In those terrible days that followed the firing on Fort Sumter, Chicago, like all the other cities in the Union, felt great excitement. Camp Douglas was formed near the southern limits of the city, and a large number of “Moody’s boys” were among the newly recruited soldiers. Friends urged Moody to enter the service. He felt that he could not conscientiously enlist. He said, “There has never been a time in my life when I felt that I could take a gun and shoot down a fellow-being.” But Moody was alive to the opportunities for doing good in the camps; so at once he assisted in forming a committee of the Young Men’s Christian Association there. At Camp Douglas there were as many as twelve thousand men at one time, some leaving and others coming. Among these men and boys Mr. Moody did everything he could. Card games were invaded and songbooks offered in exchange for the cards. The soldiers agreed quickly, and several of the Y.M.C.A.’s rooms were filled with playing-cards that the men had given up. There were many conversions in these camps. Mr. Moody ministered to the wounded after the battles of Pittsburgh Landing, Shiloh, and Murfreesboro. He was with the army at Chattanooga, and among the first to enter Richmond. He
tells this, among other incidents: While working among the wounded soldiers in the hospital he sat down beside a dying soldier and gave him water. “Presently he opened his eyes, and I said, ‘William, do you know where you are?’ “He looked around a little dazed, and then said: ‘Oh, yes! I am on my way home to Mother.’ “ ‘Yes, you are on your way home,’ ” I said, “ ‘but the doctor says you won’t reach your earthly home. I thought I’d like to ask you if you had any message for your mother.’ “His face lighted up with an unearthly glow as he said, ‘Oh, yes, tell my mother that I died trusting in Jesus!’ “It was one of the sweetest messages I ever heard in my life.” Mr. Moody also during the period of the Spanish-American War helped arouse the churches and other organizations to work in the camps and hospitals, hold revival services, distribute gospels and hymn books, comfort the dying, and send messages to the sorrowing. Many times he was almost completely exhausted through his strenuous labors. At the close of the Civil War in 1865 Mr. Moody returned to Chicago and again engaged in Sunday-school work. He had made known his purpose to his former associates by announcing, “When the War is ended, let’s give our strength to Sunday-school work.” Mr. Moody did not wait for Sunday-school workers to come to him—he went to them. The Illinois Sunday School Union was organized in 1859, but during the War it was suspended. The second convention was not held until 1864. This second convention was to be held at Springfield. Mr. Moody and two of his friends arrived Saturday morning. After breakfast they set out in search of some
quiet place for prayer-meeting. A church building nearby seemed to offer such a place and they entered by way of the basement. They read and prayed. While engaged in this the door opened and the pastor entered, saying: “You are welcome, brethren, whoever you may be.” Mr. Moody’s Sunday-school convention idea soon spread to other sections. Into his Sunday-school work, as in every move he made, Mr. Moody threw the whole force of his powerful personality. He held a convention in Pontiac, Ill. At the beginning of the convention he went throughout the town talking to every man, woman, and child he met. Approaching a group of politicians, he heard one of them say of a certain nominee: “I think that man could carry the county.” “My friend,” interrupted Mr. Moody, “we want to carry this county for the Lord Jesus Christ!” The politician slapped Mr. Moody on the shoulder, burst into a laugh, and cried out, “I am with you there, old fellow.” Mr. Moody’s words became the watch-cry of that whole religious movement. At another time the action of a certain convention was not pleasing to a little group; they launched a bitter attack upon the committee in charge. Mr. Moody reviewed the work of the committee, claimed no credit for himself, magnified the work of the other members, and spoke of the continued blessing that had rested upon them from God. He closed by tendering the resignation of all the committee, and then said; “Let us pray.” In a prayer of sweetness and power he led the congregation close to God. He remembered those who tried to turn the convention aside and prayed for them too. The effect was indescribable. The audience of about three thousand was greatly moved, and on motion the committee were reelected by acclamation.
Again and again in Mr. Moody’s work among Sunday-school workers and gospel workers he pleaded for faithfulness. His voice, full of pathos, seems to those who heard it, said a friend, to sound forth even now the solemn words: “If I had the trumpet of God, and could speak to every Sunday-school teacher in America, I would plead with each one to lead at least one soul to Christ this year!” A student of the work and life of Moody cannot fail to be impressed with his spirituality, his enthusiasm, his never-dying zeal for the cause of God. It is reported that he once heard someone say “The world has yet to see what God will do with and for and through and in and by the man who is fully and wholly consecrated to him.” “He said ‘a man,’ ” thought Moody. “He did not say a great man, nor a learned man, nor a rich man, nor a wise man nor an eloquent man, nor a smart man, but simply ‘a man.’ I am a man, and it lies with the man himself whether he will or will not make that entire and full consecration. I will try my utmost to be that man.”