The Momentous Step

The Momentous Step

It all began when he was sixteen.

OSWALD J. SMITH grew up in Embro, Ontario, a country stop on the Canadian Pacific Railway where his father was the telegraph operator. In the winter of 1906 when Oswald was sixteen, the daily Toronto newspapers that the train dropped off every day told of a great evangelistic crusade being conducted in Toronto by Dr. R. A. Torrey with Charles Alexander as the song leader and soloist. Dr. Torrey’s messages were published word for word every day in the paper. The articles told how thirty-four hundred people were filling the hall nightly with many others being turned away.

After reading about the meetings for several days, Oswald and his younger brother Ernie asked their mother if they could go the ninety-four miles to Toronto to attend the meetings. She eagerly gave her permission, so the two brothers boarded a train in the cold prairie winter. They arrived in time to attend the final eight meetings, staying at their aunt’s house. Smith tells what happened:

The second to the last meeting came. We had made up our minds to accept Christ that afternoon. It was a special service for boys. There were 3,400 present. We did not know then that our mother had written to Dr. Torrey asking him to pray that her sons might be converted. We arrived early, and the Hall was crowded. What Dr. Torrey had to say I do not remember. But I will never forget the way he repeated his text, Isaiah 53:5—“But He was wounded for my transgressions; He was bruised for my iniquities, the chastisement of my peace was upon Him, and with His stripes I am healed.”

At the close of his message he asked those 25 and over who wanted to accept Christ to come forward. Some responded. Little by little he lowered the ages until I was included. But to my amazement I was turned into a chunk of lead. I did not know then about the power of Satan, but I have found out since. Presently my brother quietly nudged me, and that broke the spell. I sprang out of my seat and with a sober face I took the momentous step. For a moment I found myself alone at the front, then I grasped Dr. Torrey’s hand and went down into the inquiry room in the basement where I sat on a chair. A man came and spoke to me and then left. But I saw no light and got nowhere, though he thought I was through.

Then suddenly, it happened. I cannot explain it even today. I just bowed my head, put my face between my hands and in a moment tears gushed through my fingers, and fell upon the chair, and there stole into my boyish heart a realization of the fact that the great change had taken place. Christ had entered and I was a new creature. I had been born again. There was no excitement, no unusual feeling, but I knew that something had happened, and that ever after all life would be different. That was January 28th, 1906, when I was 16 years of age, and it has lasted to this day. Yes, and it is going to last, praise God, throughout the countless ages of eternity.

Oswald went on to found and pastor Canada’s largest church, the People’s Church of Toronto. Throughout his ministry, he wrote twelve hundred hymns, published thirty-five books in 128 languages, raised twenty-three million dollars for missions, and helped send out hundreds of missionaries.

From that first step in Toronto, Oswald J. Smith walked with the Lord for three days short of eighty more years.

Reflection

“The longest journey begins with one step.” For Smith, the journey was a lifetime of serving God in ministry. God used Oswald Smith mightily after his conversion at sixteen. Have you taken the first step toward God? Unfortunately many churches today teach a Christianity that doesn’t include a conversion, but that was not the Christianity of Jesus or of Oswald Smith!

Then [Jesus] said, “I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Matthew 18:3