Remembering Moody's Birthday

Eighty-nine years ago, on February 5, Dwight Lyman Moody was born at Northfield, Massachusetts. Although he has been “with the Lord” since 1899, Mr. Moody is still living and ministering through the institutions which he founded.

Dr. Stuart Holden, the well-known preacher of England, in a recent address stated that the influence of D.L. Moody in England is greater today than when the evangelist was there in bodily presence. The Christian life of England owes more to Mr. Moody than to any other man. Dr. Holden says, “There are few Christian enterprises in our country which do not directly owe some measure of their inspiration to the impulse that crossed them or to the blessing that came to them directly through Mr. Moody. If there is one man who ever has touched the life of England in spiritual things, it is he. The larger part of the great network of Christian organization in England took its rise in the evangelistic movement and revival which God gave to our country in the days of his preaching.”

Dr. Holden referred to the meeting in Glasgow last year, held to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of D.L. Moody’s mission, in Scotland, at which three thousand people were present, many of whom were men of distinction in government, law, medicine, and other professions. In this gathering, Sir John Graham, a man of 32 years, arose and told of sitting on the platform at one of the Moody meetings between William Gladstone and Matthew Arnold. At the close of D.L. Moody’s address, Mr. Gladstone turned to Mr. Graham and said: “Graham, I thank God that I have lived to see the day when He has given His church on Earth a man with power to preach the Gospel as I have heard it today.” Whereupon Matthew Arnold turned to Mr. Gladstone and said: “I would give all that I have if I could believe as Mr. Moody does.”

The following letter was received from Mr. H. Mells, Secretary of the Manchester Sacred Song Association, Manchester, England:

“In the paper, The Christian, we read that you are building at The Moody Church, Chicago, a memorial to the late D.L. Moody and his great work. You will be pleased to know that here in Manchester we have a living memorial to the work accomplished by God through His servants, Messrs. Sankey and Moody, during their visits in 1874 and 1883: The Manchester Sacred Song Association. This choir has now been in existence fifty-one years and is still continuing its work of taking the gospel message in song to the patients in different hospitals. We use only the Moody and Sankey Hymns and Torrey’s and Alexander’s Hymns. We are still undenominational and our members are drawn from the different churches and chapels.”

Scores of Christians the world over are praising God for the day of D.L. Moody’s birth and for the day when, hearing that “the world has yet to see what God can do with one man who is wholly surrendered to Him,” Mr. Moody said by God’s grace, he would be that man.