Early Recollections 
 gf Dwight L. Moodjr 
 
 FARWELL
 
 HUMUS 
 
 SU8VEV
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL
 
 EARLY RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 DWIGHT L. MOODY 
 
 Hon. JOHN V. FARWELL 
 
 THE WINONA PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 CHICAGO ILLINOIS
 
 COPYRIGHT 
 
 1907 
 THE WINONA PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 PRESS OF 
 MARSH, AITKEN & CURTIS COMPANY 
 
 CHICAGO
 
 /U 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 EARLY RECOLLECTIONS 7 
 
 FIRST LESSON IN PERSONAL WORK 16 
 
 RESULTS OF MISSION SUNDAY SCHOOL WORK . 20 
 
 NORTHFIELD INCIDENTS 49 
 
 EARLY EVANGELISTIC WORK IN ENGLAND AS A 
 
 BIBLE STUDENT 53 
 
 MR. MOODY AND His Music 62 
 
 REAL START OF Y. M. C. A 65 
 
 THE MOODY AND SANKEY CONVENTION .... 68 
 
 MOODY'S BIBLE INSTITUTE 74 
 
 MR. MOODY THE PRESENT DAY APOSTLE OF 
 
 CHRISTIAN UNION 76 
 
 LETTERS FROM AND TO MR. MOODY CONCERN- 
 ING His WORK IN ENGLAND 80 
 
 INCIDENTS IN ENGLAND 106 
 
 CONCLUSION 189 
 
 MEMORIAL ADDRESS 192
 
 Early Recollections of D. L. 
 Moody and His Work 
 
 HON. JOHN V. FARWELL 
 
 I learned some facts from Mr. Edward Kimball, 
 who was the means of Mr. Moody's conversion 
 when a boy, after leaving home for Boston to enter 
 his uncle's store, with very little knowledge of the 
 Bible. In one of the Sunday School lessons, 
 Moses was the subject and when Mr. Kimball had 
 ended his remarks, the boy said, "That Moses 
 must have been what we call a smart man." 
 After his conversion he applied for membership 
 in Dr. Kirk's Church and was refused because of 
 his limited knowledge of the Scriptures. He per- 
 sisted however and was finally admitted. This 
 experience must have been a wonderful stimulant 
 to Mr. Moody for Bible study ever afterwards. 
 It was my privilege to hear Dr. Kirk preach for 
 Mr. Moody in his Illinois Street Church some 
 ten years afterwards. 
 
 My first acquaintance with Mr. Moody was as 
 
 a young man, and a late attendant of a nine o'clock 
 
 morning class meeting in the old Clark Street M.- 
 
 E. Church coming in a little before ten o'clock. 
 
 7
 
 8 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 The recollection that I then thought him a very 
 lazy Christian haunts me still, for I ascertained 
 afterwards, that he came in after spending all the 
 morning in getting poor children into a Mission 
 Sunday School, while I was only attending because 
 it was one of the rules of the church, and not to 
 get spiritual motive power for Mission work for 
 Christ as he did. 
 
 Any description of Mr. Moody's work, now 
 that he has gone from us, should begin where he 
 began, and then the most skilful observer will fail 
 to enumerate in detail, the smallest fraction of his 
 persistent efforts to make himself useful to his 
 fellow men, as a Christian leader. 
 
 Mr. Moody was an eminent success, first as a 
 Sunday School drummer or solicitor, for a South 
 Side Mission School, as above stated, until his 
 recruits were so many that they could not be ac- 
 commodated. 
 
 The next epoch of my recollections begins with 
 the North Market Hall Mission Sunday School, in 
 myself and others being invited to assist with five 
 minute talks to a rabble of ragged children gath- 
 ered by Mr. Moody, who were repeatedly only 
 sufficiently quieted to listen, by gentle music, al- 
 ways needed at the end of the five minute talks, to 
 quiet the boisterous ways of this gentile sea of 
 juvenile humanity. It took three months of such 
 work of music and speech combined, to prepare 
 the children for classes, which were then formed.
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 9 
 
 The school grew apace. At Mr. Lincoln's first 
 visit to Chicago, after his first election, he was an 
 invited guest of this school, then grown to fifteen 
 hundred children, on the agreement that he was 
 not to be asked for a speech. He left a dinner 
 party of political friends to meet this previous en- 
 gagement. As he was about to leave Mr. Moody 
 remarked to the school, "If Mr. Lincoln desires 
 to say a word, as he goes out, of course all ears will 
 be open." As he reached the center of the hall 
 evidently to go without saying a word he sud- 
 denly stopped, and made a most appropriate 
 Sunday School address, in which he referred to 
 his own humble origin, and closed by saying, 
 1 'With close attention to your teachers, and hard 
 work to put into practice what you learn from 
 them, some one of you may also become president 
 of the United States in due time like myself, as 
 you have had better opportunities than I had." 
 When the war broke out and his call for 75,000 
 volunteers was made, there were 75 young men 
 (scholars and teachers) who responded from this 
 school. No one of these became president, but 
 one of them was appointed postmaster of Chicago 
 after the war was over and filled the place to 
 perfection. 
 
 As one of the means of recruiting scholars for 
 this school, Mr. Moody at one time promised a 
 Christmas suit to a dozen of the worst street boys, 
 if they would attend every session until Christmas.
 
 io Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 He had them photographed as they were found 
 on the street, and as they appeared in the Sunday 
 School class after having obtained the suits only 
 two failing to meet the conditions. The first 
 picture was underscored, "Will it pay?" and the 
 second, "It does pay." As the teacher of this 
 class, I named it "Moody's body guard." One 
 day the worst of these boys came in and took his 
 seat with his hat on, and instantly another planted 
 a stunning blow on his face, sprawling him on the 
 floor, with the remark, ' Til teach you not to enter 
 Moody 's Sunday School with your hat on." This 
 incident illustrates the character of these boys. 
 The etiquette of good hat manners was thereafter 
 fully maintained. Thus this means used by him, 
 was fully illustrated and lives to-day in these 
 pictures. 
 
 About twenty years after this incident, ' 'Charley 
 Morton," entered a railroad office to get a ticket 
 as state secretary of the Y. M. C. A., while holding 
 evangelistic meetings all over the state. He was 
 asked to come inside, the manager saying, ' 'You 
 do not seem to know me," "I have not that 
 pleasure," said Charley. "Well," said the agent, 
 "do you remember Moody's body guard?" 
 ' 'Very well indeed, and I have their picture in my 
 drawing room." ' 'Well, when you go home, pick 
 out the worst looking one in the lot, and you will 
 see your humble servant, now a church member 
 and a Sunday School worker, by heredity from
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 1 1 
 
 Mr. Moody's school, and I assure you I never 
 gave a pass with such sincere pleasure as I give 
 you this." // did pay. 
 
 Returning from a little house prayer meeting 
 one Saturday night, in a fearful storm, Mr. Moody 
 took shelter under a wooden shed, where a flash 
 of lightning revealed another occupant a truant 
 scholar from his school. Thus God works for 
 men who work for him. A colloquy followed, 
 which revealed that his father had punished him 
 severely for attending his Sunday School. Mr. 
 Moody arranged that he should call Sunday morn- 
 ing and talk with his father. He found the old 
 man waiting for him, who began the conference 
 with "What do you believe?" Mr. Moody an- 
 swered, "I believe that unless a man believes in 
 the Lord Jesus Christ with all his heart, he will go 
 to hell." The old man could not indict this creed, 
 and the result was, after a loving conference, that 
 the truant boy was back to Sunday School that 
 day, and a firm friend and supporter of the school. 
 He was one of the volunteers from this school under 
 Lincoln's call for 75,000 troops. He maintained 
 a Bible class with his company, and at one time 
 was in command of a division at Franklin, where 
 many were killed or disabled. It was this man 
 that was made postmaster of Chicago after the 
 war, and was elected commander in chief of the 
 G. A. R. After above colloquy, he attended the 
 prayer meeting of Moody's Sunday School in a
 
 12 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 vacant saloon and there became a Christian the 
 whippings then began again. He asked Mr. 
 Moody what to do about it, and was told that he 
 now had another father, and must ask him what to 
 do. On his way home he prayed earnestly, for 
 direction, and found on arrival that another whip- 
 ping was in store for him, and he then said, 
 1 'Father I would not whip you for the world, as 
 you have always been very kind to me, until 
 whiskey got control of you, and now I propose to 
 whip whiskey, as you are controlled by that." He 
 did so, and ever after that he was unmolested in 
 his religious duties. 
 
 When he was elected Captain of one of the 
 Board of Trade regiment's companies, the ad- 
 jutant general informed him that no 18 year 
 old boy could command a company. The 
 captain and his company protested so strongly, 
 that the general said to him, f 'Who do you know 
 in Chicago?" ' ' J. V. Farwell and D. L. Moody," 
 (I happened to know him intimately, as a lawyer 
 for my firm) and he said ' 'You get a letter from 
 Mr. Farwell, and perhaps I won't ask how old 
 you are." He got the letter, and the adjutant de- 
 cided that a boy who could whip whiskey to 
 maintain a consistent warfare with Satan, could 
 command a company of Union soldiers to put 
 down a slaveholders' rebellion. 
 
 There were many poor families who resented 
 Mr. Moody's efforts to get their children into his
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 13 
 
 Sunday School. It would be a very long story 
 and so I will only give a few incidents of results. 
 
 An older brother in this Catholic family was in 
 the South when the war broke out, and on hearing 
 of Mr. Moody's work in his family, in making his 
 brother a Christian and a Union soldier, wrote 
 home that he would whip Moody within an inch 
 of his life on his return home. In due time he was 
 home, and down with typhoid fever. Mr. Moody 
 helped to nurse him out of unconsciousness to 
 recognize a smiling nurse, and then the sick big 
 brother inquired who that man was who had 
 nursed him back to life. This inquiry was made 
 of the younger brother, converted in Moody's 
 saloon prayer meetings, who answered, * 'That is 
 Mr. Moody." Like Saul of Tarsus he was trans- 
 formed from a persecutor, into one of Mr. Moody's 
 firm friends ever after that. The two brothers 
 then agreed to go together to the Catholic church 
 and to Moody's meetings, and see which was most 
 instructive and practical for their benefit. The 
 first meeting and colloquy was at the Catholic 
 Church, where mass was celebrated in Latin. 
 The older brother fell asleep, the Christian brother 
 awakened him, saying "Did we not come to 
 listen and find out for ourselves which service 
 was best adapted for our instruction?" 
 
 The Christian boy had no more objections from 
 his big brother against Moody's methods of teach- 
 ing men the way of personal salvation in personal
 
 14 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 work for Christ as their Savior. The Latin serv- 
 ice was too much for his practical good sense, 
 against such a man as Moody was to him. 
 
 There are times when one's legs are his best 
 preservers, and Mr. Moody acted out this, when 
 a Catholic deputy sheriff, who knew of his work 
 among the Catholic poor, and hated him for it, 
 started for him with an ugly looking uplifted cane, 
 but Mr. Moody outran the would-be disturber of 
 the peace and reached a place of safety. 
 
 On one of his recruiting trips, Mr. Moody came 
 to a house, where he saw not only children, but a 
 jug of whiskey. He took both out of the house, 
 the children to his school, and the jug of whiskey 
 to sprinkle the streets with. The next Sunday he 
 was in the same house for the same purpose, and 
 found the man (or rather semblance of a man) 
 waiting for him. Having confessed to demolish- 
 ing the whiskey jug, the man removed his coat, 
 while Mr. Moody said, ' 'I broke the jug for the 
 good of yourself and family, and if I am to be 
 thrashed for it, let me pray for you all before you 
 do it," and suiting his action to his words, kneeled 
 and prayed for father, mother and the children, 
 as only Moody could pray under such circum- 
 stances, and when he arose from his knees, it was 
 to take the children to his school, instead of taking 
 a whipping. 
 
 A personal appeal for an immediate decision 
 after presenting the facts of Christ's office and work
 
 Early Recollections oj Moody 15 
 
 was one of his effective methods in Christian 
 work. 
 
 SOME OF His METHODS AT THAT TIME 
 
 On leaving his home one morning, his wife re- 
 quested him to send her a barrel of flour. On his 
 way to the Y. M. C. A., he met a person he was 
 greatly interested in, and was so earnest and per- 
 sistent in an appeal to him to be a Christian, that 
 he forgot the flour until he reached the door, to 
 apologize to his wife for his neglect, who answered, 
 "You did not forget, the flour came about three 
 o'clock." Truly his barrel of meal was kept full 
 that he might save a soul from death. 
 
 On another occasion he overtook a man on 
 Clark Street bridge, a stranger to him and asked 
 if he was a Christian. The fact that the man 
 knew Moody, saved him from a severe castiga- 
 tion, for on his arrival at the Board of Trade, he 
 told the then president of the Y. M. C. A., to tell 
 his friend to be more discreet in the future, for if 
 he had not known him as a non-combatant, he 
 should have chastised him for his impertinence. 
 
 Moody was thus admonished some weeks after, 
 and on asking and learning from the president who 
 it was, said, "If you had been at the last prayer 
 meeting of our church, you would have heard his 
 confession of faith, with this incident which you 
 complain of, as the means used for his conversion."
 
 FIRST LESSON IN PERSONAL WORK 
 
 FROM A TEACHER IN His SUNDAY SCHOOL 
 
 One of Mr. Moody's teachers in the North 
 Market Hall Sunday School, who had a large 
 class of girls from 12 to 1 6 years old, and who had 
 consumption, and was about to go home to die in 
 an eastern state, came to Mr. Moody and said he 
 could not leave until his class had accepted Christ. 
 He asked Mr. Moody to go with him to see each 
 of them in their own homes. Mr. Moody hired a 
 carriage and went with him. His earnest desire 
 for their salvation and the necessity of his leaving 
 them moved each one of them to tears, and finally 
 they all came together at the home of one of the 
 girls for a final meeting, at which every one of 
 them accepted Christ, as a personal Savior, and 
 when he took the train for his eastern home, to the 
 great surprise of Mr. Moody and their teacher, 
 they all came to see him off and give him a bouquet 
 of flowers, and sang one of their Sunday School 
 hymns in his car. This was a revelation to Mr. 
 Moody of the value of personal appeals as the 
 culmination of successful teaching of the Word, 
 and from that time he was the apostle of such 
 work to the end of his ministry, and inspired a 
 host of workers to follow his example. 
 
 Riding on a railroad train he opened a conver- 
 
 16
 
 Early Recollections oj Moody 17 
 
 sation with a perfect stranger about the weather, 
 etc., and then asked the same question, and con- 
 tinued the interview until he neared his station, 
 when he asked the privilege of praying with him, 
 by bowing their heads on the seat in front of 
 them after which the train stopped and Moody 
 was gone. Years afterwards, this stranger re- 
 lated the incident as the means of his conversion. 
 He certainly sowed beside all waters and God gave 
 the increase. 
 
 Here are three cases where no one but Moody 
 would have thought of making personal appeals, 
 and in every case God honored his faith and works 
 in ' 'sowing beside all waters," by giving the prom- 
 ised harvest. 
 
 Is it any wonder that a church was formed from 
 the converts of a Sunday School, whose superin- 
 tendent had such a spirit, and that that church is 
 to-day crowded with more listeners than any 
 other church in Chicago? Nay, the wonder is, 
 that more sanctuaries are not filled to overflowing, 
 as the result of opening the Scriptures to men who 
 should see the need of a Savior, but regard them- 
 selves far above the horizon of such influences as 
 Moody invoked in all his work, who scarcely ever 
 failed to find the word so used by him, accomplish- 
 ing that for which it was sent by its author, viz. : 
 Saving the lost. 
 
 It was said of our Savior, ' 'Publicans and sin- 
 ners, and the common people heard him gladly."
 
 1 8 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 It would seem from these early incidents in con- 
 nection with Mr. Moody's Sunday School work 
 that he was especially drawn toward those who 
 were most needy, and most neglected by any 
 Christian agencies for their uplifting, first among 
 the children, and then among the older people 
 who had grown up without such influences. 
 
 From this last class I remember two cases, one 
 while he was at North Market Hall. He was a 
 young man and a slave to drink. He was con- 
 verted, but his habits overcame him several times, 
 when Mr. Moody took him to an empty store and 
 tried the novel thrashing method, with the desired 
 result. Who will say that prayer did not precede 
 such training, when love was the motive power 
 of all his work? 
 
 Another was in the great Tabernacle meetings, 
 when a lawyer from Arkansas, who had left his 
 family and come to Chicago to drink himself to 
 death, came into the meeting very drunk, and 
 supported himself against one of the pillars of the 
 gallery, while the choir was singing a hymn one 
 strain of which was: 
 
 "Sowing the seed of a tarnished name, 
 Sowing the seed of eternal shame, 
 Oh, what shall the harvest be?" 
 
 which struck his case on all fours; Mr. Moody 
 then said, "If I were bound by any habit from 
 which I could not release myself, and God would
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 19 
 
 not answer my honest prayer for relief, I would 
 burn my Bible." He must have been reading 
 Luke 4: 1 8, 19, where the Lord proclaimed Him- 
 self as the deliverer of all the captives of Sin and 
 Satan. 
 
 This sword of the Spirit reached the drunken 
 man, who really wanted to be released, but saw 
 no way out of his prison of habit, and he came to 
 the inquiry room for help. His name is in the 
 Bible that Mr. Moody gave me (referred to here- 
 after) now buried as deep in the ocean, as this 
 man's sins were, from that very evening. He never 
 afterwards desired a drink of whiskey, and be- 
 came a Presbyterian minister. I have often heard 
 him testify at the noon meetings as to what Jesus 
 had done for him, in that he never again had any 
 desire for whiskey, which before then held him as 
 in a vise. This man was especially helped in his 
 efforts to save drunken men having been to the 
 lowest depths of degradation from drink himself, 
 he was able to reach them as no other minister 
 could.
 
 RESULTS OF MISSION SUNDAY SCHOOL 
 WORK 
 
 There came into existence in due time, from 
 converts of the North Market Hall Mission Sun- 
 day School, the Illinois Street Church, organized 
 by ministers of all the denominations connected 
 with the Y. M. C. A., except the Episcopal 
 Church. The Chicago Avenue Church -is its 
 lineal descendant. Mr. Moody procured theo- 
 logical students to preach for this church, until 
 on one providential day in the calendar of his 
 services, said student did not appear, and Moody 
 was compelled to preach the sermon, as his first. 
 After that he was the regular pastor. One even- 
 ing Charlie Morton just out of the army minus 
 one arm, and then from a saloon, walked by this 
 church with open doors, and saw over the pulpit 
 from the street, printed in gas jets, "God is 
 Love." This magnet drew him in, and before 
 leaving a hand shake from Mr. Moody, and an 
 invitation to share the bed of the then secretary 
 of the Y. M. C. A. until he could get work, 
 opened the flood gates of Charlie's eminent use- 
 fulness as a successful minister, in the regular 
 apostolic succession, as state secretary of the 
 Y. M. C. A. for evangelistic work as one of Mr. 
 Moody's faithful lieutenants. Major Cole is an- 
 
 20
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 2 1 
 
 other graduate of the Y. M. C. A. as an evangel- 
 ist, who was with Mr. Moody in London, and 
 has incessantly kept up his work ever since in 
 this country. 
 
 It was there that he said, "Oh, for a hundred 
 thousand souls for my Master," and I really be- 
 lieve that he has taken more than that many in 
 his gospel net cast in life's sea at the Master's 
 command, out of this Y. M. C. A. ship. A small 
 host of laymen could be named, who had followed 
 Christ by following Moody in his chosen work 
 as their evangelistic bishop, in personal work for 
 souls. 
 
 This leads me to the statement of the fact that 
 Mr. Moody was once offered an ordination by the 
 Congregational Church, to which he .replied, "I 
 have never been through college or a theological 
 seminary, except to go in one door and out the 
 other. I therefore cannot accept your offer and 
 do justice to your rules and my own judg- 
 ment." 
 
 It is undoubtedly true that he had more in- 
 fluence as a layman with the masses and with 
 sectarian ministers, than he would have had as 
 an ordained minister of any one church. He 
 may be styled the "Layman's bishop universal," 
 for the reason that more laymen have learned to 
 do Christian work from listening to him and being 
 his coadjutors, than from any other minister of 
 Christ in this or any other country. His forte
 
 22 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 was to get other laymen to work as well as 
 ministers. 
 
 He thus gradually rose from being a preacher 
 to poor children in a saloon, rented by himself for 
 that purpose, in connection with the Mission 
 Sunday School, to a preacher in the largest hall in 
 London, holding 25,000 people (and in the Opera 
 house in the court end of London), graduating 
 from serving the commonest classes to the high- 
 est classes, and at his last meeting in the largest 
 hall, there were many more outside, who could 
 not get in. 
 
 I give here some remarkable incidents con- 
 nected with North Market Mission Sunday 
 School. A very small boy of his age & child of 
 a mother who had once kept a riotous sailors' 
 boarding house, was converted in that saloon. 
 The mayor of Brooklyn being in a prayer meeting 
 there, when this little boy rose to pray (whose 
 head did not reach the level of those in the seats) 
 was so touched by the prayer, that he sought 
 him out at the close of the meeting to speak with 
 him. This same boy went with Mr. Moody to 
 the saloon of an infidel, for a discussion of Chris- 
 tianity arranged for by him the day before (when 
 he came there to get his boy to come to Sunday 
 School), between Mr. Moody and the infidel's 
 friends each to have a half an hour's time! 
 They were all there as appointed, and the infidel 
 and his friends used up all their time in discussing
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 23 
 
 the order of the exercises, as to their side of the 
 case. At this point Mr. Moody called a halt, and 
 asked this little boy to pray. When the prayer 
 was concluded, all had gone out one by one, and 
 left Mr. Moody and the boy alone with the in- 
 fidel saloon keeper, who then allowed his boy to 
 go with them to Mr. Moody's Sunday School. 
 
 All arguments were useless in the presence of 
 this diminutive living fact, talking with God for 
 these infidels. 
 
 Mr. Moody was annoyed by a bad boy who in- 
 sisted in disturbing his class, as well as the whole 
 school. One day Mr. Moody said to me, "If you 
 see me take that boy into the police room, you will 
 at once call on the School to rise and sing a spirited 
 hymn, for I am going to thrash that boy." The 
 program was executed in detail, and when Mr. 
 Moody returned, his face was very red from this 
 religious exercise, which in due time resulted in 
 the conversion of the boy, and in his enlisting 
 under Mr. Lincoln's call for 75,000 troops in the 
 war of the rebellion. Discipline is very necessary 
 in a Sunday School as well as an army, and Mr. 
 Moody acted upon that wholesome plan, prayer- 
 fully no doubt. 
 
 A MAN OF PRAYER 
 
 Any mighty man in the Scriptures, must be a 
 mighty man in prayer and to this adjunct of the 
 divinely opened Scriptures to Mr. Moody, we
 
 24 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 may justly ascribe more than to any other one 
 agency, the success of his labors for the salvation 
 of men, for which Christ gave his life, death, 
 resurrection, ascension and advocacy. 
 
 It was this controlling power of prayer in Mr. 
 . Moody 's life which inspired him to build the first 
 Association building ever erected. Prayer was 
 the corner stone of this as well as his mission 
 Sunday School work. It was necessary to give 
 the Association a home, hence the wisdom of his 
 efforts in acquiring first an appropriate lot as a 
 location and a beginning. This opened the way 
 for subscribers to follow with the necessary means 
 to erect the first building on the site of the present 
 Association Hall, under a state charter relieving 
 the Association from taxes. Nearly forty years 
 of Chicago's growth has indeed made that home 
 (the bare land being now worth $700,000) a per- 
 petual benediction to union Christian work, re- 
 vealing the foresight of this remarkable man in 
 planning effectual means for continuous Chris- 
 tian work in Chicago and the world at large, long 
 after he should be called to rest. 
 
 I give only one incident as to material things 
 which occurred here during the great Auditorium 
 meetings. His Chicago Avenue Church had run 
 in debt during the three previous years, four 
 thousand dollars, and asked Mr. Moody to raise 
 the money. He told them that he could not ask 
 for money for that purpose, but he would ask the
 
 Early Recollections oj Moody 25 
 
 Lord to open the way for their relief. Soon after 
 this, at one of the Auditorium meetings, a woman 
 presented herself after the doors were closed, for 
 admittance, and was told she could not go in, as 
 there was not even standing room. She replied 
 that she must go in as she had an important letter 
 for Mr. Moody, which she could only deliver in 
 person. She was finally allowed to go in, and 
 forcing her way to the platform at the close of the 
 meeting, handed him the letter from Mrs. Cyrus 
 H. McCormick, saying she had been so impressed 
 with his need of money for something, that she had 
 sent him a check for two thousand dollars. Mr. 
 Moody said to the messenger this is all right, tell 
 Mrs. McCormick that I will call and see her, 
 which he did, and after warmly thanking the 
 donor, she asked him about the necessity that 
 had arisen, and when the full facts were given, 
 asked for the check, and made out another for 
 four thousand dollars. Mr. Moody was of course 
 much moved, and on going out met her son at the 
 door, saying to him, "See what your mother has 
 given me," holding up the check. "Well," he 
 said, "do you think the estate can stand that?" 
 Evidently the estate is still flourishing under such 
 beneficent management. 
 
 The great revival of 1857-8 gave birth to Union 
 Noon-day prayer meetings, and the Y. M. C. A. 
 under such auspices, was master of ceremonies 
 in the Association's second birth. For many
 
 26 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 years an Association of this name, managed by 
 old men, had had its existence, but this revival 
 put the young converts into harness for them- 
 selves, and the old men stepped down and out 
 all things being new. Here was a channel through 
 which laymen could make themselves felt, as a 
 unit. The Metropolitan Hall, larger than the 
 present Association Hall, was daily crowded by 
 these meetings from platform to gallery. The 
 leaders of it seemed to be there only to look on and 
 keep order, while from one to six were on their 
 feet at once, as witnesses for Christ. The result 
 was that many churches numbered their converts 
 by scores or hundreds. In such an atmosphere 
 the Y. M. C. A. and mission Sunday Schools, with 
 such men as Mr. Moody to say "come" instead of 
 "go" became great powers in city and country, 
 from which all union efforts since then have 
 gathered their spirit and growing strength in 
 both of which Mr. Moody is a shining example 
 having invested his capital as well as himself, 
 which last was the controlling factor, and always 
 will be in Christian work for others. In one of 
 these Noon-day meetings held in Farwell Hall 
 during the Tabernacle meetings of 1876, a young 
 man approached me with the question, "Do you 
 know me?" After a careful scrutiny I replied, 
 "I think you are the boy that Moody whipped 
 for disturbing his Sunday School class, and after- 
 wards was converted. Did it last?" "Yes," he
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 27 
 
 said, "you are right, and I am still holding on." 
 Another evidence that it did pay to use all means 
 to save some. 
 
 The question has often been asked where did 
 Moody get the money to do so much? He only 
 knows fully who said, "The silver and gold are 
 mine." When he went to London a friend gave 
 him a check the day he left and learned years after- 
 wards that he could not have gone without it. In 
 London one of his admirers said to me, "How can 
 I get one thousand dollars into Moody's hands 
 without offending him? " 
 
 SOME MOST REMARKABLE INCIDENTS 
 
 A little girl of Mr. Moody's Sunday School in- 
 vited him to call on her sick mother. On enter- 
 ing the room he saw where he was nothing 
 daunted he preached Christ to her, as faithfully 
 as his master did to the woman at the well of 
 Samaria, and she finally professed conversion, 
 and recovered her health. To secure her from 
 further temptation, he put her in another house, 
 far removed from the one she was in, and while 
 there the monster who had first caused her ruin, 
 found her, and again led her astray. Then it was 
 that Mr. Moody who previously had had this girl 
 apprenticed by the consent of the mother, sent 
 her to Wisconsin for safety, and the woman de- 
 manded her return, threatening Moody that she 
 would charge him with her ruin, if he did not
 
 28 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 comply. He simply declined, and gave the reason 
 very plainly, and then had the woman removed 
 from the house. The woman dared not execute 
 her threat, and when on her death bed, many 
 years afterwards, her physician said to her that 
 if she had anything to say or do, she must attend 
 to it at once, as she had not long to live. She in- 
 formed him that she had a daughter, and that 
 Mr. Moody was the only one who knew where she 
 was, and that she wished the doctor to see him, 
 and have her come to her funeral, and take what 
 property she had after her death. She came, and 
 it transpired that she was respectably married 
 and had one child. I learned that this doctor 
 was greatly impressed with this interview with 
 Moody, and instead of his former contempt for 
 him (as an infidel), was thereafter his ardent 
 admirer. 
 
 How many unmarried men would have done 
 this more than good Samaritan deed, at the risk 
 of losing their own reputation? This incident 
 illustrates his manly courage, as well as his prac- 
 tical good sense in the work of saving souls from 
 death, more than any other that came to my no- 
 tice, and also God's faithfulness to his own. 
 
 There were many Catholic children at this 
 time who broke the windows of his prayer-meeting 
 room as fast as they were repaired. After every 
 effort was made without success to stop this van- 
 dalism, Mr. Moody went to the Catholic bishop
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 29 
 
 and pleaded with him for protection, as he was 
 only trying to save just such boys as were doing 
 the mischief. The bishop remarked, that such 
 zeal as his should be in the true church. "Well," 
 said Mr. Moody, "if there is any man on earth 
 that wants to do right, I am one of them, and I 
 wish you would pray God to open my eyes if I am 
 wrong." Thus challenged they were soon both 
 on their knees, and when the bishop said amen, 
 Mr. Moody prayed as earnestly if not more so 
 than the bishop had done, that God would open 
 the bishop's eyes, if perchance he might be wrong, 
 and at least in due time stop the bad boys in 
 their work. As they rose from their knees, the 
 bishop assured him that there would be no more 
 such trouble, and there was not. 
 
 Evidently he saw that such zeal could not be 
 smothered, with broken windows, and that such 
 methods would recoil on the Catholic Church, if 
 they were persisted in. 
 
 Into the noon-prayer meeting came many re- 
 ligious cranks. One of them was a minister, who 
 used so much time in getting off big words in his 
 speeches, that Mr. Moody finally went to him and 
 told him, that while God might tolerate him in his 
 use of so much time to no good purpose, he could 
 not, and he had better not spend his time with 
 people who could not understand his toplofty 
 words and style. That ended the man's epistles 
 to Moody and to others. Another was a layman,
 
 30 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 who would not listen to Mr. Moody's suggestions 
 to be quiet often given to him and finally the 
 police was asked to take him to a justice's court 
 and from there to the bridewell, as a disturber of a 
 religious meeting. That ended another trick of 
 the D 1 to hinder Moody in his work for others. 
 
 Mr. Moody's activity among the poor aroused, 
 not only Catholic opposition, but that of all formal 
 Christians, and even an Episcopal Missionary 
 minister so exposed his disapprobation of his 
 methods in the presence of his janitor, that he in- 
 duced his own daughter to make charges against 
 Mr. Moody's moral character out of whole 
 cloth in order to give his minister a weapon 
 against Mr. Moody. As soon as Mr. Moody 
 heard it he called on the minister, and insisted 
 on his bringing before them both the janitor and 
 his daughter. Thus confronted and challenged 
 to tell the truth, the girl confessed that the charge 
 had no foundation in fact, and that she only made 
 it in obeying her father. How subtle the arts of 
 the evil one to destroy the influence of such a man 
 as Moody, but how much stronger Him who has 
 promised, in every temptation or trial to make a 
 way of escape for His children. 
 
