CHAPTER 11
characteristic foresight, believing that his prayer would be answered, he got a charter from the State, exempting the Young Men’s Christian Association’s real estate from taxation.
A stock company was then formed, and on looking for a location a site originally secured for the city water-works office and tower was decided upon as the most appropriate in size and location. The city had grown so rapidly that the lot was entirely inadequate for the proposed water-works, and the property now belonged to Mr. Farwell. At. Mr. Moody’s
solicitation, it was donated to the work for young men, being the equivalent of a contribution of $40,000. The first cash subscription of
$10,000 was then secured from Cyrus H. McCormick, and others generously aided in the work, until a sufficient sum was secured for “the first hall ever erected in America for Christian Association work,” which distinction it claimed. At the dedication of the building, September 29, 1867, a large audience taxed the utmost capacity of the hall, many visitors coming from distant cities. The interdenominational character of the
Association was proved by the presence of ministers of all denominations, and this at a time when the work was only beginning, and jealous eyes were watching lest it should prove a rival of the churches.
In his speech on this occasion Mr. Moody recounted the blessings the Association had received and how God had led them from small beginnings to their present position of influence. He made a characteristic plea for an aggressive attack upon the strongholds of sin, saying Christians had been on the defensive too long. He confessed his belief that by the Lord’s blessing a religious influence was to go out from this Association that
“should extend to every county in the State, to every State in the Union, and finally crossing the waters, should help to bring the whole world to God.”
It had been planned by some of the subscribers to the Association building fund that it should be named after Mr. Moody, as it owed its existence to his vigorous efforts. As soon as he learned of this Mr. Moody took the platform, and in a short and vigorous appeal asked the audience to name it Farwell Hall, in honor of the man who was chairman of the building committee and had been so liberal a giver. The proposal was carried by acclamation, although Mr. Farwell modestly insisted afterward that “the
audience acceded to the only mistake Mr. Moody ever made in connection with this enterprise.”
Within four months after its dedication Farwell Hall burned down, entailing great loss, as it was only partly insured. Mr. Moody took matters in his own hands again, and so promptly that it is said he had secured subscriptions for the new hall before the old one ceased burning.
While the ruins were still smoldering he received a telegram from J. D.
Blake, of Rochester, MN, an early friend of the general Association work, offering to take $500 worth of stock in the new building.
“When the costly hall of the Young Men’s Christian Association took fire in 1867,” wrote the Rev. Mr. Macrae, “the secretary and other officials, as soon as they found the building was doomed, ran about among the merchants in the city for subscriptions. ‘Our hall is burning, sir; the engines are at work, but there is no hope. We shall want a new one. Let us have money enough to begin at once’
Thousands upon thousands of dollars were subscribed without a moment’s hesitation, and it is said that before the fire was out money enough had been raised to build a new hall in a style of even greater magnificence than the first. This is only a specimen of the lightning Christianity of Chicago.
“The man who may be called par excellence the lightning Christian the city is Mr. Moody, the secretary of the Association referred to, and a man whose name is a household word in connection with missionary work. I went to one of his mission schools, and have rarely beheld such a scene of high pressure evangelization. It made me think irresistibly of those breathing steamboats on the
Mississippi that must either go fast or burst. Mr. Moody himself went about the school seeing that everybody was at work;
throwing in a word where he thought it necessary; inspiring everyone with his own enthusiasm.”
The second Farwell Hall was completed and dedicated in the following year. This building was superior in many respects to the first one, but suffered the fate of its predecessor. The new hall was destroyed in the great Chicago fire of 1871.
The third Farwell Hall was erected while Mr. Moody was in England in 1872-75. But in this also he had a share in raising money to pay for its erection. After the close of his mission in Chicago in 1877 he secured the balance of the money necessary to clear the Association building from debt. This third building was demolished to give place to the present Farwell Hall, which exceeds in value any Association building now in existence.
Richard Morse writes of Mr. Moody’s ability in the way of securing subscriptions:
“In every city in which he worked, on both sides of the ocean, his work and words summoned to the Association a group of
consecrated laymen, and with them financial resources which everywhere promoted the extension and usefulness of our work for young men.
“In almost every city his effort was always not only to promote the spiritual life of the Association, but also to procure for it better accommodation and appliances and in many instances a building.
“I remember vividly my visit to England late in the summer of 1875, just after Mr. Moody had closed his most remarkable evangelistic tour in the United Kingdom. I visited many cities, and was invariably entertained with cordial hospitality, and I felt that this was due not so much to my being the secretary of the
International Committee, as to my being the friend, and to some extent the associate, of Mr. Moody. I found in every city a group of influential laymen who had recently become connected with the Association owing to Mr. Moody’s work, and who were giving it leadership and financial resources which greatly increased in every instance the beneficent reach and influence of the organization. It was the spiritual life and at the same time the leadership of the laymen which he contributed in such great measure to the Association movement; the actual money raised, in connection with or as a result of his meetings, was simply one of the signs of this.”
“No list of the amounts raised in the various cities can show a total amount which represents to any degree the financial help that came to the Association through his agency.
