The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1913-10-08
$4,000 PEOPLE HAVE
HEARD SERMONS BY
Gypsy SMITH HERE
Estimated That Half as
Many Have Been
Turned Away
MAKES EARNEST PLEA
FOR REPENTANCE
Says Church Has Been Too Much
Occupied With Counting Heads
Instead of Hearts-Services
for Negroes Saturday

| Since the Gipsy Smith services began on
| Saturday, night last, it is estimated that
no less than $4,000 people have seen and
heard him speak and half as many more
have been turned away. He is his own
best observation-disclosures person hears
| him that person will return with three
| friends, and so it goes.
| To look at him one would hardly think
of him as a great orator, as man who
can face thousands of people and make
them see thing in so vivid manner
as to bring them with tears in their eyes
and fear in their hearts to the throne of
| God. Bring them in a repentant mood,
in spirit of subjugation and humbleness
| to the God who looked upon a gypsy tent
and said of the six people within that
tent, I will make preachers of them
ALL" And, as Gypsy Smith said last
night, that same Lord has made preachers
of all within that tent-a tent that no
decent person would have put his head in
| side.
breaches on Repentance
| Gypsy Smith arrived at the auditorium
last night about 7:45 and Immediately
l
assembled sing several of his favorite
hymns and the Rev. W. B. Holmes led
in prayer. The evangelist took for his
text, Repent ye.'' found in the third
chapter of Matthew. He said it was one
of the most neglected and one of the
most unpopular doctrines in the New
Testament
I'm our zeal to rope people into what
we call the church.. said he. I'VE have
been more concerned about counting heads
than counting hearts; have been more
concerned about running up the list on
the church roll than we have been in
seeing people born again. And so We
have compromised. We have not suf
| ficiently emphasized the cutting off the
| right arm sim, and Jesus said: If thy
right hand offend thee, cut it off, and
that's never easy. We have not sufficient
ly emphasized the cutting off of the limb
| and being willing to be MANNED for
| Christs sake. We have somehow repre-
scented God as sitting in heaven like a
| great nursing mother, saying Come, and
ready to kiss everybody who comes.
| There is an element of truth IN that
| but anything will not do for God Calvary
|
/ God 1t takes a good deal to please you;
takes a good deal to please me, and re-
member, He says My thoughts are not
| your thoughts; your ways are not My
ways, and as heaven is higher than the
| earth SO is My, ways higher than your
ways Anything won't do for God and If
you have got this notion in your head,
then the Lord help me to get it out before
| am through.
Christ on Calvary is not the substitute
| for the life he means you to live That
is the means by which you get the power
| to live the life. Don't you foreclose your
religious life by saying, Attained when
you have not begun.
Lowered Standard of Religion
I'VE have lowered the standard of re.
ligion. My business is to keep the stand
ard up and l would rather lose my soul
than lower 1t one whit.
The man who says you have nothing
to do to be saved breaches a mongrel
gospel. Jesus never said it and no man
In the history of the gospel ever did.
Jesus said, Repent ye He never made
it easy for people to be saved. He knew
too much about 1t. You said, L thought
Jesus made 1t very easy
Listen, listen to me! Here is man
who came to Jesus and said, What shall
do to gain the light, and Jesus said
Keep the commandments The young
man said, These things have done since
my early youth; what do I still lack?'
And Jesus said unto him, Sell what thou
hast and follow me- is it easy to follow
Jesus?
John the Baptist came preaching re-
pentance and they put him in Jail. Jesus
Christ came Immediately after him and
in what was probably His first sermon on
earth, he preached repentance. And some
of 20 uare not going to like me. You
xrrtl Ia 10 ,Sofj ilrn
him. that's not my style; he is not re-
fined 1 wonder how refined you are?
You talk refinement; what about the
way you treated that woman? You talk
refinement; what about the way you treat
your old mother? Refinement! You know
not what you say!
Just before Jesus left his disciples he
gave them commission to go and preach
repentance So in His first utterance and
in His last utterance His doctrine was
| Repent ye-Gods Interchangeable lesson of
salvation!
Conviction Not Repentance
| Conviction is not repentance. 1t has
the elements of repentance but you can
| be convicted without repenting Some of
you are gray headed and you can remem-
ber You have been thinking about it
since you came in this tabernacle, about
the time when a sermon reached you
4 and made you want better things. And
you could not eat for thinking about it;
you could not sleep for thinking about
| it, and you fought that desire and that
feeling for better things and finally you
did kill it, And now your heart is as
hard as iron which surrounds your
| city; hard, cold, dead! But you were
once convinced. That's my point. And
| you never hear these godly men preach
but you go home and say, My pastors
right; ought to be Christian Well,