BIOGRAPHY OF D. L MOODY- A MAN MIGHTY IN PRAYER

            Why God Used D. L. Moody

by R. A. Torrey

Eighty-six years ago (February 5, 1837), there was born of poor

parents in a humble farmhouse in Northfield, Massachusetts, a little

baby who was to become the greatest man, as I believe, of his

generation or of his century — Dwight L. Moody. After our great

generals, great statesmen, great scientists and great men of letters

have passed away and been forgotten, and their work and its helpful

influence has come to an end, the work of D. L. Moody will go on and

its saving influence continue and increase, bringing blessing not only

to every state in the Union but to every nation on earth. Yes, it will continue

throughout the ages of eternity.

My subject is "Why God Used D. L. Moody," and I can think of no subject upon which

I would rather speak. For I shall not seek to glorify Mr. Moody, but the God who by

His grace, His entirely unmerited favor, used him so mightily, and the Christ who

saved him by His atoning death and resurrection life, and the Holy Spirit who lived in

him and wrought through him and who alone made him the mighty power that he

was to this world. Furthermore: I hope to make it clear that the God who used D. L.

Moody in his day is just as ready to use you and me, in this day, if we, on our part,

do what D. L. Moody did, which was what made it possible for God to so abundantly

use him.

The whole secret of why D. L. Moody was such a mightily used man you will find in

Psalm 62:11: "God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that POWER

BELONGETH UNTO GOD." I am glad it does. I am glad that power did not belong to

D. L. Moody; I am glad that it did not belong to Charles G. Finney; I am glad that it

did not belong to Martin Luther; I am glad that it did not belong to any other

Christian man whom God has greatly used in this world's history. Power belongs to

God. If D. L. Moody had any power, and he had great power, he got it from God.

But God does not give His power arbitrarily. It is true that He gives it to whomsoever

He will, but He wills to give it on certain conditions, which are clearly revealed in His

Word; and D. L. Moody met those conditions and God made him the most wonderful

preacher of his generation; yes, I think the most wonderful man of his generation.

But how was it that D. L. Moody had that power of God so wonderfully manifested in

his life? Pondering this question it seemed to me that there were seven things in the

life of D. L. Moody that accounted for God's using him so largely as He did.

1. A Fully Surrendered Man

The first thing that accounts for God's using D. L. Moody so mightily was that he was

a fully surrendered man. Every ounce of that two-hundred-and-eighty -pound body

of his belonged to God; everything he was and everything he had, belonged wholly

to God. Now, I am not saying that Mr. Moody was perfect; he was not. If I attempted

to, I presume I could point out some defects in his character. It does not occur to me

at this moment what they were; but I am confident that I could think of some, if I

tried real hard. I have never yet met a perfect man, not one. I have known perfect

men in the sense in which the Bible commands us to be perfect, i.e., men who are

wholly God's, out and out for God, fully surrendered to God, with no will but God's

will; but I have never known a man in whom I could not see some defects, some

places where he might have been improved.

No, Mr. Moody was not a faultless man. If he had any flaws in his character, and he

had, I presume I was in a position to know them better than almost any other man,

because of my very close association with him in the later years of his life; and

furthermore, I suppose that in his latter days he opened his heart to me more fully

than to anyone else in the world. I think He told me some things that he told no one

else. I presume I knew whatever defects there were in his character as well as

anybody. But while I recognized such flaws, nevertheless, I know that he was a man

who belonged wholly to God.

The first month I was in Chicago, we were having a talk about something upon which

we very widely differed, and Mr. Moody turned to me very frankly and very kindly

and said in defense of his own position: "Torrey, if I believed that God wanted me to

jump out of that window, I would jump." I believe he would. If he thought God

wanted him to do anything, he would do it. He belonged wholly, unreservedly,

unqualifiedly, entirely, to God.

Henry Varley, a very intimate friend of Mr. Moody in the earlier days of his work,

loved to tell how he once said to him: "It remains to be seen what God will do with a

man who gives himself up wholly to Him." I am told that when Mr. Henry Varley said

that, Mr. Moody said to himself: "Well, I will be that man." And I, for my part, do not

think "it remains to be seen" what God will do with a man who gives himself up

wholly to Him. I think it has been seen already in D. L. Moody.

If you and I are to be used in our sphere as D. L. Moody was used in his, we must

put all that we have and all that we are in the hands of God, for Him to use as He

will, to send us where He will, for God to do with us what He will, and we, on our

part, to do everything God bids us do.

There are thousands and tens of thousands of men and women in Christian work,

brilliant men and women, rarely gifted men and women, men and women who are

making great sacrifices, men and women who have put all conscious sin out of their

lives, yet who, nevertheless, have stopped short of absolute surrender to God, and

therefore have stopped short of fullness of power. But Mr. Moody did not stop short

of absolute surrender to God; he was a wholly surrendered man, and if you and I are

to be used, you and I must be wholly surrendered men and women.

2. A Man of Prayer

The second secret of the great power exhibited in Mr. Moody's life was that Mr.

