t:^ gj^k- g as&rag Kh^i:L>-S^A-T*^: OiifllitLfllooDij h m^3^ oTm mcOomell Ofr-a. -\S~JAL^?4! J^^^J.^K^J.^^ tihvavy of Che theological ^tminaxy PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY PRESENTED BY Delavan^L^ Pierson BV 3785 .M7 M3x 1915 McDowell, John, 1870- Dwight L. Moody J^^'^z^'^fy^t.^ ^^W ^ ^^^y DWIGHT L. MOODY y ^ Dwight L. Moody The Discoverer of Men and The Maker of Movements By JOHN Mcdowell Pastor of Park Presbyterian Church, Newark, N. J. New York Chicago Toronto Fleming H. Revell Company London and Edinburgh Copyright, 1915* ^y FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 125 North Wabash Ave. Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. London : 2 1 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street Dedicated to all who loved him Preface WE cannot too frequently remind ourselves that the best the world has to offer of literature, of art, or of music, is, after all, but a partial revelation of the inner riches of great lives. All great values, indeed, may be similarly appraised. Back of every institution aiming at the bet- terment and uplifting of the race there is always discoverable some one individual who, in the hour of its inception and early development, fired it with his enthusiasm, suffused it with his spirit, and poured his love, and even life, into the furtherance of its aims. Peculiarly is this true of educational establishments. Schools live, and move, and have their being in the personalities of their founders ; and none in a greater degree than those founded by the late Dwight L. Moody at Northfield. These schools are the product of one who loved and gave himself for them in unremitting service and boundless sacri- fice. They stand with other of his founda- tions, as monuments reared to the memory of a great and noble man. 5 6 PREFACE It is now more than fifteen years since Moody went home to God, and yet it seems but as yesterday that those who knew him looked into his kindly face, and listened to his words of love and inspiration. The flow- ers have long since grown on his grave, yet his place in memory, the vast place which he has left in the heart and thought of the world, is as great as it was on the morrow of his death. Nay, it is greater. For as justice to the real height of a lofty mountain is done only when we have left it in the distance and survey it across a larger foreground of vales and hills, so it is with the contemplation of the true greatness of a man, whose posthu- mous ministry increases mightily as the days go by. When great men have been among us — men whose hands have penned, and tongues have uttered wisdom — we lose some of God's most striking lessons if we neglect to learn the truths, and the examples, which they be- queath to us at their departure. No life was ever richer in inspiration, or will better repay a close and prayerful study, than that of Mr. Moody. We are beginning to see him more nearly in his true proportions, as we gradually leave him in the distant past. We are slowly but surely learning to do him PKEFACE 7 justice, as we find how vital and far-reaching was his influence, how powerful and perma- nent was his place in the Kingdom of God, which is left still unfilled. It is not the purpose of this little volume to review exhaustively Mr. Moody's life and work ; that has already been well done in the authorized biography written by his son. It is meant to serve only as an introduction to the careful study of his career, and will con- cern itself with three things only, which the life of the great evangelist suggests : I. The influence of his life ; II. The secret of his life ; III. The appeal which his life makes to mankind. And it will conclude with a selec- tion from the several hundred notable testi- monies on record in which this appeal has been expressed. J. McD. Newark y N. J. , February 5, -rp/J*. Contents I. The Influence of Mr. Moody's Life i i II. The Secret of Mr. Moody's Life . 25 III. The Appeal of Mr. Moody's Life . 37 THE INFLUENCE OF MR. MOODY'S LIFE INFLUENCE is a difficult thing to esti- mate. There are no scales by which we can weigh it, no measuring rods by which we can count it. Yet it is neverthe- less true that, *' By their fruits ye shall know them." Said The Outlook : " The story of the outward life of Mr. Moody can be told after a fashion in a book, but the ramifica- tions of his influence no pen can ever de- scribe or imagination conceive." His pro- found solicitude for the welfare of his fellow- men found expression in so many ways that it is quite impossible to describe or estimate it by the ordinary standards. If, however, history is a *' book of God's and men's lives are its chapters," we may justly say that the chapter with which we are now concerned is one of the greatest in the book. In attempting an estimate of Mr. Moody's influence we will think first of his influence on Men, and then of his influence on Move- ments. It is generally conceded that no XI 12 DWIGHT L. MOODY other man ever spoke to so many people directly as did he. Other preachers have spoken to crowds one day in seven for a few years, but here was a man who held and swayed multitudes six days in the week, for nearly thirty years. He never lost his draw- ing power. The very last series of meetings which he held — the series in which he was stricken down in Kansas City — was a con- vincing pi oof that his drawing power never waned, and was just as great in the closing years of the century as it was in the seventies. But Mr. Moody not only drew the multi- tudes, he moved them, as did no other man of the last century. His influence was vital and transforming ; it changed natures, and made for holy living. He drew men and women, not to himself, but to Christ, and evidence of this fact is to be found in nearly every part of the world to-day, in the lives of those who were brought under his message. His influ- ence went even farther than this : he not only influenced men to come to Christ, but he in- spired them to work for Christ, and when he discovered, as he did early in his evangelistic work, the need of trained men, he at once established and equipped schools in which to provide opportunity for proper training. His motto was : ** It is better to put ten men to HIS INFUENCE 13 work, than to try to do the work of ten men." To this motto he steadfastly adhered, and he may rightly be called one of the greatest dis- coverers and developers of lay workers the Christian Church has ever known. In a larger measure than any other relig- ious worker of his day Mr. Moody, in all his later years, possessed and held the confidence of all classes of society. He had the love of the poor, the respect of the learned, the con- fidence of the wealthy. There is no finer tes- timony to his influence than that to be found in the large number of wealthy and influential men, in Great Britain and the United States, who were glad to be associated with him in his many forms of work. For more than thirty years this masterful man had only to make his desires known to responsible men of wealth and position — men like John V. Farwell, of Chicago ; John H. Converse and John Wanamaker, of Philadelphia ; William E. Dodge and D. Willis James, of New York, and many others — and they responded with alacrity and delight to his call for money and service. In many ways, Mr. Moody's largest realm of influence was among the students whose lives he has touched. Think of the thousands of college men who felt the power of his in- 14 DWIGHT L. MOODY fluence — the men who have heard him in the colleges and the many others who heard him in the summer conferences ! Indeed, it is not too much to say that the general quicken- ing of the religious life of our American colleges began in Dwight L. Moody. But even when this is said, the great evan- gelist's influence is best seen in the lives of upwards of ten thousand young women and men who have enjoyed high privileges as a direct result of his life and work. Sons and daughters of his spirit have gone out to the ends of the earth, to continue his influence and carry on his work. It is true and will continue to be true that Moody still lives — was never more alive than at the present hour. Think also of Mr. Moody's influence as it is seen in the great movements with which he was connected. It can never be ade- quately estimated how many of the great movements for the uplift of humanity which marked the latter half of the nineteenth century were the outgrowth of his vision and service. Recall, first of all, his influence on evangelistic work. For more than thirty years he stood before the world as the em- bodiment of all that was wise and most effect- ive in Evangelism. His large ballast of HIS INFLUENCE 15 common sense kept him from the emotional excesses of some evangelists of other days, and his splendid executive power enabled him so to organize the work of the inquiry- room that each individual seeker was care- fully dealt with by trained workers. In these days when there is such a strong tendency in evangelism to tabulate results — often long before the results are definitely known — it is refreshing and reassuring to know that one of the greatest