3V , M7 ra 1923 ' ■ ■ ■..' liyw Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library https://archive.org/detaiis/whygoduseddimood00torr_1 Why God Used D. L. Moody / By R. A. TORREY, D.D. Author of “How to Bring Men to Christ,” etc. Foreword by WILL H. HOUGHTON, D.D. President, The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago The Bible Institute Colportage Ass’n 843'845 North Wells Street / Copyright, 1923, by Fleming H. Revell Company The Bible Institute Colportage Ass’ Owner Printed In U. S. A. FOREWORD This little book has been out of print for a time. Its message is too important to be lost, so in this form it is presented to the world again. Dr. Torrey knew Mr. Moody inti¬ mately. He was associated with him for years, both in the work of evangelism and as the first Superintendent of The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. Some of our readers may take excep¬ tion to Dr. Torrey’s use of the term, “the baptism with the Holy Ghost.” Perhaps if Dr. Torrey lived in our day, and saw some of the wild fire in connection with that expression, he would use some other phrase. But let no one quibble about an experience as important as the filling with the Spirit. In this little book. Dr. Torrey quotes Mr. Moody as saying, in a discus¬ sion of this very matter, “Oh, why will they split hairs? Why don’t they see that FOREWORD this is just the one thing that they them¬ selves 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?” Undoubtedly there is a fullness of the Spirit’s presence unknown to some Chris¬ tians but known to many, such as D. L. Moody, F. B. Meyer, George Mueller, and Andrew Murray, the victorious “M’s” of recent church history. The tragedy is that so many are technically correct and spiritually powerless. What if the bap¬ tism in the Holy Spirit was once and for all, the exhortation “Be filled with the Spirit,” (Eph. 5:18) still remains. The ‘Vhy” of any life is always inter¬ esting, but when that life is an outstand¬ ing success it becomes doubly so. That Mr. Moody was a successful man no one would deny. He accomplished a lot dur¬ ing his lifetime and he left organizations on both sides of the Atlantic which are still triumphantly at work. FOREWORD A contemporary of Moody, still living, says that he was a much more important evangelist than others because he was able to put new converts to work at once. Few men have had his ability to get others working. Indefatigable himself, he in¬ spired others to go at it. Moody was a Wesley, rather than a Whitefield, though he had many of the qualities of both. But like Wesley he did not depend on his preaching alone for results. He sought to leave some¬ thing behind. Undoubtedly Whitefield was a better preacher than Wesley. He preached great sermons to huge throngs. He held 20,000 spellbound on Boston Common as he preached Christ and many were saved. John Wesley perhaps faced smaller crowds, but he did not leave until he left the “class meeting” behind. He left a little company and said to them, “You go out and get others.” D. L. Moody believed that every Christian was to become a soul winner. Look around and see the institutions which Mr. Moody left in Great Britain FOREWORD and America. See his printed sermons still circulated by the scores of thousands yearly. See the steady line of young people going through the Bible Institute at Chicago to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth, and you will realize that Moody was a success. God writes history in terms of human personality. The Book of Genesis gath¬ ers around eight men. The Bible presents epochs and eras, but at the center of each is a personality, and generally the man is the key to the age. Much of Old Testament history is summed up in the eleventh of Hebrews, but it is presented as the story of human life. God’s estimate of it all is seen in the men, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and so on. Is it too much to say that God is always looking for a man he can use? Notice the word “use,” for there seem to be four ideas concerning our relationship to God in service. Some teach that man is in¬ structed of God. The Divine command is given and man must obey. Others teach FOREWORD that in service man is helped of God. Still others, that he is led of God. All of these suggest a partnership with Deity. The fourth idea, and the right one, is that man can be used of God. This demands the surrender and submission of a Christian. This looks to God for enablement and gives to Him the glory. Moody was used of God. Men pass. Nations rise and fall. Cus¬ toms change. Accepted philosophies are discarded like last year’s garments. But it is ever true that God is looking for a man He can use. Will you be that man? Will H. Houghton. November, 1936 t \ \ ) f / ; / / \ I I ! \ \ • i'■;■>/'*. I. why God Used D. L. Moody E ighty-six years ago (Feb- uary 5, 1837) there was born of poor parents in a humble farm¬ house 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 6 6 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY I shall not seek to glorify Mr. Moody, but the God Who by His grace. His entirely unmerited favour, 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 Grod 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 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 7 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 arbi¬ trarily. 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 genera¬ tion ; 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 mani¬ fested in his life? Pondering this ques¬ tion it seemed to me that there were seven things in the life of D. L. Moody that ac¬ counted for God’s using him so largely as He did. I 8 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY I. 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; every¬ thing he was and everything he had, be¬ longed 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 char¬ acter. It does not occur to me at this moment what they were; but I am con¬ fident 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 surren¬ dered 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: WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 9 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 any one 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 any¬ body. 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 10 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY thought God wanted him to do anything he would do it. He belonged wholly, un¬ reservedly, 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 him¬ self: “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 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 11 of men and women in Christian work, bril¬ liant men and women, rarely gifted men and women, men and women who are mak¬ ing 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 there¬ fore 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. II. A Man or 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 wonder- 12 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY ful 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 over¬ come 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. Oftentimes 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,” WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 13 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 towards Lover’s Lane, talking about some great 14 WHY GOD USED D. L MOODY 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. WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 15 Moody said to me: ‘‘ Torrey, we will let the other men do the talldng 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 dol¬ lars 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 16 WHY GOD USED 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 under¬ took was backed up by prayer, and in everything, his ultimate dependence was upon God. III. 