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 DEATH OF 
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Lessons from 
 Life and Death o 
 
 D. L. MOODY 
 
 BY 
 
 Rev. R. a. .ITORREY 
 
 Superintendent of the Bible Institute 
 Chicago 
 
 New York Chicago Toronto 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 Publishers of Evangelical Literature 
 
Copyright, igoo 
 
 BY 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company. 
 
Lessons From the Life and Death of 
 D. L. Moody 
 
 " By the grace of God I am what I am : and His 
 grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain ; 
 but I labored more abundantly than they all; yet 
 not I, but the grace of God which was with me." — 
 I Cor. XV. lo. 
 
 This passage of Scripture sums up the 
 life of the Apostle Paul in a single sen- 
 tence. It also sums up, describes, ex- 
 plains and interprets the life of D. L. 
 Moody. Mr. Moody differed in many 
 notable respects from any other man of 
 the century. This verse explains wherein 
 he differed and why he differed. He has 
 labored more than we all, and accom- 
 plished more than we all; but it was al- 
 together the grace of God that made him 
 to differ. The grace of God bestowed 
 upon him "was not in vain." He let 
 grace have its perfect work. The grace 
 bestowed upon us is often in vain. We 
 will not accept it in its fullness and let it 
 work out its glorious consummation. 
 3 
 
4 Lessons From the Life 
 
 The life and death of Mr. Moody are 
 full of lessons. Lessons that it would 
 take volumes to fully recount. We must 
 confine ourselves to some of those that 
 are most striking and fundamental. 
 
 I. The first lesson is the great possi- 
 bilities that are open through the grace of 
 God, to a poor, uneducated, and spiritu- 
 ally unpromising boy. His parents were 
 poor; his father a country stone mason 
 with seven children. All his property 
 consisted of a plain little house, with one 
 or two acres of poor land, and this mort- 
 gaged. When the oldest child was but 
 thirteen and Dwight only four, the father 
 suddenly died. The widow was left 
 with seven children to support, and the 
 mortgaged home. A month after the fa- 
 ther's death, two more children were 
 born. It was a life of hard toil and little 
 promise that D. L. Moody faced from 
 early boyhood. He had meagre oppor- 
 tunities for education, and did not take 
 
and Death of D. L. Moody 5 
 
 to what little he had. Furthermore he 
 was not a spiritually minded boy. When 
 he offered himself for church member- 
 ship in Boston at eighteen years of age, 
 he was refused immediate admission to 
 the church. The pastor and church have 
 been criticised and laughed at for this, 
 but the pastor and church were right, for 
 he knew so little about salvation, that 
 when the question was put to him 
 "What has Christ done for us all, for 
 you, which entitles Him to our love," his 
 reply was "I do not know. I think 
 Christ has done a good deal for us, but I 
 do not think of anything particular as I 
 know of." But the church while hold- 
 ing him back, did not cast him off nor 
 neglect him. It appointed a committee 
 of two to watch over him with kindness 
 and teach him the way of God more per- 
 fectly. But this poor boy, poorly edu- 
 cated, poor in spiritual promise, became 
 the mightiest religious leader of the cen- 
 
6 Lessons From the Life 
 
 tury; and I think it may be added the 
 greatest man of the century; for when 
 the fame and influence of our great gen- 
 erals, great statesmen, great authors, and 
 great scholars have been forgotten, his 
 fame and influence, and thank God his 
 influence more than his fame, will not be 
 ^forgotten, but will live on. 
 
 2. The second lesson is the impor- 
 tance of personal work. Young Moody 
 was not converted by a great sermon, 
 but by the quiet personal work of a lay- 
 man — his Sunday-school teacher. Have 
 many sermons been preached in this cen- 
 tury that have wrought so much, if we 
 look at ultimate results, as the personal 
 dealing of this Sunday-school teacher ? 
 Let Sunday-school teachers take courage. 
 
