Into the tent where a gypsy boy lay

Into the tent where a gypsy boy lay. Mary Bridges Canedy Slade* (1826-1882).  This touching hymn is frequently known, from the first line of the refrain, as ‘Tell it again’:  Tell it again! Tell it again! Salvation’s story repeat o’er and o’er.Till none can say of the children of men,‘Nobody ever has told me before.’  The hymn is said to have been based on a story from England of a missionary visiting a poor dying boy in a romany camp. Slade told the story with effective economy, but (naturally in the 1970s) used the word ‘gypsy', which is no longer acceptable). She used the story to encourage efforts to reach the marginalised and outcasts of society.  There were four stanzas:  Into the...