgeon underwent an experience which changed his life. Follow as he tells his story:

When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this. I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths [the doctrine of election] in my own soul--when they were, as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a hot iron, and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown on a sudden from a babe into a man--that I had made progress in Scriptural knowledge, through having found, once for all, that clue to the truth of God. One week-night, when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher's sermon, for I did not believe it. The thought struck me, "How did you come to be a Christian?" I sought the Lord. "But how did you come to seek the Lord?" The truth flashed across my mind in a moment--I should not have sought Him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, "How can I pray?" I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. "How came I to read the Scriptures?" I did read them, but what led me to do so? Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, "I ascribe my change wholly to God."

- Charles Spurgeon, Autobiography, 1 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1962): 164-65. [emphasis mine] In upcoming weeks, I will post similar excerpts from men in Baptist history as well as other leading theologians on the doctrines of grace (in particular the doctrine of election). I hope these quotes will be helpful to you in your [historical] understanding of the doctrines of grace.