D.L. Moody's reaction was quick and to the point. "No! A thousand times no! I have no intentions of standing off here in New York City and approving something I know so little about. But I'll think it over, Emeline. Then one of these days, I'll come out to Chicago and we can talk some more about it." Moody's initial reaction to that "something" was to change through God's leading. That "something" is now the world-renowned Moody Bible Institute, which trains hundreds of men and women each year to understand and use the Scriptures. D.L. Moody dared to take up a challenge and see what God could do with a life totally committed to Him. Here is the story of the greatest American evangelist of the 1800s and the founder of the Moody Bible Institute.
Dwight Lyman Moody was the greatest evangelist of the 19th century. In the pre-television era, he traveled more than one million miles to preach the gospel to more than 100 million people. Although equipped with just four years of formal schooling, Moody launched ministries in education and publishing that remain vital and fruitful today. Moody had a passion for souls. Yet with all of his accomplishments for God, D. L. Moody remained a humble man. His greatest riches were found in the love of his Lord and the souls that had been changed for the glory of God. In these pages, today's believers will find a model of biblical passion, vision, and commitment. Lyle Dorsett reveals the heart of this great evangelist, recounting his life and realistically probing his strengths, weaknesses, virtues, faults, triumphs, struggles and motivations to find a man after God's own heart. The Deluxe Leather Collector's Edition is perfect for people any age.
No one can claim to understand the American social and religious mind of the last half of the nineteenth century who does not understand sympathetically what evangelist Dwight L. Moody and his career represented. Moody was an entrepreneur, a self-made man, a living expression of much that was hearty and some of what was crass about religion in his day. This is the first biography to place him fully within the context of the broad social, theological, and cultural developments of his time. Most of the existing biographical literature about Moody is either simplistically eulogistic or sarcastically hostile. These polar views reflect the split that occurred within the Protestant church between fundamentalists and modernists during and after Moody's career. It is with an objective overview of these divergencies that the author has prepared his biography. Mr. Findlay demonstrates how Moody's outlook evolved from the small-town framework of early nineteenth-century New England and developed into the mainstream of American evangelicalism. In the rising cities of Boston and Chicago, he concentrated his efforts to urbanize revivalism as part of a general struggle to adapt a traditional faith to a rapidly changing external environment. After his triumphant revival crusades of the 1870s, the impact of his style and message faded before the progressive liberal approach to religion that was to shape twentieth-century Protestantism. The present biography of this great evangelist is far superior to any other, both for its scholarly approach in determining the place of evangelicalism in American social and religious history and for its portrayal of the overpowering impact of Moody's personality. It will be particularly fascinating to those interested in American social history and the history of evangelism, the man and the movement.
I have embodied in The Way to God and How to Find It a considerable part of several addresses which have been delivered in different cities, both of Great Britain and my own country. God has graciously owned them when spoken from the pulpit, and I trust will none the less add his blessing now they have been put into the printed page with additional matter. -Dwight Moody
At his death on the eve of the 20th century, D.L. Moody was widely recognized as one of the most beloved and important of men in 19th-century America. A Chicago shoe salesman with a fourth grade education, Moody rose from obscurity to become God's man for the Gilded Age. He was the Billy Graham of his day--indeed it could be said that Moody invented the system of evangelism that Graham inherited and perfected. Bruce J. Evensen focuses on the pivotal years during which Moody established his reputation on both sides of the Atlantic through a series of highly popular and publicized campaigns. In four short years Moody forged the bond between revivalism and the mass media that persists to this day. Beginning in Britain in 1873 and extending across America's urban landscape, first in Brooklyn and then in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, and Boston, Moody used the power of prayer and publicity to stage citywide crusades that became civic spectacles. Modern newspapers, in the grip of economic depression, needed a story to stimulate circulation and found it in Moody's momentous mission. The evangelist and the press used one another in creating a sense of civic excitement that manufactured the largest crowds in municipal history. Critics claimed this machinery of revival was man-made. Moody's view was that he'd rather advertise than preach to empty pews. He brought a businessman's common sense to revival work and became, much against his will, a celebrity evangelist. The press in city after city made him the star of the show and helped transform his religious stage into a communal entertainment of unprecedented proportions. In chronicling Moody's use of the press and their use of him, Evensen sheds new light on a crucial chapter in the history of evangelicalism and demonstrates how popular religion helped form our modern media culture.
Dwight Lyman Moody was the Billy Graham of the 19th century, a child of a large working-class family who went on to preach to an entire nation... and its leaders: both Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant attended his revivals during their presidencies. Here, in a work that is part biography and part tribute, is the story of Moody's life-from his stolid New England childhood to his adult conversion to fundamentalist Christianity to his Chicago ministry and missionary work during the Civil War-and the story of his faith that inspired his fiery defense of the Bible and his massive evangelical crusades during the 1870s and 80s in both England and the United States. First published in 1900, just a year after Moody's death, this volume also includes essays and reflections on his life by those he worked with and motivated, and other accolades. And though more than a century separates us from Moody's power and influence, his life and work are at the root of today's orthodox fundamentalist Christianity-Moody continues to impact American culture today. Rev. AUGUSTUS WARNER WILLIAMS (1844-1920) is also the author of Bleeding Armenia (1896).
In the church today, we have everything buttoned up perfectly. The music is flawless, the sermon well-prepared and smoothly delivered, and the grounds meticulously kept. People come on time and go home on time. But a fundamental element is missing. The business of church has undermined the individual’s need to truly live for Christ, so much so, that only a limited few are seeing their life impact the world. Dwight L. Moody takes us deep into Scripture and paints a clear picture of what ought to be an individual’s life for Christ. The call for each Christian is to become an active member in the body of Christ. The motive is love for the Lord and our neighbor. The result will be the salvation of men, women, and children everywhere.
Original Title: Daniel the Prophet. New, updated edition. Riches and honour and life are the remuneration of humility and of the fear of the LORD. – Proverbs 22:4 God will exalt us when the time is right. We needn't try to promote ourselves; we needn't struggle for position. Let God put us where He wants us and let us be true to God. It is better for a man to be right with God, even if he holds no great earthly position. It is honest and humble men whom God will promote, if He so desires. This study illustrates what Daniel did, and also what Daniel didn't do, which caught the attention of God and kings alike. Few are the men in history of Daniel's caliber, even though the principles he followed can be implemented by all. Are you ready to be a truly great man, one that will cause God and men to take notice?
