Today (December 22) is the day in 1899 when D.L. Moody died. Below I link to a post that Fred Sanders has written that shares the challenge that Torrey gave at Moody’s funeral.
Growing up in Iowa we often heard stories about Moody and the ministry team he led in Chicago. In our little church in Iowa a visiting evangelist might tell of how Moody was saved, or about him ministering before and after the Great Chicago Fire.
You’ve heard these stories too. How many times have you heard the story of how Horatio Spafford wrote It is Well With My Soul?
Or, do you know the account of Phillip Bliss (another of Moody’s crew) dying on a cold December night because he went back into a burning train to try and save his wife (see here)? It was Bliss who wrote the tune for It is Well and the wonderful hymn, I Will Sing of My Redeemer.
I will sing of my redeemer / And his wondrous love to me / On the cruel cross he suffered / from the curse, to set me free
D.L. Moody was the leader, and I was always in awe of the stories of his leadership – - For instance, do you know that President elect Lincoln stopped in Chicago to see Moody’s work with the orphans? Or, that the homeless children in Chicago were known as “Moody’s Bodyguard” because he spent so much time with them?
Growing us as a farm kid in Iowa, if someone had told me that I would have the opportunity to publish a book with Moody Press (see here), I just wouldn’t have believed it. I cannot express how honored I am.
Fred Sanders has written an excellent reflection on what happened at Moody’s funeral:
Today (December 22) is the day in 1899 when Dwight L. Moody died. The Christian world was devastated by the passing of this evangelical giant. Moody had been the figurehead for the aggressive, revivalist evangelicalism of the nineteenth century, and when he died just ten days from the end of the century, it seemed symbolic. At his funeral, A. T. Pierson said:
When a great tree falls, you know its greatness, not only by its branches, but by its roots, by how much soil it tore up as it fell. I know of no other man who, falling in this century, has uprooted a wider tract than this man who has just left us.
Pierson reviewed the giants who had departed in the final decades of the century: “Charles Spurgeon of London, A. J. Gordon of Boston, Catherine Booth, mother of the Salvation Army, and George Muller of Bristol, England,” and declared that “not one made the worldwide commotion in their departures that Dwight L. Moody has caused.”
Moody’s accomplishments were astonishing: Massive evangelistic outreach at the Chicago World’s Fair, a round-the-world tour with Sankey, a network of educational ventures, and a revitalizing of many denominations. As they buried him, the world’s evangelicals thought the golden age was past, and it was time to settle down.
But R.A. Torrey had another idea, and it was his funeral sermon for Dwight Moody that sounded the prophetic note his generation needed. . .
Read the rest here.
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. Kevin DeYoung recently posted some excellent material for all leaders or would be leaders to consider.
