The hardest thing, I will admit, ever a man had to do is to become a Christian, and yet it is the easiest. This seems to many to be a paradox, but I will repeat it; it is the most difficult thing to become a Christian, and yet it is the easiest. I have a little nephew in Chicago. When he was three or four years of age, he threw that Bible on the floor. I think a good deal of that Bible, and I didn't like to see this. His mother said to him, "Go, pick up your uncle's Bible from the floor." "I won't," he replied. "Go and pick that Bible up directly." "I won't." "What did you say?" asked his mother. She thought he didn't understand. But he understood well enough, and had made up his mind that he wouldn't. She told the boy she would have to punish him if he didn't, and then he said he couldn't, and by-and-by he said he didn't want to. And that is the way with the people coming to Christ. At first they say they won't, then they can't, and then they don't want to. The mother insisted upon the boy picking up the Bible, and he got down and put his arms around it and pretended he couldn't lift it. He was a great, healthy boy, and he could have picked it up easily enough. I was very anxious to see the fight carried on, because she was a young mother, and if she didn't break that boy's will, he was going to break her heart by-and-by. So she told him again, if he didn't pick it up, she would punish him, and the child just picked it up. It was very easy to do it when he made up his mind. So it is perfectly easy for men to accept the gospel. The trouble is, they don't want to give up their will. If you want to be saved, you must just accept that gospel; that Christ is your Savior; that He is your redeemer, and that He has rescued you from the curse of the law. Just say, "Lord Jesus Christ, I trust you from this hour to save me"; and the moment you take that stand, He will put His loving arms around you and wrap about you the robe of righteousness.
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D.L. Moody (1837 - 1899)
Was an American evangelist and publisher who founded the Moody Church in downtown Chicago. Preached to thousands in evangelistic meetings and had touches of revival in scotland and other countries. Ira Sankey was his worship leader who was used of the Lord in the meetings. Moody wrote many books including "Prevailing Prayer" and "The Way To God."Moody once said: "If this world is going to be reached, I am convinced that it must be done by men and women of average talent." And thus was born his ministry of book publishing, bible college and many other outreaches to equip the average layperson to be a soul winner and do great exploits for the Lord.
D. L. Moody was an American evangelist who founded the Northfield Schools in Massachusetts, Moody Church and Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, and the Colportage Association.
As a young man, he spent his evenings in missionary work among the lowly and destitute of the city. This work grew to such proportions that he was induced to give up his profitable business engagements and to devote all his time to religious work in connection with the local Young Men's Christian Association of which he became president. He soon became known as one of the most acceptable public speakers of the country, and was in constant demand at Christian conventions throughout the West and South.
Mr. Moody is supposed to have spoken to more people, and addressed larger audiences than any man of his generation. D. L. Moody was undoubtedly one of the greatest evangelists of all time. The meetings held by Moody and Sankey were among the greatest the world has ever known. They were the means under God of arousing the church to new life and activity, and were the means of sweeping tens of thousands of persons into the kingdom of God.
D. L. Moody may well have been the greatest evangelist of all time. In a 40-year period he won a million souls, founded three Christian schools, launched a great Christian publishing business, established a world-renowned Christian conference center, and inspired literally thousands of preachers to win souls and conduct revivals.
A shoe clerk at 17, his ambition was to make $100,000. Converted at 18, he uncovered hidden gospel gold in the hearts of millions for the next half-century. He preached to 20,000 a day in Brooklyn and admitted only non-church members by ticket!
He met a young songleader in Indianapolis, said bluntly, "You're the man I've been looking for for eight years. Throw up your job and come with me." Ira D. Sankey did just that; thereafter it was "Moody will preach; Sankey will sing."
He traveled across the American continent and through Great Britain in some of the greatest and most successful evangelistic meetings communities have ever known. His tour of the world with Sankey was considered the greatest evangelistic enterprise of the century.
It was Henry Varley who said, "It remains to be seen what God will do with a man who gives himself up wholly to Him." And Moody endeavored to be, under God, that man; and the world did marvel to see how wonderfully God used him.
Two great monuments stand in the indefatigable work and ministry of this gospel warrior - Moody Bible Institute and the famous Moody Church in Chicago.
Moody went to be with the Lord in 1899.