Moody was in the deepest and most meaningful sense a man of prayer. People

oftentimes say to me: "Well, I went many miles to see and to hear D. L. Moody and

he certainly was a wonderful preacher." Yes, D. L. Moody certainly was a wonderful

preacher; taking it all in all, the most wonderful preacher I have ever heard, and it

was a great privilege to hear him preach as he alone could preach; but out of a very

intimate acquaintance with him I wish to testify that he was a far greater pray-er

than he was preacher.

Time and time again, he was confronted by obstacles that seemed insurmountable,

but he always knew the way to surmount and to overcome all difficulties. He knew

the way to bring to pass anything that needed to be brought to pass. He knew and

believed in the deepest depths of his soul that "nothing was too hard for the Lord"

and that prayer could do anything that God could do.

Often times Mr. Moody would write me when he was about to undertake some new

work, saying: "I am beginning work in such and such a place on such and such a

day; I wish you would get the students together for a day of fasting and prayer" And

often I have taken those letters and read them to the students in the lecture room

and said: "Mr. Moody wants us to have a day of fasting and prayer, first for God's

blessing on our own souls and work, and then for God's blessing on him and his

work."

Often we were gathered in the lecture room far into the night — sometimes till one,

two, three, four or even five o'clock in the morning, crying to God, just because Mr.

Moody urged us to wait upon God until we received His blessing. How many men and

women I have known whose lives and characters have been transformed by those

nights of prayer and who have wrought mighty things in many lands because of

those nights of prayer!

One day Mr. Moody drove up to my house at Northfield and said: "Torrey, I want you

to take a ride with me." I got into the carriage and we drove out toward Lover's

Lane, talking about some great and unexpected difficulties that had arisen in regard

to the work in Northfield and Chicago, and in connection with other work that was

very dear to him.

As we drove along, some black storm clouds lay ahead of us, and then suddenly, as

we were talking, it began to rain. He drove the horse into a shed near the entrance

to Lover's Lane to shelter the horse, and then laid the reins upon the dashboard and

said: "Torrey, pray"; and then, as best I could, I prayed, while he in his heart joined

me in prayer. And when my voice was silent he began to pray. Oh, I wish you could

have heard that prayer! I shall never forget it, so simple, so trustful, so definite and

so direct and so mighty. When the storm was over and we drove back to town, the

obstacles had been surmounted, and the work of the schools, and other work that

was threatened, went on as it had never gone on before, and it has gone on until

this day.

As we drove back, Mr. Moody said to me: "Torrey, we will let the other men do the

talking and the criticizing, and we will stick to the work that God has given us to do,

and let Him take care of the difficulties and answer the criticisms."

On one occasion Mr. Moody said to me in Chicago: "I have just found, to my

surprise, that we are twenty thousand dollars behind in our finances for the work

here and in Northfield, and we must have that twenty thousand dollars, and I am

going to get it by prayer." He did not tell a soul who had the ability to give a penny

of the twenty thousand dollars' deficit, but looked right to God and said: "I need

twenty thousand dollars for my work; send me that money in such a way that I will

know it comes straight from Thee." And God heard that prayer. The money came in

such a way that it was clear that it came from God in direct answer to prayer.

Yes, D. L. Moody was a man who believed in the God who answers prayer, and not

only believed in Him in a theoretical way but believed in Him in a practical way. He

was a man who met every difficulty that stood in his way — by prayer. Everything he

undertook was backed up by prayer, and in everything, his ultimate dependence was

upon God.

3. A Deep and Practical Student of the Bible

The third secret of Mr. Moody's power, or the third reason why God used D. L.

Moody, was because he was a deep and practical student of the Word of God.

Nowadays it is often said of D. L. Moody that he was not a student. I wish to say that

he was a student; most emphatically he was a student. He was not a student of

psychology; he was not a student of anthropology — I am very sure he would not

have known what that word meant; he was not a student of biology; he was not a

student of philosophy; he was not even a student of theology, in the technical sense

of the term; but he was a student, a profound and practical student of the one Book

that is more worth studying than all other books in the world put together; he was a

student of the Bible.

Every day of his life, I have reason for believing, he arose very early in the morning

to study the Word of God, way down to the close of his life. Mr. Moody used to rise

about four o'clock in the morning to study the Bible. He would say to me: "If I am

going to get in any study, I have got to get up before the other folks get up"; and he

would shut himself up in a remote room in his house, alone with his God and his

Bible.

I shall never forget the first night I spent in his home. He had invited me to take the

superintendency of the Bible Institute and I had already begun my work; I was on

my way to some city in the East to preside at the International Christian Workers'

Convention. He wrote me saying: "Just as soon as the Convention is over, come up

to Northfield." He learned when I was likely to arrive and drove over to South Vernon

to meet me. That night he had all the teachers from the Mount Hermon School and

from the Northfield Seminary come together at the house to meet me, and to talk

over the problems of the two schools. We talked together far on into the night, and

then, after the principals and teachers of the schools had gone home, Mr. Moody and

I talked together about the problems a while longer.

