“Lord,
whence are those blood-drops all the way
That mark out the mountain’s track?”
“They
were shed for one who had gone astray
Ere the Shepherd could bring him back.”
“Lord,
whence are Thy hands so rent and torn?”
“They’re
pierced tonight by many a thorn.”
“The
Ninety and Nine”
Words by Elizabeth C. Clephane, 1868
Music spontaneously improvised by
Ira. D. Sankey, 1874
I was only five years old when my brother told me I was
going to hell. Older brothers are like
that. He had just prayed to receive
Christ as his personal Savior in Sunday School and was pleased to inform me of
my fate since I had not yet “prayed the sinner’s prayer.” This, of course, was very upsetting to me and
I went crying to my mom. She explained
salvation to me as best she could for a five-year-old to understand and led me
in the prayer. This put my brother at
bay for a while and ruined his fun. My
mom was pleased because she believed that her youngest was now a
Christian.
But it didn’t really stick.
I had done what I was told to do, but I never really felt or heard the
Lord’s compelling call to me through the whole incident. A year later, when I was six years old, the message
struck home. Our little Bible Baptist
Church in Alamagordo, New Mexico was holding revival meetings. As usual, when the doors of the church were
open, our family was there. I don’t
remember much from the meeting. I’m sure
we sang a bunch of gospel songs from The
Tabernacle Hymnal, took an offering, and set the preacher loose. It was the same message my mom had told me a
year earlier. But this preacher put it
across with urgency and fervency. He was
hell-fire-and-brimstone (as many of them were back in those days) and his
depiction of an eternity of punishment in flames had dramatic effect on
me. This I do know: it was that night that I felt and knew God
loved me and that Jesus died for my sins.
I went forward at the invitation hymn and prayed once more to receive
Christ. This time, I felt it in my
heart.
Revivalism’s
Model: Moody and Sankey in England
The roots of the modern revival movement date back to the
first half of the nineteenth century.
But the ideal model for organization and methodology came from a former
Chicago businessman and a gifted singer in the last quarter of that
century. Surprisingly, their most
successful enterprise nearly failed before it began. In June of 1873, evangelist Dwight L. Moody
(1837-1899) and his song leader Ira D. Sankey (1840-1908) departed for England
in order to conduct an evangelism campaign.
They had been invited by Cuthbert Bainbridge, a wealthy layman and
William Pennefather, a well-known evangelical Anglican minister. Along with the invitation, they had been
guaranteed enough of a stipend to bring their families with them. Upon arrival, however, they were informed
that both of their benefactors had died during their transatlantic passage. Their circumstances were anything but
encouraging. They had no one to greet
them, no invitations to pursue, and very little money on hand with which to
support themselves. When Moody left New
York, he had been in a hurry and distracted by the adventure which lay before
him. He had failed to read the mail he
had collected there and just stuffed it in with the rest of his luggage. They disembarked at Liverpool and got a room
at the Northwestern Hotel. That night,
the evangelist and his musical partner discovered a small ray of hope. Sankey related the details later in his
memoirs:
As Mr. Moody was looking over some
letters which he had received in New York before sailing, and which had
remained unread, he found one from the secretary of the Young Men’s Christian
Association at York, asking him if he ever came to England again, to come there
and speak for the Association. “Here is
a door,” said Moody to me after reading the letter, “which is partly open, and
we will go there and begin our work.”[1]
Invited, but unexpected, the ministry got off to a slow
start in York. It wasn’t a good time to
start a campaign, they were told. Most
of the people were away at seaside.
According to Sankey, the first meeting was attended by less than fifty
people who all sat in the back. Moody
pressed on by announcing daily noon-time prayer meetings and Bible
studies. It was at one of those meetings
that Moody and Sankey secured the friendship and support of F. B. Meyer who
would later become one of the most influential Evangelicals in England. Meyer’s support was instrumental and the York
meetings began to blossom with success and impact. By the time they left for Sunderland three
weeks later, the team was beginning to attract enough attention to establish an
itinerary. In Sunderland, they invited
Henry Moorhouse, a popular and influential minister, to join them in their
campaign efforts. Moody had met
Moorhouse in Chicago and his endorsement and participation helped shore up the
meetings in Sunderland when enthusiasm began to wane.
Moody and Sankey were never quite alone in their
endeavors. Their friendship with
publisher R. C. Morgan of London was instrumental in promoting their reputation
and campaign through his periodical, The
Christian, the entire time that they were in Great Britain. It was in Sunderland that Morgan suggested
Sankey publish some of his most popular gospel songs in a little pamphlet for
the people to use during the meetings.
Morgan did indeed publish the songs under the title Sacred Songs and Solos. The
little pamphlets eventually expanded into a songbook that progressed through
multiple editions. The songbook would
quickly become so popular that the royalties Sankey received from the endeavor
would support him throughout his life and make him a wealthy man.
