D. L. Moody

Front matter

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Library of Che Theological Seminary PRINCETON - NEW JERSEY of zB Ds FROM THE LIBRARY OF ROBERT ELLIOTT SPEER | see | BY (3785) .M7? M66 .1930 |

Chapter I

““A MAN’S life should never be written while he is living. What is important is how a man ends, not how he begins.” In these words D. L. Moody replied to a request that he should consent to his biography being prepared during his life. But the end is more readily interpreted against the background of early experiences.

Dwight Lyman Moody was born February 5, 1837. To those who attach great importance to heredity and would trace anything remarkable to the transmitted gifts of distinguished forbears, Moody’s genealogy is unproductive. Beyond the communities in which his ancestors lived for seven generations in the Connecticut Valley, their names were unknown.

The Moody family in Massachusetts 1s descended from John Moody, who, at the age of forty, came to Roxbury in 1633. According to early colonial records, ‘he was the second son of George Moody of Moulton, County of Suffolk (England), who was famous for his good housekeeping and plain dealing.” Governor Winthrop makes the following quaint allusion to him:

Two men, servants of one Moody, of Roxbury, returning in a boat from the windmill, struck upon the oyster bank. They went out to gather oysters, and not making fast their boat, when the flood came, it floated away, and they were both drowned, although they might have waded out on either side;

4 Divan ho OADIx but it was an evident judgment of God upon them, for they were wicked persons. One of them, a little before, being reproved for his lewdness, and put in mind of hell, answered, that if hell were ten times hotter, he had rather be there than serve his master.

Lest this uncomplimentary remark might seem prejudicial to the character of the colonist, the Governor added:

The occasion was because the servant had bound himself for divers years, and saw, if he had been at liberty, he might have had greater wages, though otherwise his master used him very well.

In 1635, according to Governor Winthrop, there was a migration from the Bay State Colony to the Connecticut Valley. “About sixty men, women and little children went by land toward Connecticut with their cows, horses, and swine and, after a tedious and a difficult journey, arrived safe.” In the Ancient Burying Ground of Hartford a monument to the memory of these original proprietors includes the name of John Moody, and an early plot of the city also indicates his home lot.

The Puritans had sterling qualities. Sacrifices for their views had been great. It was natural, therefore, that they should zealously guard that which they had so dearly bought. Thus it came about. that these stalwart men were among those who made vices of their virtues, and strength of convictions was not tempered by breadth of sympathy with opposing beliefs. Soon dissension occurred among the Hartford colonists and these “differences in the churches of Hartford and Wethersfield were the principal cause of the settlement of Hadley.” Among the settlers of this new colony of 1660 was Samuel Moody, son of John Moody. Quite possibly the young man was not altogether indifferent to the benefits which the fertile valley offered. These pioneers sometimes found religious convictions coincided with natural advantages.

For years Northfield was the northerly outpost of civilization in New England. The early pioneers, pushing up the Connecticut from Saybrook and Hartford, founded Springfield, Northampton, Hadley and Deerfield. In 1673 a group of daring spirits obtained a grant for the town of Northfield. They were chiefly young men from Northampton, to whom danger gave a zest to life.

The founding of a new plantation by a small colony, on a frontier so far from help was a bold push [says the historian of Northfield]. Deerfield, the nearest English settlement, planted only two years before, was sixteen miles distant, and intercommunication was difficult. Hadley, to which they must look in case of need, was thirty miles away. In other directions, Brookfield was forty-five miles, Lancaster was sixty and Groton was sixty-five miles. All within this wide circle was wilderness. .

The hostility of the Indians made the first efforts for a permanent settlement abortive, and not until 1685 was another attempt made. For the next few years the outcome was uncertain. Indian massacres in neighboring towns and frequent ambushes where a solitary wayfarer was intercepted, made life hazardous for those early settlers. But the meadowlands on the river banks offered rich rewards to the venturesome and gave promise of great returns for their labors. The recent massacres in Hadley and Deerfield made real their peril, but the threatened dangers of Indian cruelty deterred neither the men nor the women.