It was very late when I got to bed that night, but very early the next morning, about

five o'clock, I heard a gentle tap on my door. Then I heard Mr. Moody's voice

whispering: "Torrey, are you up?" I happened to be; I do not always get up at that

early hour but I happened to be up that particular morning. He said: "I want you to

go somewhere with me," and I went down with him. Then I found out that he had

already been up an hour or two in his room studying the Word of God.

Oh, you may talk about power; but, if you neglect the one Book that God has given

you as the one instrument through which He imparts and exercises His power, you

will not have it. You may read many books and go to many conventions and you may

have your all-night prayer meetings to pray for the power of the Holy Ghost; but

unless you keep in constant and close association with the one Book, the Bible, you

will not have power. And if you ever had power, you will not maintain it except by

the daily, earnest, intense study of that Book.

Ninety-nine Christians in every hundred are merely playing at Bible study; and

therefore ninety-nine Christians in every hundred are mere weaklings, when they

might be giants, both in their Christian life and in their service.

It was largely because of his thorough knowledge of the Bible, and his practical

knowledge of the Bible, that Mr. Moody drew such immense crowds. On "Chicago

Day," in October, 1893, none of the theaters of Chicago dared to open because it

was expected that everybody in Chicago would go on that day to the World's Fair;

and, in point of fact, something like four hundred thousand people did pass through

the gates of the Fair that day. Everybody in Chicago was expected to be at that end

of the city on that day. But Mr. Moody said to me: "Torrey, engage the Central Music

Hall and announce meetings from nine o'clock in the morning till six o'clock at night."

"Why," I replied, "Mr. Moody, nobody will be at this end of Chicago on that day; not

even the theaters dare to open; everybody is going down to Jackson Park to the

Fair; we cannot get anybody out on this day."

Mr. Moody replied: "You do as you are told"; and I did as I was told and engaged the

Central Music Hall for continuous meetings from nine o'clock in the morning till six

o'clock at night. But I did it with a heavy heart; I thought there would be poor

audiences. I was on the program at noon that day. Being very busy in my office

about the details of the campaign, I did not reach the Central Music Hall till almost

noon. I thought I would have no trouble in getting in. But when I got almost to the

Hall I found to my amazement that not only was it packed but the vestibule was

packed and the steps were packed, and there was no getting anywhere near the

door; and if I had not gone round and climbed in a back window they would have

lost their speaker for that hour. But that would not have been of much importance,

for the crowds had not gathered to hear me; it was the magic of Mr. Moody's name

that had drawn them. And why did they long to hear Mr. Moody? Because they knew

that while he was not versed in many of the philosophies and fads and fancies of the

day, he did know the one Book that this old world most longs to know — the Bible.

I shall never forget Moody's last visit to Chicago. The ministers of Chicago had sent

me to Cincinnati to invite him to come to Chicago and hold a meeting. In response to

the invitation, Mr. Moody said to me: "If you will hire the Auditorium for weekday

mornings and afternoons and have meetings at ten in the morning and three in the

afternoon, I will go. " I replied: "Mr. Moody, you know what a busy city Chicago is,

and how impossible it is for businessmen to get out at ten o'clock in the morning and

three in the afternoon on working days. Will you not hold evening meetings and

meetings on Sunday?" "No," he replied, "I am afraid if I did, I would interfere with

the regular work of the churches."

I went back to Chicago and engaged the Auditorium, which at that time was the

building having the largest seating capacity of any building in the city, seating in

those days about seven thousand people; I announced weekday meetings, with Mr.

Moody as the speaker, at ten o'clock in the mornings and three o'clock in the

afternoons.

At once protests began to pour in upon me. One of them came from Marshall Field,

at that time the business king of Chicago. "Mr. Torrey," Mr. Field wrote, "we

businessmen of Chicago wish to hear Mr. Moody, and you know perfectly well how

impossible it is for us to get out at ten o'clock in the morning and three o'clock in the

afternoon; have evening meetings." I received many letters of a similar purport and

wrote to Mr. Moody urging him to give us evening meetings. But Mr. Moody simply

replied: "You do as you are told," and I did as I was told; that is the way I kept my

job.

On the first morning of the meetings I went down to the Auditorium about half an

hour before the appointed time, but I went with much fear and apprehension; I

thought the Auditorium would be nowhere nearly full. When I reached there, to my

amazement I found a queue of people four abreast extending from the Congress

Street entrance to Wabash Avenue, then a block north on Wabash Avenue, then a

break to let traffic through, and then another block, and so on. I went in through the

back door, and there were many clamoring for entrance there. When the doors were

opened at the appointed time, we had a cordon of twenty policemen to keep back

the crowd; but the crowd was so great that it swept the cordon of policemen off their

feet and packed eight thousand people into the building before we could get the

doors shut. And I think there were as many left on the outside as there were in the

building. I do not think that anyone else in the world could have drawn such a crowd

at such a time.

Why? Because though Mr. Moody knew little about science or philosophy or literature

in general, he did know the one Book that this old world is perishing to know and

longing to know; and this old world will flock to hear men who know the Bible and

preach the Bible as they will flock to hear nothing else on earth.

