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Dwight Lyman Moody (February 5, 1837 - December 22, 1899), also known as D.L. Moody, was an American evangelist and publisher who founded the Moody Church, Northfield School and Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts (now the Northfield Mount Hermon School), the Moody Bible Institute and Moody Publishers.
Early life Dwight Moody's father was an alcoholic and died when he was 41. Dwight, only four years old, was the youngest in his family at the time of his father's death. When Moody turned 15 he moved to Boston to find work. He worked with his uncle running a shoe store. One of his uncle's requirements was that Moody attend a church. He attended but did not establish a personal relationship with God until later. One April, his teacher talked to him about how much God loved him. Moody was then converted to Christianity. His conversion sparked the start of his career as an evangelist. Moody's work in Chicago, Illinois led to the largest Sunday School of his time. He labored so abundantly that within a year the average attendance at his school was 650, while sixty volunteers from various churches served as teachers. It became so well known that the just-elected President Lincoln visited and spoke at a Sunday School meeting on November 25, 1860. Later life After the Civil War started, he was involved with the U.S. Christian Commission of the YMCA, and ministered at several battlefields. In Chicago, Moody worked to start a Sunday school for children in the poorer parts of the city. He soon had over 1,000 children and their parents attending each Sunday. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln visited one week. The growing Sunday school congregation needed a permanent home, so Moody started a church in Chicago, the Illinois Street Church. When the chuch burnt down in the Great Chicago Fire, it was rebuilt within three months at a near-by location as the Chicago Avenue Church. His lay follower William Eugene Blackstone was a prominent American Zionist. It was in a trip to England that he became well known as an evangelist, to the point that some have claimed he was the greatest evangelist of the 19th century. His preaching had an impact as great as that of George Whitefield and John Wesley within Britain, Scotland and Ireland. On several occasions he filled stadiums of 2,000 to 4,000 capacity. In the Botanic Gardens Palace, a meeting had between 15,000 to 30,000 people. This turnout continued throughout 1874 and 1875, with crowds of thousands at all of his meetings. During his visit to Scotland he was helped and encouraged by Andrew A. Bonar. When he returned to the United States, crowds of 12,000 to 20,000 were just as common as in England. President Grant and some of his cabinet attended a meeting on January 19, 1876. His evangelistic meetings were held from Boston to New York, throughout New England and as far as San Francisco, and other West coast towns from Vancouver to San Diego. Dwight L. Moody visited Britain with Ira D. Sankey, with Moody acting as preacher and Sankey singing. Together, they published books of Christian hymns. He preached his last sermon on November 16, 1899. R. A. Torrey succeeded Moody as president of the Moody Bible Institute. Ten years after his death, the Chicago Avenue Church was renamed The Moody Church in his honor. See also Horatio Spafford - Spafford, a friend of Moody, wrote the words to the hymn "It Is Well With My Soul" | ||||||||
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