“In regard to the amount raised in New York as a result of his meetings here in 1876 I would say that at that time there was a mortgage of $150,000 upon the Association building, corner of Twenty-third Street and Fourth Avenue, against which there was a pledge of $50,000 from a friend of the Association, which he had deposited in its safe, to be paid whenever the balance of the mortgage had been subscribed. At the close of Mr. Moody’s meetings in the Hippodrome (now the Madison Square Garden) it was proposed to raise $200,000, including the pledge above referred to; $150,000 to be devoted to paying off the mortgage and
$50,000 to the work of the Bowery Branch of the Association.
This money was happily secured as the result of these meetings.”
These facts speak for themselves. But any simple narration of them would be incomplete without some slight comment on this remarkable power that influenced not only men’s hearts, but their pockets — perhaps a harder task. He begged for men’s money as simply and directly as he begged for their conversion; he trusted implicitly that God would grant him both; and he was rarely disappointed in either. The poor offered him small sums; the rich gave with a magnificent liberality: he accepted both as his Master’s due.
In his Association work at this time Mr. Moody seems to have developed the peculiar gift of discerning the special abilities of others. In the
noon-day prayer meetings he was on the watch to discover a new worker or to call upon strangers to take part. Mr. A. J. Bell, an evangelist of San Jose, CA, describes the following experience with Mr. Moody at one of the meetings:
“One day the leader assigned did not get there in time, and Mr.
Moody came to me, requesting that I take charge. I had just arrived from a journey, hot and dusty. ‘Mr. Moody,’ I said, ‘I am just in from a long absence and am not presentable. Excuse me, please, and at some other time I will lead the meeting.’
“I shall never forget the incident, for it was the turning point in my life. ‘I thought you were a Christian soldier,’ he said, and added,
‘Go forward and we will pray for you.’ As soon as the meeting was over he came again and thanked me. ‘You did well,’ he said.
‘But it is all wrong, this holding back! Your duty is clear; keep in front. Be a minute man.’
“In twenty-five years I have not forgotten that expression, and since then I have been at the front in evangelistic work. Had Mr.
Moody not pressed me into service then, the probabilities are that I would have never entered the field.”
In 1867 a great Young Men’s Christian Association convention was held in Pittsburgh, which was accompanied by a wide-spread religious
awakening. Here again Mr. Moody’s presence was felt. “With his characteristic energy, wonderful foresight, and practical good in securing results,” says Oliver McClintock, who was president of the Association just organized at that time, “Mr. Moody called a meeting of the leading women who had been impressed by the addresses and events of the convention, and organized them into a Young Women’s Christian Association, which grew into a strong and efficient organization. Several large and benevolent institutions now having valuable properties grew out of this movement.”
The Rev. James S. Chadwick became city missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Chicago in 1861. His office was in the building in which the Young Men’s Christian Association had rooms before the erection of Farwell Hall. With reference to Mr. Moody’s labors in behalf of the suffering and needy, he says:
“I have known him to start from the Young Men’s Christian Association with baskets of provisions for poor families, many of whom would have been neglected or overlooked but for his timely interest. He always urged those whom he thus relieved to attend church and become Christians. In many instances whole families were thus brought to know and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. In the noon-day prayer meetings men have arisen and told how Mr.
Moody visited their homes with substantial relief for hungry children, and then joined in prayer for all the family.”
“Mr. Moody would regularly station himself at the entrance of the Young Men’s Christian Association rooms, just before the hour of noon, and distribute to passers-by invitations to go upstairs to the noon-day prayer meeting. Christians and persons who were not Christians were frequently prevailed upon to spend a few minutes in the helpful and inspiring prayer service. Many conversions resulted from these invitations.”
Direct evangelistic preaching was a prominent feature of these early years of Association work. The most aggressive phase of it was no doubt the
“open-air” talks. During the summer months Mr. Moody could be seen every night, if the weather permitted, in what was known as the Court House Square. The steps of the building became his pulpit, a half-dozen young men and women his choir, the passing throng, or as many as could be arrested by the exercises, his audience. A position was usually taken where the prisoners in the long corridors could hear what was going on, and these, crowding to the grated windows, became an important part of the congregation.
To one of less determination such efforts at evangelizing would have been discouraging. Opposition in one form or another was frequent. A certain
“free-thinker” appeared regularly for months, often interrupting — always trying to hold the crowd after Mr. Moody had closed, and later following the company that had gone with Mr. Moody and his assistants to the service that was held regularly — in the smaller Association hall.
Occasionally some half-intoxicated stroller would try to put an end to the open-air service. One evening a large earthen jar was thrown from an upper window of the court-house and, falling within a couple of feet of the speaker, was broken into fragments.
Mr. Moody was a true friend of prisoners, frequently visiting the common jail, and also what was known in Chicago as the “Bridewell,” talking, reading, and praying with the inmates.
Experiences gathered in such work — the necessity for ready action in emergencies; the strength acquired in stemming opposition; the growth of character in standing unflinchingly for conviction and duty — all these made for larger equipment in wider spheres of action. It was but a repeated
demonstration of the Master’s principle of reward. “Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things.”
At a convention in St. Johnsbury, VT, in 1870, whenever he rose to speak he first read a verse from the Bible. A man who followed him said to Mr.
Moody: “I’m glad you keep to your chart.”
“There is nothing else to keep to,” he replied; “if that goes everything goes.”