During all the months of the World's Fair in Chicago, no one could draw such crowds

as Mr. Moody. Judging by the papers, one would have thought that the great

religious event in Chicago at that time was the World's Congress of Religions. One

very gifted man of letters in the East was invited to speak at this Congress. He saw

in this invitation the opportunity of his life and prepared his paper, the exact title of

which I do not now recall, but it was something along the line of "New Light on the

Old Doctrines." He prepared the paper with great care, and then sent it around to his

most trusted and gifted friends for criticisms. These men sent it back to him with

such emendations as they had to suggest. Then he rewrote the paper, incorporating

as many of the suggestions and criticisms as seemed wise. Then he sent it around

for further criticisms. Then he wrote the paper a third time, and had it, as he trusted,

perfect. He went on to Chicago to meet this coveted opportunity of speaking at the

World's Congress of Religions.

It was at eleven o'clock on a Saturday morning (if I remember correctly) that he was

to speak. He stood outside the door of the platform waiting for the great moment to

arrive, and as the clock struck eleven he walked on to the platform to face a

magnificent audience of eleven women and two men! But there was not a building

anywhere in Chicago that would accommodate the very same day the crowds that

would flock to hear Mr. Moody at any hour of the day or night.

Oh, men and women, if you wish to get an audience and wish to do that audience

some good after you get them, study, study, STUDY the one Book, and preach,

preach, PREACH the one Book, and teach, teach, TEACH the one Book, the Bible, the

only Book that is God's Word, and the only Book that has power to gather and hold

and bless the crowds for any great length of time.

4. A Humble Man

The fourth reason why God continuously, through so many years, used D.L. Moody

was because he was a humble man. I think D. L. Moody was the humblest man I

ever knew in all my life. He loved to quote the words of another; "Faith gets the

most; love works the most; but humility keeps the most. "

He himself had the humility that keeps everything it gets. As I have already said, he

was the most humble man I ever knew, i.e., the most humble man when we bear in

mind the great things that he did, and the praise that was lavished upon him. Oh,

how he loved to put himself in the background and put other men in the foreground.

How often he would stand on a platform with some of us little fellows seated behind

him and as he spoke he would say: "There are better men coming after me." As he

said it, he would point back over his shoulder with his thumb to the "little fellows. " I

do not know how he could believe it, but he really did believe that the others that

were coming after him were really better than he was. He made no pretense to a

humility he did not possess. In his heart of hearts he constantly underestimated

himself, and overestimated others.

He really believed that God would use other men in a larger measure than he had

been used. Mr. Moody loved to keep himself in the background. At his conventions at

Northfield, or anywhere else, he would push the other men to the front and, if he

could, have them do all the preaching — McGregor, Campbell Morgan, Andrew

Murray, and the rest of them. The only way we could get him to take any part in the

program was to get up in the convention and move that we hear D. L. Moody at the

next meeting. He continually put himself out of sight.

Oh, how many a man has been full of promise and God has used him, and then the

man thought that he was the whole thing and God was compelled to set him aside! I

believe more promising workers have gone on the rocks through self-sufficiency and

self-esteem than through any other cause. I can look back for forty years, or more,

and think of many men who are now wrecks or derelicts who at one time the world

thought were going to be something great. But they have disappeared entirely from

the public view. Why? Because of overestimation of self. Oh, the men and women

who have been put aside because they began to think that they were somebody,

that they were "IT," and therefore God was compelled to set them aside.

I remember a man with whom I was closely associated in a great movement in this

country. We were having a most successful convention in Buffalo, and he was greatly

elated. As we walked down the street together to one of the meetings one day, he

said to me: "Torrey, you and I are the most important men in Christian work in this

country," or words to that effect. I replied: "John, I am sorry to hear you say that;

for as I read my Bible I find man after man who had accomplished great things

whom God had to set aside because of his sense of his own importance." And God

set that man aside also from that time. I think he is still living, but no one ever hears

of him, or has heard of him for years.

God used D. L. Moody, I think, beyond any man of his day; but it made no difference

how much God used him, he never was puffed up. One day, speaking to me of a

great New York preacher, now dead, Mr. Moody said: "He once did a very foolish

thing, the most foolish thing that I ever knew a man, ordinarily so wise as he was, to

do. He came up to me at the close of a little talk I had given and said: 'Young man,

you have made a great address tonight.'" Then Mr. Moody continued: "How foolish of

him to have said that! It almost turned my head." But, thank God, it did not turn his

head, and even when pretty much all the ministers in England, Scotland and Ireland,

and many of the English bishops were ready to follow D. L. Moody wherever he led,

even then it never turned his head one bit. He would get down on his face before

God, knowing he was human, and ask God to empty him of all self-sufficiency. And

God did.

Oh, men and women! especially young men and young women, perhaps God is

beginning to use you; very likely people are saying: "What a wonderful gift he has as

a Bible teacher, what power he has as a preacher, for such a young man!" Listen:

get down upon your face before God. I believe here lies one of the most dangerous

snares of the Devil. When the Devil cannot discourage a man, he approaches him on

another tack, which he knows is far worse in its results; he puffs him up by

whispering in his ear: "You are the leading evangelist of the day. You are the man

who will sweep everything before you. You are the coming man. You are the D. L.

