Moody: his words, work, and workers. Comprising his Bible portraits; his outlines of doctrine, as given in his most popular and effective sermons, Bible readings, and addresses. Sketches of his co-workers, Messrs. Sankey, Bliss, Whittle, Sawyer, and others; and an account of the gospel temperance revival, with thrilling experiences of converted inebriates

Front matter

ORD S, WORK!

$0:

a

Introduction

§LL the Gospel needs is to be told. Once out, it achieves its own victories. All the advance it has made in the centuries has been made by its inherent power, and the work of the Christians of to-day is by all agencies to tell the Good News, to scatter the Clad Tidings.

A forward movement has been made in the labors, experiences, and successes of Mr. Moody- The sum of his influence is not confined to the audiences that gather within the sound of his voice. A fire on the summit of a promontory dues more than consume the fagots with which it is fed; it illumines the valley, and casts its guiding ray far out over the breakers. Mr. Moody, seizing upon the great cities of the English-speaking peoples, has cast his light from these promontories down into the neighboring valleys, and out over the perilous coasts and on to the stormy sea. The people who read, as well as those who hear, are recipients of his reflected light. The workers who rally around him, and the stronger workers who spring up in his path to imitate his example and disseminate his influence, are parts of his work. The newspapers are one section of his platform. Presses are a sort of speaking-tube to project his accents in the- hearts of other thousands.

Publishers shun volumes of sermons which it is difficult to push out: they seem possessed of the instinct of inactivity. To this rule the volumes of Mr. Moody's sermons are exceptions ; not because he omits the Rev. from his name, nor that his sayings are not called sermons; it is rather that he makes his discourses sparkle and shine from end to end with the truths that the (march wants, and the world needs to hear.

Hi-, machine bees bespeak genius. They were so made

4 Introduction.

and so wound up that one could not distinguish them from the natural bees when all crowded and hopped about together in front of the hive. A stranger, required to distinguish between them, dropped a little honey down among them : the read bees dashed after it ; the machine bees buzzed and crawled about as before. So the Gospel is made to distinguish the true from the machine Christians.

I'iscourses full of such hits cannot fail to have readers.

It is the peculiarity of the great military leader of our time that he has what his great companion in arms calls " the instinct of victory," by which " he divines the precise moment for the decisive blow." He seems "inattentive to minor points on the field, knowing that if the main points are held the others can be easily retaken." This is a crude outside type of Mr. Moody's style of usefulness. He has "///," instinct of victory" He knows when to strike the decisive blow. With him it is inspiration, the reception of that wisdom which is promised. to them that ask. He seems "inattentive to minor points on the field ; " with him it is a comprehension of the essential points for the world's salvation, and a simple conviction that the others will easily and speedily drop into their proper places and receive all necessary attention.

The signs of Mr. Moody's power are too numerous to be doubted. His name is familiar to every English-hearing ear; lie discourses and exhorts in many modern languages ; more space in the dispatches and reports of the secular press is given to him than is given to any other living teacher; vast auditoriums are built by the great cities to make for him a temporary abode ; he rallies a great army of co-workers : all these things demonstrate his alliance with the real forces of the world.

Lai her bequeathed to us the Reformation, Wesley bequeathed Methodism, Mr. Moody is destined to leave to mankind the Young Men's Christian Association, in which he has been chiefly trained, and whose leader and patron he has now < ome to be.

Introduction. 5

This Association means a baptism of responsibility and of labor upon the laymen of the Churches.

The grand results of Mr. Moody's work are: —

i. The salvation of many thousands of precious souls.

2. The re-enthronement of the supernatural power of the Gospel as a practical answer to the impious prayer-test challenge of science.

3. The awakening of believers to new achievements.

4. The unification of Protestantism.

5. The exaltation of the vital doctrines of the Calvinistic Churches to the practical retirement of the old Five Points.

6. The rendering ubiquitous the vital truths and practices of Arminianism, without the embarrassment of their dogmatic projection.

7. The transforming of the old uniform of the saint into the business dress of the believer, so that Christianity is at home every-where.

