BIO:Rodney (Gipsy) Smith

BORN: March 31, 1860          Died: August 4, 1947
Wanstead, England                  Atlantic Ocean
LIFE SPAN: 87 years, 4 months, 4 days

     Gipsy Smith was, perhaps, the best loved evangelist of all 
time. When he would give his life story, the crowds that came to 
hear usually overflowed the halls and auditoriums. His trips 
across the Atlantic Ocean were so numerous that historians 
seemingly disagree on the exact number.
     Born in a gypsy tent six miles northeast of London, at 
Epping Forest, he received no education. The family made a living 
selling baskets, tinware and clothespegs. His father, Cornelius, 
and his mother, Mary (Polly) Welch, provided a home that was 
happy in the gypsy wagon, despite the fact that father played his 
violin in the pubs at this time. Young Rodney would dance and 
collect money for the entertainment. Yet he never drank or 
smoked, which may have contributed to his longevity.
     Cornelius was in and out of jail for various offenses, 
usually because he couldn't afford to pay his fines. Here he 
first heard the gospel from the lips of a prison chaplain. He 
tried to explain to his dying wife what he heard.
     Rodney was still a small lad when his mother died from 
smallpox. A child's song that she had heard sung twenty years 
earlier about Jesus came back to her, comforting her as she 
passed on. Her dying words were, "I believe. Be a good father to 
my children. I know God will take care of my children." Rodney 
never forgot seeing his mother buried by lantern-light at the end 
of a lane in Hertfordshire. God did take care of the children as 
the four girls and two boys (Rodney was the fourth child) grew up 
under the stern eye of their father. They all went into Christian 
service.
     Following his wife's death, Cornelius had no power to be 
good. One day he met his brothers, Woodlock and Bartholomew, and 
found they too hungered after God. At a tavern at the Barnwell 
end of town, they stopped and talked to the woman innkeeper about 
God. She groaned that she was troubled also and ran upstairs to 
find a copy of Pilgrim's Progress. Hearing this read to them, 
they decided this is what they wanted. Cornelius encountered a 
road worker who was a Christian and inquired where a gospel 
meeting might be found. He was invited to the Latimer Road 
Mission were he eagerly attended the meeting with all his 
children. As the people sang the words, "I do believe, I will 
believe that Jesus died for me," and There Is a Fountain Filled 
with Blood, Cornelius fell to the floor unconscious. Soon he 
jumped up and said, "I am converted! Children, God has made a new 
man of me. You have a new father!" Rodney ran out of the church 
thinking his father had gone crazy. The two brothers of the 
father were also converted--Bartholomew, the same night. Soon the 
three formed an evangelistic team and went roaming over the 
countryside preaching and singing the gospel. Now Cornelius would 
walk a mile on Saturday night for a bucket of water rather than 
travel on Sunday! From 1873 on, "The Converted Gypsies" were used 
in a wonderful way with Cornelius living until age ninety-one.
     Soon after their conversion, Christmas came, and the six 
children asked their father, "What are we going to have 
tomorrow?" The father sadly replied, "I do not know, my boy." The 
cupboard was bare and purse was empty. The father would no longer 
play the fiddle in his accustomed saloons. Falling on his knees, 
he prayed, then told the his children, "I do not know what we 
will have for Christmas dinner, but we shall sing." And sing, 
they did...
     Then we'll trust in the Lord,
     And He will provide;
     Yes, we'll trust in the Lord,
     And He will provide.
A knock sounded on the side of the van. "It is I," said Mr. 
Sykes, the town missionary. "I have come to tell you that the 
Lord will provide. God is good, is He not?" Then he told them 
that three legs of mutton and other groceries awaited them and 
their relatives in the town. It took a wheelbarrow to bring home 
the load of groceries and the grateful gypsies never knew whom 
God used to answer their prayers. Prayer now took on a new 
meaning, as the teenager heard father pray, "Lord, save my 
Rodney."
