The record-union., 1899-03-13
MOODY ON "SOWERS OF SIN
THOUSANDS HEARD THE EVAN
GELIST YESTERDAY.
He Still Talks With Directness and
Power, as in the Old Days
Of His Success.


Of His Success.
The Old Pavilion was taxed to It's
full seating capacity during the serv-
ices of Evangelist Dwight L. Moody
yesterday afternoon, and at mght
hundreds were turned away.
The afternoon sermon was more IKE
the Moody of old days than any OF his
talks in Sacramento during this tour.
The famous revivalst was terse,
blunt AMI logical; yet all his talking
was filed with incident and illustra-
tions. His musical assistant prepared
the great audience for the sermon by
singing some of his best solos, aided
in the chorus by a large choir
After the singing and prayers at the
outset Mr.. Moody said a few words for
the criminals in American prisons, and
took up a collection for their benefit
He said there were generally three
quarters of a million persons IN prisons
in this country; recently he had begun
work among them, and had found it
very fruitful. He had prepared book
for their benefit, and the fund collected
would go to circulating that book
among the criminal class, thus show
ing them the way OF life"
Then there was more singing, and
after this he began the address of the
afternoon. His text was based on the
words of Paul. and the whole talk was
on the theme, LAS men sow, SO shall they
reap For more than an hour the
speaker kept up a running fire of apt
illustrations from life. He held the at
tention of the audience without the
slightest difficulty from the first word
to the end of his talk, and often there
Were tears in the eyes of his hearers;
yet there was a total absence of any
thing like theatrical situations: and
there was not a single attempt to move
the audience by the graces of elocu-
ton or the overdrawn portrayals of
studied oratory. The whole talk seemed
that of an old man dead in earnest,
full of wisdom and rich in experiences
with all sorts and conditions of men.
There was not the slightest modicum of
dogmatism or theology in his words.
An atheist or infidel might have agreed
with nearly all that the evangelist said,
and Endorsed it as a set of good rules
for right living. Of course there was
an undercu1rent of deep religious senti
ment in it ALL but the speaker ham,
mered insistently on the thought that
as men SOW in this world so must they
expect to reap; that bad living brings
disasters; bad sowing a rich harvest of
tears and blood.
When 1 preached in Sacramento
twenty years ago. said the speaker.
Il believed that men reap as they SOW;
but I believe that doctrine a thousand
times c o1r nd T
for experience impresses the lesson that
every human being since the time of
Adam is subject to the great law stated
in Gods word. You cannot go on doing
evil and listening to the whisperings of
the natural human heart with its de-
ceit without reaping a harvest of tares.
But I must get to my text and tell you
something about the sewers: and in the
first place we all know that in the
physical world we expect to reap what
we sow. We do all our sowing in hope
that there will be a crop of corn or
wheat, or whatever is planted would
impress upon you the fact that it is the
same in the spiritual world. A woman
of high degree once said to me How
strange that our servant girls lie SOP
said, Not at all; for if women will send
say their mistresses are not at home
when they know they are, they must
expect a crop of lies in returni' And
it is so at all times; lie to your servant
or your boy, and he or they will lie to
you. How can a merchant expect an
honest clerk if he sends that clerk to
the printing office to have tags printed
10 deceive the public marking the name
~
are made in this country? That clerk
will next lie to his employer Oh. we
are wrong in so many ways without
God. How can we call a country sue
cessful just because it is full CT Million
aires, if the families of the millionaires
are thieves and drunkards, skeptics and
libertines? Why, I'm told that you have
saloon tor every ninety-five people in
this city: then what tough old town
Sacramento must be, Some of the sa-
loon men would say they would starve
If they should give up their trade. Well,
its time for a martyr. If a fellow
starves here because he can't make a
living in any honest business I'll attend
his funeral and give him praise as a
martyr. You are sowing many bad
things out here in OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
ton of the Sabbath, adultery and
drunkenness. And / want to say that
/ am down on the law of society that
condemns the woman and sets the man
free. How many cases there are of men
deserving their families and going the
sinful way. This is exemplified in Jo-
seph and in David. I'd sooner put my
hand in a red hot furnace than to
laugh at the sins of David rewarded as
he was by the reapihg of whirlwind
of destruction
The speaker drew many pictures Of
the evil effects of wrong living, con-
GLIDING that the man or woman who
goes wrong causes others to reap the
tears and the blood with him. Now it
was the example of an aged father or
mother, bending over in sorrow and old
age. Inundated by the sins of a way
ward son or daughter and again a
father lost to shame. The speaker
drew on his experiences from all ranks
of life that he had known, citing many