The announcement of the death of Mr. Moody was a shock to many thousands. Numerous telegrams of condolence which were sent to the bereaved family from all the quarters of the world expressed but faintly the sense of loss which affected not only those who had known him personally, but also a great following of those who had known him only through his work. Hundreds of memorial services were held. The great meeting in New York, on Monday afternoon, January 8, 1900, brought out so much of interest in regard to Mr. Moody and in regard to the sentiment entertained toward him on all sides that I believe an account of the services worthy of permanent record in this place. 

THE GREAT MEETING IN NEW YORK 

At the hour appointed for the opening of the services, Mr. Win. E. Dodge, the presiding officer, announced a favorite hymn of Mr. Moody’s, “In the Cross of Christ I Glory.” After the singing, the Rev. Dr. A. T. Pierson read a number of selections from the Bible, being those verses of which Mr. Moody was especially fond. The Rev. John Balcolm Shaw then led in prayer. 

Dr. David H. Greer then spoke. He said:

“In the history of the Church of Christ very few have touched so many hearts and influenced so many lives as the dear friend we come to remember and to thank God for to-day. 

“I am sure it is no exaggeration so say the if all those whom he has led to a better life were to be gathered together, a half-dozen halls of this size would not hold them. In the tender services held at Northfield last week, Mr. Moody’s pastor said, that they were not gathered to mourn a defeat but to rejoice in a victory. So to-day there is not the note of sadness in our gathering nor a funeral gloom. We are gathered together this afternoon only to thank God with all our hearts for so fruitful and successful a life, and to pray that that influence which he exercised while here among us, shall continue. He is not dead, he has gone to the better life above, and he lives ‘with us to-day and will live on, by his example and by the inspiration that came from his words and his life.

HIS CONVERSION LIKE THAT OF ST PAUL

“When Mr. Moody became a Christian man it was like the conversion of St. Paul, – clear, decisive, and full. When the blessed message came to him, that God had offered pardon and peace and life here and eternal, he accepted it in all its fullness, and he wondered with great astonishment that anyone could turn away from such a message and such an offer, and he longed to bring men to accept it and believe in it. From the very beginning his theology was very simple. His creed was: ‘God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall have eternal life.’ And this message he repeated with all his courage and manliness and strength through all his life, and so earnestly that it told wherever he carried it. 

“Mr. Moody’s early work was a very simple one. He had very few opportunities of education. At that time he had no gift of utterance, but he found fellowship and help in the Young Men’s Christian Association, and he commenced his work among a few poor children in Chicago when he was a mere clerk there. I remember nearly forty years ago going with him one Sunday morning to that poor little school across the river, and I caught sight then of the peculiar character of the man, his directness, manliness, and hence his great influence upon those children and upon their parents. 

“There were two early influences that directed his life more than any others. One was the companionship and help that came to him from the brotherhood of the Young Men’s Christian Association. All his life he acknowledged that as having formed part of his character, and all his life he was a warm friend of the Associations and aided them in every way. But the stronger and greater influence was his beginning to study the English Bible. He had the idea that a great many other good men have that, if God wanted him to do work and speak for Him, God would put words in his mouth. In his earliest efforts his talks were repetitions of each other, and without much effect. A kind, earnest Christian man who influenced him very much talked with him and urged him that, if he wanted to do God’s work, he must fit himself in the best way for such service and prepare himself to do his Master’s work. He urged him, therefore, as the best means for so fitting himself, to study the Bible. Mr. Moody paid heed to the advice; he shut himself up for a long time and devoted himself to a thorough and intense study of the Bible. From this study he acquired two qualities, which in later years added much to his power: first that clear-cut, plain, simple, Anglo-Saxon of the King James version, which gave him such immense power over people everywhere; second, he acquired from his study of the Bible an arsenal of promise and warning, which he used through all his life with magnificent power and effect. There was something wonderful about his simple directness. To you, my friends, who are here this afternoon, I could give you, by the hour, instances of the keen way he went to a point. I remember when I first met him in Chicago he went to call on one occasion on a leading merchant and most influential man in that city, and when he went out he turned to him and said: ‘If you were only a Christian man, what a grand influence you would have in this great city!’ That man has been a communicant of the Church for years, and he was Moody’s best friend for many years afterward. There was a manliness about Moody, a hatred of cant and mere religious form. He had the most intense and superb enthusiasm of any man I ever knew, tempered by strong human common sense. He had a wonderful intuitive knowledge of men. 

“We all know very much of his wonderful successes as a preacher, but those who knew him best and were closest to him know that the great power of his life was in personal conversation with men. The greatest sermon I ever heard from Mr. Moody was one night when we were coming along Madison Avenue at half-past twelve o’clock, going home from one of those great meetings in Madison Square. We had been kept there by those who insisted upon getting advice from Mr. Moody, and, as we were moving along, a gentleman came up from behind and said, ‘Mr. Moody, how shall I accept Christ and change my life?’ He turned in the moonlight, and standing there on the corner he said a few sharply-cut, kindly words, and he put the truth so earnestly to that man that there was no getting away from it, and the man’s heart was changed from that clay. 

I was privileged to be with him at those great meetings at the Haymarket, London, and what struck me and surprised me most was the number of educated and cultivated people who came there – the large number of literary people who came there to hear Mr. Moody. The great majority of them did not believe in religion, and they came to hear and enjoy his clean-cut English phraseology. His work at Cambridge and Oxford and in the universities was simply wonderful. When he went to Oxford and Cambridge they determined to run him out of the town; they did not want that kind of a man there, and before they knew him and had heard him they were utterly opposed to his methods. But his courage and his straightforwardness conquered them, and the number of young men, not only in those universities but over all the world, whose lives have been influenced for the better by Mr. Moody’s work we will never know until we get into another and better world. His schools at Northfleld are models of organization and thoughtfulness. I trust that they will be carried on as a memorial to him. 

“What touched me more than anything else in Mr. Moody’s character was his extreme modesty about himself. He was the most masterful man I ever knew; when it came to the guidance and instruction of others, he was like a general, managing his army; but when it came to himself he was a most modest man. I was privileged to be in the house with him during all the time of those great meetings at Madison Square. I never heard him appreciate himself once; you would never have known he had anything to do with those meetings; time after time he said to his friends: ‘My only wonder is that God can use so feeble an instrument as I, to do his work.’ His views became broader as he grew older, and his prejudices, of which he had many in his early life, were thrown off. I have heard him say, ‘I am ashamed of myself; you know I have always talked about the extravagance and worldliness of the women in New York; it has been the theme of many of my talks in many places, but I have been here now several days; I have been on the East Side and on the West Side; I have been where the schools are which these women are conducting, and I want to say that I have never known so much self-sacrifice and devotion as is shown by these women, and I am ashamed of what I have said.’ I have heard him say, You know that I have had great prejudice against the Roman Catholic Church, but I am ashamed of it; I have had some opportunity of noting lately that among the churches where Christ is preached there is none where He is preached so simply and where His cross is held up as it is in the Catholic churches.’ I mention these incidents simply to show how he had thrown off his earlier prejudices.”

The next speaker was to have been the Hon. John Wanamaker, but illness prevented his attendance, and at his request Mr. Sankey was asked to take his place. After leading the hymn, “Saved by Grace,” Mr. Sankey gave the audience an account of the funeral services at Northfield and the incidents attending that ceremony. 

MR. JOHN R. MOTT’S ADDRESS 

Mr. John R. Mott, the next speaker, one of the leading Christian Association workers in the world said

“Among some people the impression exists that Mr. Moody did not exert a great and marked influence upon thinking young men and women. This is a great mistake; there is no class over which Mr. Moody exerted a greater and more helpful or more continuous influence than over the students of this and other countries. He was one of the main factors of that great spiritual awakening at Princeton in 1876 and 1877, resulting in the conversion of 100 young men, and marked the impulse of the movement that led to the Christian Association among the colleges of this country and Canada. When the suggestion was made that an actual conference of college men should be held, it was the influence, co-operation, and leadership of Mr. Moody that made it a fact, and the gathering at Mount Hermon in 1886, which has since convened from year to year, has extended from Northfield to other parts of the country; until now we have some 1,200 young men from the universities and colleges meeting together every year in the United States and Canada, and nearly 1,000 college women, while the movement has spread from this country into Great Britain, Switzerland, France, Germany, Australasia, even into China and Japan, and year by year the inter-collegiate gatherings are held for the training of young men and young women for leadership in the work of Christ. 

Possibly no greater influence has gone out from Mr. Moody’s life than that of these conferences. Be it understood that these are conferences, not of the rank and file of the students, but of the young men and women selected by the other students to become leaders in the organized work of Christ in the colleges and universities. Yale will send this year fifty, or one hundred, young men to be leaders in the committees and Christian societies; Harvard will send a large delegation, and Princeton will send hardly less than forty. Bryn Mawr and other young women’s schools will send their full delegations to take their part as leaders in the work of Christ. The Student’s Volunteer Mission movement had its origin in these meetings, and under the leadership of Mr. Moody. God used Mr. Moody for the purpose, and he seemed to generate the atmosphere which created this Divine movement as projected into foreign fields. The great increase in our Bible classes from 2,000 to 12,000 within a comparatively short time is traceable directly to these annual conferences under Mr. Moody’s leadership. There is no sign which is attended with greater promise to the Church of God than this one. 

“By his services to students, has the work of evangelism been most advanced. The greatest revivals ever known at Oxford and Cambridge were led by Moody. The most notable awakening at the University of Virginia was during the work of Mr. Moody. The last work among students which he performed, the last work of this description, was at the Yale revival, where twenty or thirty young men acknowledged their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. Who can measure what he accomplished! Henry Drummond worked among students, and we might add twenty other names; and many of these men to-day are having access to lives and hearts of college men in this and other countries for the reason of Mr. Moody’s lasting influence upon them. 

“You ask me what is the secret of this influence of his among thinking young men and young women. I find it more especially in his matchless knowledge of the human heart. After that it seems to me that his most marked influence was in his wonderful honesty. If he didn’t know a thing he said, ‘I don’t know.’ That gave him the intelligent confidence of the students. Then again his freedom from cant or professionalism gave them additional confidence in him. I have known students to go to his meetings in a critical frame of mind with the purpose of analyzing his methods; I have seen them subdued, almost without exception, by his matchless sympathy and heart power. He appealed to the heroic and self-sacrificing in young men, and then there was over all this and through it all that without which his results and work would be unexplainable, the fact of his abounding fidelity and spiritual life, due to the fact that he was a God-possessed man. I find in these the secret of his great success. 

“It was most proper and fitting that his body should be placed at rest on Roundtop; that one spot in all the wide world most gloriously and sacredly associated with his teachings and the influences of his life-work. 

“His going from us leaves a great gap; but I am reminded of the words of Henry Drummond on the death of a friend, when he wrote to a classmate: ‘We must close up the ranks and work hard.’

The Chairman introduced the Rev. Dr. Theodore Cuyler as one of Mr. Moody’s earliest friends and co-laborers. Dr. Cuyler said: “The most unique and extraordinary Gospel preacher that America has produced in this century has gone up to his resplendent crown. It was accorded to our Moody to meet and influence more men and women than any other man in modern times. Spurgeon, in his fearless way, spoke once a week, but Moody spoke seven times a week – to 40,000 or 50,000 souls in a week. Our dear brother was more endeared to us because he was such a thorough typical American. He had tasted of the soil, and smelt of the New England fields. 

DR. CUYLER COMPARES MOODY AND LINCOLN

“If I were called on to name the two most typical Americans of the century-men who have risen from obscurity to worldwide renown – the one a brilliant statesman and the other a model preacher – I should not hesitate to name Abraham Lincoln and Dwight L. Moody. When a nation’s life is to be preserved and its liberties maintained, Almighty God calls a poor boy from the log cabin in Kentucky; cradles him in the school of hardship and gives him the Great West for his only university, and then annoints him to lead us through a sea of blood to th& Canaan of freedom. In like manner God called the humble farmer boy from the banks of the Connecticut, gave him as his education only one book – the book which schooled him with the spirit of Jesus Christ – and then sent him out as a herald of salvation. Lincoln and Moody were alike in the gift of a remarkable common sense. Neither one of them ever committed a serious mistake. They were alike in being masters of simple, strong, Anglo-Saxon speech, the language of the Bible and of Bunyan, the language of the plain people. Lincoln’s heart gushed out in sympathy to all sorts and conditions of men and made him the best loved man in American history. Moody’s big loving heart, fired with a love of Jesus Christ, made him a master of human emotions, touching the fount of tears in thousands of hearts, and often bringing weeping multitudes before his pulpit. Finally, Lincoln, the liberator, went up to his martyred crown, holding the shattered manacles in his hand. Moody, the liberator, the liberator of immortal souls, fell the other day as a martyr from overwhelming work – went to be greeted at the gates of glory by the thousands he had led from the cross to the crown. 

“Ere I take my seat, let me say what may not be known to all of you. On the Sabbath before our brother started for Kansas City he delivered his last sermon in New York in yonder Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. In that discourse, as if already the preliminary shadow was falling, he uttered this wonderful sentence: ‘You may read in the papers that Moody is dead! It will not be so! God has given me the gift of life everlasting’ 

“Thank God, Moody is alive! Moody lives! His spirit is to-day in this hall where he lifted up Jesus. I hear that trumpet voice calling on the pastors and churches of New York to seek the seat of prayer, the baptism of fire, that shall kindle this city and set, perhaps, the nation aflame. 

“One other message and I am done. Our beloved brother who has just left us said: ‘Five and twenty years ago, in my native village of Northfield, I planted two Christian schools for the training of boys and maidens in Christian living and consecration as teachers and missionaries of Jesus Christ. I bequeath as my legacy those training schools for Jesus to the churches of America, and I only ask, I only ask that visitors to the beautiful native village where I shall slumber on consecrated ground, when they go there shall not be pained by the melancholy sight of the ruins of these schools, but rather that they shall be rejoiced by seeing them as two glorious lighthouses of the Lord beaming out truth and kindness over the world.’ My beloved brother, the answer of the Churches of God in America will be: ‘We will! We will! We will perpetuate those training schools of Jesus as a splendid, magnificent, fervent memorial of our beloved Dwight Lyman Moody'”

MR. R. F. CUTTING’S REMARKS 

The next speaker was Mr. Robert Fulton Cutting. He said: “It is a good many years since I last saw Mr. Moody, in his own home, surrounded by his family, and I have been a great deal richer man since I had that experience. I do not know any man who touched me more than he did. He lacked many of those elements of eloquence which go to make up a great public speaker. He did not have much of poetic fire, glowing rhetoric, or elocutionary cadence, but his manner was so direct, so straightforward, so honest, that he seemed to speak to everything human in his audience – everything that was righteous. He seemed to know mankind as very few people do. And he came to this knowledge not by exhaustive analysis, not by psychological formulae, but he seemed to be able to see into a man’s heart because of the transparency of his own nature; because he was so unconsciously honest, so perfectly frank, so courteous, that men and women showed to him what they would not show to others, because they could not hide it from him. He knew mankind, he knew what human life was, and the brilliancy of his own work shone through and through them.