     Rodney's conversion as a sixteen-year-old came as a result 
of a combination of things. The witness of his father, the 
hearing of Ira Sankey sing, the visit to the home of John Bunyan 
in Bedford all contributed. Standing at the foot of the statue of 
Bunyan, Smith vowed he would live for God and meet his mother in 
heaven. A few days later in Cambridge, he attended the Primitive 
Methodist Chapel on Fitzroy treet. George Warner, the preacher, 
gave the invitation and Rodney went forward. Somebody whispered, 
"Oh, it's only a gypsy boy." This was November 17, 1876, and he 
rushed home to tell his father that he had been converted. He got 
a Bible, English dictionary and Bible dictionary and carried them 
everywhere causing people to laugh. "Never you mind," he would 
say, "One day I'll be able to read them," adding, "and I'm going 
to preach too. God has called me to preach." He taught himself to 
read and write and began to practice preaching. One Sunday he 
went into a turnip field and preached to the turnips. He would 
sing hymns to the people he met and was known as the singing 
gypsy boy. At seventeen, he stood on a small corner some distance 
from the gypsy wagon and gave a brief testimony...his first 
attempt at preaching.
     One day at a convention at the Christian Mission (later 
called the Salvation Army) headquarters in London, William Booth 
noticed the gypsies and realized that young Rodney had a 
promising future. He asked the young lad to preach on the spot. 
Smith sang a solo and gave a good testimony. Though he didn't try 
to be funny, there was a touch of sunshine in his ministry. On 
June 25, 1877, he accepted the invitation of Booth to be an 
evangelist with and for the Mission. His youngest sister was 
converted in one of his early meetings. For six years 
(1877-1882), he served on street corners and mission halls in 
such areas as Whitby, Sheffield, Bolton, Chatham, Hull, Derby and 
Hanley.
     He was married on December 17, 1879 to Annie E. Pennock, one 
of his converts from Whitby, and their first assignment together 
was at Chatham. Here the crowd grew from 13 to 250 in nine 
months. Their first child, Albany, was born December 31, 1880. 
Then it was six months in Hull in 1881. Here the name "Gipsy" 
Smith first began to circulate. Meetings at the Ice House grew 
rapidly and soon 1,500 would attend an early Sunday prayer 
meeting. A meeting for converts drew 1,000. Then came Derby with 
defeats and discouragements. However, the Moody 1881 visit in 
London was a big encouragement. Their last last move was to 
Hanley, in December 1881. He considered this his second home for 
the rest of his life. By June 1882, great crowds were coming and 
the work was growing. On July 31st a gold watch was given him and 
about $20.00 was presented to his wife by the warm-hearted folks 
there. Acceptance of these gifts was a breach of the rules and 
regulations of the Salvation Army, and for this, he was dismissed 
from the Army. The love in Hanley was returned by Smith, for when 
his second son was born on August 5th, he named him Alfred 
Hanley. His eight assignments with the Salvation Army had 
produced 23,000 decisions and his crowds were anywhere up to 
1,500.
     Now Cambridge became Gipsy Smith's permanent home for the 
rest of his life. However, the urging o the people at Hanley to 
return as an independent preacher was strong. So he 
returned--ministering there for four years. Crowds reached 4,000 
at the Imperial Circus building which was used for three months 
during this time. These were the largest crowds in the country 
outside of London. At one pre-service prayer meeting in 1882, the 
crowd of 300, including Smith, toppled to the room below as the 
floor collapsed under them injuring seventy people! In 1883 came 
his first trip abroad with a visit to Sweden and on February 1, 
1884, his third child was born...a girl named Rhoda Zillah. 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 1886 to 1888, 
hampered for nine months during 1886 with a throat ailment.
     On January 18, 1889, 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. Dr. Prince of 
the Nostrand Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church o Brooklyn opened 
up his pulpit for a three week crusade with him. The 1,500 seat 
auditorium was jammed and between 300 and 400 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.S. Collier, of the Manchester Wesleyan Mission. Meetings were 
greatly used of God in a ten day campaign there. The midnight 
serve saw people leaving theatres and bars to come in. Busy as he 
now was, he never grew tired of visiting gypsy encampments 
whenever he could on both sides of the Atlantic.
     His second trip to America was in August 1891. The old James 
Street Methodist Church of New York, with Pastor Stephen Merrit, 
hosted his first meeting in September. There was a great revival. 
He went to Ocean Grove, New Jersey, a Methodist campground with a 
10,000 seat auditorium. After a couple sermons here where he made 
many new friends, he returned to the Brooklyn church mentioned 
previously for a repeat crusade. Then a month-long crusade was 
held at the Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church of New York with 
Pastor James Roscoe Day. Many were saved. A good series followed 
back in Edinburg, Scotland in 1892. From this series came the 
Gypsy Gospel Wagon Mission, devoted to evangelistic work amongst 
his own people.