 Mr. Moody once started for a Sunday School 
 convention in the country, and when too far away 
 from his office to return and make the train, he 
 discovered that he had no money to pay the rail- 
 road fare. He went on all the same, and soon an
 
 Early Recollections o) Moody 31 
 
 old friend shook hands with him and left a ten- 
 dollar bill in his hand, to indicate that the Lord 
 will provide, when singleness of heart for divine 
 work, actuates the man who takes it up. 
 
 At one of these conventions he was asked to 
 preside, and a congregational brother remarked, 
 "Well it is no credit to us to have elected that 
 crazy Methodist." When he was told that Moody 
 was an "inspired Congregationalist" he could 
 hardly believe his senses. This was one of the 
 greatest compliments to the Methodist Church (in 
 which I was brought up) that I ever heard. 
 
 Mr. Moody believed in picnics as well as prayer 
 meetings. Once a year the whole school was 
 taken out to the country for an outing. I only 
 went to one of them, as the physical exercise to 
 keep up with Mr. Moody in a race or other sports, 
 was too much for me. His motto was not to be 
 beaten in this week day Sunday School work, 
 more than on Sunday. 
 
 On one of Mr. Moody's first visits to Brooklyn, 
 Mr. John D. Cutler invited him to speak to his 
 Sunday School, the result of which reveals the 
 hand of God in it. 
 
 Some fourteen or fifteen years after that visit, 
 he (Moody) was engaged to speak in the Bedford 
 Church, Brooklyn, and he was, with Mr. Cutler, 
 the guest of Mr. C. D. Wood, on St. Mark's 
 Avenue. Seated at the table, he had no sooner 
 asked a blessing than he said to their host, ab-
 
 32 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 ruptly, "By the way, there was an incident which 
 happened to me when I was with this man," point- 
 ing towards Mr. Cutler, "that influenced me 
 probably more than any single incident of my 
 life. It was when I first began to speak. I had 
 come down to New York, and he met me and got 
 me out to his little school. I was getting into the 
 carriage to go away when some one touched me 
 on the shoulder, I turned, and saw an old man 
 with white hair blowing in the wind, and with 
 his finger pointing at me he said, 'Young man, 
 when you speak again, Honor the Holy Ghost.' 
 I got into the carriage and drove away, but the 
 voice was continually ringing in my ears; yet I 
 did not understand it. It was six months after- 
 wards before God revealed to me the meaning of 
 that message that I was entirely dependent upon 
 the Holy Spirit. From that day to this, I sel- 
 dom stand before a great audience where I don't 
 see that old man, with his outstretched finger, and 
 hear his voice, 'Honor the Holy Ghost.' " 
 
 This is the incident that revealed to Mr. Moody 
 his utter dependence on the Holy Spirit, for re- 
 sults in his work. 
 
 The late Edward Hawley told of being with 
 Mr. Moody somewhere about the time of this in- 
 cident in a revival at a Sunday School Convention 
 at Springfield, 111. On their return to Chicago, 
 they were telling in the meetings of the Young 
 Men's Christian Association what great things
 
 Early Recollections o) Moody 33 
 
 had been done, when Colonel Hammond, of the 
 Rock Island Railroad, broke in: "You are telling 
 us what Hawley did, and what Moody did ; but I 
 want to tell you that neither of you did anything, 
 for the Holy Spirit alone can change the heart. " 
 
 These incidents must have inspired in Mr. 
 Moody a longing for spiritual power, which re- 
 sulted in such an answer to his desire, that he had 
 to pray, "Lord, stay thine hand, I can hold no 
 more," or words to that effect, and he then became 
 a witness for Jesus with power. 
 
 Years ago it was my privilege to give the follow- 
 ing as part of an address which may well be in- 
 cluded in recollections of Mr. Moody's work for 
 the Y. M. C. A.: 
 
 "The roots of things determine their value, and 
 the Y. M. C. A. is not an exception. Roots are of 
 two kinds ; physical and spiritual. An acorn is an 
 oak in minature, and a single soul in which God 
 has a monopoly, is the prophecy of an institution 
 that can turn the world upside down, and so make 
 it right side up again, in the geography of heaven 
 and earth. 
 
 "God chose Moody, after Moody had made an 
 assignment of all his powers to carry on such a 
 business, a part of which was to round out and 
 perfect the Y. M. C. A. as a religious power, to be 
 one of the great factors in preparing the world 
 for His coming again, who is to rule in righteous- 
 ness, on earth as well as in Heaven.
 
 34 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 "George Williams, in London, antedated all 
 others by a short time, the organization of a Y.- 
 M. C. A., to benefit, primarily, the employees of 
 his great dry goods house, and Queen Victoria at 
 the recent Jubilee of the Y. M. C. A.'s of the 
 world held in London, made him a knight in 
 recognition of the value of Association work. On 
 my recent visit to London, Sir George gave a re- 
 ception in Exeter Hall, the home of the Y. M. C. A. , 
 at which some stereopticon views of a corydon of 
 the Y. M. C. A. buildings which had in fifty years 
 surrounded the world were exhibited. The acorn 
 was now the oak. The man was transformed 
 into a world-wide institution for young men, in and 
 through which to train them in that spirit of 
 Christian union, with which Christ himself with 
 infinite pains trained his disciples for their great 
 ministry to the race, as the first Y. M. C. A. 
 
 " Chicago has the honor of having built the first 
 of these buildings for such a purpose, and in fifty 
 years all civilized people have built spiritual as 
 well as material bricks and mortar into such edi- 
 fices around the world, which speak out in the still 
 small voice for Christian union, and universal 
 brotherhood. 
 
 "It was the great revival of 1857-8 that put new 
 life into the Chicago Association, and indicated 
 to many earnest workers in it, the necessity of 
 something better than rented rooms to emphasize 
 its importance as a new factor in Christian educa-
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 35 
 
 tion and usefulness. Mr. Moody, Mr. Jacobs 
 and Mr. Dean had a little prayer-meeting for 
 light and wisdom for taking up the work which 
 resulted in the acquisition of the lot on which 
 the present building now stands, and in due time 
 the first Association building in the world rose 
 up from a plat of ground originally laid out for 
 the reservoir of the Chicago Water Works. 
 
 "The city grew so fast before it was utilized for 
 that purpose, that it was entirely too small, and 
 it passed into the hands of the Sheriff of Cook 
 County, who made a garden plat of the site of the 
 reservoir, and a house lot of the Madison Street 
 front, which had been intended for the Water 
 Works office. The whole passed into other hands 
 for a residence and garden, but in due time the 
 house became too small and the owner donated 
 the ground to give place to an institution which 
 was destined to be the forerunner of the millen- 
 nium of Christian union, and a world-wide evan- 
 gelization for young men. A reservoir of the 
 water of life, of which if a man drink he shall 
 never thirst again, and from which has gone out 
 to the ends of the earth an inspiration the power 
 of which has revolutionized a large part of the 
 Christian world out of sectarianism as such 
 into one consolidated power for good, in practi- 
 cally answering in a broad sense the Lord's 
 prayer, in the iyth of John 'That his disciples 
 the world over might be one, even as he and his
 
 36 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 father were one.' Mr. Moody was the master 
 spirit in its conception and completion." May 
 we not emphasize now, as never before, the reason 
 for the Savior's prayer "That the world may 
 believe that thou hast sent me?" The reason 
 is obvious. 
 
 Among the many who were always the friends 
 of the Y. M. C. A. and who were active in secur- 
 ing a permanent home for it, I may name D. L. 
 Moody, B. F. Jacobs, Cyrus Bentley, C. H. Mc- 
 Cormick, George Armour, Orrington Lunt, Dr. 
 Hollister and T. W. Harvey, all of whom are 
 with us, except Mr. Bentley, Mr. McCormick and 
 Mr. Armour, to see what God hath wrought, and 
 to look upon our present building as the best 
 equipped work shop for making Christian char- 
 acter in young men, among all the edifices which 
 have risen with such marvelous rapidity every- 
 where, in the last fifty years. 
 
 From the time that the daily prayer meeting 
 was established in 1858, not a week day has been 
 passed without this sacrifice being offered, not 
 excepting the day of the great fire in 1871. True 
 there was one day when it was held in the third 
 story of the Clark Street M. E. Church building, 
 that there was only one old Scotch lady in attend- 
 ance, who solitary and alone sang a psalm, read 
 a chapter from the Bible and claiming God's 
 promises for herself, prayed for the meeting, 
 which from that day began to grow, and to-day
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 37 
 
 it is the largest daily prayer meeting within my 
 knowledge in the world. Through "great tribu- 
 lation" the Chicago Association has come to its 
 present patrimony. Twice its building has been 
 burned down, and one had to be torn down as in- 
 adequate to the Association's need, to give place 
 to the present edifice, which in cost, size and 
 thorough equipment excels any that has ever been 
 built. The ground on which it stands is now 
 worth $700,000. 
 
 At times, it seemed as if all the powers of dark- 
 ness were combined to destroy the organization, 
 and when fire had twice reduced to ashes all its 
 worldly possessions except the reservoir and office 
 lots, such men as George Armour, Cyrus H. Mc- 
 Cormick and others, said, "This temple must be 
 rebuilt," and such men as Moody, Harvey and 
 others kept the altar fires burning, and to-day we 
 have what we have for the reason that the seed 
 had eternal life in it, because its roots were planted 
 in the heart of Christ, when he answered to Peter's 
 confession of faith. "Thou art the Christ, the 
 son of the living God." "On this stone (creed) 
 I will build my church and the gates of hell shall 
 not prevail against it." 
 
 The fires which consumed our material Y. M.- 
 C. A. temples, only kindled anew the fire in living 
 temples, which on the day of Pentecost were kin- 
 dled by the Master himself, never again to be ex- 
 tinguished until he comes again to supplement that
 
 38 Early Recollections 0} Moody 
 
 supreme gift, with the new heaven and the new 
 earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. It remains 
 for the Y. M. C. A. to fulfill its destiny by seeing 
 to it that her temples temporal and spiritual 
 are always in order and waiting for that coming, 
 but meantime working, as though all depended on 
 personal faithfulness, and praying as though all 
 individual work would count for nothing, if for an 
 instant we forget that "Without Him we can do 
 nothing." 
 
 He is our one great creditor, and he wants an as- 
 signment of all that we have of body, soul and 
 spirit, not to make us poor, but that he may make 
 us his heirs to greater riches than can be computed 
 by our arithmetic of wealth. Why should he not 
 possess the monopoly of his own creations, in the 
 old as well as the new man? 
 
 To bring this material and spiritual history 
 down to date: while we have seen Providence re- 
 serving a lot in the center of the business district 
 of Chicago for this temple for young men, we 
 must not forget the work of Providence in raising 
 up at the right time, two young men large enough 
 in head and heart to see the possibilities of such 
 an agency in such a position, who were to take up 
 the financing of its construction, at a time, when 
 to most men the task seemed too great, even for 
 Chicago enterprise to undertake and carry 
 through. These young men were Cyrus H. 
 McCormick, Jr., and J. V. Farwell, Jr., whose
 
 Early Recollections oj Moody 39 
 
 fathers after the great fire aided in its rebuild- 
 ing. 
 
 Let no future generation of young men under- 
 value, and so allow such an investment made in 
 the infancy of Chicago's coming greatness to fall 
 in usefulness below the prayers and anticipations 
 of those founders of the Chicago Y. M. C. A., 
 and who are now from the battlements of heaven 
 looking on with increasing interest, as its work 
 has grown, until the dead speak with a louder 
 voice than the living, in the oak of their acorn, 
 whose shadow now encircles the earth. 
 
 May they not make its influence increase in 
 power, until the Association of this central city 
 of this great continent, "shall shine as the stars 
 forever and ever," because of the great number 
 of young men who shall hereafter sit in its shadow 
 for the great work of life. 
 
 May I not add in this year of our Lord 1901, 
 that it is to be hoped that in such work, evangelists 
 will again be heard through its agency, as they 
 were in its organization and subsequent usefulness 
 to the church, though for years the Y. M. C. A. 
 has, in a large sense, dropped that initial agency 
 in popularizing it, from its councils. It is not too 
 much to say, that but for this agency, inaugurated 
 by Mr. Moody in the Chicago Y. M. C. A., it 
 would not now own the best building in the world, 
 nor would the churches have endorsed and sup- 
 ported it as they have since then, throughout the
 
 4O Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 world, but for its usefulness to the church through 
 its evangelists, with Mr. Moody as the leader. 
 
 On his return from England, a committee was 
 formed (of which T. W. Harvey was chairman) 
 to build a large tabernacle for his meetings. The 
 committee was greatly discouraged at the progress 
 made, when a proposition was made by C. B. 
 and J. V. Farwell to build the tabernacle, as the 
 commencement of a large business block, and 
 charge the committee only the cost of the construc- 
 tion of the roof and galleries, and their removal 
 provided all the money subscribed for such pur- 
 pose (except that amount) should be used toward 
 canceling the debt of the Y. M. C. A. on its 
 building. 
 
 This proposition was accepted, and within 
 sixty days the tabernacle was turned over to the 
 committee, which Mr. Moody said was the most 
 complete of any he had ever used with acoustic 
 properties perfect. After the close of the meetings 
 Mr. Moody raised the balance of the money neces- 
 sary to clear the Y. M. C. A. building from debt. 
 That building was demolished to give place to the 
 present magnificent temple, exceeding in value any 
 other now in existence. As stated above, the 
 first building was the pioneer of a corydon of 
 union structures under Y. M. C. A. control, 
 which now encircle the earth, started with Mr. 
 Moody's little prayer meeting of three, that such 
 a temple might be built for a permanent home
 
 Early Recollections o) Moody 41 
 
 for the seventeenth chapter of John illustrated. 
 The ownership of this lot free from debt, was 
 what made the present Y. M. C. A. building 
 possible Mr. Moody was God's agent in its ac- 
 quirement. 
 
 Surely not for the glorification of self did he do 
 this great work, as one incident in connection with 
 the dedication of the first building will show. 
 George H. Stuart of the United States Christian 
 Commission, was chairman of the meeting, and 
 intended to have the hall named after Mr. Moody. 
 Mr. Moody learned or surmised this fact, and at 
 the proper moment took the platform himself, and 
 with a short and passionate appeal asked the audi- 
 ence to name it "Farwell Hall." At his earnest 
 request, the audience acceded to the only mistake 
 Mr. Moody ever made in connection with this en- 
 terprise. Since then he has preached the gospel 
 in all the principle cities of Great Britain and the 
 United States in the Y. M. C. A. halls thus started 
 by himself, and as yet I have never heard him 
 claiming any honor for inception or results. He 
 laid all these at the feet of his master, that his 
 "testimony of Jesus" might have no blemish, 
 that would prevent any man from accepting his 
 Lord the same as Paul did, before he began his 
 great work, which with Moody's are to continue 
 unto the end of time. Perhaps the present hall 
 has providentially been without a name, until Mr. 
 Moody was translated, the trustees knowing that
 
 42 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 he would not (while alive) consent to have his 
 name anywhere, except in the hearts of mankind 
 whom he served. In the name of all the Associa- 
 tion buildings in the world, should not the Chi- 
 cago Y. M. C. A. hall be named Moody Hall, to 
 speak now that he is dead, of his self-denying 
 efforts when alive to give such buildings to the 
 young men of the world? 
 
 I cannot forget another incident which illus- 
 trates Mr. Moody's wonderful humility, among 
 all his successes as an evangelist. Mr. Daniels, 
 a Methodist minister, determined to write up his 
 work in book form, and followed him to London 
 for that purpose. He arranged with Mr. Moody's 
 publishers in London to publish the work when 
 Mr. Moody heard of it, he enjoined them from 
 having anything to do with it, and did all he could 
 to dissuade Mr. Daniels from such an enterprise, 
 but to no purpose. The book was very creditable 
 and was published in Hartford, but had a very 
 limited circulation. 
 
 WORK FOR UNITED STATES CHRISTIAN 
 COMMISSION 
 
 There never was a time in my acquaintance 
 with Mr. Moody when his great heart was so 
 moved, as when the war was at its height, and the 
 Christian Commission was founded for work 
 among the soldiers, in Camp Douglas, the Chicago 
 home of Union soldiers.
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 43 
 
 Camp Douglas was his kindergarten school of 
 training for that work. When Buckner's Fort 
 Donelson army arrived in Chicago as prisoners, he 
 immediately began vigorous work among them 
 Hymn books with the Stars and Stripes on the 
 covers were used, and when the rebels refused to 
 sing out of them, on that account, he began to 
 realize as never before the spirit of the rebellion. 
 
 Very soon he was made a Christian Commission 
 delegate at large, and his first sight of blood was 
 after the Pittsburg Landing battle. He met the 
 transports bearing wounded soldiers north, and 
 I shall never forget his tragic relation of the inci- 
 dents on that journey, with wounded and dying 
 soldiers many of them accepting Christ in their 
 dying agonies, as he pictured to them the com- 
 passion of Jesus. 
 
 As chairman of the northwestern branch of the 
 Christian Commission, giving all my time to its 
 work, I can say truthfully, that my inspiration for 
 it came largely from Mr. Moody's ministry on 
 that occasion. In the presence of death he seemed 
 inspired to present Christ as the only living 
 Savior "with power" so that many, through 
 that ministry, were no doubt waiting for him in 
 the land where all battles are over; when he came 
 home with the record of a lifetime spent in preach- 
 ing Christ to dying men, but never with more power 
 and success than with sick and dying soldiers 
 and then writing home to praying mothers, at
 
 44 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 their request, that at last their prayers had been 
 answered. Three years of such work was an- 
 other divine preparation for his greater work 
 which followed ten years afterwards, in his Eng- 
 lish campaign among the masses as well as the 
 noblemen of England. 
 
 If he had had press assistants to record his ex- 
 periences as a Christian Commission delegate, a 
 volume could have been printed, that would illus- 
 trate his characteristics, under the strain of after- 
 battle scenes, that would stir the hearts of Chris- 
 tian patriotism in this country to its depths. 
 
 Instant action to meet the needs of the hour, 
 was one of his characteristics that found timely 
 play after a battle, amid the horrors of suffering 
 and death, better than anywhere else, and a man 
 who felt in his own soul the great need of such 
 men at such a time, made him a hero in righting 
 their spiritual battles with and for them, to make 
 them Christian soldiers, as few men could. 
 
 Camp Douglas was the home of Rebel prisoners 
 as well as Union soldiers and Mr. Moody and his 
 band of co-workers in song, speech and distribu- 
 tion of religious literature, had the work fully or- 
 ganized before any prisoners occupied it. 
 
 He had the freedom of the camp always. I 
 never saw him so excited as when after holding 
 many meetings among the rebel prisoners, it was 
 ascertained that a conspiracy was hatched to break 
 out and burn Chicago, and particularly the
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 45 
 
 Y. M. C. A. building and the store of J. V. Far- 
 well & Co., because of their activity in war matters. 
 He and his assistants raised a battalion, and I, as 
 president, received a letter from the New Orleans 
 Y M. C. A. counseling us to desist from such 
 work. 
 
 Mr. Moody was especially active in raising this 
 Y. M. C. A. battalion. It was my duty as 
 president to make the presentation speech when a 
 flag was given it, in the noon prayer-meeting room 
 of the Y. M C. A., as follows- 
 Captain Barker: "I need not tell you that 
 history informs us, that in all ages of the world, 
 emblems of nationality have commanded the 
 homage, the purse and the hearts' blood if need 
 be of every true patriot; and in America, sir, 
 every insult to that Magna Charta of our blood- 
 bought rights, brings to its defense men who will 
 peril their all to maintain its honor In every 
 controversy, individual or national, there is a 
 right and a wrong side, and 'thrice is he armed 
 who has his quarrel just.' A heathen general 
 once ordered his subordinates to number his 
 army, before engaging a much larger force in 
 battle. The work being done, they reported a 
 force of ten thousand men to go out against 40,000 
 of the enemy, and counseled a surrender. The 
 general said, you have made an egregious error 
 in numbering my men. After asserting that they 
 were right, said he, 'How many did you put me
 
 46 Early Recollections o] Moody 
 
 down for?' 'Only one, sir ' 'Bad mistake, 
 gentlemen, you will let me number them over 
 again. Our cause is just you may therefore 
 put me down for 20,000, and for each of my sol- 
 diers you may count three, making in all 50,000 
 against 40,000 of the enemy, every man of which 
 is not over half a man, when fighting against the 
 right. Now, will you fight them?' 'Aye, sir, 
 and whip them too ;' and they were as good as their 
 word. 
 
 "In behalf of the Y. M. C. A. many of whose 
 members are under your command, I present you 
 this flag, the emblem of our dearly bought liberties, 
 expecting that you will trust in God while under 
 its folds, and be counted for 20,000 against its 
 enemies, and every man of your command, a host, 
 to follow your lead in placing it on the record of 
 national glory, second to none that waves in the 
 free air of heaven. Your commander in chief, 
 the president of the United States, on taking leave 
 of his home in Springfield to assume the guardian- 
 ship of our national flag, said: 'I have a greater 
 task before me than that which engaged the soul 
 of Washington, and without the assistance of the 
 God of nations I cannot succeed; with it I cannot 
 fail, and I ask the prayers of all God's people that 
 I may not fail.' 
 
 "I believe, sir, that he will not fail, for I believe 
 that the God of Washington is Lincoln's God, 
 not for personal aggrandizement, but for our na-
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 47 
 
 tional weal, and the world's redemption from 
 tyranny. And now, sir, while I hand you this 
 stand of colors, permit me to propose the senti- 
 ment: 
 
 "Down with the traitor's serpent flag! 
 Death to the wretch o'er whom it waves, 
 And let our heaven-born banner float, 
 O'er freemen's homes and traitors' graves." 
 
 Our recent war with Spain and its results, em- 
 phasize this prophesy, that Lincoln's God has 
 opened the way under McKinley, for the "world's 
 redemption from tyranny." The Stars and 
 Stripes are honored as never before, the world 
 over. 
 
 At the close of the war, this Christian Com- 
 mission, which had first begun work in Chicago 
 under Mr. Moody held a convention in Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 At one of the meetings Secretary Seward pre- 
 sided and President Lincoln and his cabinet were 
 present. Mr. Phillips sang a song the closing 
 verse of which was: 
 "If you cannot in the conflict prove yourself a soldier 
 
 true 
 If where fire and smoke are thickest, there's no work 
 
 for you to do, 
 When the battlefield is silent, you can go with careful 
 
 tread, 
 You can bear away the wounded, you can cover up 
 
 the dead."
 
 48 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 President Lincoln while wiping tears from his 
 eyes, sent up a request that this song be repeated 
 at the close of the service. This verse described 
 Mr. Moody's work on many a battlefield, when 
 the fight was over. 
 
 At another meeting General Grant presided, 
 and I was asked to make the address as chairman 
 of the Northwest branch of the Christian Com- 
 mission. Never was such an honor forced upon 
 me, and I am sure that Mr. Moody's example in 
 work for soldiers, so stirred me up, that such an 
 honor was possible to me, together with the 
 presentation to me in the Second Presbyterian 
 Church of Chicago, by that branch of the Com- 
 mittee, of a large handsomely bound Bible, with 
 an address signed by Chicago's Christian Workers 
 in the army. These are precious memories of 
 the results of work with Mr. Moody, for the Grand 
 Army of the Republic, in the most momentous 
 era, in the making of the world's history, in the 
 maintaining of peace and good government among 
 all nations beginning at Bunker Hill in 1776 
 and ending around Richmond in 1864.
 
 NORTHFIELD INCIDENTS 
 
 The conversion of Mr. Moody's invalid brother, 
 together with his death, are both notable incidents 
 in the results of his influence at home. This 
 brother had come to Chicago, as an invalid, for 
 his brother's health, while rejecting his brother's 
 Savior. It was in Northfield that he repented and 
 found pardon. He then became president of 
 the Y. M. C. A. there, and at his death a good 
 company of young men, who had been brought 
 to his Savior through his own ministry, sat in 
 front of the pulpit, while Mr. Moody gave one of 
 his characteristic addresses which brought tears 
 to all eyes. He had seen of the travail of his soul 
 for a brother, and was satisfied, because Christ 
 had given him such substantial proof of his 
 discipleship. 
 
 On his return from England Mr. Moody's 
 mother rose for prayer in one of his meetings. He 
 was so overcome that he could scarcely ask a 
 friend to lead in prayer. She then became a 
 member of the Congregational Church. 
 
 On one of my visits to Northfield, Mr. Moody 
 insisted on my taking the morning service, while 
 he sat in one of the pews. I read and commented 
 on the first eight verses of the first chapter of 
 Second Peter, giving special emphasis to those verses 
 
 49
 
 50 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 which followed faith; namely, faithfulness in the 
 knowledge of Jesus Christ as a co-worker with him. 
 
 On going to his seat after the service, Mr. 
 Moody said to me, "My dear brother, you 
 should have read the next verse, and emphasized 
 the result of not adding the Christian graces in 
 active work to one's faith, which was not only no 
 fruit in their lives, but actual forgetfulness that 
 they had been converted. If there is any 'falling 
 from grace,' this must explain the reason." 
 
 "The Testimony of Jesus," from this man has 
 reached millions because it was the spirit of his 
 preaching as a believer in the Master's first re- 
 corded sermon, as to his own character and office 
 work upon the hearts, minds and wills of men, 
 of which he was a living witness. "Ye are my 
 witnesses," are the words of Jesus to every re- 
 deemed soul. Luke 4: 1 8, 19, 21. Rev. 19: 10. 
 
 The following letter from Morris K. Jessup, one 
 of the leading Christian business men of New 
 York, reveals the fact that he seriously considered 
 the plan of getting Mr. Moody to make New York 
 his headquarters for religious work. Hence, be- 
 fore going to England, it is clear that his efficiency 
 in such work was fully appreciated by one of the 
 most useful and discriminating business men in 
 New York as well as by others elsewhere in this 
 country. He preferred to stay where he was first 
 appreciated as a prophet, even in his own chosen 
 home.
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 51 
 
 NEW YORK, January 17, 1872. 
 
 My dear Mr. Farwell: I thank you very much for 
 your letter. I am very glad indeed to have had the 
 opportunity of seeing and knowing more of Mr. 
 Moody when he was last here, than before, and I am 
 glad to say to you, that the more I see of Moody the 
 more I like him. I believe God is making him the 
 instrument of a great work among the people. Moody 
 and I had quite a talk about getting hold of the masses 
 in this city, and he quite cheered me up. I have 
 thought on the matter a good deal lately, and my 
 mind has rather been led to the fact that Moody is the 
 man to come here and enter upon this work, in fact I 
 cannot rid my mind of the matter, and I am waiting 
 a little more the directing of Providence. We must 
 do something in a large way for the masses in this city. 
 God will not be satisfied with the mean way the work 
 has been carried on, the fact is, we as Christians 
 have not done the right thing in this respect, and I 
 believe now the opportunity must be embraced. I 
 wish you would think the matter over about Moody 
 and write me. I don't want to take him from Chicago 
 unless it is the Lord's will, and then no one can inter- 
 pose. I should be willing to take the expense on my 
 shoulders. I am feeling my way at this moment. I 
 feel sure the Lord will bring out all the right way, if He 
 sees that our desire is for His glory alone and not for 
 self pride or vanity. I am glad you escaped so well 
 from the fire. What a terrible ordeal you have all 
 gone through. God bless you all, 
 
 M. K. JESSUP. 
 
 J. V. Farwell, Esq.
 
 52 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 The proposition to remove Mr. Moody to New 
 York, was not entertained. 
 
 England and the world were larger fields, and 
 well occupied by voice and type, prepared the way 
 for a work in New York, that could not have been 
 accomplished had he gone there first. It was 
 my great privilege to be with him a part of the 
 time while in our metropolis.
 
 EARLY EVANGELISTIC WORK IN ENG- 
 LANDAS A BIBLE STUDENT 
 
 I regard humility as one of Mr. Moody's most 
 marvelous characteristics in the light of his wonder- 
 ful success as a preacher in Great Britain and 
 America. I never heard him refer to his successes 
 in the work of an evangelist especially, until the 
 year he died, and in his own church, which I give 
 as nearly as I can from memory. 
 
 He had on his first trip to England been in- 
 vited to preach by two prominent clergymen in a 
 large North of London Church, and this was his 
 narrative of results: 
 
 "I never before felt so weak, and considered my 
 effort a failure, but nevertheless as was my custom, 
 I asked all who wanted to be Christians to rise. 
 Over 400 rose. Thinking they or I had made a 
 mistake, I asked them to take their seats, when I 
 again explained the nature of my request, and 
 what it meant to them, and then asked all to rise 
 who really wished to have their lives changed by 
 the power of God through faith in Jesus Christ as 
 a personal Savior, and then some 500 rose to their 
 feet and remained for a second meeting, which 
 was the beginning of a great revival." 
 
 A bedridden saint had been for months praying 
 that Mr. Moody might come to her church for 
 53
 
 54 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 work, and did not know he was there until after 
 this meeting was held. 
 
 Mr. Moody had never seen anything equal to 
 this in America, and may we not conclude that 
 the memory of this meeting, when he was after- 
 wards invited by these two able clergymen teachers 
 to come to England for a long evangelistic mission, 
 and the fact that the great fire had destroyed all 
 the buildings he had worked in here, were to him 
 God's call to that work. I did all I could to dis- 
 suade him from going, but to no purpose, and so 
 when the afternoon came for him to leave, I went 
 to his office for a farewell visit, and found him just 
 ready to come to mine. He had a Bagster's Bible 
 in his hand to give to me, and I had a check in my 
 hand to give to him. About three years after 
 that I learned that but for that check he could 
 not have started for England without borrowing 
 money. This Bible was very dear to me from 
 this circumstance and one other as follows : 
 
 Some ten years after, on a return trip from 
 England, and when near New York, after the 
 fog horn which had kept me awake all night had 
 ceased for a short time, I heard a crash near my 
 stateroom, and before I could dress myself, the 
 cry rang through the ship, "All hands on deck 
 with your life preservers." On reaching the 
 deck the only star seen in the horizon, was the 
 morning star. Instantly there came to my mind, 
 "I am the bright and morning star," and from
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 55 
 
 that time I seemed as calm as if on shore, amid 
 all the bustle of getting off the sinking ship in a 
 rough sea to life boats, and from there to a 
 schooner, until its decks were filled; when the 
 Fulda from Hamburg (which had been detained 
 some hours from starting on her regular time) 
 came in sight and arrived alongside, just in time 
 to see the Oregon go down. We were all 983 
 persons taken on board, and reached New York 
 City early the next morning. I had been given 
 the steward's stateroom, and dreamed just before 
 awaking in the morning, of reading the Beatitudes 
 from the Bible Mr. Moody gave me to the verse 
 * 'Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall 
 see God," when with tears in my eyes, I looked out 
 of the port hole, and there again was, "the bright 
 and morning star" shining in my face; but my 
 Moody Bible was in the bottom of the ocean, and 
 the one I now have Mr. Moody gave me after 
 hearing of my loss, with a multitude of his own 
 markings in it. Do you think I will ever cease 
 to love Mr. Moody's Bible, given me on his leaving 
 Chicago for his world-wide mission, or the one 
 I now have, from his loving heart? 
 
 On his arrival at Liverpool, the two clergymen 
 who gave him the invitation to come, were in their 
 graves, leaving Moody to depend entirely on God 
 for help, and Mr. Sankey with him to whom he 
 had guaranteed $1,200 salary. Their first meet- 
 ings were practically failures, and not until they
 
 56 Early Recollections o) Moody 
 
 opened up in York and Newcastle, on en- 
 tirely new lines, was there any promise of success. 
 It is very hard for strangers to get a hearing in 
 England, without first-class introductions from 
 men well known. 
 
