July, 1943
THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NE SS
246
t i k e Ca leb
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(Joshua 14 ) Audiences the world over have thrilled to the message of Gipsy Smith in the SIXTY-FIVE YEARS he has served the Lord as an evangel ist. During this long period of time, churches, tabernacles, and large halls here and abroad have been crowded out as men and women have flocked to hear this straightforward preacher who does not mince m a t t e r s in speaking to the lost, but whose gen tle persuasion is irresistible. His power has not abated. From even the third balcony in the Church of the Open Door— where night after night between 3,000 and 4,000 persons were present— scores of men and women came forward to acknowledge the Lord Jesus .Christ as their personal Saviour. A t many of the meetings, h u n d r e d s were turned away for lack of room. Some have wondered at the power evidenced in the message of Gipsy Smith when that message is simplic ity itself. What is the secret behind this man who, though oyer eighty years of age, preaches with the en ergy and vigor of a man of forty? John Ruskin has said, "Originality is not so much a matter of novelty, as sincerity." Perhaps this e x p l a i n s Gipsy Smith. He does not strive for variety, for novelty, but rather is he filled with the sincere passion to preach Christ and Him crucified. The power behind Gipsy Smith is the power of the Holy Spirit who found a clean channel in the young gipsy boy and has used him because of his sincerity. In the accompanying interview Gipsy Smith has given some of his views on present-day spiritual condi tions and his hope of revival.
Louis T. Talbot and Gipsy Smith
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Jphotos by Putnam Studio
Are the Days of Revival Past? An Interview with Gipsy Smith
needed a minister for a christening or a burial, he went to the nearest min ister. We had no church and no school, and no one made any attempt to reach us with the gospel. QUE.: What do you feel should be the normal result o f accepting Christ as Saviour? I began to witness for Christ Im mediately after my conversion. I went home from the meeting where I found the Lord and woke up every one in camp and said: “I want you to know I'love Jesus.” How could I help but tell others?
QUE. : What was it that made you, as a gipsy boy, want Christ as your Saviour? The beautiful life of my father aft er his conversion. I saw the Chris tian life unfolded in him in that gipsy camp in England. We five mother less children recognized the change in him immediately. Until then w'e had known nothing of Christ or whaj: it meant to be a Christian. We had heard about God in a vague way, but in our moving about as gipsies do, we had never heard a gospel message. We knew nothing of the differences between the churches. If a gipsy
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