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- D.L. Moody - The Reward of the Faithful
"The Reward of the Faithful" by D.L. Moody
 I
can speak from experience - I have been in the Lord's service for
twenty one years, and I want to testify that He is a good paymaster
- that He pays promptly. Oh, I think I see faces before me light up
at these words. You have been out in the harvest fields of the Lord,
and you know this to be true. To go out and labor for Him is a thing
to be proud of - to guide a poor, weary soul to the way of life, and
turn his face towards the golden gates of Zion. The Lord's wages are
better than silver and gold, because he says that the loyal soul
shall receive a crown of glory. If the Mayor of Chicago gave out a
proclamation stating that he had work for the men, women, and
children of the city, and he would give them a dollar a day, people
would say this was very good of the Mayor.
This money, however,
would fade away in a short time. But here is a proclamation coming
directly from the Throne Of Grace to every man, woman, and child in
the wide world to gather into God's vineyard, where they will find
treasures that will never fade, and these treasures will be crowns
of everlasting life; and the laborer will find treasures laid up in
his Father's house, and when, after serving faithfully here, he will
be greeted by friends assembled there. Work for tens of thousands of
men, women, and children! Think of it, and the reward. These little
children, my friends, are apt to be over looked; but they must be
led to Christ - Children have done a great deal in the vineyard.
They have led parents to Jesus. It was a little girl that led Naaman
to Christ. Christ can find useful work for these little ones. He can
see little things, and we ought to pay great attention to them.
As I was coming along the street today I thought that if I could only
impress upon you all that we have come here as to a vine yard, to
reap and to gather, we shall have a glorious harvest, and we want
every class to assist us. The first class we want is the Ministers.
There was one thing that pleased me this morning, and that was the
eight thousand people who came to this building, and the large
number of Ministers who seized me by the hand, with the tears
trickling down their cheeks, and who gave me a "God bless you!" It
gave me a light heart. There are some Ministers who get behind the
posts, as if they were ashamed of being seen in our company and of
our meetings. They come to criticize the sermon and pick it to
pieces. No effort is required to do this. We don't want the
Ministers to criticize but to help us, and tell us when we are
wrong.
There was one Minister in this city who did me a great deal
of good when I first started out. When I commenced to teach the Word
of God I made very many blunders. I have learned that in acquiring
anything a man must make many blunders. If a man is going to learn
any kind of trade - carpenter's, plumber's, painter's - he will make
any amount of mistakes. Well, this Minister, an old man, used to
take me aside and tell me my errors. So we want the Ministers to
come to us and tell us of our blunders, and if we get them to do
this with us, a spiritual fountain will break over every Church in
the city. Many Ministers have said to me, "What do you want us to
do?" The Lord must teach us what our work shall be.
Let every child
of God come up to these meetings, and say, "Teach me, O God, what I
can do to help these men and women who are inquiring the way to be
saved," and at the close of the meetings draw near to them and point
out the way. If men and women are to be converted in great meetings,
it is by personal dealings with them. What we want is personal
contact with them. If a number of people were sick, and a doctor
prescribed one kind of medicine for them all, you would think this
was wrong. This audience is spiritually diseased, and what we want
is that Christian workers will go to them and find out their
trouble. Five minutes private consultation will teach them. What we
want is to get at the people. Every one has his own particular
burden; every family has a different story to tell. Take the gospel
of the Lord to them and show its application; tell them what to do
with it, so as to answer their own cases; let the Minister come into
the inquiry room.
An old man - a Minister in Glasgow, Scotland was one of the most
active in our meetings. When he would be preaching elsewhere he
would drive up in a cab with his Bible in his hand. It made no
difference what part of Glasgow he was preaching in, he managed to
attend nearly every one of our services. The old man would come in
and tenderly speak to those assembled, and let one soul after
another see the light. His congregation was comparatively small when
we got there, but, by his painstaking efforts to Minister to those
in search of the Word, when we left Glasgow his Church could not
hold the people who sought admission, and I do not know of any man
who helped us like Dr. Andrew Bonner. He was always ready to give
the weak counsel and point the way out to the soul seeking Christ.
If we have not Ministers enough, let those we have come forward, and
their elders and Deacons will follow them.