 This new departure was the issuing of tickets 
 to factory hands (who gave them half of their 
 noon hour for singing and talking) to come to an 
 evening meeting. These were crowded, and of 
 such power that Edinburgh sent a delegation of 
 ministers to hear this man, who was turning the 
 world upside down to make it right side up, who 
 invited him to Edinburgh. This made for him 
 an open door to the whole kingdom, and most 
 appropriately he ended his labors in London 
 the capital of the world in more ways than one. 
 
 He here invited a large number of prominent 
 ministers at different times to meet him in the 
 parlors of his friends for Bible instruction. I 
 heard him say to one such company, "I am not a 
 graduate of any college, or theological seminary, 
 and so I have asked you here to get all I can out 
 of you, from the Bible, for use in my work." 
 With such a frank avowal, what wonder that they 
 opened to him of their Bible treasures, as a free- 
 will offering to his work in London. They saw 
 God in Mr. Moody's work so entered into (and 
 in Mr Moody as a man), and the vision inspired 
 them, as his most efficient helpers. This leads 
 me to say that I never knew a man who had such
 
 Early Recollections 0} Moody 57 
 
 a marvelous faculty for setting other men to work, 
 both laymen and ministers. Indeed, as laymen 
 were the most numerous, he seemed to call for, 
 and depend on them, more than on the ministry, 
 especially in the inquiry meetings, which always 
 followed his preaching. 
 
 We all instinctively look back for the incipient 
 springs which have grown to such an ocean of 
 Christian usefulness. Well, as we have seen, 
 the poor neglected children of the worst parts of 
 Chicago, was where Mr. Moody graduated from 
 as a Christian minister, and it was my great good 
 fortune to watch the process, which was rapid, 
 culminating in his being the foremost Christian 
 preacher of his time, if not of all time, if judged by 
 the result of his work, from Chicago as its initial 
 point, until they have reached around the world. 
 I have a letter from the press clipping bureau of 
 Boston, informing me that they had one thousand 
 obituary notices of Mr. Moody and would prob- 
 ably get three hundred more, which indicates in 
 what esteem he was held in his own country. 
 
 Let us notice in passing, his last meeting in 
 Agricultural Hall, London, holding 25,000 people, 
 as the inspiration for tabernacle buildings in the 
 United States, and of his last meeting on earth in 
 Kansas City in the large Exposition Hall, holding 
 some 20,000 people as his closing meeting on 
 earth. The London meeting crossed the ocean 
 with its inspiration, and on his return to America,
 
 58 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 Christian ministers and laymen of all denomina- 
 tions united under the leadership of the Y. M. C. A. 
 to build large tabernacles here, for this world- wide 
 evangelist, which in turn were filled to overflowing 
 and hundreds were added to the church daily. 
 
 The Kansas City meeting was under like au- 
 spices, and must have warmed the heart of Moody 
 to overflowing, while it reminded him of his work 
 in the 'yo's in like halls under the same conditions. 
 He went from there, via his beloved family home, 
 to his home above, and his translation should 
 find his mantle falling on many consecrated 
 ministers and laymen ready to work for such a re- 
 vival, as in 1857 first called Mr. Moody into 
 Christian work. 
 
 If there ever was a time when the cause of 
 Christ needed consecrated men ministers and 
 laymen it is now, when agnosticism and higher 
 criticism of Christ and the Bible are rampant, and 
 when Dowieism and Christian Science pretend 
 to enthrone Christ and the Bible, while every ef- 
 fort of the leaders in them, indicates that filthy 
 lucre, and not the honor of the Master, was the 
 inspiration of those efforts. 
 
 It was my privilege to be with Mr. Moody in his 
 last meeting in Liverpool. It was here that some 
 one suggested that coffee-houses could be made 
 to take the places of the saloons in that city. He 
 at once saw a few Liverpool friends, on the plat- 
 form, and then and there he proposed to the audi-
 
 Early Recollections oj Moody 59 
 
 ence that a stock company be formed to operate 
 coffee-houses, and before the meeting was over, 
 the scheme was an accomplished fact as to a 
 program there formulated, and was carried out 
 after he left the city, and to-day stands as another 
 monument of his tact and genius in seizing op- 
 portunities in the line of doing good to men. We 
 came home together and the Atlantic was like a 
 mill pond all the way over. It seemed as though 
 the spiritual serenity he had left on land, had 
 stilled the waves in token of God's endorsement 
 of the work he had done. Not so in an after pas- 
 sage, in which I was not with him, when for days 
 the ship seemed doomed, and all on board. 
 Whether an angel appeared to him, as to Paul in a 
 similar experience is not recorded, but I learned 
 that he held services with the passengers and crew, 
 and contrary to all expectations (as they had 
 drifted away from their course), a ship came in sight 
 and took them all safe to land. Thus God takes 
 care of his own until their work is done on earth. 
 While engaged in Bible study on this first trip 
 to England, he became acquainted with a con- 
 verted Manchester thief, who had made great 
 progress in such study, and who wished to come 
 to America with Mr. Moody. He was so unat- 
 tractive, personally, and of very small stature, 
 that Mr. Moody would not encourage him, and 
 purposely did not let him know the vessel in which 
 he was to sail.
 
 60 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 Soon after his arrival in Chicago, he received a 
 letter from this man, with the information that he 
 would be with him in Chicago on the Saturday 
 following. 
 
 Mr. Moody was going to the country that day, 
 and told his wife of this unexpected encumbrance, 
 but added, "Ask him to preach on Sunday and see 
 what there is in him before I return." She did so, 
 and he took for his text, John 3:16, "God so 
 loved," etc. He was asked to continue every 
 night for a week, until Mr. Moody's return, and 
 every night he would say, "I have been looking 
 for a better text, but I cannot find one, so I shall 
 take John 3:16." 
 
 In closing his last sermon before Mr. Moody's 
 return, he said: "It will take all eternity to unfold 
 the love of God to a poor sinner like me." 
 
 Harry Morehouse, for months and years after 
 this, at different times, was one of Mr. Moody's 
 Bible teachers. Surely his first trip to England 
 was foreordained in more ways than he ever 
 dreamed of, as the forerunner to his second, in 
 which his Bible study culminated in fruit, such 
 as God only can put on the branches in the true 
 vine, by and through such study, condensed into 
 active Christian work. 
 
 A LONDON INCIDENT 
 
 In one of the monster London meetings the 
 son of a rich Bombay merchant rose for prayer
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 61 
 
 at the close, and became a Christian. He was an 
 Eton student, and immediately set about having 
 Mr. Moody preach to the Eton students. The 
 effort was foiled by the teachers. Nothing 
 daunted, this young man engaged a lawn, sur- 
 rounded by a high brick wall, for the meetings, 
 and the students heard Moody preach. This in- 
 cident was heralded all over Great Britain by the 
 papers. A non-conformist, unordained man 
 preaching to the scions of wealth and royalty of 
 Eton college, in nature's grand cathedral, fres- 
 coed with stars and carpeted with one of Eton's 
 beautiful lawns, was a great event for even Great 
 Britain.
 
 MR. MOODY AND HIS MUSIC 
 
 While Mr. Moody could sing but one note, he 
 was very fond of the best religious music and 
 hymns, and always sought and obtained such as 
 would at once strike the masses with their needs, 
 as well as the remedy. Of all the men that he de- 
 pended on for such hymns and music, Mr. P. P. 
 Bliss stood at the head, as he had furnished the 
 staple music, and some of the best hymns used by 
 Mr. Sankey in their English evangelistic campaign. 
 
 During the Chicago tabernacle meetings, at his 
 hotel dinner, where perhaps a dozen friends were 
 dining with Mr. Moody, he was very depressed and 
 silent. Some one asked what troubled him. He 
 answered, "I do not know, but something terrible 
 is going to happen." 
 
 The next morning a telegram was received 
 from Ashtabula, saying that Mr. Bliss and his 
 wife were killed in the terrible railroad accident 
 and fire that occurred there. A commission pro- 
 ceeded at once to the scene but could find no trace 
 of either Mr. Bliss or his wife. They had actually 
 gone up in a chariot of fire. 
 
 Mr. Moody was obliged now to depend on God, 
 for his music, as well as other means of carrying 
 on his work, and again he was equal to the oc- 
 casion. 
 
 "Men may be taken away, but God lives." 
 62
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 63 
 
 A SIMILAR INCIDENT IN MR. LINCOLN'S LIFE 
 
 At Mr. Lincoln's last cabinet meeting, and just 
 after the surrender of Lee's armies, he made the 
 same remark to one of his cabinet before the ses- 
 sion, " Something terrible is going to happen. I 
 had a dream last night just such as I have had 
 before all our greatest reverses." The cabinet 
 proceeded with its business, and he was invited 
 that day to go to the theater in the evening, to 
 divert his mind from the terrible strain (now re- 
 lieved by victories) but depressed with this pre- 
 sentiment, and there met his death at the hands 
 of an assasin. 
 
 An angry mob was about to hang some men in 
 New York the next day, who said "they were glad 
 of it." Here it was that Garfield (who was to 
 meet the same fate as president of the United 
 States) was called on to address the crowd, and 
 said: "Lay violent hands on no man. Lincoln 
 is dead, but God lives to vindicate righteous- 
 ness." 
 
 Over $1,000,000 in royalties from hymn books 
 and his own publications, shows how Providence 
 provides money as well as men to supplement 
 man's deficient beneficence and depleted ranks, 
 in such work as Mr. Moody's to raise not only the 
 common people, but the dead among the rich in 
 the harvest of Christ's eternal life and riches. 
 
 Here is one hymn sung in the Illinois Street 
 Church (as a sample) and the one which roused
 
 64 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 Charley Morton's attention to the fact that none 
 were too low for the love and attention of the Lord 
 Jesus and of Mr. Moody in his mission work : 
 
 Do you know any little barefoot boy 
 
 In garret or in cellar 
 Who shivers with cold and his garments old 
 
 Will scarcely hold together? 
 
 Chorus 
 
 Go bring him in, there is room to spare; 
 Here are food and shelter and pity ; 
 
 And we'll not shut the door 
 
 'Gainst one of Christ's poor 
 Though you bring every child in the city. 
 
 Do you know any tired little girl, 
 
 Whose feet with cold are aching; 
 Whose shrinking form braves the winter's storm, 
 
 The alms of the richer taking? 
 
 Go bring her in, etc. 
 
 Go gather them in from the tenement house, 
 
 And the merchant's stately palace; 
 From the world's dark strife, and the heavenly life, 
 
 Let them drink from the golden chalice. 
 
 Go bring them in, etc. 
 
 'Tis the Master's work; there is none so low, 
 But his loving hand may reach them, 
 
 And there's none so sunken in want and woe 
 But we'll joy to help and teach them. 
 
 Go bring them in, etc.
 
 REAL START OF Y. M. C. A. 
 
 While it is freely admitted that the Young Men's 
 Christian Association was the child of the great 
 revival of 1857-58, it is true that as such it was 
 the fitting educator of Mr. Moody for his life 
 work in uniting Christians of all denominations at 
 home and abroad, with Chicago as its center. 
 The bells of the great fire of 1871 were ringing 
 while he was preaching in Farwell hall from this 
 text, "This one thing I do," etc. The next morn- 
 ing his own home, the Illinois Street Church, and 
 the Young Men's Christian Association building, 
 all of them the pride of his life, were nothing but 
 ashes, and then it was that he heard the Mace- 
 donian cry, "Come over and help us," from two 
 faithful ministers who had previously invited him 
 to England to do evangelistic work under their 
 guidance and with their help. 
 
 EJECTION OF A DISTURBER 
 I remember a striking incident in the opera 
 house, where a meeting of young me nunder the 
 auspices of the Y. M. C. A. was held. A drunken 
 man, whenever Mr. Moody referred to John, 
 Mark, or Luke, repeated in a loud voice, "Say St. 
 John, sir." This was done several times, when 
 Mr. Moody ordered the man removed. Lord 
 Quinard and Quintin Hogg of his committee did 
 
 65
 
 66 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 the work, while Mr. Moody called on the audience 
 to rise and sing a spirited hymn, and then re- 
 marked, "I had this done for the good of the man 
 as well as the audience," and then went on with 
 his sermon as though nothing had happened. At 
 the close of the meeting the inquiry room was 
 rilled. Nothing seemed to disturb his equa- 
 nimity, and, being an on-looker from the gallery, 
 I never admired his wonderful tact as I did at that 
 time. 
 
 The question has often been asked where did 
 Moody get the means to do so much? He only 
 knows fully who said : "The silver and the gold are 
 mine." When he went to London a friend gave 
 him a check the day he left, and learned afterwards 
 he could not have gone without it. In London 
 one of his admirers said to me, "How can I get 
 one thousand dollars into Moody's hand without 
 offending him?" He never would allow any one 
 to canvass for money for his personal use. As the 
 tabernacle in the wilderness was built with free- 
 will offerings, so Mr. Moody's personal expenses 
 have always been made up of free-will offerings, 
 until the publication of his books gave him a large 
 income, and I learn from others that this has 
 nearly all gone into his Northfield schools. The 
 inspiration of his example should endow them 
 for all time. His humility was only discounted 
 by his intense earnestness and distinguished 
 ability usually called common sense but not
 
 Early Recollections oj Moody 67 
 
 near so common as one could wish. Here is a 
 notable incident: When the first association 
 hall was dedicated, he learned or surmised that 
 George H. Stuart, the chairman, was to propose 
 that the hall be named Moody hall. To prevent 
 this, Mr. Moody took the floor, and to my utter 
 surprise proposed after a short and impressive 
 appeal, that the hall be named Farwell hall. Per- 
 haps the present hall has providentially been 
 without a name until Mr. Moody was translated, 
 the trustees knowing that he would not, while 
 alive, consent to have his name anywhere except 
 in the hearts of mankind whom he served. 
 
 Now that he has gone and the world is practi- 
 cally girdled with Y. M. C. A. halls, would it not 
 be an extremely wise and appropriate act to 
 name the first of such buildings after the man 
 whose consecrated life enabled him to command 
 the influence among Christian men necessary to its 
 erection?
 
 THE MOODY AND SANKEY CONVEN- 
 TION 
 
 (From The Independent.) 
 
 "OuR YOUNG MEN WHAT MORE CAN WE DO 
 
 FOR THEM?" 
 
 This question, one of the most important that 
 came before the convention of ministers and lay- 
 men called by Messrs. Moody and Sankey in the 
 interests of aggressive Christian work, was one of 
 the subjects upon which Mr. Moody might rea- 
 sonably have been expected to speak himself with 
 more than usual earnestness, by all who are at all 
 acquainted with his work. Instead of this, with 
 his business tact, he called on John Wanamaker, 
 of Philadelphia, to open the discussion, whose 
 wonderful business ability, as one of the Centennial 
 committee of that city, has manifested itself not 
 only in putting life into that greatest of public 
 enterprises that has ever in civic affairs engaged 
 the attention of our people to cement the bonds 
 of our blood-bought Union, but, at the same time, 
 as president of the Young Men's Christian As- 
 sociation, has projected for its occupancy the 
 finest building in the world for such a purpose, 
 which will be thrown open to the public on the an- 
 niversary of our national existence. It is the 
 
 most fitting emblem of the real solid basis upon 
 68
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 69 
 
 which our free government must withstand the 
 assaults of infidelity, ignorance and superstition. 
 As might be expected, such a speaker could do 
 nothing less than to answer this important ques- 
 tion with an exhortation to the churches to en- 
 courage by every means possible the work of 
 Young Men's Christian Associations, and to 
 watch over and guide them with all the wisdom 
 and prudence at their command. 
 
 This is Christian wisdom, which in civil affairs 
 would be called real statesmanship, for it looks 
 into the foundations of the Christian Church and 
 recognizes the necessity of a practical recognition 
 of the essential unity of Christ's body, by what- 
 ever name its different members are called. Mr. 
 Moody's good sense in calling upon him is further 
 demonstrated in the fact that Mr. Wanamaker 
 is a living example of the advice he sought to en- 
 force upon that vast audience of the best talent 
 of our land. 
 
 That Mr. Moody did not open this subject him- 
 self may be further accounted for in the fact that 
 the results of his labors, added to the faithful seed- 
 sowing of such an audience as he had before him, 
 wherever he has been, in large cities, has culmi- 
 nated, either in aiding a building enterprise for 
 Young Men's Christian Associations already be- 
 gun or in inaugurating one upon a firm spiritual 
 and financial basis. The spirit of revival is the 
 spirit of union, as such facts abundantly show.
 
 70 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 I well remember the sorrow that filled the hearts 
 of the Chicago friends of the Association when 
 their commodious building (the first of its kind 
 in the world) was the second time reduced to 
 ashes, in the great fire of 1871. 
 
 One of the projectors of that enterprise, while 
 the ruins were still smoking, wrote to a friend at 
 the East concerning the great calamity that had 
 fallen upon the city, declaring that "those ashes 
 were sown by our Heavenly Father, and that, 
 therefore, the seed was good." How has that 
 prophesy been fulfilled in demonstration of the 
 proposition therein contained? The burning 
 of that building deprived the evangelists of their 
 place of holding meetings in Chicago, and de- 
 termined them to go to England until it should 
 be rebuilt. The world knows the result in the 
 spirit of revival that went with and followed 
 them. And in the large cities of England and 
 Scotland that seed has sprung up in magnificent 
 buildings for Young Men's Christian Associations, 
 as the legitimate fruit. 
 
 Those men, under the guidance of the Holy 
 Spirit, have at the conclusion of their labors in 
 each city held a meeting to test the genuineness 
 of results; and the God of the i7th chapter of 
 John has met them on the platform and crystal- 
 lized their efforts in enduring monuments rep- 
 resenting the normal condition of all who love our 
 Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and in truth. New
 
 Early Recollections 0} Moody 71 
 
 York has its building, the second one built in 
 America; but this will not hinder something of a 
 like character taking place in New York. And 
 then most appropriately Mr. Moody can speak 
 as one who knows whereof he affirms when he 
 shall, through another added monument of living 
 witnesses to the power of the Gospel of Christ 
 which he preaches, say to the churches of the 
 United States, in the spirit of John Wanamaker's 
 speech: "Encourage Young Men's Christian 
 Associations." 
 
 Watch over them in love, and thus perpetuate 
 the union with which we have labored and prayed 
 in the work of saving young men. Then shall 
 this centennial year be but the harbinger and pre- 
 lude to the millennial years, when "the govern- 
 ment shall be upon His shoulders." And all 
 envyings and strifes shall cease in the unbroken 
 harmony of a perfectly saved Church, melted into 
 the spirit of our common Master. 
 
 For such union in Christian effort let us all pray 
 and labor; and then we can "show our faith by 
 our works," in just as many buildings as the 
 young men of our country may need, that the 
 Universal Church may exhibit to an unbelieving 
 world that the power of Christianity, like leaven, 
 is unifying its adherents, and thus destroying one 
 of the Devil's strongest arguments against its 
 utility.
 
 72 Early Recollections o) Moody 
 
 LOVE WAS MOODY'S MASTER MOTIVE 
 
 Professor Drummond who was largely inter- 
 ested in organizing poor boy's brigades from the 
 lowest classes in England and Scotland, learned 
 in Mr. Moody's meetings in London to love and 
 follow this great leader. He then had charge of 
 a young men's meeting in a large tent, Mr. Moody 
 urging the young men after his services to gather 
 there and listen to Professor Drummond, whose 
 little booklet, "Love, the Greatest Thing in the 
 World," has had a marvelous sale. I was with 
 Mr. Drummond in these meetings and went with 
 him for a ten days' trip in Switzerland when they 
 were over. 
 
 I remember one little boy who walked three 
 miles every Sunday to the Illinois Street Sunday 
 School, and when asked why he came so far, 
 when there was a Sunday School near his home, 
 his reply was "They love a fellow over 
 here." 
 
 Since Mr. Moody's death, a splendid looking 
 six-foot Irishman, now an evangelist, and rilled 
 with the Spirit, in an address in Willard Hall, re- 
 ferred to Mr. Moody and the North Market Hall 
 Sunday School, as his good angel of love to the poor 
 boy, who is now a burning and a shining light in 
 this great city. 
 
 "God so loved the world, that he gave his only 
 begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him 
 should not perish but have everlasting life."
 
 Early Recollections oj Moody 73 
 
 Truly, "Love is the greatest thing in this world," 
 as Drummond says or in any other world. 
 
 BRIDEWELL WORK 
 
 As president of the Y. M. C. A., Mr. Moody 
 organized work in the City Bridewell, which 
 was continued every Sunday until moved from 
 Polk Street and the river to its present location. 
 I was given charge of his work, but Mr. Moody, 
 "Charley Morton," Bishop Ames, and many 
 others were among those who took part in the 
 services. Such hymns as the one before men- 
 tioned and the work done there were the means of 
 saving many of the inmates. 
 
 One was the son of wealthy parents in Ireland, 
 and from the delirium tremens to the Cross was 
 a short road for him.* I lost sight of him, but 
 during the war the man turned up in my store one 
 day, on his way to Michigan to be married, and 
 went to the Bridewell in his right mind, and gave 
 the prisoners a very appropriate address. What 
 a transformation ! He will thank Mr. Moody on 
 the other side for organizing the Bridewell work. 
 
 Charley Morton tells this story of one of his 
 addresses in the Bridewell. "Mr. Farwell said 
 to me, 'When you have said enough I will pull 
 your coat/ I began thus: 'My friends, I am 
 glad to see so many of you here this morning,' and 
 immediately Mr. Farwell pulled my coat." 
 
 *I employed him as a watchman at my new house on Wabash 
 Avenue, until it was done, and then he went south as an engineer.
 
 MOODY'S BIBLE INSTITUTE 
 
 It is no wonder that Mr. Moody greatly desired 
 in view of his own experience, to inaugurate a 
 school that would provide a corps of lay workers 
 as well as pastors, teachers and evangelists, that 
 should have a thorough practical bible training. 
 No other sword, without "the sword of the spirit," 
 was in his estimation of effective value, while with 
 this, every natural or acquired ability would be 
 energized for successful work. 
 
 Subscriptions were started with only a few 
 names, among them an old friend for $100,000 
 and Mr. McCormick for $25,000 and since then 
 I am very sorry to say that very little compara- 
 tively has been done in Chicago financially for 
 this most worthy school of the prophets, which this 
 modern Elisha organized, and since then has 
 maintained largely from royalties from the sale of 
 his own books. The students who attend this 
 school are mostly employed to reach the un- 
 churched masses in various ways, many of them 
 as hired house to house visitors for Chicago 
 churches. Surely the material interests of this 
 great city and country cannot be better served 
 than to send an army of Bible trained men and 
 women taken from the middle and lower classes, 
 to begin at the bottom of society, where Mr. 
 
 74
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 75 
 
 Moody began his work, to elevate them to be heirs 
 of the King. Such institutions should have the 
 support of all our business men, as a matter of 
 self-interest, as well as of Christian duty and 
 privilege. 
 
 There was one commendable exception to 
 Chicago apathy in giving financial aid to this 
 worthy school of the Prophets, in Mrs. C. H. 
 McCormick. Recognizing its importance, she 
 sent to this Institution $1,000 monthly in 1898 
 for its support. Would to God there were more 
 such women who in the days of Christ's earthly 
 ministry "ministered unto Him of their sub- 
 stance," in His evangelistic tours. 
 
 Before Mr. Moody was married and after he 
 had given up business to engage in the Lord's 
 work, he had at one time spent all his accumula- 
 tions in that channel, until he was in actual want 
 of the necessaries of life. It was then I urged 
 him as I had before to take a regular salary as 
 secretary of the Y. M. C. A. This he stead- 
 fastly refused, saying, "If the Lord wants me in 
 His work, I wish to be absolutely free to follow 
 His leadings, and let Him provide for my needs." 
 
 He never, after that test of his faith (to my 
 knowledge) wanted for any of the necessaries of 
 life, until he went to see His master where want 
 never shows its ghostly face.
 
 MR. MOODY WAS THE PRESENT DAY 
 APOSTLE OF CHRISTIAN UNION 
 
 He was this, first, in enlisting from all evan- 
 gelical churches, teachers for his North Market 
 Hall Mission Sunday School. 
 
 Second, in inviting converts of the Revival of 
 1857-8, in making the Y. M. C. A. a living factor 
 in educating young men of all the churches in 
 active Christian work. 
 
 Third, in inviting all the converts of his Sunday 
 Schools, and others into a church organized by 
 all the pastors of Evangelical churches, (except 
 the Episcopal Church) under a short creed, mak- 
 ing faith in the Bible and in Christ as a personal 
 Savior, the sum and substance of God's require- 
 ments for membership in Christ's body. 
 
 Fourth, in his world-wide evangelistic work, 
 under such auspices as made the man what he 
 was in every good word and work. 
 
 As indicating the spirit of the man in the in- 
 cipiency of his marvelous work in England, I 
 copy his last letter before leaving New York for 
 England and his first after beginning his labors : 
 
 NEW YORK, June 7, 1873. 
 
 My dear Mr. Farwell: I called on Mr. Dodge 
 this morning and he says he is coming to Chicago 
 soon, and I hope you will speak to him about our 
 76
 
 Early Recollections oj Moody 77 
 
 Church. He promised to help, but I thought I 
 would not say anything to him about it, as he was 
 coming out to Chicago, but I think he would give 
 $5,000 if you lay it out before him in good shape. I 
 am off in a few minutes for England, and I do hope 
 you will pray for me that this may be the most profit- 
 able trip of my life. I have great hopes of a harvest. 
 Your prayers will cheer me. 
 
 I want to thank you for the $500 (This is the check 
 handed to him when he handed me the Bagster Bible). 
 I can't tell you how I appreciate it, and all your acts 
 of love and kindness. It is a wonder to me at times, 
 and I do not see why you do not get sick of me and 
 cast me off. The more I know of myself, the less I 
 think of myself. 
 
 Good bye, from your old friend, 
 
 D. L. MOODY. 
 
 Humility was always Mr. Moody's open door 
 to God's fullness of blessing on his work. 
 
 HOME BARRIERS BURNED AWAY, FOR SECOND 
 TRIP TO ENGLAND 
 
 There was a time when one of Mr. Moody's 
 old friends gave him a house, rent free. This 
 friend requested the great artist, G. P. A. Healy, 
 to paint free of charge, Mr. Moody's portrait, 
 and another artist to paint Mrs. Moody, to adorn 
 the walls of the drawing room. 
 
 Together with other friends, the house was fur- 
 nished throughout, and the great Sunday School 
 and Y. M. C. A. leader and his better half were
 
 78 Early Recollections 0} Moody 
 
 invited to take possession. Of course they were 
 greatly pleased and surprised, as each beheld the 
 other's portrait, together with all the other fur- 
 nishings of their future home. 
 
 When the great fire came, Mr. Moody hurried 
 home from his service in the Y. M. C. A. and 
 procured a carriage just in time to take the family 
 to a place of safety, and also at Mrs. Moody's 
 persistent request the Healy portrait of her hus- 
 band, which adorns the Northfield home, and 
 thus the free gift of a great artist has become 
 priceless, as the only memento of the ashes of that 
 home, and of that hasty flight. 
 
 The destruction of this home, was as much per- 
 haps, as that of the Y. M. C. A. building and the 
 Illinois Street Church, the reason for Mr. Moody's 
 great evangelistic tour in England. He left the 
 shes of one great city to make London in due 
 time (the greatest city in the world) the foun- 
 dation as well as the capstone, physically speaking 
 of his evangelistic pyramid, which will last 
 longer than the pyramids of Egypt, because built 
 on Christ as chief cornerstone, with the unseen 
 things of the spiritual kingdom in every living 
 stone that has been, and will be built into it 
 through his ministry, until time shall be no more. 
 
 While it is true that the Young Men's Chris- 
 tian Association was the child of the great revival 
 of 1857-8, it is also true that as such, it was the 
 fitting educator of Mr. Moody for his life work in
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 79 
 
 uniting Christians of all denominations at home 
 and abroad in evangelistic work with Chicago as 
 its center. The bells of the great fire in 1871 
 were ringing while he was preaching in Farwell 
 Hall from this text, "This one thing I do," etc. 
 As soon as he had again started his Sunday 
 School in a tabernacle of boards, taking Mr. San- 
 key, they sailed for Liverpool, and on arrival as- 
 certained that the two ministers who had extended 
 the call, were in their graves. Thus left to de- 
 pend entirely upon divine help and guidance, Mr. 
 Moody began his work which culminated in Lon- 
 don, where two immense iron tabernacles were 
 built in the south and east of London, each hold- 
 ing 12,000 people. The Agricultural Hall in the 
 north of London was also used, with a capacity 
 of 25,000 and the Grand Opera House for the 
 west or court end of London, completed the circuit 
 of his great meeting places.
 
 LETTERS FROM AND TO MR. MOODY 
 
 CONCERNING HIS WORK IN 
 
 ENGLAND 
 
 YORK, England, June 30, 1873. 
 My dear Mr. Farwell: You will see by the heading 
 of this note that I am in York. I commenced here 
 one week ago yesterday (Sunday) and have had splen- 
 did success so far. Yesterday I had four meetings. 
 They were large and I think very profitable. God 
 was with us. I preached in the morning, "They that 
 be wise shall shine," afternoon, "No difference," 
 and two in the evening from the text, "The Spirit of 
 the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to 
 preach the Gospel." Sankey sang the hymns finely, 
 all seemed to be much pleased with it. I think he is 
 going to do much good here. All the chapels are open 
 to us, and invitations are coming in from all over the 
 country for us, and I think we will have all we can do 
 here. I think of you all, and get fearfully homesick at 
 times. I hope you are being blessed in your own 
 soul. I wish you would keep me posted in regard to 
 the Y. M. C. A. building and all about the stock. I 
 would like to see a good building go up there for 
 Christ. I do not see any better opportunity to work 
 for Christ than in that field. I do not know what is to 
 become of the Y. M. in England and America, if 
 something of the kind is not done. The Y. M. of 
 this country have nearly all gone off into the world. 
 I send you some flower seeds. I think the one marked 
 1/6 is beautiful and never have seen anything in Amer- 
 80
 
 Early Recollections oj Moody 81 
 
 ica like it. I hope you will have success with them. 
 Remember me to Wells and all your family. 
 Yours thro' the grace of God, 
 
 D. L. MOODY. 
 
 After this no letters came from Mr. Moody on 
 account of the demands on his time, only papers 
 were sent, to which I replied as follows: 
 
 Nov. 25, 1873. 
 
 Dear Mr. Moody: I have heard from you through 
 the papers only of late, from which I infer that your 
 work fills up your time and soul to the full, for which 
 I have no doubt you are constrained to thank God 
 and take courage, the results proving that He has 
 been working with you by His mighty power, in the 
 hearts and consciences of multitudes. 
 
 Jacobs tells me that you expect to stay a year longer 
 at least. I also infer that the voice has been heard 
 from here, "Come over and help us." The noon 
 meetings are growing in interest. The great King 
 had seemed again to say to all of the stewards of 
 God's mercies, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures 
 on earth," etc., to call them afresh to renewed faith- 
 fulness in His cause. We are largely in the frosts of 
 winter, spiritually, yet the fields apparently white for 
 the harvest, and the laborers debating as to whether 
 they have any authority to thrust in the sickle. 
 
 It looks to me as though the enemy had been driven 
 out of England and sent to America, and that one small 
 imp to sleep in the steeples of our churches as senti- 
 nels upon captured forts, is all that is required. 
 
 Remember us in your success and pray that the
 
 82 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 Word of God may yet prevail over all opposition and 
 send the devil to his own place. I think of you often 
 and hope to see you here, when you shall have ac- 
 complished your mission (in the midst of the doctors, 
 lawyers and noblemen, of the mother country) among 
 the common people, who always heard Him gladly. 
 Write when you have time. Remember me to your 
 better half and Sankey. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 Feb. 15, 1874. 
 
