Dwight L. Moody had the words, "God is love," written above his pulpit. When he
first began preaching, his zeal for God and his hatred for sin kept him from
feeling the full force of these words. Then he preached that God was angry with
the wicked and stood behind them with a drawn sword, ready to cut down sinners
if they did not repent. In a measure, this is true. God loves the sinner, but He
hates the sin. Unless we depart from sin, we shall perish with it; but God would
have his love come first always.
A young Englishman taught Moody to preach the love of God. When Moody first
visited England, he met Harry Moorehouse. The people called him "the boy
preacher." One day Moorehouse told Moody that he would like to go with him to
Chicago and preach in his church. Moody said he looked at the beardless young
fellow and decided he was too young to preach; so he did not let him know what
boat he sailed on. But not long after, he received a letter stating that
Moorehouse had arrived in the United States and that he would come out to
Chicago and preach for him if he wished. Moody wrote him a very cold answer,
telling him that if he came west, to call on him.
In a few days he received another letter, telling him that Moorehouse would
arrive in Chicago on Thursday. Moody did not know what to do. He had to be in
another city over Friday and Saturday. But, finally, after thinking it over a
long time and seeing no way out of the difficulty, he told his church officers
that a young preacher from England was to arrive on Thursday and they had better
invite him to speak the two evenings he was away. They too, were afraid that the
young stranger might spoil the interest; but Moody said, "Well, try him."
When he returned, about the first question he asked his wife was how the young
preacher got on. His wife said: "He has preached both nights from John 3:16. I
think you will like him. He preaches a bit differently from the way you do."
"How is that?" Moody asked. "He tells the people that God loves them," replied
his wife. Moody said: "He is wrong; but I will ask him to speak again tonight so
I can hear him myself." "I think you will agree with him after you hear him,"
Mrs. Moody said.
Moody went down to the church, and he noticed everybody had Bibles. "My
friends," began Moorehouse, "if you will turn to the third chapter of John and
the sixteenth verse you will find my text." He preached seven sermons from that
one text!
The last night Moorehouse went into the pulpit, every eye was upon him,
wondering what text he would preach from. He began: "Friends, I have been
hunting all day for a new text, but I can not find one so good as the old one;
so we will go back to the third chapter of John and the sixteenth verse."
Moody said he could never forget the closing words of that night's sermon: "My
friends, for a whole week I have been trying to tell you how much God loves you;
but I can not do it with this poor, stammering tongue. If I could borrow Jacob's
ladder, climb up to heaven and ask Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God,
to tell me how much God loves sinners, all he could say would be, 'God so loved
the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.'"
Moody was convinced, and changed his manner of preaching. Now he preached that
God was behind the sinner with love instead of a sword, and that, in rejecting
God, the sinner was running away from the God of love.
By Sherman A. Nagel, Signs of the Times, February 12, 1924. Dale Galusha
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