The Portland daily press., 1898-04-02
DWIGHT /. MOODY, FISHER OF MEN
"A Brief characterization OF the Great
Evangeiist's Method.

| (Charles Henry Meier in the Criterion. J
1t takes one some time to recover from
the first shock produced bye the familiari-
| ty with which he comments on his text.
The jaunty ease with which he interlards
the sacred words with anecdote lars on
| one. So does the speakers humor-the
raw, slightly irreverent, natural, I'M
kempt humor of Oshkosh and the like
distant settlements. The rapid, restless
flow of speech, with its characteristic
twang, is trying to the nerves, till you
get used to it. Trying, that is, to sensi-
tive nerves. Happily, few in Mr.. Moody s
audience mind such tribes as twangs
At lcng intervals there is break in
the low gray monotony of talk, talk, talk,
and the voice rises for moment almost
| to a shrek, as the preacher grows more
earnest. The emphasis, you may notice,
| is usually false: the shrek has no rela-
| ton whatsoever to the significance of the
words; no relation in short, to anything
save and except the passing mood, the
emotion of the man who utters it.
| We have heard how the nrodigal went
away and how he squandered his proper
ty in riotous living. We have been told
how he took to tending swine, and how
his father, whose heart had chung to the
poor sinner through everything, watched
and longed for his boys home coming.
| in quaint and, alas, humorous phrases
| the sons degradation and the unchang-
| ing fathers love have been portrayed for
u.s. And now the preacher has reached
the passage in which we are told how the
good brother murmured when tho calf
was killed
Bah Mr. Moody closes the book sud-
denly, and the least bit theatrically, as
he vows he won't read any more. 1t
makes him sick or mad or tired Il forget
which adjective he chose, to think of that
good brother What is the use of brothers
anyway? 1t is fathers and not brothers
who save souls.
Brusquely the preacher drops his anec-
dotes He casts aside his humor, which
has served its end. He grows pathetic.
The transition from the human father s
love for his poor prodigal to the divine
love of the all-pitying Father, yearning
to save and to forgive the wretched sin
ners who cry out to him, comes natural
ly. 1t is on that great love he harps for q
brief instant simply and yet very ten
DERBY.
Then he prays. Not in the fashion of
some ministers we know with pomp and
shapsody. Not in the ecstatic manner OF
the Salvationist, nor in the set forms of
the polished Anglican. Only few bro
ken words, an appeal for the conversion
of lost souls, and the suggestion of sob,
and then-Dost eloquen1 OF all--long ST.
lences. There is no longer room for
speech. Out of the most secret chamber
of thousand hearts rise unvoiced
psalms. Once more the Nazarene has
conquered.
And now at last we begin to under
stand the power which Mr.. Moody yields
over the multitude. Even as the drama
fist, who is really dramatist, in meas
ure hypnotizes his audience, so does this
preacher magnetic his.
Consciously, or IL may be uncon-
sciously, he has mastered the great art
of preparing his hearers to be swayed
emotionally. Once they are in touch, en-
rapport, with him, he makes his effects
easily. While talk is useful he will talk.
When it has ceased to be useful he acts.
And he does not over-aot. He proceeds
by suggestion, counting (and counting
rightly on his audience to collaborate
with him and complete his work
If you ask me to explain in detail how
he first wins attention and establishes
the cur rent which enables him to accom- :
plish his wonders, 1 confess cannot tell
you. Probably, as [ have limited, his
force is largely physical. Possibly it is
due to some extent to the fact that, being
a plain, shrewd and humorous man. he is
from the very outset assured eff the sym
pathy of the average American.
1t 10 the curse of most preachers that
they talk clean over the heads of their
hearers when tn ey do not talk down to
them. Mr.. Moody does neither. He stays
where nature has placed him-on level
with the masses. Whether he will convert
any person of high intellect or delicate
spirituality, may be questioned. That he
is an apostle for the many, no one need
doubt. l do not wonder that, at the end
Of each public function held during the
late revival hundreds Of poor, self-con-
victed penitents went with Mr.. Moody
out of the great hall into the smaller,
but more solemn meeting place. where
they knelt down with him and rendered
thanks and wept. "Follow me, and I
will make you fishers of men,"
Mr.. Moody is grand fisherman.