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- D.L. Moody - To the Afflicted
"To the Afflicted" by D.L. Moody
 If
I were to ask this audience what Christ came into this world for,
every one of you would say to save sinners, and then you would stop.
A great many think that is all Christ came to do - to save sinners.
Now, we are told that He came, to be sure, to "seek and save that
which was lost"; but then He came to do more. He came to heal the
broken hearted. In that eighteenth verse of the fourth chapter of
Luke, which I read to you last night, He said that the Spirit of the
Lord was upon Him, and that He was anointed to preach the Gospel to
the poor, and in the next sentence He tells us, He is sent to heal
the broken hearted. In another place we are told He came into the
world to declare who the Father was, and reveal Him to the sons of
men.
Tonight I want to take up this one thought - that Christ was sent
into the world to heal the broken hearted. When the Prince of Wales
came to this country a few years ago, the whole country was excited
as to his purpose. What was his object in coming here? Had he come
to look into our republican form of government, or our institutions,
or was it simply to see and be seen? He came and he went without
telling us what he came for. When the Prince of Peace came into this
dark world, He did not come in any private way. He tells us that He
came, not to see and be seen, but to "seek and save that which was
lost" and also "to heal the broken hearted." And in the face of this
announcement, it is a mystery to me why those who have broken hearts
will rather carry them year in and year out, than just bring them to
this Great Physician.
How many men in Chicago are just going down to their graves with a
broken heart? They have carried their hearts weighted with trouble
for years and years, and yet when they open the Scriptures they can
see the passage telling us that He came here for the purpose of
healing the broken hearted. He left Heaven and all its glory to come
to the world - sent by the Father, He tells us, for the purpose of
healing the broken hearted.
You will find, my friends, that there is no class of people exempt
from broken hearts. The rich and the poor suffer alike. There was a
time when I used to visit the poor, that I thought all the broken
hearts were to be found among them, but within the last few years I
have found there are as many broken hearts among the learned as the
unlearned, the cultured as the uncultured, the rich as the poor. If
you could but go up one of our avenues and down another, and reach
the hearts of the people, and get them to turn out their whole
story, you would be astonished at the wonderful history of every
family.
I remember a few years ago I had been out of the city for some
weeks. When I returned I started out to make some calls. The first
place I went to I found a mother, her eyes red with weeping. I tried
to find out what was troubling her, and she reluctantly opened her
heart and told me all. She said, "Last night my only boy came home
about midnight drunk. I didn't know that he was addicted to
drunkenness, but this morning I found out that he has been drinking
for weeks, and," she continued, "I would rather have seen him laid
in the grave than have him brought home in the condition I saw him
in last night." I tried to comfort her as best I could when she told
me her sad story. When I went away from that house I didn't want to
go into any other house where there was family trouble. The very
next house I went to, however, where some of the children who
attended my Sunday school resided, I found that death had been there
and laid his hand on one of them. The mother spoke to me of her
afflictions, and brought to me the playthings and the little shoes
of the child, and the tears trickled down that mother's checks as
she related to me her sorrow.
I got out as soon as possible, and hoped I should see no more family
trouble that day.
The next visit I made was to a home where I found a wife with a
bitter story. Her husband had been neglecting her for a long time,
"and now," she said, "he has left me, and I don't know where he has
gone. Winter is coming on, and I don't know what is going to become
of my family," I tried to comfort her, and prayed with her, and
endeavored to get her to lay all her sorrows on Christ. The next
home I entered I found a woman crushed and broken hearted. She told
me her boy had forsaken her, and she had no idea where he had gone.
That afternoon I made five calls, and in every home I found a broken
heart. Every one had a sad tale to tell, and if you visited any home
in Chicago you would find the truth of the saying, that "there is a
skeleton in every house."