evangelists since the Apostles never counted tangible results. Mr. Moody was perhaps the best public exponent the nineteenth century produced of first century Christianity, both in doctrine and practice. It is becoming more and more evident that he deserves a place in the first rank, after the Apostles, with Luther, Knox, Wesley, White- field, Finney, and a few belonging to the early Church. In all his evangelism, Mr. Moody aimed not at surface, but at solid work. This was the impression those who were nearest to him in his work received. Possibly no man knew Mr. Moody better than did Henry Drummond. ** He, above all popular preachers," says Drummond, ** worked for solid results." Even the mere harvesting, his own special department, was a secondary thing with him 16 DWIGHT L. MOODY when compared with the garnering of the fruits by the Church, and their subsequent growth to larger fruitfulness. " Time," says Drummond, ** has only deepened the impres- sion, not only of the magnitude of the results immediately secured, but equally of the per- manence of the after-effects upon every field of social, philanthropic and religious activity." '* It is not too much to say," he continues, '* that Scotland would not be the same to-day but for the visit of Mr. Moody, and that so far-reaching was, and is, the influence of his work that any one who knows the inner re- ligious history of the country must regard this time as nothing short of a national epoch." Testimony like this could be given from every field in which Mr. Moody ever worked. There is no better evidence of the sterling quality of his evangelistic work than that which is to be found in the fact that, time and time again, he was urgently invited to return to cities where he had conducted services. Cities on both sides of the seas were always sorry to have him leave, and glad to have him return. Great Britain was continually inviting him, notwithstanding the fact that three times he had gone through the Islands, each time with increasing power. HIS INFLUENCE 17 " D. L. Moody/' said the late Dr. Dale, of Birmingham, England, ** is the only evangel- ist that I ever felt had the right to speak of a lost soul, because he never spoke of the possibility of a man being lost without tears in his voice." By his spiritual motives and sane methods, which were void of sensationalism and clap- trap, Mr. Moody not only won the hearty cooperation of all spiritually-minded people and secured the conversion of multitudes of the ungodly, but more completely than any other man he impressed upon the Christian Church her direct responsibility for the lost — her inescapable obligation to be always and everywhere evangelistic. The Review of Reviews sums up his influence in this con- nection in these words : ** Mr. Moody's value to the spiritual life of the times in which he lived transcends that of any other preacher of the Gospel." Then there was Mr. Moody's influence on education. The world at large already knows him as the greatest evangelist of his time, but it will yet come to know him equally well as one of the greatest educators of his age. Without an academic education himself, he realized the vital and imperative necessity of education as did few men of his 18 DWIGHT L. MOODY day. Nothing shows Mr. Moody's appre- ciation of education better than his reply to Mr. Gladstone. When the men first met, Gladstone said : " Mr. Moody, I wish I had your shoulders." To which Moody replied : " Mr. Gladstone, I wish I had your head." Gladstone might well have coveted some of Moody's head and been none the worse for it — a head of which a certain writer, who had met every great contemporary thinker, from Carlyle downward, said, '* In sheer brain size — in the raw material of intellect — Moody stands among the first three or four great men I have ever known." The founding of Northfield Seminary for young women, and Mount Hermon School for young men, marked an epoch in Moody's life and work. '' There is no stronger proof of Mr. Moody's breadth of mind," says Drummond, " than that the greatest evangel- ist of his day, not when his powers were fail- ing, but in the prime of life and in the zenith of his success, should divert so great a measure of his strength into educational channels. Mr. Moody realized the value of character, of a sound mind and disciplined judgment. He found the converts without these weak-kneed and useless, and as Chris- tian workers inefficient, if not dangerous. HIS INFLUENCE 19 Mr. Moody saw that the primary pur- pose of Christianity was to make good men and good women, who would serve their God and their country, not only with all their hearts, but with all their minds and all their strength." Out of this conviction grew the Northfield educational institutions, which in the last twenty-five years have offered more than ten thousand young women and young men a chance to become useful, educated and God-fearing. Mr. Moody was preeminently a man who sought to direct and control the movements which were vital to life. He was keenly alive to the fact that education was a primary factor in the making of an individual, and that the character of the nation would ulti- mately be determined by the type of educa- tion which dominated it. Hence his untiring effort to make education distinctively Chris- tian or, according to his conception of it, edu- cation in which the aim is Christlike char- acter. The primary aim of every institution which Mr. Moody founded was to make Christians, not critics ; servants, not scholars. He sought, not simply to educate, but to educate for a definite service — the service of Jesus Christ. Dr. Pierson has well said ; " As Arnold made Rugby a nursery of a pe- 20 DWIGHT L. MOODY v culiar type of British men of culture, Moody made Northfield and Mt. Hermon nurseries of Christian character and service." Chris- tian education is not distinguished by any peculiarity of method, nor by any peculiarity of means ; it is distinguished entirely by its aim. Mr. Moody grasped this fact, and dedi- cated these institutions to the making of Christian men and women. It may not be out of place here to observe that Mr. Moody was years ahead of most educators, in at least two respects. First, in his recognition of the vital place the Bible should have in education. Long before any of our institutions made the Bible a regular subject of study, Mr. Moody had insisted that it should have the first place in his schools. To-day, there is scarcely a first-class school which has not come, practically, to his posi- tion. Second, Mr. Moody anticipated the modern movement for some restriction in athletics. He was alive to the situation, and suggested and put into operation the very plan which some of our leading educators are just now seriously considering, namely, that of confining contests to home grounds among the classes. Consideration of space will not permit of a more extended reference to the educational value of Mr. Moody's other HIS INFLUENCE 21 lines of work, otherwise such institutions as the Chicago schools and the Northfield Sum- mer Conferences might be passed in review. We come now to Mr. Moody's influence on the greatest religious and moral move- ments of the last fifty years, such as the Young Men's Christian Association, the Young Women's Christian Association, the world-wide uprising of Christian students, the Sunday-School Movement, the Young People's Movement, Rescue Missions, Sum- mer Tent-Work, Bible Study, Missionary, and Interdenominational Movements. To all of these, and many others, Mr. Moody gave himself with all the power of his heart and strength. No man did more than he to forward the interests of the Young Men's Christian Association ; no man of his time did so much to break down the old denomi- national barriers, and bring the different com- munions together in united service. As an administrator, as an agent for men of wealth, as a transmuter of money into bricks, stones, books and tracts. Moody ranks as one of the greatest men of any time. Scotland, Ireland, England and the United States are dotted with Young Men's Christian Association buildings, Bible Insti- tutes, Halls, Homes and Churches, which owe 22 DWIGHT L. MOODY their existence to his direct influence. Chris- tian philanthropy, too, owes much to Mr, Moody's influence. Such institutions as " The British Workman Company Limited," of Liverpool, is only one of the many organi- zations which he inspired to relieve need and help men. But possibly no movement shows Mr. Moody's far-reaching and abiding influence more than that movement which is coming to the front so rapidly and with such great power just now, namely, the Laymen's Movement. Men's clubs and brotherhoods are the most striking features of the Twen- tieth Century Church. The layman is be- ginning to find his place in the work of the Kingdom. In many ways Mr. Moody may be rightly credited with being the discoverer in this country of the laymen for the Church. More than any other man of our times, D wight L. Moody vindicated the rights, duties and privileges of the layman in car- rying the Gospel to the world, as opposed to the exclusive prerogatives of an ordained clergy. He