The next class we want to help us to reach the people is the Sunday
school teachers, and I value their experience next to that of the
Ministers. In the cities where we have been, teachers have come to
me and said, "Mr. Moody, pray for my Sunday school scholars," and I
just took them aside and pointed out their duties and showed how
they themselves ought to be able to pray for their pupils. Next
meeting very often they would come, and the prayer would go up from
them, "God bless my scholars."
In one city we went to, a Sunday school superintendent came to his
Minister and said: "I am not fit to gather sinners to life eternal;
I cannot be superintendent any longer." The Minister asked, "What is
the reason?" and the man said, "I am not right with God." Then the
Minister advised him that the best thing, instead of resigning, was
to get right with God. So he prayed with that teacher that the truth
would shine upon him; and God lit up his soul with the Word. Before
I left that town, the Minister told me all doubt had fled from that
superintendent's mind, and he had gone earnestly to work and
gathered, from the time of his conversion, over six hundred scholars
into the school of his Church. "God can bless, of course, in spite
of schools and teachers; but they are the channels of salvation.
Bring your classes together, and pray to God to convert them. We
have from three thousand to five thousand teachers here. Suppose
they said: "I will try to bring my children to Christ," what a
reformation we should have! Don't say that that boy is too small, or
that girl is too puny or insignificant. Every one is valuable to the
Lord. A teacher, whom I found at our services when she ought to have
been attending to her class, upon my asking why she was at our
meeting, said: "Well, I have a very small class - only five little
boys." "What," said I, "you have come here and neglected these
little ones! Why, in that little tow head may be the seeds of a
reformation. There may be a Luther, a Wheaton, a Wesley, or a Bunyan
among them, You may be neglecting a chance for them, the effects of
which will follow them through life." If you do not look to those
things, teachers, some one will step into your vineyard and gather
the riches you would have.
Look what that teacher did in Southern Illinois. She had taught a
little girl to love the Savior, and the teacher said to her: "Can't
you get your father to come to the Sunday school?" This father was a
swearing, drinking man, and the love of God was not in his heart.
But under the tuition of that teacher, the little girl went to her
father, and told him of Jesus' love, and led him to that Sunday
school. What was the result? I heard before leaving for Europe, that
he had been instrumental in founding over seven hundred and eighty
Sabbath schools in Southern Illinois. And what a privilege a teacher
has - a privilege of leading souls to Christ. Let every Sabbath
school teacher say: "By the help of God I will try to lead my
scholars to Christ."
It seems to me that we have more help in our revivals from young
men, except from mothers, than from any other class. The young men
are pushing, energetic workers. Old men are good for counsel, and
they should help, by their good words, the young men in making
Christianity aggressive. These billiard halls have been open long
enough. There is many a gem in those places, that only needs the way
pointed out to fill their souls with love of Him. Let the young men
go plead with them, bring them to the Tabernacle, and don't let them
go out without presenting the claims of Christ, and show them His
never dying love. Take them by the hand and say: "I want you to
become a Christian." What we want is a hand-to-hand conflict with
the billiard saloons and drinking halls. Do not fear, but enter them
and ask the young men to come. I know that some of you say, in a
scornful way: "We will never be allowed to enter; the people who go
there will cast us out." This is a mistake. I know that I have gone
to them and remonstrated, and have never been unkindly treated. And
some of the best workers have been men who have been proprietors of
these places, and men who have been constant frequenters. There are
young men there breaking their mothers' hearts, and losing
themselves for all eternity. The Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ
asks you to seek them out. If we cannot get them to come here, let
the building be thrown aside, and let us go down and hunt them up,
and tell them of Christ and Heaven. If we get someone to preach to,
let us preach, even if it be to one person. Christ preached one of
His most wonderful sermons to the woman at the well; and shall we
not be willing to go to one, as He did, and tell that one of
salvation? And let us preach to men, even if they are under the
influence of liquor.
I may relate a little experience. In Philadelphia, at one of our
meetings, a drunken man rose up. Till that time I had no faith that
a drunken man could be converted. When any one approached he was
generally taken out. This man got up and shouted, "I want to be
prayed for." The friends who were with him tried to draw him away,
but he shouted only louder, and for three times he repeated his
request. His call was attended to, and he was converted. God has
power to convert a man even if he is drunk.