 The importance of personal work is 
 taught not only by Mr. Moody's conver- 
 sion, but also by his life work. It was 
 by untiring effort as a personal tvorker, 
 on the street, in the store, in hotels, in 
 
and Death of D. L. Moody 7 
 
 saloons, on the cars, everywhere, that 
 Mr. Moody learned to be a mighty worker 
 for Christ. 
 
 3. The third lesson that we should 
 learn from the life of Mr. Moody is the 
 power of persistence. As we have al- 
 ready seen, Mr. Moody had little promise 
 when he started, but he had one thing 
 that always has large promise in it. He 
 had the habit of keeping at anything 
 he undertook, until he accomplished it. 
 Nothing ever discouraged him. At the 
 outset everything was against him as a 
 public speaker. His grammar was very 
 bad; his sentences were hard to under- 
 stand. He had not much to say that 
 was worth listening to. But he was 
 sure that God had called him to speak, 
 and so, though people of good sense ad- 
 vised him to keep still, he kept on talk- 
 ing until he could get more hearers, and 
 more deeply interested hearers, and more 
 responsive hearers than any man of his 
 
8 Lessons From the Life 
 
 day. During the last meetings of his 
 life, he spoke to an audience of 12,000 
 people, and many thousands were turned 
 away who could not get in. In the 
 truest sense, he was without question 
 the greatest orator of our day. 
 
 His persistence was shown also in his 
 getting a place for himself in Sunday- 
 school work. He was not wanted; but 
 he kept pegging away, until he not only 
 had a great Sunday-school himself, but 
 largely revolutionized the Sunday-school 
 methods of the world. 
 
 He had hard work to get recognition 
 among Christians. He was at one pe- 
 riod called "crazy Moody," later he was 
 the target of the most bare-faced and 
 outrageous falsehood. The first thing I 
 ever heard about Mr. Moody was a lie, 
 which I took for granted was true. 
 When he began his great work in 
 London, it was reported that he and 
 Sankey were sent there by a firm of 
 
and Death of D. L. Moody 9 
 
 organ makers at a salary of five hundred 
 pounds per year. One of the leading 
 dailies in New York City stated in an 
 editorial, June 22d, 1875: "We are 
 credibly informed that Messrs. Moody 
 and Sankey were sent to England by 
 Mr. Barnum as a matter of speculation." 
 This lying never stopped. A number of 
 falsehoods have appeared in religious 
 and secular papers within a year. Some 
 of them since his death; of his great 
 wealth, and of the pecuniary demands 
 he made wherever he held meetings. I 
 know from positive personal knowledge, 
 these statements to be absolutely false. 
 But in spite of all this opposition and 
 falsehood, Mr. Moody went right on to 
 the goal without being embittered. He 
 said to me one day last summer, "We 
 will let others do the talking and try and 
 keep right with God and go ahead." 
 
 4. The fourth lesson from Mr. 
 Moody's life is the power of a consum- 
 
id Lessons From the Life 
 
 ing passion for souls. Very soon after 
 his conversion, Mr. Moody became bur- 
 dened for the salvation of others, and in 
 season and out of season, gave himself up 
 to the work of bringing men to Christ. 
 He would speak to them in all sorts of 
 places and at all hours of the day and 
 night about their soul's interest. He was 
 often reproached for his indiscretion in 
 this matter, but not infrequently in the 
 very case where he was told that he 
 had done more harm than good, those 
 spoken to afterward accepted Christ, and 
 dated their conviction to Mr. Moody's 
 unseasonable importunities. He was at 
 it and always at it. He could not pass a 
 crowd of men without wishing to preach 
 to them the gospel. Riding through a 
 dense crowd with him in Chicago when 
 the mayor. Carter Harrison, lay in state in 
 the Court House, he turned suddenly to 
 me and said, "Torrey, this will not do, 
 we must preach to these men." One of 
 
and Death of D. L. Moody 1 1 
 
 the opera houses across the way was 
 immediately secured, and all-day meet- 
 ings began. 
 
 Whoever came to speak to him in his 
 office, reporters, and strangers of all 
 kinds, were pretty sure to be approached 
 on the subject of their soul's salvation 
 before he got through with them. 
 