8. The promulgation of the priesfhood of believers so far as to require them to tell the story of the cross.

In projecting a great character and a great life-work at least two things are necessary : first, the character and work itself. both genuine and vast ; second, some just, able, and equally inspired historian to arrange, crystallize, and transfigure the man and his doings.

This publication is carefully edited by Rev. W. II. Daniels, who is so widely and favorably known through his former book entitled " D. I.. Moody and his Work." The present volume has received the utmost care to perfect it and make it available for permanent usefulness. The editor has carefully compared, arranged, and classified Mr. Moody's theology, so as to give it shape and consistency. It almost deserves the name of a system. If it were as new as it is powerful it would revolutionize the world ; as it is, it only reinforces the old teaching, as well as the old methods, of apostolic evangelism.

Mr. Moody's work and character are in competent hands. Mr. Daniels seems called of God to complete, extend, and perpetuate this work of the great evangelist, i than is

6 Introduction.

Mr. Moody called to his part of the ultimate result : his book, and especially this one, must live and repeat the good news to several generations and to many millions.

A portion of the book is devoted to some of the noble Workers that have grown out of this great movement. Of course there is but one Moody ; but it is heroic to stand in one's lot and do one's best. This service God is honoring. A sorrowful interest will be added to the work by the sad fate of Mr. P. P. Bliss, and the melody of his music will linger among the devout long after his memory has faded away.

A few pages are given to another work of absorbing interest, that is destined to increase until it fills the whole earth — that work is the Christian Temperance movement, started and being carried forward principally by women, who have the sympathy to feel for these lost multitudes, and the courage to undertake their recovery. In the foreground of this picture is Miss Frances E. Willard. Her great gifts as a speaker, her abilities on' the platform, her zeal in this work among drunken men and abandoned women, her maturing experience, and her association with Mr. Moody in directing this especial branch of the Revival, all combine to give this work increased promise of permanency, and add to this volume an, interest and attractiveness not otherwise secured.

This book, put forth as an incarnation of the Gospel of Mercy in every-day life, goes to the millions who need it, and we bespeak for it the attention of the whole people.

C. H. Fowler.

Office ok The Christian Advocate, New York, April 10, 1877.

Contents

Introduction, by Rev. C. H. Fowler, D.D., LL.D.

Part I

Life and Labors <>f I). L. Moody

Pago

Page

Early Lifo — Northfield ami Boston 10

Chicago— Sunday-school Work... 18 Mr. Moody with the Young Men's

Christian Association 31

Mr. Moody's Bible Work 38

Moody and Sankey in Great Britain and Ireland 41

Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and

New' York 50

Chicago and Boston 55

PART II. Bible Portraits

The Prophet "Daniel 65

Major-General Naaman 91

Mcphiboshetb 97

The Penitent Thief. 102

The Character of Lot 115

Cornelius 123

The Prodigal Son 126

Noah 138

Abraham 146

Elijah 153

Jacob 160

Joshua 166

The Pharisee and tho Publican. . . 177

John the Baptist 184

Barabhas 188

The Worldly Wise Man 190

The Incurables DC

The Widow of Nain

The Good Samaritan

Saul of Tarsus

Some Blind Men

How to < Jure it Blind Man

The Lame Man Healed

Simon Petor

Zaeehcus 'J47

Mary of Bethany 250

•JOS.

217 227 283 286 241

PART III. Outlines of Bible Doctrine

Mr. Moody's Theology

God —

His Love

His Power

Jesus Christ: His Character and Offices —

Prophecies Concerning

Announcement of his Birth..

The Divinity of Christ

What Think Ye of Christ I...

Jesus the Messiah

Temptations of Christ

■-'77

■J sO

■_'- 1

I]

Jesus Christ — (Continued.)

Miracles of Christ 292

Christ the Refuge 994

The Bedeemer 297

The Resurrectionwrf Christ... 312

Jesus the Anointed 315

Christ the Saviour 388

t Ihriat the Keeper 884

Christ the Light 886

The G 1 Shepherd 887

Seeking the Lost Sheep 888

The Restorer 344

Contexts.