 Dear Brother Moody: Brother Spafford led the 
 noon meeting to-day giving some account of the 
 ministry of the Gospel committed to your hands for 
 England and Scotland. The room was crowded and 
 all were intensely interested. You will be glad to 
 know that your use of the Bible was so set forth as to 
 impress upon all the blessed efficiency of this Sword 
 of the Spirit, as wielded by faithful hands directed by 
 a loving heart made strong by a clear conception of 
 the great power there is in it. Many hearts have 
 been made sad because of your absence, that now re- 
 joice in your joy, in beginning as never before to 
 recognize the leading hand of the great leader of 
 Israel, in all the singular Providences that have com- 
 bined for you to see and accept this call from the old 
 world, "Come over and help us." Had there been 
 no fire in Chicago, your battle ground might still have 
 been here. 
 
 It appears to me that the instructions of long years 
 in Bible truths, that you have had there, used among 
 the people, only needed (like a cannon properly
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 83 
 
 charged) just the livid match of fire, to make it 
 thunder out death to dead works, and raise up an 
 army from the slain of the Lord, who shall delight to 
 do his will in letting Him work through them by his 
 mighty power. 
 
 The arm of flesh has been long enough killing one 
 Egyptian, only to learn that the arm of the Lord can 
 lead the Israel of God out of spiritual bondage. 
 Some learn the lesson sooner than others, just because 
 they learn to walk by faith and not sight more readily. 
 I have learned to pity those men whose minds are so 
 constructed and trained, that they require a reason 
 for religious activity, that shall commend itself to their 
 judgment, before proceeding, while the whole economy 
 of the Gospel of Grace proceeds on the idea of faith 
 in God as the basis of action. 
 
 Yours in Christ, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 EVANGELISTS 
 
 Before Mr. Moody went to England, he had ar- 
 ranged for W. W. Whittle and Mr. Bliss to do 
 evangelistic work in the United States, as he and 
 Sankey intended doing in England, which they 
 did. I remember Mr. Bliss coming to my office 
 for money, which he would not accept as a gift, 
 and when it was arranged said, "Now Mr. Far- 
 well let us both ask God to use this money for His 
 own glory in evangelistic work." While in Dub- 
 lin he was still planning for the work in America 
 and wrote me as follows :
 
 84 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 DUBLIN, Nov. 14, 1874. 
 
 Dear Farwell: I do not know but that you will 
 think I have forgotten you, but I am so driven I do 
 not get time to read all my letters, but I can assure 
 you I read all American letters. The work goes on 
 well, increases in interest every month. I think I sent 
 you papers telling about the work. "The Christian" 
 is sent to 30,000 ministers in the United Kingdom, 
 and there seems to be a stir among the dry bones all 
 over the United Kingdom. I hope you will meet me 
 in London, which will be in March, you can come over 
 for two or three months, and I will take lodgings and 
 we can all be together in London for three months, 
 and you can bring some of your family with you. 
 I am quite sure you will enjoy it. 
 
 Now about Bliss, he commenced in April, and I 
 sent him at that time $1,000. I told him that I would 
 see that he got $2,500 for the year and he could have 
 all he could make off the books. It is time to give 
 him $1,000 more. I want him and Whittle to be 
 kept clear, so they can work for the Lord. I am con- 
 fident God is going to use them, and if we can get 
 them well started this year, there will be enough to 
 come in next year from hymn book money to keep 
 them. I could raise the money over here, if I should 
 ask for it, but I have not asked for one farthing since 
 I left America, and all I have given has been out of 
 money given to myself for my own use. Of course I 
 have a good many enemies over here, who say I am 
 a speculating Yankee, and if they find I take money 
 for America, they will make capital out of it. If it is 
 not convenient for you to pay the thousand, I will 
 send you an order on Holden for it, but if you can
 
 Early Recollections oj Moody 85 
 
 pay it, you can take up the order; if not, pass it over 
 to Holden. 
 
 Yours in trust, MOODY. 
 
 He was not satisfied with working himself. He 
 must provide for others to do likewise. Some of 
 those were converted under his ministry in the 
 noon meetings. 
 
 CHICAGO, December 2nd, 1874. 
 
 Dear Brother Moody: I wrote you a few days ago 
 at Manchester, England, supposing you were there, 
 and to-day get your letter from Dublin. I have torn 
 up your order, and will write Mr. Bliss at once to 
 draw, as he wants it, for one thousand dollars. I 
 think he and Mr. Whittle have been out of town only 
 a small part of the time, until the past month. Some 
 three hundred were converted in Detroit, and they are 
 now in Pittsburg. 
 
 I hope the way will be open for them into the hearts 
 of God's people, and then sinners will be converted. 
 I wrote you that one of the things that would bring 
 me over, would be to get a long loan for the Y. M. C. A. 
 and if that could not be done, I should have one less 
 motive to leave home. My idea is to get a loan long 
 enough to enable us to sell the Madison Street front to 
 pay it, leaving the hall free for the Association. I 
 have just returned from Bloomington where Mr. 
 Burnell had a three days' meeting in the opera house. 
 It was full on Sunday, and on the whole I think there 
 will be good come out of it. I had a strange dream 
 while there you and I were crossing Clark Street 
 bridge when it gave away. I just caught on the
 
 86 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 wreck and struggled to the top. On looking around 
 for you, found you had sunk, and in a moment some 
 one who had been watching where you went down, 
 jumped into the water just as you came up to the sur- 
 face, and together we put you on to the dock, and 
 began to roll you over, when you threw up blood with 
 the black water, and I thought to myself what a filthy 
 pool to fall into, no wonder his heart's blood came up 
 with it in protest. I waked up before you had be- 
 come conscious, and found myself in a very excited 
 condition, and then in my waking dreams I thanked 
 God that His almighty arm had taken you out of a 
 more dreadful river than that even the river of death 
 and corruption and placed your feet on a rock, and 
 then when I thought of the new song in your soul, so 
 much like the Master's works, and not the melody 
 of words set to music I could not help remembering 
 your musical attainments, and almost laughed as I 
 heard in memory your chant on a single note, every 
 hymn that suited you in the Illinois Street misson. 
 If I had a bottle of that real old river water, I would 
 send it to you, as the best visible and smellable sample 
 of original sin that can be found. 
 
 God bless and continue to increase your usefulness 
 in hiding a multitude of sins. The remedy you preach 
 is as powerful as the disease is terrible. 
 
 Best love to Sankey, Mrs. Moody and yourself, 
 Yours, etc., JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 Major Cole, Charley Morton, J.W.Deari, L. W. 
 
 Munhall, as well as Whittle and others delighted 
 in following Mr. Moody's example in holding 
 union evangelistic meetings all over the United
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 87 
 
 States before and after he left for England. I 
 give here some letters written during such cam- 
 paigns to Mr. Moody and others to illustrate the 
 scope and results of union efforts : 
 
 November, 25th, 1874. 
 
 Dear Brother Moody: I have been waiting and 
 waiting to see if I couldn't write you something 
 definite about coming over for a few months, but I 
 cannot now see my way clear, especially as you say 
 that no loans can be obtained for the Chicago Y. M.- 
 C. A., as that was one of the moving causes to induce 
 the journey. Is the prospect any better? Our 
 property is very safe from fire now, well built and well 
 protected. Jacobs showed me a pamphlet by Dr. 
 Kennedy against revivals. I did not read it. I really 
 had to thank God that the enemy was obliged to at- 
 tack the cause itself rather than the instrument. 
 
 Some Pittsburg correspondent has written a very 
 mean letter from Dublin, which the Tribune copied, 
 which has caused quite a commotion in this country, 
 but I said to Spafford to-day that I was glad of it, as 
 it compels papers and men to take sides and procures 
 a vast amount of advertising for the Lord's work 
 through the channels of the enemy, who don't mean 
 to do that. 
 
 I learn that Brooklyn ministers have held a meeting 
 preparatory to inviting you to commence work in this 
 country, which was noticed in the Evangelist. Brother 
 Mitchell took the morning service a few weeks since 
 to tell his people what the Lord had done through 
 you and Brother Sankey in Scotland. Professor 
 Patton did the same last Sunday, and several other
 
 88 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 ministers of less note have followed them, till it seems 
 as though (as of old) the simple statement of what the 
 Lord had done and is doing, forms a large part of the 
 staple food of Christian congregations. This is well, 
 much better than moral lectures, the marrow of which 
 is intellectual entertainment, with which so many of 
 our pulpits have been struggling to kindle a spiritual 
 fire, so vainly. The words and the work of God are 
 the bread and meat of our spiritual life, and how 
 strange that the Lord's people do not sooner find out 
 what is best for them. That Bible you gave me is 
 very precious to me. I find that I am very ignorant 
 as I let in its light into the chambers of my mind, and 
 how weak ! I hope some time to feel as David did, in 
 my soul, if I cannot in words, for it seems to me that 
 he must have got his inspiration to write as he did, 
 while reading of what the Lord had done for his peo- 
 ple, from Abraham's time down to the time that 
 Joshua led them into the land when he was King; 
 and as the Spirit told him that he and they were only 
 enacting a real play upon the great stage of life, for 
 all the on-coming generations of men, to represent 
 the experience of every child of God who under Christ 
 should get out of Egypt by faith, and hold on to God 
 through Him, until the Jordan of death is behind, and 
 the land where they have no need of the sun before 
 them. 
 
 You must be living very fast now. A whole life- 
 time of trial and preparations crowded into a few 
 months of wonderful victory over Satan, who has 
 been binding the strong men of the strongest Zion for 
 so many years by limiting God's mercy and power, 
 which now astonishes the people as well as when of
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 89 
 
 old "they were astonished" at both, and would not 
 accept Him notwithstanding. 
 
 You must feel like thanking God every minute for 
 giving you such a field to work in. The Bible well 
 read, and the people a decided people to hear you. 
 I think of you every day more than once, and hope 
 I feel thankful for what God has permitted you to do 
 for me. Still pray for your unworthy brother. The 
 Hall is nearly done and is the best audience room I 
 ever saw. 
 
 Love to your family and Sankey, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 Mr. Moody's success in Edinburgh and Glas- 
 gow, stirred up the conservative element in the 
 north of Scotland, which only wanted Psalms 
 sung, and no unordained men to preach the Gos- 
 pel. This at last culminated in a prominent 
 Doctor of Divinity receiving a letter from a Scotch- 
 man in Chicago, of a scurrilous character, im- 
 peaching the business and religious character of 
 Mr. Moody, which of course got into the hands of 
 the Edinburgh Committee which invited Mr. 
 Moody to Scotland. Mr. Moody was greatly ex- 
 ercised over it, not on account of himself, as his 
 letter to me testified, but on account of its results 
 on his work in Scotland. This Committee sent 
 me a copy of the letter with request for an answer 
 to it. 
 
 "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall 
 suffer persecution." 
 
 This letter was as follows :
 
 90 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 CHICAGO, 23rd February, 1874. 
 REV. DR. KENNEDY. 
 
 My dear Sir: For some time back I have thought 
 of writing you with regard to Messrs. Moody and 
 Sankey, the two Chicago gentlemen who are now ex- 
 citing so much interest in religious matters in Scot- 
 land. Seeing by the Scotch newspapers that they 
 intend visiting the North, I have deemed it proper 
 that you should know something about them. More 
 especially I have come to that conclusion, since having 
 read a sketch of their life and work in the Edinburgh 
 Daily Review of 6th January, which sketch as regards 
 Mr. Moody contains various statements that are mis- 
 leading and some that are positively untrue. Believ- 
 ing as I do that this account is the inspiration of 
 Messrs. Moody and Sankey, I look upon them as being 
 responsible for the misstatements therein contained. 
 Having shown the Review's account of their work and 
 influence in this part to some gentlemen here of 
 honor and standing who are intimate acquaintances 
 of Mr. Moody's, they have declared it to be a gross 
 exaggeration, at the same time giving him due credit 
 for being a remarkably zealous and energetic worker. 
 Mr. Moody came to Chicago a poor lad from one of 
 the Eastern cities, where he had been bred in the boot 
 and shoe trade. His energy in business as well as 
 in the interests of religion, is said by a gentleman who 
 knew him at the time to be remarkable. After having 
 made considerable ado about religion, he called at the 
 office of a pious and wealthy merchant of this city 
 (now a client of mine) and begged of him as a friend 
 and a Christian to give him a place in his office as he 
 wanted to get away from the profanity and ungodli-
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 91 
 
 ness of those with whom he was compelled to associate 
 in his present situation. This gentlemen appreciat- 
 ing Mr. Moody 's commendable scruples took him into 
 his office as clerk. Mr. Moody with his proverbial 
 audacity and loud Christian professions soon worked 
 himself into the confidence of the house. Meantime 
 his employer had a lawsuit pending in the court. 
 During the progress of the case it transpired that the 
 opposing parties were possessed of information the 
 nature of which proved its having been furnished by 
 some one who was pretty far into the secrets of the 
 house. Suspicion at once rested on the saintly 
 Mr. Moody. A little inquiry proved him the guilty 
 man. His employer privately confronted him with 
 the charge of furnishing regular written information 
 in the interests of his opponent's case. Moody stoutly 
 denied the charge. Seeing, however, the undeniable 
 proof was in his employer's possession, he confessed 
 and was summarily discharged. Nothing abashed 
 by this ignominous disclosure, he soon afterwards 
 publicly declared his determination to discard all 
 worldly pursuits, and to devote himself wholly to the 
 Lord's work. Possessed of great vigour and un- 
 limited cheek he very soon gathered around him a 
 band of followers, many of whom I know now to be 
 engaged in propagating some of the most skeptical 
 ideas and pernicious doctrines conceivable. The 
 influence and work of Mr. Moody and his followers, 
 the Young Men's Christian Association of Chicago, 
 has come to be a very hot-bed of rationalism, breaking 
 loose from the superstitions and antiquated doctrines 
 of Scriptures. They reject such absurdities as the 
 common belief in election and eternal punishment
 
 92 Early Recollections o] Moody 
 
 and declare their God to be too just for the partiality 
 implied in the doctrine of election, and too merciful to 
 consign any of his comparatively helpless creatures 
 to never ending torments. 
 
 In the Daily Review sketch referred to, it is stated 
 that after the Great Chicago Fire, Edinburgh's con- 
 tribution to the sufferers amounting to about 2,000 
 was consigned to the care of the mayor, and Mr. 
 Moody, as president of the Young Men's Christian 
 Association of Chicago. Now the fact is, as far as I 
 can find, he had nothing to do with the contribution 
 referred to. He certainly was not president of the 
 Y. M. C. A. at the time of the fire, or since, a Mr. 
 Henderson being president at the time, and until the 
 following spring, when he was succeeded by the 
 present president, a Mr. Harvey. You will probably 
 remember my relating to you when here my having 
 met an elderly Ferrintosh man in Chicago, who when 
 he had condemned the whole ordained Christian 
 ministry as an imposition, said in answer to my ques- 
 tion as to whether he considered the late Dr. Mc- 
 Donald of Ferrintosh an impostor, "Hoch bronan ha 
 fragael ornisa as an Dochtair." That misguided old 
 highlander is a convert of Mr. Moody's manufacture. 
 Mr. Moody is too shrewd, however, to make his real 
 tenets known in Scotland until he has first found he 
 has got a foothold among the people; then shall the 
 cloven foot be made manifest. In one of the Edin- 
 burgh addresses he says that he does not object to the 
 singing of the psalms, but that we want something 
 new. Now I know that Mr. Moody does not object 
 to them all. He seems to have searched the whole 
 one hundred and fifty, and found about half a dozen
 
 Early Recollections oj Moody 93 
 
 worthy of being sung in his church here. These few 
 are included in his collection of pieces to be sung, 
 and they are occasionally used. Mr. Moody denies 
 being a Plymouthist, and yet we know that the Plym- 
 outh brethren do follow him, and declare him to 
 be one of the few who preach a pure gospel. Mr. 
 Darby, the leader of that branch of the Plymouth 
 brethren called after his name, was recently on a visit 
 in this country, and during his stay here he made Mr. 
 Moody his principal confident and assistant at meet- 
 ings held here for the express purpose of disseminating 
 his baleful doctrine. In Edinburgh I see that Mr. 
 Moody condemns all manner of religious controversy. 
 He evidently wishes to get the people of Scotland 
 drifted quietly from their moorings, without meeting 
 with any of the counteracting currents of controversy, 
 until they find themselves in the shallow waters of 
 Plymouthism. In his own church here there is no 
 regard paid to any ordained ministry. Mr. Moody 
 and his lay associates administer the Sacraments, 
 without the assistance of any ordained minister of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 These and others of a kindred character are the 
 practices carried on in the church, which the Scotch 
 are now helping by their contributions to Messrs. 
 Moody and Sankey to build in Chicago. Of Mr. 
 Sankey I can say that he is comparatively unknown 
 in Chicago, excepting as a performer on Mr. Moody's 
 favorite convert-making instrument. We are all glad 
 to hear of your safe arrival home, and hope^you and 
 your wife will be benefited by your journey to the 
 Far West. With kindest regards, 
 
 Yours, etc. JOHN MACKEY.
 
 94 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 4 Claremont Park. 
 LEITH, 8, May, 1874. 
 
 Dear Sir: I take the liberty of sending you, pre- 
 fixed, copy of a letter which I understand is being 
 circulated in manuscript in the town of Inverness, 
 and I also send you a copy of the newspaper to which 
 reference is made in it. 
 
 You will observe that the letter contains allegations 
 which seriously affect the character of Mr. Moody. 
 The friends of religion who have been associated in 
 Christian work with Mr. Moody and Mr. Sankey in 
 this country are anxious that there should be a thorough 
 investigation into the truth or falsehood of these 
 charges; and I have been requested to apply to you 
 in the hope that you will be kind enough to furnish 
 me at your earliest convenience with whatever infor- 
 mation you can obtain to satisfy us as to the facts of 
 the case. 
 
 I ought to say for your information that the sketch 
 which appeared in the Daily Review was not prepared 
 from information furnished by the gentlemen, and 
 was never seen by them till they saw it in the news- 
 paper. 
 
 If the allegations contained in the letter are quite 
 unfounded please telegraph per cable to that effect, 
 and write to me more fully by post. 
 
 I am, Yours truly, JOHN KELMAN. 
 
 John V. Farwell, Esq. 
 Chicago. 
 
 Address, Rev. John Kelman, 
 Free St. John's Manse, 
 Leith, Scotland.
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 95 
 
 June igth, 1874. 
 JOHN MACKAY, ESQ., 
 
 Dear Sir: I have yours refusing to retract your 
 slanders against Mr. Moody. I regret that after Mr. 
 H. disclaimed any charge of dishonesty against Mr. 
 Moody, who you claim to be your informant, and of his 
 having acknowledged to him that you wrote the slanders 
 complained of in your letter to Dr. Kennedy, that you 
 should see fit to improve the opportunity given to 
 yourself, by a frank acknowledgment that the spirit 
 of your first letter was all wrong. I have tried every 
 method known to the Gospel to do you good in this 
 matter and you are quite mistaken when you think 
 that the law is invoked to establish Mr. Moody's 
 Christian character. The object is to teach you a 
 lesson in morals that you refuse to receive from the 
 Gospel, and it may do for you what kindness has 
 failed to accomplish. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 June 26th, 1874. 
 
 Dear Brother Moody: I have tried every way I 
 know to get Mackay to modify his letter to Dr. Ken- 
 nedy without avail. He will not accept Henderson's 
 version of his own conversation and the object of it. 
 I learn from the Scotch minister that the letter was a 
 matter of conference with Mackay and another 
 " elected" Scotchman, whose chief business in the 
 church has been to cultivate discord and they both 
 declared that a " standard would be raised in the 
 North against Mr. Moody's work." I wrote Dr. 
 Kelman that I would recommend that Mackay be
 
 g6 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 allowed to defend himself in the courts inasmuch as 
 no Gospel method of dealing with him had had any 
 impression. I really think it would be a charitable 
 act to make him pay $5,000 or $10,000 for his slanders 
 to be expended in evangelizing Dr. Kennedy's district 
 in Scotland, or some other good work. He is clearly 
 liable in an action for slander. I had been expecting 
 to hear from you further in regard to this matter, but 
 have received nothing except via "The Christian" 
 which I get now every week. Dr. Wilson saw Hen- 
 derson and seemed to be perfectly satisfied as to the 
 animus of Mackay in writing the letter. 
 
 Henderson's conversation with Mackay, upon 
 which the letter was based, was intended to raise you 
 in his estimation, and could only be used as he used 
 it, except by a wilful perversion of its true intent. So 
 Henderson says, and still the muleish Scotchman 
 will not retract. You need not fear the result under 
 such circumstances, and if you will order it, I will 
 make him do it in a legal way that will do him and 
 the cause good, which is the only basis on which I 
 would advise such a course. The noon meetings 
 and street meetings are well attended and the Associa- 
 tion building will soon begin to show progress. With 
 kindest regards for yourself and family, Sankey and 
 Parkhurst, I am as ever 
 
 Very truly your friend, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 August, i pth, 1874. 
 REV. JOHN KELMAN, 
 
 Dear Brother: I have yours in regard to Mr. 
 Moody's work and his "light afflictions," which has
 
 Early Recollections o) Moody 97 
 
 confirmed my faith in the result as regards him and 
 his work. The D 1 always overdoes his work upon 
 such subjects as he is, being "exceeding mad" at 
 such actual inroads upon his kingdom. I rejoice with 
 you at what has already been done, and pray that the 
 future may be as full of precious fruits as the past. It 
 is very wonderful and yet why should we not expect 
 the Lord to do just such things for his needy children. 
 Your letter was very welcome, as it is the first human 
 evidence that Satan's designs to hinder God's work 
 had failed of the object, which has come directly 
 to me, since your letter brought the knowledge of 
 them. 
 
 Mr. Moody has written nothing on the subject, ex- 
 cept to direct me where to get such information as 
 you wanted, and has been probably less diverted from 
 his work by reason of the false charges than most 
 men would have been. 
 
 I have no heart to suggest that he is much needed 
 and much wanted here, when there seems to be so 
 much rich harvesting done with your people. The 
 Lord knows best where to put his workmen, but I can 
 assure you that there are many hearts here who yearn 
 to see his face and hear his loving words again. We 
 had made extra exertions to have our Hall done this 
 fall, expecting him to use it for the Master, but "it is 
 well," some one will be raised up to give the Gospel 
 to the multitudes who used to hang upon his words in 
 that place which the fire took, that the way now in 
 Scotland might be opened up for more successful 
 labors. What are cities and commerce compared 
 with souls of men, and when our good brother said 
 he was going to Europe for ten thousand souls, I could
 
 98 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 but thank God for the agencies which had conspired 
 to send him there, fearful as they were, believing that 
 He who inspired the design, would fill the measure of 
 his expectations, and with a heart full of love for all the 
 brethren who have held up his hands, I am, 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 It is to my mind the strangest thing in human 
 history, that any one, be he a Doctor of Divinity, 
 or a layman, if they are Christ's disciples, can 
 deliberately attempt to destroy the power and 
 influence of such a man as Mr. Moody in working 
 for Christ to produce that union among Christians 
 that he prayed for in his last recorded prayer for 
 his disciples throughout all time, "that they all 
 might be one as He and the Father were one, 
 that the world might believe on Him." 
 
 That they did not succeed, indicates that Satan 
 gets into the church to do his dirty work through 
 Doctors of Divinity as well as laymen, but with- 
 out success, as against the weakest laymen, who 
 rely on Him who said, "get thee behind me, 
 Satan." 
 
 The fact was that the business man referred 
 to in this scandalous letter, was just before Mr. 
 Moody went into his employ a partner of my 
 firm, and that when he died (before this letter 
 was written to destroy Mr. Moody's influence as 
 a gospel preacher in Scotland) he made Mr. 
 Moody his executor. A strange proceeding, if
 
 Early Recollections o) Moody 99 
 
 he had the proof in his hands before his death of 
 Mr. Moody's infidelity to truth and honesty. 
 Thus the devil always proceeds in trying to 
 prevent the ^spread of truth. He overdoes his 
 work so much, that it contradicts itself. 
 
 The result of the inquiry was quite satisfactory 
 to the Committee, and no doubt this persecution 
 of Mr. Moody gave him a larger hearing in Scot- 
 land than he would have had without it. The cul- 
 mination of it in London, was an overwhelming 
 defeat of the elements in the churches, which 
 made for discord instead of union. 
 
 Mr. Moody's next letter after this storm showed 
 that he had heard the Master's voice, "Peace be 
 still," to be followed by still greater blessing, was 
 from Dublin, which reveals his growing interest 
 in the work at home, and his yearning for success 
 of those who had followed him in home fields. 
 This letter shows another enemy in Chicago, 
 claiming that he was a "speculating Yankee" in 
 results of sales of hymn books of which fund he 
 never took a penny for himself. I know this as 
 one of his hymn book committee, as well as from 
 himself, before I was on the Committee. 
 
 Rev. Horatio Bonar, D. D., wrote a pamphlet 
 in answer to the articles written by opponents of 
 union work growing out of this letter to Dr. Ken- 
 nedy, and I wrote him the following letter, after 
 reading it :
 
 ioo Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 December 29th, 1874. 
 REV. HORATIUS BONAR, D.D., 
 
 Dear Brother: Having read with intense satisfaction 
 your masterly defense of the Gospel (both in its spirit 
 and substance) against an unwise attack in the house 
 of its friends I am constrained to give you some facts 
 concerning Brother Moody, which must from Dr. Ken- 
 nedy's standpoint, as well as yours, add to the now 
 overwhelming evidence of his divine call to "preach 
 the Word." 
 
 He began his work in the alleys of our city, literally 
 compelling neglected little ones to go to Mission Sun- 
 day Schools, in which he then thought he could not 
 even teach the most ignorant. A few years of such 
 work gave him an inspiration to organize a school in 
 the worst part of the city for the poorer classes. I 
 say gave him an inspiration because nothing less than 
 such connection could have influenced him to prose- 
 cute the work in opposition to the advices of all the 
 pastors in the vicinity, earnestly and prayerfully 
 sought before entering upon the work in itself, hu- 
 manly speaking, most forbidding, without discourage- 
 ments from a source whence he expected a hearty 
 "God speed." He was regarded then as of the class 
 having "zeal without knowledge," and his entrance 
 upon such a work, under such circumstances, together 
 with his zeal for the Y. M. C. A., and in fact all union 
 enterprises looking toward earnest work for the neg- 
 lected ones, which often seemed to conservatism 
 to trench upon the work of the churches, as such, 
 made him very unpopular with the ministry. 
 
 One leading minister, even went so far as to use 
 his influence to have all the young men of his church
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 101 
 
 withdraw from the Association. And in the Associa- 
 tion itself, after he had been recognized by its best 
 friends, as its leading light, aside from his Master, he 
 could not have been elected as president, had not 
 those friends insisted, to the extent of withdrawing 
 from it themselves, if he was not put where his merits 
 as a worker entitled him to be. 
 
 This secured to him the place, which to my mind 
 was the first great step, which the Lord ordered, in the 
 line of human agencies for his advancement to the 
 work of an evangelist. His want of education and 
 mental discipline, became more apparent to him, as 
 his duties brought him face to face with these defects, 
 and drove him to a firmer trust in God as the all suffi- 
 cient complement to his weakness in doing his work, 
 and at the same time to more studious habits, notforget- 
 ting that to trust strongly we must work vigorously. 
 Of course the result was the overcoming of all the old 
 prejudices, which had existed, and ultimately the 
 hearty co-operation and good will of nearly all of our 
 evangelical ministers in his special work, the excep- 
 tion if any, being the so-called "High Church." 
 Episcopal Ministers. About two years after his elec- 
 tion to the presidency of the Association, he decided to 
 give up secular business and devote his whole time to 
 missionary work, led as I understand by no other 
 influences than his own convictions of duty and 
 privilege. 
 
 His accumulations, amounting to some $7,000 or 
 $8,000, were all spent, and he was found sleeping on a 
 bench in the noon prayer-meeting room, and living on 
 crackers and cheese, before his purpose in this regard 
 became known, and it was then proposed to give him
 
 IO2 Early Recollections 0} Moody 
 
 a salary as an association secretary, and control his 
 time, which he steadily refused, on the ground that as 
 the Lord's servant he wanted his time, to go wherever 
 and whenever he felt called to go by the Master him- 
 self. 
 
 And now I come to a fact which in the light.of recent 
 events connected with his work, I have been com- 
 pelled to interpret as one of the steps in the line of 
 divine agencies, which with his then untaught mind 
 (comparatively) in scriptural truth, must have taught 
 him to hold on to the divine arm in his work of saving 
 souls, with a firmer faith. 
 
 About this time the noon prayer meeting was lan- 
 guishing, and one day the only attendant was an old 
 Scotch lady, over sixty years of age, who climbed two 
 flights of stairs, and opened the precious Word, read a 
 chapter, sang her Psalm, and then offered a devout 
 prayer for the maintenance of the meetings. Soon 
 after this a devout Christian man from a neighboring 
 state had business in our city, which detained him 
 several months. He at once became very much inter- 
 ested in the Association (particularly the noon prayer 
 meeting) and Mr. Moody's Mission School, and was 
 abundant in labors with him in these two fields. He 
 had had hip disease from his early youth and was then 
 thirty-eight years old. The disease had caused the 
 dislocation of the hip joint, making one leg some three 
 inches shorter than the other. His walking about 
 from house to house with Brother Moody in connec- 
 tion with the Mission Sunday School had made the 
 disease much more painful than usual, until he had 
 determined to have a surgical operation performed if 
 it should promise any relief. On Saturday, he had
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 103 
 
 made an engagement with a surgeon to that end, and 
 was to have been examined on the Monday following. 
 On Sunday evening after the usual labors of the day 
 he invited Brother Moody and myself to his room, 
 as he had something very important to tell us. 
 
 We all went from the Sunday School prayer-meeting 
 to his room, where with choked utterance he gave the 
 following account of the Saturday night's experiences 
 in that room (after giving us quite an extended ac- 
 count of his Christian experience, and his lameness 
 which we had both noticed for months) . He said he 
 went from his bath to his room with the thought, 
 "Why cannot my hip be made whole as well as that 
 impotent man's who lay at the beautiful gate of . the 
 temple?" Then he fell asleep convinced that there 
 was no reason why he could not claim the promises for 
 such a purpose. In his sleep he dreamed that the 
 surgeon had opened his thigh with a knife and set the 
 bone, in an incredibly short space of time, and waking 
 out of his sleep he was astonished to find his pain all 
 gone and still more to find that both limbs were of the 
 same length, when he got up to walk. We had not 
 noticed that he had no cane on Sunday though we 
 had noticed that his walk was changed and when we 
 came to his room he astonished us by running upstairs 
 two steps at a time, using one leg as well as the other. 
 It will be fourteen years in June since this occurred, 
 and you are the first person to whom I have mentioned 
 it in writing, for this reason. For these fourteen years 
 I have not seen any reason in the history of this 
 brother, why God should so deal with him (as he pur- 
 posely abstains from mentioning it) that might not 
 be found in hundreds of other Christians, except his
 
 IO4 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 own statement of faith in God's promises for such a 
 purpose. But what if the faith of our good brother 
 Moody had failed at that midwinter of his Christian 
 experience as a wholly consecrated vessel unto honor, 
 and he had gone back to his merchandise, while the 
 love of so many had waxed cold in his cherished work? 
 Then we hadn't seen him to-day, "mighty in the 
 Scriptures," a more sure foundation for his faith than 
 this incident, that might have been needed just at 
 that time to sustain him, until this higher and better 
 evidence should find lodgement in his soul. God 
 will honor his own, and may He abundantly bless you 
 for your helping hand in holding up the Word of life 
 as it is in him. Yours in Christ, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 December, 29th, 1874. 
 