I suppose while I am talking, you are thinking of the great sorrow
in your own bosom. I do not know anything about you, but if I came
round to every one of you, and you were to tell me the truth, I
would hear a tale of sorrow. The very last man I spoke to last night
was a young mercantile man, who told me his load of sorrow had been
so great, that many times during the last few weeks he had gone down
to the lake and had been tempted to plunge in and end his existence.
His burden seemed too much for him. Think of the broken hearts in
Chicago tonight! They could be numbered by hundreds - yea, by
thousands. All over this city are broken hearts. If all the sorrow
represented in this great city was written in a book, this building
couldn't hold that book, and you couldn't read it in a long life
time.
This earth is not a stranger to tears, neither is the present the
only time when they could be found in abundance. From Adam's days to
ours tears have been shed, and a wail has been going up to Heaven
from the broken hearted. And I say it again, it is a mystery to me
how all those broken hearts can keep away from Him who has come to
heal them. For six thousand years that cry of sorrow has been going
up to God. We find the tears of Jacob put on record, when he was
told that his own son was no more. His sons and daughters tried to
give him comfort, but he refused to be comforted. We are also told
of the tears of King David. I can see him, as the messenger brings
the news of the death of his son, exclaiming in anguish, "O,
Absalom, my son, would that I had died for thee!" And when Christ
came into the world the first sound He heard was woe - the wail of
those mothers in Bethlehem; and from the manger to the Cross, He was
surrounded with sorrow. We are told that He often looked up to
Heaven and sighed. I believe it was because there was so much
suffering around Him. It was on His right hand and on His left -
everywhere on earth; and the thought that He had come to relieve the
people of the earth of their burdens, and so few would accept Him,
made Him sorrowful. He came for that purpose. Let the hundreds of
thousands just cast their burdens on Him. He has come to bear them,
as well as our sins. He will bear our griefs and carry our sorrows.
There is not a burdened son of Adam in Chicago who cannot but be
freed if he will only come to Him.
Let me call your attention to this little word "sent." "He hath sent
me." Take your Bibles and read about those who have been sent by
God, and one thought will come to you - that no man who has ever
been sent by God to do His work has ever failed. No matter how great
the work, how mighty the undertaking; no matter how many
difficulties had to be encountered, when they were sent from God
they were sure to succeed. God sent Moses down to Egypt to bring
3,000,000 people out of bondage. The idea would have seemed absurd
to most people. Fancy a man with an impediment in his speech,
without an army, without Generals, with no record, bringing
3,000,000 people from the power of a great nation like that of the
Egyptians. But God sent him, and what was the result? Pharaoh said
they should not go, and the great king and all his army were going
to prevent them. But did he succeed? God sent Moses and he didn't
fail.
We find that God sent Joshua to the walls of Jericho, and he marched
around the walls, and at the proper time those walls came tumbling
down and the city fell into his hands. God sent Eliab to stand
before Ahab, and we read the result; Samson and Gideon were sent by
God and we are told in the Scriptures what they accomplished, and so
all through the word we find that when God sent men they have never
failed.
Now, do you think for a moment that God's own Son sent to us is
going to fail? If Moses, Elijah, Joshua, Gideon, Samson, and all
these mighty men sent by God succeeded in doing their work, do you
think the Son of Man is going to fail? Do you think, if He has come
to heal broken hearts, He is going to fail? Do you think there is a
heart so bruised and broken that can't be healed by Him? He can heal
them all, but the great trouble is that men won't come. If there is
a broken heart here tonight just bring it to the Great Physician, if
you break an arm or a leg, you run off and get the best physician.
If you have a broken heart, you needn't go to a doctor or Minister
with it; the best physician is the Great Physician. In the days of
Christ they didn't have hospitals or physicians as we have now. When
a man was sick he was taken to the door, and the passersby
prescribed for him. If a man came along who had had the same disease
as the sufferer he just told him what he had done to get cured - I
remember I had a disease for a few months, and when I recovered if I
met a man with the same disease I had to
tell him what cured me. I could not keep the prescription all to
myself. When He came there and found the sick at their cottage door,
the sufferers found more medicine in His words than there was in all
the prescriptions of that country. He is a mighty physician who has
come to heal every wounded heart in this building and in Chicago
tonight.
