Life and work of Rev. Chas. Alfred Smith, (better known as the Tornado evangelist) : also a collection of evangelistic melodies

Front matter

BV

yt85

S5&A3I

Chapter I. Conviction And Conversion

i do not attempt this record of my life from any feeling of vain glory, or any craving for notoriety, neither is it because I have had a remarkable experience or history. I have been a great sinner, and I now have Jesus as a great Saviour, and this is why I would tell my story, that others may be led to adore and seek this blessed Friend, who saved and has thus far kept me by His grace.

I was born in the City of Philadelphia (the City of Brotherly Love), State of Pennsylvania, and was the youngest of a large family, and therefore I was a spoiled child. My mother — God bless her — she was a Christian, and was striving to do the will of God in every respect, and many times she would try to tell me about Jesus. But I, like a good many, used to think I was too young, and that religion was good for the old folks, but not for the young. I always loved my parents, but in spite of all I was always in mischief. I never was satisfied from the age of five until God saved me.

I was very wild and very reckless, and I was pretty hard to manage. I would attend the Methodist church and listen to the sermons, but I had no desire to become a Christian. I preferred the theatre, concert halls, parties, card playing, and carousing from haunt to haunt, and in fact anything that was devilish.

When I reflect on these past years of a young life I cannot praise God enough for His kind providence over me while I knew him not. How often am I constrained to say :

u Through dangers hidden, and toils and cares, Thou, Lord, has gently cleared my way."

Twice I was nearly drowned, once when but a child of ten, while fishing in dangerous parts, and once I was pushed into the Delaware river by a companion who wanted to learn me how to swim. This was a very narrow escape from death. On another occasion I was thrown from a horse, and was picked up as dead. Yet God saw fit to spare my life so that I might be made a useful man. Yet I kept roving in sin, and many a time I would find my mother praying that God would save her wayward boy. Yet I kept on in sin, doing the devil's work in theatres and haunts of vice, and in fact wherever I could get a chance.

LIFE OF REV. CHAS. A. SMITH.

I was always in mischief, and full of the devil. If anything was wrong at home I was always charged with doing the wrong, whether it was so or not.

It seemed as though it was a second nature, my mischievousness and deviltry, for I was forever in mischief or trouble, both at school and at home, and my life made unhappiness for all I came in contact with. Ofttimes I would get a lecture from some clergyman, and they would try to get me to •come and join the church. But it was no use, it seemed, for them to talk to me, for I always said if I became a Christian I didn't want to be anything but a real one, and when I did become a Christian I would work for the salvation of Others. I loved to see a real Christian, and I watched many that professed Christianity, and I always said if God wanted me to become a Christian he surely would convict me of sin. Many think salvation is just a form, and to have it means to be recognized by some church. This is what some have — only a form to be recognized. God help such conviction and conversion !

There are many who take conviction for a coilversion, they come to the penitent form, and how many are they that get a good feeling, and then leave the altar and say they are saved ; sometimes, probably, they are pushed, and are made by some to say they are saved. I saw a good bit of this kind of work before I was saved, and this is why I say that before I would try to become a Christian I wanted the conviction, and I wanted to feel that God really wanted me. At last, one evening, in company with several of my companions, while passing up Germantown avenue and Fifth street, Philadelphia, I heard some beautiful singing in an old stable. On reaching the door I heard them singing

" We're bound for the land of the pure and the holy, The home of the happy, the kingdom of love ; Ye wanderers from God in the broad road of folly, Oh, say, will you go to the Eden above ? "

I listened very attentively, and the more I heard the better I liked it, so I decided to go in, and on entering I found I had got into what was known as the

SALVATION ARMY.

