THE success of the American evangelists in the North of England led to an investigation of their methods, and after some hesitation they were invited to Edinburgh, and held their first service in the Music Hall, the largest in the city, on Sunday, November 23, 1873. Mr. Moody was slightly indisposed that evening, and the following day Mr. Sankey’s organ was broken, and Mr. Moody was obliged to conduct the meeting without him.
Yet at the opening service not only was the hall densely packed in every cranny, but the lobbies, stairs, and entrance were all crowded, and several thousand people went away, unable to obtain admission.
On the weekdays following, the evening service was held in Barclay Free Church, and every foot of standing room in that large edifice was occupied every night by attentive crowds. The attendance at each meeting must have exceeded two thousand. On the evening of the second Sunday, special services were held in three churches: the Barclay Church, beginning at six o’clock; the Viewforth Church, at seven o’clock, and the Fountainbridge Church, at eight o’clock. Long before the time appointed all three churches were filled to over flowing and hundreds were turned away. The second week the meetings were held in the Broughton Place United Presbyterian Church, and the numbers continued to increase.
“The part of the service toward which all the rest tends, and in which the power culminates,” said a writer in “The Edinburgh Daily Review,” “is the address of Mr. Moody, in which, in simple figures and telling language, he holds up before men the truth as it is in Jesus and makes most earnest and powerful appeals to heart and conscience. Mr. Moody is strikingly free from all pretense and parade; he speaks as one who thoroughly believes what he says and who is in downright earnest in delivering his message. His descriptions are characterized by a remarkable vividness and graphic power. He has a great wealth of illustration, and his
illustrations are always apposite, bringing into the clearest light the point which he intends to illustrate, and fixing it forever into the memory. There is very little excitement; there is no extravagance;
but the effect of the services is seen in the manifest impression produced on the audience, generally in the anxious inquirers (varying in number from about forty to upward of seventy), who remain for spiritual conversation and prayer after every meeting, and also in the hundreds of persons in all grades of the social scale scattered through Edinburgh and the neighborhood, who are more or less awakened to realize the importance of eternal things and are burdened with the sense of sin and a longing to obtain salvation.
Not a few also profess to have been brought out of darkness into marvelous light, and to be going on their way rejoicing.”
In Edinburgh, as in every city where missions were held, the daily
noonday prayer meeting was established. The deep interest manifested in this meeting was shown in two ways:
First, in the number of requests for prayer sent in by persons seeking a blessing for themselves or others, of which more than a hundred were handed in at every meeting, representing the burdens, the cares, the longings of many a heart, with requests for thanksgiving and praise for former prayers answered and blessings bestowed.
Second, by the large attendance, more than five hundred persons being present the first day, this number steadily increasing until, at the end of the first week, the Queen Street Hall was found to be too small.
For a time there was some difficulty in fixing on a suitable place. The Rev.
Alexander Whyte, of Free St. George’s, offered his church for the prayer meeting, but finally, on account of its central situation, the Free Church Assembly Hall was selected. The attendance soon reached a thousand, and often exceeded that number. The first half of the hour was employed in singing part of a psalm or hymn, reading briefly the requests for prayer, and praying, followed by a few remarks by Mr. Moody on some passage of Scripture. During the second half of the meeting anyone could speak or pray or call for a hymn.
Many ministers and laymen of the various evangelical denominations in Edinburgh and Leith gladly welcomed Mr. Moody on his arrival in the city, and threw themselves heartily into the work. Others who at first had difficulties and stood somewhat aloof found their objections melting away with personal contact, and identified themselves cordially with the work.
It was delightful to witness the unbroken unity and brotherly love that prevailed among all engaged in the movement. Denominational differences were for the time lost sight of.