     In 1892, 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 175 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." He visited Ocean Grove, Lynn, Massachusetts, and 
Philadelphia in meetings sponsored by the Methodists. The 
newspaper coverage was good to Gypsy in a united campaign in 
Yonkers, New York. Denver, Colorado was exceedingly generous to 
them. From September, 1893 to January, 1894, he returned to 
Glasgow, Scotland for a seven-week crusade in seven different 
churches over a five-month period. The whole city was stirred.
     On May 22, 1894, Gipsy Smith arrived in Australia and began 
a six-week campaign in Adelaide. 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 2,000 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 met Gipsy, 
suddenly reached up and felt Gipsy's head, saying, "I am trying 
to find your bumps, so that I can find the secret of your 
success." Smith replied, "You must come down here," and placed 
the man's hand upon his heart. Home, in November, he found his 
wife regaining her health. In 1895 he went to London for three 
months and then on to Alexander MacLaren's church in Manchester. 
Thorough preparation here produced 600 converts in an eight-day 
meeting. Then it was on to other towns, Swansee, Wales and back 
to Edinburgh, Scotland.
     On January 1, 1896 he made his fifth trip to America and 
held a great campaign in the Peoples Temple in Boston. This was 
the city's largest Protestant Church, with Pastor James Body 
Brady. Gipsy saw a sign outside the church, Gipsy Smith, the 
Greatest Evangelist in the World. He made them take it down. The 
four-week crusade went seven weeks with 800 being received into 
the church. He then had a good campaign with Pastor Hugh 
Johnstone at the Metropolitan Episcopal Church of Washington, 
D.C. 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 1897 to 1912. Staying in England for a 
while, his 1899 crusade at Luton had 1,100 converts and his 1900 
crusade at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London had 1,200 
converts. A Birmingham, England crusade resulted in 1,500 
converts.
     One of the highlights of his life was his trip to South 
Africa in 1904 (age 44). He took his wife along. He daughter, 
Zillah, was the soloist. They spent six months there. He closed 
out in Cape Town on May 10th seeing some 3,000 come to the 
inquiry rooms during his crusade there. A tent meeting in 
Joannesburg started on June 9th in a 3,000 seat tent. He finally 
left in September, and it was estimated that 300,000 attended his 
meetings with 18,000 decisions for Christ during the whole 
African tour.
     The 1906 crusade in Boston, Massachusetts was one of his 
most renown. Under the auspices of the Boston Evangelical 
Alliance and personal sponsorship of A.Z. Conrad, Smith conducted 
50 meetings at Tremont Temple attended by 116,500 people. 
Decision cards totaled 2,290.
     In 1908 and 1909 France was his burden. Speaking to the 
cream of society at the Paris Opera House, he saw 150 decisions 
made. In 1911 and 1912 he was back in America working with the 
Men and Religion Forward Movement. Duing World War I, he was back 
in France beginning in 1914 and for three and a half years 
ministered under the Y.M.C.A. auspices to the English troops 
there, often visiting the front lines. The result of this? King 
George VI made him a member of the Order of the British Empire.
     In 1922 the Nashville, Tennessee crusade seemed to achieve 
great heights of pulpit power. He had 6,000 black people out at a 
special service.
     Once when preaching to blacks only in Dallas, someone called 
out, "What color are we going to be in heaven? Shall we be black 
or white?" Gipsy replied, "My dear sister, we are going to be 
just like Christ."
     An "amen" rang out all over the hall.
     In 1924, his crusade at the Royal Albert Hall in London had 
10,000 attending nightly for the eight-day meeting.
     In 1926 he made his second trip around the world. In 
Australia and New Zealand, radio greatly enlarged his ministry. 
In seven months he accumulated 80,000 decision cards from the 
large cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, etc., as well 
as in areas of Tasmania. His twenty-fifth trip to the U.S.A. was 
in 1928 with his son, Albany, who was also a preacher. They 
visited many churches. In Long Beach, California, he preached in 
a tent seating over 5,000. He also visited Toronto for the first 
time since 1909.