The early experiences of the Moody family were almost paralleled by the descendants of William Holton, who, at the age of twenty-three, came from England in 1634. Settling in Hartford, he too was probably among the dis-

5 va Di LOMOODY sidents; for about the same time Samuel Moody moved to Hadley, his neighbor William Holton moved to Northampton, nearly opposite Hadley on the western side of the Connecticut River. Early in the eighteenth century his grandson became one of the settlers in Northfield. For six generations the family has occupied the land acquired by grant.

It was toward the end of the eighteenth century that Isaiah Moody, a direct descendant of Samuel, also moved to Northfield from Hadley. The historian of Northfield tersely records, ““He was by trade a brick mason; he came to Northfield about 1796, his whole fortune being the horse he rode and his kit of tools in a bag; died February 20, 1835.” It was his son Edwin, born November 1, 1800, who married Betsey Holton. Thus in the sixth generation, the families once neighbors in Hartford are again united. Dwight Lyman Moody was the sixth child by this union.

Isaiah, Noah, Lemuel, Ebenezer and Samuel are typical names chosen for the succeeding generations of Moody’s forbears. They testify to the old Puritan traditions inherited by both the Moodys and the Holtons. The marriage of Edwin Moody and Betsey Holton was on January 3, 1828. The groom was twenty-eight and the bride twenty-three. They established their home in a little cottage adjoining the dwelling of the Moody family. Little is known of their early married life but it may be assumed that it did not differ from that of their neighbors. Edwin Moody continued working at his trade as a brick mason which, in those primitive times, not only consisted of building the houses and chimneys but of making the bricks as well.

Edwin Moody was apparently improvident, openhanded and socially inclined. Spending freely, he became seriously involved so that he mortgaged the home and assumed other obligations. At the very time of Dwight’s

Monument to Early Settlers of Hartford

DwhL. MOODY 7 birth the straitened circumstances of the family were the subject of anxiety to relatives. A letter from a brother-in-law in Columbus, Georgia, in 1838, in the quaintly formal style of the day counsels thus:

E. Moopy, Esa.

Dear Sir: Your embarrassing condition is weighing deeply upon your mind and that, however driven may be your pecuniary difficulties, remember that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a man, thus ashamed, to extract himself

while he remains in your section of the country. Taking this view of things I have thought proper to proffer to you my aid and advice as regarding your future movement in life. How far my proffered aid and advice may meet your views subsequent events can only show. I shall make no mention of past transactions. I shall write as I feel. Hope everything will be reciprocal. In the first place you have already a large family. They are the pride of your heart and the apple of your eye and in them are concentrated all your affection. All your future exertions and energies are of course enlisted for their present and future welfare. Yes, and even let you double your diligence and turn where you now are, it will be ever difficult for you to furnish them with the most common necessities of life, and keep even with the world. Now would it not be best for you to save what you can out of the wreck of all your affairs and come south and commence new? Or if you cannot bring your family this fall, come out yourself and spend the winter. You can send money home to support them. The country is as healthy as any portion of the northern states and lands fertile and, in short, no finer country in the world—besides, we can make ourselves in as easy circumstances as one could wish in a reasonable time by economy and industry. It is not worth your while to grieve over misfortunes and past events. Blot them from your memory. Be of good cheer and your pathway may yet be strewn with roses of the brightest hue.

But associations were too strong for the New Englander and the advice was not taken. The strain of the anxiety told upon his constitution, however, for without a moment’s warning, at the age of forty-one, he died. His widow was left with the care of seven children and within a month the birth of twins brought an added burden.

At thirty-six years of age, with an impoverished farm heavily mortgaged, and all available chattels seized by creditors, she resolutely applied herself to the task of providing for the little family. Her dower rights secured to her the home itself, otherwise she would have been without a roof over her head.