After Sunderland, the team moved on to Newcastle. They were beginning to find a rhythm to their
work as their reputation and effectiveness grew. It was at Newcastle that Sankey organized his
first choir for the campaign. It was there,
too, that the singer found nearly equal billing with his partner as promotions
declared that “Moody would preach the gospel and Sankey would sing the gospel.”[2] The two were a true complementary team. Their gifts and sensitivity converged perhaps
most effectively at the climax of the meetings where Moody would give an
invitation to respond to the gospel by having people stand and come forward to
an “inquiry room” while Sankey led an appropriate and sympathetic hymn. They would hold twice daily meetings where
the gospel was preached and sung and an invitation given. They would also meet with affinity groups,
holding sessions for men, women, children, and laborers. Biographer, James F. Findlay, Jr. described
the team at this point:
…success emerged out of a gradual
and rather complex process. Moody’s
imagination and ability to improvise effectively when faced with novel
situations, his friendships with people in the evangelical community who were
in a position to help him, and his optimistic spirit which carried him through
the initial period of frustration all played a part. Given time to learn though trial and error,
he was able to move from the edge of disaster to eventual success and fame. By the time the mission in Newcastle was
completed he had become, legitimately, a professional revivalist.[3]
Moody and Sankey’s greatest success would come, however, in
Scotland where they would spend five months.
Their first stop was the large port city of Edinburgh. They preached in churches and secular halls,
eventually securing the use of the 6,000 seat Corn Exchange. Their meetings were frequently crowded and
overflowing.
Sankey was especially anxious about his ministry of music in
Scotland, which was predominately Presbyterian and at that time restricted
their singing exclusively to acapella psalms.
Sankey didn’t sing psalms; his stock and trade were gospel hymns and
songs which he accompanied himself on a portable organ. In an Edinburgh meeting, he encountered Dr.
Horatius Bonar, a highly esteemed minister, poet, and writer of hymn texts.[4] In Sankey’s words, he sang “with fear and
trembling” the night the minister attended.
Much to his relief, Bonar was quite pleased and affirmed the gospel
singer’s efforts.[5] While Moody and Sankey did encounter some
ministerial resistance in Scotland, it was overcome by the enthusiasm of the
people. Prior to their arrival in 1873,
the churches in Scotland had experienced deep divisions over theology and
methodology. They needed a catalyst to
bring them together and Moody and Sankey’s unorthodox, simple, and sincere
message hit the mark.
From Edinburgh, they moved on to Glasgow, another large
industrial city. There, they experienced
similar success. They rented and filled
the Crystal Palace, equal to Edinburgh’s Corn Exchange in its capacity. Moody and Sankey’s schedule was grueling with
meetings conducted throughout the week, with only Mondays off for rest. Moody even reached out to the academic
community and held sessions with learned faculty – quite a feat for a man with
only an eighth-grade education. Their
efforts were not without criticism, but by the time they left Scotland in April
of 1874, they were true celebrities.
From that point on, Moody and Sankey had the advantage of being
well-known whenever they would launch a new campaign.
The men had intended to stay in Great Britain for only three
months. But their success in Scotland
encouraged them to push on in itinerant ministry, reaching smaller cities and
Ireland before returning to England in December of 1874. There, they campaigned in the industrial
centers of Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham, and Liverpool before coming to
London in July, 1875. Their four-month
mission in London cultivated the same level of enthusiasm as their efforts in
Scotland. Even Charles Spurgeon, the
enormously popular Baptist pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, gave them
positive support from his pulpit and in his magazine, The Sword and Trowel.[6] By the time Moody and Sankey arrived back in
England, the machinery of their operation had become truly immense. Through Moody’s charisma and business
know-how, he was able to recruit a large number of local ministers to assist
him in the spiritual matters of the revival campaigns. Devout businessmen led the efforts to arrange
logistics to raise the massive amount of capital necessary for each
endeavor. Moody had a tabernacle built
in Liverpool to accommodate 7,000 people at a cost of $17,000. In London, the final cost for the city
campaign rose to an astounding $160,000.
On the first night of meetings in that city, over 12,000 people crowded
into Agricultural Hall.[7
It is exceedingly difficult to assess the success or failure of Moody
and Sankey’s campaign in Great Britain...
The preceding excerpt is from Strategic Portraits: People and Movements That Shaped Evangelical Worship. The remainder of the chapter surveys modern revivalism in America and its powerful impact upon the way Evangelicals worship together. You can order a full copy of the book at Amazon in print or Kindle format.
The preceding excerpt is from Strategic Portraits: People and Movements That Shaped Evangelical Worship. The remainder of the chapter surveys modern revivalism in America and its powerful impact upon the way Evangelicals worship together. You can order a full copy of the book at Amazon in print or Kindle format.
[1] Ira. D. Sankey, My Life and the Story of the Gospel Hymns, (New York: Harper and
Brothers Publishers, 1906) 38.
[2] William G. McLoughlin, Jr. Modern Revivalism: Charles Grandison Finney
to Billy Graham, (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1959, 2004) 234.
[7] Findlay, 170-171.
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