on Invitation
By D. L. Moody Come —An Oft-repeated Sermon by the once Famous Evangelist
c o u n t r y ^ n T l / G r e l t 1B riS n h w T p r“ ched b7 M r: Moody in m any cities in th is Cleveland in N ovem ber JRW . n ^ have £W° * ^ 4 ?£ f t one a? he preached it in in New Y ork in 1876 W e aloe h * p ? ! - * 3 10 P o a c h ed it in th e H ippodrom e m eetings izint?tSHe^ne S t °ne “ »«>«»W U lu str a J e Moody’s mThod^rserm lm
*5°“ °n a“pther. Many speak about having heard Mr. Moody preach the same ser- “ “ any t.mes, but he never preached exactly the same sermoS twice. The "rm on was not determined altogether by his previous preparation, but largely by his audience at the time. Ot tne very many times that we heard Mr. Moody preach never but on sh>n°onath°en d‘,r U seenV?? lf he were going to fail in his attempt to make an impre°- V h audience. This was one night in Northfield. For some reason or other no?oZ.i!ei:a’ife th5; audience was very tired, the service seemed to drag heavily he did’ to i*? getting a grip on his audience at all. As we listened we wondered if for once he would Tail m his preaching. Mr. Moody evidently felt that he was fading to DletehturnUtoe tbe more than atW one of his hearers felt it, and suddenly he gave a com- £ thV ? mon md brought m an incident that we never heard him use in that connection before—a very touching incident concerning a dying Sunday School ind Mr 1MChH1CaBl°' 2 # egect was electric, everybody woke up, everybody waj melted and Mr. Moody closed just at the right moment. People were deeply stirred and many were moved to immediate consecration to whole-hearted service in winning souls His whole method of preaching showed that he was not at all interested fboSt'laving sermons, but»about saving souls, and he would make any turn that was necessary to feticsCeMllei In? >reS b°n that de.slred>,even though he violated every law of Homiletics. Most of us have much to learn from him in this respect.—Editor.
!WANT this audience tonight, while I am speaking, to pray. 11 would like to ask you i friends who are not Chris- | tians to pray. I would like
not from God. If it is not true, I don’t want you to believe it. But if it is, you certainly ought to be honest enough to want to know it. That is perfectly fair. No skeptic, no infidel, no deist, no atheist, really can object to making that prayer; but if there is an atheist 'here, let him make this prayer: “If there be a God, let Him show these things to me, if they are true.” Let us be willing tonight to let
to give you a little prayer, and I would like to ask you to make it all the time I am speaking: “Lord, if these things are so, show them to me.” I don’t want you to believe one solitary word I say that is
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