Such a place, and such a funny set of people ! These w.ere my thoughts. Well! I couldn't help from laughing. Men and women sat on the platform that was erected, and they would sing and shout, then play their drums, tambourines, banjos and fiddles. But nevertheless I listened, and the more I tried to listen the more they seemed to get me infatuated. I hardly knew what to make of

LIFE OF REV. CHAS. A. SMITH.

it. I began to get perplexed and feel troubled. I felt the Spirit of God was striving with me, and like many others, wanted to try and shake that feeling off. I got up from my seat and made up my mind I'd go home. As I got upon my feet and was about to go out they began to sing

" You are drifting, you are drifting To your doom ; Yet there's mercy, yet there's mercy Yes for you."

I went straight to my home, and as I didn't feel in any talkative mood I went to bed. But sleep was out of the question ; I tried to sleep, but sleep I couldn't. If mortal ever was happy to see a night pass aw T ay it was me. When morning came I tried to eat, but that I couldn't do. I went out of the house trying to shake off that wretched feeling, but it seemed as if it was no use, everything seemed to say :

" You are drifting, you are drifting."

No one can imagine what my feelings were but those who have been imthe same boat. This feeling wrested with me for three long days, and on

Washington's Birthday, Feb. 22d, 1884, AT 9:30 P. M.

God, for Christ's sake, pardoned me of sin, and I was made happy in a Saviour's love. I needed no one to tell me I had been saved when the light of God was revealed to me. I knew I had been set at liberty, and no one can express the feeling that came to me but those who have had the same experience. I for myself shall never forget the day nor the spot where God saved my soul.

The devil tried to tell me I was a fool, and it was a mistake, but I knew better ; I knew I was properly saved, and that the Lord had saved me right, and now I know fully that the devil is a roaring lion, and he is still eager to grasp all he can get. I for myself was nearly entrapped shortly after my conversion* I was not aware of his beingable to transform himself into an " angel of light." He told me I must not declare what God had done for me, or tell my experience to anybody, for they would laugh at me, and if I did I would at once fall into condemnation. I was a young recruit, and of course I didn't know much of the warfare I had to -engage in, and so I kept on the back ground for some time before I felt able to tell it out. I had no one I could go to for spiritual advice, confidentially, excepting Christ, and when I did go — praise His name — I always was greatly helped and greatly blessed, and so I became enlightened in God's Word, and I found out by reading the Word that I had only enlisted as a soldier, to fight for King Jesus. And so, with a determined spirit, I promised God I would be a real soldier, and that no matter if a call came for me to go and tell others in my weak way, I would do it. And so God revealed unto me there was lots of work to do, so I laid myself at Jesus' feet. But I found that before he could use me in the work I must be fully cleansed. I knew I was saved, for the blessed Lord had taken away my sins, and I realized a big change had taken place in my heart. And*, oh, how hard I tried to show the world I had been redeemed. I would help as much as I knew how in the Salvation Army and the Mission Bands, and, oh, what joy and peace I had. Yet I had lots to endure. I had no encouragement at home, for everyone would laugh and jeer at me, and say I was crazy. But, bless the Lord, it seemed the more I was hooted at the better I felt, and so I never cared w T hat the world said or what they done. I knew I was right, and I knew if I only proved faithful until the end, I would receive the crown.

Dear reader, if you are not saved, don't linger in sin. You may have enjoyment for a season, but what will be the end ? Just think, eternal punishment and an endless hell ! We, as Christians, may be persecuted, yea, even slayed, but oh, what a blessed thought, a home and a crown to those who endure to the end.

No one can realize this fully until we accept Christ. People will despise and reject us that are Christians, but what of that ? It is better to be persecuted for righteousness sake, and gain the home and wear the crown, than to be cast into hell, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth.

My prayers are that many shall be so convicted of sin that they may not have any rest or peace until they are fully justified of sin and become soundly converted to God. And to those who are justified and know for themselves that they are converted, may the spirit of the Living God take such a hold upon them as they read in the next chapter, that they may not have any peace until they fully realize that they are not only justified, but that they are sanctified, and are still growing in perfect love.

SANCTIFICATION.

— •