did this without in the least be- littling the function of a ministry that is academically trained and ecclesiastically or- dained. Mr. Moody found John H. Con- verse, and through Mr. Converse has largely HIS INFLUENCE 23 come the summer evangelism of our day, the EvangeHstic Committees with their large campaigns, the Brotherhoods and Foreign Mission Forward Movements. To be sure the Christian Church has always believed in the laymen having a right to work, but it waited for Mr. Moody, the unordained, but foreordained man of God, to put the layman in America to work for Christ. Mr. Moody believed that every Christian was foreor- dained to service ; by his own example and his untiring effort he did all he could to help Christians realize their divine call. Think, if you will, of some of the laymen whom Mr. Moody discovered, and did much to develop. Among the many names which might be mentioned, we refer only to a few. Such men as Henry Drummond, Wilfred Grenfell, C. K. Studd, John H. Converse, John Wanamaker, John R. Mott and Robert E. Speer. It is not too much to say that no other man ever did so much to lead laymen into the service of Christ. Mr. Moody was preeminently a discoverer and developer of men. Measured by whatsoever standard you please, whether by his influence on men or on movements, or both, he stands out as one of the world's greatest men in the power and preeminence of his influence. 24: DWIGHT L. MOODY / If a visitor to St. Paul's Cathedral, London, will cast his eye over the northern doorway, he will see a slab of marble on which is in- scribed the name of the architect, Chris- topher Wren. Beneath the name is written : ** If you would see his monument, look around you." So to-day, if one would see the influence of Dwight L. Moody let him look around and see the multitude of men whom this great man touched with the holy fire of his own life and the mighty move- ments he inaugurated and furthered. II THE SECRET OF MR. MOODY'S LIFE WE cannot come in touch with such a helpful and uplifting life without asking : Where were the hidings of this man's power ? What was the secret of his inspiring influence ? Emerson says : ** Men are not quite so anx- ious to know what you do as what makes you do it." In Moody's case, one is desirous of knowing both — what he did, and what made him do it. It has been said that great men influence the world in three ways — by what they say, by what they do, and by what they are. Mr. Moody's influence was rich in all three characteristics. He influenced the world by his teaching, by his action, by his character. One would desire to enlarge on each one of these channels of influence, but must rest content with a search for the secret of it all. Kaftan, in his lectures at the Uni- versity of Berlin, is in the habit of saying that the greatest problem of life is the prob- lem of an appreciative understanding of the great personalities of history. When one is 25 26 DWIGHT L. MOODY dealing with D. L. Moody he is dealing with one of these great personalities. If asked for the secret of it all, this man, who has left the world such a marvellous rec- ord of self-improvement, of self-control, of self- abandonment to the service of humanity, of distinguished and durable achievement, would unhesitatingly answer just one word — Christ. Looking back over the record of his life and work, we are constrained to believe that Christ was the source of his life, the law of his life, the power of his life, the plan of his life, the glory of his life. His life found its stimulus, its substance, its end in Christ. No career of modern times is a better commen- tary on the high motto of the apostle Paul, "For me to live is Christ," than that of Dwight L. Moody. Looking up by faith into the Glory Land, we ask him to-day to tell us the secret of his life and influence, and I think I hear him say in the old familiar voice: "Sons and daughters of my spirit, the secret of my life was Christ. Christ was my creed ; Christ was my deepest conviction ; Christ was the pattern of my conduct ; Christ was the spring of my character ; the inspiration of my labours ; the source of my love." As a direct result of enthroning Christ in his life, Mr. Moody was HIS SECRET 27 a man whose life was marked by many Christ- like qualities. Of some of these qualities I wish to speak briefly. (i) He was a man of unfaltering faith. If character and worth are the evidences of faith, we may truthfully say : '* Oh, man, great was thy faith 1 '* Mr. Moody's faith was real to him, and he made it real to others. It was the active, rather than the passive type ; it was intensely practical. Its nature is splendidly set forth in a reply he once made in the author's hearing when asked why he did not run his schools on faith. ** I do," he quickly responded, " I always have and always will. As an evidence of it, if you will tell me of any Christian man who has money, to whom I have not written, or on whom I have not called, I will do so at once. I show my faith when I go to men, and ask them to give to God's work." Within an hour of making this statement, the mail arrived. Among his letters was one from a business man, to whom he had written asking for $10,000 towards the running ex- penses of his schools. The letter was a long one, offering many excuses for not complying with the request and closed by reminding Mr. Moody of the promise : " My God shall supply all your need in Christ Jesus." 28 DWIGHT L. MOODY " Of course He will," commented Mr. Moody in his most natural way. The next letter he opened was from Scotland, and in it was a draft for two thousand pounds from an old friend who desired to express his ap- preciation of the Service the evangelist had rendered to the Scotsman's native land I Mr. Moody's faith evinced itself in two ways : First, in his capacity to believe God's Word. Having satisfied himself that the Bible is God's word to man, he accepted it with all his heart. He never discounted any portion of it. He claimed every promise in it for himself, his friends, and his fellow-men. Second, his faith evinced itself in his power to do things. The man of thought is the brain of the community, the man of feeling is its heart, the man of deeds is its hand. Mr. Moody was all three. His large concep- tions were realized and his aspirations were translated into facts by an executive ability of the first order. Mr. Moody had a tre- mendous capacity for work, and for setting others to work. Everything he undertook was a success. His faith is accurately de- scribed in the words of the apostle Paul as " Faith which worketh by love." (2) He was a man of singleness of purpose. His heart was in everything he did. As a HIS SECRET 29 salesman in the shoe-store, a teacher in the Sunday-school, a preacher of the Gospel, a leader of men and movements, he showed that his life was dominated by one great pur- pose. His was not only a consecrated life, it was a concentrated life. He realized that the secret of all moral force, all spiritual success, all reality, is concentration. Mr. Moody engaged in many forms of work during his lifetime, but all his work was inspired by one purpose — the glory of Christ in the salvation of men. From this purpose he never swerved. To it he gave himself with unlimited devotion and whole-souled loyalty. No man ever followed more faith- fully the motto of Jonathan Edwards, *' I will live with all my might, while I live.'' Few men ever lived such a life of purpose and deed. He had no inordinate love of self in any shape, of pleasure, of gold, of fame. All these things were absorbed in the bending and blending of his will to God's. (3) He was a man of sterling sincerity, " It is refreshing at all times, and especially in this superficial and artificial age," wrote the editor of The Catholic World of Mr. Moody at his death, " to come into contact with such a genuine soul, a nature so sincere, so simple that it seems a mirror of nature itself." 