 There is nothing that has so stirred 
 my heart in reviewing the facts of his 
 life, and brought to me such condemna- 
 tion for neglect of opportunities, as this 
 constant overwhelming burden for souls 
 that always possessed Mr. Moody. 
 
 3. The fifth great lesson taught by 
 his life, is the power of the Holy Spirit. 
 The power of the Holy Spirit was illus- 
 trated in many ways in his life. 
 
 (i) The power of the Holy Spirit 
 was shown in his conversion. Mr. 
 Moody did not take naturally to religious 
 things or to orthodoxy. He went to an 
 orthodox Sunday-school and church be- 
 
12 Lessons From the Life 
 
 cause his uncle demanded it as a condi- 
 tion of giving him a position. He dis- 
 liked the church and disliked the school. 
 But at last the Holy Spirit began to work 
 in his heart. How thorough was his 
 conversion, though it was slow. Who- 
 ever had an intenser and deeper love for 
 the Sunday-school and for the church 
 than he came to have ? It was the Holy 
 Spirit who wrought the change. His 
 Sunday-school teacher and Rev. Dr. Ed- 
 ward N. Kirk were only instruments 
 whom the Holy Spirit used. 
 
 (2) The power of the Holy Spirit was 
 shown again in the transformation of his 
 character, and in its development into 
 its present strength and beauty. Many 
 chapters could be written on Mr. 
 Moody's singular tender-heartedness, 
 abounding sympathy, unconquerable 
 charity, almost matchless humility, un- 
 daunted courage, absolute freedom from 
 the love of money and the praise of men, 
 
and Death of D. L. Moody 13 
 
 Intense hatred of sham, consideration for 
 his fellow-men, consuming passion for 
 souls, overflowing joyfulness and hope, 
 and all the other elements of strength 
 and beauty in his many sided character. 
 None of these things were natural to Mr. 
 Moody; they were all the Holy Spirit's 
 work. They were the work of Him 
 whose fruit is " love, joy, peace, long- 
 suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 
 meekness, temperance." 
 
 (3) The power of the Spirit was seen 
 again in the Spiritual illumination that 
 came to him. We have seen that Mr. 
 Moody was not naturally bright, but 
 very dull in his spiritual perceptions; but 
 to what a clearness and depth of spir- 
 itual perception he attained. It was 
 wonderful. Oftentimes has he taken us 
 all with him as he described the beauties 
 and wonders and glories that he saw in 
 the word of God and in the Christ. It 
 was the Holy Spirit that taught him 
 
14 Lessons From the Life 
 
 these things, — the same Holy Spirit who 
 is willing to be your teacher and mine. 
 
 (4) The power of the Spirit was seen 
 again in his effective service. " What is 
 the secret of that man's success," many 
 have asked me. One of the easiest ques- 
 tions that could be asked. He had power. 
 But where did he get that strange power 
 by which he swayed the affections and 
 wills of men ? He knew, and we may 
 all know. It was the Holy Ghost upon 
 him. It was Christ's own promise real- 
 ized, — **Ye shall receive power after that 
 the Holy Ghost is come upon you." 
 (Acts i. 18.) Mr. Moody did not always 
 have that power. It came at a definite 
 time in his life and in a definite way. 
 Two women came to him and said, 
 **We are praying for you." He was a 
 little vexed, and asked why they were 
 praying for him, why ihey did not pray 
 for the unsaved. They replied — **we 
 are praying that you may have the 
 
and Death of D. L. Moody 15 
 
 power." These words sank deep into 
 his heart, and there came a time when 
 God interpreted the message. He went 
 to these women to pray with him and 
 fairly rolled on the floor in an agony of 
 desire and prayer. Then he went alone 
 with God, and shut himself in to wait 
 upon God, and after a very definite ex- 
 perience with the Holy Spirit, he entered 
 into the life of power. When you and I 
 have listened to his words, oftentimes 
 they have seemed quite ordinary, yet 
 they have impressed us as the words of 
 almost no other man. What did it 
 mean ? They were uttered in the power 
 of the Holy Ghost. The last public 
 words that Mr. Moody ever spoke in the 
 Bible Institute, were about this experi- 
 ence, and the possibility of every Chris- 
 tian having it, and our responsibility to 
 have it. 
 
