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Dwight Moody is an important transitional figure between the 19th century Great Awakening and the revivals of the 20th century. Moody was born in 1837, a few months before Queen Victoria began her reign, and he died in December, 1899, just nine days before the turn of the century. He was born in Northfield, Massachusetts, as the seventh child in a large family. According to Edward Maas, Moody’s education was quite limited. Maas writes, “Possibly because of the size of her brood, Betsey Moody never encouraged Dwight to acquire a good education or to study the Bible. Consequently, his total schooling was the equivalent of a fifth-grade education today. At age 18, when he attempted to join a Congregational Church, he failed a simple test of Bible knowledge administered by the deacons. Moody’s education was, by most standards, inadequate: he never went to college or seminary, nor was he ever ordained as a clergyman. He spelled phonetically, so his adult letters and sermon outlines abounded in spelling errors, as well as grammatical ones.” It is one of God’s ironies that education became an important part of Moody’s legacy.
When Moody turned 17, he moved to Boston to work in an uncle’s shoe store. One of the uncle’s requirements was that Moody attend the Congregational Church of Mount Vernon. In April 1855 Moody was converted to evangelical Christianity when his Sunday school teacher, Edward Kimball, talked to him about how much God loved him. His conversion sparked the start of his career as an evangelist. Shortly after his conversion Moody moved to Chicago where he was very successful as a businessman. In 1861 he gave up business to work full time in social and evangelistic endeavors at the YMCA and his Sunday school. In 1864 he expanded his mission into a church—the Illinois Street Independent Church—for immigrant families.
The Great Chicago Fire in October 1871 caused Moody to leave church work for a career as a traveling revivalist. The famous fire destroyed his church, his home, and the local YMCA. He determined now to focus on preaching the gospel of Christ, for he was convinced that the world would be changed not by social work, but by the return of Christ and the establishment of his millennial kingdom on earth.
In the summer of 1873 he boldly set out on faith for England with his song leader, Ira Sankey, and their families. After preaching for two years in England, Scotland, and Ireland, he returned to America as an internationally famous revivalist. Immediately, representatives from numerous American cities lobbied him to hold a crusade in their cities. For the next three years, from 1875 till 1878, Moody conducted revival campaigns in both large cities like Philadelphia and small towns like Newburyport, in structures ranging from converted skating rinks to abandoned railroad depots. During these crusades he pioneered many techniques of evangelism: a house-to-house canvass of residents prior to a crusade; an ecumenical approach enlisting cooperation from all local churches and evangelical lay leaders regardless of denominational affiliations; philanthropic support by the business community; the rental of a large, central building; and the showcasing of a gospel soloist. He preached his last sermon on November 16, 1899, in Kansas City, Missouri. He died on December 22, 1899, surrounded by his family.
Moody changed evangelism in six important ways:
- Interdenominational work. Moody’s Christian work began in the YMCA, and he continued that institution’s approach by scrupulously avoiding putting forward any particular church or denomination.
- Lay participation. Moody, being himself a layman, emphasized the roll of laymen in his movement, by, for example, using theatrical halls rather than churches, as sites for his meetings. He particularly valued the participation and financial support of wealthy Christians, such as John Wanamaker, the Philadelphia department store owner.
- Social reform. According to David Bebbington, “Moody reinforced the existing link between revivalism and social reform…He frequently insisted that there must be public display of the fruits of the faith, and he was associated with many of the progressive causes of his day…Moody, noted a leading Scottish minister, issued a “Christian call to righteousness and even philanthropy.” It is increasingly appreciated that the social gospel movement had evangelical roots. Some of them were nurtured in soil prepared by Moody.”
- Romanticism in theology. Moody was influenced by Romanticism, the body of thought stressing will and emotion, in reaction against the emphasis on reason in earlier Christian thinking swayed by the Enlightenment. According to Bebbington, Moody was associated with the holiness movement, again Romantic in inspiration. His attitude toward sanctification came close to its principle of holiness by faith rather than by works. The Holiness Movement with its emphasis on an emotional response to the Holy Spirit was central in the revivals that followed Moody.
- Refined Techniques. Moody relocated revivalism from small towns and rural areas to large cities like New York and Chicago. He also prepared for his crusades by organizational planning and house-to-house canvassing. However, Moody’s greatest innovation was to team up with Ira D. Sankey, whose expressive singing was as powerful in its way as his partner’s preaching. At the start of a meeting there would be half an hour of congregational singing; at the end those seeking spiritual guidance would be invited to a separate inquiry room. Notably he permitted women to speak from his pulpit.
- Unity. Moody’s revivals unified both the more conservative and more liberal wings of his movement. As Bebbington wrote, “Deeply attached to the four cardinal evangelical verities of conversion the Bible, the cross, and activism, Moody was a bridge between the conservative and the liberal, as well as between the old and the new.
Beyond his revivals Moody established an institutional base for Evangelical Christianity that has survived until our time. He established Sunday schools for the poor children of Chicago and created a school to train women for evangelical work. In 1879, Moody opened the Northfield Seminary for Younf Women to provide women the opportunity to gain an education. Not long after he created the Mount Hermon School for boys, with the same goal as the girls’ school: to educate the poor and minorities.
In 1886, the Moody Bible Institute was founded. This was the result of a partnership between Moody and Emma Dryer, the principle of the Illinois State Normal University. Dryer was a remarkable woman. While ministering to the needs of thousands who were left homeless by the Chicago Fire in 1871, Dryer began developing a program of Bible study, teaching, and home visitation for young women.
Moody persuaded Dryer to stay in Chicago and carry on her Bible work under the auspices of his church. During the next decade, Moody continued his involvement in evangelistic work around the country, and Dryer developed the training program among women in Chicago. At every opportunity she encouraged Moody to start a training school for both young men and women. By 1886, Moody was convinced. He said, “I tell you what I want, and what I have on my heart. I believe we have got to have gap-men to stand between the laity and the ministers; men who are trained to do city mission work. Take men that have the gifts and train them for the work of reaching the people.” And so the Chicago Evangelism Society, later renamed the Moody Bible Institute was established.
Dwight L. Moody was a towering figure in the American Evangelical movement. He was a tireless evangelist, a path-breaking educator (ironically given his lack of a formal education), an institutional innovator, and a Christian leader of impeccable integrity and commitment.