Moody of the day"; and if you listen to him, he will ruin you. The entire shore of the

history of Christian workers is strewn with the wrecks of gallant vessels that were full

of promise a few years ago, but these men became puffed up and were driven on the

rocks by the wild winds of their own raging self-esteem.

5. His Entire Freedom from the Love of Money

The fifth secret of D. L. Moody's continual power and usefulness was his entire

freedom from the love of money. Mr. Moody might have been a wealthy man, but

money had no charms for him. He loved to gather money for God's work; he refused

to accumulate money for himself. He told me during the World's Fair that if he had

taken, for himself, the royalties on the hymnbooks which he had published, they

would have amounted, at that time, to a million dollars. But Mr. Moody refused to

touch the money. He had a perfect right to take it, for he was responsible for the

publication of the books and it was his money that went into the publication of the

first of them.

Mr. Sankey had some hymns that he had taken with him to England and he wished

to have them published. He went to a publisher (I think Morgan & Scott) and they

declined to publish them, because, as they said, Philip Phillips had recently been over

and published a hymnbook and it had not done well. However, Mr. Moody had a little

money and he said that he would put it into the publication of these hymns in cheap

form; and he did. The hymns had a most remarkable and unexpected sale; they

were then published in book form and large profits accrued. The financial results

were offered to Mr. Moody, but he refused to touch them. "But," it was urged on

him, "the money belongs to you"; but he would not touch it.

Mr. Fleming H. Revell was at the time treasurer of the Chicago Avenue Church,

commonly known as the Moody Tabernacle. Only the basement of this new church

building had been completed, funds having been exhausted. Hearing of the

hymnbook situation Mr. Revell suggested, in a letter to friends in London, that the

money be given for completion of this building, and it was. Afterwards, so much

money came in that it was given, by the committee into whose hands Mr. Moody put

the matter, to various Christian enterprises.

In a certain city to which Mr. Moody went in the latter years of his life, and where I

went with him, it was publicly announced that Mr. Moody would accept no money

whatever for his services. Now, in point of fact, Mr. Moody was dependent, in a

measure, upon what was given him at various services; but when this announcement

was made, Mr. Moody said nothing, and left that city without a penny's

compensation for the hard work he did there; and, I think, he paid his own hotel bill.

And yet a minister in that very city came out with an article in a paper, which I read,

in which he told a fairy tale of the financial demands that Mr. Moody made upon

them, which story I knew personally to be absolutely untrue. Millions of dollars

passed into Mr. Moody hands, but they passed through; they did not stick to his

fingers.

This is the point at which many an evangelist makes shipwreck, and his great work

comes to an untimely end. The love of money on the part of some evangelists has

done more to discredit evangelistic work in our day, and to lay many an evangelist

on the shelf, than almost any other cause.

While I was away on my recent tour I was told by one of the most reliable ministers

in one of our eastern cities of a campaign conducted by one who has been greatly

used in the past. (Do not imagine, for a moment, that I am speaking of Billy Sunday,

for I am not; this same minister spoke in the highest terms of Mr. Sunday and of a

campaign which he conducted in a city where this minister was a pastor.) This

evangelist of whom I now speak came to a city for a united evangelistic campaign

and was supported by fifty-three churches. The minister who told me about the

matter was himself chairman of the Finance Committee.

The evangelist showed such a longing for money and so deliberately violated the

agreement he had made before coming to the city and so insisted upon money being

gathered for him in other ways than he had himself prescribed in the original

contract, that this minister threatened to resign from the Finance Committee. He

was, however, persuaded to remain to avoid a scandal. "As the total result of the

three weeks' campaign there were only twenty-four clear decisions," said my friend;

"and after it was over the ministers got together and by a vote with but one

dissenting voice, they agreed to send a letter to this evangelist telling him frankly

that they were done with him and with his methods of evangelism forever, and that

they felt it their duty to warn other cities against him and his methods and the

results of his work." Let us lay the lesson to our hearts and take warning in time.

6. His Consuming Passion for the Salvation of the Lost

The sixth reason why God used D. L. Moody was because of his consuming passion

for the salvation of the lost. Mr. Moody made the resolution, shortly after he himself

was saved, that he would never let twenty-four hours pass over his head without

speaking to at least one person about his soul. His was a very busy life, and

sometimes he would forget his resolution until the last hour, and sometimes he

would get out of bed, dress, go out and talk to someone about his soul in order that

he might not let one day pass without having definitely told at least one of his fellowmortals

about his need and the Savior who could meet it.

One night Mr. Moody was going home from his place of business. It was very late,

and it suddenly occurred to him that he had not spoken to one single person that day

about accepting Christ. He said to himself: "Here's a day lost. I have not spoken to

anyone today and I shall not see anybody at this late hour." But as he walked up the

street he saw a man standing under a lamppost. The man was a perfect stranger to

him, though it turned out afterwards the man knew who Mr. Moody was. He stepped

up to this stranger and said: "Are you a Christian?" The man replied: "That is none of

your business, whether I am a Christian or not. If you were not a sort of a preacher I

would knock you into the gutter for your impertinence." Mr. Moody said a few

earnest words and passed on.