You needn't run to any other physician. The great difficulty is that
people try to get some other physician - they go to this creed and
that creed, to this doctor of Divinity and that one, instead of
coming directly to the Master. He has told us that His mission is to
heal the broken hearts, and if He has said this, let us take Him at
His word and just ask Him to heal.
I was thinking today of the difference between those who know Christ
when trouble comes upon them, and those who know Him not. I know
several members of families in this city who are just stumbling into
their graves over trouble. I know two widows in Chicago who are
weeping and moaning over the death of their husbands, and their
grief is just taking them to their graves. Instead of bringing their
burdens to Christ they mourn day and night, and the result will be
that in a few weeks or years at most their sorrow will take them to
their graves, when they ought to take it all to the Great Physician.
Three years ago a father took his wife and family on board that ill
fated French steamer. They were going to Europe, and when out on the
ocean another vessel ran into her and she went down. That mother
when I was preaching in Chicago used to bring her two children to
the meetings every night. It was one of the most beautiful sights I
ever looked on, to see how those little children used to sit and
listen, and to see the tears trickling down their cheeks when the
Savior was preached. It seemed as if nobody else in that meeting
drank in the truth as eagerly as those little ones. One night when
an invitation had been extended to all to go into the inquiry room,
one of these little children said: "Mamma, why can't I go in, too?"
The mother allowed them to come into the room, and some friend spoke
to them, and to all appearances they seemed to understand the plan
of Salvation as well as their elders. When that memorable night
came, that mother went down and came up without her two children.
Upon reading the news I said: "It will kill her," and I quitted my
post in Edinburgh - the only time I left my post on the other side -
and went down to Liverpool to try and comfort her. But when I got
there, I found that the Son of God had been there before me, and
instead of me comforting her she comforted me. She told me she could
not think of those children as being in the sea; it seemed as if
Christ had permitted her to take those children on that vessel only
that they might be wafted to Him, and had saved her life only that
she might come back and work a little longer for Him. When she got
up the other day at a mothers' meeting in Farwell Hall, and told her
story, I thought I would tell the mothers of it the first chance I
got. So if any of you have some great affliction, if any of you have
lost a loved and loving father, mother, brother, husband, or wife,
come to Christ, because God has sent Him to heal the broken hearted.
Some of you, I can imagine, will say, "Ah, I could stand that
affliction; I have something harder than that." I remember a mother
coming to me and saying, "It is easy enough for you to speak in that
way; if you had the burden that I've got, you couldn't cast it on
the Lord." "Why, is your burden so great that Christ can't carry
it?" I asked. "No, it isn't too great for Him to carry; but I can't
put it on Him." "That is your fault," I replied; and I find a great
many people with burdens who, rather than just come to Him with
them, strap them tighter on their backs and go away staggering under
their load. I asked her the nature of her trouble, and she told me,
"I have an only boy who is a wanderer on the face of the earth. I
don't know where he is. If I only knew where he was I would go round
the world to find him. You don't know how I love that boy. This
sorrow is killing me." "Why can't you take him to Christ? You can
reach Him at the Throne, even though He be at the uttermost part of
the world. Go tell God all about your trouble, and He will take away
this, and not only that, but if you never see him on earth, God can
give you faith that you will see your boy in Heaven."
And then I told her of a mother who lived down in the southern part
of Indiana. Some years ago her boy came up to this city. He was a
moralist. My friends, a man has to have more than morality to lean
upon in this great city. He hadn't been here long before he was led
astray. A neighbor happened to come up here and found him one night
in the streets drunk. When that neighbor went home at first he
thought he wouldn't say anything about it to the boy's father, but
afterwards he thought it was his duty to tell. So in a crowd in the
street of their little town, he just took that father aside, and
told him what he had seen in Chicago. It was a terrible blow. When
the children had been put to bed that night he said to his wife:
"Wife, I have bad news. I have heard from Chicago today." The mother
dropped her work in an instant, and said: "Tell me what it is."
