In all of Mr. Moody’s preaching he used many illustrations and stories, most of them from his own experiences in evangelistic work, and this method of preaching served the twofold purpose of making his sermons clear and of keeping his audiences interested. One day while on the train a newsboy came through calling the sale of a book, Ingersoll on Hell. Mr. Moody called the boy to him, and placing in his hand a supply of his own book on Heaven, asked him to sell that book also; so the newsboy continued through the train, calling out: “Ingersoll on Hell, Moody on Heaven.” Here are a few of Mr. Moody’s stories: The Little Boy and the Big Book “I like to think of Christ as a burden-bearer. “A minister was one day moving his library upstairs. As he was going up with a load of books his little boy came in and was very anxious to help his father. So his father just told him to go and get an armful and bring them upstairs. When the father came back he met the little fellow about half-way up, tugging away at the biggest book in the library.
He couldn’t manage to carry it up. So he sat down and cried. His father found him, and just took him in his arms, book and all, and carried him upstairs. So Christ will carry you and all your burdens if you will but let him.” Mr. Moody never lost an opportunity for reaching those whom others could not reach, and many an incident is related of his thus entering the enemy’s country. Once he was invited as a joke to the opening of a great billiard hall and saloon. He saw the owners and asked permission to bring a friend. They consented, but asked who he was. Mr. Moody told them it was not necessary to tell, but he never went without him. They understood his meaning then and protested, “Come, we don’t want any praying!” “You’ve given me an invitation, and I’m going to come,” he replied. “But if you come, you needn’t pray.” “Well, I’ll tell you what we’ll do,” was the answer, “we’ll compromise the matter, and if you don’t want me to come and pray for you when you open, let me pray for you both now,” to which they agreed. Mr. Moody made them kneel down on the instant and then prayed that their business might go to pieces, but that God would save them. He says, “Within three months the whole thing smashed up, and one of them was converted shortly after; I have never been invited to a saloon since.” Touching the Spot “When a man has broken his arm, the surgeon must find out the exact spot where the fracture is. He feels along and presses gently with his fingers. “ ‘Is it there?’
“ ‘No.’ “ ‘Is it there?’ “ ‘No.’ “Presently when the surgeon touches another spot, ‘Ouch’ says the man. He has found the broken part and it hurts. “It is one thing to hear a man preach down another’s sins. Men will say, ‘That is splendid,’ and will want all their friends to go and hear the preacher. But let him touch on their individual sin and declare as Nathan did to David, ‘Thou art the man,’ and they say, ‘I do not like that.’ The preacher has touched a sore place.” Tried and Proved “I knew an old lady who marked in the margin of her Bible opposite the promises, ‘T.P.,’ ‘T’ for ‘tried’ and ‘P’ for ‘proved.’ What we want is to try the Bible and see if it is not true.” The Sinner’s Heart “When I was in Dublin some years ago I got up to go to an early meeting and found the servants had not opened the front door; so I pulled back a bolt, but I could not get the door open. Then I turned a key, but the door would not open. Then I found that there was another bolt at the top and another bolt at the bottom. Still the door would not open. Then I found there was a bar, and then I found a night-lock. In all I found five or six different fastenings. “I am afraid that door represents every sinner’s heart. The door of his heart is double-locked, double-bolted, and double-barred. O, my friends, pull back the bolts and let the King of glory in!”
The Meanest Kind of Murderers When Mr. Moody was in England in 1892 he met a gentleman who claimed that they were ahead of us in the respect that they had for the law. “We hang our murderers,” he said, “but there isn’t one out of twenty in your country that is hung.” Mr. Moody replied, “You are greatly mistaken, for they walk about these two countries unhung.” “What do you mean?” “I will tell you what I mean,” said Moody. “The man who comes into my house and runs a dagger into my heart for my money is a prince compared with a son that takes five years to kill me and the wife of my bosom. A young man who comes home night after night drunk, and when his mother remonstrates, curses her gray hairs, and kills her by inches, is the blackest kind of murderer.” Where Your Treasure Is “You can soon tell where a man’s treasure is by his talk. If it is in heaven he will not be long with you before he’s talking about heaven; his heart is there; so his speech isn’t long in running there, too. If his heart is in money, he will soon have you deep in talk about mines, speculation, stocks, bank-rates, and so on. If his heart is in lands, it won’t be long before he’s talking about real estate, improvements, houses, and so on. Always the same, wherever a man’s heart is, there his tongue will be sure to go.” Settle It Now “Some years ago in one of the mining districts of England a young man attended one of our meetings and refused to go from the place until he had found peace in the Savior. The next day he went
down into the pit, and the coal fell in upon him. When they took him out he was broken and mangled and had only two or three minutes of life left in him. His friends gathered about him, saw his lips moving, and bending down to catch his words heard him say, ‘It was a good thing I settled it last night.’ “Settle it now, my friends, once for all. Begin now to confess your sins, and pray the Lord to remember you. He will make you an heir of his kingdom if you will accept the gift of salvation.” Help Yourself “When I was out on the Pacific Coast in California some years ago, I was the guest of a man who had a large orchard and a large vineyard. One day he said to me, ‘Moody, while you are my guest, I want you to make yourself perfectly at home, and if there is anything in the orchard or in the vineyard you would like, help yourself.’ “Well, when I wanted an orange, I did not go to an orange tree and pray the oranges to fall into my pocket; but I walked up to a tree, reached out my hand, and took the oranges. He said, ‘Take,’ and I took. “God says, ‘There is my son; take him as your Savior. The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life.’ ” When Ye Think Not “McCheyne, the Scotch preacher, once said to some friends, ‘Do you think Christ will come tonight?’ “One after another they said, ‘I think not.’ “When all had given this answer he solemnly repeated this text, ‘The son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.’ ”
Home Piety “If a Christian is unsound in patience, or unsound in love, we take no notice of it; but let him be unsound in faith and off goes his head. I do hate to see a minister or professing Christian mean and peevish to his wife, yet be as polite as a dancing-master to other women. I tell you he is not fit to preach the word of God. I don’t want to have anything to do with him. The home was established before the church, and he sadly needs more home piety.’ ”