The next day that man called upon one of Mr. Moody's prominent business friends

and said to him: "That man Moody of yours over on the North Side is doing more

harm than he is good. He has got zeal without knowledge. He stepped up to me last

night, a perfect stranger, and insulted me. He asked me if I were a Christian, and I

told him it was none of his business and if he were not a sort of a preacher I would

knock him into the gutter for his impertinence. He is doing more harm than he is

good. He has got zeal without knowledge." Mr. Moody's friend sent for him and said:

"Moody, you are doing more harm than you are good; you've got zeal without

knowledge: you insulted a friend of mine on the street last night. You went up to

him, a perfect stranger, and asked him if he were a Christian, and he tells me if you

had not been a sort of a preacher he would have knocked you into the gutter for

your impertinence. You are doing more harm than you are good; you have got zeal

without knowledge."

Mr. Moody went out of that man's office somewhat crestfallen. He wondered if he

were not doing more harm than he was good, if he really had zeal without

knowledge. (Let me say, in passing, it is far better to have zeal without knowledge

than it is to have knowledge without zeal. Some men and women are as full of

knowledge as an egg is of meat; they are so deeply versed in Bible truth that they

can sit in criticism on the preachers and give the preachers pointers, but they have

so little zeal that they do not lead one soul to Christ in a whole year.)

Weeks passed by. One night Mr. Moody was in bed when he heard a tremendous

pounding at his front door. He jumped out of bed and rushed to the door. He thought

the house was on fire. He thought the man would break down the door. He opened

the door and there stood this man. He said: "Mr. Moody, I have not had a good

night's sleep since that night you spoke to me under the lamppost, and I have come

around at this unearthly hour of the night for you to tell me what I have to do to be

saved." Mr. Moody took him in and told him what to do to be saved. Then he

accepted Christ, and when the Civil War broke out, he went to the front and laid

down his life fighting for his country.

Another night, Mr. Moody got home and had gone to bed before it occurred to him

that he had not spoken to a soul that day about accepting Christ. "Well," he said to

himself, "it is no good getting up now; there will be nobody on the street at this hour

of the night." But he got up, dressed and went to the front door. It was pouring rain.

"Oh," he said, "there will be no one out in this pouring rain. Just then he heard the

patter of a man's feet as he came down the street, holding an umbrella over his

head. Then Mr. Moody darted out and rushed up to the man and said: "May I share

the shelter of your umbrella?" "Certainly," the man replied. Then Mr. Moody said:

"Have you any shelter in the time of storm?" and preached Jesus to him. Oh, men

and women, if we were as full of zeal for the salvation of souls as that, how long

would it be before the whole country would be shaken by the power of a mighty,

God-sent revival?

One day in Chicago — the day after the elder Carter Harrison was shot, when his

body was lying in state in the City Hall — Mr. Moody and I were riding up Randolph

Street together in a streetcar right alongside of the City Hall. The car could scarcely

get through because of the enormous crowds waiting to get in and view the body of

Mayor Harrison. As the car tried to push its way through the crowd, Mr. Moody

turned to me and said: "Torrey, what does this mean?" "Why," I said, "Carter

Harrison's body lies there in the City Hall and these crowds are waiting to see it."

Then he said: "This will never do, to let these crowds get away from us without

preaching to them; we must talk to them. You go and hire Hooley's Opera House

(which was just opposite the City Hall) for the whole day." I did so. The meetings

began at nine o'clock in the morning, and we had one continuous service from that

hour until six in the evening, to reach those crowds.

Mr. Moody was a man on fire for God. Not only was he always "on the job" himself

but he was always getting others to work as well. He once invited me down to

Northfield to spend a month there with the schools, speaking first to one school and

then crossing the river to the other. I was obliged to use the ferry a great deal; it

was before the present bridge was built at that point.

One day he said to me: "Torrey, did you know that that ferryman that ferries you

across every day was unconverted?" He did not tell me to speak to him, but I knew

what he meant. When some days later it was told him that the ferryman was saved,

he was exceedingly happy.

Once, when walking down a certain street in Chicago, Mr. Moody stepped up to a

man, a perfect stranger to him, and said: "Sir, are you a Christian?" "You mind your

own business," was the reply. Mr. Moody replied: "This is my business." The man

said, "Well, then, you must be Moody." Out in Chicago they used to call him in those

early days "Crazy Moody," because day and night he was speaking to everybody he

got a chance to speak to about being saved.

One time he was going to Milwaukee, and in the seat that he had chosen sat a

traveling man. Mr. Moody sat down beside him and immediately began to talk with

him. " Where are you going?" Mr. Moody asked. When told the name of the town he

said: "We will soon be there; we'll have to get down to business at once. Are you

saved?" The man said that he was not, and Mr. Moody took out his Bible and there

on the train showed him the way of salvation. Then he said: "Now, you must take

Christ." The man did; he was converted right there on the train.

