Today the Savior Calls

Today the Savior Calls Lyrics

Author: Samuel Francis Smith

1 Today the Savior calls:
Ye wand’rers, come;
O ye benighted souls,
Why longer roam?

2 Today the Savior calls:
O listen now!
Within these sacred walls
To Jesus bow.

3 Today the Savior calls:
For refuge fly;
The storm of justice falls,
And death is nigh.

4 The Spirit calls today:
Yield to his pow’r;
O grieve him not away;
‘Tis mercy’s hour.

Today the Savior Calls Hymn Story

“Today the Savior calls” is a hymn that was written by Samuel Francis Smith in 1831. It is one of those songs that you usually hear at the end of a meeting.

This song is also famous for its association with Mr. Dwight L Moody’s Chicago meetings just before the famous Chicago fires of 1871.

Dwight Moody had been preaching on bible characters and decided to devote the sermons for six successive Sunday nights to the Life of Christ.

On the first Sunday night, October 8,1871 he preached to the largest congregation he had ever preached to i Chicago on the Trial before Pilate. His focus was on Matthew 27:22, “What shall I do with Jesus which is called Christ?” He finished he sermon by saying, ” I wish you would take this text home with you, and turn it over in your minds during the week, and next Sabbath we will come to Calvary and the Cross, and we will decide what to do with Jesus of Nazareth!”

Later Moody would call this one of the greatest mistakes of his life. He said, “I have never seen that congregation again!”

After finishing his preaching Dwight Moody callee on Ira D Sankey to sing, “Today the Savior calls”.

The last verse to be sung was the third verse before Ira’s voice was drowned out by the fire engines rushing to put out the fires.

During that great fire of Chicago, even the meeting hall got burnt down.

Over one thousand people died in Chicago, and it is possible that some who attended Moody’s meeting are in that number of the dead.