Who is gypsy smith

After a five months' revival in Glasgow in , Smith went to Australia, preaching at Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney, after which he returned to England by way of the United States. In he preached in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, as well as in many smaller cities, and in paid his fifth visit to America, returning to England and conducting brief evangelistic campaigns until , when he became first missioner of the National Free Church Council.

This position he still retains [in ], and in this capacity he has conducted revivals throughout England, besides paying still another visit to the United States in I thought of my mother in heaven, and I thought of the beautiful life my father, brother, and sisters were living, and I said to myself, 'Rodney, are you going to wander about as a gypsy boy and a gypsy man without hope, or will you be a Christian and have some definite object to live for?

For answer to my question, I found myself startling myself by my own voice 'By the grace of God, I will be a Christian and I will meet my mother in heaven! Rodney traced his conversion to that moment.

He was just seventeen and barely able to read when William Booth invited him to preach. He did so with increasing success, becoming an evangelist in high demand. Thirty times he visited the United States and twice he preached his way around the world. Once, in Paris, he was instrumental in converting society people to Christ. The gypsy boy became a cosmopolitan in the kingdom of Christ!

Share this. This online book was originally found on Revival-Library. Web site devoted to histories of great revivals and their leaders. Permission granted for placement on this site. Back to Biblebelievers. Click here for more biographical information This online book was originally found on Revival-Library. Introduction by Rev. Alexander Maclaren. Note To My Readers. Chapter 1. In came his first trip abroad with a visit to Sweden and on February 1, , his third child was born His brief appearance on the program of the Congregational Union of England and Wales Convention swamped him with several offers.

Because of this, he traveled extensively from to , hampered for nine months during with a throat ailment. On January 18, , Gipsy Smith left Liverpool for his first trip to America arriving later in the month on a wet Sunday morning. He didn't know a soul in America. He had nothing but credentials from friends back home which he used to introduce himself to some church leaders.

Similar to Moody's experience some years earlier in England, the ones who had originally invited him had either died or become indifferent. Prince of the Nostrand Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church of Brooklyn opened up his pulpit for a three week crusade with him.

The 1, seat auditorium was jammed and between and people found the Lord. Following this, he traveled from Boston to San Francisco thrilling large audiences with his story and message. When he returned to England later in the year, he became assistant to F. Collier, of the Manchester Wesleyan Mission. Meetings were greatly used of God in a ten day campaign there.

The midnight service saw people leaving theaters and bars to come in. Busy as he now was, he never grew tired of visiting gipsy encampments whenever he could on both sides of the Atlantic. His second trip to America was in August There was a great revival.

After a couple sermons here where he made many new friends, he returned to the Brooklyn church mentioned previously for a repeat crusade. Many were saved. A good series followed back in Edinburg, Scotland in From this series came the Gipsy Gospel Wagon Mission, devoted to evangelistic work amongst his own people.

In , he took his third trip to America, this time with his wife. He was invited to hold special "drawing room meetings" for some of the elite in one of the largest mansions on Fifth Avenue in New York City. It was not a public meeting, but personal letters were sent to various aristocratic ladies of New York, inviting them to be present.

There were to be six meetings and at the first there were ladies present. Facing Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, and such, he simply preached on "Repentance". He said, "I only remembered that they were sinners needing a Savior. The newspaper coverage was good to Gipsy in a united campaign in Yonkers, New York.

Denver, Colorado was exceedingly generous to them. From September, to January, , he returned to Glasgow, Scotland for a seven week crusade in seven different churches over a five month period. The whole city was stirred. Then on to Melbourne and Sydney where he received a cable that his wife was very sick. This aborted his visit here after only three months, but 2, people came to his sendoff.

Stopping in New York, the news was that his wife was some better so he spent time at Ocean Grove and in an Indianapolis crusade. It was here that an old man felt Gipsy's head saying, "I am trying to find your bumps, so that I can find the secret of your success.

Home, in November, he found his wife regaining her health. Thorough preparation here produced converts in an eight-day meeting.

Then it was on to other towns: Swansee, Wales and back to Edinburgh, Scotland. On January 1, he made his fifth trip to America and held a great campaign in the Peoples Temple in Boston. The four week crusade went seven weeks with being received into the church. There he met President Grover Cleveland, one of the two presidents he was to meet, and also had blind 70 year old Fanny Crosby on his platform one night, singing one of her hymns.

Upon his return home, he was made a special missionary of the National Free Church Council from to Staying in England for a while, his crusade at Luton had 1, converts and his crusade at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London had 1, converts.

A Birmingham, England crusade resulted in 1, converts.