That she received no help from her family or her husband’s family was due in part to their own limited circumstances. But no word of criticism ever came from her. Among the letters which she preserved for more than half a century were two from her husband’s sisters. If Edwin Moody did not act upon her husband’s counsel to go to Georgia, the first sister would at least express her pity.

I can assure you, dear sister [she wrote], that you and your little flock around you are constantly in my mind and it would relieve my anxiety in a great measure if I could only know that you are made comfortable and your children had good homes, if obliged to be separated from you. No doubt it will be a great trial for you to part with your little ones; but our wise Providence orders everything for the best and you must bear your afflicted calamities with

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Christian fortitude which is the only way to insure happiness in this world and the world to come.

The other sister grieves “to think of your distressed situation—will you be obliged to give up the house and lot? I hope not, but I fear the worst—almost one year has gone since you were called to follow the remains of him who is dearer to you than all earthly things.”

Chapter II

Less than a century had intervened between the wild unsettled days and the birth of D. L. Moody. It was a primitive community in which he grew up. The railways had not superseded the stagecoach, and childhood memories recalled the annual two-day trip the father made to Boston where he traded the fruits of farm labors and his wife’s homely merchandise. There were still those living who could remember the struggles for national independence and even the days of the French and Indian wals.

New England has ever been deemed conservative, and in the first half of the nineteenth century changes were slow. While the dangers of former years no longer threatened, in other respects life continued to be primitive during Moody’s youth.

But if there was little contact with the outside world, life had its compensations. Both economically and socially the village was self-sufficing. Necessities were simple and self-provided, and luxuries were few. If social events were infrequent, they were more appreciated on the occasions when they were enjoyed and neighborly intercourse was a pleasing substitute for tedious formalities. If life was no sinecure and “earning a living” the common lot of all, still youth knew how to find fellowship in work, and native genius could find opportunity for expression.

Thus, young Moody’s training began in the school of adversity. To be sure, riches and poverty are relative terms. In a community not far removed from pioneer

DL MO0.0 DY 11 days none were rich. The affluence of the prosperous was potential, measured in land to be cultivated and cattle to be cared for. Though the Moody family were poorer than most of their neighbors, they lived where hardships were the common lot of all. But Moody was endowed with the intangible riches which inhere in the individual—health of body and mind, resourcefulness and self-reliance, habits of industry and thrift, and ideals which resulted from hard discipline. The counsel of a mother who, by example and precept, wisely trained her children and at the same time indicated the nobility of unselfish service for others, was a blessing none can measure. Throughout his life Moody looked on wastefulness and laziness with no leniency.

Early Puritan traditions were strictly observed. The Sabbath was kept from Saturday at sunset to sunset on Sunday. With great regularity Widow Moody’s little family, under the guidance of the two older children, trudged a mile and a half to the village church to attend the two regular services and the Sunday school that followed the morning worship. From this requirement there was no appeal, no matter how hard the seats or how long the discourse.

Total abstinence was not commonly practiced in rural New England. Hard cider was a popular drink and in common use. The father had probably followed the congenial custom in his taste for the social glass, and rumor confirms this assumption. But from the time of his death, the widow was an uncompromising enemy of alcohol even in its mildest forms.

Discipline was enforced in the old-fashioned way; there was no sparing of the rod. One so heavily burdened could not adopt the gentler methods in vogue later. Implicit, unquestioning obedience was as necessary in the nature of the case as it was beneficial in the building of character. Truthfulness and punctilious com-

12 DiMGtyM O.O Dy pliance in fulfilling an agreement were emphasized in the training of the young people. On one occasion Moody had agreed to work for a neighbor. The compact included board as well as wages. But a growing boy’s appetite was not easily satisfied, and he complained to his mother of the quality and inadequacy of his meals. There was only one question asked and that was, “Did you agree?” He had to acknowledge that he had, and there was no escape until the contract was fulfilled.

