Top 10 Facts about Dwight L. Moody

Dwight Lyman Moody c.1900.jpg Photo by Barron Fredricks – Wikimedia Commons

Top 10 Facts about Dwight L. Moody

He was born in Northfield, Massachusetts. His full name was dwight Lyman Moody. He was the seventh child in a large family. His father, Edwin J. Moody, was a small farmer and stonemason. His mother was Betsey Moody and together they had five sons and a daughter before Dwight’s birth. His father died when Dwight was age four. His mother struggled to support the nine children but had to send some off to work for their room and board. He too was sent off, where he received cornmeal, porridge, and milk three times a day. He complained to his mother, but when she learned that he was getting all he wanted to eat, she sent him back. He was raised in the Unitarian church. 

When he 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, where Dr. Edward Norris Kirk served as the pastor. 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. However, he was not received as a church member until May 4, 1856. His career as an evanglist started as a Sunday School teacher where he attracted more than 650 congregants with over 60 volunteers. Evenmore, he became more famous when the then President elect Lincoln visited and spoke at his Sunday School meeting on November 25, 1860.

However, he was well established and on August 28, 1862, he married Emma C. Revell, with whom he had a daughter, Emma Reynolds Moody, and two sons, William Revell Moody and Paul Dwight Moody.

1. He Began Preaching at an Early Age

https://www.discoverwalks.com/blog/?s=Top+10+Facts+about+Rev.+Jesse+Jackson Photo by Internet Archive Book Images – Wikimedia Commons

He started his preaching in a little old shanty that had been abandoned by a saloon keeper where he held night meetings. He moved many people who became Christians due to his tireless labor, within a year the average attendance at his school was 650 while 60 volunteers from various churches served as teachers.

2. Fire Destroyed Moody’s Church Building

In October 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed his church building, as well as his house and those of other congregation members. Majority of them flee the flames only saving their lives. The fire literally left them destitute. ther is only one thing that the fire did not destroy, his bible.

3. He was Involved with YMCA

The Civil War brought a shift in his life where he could not conscientiously enlist in the Union Army. It is during this time that he described himself as a Quaker. He was also engaged with United States Christian Commission Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) which is a community-focused nonprofit established in 1844. He paid nine visits to the battlefront, being present among the Union soldiers after the Battle of Shiloh otherwise known as Pittsburg Landing and the Battle of Stones River; he also entered Richmond, Virginia, with the troops of General Grant.

4. He Started a Church Due to the Growth in the Congregation

Church Street Square Champaign Illinois 20080301 4138.jpg Photo by Dori – Wikimedia Commons

His ministry was growing very fast and this prompted the need for a permanent place. With this need building up, he started a church in Chicago, the Illinois Street Church. In June 1871 at an International Sunday School Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, he met Ira D. Sankey, a a gospel singer, with whom he began to cooperate and collaborate. He visited Britain with Ira D. Sankey where he preached and Sankey singing at meetings. Together they published books of Christian hymns. In 1883 they visited Edinburgh and raised £10,000 for the building of a new home for the Carrubbers Close Mission. 

5. He Met a Wealthy John V. Farwell

John V. Farwell.PNG Photo by Unknown (1908) – Wikimedia Commons

In the years after the fire, Moody’s wealthy Chicago patron John V. Farwell tried to persuade him to make his permanent home in the city, offering to build a new house for Moody and his family. But the newly famous Moody, also sought by supporters in New York, Philadelphia, and elsewhere, chose a tranquil farm he had purchased near his birthplace in Northfield, Massachusetts. He felt he could better recover in a rural setting from his lengthy preaching trips.

Read more about the Early Missionaries and how they moved preaching the Gospel here.

6. His Relocation back home Massachusetts 

Northfield became an important location in evangelical Christian history in the late 19th century as Moody organized summer conferences. These were led and attended by prominent Christian preachers and evangelists from around the world. This became the beginning of Evangelism with Western Massachusetts being rich with evangelical tradition including Jonathan Edwards preaching in colonial Northampton and C.I. Scofield preaching in Northfield. A protégé of Moody founded Moores Corner Church, in Leverett, Massachusetts, and it continues to be evangelical.

Read more about well organized Evangelism in the early church by clicking here.

7. He Founded Schools

Northfield Mount Hermon School (Gill, MA) – campus view.JPG Photo by Daderot – Wikimedia Commons

He is famous for founding two schools here known as Northfield School for Girls, founded in 1879, and the Mount Hermon School for Boys, founded in 1881. In the late 20th century, these two schools merged forming today’s  famous and well sort for co-educational, nondenominational Northfield Mount Hermon School.

Read more about another Christian famous man who had a passion for Schools here.

8. He Travelled Abroad for Missions

During a trip to the United Kingdom in the spring of 1872, Moody became well known as an evangelist. Literary works published by the Moody Bible Institute claim that he was the greatest evangelist of the 19th century. He preached almost a hundred times and came into communion with the Plymouth Brethren. On several occasions, he filled stadia of a capacity of 2,000 to 4,000. According to his memoir, in the Botanic Gardens Palace, he attracted an audience estimated at between 15,000 and 30,000. That turnout continued throughout 1874 and 1875, with crowds of thousands at all of his meetings. During his visit to Scotland, Moody was helped and encouraged by Andrew A. Bonar. The famous London Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon, invited him to speak, and he promoted the American as well. When Moody returned to the US, he was said to frequently attract crowds of 12,000 to 20,000 were as common as they had been in England.

Moody greatly influenced the cause of cross-cultural Christian missions after he met Hudson Taylor, a pioneer missionary to China. He actively supported the China Inland Mission and encouraged many of his congregation to volunteer for service overseas. 

Moody later preached at the laying of the foundation stone for what is now called the Carrubbers Christian Centre, one of the few buildings on the Royal Mile which continues to be used for its original purpose where he had visited together with Ira D. Sankey.

Fior more information about Christianity and how to become one, click here.

9. His Ministry was attend by two former Presidents

President Grant and some of his cabinet officials attended a Moody meeting on January 19, 1876. He held evangelistic meetings from Boston to New York, throughout New England, and as far west as San Francisco, also visiting other West Coast towns from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to San Diego. Former President attended his early congregation of Sunday School which had puled many people from his neighbourhood in 1860.

10. He Began a Wordless Book

The life and work of Dwight L. Moody, presented to the Christian world as a tribute to the memory of the greatest apostle of the age (1900) (14579819650).jpg Photo by Chapman, J. Wilbur – Wikimedia Commons

Moody aided the work of cross-cultural evangelism by promoting The Wordless Book, a teaching tool developed in 1866 by Charles Spurgeon. In 1875, Moody added a fourth color to the design of the three-color evangelistic device known as gold  to represent heaven. This book has been and is still used to teach uncounted thousands of illiterate people, young and old, around the globe about the gospel message. The Wordless Book has been used in missionary preaching in China and the impact on many people has been tremedous over the years.