“I was especially impressed at the Northfield conference by one incident. Mr. Moody had been speaking at one of the meetings, and had gone to one of the rooms. Mr. Sankey, who will probably remember the incident, gave out as one of the hymns – one, I think, that belongs to the old Gospel Hymn Book No. 2, – ‘I feel like singing all the time.’ ‘I only give that hymn out because Mr. Moody has left the room’, he said. ‘He won’t let me sing ‘that hymn; he does not believe in singing all the time.’ So it was that Mr. Moody knew perfectly well that the men or women whose lives were made up of uninterrupted singing knew very little of the gravity of human life, and was waiting for experiences which would temporarily chill them. He gained access to the hearts of men and women because he dealt with them in a common-sense way. That is the way he completely disarmed all criticism. No man who has played so large a part on the stage of our religious history was so far above criticism as was Mr. Moody. He knew only one doctrine – that ‘God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life.’ He knew only one heretic in the world, and that was the unconverted man or woman. Every man with the love of God in his heart was at home with him. In the midst of all his successes, what a wonderful testimony it was to that man’s greatness that he never seemed to have any perception of himself. Like the great master, Michael Angelo, he always so arranged the lights in his life that his own shadow should not fall upon his work. He did not know himself. He knew his field; he knew his God; but he did not know himself, – because he forgot himself when he first made up his mind what his life work was to be. That was the source of his power. 

“We are going now to lay our little tributes upon his tomb. If he is gone out of our natural life, he has not gone out of our eternal memories. What he has done for us in making us richer, we will endeavor, in our way, to do for others also.”

The Rev. Dr. David J. Burrell, of the Marble Collegiate Church, was the next speaker. His words were:

“A goad man has gone and we cannot be sorry. We cannot repeat the liturgy of death, ‘Man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble; he cometh up as a flower and is cut down.’ We are saying, ‘Bless the Lord, O my Soul, and all that is within me bless His Holy Name. Bless the Lord, O my Soul, and forget not all His benefits.’ It was a wonderful death, was it not? ‘Earth is receding; Heaven is opening; God is calling.’ Was he thinking of the poet’s words

“‘The world recedes; it disappears;
Heaven opens on mine eyes; mine ears
With sounds seraphic ring?
Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!
O grave where is thy victory,
O death, where is thy sting?’

“It should have been a wonderful death, for it was a wonderful life that went before it. As I have been sitting here, the words that Dr. Pierson read out of Moody’s book have been hammering at my heart, ‘One thing I do; one thing I do.’ This was the dominating power in Mr. Moody’s life, an absolute singleness of purpose. He looked into the face of Jesus Christ, who came into the world to do one thing; and, following the Master’s text, he said, ‘This one thing I also do.’ 

“I met Mr. Moody when I was a Theological student, thirty-one years ago, in Chicago. I roomed in Farwell Hall, in which Mr. Moody preached, and his apartments were on the floor below me. The Hall took fire one morning, and burned slowly but surely through the forenoon. I busied myself in removing personal effects and otherwise, until at last, driven out, I found myself coatless and hatless in the street. A cordon had formed around in front, but there stood Mr. Moody with a bundle of handbills under his arms; he called me, saying, ‘Take these and distribute them.’ I looked at the bill. It read, ‘Our Beautiful House is Burned: The Noon-day Meeting will be held at the Clark Street Methodist Church.’ I asked, ‘Where are your wife and children? ‘He replied, ‘I saw them safe.’ ‘And your personal effects?’ ‘O, never mind them,’ he said, ‘Our meeting must go on.’ This was the spirit of the man, ‘One thing I do.’ 

“We cannot better perpetuate his memory than by copying his enthusiasm. I mean to build him a monument, please God, in my ministerial life, by devoting myself most earnestly to the Master’s work. I believe I shall love the Bible better, because he loved it so; I believe I shall honor the Holy Ghost more, because he honored Him so; I believe I shall look more affectionately upon the Face so marred, yet so divinely beautiful, because he loved it so. My brethren in the service of Christ, if we revere the memory of this man, let us do the one great thing with more earnestness than ever.

“Time worketh; Let me work too
Time undoeth; Let me do
Busy as time my work I’ll ply
Till I rest in the rest of Eternity.
Sin worketh; Let me work too
Sin undoeth; Let me do
Busy as sin my work I’ll ply
Till I rest in the rest of Eternity
Death worketh; Let me work too I
Death undoeth; Let me do
Busy as death my work I’ll ply
Till I rest in the rest of Eternity.'”

DR. DIXON’S ELOQUENT TRIBUTE 

The Rev. A. C. Dixon, who for years had been close to Mr. Moody, was the next speaker. He said:

“There was no need that D. L. Moody should ever perform a miracle. He was a miracle. Miracle is God at work; and God Almighty worked through Dwight L. Moody, who showed to the world, as it seems to me no other man has shown in this generation, the difference between influence and power. He began without influence; he became influential through power. He did not magnify the influences of power and of money and of organization, education and position; but his trust was in God, and the power of Moody’s life was God Himself at work. Jesus was not a man of influence; He made Himself of no reputation but of power. Paul and Silas did not have enough influence to keep out of jail, but they had power enough after they were in jail to shake the doors open and walk out; and Moody was gifted with the power that could shake the doors open. I always felt when I left Moody, not like praising Moody, but like praising God. It seemed to me that I could feel and see the throbbing of God, of God’s love, God’s sympathy, God’s great-heartedness, as I came in contact with this wonderful man. He incarnated those words: ‘God is able; God is powerful, all powerful.’ And God did mighty works through Moody because of his belief. He enabled God – I speak it reverently. Omnipotence stood helpless because of unbelief; but God worked through Moody because he believed. I saw some time ago a great steam engine, throbbing with power, but it could do nothing because a bolt was broken and the power was cut off. Moody furnished the bolt; he linked himself with Almighty God, and God worked through him because he trusted in His word and in His Spirit and in His Son. 

“The life work of our friend was so simple. He had a heart that took him into the great assemblies, into the great cities, the great countries and the great world, making not only a sphere but an atmosphere for Jesus. We speak of the modesty and humility of Moody; and the philosophy of his humility, I am impressed, was this: He always stood in the presence of some great undertaking, some wonderful unfinished work of God, and the work before him was so big that he could hardly see Moody; he could simply see the work to be done and the God that could do it, and he felt honored in being the instrument of God in its execution. Brethren, he always considered himself as the mere instrument of God, and he never thought to take any of the glory of his work to himself. I am afraid that many of us are too well satisfied we get puffed up with vanity and pride, with the little bit that we have done; we have not undertaken enough for God. Moody fought for evangelization of the cities and of the world, and if God will lift us unto his feet and just let us see Him as Moody saw Him, we shall be humiliated, expecting a blessing from Him. 

“I believe in the educational work established by Mr. Moody. God prosper the schools! May God lead some of the millionaires to lay millions upon that altar, and do it quickly, the more quickly the better for the glory of God. But education with Mr. Moody was the result of evangelism, and not evangelism the result of education. Education was an incident of his life, and education was established through his evangelism; and my prayer is that Moody may be projected into the future, and that those schools may be supported by evangelism. Not only by wealthy men giving their millions, but by pastors praying for them, do I hope that this two-fold work of Moody’s will be continued until we shall meet him in glory. 

“‘Within the next twelve months,’ if Moody were standing on this platform, I believe he would say, ‘Within the next twelve months we shall preach the Gospel to every creature in Greater New York.’ Let that be the watch-word for 1900! The politicians can reach all the voters in three months, and I believe that Christian people can reach every sinner in Greater New York within the next twelve months. We can bring the Gospel to the people in the home and on the street – the Word of God Himself – and the work of the Church will make God wake them up. Let us bring the Gospel to the people everywhere – in the homes, in the churches, in the theatres, on the streets. If we are to perpetuate Moody’s work, it will be by taking Christ into the homes and the hearts of the people. 

“Remember the Word of God to Joshua, the man who was to meet danger: ‘Be strong and of good courage;’ and it needs courage to meet swords and bullets. Remember God’s words to Solomon, the man who was to meet difficulties in building the temple: ‘Be strong and of good courage;’ and it takes a finer fiber of courage to meet obstacles than to meet bullets, it takes more real bravery to overcome the obstacles that beset the Christian’s path than to climb San Juan Hill or storm Manila or Santiago; it takes more than courage to meet the obstacles and labor of carrying the Gospel to the millions. Moody never faltered under difficulty, because he believed his God was equal to any emergency. Listen to these words of God, ‘Moses, my servant, is dead; arise therefore and pass over Jordan.’ 

“God help us to carry on the work that he laid down and do it in the strength of his Almighty God!”

THE CHARACTERIZATION BY DR. BUCKLEY 

The Rev. Dr. J. M. Buckley then spoke as follows:

“We go to the Bible for sublime passages, and those who understand the great book go to it for strange passages. The strangest memorial note in all literature is to be found in the Bible concerning a certain king who reigned in Israel eight years, and the epitaph proposed for him is this, ‘and he departed without being desired.’ 

“What a contrast between such a career and that which has called us here! Our friend died when he was most desired; desired to maintain those wondrous Bible Conferences; desired as a nucleus of undenominational activity; desired to sustain those educational institutions which he had founded; desired to raise up more workers imbued with his spirit; desired to dart to and fro through the country to awaken communities, to snap the chains of conventionalism, to elicit and evoke the tremendous latent forces of the Church, and to unite Christians in the only way in which they can ever be united; – by a firm and unswerving belief in the fundamental principles of the Gospel he developed, and in active, soul-saving, consecrated labor. At this hour D. L. Moody was called away. 

“To attend a meeting of this sort sometimes produces singular effects. Persons are heated by the Scriptures, and by their own rhetoric, until at last one would think it a jubilation, and from a great memorial meeting in this city a gentleman retired saying, ‘I was sad when I went there, but I don’t know now that it makes any great difference.’ According to these speeches, God is going to take care of His own work. The fact is the New Testament never teaches that we should not be sad. On the contrary, when Epaphroditus was sick, St. Paul wrote to the Philippians and told them that Epaphroditus longed after them because they had heard that he had been sick. And the Apostle said, ‘indeed he was sick, nigh unto death; but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.’ The real feeling is midway between jubilation and the sorrow of the world that worketh death. It is a great loss; to human eyes it is a dreadful and in a certain aspect of the case an irreparable loss. 

“How are we going to prove that any preacher has the Spirit of God? Will oratorical preaching, will pathetic preaching, will persuasive preaching demonstrate that he has the Spirit? Is the power of discerning spirits left in the Church? Did not some of the most famous evangelists the world ever saw fall into the very depths of iniquity and sin? Did not the author of that wondrous hymn, ‘Come, ye sinners, poor and needy’, spend twelve years in the most dreadful depth of depravity, and go mourning all his days after he emerged from it? Have we not in our day known men absolutely to renounce the doctrines they held when they were most prosperous as evangelists, and confess with brazen face that in the very midst of their greatest efforts and success they did not believe what they were supposed to believe? How then shall a man prove that he has the Spirit of God? He must prove it by a long career, by a spotless reputation, by meeting men face to face as well as upon the rostrum, and by the men who have slept with him and traveled with him, and prayed with him, and suffered in evil report as well as in good report. These men must stand up, and be able to declare in the face of God, and in the presence of men, that this man all through this period lived as he professed, prayed as he professed, preached as he professed, denied himself as he professed. And then, if God gives such a wondrous death to that man as this, we have evidence probable and conclusive that he was a man of God. 

“But, my brethren, you cannot undertake to show that D. L. Moody did just what any other man could do, if he only had enough of the Spirit, Could God do as much by Peter in the same way that He could with Paul? What kind of a speech would Peter have made at Mars Hill to the Epicureans and the Stoics? He would, perhaps unconsciously, unless a special miracle had been wrought, have gotten himself into very great difficulty. He did it on several occasions, and had not learned better until the threshold of the crucifixion, when he smote off an ear in the excess of ill-regulated zeal. The fact in the case is that God by nature endowed Mr. Moody in an astonishing manner with regard to his mere body. There was a man in Connecticut who loved and adored Mr. Moody, and he invariably amused himself in this way, sitting in the cars. ‘When Mr. Moody came in he would say, Do you know him? That is Huntington, the greatest railroad man in this country.’ Never did he hear one word of question from the men who had never seen Huntington. At other times he would suggest he was a Western judge. In every case every man seemed to think it exactly right. They saw that tremendous head, monster chest, prompt, intense, direct action, a man obviously born to command. This same man invariably told people afterward before they left him, for he was a Christian, ‘No, that is not Mr. Huntington; it is Mr. Moody; and their curiosity was greatly excited. But D. L. Moody never reminded any other man of another man, in the ordinary sense of the term. All the humility of Mr. Moody was before God. He never was humble in his dealings with Mr. Sankey. He never was humble in his dealings with any man that he undertook to deal with. If ever there was a man self-confident under God, D. L. Moody was the man. 

“Physically many men reminded other men of Mr. Moody. That undefinable personality that will not show in a photograph, and cannot be painted in oil, was in Mr. Moody, and it went out of his eyes, and out of his head. He came up to me one day in a parlor car, and struck me on the shoulder and said, ‘You look about the same as you did when,’ – and he mentioned a long period of time that need not be repeated here. A man came up and said, ‘Who was that?’ Said I, ‘That is D. L. Moody.’ ‘I thought,’ said the stranger, ‘it was Henry Wilson,’ and there was a very great physical resemblance between the Vice-President and Mr. Moody. 

“Then this man had what is seldom found in men inclined to corpulence, – immense activity. He was more active than the average man of medium size. 

“He could improve, and that was one of his glories. Two hundred years from now the extreme higher critics will be trying to prove that there were two Moodys, and they will do it by getting up the language word by word, and sentence by sentence, that Mr. Moody used when he began in Chicago. They will make a parallel of that with the highly improved style of his later years. Some persons say Mr. Moody was not a cultivated orator. Note that passage quoted by Drummond, observe that when in London he described the ascension of Elijah several parliamentary orators arose to their feet and looked in the air after the ascending prophet. Take his sublime eulogy of Joseph of Arimathea, delivered in this house less than a year ago. Not far from yonder box sat a bishop noted for sound judgment, and he said, ‘That is a piece of work any man might be proud of.’ 

“Nearly twenty-five years ago the gentleman who presides to-day sat on the platform in the Hippodrome. A very strange scene took place in the City of New York. We have read the Arabian Nights’ entertainment, we remember that a certain Caliph used to go about in disguise, and marvelous are the extraordinary tales told of him. But at that time New York beheld an emperor, an emperor of a great territory, which is to be in the future one of the greatest empires of the world, unless it remains permanently republican. I refer to Dom Pedro, the Emperor of Brazil. He went on the platform and took the seat vacated by Mr. Dodge and sat there. Two-thirds of the audience knew who he was, but the man of the occasion was Mr. Moody, and he was preaching then and there. What did he do? Did he exhibit that fawning and obsequious bow that many persons do when the President appears, or even a Secretary of State? Mr. Moody never referred to Dom Pedro, but he introduced into the midst of his discourse these words: ‘What will you do with Jesus? What will you do with Jesus? An emperor cannot buy Heaven, but he can have it as a free gift,’ and after he said that he paused, and Dom Pedro bowed his assent, ‘and afterwards remarked to the gentleman who wrote the account, ‘That is a man to be heard and to be believed.’ 

