Steal Away Home: Charles Spurgeon and Thomas Johnson, Unlikely Friends on the Passage to Freedom

by Matt Carter

The night was cool, and it was so good to stand for a moment, gazing upward at the stars and the hill that stood before me. Then, I saw a single gaslight turn on, just up the road. And beyond that light . . . a few moments later . . . another light just up the hill. A few minutes later . . . beyond that light . . . another . . . higher up the hill. Suddenly with my eyes, I could see a line of gaslights, gradually ascending all the way from the foot of the hill to its top. And, do you know what thought ran through my mind?” he asked rhetorically. “I never saw the lamplighter. I do not know his name, or how old he is, or where he is from. But—I saw the lights that he had kindled, and these remained long after he was gone. How earnestly—earnestly—do I wish that my life be spent in lighting one soul after another with the sacred flame of eternal life. I may be unseen while at my work, and I will certainly vanish into eternity when my work is finished—but,” Charles raised his hand and extended his forefinger, pointing at each man in the circle, “but—the lights will have been lit. That is what matters most, Joseph. That is why we preach . . . why we serve . . . why we tell everyone we can about Christ. We are lamplighters.”