Outlines of Bible Doctrine — {Continued.)

Page

Jests Christ — (Continued.)

Plenty and Safety with Christ. 350 Feeding the Multitude— The

Bread of Life 351

The Water of Life 355

How to Find the Thirsty Ones 359

The Light of the World 360

The Resurrection and the Life 362

The Holy Spirit—

The Person ofthe Holy Ghost. 365

The Work of the Spirit 372

Conviction 374

Our Leader 376

A Witness for Christ 380

Indwelling ofthe Holy Spirit. 383

Regeneration 385

Fruits of the Spirit 3oo

The Inspbrer of Prophecy and Prayer 394

Page

The Holy Spirit — (Continued.)

The Sword of the Spirit . 395

Baptism ofthe Holy Spirit for

Service 396

Emblems of the Spirit 4o:>

Grieving the Holy Spirit 4'»4

The Sin against the Holy Ghost 4<>7

Sin and Salvation —

Man a Failure 416

"Tckel" 414

Law and Grace 421

Free Salvation 426

Righteousness First 430

Sermon to Fallen Women 433

How to he Saved 4-12

Last Things —

Heaven 448

Hell 457

The Return of our Lord 467

Part IV

Mr. Moody's Co-Workers.

"Bishop" Moody 479

J™ D. Sankey. 482

Mr. and Mrs. P. P. Bliss 489

Memorial Services ■ 491

1). W. Whittle 495

Charles M. Morton 500

Miss Emelinc Drver 503

Rev. W. J. Erdman 505

Major J. 11. Cole 506

Miss Frances F. Willard, A.M... . 508

George C. Stebbins 510

Charles W. Sawyer 511

PART Y.

The Gospel Temperance Revival.

A New Departure 513 I The Lost One Found 518

The Devil Cast Out 516 I " Reconstructed Men " 523

111 ii^ti'ktioi\$.

Portrait or D. L. Moody Frontispiece.

The Old Farm House To face page 9

View from the Old Homestead " 11

Mr. Moody's Tabernacle, Chicago 21

Free Church Assembly Hall, Edinburgh " 43

Mi:. Moooy Preaching in the Opera House, Haymarket. . " 49

Depot Church, Philadelphia 52

Interior of Chicago Taijeknaci.e " 253

Boston Tabernacle " 365

Portrait of Ira 1). Sankey " 482

Portrait? or Mi:, and Mrs. I'. P. Bliss 489 moody:

HIS WORDS, WORK. AND WORKERS.

Part I

LIFE AND LABORS OF I). L. MOODY.

.qjjrT is well known that Air. Moody has always opposed ^ the publication of his life, for which he privately gives this reason : —

" Some time ago God gave me a great blessing, and after that I felt as if I must walk very softly or else I should lose it. Of myself, I felt that I amounted to nothing, and it seemed to me that I must keep myself out of sight. There are so many men and women who are getting people to write their lives, just to make themselves famous, that I determined to have nothing to do with any such vanity."

This impression, which is a sufficient reason why Mr. Moody should take no steps towards publishing his own life, is by no means a commandment against the doing of that work by others. It is the privilege of those who are asked to accept him as a religious teacher to impure into the steps by which he has come to this greatness and success : his life and record form a prominent part of the Christian literature of the time, and are the rightful possession of the Church and the world. God has taken this man away from himself, and given him to his people as a leader and helper in his name ; this sketch of the life of the great lay evangelist is, therefore, a rightful contribution to current Christian biog- 1* io Moody: his Words — Work — Workers.

raphy; especially as many of the fads and incidents therein have been gathered from his own frequent public references to himself and the various members of his household; and from a former work by the same hand, the materials for which were largely furnished by Mr. Moody's nearest relatives, and his co-workers, both in America and Great Britain.

EARLY LIFE— NORTHFIELD AND BOSTON.

