We can give here only a brief recital of Mr. Moody’s general evangelistic work covering a period of more than forty years and extending to England, Ireland, Scotland, Palestine, and to various parts of America. He made several trips to the British Isles. Four months’ work in the London mission at one time is summed up as follows: In Camberwell Hall, 60 meetings, attended by 480,000 people; in Victoria Hall, 45 meetings, attended by 400,000; in the Royal Haymarket Opera House, 60 meetings, attended by 330,000; in Bow Road Hall, 60 meetings, attended by 600,000; and in Agricultural Hall, 60 meetings, attended by 720,000; in all 285 meetings, attended by 2,530,000 people. The mission cost around $140,000, nearly all of which was subscribed before its close. Some estimate of the activities of Mr. Moody in evangelistic effort in America can be gained by his work in Chicago in 1893, at the time of the World’s Fair. During that six months’ campaign every variety of meeting was held—men’s, women’s, children’s, temperance, soldiers’, jail meetings, open-air and cottage meetings; meeting for Germans, Poles, Bohemians, French, Jews, and even
for the Arabs in the Fair Grounds; meetings for praise and for prayer; all-day and all-night meetings. On several of the last Sundays Mr. Moody controlled as many as one hundred and twenty-five different meetings, assuming when necessary the expense of rent and incidentals, furnishing speakers and singers, and working up attendance, which would aggregate upwards of one hundred thousand each Sunday. High-water mark on weekdays was reached on Chicago Day, October 8, when Mr. Moody held continuous meetings in three large central halls, and in one case the attendance was so large that the speakers had difficulty in pushing their way in. Mr. Moody’s own estimate of the result of the six months of work says: “The principal result of our six months’ work is that millions have heard the simple gospel preached by some of the most gifted preachers in the world; thousands have apparently been genuinely converted to Christ, and Christians all over this land have been brought to a deeper spiritual life and aroused to more active Christian effort for the salvation of others.” The expense of this campaign of six months was sixty thousand dollars. This money was raised through Christian individuals and their friends, and religious societies all over the United States, Canada, and England. In round numbers it is estimated that he personally preached to fifty million people during his forty years of ministry, and thousands were converted to Christ. Mr. Moody’s constant appeal was, “Let every one of us try to get one soul.” And how many he won personally in this way cannot be estimated. Nor did he care to estimate them. He was intolerant of that kind of statistics. When a minister asked him how many souls
had been saved under his preaching he answered, “I don’t know anything about that, Doctor. Thank God, I don’t have to. I don’t keep the Lamb’s book of life.” One writer, speaking of the work of Moody and Sankey in England, said: “Moody and Sankey are not, it is true, graduates of any university. They are men of the people, speaking the language and using the methods, not of the refined, but of the generality. Yet they have probably left a deeper imprint of their individuality upon one great section of English men and women than any other persons who could be named.” Another writer says: “Mr. Moody is a man of such persistent consistency that it is scarcely more possible that he should change himself than that a leopard should change his spots. Indeed there is no prospect that he will ever conform either himself or his style to the demands of propriety or to the requirements of grammatical rules.” Another says: “We would not change him. Make him the bestread preacher in the world and he would instantly lose half his power. He is just right for his work as he is, original, dashing, careless.” One of Mr. Moody’s meetings is described thus: “At 7:40 the choir begins to sing, and the congregation joins in. Promptly at 8 two men take their places, one within the rail, the other at the melodeon. As the former rises, after a moment of silent prayer, you see a short, stout-built, square-shouldered man with a bullet-shaped head set close on the shoulders, black eyes that twinkle merrily at times, and a full but not heavy beard and mustache. The face expresses fun, good-humor, persistence. The coat is closely buttoned, with a bit of stand-up collar seen over it. Such is D. L. Moody.
“As he stands, with hand resting on the rail, you are conscious that it is to see, not to be seen. Like an engineer, with his hand on the throttle, like a physician with his finger on the patient’s pulse, his mind is on the work before him. A quick, soldiery bearing marks every movement. He gives out a hymn so rapidly that we scarcely catch the words. “And then we look at Sankey. A man of large build, clear-cut features, and shaven chin; a voice clear, melodious, powerful. Easier and gentler in bearing than Moody, he has enough force and fire in speech and song to hold an audience in perfect quiet, and when he sings alone you hear every word and catch from face and voice the full meaning of the song. Both men impress you as honest, good, hearty, and wholesome in body and mind, and thoroughly in earnest.” This writer further says: “Headlong talking would better describe Mr. Moody’s preaching. His voice is rough, pitched on one key, and he speaks straight before him, rarely turning to the sides. But how real he makes men. His gestures are few but emphatic— the hand flung forcibly forward with palm open, both hands brought down, hammer-like, with closed fists. But the Bible is too much in his hands to allow frequent gestures. He continually refers to it, reads from it, and keeps it open on the stand before him. His sermon or lecture is little more than an exposition of a Bible truth, or a dramatic reading of a Bible story, with continuous application to his hearers.”