Call to Commitment

 

"The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely." Rev.22:17

Below is a song that I learned as a boy, one that since has often brought tears to my eyes. My voice would often break as I sang it, as the wonderful news of the gospel would vividly come to my mind.

    

 

 TELL IT AGAIN

1. Into a tent where a Gypsy boy lay,

Dying alone at the close of the day;

News of salvation we carried, said he,

“Nobody ever has told it to me.”

 

2. Did He so love me, a poor little boy

To send unto me, the good tidings of joy?

Need I not perish, my hand will He hold?

Nobody ever the story has told.

 

Chorus

Tell it again, tell it again,

Salvation’s story repeat o’er and o’er;

‘Til none can say of the children of men,

Nobody ever has told me before.

 

3. Bending, we caught the last words of his breath,

Just as he entered the valley of death;

“God sent His Son, whosoever said He,

Then I am sure that He sent Him for me.”

 

4.
Smiling, he said as his last sigh was spent,

I am so glad that for me He was sent;

Whispered while low sank the sun in the west,

“Lord, I believe, tell it now to the rest.”

 

Hear the music by the Oak Ridge Boys!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOvK8L8EgwU

  May I add to the song, a short biography from Wikipedia of a famous Gypsy evangelist, who saw many souls of all races come to Christ: Rodney "Gypsy" Smith. I love this quote...

“I didn’t go through your colleges and seminaries. They wouldn’t
have me…but I have been to the feet of Jesus where the only true
scholarship is learned.” And learned it was–to even compel Queen
Victoria of England to write him a letter.                                                                                                

Rodney Smith  (31 March 1860 – 4 August 1947) was a British evangelist who conducted evangelistic campaigns in the United States and Great Britain for over 70 years. He was an early member of The Salvation Army and a contemporary of Fanny Crosby and acquaintance of G. Campbell Morgan and H. A. Ironside.

 Smith was born in a Romani bender tent in Epping Forest, six miles northeast of London. Today the site is marked with a large, commemorative stone in the woods near Waterworks Corner, Woodford Green. Smith received no education, and his family made a living selling baskets, tinware, and clothespegs. His father, Cornelius (1831–1922), and his mother, Mary (Polly) Welch (c1831-1865), provided a home that was happy in their vardo. Smith was a child when his mother died from smallpox near Baldock in Hertfordshire. She is buried in the nearby churchyard of St Nicholas church in Norton, now part of Letchworth Garden City. Cornelius Smith was later buried with her. The Smith children numbered four girls and two boys (Rodney was the fourth child).

Stone in the forest marking where he was born.

Cornelius Smith was in and out of jail for various offences. There, he heard the gospel from a prison chaplain; later, he and his brothers were converted at a mission meeting. From 1873 on, "The Converted Gypsies" were involved in numerous evangelistic efforts.

 Aged 16, Smith's conversion came as a result of a combination of various factors; the witness of his father, hearing Ira Sankey sing and a visit to the home of John Bunyan in Bedford all contributed. He taught himself to read and write and began to practice preaching. He would sing hymns to the people he met and was known as "the singing gypsy boy."