Of the nine children born to Edwin, and Betsy Holton Moody — seven sons and two daughters — Dwight Lyman is the sixth; born on the fifth day of February, 1837, in the town of Northfield, Massachusetts. His mother, a woman of the old heroic blood of New England, is a descendant, in the fifth generation, from William Holton, one of the first settlers of the plantation of Northfield, which was purchased of the Indians in 1673, and laid out by a committee of the General Council of Massachusetts, of which committee the said Holton was a member.

Mrs. Moody, still active and happy under the burden of seventy winters, visited her son during the great revival in New York, where her force of character and admirable manners were most highly appreciated. "Ah, my friend," said Rev. Dr. Cuyler to Mr. Moody, " it is easy enough to see where you got your vim and your hard common sense."

When Dwight was a child of four years of age his father suddenly died, leaving for the support of his widow and her seven children, of whom the oldest was but thirteen years of age, nothing but a little house on the mountain side, with an acre or two of land, and even this encumbered with debt.

A month after her husband's death another boy and girl were born. Some of her worldly-wise neighbors advised her to give away or bind out her children, all except the twin babies; but this she would not do. God. had endowed her with unusual strength, both of body and mind, and with a cheerful courage and a habit of looking on the bright side, as well as with humble trust in Dim who is the Father of the

Life and Labors of d. l. Moody. u

fatherless, and the God of the widow, she bravely lifted her burden of poverty and toil, and carried it patiently and hopefully through the long years, until her sons became her fortune, as they had been her burden and her care. The old-fashioned mansion of the Moody estate, with its ample barns and broad acres, is the result of patient and frugal toil through the days of small things, as well as of the larger enterprise of her sons grown to man's estate. Mr. Moody himself has done much to improve and beautify the old homestead, and near by has built himself a beautiful though unpretentious home, where in the summer time, when his annual revival campaigns are over, he is transformed into a quiet-looking farmer; giving enthusiastic attention to fine blooded stock, and new methods of culture and tillage; though spending a large proportion of his time with distinguished guests from England and America, who, in large numbers, delight to visit him in his breezy mountain home.

The Moodys were Unitarians, and, as fast as the children were old enough, they were sent to the Church of that order in the village a mile away, where the Rev. Mr. Everett was pastor. It must, however, be borne in mind that this was before the time of those notable heresies with which the Unitarian name in these days is so often associated. Pastor Everett believed in the Bible as the word of God, in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and the Saviour of all sinners who would try to save themselves. He also believed in the Sabbath, and in the Church and its sacraments. The Apostles' Creed would, doubtless, have been acceptable to him as a fair statement of Christian theology; but that other creed, named after Saint Athanasius, would have given him no little trouble.

This man was a faithful friend to the widow and her large family of little children. He would visit them betimes, cheer them up with some pleasant words, settle quarrels among the boys, give the little ones a bright piece of silver all around, and bid the mother keep on praying; telling her Coil would never forget her labor of love. At one time he took little

Dwight into his family to do errands and go to school — a work of charitv which, by all accounts, must have sorely tried his patience. The good man was often perplexed what to do with the boy, being forced to laugh at his pranks in spite of himself, when he felt his duty to be stern and severe.

But his chief instructor in religion, as well as in every thing else, was his mother. Great sorrow and years of toil and privation had drawn her heart very close to the Saviour, and when the care of her great family of little children grew so heavy as almost to overwhelm her, she learned to cast her burden on the Lord. Sometimes, when the boys were quarrelsome and rebellious, and the household was in utter confusion, she would go away to her own room and pray for wisdom and patience. "And when I would come back," said she, " they would all be good children again."

At the table the mother would repeat a text of Scripture or a verse of a hymn, and the children would say it in chorus after her. That table, as may well be supposed, was not always very well supplied; but the mother, though toiling day and night to feed and clothe her children, and not always knowing to-day where the food was to come from for to-morrow, kept up a brave heart and wore a cheerful face. The shadow of poverty and death was over them, but the love of the great Father above, and of the godly mother below, kept the little ones from want and gloom, and made their home a happy one in spite of all their misfortunes.

Among the rich inheritances of this poor boy were a vigorous constitution, boundless ambition and animal spirits, a will strong enough to break down all opposition, and pride which was all the time leading him to undertake things far beyond his years.