“Mr. Moody was a personality. That personality is now invisible. It will disappear. You and I will remember him, and those who have seen him will remember him, but we belong to a vanishing generation. Who can go through Westminster Abbey without a guide-book, and know much about a great many that are there? Very few. The personality of Mr. Moody will be totally forgotten, as has been the personality to a large extent of Jacob Knapp, and of Charles G. Finney, and a great many others; to the present generation they are but names. There is but one way to prevent the personality of Moody from entirely disappearing. It is by the perpetuation of those schools, and the maintenance of their spirit. God forbid that those schools should ever follow in the Wake of Harvard Divinity School and of some others! Mr. Moody had his prejudices, but I heard him declare that he would fellowship with everybody who believed himself a sinner and trusted in Christ. ‘But,’ said he, ‘God being my helper, I never will fellowship a man who denies the Deity of my God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, or sneers at His atonement.’ 

“There was a man who spent his life in traducing the Bible, in caricaturing the ministry, in making audiences as large as this, laugh at our holy faith. That man boasted that he would have his stenographer with him when he died, that none could misrepresent his last words. He had a painless death. He never had to meet the king of terrors. No man whispered in his ear, ‘You are about to die. Does your faith sustain you?’ He died and left the most deplorable scene of inconsolable grief that the world ever saw. Our Moody was told that he must die. What then? O, the blessing of the manner of his death to the Church! God showed, I believe, in a peculiar way for the Church and for him that ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.’ There is something worse in this world than agnosticism, something worse than blank infidelity. It is the practical effects of a belief that we cannot be sure of the future. There are some hopeless words from ‘In a Persian Garden’, that I heard sung with sweeter voices than are often heard in the sanctuary, at a private entertainment, and at the close a young lady was heard to say, ‘Well, perhaps that is all there is to it.’ 

“There were those in the time of Paul who said, ‘Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die.’ Ah, if there were no life afterward I too would drink anything that would make me oblivious of my doom! But listen! listen! listen! ‘I heard a voice from Heaven saying to me, Write: Blessed are the dead which due in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them.’ 

“Farewell, beloved brother! Farewell, stalwart friend! Farewell, all men’s friend! We shall see thee at last, but not in the flesh; for didst thou not thyself say, ‘My body to the dust, my soul to the God who gave it.'”

At the conclusion of Dr. Buckley’s remarks, Mr. Sankey sang a memorial hymn, written by him for the occasion, the whole assemblage joining in the chorus. The ceremonies were then closed with the benediction by the Rev. J. Balcolm Shaw.

The estimation in which Mr. Moody was held by his co workers, and others who knew him, will testify perhaps most fittingly to his wonderful personality. Many of the following tributes were written in response to enquiries made by the Christian Endeavor World.

“He was a convincing example of the priesthood of the people, and led out the laity into fields of unsuspected Christian usefulness. Edwards, Payson, Caughey, Inskip, Moody: the greatest of these was Moody.” – Rev. D. H. Moore, D.D. Cincinnati, Ohio.

“Mr. Moody was a man of the utmost sincerity, clear faith and strong constitution. He knew men, and was a man of common sense. He was a preacher, simple, direct and interesting. I believe that he gave a strong uplift to the religious life of America and Great Britain.” – William Lawrence, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Massachusetts.

“In the most entire and utmost way, Mr. Moody exhibited and lived for and preached Jesus Christ at once God and Brother. His success in that preaching is only an illustration of the fact that such Gospel appeals to and meets as nothing else can, the needs of the human heart. His last words were ‘The earth recedes, Heaven opens.’ Those may be our last words also if, as he did we trust and serve his Lord, who is at once Lord and Brother. – Rev. Wayland Hoyt, D. D., Philadelphia, Pa.

“In Christ
His life was a good fight of faith.
His work was a long labor of love.
His death was a full triumph of hope.
His memory is a strong inspiration to service.
His reward is an inheritance of glory
With Christ.”

– Rev. Henry Van Dyke, D. D. New York, N Y.

“He is, in my opinion, the greatest evangelist since White-field, and since the Apostle Paul there has been no man who has preached to so great a multitude and led so many to Christ. To the end of time Mr. Moody’s teachings will last. The simplicity of his words went direct to the heart of common men. His conscientiousness, his enthusiasm, his inspired common sense, his kindness – all made him especially fitted for his work.” – Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis, D. D., Brooklyn, N. Y.

“He was, under God, the prime inspirer and director of the evangelistic trend, which has marked the last third of the nineteenth century. He has done more than any clergyman or layman of his generation in changing the style and method of the pulpit and in making it, as it ought to be, more direct, practical and sympathetic. To say that Mr. Moody was an uneducated man is wide of the mark. He was well educated, although self-educated, through the constant use of all the varied resources, which lay around him, for thorough and continuous preparation for his divinely designated mission.” – Rev. Robert Hunter, D. D., Philadelphia, Pa.

“I have known Mr. Moody for twenty-five years, and have met him on many occasions. He was one of the purest and truest men I ever knew. He was a most thoughtful and careful student of the Bible. He was a great friend of young men, and his influence over them was remarkable. He was a devoted and laborious worker, and, so far as I know, the money he received nearly all went to aid poor young men or struggling colleges or churches. Mr. Moody was a remarkable reader of human nature and seemed intuitively to understand how to apply the truth to men in keeping with their disposition and nature. The Church of Jesus Christ has lost one of the most effective workers it ever had in the death of Mr. Moody.” – Rev. I. W. Joyce, D. D., LLD., Bishop of the M.F. Church.

“Mr. Moody was a man of tender compassion and unbounded sympathy, of deep humility and abounding charity, – of tireless energy and unflagging hope. Faith in a God who answers prayer and who can save the most hopeless, faith in the Bible as the Word of God from the beginning to the end, faith in the present power of the Holy Spirit, was the secret of his strong, beautiful and wondrous service.” – Rev. R. A. Torrey, Chicago, Ill.

Mr. Moody has taken his place among the immortals. In his own sphere his work was owned by God as truly as was that of Mr. Spurgeon in his sphere. Mr. Moody gave great prominence and power to the work of the laity. He emphasized the gentler rather than the sterner elements of the Gospel. His ministry was one of declaration rather than one of argumentation. His educational work is the most enduring feature of his unique service and his consecrated life.” – Rev. P.S. MacArthur, D.D., New York, N.Y.

“In the death of Mr. Moody, the world suffers a loss which no other man’s services, however invaluable, can neutralize. His speculations concerning things beyond this earth were not peculiarly his and were not the measure of his great worth. His value was his amazing gift for identifying the whole human side of his religion with the whole human side of his life, and for kindling other souls from the fires of his mighty devotion. May these things live after him forever.” – George W. Cable, Northampton, Mass.

“My heart aches over the loss that comes to us in the death of Mr. Moody. He has always been an inspiration to me in preparing hymns for gospel work; not that he was a musician or claimed to be, but I early learned to prize his judgment as to the value and usefulness of a hymn for the work. What moved him was sure to move others, and what failed to do so could be safely omitted. I have esteemed it one of my highest privileges to share in preparing songs for his work, and, now that he has gone, how lonely it seems!” – James McGranahan, Kinsman, O.

“D. L. Moody believed the Bible to be the Word of God, and preached its truths with the authority of a messenger intrusted with a revelation. He believed in the Holy Spirit, and depended upon Him for power. His love for Jesus was a passion; and he loved people, good and bad, because Jesus loved them. 

“In the inner circle of his family and intimate friends he was as tender as a child, or gentle as a woman, at times as frolicsome as a boy, and as cheerful as morning sunshine. There was in him a rare union of spiritual fervor and common sense. His enthusiasm never ran away with his judgment. He was truly great in the Christlike sense of ministry to others.” – Rev. A. C. Dixon, D. D., Brooklyn, N. Y.

“The rounded fullness of Dwight L. Moody’s life is answer to the oft-repeated question, Is life worth living? It is not worth living if lived for self; it is if lived for others. And, when I think of the countless many who have been lifted to higher things by his earnest words and self-denying life, I am sure that his life was worth living. Only the recording angel can tell the number of those who, when the news of his death was telegraphed, responded with the expression, unrecorded on earth, ‘Thank God for Dwight L. Moody’s life!’ 

“His end was peace. His message to all is service. ‘Whosoever will be chief among you let him be your servant.’ The world needs a successor. Who will he be?” – David J. Brewer, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D. C.

“He preached a positive Gospel to an age of doubt, and moved the popular heart and life as no other man of the age has done, unless it be Charles H. Spurgeon. The great preacher was ever true to the Bible doctrines concerning God, sin, punishment, repentance, Heaven and hell He stood firmly for the divinity of Christ and the inspiration of the Scriptures and the authority of the Book of books. He was a large-hearted, sympathetic, noble, manly man. His Gospel was full of sunshine and joy. ‘God is love’ was the magnet which he used to draw men to Christ and a new life. His power was due to his positive faith, his life in close touch with the spirit of God, his rare good sense, his sympathy and love for all classes, his insight into human’ nature and his ability to manage men. He has shown what one can be and do who is wholly devoted to God and his work.” – Rev. P. H Swift, D. D. Chigago, Ill.

“Very few men have been so close to the strength and weaknesses of humanity. He saw and dealt with all classes – the high and the low, the rich and the poor – and as he came close to them they also were drawn close to him. This was because all believed in his love and truth, in his sincerity and absolute unselfishness. This was never shown perhaps to a greater degree than in the early life of this association, when full of faith, hope and perseverance he gave to this organization that spiritualizing force which is to-day the great source of strength and vitality. 

“Two of my childish recollections of Sunday are of sitting in one of the pews of the old ‘spotted church,’ as it was called, and going with my father to the mission Sunday school in North Market Hall, where Mr. Moody was the chief spirit. I remember how he inspired me with confidence as a child, and how my love and respect grew with the passing years.” – J.V. Farwell, Jr., Chicago, Ill.

“Any tribute I might give to the memory of Mr. Moody would be largely influenced by personal affection as well as admiration, for during the well-nigh quarter of a century I have been associated with him and his work, both my love and my admiration for him have grown with the passing years, and his taking away therefore comes as a personal grief. 

“He combined in a most extraordinary degree great strength and force of character with great sympathy and tenderness of heart, and with these a most generous nature, always considering the welfare of others rather than his own comfort and happiness. 

“It may be truly said of him that ‘a prince in Israel has fallen.’ and those who know him best and are best able to estimate his services to his generation will say, what they believe time will reveal to all, Dwight L. Moody was one of the greatest men of the century now closing.” – George C. Stebbins, Brooklyn, N. Y.

“The lines along which he won success are worthy of very careful attention. First, his life was a constructive force. He was in the world to build up, construct, to save. He could say, with Christ: ‘I am come not to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.’ He dealt with the positive, the known and settled in religion. 

“Second, he was thoroughly sincere. He believed his message to be absolutely true. There was no doubt in his heart, consequently none found expression on his lips. He was evidently so honest, so true, outspoken and frank that all men were convinced that he believed through and through every word he preached, and that he loved his fellow-men and desired their salvation above everything else; and that he was in the work, not to satisfy a selfish ambition, or for ease or fame, but because from conviction he had to be there. 

“The next element of power in Moody was a childlike simplicity that was marvellous. He was a man of remarkable wisdom, but there was no cunning in him. He was as absolutely free from duplicity as a man can be.” – Rev. Charles C. Earle, Boston, Mass.

“His life was spent for Jesus Christ, his Master. Self was kept back, while Christian power within was his guide. 

“God chose Moody, I have no doubt, because there was in his nature all the fire and enthusiam that would break out and electrify mankind. He was anxious for the souls of men. Moody was a layman, but his ministry has been as successful as any man in orders. Others have saved their hundreds, he his thousands. Moody was a born leader and was one of the greatest generals we have ever had. If he had been a soldier he would have stood side by side with Grant or Wellington. 

“Moody unified humanity. He wanted all denominations to get together. He knew that the way to have a union was not by creeds but by work. Let us take Moody’s idea of work as a unifying force.” – Rev. George C Lorimer, D.D., Boston, Mass.

“Dwight L. Moody was as undeniably the most extraordinary Gospel preacher that America has produced in this century as Spurgeon was the most extraordinary that Britain has produced. Both had all Christendom for their congregations. I am glad that, like Abraham Lincoln, he never went to any college; both formed their own racy Saxon styles for themselves. 

“With my beloved Brother Moody I had much personal intimacy for twenty-eight years. He delivered his first Bible readings in our little mission chapel in the winter of 1872. A few months later, when I was in London, he came into my room one day and said, ‘They want me to stay and preach here; what shall I do?’ My quick answer was, ‘Come’. He went with Mr. Sankey, and thus began his world-wide career in Britain. 

“One of his last sermons was delivered from my old pulpit here a few weeks ago. I said to him, ‘Last night you were at your best; you were not talking to Christians, but. calling the unconverted to Jesus; stick to that as long as you live.’ Who will be the Elisha to follow our translated Elijah?” – Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D., Brooklyn, N.Y.

Dwight L. Moody, the most divinely ordained Christian evangelist of the nineteenth century, sleeps well. He was girt with greatness all around. A great intellect was his. For, although unlearned in the classics and sciences, he was deeply schooled in the science of God and of His Son Jesus Christ, whom to know aright is life eternal. Other knowledges than this pass away, and are liable to puff up while they last.

“Mr. Moody’s greatness of intellect was evidenced by the fact that his sermons repeated a thousand and more times were always as fresh and fascinating as they were at first. Only extraordinary minds can speak often on the same theme without becoming stale. He had also a great heart. He loved everything that was good. I do not believe he ever felt hateful toward any man. Supremely he loved Jesus Christ as we read of Him in the Word. Mr. Moody was as certain that the Holy Scriptures, as we have them, were fully inspired by the Holy Spirit, as he was that his pulse-beat came from his heart’s throb. I recall no other one in my day whose departure and ‘abundant entrance’ above have brought Heaven so sensibly near. He was the friend of the whole world, and all lands will lament the loss of his measureless influence for human welfare.” – Rev. John Lindsay Withrow, D. D., Boston, Mas.

“Moody and I met for the first time in Cleveland, East Tennessee. It was about the middle of April, 1864. I was bringing together my Fourth Army Corps. Two divisions had already arrived, and were encamped in and near the village. Moody was then fresh and hearty, full of enthusiasm for the Master’s work. Our soldiers were just about to set out on what we all felt promised a hard and bloody campaign, and I think were especially desirous of strong preaching. Crowds turned out to hear the glad tidings from Moody’s lips. He showed them how a soldier would give his heart to God. His preaching was direct and effective, and multitudes responded with a confession and promise to follow Christ. 