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 em¬ phatically 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 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 17 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 study¬ ing 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 morn¬ ing 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 In¬ stitute and I had already begun my work. 18 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 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 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 19 happened to be up that particular morn¬ ing. He said: “ I want you to go some¬ where with me/’ and I went down with him. Then I found out that he had al¬ ready 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 conven¬ tions 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 20 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY are mere weaklings^ when they might he 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 theatres of Chicago dared to open because it was expected that everybody in Chi¬ cago 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 re¬ plied, “ Mr. Moody, nobody will be at this end of Chicago on that day; not even the theatres dare to open; everybody is going WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 21 down to Jackson Park to the Fair; we can¬ not 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 meet¬ ings 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 amaze¬ ment that not only was it packed but the vestibule was packed and the steps were packed, and there was no getting any¬ where 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 22 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 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 philos¬ ophies and fads and fancies of the day, that 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 Audi¬ torium for week-day mornings and after¬ noons 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 im¬ possible it is for business men 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 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 23 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 capac¬ ity of any building in the city, seating in those days about seven thousand people, and announced week-day 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 business men 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 let¬ ters of a similar purport and wrote to Mr. Moody urging him to give us evening 24 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY meetings. But Mr. Moody simply re¬ plied: “ 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 no¬ where 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 ap¬ pointed 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 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 25 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 any one else in the world could have drawn such a crowd at such a time. Why? Because though Mr. Moody loiew 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 Relig¬ ions. One very gifted man of letters in the East was invited to speak at this Con- 26 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY gress. He saw in this invitation the op¬ portunity 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 emenda¬ tions as they had to suggest. Then he re¬ wrote 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, per¬ fect. 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 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 27 walked on to the platform to face a mag¬ nificent audience of eleven women and two men! But there was not a building any¬ where 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 contains God’s Word, and the only Book that has power to gather, and hold, and bless the crowds for any great length of time. IV. A Humble Man The fourth reason why God continu¬ ously, 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 28 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 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 hum¬ ble man I ever knew, i. e., the most humble man when we bear in mind the great things 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 spake 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 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 29 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 conven¬ tion 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 30 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 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. Wh}^? Because of overestima¬ tion 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 com¬ pelled 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 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 31 find man after man who had accomplished great things whom God had to set aside because of his sense of his own impor¬ tance.” And God set that man aside also from that time. I think he is still living, but no one ever hears of him, and has not heard of him for years. God used D. L. Moody, I think, beyond any man of his day, but it made no dif¬ ference how much God used him, he never was puffed up. One day, speaking to me of a great New Y"ork 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 ad¬ dress to-night.’ ” Then Mr. Moody con¬ tinued: “ 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 vv 32 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY England, Scotland and Ireland, and many of the English bishops were ready to fol¬ low 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 ap¬ proaches 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 be- WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 33 fore 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 Chris¬ tian 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. V. His Entire Freedom From the Love of Money The fifth secret of D. L. Moody’s con¬ tinual power and usefulness was Ms 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 him¬ self. He told me during the World’s Fair that if he had taken, for himself, the royalties on the hymn books which he had 34 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 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 pub¬ lisher (I think Morgan & Scott) and they declined to publish them, because, as they said, Philip Phillips had recently been over and published a hymn book 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 re¬ sults were offered to Mr. Moody, but he refused to touch them. “ But,” it was WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 35 urged on him, “ the money belongs to you,” but he would not touch it. Mr. Fleming H. Revell was at the time treas¬ urer of the Chicago Avenue Church, com¬ monly known as the Moody Tabernacle. Only the basement of this new church building had been completed, funds having been exhausted. Hearing of the hymn- book 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 mat¬ ter, 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 depend¬ ent, in a measure, upon what was given him at various services, but when this an- 36 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY nouncement 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, 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 per¬ sonally to be absolutely untrue. Millions of dollars passed into Mr. Moody’s hands, hut 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 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 37 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 sup¬ ported by fifty-three churches. The min¬ ister who told me about the matter was himself chairman of the Finance Commit¬ tee. The evangelist showed such a long¬ ing 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 88 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY three weeks’ campaign there were only twenty-four clear decisions,” said my friend, “ and after it was over the minis¬ ters 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. VI. His Consuming Passion for the Salvation of the Lost The sixth reason why God used D. L. Moody was because of Ms 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 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 39 about his soul. His was a very busy life, and sometimes he would forget his resolu¬ tion until the last hour, and sometimes he would get out of bed, dress, go out and talk to some one about his soul in order that he might not let one day pass without having definitely told at least one of his fellow-mortals about his need and the Saviour 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 any one to-day and I shall not see anybody at this late hour.” But as he walked up the street he saw a man stand¬ ing under a lamp-post. 