Some years later, Spurgeon related a most suggestive incident. "I was a member of the church at Newmarket," he said, "when I first joined the church, and was afterwards transferred to the church at Cambridge, one of the best in England. I attended for three Lord's Days at the communion, and nobody spoke to me. I sat in a pew with a gentleman, and when I got outside I said, 'My dear friend, how are you?' "He said, 'You have the advantage of me; I don't know you.' "I said, 'I don't think I have, for I don't know you. But when I came to the Lord's table, and partook of the memories of His death, I thought you were my brother, and I thought I would speak to you.' "I was only sixteen years of age, and he said, 'Sweet simplicity!' "Oh, is it true, sir?' I said. 'Is it true?' "He said, 'It is; but I am glad you did not say this to any of the deacons.'" The stranger asked the lad home to supper, and they become good friends. At once young Spurgeon began the Christian work for which he has ever been renowned. He revived a society for tract distribution. He talked in the Sunday-school, and in the vestry of the Independent Chapel, where many gathered to hear him. Removing to the school in Cambridge, he joined the "Lay Preachers' Association." He was asked to go to the village of Teversham, four miles from Cambridge, to accompany a friend, for an evening service. On the way, Spurgeon said, "I trust God will bless your labors to-night." "My labors?" said the friend; "I never preached in my life; I never thought of doing such a thing. I was asked to walk with _you_, and I sincerely hope God will bless _you_ in _your_ preaching." Spurgeon was astonished; as he says, "My inmost soul being all in a tremble, as to what would happen." The youth of sixteen preached his first sermon from the words, "Unto you, therefore, which believe he is precious," and spoke to the edification of all present. He was soon asked to go to Waterbeach, a small village, to supply the pulpit. The chapel was a rude one, made out of a barn. In a few months the membership rose from forty to nearly one hundred. The Rev. Mr. Peters had been their pastor for twenty-two years, receiving five pounds for each quarter of the year. At this time, says one of the deacons, speaking of the young teacher. "He looked so white, and I thought to myself, _he'll_ never be able to preach. What a boy he is!... I could not make him out: and one day I asked him wherever he got all the knowledge from that he put into his sermons." "'Oh,' said Spurgeon, 'I take a book, and I pull the good things out of it by the hair of their heads.'" The mayor of Cambridge one day asked Spurgeon if he had really told the people at Waterbeach "that if a thief got into heaven, he would pick the angels' pockets."