I have still another lesson. I met a man in New York who was an
earnest worker, and I asked him to tell me his experiences. He said
he had been a drunkard for over twenty years. His parents had
forsaken him, and his wife had cast him off and married some one
else. He went into a lawyer's office in Poughkeepsie, mad with
drink. This lawyer proved a good Samaritan, and reasoned with him
and told him he could be saved. The man scouted the idea. He said:
"I must be pretty low when my father and mother, my wife and kindred
cast me off, and there is no hope for me here or hereafter." But
this good Samaritan showed him how it was possible to secure
salvation; got him on his feet, got him on his beast, like the good
Samaritan of old, and guided his face toward Zion. And this man said
to me: "I have not drank a glass of liquor since." He is now leader
of a young men's meeting in New York. I asked him to come up last
Saturday night to Northfield, my native town, where there are a good
many drunkards, thinking he might encourage them to seek salvation,
he came, and brought a young man with him. They held a meeting, and
it seemed as if the power of God rested upon that meeting when these
two men went on telling what God had done for them - how He had
destroyed the works of the devil in their hearts, and brought peace
and unalloyed happiness to their souls. These grog shops here are
the works of the devil - they are ruining men's souls every hour.
Let us fight against them, and let our prayers go up in our battle,
"Lord, manifest Thy power in Chicago this coming month." It may seem
a very difficult thing for us, but it is a very easy thing for God
to convert rum sellers.
A young man in New York got up and thrilled the meeting with his
experience. "I want to tell you," he said, "that nine months ago a
Christian came to my house and, said he, wanted me to become a
Christian. He talked to me kindly and encouragingly, pointing out
the error of my ways, and I became converted. I had been a hard
drinker, but since that time I have not touched a drop of liquor. If
any one had asked who the most hopeless man in that town was they
would have pointed to me." Today this young man is the
superintendent of a Sabbath school. Eleven years ago, when I went to
Boston, I had a cousin who wanted a little of my experience. I gave
him all the help I could, and he became a Christian. He did not know
how near death was to him. He wrote to his brother and said: "I am
very anxious to get your soul to Jesus." The letter somehow went to
another city, and lay from the 28th of February to the 28th of March
- just one month. He saw it was in his brother's handwriting, and
tore it open and read the above words. It struck a chord in his
heart, and was the means of converting him - And this was the
Christian who led this drunken young man to Christ.
This young man had a neighbor who had drank for forty years, and he
went to that neighbor and told him what God had done for him, and
the result was another conversion.
I tell you these things to encourage You to believe that the
drunkards and saloon keepers can be saved - There is work for you to
do, and by and by the harvest shall be gathered, and what a scene
will be on the shore when we hear the Master on the throne shout,
"Well done! Well done!"
Let me say a word to you, mothers. We depend a good deal upon you.
It seems to me that there is not a father and mother in all Chicago
who should not be in sympathy with this work. You have daughters and
sons, and if work is done now they will be able to steer clear of
many temptations and will be able to lead better lives here. It
seems to me selfishness if they sit down inactive and say, "There is
no use in this. We are safe ourselves, what is the use of
troubling?" If the mothers and fathers of the whole community would
unite their prayers and send up appeals to God to manifest His
power, in answer to them there would be mighty work.
I remember in Philadelphia we wanted to see certain results, and we
called a meeting of mothers. There were from five to eight thousand
mothers present, and each of them had a particular burden upon her
heart. There was a mother who had a wayward daughter, another a
reckless son, another a bad husband. We spoke to them confidently,
and we bared our hearts to one another. They prayed for aid from the
Lord, and that Grace might be shown to these sons and daughters and
husbands, and the result was that our inquiry rooms were soon filled
with anxious and earnest inquirers.