 Dear Brother Moody: I have just read Dr. Bonar's 
 pamphlet, which has more than confirmed my first 
 conviction, that the D 1 had gone too far in that 
 Dr. Kennedy's letter. What a difference the Lord 
 puts between men. Some vessels unto honor, while 
 others are only the scavengers' buckets with which the 
 Lord's house is cleansed. I have had two letters 
 lately from Brother Field in which reference was 
 made to his wonderful experience and now I want to 
 ask you if that incident had any special influence upon 
 your mind, and if so in what direction? You know 
 those were dark days in some respects. I am led to 
 make this inquiry from the fact that I cannot see any- 
 thing in his history that would seem to justify such 
 a work for him (outside of his faith). You know he 
 does not speak of it, and seems to be very suspicious
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 105 
 
 that you and I may not fully credit his story. If he 
 had been made a special instrument of grace through 
 this fact in his history, then it would be plain, as to 
 him. And then again, if your course as a fully con- 
 secrated man has been shaped more into a firm trust 
 in God's promises from being brought so near to a 
 visible demonstration of the faithfulness of our God, 
 then it is clear to my mind, "What I do, thou knowest 
 not now, but thou shalt know hereafter," and it 
 throws a flood of light on one part of your experience, 
 drawn from one of Christ's "little ones who believe in 
 Me." It was one of the steps out of the valley up 
 to the Mount of God where His Word is all that His 
 servant wants to stand upon, as the rock more firm 
 than a hundred miracles because apprehended by a 
 faith that moves mountains of difficulty. 
 
 Varley was at the Fulton Street meeting, and about 
 a dozen of them remained after the meeting to pray 
 for the meetings in Manchester and especially for 
 you. He also sent a telegraphic request that was sent 
 from China and Japan to be presented at our meeting. 
 Spafford led the meeting to-day, i4th of John, the topic, 
 which with Field's requests and the practical manner 
 in which he handled the subject made it a very pre- 
 cious meeting. Cole and Whittle were both here, and 
 both full of the theme, and if you could have been 
 here, it would have seemed like old times again. Cole 
 has grown very much and I think Brother Field has 
 given him a valuable lesson in Prayer when here last 
 summer. The meetings are very interesting now, 
 and it looks as though we were to have a blessing. 
 Pray for us and our meetings. Yours, 
 
 J. V. F.
 
 INCIDENTS IN ENGLAND 
 
 At his meetings at Newcastle, laymen partici- 
 pated largely, and gradually ministers, with the 
 exception of the M. E. ministers, who had voted 
 not to invite him into their chapels, as he was a 
 layman, but M. E. laymen were not exempt from 
 the showers of blessing in that city, and so asked 
 Mr. Moody why he did not preach in their chapels, 
 as they were so much larger. He would not 
 answer then, and so at the railroad depot, as he 
 left for Edinburgh they insisted on an answer, 
 which was, "I never go where I am not wanted." 
 These laymen finding from their ministers the 
 real reason (a vote to exclude laymen), made 
 their ministers invite him back to preach in their 
 chapels. This was notice to ministers all over 
 the kingdom after that time, that Mr. Moody was 
 in the apostolic succession, and could not be 
 ignored. 
 
 I was requested while in Edinburgh to give some 
 account of Mr. Moody 's work in Chicago. 
 
 The infidel janitor of the hall, who had been 
 converted under Mr. Moody's preaching, came to 
 me after the address and said, "Why didn't you 
 talk about Mr. Moody's Master, instead of him?" 
 
 This incident fully illustrates how his ministry 
 left the photograph of Jesus upon the minds and 
 106
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 107 
 
 hearts of his converts, instead of his own, and 
 made me feel very cheap. 
 
 In Glasgow, I was invited to attend a Sunday 
 dinner for the poor in the public park in a great 
 tent, where Mr. Moody's meetings were held, and 
 where two thousand people had bread and coffee 
 served to them, by Christians, after which they had 
 Moody's evangelistic services. Scores rose for 
 prayers, and then personal conversation with these 
 enquirers ended the service. 
 
 Such an invitation to the hungry was irresistible 
 and was a Christlike method of introducing the 
 Lord Jesus to the multitude there, as well as in 
 the wilderness of Judea, by the Master himself. 
 
 A prominent man in the south of London was 
 converted at the Camberwell tabernacle, and was 
 invited by another man more prominent still, 
 after dining with his family, to go to the theater. 
 He assented on the condition that on the next 
 evening he would go to the Moody meetings. 
 To this he agreed and the result was that he was 
 converted. 
 
 In his great anxiety and effort for his wife's con- 
 version, he broke a blood vessel, and was not ex- 
 pected to live. I never saw Mr. Moody so anxious 
 about any case in all his work. The man re- 
 covered and the whole family became Christians. 
 A large stud of race horses, billiards, cards, operas 
 and theaters, went out of that man's life from 
 that day.
 
 io8 Early Recollections o) Moody 
 
 Mr. Moody was invited to Oxford to speak be- 
 fore the students, who had planned in the mean- 
 time to break up the meeting. The oldest son 
 of this man's family a splendid athlete, and a 
 leader in all the sports of the class learning of the 
 plan, took the platform with Mr. Moody and pre- 
 vented such a denouement, and instead, many were 
 made to see their need of a Savior instead of a 
 student's row. 
 
 Another son went to China as a missionary, 
 and on a return trip to England, he came through 
 Chicago and spoke in Mr. Moody 's favorite noon- 
 day meeting, and gave a most interesting account 
 of his work there. While in London I visited 
 Hudson Taylor, and found him teaching a class 
 of young men to be missionaries in China, as his 
 own church had refused to aid him, because his 
 scheme was too large, no less than sending a 
 missionary to every province in China I also 
 saw him in Mr. Moody's meetings at London. 
 Now he has lived to see his proposition to his 
 church carried out by his own personal efforts, 
 and at the recent student's conference in North- 
 field his own son now a missionary to China 
 made one of the most interesting addresses of the 
 conference. How much inspiration the father 
 and son received from their attendance upon the 
 Moody meetings, God only knows. 
 
 In the last large Agricultural Hall meeting in 
 the north of London, where 25,000 were inside
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 109 
 
 and 50,000 outside, an Eton man rose for prayers 
 on the platform the son of a rich Bombay mer- 
 chant I went with him to the enquiry room where 
 he soon saw his way into the kingdom, and also 
 became anxious for his fellow students. 
 
 I was invited to dine with one of the head 
 masters of the school at the house of Mr. Graham, 
 an ex-M. C. of Mr. Moody's committee, who 
 was invited there, preliminary to arranging a meet- 
 ing at Eton. This failed by the action of members 
 of Parliament, but, nothing daunted, the new 
 man student obtained the lawn of a citizen, with 
 high brick walls around it, where the meeting was 
 held. The scions of wealth and royalty and of 
 the established church thus heard a layman 
 preach and the fact was heralded all over England 
 as the best possible advertisement of the work 
 Mr. Moody was doing. 
 
 From ragged children in Chicago, to sons of 
 England's best society, was Mr. Moody's high- 
 way of the Lord. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone probably the greatest intellect 
 of his times, if not of all times, in his accumula- 
 tion of the wisdom of the ages was a humble 
 listener in that great hall, sitting at the feet of one 
 of God's consecrated, and therefore a God filled 
 man, who gained this eminence because he put all 
 his powers into the service of God in serving 
 men. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone was charmed, the same as the
 
 no Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 ragged boys had been, by such a ministry, and 
 said to Mr. Moody: 
 
 "I wish I had your voice," and he might have 
 said also, your power over men for good. Mr. 
 Moody replied, in a flash of intellectual inspira- 
 tion, in such a presence, "I wish I had your head," 
 indicating that with such added power of mind he 
 wished to be just that much more a power for 
 good as such a mental grasp of the wisdom of all 
 ages would inspire in him. I would not intimate 
 that Moody was not great in that sense, naturally. 
 His opportunities were comparatively meager to 
 acquire the wisdom of others in the past, and so 
 he made the Bible his basis of the knowledge of 
 God and human nature, from creation down to 
 his call to be the world's Evangelist, and who 
 shall say that he was not the wiser of the two, in 
 the things that are seen as well as unseen, in the 
 use of what God gave him in answer to his con- 
 secration to such a work. 
 
 While Mr. Moody was in London, Rev. Pear- 
 sail Smith, of Philadelphia, opened meetings at 
 Brighton to preach entire sanctification as an 
 instantaneous possibility for all, which annoyed 
 Mr. Moody very much. I have heard him say, 
 " Whenever anyone openly claims that he is so 
 sanctified that he commits no sin you had better 
 put two detectives on his track ; you will soon find 
 out that his creed and his life do not agree." The 
 most perfect men do not claim perfection quite
 
 Early Recollections 0} Moody 1 1 1 
 
 the contrary. A book, " Grace for Grace" which 
 Mr. Moody had (by my advice) recommended, 
 and Hodder & Stoughton had published, to 
 combat that error in doctrine, was read and con- 
 demned by Lord Shaftsbury, showing that the 
 best of men sometimes get away from sound 
 Scripture, as well as sound human productions. 
 Mr. Moody then, by request of friends in Eng- 
 land, recalled his endorsement, on the ground 
 that he had not read this book himself. I give 
 some letters showing what great influence such 
 men as Lord Shaftsbury have on the English 
 mind, or no such request would ever have been 
 made: 
 
 November, igth, 1875. 
 
 Dear Moody: I have yours with enclosure, and 
 it reminds me of my thoughts about the printing of 
 that book by Hodder, after you told me of the rivalry 
 among printers and publishers for matter connected 
 with your work. It occurred to me that some rival 
 publisher would criticise your recommendation of the 
 work, particularly on account of your allusions to its 
 practical exposition of the " higher life." I have 
 handed the documents to Spafford, who first called 
 my attention to the book, and when he has returned 
 them to me and given me his exposition of Ecce Homo, 
 Ecce Deus, Renan, etc., in their connection with 
 "Grace for Grace," we will write you again. 
 
 I am sure of this, however, that any book which 
 will feed Spafford in his present spiritual state (to say 
 nothing of my own poor heart's enjoyment of its pages)
 
 ii2 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 you can afford to send to Christian people who are 
 desirous to grow in grace, more than to criticise. As 
 I know nothing of Ecce Homo and Renan, I cannot 
 speak intelligently of his allusions to them, but taking 
 it for granted that their representations of the hu- 
 manity of Christ had served to exalt Him in his mind, 
 I can see nothing heretical or injurious in such al- 
 lusions. From the deep spiritual life of the man I 
 am loth to believe it to be possible for him to make 
 mistakes in advising his flock. The promise is that 
 the Comforter " shall guide into all truth," and if the 
 author was not guided thus in writing those letters, 
 then the perusal of them is very deceptive if their in- 
 fluence upon our mind and heart is any guide to the 
 judgment in forming an opinion about them. I am 
 sorry to have been the instrument of any trouble to 
 you, but I am very much mistaken if you do not have 
 a review from the other side in answer to this one, 
 and my opinion is that the Lord will use this very 
 criticism to vindicate the wisdom of publishing the 
 book in England, for your friends to read, by increas- 
 ing its sale, as well as the number who shall say you 
 did well in recommending it. The Lord go with you 
 to Philadelphia and shake that great city is my prayer. 
 Love to Mrs. M. and all Philadelphia. 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 (Signed) JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 January 18, 1876. 
 
 Dear Moody: Hodder has written us again en- 
 closing a note from Stone which I enclose to you 
 also a clipping from the Record, the paper which 
 opened the controversy. I am very sorry your letter
 
 Early Recollections oj Moody 113 
 
 to Shaftsbury has produced such a result, as I cannot 
 but feel that the book, with the emendations suggested 
 by Spafford leaving it invulnerable to any criticism 
 would do an immense labor in building upon the 
 foundation you have so well laid in your work in Eng- 
 land and Scotland. I am not sure that this last mis- 
 take is not worse than the first, which at the most, has 
 evoked criticism which will result in expunging all 
 chaff from a full bag of real wheat. 
 
 How Shaftsbury, or any one else, can charge the 
 author with using this wheat as "corks to float the 
 chaff of error" I cannot see. It shows very little 
 spiritual discernment in reading the mind of the 
 author, whose life and work as well as this book, place 
 him far, far above any such judgment in the eyes of 
 fair-minded men. This it is which convinces me 
 that such high authority was necessary to call atten- 
 tion to these flaws, that they might be corrected at 
 once, and that he should condemn in such terms, in- 
 stead of writing as he might truthfully have written, 
 in which case probably this book would have con- 
 tinued without any alterations. I have no more ad- 
 vice to give in the matter, neither am I sorry for what 
 I have done thus far. 
 
 If this book has suffered martrydom then will it now 
 only just begin its course of usefulness. It certainly 
 is not "Pearsall Smithism," which seems to have col- 
 lapsed with fatal results, but, if well read, will ef- 
 fectually prevent any such fearful errors in doctrine 
 as he taught, and was incidentally referred to in your 
 letter in such a way as to show that you saw those 
 errors, if you endorsed James, the author. 
 
 I shall follow you with hopeful expectations into
 
 H4 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 " Sodom," not without some fears however. Love 
 
 to you and yours. 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 Mr. Stone, whose letter follows, as to the book 
 complained of by Lord Shaftsbury, was Chairman 
 of Mr. Moody's Committee, whose opinion en- 
 dorsed Mr. Moody fully : 
 
 31 Old Change, 28 December, 1875. 
 
 My dear Mr. Hodder: I commenced on Sunday 
 to read "Grace for Grace" and had finished it within 
 about forty pages yesterday. I should very much like 
 to see the criticisms upon it which are adverse. I can 
 quite understand that many passages taken separately 
 are open to objection. This is true of every book, 
 but taken as a whole, I have enjoyed the reading 
 exceedingly. 
 
 I have looked very carefully for the unsound parts, 
 but have failed to find them. The writer does not 
 go just in the ordinary run of thoughts, excluding every 
 book as unworthy of notice because it contains what 
 is unsound, but he separates the vile from the precious, 
 and does not hesitate severely to denounce doctrines 
 which he considers injurious when found in the books 
 of men whose writings he otherwise vastly admires. 
 
 His great aim seems to be to promote holiness, not 
 in a legal way by man's getting rid of some evil in him 
 in order to make him more fit for God to commence 
 work with him, but by his taking the lowest place of 
 demerit that God may come in and make him His 
 habitation. His views of God's love are in my 
 opinion very exalted and helpful to the believer and
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 115 
 
 his view of the atonement and of our debt to the Lord 
 Jesus Christ is most precious. 
 
 The writer says more about "Ecce Homo" than 
 is justified, but when writing freely to a friend, it is 
 easily accounted for as very likely there was no thought 
 of publication in his mind, but even there he points 
 out error fairly. 
 
 Please give me a sight of what is said against the 
 book. I shall read and return anything you send. 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 T. STONE. 
 
 January 18, 1876. 
 M. H. HODDER, ESQ., 
 
 Dear Brother: I have yours in regard to " Grace 
 for Grace" and have written Moody on the subject. 
 I think the D 1 must have started that 'criticism for 
 the purpose of stopping its circulation, and you know 
 he needed pretty high authority to do this dirty work 
 upon such a subject as that book, but if the end should 
 be that the little harmless mistakes of a dead author's 
 editors should eliminate these mistakes, and give the 
 book a wider circulation then, as in other cases, we 
 will see how the Lord can bring good out of evil and 
 how He can use the mistakes of good men, dead and 
 alive, to promote his own glory. 
 
 I hope Moody will write you again. His friend who 
 called my attention to the book has read and re-read it, 
 until he has become so interested that he has taken 
 out these mistakes and seen the American publishers 
 and got them to send the revised edition to the owners 
 of the copyrights for their approval, when it is proposed 
 to get out a cheap edition and make extra exertions to
 
 n6 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 circulate it. I also send you a copy with a like sug- 
 gestion. 
 
 I am glad you are having such good times in the 
 Lord's work and sorry that Pearsall Smith should so 
 soon demonstrate practically that he was in error as 
 to absolute perfection in his Christian walk. The 
 old conflict will always show old Adam alive, and 
 thus some sin in us; but poor man he did not get Paul's 
 victory over it. That is what we must have to be able 
 to teach others. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 February 8th, 1876. 
 LORD SHAFTSBURY, 
 
 My dear Sir: Mr. Moody sent me a copy of your 
 letter in regard to his recommendation of " Grace for 
 Grace" (which has since appeared in print with his 
 answer) and I deem it due to him to state one of the 
 reasons why he gave it the sanction of his name. A 
 dear friend of his, who believes as he does, in regard 
 to the conflict of the two natures, as a. believer, con- 
 ceived this book to be a photograph of the author's 
 spiritual experiences, and as such would help many 
 minds struggling for the higher life, to realize more 
 perfectly the nature and privileges of a life of faith. 
 Mr. Moody regarded Pearsall Smith's teachings 
 erroneous and thought this book (from the known 
 character of its author and the judgment of many 
 friends) would help to counteract the error of Smith's 
 teachings, and hence would be opportune, and that 
 the mention of objectionable authors in the manner
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 117 
 
 and in the connection in which they were introduced, 
 should ever have elicited such criticisms as have ap- 
 peared, is more of a surprise to many conservative and 
 earnest Christians, who know the author and have 
 read and re-read the book, than that Mr. Moody should 
 have given it his sanction, had he read it for himself a 
 dozen times, and hence the unqualified withdrawal 
 of his recommendation was a greater mistake than 
 the giving of it. 
 
 Time and a calmer survey of the scope of the teach- 
 ings of the book will correct all mistakes of all parties 
 for, "we can do nothing against the truth, but for the 
 truth," which may or may not need human endorse- 
 ment according as the Master may determine. 
 
 I think if your lordship should critically test the 
 good points in the book and recommend the emenda- 
 tion of the objectionable authors named (remember- 
 ing that none of the letters were intended by the 
 author for general readers) you would only do yourself 
 justice and aid very much in setting Mr. Moody right, 
 as to the real merits of the book itself. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 Mr. Moody wrote about an English loan for 
 the Y. M. C. A. building as follows, showing his 
 great good sense in financial matters in acting 
 so as not to injure his religious work: 
 
 BANFF, August 5, 1874. 
 
 My dear Farwell: The last fire has settled the 
 question of my getting a loan for the Y. M. C. A. 
 building in this country. They think Chicago is
 
 u8 Early Recollections 0} Moody 
 
 doomed and will not believe there is any good in it, 
 so you will have to look in another direction. I don't 
 want Satan to get the advantage of me in any way 
 here in Scotland. He has done all he can to destroy 
 my influence, and God has stood by me as well as 
 yourself and many of my friends in Chicago, for which 
 I am most grateful, and thank God often that I have 
 so good friends. I think of you all often, and shall 
 be glad to get back to you all again. 
 
 The work goes on here in Scotland this summer fully 
 as well as winter. Great crowds all the time and 
 many enquirers every day. I hope to go to Belfast on 
 the ist of September if all is well. I hope you will 
 continue to pray for me, that God may bless and keep 
 me near the Cross. 
 
 Love to all your dear family, 
 
 D. L. MOODY. 
 
 December, i6th, 1874. 
 
 Dear Brother Moody: I attended a prayer meeting 
 of ministers of all denominations in Clark Street 
 lecture room on Monday, which is to be continued. 
 I felt like shouting the Doxology when I read the 
 notice of it, and then when the theme of the meeting 
 was the gift of the Spirit, I felt as though the 
 mighty rushing wind from God out of heaven by the 
 way of Scotland and Ireland had just begun to breathe 
 on Chicago. I cannot go into a meeting anywhere 
 that your name has not come up when considering the 
 possibilities of the Christian faith in God's work. 
 Who are these that have turned the world upside 
 down? is the question, and every time the gift of the 
 Holy Spirit in the proclamation of truth is declared to
 
 Early Recollections oj Moody 119 
 
 be the key to the mystery. Just two fishermen cast- 
 ing their nets on the right side of the ship at the 
 command of the Master. 
 
 J. V. F. 
 
 December 5th, 1874. 
 
 Dear Brother Stuart: I read with much interest 
 the little article on your brother's life. The sketch is 
 brief, but the facts of it such as one would expect to 
 exist in connection with a brother of yours. 
 
 Many of the quiet lives, when unveiled reveal a 
 mantle of benevolence, and far reaching wisdom, not 
 common to our race. 
 
 Your circle is one less for conflict, one more for 
 victory and rest, and from the divine side, you are the 
 gainer as well as he, for our Father does nothing by 
 chance in dealing with his children. Humanly speak- 
 ing, you mourn, Christianly, looking at the race ended, 
 and the crown won, you can but rejoice in spirit with 
 him, as in that land where all tears are wiped from 
 our eyes and where there is no more death. 
 
 It also reminds us who are left that what we do, we 
 must do quickly. 
 
 I never felt so much the importance and the privi- 
 lege of being on the walls with sword in one hand and 
 trowel in the other, "over against my own house." I 
 have thought of you often the past year, in my Sunday 
 trips into the country in the interest of Sunday Schools. 
 You and Brother Moody by divine grace have stirred 
 some of my "dry bones" by your example and words. 
 I have two letters from Moody lately. He says, "The 
 work increased." What a crown awaits that man. 
 Whittle and Bliss are at Pittsburg. Can't you go
 
 I2O Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 over there and hold up their hands while battling? 
 You will like them both. Moody is very largely sup- 
 porting them from money given him for his own use, 
 believing that the Lord wants them in the work and 
 that there are great things in store for this country. 
 Is not the cloud like a man's hand, seen from our 
 Carmel? 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 February 24th, 1875. 
 
 My dear Brother Cole: Thanks for your short note 
 placed in my hands at parting. I am now come from 
 the King's banqueting house, which though so far is 
 yet so near to all who desire to enter in and commune 
 with Him. That you have linked my name with 
 others of His friends in those heart feasts inside the 
 rent veil "when friend holds fellowship" with the 
 friend that sticketh closer than a brother, is very sweet 
 to me, and so I thank him for helping you to pray for 
 such an unworthy member of the King's household 
 and to assure you that I have more than once felt that 
 some one was praying for me when my heart has been 
 strangely warmed without any concurrent faith of my 
 own in the matter. "Bear ye one another's burdens 
 and so fulfill the law of Christ." Pray for one of our 
 young men who is just where Sidle Jones is. (The 
 young man I talked with at Mr. Fulsom's.) I think 
 he is very near the Kingdom. 
 
 I asked the meeting to pray for your work this 
 week. I hope you see some of those strong men in- 
 tellectually, but to see how little they know of God's 
 wisdom in saving men, and be willing to become little
 
 Early Recollections o) Moody 121 
 
 children that they may graduate in the school of 
 Christ. Moorehouse led the meeting Tuesday and 
 was intensely interested in your being used to save 
 sinners. The room was full. Mrs. Van Cott holds 
 a noon meeting and is at Peck's Church on the West 
 side in the evening. I am impressed with the idea that 
 I can reach some young men in the basement of his 
 church Sunday evening, will you pray if the way 
 should be open that the Master may use me. My 
 kind regards, please, to all the "workers with God" 
 who are trying to exalt Christ and His Word. 
 
 Yours truly, J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 February 24, 1875. 
 
 My dear Brother Stuart: I have been in Wisconsin 
 a week with Brother Cole, who has taken Brother 
 Moody's place in the Association work, since he left 
 us. I have sent him out twice now to fill promises 
 that I had made for myself and could not meet. This 
 last place I have been with him for a week he having 
 been there a week before I could go. The first place 
 I sent him he went for a three days' meeting and stayed 
 six weeks, and over 400 were brought to Cnrist. The 
 ministers actually opposed him in the beginning and 
 told him to close one week before he did. He simply 
 said, "Can I and the Lord have the use of the Church 
 for another week." This was granted and the most 
 powerful work of the six weeks was during this one 
 week in which weakness and strength went into part- 
 nership to do business for eternity. 
 
 At Baraboo when he was in the University all 
 opposed union. Sunday night last they all came 
 together in the Church, where of all others they
 
 122 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 declared they would not unite. It was crowded, base- 
 ment and audience room with two meetings, and on 
 Monday night at a converts meeting fifty-five young 
 men and women rose and in a few words confessed 
 Christ, and then all that wished to confess Him and 
 had not were asked to do so simply by rising, and all 
 but four or five rose at once. See what the Lord does 
 when men clear the tracks of selfishness and let the 
 car of salvation move forward. It was another ex- 
 emplification to me of our dear Brother Moody 's use 
 fulness and his power in prayer. It was a great thing 
 for him to leave all his work here of a missionary char- 
 acter in the hands of a new convert, and that man 
 a drunkard before his conversion. But God has 
 honored his faith and here is where I wish just to 
 thank God with you that your Brother John (good 
 man that) has found it in his heart to do for Man- 
 chester what God helped me to do for Chicago, in the 
 organization on a financial basis of a union of the 
 young men of all churches for work, and now if the 
 young men are faithful to that union, God will raise 
 up for them a standard bearer. I am filled with 
 gratitude when I think what the Lord has done 
 through our association in making workers. Moody 
 and Sankey, Whittle and Bliss, and now Cole, a red 
 hot coal too, with the fire of the Spirit. He told those 
 ministers that "he was led of the Spirit to say they 
 must go to the Presbyterian Church this week." 
 They doubted (not in thought) but taunted him with 
 presumption in putting the leadings of his mind 
 against all the ministers. Wasn't it sweet to have 
 them all come round to him and say "We were wrong, 
 you were right."
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 123 
 
 He feels drawn towards London and I am sure that 
 if he does go, that he would do a great work in Phila- 
 delphia, if he had two weeks there before he goes. 
 
 There are very few such men in the ranks of the 
 church, led consciously by the Spirit of truth into 
 paths of great usefulness. Do not these facts say to 
 one and all, "Rise, shine, for thy light is come"? 
 
 There must be great in-gatherings, if the tokens in 
 Scotland and England mean anything, and the means 
 there used ought to teach the Universal Church where 
 the line of march leads them in this work. 
 
 I was never so impressed with this thought as while 
 laboring with Brother Cole in Baraboo. We must let 
 the Spirit lead and be sure that we are thus led before 
 we shall see, even the bright and morning star, saying 
 nothing about the noonday sun of righteousness, to 
 lead us into the day's work that is before us, after we 
 have been awakened out of the death and darkness of 
 a dead faith, into one that works with God for the 
 salvation of sinners, which is the only way that our 
 works are made effectual. 
 
 Now my dear brother, excuse this long letter and 
 don't mistake my thought as though I was in any 
 manner teaching my teacher (for such I regard you 
 in my heart) but simply expressing my own thoughts 
 in connection with one of Moody's gospel children 
 at work. With love, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 February 25, 1875. 
 
 Dear Brother Moody: While I cannot expect you 
 to lay aside for a moment your great work to write 
 letters even to friends, I must say I like to see your
 
 124 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 handsome penmanship occasionally. It is my ambi- 
 tion to try and improve (which is quite important) but 
 if you knew how it serves to quicken and straighten 
 my steps in the race for the great prize as well as to 
 lay aside the weights I have to carry, while I realize 
 how you are surrounded with so great a cloud of wit- 
 nesses astonished alike with your rapid pace as well 
 as their own flagging gait in contending for the mas- 
 tery over the world, and the God of it, I think you 
 would just start off " Moody 's epistle to John" as 
 often as possible, with the hope that through riches 
 of grace in Christ he might at least walk honestly if he 
 does not run well .and grandly, like some of your 
 spiritual children, and this brings me to one of those 
 of whom you will be glad to hear, and so will drop 
 " John" and take up " James" and Cole real anthra- 
 cite coal thoroughly on fire, red hot. 
 
 I sent him to Baraboo two weeks ago last Tuesday, 
 where I had agreed to go and could not, until a week 
 later. He found four churches all jealous of each 
 other and determined not to unite, began with the 
 Presbyterian and in a few days they concluded they 
 could unite if they could agree on the M. E. Church 
 as the rallying point, but never in the Presbyterian 
 church. This was done and a very large gathering of 
 Sunday School children was the result. Brother Cole 
 then told them thatif the meetings were longer continued 
 they must go to the Presbyterian Church. This was 
 on Saturday. The ministers all said no, that would 
 break up the union. Well, says Cole, after services 
 Sunday morning, you will all give notice of a union 
 meeting in the Presbyterian Church. With strong 
 opposition and no faith in its success, they finally con-
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 125 
 
 sented, as it was for only a week, and the church 
 above and in basement was jammed till there was no 
 standing room and on Monday morning nearly 100 
 young men and women and two drunkards confessed 
 Christ before men, with new tongues, speaking the 
 language of Sons, and not aliens. It was sweet to see 
 the ministers one by one say to Brother Cole you 
 were right, we were wrong. His personal experience 
 and his childlike faith, grasping the guiding hand of 
 the husbandman, in working his, vineyard, marks a 
 workman that needeth not to be ashamed of his work. 
 Over two hundred before I left had felt the Sword of 
 the Spirit, wielded by his trusting arm of faith. In 
 Moline and Rock Island over 400 were led to Christ 
 from under the same kind of hindrances by his bold- 
 ness in assuming that God and himself wanted the 
 church to continue the work after the ministers had 
 said, "Close the meetings." 
 
 I mention these things to show how you were led in 
 placing him under your mantle when you left for Eu- 
 rope. He is a star of the first magnitude in faith and 
 purpose, and if I mistake not he will yet be, as a 
 teacher of the Word. He is quick to see a point and 
 practical to make use of it, and illustrates well all 
 of which go a great way to make sure of what a man 
 needs, to go forward in the great work he has chosen 
 all of which is based on faith in God's word and pur- 
 pose in the revelation of his son. I wrote to Brother 
 Stuart that if he should go to London (he feels drawn 
 that way) that he could do them good in Philadelphia 
 for two weeks or more before he should embark. 
 
 Moorehouse is here and preaches in the Hall Sun- 
 day nights. The noon meetings are well maintained.
 
 126 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 Whittle and Bliss are having blessed times in Louis 
 ville. 2,500 young men were in one meeting. Whit- 
 tle is pure gold but I think Cole is more attractive in 
 his manner of presenting the truth. You need not be 
 ashamed of either of them though. Whom the Lord 
 endorses with His hand ("Ye are workers together with 
 God") of power in the new birth, and then the new 
 living of those for whom they labor and pray surely 
 we can afford to write our poor name right under the 
 King's and bid them Good speed. 
 
 If my wife's health is firm enough to enable her to 
 consent to have me leave home, I intend to come over 
 in March, if the Lord will, and let Him polish me a 
 little among the many living stones which He has set 
 for the defense of His truth in that wonderful island 
 of the sea, whence the pilgrims came to make a home 
 so near where you first saw the light, of this life and 
 the next. My best regards to Mrs. Moody and the 
 little ones, with prayers for your continued success, 
 Yours in Christian fellowship, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 A DOG FIGHTER AND A SOCIETY LADY CONVERTED 
 IN LONDON 
 
 Office 
 Haymarket Opera House, S. W. 
 
 LONDON, May 17, 1875. 
 Messrs. Moody and Sankey's Meetings. 
 My dear Wife: The meetings here at the Opera 
 House are very interesting. Saturday night over 500 
 rose, instantly, to say that they wanted Christ. When 
 you consider that this is the Court end of London, and 
 all come in on tickets, and none but West End people
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 127 
 
 get them, it is very remarkable indeed. "The com- 
 mon people heard him gladly," and it seems that the 
 rich people are also hearing the Gospel with great 
 avidity. There were 6,000 Christian workers to- 
 gether at the East End Hall before breakfast yesterday 
 morning, and it was turned into a prayer-meeting 
 largely, and I never saw such a meeting. The after- 
 noon and evening meetings were crowded, and thou- 
 sands went away who could not get in. In the evening 
 there were hundreds rose for prayers, and weeping 
 said, "Pray for us." 
 
