Author Spotlight: Oswald J. Smith

Since our monthly giveaway for this month (July 2015) is The Revival We Need, it seems an appropriate time to find out more about the book's author, Oswald J. Smith.

Born on November 8, 1889 in Odessa, Ontario, Canada, Smith was the eldest of ten children. His father was a telegraph operator with the Canadian Pacific Railyway, so he spent much of his childhood around railway stations.

Oswald was converted at age 16 through the ministry of Dr. R. A. Torrey. He soon began to feel a desire to spread the gospel to others, and became involved in various home missions efforts, including Indian villages in British Columbia. He also prepared himself for further ministry by study, graduating from Toronto Bible College in 1912 and McCormick Seminary, Chicago in 1915. He was ordained in the Presbyterian Church.

Smith had a deep longing to become a missionary, but after being turned down by various missionary societies on the grounds of poor health, he made a commitment: "If I can't go myself, I will send someone else." His commitment proved genuine. During his life he made 21 world tours promoting evangelism and world missions, and The People's Church, of which he was the founder and pastor, supported 500 missionaries worldwide.

In 1933 Smith founded The People's Church in Toronto, Canada. He retired from the pastorate in 1959 (his son, Paul, took over), but remained on staff as Minister of Missions for many more years. Oswald Smith went to heaven on January 25, 1986.

Besides being a pastor, evangelist, missionary statesman, and world traveler, Smith was also a prolific writer--both poetry and prose. He wrote around 1,200 hymns, poems, and gospel songs, including such well-known titles as "Alone with Thee," "Deeper and Deeper," and "Then Jesus Came." He also authored 35 books, including Passion for Souls, The Man God Uses, and The Enduement of Power. He also edited a magazine for 50 years and wrote innumerable pamphlets and tracts.

Smith was a lifelong advocate of prevailing prayer, believing it was "the highest form of Christian service" as well as "the hardest kind of work."

A few "sentence sermons" from Smith:

"No one has the right to hear the gospel twice, while there remains someone who has not heard it once."

"We talk of the second coming; half the world has never heard of the first."

"Any church that is not seriously involved in helpful fulfil the Great Commission has forfeited its biblical right to exist."

"The church that does not evangelize will fossilize."

"Jesus did not tell us to build beautiful churches, but to evangelize the world."

"I am perfectly confident that the man who does not spend hours alone with God will never know the anointing of the Holy Spirit."

"The fulness of the Spirit is not a question of our getting more of the Holy Spirit, but rather of the Holy Spirit getting more of us."

We end with a lengthier quote from The Revival We Need:

It matters not how spiritual a church may profess to be; if souls are not saved something is radically wrong, and the professed spirituality is simply a false experience, a delusion of the devil. People who are satisfied to meet together simply to have a good time among themselves are far away from God. Real spirituality always has an outcome. There will be a yearning and a love for souls. We have gone to places that have a name of being very deep and spiritual, and have often found that it was all in the head, the heart was unmoved; and there was, not infrequently, hidden sin somewhere. "Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof." Oh, the pathos of it all! Let us then challenge our spirituality and ask what it produces; for nothing less than a genuine revival in the body of Christ resulting in a true awakening among the unsaved will ever satisfy the heart of God. (page 24)