This week in Christian history: Asbury revival, Oswald Smith becomes born-again, Menno Simons dies

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, January 28, 2024

Oswald J. Smith becomes a born-again Christian – Jan. 28, 1906

Oswald J. Smith (1889-1986), a Canadian preacher and hymn writer known for his decades of evangelism work in several countries, being interviewed in 1980. | Screengrab: YouTube/100huntley

This week marks the anniversary of when Oswald J. Smith, a notable Canadian preacher and strong supporter of missions, became a born-again Christian at a revival service in Toronto, Ontario.

In his early teens, Smith had already been feeling the call to ministry, reportedly inspired when one of his Sunday School teachers told his class that “any of you boys might be a minister.”

“His conversion at age 16 was the result of the Torrey-Alexander evangelistic team,” noted the website ochristian.com. “He had been reading about the Torrey crusade in Toronto which the newspapers were describing. The reports of 3,000 gathering only 90 miles away challenged him to take a trip to Toronto.”

“Attending the Massey Hall services for a few days, he was saved at the seventh service — one for boys and young men only.”

Among his accomplishments, Smith is credited with having an extensive preaching career that began in 1908 when he was still a teenager and concluded in 1981 at the age of 92, when he finally retired from public speaking.