 6. The sixth lesson from Mr. Moody's 
 life is the power of the Bible when fully 
 
i6 Lessons From the Life 
 
 believed, patiently studied and faithfully 
 preached. What an unanswerable dem- 
 onstration of the power of the Bible there 
 was in the life, and in the death too, of 
 Mr. Moody! 
 
 We see demonstrated in him what a 
 power there is in the Bible to draw men. 
 There are those who fancy that one must 
 take up topics and truth outside the Bible 
 if he is to draw and hold the crowds. I 
 hear it constantly said, ** If you are going 
 to draw and hold the masses, you must 
 give them something beside the hack- 
 neyed truth; you must give them some- 
 thing fresh and new." But who else 
 in our day has drawn and held such 
 crowds to the very last as has Mr. 
 Moody. And these crowds were com- 
 posed of all classes; rich and poor, 
 scholars, men of science, statesmen, 
 noblemen, students, uneducated men and 
 women, thieves, harlots, murderers, 
 criminals of all sorts, absolutely all 
 
and Death of D. L. Moody 17 
 
 classes, and what had he to give them ? — 
 absolutely nothing but the Bible. Noth- 
 ing else draws like that. 
 
 But we see demonstrated in him not 
 only the power of the Bible to draw men, 
 but something higher far; the power of 
 the Bible to save men. He not only drew 
 vast audiences to hear, but thousands, 
 ten of thousands, hundreds of thousands 
 have gone away from hearing him saved. 
 Saved by the power of this book. Some 
 wise, advanced, philosophical, and very 
 self-sufficient preachers have laughed 
 at Mr. Moody's narrowness and his 
 medisevalism; but let them point to 
 results one hundredth part as beneficent 
 as those that accompanied his "narrow 
 and antiquated preaching," or else keep 
 still, unless they are desirous of making 
 themselves the laughing stock of all men 
 of sense. 
 
 The Word of God had such power in 
 Mr. Moody's hands, first, because he thor- 
 
i8 Lessons From the Life 
 
 oughly believed it from end to end. The 
 time other men spent in picking it to 
 pieces, he spent in feeding upon it. The 
 difference between Mr. Moody and many 
 a college and seminary bred preacher, is 
 the difference between the man who eats 
 a good dinner and the man who criticises 
 it, and tries to display his knowedge of 
 cookery. 
 
 (i) He not only believed the Bible; 
 he studied it. There are many who be- 
 lieve theoretically that the Bible is the 
 word of God, but they do not dig into it. 
 Mr. Moody did. It has been said that 
 Mr. Moody was not a student, but he 
 was a student, a student of one book, 
 and that book more worthy of study than 
 all other books put together — the Bible. 
 If he had not been a student of the Bible 
 he never would have become what he 
 was. 
 
 (2) But he not only believed the Bible 
 and studied the Bible, he preached it — 
 
and Death of D. L. Moody 19 
 
 in season and out of season, on all pos- 
 sible occasions, to large crowds and to a 
 single hearer. He was ever pouring forth 
 Bible truth. 
 
 7. The seventh lesson from his life is 
 the power of prayer. Mr. Moody be- 
 lieved in a God who answers prayer; and 
 his life was a constant demonstration 
 that his faith was true. It was prayer 
 that made the obscure man noted. 
 