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? ” 40 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 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 busi¬ ness 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 tc"d him it was none of his business and if he were not a sort of a preacher I would knock him into the gut¬ ter 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: WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 41 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 im¬ pertinence. You are doing more harm than you are good; you have got zeal with¬ out knowledge.” Mr. IMoody 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 knowl¬ edge. (Let me say, in passing, it is far better to have zeal without knowledge than it is to have loiowledge without zeal. Some men and women are as full of knowl¬ edge 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 42 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 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 lamp-post, 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 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 43 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 Ran- 44 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY dolph Street together in a street car right alongside of the City Hall. The car could scarcely get through because of the enor¬ mous 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 preach¬ ing 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 ” WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 45 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 busi¬ ness.” The man said: “ Well, then, you must be Moody.” Out in Chicago they 46 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 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 h"^ had chosen sat a travelling man. Mr. Moody sat down beside him and im¬ mediately 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. WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 47 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, and he heard Mr. Moody tell the barber about the Way of Life, and President Wilson said, “ I have never for¬ gotten that scene to this day.” When Mr. Moody was gone, he asked the barber who he was, and he was told that it was D. L. Moody, and 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, tell¬ ing 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 48 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY her on the street again, at some distance from him. He started towards 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 follow¬ ing, 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, and 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 liv¬ ing 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 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 49 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 promi¬ nent officers in the church. Only two or three years ago, as I came out of a ticket office in Memphis, Tennessee, a fine look¬ ing 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 travelling 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 suc¬ ceeding 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 50 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 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 col¬ oured 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. Revnolds 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 towards the lake, which was then called, “ The Sands,” with a coloured 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 he could not read very well) of certain verses of Scripture, in an attempt to lead that ignorant coloured boy to Christ. Oh, young men and women and all Christian workers, if you and I WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 51 were on fire for souls like that, how long would it be before we had a revival? Sup¬ pose that to-night 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! VII. 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 endnement with power from on high, a very clear and def¬ inite baptism with the Holy Ghost. Mr. 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 some¬ thing, 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 62 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 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 some¬ what 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 fervour with which Mr. Moody prayed on that occasion. She told me in words that I scarcely dare repeat, though I have never WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 63 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 bv 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 64 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 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 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 ex¬ tended 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 Rea- WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 55 sons 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 re¬ plied, ‘‘ you give them those two sermons.” Once he had some teachers at North- field—fine men, all of them, but they did not believe in a definite baptism with the Holy Ghost for the individual. They be¬ lieved that every child of God was bap¬ tized with the Holy Ghost, and they did not believe in any special baptism with the Holv Ghost for the individual. Mr. 66 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY Moody came to me and said: “ Torrey, will you come up to my house after the meeting to-night 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 signalled 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 8th of July, 1894, to my dying day. It was the closing WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 6Y day of the Northfield Students’ Confer¬ ence—the gathering of the students from the eastern colleges. Mr. Moody had asked me to preach on Saturday night and Sun¬ day 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 Bap¬ tism 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 on 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 can¬ not 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 58 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 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 num¬ ber 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 morn¬ ing 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 WHY GOD USED D. L. MOODY 59 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 mountain¬ side. As we had gone up the mountain¬ side heavj^ clouds had been gathering, and just as we began to pray those clouds broke and the rain-drops 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. Printed in the United States of America \ I ^ ^ ^ h i* ‘Vi 4 ‘ ''j ' 1-4 ^i N I •-•'■. ’• ri''^ 4:/i:\*-"^e‘-i' ' * * A ''■’ i/ Dj. -t ft J4 '- X r^’^-¥Xiiy y /■r " ,4^,% fi: .> ’ ^ ^ '»r