 One very intelligent man rose to say that he was a 
 converted "dog fighter." Had been converted by 
 hearing the Gospel in these services. He had drowned 
 his dogs and given up matches for ^10 for to-day (a 
 holiday in London) and instead of being at the dog 
 fights, he was in the Noon Prayer-meeting, asking 
 Christians to pray for him that he might be a faithful 
 Christian, said he had made up his mind not to be 
 a half and half soldier, and so he had set up prayer in 
 his house, and had determined to live consistently. 
 The cases of conversions related in the converts meet- 
 ing are very striking some of them. I have met some 
 very remarkable men here, whose work and faith 
 seem almost marvelous. A great many women here 
 preach and work as Christians, some of them very 
 high in position and influence. 
 
 I hope there will be more of this on our side, a 
 remarkable case occurred in the Opera House. A 
 very fine lady of wealth and position, was very signally 
 converted, and said to Mr. Moody that she had been 
 only a "magnificent doll," t dressing and holding 
 levees for fashionable people, and had literally worse
 
 128 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 than thrown her life away, but she now saw a way to 
 use her means and intelligence, in a way to honor her 
 Master, and the God given talents she possessed. 
 Hundreds of such cases will be the result of these meet- 
 ings for the aristocracy. Isn't it marvelous? How 
 poor are the compensations of a fashionable life in 
 which so much money and talent are literally thrown 
 away. I think my observations of men in this work, 
 will be the main profit of my journey. The old places 
 and scenes may make a little impression, but the 
 moral and intellectual levers here finding their ful- 
 crum, are what seem to be a new evolution to my 
 mind. 
 
 Affectionately yours, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 September 6, 1875. 
 
 Dear Moody: I got your wife's letter about the 
 house, and while it may be the only wise thing to do 
 to be a pilgrim and a sojourner for the present, I hope 
 you will find it to be the Lord's plan when you do 
 settle down to lodge with your most unworthy fellow 
 traveler, though I cannot find it in my heart to deter 
 you from finding a more inviting home than I can give 
 you, if such should seem to be the best place for the 
 highest usefulness of your time and talents. 
 
 I have been thinking, in view of the expressed op- 
 position from some ministers, that an evangelistic 
 committee composed of ministers and laymen, through 
 whom all minor evangelists should work in the North- 
 west, would be a very desirable thing to have. What 
 do you think of such a proposition? You know good 
 men have their crotchets, and if we can make a saw-
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 129 
 
 horse of them in any way, I think the Lord will en 
 dorse the movement. 
 
 I don't get your answer to the camp meeting as- 
 sociation Committee yet. I can say pretty confi- 
 dently that the Association stands better before 
 the community than it has since the fire. The meet- 
 ings that I had in the Hall and one in Highland Park 
 were very large and very attentive. My health is 
 much improved, and I want to be doing something 
 positive for the Master. If this Evangelistic Com- 
 mittee could in some way be connected with Miss 
 Dryer's work, as a nucleus, it would interest earnest 
 Christian men and women of all denominations in 
 her work, as well as the general work for the whole 
 Northwest. I expect to go to Ottawa next week. 
 
 If you can give a few thoughts to this subject, write 
 me. With kind regards for your family, I am, 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 John V. Farwell. - 
 
 September 28th, 1875. 
 
 Dear Moody: I improve a few moments to write 
 you by Brother Spafford, who will give you the main 
 reason why I did not accompany him and Brother 
 Goodwin. The indications were never so good in 
 my judgment as they are now for a revival. The 
 noon meetings are constantly increasing in numbers 
 and interest and some few are inquiring the way in 
 them. To-day there were four. I have just re- 
 turned from the Mayor's Office and Board of Public 
 Works making inquiries about the exposition build- 
 ing. The mayor said there were no objections to it? 
 use, and that if he could serve me he should be glad to
 
 130 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 do so. Prindiville (Catholic) of the Board of Public 
 Works said there was no objection. The necessary 
 funds will be forthcoming. 
 
 acted as though he didn't want you to 
 
 come, but finally proposed the very thing above all 
 others that I know would have pleased you, and that 
 was that the meetings be commenced at once, and 
 that whether you came or not, there should be nothing 
 left undone that could be done, by ministers and lay- 
 men to bring the blessings of a sweeping revival. 
 The sentiment electrified the meeting, and they voted 
 unanimously to instruct the Committee appointed to 
 make preparations for your coming, to inaugurate 
 revival meetings at once. Our Committee meets on 
 Thursday afternoon, and I hope that this first effort 
 of the evening will only be a sample of all others in 
 their results, and really I think it will be so. Every- 
 where that I go I find mellow hearts, and willing hands 
 to help do the Lord's work. I wish I lived in town 
 for this winter at least. I may come down for a 
 month or more when the meetings begin in earnest. 
 
 I need not tell you how glad I would be to mingle 
 my voice with yours and the dear brethren who have 
 been sent to see you on these great matters, but I shall 
 be with you in spirit and trust that you may be led to 
 decide just right for the interests of the cause in the 
 whole country as to where you go first. 
 
 Yours very truly in Christian bonds, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 October 6, 1875. 
 
 Dear Moody: The noon meetings this week held 
 in the large half have been large and very interesting,
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 131 
 
 and the committee meeting this p. m. was also very 
 encouraging, more so than anything I have seen, as 
 they proceeded to business, and asked the ministers 
 to request Brother Whittle to commence and take 
 charge of a series of afternoon meetings in Farwell 
 Hall. If they do this, ministers and laymen are 
 pledged to sustain him as the leader in every way. If 
 the noon meetings next week and these afternoon 
 meetings are well attended and full of spirit, we may 
 look for a great blessing, and I believe there will be. 
 I have felt sometimes that I would pay all the bills 
 myself rather than not have you come and have a 
 jubilee time in Chicago, where you have only fished 
 for men with a hook and line, and I want to see you 
 put in the net on the right side of the ship and gather 
 in the multitudes who need salvation. 
 
 Mr. Porter, the oldest minister of Chicago in service, 
 stated in the noon meeting to-day, that his daughter 
 in China had read two of your printed sermons sent 
 to her from London to her audience in Chinese, and 
 one woman said to her that it was the most heart 
 searching sermon she had ever listened to, and an- 
 other said, "I wish you would have them printed in 
 Chinese so we could spread them among our people." 
 So you see that Daniels in writing your history, and 
 the sermon thieves you have fought so manfully, were 
 at work for the Lord, though perhaps they may have 
 only worked for themselves. 
 
 You don't know what power there is in printers' 
 ink, in that way even. I thank God every time I 
 think how He is using you and Cole and Whittle, and 
 remember the way He has led you all, just to con- 
 found human wisdom in planning for God's work
 
 132 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 and set up a standard, measured only by the desires 
 of the Holy Spirit, who is the only preacher of right- 
 eousness that will ever reach men's hearts. 
 
 In haste and with lots of love and kind regards for 
 you and yours, I am, a poor sinner saved by grace , 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 October 2ist, 1875. 
 C. M. MORTON, ESQ., 
 
 My dear Brother: At the State Convention of 
 Y. M. C. Associations at Jacksonville, I was ap- 
 pointed Chairman of the Executive Committee to or- 
 ganize the state. The program being to turn the 
 work into evangelistic channels, forming Associations 
 where the way opens. They voted to raise $3,000 for 
 a permanent secretary and other incidental expenses, 
 and authorized me to write you to take the position 
 of Bishop of Illinois under this church of the first 
 born, taking in all who love our Lord in sincerity. 
 The position is an honorable one. Leader of all the 
 union hosts of this great state, is no mean calling. 
 
 I am greatly encouraged in the outlook and believe 
 that the state is ripe for a great work. 
 
 Can you come, and will you come? Write me as 
 soon as possible. We have a meeting first week in 
 November. 
 
 Best love to Moody and Sankey and all the dear 
 friends who are holding up his hand in the coming 
 battle. Yours very truly, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 October 25th, 1875. 
 
 Dear Brother Morton: I have yours of the 23rd, 
 and note your inquiries. My thought is that you
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 133 
 
 would not be required to raise money. That should 
 be done by local committees. 
 
 The sooner you could come, the better, but in case 
 you decide to come, you would fix the time you could 
 be here, and we would work to that in our calculations. 
 You would be under the direction of the Executive 
 Committee, nominally, but the expectation on my 
 part would be, that you would direct the Executive 
 Committee, just as Moody does his Committees. 
 That is you would be Major General in the field, and 
 we would be orderlies to extend and widen the field 
 of your operations. 
 
 I am delighted that the work pleases you in pros- 
 pect, and I pray the Lord of the Harvest that the Har- 
 vest hour may multiply your joys a million fold, for 
 I believe the fields are truly white to the harvest. 
 The body of the hall was full of young men (mostly) 
 last night to hear my poor words, and I believe that 
 it can be filled every Sunday night to the roof with a 
 little earnest effort. I also rejoiced to hear that 
 the meetings in Brooklyn have opened so auspiciously. 
 I shall look anxiously for the reports of the week day 
 meetings, as indicating the sober second thought of 
 the people concerning the work. If they come in 
 throngs week nights and continue to do so, then there 
 will be a repetition of old England's scenes in the new 
 world, and the saying that a prophet is not without 
 honor, save in his own country, will be controverted 
 in this instance at least. Ask Moody to advise you 
 in regard to this proposition and me also as Chairman 
 of the Committee. We don't want to make any mis- 
 takes in regard to it. Yours very truly, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL.
 
 134 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 October 2ist, 1875. 
 
 Dear Brothers Whittle and Bliss: I am instructed 
 by the ministers and laymen to write you to come here 
 and hold union services as early as you can do so. I 
 have been out of town or I should have attended to it 
 before. We have had several meetings and with few 
 exceptions the expressions have all been cordial 
 for a union work this winter. The Methodists, 
 after meeting and voting for them, have employed 
 "California" Taylor, who was with Moody in London 
 (but was not a success there) and will probably draw 
 off from the union. Other single churches may also 
 do so, but I believe there is a growing desire here for 
 a work of grace. Write me as soon as you can. 
 I am delighted to hear that so many are becoming 
 real co-laborers with the Master and yourself. 
 
 May the good Lord add many more of them to the 
 great army of laborers. Yours very truly, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 Mr. Moody never allowed any one to canvass 
 for money for his own personal use. All that 
 ever came to him came as the offerings for the 
 wilderness tabernacle came, as "free will offerings," 
 from those who had been built into the living 
 temple, as living stones by his ministry. Perhaps 
 no such financial record was ever made since the 
 days of the Apostles. The workman is worthy of 
 his hire, but souls was his chief reward, and these 
 were constrained by love, to "minister to him of 
 their substance," who had received eternal riches 
 as the result of his work for them.
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 135 
 
 Mr. Moody at one time intended to pay off the 
 Association debt, incurred for the building erected 
 while he was in London, from hymn-book money, 
 as the following letter will show, written while at 
 work in Brooklyn. His great heart could not 
 bear to have his old training school in debt ; 
 
 BROOKLYN, October 25th, 1875. 
 My dear Farwell: If you can hold the Association 
 for a few months, I think we can lift the debt. I do 
 not want you to say anything, but I think we will 
 make enough from the hymn book, so I think I would 
 let the matter rest where it is. All goes well here. 
 Pray daily for me. I never needed the help of my 
 friends as much as now. 
 God bless you richly, 
 
 D. L. MOODY. 
 
 October 3oth, 1875. 
 
 Dear Moody: I have yours in regard to Associa- 
 tion matters, and while I admire your self-sacrificing 
 spirit and your faith in the source named as the way 
 out, I am still convinced that if the matter were 
 properly presented in England, that you would see 
 not only a willingness but a strong desire to follow 
 you home to your own stamping ground, the scenes 
 of your early conflicts and victories in the cause of 
 union which culminated so grandly in that country 
 under your leadership, and is now returning with you 
 with such redoubled energy and power and to com- 
 memorate the work with a monument in your own 
 city. What so appropriate, all things considered, as 
 to place the Association Building (in which you la-
 
 136 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 bored so successfully and the destruction of which the 
 second time was one of the moving causes which sent 
 you to their shores with the blessed message of salva- 
 tion) out of debt. Some of your friends in London 
 asked me how they could do something for you and 
 not offend you. If you should write me a letter in 
 answer to mine, stating your desire to see the building 
 free from debt and devoted entirely to religious work, 
 and that you expect to draw from the fund named, to 
 the sacrifice of your own interest in it, and leave me 
 to manage the rest. 
 
 I don't want you to sacrifice your interest in that 
 fund for any such purpose, when it can be more ap- 
 propriately done in some other way. I know you 
 have a way and a mind of your own, which is I be- 
 lieve the way and mind of the Spirit more fully than 
 in most men, but in this thing you may possibly let 
 your fear of being made to appear in the role of a 
 solicitor for funds, stand in the way of a commendable 
 scheme, both for you and those who may enter into it. 
 I can manage to carry the debt, but at the same time I 
 would much prefer to manage to have it liquidated. 
 You can in no way be compromised by the course 
 I name. 
 
 Saw Jacobs yesterday. Glad to hear of your 
 counsel together. Love to you and yours, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 October 2ist, 1875. 
 
 Dear Moody: I don't hear anything from you in 
 reference to the letter you suggested I should write 
 you, concerning the needs of the Association and 
 which was v/ritten sometime since in the name of
 
 Early Recollections oj Moody 137 
 
 the Association, and by request of the Board of 
 Managers. 
 
 Perhaps you had nothing to say on the subject after 
 second thought. I prayed over the matter when 
 was here, and finally gave him a short state- 
 ment of the situation, and showed him copy of my 
 letter to you, and after that simply asked him to think 
 and pray, and if anything occurred to him as a proper 
 thing to do when he got home, to write me. He has a 
 wonderful gift of perseverance, and if he begins he 
 will end it. I want to see the Association Building 
 free of debt, and a corps of workers entering in it that 
 will command the love and sympathy of all the 
 churches, and if you can set in motion any agencies 
 in England that will accomplish that object, it will be 
 a great thing to do. I am to speak in the Hall Sunday 
 night to young men. Pray for me that I may carry 
 the Lord's message to them, and not mine. 
 
 I spoke to the Synod of Wisconsin last Sunday night 
 at Baraboo, and the Moderator at the close made a 
 short address which indicated that he was going home 
 to open the Scriptures to his people as he never had 
 done before. Many asked for prayers. I hope that 
 Wisconsin may hear the trumpet giving no uncertain 
 sound this winter, as the result of a few practical facts 
 given to that people in honor of the Lord's word and 
 His faithful messengers. I shall be glad to hear from 
 you on the matter herein mentioned and anything of 
 interest that may be in your heart. I am thinking 
 about you daily, and in my poor way holding you up 
 before the mercy seat for a great blessing in Brooklyn. 
 
 Love to your family, 
 
 Yours truly, J. V. FARWELL.
 
 138 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 November i8th, 1875. 
 HENRY WARD BEECHER, 
 
 Dear Sir: As chairman of the committee of the 
 Young Men's Christian Associations of this state to 
 procure a state secretary I have corresponded with 
 C. M. Morton to take that position, and I find that 
 one of the hindrances is his attachment to you, be- 
 cause of your unwillingness to part with him. He 
 has a big heart, and it is full of gratitude to your kind- 
 ness in opening doors of unselfishness for him, and so 
 I make bold to ask you to help him to come, as an- 
 other token of your high appreciation of his talents in 
 the Lord's work. I would not put the request on any 
 lower ground. The State of Illinois wants a Bishop 
 to represent the unity of Christ's body in the same way 
 (on a smaller scale) that Moody is doing it. Revival 
 work (and union) practically set forth in Young Men's 
 Christian Associations in every town in the state is our 
 aim. Now what greater work can the Plymouth 
 Church do than to return one we have lent you for 
 a season, now that such a wide field is open for him to 
 reap, a field now white for the harvest? 
 
 There are now on file several invitations for such 
 work, one of them from the State Normal School, 
 where over one thousand young men and women are 
 preparing for teachers. What an opening for "Char- 
 ley" to put in his sickle! Now in the name of the 
 Master we serve, ask him for guidance in this matter, 
 in the light only of His glory in the salvation of men. 
 Then , with your broad views of things, thus charged 
 for a decision, I shall not fear the result, and I am 
 sure you will be astonished with the result from his 
 work in this field of effort, and bless God from the
 
 Early Recollections oj Moody 139 
 
 bottom of your heart that you helped to prepare a 
 man for such a ministry of the Gospel of Grace. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 November 22nd, 1875. 
 C. M. MORTON, ESQ., 
 
 My dear Brother: Our letters seem to have crossed 
 each other twice, but neither of us seems to be cross 
 over it, which I take to mean that we are coming to- 
 gether at the end with no damage to either. I wrote 
 Brother Beecher to let you come on the Lord's draft 
 and help you in it. I think he ought to. I have 
 answered all your questions, not categorically, but 
 so as to be sure you will come. I should be afraid to 
 fix a date, and I want you to be afraid to stay too long 
 in Brooklyn. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 December i5th, 1875. 
 
 My dear Brother Morton: I have yours of the i3th, 
 and was sadly disappointed and yet can just say 
 amen, as easily as if my own mind had been met. I 
 am bound to believe that the Master of assemblies had 
 led you to the right conclusion as you are the one most 
 interested in the decision. I am only a very poor 
 finger board in the King's highway, but I was in hope 
 the Lord would let you see an open gate into our pas- 
 tures. As he has not, I have only to say, God bless 
 you abundantly in your decision and make the Bethel 
 like the one of old, only more of a blessing to all who
 
 140 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 enter its altars. As you cannot help me out of my 
 office in seeking a bishop of Illinois, I have a request 
 to make in another direction. I am on a committee 
 to get an undershepherd for Lake Forest, 111., and we 
 want a gospel preacher who gives the whole Bible 
 without any sugar-coated pills. A Bible preacher, 
 Oh! how we all need that bread, and how little we 
 seek for it as a race. 
 
 See Dr. Hatfield, and if you can get any informa- 
 tion worth writing you can serve me in that way. A 
 young man preferred $2,000 to $3,000 is the salary 
 we could pay church small, but the University proj- 
 ect and the boys , and young ladies' academy now in 
 operation, make it prospectively a very important 
 charge. 
 
 And now let me say also that if you get an assistant 
 and can come out here for a month or six weeks, any 
 time, as a "Plymouth sledge hammer," on a long 
 handle, to help break stones for the Master, you will 
 find the latch string out. Tell Mr. Beecher that I 
 give it up, two against one, with such a difference in 
 weight of metal, is too much for me. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 November 2oth, 1875. 
 REV. W. A. BARTLETT, 
 
 Dear Sir: My attention has been called to a criti- 
 cism of Professor Summers upon one of Mr. Moody's 
 illustrations used in England which is so distorted and 
 does him and the South so great injustice, that as one 
 of Mr. Moody's earliest admirers, and as one who had
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 141 
 
 heard him use the illustration referred to, I take great 
 pleasure in writing to you as a friend of the cause he 
 has so much at heart, for the purpose of giving you 
 my impressions received from its use. A sinner sold 
 under sin and bound by the law, was put in the posi- 
 tion of one awakened and desirous of freedom from 
 the curse of a broken law, and to show the work to be 
 instantaneous, he pictures the slave fleeing to Canada 
 from the United States (where the law held him as a 
 slave and would return him to his master) and the 
 moment he crossed the line where there were no such 
 laws, he was a free man. 
 
 "Now," said Mr. Moody, "when was he a free- 
 man? One moment he was a slave, the next he was 
 a freeman, and so faith is the line between Egypt and 
 the land of promise, between Satan's laws and Christ's 
 freeman." The fugitive law which he saw in opera- 
 tion, left its impression on his mind so strongly, that 
 in England, where for a long time the government has 
 done its utmost to put down slavery, the illustration 
 was one that would be understood. That he ever in- 
 tended to wound any one's feelings in thus using an 
 illustration from actual life among us, cannot for a 
 moment be credited by any one who has the least 
 knowledge of his character and work, and any one 
 in the South who would so construe this language 
 without that knowledge, does himself a very great 
 injustice. What the law allowed and compelled in 
 the worst phase of slavery, and which actually existed, 
 should not be the basis of criticism. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL.
 
 142 Early Recollections 0} Moody 
 
 January 3rd, 1876. 
 REV. W. A. BARTLETT, 
 
 Dear Brother: I have yours of the 26th and note 
 contents. I did not write for publication, only to in- 
 form a mutual friend of Mr. Moody's interest in the 
 Master's work, as to the impression made upon an 
 unprejudiced mind by this use of an illustration 
 which had been unfairly criticised. 
 
 There was one fact that I neglected to mention in 
 my first letter, and that is that I heard Mr. Moody 
 use the illustration at the same time and place that 
 provoked the criticism. As to Dr. Palmer, no one 
 has a higher appreciation of his ability and Christian 
 character than I have. I have heard him often. 
 Neither do I recognize my remark as unkind in the 
 least degree, but rather complimentary than other- 
 wise. 
 
 The fact that he believes as he does, and acts as he 
 did in regard to the war, with his splendid abilities 
 and Christian boldness, more than anything else in 
 the South, indicated to my mind that the war was 
 the Lord's war (and, as much with the North as the 
 South, for all were involved in the sin of slavery) and I 
 hold that nothing but religious convictions of duty 
 and privilege, could have fired either section to such 
 deeds of valor and self-sacrifice as were displayed. 
 No common men (simply politicians) could rouse the 
 people to such a work. The only mistake that Dr. 
 Palmer made is (in my judgment) that he does not see 
 God's hand in using him for such a result as the war 
 produced, and which could not have been reached in 
 any other way. I believe God has planted our na- 
 tion to be one, and only one thing that prevented in a
 
 Early Recollections 0} Moody 143 
 
 human view, He has removed, and the duty of the 
 hour now, is to heal his wounds, with His ointment 
 and not ours, which too often is gall and bitterness 
 from that "unruly member full of deadly poison," and 
 I know Mr. Moody, as shown in the incident given 
 you with Dr. Palmer, has none of such feelings. 
 
 Yours truly, J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 Mr. Moody called on Dr. Palmer when in New 
 Orleans doing Evangelistic work, who treated 
 him very cavalierly, without in the least degree 
 disturbing his Christian charity and equanimity. 
 A like treatment was given to Major Cole, who 
 also left in his study, if not in Dr. Palmer's mind, 
 a blessed memory of Christian charity toward one 
 who prayed for the rebellion to succeed, as ear- 
 nestly as the Major fought to prevent it. 
 
 One point Mr. Moody intended to reach in 
 coming to Chicago was evidently to have a taber- 
 nacle built for him in Chicago, large enough to 
 centralize the work for the whole city, which was 
 done in due time, as I have heretofore sketched, 
 but he did not then think that the building of that 
 tabernacle, and the influence of the meetings held 
 in it, would serve as God's way of paying the 
 Association debt, as it did, at the close of the 
 meeting. 
 
 Nothing he ever did seemed to do him so much 
 good, as to see this home of young men for re- 
 ligious training, built and rebuilt by his own work, 
 for the first time free of debt.
 
 144 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 The great fire that destroyed the last one, and 
 sent him to England a religious orphan as to a 
 working home, was God's plan for making him 
 the world-wide evangelistic apostle of Christian 
 unity, as well as His agent to free this first temple 
 of Christian union from the burden of debt. 
 
 I had written him more than once about com- 
 ing to Chicago for evangelistic work without 
 getting any reply, and so in answer to this letter 
 about Kerr and Elsing opened the subject again. 
 
 March 4th, 1876. 
 
 Dear Moody: You say nothing about your wishes 
 for Chicago, which indicate to me that you have no 
 definite idea about it. If you can give a poor sinner 
 a little advice, if he does hail from Chicago, I hope it 
 will not fix you so your stock will not hold out for 
 New York, though I am sure that their wants are very 
 great. 
 
 I have been boiling over some of the time since I 
 came home, and have been able to work a little outside 
 of Chicago, but here the ice is so thick (almost equal 
 to New York) that I am somewhat disheartened 
 though not discouraged. I believe the good time will 
 come yet. I have put Rockwell in with Van Arsdale, 
 and I think they make a most excellent combination. 
 Now if we can get Morton for the flying artillery in 
 the state, we are in good shape to welcome you, and 
 it has occurred to me that our State Sunday School 
 Convention in May will be the time for you to come 
 West and arouse the state with fire from above. There 
 will be a host of delegates from every part of the state
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 145 
 
 who will go home for work. Jacobs will send you 
 the program and you will please think of it. When 
 you can steal half a minute to write me about Chicago, 
 I shall be glad to get it. I have a characteristic letter 
 from Jack Croft in Bombay (The Eton student con- 
 verted in Agricultural Hall, before referred to) re- 
 questing me to write to a friend of his at Eton and 
 remember him especially to you. I have more than 
 rejoiced to hear of your success in New York. Kind 
 regards to Brother Dodge, etc. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 February 25th 1876, Mr. Moody wrote me con- 
 cerning two young men who were converts at the 
 noon meeting held at the Y. M. C. A. building, 
 and who had just graduated at Princeton and 
 wanted work for them, and had written him as 
 follows, which Mr. Moody forwarded me with 
 his suggestions. 
 
 Dear Farwell: I think the best thing we can do is 
 to put these boys into our state work in Illinois and 
 keep them at it this summer. What do you say? 
 I am told by some of the Princeton professors that 
 they have done more to bring about the status of 
 good feeling in the college than any one else, and they 
 ought to be sent into the Harvest field, and we ought 
 to keep them in Illinois. Let me know what you 
 think. 
 
 Yours in haste, 
 
 MOODY.
 
 146 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J., February 25th, 1876. 
 My dear Mr. Moody: Mr. Elsing and I have 
 been talking that matter over. From the very first 
 we said it was what we wanted. If the Lord leads us 
 to go, He will be leading two very weak vessels and 
 yet with His Spirit good will be done. Our choice 
 of location would be either in the far west among 
 those who have no Gospel teaching, or among the 
 miners of Pennsylvania, or Illinois. Elsing is writing 
 now to Rev. Sheldon Jackson, Denver, Colorado, who 
 is general missionary for all that western country in 
 regard to going out there. I don't know that there 
 is any need of going so far, though we want your ad- 
 vice in the matter. I suppose if we are to go the 
 Lord will provide for us. He must, for we have none. 
 I'll tell you just how we feel about it. We must have 
 when we get back here to college in September one 
 hundred and fifty dollars each, above all expenses. 
 If not, we can't get along in college. We could make 
 that by working in Chicago, and it seems to me that 
 if the Lord ever led us He led us here to college, and 
 means that we should go through. You see while 
 at Lake Forest we had charge of a little church in the 
 country and we were richly blessed in working there. 
 Mr. Farwell or Mr. Wells could tell you about it, for 
 we had both there many times to speak. Last summer 
 Elsing spent in Sunday school work through the 
 country while I was working at two small towns out 
 from Lake Forest. I spoke twice every Sunday, etc. 
 Christ was there too, and I hope some souls saw His 
 salvation. The work is going on here. A request 
 came from Yale College for our prayers and also ask- 
 ing that two or three of our men might go there.
 
 Early Recollections 0} Moody 147 
 
 Three, I believe, have gone. Write to us when you 
 have time. We are praying for the work. 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 ALEX. J. KERR. 
 
 Mr. Elsing a few years after this, was put in 
 charge of a mission church in eastern New York 
 by Morris K. Jessup and has been there ever since 
 a burning and shining light as one of Mr. Moody's 
 converts and protege's from the Y. M. C. A. 
 prayer meeting. 
 
 February gth, 1876. 
 ALEX J. KERR, ESQ., 
 
 My dear Brother: Your and Elsing's letter were 
 duly received, and heartily remembered in the noon 
 meeting. You have great reason to rejoice that the 
 Master is using you in His work. I think it is one 
 of the greatest blessings God can bestow upon any 
 man, to use him in the conversion of others. 
 
 I believe there is not so great difference in the soul's 
 possessions in the future world, as that which exists 
 between the self-sacrificing labor for souls, and one who 
 does nothing actively to save others, except that which 
 exists between Dives and Paul, one in heaven with 
 redeemed hosts saved by the " foolishness" of his 
 preaching, and the other in hell, with his five brethren, 
 who followed his example and found his place. I 
 wish I could impress the truth as I see it in God's 
 word, that every one shall be rewarded according as 
 his work shall be, good or evil, upon every student in 
 Princeton, and to the honest Christian student paint 
 two pictures, one soul getting into heaven "so as by
 
 148 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 fire." No good works that will stand the test of His 
 measuring rod of fire, who gave His life for the sheep 
 and spent all His earthly days in feeding them, only 
 to say as He ascended high, and gave them the other 
 comforter "Follow me," and then the other with an 
 abundant entrance, gold, silver and precious stones 
 from the treasure house of souls made alive by his 
 influence, which cannot be burned up. If such a con- 
 trast would not put new zeal into cold hearts, then I 
 don't know what would, and then with every saved 
 one in earnest to save some one else, it would not be 
 long before Princeton would celebrate the year of 
 Jubilee in the conversion of all her pupils, and you 
 could send us our new minister with the shout of a 
 King on his lips, having seen the salvation of the 
 Lord. 
 
 Work, Work, Work, in Christ's Yoke and ye shall 
 find rest, blessed paradox of divine truth. 
 
 Love to you and Elsing, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 February 8th, 1876. 
 
 Dear Moody: I see by the papers that you have 
 commenced in New York, and I trust that the meetings 
 there will do more to awaken the whole country than 
 any you have yet held. It is the commercial center 
 of the country, and next month large numbers of mer- 
 chants and business men from all over the country 
 will be in New York. I would like to have you write 
 me what your ideas are about Chicago. I would like 
 to do anything you may suggest in the way of prepara- 
 tion. If, as you suggested when I was in Philadelphia,
 
 Early Recollections oj Moody 149 
 
 you think best to go on to the west, south and north 
 sides, alternately, instead of going into the exposition 
 building, then the rink on the west side would be a 
 good place and yours and Bartlett's churches for the 
 north and south sides. What do you think of renting 
 the Hall Sunday mornings for Professor Swing's serv- 
 ices? He is talking about it and may wish to get it if 
 he can. 
 
 I don't like his course, but if you are to be here and 
 have no morning service in the same place, I would say 
 that the arrangement might help your meetings, and 
 you could, I know, help Swing very much. He 
 wants some positive man to anchor to. The crowd he 
 trains with don't know what they believe, and he must 
 be a good deal like them, he thinks, to keep together. 
 His last two sermons might be interpreted thus 
 No. i. "An honest God is the noblest work of man." 
 No. 2. "Jesus Christ is the representative man in 
 liberalism. His mighty intellect made sermons that 
 live forever." He received Hereford, the English 
 successor of Laird Collier, with open arms in the 
 columns of his papers, as a man likely "by his purity 
 and learning to do great good." Poor Swing, he has 
 swung out into too large a circle for Christ to follow 
 him as he seems to call on Him to do. 
 
 God bless you a thousand times more than ever 
 before. Yours sincerely, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 The following letters to Lay Evangelists who 
 were led into the work by Mr. Moody's example, 
 will indicate the wisdom of Mr. Moody in piloting 
 or advising others to follow his example.
 
 150 Early Recollections 0} Moody 
 
 Those to Mr. Moody and others in re his coming 
 to Chicago, will indicate the Lord's leadership in 
 opening the way for his coming to Chicago. 
 
 February yth, 1876. 
 
