The New Student's Reference Work/Moody, Dwight Lyman

DWIGHT L. MOODY

Mood′y, Dwight Lyman, evangelist, was born at Northfield, Mass., Feb. 5, 1837. At 17 he became an earnest Christian and zealously embraced Christian work. Wishing to strike out a new path for himself, he went from Boston to Chicago. A tireless worker, he settled down to the hunting up of ragged children in the worst parts of the city and winning them to school and to a good life. Soon a deserted saloon was hired for a Sunday-school which Moody built into a great mission.

The breaking out of the Civil War gave Moody an opportunity that was improved to the utmost. He carried on a great revival at the recruiting camp near Chicago. Soon a call came from the sick and wounded. Back and forth between Chicago and camp and battlefield Moody toiled and traveled.

Moody's great work was as an evangelist, but his many converts in Chicago, who had founded a church, forced him to become their pastor. But this charge could not keep him from carrying on great revivals which were wonderfully successful and will always hold his name in remembrance. In 1870 and 1883, with Sankey (who died in 1908), he visited England, where his success was as great as in America. Another great agency we owe Moody is the summer-school for Bible study at Northfield, where Christian workers study under the foremost preachers and professors.  Connected with this school is the institute for the training of young men for this work, which was founded from the proceeds of the sale of Moody and Sankey’s Gospel Hymns, the most popular hymn-book ever published.  Many of Moody’s sermons have been published.  See Moody and the Memoir by W. R. Moody, his son (b. 1869), who continues the father’s work in Northfield.  He died on Dec. 22, 1899.