But if the mother was a strict disciplinarian and severe in the insistence upon the simple virtues and regulations of the house, she was both wise and tender-hearted, teaching self-denial and sacrifice. Moody often related an instance of this which impressed him for life. A beggar came to the door in search of food, and his request was submitted to the children and determined by vote. Hach gave a part of his own evening meal. Often the mother yielded her personal comfort that the children might enjoy themselves after their own fashion. At the end of an arduous day of household duties comprising not only the care of the home but also the weaving of cloth, the making of clothes and the knitting of socks, she let boisterous pranks and hilarious laughter reign unchecked; and, as though her own family were not enough, neighbors’ children shared in the mirthful celebrations. Tedious chores were often seen as opportunities for sport, and a novel means of shelling corn was found in hurtling it down the stairs. Her great objective was to strengthen home ties by associating in the minds of her boys and girls the memories of happy fellowship. In this, she believed, would be found a deterrent from evil associations in after life and a bulwark against temptation.

Chapter III

Moopy’s early religious education was meager, and it was largely because of the family misfortunes that he received any at all. At least they were instrumental in bringing about the regular church attendance of the children. Edwin Moody was not strict in his church worship and such associations were not introduced as a tradition into his home. But he died when Dwight was only four years of age. Sorrow and adversity brought to the young widow a sense of need that could be met only by drawing on spiritual resources. In her own youth she had received little training, although she probably followed the common social custom and attended church with some degree of regularity. Betsey Hodges, her mother, is reputed to have been religiously inclined. However that may be, Moody’s own mother in those early days seems to have found her creed in the austerities of Puritan ethics and a simple belief in God. She apparently had not “experienced religion” in her youth. If challenged to give expression to her faith, she would have probably replied in words to this effect, “Trust in God and do right”; or possibly in the phrase of the prophet Micah, “To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” Like the father of Phillips Brooks of Unitarian upbringing, Betsey Holton was “not given to introvertiveness or contemplation, nor seeking the assurance of an inward experience.” She was rather an exponent of the gospel of the secular life, faithful in the performance of duty, quick to recognize all obligations. She, too, had “sympathy for all things human.”

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But whatever may have been the observances of early girlhood, from the time of her marriage church attendance had not been maintained. Parental cares made prior claims, and the inclination could not have been followed even if it had been present.

The death of her husband changed all this, however, and then it was that the faithful young pastor of the church of her fathers, liberal in doctrine but truly imbued with the teaching of Christ, visited the widow and the fatherless not alone with spiritual comfort but with material help which the children could more easily comprehend. To his dying day Moody revered the memory of this true shepherd of God, Reverend Oliver Capen Everett. The baptism of all the Moody children is due to his diligent care. When asked in later life if the ordinance at the hands of the Unitarian satisfied him, Moody replied, “I found I was baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. I couldn’t see that anyone could add to this.” Thus it was that the children became regular church attendants. The overburdened mother then probably felt her duty fully met in mgr: her children to church and Sunday school.

But despite this discipline, young Moody knew otitis of the Bible and had no conception of evangelical Christianity. He related an occasion of great embarrassment to him when at the age of seventeen he went to Boston and became a member of a Bible class. On being asked to read a verse from Daniel, he was at a loss to know whether it was in the Old Testament or the New. That a youth reared within the church and in a nominal Christian home should be so deficient needs some explanation. To do this requires a description of conditions in the Congregational church of New England in the early years of the nineteenth century. _

The early settlers in Massachusetts brought with them their prejudices as well as their principles. The spirit

D3 VEO.O. D ¥ 15 of Reformation was still strong among them, and they cherished deep aversion to anything which, in their judgment, savored of Roman Catholic practices. Even the Church of England they regarded with grave misgivings. Doctor Chauncey prayed at a funeral for the first time in Boston in 1766, the practice having been viewed previously as a Roman Catholic custom. For the same reason Christmas and Easter were not generally observed, and the belief continued in rural communities as late as 1870. The memory of the abuses and corruptions in the established Church of England, at the time the early settlers left the homeland, long persisted.

