July 9

If You Seek Him, He Will Be Found

And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.

1 Chronicles 28:9

Gipsy Smith, the well-known evangelist of a generation ago, was fortunate to be reared by a father who was determined to search for God, fearing that if he forsook God, he would be rejected forever. Gypsy tradition confirmed this because they believe they are descended from Judas Iscariot and are thus cursed.

For Cornelius Smith, that search began just before his wife died, leaving him with four little children to raise. He had one time asked his wife if she ever thought about God and if she ever prayed. “I try,” she responded. “But a black hand comes before me and reminds me of all the wrongs I have done, and something says that there is no mercy for me.”

Just before she died, however, he heard her singing in the tent where they lived. It was an old chorus she had learned as a child: “I have a father in the promised land, and I must go to meet him in the promised land.” That song reminded him of a gospel message he had heard while he had been imprisoned, and after she died, he vowed he would find God.

He did not forget that vow despite the sorrow and turmoil surrounding her death. “The authorities would permit the funeral to be held only at night. Cornelius was the sole mourner . . . Earlier that day their tent had caught fire . . . It was a dark day, indeed.”

Cornelius inquired of various people about God, and finally was told that there was a meeting that would be held that very night at a city mission. “I will not come home again,” he warned his children as he left for the meeting, “until I am converted.”

The children were fearful, not knowing what he meant nor whether they would ever see him again. There at the meeting, while a hymn was being sung, Cornelius fell to the floor in agony before God. Little Rodney, who later became known as "Gipsy,” feared his father was dying. He had followed his father to the meeting and was distressed by what he saw.

Up from the floor, Cornelius jumped and shouted, “I am converted.” His brother was also converted at that meeting, and later that night his brother’s wife also professed her faith in Christ. The following morning the two brothers began sharing their witness to the other gypsies at the camp, and fourteen of them were converted.

They also witnessed to their other brother, and he too was converted. “They became evangelists,” writes David Lazell, “and you always had to take three—as long as they were all alive . . . Many were brought to Christ through that ministry.” Cornelius had searched for God, found him, and served him with wholehearted devotion. ⁹