“From that time on throughout his useful career I have had association with him. On the steamer Spree, during our remarkable wreck and rescue, I was with him. Who could have held up Christ with more fearlessness and fidelity than he did then to over seven hundred passengers ? 

“In Chicago he acted as a general, and I became his subordinate during the World’s Fair. Thousands upon thousands crowded the theatres, tents, halls, churches, and other public. buildings, by his provisions, to hear the simple Gospel. 

“His work, again, in our war with Spain, by sending evangelical speakers to the front, whom he knew the soldiers would heed and hear, will never be measured by us who were mere helpers. He planned, selected his messengers, and sent them, and raised funds to give to our soldiers the bread of life. 

“With tears we read his last words: ‘Heaven opens. Earth recedes. God is calling me.’ But O the triumph, Stephen-like, of such a departure.” – General O. O. Howard., Burlingion, Vt.

“I first knew Mr. Moody in 1857. It was at a Sunday school convention at a Clark Street mission in Chicago that I met him. He was then twenty-one years old, and was just entering the career in which he has done so much of good. He was a stout, robust ardent young fellow, shaking hands with everybody and smiling on them in his cheerful way, and the smile was not put on either – it was genuine. 

“I crossed the continent with him in 1871 to attend the California Sunday school Convention, and again in 1872 I crossed the Atlantic in his company when he first went to London to hold evangelistic services. At the invitation of Mr. Buley, the originator of the Dublin tax system, and a philanthropic gentleman of large means, I spent several days at Mr. Buley’s home, near Dublin, in company with Mr. Moody, and there I became better acquainted with the man himself. Since then I have met him many times. 

“Mr. Moody was bold, courageous in his advocacy of the things which he believed. He did not know what self-consciousness was. He was never embarrassed at least he never showed it. He had unlimited faith in the divine power to carry him through difficulties. To be sure he sometimes failed in his plans things did not go just as he wanted them to, but he never worried over such things. Once in Ireland I made fun of some of his old stories. I said, ‘See here, Moody, I have heard you tell these same stories over and over again, and now I’d like to hear some new ones.’ He looked at me in a hurt sort of way and with tears in his eyes he said, ‘Don’t say that. I have to use them.’ I made up my mind then that if any man could use an old sword as effectively as D. L. Moody did, I would never criticize him for it. 

“While fixed in his own faith, he was liberal towards people of diverse faiths. Once in Chicago he went to call on a Roman Catholic bishop. ‘I have talked religion with almost everybody,’ said Moody, ‘and I thought I would come and talk to you. Besides, some of your boys throw stones at a mission over on the north side.’ ‘That’s very wrong in them,’ said the bishop, ‘and I will tell them they must not do so.’ So they talked about religion for a while, and Moody said, ‘You pray, bishop?’ ‘Yes, said the bishop.’ Let’s pray now,’ said Moody, and they did, and they parted fast friends. Moody had largeness of soul while he had positiveness of faith. It would be good if we had more like him. 

“No man has died in this country in years for whom there has been a wider, greater, intenser affection than there was for Dwight L. Moody.” – Rev. John H. Vincent, D. D. L. L. D., Bishop of the M.E. Church.

“1. A man of prayer – the chief secret of his wisdom, usefulness and success. 

“2. A man of the Book – unwearied in Biblical study, he wore out several Bibles; absorbed the very atmosphere as well as the spiritual texts of Scripture. 

“3. A man of soundest evangelical faith, with a mighty grasp of essentials in the answer to the question, ‘What must I do to be saved?’ 

“4. A man of extraordinary practical sagacity, organizing power, and aptness for leadership. He used to say that it was better to set ten men at work than to do yourself the work of ten men. But he was accustomed to do both. 

“5. A man of combined courage and tenderness – bold as any lion, tender as any drop of clew. 

“6. A man endowed by his unusually powerful but balanced emotions with greatness of character, and by his caution and trenchant common sense with strategic strength of character. 

“7. A man of commanding spiritual manliness, everywhere inspiring confidence. 

“8. A man of remarkable business and executive talent, he was trusted by men of affairs. 

“9. A man working easily with associates whose endowments filled out his own, like Professor Drummond and Mr. Sankey, the three together making a globe of capacities and aptitudes for the work they undertook. 

“10. A man whose career has been a spiritual link between England and America and all English-speaking lands. Mr. Moody has had no equal as an evangelist since President Finney was laid in his grave; and, as he had no real predecessor like himself, so he is not likely to have a successor. The Chicago and the Northfield schools ought to continue through his sons his unmatched work. ‘I wonder,’ said a young minister to Professor Park, ‘that Providence can accomplish so much through a man of only moderate endowments.’ ‘I wish to speak respectfully of Providence,’ said Professor Park, in reply, ‘but I call Mr. Moody a great man.’ ‘I wish I had your shoulders,’ said Mr. Gladstone. ‘I wish I had your head,’ said Mr. Moody, in answer.” – Joseph Cook, L L. D., Boston, Mass.

“My acquaintance with Mr. Moody runs back forty years or more, when he was just emerging from business and attracting attention in Chicago by his resolute and resistless efforts in religious work. We came together often. My house was his home, especially after the Chicago fire, when he walked out from his flame-lit house with his little family, saving nothing but his personal Bible. We were together several months at the time, and gathered the money mainly in New England for the rebuilding of the Illinois Street Mission. Soon after the fire he made the acquaintance of Mr. Sankey and founded the connection with which work in England began at York 

“Stretching over the years that intervened, up to Monday night, November 13th of this year, I have enjoyed the inspiration of his life. The freshest memory I have of him is the night above referred to, when he got off the Pennsylvania Railroad train to keep an appointment he had made with me by telegraph, to spend a short time between trains on his way to Kansas City for his last meetings. I remarked that same night, after he had left me, how heavy a burden seemed to rest upon his heart as he said again and again I wish that I might be moved of God to move one large Eastern city. For I think if one Eastern city could be thoroughly revived, the others would feel the influence and be stirred likewise.’ As I looked into the face of the man, whose eyes and voice were full of tears, it seemed as if a prophet like unto Elijah had come back again. He left behind him that night his comfortable home at Northfield and the hospitality which so many friends would have been glad to give him; laid himself down in a sleeping-berth of a Pullman car, rattling over a thousand miles to Kansas City; and rose with a heavy load of concern for the kingdom of his Master, and under the weight of it he staggered into his grave. 

In summing up the distinctly ‘great things of this great century no man stands out more prominently who has spent so many continuous years in superhuman labor for the public good as Dwight L. Moody, the Christian American layman. Uncrowned, without title of any kind, he wears the first honors among the men who loved their fellow men.” – The Honorable John Wanamaker.

“In D. L. Moody’s death the world has lost one of the most remarkable men of the century. He was especially distinguished for his great devotion to the cause of Christianity and of preaching the gospel to the world. To me one of his most distinguishing characteristics was his consecrated common sense; this, together with a burning zeal for winning men to the service of Christ, and his ability to do the work of ten or a dozen ordinary men, made him the most successful and powerful evangelist of his day. He was as tender as a woman, and yet as strong and brave as a lion. It was my happy lot to have been with him for over twenty-eight years, in our own country and in lands beyond the sea; and my love and admiration for him increased as the years passed by. 

“The news of his death came as a great shock, as we had been led to believe that he was slowly gaining ground and likely to recover. A week before he passed away, I went to Northfield to see him, and, if possible, to cheer him up, but found him so weak and nervous that I decided not to risk an interview, lest harm might come to him; and thus I failed to bid him good-by. The last time I saw and talked with Mr. Moody was on the occasion of his last visit to Dr. John Hall’s church in New York City. We spent most of that Sabbath day together talking over the work in this country, and also the old days of our labors together across the sea. He seemed quite happy as we spoke of many kind friends with whom we had worked in Great Britain; but, when I suggested to him that we might go once more to that country and hold a few farewell meetings, even for a month or two, an expression of sadness came into his face such as I had seldom seen before, as he said, ‘I should like to go, but I have a feeling that I shall not live to cross the sea again.’ This was the first intimation I had ever received that he had any thought that he might not be with us long. Little did I dream that I was having my last talk with my beloved friend. 

“It is a pleasant thought that Mr. Moody’s body has been laid to rest on beautiful ‘Round Top,’ where he has spent so many of; the happiest hours of his life with those who had gathered there to hear his words of wisdom and grace. This spot might very appropriately be called Missionary Hill for it is believed that from it more young men and women have decided to go to foreign lands as missionaries than from any other single spot in the world.” – Ira D. Sankey, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Few men who have labored in the field of evangelism have won their deserved recognition so completely as Mr. Moody. Association with Mr. Moody very quickly convinced one that he stood pre-eminent among millions for his earnestness, his singleness of purpose, his unaffected piety, – for all that combination of principles and faculties which went to make up his marvelous personality. But it was not necessary to be associated with him to understand in some measure his greatness. His work stands as a monument to abilities which were far above the ordinary. Tens of thousands of men cry out, “He helped me!” Great buildings in various parts of the country attest his foresight in educational matters, and the practical bent of his mind.

HIS GREATNESS RECOGNIZED EVERYWHERE

These visible signs, this great mass of cumulative evidence of his greatness it is impossible to ignore. Even persons who were so unfortunate as not to come into sympathy with his efforts cannot refuse to recognize that he accomplished, with God’s help, great thing’s for the betterment of mankind.

Here, then, I quote a few extracts from editorials in various journals, published immediately after Mr. Moody’s death. The unanimity of opinion is remarkable. I doubt very much if any other great man who has died within the past few years has received after his death such a shower of glad tributes. Those who have followed Mr. Moody’s career know how well deserved the tributes are, and yet, how much they fall short of recognizing the full measure of his greatness.

“Mr. Moody undoubtedly exerted a powerful and stimulating influence, not only on the masses but on many of those who were his superiors in birth, breeding or intellect.” – The London Spectator.

“Wherever Moody spoke, whether in his own country or in other English-speaking lands, he invariably commanded attention and aroused interest. He retained to the very last of his public career the qualities which marked him from the outset as a potent preacher.” – The Boston Globe.

“Mr. Moody’s claim to greatness did not rest on his intellectual strength, but on his goodness. The standard of his character was his unqualified and immovable faith in God and in the Bible. With this faith he combined simplicity, honesty, sincerity, humility, zeal, an abhorrence of egotism, and a broad charity.” – The Chicago Inter-Ocean.

“His going leaves a great void behind, and the world will seem lonely without him to many in every land. His death will send a wave of sincere sorrow over millions of humanity without distinction ‘of race, creed or church. Here was a man whose soul was pure goodness, who was ruled by loftier motives than commonly govern men, whose crown was Christlike character, and men, even irreligious men, instinctively yield his memory the homage of their respect and reverence.” – The Presbyterian Banner.

“Mr. Moody’s life teaches us that, while the Church needs scholars, what she needs most of all is the impulse of Christian devotion, that force which compelled St. Paul, and has compelled a thousand others in all branches of the Church on whom was laid the burden of a lost world, and who have said, ‘Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.’ Mr. Moody’s life was well filled out with work nobly accomplished, and his death was the fit end of a life of faith and service. His memory is one of the treasures of the Christian Church.” – The Independent.

“He combined, as only his countrymen can, a remarkably keen business intelligence with unflagging enthusiasm. To the last he was very much what he had been at first; he attempted to be no more or better; he had no precise “views or “opinions about abtruse matters; and probably he did not himself know very well whether he was a Calvinist or not, or what were his exact theological bearings. But some gift within him, some influence which he gave out, had more efficacy with certain minds in certain moods than learning or eloquence or wit or pathos. The note of sincerity, the unflinchingly literal way in which he took things which others understood symbolically or spiritually, had a prodigious effect on people who wanted to see and hear and touch with their hands; people by no means necessarily unintelligent.” – The London Times.

“According to common agreement, Mr. Moody was not a great preacher, so far as greatness depends upon and is manifested in extensive learning or lofty flights of eloquence. There was in his appeals to sinners that mysterious something which is expressed neither in fine phrases nor in deep philosophic reflections. His magnetism and convincing force seem to have lain in an earnestness which left no doubt, and which affected the emotions like a whirlwind. By his death the evangelization movement has sustained a tremendous, perhaps irreparable, loss.” – The Baltimore Herald.

Chicago at one time claimed this mighty preacher. But when he died the whole world claimed him, so wide was the range of his evangelizing activities. He stirred the hearts of the two great English-speaking nations with his militant enthusiasm. He was the field marshal of the hosts that cling to the belief that the Gospel itself suffices for all the spiritual needs of humanity. The moral effect of his life-work upon humanity was greater than that of any other man of the nineteenth century.” – The Chicago Times-Herald.

“Mr. Moody’s strength lay in his simplicity and his earnestness. He has been described as magnetic, but simple earnestness always is magnetic. He had the faculty of impressing his hearers with his absolute and undeviating belief in the truth of all he said. He went straight to the point. There was no concession to oratorical effect or to literary polish. He said nothing simply because it sounded well, confining himself to straightforward, fearless statements of what he believed and what he wanted others to believe, and such apparent absolute faith necessarily carried conviction with it.” – The Chicago Evening Post.

He preached the Bible only and he lived in accordance with his preaching. For dogma, he cared little and in theology he was a tyro. He never preached over the heads of his audience. The wayfarer, though a fool, could not fail to understand him, and his earnestness was so great and his personal appeal so forcible that every one felt Moody was talking to him alone. Such honesty, sincerity and strength of purpose could not but have their reward, and few expounders of divine truth have looked upon a harvest so rich in sheaves as his.” – The Chicago Tribune.

“He seemed to care little for any business but his Master’s. It was this unflagging energy, this faith in his vocation, that brought him the confidence of men to whom like energy and faith had brought like success in the pursuit of wealth. He combined strangely the old and the new. He was perhaps the last great revivalist on the old theological lines, and he was the first to use wholly modern methods of publicity and appeal. In his earnestness, his unselfishness and his sanctified common sense he was one of the most remarkable men of our generation, for whose life the world has been better.” – The Churchman.

“What was the secret of his power? First and foremost, it was his intense religious earnestness. He knew God. The vision of the Eternal had risen in his soul. This deep and definite experience was an offset to his lack of literary culture. It made him profoundly anxious to do something for the souls of his fellow-men Nature had endowed him also with a sturdy and sober common sense. He cut no fantastic tricks, adopted no sensational methods, avoided even the appearance of smartness, and relied solely on the truth of God as spoken in plain and simple words and as vivified by the Holy Spirit.” – The Nashville Christian Advocate.

“The story of the outward life of such a man as Mr. Moody can be condensed after a fashion into a paragraph, and this has frequently been done; but the ramifications of its influence no pen can describe, no imagination can conceive. Its effect upon theology have been its least effects; but they have been incalculable. For though Mr. Moody has done little directly to change the theological thought of his time, he has done a great deal to inspire its religious life and those who believe that theology must always be the outgrowth of religion will believe that his theological influence is far greater and far more wholesome, because more vital, than either he or his contemporaries have imagined.” – The Outlook.

