Mr. Moody’s sermons were rich in anecdotes. He said concerning his use of anecdotes: “Many and many a time I have found that when the sermon and even the text has been forgotten, some story has fastened itself in a hearer’s mind and has borne fruit. Anecdotes are like windows to let light in upon a subject. They have a useful ministry.” We give here a few of Mr. Moody’s anecdotes. Paul’s Persuasion A man was dying during the war. He was asked of what persuasion he was. He replied, “Paul’s.” “What! Are you a Methodist? They all claim Paul.” “No.” “Are you a Presbyterian, then? They claim Paul, too.” “No.” “Of what persuasion are you, then?” “I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”
How to Warm Up the Church Mr. Moody was preaching in Scotland, and when he got to the church it was so cold that he could see his breath three feet away. He said to the “beadle,” as they called him: “Aren’t you going to have any heat in this building?” He replied that they had no stoves or any other provision for heat. “Well, how do you expect people to get warm?” “Oh!” he said, “we expect the pulpit to warm us up.” Looking Downward Mr. Moody tells of a man who dreamed that he was swept into heaven and, oh, he was so delighted to think that he had at last got there. All at once one came and said, “Come, I want to show you something.” He took him to the battlements and said, “Look down yonder; what do you see?” “I see a very dark world.” “Look and see if you know it.” “Why, yes,” he said, “that is the world I have come from.” “What do you see?” “Men are blindfolded there; many of them are going over a precipice.”
“Well, will you stay here and enjoy heaven, or will you go back to earth and spend a little longer time, and tell those men about this world?” He was a Christian worker who had been discouraged. He awoke from his sleep, and later he said, “I have never wished myself dead since.” Calling A Spade A Spade A lady once said to Mr. Moody, “I have got so in the habit of exaggerating that my friends accuse me of exaggerating so that they don’t understand me.” She said: “Can you help me? What can I do to overcome it?” Mr. Moody said, “Well, the next time you catch yourself lying, go right to that party and say you have lied, and tell him you are sorry. Say it is a lie; stamp it out, root and branch; that is what you want to do.” “Oh,” she said, “I wouldn’t want to call it lying.” “But,” said Mr. Moody, “that is what it was. Christianity isn’t worth a snap of your finger if it doesn’t straighten out your character.” He Turned the Laugh Mr. Moody tells of a young man preaching on the streets of London, when an infidel came up and said, “The man who invented gas did more for the world than Jesus Christ.” The young man could not answer him and the crowd had the laugh on him, but another man got up and said, “Of course, the man has a right to his opinion, and I suppose if he was dying he would send for the gas-fitter, but I think I should send for a minister and
have him read the 14th chapter of John.” And he turned the laugh back on the man. The Popular Kind of Preaching Mr. Moody tells of a young minister who took a church in Scotland and began to preach about the sins of the present day and those of the people who came to hear him. The old sexton came to him and said: “Young man, if you expect to hold this people, you must be careful about preaching on modern sins. You can preach about the sins of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the old patriarchs, but don’t you preach about the sins of the present day, because the people will not stand it.” All Arranged Nicely Mr. Moody tells of a conversation with an infidel. He said to the infidel, “How do you account for the formation of the world?” “Oh, force and matter work together, and by chance the world was created.” Moody said: “It is a singular thing that your tongue isn’t on the top of your head, if force and matter just threw it together in that manner. If I should take out my watch and say that force and matter worked together, and out came the watch, you would say that I was a lunatic of the first order. Wouldn’t you? And yet they say that this old world was made by chance! It threw itself together.” He also tells of a man he met in Scotland, who took the position that there was no God. Mr. Moody asked him, “How do you account for creation, for all these rocks?” (They have a great many rocks in Scotland.)
“Why!” he said, “any school-boy could account for that.” “Well, how was the first rock made?” “Out of sand.” “How was the first sand made?” “Out of rock.” Mr. Moody remarked, “You see how nicely he had it all arranged: Sand and rock, rock and sand.” It Took Two A Scotchman was once asked how many it took to convert him. “Two,” he replied. “Two! How was that? Didn’t God do it all?” “The Almighty and myself converted me,” he said. “I did all I could against it, and the Almighty did all he could for it, and he was victorious.” Getting Too Personal “My wife was one time teaching my little boy a Sunday-school lesson; she was telling him to notice how sin grows until it becomes a habit. The little fellow thought it was coming too close to him, so he colored up, and finally said, ‘Mama, I think you are getting a good way from the subject.’ ”
Your Walk Tells “That man must have been in the army, or in a military school,” I said to a friend.
“Yes,” he said, “how did you know?” “By the way he walks.” You can tell that some people have been with Jesus by their walk.