The Rev. Andrew Thomson, pastor of the Broughton Place United Presbyterian Church, thus expressed himself:
“There is nothing novel in the doctrine Mr. Moody proclaims. It is the old Gospel — old, and yet always fresh and young, as the living fountain or the morning sun — in which the substitution of Christ is placed in the center and presented with admirable distinctness and decision. It is spoken with most impressive directness, not as by a man half convinced and who seems always to feel that a skeptic is looking over his shoulder, but with a certainty of the truth of what he says, as if, like our own Andrew Fuller, ‘he could venture his eternity on it’; as if he felt that ‘if he did not speak the very stones would cry out.’
“I would not for the wealth of the world have the recollection of what I have seen and heard during the past week blotted out from my memory. When Howe was chaplain to Cromwell at Whitehall he became weary of the trumpery and pomp of the palace and wrote to his ‘dear and honored brother,’ Richard Baxter, telling him how much he longed to be back again to his beloved work at
Torrington. ‘I have devoted myself,’ he said, ‘to serving God in the work of the ministry, and how can I lack the pleasure of hearing their cryings and complaints who have come to me under
conviction?’ I have shared with many beloved brethren during the past week in this sacred pleasure, and it is like eating angels’ bread, first to hear the cry of conviction and then the joy of reconciliation and peace. I was much struck by the variety among the inquirers.
There were present from the old man of seventy-five to the youth of eleven, soldiers from the castle, students from the university,
the backsliding, the intemperate, the skeptic, the rich and the poor, the educated and the uneducated, and in how many cases were the wounded healed and the burdened eased!”
The fourth week of special meetings began in St. Stephen’s Established Church on Tuesday evening, December 16th, where the services were continued for three evenings. Admission was by ticket, and the church was crowded in every part, two thousand people being present at each
meeting. St. Stephen’s congregation is composed largely of the upper class, many of whom attended and were deeply impressed by the
preaching and singing. The Rev. Dr. Nicholson presided, and every evening there were present ministers of all denominations from all parts of the country, while representatives of the nobility, professors from the
university, and distinguished lawyers and Parliamentary leaders were also in evidence.
The Free Assembly Hall was crowded one Sunday morning with Sunday school teachers. Everyone present felt that his work among the young called for absolute consecration and a high level of Christian life. In the evening the same building was filled with students. Around the platform were professors from nearly all the faculties in the university and several professors from the Free Church College. Hundreds applied for admission in vain, and the Free High Church was opened and services conducted there as well as in the Assembly Hall.
Professor Blaikie thus referred to the blessing which had come to the ministers of the city:
“It would be difficult to enumerate the ministers who have taken a prominent and most hearty interest in the movement. The utter absence of jealousy, the cordial cooperation of the clergy of all denominations in the work, has been extremely striking. They have gained in no ordinary measure the esteem of the laity by their cordiality, seeming to think nothing of the fact that strangers from another country have been the instrument; all other feelings being apparently swallowed up in thankfulness for the blessing that has come. At the same time there is a very general feeling that the wonderful work is due in a large degree to the faithful labors and earnest prayers of the clergy and Christian people of Edinburgh,
although the peculiar gifts of the strangers have been especially blessed.
“It is amusing to observe how entirely the latent distrust of Mr.
Sankey’s ‘kist o’ whistles’ has disappeared. There are different ways of using the organ. There are organs in some churches for mere display, as someone has said, ‘with a devil in every pipe,’ but a small harmonium designed to keep a tune right is a different matter, and is seen to be no hindrance to the devout and spiritual worship of God.”
The interest manifested in Edinburgh attracted the attention of Scotland generally, and brought invitations for missions in other cities. Requests, sent not only by ministers, but by provosts, councilors, and leading citizens, were received daily from towns large and small, and the desire for Mr. Moody’s services seemed to be remarkably serious and earnest. It was not to gratify curiosity, but to promote spiritual and eternal good that his presence was sought; even remote rural parishes in Scotland met to pray for a blessing on his labors, and the belief prevailed that what was then going on in Edinburgh would spread over the country. “Never, probably,” said Professor Blaikie, “was Scotland so stirred; never was there so much expectation.”