 After the Chicago fire he went to Lon- 
 don to rest, and to learn from the Bible 
 scholars there. He had no intention of 
 preaching. One Sunday morning he was 
 persuaded to preach in a church in Lon- 
 don. Everything about the service 
 dragged. He wished that he had never 
 consented to preach. There was a 
 woman in the city who had heard of Mr. 
 Moody's work in America, and had been 
 asking God to send him to London. 
 This woman was an invalid. Her sister 
 was present at the church that Sunday 
 
20 Lessons From the Life 
 
 morning. When this hearer reached 
 home she asked her sister to guess who 
 had spoken for them that morning. She 
 made one guess after another of those 
 with whom her pastor was in the habit 
 of exchanging, and then gave it up. Her 
 sister said *'No, Mr. Moody from Chi- 
 cago." The sick woman turned pale and 
 said "This is an answer to my prayer, 
 (f I had known that he was to be at our 
 church, I should have eaten nothing this 
 morning, but waited on God in prayer. 
 Leave me alone this afternoon; do not 
 let any one come to see me; do not send 
 me anything to eat." All that afternoon 
 this woman gave herself to prayer. As 
 Mr. Moody preached that night, he soon 
 became conscious that there was a differ- 
 ent atmosphere in the church. "The 
 powers of an unseen world seemed to 
 fall" upon him and his hearers. As he 
 drew to a close he felt impressed to give 
 out an invitation, He asked for all who 
 
and Death of D. L. Moody 2 1 
 
 would accept Christ to rise. Four or five 
 hundred people rose. He thought it 
 must be that they misunderstood him, 
 and put the question several ways that 
 there might be no mistake. But no, they 
 had understood. He then asked them to 
 go to an adjoining room. As they passed 
 out, he asked the pastor of the church 
 who these people were. He replied: "I 
 do not know." "Are they your peo- 
 ple.^" "Some of them." "Are they 
 Christians.^" "I do not think so." In 
 that adjoining room he put the question 
 very strongly, but still there were just as 
 many who rose. He told them to meet 
 their pastor the next night. Next day he 
 left for Dublin, but no sooner had he 
 reached there than he received a telegram 
 from the pastor saying that he must re- 
 turn and help him, as a great revival had 
 broken out and there were more out the 
 second night than the first. Hundreds 
 were added to the church at the time. 
 
22 Lessons From the Life 
 
 That was the beginning of his work as 
 an international evangelist. 
 
 Few men have had so many people 
 praying for them, and to that fact much 
 of his success was due. Many are say- 
 ing, "We shall never have another 
 Moody"; but we shall, in everything 
 that is essential, if as many people take 
 to praying as earnestly for some other 
 man. The great Scotch, Irish and English 
 revivals under Mr. Moody in 1873, 1874, 
 and 1875, were due more to the remark- 
 able praying to which he moved men 
 than to the remarkable preaching which 
 he did himself. 
 
 It was by prayer he overcame difficul- 
 ties. When great and apparently unsur- 
 mountable difficulties rose in any path he 
 was pursuing, how often he would say, 
 " Let us take this to God in prayer." Then 
 how easily he led us all into God's very 
 presence and with what mighty power 
 of simplicity and faith he took hold upon 
 
and Death of D. L. Moody 23 
 
 God. Then the difficulty was overcome. 
 Only last summer great obstacles rose to 
 projects that were dear to him and me. 
 One day he drove up to my house and 
 said, ** 1 want you to ride with me." As 
 we rode up " Lover's Retreat," we talked 
 all these things over, and when we 
 reached a quiet spot he laid down the 
 lines and said, "now pray." After that 
 he led in prayer — just took hold of God 
 in prayer in that way he had, and that 
 settled the difficulty. The work has 
 gone on all right. Thus he overcame ob- 
 stacles by an appeal to Him to whom 
 "nothing is too hard." 
 
 By prayer he got money for the Lord's 
 work. Some people have an idea that 
 Mr. Moody "hustled" for money, and 
 so he did; but his dependence was upon 
 God, and prayer. God heard him. 
 During the World's Fair he said one day 
 as the inner council of workers sat down 
 to dinner, "We need $7,000.00 for the 
 
24 Lessons From the Life 
 
 work to-day, $1,000.00 has come in; I 
 do not know where the other $6,000.00 
 is to come from, but we must have it, let 
 us pray for it before we eat." In simple 
 trust in God he took the matter to Him 
 in prayer. We were long at the table 
 discussing the work. Before the dinner 
 was over, there came a knock at the door, 
 a telegram was handed to Mr. Moody 
 which he opened and read, and then 
 passed on to me to read to the group. It 
 read something like this : " D. L. Moody : 
 your friends have taken up at the close 
 of this morning's session an offering for 
 your work in Chicago. $6,000 has been 
 subscribed, more to follow. 
 