30 DWIGHT L. MOODY The transparency of Moody's character and the sincerity of his acts were so marked that none who knew him could ever forget them. Between his pulpit utterances and his private life there was no gulf fixed, nor was there any between his Monday warfare and his Sunday worship. He had a passion for sincerity, for '* the clean heart," for ** truth in the inward parts." He was never guilty of sacrificing sincerity for success. He had an inborn dislike of all sham and deception. For a man to say what he really thinks, and to be, outwardly, what he really is in his heart, requires heroism of no mean type. This heroism Mr. Moody possessed in a most remarkable degree. His very presence killed insincerity and inspired sincerity. He was a hero to his own children and to his best friends. (4) He was a man of genuine humility, A truly sincere man is always humble. He feels like a child amid God's infinite mys- teries, longs for a nobler music, cries in his heart, ** Light, light, more light," till God, in His own way, leads him there. Such a man was Dwight L. Moody. He willingly sat at the feet of other men to learn. Drummond says that the way he turned aside from applause in England struck multitudes with HIS SECRET 31 wonder. To be courted was to him not merely a thing to be discouraged on general principles, it simply made him miserable. At the close of a great meeting when crowds, not of the base but of the worthy, thronged the platform to press his hand he always somehow disappeared. When they followed him to his hotel, his doors were barred. This man would not be praised. The criti- cism which sours, and the adulation which spoils, left untouched the man who ** forgot himself into immortality." (5) He was a man of large wisdom. By wisdom, the power of discerning what is true and right, is meant ; the power of discerning what is conducive to the highest interest of humanity, the discernment of the real char- acteristics and relations of conduct. If " wis- dom is knowledge made our own and ap- plied to life," then to Mr. Moody must be credited large and unusual wisdom. If, as Dr. Shedd says, " education is not a dead mass of accumulated terms but power to work with the brain," then Mr. Moody was one of the best educated men of his day. " If," says Dr. Pierson, " the mark of an edu- cated man is found in the union of capacity and sagacity, innate mental vigour and prac- tical ability to use it for a purpose, we come 32 DWIGHT L. MOODY to say that Mr. Moody was no common specimen of a man of education in the best sense." If, as Emerson says, " The foun- dation of culture as of character is at the last moral sentiment/* no man of his day sur- passed Mr. Moody in genuine culture, for few men equalled him in moral sentiment. (6) He was a ma7i of prayer. Here we touch the inner source of this man's match- less power. To Mr. Moody God was not a mere law, nor an abstraction. To him God was a Person who feels and thinks, a Father who rules and loves, and is concerned with everything which affects His children. With such a conception of God we are not sur- prised to find Mr. Moody leading a life of ceaseless communion with Him out of which grew a life of overcoming strength. There was a correspondence between Mr. Moody's life and his prayers. Both were massive, and on a grand scale. Prayer was the real working power of Moody's life. I am grateful to-day for all the prayers of this great man, but there are three which will never fade from my memory nor cease to live in my life. Of each of them I desire to say just a word because they illustrate the reality and scope of Mr. Moody's prayer-life. The first was offered on a memorable night HIS SECRET 33 in June, 1890, as we stood under the old oak tree near Revell Cottage, at Northfield. It was a prayer for Mt. Hermon School. I can- not recall it all, but I well remember how Mr. Moody sobbed as he prayed for his boys and committed to God the care of the school, and asked Him to guide to it the man who would direct it to His glory. The second prayer was one offered in Park Avenue Hotel, New York. Mr. Moody had written to several men asking them to con- tribute generously to a fund for an evangel- istic campaign in Chicago during the hold- ing of the World's Fair. He had asked them to address him at Park Avenue Hotel. When he arrived and asked for his mail, there was none. We went to a room and as soon as the door was shut he said, " Let us pray," and then and there he poured out his soul to God for the opportunity offered by the fair about to be held in Chicago. I well remember his saying in that prayer : ** If you want me to carry on the work in Chicago, open the way ; raise up friends who will provide the funds. Forbid that the oppor- tunity of preaching the Gospel to thousands should be lost by lack of interest on the part of Christians." Here was the man of God, burdened for the unsaved, every one of whom 34 DWIGHT L. MOODY was dear to him, because, for them, Christ had died. The last prayer of the three, and the last which I ever heard from his lips (indeed, the last words I ever heard from him), was offered as I walked home with him from a service he had conducted in Harrisburg. We had reached the house where he was staying and were about to separate, when he put his hand on my shoulder and bowed his head in prayer. It was a short prayer, but it reached the Throne of Grace and my heart : *' O God, bless Mac in his life, and work, and use him mightily for Thy glory." Here was the servant of God praying for the individ- ual, just as earnestly as for the school, and the unsaved. (7) He was preeminently a man of deep and strong love. This love manifested itself in innumerable ways. It was often seen in the tenderness and gentleness of the man. No nature was ever more generous and more considerate of the interests and welfare of others. When urged by supporters of his schools to raise the tuition from $100.00 per year to $200.00, with the suggestion that those who could not pay the extra $100.00 should secure some friend to do it, Mr. Moody replied : — " I want to be that friend HIS SECRET 35 to every student who enters these schools." His interest in his students never ceased. They were on his heart day and night as the following letter shows : " London^ July <?, i8g2, ** My dear McDowell : " I was glad to get so good a report from Prince- ton, and am glad the boys are all doing so well, es- pecially . I have written him a letter to- day. // cheers me to hear that the boys who have gone out from us are doing all they can to hold up Christ. I do not see why Mount Hermon should not become a blessing to all of the colleges in the course of time. Give my warmest love to all the boys, and tell them that I am glad to get so good a report from them. Write me often and let me know how things go at Northfield this summer. *' Yours truly, *' D. L. Moody." " He embodied," says Dr. Pierson, ** the genius of goodness." In his Bible he carried those words of John Wesley : *' Do all the good you can To all the people you can In all the ways you can And as long as you can." This motto was not only printed in his Bible, it was lived out in his daily life. Love 36 DWIGHT L. MOODY was the master law of his life, the essence of his religion. Christianity, to Mr. Moody, was a method of life by which men and women are taught and inspired to love as Jesus loved, and to live loving and lovable lives. Mr. Moody's love was inclusive ; it embraced everything which was wholesome and healthy. Sitting on the porch of his home on a summer evening, watching one of those glorious sunsets, he said : " Oh, life is sweet — life is sweet — because God is love." Ill THE APPEAL OF MR. MOODY'S LIFE THE memory of a man who exerted such an influence and lived such a life as D wight L. Moody, cannot die. We do not wonder that Drummond, a close student of human character and an expert in spiritual diagnosis, should say five years before Mr. Moody's death : ** Whether estimated by the moral qualities which go to the making up of his personal character or the extent to which he impressed them upon whole communities of men on both sides of the Atlantic, there is perhaps no more truly great man living than Dwight L. Moody. America possesses at this moment no more extraordinary personage ; not even among the most brilliant of her sons has any ren- dered more stupendous or more enduring service to his country or its life." The fol- lowing testimonies show the depth and ex- tent of the appeal of Mr. Moody's life and work. 37 38 DWIGHT L. MOODY A Word from the President Mr. Wilson's Tribute to Mr, Moody The Editor of the Congregationalist^ not long ago, found in the files of an old newspaper an incident re- cording President Wilson's appreciation of Mr. Moody. In order to be sure of its authenticity Dr. Bridgman wrote to President Wilson asking him whether or not the incident was a legend. His response was as kindly as it was prompt. It is printed herewith, together with the incident, which the President fittingly calls **an evangelistic service in a barber shop." *' October 26, igi4. " The White House, Washington. " My dear Doctor Bridgman : ** No, this is not a legend ; it is a fact, and I am perfectly willing that you should publish it. My admiration and esteem for Mr. Moody was very deep indeed. ** Cordially and sincerely yours, <' WooDROw Wilson." ** I was in a very plebeian place. I was in a barber's shop, sitting in a chair, when I became aware that a personality had entered the room. A man had come quietly in upon the same errand as myself and sat in the next chair to me. Every word he uttered, though it was not in the least didactic, showed a personal and vital interest in the man who was serving him ; and before I got through with what was being done to me, I was aware that I had attended an evangelistic serv- ice, because Mr. Moody was in the next chair. I HIS APPEAL 39 purposely lingered in the room after he left and noted the singular effect his visit had upon the barbers in that shop. They talked in undertones. They did not know his name, but they knew that something had elevated their thought. And I felt that I left that place as I should have left a place of worship." His Message of Service David J. Brewery late Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States "The rounded fullness of DwightL. Moody's life is an answer to the oft-repeated question, Is life worth living? It is not worth Hving if livedlfor self; it is if lived for others. And, when I think of the countless many who have been lifted to higher things by his earnest words and self-denying life, I am sure that his life was worth living. Only the recording angel can tell the number of those who, when the news of his death was telegraphed, responded with the expression, unrecorded on earth, * Thank God for Dwight L. Moody's life.' His end was peace. His message to all is service. * Whosoever will be chief among you let him be your servant.' " One of the World's Greatest Leaders Dr. Lyman Abbott, Editor of " The Outlook " "Moody's name and good works are known and loved throughout the civilized world. By his death the world lost one of its greatest leaders. His marvel- lous energy and kindly spirit made friends for religion by the tens of thousands." 