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Why God Used Dwight L. Moody #4
Proverbs 16:18, “Pride
goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”
Matthew 18:4, “Whosoever
therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in
the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 23:12, “And
whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself
shall be exalted.”
James 4:10, “Humble
yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”
D. L. Moody
(1837-1899) was an American evangelist who founded the Northfield Schools in
Massachusetts, Moody Church and Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, and the
Colportage Association. He is also credited with starting the Northwest Branch
of the United States Christian Commission during the American Civil War. The following was written by R.A. Torey.
The fourth reason why God continuously,
through so many years, used D.L. Moody was because he was a humble man. I think D. L. Moody was the humblest man I
ever knew in all my life. He loved to
quote the words of another; "Faith gets the most; love works the
most; but humility keeps the most. "
He himself had the humility that keeps
everything it gets. As I have already
said, he was the most humble man I ever knew, i.e., the most humble man when we
bear in mind the great things that he did, and the praise that was lavished
upon him. Oh, how he loved to put
himself in the background and put other men in the foreground. How often he would stand on a platform with
some of us little fellows seated behind him and as he spoke he would say: "There
are better men coming after me." As he said it, he would point back over his
shoulder with his thumb to the "little fellows. " I do not know how he could believe it, but he
really did believe that the others that were coming after him were really
better than he was. He made no pretense
to a humility he did not possess. In his
heart of hearts he constantly underestimated himself, and overestimated others.
He really believed that God would use
other men in a larger measure than he had been used. Mr. Moody loved to keep himself in the
background. At his conventions at
Northfield, or anywhere else, he would push the other men to the front and, if
he could, have them do all the preaching — McGregor, Campbell Morgan, Andrew
Murray, and the rest of them. The only
way we could get him to take any part in the program was to get up in the
convention and move that we hear D. L. Moody at the next meeting. He continually put himself out of sight.
Oh, how many a man has been full of
promise and God has used him, and then the man thought that he was the whole
thing and God was compelled to set him aside! I believe more promising workers have gone on
the rocks through self-sufficiency and self-esteem than through any other
cause. I can look back for forty years,
or more, and think of many men who are now wrecks or derelicts who at one time
the world thought were going to be something great. But they have disappeared entirely from the
public view. Why? Because of overestimation of self. Oh, the men and women who have been put aside
because they began to think that they were somebody, that they were
"IT," and therefore God was compelled to set them aside.
I remember a man with whom I was
closely associated in a great movement in this country. We were having a most successful convention in
Buffalo, and he was greatly elated. As
we walked down the street together to one of the meetings one day, he said to
me: "Torrey,
you and I are the most important men in Christian work in this country,"
or words to that effect. I replied: "John,
I am sorry to hear you say that; for as I read my Bible I find man after man
who had accomplished great things whom God had to set aside because of his
sense of his own importance." And God set that man aside also from that
time. I think he is still living, but no one ever hears of him, or has heard of
him for years.
God used D. L. Moody, I think, beyond
any man of his day; but it made no difference how much God used him, he never
was puffed up. One day, speaking to me
of a great New York preacher, now dead, Mr. Moody said: "He once did a very foolish
thing, the most foolish thing that I ever knew a man, ordinarily so wise as he
was, to do. He came up to me at the
close of a little talk I had given and said: 'Young man, you have made a great
address tonight.'" Then Mr.
Moody continued: "How foolish of him to have said that! It almost turned my head." But, thank God, it did not turn his head, and
even when pretty much all the ministers in England, Scotland and Ireland, and
many of the English bishops were ready to follow D. L. Moody wherever he led,
even then it never turned his head one bit. He would get down on his face before God,
knowing he was human, and ask God to empty him of all self-sufficiency. And God did.
Oh, men and women! especially young men
and young women, perhaps God is beginning to use you; very likely people are
saying: "What a wonderful gift he has as a Bible teacher, what power he
has as a preacher, for such a young man!" Listen: get down upon your face before God. I believe here lies one of the most dangerous
snares of the Devil. When the Devil
cannot discourage a man, he approaches him on another tack, which he knows is
far worse in its results; he puffs him up by whispering in his ear: "You
are the leading evangelist of the day. You are the man who will sweep everything
before you. You are the coming man. You
are the D. L. Moody of the day"; and if you listen to him, he will
ruin you. The entire shore of the
history of Christian workers is strewn with the wrecks of gallant vessels that
were full of promise a few years ago, but these men became puffed up and were
driven on the rocks by the wild winds of their own raging self-esteem.