“In nearly all the great cities of this country and in many of the towns of Great Britain. the footsteps of Dwight L. Moody have been marked by the upspringing of schools, of helpful agencies, of aids to raise the fallen, to lighten the dark places, to help human beings in all that makes for righteousness. Although a lay evangelist, he was a great preacher, eloquent, soul-stirring, convincing and ministering to others the faith that made him whole, but great as he was as a preacher, he was greater as a worker, and his works live after him, vitalized and given enduring substance by the spirit which created them” – The Philadelphia Telegraph.

“Farewell, Brother Moody! Thousands upon thousands will mourn thy departure; thousands upon thousands will look back to the time when they were first warned to return to the fold by the words of entreaty, while future generations will be blest by the influence of thy searching teaching of the truth as it is in Jesus. The Church will learn all too soon of the greatness of the prophet who has left them. But all work for the Master is done under human conditions; the man passes, his work abides. So it will be now; Moody has ceased to live in the flesh, but he lives in his work, and the results of his wonderful teaching will be felt by succeeding generations.” – Christian Work.

“Mr. Moody was a wonderful leader of men. Everywhere he went he set others to work for Christ. No one was so bad as to be repulsive to him, and no one was so wise or good that he did not venture to approach and use him to further his service for Christ. Thousands of waifs rescued from rags and wretchedness are useful men and women because Mr. Moody put his arms of love around them and lifted them up. He has built many structures in many cities, where young men and women gather to work for and worship God. But his noblest monument is made of living stones built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. His life can best be summed up in one sentence: He was a wise winner of souls.” – The Congregationalist.

“Mr. Moody was not only sincere; he was intensely in earnest. He not only implicitly believed in the truth of the doctrines which he expounded, but he was firmly convinced that the acceptance of those doctrines by the men and women whom he addressed was the most important thing in the world; that every other interest was in comparison trivial and without consequence. He believed, moreover, and he believed it in all humility, that he had been commissioned from above to go about the world delivering the message of the Gospel. He felt himself to be a Heaven-appointed minister to convince humanity of sin and point out the way of salvation.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer.

“He commanded the respect and confidence of men of other religious faiths and beliefs, and even of the non-religious classes, by his sturdy common sense, his geniality and whole-heartedness, and by his freedom from all cant and affectation. He lived the religion he professed, and practiced what he preached. In speech and manner he was simple, clear, and direct; he understood the common people because he was always one of them in thought and feeling, and among them his greatest and most enduring work was done. The world is a far better and happier world to-day because of the life of Dwight L. Moody. He will live long in the grateful and tender memory of mankind.” – Leslie’s Weekly.

“He never made any serious mistakes. There was no flaw in his character. He commanded an absolutely universal respect. Rich and poor, high and low, learned and illiterate, cherished almost exactly the same feelings toward him. The kind of influences which he began to put forth in Chicago forty years ago went on growing and extending to the day of his death – and to-day, as tidings of his death are borne to every part of the English-speaking world, his influence will seem to be greater than ever. It is not an exaggeration to say that the coming century will be in certain pervasive and vital respects appreciably different from what it would have been were it not for the distinctive spiritual and moral forces which Moody imparted and put forth.” – The Chicago Record.

“A rugged simplicity and absolute sincerity were the chief elements in his character. No one ever detected in him a suspicion of cant. It might have been said of him, as Mirabeau said of Robespierre, ‘That is a dangerous man; he believes every word he says. For the ‘drill and pipe clay’ of the clerical profession, as Robertson phrased it, Mr. Moody had nothing but contempt, and his own unconventional ways, in the pulpit and out of it, did a great deal to break down the stilted ministerial tradition. Nor were the changes in his own style of work, as the years passed by, without great significance. From being a mere evangelist, going from city to city to address vast and emotional audiences, he became, by chief intention and main use of time and strength, a Christian educator. His educational institutions at Northfield, so remarkably planned and endowed, he regarded as the crowning work of his life.” – The New York Nation.

By their fruits shall ye know them.’ Judged thus, Mr. Moody’s career takes saintly rank. Possessed of a marvelous personal magnetism, an earnestness that was irresistible, and an enthusiasm that defied the flight of time, he took his faith in Divine guidance in one hand and his faith in mankind in the other, and, so armed, hurled the full force of his splendid powers against the cohorts of evil. He could not fail. The measure of his revealed success will challenge the admiration of posterity.

“‘The measure of his revealed success.’ But what of the unrevealed? Its measure was never known, even to himself. It remains a mystery lodged beyond the stars He drew the scoffer. He startled the dormant conscience of carelessness, and stirred the soul of the evil-doer. He wrought blessings innumerable in garret and in mansion. He labored apart from the church, yet impelled toward the Church hundreds of thousands whom the Church had pot reached.” – The New York Mail and Express.

“No one could visit North America within recent years without feeling that Mr. Moody was one of the great personalities of the continent – and that not only as an evangelist or the representative of evangelical religion, nor even as an organizer of education, but for his own self’s sake as a man who lived his faith, and who lived it with extraordinary force of character and wisdom. What I feel to be our sorest loss in the death of this great and good man is that we shall no more have his large heart and large mind in the reconciliation of those divisions of opinion among Christian men which are so strong and in some quarters so bitter at the present day. No one could have assisted reconciliation so much as D. L. Moody. Yet it seems wrong to be envious even to this extent, when we have so very much to thank God for in the influence and results of His servant’s life.” – Prof George Adam Smith in the British Weekly.

“The death of ID. L. Moody is an almost irreparable loss to evangelical Christianity. He was probably the greatest religious revivalist of the present century. Yet that fact hardly gives a true indication of the widespread influence he exerted over the lives of multitudes of men and women in the Old World as well as the New. Even as a revivalist he differed widely from the old-time revivalists of the last generation, who terrified the sinner into repentance by holding him over the precipice where he could see the lurid fires of the pit seemingly eager to envelop him. Mr. Moody doubtless held exactly the same beliefs as to the character and duration of future punishment as his predecessors did. But, without, perhaps, being exactly conscious of the fact, the seeming harness of this dogma was softened by his profound belief in the goodness and love of God. It was upon that thought he most often dwelt, never failing to bring it in even when he referred to the certainty of future punishment. This characteristic of his exhortations separated him widely from the revivalists of the past, and gave his teachings a much more general acceptance than was accorded to previous evangelists.” – The New York Tribune.

“He was very simple, absolutely earnest, without self-conceit or pretence or cant. He had power; he used it with all his might according to his knowledge and his lights. Nearly all of us came in time to see that the work was good and the results very valuable; that Moody, however he did it, took hold of the people that needed attention, stirred them up to good purpose, and brought them something that made them better. The English-speaking world long ago recognized him as a great force, and one that made for righteousness and the essentials of true religion. Not all of us are desirous to be good ourselves, but most of us are at least in favor of other persons being good. So, nearly all of us have been in favor of Mr. Moody, and respected him and his work, and honor his memory now that he has gone. He was one of the preeminently successful men of the century, and what he accomplished he did without much help from education, and without favor or aid save what his manifest deserts won for his work. He simply forgot himself, and took hold. He never let go, and he never remembered himself enough to distract his attention from the work his heart was in.” – Harpers Weekly.

“Mr. Moody was not a man to whom theological subtleties had any charm. But his convictions never halted. What he believed, he believed with heart and soul. He might have been wrong in premise and education, he might have been old-fashioned in theory, but in spirit he was always right and strong, and he had almost a prophet’s gift in the potency of his messages. No one could long be in contact with his honesty of purpose, his unqualified self-consecration, his boundless zeal and prophetic spirit without being moved by these qualities. His influence was not only national, but international. He was as notable a force in Great Britain as in the United States. He possessed great personal magnetism, which, combined with his religious enthusiasm, whose sincerity no one questioned, gave him a power of persuasiveness which was well-nigh irresistible.

“While not reckoned among the clergy, or caring to be, he was ‘yet a powerful inspiration to the profession. He will be missed and mourned by the churches as profoundly as by the common people, who regarded him almost as their Moses. His educational work in his native town might well stand as a monument of noble achievement. But that was among the least of the things that he did in his Master’s name and for His cause. He was a living Gospel, arid his death, with its peace and joy, seemed to partake of the beauty and splendor and awe of a transfiguration.”–The Boston Transcript.

“Mr. Moody was a great evangelist, and he did a great work. An unordained and essentially popular preacher, who felt that his commission to win souls was in his love for Christ and his desire to serve Him – he reached thousands who were not likely to come under the influence of others whose belief in Christianity he quickened from a dull acceptance of doctrine into a living power. Earnest in his own convictions, and gifted with a remarkable talent for enlisting the interest and sympathy of his hearers, he was a speaker of unusual effectiveness. Direct and simple in his utterances; not always grammatical; fond of anecdote and homely illustration; emotional, sometimes to an extreme – such was Dwight L. Moody as the leader of countless public meetings. He filled churches and audience-rooms because the people believed he had a message to deliver; as for himself, he believed that that message was of tremendous consequence. His methods have been criticized, but, certainly, he was not open to the charge of being insincere. His whole life was given to doing what he felt to be his highest duty. To this task he brought native ability, and a constantly increasing knowledge of the ways to make that ability count for the most.” – The Hartford Courant.

“Men are also asking the secret of Mr. Moody’s power. Four words sum it up: Common Sense and Consecration. He had many striking characteristics, but through them all shone his spirit of consecration. He was simple; a child could understand his sermons. He believed in the power of stories; if they caused laughter or weeping, he took advantage of the smiles or the tears to press home the Gospel message. He was a man of faith, faith in God and man. He looked for the best in men, and they responded by giving him their best. No one could hear him in private conversation or on the platform without recognizing his intense earnestness. Whatever he did, he did with all his heart, and he was able to inspire others to similar devotion. Some people called him narrow; they little knew that, if he had used his powers in other directions, he would have been as successful in conducting a great financial venture, or planning a military campaign, as he was in leading men to accept Christ as their Saviour.

“Mr. Moody believed the Bible from cover to cover, and he believed in the fundamental doctrines of Christ. ‘People ask me,’ he said one time, ‘If I believe in the “higher criticism” How can I when I don’t know what it is? They ask me if I think there were two Isaiahs. Before taking up that question seriously, I believe we should try to see what the prophecy itself contains. ‘Why do you go to hear Moody?’ said a scoffer contemptuously to a fellow club member. ‘You don’t believe what he preaches.’ ‘No, but he believes it with all his heart, and it is refreshing to meet such a man in these days of doubt and uncertainty.

“Mr. Moody was an optimist. Elijah on Carmel was his ideal; he had little patience with the prophet under the juniper tree. He was a sincere man. While looked upon as a leader, his daily prayer was that God would keep him humble. To know him was to love him; thousands of people in every part of this country and in Europe, and hundreds of missionaries in foreign lands, have lost a personal friend in his death. He was a good man and faithfully served his generation.” – The New York Observer.

“Mr. Moody was not only reverential, but humble. He was not only humble, but tolerant. He improved very much under travel, under intercourse with able minds, and under the study of vast throngs, as so many units. The consequence was that from a lone exhorter he became a great leader, from a great leader he rose to be an organizer of much skill, and he topped both functions with that of an educator on distinct lines, at needed work, and upon a vast scale. Vie are regarding him entirely from the human point of view, for the purpose of this consideration, and we are noting in him exactly the qualities which would have made him successful in other undertakings. His qualities were not unusual. His use of them was extraordinary. The high purpose to which he applied them was ennobling and uplifting. The singular simplicity, candor and gentleness of his spirit were remarkable, considering the power he wielded, the influence which he commanded, the support which he received and the praise, whether interested or disinterested, of which he was the subject. His field was the world, and to do good his religion.

“He made haste slowly. He died on the heights, but he started on the plains and had a hard passage through valleys and up mountain steeps, before he walked with God. Without more than elementary education, utterly without training, destitute of experience, simply aflame with spiritual purpose, he had to vindicate himself, he had to create for himself a way, and he had to do so against a critical, cultivated and combined class, the reverend clergy. They did not relish an unlettered lay intruder. They were justified in their instinctive disrelish. Of most lay intruders the note is arrogance, the method burglarious, the self-confidence unabashable and the ignorance unteachable. Of this lay intruder nothing like that could be said. He was altruistic, he was modest, he was hungry to learn, he was deferential to knowledge, what he acquired he held, what he held he increased, and what he increased and made his own he made also the precious possession of others. The greatest of lay workers became the master of lay workers, their monitor and their model, and this at first uneducated man established institutions for Christian instruction which taught the use of the tools of spiritual knowledge as aptly and as thoroughly as the use of the tools of any other knowledge is anywhere taught.” – The Brooklyn Eagle.

He was a remarkable man in all ways, not the least of which was his appearance. He was not a striking figure so far as stature was concerned, for he was rather below the average in height, but he was a marked man in a crowd, and every one turned to look at him because the very atmosphere that surrounded him was commanding. He has been likened to Garfield, in his massive frame; they had the same smiling features, the same facility of anecdote, and the same effect of sincerity in everything they said or did. Their style of oratory was almost identical, and both possessed the rare gift of captivating people at. first sight. 
Mr. Moody was very quick at repartee. An interesting incident is related of his meeting with Mr. Gladstone. Heartily grasping Mr. Moody’s hand the old statesman said, “I wish I had your body.” Mr. Moody replied, “I wish I had your head.” Mr. Gladstone responded, “I mean I wish I had your lungs;” to which Mr. Moody again replied, “I wish I had your brains,” and with hearty good wishes they parted. 

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 

Mr. Moody had a wonderful voice. He could easily hold the attention of thousands, and yet in conversation there was a pathos and tenderness in his inflections that was most fascinating. He had a most attractive face; it was kindly and helpful in its every expression. 

He was fond of telling how his picture once did duty for that of Rutherford B. Hayes. During the Hayes campaign a big Republican rally was held in Fort Wayne, Ind. Everything was ready, when it was suggested that the meeting would be incomplete without a picture of General Hayes. This brought out the discovery that, although around the walls of the room were hung-the pictures of many celebrities of the clay, that of Hayes was not among them, nor could a picture of him be found. One of the members of the committee on arrangements, a sign painter, who had a natural gift of drawing, found a copy of Harper’s Magazine on the table in which was a small cut of Mr. Moody. He decided it was enough like Hayes to make a copy from, and in half an hour he had a good sized sketch, and labeled the product “Rutherford B. Hayes”. It was hung on the stage, and the speakers of the evening pointed to it as they referred to “that statesman,” etc. Finally the joke leaked out in the crowd, and almost resulted in breaking up the meeting. Mr. Moody was informed of the affair, and told it to President Hayes. 

HIS HOLD UPON HIS FRIENDS 

It has been said that he was dictatorial, sometimes extremely so, and it must be confessed that he did insist on his own way; but then, he had studied his work; he knew men, and he knew what would tell with them, and it was a rare thing ever to find him mistaken in his judgment. But even though he was brusque, sometimes almost to the point of rudeness, it is a mighty tribute to the power of his influence over men that he instinctively drew them about him. One of his English friends said of him, “He may make doorkeepers of us, or even door-mats, if he likes, and we will love him.” And another has said of him, “Dear old Moody! We all love him, but some of us don’t like him.” He was, however, the most tender-hearted man I have ever known. Dr. George F. Pentecost has well said of him, “Intentionally he never wounded any one; he simply lacked perception, and did not put himself in the other man’s place.” 

