The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-12-25
MOODY AND SANKEY.
A THOUGHTFUL REVIEW OF THE RI

A THOUGHTFUL REVIEW OF THE RE-
vIvALIsTs AND THEIR WORK.
Charles Nordhoff furnishes the most
judicious review of Moody and Sankey
yet written, in the New York Herald,
just on the eve of heirdeparture for a
new field, and gives them a sympathetic
approval. He observes that, although
Mr.. Moody profoundly stirs his aud
fences, there are no noisy manifesto
tions of religious feeling, such as usually
accompany revivals. The meetings
where tickets are required for admit
lance have been as crowded rs any.
They are held at inconvenient hours for
men, yet at the tabernacle, forenoon
and afternoon, at least third of those
present have been men. The rink
evening meetings have been followed
by meetings in the Tallmage Taberna-
Gle, beginning at nine, and this he has
seen crowded. Moreover, the cover
flow" meetings, to accommodate those
who can't get into the main meetings,
whereat some other preacher and singer
serve, always draw in full houses,
whereas" says Mr.. Nordhof, " if
any considerable part of the crowds
were composed Of the merely curious,
these meetings could not exist Mr..
Nordhoff is impressed with Mr..
Moody's business faculty. He is
prompt to the minute in opening; not
moment is lost by delay " He opens
a meeting as thoug Oh his audience were
the stockholders of a bank to whom he
was about to make report. He has
the air of business man to whom time
is extremely valuable, and slow and
tedious people are evidently a trial to
him." The clergy show badly in COM
parison with Mr. Moody, especially in
prayer, where, says Mr.. Nordhof, their
''formal and thread-bare phrase
ology" jars painfully on the feelings
of people Moody is in one respect
fanatic; his enthusiasm is that of a
general in battle, who has his plans,
not to be disarranged by minor issues.
He always commands his audience.
He wants to reach the non-church 60
ing population, but concerns himself
also about the churches, which, he says,
scarcely require anything more of a
member now than that he should pay
his debts and keep out of Jail. He
appreciates the sermon-worried people
to whom he speaks, and at an evening
meeting told the young men, bluntly
You don't need that 1 should preach
to you. There is too much preaching.
It's preach, preach, preach all the time
and you, young men, have heard SER
mons enough here in Brooklyn to con-
vert every one of you. What you need
is work among yourselves" Mr.. Nord-
hoff gives Moody due credit for his
dramatic power and his close study of
the Bible, remarking that it enables
him often to give novel view of
things, as when speaking of Jacob, he
said that his life was a failure;
pointed out that Jacob himself had
complained of it, and enumerated his
tribulations. which followed his mis-
deeds. He enforced upon the audi
ence the necessity of reading the Bible
biographies, not as though they were
the lives of saints, but the truthfully
written lives of mortal men, in which
their bad as well as their good deeds
were set forth for our instruction"
Nordhof notes, also, Moody's Yankee
power of epigrammatic statement, his
Illustrative choice of language, his
power over people and his utter lack of
those frantic and passionate appeals
that were the stock of such revivalists
as Cartwright, Knapp and the like,
Mr.. Nordhoff takes little note of
Sankey; Moody is the main figure, and
he considers the tendency of his labors
certainly valuable.