Chapter VII

CHAPTER VII.

HOME AGAIN.

Notwithstanding the wonderful career of the revivalists in Europe, there were many who prophesied —and with some plausibility—that the same success could not attend them in America, where the songs were well known and the style of their address familiar. But, instead, the anticipations of their most sanguine friends are more than realized.

A pleasant feature of the Brooklyn services was the united and harmonious action of laymen and ministers of all denominations of Christians.

Every morning at the Tabernacle, and every evening at the Rink, were thirty or forty city pastors gathered ne;ir the platform all ready to do their uttermost to increase the interest and success of the meetings.

Dr. Duryea gives the following incident in connection with the work in Brooklyn: "A young man of my acquaintance, of fine culture and wide reading, c:uno to me, took me by the hand and said, 'Doctor, I am poing.'

'• Ho was tko first to rise in the auditorium when Mr. Moody gave the invitation. lie was verging on Universalism, but Mr. Moody's sermon went

•home, and broke sunlight through the vapor and mystification in his mind."

Many who would not have been influenced to attend the revival services by Mr. Moody's preaching are drawn thither by Mr. Sankey's singing. Of the hymns sung by Mr. Sankey in Brooklyn "The Ninety and Nine" was the general favorite. The following is the correct account of its origin: The first time Mr. Sankey visited London he bought a copy of The Christian Age, a religious paper, which published Dr. Talmage's sermons, and found this hymn. It seemed adapted to religious work. He cut it from the paper and, three days afterward, sang it at a meeting in Edinburgh, having himself composed the music. Not long after he received a letter from a lady thanking him for having sung the hymn, and informing him the author was her sister, Miss Eliza C. Claphane, of Melrose, Scotland. She wrote the hymn in 1868 and died shortly afterward.

It is difficult to explain the secret of Mr. Moody's success or the elements of his power. That he has power no one, who has ever sat by his side and watched the sea of upturned, earnest faces eager to catch every syllable which falls from his lips, can doubt.

He is thoroughly in earnest. He preaches with his whole soul, evidently believing all he says, and expecting his hearers to believe it.

He is remarkably natural. Without apparent effort he gets wonderfully near to his audience, whatever their size may be. He sper.ks with the same unaffected farvcr to fifteen and to fifteen thousand.

He is thoroughly conscientious. The committee having charge of the revival meetings, in London, tendered him a large royalty accruing from the sale of music-boo!; s in London. It was his by every legal and moral right, but he utterly refused to accept u penny of it. Since his return it has been sent, by the committee in London, to Mr. Moody's Tabernacle building committee in Chicago.

That such a man should have no enemies or slanderers would be a miracle. But his calumniators are usually those who do not know him, and many of these pinci; seeing him and hearing him, have become his warmest friends.

In a religious movement of such vast proportions as that which is here so briefly and imperfectly sketched, there can be no exactness with reference to results.

Just how many thousands of believers have been refreshed and helped to a truer knowledge of their privilege and duty, and how many tens of thousands of wanderers brought into the fold of Christ, will never b:; known until the day when He shall number His jewels.