They firmly believed that in a Christian civilization church and state were inseparable, and they attempted to establish a theocracy in their new homes. The Congregational polity was adopted as their state religion; final authority in doctrine and practice they found in a literal interpretation of the Scriptures. Apparently, however, they seemed to have been arrested in the study of God’s dealing with mankind in the books of the Old Testament, and great emphasis was laid upon divine austerity. The appeal to fear was most commonly made to bring men to a public profession of faith.

This is clearly evident in the preaching of the latter part of the eighteenth century. The purport of Jonathan Edwards’ famous Enfield sermon, when strong men quailed, was the future torment of those without faith. The preacher here portrayed a deity vindictive and vengeful. In upholding his views of divine sovereignty and foreordination, Edwards unwittingly called in question the integrity of God’s moral character. If penitent sinners sought forgiveness, “God will not hold himself obliged to show mercy at last,’ and this in spite of repeated promises of pardon. The joyous note was lacking, for while man was always held up as essentially vile, God was proclaimed as far distant and severe. Such

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teaching was predominantly depressing and discouraging. In their abhorrence of abuses in the state church in England and of the irreligious life of some of its leaders, these Massachusetts theologians were likewise guilty of distorting sacred truth. Revolting from frivolity, they issued in gloom and sometimes even in hypocrisy.

But extremes engender extremes. Again a revulsion from the somber note occurred. There had been among the early settlers some who had sojourned in Holland where Socinianism, which questioned the Trinitarian doctrine, was beginning to make its impress. There were others who had come under the influence of Emlyn in England; he taught that Christ was not coequal with God but nevertheless was to be worshiped as a divine being. Those who sympathized with the beliefs of the Dutch Socinians and of Emlyn were for a long time numerically weak, but among the more devout New Testament students their views exercised an ever increasing influence. Especially was this true in Boston in the early years of the nineteenth century; and soon William Ellery Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Theodore Parker, James Freeman Clark and Wendell Phillips became protagonists of this new liberalism and opponents of traditions. They fearlessly denounced slavery as a social evil even in face of a conservative element which upheld it on Scriptural grounds. In nobility of character they were outstanding and their brilliant intellectual attainments and oratorical powers drew large numbers.

It is not surprising that, choosing between the older teaching of the nature of God and the New Testament revelation, the younger ministers and theological students should acclaim liberalism. Out of twenty-four “Heralds of a Liberal Faith,” designated as prophets by Reverend Samuel A. Elliott, all but three graduated from Harvard. So rapidly had this cause grown that it was

DD 2B) NO. OLD Y 17 said only one minister in Boston adhered to the Calvinistic position, while at Harvard College all the talented young men were Unitarian, and orthodox views were generally ridiculed.

The organization of the Congregational church, with each body of worshipers an independent and self-governing group, made possible the changes of belief without any schism. In most churches a covenant was entered on joining the fellowship, the Westminster confession being assumed but not definitely subscribed to. Naturally when beliefs were altered gradually, the change came about without any alteration in the life of the church in its association with other churches.

Soon the newer views were disseminated throughout the churches in the rural communities. In taking country charges the younger ministers led their hearers to adopt their attitudes, and thus Congregational churches in Massachusetts became Unitarian in doctrine. There were staunch adherents to the traditional teachings of their fathers in some places, and these dissidents broke from the fellowship of the parish and formed Trinitarian churches, but for the most part the older families remained in the place of worship in which their fathers had been reared. Those who seceded paid dearly for their convictions, for, in 1820, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts ordered judgment in favor of the Unitarian churches which involved property and funds to the value of six hundred thousand dollars.

