Henry Moorhouse & D. L. Moody - Glenn Conjurske
Henry Moorhouse & D. L. Moody
[Henry Moorhouse (1840-1880) belonged to the Open Brethren. He preached and gave “Bible readings” throughout England and America, visiting America six times. He was doubtless one-sided in his gospel preaching, but he preached the side which Moody lacked in his early years, and in such a way as to exercise a great influence over Moody. He has been called “the man who moved the man who moved the world” for his influence upon D. L. Moody. That influence is related by Moody himself in the following extract, from Moody’s sermon on “Love.” —-editor.]
I remember when I was in Dublin, Ireland, in 1867, I met what they called “the Boy Preacher.” I had read in the papers about “the Boy Preacher,” but I did not know this was the one. He introduced himself to me and said he would like to come to Chicago and preach. I looked at him; he was a beardless boy; didn’t look as if he was more than seventeen, and I said to myself, “He can’t preach.” He wanted me to let him know what boat I was going on, he would like to go on the boat with me. Well, I thought he could not preach and did not let him know. I had not been in Chicago a great many weeks before I got a letter which said he had arrived in this country and that he would come to Chicago and preach for me if I wanted him. Well, I sat down and wrote a very cold letter—-“If you come West, call on me.” I thought that would be the last I should hear of him. But I soon got another letter saying that he was still in this country and would come to Chicago and preach for me if I wanted him. I wrote again, if he happened to come West to drop in on me; and in the course of a few days I got a letter stating that next Thursday he would be in Chicago and would preach for me. Then what to do with him I did not know. I had made up my mind he could not preach. I was going to be out of town Thursday and Friday, and I told some of the officers or trustees of the church: “There is a man coming here Thursday and Friday who wants to preach. I don’t know whether he can or not. You had better let him preach, and I will be back Saturday.”
They said there was a good deal of interest in the church, and they did not think they had better have him preach then, he was a stranger, and he might do more harm than good. “Well,” I said, “you had better try him. Let him preach two nights,” and they finally let him preach. When I got back Saturday morning I was anxious to know how he got on. The first thing I said to my wife when I got in the house was, “How is that young Irishman coming on?” I had met him in Dublin and took him to be an Irishman, but he happened to be an Englishman. “How do the people like him?” “They like him very much.” “Did you hear him?” “Yes.” “Well, did you like him?” “Yes, I liked him very much. He has preached two sermons from that text in the third chapter of John: `For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,’ and,” she says,“I think you will like him, although he preaches a little different from what you do.” “How is that?” “Well he tells sinners God loves them.” “Well,” said I,“he is wrong.” She said, “I think you will agree with him when you hear him, because he backs up every thing he says with the word of God. You think if a man don’t preach as you do he is wrong.” I went down that night to church and I noticed every one brought his Bible. “Now,” he said “my friends, if you will turn to the third chapter of John and the sixteenth verse, you will find my text.” He preached a most extraordinary sermon from that sixteenth verse. He did not divide the text into “secondly” and “thirdly” and “fourthly”—-he just took the whole text, and then went through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation to prove that in all ages God loved the world; that He sent prophets and patriarchs and holy men to warn us, and sent His Son, and after they murdered Him He sent the Holy Ghost. I never knew up to that time that God loved us so much. This heart of mine began to thaw out, and I could not keep back the tears. It was like news from a far country. I just drank it in. The next night there was a great crowd, for the people like to hear that God loves them.
I tell you there is one thing that draws above every thing else in this world and that is love. A man that has no one to love him, no mother, no wife, no children, no brother, no sister, no one to love him, belongs to that class who commit suicide; he would go down here and jump in the lake.
Well, there was a great crowd Sunday night, and he said, “My friends, if you will turn in your Bibles to the third chapter of John and the sixteenth verse, you will find my text,” and he preached another extraordinary sermon from that wonderful verse, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And he went on proving it again from Genesis to Revelation. He could turn to almost any part of the Bible and prove it. Well, I thought that was better than the other one; he struck a higher chord than ever, and it was sweet to my soul to hear it. The next night, pretty hard to get out a crowd in Chicago on Monday night, but they came. The women left their washing, or if they had washed they came, and they brought their Bibles, and he said, “My friends, if you will turn to the sixteenth verse of the third chapter of John, you will find my text, and again he followed it out from Genesis to Revelations [sic] to prove that God loved us, and he just beat it down into our hearts, and I never have doubted it since. I used to preach that God was behind the sinner with a double edged sword ready to hew him down. I have got done with that, I preach now that God is behind him with love, and he is running away from the God of love.
Tuesday night came, and we thought surely he had exhausted that text and that he would take another, but he said, “If you will turn to the third chapter of John and the sixteenth verse, you will find my text.” And he preached the sixth sermon from that wonderful text and that night he struck a higher chord than ever. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have”—-not going to have when you die, but have it right here, now—-“eternal life.” By that time we began to believe it, the whole of us, and we never have doubted it since; and if a man gets up in that pulpit and utters that text there is a smile all over the church to-day. Although twelve years have rolled away; they never have forgotten it.
The seventh night came and he went into the pulpit. Every eye was upon him. All were anxious to know what he was going to preach about. He said, “My friends, I have been hunting all day for a new text, but I cannot find one as good as the old one; so we will go back to the third chapter of John and the sixteenth verse,” and he preached the seventh sermon from that wonderful text. “God so loved the world.” I remember the closing up of that sermon. Said he: “My friends, for a whole week I have been trying to tell you how much God loves you, but I cannot do it with this poor, stammering tongue.
“If I could borrow Jacob’s ladder and climb up into heaven, and ask Gabriel, who stands in the presence of the Almighty, if he could tell me how much love the Father has for the world, 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 eternal life.”
Since then I have been preaching the love of God, and I tell you, my friends, God loves you, and He does not want you to perish.
“Say unto them, as I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death, of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel!” Drunkard turn! Turn from your cups! Give them up to-night! Say, “By the grace of God, I will hurl them from me. I will live a sober life.” The God of love, will if need be, send legions of angels to help you to fight your way up into the kingdom of God. God has power enough. What we want is the power of God in our hearts. But we cannot have a God of love, a pure God, a holy God in a heart full of vice and crime and sin. We have got to forsake sin, and God will turn and have mercy upon us.
Glenn Conjurske
—-The Great Redemption; or, Gospel Light under the Labors of Moody and Sankey; Chicago: The Century Book and Paper Co., 1889, pp. 262-266.