 Dear Brother Cole: I have neglected to write you 
 since you declined to be Bishop of Illinois, and not 
 because I felt slighted (for I have thought a hundred 
 letters, more or less, since then) , but somehow time 
 does beat me awfully lately. I cannot get hours 
 enough into a day, nor half use what I do get from 
 Him who has made the clock of time to beat so fast. 
 I suppose just to remind us of our very little impor- 
 tance, except as we are able through his grace to link 
 it to the great future. The prairies are on fire in a 
 good many places, and I have been called on to stick 
 my little torch into the work here and there, much 
 more than I deserve, but not half so much as I would 
 like to. I have sent Brother Dean to two places that 
 I could not go to, and very many I could not send any 
 one nor go myself. It does seem as though the mil- 
 lennium was coming, so much inquiry for help and so 
 many places where the work is going on without any 
 extra help. They have had meetings (union) in 
 Waukegan for a long time. Weidensall writes from 
 Iowa, that at one of his meetings a very prominent 
 couple, for whom the whole community had been very 
 anxious, were labored with to remain to the inquiry 
 meeting, but they deliberately refused. The young 
 man lost his reason the next day, and died soon after. 
 The sad event was having the effect of a sermon from 
 the pit of hell, and also one from the courts of the 
 King rejected, to precede it. Oh, that men would see
 
 Early Recollections oj Moody 151 
 
 that our Lord will one day proclaim the day of ven- 
 geance upon the despisers of his grace. I have been 
 two Sabbaths at Moody's souls both times came 
 into the Kingdom. One night in Racine eight ac- 
 cepted Christ, and over forty remained to the inquiry 
 meeting. Pray for us, and write oftener. - I often get 
 a sermon out of one of your letters and I want to know 
 how the good Lord deals with you. Love to the 
 family. Yours, J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 February 8th, 1876. 
 J. W. DEAN, ESQ., 
 
 My dear Brother: I have your two postals. Farm- 
 ington and Cambridge unionized (will that word 
 do?) for the Master, and signed, sealed and acknowl- 
 edged in a Y. M. C. A. 
 
 That is the best evidence of such a work, from the 
 human standpoint, and I hope that the Lord will so 
 record the document by his spiritual evidences that 
 everywhere there may be added to the church daily, 
 such as shall be savd, in the line of your march a 
 triumphal march, the arch of which is being erected 
 in the land where the last enemy is conquered and the 
 crowns are on our heads decked with such stars as 
 these, and where we can shout the "Union forever'* 
 with a voice and an echo that will fill all heaven and 
 never die out, with no one to secede, or break ranks 
 thus joined. You are a highly favored man to be per- 
 mitted to inaugurate here the songs of redeemed ones 
 on the other shore. That is music that will live longer 
 than the Star Spangled Banner, the emblem of political 
 unity, "Unto him that hath redeemed us and washed 
 us in his own blood, and made us kings and priests
 
 152 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 unto him forever," is the chorus of the blood-stained 
 banner of eternal union. The music is set by grace 
 between music bars, and if the Methodist claims the 
 upper bars here and gets in his hallelujahs and amens 
 on the highest keys, it will all be mellowed into one 
 harmony when the Master shall hold the baton and 
 beat time for us all in the chorus of the skies. You 
 will not know then what school each saint took his 
 lessons in. It is, therefore, a blessed thing to begin 
 to be ignorant on that point even here. That is the 
 key note of the Y. M. C. A. work and I am glad you 
 have set it so well in these two places. You are re- 
 membered daily at the Union Prayer meeting. May 
 you see a shower before you come back. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 February zoth, 1876. 
 
 Dear Brother Morton: I have yours of the 8th and 
 in reply would say that I should be glad to be with you 
 in Louisville and may be able to do so. I am to be in 
 Washington on the gth of March and if Mrs. Farwell 
 does not go with me, I can go via Louisville. Are you 
 thinking of going into the work for the New York 
 Committee? You are right in giving your whole 
 strength to the very best thing on earth, "preaching 
 the gospel." A mixed subject of personal popularity 
 and Christianity to say nothing about crime, etc., as 
 connected with any one man or church, is not large 
 enough to balance the loss of an hour's time in the 
 work of saving men, with one of the Lord's anointed, 
 whose work is no masquerade party, but real earnest 
 blows for the truth.
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 153 
 
 Nothing else will stand the fire of the final judgment 
 upon men's work on earth. And as "every man" is to 
 be rewarded "according as his work shall be," etc., it 
 stands in one's hand to measure carefully the length 
 and breadth of his efforts as a prof essed follower of 
 Christ, who is to be the judge. I am sorry for the 
 man who is first looking for the patronage and ap- 
 plause of men as preachers of Christ's righteousness. 
 What a sorry heap of rubbish they will have to see 
 burned up in the great day that is to try our work, of 
 what sort it is. Souls coming up to testify that your 
 faithful message from the Son of God, with naught 
 added or subtracted, was the sword that broke their 
 stubborn wills and made them Christians, will be 
 worth a carload of eloquent manuscripts, whose only 
 office was to put the conscience to sleep, and let the 
 juggernaut of intellectual pride crush out every 
 thought of repentance toward God, and faith for 
 salvation in the Crucified One alone. Swing, Murray, 
 Beecher & Co., and Moody, Whittle, Cole & Co. will 
 have quite a different introduction to the Court of 
 final jurisdiction, I think. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 February i5th, 1876. 
 
 J. W. DEAN, ESQ., 
 
 My dear Brother: I have yours of the i4th. I 
 am glad you have been set to the music of union in 
 your work, and that there were no discords as yet, 
 except the invitation to restrict your work to so little 
 a locality, which comes from Chicago. Spafford said 
 to-day at lunch that it seemed as though there was no
 
 154 Early Recollections 0} Moody 
 
 restraint outside of the city limits, but here there was 
 evidently some reason for the meager results from 
 Christian efforts, and I can find it nowhere, except 
 in the exclusiveness of the churches. Some have the 
 union spirit and are blessed, but not as fully (I be- 
 lieve) as they would be if they could have some real 
 union meetings continued daily in each section of the 
 city. If you come here and settle down you will do 
 good, but if you take the state for your field, and 
 Chicago only one corner of it, I think you will do 
 goodest, and more of it too. You know there is a 
 charm in a new voice and a new way of putting the 
 truth, which often attracts and captures men who 
 for years have sat under good preaching without being 
 taken in the gospel net, and you are a new man in 
 every place you go, and the old, old story in your mouth 
 becomes new to hundreds who otherwise might 
 "Sleep on now" till Gabriel's trumpet alone awakens 
 them to judgment, though the best men in the state 
 may have sounded in their ears the news of a risen 
 Lord, able to save. But, as you say, "The Lord will 
 lead," and so I will stop my pen on that head at once, 
 knowing that my advice is good for nothing to one who 
 looks in that direction for guidance. I am going to 
 Racine on Friday night where they have had revival 
 services for two months. Many other places are call- 
 ing for help. We could use several good men in the 
 work. Yours in the love of the work, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 March 3rd, 1876. 
 
 My dear Brother Cole: I found your friend in, and 
 very ready to talk. I found him one of those men
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 155 
 
 who try to live religion at home and under the vest, 
 but very careful to conceal the fact from every one, 
 lest they should fail to live as they should. He ad- 
 mitted his error in every particular, and promised to 
 confer with his wife and think seriously of making a 
 full surrender and an open confession of his secret 
 faith. He seems like the young man with Jesus, 
 lacking only one thing, and if he does as he promised 
 and reads the Scriptures given him to that end, I trust 
 he may soon write you that your kind thoughts of 
 him in a far off land were rewarded by his full con- 
 secration to, and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. I 
 don't hear from you half as often as I would like to, 
 but suppose that you have no time to write one-half 
 the letters you would like to, but when you can squeeze 
 out a letter sheet of your orders and facts for my en- 
 couragement, I shall be greatly delighted. I am out 
 somewhere most every week, and have many invita- 
 tions that I cannot meet. There is a blessed revival 
 all over the northwest, and in fact all over the north, 
 and from the recent developments in political circles, 
 it seems as though nothing was more needed to save 
 the country from a curse, apparently worse than 
 slavery itself. Perhaps that is what is wanted to 
 clean the atmosphere of moral pestilence, which seems 
 to pervade the very highest ranks of society. It re- 
 minds me of the fervent prayers for America before 
 leaving England, which went up from every meeting 
 I attended in connection with Mr. Moody's return. 
 
 With kind regards for you and yours, and fervent 
 prayers for your success in your work, I am sincerely, 
 Yours in Christ, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL.
 
 156 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 March 6th, 1876. 
 W. E. DODGE, JR., ESQ., 
 
 My dear Brother: I have yours in regard to Mr. 
 Moody 's church, etc. I have no information as to 
 what was done in Philadelphia or Brooklyn. Mr. 
 Stuart intimated to me that some of the wealthy men 
 in Philadelphia had proposed to do something in a 
 quiet way. 
 
 He seems to be a little unfortunate in such enter- 
 prises, but I hope the Lord will prevent any mistake 
 in this matter especially. I should not advise you to 
 have an auction of chairs and towels in New York 
 when you close your meetings. 
 
 The fewer the persons who know of any freewill 
 offerings made to Moody's private means, the better. 
 Each individual being his own secretary and treasurer 
 in such matters, seems to me the most satisfactory for 
 all interests. As to his church, I had hoped to raise 
 the money here to meet the balance of construction 
 account, but our churches are all so heavily mort- 
 gaged that it seems useless to make the attempt, 
 having failed with those most able and willing in such 
 gifts. There could be no more appropriate object to 
 which the hymn book money could be given. I think 
 Moody though, would rather see it used to get the 
 Association building out of debt. He seems to have 
 set his affections on that first, as they were when his 
 wonderful energy and good common sense served 
 to concentrate his powers for preaching the word in 
 union work, which has been his peculiar aim, from 
 the beginning. 
 
 His own church has been second, only, to the all 
 absorbing idea of making the world feel the power
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 157 
 
 of Christian union in active work for the masses, who 
 in regular church work are so sadly neglected. The 
 good Lord will guide him and us in the matter when 
 the proper time comes. We are having blessed times 
 in the little towns outside of Chicago. 
 
 Yours very truly, J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 April 24th, 1876. 
 
 My dear Cole: I have yours from Glasgow and 
 am sorry to hear that none of you are sound physically, 
 though strong in the Lord. 
 
 I see also your note to Spafford on the returning of 
 Satan to spoil the work of the Lord under Moody via 
 ecclesiastical doors. Poor human nature, how frail! 
 While Moody was there and crowds came to hear him, 
 the ministers dare not oppose, but now that he has 
 gone, and perhaps they have not tried to gather up the 
 fruits in their own neighborhoods, they see that no 
 good was done. I think the days that Paul spoke of 
 must be close upon us when the form of godliness is 
 received, but the power thereof denied. Well if there 
 is any great spreading of this spiritual disease, you 
 will not be as welcome there as you have been, but 
 there is a work for you somewhere, that is certain, and 
 the Lord will lead you into it in His own way. You 
 must take better care of your poor body. You know 
 it is the Temple of God, and you must study to keep 
 its pillars and posts strong and vigorous by careful 
 usage and by proper diet. I thought you were not 
 careful enough about the last point when I was with 
 you. Our anniversary was a success, and the work 
 done the past year indicates that the Lord has led our 
 leaders.
 
 158 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 Dear Spafford grows all the time. He has arrived 
 at the mile post which says, "In like manner shall he 
 come again." He reads it as Moody does, "Behold 
 I come quickly," and it cannot be too often pressed 
 upon our ears, as a motive to earnest work for Him 
 who has left his work in our hands. 
 
 I hope to hear from you often, until I see you face 
 to face, and may He who sustained Paul, lay under- 
 neath you His almighty arm, and tell you to be of good 
 courage in the midst of your bodily ailments. 
 
 Love to yours God bless and keep you all, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 April 24th, 1876. 
 
 Dear Moody: I have yours in regard to the Taber- 
 nacle, and learn that Hammond and one or two others 
 opposed the transfer of the property to you on the 
 ground that you had no creed, etc., of a like frivolous 
 character, but they wanted to make it free. Patton 
 called to see me to have a conference about the matter 
 with some others, and I referred him to Rockwell, as 
 knowing all about it, fearing that I might say some- 
 thing that would hinder rather than help in such a 
 discussion. 
 
 I see that the World has published that I and some 
 other friends are paying all your bills, etc. Now 
 there is nothing that hurts me more than to be so mis- 
 represented. The Lord knows that I have not done 
 near as much to aid you in your work as I ought to 
 have done, when you were here, and unless you ob- 
 ject to it I may correct these false impressions which 
 have crept into the prints without any agency of mine, 
 for I have never told any one but Ensign that I gave
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 159 
 
 you anything, since you lived in my house before the 
 fire. These things must be very annoying to you, and 
 if you will suggest any way for me to correct them I 
 shall esteem it a favor, as I would not like to add to 
 your discomfort in attempting to do it in a way you 
 would not approve. I wish to comfort you a little on 
 account of that Book of Daniels that has troubled you 
 so much, by saying that several ministers have said to 
 me that the reading of that book has been a great 
 blessing to them, by helping to a new consecration, 
 etc. The Tribune published an editorial, "Moody 's 
 Methods," which was capital and I took occasion to 
 write Medill a personal note with one criticism only, 
 which he afterwards asked the privilege of using in his 
 Sunday issue. I did not see the paper, but I was told 
 that he also published my letter in the Independent, 
 on the question opened by Wanamaker. The press 
 of this city is converted in one sense at least. 
 
 Can you not be there the last of May for our con- 
 ference of National Ex. Committee, etc. I wish you 
 could. 
 
 I told Rockwell to-day to take the front room for 
 our reading room, and put a door through into the 
 prayer room. 
 
 Love to Mrs. Moody and the children. 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 July 25th, 1876. 
 
 Dear Moody: Enclosed I hand you a letter for 
 Sankey, as I do not know where he may be at this 
 time. Please forward. The noon prayer-meeting
 
 160 Early Recollections 0} Moody 
 
 and the Gospel meetings in the evening are growing 
 in interest. To-day there were five rose for prayers 
 and Rockwell says there has not been a meeting since 
 you left that has not resulted in fruit. I hope it is but 
 the drops before the shower. Lake Bluff camp meet- 
 ing was not a great success. Sunday School As- 
 sembly ditto, but there were some conversions and a 
 good deal of good work done. 
 
 I am getting a little nervous over the action of our 
 Committee on your meetings. They voted not to 
 spend a dollar until all the money was raised, and it 
 requires $27,000 for the building and chairs. I 
 offered to allow the Committee to build on our lot two 
 stories of an outside wall for a permanent building, 
 and pay them at the end of the year the cost of the 
 building, except the expense of changing the galleries 
 to floors, if they would put all the money donated for 
 a building into the hands of the Association to help pay 
 its debts. In this way, $4,000 and interest on money 
 borrowed to build such walls would cover all the 
 building expenses and leave the balance for the As- 
 sociation. The committee voted not to do it on ac- 
 count of having to borrow money. Now, when they 
 get their money raised, I will propose to build a build- 
 ing if they will put their money into it, I to pay it to 
 the Y. M. C. A. as soon as the Building is put into 
 stores. This will give $20,000 to $23,000 to the As- 
 sociation, which otherwise would have to be thrown 
 away, as the tearing down would leave only about 
 $5,000 from old materials. What do you think of 
 this? Write Blatchford or me if you approve. 
 Yours, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL.
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 161 
 
 July 26th, 1876. 
 D. L. MOODY, ESQ., 
 
 My dear Brother: I wrote you hastily yesterday 
 about the building, etc. I don't think you fully 
 comprehend the difficulty in raising money here to 
 build a building to be torn down. London is the 
 only place which has done this, and they only when 
 they could not get a suitable place. We have very 
 few men who can give, who are not now pulled and 
 hauled to pay church debts, and hence the necessity 
 of saving every dollar we can for our Associ- 
 ation. 
 
 You haven't the same material to work on when 
 you get through for money, as in New York and 
 Philadelphia. So I hope that we shall all see alike 
 before we get through with the preliminaries, and all 
 be commended for the part taken, as should be the 
 case. Very many have made the objection that the 
 money is all to be thrown away, and they are too 
 poor, etc. 
 
 I do hope that we shall see the morning star when 
 you come. It has been dark a long time now. I 
 wish my name had never been connected with the 
 Hall. We could then change it without seeming to 
 condemn any one, and if necessary for the highest 
 success I am ready to be crucified in that way or any 
 other. 
 
 With love to you and yours, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 July 27th, 1876. 
 
 Dear Cole: I have neglected writing to you, but 
 not praying or thinking. I trust that the good Lord
 
 1 62 Early Recollections o] Moody 
 
 has manifested his faithfulness in such a way as to 
 give you more and more confidence in Him, whatever 
 you may think of me. I have not seen Henry Greene- 
 baum yet, but I intend to. I read your letter to 
 Whittle about their coming to England. If he is 
 wanted there, I hope the Lord will lead them 
 to go. 
 
 Morgan telegraphs me that the papers are repub- 
 lishing libels against Moody and Sankey. What is the 
 devil doing? Is he very angry because his time is 
 short? It looks as though he were trying to fill the 
 world with his lies in more shapes than ever before, 
 which looks very much as though the Lord was get- 
 ting his great chain ready for him. The preparations 
 for Moody are going forward, but the money comes 
 very hard. He will come October ist. The meet- 
 ings in lower Hall since Moody left, have had fruit 
 every night, which means that the Lord wants them 
 to come, if the money men don't, and so I think He 
 will come, and then the money will come too, after 
 the Lord shows the people how easy it is when you 
 feel like it. The noon meetings are full, and cases 
 nearly every day of new creatures in Christ Jesus, 
 the only way to make a new man. Moody 's church 
 is paid for and dedicated, and is the best church audi- 
 ence room I ever saw a real demonstration of 
 Moody's practicalness in everything, lots of seats 
 for a little money, and every appliance for work every 
 day in the week. Pray for a poor sinner who wants to 
 do what he can and has many hindrances in the way. 
 
 Love to you and yours and all friends, that truly 
 love the Lord, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL.
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 163 
 
 September 6th, 1876. 
 E. W. BLATCHFORD, ESQ., 
 
 Dear Brother: I find that there has nothing been 
 done by the Building Committee, except Harvey, since 
 I took hold of the building and it became known 
 publicly. Of course I do not accept this as the in- 
 tentional result of my course on the part of the com- 
 mittee, but only a letting up for the time being, for 
 a better grip on the final effort. I cannot too forcibly 
 impress upon the committee, the idea that the raising 
 of the money necessary to secure an appropriate 
 building, was the only condition upon which Mr. 
 Moody would consent to come, on the ground that 
 this would indicate more than anything else the 
 earnestness of the invitation, and the readiness of all 
 parties to co-operate when he did come. Now my 
 dear brother, I hope that your characteristic energy 
 will be felt at every necessary point to relieve me 
 (in Mr. Moody's mind) from having done just what 
 he refused to have me do (viz. : provide a building 
 mainly at my own expense, rather than not have him 
 come). Moody knows full well that you and I en- 
 dorse him, and will spend money to aid in a popular 
 union work, but he ought now to be met with such 
 a practical endorsement here in his own home, as 
 will encourage him to pray and work for such a result 
 as had not been obtained in any other place, consider- 
 ing the size of our city, when the records of the meet- 
 ings are written up. 
 
 There should be very frequent meetings of the 
 committee (with such ministers called in as you wish 
 to help you) until all the money is obtained for the 
 building, and prayers with faith to keep us all where
 
 164 Early Recollections o) Moody 
 
 there shall be no discord in the harmony of heads 
 and hearts in this work. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 October 9th, 1876. 
 
 Dear Moody: To-day is the anniversary of the 
 event which under God sent you to England, and to 
 the world almost, with the message of salvation which 
 has been received so gladly by listening thousands. 
 It would have done your heart good to have been be- 
 hind the scenes and listened to the exercises in the 
 morning meeting, and at the Tabernacle in the after- 
 noon. Truly God is in this place and many know 
 it not. Involuntary prayer meetings followed both 
 meetings in which the tongue of fire was heard. 
 There were no vacant seats in the tabernacle. In 
 the evening the Hall was crowded, and the wall aisles 
 full of standing people, and I tried to speak to them 
 from Matt, i : 23. Never before did I feel so much the 
 need of the baptism of power. I cannot speak again 
 for the King unless I have it. It seems solemn 
 mockery. Oh, pray for me, if God wants me to work 
 in this way to show me, by that special token, so 
 necessary to success. I am invited to several places, 
 but I cannot accept as I now feel. I now see how 
 God was preparing you for your trial of which you 
 spoke at lunch. You could not go to the fair "be- 
 cause God was coming so very near." Ah, how you 
 need that near communion now, to leave this work 
 and to stand in the old homestead by the widow and 
 the mother and carry the dead boy to his last resting 
 place ! You were very tenderly remembered in every
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 165 
 
 prayer, and the meetings for this week were also 
 borne on the same petitions. 
 
 The purposes of God are unfolding more rapidly 
 than the faith of his people have grasped. It be- 
 hooves us all to walk very carefully. I think your 
 calling from us at this time, was one of His calls that 
 has made a deep impression here, so that when you 
 come back to us you may find a well- watered field to 
 work in. Grace does not always reach us in the 
 gentle dew. It often comes through the thunder and 
 the lightning and the black storm cloud, but it is the 
 same essential love of the kind Father over and above 
 all, sent for our good. 
 
 There are moist eyes all around us now, while a few 
 weeks ago the heavens were brass. The fire has 
 melted the ice and now it behooves us to use the waters 
 for His glory. May the dear Lord help you to lead 
 his people here to a great victory. 
 
 Your loving brother in Christ, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 P. S. I cannot close without sending the sym- 
 pathy of a stranger to your dear mother in this af- 
 fliction. 
 
 March 2nd, 1877. 
 
 Dear Moody: You wish me to keep you posted in 
 regard to meetings. I can say in regard to the 
 country, that prayer has been answered wonderfully. 
 In every direction the cry comes up "Come over and 
 help us." Spafford and I have just returned from a 
 two days' meeting at Paw Paw, Michigan, where 
 the largest church was filled at 10 a. m. and two 
 churches at 2 and 6 p. m. There have been nearly
 
 1 66 Early Recollections o] Moody 
 
 three hundred conversions in a town of 2,500. We 
 took the night train home from Lawton, 4 miles from 
 Paw Paw, and they had their largest church crowded 
 waiting for us to have a meeting from 10 to i, when 
 we took the train. I have about four invitations daily, 
 to some town in the country to speak especially to 
 business men. Mrs. Farwell has taken the "spoiling" 
 of her home "joyfully" until the invitations multiplied. 
 If you had time to just write her a word of encourage- 
 ment I would like it. I think the next two months 
 will be a grand harvest time, and having had the Lord's 
 sickle in a few fields, I am longing to do what I can 
 while this blessed day of visitation lasts. I find that 
 the spirit helps my infirmities, making it an easy and 
 joyful service. "My yoke is easy, and my burden 
 is light." Whittle is back this morning. He has 
 had a grand time in Dubuque, and could have 
 stayed two weeks longer. Murphy with four or five 
 of his Pittsburg converts had the meeting to-day, with 
 Morton to lead. 
 
 Their testimony was thin Gospel soup, but he spoke 
 very well, except too much in it. I cannot particu- 
 larize, but Mrs. Dryer's prayers (before you came) 
 for the whole harvest field from this center, seem to 
 have reached the throne. Continue to plead for this 
 great city and this great country that centers here. 
 Whittle says McGranahan is doing well, very well. 
 
 My best love to the better half and the little ones, 
 Faithfully, JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 March 5th, 1877. 
 
 Dear Major Cole: I saw Hamlin at lunch, and 
 learned how the dear Lord has yoked himself up with
 
 Early Recollections oj Moody 167 
 
 you, for His own work in Adrian and Hillsdale. He 
 is always better than our faith. Burlington has 
 written me twice to come over and speak to their 
 business men, and have been working to get Whittle, 
 but he is here again and they are in despair. I wrote 
 them to send for you. I think it is the leading of the 
 great Leader of Israel, and if all the pastors unite in a 
 call, shall be quite sure that it is. Burlington is an 
 important town, and needs to be moved. I was home 
 yesterday for the first time in a long while to-morrow 
 I go to Pontiac and have three or four places where 
 they want me to come. We had a good time in Paw 
 Paw where they intended to stop the meetings with 
 our leaving, but they have broken out in a new place 
 and are going ahead this week. I am amazed that 
 God can use such timber as I am in His temple. 
 Love to you and yours, from a poor sinner, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 March 5th, 1877. 
 
 Dear Moody: I have been asked so many times 
 to write you to come here in May when the General 
 Assembly meets here, that with my own impressions 
 in regard to another short campaign in the Taber- 
 nacle under your leadership before we give it up to 
 other uses, I have consented to write and urge it. 
 Whittle has come back and had a good meeting yester- 
 day, and the Tribune and Inter Ocean gave full re- 
 ports of the sermons. 
 
 Harvey and myself went to see the editors, and 
 they have agreed to keep it up for a month, which 
 will be a great send off for Whittle for work elsewhere, 
 as well as keep up the interest in country towns, where
 
 1 68 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 there is no diminution of interest apparent as yet. 
 Sharp has been to Geneseo for ten days and 65 were 
 converted a hard infidel town with unabated ef- 
 forts still going forward. 
 
 The reports to-day were good in the noon meeting. 
 Thompson took in 58 yesterday. Keep up a quiet 
 thinking in the line of 30 days' more work for your 
 old home in May and June, and if the Lord leads that 
 way I shall say Glory Hallelujah. 
 
 Love to wife and children. 
 
 Sincerely, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 March lyth, 1877. 
 CHAS. M. MORTON, ESQ., 
 
 My dear Brother: I am rejoiced to hear of your 
 success in the Lord at Paxton and hope Carbondale 
 will prove a mine of spiritual carbon, only waiting 
 the fire from above to set it on fire for God. I had 
 written Blackstone before yours came, but it will not 
 hurt him. I wrote to Day of Peoria, and hope he will 
 move in the matter, but I am afraid he is not charged 
 with enough heavenly electricity to galvanize Peoria 
 into life enough for a general work. 
 
 They are working hard to build churches, as in 
 other places, each one having their own heavy load, 
 etc., and so afraid the Lord's car (which moves on 
 the masses) will divert funds from sectarian uses. 
 
 The more I see of this spirit, the more I am con- 
 vinced that the devil is the busiest member of the 
 churches, putting up all sorts of jobs to occupy the 
 mind aside from the real work. A church is or- 
 ganized for saving souls. But this is poor Jacob
 
 Early Recollections oj Moody 169 
 
 trading with Esau, instead of Israel prevailing with 
 God. It does seem as though there ought in these 
 days of light, to be a nearer way through the wilder- 
 ness to the grapes and milk and honey of God's 
 promises, than the way the churches are traveling. 
 Yet when I see how long it took me to get away from 
 Sinai, I am disposed not to find fault, but to pity and 
 pray, and put in a little work wherever I can under 
 the Master's command. 
 
 God bless you in your sweet service and glorious 
 conquests for Christ. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 April 6th, 1877. 
 
 Dear Brother Dean: I have yours of the 2ist ult., 
 from Cherokee and was delighted to hear that you 
 are enjoying your new field of work so richly. 
 
 You are really out of the wilderness, and plucking 
 the grapes of Eschol in the land of milk and honey 
 promises. Such is the privilege of faith. "Go for- 
 ward" was never intended to land any one in the Red 
 Sea, but just where you are, eating and drinking, 
 fighting and rejoicing in victory over old Adam, who 
 always did and always will keep a poor sinner in the 
 wilderness of sin, just as long as he can. There are 
 many of God's people that are only fit to grub the 
 field, many that can plow, many that can sow the 
 good seed of the Kingdom, but few who can reap well. 
 Many who can wash and mend nets and row a boat, 
 but few who hear the words of the Master, "Cast the 
 net on the right side and ye shall find." One whole 
 generation of grubbers in the field of faith, died in
 
 1 70 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 the wilderness, and only their children and Caleb 
 and Joshua to lead them partook of the milk and 
 honey and grapes of God's promises. 
 
 How many generations of sectarianism have been 
 grubbing in the wilderness of selfishness and have 
 died, to prepare the way for the Flag of Union in get- 
 ting the devil and his wife out of the heavenly places 
 where God's promises are realized. That you are 
 called to be one of the Master's armor bearers in this 
 grand crusade into the Holy Land, is the highest 
 honor that you can ever attain to. As Caleb and 
 Joshua could pity those whose bones lay in the road 
 to Canaan, because of unbelief, even before entering 
 the land of Promises, how much more can you pity 
 that corps of sin dried pilgrims who prefer wandering 
 in the desert, thirsty and starving upon empty doc- 
 trines, rather than join the army of faith and take all 
 that God has promised and provided for those who 
 obey the voice of his word, and his providence, and 
 move along with them obediently, lovingly and 
 joyously. God bless you and make you still more 
 a blessing. 
 
 Yours, J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 April loth, 1877. 
 W. E. DODGE, JR., ESQ., 
 
 My dear Sir: I have yours of the 7th. I am sure 
 nothing would please me better than to have Mr. 
 Moody entirely relieved from any financial burden in 
 connection with our Association, but unfortunately 
 our city is not in condition to liquidate all fire debts 
 yet, and you know our Association has had two fires, 
 in view of which I am surprised that Chicago has done
 
 Early Recollections 0} Moody 171 
 
 what she has in the building of the Tabernacle and 
 paying off the Association debt. And I am sure that 
 this country can well afford to let Mr. Moody relieve 
 the institution that has done so much to give him to 
 the country, under God, as the World's evangelist. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 April 1 4th, 1877. 
 
 Dear Cole: I have heard from you occasionally 
 by the papers and through Spafford and once from 
 Hinsdale, and always with good news. I suppose that 
 you are so busy that you have no time to write a pil- 
 grim, as a matter of news only. You must have had 
 a great victory at Hudson for the Lord. That's just 
 his way, to give us a thousand fold more than we 
 deserve in His service. I had a letter from Brother 
 Dean a few days since. He is having great success 
 in Iowa. I went with him to their State Convention 
 and pulled him through for State Secretary, though 
 he had to say that he would take what they chose to 
 give him. No debt was to be contracted for his serv- 
 ices. Hundreds have been converted, so I think his 
 pay will come. No one ever reaped very well, but 
 what they were paid well. 
 
 I hand you a tract from Hodder which will remind 
 you of old scenes, when grace abounded and the seed 
 is still sprouting and gets into print so that others may 
 see your good works and glorify our Father. I have 
 been home for two weeks, with a bad headache, and 
 so have had no field work of late, but when I have 
 been out, there was always some way offered and 
 somehow the Lord filled it with such a small fry as I
 
 172 Early Recollections o] Moody 
 
 am for his own glory. I am amazed at the readiness 
 of men and women to talk about and then receive 
 Christ as their Savior. Moody's sermons have been 
 read by millions, and the ground has thus been well 
 ploughed and the spirit has softened, making all in 
 readiness for the good seed of the Kingdom. Have 
 you read Joseph Cook's lectures in Boston? He has 
 done a deal of grubbing, logging and ploughing for 
 Moody in the hardest soil he has yet struck, and now 
 the fruits begin to appear, though long delayed, yet 
 with patience he has waited also for the early and the 
 later rain, and has not been disappointed. God uses 
 
 His own word and not and etc., who 
 
 have so much of themselves to exhibit that Christ can 
 scarcely get into their farm yards, as he did into the 
 stable at Bethlehem. 
 
 Much love to you and yours, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 May 8th, 1877. 
 
 Dear Moody: What did you do at the Trustees' 
 meeting? I am a little anxious to know what posi- 
 tion Dodge and Stuart took as to your way of dis- 
 bursing the funds. I thought Dodge's letters indi- 
 cated that the trustees should do the disbursing. 
 