Let me tell you about a mother in Philadelphia. She had two wayward
sons. They were wild, dissipated youths. They were to meet on a
certain night and join in dissipation. The rendezvous was at the
corner of Market and Thirteenth streets, where our meetings were
held. One of the young men entered the large meeting, and when it
was over went to the young men's meeting near at hand, and was
quickened, and there prayed that the Lord might save him. His mother
had gone to the meeting that night, and, arriving too late, found
the door closed. When that young man went home he found his mother
praying for him, and the two mingled their prayers together. While
they were praying together the other brother came from the other
meeting, and brought tidings of being converted, and at the next
meeting the three got up and told their experience, and I never
heard an audience so thrilled before or since.
Another incident. A wayward boy in London, whose mother was very
anxious for his salvation, said to her, "I am not going to be
bothered with your prayers any longer. I will go to America and be
rid of them." "But, my boy," she said, "God is on the sea, and in
America, and He hears my prayers for you." Well, he came to this
country, and as they led into the port of New York some of the
sailors told him that Moody and Sankey were holding meeting in the
Hippodrome. The moment he landed he started for our place Of
meeting, and there he found Christ. He became a most earnest worker,
and he wrote to his mother and told her that her prayers had been
answered; that he had been saved, and that he had found his mother's
God.
Mothers and fathers, lift up your hearts in prayer, that there may
be hundreds of thousands saved in this city.
When I was in London, there was one lady dressed in black up in the
gallery. All the rest were Ministers. I wondered who that lady could
be. At the close of the meeting I stepped up to her, and she asked
me if I did not remember her. I did not, but she told me who she
was, and her story came to my mind.
When we were preaching in Dundee, Scotland, a mother came up with
her two sons, 16 and 17 years old. She said to me, "Will you talk to
my boys?" I asked her if she would talk to the inquirers, and told
her there were more inquirers than workers. She said she was not a
good enough Christian - was not prepared enough. I told her I could
not talk to her then. Next night she came to me and asked me again,
and the following night she repeated her request. Five hundred miles
she journeyed to get God's blessing for her boys. Would to God we
had more mothers like her. She came to London, and the first night I
was there, I saw her in the Agricultural Hall. She was accompanied
by only one of her boys - the other had died. Towards the close of
the meetings I received this letter from her:
"Dear Mr. Moody: For months I have never considered the day's work
ended unless you and your work had been specially prayed for. Now it
appears before us more and more. What in our little measure we have
found has no doubt been the happy experience of many others in
London, my husband and I have sought as our greatest privilege to
take unconverted friends one by one to the Agricultural Hall, and I
thank God that, with a single exception, those brought under the
preaching from your lips have accepted Christ as their Savior, and
are rejoicing in His love."
That lady was a lady of wealth and position. She lived a little way
out of London; gave up her beautiful home and took lodgings near the
Agricultural Hall, so as to be useful in the inquiry room. When we
went down to the Opera House she was there; when we went down to the
east end there she was again, and when I left London she had the
names of 15O who had accepted Christ from her. Some said that our
work in London was a failure. Ask her if the work was a failure, and
she will tell you. If we had a thousand such mothers in Chicago we
would lift it. Go and bring your friends, here to the meetings.
Think of the privilege, my friends of saving a soul, if we are going
to work for good we must be up and about it. Men say, "I have not
the time." Take it. Ten minutes every day for Christ will give you
good wages. There is many a man who is working for you - Take them
by the hand. Some of you with silver locks, I think I hear you
saying, I wish I was young, how I would rush into the battle." Well,
if you cannot be a fighter, you can pray and lead on the others.
There are two kinds of old people in the world. One grows chilled
and sour, and there are others who light up every meeting with their
genial presence, and cheer on the workers. Draw near, old age, and
cheer on the others, and take them by the hand and encourage them.
There was a building on fire. The flames leaped around the stair
case, and from a three story window a little child was seen who
cried for help. The only way to reach it was by a ladder. One was
obtained and a fireman ascended, but when he had almost reached the
child, the flames broke from the window and leaped around him. He
faltered and seemed afraid to go further. Suddenly some one in the
crowd shouted, and then a cheer went up. The man was nerved with new
energy, and rescued the child. Just so our young men. Whenever you
see them wavering, cheer them on. If you cannot work yourself, give
them cheers to nerve them on in their glorious work. May the
blessing of God fail upon us this afternoon, and let every man and
woman be up and doing.Dwight L. Moody
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