Most of you have heard, I presume, the story President Wilson used to tell about D.

L. Moody. Ex-President Wilson said that he once went into a barber shop and took a

chair next to the one in which D. L. Moody was sitting, though he did not know that

Mr. Moody was there. He had not been in the chair very long before, as ex-President

Wilson phrased it, he "knew there was a personality in the other chair," and he

began to listen to the conversation going on; he heard Mr. Moody tell the barber

about the Way of Life, and President Wilson said, "I have never forgotten that scene

to this day." When Mr. Moody was gone, he asked the barber who he was; when he

was told that it was D. L. Moody, President Wilson said: "It made an impression upon

me I have not yet forgotten."

On one occasion in Chicago Mr. Moody saw a little girl standing on the street with a

pail in her hand. He went up to her and invited her to his Sunday school, telling her

what a pleasant place it was. She promised to go the following Sunday, but she did

not do so. Mr. Moody watched for her for weeks, and then one day he saw her on the

street again, at some distance from him. He started toward her, but she saw him too

and started to run away. Mr. Moody followed her. Down she went one street, Mr.

Moody after her; up she went another street, Mr. Moody after her, through an alley,

Mr. Moody still following; out on another street, Mr. Moody after her; then she

dashed into a saloon and Mr. Moody dashed after her. She ran out the back door and

up a flight of stairs, Mr. Moody still following; she dashed into a room, Mr. Moody

following; she threw herself under the bed and Mr. Moody reached under the bed

and pulled her out by the foot, and led her to Christ.

He found that her mother was a widow who had once seen better circumstances, but

had gone down until now she was living over this saloon. She had several children.

Mr. Moody led the mother and all the family to Christ. Several of the children were

prominent members of the Moody Church until they moved away, and afterwards

became prominent in churches elsewhere. This particular child, whom he pulled from

underneath the bed, was, when I was the pastor of the Moody Church, the wife of

one of the most prominent officers in the church.

Only two or three years ago, as I came out of a ticket office in Memphis, Tennessee,

a fine-looking young man followed me. He said: "Are you not Dr. Torrey?" I said,

"Yes." He said: "I am so and so." He was the son of this woman. He was then a

traveling man, and an officer in the church where he lived. When Mr. Moody pulled

that little child out from under the bed by the foot he was pulling a whole family into

the Kingdom of God, and eternity alone will reveal how many succeeding generations

he was pulling into the Kingdom of God.

D.L. Moody's consuming passion for souls was not for the souls of those who would

be helpful to him in building up his work here or elsewhere; his love for souls knew

no class limitations. He was no respecter of persons; it might be an earl or a duke or

it might be an ignorant colored boy on the street; it was all the same to him; there

was a soul to save and he did what lay in his power to save that soul.

A friend once told me that the first time he ever heard of Mr. Moody was when Mr.

Reynolds of Peoria told him that he once found Mr. Moody sitting in one of the

squatters' shanties that used to be in that part of the city toward the lake, which was

then called, "The Sands," with a colored boy on his knee, a tallow candle in one hand

and a Bible in the other, and Mr. Moody was spelling out the words (for at that time

the boy could not read very well) of certain verses of Scripture, in an attempt to lead

that ignorant colored boy to Christ.

Oh, young men and women and all Christian workers, if you and I were on fire for

souls like that, how long would it be before we had a revival? Suppose that tonight

the fire of God falls and fills our hearts, a burning fire that will send us out all over

the country, and across the water to China, Japan, India and Africa, to tell lost souls

the way of salvation!

7. Definitely Endued with Power from on High

The seventh thing that was the secret of why God used D. L. Moody was that he had

a very definite enduement with power from on High, a very clear and definite

baptism with the Holy Ghost. Moody knew he had "the baptism with the Holy Ghost";

he had no doubt about it. In his early days he was a great hustler; he had a

tremendous desire to do something, but he had no real power. He worked very

largely in the energy of the flesh.

But there were two humble Free Methodist women who used to come over to his

meetings in the Y.M.C.A. One was "Auntie Cook" and the other, Mrs. Snow. (I think

her name was not Snow at that time.) These two women would come to Mr. Moody

at the close of his meetings and say: "We are praying for you." Finally, Mr. Moody

became somewhat nettled and said to them one night: "Why are you praying for me?

Why don't you pray for the unsaved?" They replied: "We are praying that you may

get the power." Mr. Moody did not know what that meant, but he got to thinking

about it, and then went to these women and said: "I wish you would tell me what

you mean"; and they told him about the definite baptism with the Holy Ghost. Then

he asked that he might pray with them and not they merely pray for him.

Auntie Cook once told me of the intense fervor with which Mr. Moody prayed on that

occasion. She told me in words that I scarcely dare repeat, though I have never

forgotten them. And he not only prayed with them, but he also prayed alone.