His heart was big enough to take in the whole world, and his sympathy with mankind was genuine. An instance of this occurred in New York. While he was in the midst of a sermon a baby commenced to cry, much to the annoyance of some of the audience, who darted cruel looks at the innocent child and the embarrassed mother. The mother waited for a favorable opportunity to go out, but Mr. Moody told her to remain where she was; he guessed his lungs were stronger than the baby’s, and if any didn’t like it, they could go out. 

At the close of the service he made the unique announcement that the next afternoon he would preach to mothers with babies in their arms, and no one unaccompanied by a baby would be admitted. Never before was there such a gathering. The scene touched the heart of the great preacher, and his words the hearts of the mothers. Mr. Moody said afterward that a good many of the women present must have borrowed babies for the occasion. 

HIS CHARMING SOCIAL SIDE 

He was perfectly delightful socially; he was as genial a man as I have ever known. He would laugh till the tears rolled down his face at some story which he might have heard again and again. He found his recreation in helping others, for he was a tireless worker in one form or another, yet he was never so happy as when he was making others’ burdens easier to bear. 

From the very day that D. L. Moody came before the eyes of the Christian world, the same characteristics that made him great in later days, were exhibited. He was one of the most conscientious men I have ever known, and if he felt that anything was his duty, nothing in the world would make him so miserable as to feel that he must leave it undone, and nothing made him so happy as to feel that he could perform it quickly whatever the cost. If he ever wronged any one, he was the first to make that wrong right. 

Mr. Moody seldom preached a sermon without emphasizing the fact that true happiness and the richest blessings will never be realized by a professed Christian, if at any time he has wronged a fellow-man and has not made an honest attempt to clear up the wrong, or if he does not perform, willingly and promptly, known duties. That the great evangelist made this teaching one of the cardinal principles of his own life is clearly demonstrated by the following incident, related by him in an address to a body of students at Northfield. 

A SINGULAR INSTANCE OF HIS KINDLINESS

“You can never accomplish much in your Christian life until you get right with your fellow-men as well as with God, and until you perform your duty as it comes to you. Let me give you an experience that I had a few mornings ago. I always get up early, and devote the first hour of the day to my Bible. This morning I sat down at my desk to study as usual. In a few minutes I chanced to look out of the window, and I saw a young fellow with a heavy valise on his back, walking toward the railroad station three miles away. If I thought about it at all, I thought he was one of the students going for an early train. I turned my eyes to my Bible, but, try as hard as I might, I could not fix my mind on what I read with my eyes. 

“I looked out of the window again. Something said, ‘You ought to take that boy to the station.’ I tried to persuade myself that it was not my duty. I made another effort to study, but it was of no use. I jumped up and hurried to the stables, hitched up a horse, and drove rapidly until I came up to the boy. I took him and his baggage in and drove to the station. After giving the boy Godspeed and receiving hearty thanks for my kindness, I drove home, and went to my study. I took up my Bible, and I didn’t have the slightest trouble in fixing my mind on my work.”

I drove with him one morning while he was making some final preparation for the coming of the students to their annual conference, when we stopped at a little patch of corn, and he said, “I hoed two rows of corn here this morning before you were up. I have never been able to get out of my mind the imaginary picture of D. L. Moody, with coat and vest off, hoeing corn at Northfield. 

HIS EXTREME MODESTY 

With all his greatness he was one of the most modest men that you could possibly find. Other men might have been turned with the flattery of the people, but extreme modesty was a striking characteristic of the evangelist’s personality. His phenomenal successes in many lines left him a man devoid of all desire for notoriety and fame. 

Although thousands of persons would travel long distances to hear him preach, still he invariably maintained that there were any number of ministers who could excel him as a preacher, and he was always willing and eager to give place to others. During the Northfield Conferences, at which, in the minds of the people in attendance, he was the central figure, Mr. Moody seldom preached, unless to take the place of some speaker who was unable to meet his appointment, or unless urgent requests from the audience were repeatedly sent to him. Asked once why he did not speak more often at the conferences, the evangelist replied: 

“Oh, you can hear me any time. I want you to hear these noted men that I have brought from over the sea.”

Again, when urged to preach, he made this announcement from the rostrum one morning:

“I don’t want to take the time of these dear brothers who have come so far to speak to us. I have received a good many requests to preach. If you really want to hear me you will be willing to get up early for the privilege. Meet me here in the auditorium at 7 o’clock to-morrow morning, and we will have a Bible talk together.”

Despite the numerous other sessions during the day, these sunrise services were continued during the rest of the conference, and each session was largely attended by those eager to catch every syllable that fell from Mr. Moody’s lips. 

HIS WONDERFUL UNSELFISHNESS 

He was absolutely unselfish. During the first visit of Messrs. Moody and Sankey to Great Britain they were in need of a book of songs to use at the meetings. No publisher would bring out the book, although Mr. Moody offered to give it to any one who would print it and give him what copies he wanted to use. Finally he was compelled to have the book printed at his own expense. It has since attained a larger circulation than any other publication except the Bible, and is one of the best paying literary properties in the world. Every dollar of the profits of the book has gone to charity in one form or another. Mr. Fleming H. Revell has said: “Some years ago, some of the papers began to say that Mr. Moody was making a good thing financially of his reputation. As a rule Mr. Moody never paid no attention to criticism. He was wont to say that no two people thought alike of everything or received always the same impression. He was friendly toward the public press, claiming that it was a great educator and a great power in spreading of both secular and religious knowledge. But he was deeply grieved at this. He referred to the criticisms one day in the pulpit here in Chicago. There were tears in his eyes, and his voice quivered as he spoke. ‘As I know my heart before God,’ he said, ‘I have never let the desire for money determine my conduct in any way. I know I am weak and sinful in many ways, but the devil has not that hold upon me. I have never profited personally by a single dollar that has been raised through my work. It hurts me, above all other things, to be charged with this. May God forgive those who say this of me.'” 

Mr. Revell added, that though Moody received over $125,000 from royalties on his work, he had never used a penny of it for personal purposes, reserving it all to further his work. “Mr. Moody was a good financier,” he said. “He took great care of his money, but not to save it and build a fortune. Rather he desired it to use in his work. I fully believe he died a poor man. 

ANECDOTES OF HIS EARLIER YEARS OF SERVICE 

Dr. Edward Eggleston has told the following stories about Mr. Moody: “I have heard Mr. Moody tell how while in the Christian Commission service he was propounding his thorough question to a Tennessee planter, but, as the man was deaf, the repeated vociferation of ‘Are you a Christian?’ failed to bring a reply. Turning to the black man who stood by he asked, ‘Is your master a Christian?’ ‘No, Massa, he is a Presbyterian.’

“It was not uncommon in those days for Mr. Moody to assail suddenly a strange young man with this blank query. Of course, he soon became noted for his zeal and eccentricity. A young man from the country who had held a situation in the city for just three weeks, was thus accosted by him in the street, ‘Are you a Christian?’ He replied, ‘It is none of your business.’ ‘Yes it is.’ ‘Then you must be D. L. Moody,’ said the stranger. 

“‘Madam,’ said Moody to an Irishwoman, ‘Won’t you go to church to-night?’ ‘Whose is it? Is it Moody’s Church?’ ‘No, it is God’s Church, but Moody goes there.’ ‘Troth, thin I won’t go.’ With this she began to charge Moody with divers crimes, not knowing to whom she spoke. ‘You better be careful,’ said he presently, ‘my name is Moody.’ ‘Tut, tut’, said she with Irish dexterity and effrontery, ‘I know’d Moody afore you was born.'”

A volume could be written of the things which the friends of this mighty man of God have said since his death. The words of two representative men may, however, with peculiar appropriateness be presented. 

THE SIMPLICITY OF HIS HABITS AND TASTES 

The Rev. George F. Pentecost his said: “Had he lived in the early days of Israel’s trials, he should have judged Israel, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies. He was like Gideon, and his latent powers were known only to God. He was the most reticent man I ever knew. One of his marked characteristics was his strong, practical common sense and fine knowledge of men. Once in the Boston Tabernacle, just before going on the platform, some one came to see him. ‘There is a man outside wishes to see you. ‘Well,’ said the evangelist, ‘I have no time to see him.’ ‘But,’ replied the usher, ‘He says he must see you.’ ‘What kind of a man is he?’ ‘He is tall and thin, with long hair.’ ‘That settles it,” said Mr. Moody, ‘I don’t want to see any long-haired men nor short-haired women.’ It was a rare thing for him to make a mistake in any of the men gathered about him.

“He had the simplest habits and tastes. He spent money lavishly on other people – almost none on himself. I consider him the world’s greatest evangelist, and he has influenced more people for God than any other man in modern times.”

The Rev. G. Campbell Morgan has said of him: “My personal acquaintance with Dwight Lyman Moody was not of long duration according to the measure of the calendar. If, however, ‘we could count time by heart throbs,’ then I might claim to have known him; for it has been one of the greatest privileges of my life to have come very near him in the ripest years of his life. 

I first saw him in 1883 during his second visit to Birmingham. Bingley Hall was being crowded by day with eager crowds who had come by train from the whole surrounding district. The city was moved to its very center. The impression of those days, therefore, is that of the man in the midst of the rush of work. He was keen, alert, forceful. No detail of arrangement escaped his notice. A vacant seat, the opening and closing of doors, a tendency to drag the singing, all these he noted and uttered directions about. Yet he was by no means a man who cared for detail’s sake. The greater was ever the reason for the less, and the less was important only as part of the greater. The supreme passion of his life was the winning of men for Christ, and no detail that would hinder or help was too small for consideration. 

HOW HE APPEARED IN HIS NATIVE TOWN

“In 1896 I visited the States for the first time. Among other work, I had promised Mr. Moody to speak at the Chicago Institute to his students. The Northfield Conference was in session, and I managed to get a few hours there. Arriving late at night, I found my quarters and retired. The next day was a field day for me, and a revelation. I attended meetings from morning till night. Everywhere Mr. Moody was the moving spirit. Bright, cheery, and yet in dead earnest, he seemed to make everything go before him. In the intervals of the meetings he gave me a drive round the campus in his buggy. Every point of interest was pointed out, and in a few brief words the story of how the different buildings were erected was told. Passing one house, he said, ‘People sometimes ask me how I found Northfield? I tell them it found me. I was born there.’ Suddenly he pulled up his horse to speak to a group of children. ‘Have you had any apples to-day?’ said he. ‘No, Mr. Moody,’ they replied. ‘Then go down to my house, and tell them to give you all you want.’ Away they went, and so did he, both happier. Down a narrow lane he drove next, and through a gate to where a man was at work in a field. ‘Biglow,’ said Mr. Moody, ‘it’s too hot for you to work much. Half a day’s work for a days pay, you know, while this heat lasts.’ I sat by his side and watched, and began to understand the greatness of the man whose life was so broad that it touched sympathetically all other phases of life.

MR. MOODY AS HOST 

After the evening meeting, at his invitation, I gathered with the speakers at his house. Then, for the first time, I saw him in a new role, that of the host. He sat in his chair at the head of the table and helped the ice-cream, directed the conversation, and listened with the patience and simplicity of a child to every word that others spoke. That night the talk turned on the most serious subjects, the inner life of the people of God and its bearing on the work of the churches among the people. As we broke up I went to bid him good-bye, as I was to depart by an early train on the morrow. ‘O!’ said he, ‘I shall see you in the morning; you are to preach at ten o’clock.’ That was my first notice. What did I do? I preached, as he told me, as others and better men have ever been glad to do. That was his way. He printed no programme of the Northfield Conferences. He gathered around him a band of teachers and speakers, and then as the days moved on he manipulated them according to the necessities of the case. After speaking next morning I hurried away, but in that brief stay Moody had become much to me. Strong, tender, considerate, from that day I more than reverenced him, I loved him.” 

In the summer of 1897 I was asked to go to Kinsman, Ohio, to fill an engagement which properly belonged to Mr. Moody, but he was so busily engaged with his own Northfield work, and was so fearful of taking a long journey in the heat of summer, that Professor James MeGranahan insisted that I should come to Kinsman to speak to thousands of people who gathered every summer on the Fair grounds. Mr. Moody had started this meeting two or three years before, and he insisted that it should not be given up. 

PRAYER SAVED THE SHIP 

When I reached the beautiful home of Mr. and Mrs. McGranahan I found that my helper in the meeting was to be that grand old hero of many a battle-field and devoted soldier of the cross, General O.O. Howard. Sitting together with the friends who had come in from the surrounding country to attend the meeting, the name of Mr. Moody was mentioned, and General Howard said, “I was with him on the steamship Spree, when, Mr. Moody says, ‘God heard our prayer and saved the ship.’ A good many people have criticised this statement,” said General Howard, “and there was much controversy in the newspapers; but Moody always believed it. Over 700 people were with us on the ship. One morning, about daybreak, I was awakened by a sound like an explosion, and I heard the people rushing along the halls, and then some one said the main shaft had been snapped asunder, and falling down had made a break in the ship. The passengers were terror stricken. The bulkheads were quickly closed, and the bailing and the pumping began, but when they reached the third compartment of the ship, they found it almost impossible to clear it, and the aft part of the ship was sunk to the gunwale. Mr. Moody, with his son, I found on deck. He was lying back in a chair looking very ill, but after a moment he said, ‘General Howard, won’t you come with me?’ And followed by his son we made our way to the stateroom, and there he fell upon his knees and prayed as only he knew how to pray. He told the Lord that He was the God of the sea, and asked Him that, like as He had stilled the Sea of Galilee, He might save these people in peril on the ship. He asked the Lord to send him a ship to take them safe home that they might finish their work; and when he had prayed, and his son had followed, he opened his Bible and read the ninety-first Psalm, and then said, ‘This Psalm is just made for this occasion, isn’t it?’ 

A SERVICE OF PRAISE ON THE STEAMER

“After that he was always surrounded by a company of people, giving help wherever help could be given. When Sunday morning came he gathered the people in the dining saloon, and conducted the service in his own inimitable style, and after forty-eight hours of drifting, a ship came hurrying over to us to take us safe home. Mr. Moody led a service of thanksgiving and praise, and preached as I never had heard him preach before. That is the story of his sending the cable ‘Prayer saved the ship.'”

There was a hush on the little assembly, and I know of one at least who offered up a prayer of thanksgiving that D. L. Moody had not only helped save the people on board the Spree, but had been used of God to save thousands of others just as truly drifting, and whose case was just as apparently hopeless. 

The Rev. F. B. Meyer, of Christ Church, London, knew Mr. Moody most intimately, and loved him not only for his work’s sake, but also because of the peculiar charm and fascination of his great personality. He has recently said in an English paper:

“To have known D. L. Moody, and come within the range of his strong personality, has been to many men one of the most influential factors in their character and life-work; and it is not easy for such to imagine a world from which the inspiration of his presence has been withdrawn. It is still less easy under the immediate sorrow of such a bereavement to characterize this natural prince and leader of men.

