THE' KING’S BUSINESS 677 In our July issue a sermon of Mr. Moody’s was given, to which the Editor in Chief wrote an introductory note. Some on,e in the publishing department sought to improve on the heading by adding a line, “ An Oft-'
Moody the Great Servant of God.
repeated Sermon by the once Famous Evangelist.” There seems to be an implication in this that Mr. Moody is no longer famous. We do not know that any one else would be as much hprt by this as the Editor is, but take it for granted that it will not sound well to the countless hosts of Mr. Moody’s friends. Mr. Moody was not only once famous, he is still famous. There has been no evangelist in half a century who is known so well throughout the world today as Mr. Moody. His printed sermons are still read, indeed havé a great circulation, and many of the present day evangelists owe much of their material to Mr. Moody’s printed sermons. There are thousands upon thousands of the best workers in the evangelical churches of America, England, Scotland,-Ire land, and even lands that he never visited, such as Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania, who were converted in Mr. Moody’s meetings. Further than this, thousands have gone out to efficient service from the schools which he founded in Northfield, Mount Hermon and Chicago. Mr. Moody is known and honored today among thousands of people who never heard the name of any of the evangelists now supposed to be famous. . He left such an impress upon the religious life, not only of English speaking countries, but of all lands, as was left by no other man of his generation. It was the privilege of the Editor of this magazine to have worked six weeks in his after meetings in New Haven during his senior year in the Yale Theological Seminary, and he has often thought that that six weeks meant more for his future work in the ministry than his whole three years course in the Theological-Seminary, and he counts it as one of the greatest privileges of his life to have known Mr. Moody inti mately and to have been associated with him' in his work. There is, perhaps, not a week that some one does not speak to the writer of this editorial, or write to him, about his interest in our work because of what Mr. Moody meant to him. All over the globe multitudes have flocked around me and wanted to shake hands with me not because of anything I have done but because I was intimately associated with D. L. Moody. we need more social service in the church, wiser men are seeing the peril in the present drift of the church. For example, a writer in th e Reformed Church Review, for April, protests against the rapid seculariza tion of the church under disguise of trying to Christianize the social and civil life, and protests against diverting the church from the exercise of its normal function, which is to regenerate the heart of man from within. He says : “ The sacred edifice heretofore dedicated to the worship of Almighty God has now, with its parish-house, its club, and other auxiliaries, beçome the cen ter of secular functions. We now go to church to hear sermons on the mini- mum wage, adequate housing of the poor, the regulation of moving pictures and the dance-halls, how to vote, and the latest vice-investigation report From this center agents and detectives of Law and Order societies make report of mighty investigations; and it is said even ministers of the Gospel keep silent We note with joy that protests are arising in many quarters against the secularizing of the church. While the' cry on the part o f some superficial thinkers is that « u "r-6 CalIing of the Church. . .
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