The meetings increased in numbers and in spiritual interest as the weeks went by. One Sunday morning Mr. Moody preached to the young men in the Free Assembly Hall at nine o’clock. The place was filled to
overflowing, though the admission was by ticket. At the close of the service a gentleman appealed to him for another effort among the young men. Mr. Moody replied that if those present would get up another meeting for unconverted young men he would address them, and he asked all those who were willing to work to stand up. The whole audience rose, and the second meeting was held on Friday evening. On Sunday evening the Free Assembly Hall, the Established Assembly Hall, and the Free High Church were all filled to overflowing, as well as Free St. John’s Church.
All denominational differences were forgotten. Professor Charteris spoke in the Free Church; Professor Blaikie spoke in the Established Church.
Brethren from all parts of the country came together in the unity of a
common need and a common Savior. So deep was the spiritual awakening that the following circular letter was sent to every minister in Scotland:
“Edinburgh is now enjoying signal manifestations of grace. Many of the Lord’s people are not surprised at this. Ministers and others have been for some time discerning tokens of special interest and expectation attending the ordinary ministrations of the Word; and in October and November last many Christians of various
denominations met from time to time to pray for it. They hoped that they might have a visit from Messrs. Moody and Sankey, of America, but they very earnestly besought the Lord that He would deliver them from depending upon them or on any instrumentality, and that He Himself would come with them or come before them.
He has graciously answered that prayer, and His own presence is now wonderfully manifested among them. God is so affecting the hearts of men that the Free Church Assembly Hall, the largest public building in Edinburgh, is crowded every evening with meetings for prayer, and both that building and the Established Church Assembly Hall overflow whenever the Gospel is preached.
But the numbers that attend are not the most remarkable feature. It is the presence and power of the Holy Ghost, the solemn awe, the prayerful, believing, expectant spirit, the anxious inquiry of
unsaved souls, and the longing of believers to grow more like Christ
— their hungering and thirsting after holiness. The hall of the Tolbooth Parish Church and the Free High Church are nightly attended by anxious inquirers. All denominational and social distinctions are entirely merged. All this is of the grace of God.
“Another proof of the Holy Spirit’s presence is that a desire has been felt and expressed in these meetings that all Scotland should share the blessing that the capital is now enjoying.
“It is impossible that our beloved friends from America should visit every place, or even all those where they have been urged to go. But this is not necessary. The Lord is willing Himself to go wherever He is truly invited. He is waiting. The Lord’s people in Edinburgh, therefore, would affectionately entreat all their brethren
throughout the land to be importunate in invoking Him to come to them and to dismiss all doubt as to His being willing to do so.
“The Week of Prayer, from the 4th to the 11th of January next, affords a favorable opportunity for combined action. In every town and hamlet let there be a daily meeting for prayer during that week and also as often as may be before it. In Edinburgh the hour is from twelve to one o’clock, and where the same hour suits other places it would be well to meet together in faith at the throne of grace. But let the prayers not be formal, unbelieving, unexpecting, but short, fervent, earnest entreaties, with abounding praise and frequent short exhortations; let them entreat a blessing on all the means of grace enjoyed by our native land, and let them also embrace the whole world, that ‘God’s way may be known upon earth, His saving health among all nations.’ If the country will thus fall on its knees, the God who has filled our national history with the wonders of His love will come again, and surprise even the strongest believers by the unprecedented tokens of His grace.
‘Call upon Me and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not’”
While the Holy Spirit was daily and hourly approving the work of the evangelists the powers of darkness were not idle. A Scotchman in Chicago, a lawyer by profession, sent a scurrilous letter to a prominent clergyman in Scotland attacking both the commercial honesty and the religious character of Mr. Moody. Unsupported by the slightest evidence, the charges were made that he had sold information regarding the interest of one of his employers to a business rival; and, further, that he was insincere in his attitude toward the doctrines so dear to Scotch hearts.