His mother says, " He used to think himself a man when he was only a boy."

He would usually obey his mother, but she is almost the only person in all the world who was ever able to manage him. There was nothing vicious in his disposition: he was ungovernable chiefly because he was a natural leader himself.

In the "Gospel Hymns and Sacred Songs '* there is a hymn commencing

" Free from the law, <> happy condition, "

which the English brethren used to say was a good description of Mr. Moody himself, so absolutely impossible did they find it to control him by any law of fashion, or policy, or even of churchly tradition. They always found his face set as a flint in the direction of what he felt to be his duty. One of his faithful co-workers, by way of apology for his inexpressible firmness, said: "Ah, well, 1 suppose people in Elijah's time used to think him just as stubborn and unmanageable as we think Mr. Moody to be." That intensity of will, whose natural basis was pride, being transformed by the Holy Spirit, found a new basis in conscience.

During his boyhood young Moody went through as many as a dozen terms at the little district school, but not much of its learning ever accumulated in him. A little reading — very little — still less of spelling, the simple rules of arithmetic, a trifle of geography, and the art of "speaking pieces/' comprised the sum total of his scholastic attainments previous to his seventeenth year.

» In his sermon on " \.d\v versus Grace," Mr. Moody gives this account of himself as a scholar: —

" At the school I used to go to when I was a boy, we had a teacher who believed in governing by law. He used to keep a rattan in his desk, and my back tingles now (shrugging his shoulders) as I think of it. But after awhile the notion got abroad among the people that a school might be governed by love, and the district was divided into what 1 might call the law party, and the grace party; the law party standing by the old schoolmaster, with his rattan, and the grace party wanting a teacher who could get along without punishing so much.

" After awhile the grace party got the upper hand, turned out the old master, ami hired a young lady to take his place. We all understood that there was to be no rattan that winter, and we looked forward to having the jolliest kind of a time. On the first morning the new teacher, whom I will call Miss Grace, opened the school with reading out of the Bible, and prayer. That was a new thing, and we didn't quite know what to make of it. She told us she didn't mean to keep order by punishment, but she hoped we would all be good children, for her sake as well as our own. This made us a little ashamed of the mischief we had meant to do, and every thing went on pretty well for a few days; but pretty soon I broke one of the rules, and Miss Grace said I was to stop that night after school. Now for the old rattan, said I to myself; it's coming now, after all. But when the scholars were all gone she came and sat down by me, and told me how sorry she was that I, who was one of the biggest boys, and might help her so much, was setting such a bad example to others, and making it so hard for her to get along with them. She said she loved us, and wanted to help us, and if we loved her we would obey her, and then every thing would go on well. There were tears in her eyes as she said this, and I didn't know what to make of it, for no teacher had ever talked that way to me before. I began to feel ashamed of myself for being so mean to any one who was so kind ; and after that she didn't have any more trouble with me, nor with any of the other scholars, either. She just took us out from under the Law and put us under Grace."

Dwight's last term of school was in the winter of his seventeenth year, when for the first time in his life he applied himself faithfully to study; but it was too late for him to become a scholar. The time had come when he felt called to the hard work of life, and now he must go out and boldly face the world. He had muscles like steel, and the courage of a young lion. He held the place of leader among the boys of his school, and as he looked out upon the world he had no other thought than that he was to be a leader every-where else. To obey or follow was not in him. In every emergency, a bold push aided by ready wit carried him over difficulties which would have seemed impassable to a wiser but

•

less courageous spirit. It- is said of him that if he came to a hard word in reading which he could not readily pronounce, he would not stoj) and try to spell it out, but make a rough guess what it might be from the sense of the passage, and pronounce at it ; or, if it was altogether out of his reach, he would invent a word which he thought might answer the purpose, and then read on all the faster, by way of hiding his mistake. %

The winter school being over, young Moody started for Boston, where his uncles, Messrs. Samuel and Lemuel Holton, gave him a situation as salesman in their boot and shoe store; and being fearful lest the young man should go to ruin in the great city they found a home for him in a Christian family, insisted on his regular attendance at the Mount Vernon Congregational Church and Sunday-school, and made him promise not to be out at night without their knowing where he was.

