(February 5, 1837–December 22, 1899), was an American evangelist. He held crusades in the United States and Great Britain, with the hymn writer Ira D. Sankey. He founded the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, 1899, and several other schools. On June 1, 1899, in the last call he issued, Dwight L. Moody stated:
Dear Friends and Fellow-workers:
The seventeenth General Conference of Christian Workers will be held at Northfield, August 1st to 20th, and all of God’s people who are interested in the study of His Word, in the development of their own Christian lives, in a revival of the spiritual life of the Church, in the conversion of sinners, and in the evangelization of the world, are cordially invited to be present.
I am glad to send out this invitation to my fellow-workers because I believe that such a gathering was never more needed that this year. Many thoughtful men have come to feel strongly that the hope of the Church to-day is in a deep and wide-spread revival. We are confronted with difficulties that can be met in no other way. The enemy has come in like a flood—it is time for those who believe in a supernatural religion to look to God to lift up a standard against him. Oh, for a revival of such power that the tide of unbelief and worldliness that is sweeping in upon us shall be beaten back; that every Christian shall be lifted to a higher level of life and power, and multitudes of perishing souls be converted to God! Why not? God’s arm is not shortened, nor His ear heavy. I believe the sound of the going in the tops of the mulberry trees may already be heard.
The history of revivals proves that such a work must begin at the house of God. Who can doubt that if somehow the Church could be thoroughly aroused—not a mere scratching of the surface of emotions, but a deep heart-work that shall make us right with God and clothe us with power in prayer and service—the last months of this century would witness the mightiest movements of the Holy Spirit since Pentecost? The whole aim of this conference is to help bring this about.
Why need any pastor or church fail to share in the blessing? How sad the experience of that worker who sees others greatly used in such a movement and himself passed by—other fields rejoicing with the joy of harvest while his still lies barren and unfruitful! It need not be so. Let us break up our fallow ground, seek a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit, and them move forward, expecting great things of God.
We are to have with us some of the most widely known teachers of this country and England—men on whose labors God has already set His seal. There will be the great help that comes from close contact with hundreds of earnest men and women, almost all of them engaged in some form of Christian work. The accommodations for boarding are ample and pleasant, and the expense moderate. I shall be glad to hear from all who are planning to come. May I not ask Christian people to begin now to pray for a special outpouring of the Spirit upon every meeting of the Conference?
Yours in the Master’s Service, D.L. Moody.2762
Dwight L. Moody stated:
Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody, of East Northfield, is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now, I shall have gone up higher, that is all; out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal—a body that death cannot touch; that sin cannot taint; a body fashioned like unto His glorious body. I was born in the flesh in 1837. I was born of the Spirit in 1856. That which is born of the flesh may die. That which is born of the Spirit will live forever.2763