The letter was widely distributed in manuscript copies in places where it would do the greatest possible harm and where it would be most difficult to counteract its influence. At last a copy fell into the hands of the Edinburgh Committee, and steps were taken to ascertain the truth or falsity of the statements made.
Mr. Moody was deeply exercised over the letter for the sake of the work in Scotland, although perfectly conscious of his rectitude. He trusted his reputation implicitly to his Heavenly Father and demanded that the
committee who had invited him to Edinburgh give the matter a thorough investigation.
The Rev. John Kelman, of Free St. John’s, Leith, the secretary of the Edinburgh Committee, and the man who had gone to Newcastle to see Mr.
Moody’s work, and who was in a large measure responsible for his visit to Scotland, sent a copy of the letter to Mr. Farwell in Chicago, saying:
“The friends of religion who have been associated in Christian work with Mr. Moody in this country are anxious that there should be a thorough investigation of the truth or falsity of these charges. I have been requested to apply to you in the hope that you would be kind enough to furnish me at your earliest
convenience with whatever information you can obtain as to the facts in the case.” The following communication, signed by thirty-five clergymen, educators, editors, and secretaries who had known Mr. Moody and his work in Chicago, was sent to the Edinburgh Committee:
“We, the undersigned pastors of the city of Chicago, learning that the Christian character of D. L. Moody has been attacked, for the purpose of destroying his influence as an evangelist in Scotland, hereby certify that his labors in the Young Men’s Christian Association, and as an evangelist in this city and elsewhere, according to the best information we can get, have been evangelical and Christian in the highest sense of those terms; and we do not hesitate to commend him as an earnest Christian worker, worthy of the confidence of our Scotch and English brethren, with whom he is now laboring, believing that the Master will be honored by them in receiving him among them as a colaborer in the vineyard of the Lord.”
Later C. M. Henderson, the nephew of his former employers, the successor to the business and the head of the house at the time the criticism was made, said: “For fifteen years since Mr. Moody left us I have watched him, assisted him, and believed in him,” and until the death of Mr. Henderson a few years since he was a frequent contributor to Mr.
Moody’s work.
Severe as had been the test of faith and bitter as had been the experience during two or three months before this slander was run down and killed, the outcome gave Mr. Moody a hold upon Scotland which it is doubtful he could have secured if all men had spoken well of him.
Along with the Edinburgh meetings services were held in Leith, in the Free North Leith Church (Dr. Macdonald’s) and in the Free St. John’s (the Rev. J. Kelman’s). These meetings were important from the fact that the large shipping interests of the town attracted people from almost all parts of the world. Many seafaring men attended the services, and the influence extended not only throughout the great population of Scotland, but was carried in the ships around the world.
Toward the end of the Edinburgh meetings Dr. Horatius Bonar sent a letter which, although not intend for publication, had been so frequently
requested by the public that it was printed, and an extract is given
herewith. After referring to the meeting in the Corn Exchange with its great crowd of listeners, most of them from the Grassmarket and the Cowgate, he said:
“These American brethen bring us no new Gospel, nor do they pretend to novelty of any kind in their plans, save perhaps that of giving greater prominence to the singing of hymns, conveying the good news to their hearers through this instrumentality. We may trust them. They fully deserve our confidence; the more we know of them in private the more do we appreciate them and the more do we feel inclined to cast in our lot with them. We ask for soundness in faith, and we do well. These men are sound. We ask for a
consistent humble life, and we do well. These men are consistent and humble. We ask for self-denial, and we do well. These men are self-denying, hard-working men, who are spending and being spent in a service which they believe to be not human but divine. We ask for definite aims, an ultimatum in which self shall have no place, and we do well. These men have the most definite of all definite aims — winning souls to everlasting joy, and they look for no fame and no reward save the Master’s approval: the recompense in reserve for those who turn many to righteousness. They have in view no sinister nor sordid motives, as their past history show, as