Dwight Lyman Moody

Synopsis

Dwight Lyman Moody (1837 - 1899) was an American evangelist and publisher.

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Main article

D.L. Moody (February 5, 1837 - December 22, 1899) was an American evangelist and publisher who founded the Moody Church, Northfield School and Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts (now the Northfield Mount Hermon School), the Moody Bible Institute and Moody Publishers.

Life

Dwight Moody was born in Northfield, Massachusetts to a large family. His father, a small farmer and stone mason, was an alcoholic and died at the age of 41 when Moody was four years old. He had, at that time, five older brothers and a younger sister, with an additional twin brother and sister born one month after his father's death. His mother struggled to support the family, but some of her children, including Dwight, had to be sent off to work for their room and board. Throughout this time, she continued to send them to church. Together with his eight siblings he was raised in the Unitarian church. His oldest brother ran away and was never heard from by the family again.

When Moody turned 17, he moved to Boston to work in his uncle's shoe store. One of his uncle's requirements was that Moody attend the Congregational Church of Mount Vernon where Dr. Edward Norris Kirk was pastor. In April 1855 Moody converted to evangelical Christianity when his teacher talked to him about how much God loved him. His conversion sparked the start of his career as an evangelist. However his first application for church membership, in May 1855, was rejected. He was not received as a church member until May 4, 1856. As his teacher, Mr. Edward Kimball, stated,

I can truly say, and in saying it I magnify the infinite grace of God as bestowed upon him, that I have seen few persons whose minds were spiritually darker than was his when he came into my Sunday-school class; and I think that the committee of the Mount Vernon Church seldom met an applicant for membership more unlikely ever to become a Christian of clear and decided views of Gospel truth, still less to fill any extended sphere of public usefulness. Mr. Moody remained in my class for two years, until he bade me good-bye on leaving Boston for Chicago.

Moody moved to Chicago, Illinois in September 1856, where he joined the Plymouth Congregational Church, and began to take an active part in the prayer meetings. In the spring of 1857 he began to minister to the welfare of the sailors in Chicago's port, then gamblers and thieves in the saloons. A contemporary witness recalls these days:

The first meeting I ever saw him at was in a little old shanty that had been abandoned by a saloon-keeper. Mr. Moody had got the place to hold the meetings in at night. I went there a little late; and the first thing I saw was a man standing up with a few tallow candles around him, holding a negro boy, and trying to read to him the story of the Prodigal Son and a great many words he could not read out, and had to skip. I thought, 'If the Lord can ever use such an instrument as that for His honor and glory, it will astonish me.'

His work led to the largest Sunday School of his time. As a result of his tireless labor, within a year the average attendance at his school was 650, while 60 volunteers from various churches served as teachers. It became so well known that the just-elected President Lincoln visited and spoke at a Sunday School meeting on November 25, 1860.

After the Civil War started, he was involved with the U.S. Christian Commission of the YMCA, and paid nine visits to the battle-front, being present among the Union soldiers after the conflicts of Shiloh, Pittsburgh Landing, and Murfreesboro, and ultimately entered Richmond with the army of General Grant. He married Miss Emma C. Revell, on August 28, 1862, with whom he had a daughter and a son.

The growing Sunday school congregation needed a permanent home, so Moody started a church in Chicago, the Illinois Street Church.

In June 1871 Moody met Ira D. Sankey, the Gospel singer, with whom he soon partnered. In October the Great Chicago Fire destroyed his church, his home, and the dwellings of most of his members. His family had to flee for their lives, and, as Mr. Moody said, he saved nothing but his reputation and his Bible. His church was rebuilt within three months at a near-by location as the Chicago Avenue Church. His lay follower William Eugene Blackstone was a prominent American Zionist.

Links

Wikipedia - Dwight L. Moody

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