Personal Statement by Mr. Moody

A PERSONAL STATEMENT BY MR. MOODY.

Shortly before the close of the services in Boston, Mr. Moody addressed a noon-day meeting upon the financial aspect of the Revival work, and the compensation the Evangelists were to receive. He said:

To-morrow, at all the meetings, there will be a collection taken up for the expenses of the meetings, as a thank offering; and we would like to have every man give as the Lord has prospered him, or as his heart is inclined to give. We do not want a man to give unless he gives his heart with it. We do not want any one going off complaining that there has been too much money spent. If you do not want to give, do not give. The amount desired is $30,000—$20,000 to defray expenses up to the time of closing the present series of meetings; and the remainder to secure the use of the Tabernacle for Gosoel purposes for a year. I could not stand here to ask for this collection, if I was to carry off any part of it. There have been some very exaggerated rumors that we were emploved to come for so many thousand dollars—$10,000, $15,000, $20,000, or even $30,000. Now let me say that this money is to go to D. E. Snow of the Tremont Bank, who is Treasurer of the committee that have put up the building and have paid all the bills; and not one dollar of it is coming to us. We not only raised money enough to pay the ex

penses in Chicago, but $80,000 to pay the debt on the Young Men's Christian Association. Then some one writes to an infidel paper that Moody and Sankey had put the money in their pockets—pretty good pay for three months' work. We find a good many people believe it. If we took money from the public, it would be well to report what we did with it, and how much we received. As there never has been any collection for us, and we are not employed by the public or anjr committee, I do not know that it is necessary for me to say anything to justify myself in the way I have been employed the last sixteen years. But when I gave up my business sixteen years ago, after three months of the severest struggle of my life, as to whether I should go for dollars and cents or for souls, from that day to this I have no more lived for money than I have lived for water. My friends have blamed me, because I have not laid aside something for my family.

Some of them insisted upon my wife having some money; and they bought her a home in the country, and the rumor is that it cost $30,000, and $30,000 to furnish it. The home cost $3500 and there have been some improvements; and the furniture and everything cost $10,000. It belongs to my wife and children. My father died at the early age of forty-one, and if I die to-morrow, there will be a roof over the heads of my wife and children. (Voices, "Thank God!") Some one said, in the inquiry-room, a certain man would not come because I paid $4000 for a horse. Take off $3750, and you -will find it right. As far as dollars and cents are concerned, I could make more in one night than I have made in Boston. 1 have been offered $500 a night for a lecture. I have been offered $x!00. $300, $500 a night to lecture, when I might talk an hour and then go to a comfortable hotel; but as it is now, I work at the Tabernacle all day and talk till midnight with inquirers, and when I am done have hardly strength enough to go to my room. If you want to attack me, do not attack me there. I have weaknesses; but they are not in that direction. If I had come for money, it would have been in some other work. (Applause.) I detest that applause. The royalty on the hymn books amounted last year to $68,000; but it all went to three trustees, and not one dollar came into the hands of Mr. Sankey or myself. It belongs to us as much as the income of your business belongs to you; but we give it up. We do not want one dollar of your money in Boston. Give it to the Lord, as long as you please. I would rather live on a crust of bread than have people think we came for your money. If any young man here wants to go into the work of the Lord for money, 1 advise him not to do it. Now I don't want any one to go off and say that we preach for nothing; for we do not. We preach for souls; and the Lord takes care of us. I never have known what it is to want money in the sixteen years I have been at work for him. The Lord has taken good care of ire; and I have not known what it is to want.

Taking his Bible, Mr. Moody read from the 2d chapter of Colossians, 6th, 7th and 8th verses: "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye with him: rooted and built up in him. and established in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you throuqli philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."

And from the 3d chapter, 6th to 17th verses: "For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. In the which ye also walked sometime, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: where there is neither Greek nor Jew. circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ is all, and in all. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God. holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any; even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hvmns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him."

In commenting on the passages read, he said: As ye have therefore received him, walk ye in him. No man ever received Christ that did not receive him in humility, when pride, self-righteousness and egotism were gone. As you receive him, walk with him. If we walk with him as we have received him, then we are walking as God would have us walk; then we are deep rooted. We want to get these young converts rooted, not in themselves, but in Christ. Yon find surface Christians, when there is some great blast of temptation, go down. If we are rooted in Christ and built up in him, we have strength and power. Let us pray that we may nave these seven things, that we may realize that we have received Christ, walk as we have received him, be rooted, built up and complete in him, buried in him, and risen in him.