40 DWIGHT L. MOODY A Successful Life Dr. Pat ton, Ex-President Princeton University *' By the death of Mr. Moody the world lost a man who, although he had no academic education, was one of the greatest powers for winning souls to Christ and uplifting his fellow-men. Talk of a successful life ! Take any man who has achieved honour on the battle- field, fame in statesmanship or in whatever way he has attracted the world's attention, and how does that life compare with the life of Dwight L. Moody? " America's Most Extraordinary Preacher of THE Century Xhe late Theodore L, Cuyler, D, D. "Dwight L. Moody was undeniably the most ex- traordinary gospel preacher that America has produced in this century, as Spurgeon was the most extraordinary that Britain has produced. Both had all Christendom for their congregations. I am glad that, like Abraham Lincoln, he never went to any college ; both form their own racy Saxon styles for themselves. ** With my beloved Brother Moody I had much personal intimacy for twenty-eight years. He de- livered his first Bible-readings in our little mission chapel in the winter of 1872. A few months later when I was in London, he came into my room one day and said : * They want me to stay and preach here; what shall I do?' My quick answer was ' Come.'' He went, and thus began his world-wide career in Britain. HIS APPEAL 41 **One of his last sermons was delivered from my old pulpit. I said to him, *Last night you were at your best ; you were not talking to Christians, but calling the unconverted to Jesus ; stick to that as long as you live." His Love for His Fellow-Men Hon. John Wanamaker " My acquaintance with Mr. Moody runs back forty years or more. . . . Stretching over the years that intervened, up to a month before his death, I enjoyed the inspiration of his life. The freshest memory I have of him is the night of November 13, 1900, when he got off the Pennsylvania Railroad train to keep an appointment he had made with me by telegraph, to spend a short time between trains on his way to Kansas City for his last meetings. I remarked that same night, after he had left me, how heavy a burden seemed to rest upon his heart as he said again and again : * I wish that I might be moved of God to move one large Eastern city. For I think if one Eastern city could be thoroughly revived, the others would feel the influence and be stirred Hkewise.' As I looked into the face of the man, whose eyes and voice were full of tears, it seemed as if a prophet like unto Elijah had come back again. He left behind him that night his comfortable home at Northfieldand the hospitality which so many friends would have been glad to give him ; laid himself down in a sleeping- berth of a Pullman car, rattling over a thousand miles to Kansas City ; and rose with a heavy load of concern 42 DWIGHT L. MOODY for the kingdom of his Master, and under the weight of it he staggered into his grave. ** In summing up the distinctly great things of this great century no man stands out more prominently who has spent so many continuous years in superhuman labour for the public good as Dwight L. Moody, the Christian American layman. Uncrowned, without title of any kind, he wears the first honours among the men who loved their fellow-men." The Missions in London ; Their Rich and Enduring Fruitage Rt. Hon. Lord Kinnaird ** As 1 look back over fifty years of evangelistic work I recall that during forty of these years I was constantly in contact with that prince of evangehsts, Mr. D. L. Moody. With pleasure and thankfulness I remember his wonderful life-work and I realize more and more what a mighty force he was, and how im- mensely his labours were used to help thousands in my own country. There are to-day very many serving God whole-heartedly who were brought to a saving knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus by means of the remarkable revival which was granted as the result of the Missions throughout London and elsewhere conducted by Mr. Moody and Mr. Sankey. " I had the great privilege of very close association with him during all his evangelistic campaigns in our land. When he first came as an unknown visitor and during the mission conducted in Rev. Frank White's Chapel at Chelsea, Mr. and Mrs. Moody were the HIS APPEAL 43 guests of our mutual friends, Mr. and Mrs. Quintin Hogg. There we first got to know them well and to love them. I have never known any one whose faith was so real and abounding ; no difficulty could daunt him, no perplexity could cloud his faith in God or dim his calm belief that all would be well. " His memory still remains and his work lives on. We see an example of this in the Y. M. C. A. He strenuously sought to stir up our Associations; and now during these dark days through which my country is passing, the Y. M. C. A. is doing most important work among our soldiers and sailors." Mr. Moody's Appreciation of Education H, F. Cutler, Principal of Mt. Herman School ** Mr. Moody was not popularly known during his lifetime as an educator nor as an educated man. He really was both. The great schools which he founded entitled him to a place among educators, and his skill in the selection of courses and of teachers proved his right there. " Soon after his conversion he came more and more into the companionship of educated men, and this seemed always to spur him on to get information for himself He could not attend school. He was too old. In those years he formed the habit of rising early in the morning to read and study, and this cus- tom he kept up to the very end of his life. For years he had several persons reading for him. These read- ers made outlines of books and marked passages which 44: DWIGHT L. MOODY he ought to see and read. In this way Mr. Moody became a widely read man. *' His contact with students and professors in the universities of Great Britain and in the colleges of this country made him alert to acquaint himself with their learning and their problems. His great desire was to get at facts in all their simplicity. He insisted on fundamentals. He told me again and again to teach the Hermon boys to spell and write. Sham and slip- shod work he despised and could tolerate neither in himself nor in others. This all worked to make of him in the best sense of the word the educated man that he was. He was never at a loss in the discussion of any topic theological or philosophical, and he was well informed along scientific lines. ** He believed in higher education as is shown by the number of boys and girls he sent to college and by his desire to emphasize the courses in his own schools leading to university work. For him an edu- cated man meant a great new added power in the world, and if to this greatness he could add goodness, his ideal man was complete. He used to say, * There are great men in the world ; there are good men in the world ; but there are few who are both great and good.' ** The foundation of all his educational work was the Bible. His prayer at the laying of the corner-stone of one of the buildings was that God would wipe the school from the face of the earth if anything was taught here contrary to the Word of God. He had caught the meaning of true education, and he lived as the exponent of the great Teacher at whose feet he himself had learned." HIS APPEAL 45 The Possibilities of a Consecrated Life The late William Earl Dodge " The great lesson in Mr. Moody's life is the in- finite and magnificent possibility for service which can come to one that puts himself absolutely in God's hands to be used. Mr. Moody did this more unre- servedly and completely than any man I ever knew. He believed in every fibre of his being all that God promised. He gloried in the full message of life which Christ came to bring, and wondered with a great astonishment that any could turn from this offer of eternal happiness. ** His duty was clear and direct to preach this mes- sage to all men, and with loving entreaty to urge them to accept. His intense belief gave him power. His simple, strong Anglo-Saxon speech, caught from the Bible he loved and believed in, won him a hearing. His clear common sense, his knowledge of men, and his kind but masterful strength, gave him an immense influence. He was absolutely unselfish and modest, and only wondered why God should use so feeble an instrument for so great results." Mr. Moody s Sound Educational Policies Charles E. Dickerson, Principal of Northjield Seminary " During Mr. Moody's lifetime those closely asso- ciated with him in the work of the Northfield schools were first won to his educational ideals by the force of his wonderful personality, the greatness of his vision and the compelling contagion of his consecration to the pur- pose of helping needy boys and girls to get an education. 