GYPSY SARAH and her little tent were familiar to visitors at a well-known seaside resort. There, for over 60 summers, the old woman had plied her trade of fortune-telling, pretending to foretell the future of foolish, deluded people who went to her. God was in none of her thoughts. Her one desire was to live an easy life, and to make plenty of money. At the age of 92, Gypsy Sarah still sat near the sand dunes, telling fortunes as briskly as ever.
One sunny morning, a young evangelist, with a heart full of love to his Lord, passed near her tent. Bide it, on a low chair, sat erect old Sarah. “So old, yet godless and Christless,” the blessed Spirit seemed to whisper to him.
After closing his eyes in earnest prayer, the young Christian went quietly up to the old gypsy.
“Good morning,” said he. “I hear you have been here every summer for 60 years.”
“I have,” she answered. “For 62 years, Gypsy Sarah has held her own here. I am 92 now, sir, and I—.”
“My friend,” said the young man earnestly, and so solemnly, that with a startled look the old woman gazed up to the bright face before her. “My friend, the God who made that blue sky, and that wide sea, has sent me here with two messages for you. The first is that He has kept accounts of every lie you have told since you have sat here, for 62 years.”
Gypsy Sarah’s eyes dropped, and her proud glance quailed before the Spirit-filled words. Slowly, the young man repeated them. Then, during the silence that followed, he cried to God to save that lost soul. Stooping over the now drooping figure, he said: “God’s second message to you, Gypsy Sarah, is that He loves you. He gave His own Son to bleed and die for poor sinners like you and me. ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’.” Again he repeated the words, and strolling along the beach, he prayed earnestly that God would bless the seed sown.
Two days later, the young evangelist visited the tent again. Eager was the old woman’s welcome, “Tell me more about that Love,” she cried. “I’ve sat here over 60 years, and you’re the very first one who has ever said a word to me about God, or my soul. I see I’m a big sinner, a wicked old woman, I see it all now. But it’s two things that God sent you to tell me—tell me the last one again.”
With joy the young man read from God’s word the glad message of “the gospel of Jesus Christ,” and he repeated John the Baptist’s words, “Repent ye, and believe the gospel.” The Lord opened her heart that she “attended unto the things which were spoken” by His young servant.
Very shortly afterward, a notice posted on the tightly closed tent read: “Gypsy Sarah will tell no more fortunes.”
She lived to testify for several years, by life and word, that she was truly “born again.” The harsh, rued face softened wonderfully, and her voice lost its harshness. One and another would seek out the old won and beg her to foretell their future. But calmly she would answer: “Gypsy Sarah don’t tell fortunes now. You tell your mother she is doing something better now—that is, learning about Jesus,” or, “Nay, sir, it’s about God I’ll tell you, and nothing else now. And let who will, come, and gladly I’ll tell them what He’s done for a poor sinner like me. I’ve told them lies before, now I speak God’s truth.”
ML-07/26/1964