Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1916-10-19

and rou viii lie s5sVed. Speaking an
time 18th 5ysis;s ssensity CT feeiinst
and Seemed to 'be complete9f
ly .spent latter an effort. Love 1s
the great dynamic force that eNi
-pands his heart and prompts him 4sS|
labor for. the salvation OF souls. II s ss
great heaft seems ito yearn for tasss
:.unsaved, and he seemed at7all TIM
40 consciously realize. that it is
the grace of God that he is what lIe
is. and it is to the honor of .grasg
and not for the; glory of "a sinfHf
worm. The truth which he belieyH
and breaches with such untlrl!g
energy, zeal and an earnestned
born of enthusiasm dwells richly r.
him, with a spiritual understanding;
that is marvellous. Z.
Gypsy Smith succeeds in making;
things clear to his hearers Tor re
breaches the gospel of Christ viii
smellif1uous eloquence, consisting rot
in learned dispositions, exegetical
and homiletical explanations of a
"higher criticism, with rhetoric !
touch and finish, but consists. of the
Holy Ghost power he possesses, i,g
his utterances are spontaneous'y
from heart .afame with 'Divina
love. And he succeeded in strirrflig
our town as never before; his the"F
logy is "There is no other name
given under heaven or among men
whereby we may be saved except tie
name of Jesus Christ" He believes
in personal Savious, personal
salvation, and personal devil; II
there is no devil, he said: "Who his
been doing his work in Alexandr
all of these years" For he said thas
the ":devil had been practicing his
devices and arts for six thousand
years, and had never taken vaca-:
ton, or had appendicitis, rheum& /
! ism or tonsilitis" From the Interest
manifested in these meetings the G.
lis mo question in the minds of manyT
of US that there is too much in til i
preaching Of today from the pulpit.
the nice, the pretty and the dainty!
too many sermons are simply given.
for literary merit and excellence 81
production. Grammar and rhetoric
are all right in their place, but yo..
cannot be saved by 'finr alone.
While Gypsy Smith is modern III
his methods, his messages are ur-
mistakably the cold time religion"
| There seems to be no twilight zoEe
in his intellectual processes. am!
there are no mental reservations III
his preaching One thing he preach2s
with emphasis is that man is los
without Jesus Christ as his persona!
Saviour.
He is a man Of strong character,
and foolish .adulation will not tu1H
his head. He is a man systematical
theological training for evangelical
work, and possibly if he had been
! it would have denatured him. He r
natural and graceful and easy as he
is simple in his utterances; in othe:
! words, natural man, and it is IL
natura! man, that is tie strouG
man. He has also learned the lc=ssr
of individuality, prizes it. pre;laa-
! about and practices it. A uniaaf
character, a sui ,generis, who is do
| ing great work in the evangelis-
tic field. He is man close tc ma
ture and makes people laugh in
stead of cry; his sense Of humor is
evidently stronger than Ills sense Of
| pathos. Tear and Mysteries are sup
pathos. Tears and Mysteries are sup
trade Of an evangelist, but not with
| Gypsy Smith, for he makes sin So
preplsterously hideous in its char
acter that he makes man asham-
ed of himself.
We notice among his favorite in
struments or weapons, humor. sa-
tire, scorn; at times mis- peerless
powers of ridicule were turned TO
|. the lonely oyster when used as the
means of the money-making church
supper.
In summing up the whole matter
lit can be expressed in three terse
phrases Gypsy Smiths whole mes
sage is "Quit your meanness, con-
ifess your sins, accept Jeus Chris
as your Saviour; get busy for him
among men," He can truthfully
claim for himself that he is an
evangelist, and an evangelist only.
for he certainly repudiates the Chris
titan program that is merely pallia-
tive or ameliorative and that the
church must stand for the "funda
,mentals of Christianity" He impress
jsed them so deeply that our city
has talked of little else for weeks;
the arena of the atmosphere of
those four weeks still remain like
the perfume of roses. AS it is only
when the mark is hit that the bell
rings, so there is strategic.
value in the .rallying of the churches
about one man has been fully dem
onstrated in Alexandria by our
recent experience, as over 800 chit
the saw dust trail" and publicly con-
fessed their Lord, possibly 80 per
cent of whom will be conserved by
the churches and will enter into
church membership. He has created
a religious sentiment in our city
that will yield rich harvest. Al
ready plans have been made and
movements launched in the way CT
cottage prayer meetings and union
prayer meetings, to keep the fires
cf Divine love burning in the hearts
Of the people.