 Harvey is anxious to stop interest, and has got most 
 of the subscribers'who were to have two years to pay in 
 to pay up, if he can pay the mortgages. He says you 
 agreed to pay the interest on the loans last year in addi- 
 tion to the $20,000. If you do this, they can pay up very 
 soon, and I am sure you will shout as well as some 
 others, when this mother of Evangelists is out of debt. 
 The work now being done by Dean and Morton more
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 1 73 
 
 than pays for all the Hall has cost. They are full to 
 overflowing. 
 
 The improvements in the Hall, taking away parti- 
 tion under the gallery, and whitewashing sides, make 
 a new room of it. I wish you could come out by and 
 by and stay a few weeks, and have a Jubilee with us 
 in the Tabernacle when the debt is all paid. Won't 
 you come and sing a solo on that occasion? 
 
 Perhaps Harvey wrote you that I am to sing a solo 
 at the Stebbins concert, to begin one hour before the 
 doors are opened, so that the tones would die out 
 about the time the people came in. 
 
 At such a Jubilee I think I could sing in the highest 
 key, with or without an audience. Harvey asked me 
 to write you on this subject, as he did not wish to bore 
 you any more, but he wished awfully to see the debt 
 paid. I thank the Lord for Harvey, every time I 
 think of him, for I am sure he was put in his position 
 by no less an agency than Him who saw the needs of 
 the hour and had him ready to fill the gap. Union 
 work and Lay Preaching have taken root too deeply 
 now to be rooted out by sectarian swine, however long 
 their snouts. "Wise as doves and harmless as 
 serpents," they cannot do better than drown them- 
 selves, as they did in olden times, for the benefit of the 
 living Christianity that is known by its fruits. One 
 of our ministers refused to have his congregation pay 
 anything towards the expenses, because they were 
 not represented on the devotional committee. He 
 wanted to be chairman. We don't want their money 
 any more than they need the Spirit of the Master. 
 You can guess who it is, poor man. 
 Love to you and yours, JOHN V. FARWELL.
 
 1 74 Early Recollections o] Moody 
 
 June nth, 1877. 
 
 Dear Moody: How good the Lord is to his halting 
 disciples in teaching them the lesson of trust. The 
 day before the New Hamburg disaster I opened to 
 the Qist Psalm, in family devotion with friends in 
 Hartford, and it was very sweet to us then; but two 
 hours after, when twenty-four of my fellow travelers 
 went down to death in a moment, leaving me and my 
 wife within six feet of the gulf of death, unharmed, I 
 knew that the Master was teaching a child to walk. The 
 same evening that I left for Louisville, Harvey and I 
 and one more were invited to Blatchford's to tea, 
 after which at family devotions he read the gist Psalm. 
 I could not restrain the tears as he read the inspiring 
 truth how necessary for a poor wayfaring man to get 
 into God's chariot of trust. Friday night at 9 p. m., 
 in the midst of our session, a telegram was received, 
 "Come home, Frank is very ill. Mrs. J. V. Farwell." 
 The doctor had said to C. B. that if I saw him alive 
 I must be telegraphed for. I did not know that the 
 danger was so imminent. In bidding good bye to the 
 Convention, I read the above message to the meeting, 
 and asked them all to pray for my boy. A southern 
 brother led in a most touching prayer, and on my ar- 
 rival home he was out of danger. Praise the Lord! 
 Afterwards some 200 parents, who had unconverted 
 children, rose for prayers for themselves and their 
 children. I saw why that Psalm was read then, I 
 knew that my boy was on the borders of the grave. 
 That very hour almost, he began to mend, and when 
 I got home on Saturday night, he was sleeping sweetly 
 and slept all night, and on Monday sat up all day. 
 It is distressing to me, that the Lord is obliged to give
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 175 
 
 me such tokens of love, either in the valley or on the 
 mountain. Thank him for me and pray for my poor 
 soul, that I may take in all His lessons. 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 June nth, 1877. 
 W. E. DODGE, JR., ESQ., 
 
 Dear Brother: I have yours with check for $300, 
 and enclose receipt from the treasurer of our Taber- 
 nacle Committee who paid the bills for which this was 
 appropriated. 
 
 We had a successful convention at Louisville. An 
 eminent minister who was in attendance, said "he 
 could wish heartily that the General Assembly could 
 show such a spirit as actuated our body." 
 
 The only thing that pained me, was the opposition 
 of the secretaries to the evangelistic element in our 
 work. I happen to know that in our states of Illinois, 
 Iowa and Indiana, that but for this element our As- 
 sociations would not have a status worth preserving, 
 and that with it they have come to the front so rapidly 
 that the General Assembly endorsed them heartily, 
 and I know very many ministers who were our ene- 
 mies, but since Morton's union meetings under their 
 observation, have become firm friends. I thank God 
 for the National Executive Committee, and for 
 Weidensall. We need more such men, but none of 
 the wise men, whose knowledge on the subject ex- 
 tends no further than loyalty to an idea. 
 
 I am convinced that Young Men's Christian As- 
 sociations are to occupy a very responsible position 
 in crystallizing union work, as well as energizing it, 
 and that this is the bright and morning star in that
 
 1 76 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 direction, and hence I am deeply anxious that the 
 National Committee shall take the right ground in 
 reference to this work which has been thrown upon 
 us at the West by the great head of the church, and 
 by western members of our Committee, and yet 
 strange to say the eastern members of that Committee 
 took strong ground against Associations having any- 
 thing to do with it as such. This is confidential and 
 for no other eyes as coming from me. This is my 
 point use your influence with Brainerd, who I think 
 is the brains of the committee, so far as settling and 
 putting it in action is concerned, and try and have 
 him so act as not to embarrass the Lord in establish- 
 ing Union Gospel meetings under our auspices among 
 the churches and the associations. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 June i4th, 1877. 
 CEPHAS BRAINERD, ESQ., 
 
 Chairman National Executive Committee. 
 Dear Brother: I want to thank you personally for 
 the work your Committee has done through Weidensall 
 at the west. It has grown upon me wonderfully the 
 past year. In putting our State Secretary into the 
 field, it was insisted by some of the delegates that 
 they would not vote to put him into the field unless 
 union evangelistic meetings were made the main 
 plank in the platform, on the ground that such union 
 work was absolutely necessary to develop the real 
 need of Young Men's Christian Associations and show 
 their practical importance in aiding church work. 
 The results in Illinois and Iowa have proved the
 
 Early Recollections oj Moody 1 77 
 
 wisdom of such a plank, and have secured for the As- 
 sociation the warm support of many pastors who be- 
 fore such work was done, were wholly opposed to our 
 organization. Thousands of conversions, churches 
 revived, and many new and vigorous associations, 
 speak with more eloquence than the finest theories 
 which stand for nothing until they have been worked 
 out. I trust therefore that your Committee in the em- 
 ployment of agents will take Weidensall for a model, 
 and send no one out into the field whose soul is not 
 burdened for the conversion of young men, and who 
 are workmen that need not be ashamed in the most 
 promising of all fields of Christian effort. A success- 
 ful meeting of that kind is the best possible starting 
 point for organizing new associations, as well as in 
 galvanizing into life and usefulness, those which have 
 grown cold and of course can serve no good purpose 
 for young men until the real warmth of Christian 
 fellowship in active work takes the place of dead 
 formalism. Our associations have a great future 
 before them, if this wonderful element of power in 
 unifying the churches is utilized under your com- 
 mittee, in the light of what has been done under my 
 own observation in Illinois and Iowa, through the 
 wise generalship of Brother Weidensall. The weak 
 things confound the mighty, because they are led by 
 the Captain of the Lord's hosts. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 At a recent Bible conference at Winona of 
 ministers, evangelists and laymen, a resolution 
 was passed, unanimously, asking Young Men's
 
 178 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 Christian Association secretaries to assist in or- 
 ganizing union revival meetings same as in Mr. 
 Moody's early connection with the Association, 
 and evangelists Wharton and Munhall have had 
 marked success since then on those lines in 
 Missouri and Texas. After the holidays the 
 Rockford Y. M. C. A. intends to organize such 
 an effort. These facts emphasize the great mis- 
 takes of the National Committee in 1877, in ig- 
 noring what had been so signally blessed in 
 England and America under Mr. Moody's leader- 
 ship. 
 
 June i2th, 1877. 
 
 Dear Moody: I had not time to write you about 
 the convention yesterday. The National Committee 
 have set to work one of the best city agencies in the 
 west through Weidensall, and in the Secretary's Com- 
 mittee opposed evangelistic effort by Associations, 
 with all their might a strange anomaly, and Hall 
 and Cree supported them. 
 
 Both of them seem to have lost their power, and 
 this accounts for it. They have been constructing 
 locomotives, and kept them in the roundhouse instead 
 of starting them out to their legitimate work. 
 
 Can't you use your influence with Brainard (he 
 controls) to have this Committee made right on this 
 point? The work of Dean and Morton is simply 
 grand, and is the child of this Committee, and if it is 
 not a New York child they cannot afford longer to 
 ignore it. They were beaten so badly in every way,
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 179 
 
 that they may be under conviction now, but to convert 
 them is to hide a multitude of sins. 
 
 I have not attended a Convention since the one at 
 Detroit, and you know that the work of that Com- 
 mittee has grown up since then, and now it needs in 
 that Committee, such wisdom as will profit by the 
 last years' experience for the purpose of organizing 
 every state with the same machinery we have under 
 Morton. They have a few grand men at the South 
 for this work, and I am sure the Lord will send them 
 as soon as the way is open for them. 
 
 I look upon you as the Bishop of the union mission 
 work, and believe that a word from you will go a great 
 way with Brainard. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 J. V. FARWELL. 
 
 June 1 4th, 1877. 
 REV. GEO. E. THRALL, 
 
 Dear Brother: I have read your "Need of Union," 
 and shown it to others. It is a very compact and 
 scriptural argument to sustain its title. It ought to 
 have a large circulation, though I am very sorry to 
 say that the encouragements to buying it, are about 
 the same as one has to buy his own coffin, among 
 those who are most in need of its teachings. 
 
 The secrets of power are not alone confined to the 
 state, and our Kingdom, you know, has only place 
 for one King, and the sects assume too much of the 
 spirit of this world, to wait for the crowning time, at 
 the hands of the great King, when we shall all be 
 kings and priests, etc., and so put on their own self- 
 made crowns, and thus apparently divide the Lord's
 
 180 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 Kingdom into feuds, almost as bad as old England 
 ever saw, until the one crown and castle dismantled 
 all others. Yours very truly, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 June 22nd, 1877. 
 
 Dear Moody: I send you a call for you from 
 Macedonia, characteristic of Kentucky, and you had 
 better have your wife answer it. It may help to keep 
 the southern door wide open. Dean writes me that 
 you must come to Clear Lake, Iowa, August 25th to 
 2 Qth Convention of Christian workers from the 
 Northwest, with one day for Y. M. C. A. Work. It 
 will be a very pleasant retreat for a week, and if you 
 can come here September first, you can probably do 
 it. I am going West and expect to be there on my 
 return. I cannot go to the dedication of the Bliss 
 monument on the pth, as requested by Whittle. I 
 would be glad to do so, but it is a long hot journey and 
 there will not be any real need of my being there. I 
 bear my memorial in my heart, and expect to as 
 "long as I live, and then to join the chorus of the 
 new song with him in heaven." 
 
 All but $10,000 of the mortgage is paid, and good 
 subscriptions to meet that and a little to spare. I 
 suppose you will come and use the Tabernacle thirty 
 days this fall. Love to all. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 June 28th, 1877. 
 
 Dear Brother Whittle: I find it impossible for me 
 to be at the dedication of the Bliss monument. I
 
 Early Recollections oj Moody 181 
 
 find, however, that he had quietly built for himself 
 a monument in my memory of the sweet influences 
 of gospel song that will be found in a fairer clime than 
 this, long after that marble shaft at Rome shall have 
 been mouldered away by the tooth of time, just the 
 prelude to the "new song" that we shall sing to- 
 gether when all earthly songs of hope shall be changed 
 to fruition. May the hallowed influences of his life 
 be felt in the occasion of your gathering to dedicate 
 the marble shaft to his memory, by multitudes, as I 
 have felt them. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 February 2oth, 1878. 
 
 Dear Moody: My impression is that two or three 
 weeks in April in the Tabernacle, would be time as 
 well put in as any work you ever did. These hard 
 times are a John the Baptist to prepare the way for 
 the gospel in thousands of hearts, and then there are 
 a great many converts from your work that are still 
 outside the church who need to be housed. I have 
 knowledge of two cases, one joined your church a few 
 weeks ago and the other will do so in March. He is a 
 young man who has been holding gospel temperance 
 meetings for nearly a year with great success Martin 
 Luther-Hallenbeck is his name, a very tall young man 
 from Brooklyn and a drunkard when he was con- 
 verted. He had been writing me at different times ever 
 since he left here, to come soon and help him, but 
 I never could go until two weeks ago last Sunday, at 
 South Bend, where Rev. N. D. Williamson is located. 
 He had led in union meetings with four churches for
 
 1 82 Early Recollections o) Moody 
 
 three weeks with crowded houses all the time, and 
 with some very marked cases of conversion. 
 
 This seed of the Word is returning you the hundred 
 fold. A noted gambler and a very able man, was 
 converted under his preaching and was holding meet- 
 ings in Toledo, when I was at South Bend. So it 
 goes, the "Publicans and Harlots" are finding their 
 way to the feast, while the " Scribes and Pharisees" 
 are making excuses and feeding on dead men's bones. 
 They even take up the trailing standard of the Cross 
 and bear it aloft to victory with ministers to follow 
 their lead as standard bearers. Marvelous in our 
 eyes are the wonderful works of God in such scenes as 
 these, in these last days. 
 
 The South Bend meetings are the first I have at- 
 tended since I was sick. I stayed with Studebaker, 
 the great wagon man of the West, the only one of a 
 large family not a Christian, who promised to study 
 the Word and decide for himself this great ques- 
 tion. 
 
 Pray for him. He has a thousand men in his employ, 
 has agents from Texas to Minnesota and from Indiana 
 to California. 
 
 Love to Mrs. Moody and the children. Write me 
 if you will come, and I will not let the Tabernacle 
 for anything until you get through. 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 March 6th, 1878. 
 
 Dear Moody: I hear a good many loud wishes for 
 you to come here for two or six weeks as you can ar- 
 range it, for last of April or first of May, and yet your
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 183 
 
 ominous silence, don't seem to inspire vigorous hopes 
 in that direction. 
 
 Your going back to Boston, seems to indicate a 
 sort of glimmer of light in that direction, and so I 
 write again, like the importunate widow, for a few 
 crumbs of comfort, if you cannot send a full loaf, as 
 large as the darky preacher's loaf, who expounded the 
 miracle of feeding the multitude on the mountain side, 
 by telling his hearers that the mountain was made of 
 bread, though I am quite sure you would be glad to 
 bring your five loaves and a few little fishes, magnified 
 under the Master's hand, to our still famishing multi- 
 tudes. The fact is, you are made of bread, such as our 
 people like to be filled with, as well as Boston folks, 
 and if you can go again to them, why not to your first 
 love, though I am aware that we don't deserve it. 
 You know the Master went to the publicans and 
 sinners, and if we are any worse, so much the more 
 reason for your coming. 
 
 The Association needs another wing in the manage- 
 ment and another oar to move well, in the line of 
 spiritual work. I am afraid they will get tired raising 
 money and paying bills, unless they are repaid in 
 riches that perish not. Harvey is growing in the 
 knowledge of Jesus Christ by word and work, but I 
 don't know much about the rest. A short campaign 
 here is very much needed I know, and if you will bring 
 your family out for May before you go to Northfield 
 I am sure it will do them good while you can build us 
 all up in the faith in the meantime. Do come ! Ask 
 the Master to let you help us poor sinners once more. 
 Yours with love of Jesus, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL.
 
 184 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 April nth, 1878. 
 
 Dear Moody: Lattimore is not well and his family 
 are not, besides he has the care of all the gospel 
 temperance meetings in this city, and it is hard to 
 leave them. There were eight conversions in the last 
 meeting in lower hall. Murray says he is of too 
 much importance here to be moved. As to coming 
 to New York in May, I will try, and be there, if 
 necessary, but it don't seem to me to be necessary for 
 me to come, when you have two of the three of your 
 committee present to endorse all you want done. 
 
 I am rejoiced to know that the School of the Phi- 
 losophers as well as the Prophets receives your testi- 
 mony. Yale is a proud column to intellectual pride, 
 but all such must come down before that pyramid of 
 truth of which Christ is the chief corner-stone, the 
 beginning and the end of all wisdom. I hope my boy 
 John will comprehend his need of the Holy Spirit for 
 service, and be warmed up to do all he can, beginning 
 in the strength of his manhood to consecrate his 
 powers to the Master. When ten years old, he said 
 he wanted to be a minister. Whether he can do more 
 in the pulpit or in the pew is the question for the 
 Spirit to impress upon his mind. If it comes in your 
 way to give him a word of counsel I shall be greatly 
 obliged. 
 
 I wish you could come and stay with me at Lake 
 Forest for a month with your family. I would do my 
 best to hide you from all intruders. 
 
 I want to see you ever so much, and I don't know 
 but I need your prayers and counsel more than 
 ever. 
 
 Mrs. Farwell enjoyed her visit ever so much says
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 185 
 
 she has much to tell me about your work when she 
 comes home. Yours for the truth, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 P. S. Kind regards to Sankey and both families. 
 
 Mr. Lattimore referred to in the foregoing 
 letter was the lawyer converted in the Tabernacle, 
 from the drunkard's experiences, to be a messen- 
 ger of the King to his companions in drunkenness. 
 
 June isth, 1878. 
 R. R. MCBURNEY, ESQ., 
 
 Dear Sir: I was glad to see your resolutions in aid 
 of the churches to rightly understand the genius of 
 Young Men's Christian Associations, but was grieved 
 that there should be any necessity for such declara- 
 tions of our platform in the face of the history that 
 should make all the churches proud of this strong 
 arm in her service. As some theological graduates 
 are not very good ministers, so some church members 
 are not very good representatives of union work, and 
 when these two elements meet we must expect that 
 the church will be disgraced from both sides, as may 
 have been the case when these questions arose, which 
 gave birth to your resolutions. I have done very 
 little since our Convention at Louisville, but have 
 kept my eye on some of the workers, and hope to join 
 in the battle more actively in the year to come, now 
 that my health is returned. God bless the New York 
 brethren who have done so nobly in keeping the Na- 
 tional banner out of the dust. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL.
 
 1 86 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 BALTIMORE, January 3rd, 1879. 
 
 My dear Mr. Farwell: Can you not come East 
 this spring sometime? I want to get the Hymn Book 
 Committee all together this spring. I have some im- 
 portant things to talk to the Trustees about and would 
 like much to see you all together. You speak about 
 the No. 3 hymn book. I think one of the mistakes 
 of the churches is in not introducing new hymns. You 
 do not know how we have stirred this city with new 
 songs. They add new life. 
 
 I have had the largest church in this city full of men 
 at 4 o'clock every day for three weeks, and I think 
 it the best work I have seen for years. 
 
 I do like to preach to men and the work here is 
 good and encouraging. 
 
 Keep me posted about the Lord's work in Chicago. 
 
 Your brother, 
 D. L. MOODY. 
 
 After Mr. Moody's death, Major Cole wrote 
 me, to which I replied as follows: 
 
 CHICAGO, January i2th, 1900. 
 
 My dear Major Cole: I have your touching letter 
 as to Mr. Moody's departure, and as to how memory 
 took you back to mission days in the Y. M. C. A. and 
 in the country towns, and then on the ocean on our 
 journey to meet Mr. Moody in London. 
 
 I happened to be reading over some letters written 
 about that time to Mr. Moody, yesterday, and in one 
 dated February 25, 1875, * wrote him as follows: 
 
 1 'I realize that you are surrounded with so great a 
 crowd of witnesses, astonished alike with your rapid
 
 Early Recollections oj Moody 187 
 
 pace as well as their flagging gait, in contending for 
 the mastery of the world, and the God of it, that I 
 think you should just send off Moody's epistle to John, 
 as often as possible, with the hope that with true riches 
 of grace in Christ he might at least walk humbly, if 
 he does not run well and grandly like some of your 
 spiritual children, and this brings me to one of them 
 of whom you will be glad to hear, and so I will drop 
 'John' and take up 'James.' H. Cole real an- 
 thracite coal, thoroughly on fire red hot." 
 
 Then I went on and mentioned your work at 
 Baraboo, Moline and Rock Island, where about six 
 hundred were converted, and then concluded "James" 
 as follows: 
 
 "I mentioned these things to show how you were 
 led in placing Major Cole under your mantle when 
 you left for Europe. He is a star of the first magni- 
 tude in faith and purpose, and if I mistake not, he will 
 yet be as a teacher of the Word. He is quick and to 
 the point and practical to make use of it, and illus- 
 trates well." 
 
 I would not give you this commentary on "James" 
 if I had the least idea that it would make you spiritually 
 proud. I only give you this quotation, as the facts 
 were photographed upon my mind especially at 
 Baraboo, as one of your co-laborers. What we saw 
 afterwards in London, in your theater work, prepara- 
 tory to Mr. Moody's Tabernacle meetings, at which 
 Mr. Moody's chairman was always present, continues 
 to be a most precious memory to me. It was about 
 that time I think that you made that wonderful ex- 
 clamation, "Oh, for a hundred thousand souls for 
 my Master," and I am quite sure that many more
 
 1 88 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 than that number are even now gathered in your army 
 of recruits, since Moody's mantle fell on you for work 
 in this country, when he went to England. It does 
 seem as though Moody walked up and down this 
 earth, as an inspiration for scores like yourself, and 
 to thousands like your humble servant, willing and 
 glad to be hewers of wood and drawers of water as 
 one of his co-laborers with the Master. 
 
 You will now remember, as our Major General 
 (humanly speaking) among men has passed over, 
 there are great responsibilities resting upon us, and 
 especially upon you, as an evangelist that followed 
 him in England and here, incessantly, up to the present 
 time. 
 
 May the great Master of the Vineyard give you 
 wisdom in your decisions, so that as you say, "the 
 supreme luxury of wearing your body out in the king- 
 dom of our Lord," may be your blessed experience. 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 JOHN V. FARWELL. 
 
 Major Cole for about three years followed Mr. 
 Moody's work in England and there were ten 
 thousand to hear him at his last meeting in 
 Liverpool, and about one thousand remained for 
 a second meeting. From that day to this he has 
 given himself to this work in the United States.
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 A consensus of the opinion of men who knew 
 him best, as to Mr. Moody's character and re- 
 sults of his Christian work on present and future 
 generations, cannot fail to award to him the first 
 place, when history, past, present and future, 
 shall have completed the testimony. 
 
 In the light of his early environment and ad- 
 vantages, such a nick in religious history reminds 
 us of Abraham Lincoln's in political history, in its 
 results, in making the United States in less than 
 half a century the coming arbiter of the world's 
 destiny. Trust in, and efforts for, the common 
 people in their special lines of work, constituted 
 the basis of their wonderful influence and power 
 over all men. Scores of other men with superior 
 advantages and positions in the body politic, with 
 a like devotion to the same interests, might have 
 left these two men with their serious handicap 
 far behind, unless perchance it is foreordained 
 that men from the common people, by their as- 
 sociation with the great majority, must always 
 take first places in the history of the race, when 
 they rise above their environment, and by sheer 
 force of honest character devoted to the public 
 good take their places as makers of history. 
 These two men were pre-eminently in this list; 
 189
 
 190 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 and men like myself and others, who knew them 
 both, ought to be much better Christian citizens 
 than we are, because of our contact with them. 
 
 Yesterday I saw a pupil of the Northfield 
 schools, who at the funeral saw the bright light 
 of the sun rest only on Mr. Moody's kindly face, 
 his work well done through an aperture in 
 the window shutter made by a timely gust of 
 wind. This incident may well remind us how a 
 muddy, stagnant pool of water is transformed 
 by the sunlight and heat, making it in due time a 
 flower garden, and at the same time, by its magic 
 chemistry in art, give us God's rainbow of promise, 
 through the gentle rain, sent to make the flower 
 garden and the plowed fields bring forth flowers 
 and bread for the wants of man. 
 
 It is only when such physical influences come 
 to fruitage, that dull man sees God's mighty hand 
 making the base things of this world into rain- 
 bows, flowers and bread, for his various wants. 
 
 And so it is, when God transforms a human 
 body, soul and spirit, from its earthly lusts and 
 passions, into the image of Jesus Christ in beauty 
 and power, to do good and not evil to men, that 
 they begin to see that here and now, miracles 
 greater than raising Lazarus call us to faith in, 
 and service for, the Christ of God who is the light 
 and heat in the spiritual, as the sun in the heavens 
 is of the natural, world. 
 
 Thus it is that being dead physically such
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 191 
 
 men then only begin their real life in their blessed 
 example in making this world a fit residence for 
 men, created in the image of God, to live in. 
 
 From Caesar's time to the present, what a 
 wonderful change history records! The last 
 century of that time has seen more physical, mental 
 and spiritual progress towards making the brother- 
 hood of man a reality, than all the long ages that 
 preceded it. To Christ, and to such men as He 
 has thus transformed for such service on earth, 
 belong all the glory of this change. 
 
 If this be so, which cannot be denied, then we 
 do well to make the time of the departure of such 
 men from the battle which Christ began in the 
 wilderness with the destroyer of Eden's bliss, 
 with monumental memorials for future genera- 
 tions to look upon, and be induced thereby to con- 
 tinue their work, until "the new heavens and 
 the new earth" shall proclaim the rainbow of the 
 promise of God fulfilled, and the curse of dis- 
 obedience no more visible, in the complete victory 
 which men have made possible, as the soldiers of 
 the Cross against the host of Satan.
 
 MEMORIAL ADDRESS 
 
 (Address of J. V. Farwell, December soth, 1899, at the 
 Y. M. C. A. Moody Memorial, in Chicago.) 
 
 Any man mighty in the Scriptures is a mighty 
 man. Moody was essentially one of them. Dur- 
 ing his great mission in London, he was accus- 
 tomed to invite to some friend's drawing room, ten 
 or a dozen eminent ministers, and ask them ques- 
 tions to enlarge his own knowledge of the Word 
 of God. I heard him say at one such gathering, 
 "I have never been through a college or a theo- 
 logical seminary, and I have invited you here to 
 get all the valuable teaching I can out of you to 
 use in my work." This was Mr. Moody's Bible 
 Institute for his own instruction. How well he 
 and they profited by it his work testifies. 
 
 I am now going to read such passages of 
 Scripture as I think would meet Mr. Moody's 
 approval. 
 
 The first passage is from Luke 4: 14-22, im- 
 mediately after the Savior's use of the Scriptures 
 to foil Satan's temptations, as the immediate pre- 
 lude to his own personal ministry, which began 
 as follows : 
 
 "And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit 
 into Galilee, and there went out a fame of him 
 through all the region round about. 
 
 "And he taught in their synagogues, being glori- 
 fied of all. 
 
 192
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 193 
 
 "And he came to Nazareth, where he had been 
 brought up, and as his custom was, he went into 
 the synagogue on the sabbath day and stood up 
 for to read. 
 
 "And there was delivered unto him the book of 
 the prophet Esaias, 
 
 "And when he had opened the book he found 
 the place where it was written, 
 
 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he 
 has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor, 
 He hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to 
 preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering 
 of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are 
 bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 
 
 "And he began to say unto them, This day is this 
 scripture fulfilled in your ears, and all bear him 
 witness, and wondered at the gracious word that 
 proceeded out of his mouth. 
 
 "And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?" 
 
 Mr. Moody began his work in York, England, 
 with "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, be- 
 cause he hath anointed me to preach the gospel 
 to the poor." 
 
 This Scripture was read by our Master to his 
 own people, who then led him to the brow of the 
 hill to cast him down headlong. 
 
 The next passage I read is from John 5 139. 
 
 "Search the scriptures, for in them ye think 
 ye have eternal life, and they are they which 
 testify of me."
 
 194 Early Recollections oj Moody 
 
 This Scripture was spoken to the Pharisees 
 who afterwards went about to kill Him. 
 
 After His resurrection, He appeared to two of 
 His disciples who also could not understand, and, 
 therefore, could not believe His words and, there- 
 fore, in Luke 24, we read, verse 32, after they 
 knew Him : 
 
 "And they said one to another, Did not our 
 heart burn within us, while he talked with us by 
 the way, and while he opened to us the scrip- 
 tures?" 
 
 They then hurried back to Jerusalem to meet 
 all the disciples and in verses 44 and 49 we read : 
 
 "And he said unto them, These are the words 
 which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, 
 that all things must be fulfilled which were writ- 
 ten in the laws of Moses, in the prophets and in 
 the psalms concerning me. 
 
 "Then opened he their understandings, that 
 they might understand the scriptures, and said 
 unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it be- 
 hooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead 
 the third day. 
 
 "And that repentance and remission of sins 
 should be preached in his name among all na- 
 tions, beginning at Jerusalem. 
 
 "And ye are witnesses of these things. 
 
 "And, behold, I send the promise of my Father 
 upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, 
 until ye be endued with power from on high."
 
 Early Recollections of Moody 195 
 
 This they did, until the fulfillment of the promise 
 on the day of Pentecost, and then Peter preached 
 his first sermon to the Jews in quotations from 
 the Scriptures concerning Jesus Christ, and the 
 record reads from verses 37 to 39, of the Acts of 
 the Apostles : 
 
 "Now when they heard this, they were pricked 
 in their hearts, and said unto Peter and to the rest 
 of the apostles, Men and brethren what shall we 
 do? 
 
 "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be 
 baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus 
 Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall re- 
 ceive the gift of the Holy Ghost, for the promise 
 is to you and to your children and to all that are 
 afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall 
 call." 
 
 This is the ministry that Mr. Moody rep- 
 resented, filled with the essence and spirit of the 
 Scriptures, as to Jesus Christ, and his work on 
 earth. 
 
 St. John in Patmos was given the great honor 
 of receiving from the Angel sent by Jesus him- 
 self, the conclusion of the Scriptures, and from 
 Rev. 19 : 9, 10, we read what the Angel said to him : 
 
 "And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are 
 they which are called unto the marriage supper 
 of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the 
 true sayings of God. 
 
 "And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he
 
 196 Early Recollections of Moody 
 
 said unto me, See thou do it not, I am thy fellow- 
 servant, and of thy brethren that have the testi- 
 mony of Jesus; worship God; for the testimony 
 of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." 
 
 Here we find the true spirit of preaching de- 
 clared to be the testimony of Jesus, and it has 
 been fully exemplified as such, by Peter and Paul 
 at the beginning of the Christian Dispensation, 
 and in our day by Mr. D. L. Moody and others. 
 
 Now, let me add in conclusion : If the Young 
 Men's Christian Association stands for any one 
 thing more than another, it is for a faithful study 
 of the Scriptures, and then a faithful exemplifying 
 of its teaching. May it still give us many more 
 men like Mr. Moody, mighty in the Scriptures, 
 turning the world upside down, that it may be 
 right side up. 
 
 It was a sad duty for me to stand on that plat- 
 form, practically the creation of Mr. Moody's 
 faith in God, and realize that the man, who under 
 God was more to me than any other man that ever 
 crossed my path, had gone out of the world forever, 
 while so many, seemingly useless in comparison, 
 were left behind. The only real refuge in such 
 catastrophies is Men die, but God lives to per- 
 petuate and complete the work of redemption for 
 all men, through other men, who like Moody, can 
 and will, consecrate their all to His service in that 
 work.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF DWIGHT L. MOODY