* Dwight Lyman Moody began his Sunday School in 1858, inviting children from the Chicago slums to participate. The first meetings took place on the shores of Lake Michigan where the kids sat on rocks and driftwood as they heard gospel lessons. They were then able to set up the Sunday School in an abandoned freight car before finally obtaining a vacant saloon building on Michigan Street. Moody was, by the way, a lay minister at the time selling shoes to make a living.
* To draw the unchurched kids to the Sunday services, Moody used prizes, free pony rides, picnics, and a genuine heart for children. In so doing, he quickly built a “congregation” of more than a thousand. The success of Moody’s Sunday School eventually persuaded a former mayor to allow him the free use of a large hall over North Market. It meant that Moody had to do the recruiting for help, supervise the meetings, meet with parents and community businessmen, and do the janitor work of cleaning the hall after the Saturday night dances in order to have things clean and ready for Sunday School.
* Also in 1860, the Sunday School which was fast becoming well-known in Chicago and beyond, was visited by President-elect Abraham Lincoln. Indeed, he made a special detour on his way to his inauguration in Washington, D.C. in order to see for himself this inspirational ministry. While there, the magnanimous Lincoln blessed the kids with a few extemporaneous remarks.
* In 1862, Dwight Moody married Charlotte Revell. He was 25; she was 19. They would eventually have 3 children. Within that first year of marriage, Moody would raise $20,000 to build Illinois Street Church with a capacity for 1,500. It was the beginning of what was to become one of the most influential churches in history – Moody Church – which continues its ministry today. Moody placed a sign at the entrance to that church that in itself became an important challenge to other churches: “Ever Welcome to this House of God Are Strangers and the Poor.”
* D.L. Moody’s ministry of pastoring, preaching, and relief work would make him a well-traveled and well-known preacher, yet he continued to serve Christ as an evangelist and counselor. Indeed, this service included his visiting several battlefields of the Civil War where he ministered to the soldiers.
A few of D.L. Moody's proverbs:
“If I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of itself.”
“Out of 100 men, one will read the Bible, the other 99 will read the Christian.”
“Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn't really matter.”
“The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.”
“I have had more trouble with myself than with any other man I have ever met.”
“God never made a promise that was too good to be true.”
“No one can sum up all God is able to accomplish through one solitary life, wholly yielded, adjusted, and obedient to Him.”
“What we need as Christians is to be able to feed ourselves. How many there are who sit helpless and listless, with open mouths, hungry for spiritual things, and the minister has to try to feed them, while the Bible is a feast prepared, into which they never venture.”
