Get Rid Of Doubts
GET RID OF DOUBTS
"A good many people are asking, 'Will this work hold out?' Now I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but there is one thing I can predict, and that is, that every one of these young converts who studies his Bible till he learns to love it better than anything else, will be sure to hold out; the world will have no charms for him. What all these young converts want is to be in love with the Word of God; to feed upon it till it comes to be sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.
"One day when my old employer, C. N. Henderson, was sending me out to make some collections, he gave me some notes on which he had made some private marks. Some were marked 'B'. bad, and I was to get anything I could for them. Others were marked 'D', doubtful; I was to get all the security I could. And others were marked 'G', good, and these I was to treat accordingly. Now people take God's notes or promises, and some of them they mark 'B', because they don't believe in them; others they mark 'D', because they don't feel sure of them; but if there happens to be one which has been fulfilled to themselves, that one they mark 'G'.
"Now that isn't the way to treat God's promises. You ought to mark every one of them G--O--O--D, good. Heaven and earth shall pass away before any one of them shall fail. If we could only get these Christians out of Doubting Castle, how rich they would be, and what a work of grace there might be. O, these Devils, Ifs! When shall we ever get rid of them?"
Mr. Moody's Bible was a real storehouse of treasure. Every page of it was marked - almost every verse had some special illustration connected with it, so that he had only to open the book to have a perfect flood of light upon its pages. It was for this reason that he was always helpful and always interesting.
The following is one of his most characteristic statements, and really was the beginning of my marking my own Bible. He always practiced what he preached, and he advised other people to mark their Bibles because it had been such a blessing to him:
"When the preacher gives out a text, mark it; as he goes on preaching, put a few words in the margin, key-words that shall bring back the whole sermon again. By that plan of making a few marginal notes, I can remember sermons I heard years and years ago. Every man ought to take down some of the preacher's words and ideas, and go into some lane or byway, and preach them again to others. We ought to have four ears - two for ourselves and two for other people. Then, if you are in a new town, and have nothing else to say, jump up and say: 'I heard some one say so and so;' and men will always be glad to hear you if you give them heavenly food. The world is perishing for lack of it."
He had many references to the twenty-third Psalm; this is one of the best. "I suppose I have heard as many good sermons on the twenty-third Psalm as on any other six verses in the Bible. I wish I had begun to take notes upon them years ago when I heard the first one. Things slip away from you when you get to be fifty years of age.
"With me, the Lord.
"Beneath me, green pastures.
"Beside me, still waters.
"Before me, a table.
"Around me, mine enemies.
"After me, goodness and mercy.
"Ahead of me, the house of the Lord."
Blessed is the day,' says an old divine, 'when Psalm twenty-three was born!' It has been more used than almost any other passage in the Bible.'
Mr. Moody was never more interesting, than when giving his Bible readings. He could hold his great audiences spellbound with his plain, practical, and yet powerful interpretations of the Scripture. He had no use at all for the so-called higher criticism. At one of the last conferences held in New York, he said to a company of ministers:
"I don't see why you men are talking about 'two Isaiah's half the people in the country do not know that there is one Isaiah yet; let's make them know about one, before we begin to tell them about two."
The last conversation of any length, that I had with him, he must have talked for half an hour, concerning his absolute confidence in the Bible and his growing love for it.
Chapter 21
His Co-workers
Mr. Moody was a great general not only in faculties of organization, but also in his shrewd choice of the right men for the right work. Thus, from the beginning of his labors, he associated with himself the most competent assistants, and it is by no means depreciatory of his own efforts to say that his success was in no small measure dependent upon those who helped him. It is not depreciatory, I say; for one of the greatest gifts is this ability to choose worthy helpers. Napoleon could not conduct in person all his campaigns, but he surrounded himself with a staff of generals so brilliant in their abilities that they were able to help him maintain his prestige for fifteen years.