Free – Dwight Lyman Moody

You will remember when we had slavery we used to have men come up from Kentucky, Tennessee, and other slave states in order to escape from slavery. I hope if there are any Southern people here they will not think in this allusion I am trying to wound their feelings. We all remember when these colored men came here how they used to be afraid lest some one should come and take them back. Why, I remember in the store we had a poor fugitive, and he used to be quaking all the time. Sometimes a customer would come in, and he would be uneasy all the time. He was afraid it was some one to take him back to slavery. But somebody tells him if he was in Canada he would be perfectly safe, and he says: “If I could only get into Canada; if I could only get under the Union Jack I would be free.” There are no slaves under the Union Jack he has been told — that is the flag of freedom; the moment he gets under it he is a free man. So he starts. We’ll say there are no railways, and the poor fellow has got ten miles ahead when his master comes up, and he hears that his slave has fled for Canada and sets off in pursuit. Some one tells the poor fugitive that his master is after him. What does the poor fugitive do? What does he do? He redoubles his exertions and presses on, on, on, on. He is a slave born, and he knows a slave belongs to his master. Faster he goes! He knows his master is after him and he will be taken if he comes up with him before he reaches the lines. He says, “If I can only hold out and get under the English flag, the English government will protect me.” The whole English army will come to protect me if need be. On he presses. He is now nearing the boundary line. One minute he is a slave, and in an instant he is a free man. My friends, don’t mistake. These men can be saved tonight if they cross the line.

An Irishman Leaps Into the Life-Boat.

While I was in New York, an Irishman stood up in a young converts’ meeting and told how he had been saved. He said in his broken Irish brogue that I used an illustration, and that illustration saved him. And I declare that that is the only man I ever knew who was converted without being spoken to. He said I used an illustration of a wrecked vessel, and said that all would perish unless some assistance came. Presently a life-boat came alongside and the captain shouted, “Leap into the life-boat — leap for your lives, or you will perish,” and when I came to the point I said, “Leap into the life-boat; Christ is your life-boat of salvation,” and he leaped and was saved.

[Illustration: The Expulsion from the Garden. GUSTAVE DORE. Genesis, iii, 24]

[Illustration: The Trial Of The Faith Of Abraham. GUSTAVE DORE. Genesis, xxii.]