 "H. M. Moore." 
 
 Mr. Moore has since told me that as 
 that morning session drew to a close. 
 Dr. Gordon, who was presiding, said to 
 him, "I have a feeling that Mr. Moody 
 needs money for his work in Chicago, 
 
and Death of D. L. Moody 25 
 
 what do you think of taking up a collec- 
 tion ?" He agreed, with the result men- 
 tioned. That opportune feeling must 
 have come to Dr. Gordon about the time 
 that we knelt in prayer in Chicago. 
 
 One day last summer Mr. Moody 
 found to his surprise that $20,000 was 
 needed at once for the schools in North- 
 field and Chicago. He told no one about 
 it, but went alone with God and prayed, 
 "Send me this $20,000, and send it in 
 such a way that I will know that it 
 comes from Thee." The manner of its 
 coming was so manifestly from God 
 that no person with any spiritual per- 
 ception could doubt for a moment who 
 sent it. Mr. Moody has received several 
 millions of dollars for one form of Chris- 
 tian work and another, and all in answer 
 to prayer. 
 
 8. The eighth lesson from Mr. 
 Moody's life is the power of faith. Mr. 
 Moody believed that there was nothing 
 
26 Lessons From the Life 
 
 too hard for the Lord; that the Lord 
 could and would do great things, even 
 with him, and God did not disappoint 
 him. He never disappoints one whose 
 faith is really in Him and not in himself. 
 Mr. Moody's faith was daring, but the 
 realization fully met the faith. 
 
 9. The ninth lesson is the power of 
 humility. He loved to quote some one's 
 saying, *' Faith gets the most, love works 
 the most, and humility keeps the most." 
 His own life was a commentary upon 
 these words. He got much by faith, he 
 kept it by humility. It would have been 
 so easy for one rising by such marvellous 
 strides from utter obscurity to world- 
 wide renown to become puffed up, but he 
 never yielded to this temptation. When 
 I first became acquainted with him 
 twenty-one years ago, nothing so much 
 impressed me as his humility. He con- 
 stantly put himself in the background 
 and put others forward. So it was to 
 
and Death of D. L. Moody 27 
 
 the end. He refused again and again to 
 speak at Northfield, because he wished 
 to sit as a learner at the feet of two 
 young men thirty-three years old. He 
 was constantly expecting to learn from 
 other people. 
 
 He would not allow his photograph to 
 be publicly sold, thinking that all this 
 picture business ministered to vanity, as 
 it doubtless does. When he held his 
 last meetings in this city, I noticed that a 
 student had Mr. Moody's pictures ex- 
 posed for sale. I knew he would not 
 like it and went and told him. **What! " 
 he said excitedly, "go get them away at 
 once." 
 
 He hated all that smacked of boasting. 
 I once spoke of my health. He stopped 
 me at once and said very earnestly, 
 *' Don't boast, don't boast, I never knew 
 anything but evil to come of it." 
 
 How many men whom God has led 
 out and greatly used in America have 
 
28 Lessons From the Life 
 
 become puffed up, and God has had 
 to lay them aside; but Mr. Moody 
 was never laid aside. God used him to 
 the end. Mr. Moody kept low, and the 
 last four hours of his life were the 
 mightiest and most glorious of all. The 
 very gates of Heaven opened so wide for 
 him to enter, that we too got glimpses 
 of the beyond, as he passed in. 
 
 10. The tenth lesson is the power of 
 a wholly surrendered life. Mr. Moody 
 was wholly given up to God. 1 do not 
 mean that he was a perfect man. He 
 was not. I have never met a perfect 
 man, nor do 1 expect to until I see the 
 Christ. But while he was not perfect, 
 he was wholly God's. Once when we 
 were talking upon a subject upon which 
 we differed widely, he said, **Why, 
 Torrey, if 1 thought that God told me 
 to jump out that window, 1 would jump 
 right out of it at once." I believe he 
 would. He once said, "It yet remains 
 
and Death of D. L. Moody 29 
 
 to be seen what God will do with a man 
 wholly given up to Him." I doubt if it 
 altogether remains to be seen. I think 
 we can see very much of it in Mr. 
 Moody himself. 
 