Not long after, one day on his way to England, he was walking up Wall Street in New

York; (Mr. Moody very seldom told this and I almost hesitate to tell it) and in the

midst of the bustle and hurry of that city his prayer was answered; the power of God

fell upon him as he walked up the street and he had to hurry off to the house of a

friend and ask that he might have a room by himself, and in that room he stayed

alone for hours; and the Holy Ghost came upon him, filling his soul with such joy

that at last he had to ask God to withhold His hand, lest he die on the spot from very

joy. He went out from that place with the power of the Holy Ghost upon him, and

when he got to London (partly through the prayers of a bedridden saint in Mr.

Lessey's church), the power of God wrought through him mightily in North London,

and hundreds were added to the churches; and that was what led to his being

invited over to the wonderful campaign that followed in later years.

Time and again Mr. Moody would come to me and say: "Torrey, I want you to preach

on the baptism with the Holy Ghost." I do not know how many times he asked me to

speak on that subject. Once, when I had been invited to preach in the Fifth Avenue

Presbyterian Church, New York (invited at Mr. Moody's suggestion; had it not been

for his suggestion the invitation would never have been extended to me), just before

I started for New York, Mr. Moody drove up to my house and said: "Torrey, they

want you to preach at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York. It is a

great big church, cost a million dollars to build it." Then he continued: "Torrey, I just

want to ask one thing of you. I want to tell you what to preach about. You will

preach that sermon of yours on 'Ten Reasons Why I Believe the Bible to Be the Word

of God' and your sermon on 'The Baptism With the Holy Ghost.'"

Time and again, when a call came to me to go off to some church, he would come up

to me and say: "Now, Torrey, be sure and preach on the baptism with the Holy

Ghost." I do not know how many times he said that to me. Once I asked him: "Mr.

Moody, don't you think I have any sermons but those two: 'Ten Reasons Why I

Believe the Bible to Be the Word of God' and 'The Baptism With the Holy Ghost'?"

"Never mind that," he replied, "you give them those two sermons.

Once he had some teachers at Northfield — fine men, all of them, but they did not

believe in a definite baptism with the Holy Ghost for the individual. They believed

that every child of God was baptized with the Holy Ghost, and they did not believe in

any special baptism with the Holy Ghost for the individual. Mr. Moody came to me

and said: "Torrey, will you come up to my house after the meeting tonight and I will

get those men to come, and I want you to talk this thing out with them."

Of course, I very readily consented, and Mr. Moody and I talked for a long time, but

they did not altogether see eye to eye with us. And when they went, Mr. Moody

signaled me to remain for a few moments. Mr. Moody sat there with his chin on his

breast, as he so often sat when he was in deep thought; then he looked up and said:

"Oh, why will they split hairs? Why don't they see that this is just the one thing that

they themselves need? They are good teachers, they are wonderful teachers, and I

am so glad to have them here; but why will they not see that the baptism with the

Holy Ghost is just the one touch that they themselves need?"

I shall never forget the eighth of July, 1894, to my dying day. It was the closing day

of the Northfield Students' Conference -- the gathering of the students from the

eastern colleges. Mr. Moody had asked me to preach on Saturday night and Sunday

morning on the baptism with the Holy Ghost. On Saturday night I had spoken about,

"The Baptism With the Holy Ghost: What It Is; What It Does; the Need of It and the

Possibility of It." On Sunday morning I spoke on "The Baptism With the Holy Spirit:

How to Get It." It was just exactly twelve o'clock when I finished my morning

sermon, and I took out my watch and said: "Mr. Moody has invited us all to go up to

the mountain at three o'clock this afternoon to pray for the power of the Holy Spirit.

It is three hours to three o'clock. Some of you cannot wait three hours. You do not

need to wait. Go to your rooms; go out into the woods; go to your tent; go

anywhere where you can get alone with God and have this matter out with Him."

At three o'clock we all gathered in front of Mr. Moody's mother's house (she was

then still living), and then began to pass down the lane, through the gate, up on the

mountainside. There were four hundred and fifty-six of us in all; I know the number

because Paul Moody counted us as we passed through the gate.

After a while Mr. Moody said: "I don't think we need to go any further; let us sit

down here." We sat down on stumps and logs and on the ground. Mr. Moody said:

"Have any of you students anything to say?" I think about seventy-five of them

arose, one after the other, and said: "Mr. Moody, I could not wait till three o'clock; I

have been alone with God since the morning service, and I believe I have a right to

say that I have been baptized with the Holy Spirit."

When these testimonies were over, Mr. Moody said: "Young men, I can't see any

reason why we shouldn't kneel down here right now and ask God that the Holy Ghost

may fall upon us just as definitely as He fell upon the apostles on the Day of

Pentecost. Let us pray." And we did pray, there on the mountainside. As we had

gone up the mountainside heavy clouds had been gathering, and just as we began to

pray those clouds broke and the raindrops began to fall through the overhanging

pines. But there was another cloud that had been gathering over Northfield for ten

days, a cloud big with the mercy and grace and power of God; and as we began to

pray our prayers seemed to pierce that cloud and the Holy Ghost fell upon us. Men

and women, that is what we all need the Baptism with the Holy Ghost.