46 DWIGHT L. MOODY ** Since his death, fifteen years of further connection with his schools have brought a continually increasing admiration for his sound educational policies and a deepening conviction of the greatness of the man who thirty-five years ago had what some educators are still seeking after, that conception of education which should maintain a proper balance between physical, in- tellectual and moral training and should make a pupil an efficient and reliable citizen, able to do something towards self-support and capable not only of steering a straight course through intellectual problems, but with a moral and religious training which should make him or her safe amid the continually changing winds of temptation and evil which must inevitably be met. He held that an education without this latter training only * sharpens tools for the adversary, ' and surely his contention cannot be denied. " His clear vision of athletics as a means not an end, his insistence upon many teams among the dor- mitories bringing a large proportion of the five or six hundred students at Mt. Hermon into training, in- stead of the interscholastic games which concentrate all interest upon the training of a score or two of students playing at great expense with other school teams, has established a healthy athletic spirit in the school and saved it from the evils attendant upon modern school and college athletics. That he should have seen and insisted upon this position twenty years ago when the whole spirit of the school and college world was setting the other way is but one illustration of his wisdom and foresight. " Of his wonderful reliance upon God, his unflinch- HIS APPEAL 47 ing loyalty to God's claims upon him, his conviction that if these claims were met, results beyond human thought or power would surely follow, all the world has heard. I would add my testimony of gratitude for the privilege of living for twenty-five years so close to his work as to see daily and hourly the proof of his wisdom in all secular matters and the fruit of his faith wrought out both in structures of wood and stone and in the far more precious building of character in the lives of thousands of young people to whom his schools have offered their one door of opportunity." Preaching in Camp The late Gen, O. O. Howard ** Moody and I met for the first time in Cleveland, East Tennessee. It was about the middle of April, 1864. I was bringing together my Fourth Army Corps. Two divisions had already arrived, and were encamped in and near the village. Moody was then fresh and hearty, full of enthusiasm for the Master's work. Our soldiers were just about to set out on what we all felt promised a hard and bloody campaign, and I think were especially desirous of strong preaching. Crowds and crowds turned out to hear the glad tid- ings from Moody's lips. He showed them how a soldier would give his heart to God. His preaching was direct and effective, and multitudes responded with a confession and promise to follow Christ. " From that time on throughout his useful career I have had association with him. On the steamer Spree, during our remarkable wreck and rescue, I was with 48 DWIGHT L. MOODY him. Who could have held up Christ with more fear- lessness and fidelity than he did then to over seven hundred passengers, a company including agnostics, atheists, Jews, sceptics and formal believers of all kinds. *' In Chicago he acted as a general, and I became his subordinate during the World's Fair. Thousands upon thousands crowded the theatres, tents, halls, churches, and other public buildings, by his provi- sion, to hear the simple Gospel. " His work, again, in our war with Spain, by send- ing evangelical speakers to the front, whom he knew the soldiers would heed and hear, will never be meas- ured by us who were mere helpers. He planned, selected his messengers, and sent them, and raised funds to give to our soldiers the bread of life." A Tribute from a Great Scottish Critic Prof. George Adam Smith " We met first at Yale, where I discovered for the first time what a hold Moody had on the respectful attention, I think I can say admiration, of American students. He asked me to speak at the commence- ment exercises of the Northfield schools, and at the American students' conference there. I hesitated, pleading on how many points I differed from the Northfield teaching about Scripture. His answer was, * Come and say what you like,' and I felt at once the inspiration of his trust. At Northfield we had several conversations on Old Testament criticism, some alone, some with others. I shall never forget his patience, HIS APPEAL 49 the openness of his mind, his desire to get at the real facts of criticism, or the shrewdness and humour with which he combated them. It was then that he finished one talk with the words : ' Look here, what's the use of telling the people there's two Isaiahs when most of them don't know that there's one ? ' But most beautiful was his anxiety about the effect of criticism upon piety and preaching ; he had on his heart not only some congre- gations which had suffered many things from criticism in the pulpit, but the divisions in the churches which were due to critical views. But he was very fair, and said that these divisions were probably due not only to the new opinions about Scripture, but to the temper in which they had been met by the other side. One of the discussions with several friends concluded with prayer from him, so earnest that I shall ever look back upon it as one of the greatest moments of ray life." A Torrent of Love and Power Robert £. Speer '* Of Mr. Moody's many great qualities the one which perhaps impressed young men most when they first met him was his sincere directness of interest and action. He did not pretend to see you. He did not just take you in as a part of the whole, with other parts of which he was more concerned. He went straight for you, had real dealings with you and then went on his way. *' He seemed all energy and action as you watched him. There appeared never to be any hesitation or doubt. He had a work to do. He knew what it was 50 DWIGHT L. MOODY and that it must be done and he was busy with it. But there was no one who was such a Hstener as he. He caught every point or asked about it if he didn't catch it. And so far from being dictatorial or head- strong, he was eager to get Ught on his way and to have wise counsel even from those who had no experience to be matched with his. And the mixture of docility, of honest humility, twinkling shrewdness, of unshak- able mental honesty and of deadly detection of sham in him was a marvel. "His brusque, forceful manner cloaked the most gentle, eager and tender-hearted kindness. There was no sentimentality or softness or rhetorical tearfulness about him and yet he was like Paul in the yearning with which he loved Christ and men and sought to bring men to Christ and Christ to men. And his interest in people was not momentary. As he found men he cared for and could work with he held to them. Their names and faces did not slip from his memory and he opened doors before them and went both be- fore and after. In the summer conferences he was al- ways stepping back and putting them forward. One year in the Students' Conference the college men pro- tested at his retirement and, taking the close of one of his meetings out of his hands, demanded that he should speak more to them. He chuckled and agreed and named six o'clock in the morning as the hour when he would do it. He came at that hour and so did they. ** Professor Drummond quoted approvingly the say- ing of a great man about Mr. Moody to the effect that he was * the greatest human ' he had ever met. That HIS APPEAL 51 judgment covers about as much as can be said of a man, but Mr. Moody deserved it. He was a combi- nation of General Grant and John B. Gough and Abraham Lincoln and William E. Dodge and Mr. Spurgeon and a few more. But he was not any of them. He was just his own great self, a torrent of love and power set to sweep men home upon God." Mr. Moody in the Pulpit Rev. George A. Gordon, D.D. "I heard Dwight L. Moody preach in all six times. I heard him preach three times during the famous evangelistic campaign in Boston in 1876 in the great tabernacle built by the business men of the city for Mr. Moody's service. " At each one of the three services that I attended I recall the impression made upon me by this preacher. It was that of a profoundly earnest man to whom God was an absolute reality, to whom also the perils and the possibilities of human life were of tremendous moment. "I heard Mr. Moody twice in the Old South Church in Boston during a week of services in which the Old South was associated with the First Baptist Church. Mr. Moody's preaching had changed some- what in the interval. Humour was more abundant ; the strain of seriousness was relieved by striking anecdotes. The purpose of the man, however, was the same, his spiritual life even more abundant and surer of itself. 