At first the liberals adopted the name of Catholic Christians; and, claiming the utmost latitude in belief, they rejected all historic creeds. It ensued that there was no common expression of faith and widely divergent views were held by those who belonged to the same body.

Among the more conservative, William Ellery Channing was accorded a position of great influence. His loyalty to evangelical faith may be judged from his public

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utterances. He ascribed to Jesus Christ a unique position, subordinate to God the Father but more than man; He existed before the world; He literally came from heaven to save our race; He sustains other offices than those of a teacher and witness to the Truth; He still acts for our benefit and is our intercessor with the Father. He affirmed:

The truth of Christianity is a growing evidence. When we begin our enquiries into the truth of Christianity, we are impressed with the miraculous works of Christ, those exertions of divine power which prove that the Father was in him, that he was commissioned from heaven. In proportion as we attend to the subject, a new source of evidence springs up and brings new conviction to our minds. In the moral character of Jesus we see a miracle more striking than the most stupendous work of a physical nature. We see in a brighter and clearer light, the impressions and evidence of a sincere, upright, devout and most benevolent heart. We see a character most original and yet most consistent; such as the evangelists could never have feigned, such as imposters would never have imagined, but which is exactly suited to the wants and miseries of man, and to our highest conceptions of the Divinity.

Thus the movement which had its inception in an attempt to vindicate the character of God and to protest against early Puritan theology made a metaphysical distinction between the deity and divinity of Christ.

But soon the liberals came to a parting of the ways. The more radical leaders were not satisfied with the evangelical position of Channing; and Ralph Waldo Emerson and Theodore Parker, who became known as Transcendentalists, avowed a disbelief in the views held heretofore and a schism grew up among themselves. ‘““The

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Transcendentalists substituted ethical culture for revealed religion, and for a time the momentum of early Christian training carried the adherents of this new cult: Puritan earnestness had not died out; the sense of responsibility was as lively as ever—to earn one’s living by honest labor; to be pure, upright, charitable; to be a good son, father, citizen—these things were essential to the wellbeing of society, and to that of the individual as part of it; but they awakened no enthusiasm, gave no scope for self-devotion, since the end in view, however desirable, came short of the ultimate and total welfare of the individual.”

It was in the transitional period from the conservatism of Channing to the radical school of his successors that Moody passed his youth. The Moody and Holton families had maintained their associations with the church of their fathers which had accepted the Unitarian position. The controversial questions absorbing the ministry made no appeal to young Moody. Aggressive propaganda for liberalism and apologetics for the newer attitudes apparently failed to stir his interest. In his religious background, therefore, there was no doctrinal teaching in the Christian faith.

Educational opportunities were similarly limited. Each community had the church and school which were the first provisions made by the early settlers in Massachusetts. As homes were established, “little red schoolhouses” were to be found scattered throughout rural districts. ‘There in one room, under the instruction of an untrained teacher, children of every age and degree of ability learned the rudiments. School desks and seats were made for two occupants and succeeding generations left roughly carved emblems and initials. In cold weather a large wood stove, often red-hot, baked those close by, while others in remote parts of the room felt the chill of the atmosphere through the shrunken window frames.

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Furthermore, the terms were not uniform. If the annual town meeting failed to make adequate provision for three full terms, the school sessions were accordingly shortened. Older students often failed to receive consecutive teaching by being forced to leave before the close of the term to work on farms.

One of Moody’s earliest ventures was to drive a neighbor’s cows to pasture in the morning and to bring them home after school. He received one cent a week.

In the face of such hardships young Moody received his early and his only systematic schooling. All in all it probably lasted for eight years—from the time he was five until he was thirteen. The reputation of his lively sense of humor and of his combined energy and resourcefulness long lingered. It accorded him a leadership among the boys of his own age. His was the conceiving and directing spirit of many an inventive escapade which in after years he would recount with genuine relish. The fun of his pranks were well worth the double thrashing which surely followed from teacher and parent.