HOW MR. MOODY FIRST BLESSED MR. MEYER’S WORK 

I met him first in York, in 1873, on his arrival with Mrs. Moody and his two eldest children. Accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Sankey, they had come to our country, as it appeared, by a divine prompting, and had just landed at Liverpool. Some time before, the secretary of the Y. M. C. A. had impressed upon him the two words, “Bennett, York;” and not knowing where else to turn, two of his friends having suddenly died, Moody telegraphed to Mr. Bennett, saying, ‘I will be in York to-night.'” 

This was Saturday. On the following day he preached at the chapel built for the Rev. James Parsons, and then occupied by the Rev. John Hunter (now of Glasgow). During the following week he held evening services in the old Londal Chapel, and noon prayer meetings at the Y. M. C. A. After two or three days with the Wesleyans, he came to the Baptist Chapel, of which I was minister, and conducted meetings there for about a fortnight, with ever-increasing numbers and marvelous results. He and Mr. Sankey have often spoken of that little vestry, where we three spent much time in prayer, little weening that the earnestness of our desires and intercessions were the travail pangs of so great a spiritual movement as followed. 

All who have heard him will recall the quiver in his voice when he told some pathetic story; but I never guessed the intensity of his tenderness till I saw him with his grandchildren. He used to drive them about in his carriage, or carry them in his arms. 

“One of the most striking incidents in my memory was when he stood with them beside his mother’s grave, in a summer sunset, and asked us to pray that they might be in the coming century what she had been in this. And when little Irene was dying, he used to be on the watch below her window to keep all quiet, would steal down from the meetings to hear the latest news, would be the nurse and playmate of her little cousin, that all might devote themselves to the chamber of sickness. 

MR. MOODY’S SURE FAITH

“He never wavered in his attachment to the great fundamentals of the Gospel. His sermons on the Blood, the Holy Spirit, the Love of God in Jesus Christ, were great testimonies to the mighty truths which have been the theme of every revival of evangelical religion. There was no uncertain sound in the Gospel as he preached it, and it was the power of God unto salvation to tens of thousands. 

“What a welcome he must have received as he entered Heaven! Surely an abundant, a choral entrance must have been ministered unto him by myriads who are there, because of the message uttered in burning acccents by his lips.”

I am delighted thus to quote Mr. Meyer. I know of few men better qualified to speak than he. While in conversation the other day with Mr. Fleming H. Revell (Mr. Moody’s brother-in-law), he said to me. “If you would like to find in print a good description of Mr. Moody’s last hours and his triumphant entrance into the presence of God, you have only to read the closing lines of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, for in the passing over of Mr. Stand-fast, there is the most striking description of the passing away of Mr. Moody.” For the help of my readers I here quote it.

“When Mr. Stand-fast had thus set things in order, and the time being come for him to haste him away, he also went down to the river. Now, there was a great calm at that time in the river wherefore Mr. Stand-fast, when he was about half-way in, stood a while, and talked to his companions that had waited upon him thither. And he said, ‘This river has been a terror to many; yea, the thoughts of it have also frighted me; but now methinks I stand easy; my foot is fixed upon that on which the feet of the priests that bare the ark of the covenant stood while Israel went over Jordan. The waters, indeed, are to the palate bitter, and to the stomach cold; yet the thought of what I am going to, and of the conduct that waits for me on the other side, doth lie as a glowing coal at my heart. I see myself now at the end of my journey; my toilsome days are ended; I am going to see that head which was crowned with thorns, and that face which was spit upon for me. I have formerly lived by hearsay and faith; but now I go where I shall live by sight, and shall be with Him in whose company I delight myself. I have loved to hear my Lord spoken of; and wherever I have seen the print of His shoe in the earth, there I have coveted to set my foot, too. His name has been to me as a civet-box; yea, sweeter than all perfumes. His voice to me has been most sweet, and His countenance I have more desired than they that have most desired the light of the sun. His Word I did use to gather for my food, and for antidotes against my faintings. He hath held me, and hath kept me from mine iniquities; yea, my steps hath He strengthened in His way.’ 

“Now, while he was thus in discourse, his countenance changed, his strong man bowed under him; and, after he had said, ‘Take me, for I come unto Thee!’ he ceased to be seen of them.”

And so I bring my tribute to a close, thanking God, now, as I thanked Him at the beginning, that I have had the privilege of writing; and saying of Mr. Moody yet again – he was the best friend I ever had, and more helpful to me than any other man that ever lived in all my knowledge of the world. Other men have known him longer than I, but no one, I am sure, could ever have been more helped by him. I say of him as Paul said of the Philippians, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.”

About twenty years ago, having just concluded in the city of Alexandria, Virginia, the second evangelistic meeting I had ever held, I determined to go to Baltimore in order to hear Mr. Moody, whose fame as a worker for Christ in the salvation of men was filling the world. Mr. Moody was spending the winter in the city of Baltimore, and I found difficulty, being an entire stranger, to gain access to the crowded building the one afternoon it was my privilege to hear him. 

By good fortune, I met a minister with whom I had become acquainted some months before. He took me through the pastor’s study to the platform. It was in this study that I saw Mr. Moody walking back and forth, his hands behind him, and apparently in deep thought. He shook hands with me, and with hardly an exchange of words put into my hands several circulars which he asked me to give to others as I went home. I found it to be a call to Christian workers to go forth into the harvest field. He preached that afternoon on Repentance, and I well remember something of the sermon, and especially his illustrations. 

The years passed on and I became pastor in the City of Baltimore. One afternoon, I think it was in, 92, I was standing in front of Mr. Moody in the great Cyclorama Building, where thousands had assembled for services, the choir was singing, and I think the Scriptures had been read. I did not, of course, suppose that he would recognize me, and was surprised when he looked down and said suddenly, “Come up on the platform.” As I was sure he did not know me, I turned to a minister at my side, a prominent pastor of the city, and said, “He is calling you.” He started to the platform when Mr. Moody said he wanted me, and as soon as I walked up, he said, “I want you to speak to the people right away.” With hardly any notice at all I made some remarks, and before I left that afternoon he had asked me to go to Chicago. It occurred to me afterwards that he had possibly heard that I had been doing some evangelistic work and, being told that I was in the audience, called me up, and was taking a sample to find if I would do as a Chicago worker. 

A CLOSE PERSONAL ACQUAINTANCE 

It did not take him long to make a decision when facts were before him. Upon my arrival at Chicago it was a great privilege to know that one of the blessings in store for me was a closer personal acquaintance with Mr. Moody. Three times a day, with few exceptions, I sat by his side at the table, and was often in his room, which was regarded as headquarters. Every night when we came in from our places of preaching – halls, churches, tents, theatres, we would meet around a large table in his room and enjoy refreshments and a most delightful social hour, as we discussed the work of the Master, or indulged in innocent jest and merriment. Mr. Moody was fond of a joke. He would tell a good story, and no man had a keener relish for it than he. 

It is said of Spurgeon that there was such a hearty good humor about him, and over all and through all such an atmosphere of genuine piety, that, though he had convulsed a party by a lively joke, he could turn at once and say, “Now let us have a word of prayer,” and all go smiling into the father’s presence It would seem altogether the right thing to do. The same may be said of Mr Moody. And it mattered little if the laugh turned on himself, he enjoyed it just the same. 

A GOOD STORY 

Here is one I heard him tell one day at the table. First speaking in complimentary terms of the “Mountain Evangelist,” George O. Barnes, of Kentucky, he said: “I got him here to preach once many years ago. We worked hard and lived on bread and cheese. One night when I was absent he preached a sermon on ‘The Devil!’ I insisted that he must repeat it for my benefit, and I worked up a crowd for Saturday night. I had been out all day trying to raise money, and came home at five o’clock tired and hungry. In addition to the crackers and cheese I bought some bologna sausage. I never tasted anything better than that bologna, and I just ate it until I didn’t want any more. That night I was to preside and I sat behind Barnes. He hadn’t been preaching long before I got so sleepy I could not hold my eyes open any way I could fix it. I got out a pin and stuck myself with it, but nothing would do. I had been banging the people a good deal for going to sleep, and when they saw me it was all they wanted. They would not keep still. Barnes saw something was the matter. He could not get hold of them, and by and by he turned and looked at me, and saw what was up. The next day someone said some-thing to Barnes about it, he said, ‘Well, Moody is pretty hard to down; but last night the devil and bologna did the work for him.'” It was comforting to hear Mr. Moody say that he also put people to sleep sometimes. Well, so did Paul, and may be you have also. If you are a preacher, then you know yourself. 

Mr. Moody was a great general. He was a great thinker, and planned his work even to the smallest details. He looked after the food and rest and recreation of his workers. Even his carriage horse must have at least one day’s rest in seven. It did not matter to him what ‘day you took as Sabbath or rest day, but it must be one in seven. He was the only one who did not rest as much as he should. I organized a strike one day, and informed him that if he did not take a day in seven we would go out on a strike and walk the streets until he gave in. When we came from our work that night we found he had rested, and I told him the threatened strike was having good effect. 

ALWAYS READY FOR A PLEASANT WORD 

Everybody loved him, men, women and children. Although he had enough on his mind to keep a dozen men busy, he so arranged that the work was easily divided out, and he stood at the helm. But he was always ready to have a pleasant word with man, woman or child as they chanced to come his way. Nothing could be more enjoyable than his evening chats with the workers as they came in from their fields in all parts of the city to give an account of their labors. – a picture in minature of the time when we shall all go from the harvest field home to meet our great Leader and Commander, and tell him of the joys and sorrows, the trials and triumphs of our life work on earth. 

Mr. Moody was a wise level-headed man. He had a great deal of common sense. You could hardly get an off-hand expression of opinion from him. He heard what others had to say, but reserved his judgment until all the facts were before him; then when he spoke it was worth hearing. His conduct with reference to the Congress of Religions was a noticeable instance. When this ecclesiastical menagerie, gathered from all quarters of the globe, made its appearance, Mr. Moody was asked again and again to take part. He only replied that he had his hands full of work, and declined to go. When it seemed to some of us that our Lord was belittled and disgraced by the motley crew who disported: themselves upon the platform day by day in the wonderful “Parliament,” we suggested that we should attack them all along the line. Mr. Moody was very emphatic in his instructions. “Preach Christ,” said he, “hold up Christ; let the Parliament of Religions alone, preach Christ.” And he was right. The many-colored bubble burst, and went to thin air. It will hardly be known in history. Christ lives and reigns; let us live for Him and preach His blessed Gospel. 

MR. MOODY WAS A FINE BUSINESS MAN 

Mr. Moody was a fine business man. If he had turned his attention to earthly, instead of heavenly things, he would have been a millionaire many times over. He had the happy faculty of dispatching business with great ease and rapidity, and was wise in the selection of his assistants. Over each department there is a head, whom he has chosen for that special work, and the work goes on well through and through. He looked after the smallest matters. The seating of the congregation, ventilation, arrangement of the singers, collections, all passed under his observation and direction. He was a great advertiser. He was one of the children of light, who have learned from the children of this world. The newspapers, street cars, bill posters and ticket distributors were all brought into requisition. One night when he was going to preach in the Standard Theatre – one of the hardest places – he went into barrooms and said, “Moody is going to preach in the theatre to-night, come in.” They recognized him and prepared to go. The results proved his wisdom. Some Christian people seem to think that it is only necessary to open the church doors, and the outside world will break its neck trying to get in. Not so. The most attractive thing to the common mind is a circus. Men, women and children, old and young, white and colored, will run after it, and spend their last climes; and yet, when the circus comes, they plaster the country and paint the towns red with their advertisements. Let the people of God learn a lesson. 

Mr. Moody had a great deal of “snap,” – I hardly know what else to call it. If he could not make things, like his Master, lie could make things move, and that comes next to making them. He never allowed a service to drag, – no, not for an instant. No awkward pauses, nor weary moments of inordinate suspense. He went right on from one thing to another even unto the end. I have gone with him to a great theatre building, when we were the first in the house, except the employees who look after the building. As soon as the people came rushing in, he was ready to start the singing. Not that he sang himself. He could make “a joyful noise unto the Lord,” and as a gentleman remarked when asked what he thought of his singing, “I could at least say I never heard anything like it.” He would call out the numbers of the hymns, and he well knew when the singing was good. Sometimes he would call for one part of the congregation to sing, then another, then all, till they would make the house fairly tremble with the thunder tones of praise. Then several prayers, then his own sermon, usually from twenty to thirty minutes, and then close with prayer. Perhaps he would have one or two sermons more of similar length, as was often the case in Chicago meetings. 

HIS GREAT FAITH 

And what faith he had! He believed in the Bible from “back to back” to use his own expression. One night I heard him preach on the ark. “Come thou, and all thy house into the ark.” He said some infidel perhaps has come in here, and will say, ‘What does Mr. Moody want to talk about that for? Nobody believes the ark story now.’ Well, if you don’t, you can’t believe Christ, The Son of God endorsed it. ‘As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of Man.’ A good many preachers these days are trying to cut certain things out of the Bible; they had better leave the pulpit. They are doing more harm than good. Some say, ‘I don’t believe the fish story about the whale swallowing Jonah.’ There is no trouble if you bring God on the scene. He who made the earth could make a whale big enough to swallow a man or a man big enough to swallow a whale.” 

Mr. Moody believed in the constant presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit. He was a worker together with God in everything. It was thrilling to hear some of his prayers with those who worked with him. On Sunday morning he would call to God for a blessing, and when the clay was done, and all met in his room, how sweet it was to kneel and be led by him in a prayer of thanksgiving for the victories of the day. With happy hearts we said “Good night,” and sought our rest, rejoicing that we had been engaged in the best and most glorious work on earth. 

A DAY OF HELP AND REFRESHING 

A few summers ago, while preaching in New London, Conn., I concluded one Monday morning to go and spend a few hours at Northfield, without letting Mr. Moody know it, my sole purpose being to get a day of help and refreshing from the services he was conducting at that time. It was August, and one of his most important conferences was in session. About ten o’clock I went to the auditorium, and took a seat far back in the great congregation, just inside the door in fact, and enjoyed one of his delightful and helpful addresses. He seemed unusually well, and full of wholesome truth, which he imparted to the great joy of his large audience. After the services were over, I stepped outside the door and went to the Northfield Inn, intending to get my dinner and go back to the auditorium for a little while, then take the five o’clock train for New London, and on to Baltimore; when after dinner some one came to me and said that I was wanted at the telephone. 

The well-known voice of Mr. Fitt greeted me with the startling information that Mr. Moody sent his regards, and said he wanted me to speak on the platform at four o’clock, at Roundtop at six, and again at eight in the auditorium. He would not listen though I urged that I must leave on the five o’clock train. Finally, however, he made a compromise by Mr. Moody proposing to send his carriage and take me out driving, bring me back to the auditorium in time for the services, and then to the train if I must go. To one who has been through the vales, and over the hills of beautiful Northfield, it is needless to say that in company with my good friend, Mr. Fitt, we had a charming drive, and a little after four o’clock made our way to the auditorium. When we entered, Mr. Moody called me to the platform saying, “I have been trying to get Dr. Wharton here for some time. He is here now, and we will keep him.” Turning to Mr. Stebbins, he said, “You look out for that side of the platform, and I will take care of this, so he shall not get away to-day.” He then announced that I would speak at six o’clock, and again at eight. There was only one thing to do, and that was as all others who came within his reach had to do, obey his commands; and it was always for the best that we did it. 