 II. The eleventh lesson from the life 
 and death of Mr. Moody is the reality 
 and nearness of the world beyond the 
 grave. About four hours before his final 
 falling asleep, Mr. Moody passed within 
 the gates, and then came back and spoke 
 a little of what he had seen. He said: 
 "Earth is receding; Heaven is opening; 
 God is calling." Later he added, " I have 
 been within the gates; I have seen the 
 children's faces." Others have had 
 similar experiences. Stephen had. Be- 
 fore he fell asleep he cried, " Behold! I 
 see the Heavens opened, and the Son of 
 Man standing on the right hand of God." 
 Paul also had, when he was "caught up 
 even to the third heaven," (perhaps when 
 he was drawn out as dead at Lystra) and 
 
30 Lessons From the Life 
 
 "heard unspeakable words which it is 
 not lawful for a man to utter." Gilbert 
 Tennant also had, who seemed to die and 
 then came back and said he had seen 
 things *' not lawful to utter." The veil 
 between this world and the other is not 
 so very thick after all. 
 
 12. The last lesson is the power of 
 faith in God, in Christ, and in the Bible, 
 to banish all fear of death, and to trans- 
 form sorrow into rejoicing and triumph. 
 
 For four hours Mr. Moody faced death 
 without a tremor. Nay, he rejoiced in it 
 and welcomed it. Standing midway in 
 the stream he said, **No pain, no valley! 
 Is this death ? It is not bad. It is sweet. 
 It is bliss." Later he said, "This is glo- 
 rious. This is my coronation day, I have 
 long looked forward to it." Later still, 
 "Don't call me back; God is calling." 
 
 It is the testimony of those who were 
 privileged to stand around that bed, that 
 his last four hours took all the sting and 
 
and Death of D. L. Moody 31 
 
 terror out of death, and that the room 
 was transformed from the place of 
 mourning to the chamber of triumph. 
 As his son Will knelt by his side as he 
 sank, he could not find it in his heart to 
 call him back. He afterward said to 
 me, "I did call him back once, but I 
 could not find it in my heart to do it 
 again." 
 
 And triumphant too, was the scene as 
 we sat two hours by that open casket in 
 which that beloved form reposed, and 
 then lowered it into the grave. O, 
 blessed gospel that conquers the last 
 great enemy — death. There is no longer 
 any enemy left to fear. 
 
 How different from the sad scene last 
 summer when wife and daughter sat 
 day by day in mute despair by the body 
 of the great agnostic. What a demon- 
 stration of the utter emptiness of scep- 
 ticism, and the all-sufficiency of the 
 gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 
32 Lessons From the Lite 
 
 Shall we not believe in that old book as 
 we never have believed in it before; study 
 it as we have never studied it before; be- 
 lieve in the Holy Ghost as we have never 
 believed in Him before. Shall we not 
 pray as we have never prayed before, and 
 take up the work that Mr. Moody has 
 laid down, claiming the power that he 
 claimed, and working with every ounce 
 of strength that God gives us. until our 
 summons too shall come. God is saying 
 to us as He said to Israel when Moses 
 died : ' * Moody My senant is dead ; now 
 therefore arise, go into the land which I 
 do give thee. There shall not any man 
 be able to stand before thee all the days 
 of thy life. As I was with Moody so I 
 will be with thee ; I will not fail thee nor 
 forsake thee. Have not I commanded 
 thee ? Be strong and of a good courage. 
 Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, 
 for the Lord thy God is with thee whith- 
 ersoever thou goest." — Josh, i.1-9. 
 
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 REVELL'S POPULAR RELIGIOUS SERIES 
 
 Published Weekly, $3.00 per Annum 
 
 Entered at Chicago Post Office as Second-class Matter 
 
 Number 245. March 31, 1900