Charles Simeon was born in 1759. As a young man he went to Eaton, England's fabled

boarding school. Eaton was founded in 1440 and had a rich history.

While there, Simeon was quite good at sports.

He enjoyed horseback riding and he was all prepared and ready to go off

to King's College in Cambridge.

Up to this point in his life, Simeon showed very little, in fact,

practically no interest in religion. But as a student at King's College, he needed to take communion, and this prompted him to look into one of the Christian societies there at Cambridge, the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge.

Through the SPCK, he encountered encountered many books and one of them was

the whole duty of man, an anonymous devotional book that was written in 1658 and

that book and others all led to Simeon's conversion on Easter day, April 4th, 1779.

At the time there was not much of a gospel or evangelical witness at Cambridge, not much of a spiritual life at all.

But Semyon started preaching, even as a student at Cambridge he preached at St. Edwards Church that

had a prominent place in the reformation at Cambridge and then he took a

pastoral charge at Holy Trinity Church in Cambridge.

He was there from 1782 up until his death in 1836.

Holy Trinity Church was a center of evangelical witness

and a center of spiritual life in Cambridge.

But Simeon's preaching had a mixed reception there.

Some didn't like his gospel centered preaching at all.

And so they locked their pews and they would refuse to go in protest.

But the students came in droves.

Well, as you look at Simeon's ministry, he had three emphasis.

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