Young Moody Penniless in Boston is Warned by his Sister to “Beware of Pickpockets.” – Dwight Lyman Moody

I remember when I was a boy and went to Boston, I went to the postoffice two or three times a day to see if there was a letter for me. I knew there was not, as there was but one mail a day. I had not had any employment and was very homesick, and so went constantly to the postoffice, thinking perhaps when the mail did come in my letter had been mislaid. At last, however, I got a letter. It was from my youngest sister, the first letter she ever wrote to me. I opened it with a light heart thinking there was some good news from home, but the burden of the whole letter was that she had heard there were pickpockets in Boston, and warned me to take care of them. I thought I had better get some money in hand first, and then I might take care of pickpockets. And so you must take care to remember salvation is a gift. You don’t work for salvation, but work day and flight after you have got it. Get it first before you do anything, but don’t try to get it yourself. Look at what Paul says in Ephesians: “For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourself.it is the gift of God”—it is the gift of God—”Not of works, lest any man should boast.” There is one thing we know: We have all got to get into heaven the same way. We cannot work our way there; we have to take our salvation from God.