It may be imagined that his country life and his misuse of the country school had not fitted him to shine in the city. His pride and poverty kept him from feeling at home among the well-bred, well-dressed people to whom he was introduced, and for a time he was unhappy; but he steadily held to his purpose of conquering a place for himself high up in the circles of wealth and influence, feeling sure of ultimate success, tor which he labored night and day.

He was a sharp observer of human nature, quick to take advantage of every thing in his favor, always on the alert, and ready for any emergency. His pride did not admit of his asking too many questions, and. as the business was new to him, he was often in doubt about prices and qualities; but what he lacked in knowledge he would make up in shrewd guessing. His idea of business was a struggle with mankind, out of which the hardest heads and the sharpest wits were sure to come with the largest influence and the longest purse. The quiet manners of his uncles he could never learn, netdid he desire to learn them. He went about his duties in the store in much the same wav as he would have swung a scythe in a field of tangled clover, or broken a yoke of wild steers. If any one offended his sense of honor he would fly into fury at once ; but the tempest of passion soon passed by.

His habit of striking out right and left sometimes raised an uproar in the whole establishment ; and there was no little difficulty in keeping the peace. It was difficult for him to get rid of the notion that he must fight his way through the world ; and, a long time afterward, when he became famous as a Christian teacher and leader, he seemed to enjoy the service of the Lord all the more because, at the same time, he could be valiantly fighting the devil.

Young Moody attended church per force of his agreement, caring little for what was said or sung. He says : " When I first went to Boston my employers made me go to church. I used to go and sit in the gallery, and very often fall asleep. One day, while I was having a nap under the sermon, I felt somebody poking me in the ribs, and when I looked up there was one of the deacons, who had come to wake me, and was pointing with his finger at the minister, as much as to say, 'Attend to the preaching!.' I felt as if every body in the church was looking at me ; but I didn't know what else to do, unless I gave attention to the sermon, so I began to listen to Dr. Kirk, and, for the first time in my life, felt as if he were preaching altogether at me."

Under the plain and forcible sermons of the Mount Vernon Church pastor, who was a very prince among preachers, his hard heart began to soften. His Sunday-school teacher also took a Christian interest in him, and encouraged him to seek the Lord, which, without any right knowledge of the way of life, he blindly began to do. There was no such sudden and complete transformation in his outward life as is sometimes wrought by saving grace ; but he had evidently changed his direction, or, as he would say, had been converted ; and so sturdily did he resist the devil, and so hopefully did he get up and go on again whenever that enemy managed to trip him, that a (u\v of his friends ventured to indulge a hope that

Life and Labors of D. L. Moody. \j

he was one of the elect, though there were still a good many traces of the old Adam in him.

One of his first steps after his conversion was to apply for admission to the Mount Vernon Church; but so little reason was he able to give of the hope that was in him, that the committee of the Church before whom he was examined did not feel justified in receiving him.

Concerning his experience in passing from death unto life, Mr. Moody once said: "I used to have a terrible habit of swearing. Whenever I would get mad out would come the oaths; but after I gave my heart to Christ he took the swearing all away, so that I did not have the least disposition to take God's name in vain." Concerning his relations to the Mount Vernon Church, in Boston, he says, "When I first became a Christian I tried to join the Church, but they wouldn't have me, because they didn't believe i was really converted." After being kept on a kind of probation for nearly a year, with a committee specially appointed to watch over and help him, he made another application for membership, and at the May communion, in 1856, he was received. During the few months of his connection with this Church he gave no sign of the great tilings which were in him. He did, indeed, venture to express himself a few times in the Church prayer-meeting, and in some little mission meetings in Northstreet, but with so little acceptance that a member of the Church (ailed upon his uncle, and desired him to advise the young convert to hold his peace. But Mr. Holton replied that he was glad the young man had grace and courage enough to profess his faith in Christ, and declined to put a straw in his way.