"Well, our son has been seen on the streets of Chicago drunk."
Neither of them slept that night, but they took their burden to
Christ. About daylight the mother said: "I don't know how, I don't
know when or where, but God has given me faith to believe that our
son will be saved and will never come to a drunkard's grave." One
week after, that boy left Chicago. He couldn't tell why - an unseen
power seemed to lead him to his mother's home, and the first thing
he said on coming over the threshold was, "Mother, I have come home
to ask you to pray for me"; and soon after he came back to Chicago a
bright and a shining light. If you have got a burden like this,
fathers, mothers, bring it to Him and cast it on Him and He, the
Great Physician, will heal your broken hearts.
I can imagine again some of you saying, "How am I to do it?" My
friends, go to Him as a personal friend. He is not a myth. What we
want to do is to treat Christ as we treat an earthly friend. If you
have sins, just go and tell Him all about them; if you have some
great burden, "Go bury thy sorrow," bury it in His bosom. If you go
to people and tell them of your cares, your sorrows, they will tell
you they haven't time to listen. But He will not only hear your
story, however long it be, but will bind your broken heart up. Oh,
if there is a broken heart here tonight, bring it to Jesus, and I
tell you upon authority, He will heal you. He has said He will bind
your wounds up - not only that, He will heal them.
During the war I remember of a young man, not 20, who was
court-martialed down in the front and sentenced to be shot. The
story was this: The young fellow had enlisted. He was not obliged
to, but he went off with another young man. They were what we would
call "chums." One night this companion was ordered out on picket
duty and he asked the young man to go for him. The next night he was
ordered out himself, and having been awake two nights, and not being
used to it, fell asleep at his post, and for the offense he was
tried and sentenced to death. It was right after the order issued by
the President that no interference should be allowed in cases of
this kind. This sort of thing had become too frequent, and it must
be stopped.
When the news reached the father and mother in Vermont, it nearly
broke their hearts. The thought that their son should be shot was
too great for them. They had no hope that he would be saved by
anything they could do. But they had a little daughter who had read
the life of Abraham Lincoln and knew how he loved his own children,
and she said: "If Abraham Lincoln knew how my father and mother
loved my brother be wouldn't let him be shot," That little girl
thought this over and made up her mind to go and see the President.
She went to the White House, and the sentinel, when he saw her
imploring looks, passed her in, and when she came to the door and
told the private secretary that she wanted to see the President he
could not refuse her. She came into the chamber and found Abraham
Lincoln surrounded by his generals and counselors, and when he saw
the little country girl he asked her what she wanted. The little
maid told her plain simple story - how her brother, whom her mother
and father loved very dearly, had been sentenced to be shot. How
they were mourning for him, and if he was to die in that way it
would break their hearts. The President's heart was touched with
compassion, and he immediately sent a dispatch canceling the
sentence and giving the boy a parole so that he could come home and
see that father and mother.
I just tell you this to show you how Abraham Lincoln's heart was
moved by compassion for the sorrow of that father and mother, and if
he showed so much, do you think the Son of God will not have
compassion upon you sinner, if you only take that crushed, bruised
heart to Him? He will read it. Have you got a drunken husband? Go
tell him. He can make him a blessing to the Church and to the world.
Have you a profligate son? Go take your story to him, and he will
comfort you, and bind up and heal your sorrow. What a blessing it is
to have such a Savior. He has been sent to heal the broken hearted.
May the text, if the sermon doesn't, reach everyone here tonight,
and may every crushed, broken, and bruised heart be brought to that
Savior, and they will hear His comforting words. He will comfort you
as a mother comforts her child if you will only come in prayer and
lay all your burdens before Him.
Dwight L. Moody
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