From: Ervin Shaw, "Charles Haddon Spurgeon: They Cried Fire!" webpage, posted 2001; in "Christian Testimonies" section of "The Truth . . . What Is It?" website (http://poptop.hypermart.net/testchs.html; viewed 7 November 2005):
He read his preacher grandfather's books as a child less than 6 years old and seemed to be stuck as he internally debated the truth of Jesus as the savior. He visited a church at age 15 and listened as a committed but highly unlettered preacher delivered his sermon, following which the preacher confronted the young visitor: "Look to Jesus and be saved!" The boy was instantly aware of a profound inner conversion. By age 19, he was called to be the preacher of a large London Church. Jealous ministers mounted a newspaper campaign to discredit this minister as his sermons consistently drew 5000 or more each Sunday. As a building expansion was nearing completion, he rented the Surrey Gardens Music Hall (seating for over 7000). A group of men secretly conspired to yell fire in the midst of Charles Haddon Spurgeon's (1834-1892) sermon that first Sunday night. In the rush to the exits, many were seriously wounded and 7 killed. Several newspapers blamed Spurgeon, and one even called for him to be tried for murder. At his height, he preached an average of 10 times per week, published a weekly letter, and wrote numerous books...all the while suffering from that painful chronic disease, gout. As "skepticism" [disbelief in the truth of the Bible] arose in many Christian denominations, Spurgeon fought mightily against it, even to the point of leaving the Baptist Union. His church, Metropolitan Tabernacle Baptist Church, withdrew on a unanimous vote of the members. He was censured by the BU on a vote of 2000 to 7; he died 5 years later at only age 58...his impact still remaining strong today, over 100 years later.