The six o’clock meeting at “Roundtop, known as the open air meeting, was largely attended, and to me exceedingly enjoyable. Mr. Moody sat beside me on the grass, and led in prayer just before the address. Elijah on Mount Carmel, pleading with his God was not nearer the heart of his Father in faith and acceptableness, I am sure, than he, as he led us all in prayer that beautiful evening. ‘We had a fine meeting that night in the auditorium and several interesting addresses were made, after which, at Mr. Moody’s kind invitation, we went to his house, where, in company with a number of others a social hour was much enjoyed. 

Mr. Moody was not easily discouraged, nor unduly elated. With all the activity of his great soul, there was still a calmness and courage characteristic of him that at once inspired hope, and kept us all at our best all the days and nights of toil. It was my privilege to be associated with him in the Central Palace Hall, in New York City, where thousands of people assembled every day listen to his preaching. It was an unusual meeting in many respects, beginning in the early morning and continuing without intermission, throughout the day, until ten o’clock at night. There were many interesting conversions in those meetings, and the words which went abroad throughout the land must have accomplished great things. At the hotel many of his co-workers were entertained, and the brief intervals of personal intercourse were always heartily enjoyed. He would invite us to his room in the morning where, with Mrs. Moody and his daughter and others, he engaged n a daily worship before beginning the duties of the day. Handing me one of Henry Drummond’s books one day with an inscription in his own hand to Mrs. Wharton, he turned the leaves rapidly and said, ” Look at this,” and showed me a paragraph where Drummond speaks of passing to the end of a journey of life, and then, “Isn’t that good, Wharton, going to the Father, going to the Father.” He has gone to the Father; he went before we wanted um to go, and as it seems to us the burning and shining light was consumed all too soon. Still the Father called, and when he went away, he said we must not call him back, and we will not. He cannot return to us, but we may go to Him, and in that blessed land we shall meet to part no more. Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

It was a magnificent opportunity. The year of 1893 would find Chicago, the great city of the West, crowded day by day with hundreds of thousands of people coming and going from all parts of our own country, and from every nation under the sun. Mr. Moody was no prophet, but he was quick to see an opening for usefulness, and ever ready to grasp an opportunity for doing good. He saw before him an occasion similar to the Pentecost at Jerusalem, but on a much larger scale. In fact, the wonderful event at Jerusalem, when the Spirit descended upon the assembled disciples, and they went forth to meet and preach to the crowds coming up to the Holy City was but a prophecy of that which came to pass in the city of Chicago. Mr. Moody laid his plans with unusual wisdom and foresight. When the World’s Fair opened, and the people poured in from all quarters of the earth, he was there to meet them with a force adequate to the demands of that teeming multitude. A brief, outline of this plan will be of interest. 

OUTLINE OF HIS PLAN

Wherever it was practicable, he grouped the churches, including as many as possible in the arrangement; the members were asked to come together in one of the largest of the group, and there met for worship and work. Services were held at night, and visitors who were staying in the neighborhood had ample notice that they might attend an interesting Gospel meeting. All available public places, halls, theatres, and other buildings, which could be used for public worship, were secured without regard to cost. When the theatres could not be had for the afternoons and evenings, they were secured for noonday services, and for Sunday meetings. The people of the great city seemed not only willing but anxious to do everything in their power to add to this wonderful movement for the Gospel of Christ, and for the salvation of souls. Perhaps one of the most interesting features was the tent work. This may be better understood by a simple description of a tent service. 

DESCRIPTION OF A TENT SERVICE 

After supper in the men’s department of the Bible Institute, about 100 men are on their knees for a few minutes. Brief, burning, pointed prayers ascend. God is counted on to stand by them in their work. Then, rising, they scatter to mission and tent, going in some cases four, five, and even six miles, each with his Bible and little package of tracts, those containing plenty of Scripture being preferred. Meanwhile, in the Ladies’ Home, fifty young women have been making similar preparations. One party is going to the big tent on Milwaukee Avenue, where Mr. Schiverea is holding meetings. On the street cars no time is lost. A young woman opposite speaks to the tired shop-girl at her side, opens her Bible, and points her to Him who said, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest;” but the girl must get off at the next block. She slips the tract “God’s Word to You,” into her hand with a kind pressure, and asks her to read it. A pleasant smile, and a Good Night, and the seed is sown. Meanwhile, the young men are not idle. A tract is handed to a fellow-passenger – a kind Word is spoken – and soon they, too, are talking of that wonderful Savior. A man on the platform has secured the attention of the conductor, who seemed under conviction. But we have reached our destination, and step from the cars. 

Before us is the tent, brilliantly lighted. We enter, and overhead is a great arch of canvass, supported by three center-poles and smaller ones about the sides – an auditorium accommodating 1,300 people, and seated with canvas benches. 

The little party kneel in prayer for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Then some take their places upon the platform, to sing the Gospel, some stand ready to welcome and seat the audience, and others go out upon the streets, with cards of invitation to bring in the passers-by. 

From our seat on the platform we watch the audience come in. First, a hesitating group of ragged little ones, then some young “toughs,” with mischief in their faces are passed from one usher to another, who will keep his eye upon them. Next a mother with a baby in her arms, a laboring man in gingham shirt and no collar, fathers and mothers with their little ones so they gather – largely an audience of respectable working people, for this is the character of the neighborhood; but the “tough” element is not wanting. The blue coat of a policeman seen at the door makes it easy to preserve order. The police of Chicago have proved good friends of this work, and some of their hearts have been found tender as well as brave. 

A GRAPHIC ADDRESS 

A Gospel hymn opens the meeting, and how these people sing A solo from an Institute lady, full of the Gospel message, more hymns, a duet, prayer, and the evangelist begins to speak. Tenderly lovingly he deals with the people – unsparingly he deals with their sins. The trace of the actor still lingers in his graphic illustrations, largely drawn from his own experience; but so anxious is he that all be to the glory of God that he uses these with more and more care every year. 

The address is short, and a hymn of invitation to Christ is sung by the same soloist as before, and then the speaker begins to ask those who wish to turn from a life of sin to God, to rise. Here and there they rise to their feet, the Institute workers marking them carefully. Then the leader says that all may go who wish to do so but that a short after-meeting will be held for those, who choose to remain. A large part of the audience stay, and the workers thread their way among them, sitting down by those who have risen, and trying from the Word of God to show the way of salvation, often finding among those who linger, deep conviction of sin without the courage to rise and manifest the interest felt. At a late hour the party are once more on the cars, singing the Lord’s songs as they take the long ride home. 

THE WORKING FORCE

From a very wide acquaintance all over the Christian world, Mr. Moody selected his helpers. He secured men of experience, who had been blessed in other work without regard to age, denomination or education. What he wanted was men who believed the Gospel with all their hearts, who worked under the power of the Spirit of God, and who could tell plainly and simply the story of redeeming love. Mr. Moody always attached fully as much importance to the singing as to the preaching of the gospel, and in arranging his plans, sought out the best Gospel singers he could find, whether men or women, and applying the same rules to them as to the preachers, his selections were along the same line. The great purpose of his heart was to put before the people the way of life, and in the inquiry meetings, never to give up a soul while it yet remained in darkness, but to labor on until the seeker had found his Savior. Without comment as to the wisdom of his plan, the results testified in unmistakable terms, that it was the one way to reach and save the many who came under the preaching of the Word, and there is no question that the results of the campaign during the World’s Fair in Chicago were far more extended than at Pentecost in Jerusalem, for while hundreds and even thousands returned from the holy City to their homes with a blessing, tens of thousands went from Chicago to all parts of the earth, net to tell simply of the wonders of the World’s Fair, but the glories and the joys of redeeming love. I might relate many incidents of this work if time and space would allow. Let it be said, however, that from the lowest dens of vice in the slums of the city, to the highest in culture and position, the burning words of the evangelist reached the hearts of the people, whether these words were said or sung, and the whole city throbbed with the blessed impulse of Divine power. 

MY ARRIVAL IN CHICAGO 

Many months before the beginning of the campaign, I met Mr. Moody and he engaged my services. During the spring of 1893, while holding meetings in the state of Texas, a telegram from him was received, announcing a number of appointments for me in Chicago on the following Sunday, according to our agreement made some time before. I had planned my arrangements to suit so that my meetings were closing at the time his message was received. Leaving immediately for Chicago, I arrived on Saturday night, and stopped at the Palmer House, and notified Mr. Moody that I was on hand and ready for duty. 

Sunday morning early, I was informed that a gentleman wished to see me in the office of the hotel, and on coming, down I met a handsome, young, blue-eyed Irishman. who said he had come to take me to preach at Haymarket Theatre. It was my first meeting with one who became my genial and fast friend at that time, and such has been our relation ever since. He informed me that he was in this country a brief time, as he then thought, but soon changed his mind, for he succeeded in winning the heart of Miss Moody, and is now one of the leading workers in the great institutions which were established by her father. All of us know Mr. A. P. Fitt, who for years has been at the head of some of the most important branches of a great work. 

MY FIRST SERVICES IN CHICAGO 

On arrival at the Haymarket Theatre that Sunday morning the crowd seemed to be as great in the street as in the house, and it was with difficulty that I could get to the platform, where Mr. Moody greeted me most cordially, and in a few minutes introduced me, and requested me to speak. Immediately upon conclusion of my sermon, he again took the great audience in hand, and turning to me said, “Please go across to the Empire Theatre, and address an overflow meeting there. I will join you in a few minutes.” It was quite as difficult to get out as in, but I soon found myself landed on my feet upon the stage in the Empire Theatre, where the people were already joyfully singing under the leadership of my good friend George C. Stebbins. In due time Mr. Moody came on the platform, having spoken in the Haymarket Theatre, and preached in the Empire Theatre with unabated power and zeal. 

The meeting over, we went to a convenient hotel, where we had a hasty lunch, and from there up Michigan Avenue to Immanuel Church at three o’clock where another large audience was assembled, and we spoke again, I first, Mr. Moody following. The service here ended, and with but little rest we went for refreshment, then made our way along State Street to Central Music Hall, arriving before any of the audience. Soon after we walked upon the platform, Mr. Moody began to arrange for the service. The doors were opened, the people came pouring in, and a few of the singers had arrived and were on the stage. There was no organist, and no leader for the time, but our great evangelist, never waiting a moment for anything when there was work to do, turned to me, and said, “Wharton, can’t you start a hymn?” Taking up some familiar hymn, we sang while the people crowded the building. In a few minutes the choir had assembled, the leader was present, and the great throng joined heartily in praising God. At this service, the order was reversed, Mr. Moody preaching first, and I am sure that, never in my life, have I listened to a more powerful sermon than was preached by him on that occasion to the great waiting throng. 

A MOST POWERFUL SERMON 

His theme was “Daniel,” and he carried us by the wonderful power of his imagination through all the scenes of that remarkable life, culminating with the miraculous delivery from the den of lions. Who can have forgotten his impersonation of the king, as looking down into the den of lions, he calls to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?” And then the reply of Daniel that comes up from the lions’ den, “O king, live for ever. 

“My God hath sent His angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths that they have not hurt me, forasmuch as before Him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt.” The whole audience was subdued under the mighty power of the Holy Ghost, and their hearts were melted in sweet fellowship and love. We went away feeling that we had been close to the throne, and had heard and seen strange things that blessed Sabbath day. 

It will be for others to tell of his great achievements, and to account, if they can, for the secret of his power and his wonderful success. To me the great personality was the incarnation of love, and although he might at times impress one with a brusqueness which was almost abrupt, back of it all was still beating a great loving heart. 

THE CHICAGO BIBLE INSTITUTE 

Our headquarters during this campaign were at the Bible Institute, one of the well-known schools already referred to for teaching and training in the Scriptures and evangelistic work. This Institute was the outgrowth of many years’ thought on Mr. Moody’s part upon the needs of the working people and the poor outcast. He saw that men and women were needed to go among these people and do heart to heart work, so that by the Word of God and the power of the Spirit, they might, by their sympathy and love, bring them to Christ and to nobler lives. These must be searched out and trained, and material was abundant, but it required a vast deal of wisdom in one to select the proper material, and to secure workmen to prepare this material for successful service. There are also many who have been called of God into the Christian work at a period of life too late to take a regular college course, but who could, by the help of the Bible Institute, be qualified for great usefulness; and then there are persons who wish to devote their time to Gospel work while pursuing some other calling. 

ITS AIM AND METHOD OF WORK 

It was to meet all these demands that the Institute was established. It has sought to send out men and women who have a thorough consecration, intense love for souls, a good knowledge of God’s Word, and especially how to use it in leading them to Christ, untiring energy, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The method of training is by the study of the Bible and music, and actual work in leading men to Christ. The Institution is located in the heart of Chicago, and has from its beginning been under the management of Rev. R. A. Torrey, a man in every way qualified for this important work. When I reached the Institute the Monday following the day I have been describing, they sent me to a room which was to be my home for the next month. As I entered this pleasant little “Prophet’s Chamber,” I looked around for pictures, but discovered only one little motto on the wall, neatly framed, and these were the simple words, “GET RIGHT WITH GOD.” My first impulse was to kneel down and ask God’s blessing that I might be right with Him, and that He would use me in the work upon which it had been my privilege to enter. The very atmosphere of this place is one of worship and work. You can hear the songs of praise at almost any hour of the day. Little meetings are held in the rooms, or a special sermon or lecture in the chapel, and sweet social seasons when they are gathered around the tables in the dining-rooms, or in Mr. Moody’s great reception room. It was al. ways sweet and restful during the hours between the times of actual service. 

THOUSANDS SAVED 

The Institute is a hive, where the workers are coming and going, the difference being the bees go out, gather their honey and bring it home, while here the honey is gathered and carried abroad, where it is dispensed to those who will receive. The workers went forth every day and gave what they had gotten, to return in the evening all full of the sweet consolation that “It is more blessed to give than to receive. 

I count it one of the greatest blessings of my life to have participated in the great battle among the multitude that filled Chicago luring the most successful Exposition the world’ has ever known; and when the glorious end shall come, I believe it will be found that during this period of six months’ work thousands were saved by the preaching of Christ in these meetings, and not only this, but that Christians from all parts of the earth went back to their homes strengthened and blessed, clothed anew with powers of the unseen world, to work for the Kingdom of God more earnestly and faithfully than ever before. And besides all this, the evil influences that were counteracted, and the good influences that went forth, will bless the world to the end of time. God be praised for this true believer and consecrated Christian man, who, like his Master, loved the world, and gave himself for it, and now, having finished His work, has passed through the gates of glory, and wears a crown of righteousness and victory forever.