52 DWIGHT L. MOODY ** The last occasion on which I heard Mr. Moody preach was in Tremont Temple. His subject was, The Good Samaritan. One winged sentence I shall never forget — ' That humane Samaritan who nursed back to life the Jew who had unlimited contempt for him knocked more sectarianism and class-feeling out of the world by his deeds than was ever done before or since in the same length of time.' Another witty remark I recall in Mr. Moody's sermon on Excuses. The text was, * I have married a wife and cannot come.' * The flimsiness of this excuse,' said Mr. Moody, < is apparent to all. Who ever heard of a bride, with all her new dresses, refusing to go to a party ? ' " As I look back upon the career of Mr. Moody he stands out preeminent among the evangelists whom I have known." Moody's Power with College Men John R. Mott *' My knowledge of Moody was confined largely to observing at first hand his work among the college men of North America and to studying the results of his activities among the students of Great Britain. Judged by the testimony of undergraduates and gradu- ates, he exerted a greater influence upon them than did any other Christian worker of his day, with the single exception of that exercised by Henry Drum- mond among students in Edinburgh. Wherein lay the secret ? ** It was the note of reality in Moody's preaching HIS APPEAL 63 that appealed strongly to college men. They were impressed by his downright honesty and transparent sincerity. He was absolutely devoid of sham and affectation. He never appealed to the gallery. He was tremendously frank and direct. He was wholly unconventional and never flattered or paid compliments. He was bold as a lion in exposing hypocrisy and in attacking individual and social sins. The students saw that he practiced what he preached and accepted him as a true prophet. ** To a host of college men he brought religion out of the clouds and made it a present-day and every-day personal and practical relationship and experience. No college man who ever heard his incisive comments on the Ten Commandments and his pointed applica- tions to modern life will ever forget them. They cut like a mighty plowshare through the sins of college life and of society. His attractive and telling portrayal of the elemental virtues and homely loyalties made the conferences which he conducted generating and prop- agating centres of a Christianity profoundly ethical and workable. There was a poise and sanity which put him in a class by himself. " His wonderful heart power went far to explain the wide range of his influence. He won men by his kindness as well as persuaded them by the truth. It is said that Christ ' was numbered among the trans- gressors,' and this, among other reasons, not only that He might know them but also that they might know that He knew them. So it was with this great man. The students recognized that he had a master knowledge of human nature — that he knew them 54 DWIGHT L. MOODY through and through. Above all, they felt that he had a heart interest in them — that he sympathized deeply with them in their soul-struggles and in their body-struggles with temptation as well as in their sorrows. I shall never forget his overflowing sympathy and kindness during one of the earUer conferences, when a member of my own college delegation was drowned in the Connecticut. Moreover, he manifested as natural and as enthusiastic an interest in sports and in the famous student Fourth of July celebration as did any schoolboy. **His enormous influence with college men cannot be explained apart from his unaffected humility. The great teacher must ever remain a disciple. Nothing was more impressive at the student conferences than to see Moody, after introducing a speaker, go down from the platform and take a seat at his feet and from time to time jot down notes of what was being said. It was this openness to new ideas and responsiveness to new plans which did much to give him such a strong hold on growing, studying, ambitious young men. His willingness to receive criticism and to con- fess faults revealed genuine greatness of soul. Although he was one of the most masterful of men and one of the strongest personalities of his generation, he was modest and self-effacing to a marked degree." My Debt to D. L. Moody Wilfred T. Grenfelh M. D. " Personally I only once spoke to D. L. Moody. But I am proud always that a man of that type was the HIS APPEAL 65 turning point in my life, and I love his memory better than many whose talk I have heard far oftener. *' Every time I give an anaesthesia I acknowledge my debt to Morton and Simpson. At every major operation I rejoice for the blessed life-work of the great Lister. It is the same with D. L. Moody. But in what did his great contribution to my life consist ? Not in the scholarship of 'current science,' or the the- ology of seminaries and churches, or in physical at- tainments or eccentricities. It surely was just the wonderful portion of his Master's spirit. I had never considered religious folk as quite human. I needed D. L. Moody to believe that a man could be * a man for a' that.' *' It did not seem necessary to intrude a personal acquaintance on the man. He gave me the impres- sion always that what he longed for was that every one should become personally acquainted with his Master. *' Paul, standing on the deck of the doomed ship, cool, confident, inspiring others, drew himself up to the full height of his manhood when he claimed for the Christ the credit for anything he accomplished. That lovely unselfishness appeals always to the best in every man. D. L. Moody always stood on the plat- form of ' whose I am and whom I serve. ' " Fourteen years after my conversion, when we both happened to be in Boston, I called for the first time on this man. He did not know me from Adam. I realized my debt to him, however, and wanted just to say thank you. He listened to all I had to say, carefully avoided, I ought to say naturally avoided. 56 DWIGHT L. MOODY any conventional phrases or sentimental remarks. Just as one real ordinary man to another, treat- ing religion as the Lord's business should be, as naturally as we treat calomel or ipecac or anything else that is any use to accomplish things, he said, ' Good. What have you been doing since? ' That's the kind of man he was. Any real man couldn't help being tickled to death with that kind of answer. * Do- ing ? Well, Tve been living and working among fishermen from the Bay of Biscay to the Coast of Labrador, instead of staying in London.' 'Regret it?' < No, sir, I should rather say not.' 'Could you come and tell them at the afternoon service in the Tremont Temple in three minutes ? * I could not help smiling. 'I can try.' 'Then I'll be grateful if you'll do so. Side door at three-thirty. Good- bye. Ever so many thanks for dropping in.* "If not the exact actual words used, yet that is the impression left in my mind since that interview, and I loved the man for it. There was no unctuousness, no snobbery, no cant ; and yet again he had moved my heart to want to do things more than ever. He left such imprint also of ' things done ' — such beau- tiful memorials as the Northfield and Hermon schools. " You asked me if I had any photographs of him. No, not one. And, moreover, I don't want one. I shall recognize him again when I meet him. He wasn't much of a sitter for photographs, I believe, anyhow. And my love and respect for him have nothing to do with his physical form. Did any pic- tures that you ever saw of the Master make you either remem.ber Him better or love Him more ? Somehow HIS APPEAL 57 I feel like that, even after all these years, towards D. L. Moody. To me he reflected the spirit of the Master; that is not definable." Incidents in the Inquiry-Room Washington Gladden, D. D, *< In the early months of 1878 Mr. Moody came to Springfield, Mass. I remember very well his prelimi- nary meeting with the ministers at the Massasoit House and the directness and practical sense which he ex- hibited in the arrangements made. The financial provision was a small matter ; no large expense was to be incurred ; the meetings were to be held in the City Hall, our largest assembly-room, and the inquiry meetings, following each service, in the First Congre- gational Church, near by. " It was in these familiar and informal meetings that I came to know Mr. Moody best. It was in a day when men of my way of thinking were suspects in the Congregational fellowship; some pretty per- sistent attempts had been made to drive us out. Mr. Moody had been warned that I was a heretic, but he did not seem to be afraid of me ; on the contrary, he used me very freely in the inquiry meeting. One evening as I was standing in the broad aisle I heard his voice from a side aisle opposite. * Here, Mr. Gladden, I want you I ' I made my way to him and he led me to a pew in which three women were