     England was not responding to union crusades which Smith 
deemed necessary, so he was back in America in 1929. Now almost 
seventy, he traveled from Atlanta to Los Angeles with great 
power. He spoke to 10,000 people at Ocean Grove. San Antonio, 
Texas had 10,000 decision cards signed in three weeks. One of his 
greatest Crusades was held in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in a 
tobacco warehouse seating 6,000. Fifteen thousand attended his 
last meeting with the total of decision cards for the whole 
crusade being 27,500.
     A large youth crusade was conducted in London in 1931.
     The year 1934 found him at an open air meeting near the spot 
where his gypsy mother died. Some 3,500 heard him. A church was 
started there as a result, called the North Methodist Mission. In 
June, 1935, he had a rally at Epping Forest near the spot where 
he was born. Ten thousand showed up to hear him talk about his 
life. His 1936 tour of America featured a great crusade in 
Elizabeth, New Jersey with 5,000 attending the last night which 
was the 60th anniversary of his conversion! Hundreds were saved. 
His favorite song, He Is Mine, was sung. Another great Texas 
crusade held at Dallas in the Dalantenary Fairgrounds resulted in 
10,000 decisions. Gipsy Smith's wife, Annie, died in 1937 at the 
age of 79 while he was in America.
     All of their children turned out well: a minister, an 
evangelist, and a soloist. Harold Murray was his constant friend 
and biographer for thirty years and was pianist for him starting 
with the First World War.
     Front page headlines on June 2, 1938 carried the news of the 
78-year-old widower marrying Mary Alice Shaw on her 27th 
birthday. This, of course, brought some criticism. But it was a 
good marriage, for she helped him in his meetings, sang, did 
scretarial work, and later nursed him when his health failed. He 
toured the United States and Canada from 1939 to 1945. In 1945 
they went back to England. He preached a bit, but the country was 
preoccupied with recovery from the Second World War.
     Gipsy was now very tired, and, thinking the sunshine of 
Florida might be good for his health, they embarked again for 
America. Three hours out of New York, he died on the Queen Mary, 
stricken by a heart attack. Some say this was his 45th crossing 
of the Atlantic. His funeral was held August 8, 1947 in the Fifth 
Avenue Presbyterian Church of New York. A memorial with a plaque 
was unveiled on July 2, 1949 at Mill Plain, Epping Forest, 
England, his birthplace. So ends the life of one who once said, 
"I didn't go through your colleges and seminaries. They wouldn't 
have me...but I have been to the feet of Jesus were the only true 
scholarship is learned." And learned it was--to even compel Queen 
Victoria of England to write him a letter.
     Gipsy never wrote a sermon out for preaching purposes. Only 
once did he use notes--when he needed some Prohibition facts.
     Smith wrote several books: As Jesus Passed By*(1905), Gipsy 
Smith: His Work and Life (1906), Evangelistic Talks (1922), Real 
Religion (1929), The Beauty of Jesus (1932) and The Lost Christ.
     He would sing as well as he preached. Sometimes he would 
interrupt his sermon and burst into song. Thousands wept as he 
sag such songs as, Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah with tears 
running down his cheeks, or such as This Wonderful Saviour of 
Mine and Jesus Revealed in Me, a song that he wrote:
     Christ the Transforming Light, Touches this heart of mine,
     Piercing the darkest night, Making His glory shine.
Chorus:
     Oh, to reflect His grace, Causing the world to see,
     Love that will glow Til others shall know
     Jesus revealed in me.
     Another song that he wrote was Not Dreaming. This was 
written while he was resting in a corner of a railway 
compartment. He was reflecting on all the wonderful events of a 
recent campaign and some teenagers said, "Oh, he's only 
dreaming." He soon had a song to give the world...
     The world says I'm dreaming, but I know 'tis Jesus
     Who saves me from bondage and sin's guilty stain;
     He is my Lover, my Saviour, my Master,
     'Tis He who has freed me from guilt and its pain.
Chorus:
     Let me dream on if I am dreaming;
     Let me dream on, My sins are gone;
     Night turns to dawn, Love's light is beaming,
     So if I'm dreaming, Let me dream on.
     Other hymns written were, Thank God for You, and Mother of 
Mine. C. Austin Miles wrote But This I Know, and dedicated it to 
Smith. B.D. Ackley composed the music for Let the Beauty of Jesus 
Be Seen in Me, and dedicated it to Smith.
     Although he was a Methodist, ministers of all denominations 
loved him. It is said that he never had a meeting without 
conversions.

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