sitting. * Talk to these women!' he said. *They are atheists. They don't believe in God nor the 68 DWIGHT L. MOODY Bible, nor the future life. They don't believe any- thing. Here ! * he said quickly to a young girl who sat at the head of the pew. * You go with me. I don't want you to hear what these women are saying.' And he led her away. ** It was all in perfect good nature. I sat down in front of the women, saying : * Well, this is a queer introduction. What have you to say for yourselves ? ' * It's all right,' said one of them. * He has told you the truth.' "What I said to them is no part of the story; I have told it to show Moody's frank and fearless way of dealing with people. The experience of those in- quiry meetings is one of the high lights of memory. " Above all, the spirit of the man was so sweet, so tolerant, so kindly that he drew all hearts towards him. He had no bitter or censorious words to speak about those who differed with him ; he kindled no suspicions or hatreds in human hearts ; he hurled no maledictions. ** I shall bear with me to my grave, and beyond, a grateful recollection of this clear-headed, broad- minded, great-hearted man." A Glimpse of the Earlier Days Daniel W. Mc Williams "It is with gratitude that I record some facts about him, to whom I am indebted for some of the most sacred and helpful experiences of my life. Beginning a residence in Peoria, 111., in March, 1861, a few days before the opening of the Civil War, we soon began HIS APPEAL 69 to hear of the consecration and intensely practical earnestness in which Mr. Moody was conducting Christian work in Chicago. ** The war was upon us. The mind of the whole nation was tense. Many turned to God in prayer. Christian leadership was soon to have an enlargement unequalled in the history of the world. A new Chris- tian nation was to be born. Devoted ministers (one of them the father of Rev. Dr. Hibben, President of Princeton University) and earnest laymen were en- listed in Peoria and there were tokens of blessing. Visitors went to Chicago and brought back accounts of Mr. Moody's methods. A Peoria banker invited some ministers and laymen to his house to meet Mr. Moody at dinner. Mr. Moody was late in appearing — the delay was caused by a private interview up-stairs sought by Mr. Moody in an endeavour to lead a well- known unconverted man to accept Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour. The two great impressions con- cerning Mr. Moody, made that day upon every per- son present (and only one had ever before met Mr. Moody), was his earnestness in seeking to lead per- sons to the Saviour and his intense thirst for the knowledge of the Bible, for the entire dinner time was taken by Mr. Moody in quoting verses and in asking the ministers to tell him, * What does this verse mean ? ' It was a dinner-exposition of Scrip- ture. " In the winter after the Chicago fire, Mr. Moody and his family visited Brooklyn, N. Y. The Lafay- ette Avenue Presbyterian Church (Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D., pastor) had raised ^40,000 as its por- 60 DWIGHT L. MOODY tion of the Memorial Fund of ;^3, 000,000 of the Presbyterian Church to signalize its thanksgiving for the reuniting of the old and new school branches of that denomination. On visiting the chapel, nearing completion, he said that he would like to preach there, and the meetings began. Services were held twice each day and proved most instructive and attractive. A woman of large spiritual discernment told Mr. Moody : * In Brooklyn we have the best of preachers. Such men as Dr. Cuyler, Dr. Storrs, Mr. Beecher and others like them. Mr. Moody, it is not more preach- ing which we want but knowledge of the Bible — that is what people need.' " A Man with a Calling Bishop John H. Vincenty D. /)., LL. D, " I knew Mr. Moody first in 1857. I knew him in Chicago, in California, in London, in Dublin. I knew him in the Sunday-school work, in the Y. M. C. A., in the Christian Commission, and slightly in actual evangelistic services. I knew him on the street, on the railroad, in the parlour, on the public platform, in the sacred silence and service of prayer and Christian fellowship. He was always and everywhere the same straightforward, positive, simple-hearted, loyal and enthusiastic follower of Christ ; courageous, spiritually minded, guileless, consecrated, and indefatigable. I don't wonder that when * earth receded ' heaven * opened,' or that at the last he heard ' God calling' him. He heard God ' call ' long, long ago ; and he loved to obey and follow. Rest, noble servant of the HIS APPEAL 61 Most High, rest in the eternal life of communion with thy God." Mr. Moody and Students Prof, James Stalker y D. Z)., Aberdeen University " Well do I remember the very first meetings of Mr. Moody in Scotland. At the very first evening meeting I attended, Mr. Moody requested me and a companion, who had been pointed out to him as divinity students, to wait and assist at the inquiry meeting ; but we de- clined, having had no experience in such work. On the way home, however, we talked it over and we returned next night to offer our services. After that we assisted regularly. My companion, Mr. Skene, is now professor of Hebrew in the Presbyterian College at Melbourne, Australia. " Most of the students of divinity had been going through similar experiences, and before the end of the session they were ready to serve the movement in any way they could. They were sent to many parts of the country to speak of what was happening in Edinburgh, and either prepare for Mr. Moody's coming or visit places to which he was unable to go. The tie binding together those who were thus engaged has survived to the present day. This spring I met in Princeton a Philadelphia minister who had been study- ing in Edinburgh that winter and had taken part in the movement ; since then I had not seen him but once ; but his memories of that marvellous time were as vivid and tender as ever. ** Before the college session ended, it became mani- fest that a wide-spread spirit of interest and decision 62 DWIGHT L. MOODY among young men was to be one of the features of the revival. Mr. Moody took five of the New College students with him to Glasgow to the first of the great meetings for young men, and he put them all on to speak, while controlling the meeting himself. After the session was over such meetings were multiplied in all directions, the students becoming expert in con- ducting them; and several of the students followed Mr. Moody, with the same object, to Ireland and England. I had soon to give this up through having accepted a call to a church ; but Henry Drummond went on with the work for two years ; and this was the commencement of his world-wide labours as an evangel- ist to young men, especially students. ** It was not, I think, by Mr. Moody's intellectual power or his speaking power that students were thus attracted. Prone as students are to criticize, Mr. Moody was even to them above criticism; he was so obviously the servant and instrument of a movement felt to be divine. But students are extremely suscep- tible to the influence of personality ; and this certainly told on them. They felt unconsciously the spiritual stature of the man and the singleness of his purpose. " His Enduring Fame Hon, James A. Mount, Ex-Governor of Indiana ** Mr. Moody did not preach to please the ear, but to save the soul, yet he moved thousands to repentance by the fervour of his eloquence and the earnestness of his appeal. He had a message from the Holy Spirit to dying men, and with love to God and love to men HIS APPEAL 63 he delivered that message. More enduring than if perpetuated by marble shaft will be the name of Moody, for it is embalmed in the memory of loving hearts whom he led out of darkness into light, and from the power of sin to salvation through faith in Christ." ** He being dead yet speaketh." So genuine was Mr. Moody's goodness and greatness that even men who disagreed with him in his teaching were constrained to acknowledge the colossal proportions of the man. Thus, The Catholic World said at the time of his death : ** His prevailing qualities were tireless energy, amazing common sense, unquestioning faith, and a human sympathy rarely equalled. These qualities on fire with enthusiasm and marshalled with the brain of a military general made him a powerful leader of men. Protestantism has lost its best apostle and in the death of Mr. Moody there is a conscious halt in its forces." The Out- look summed up Mr. Moody's Hfe thus : " It would be difficult to name any man in the present century who has done so much to give the power of spiritual vision to men who having eyes saw not, having ears heard not, to give hope to men who were living in dull despair or even more fatally, dull self-content, 64 DWIGHT L. MOODY and to give that love which is righteousness and that righteousness which is love to man." Neither God nor man will let such a life die. It lives in the appeal which it makes, and will continue to make, in all the years which are to come. Printed in the United States of America Princeton Theoloqical Seminary Libraries 1 1012 01206 0408 Date Due >