The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-01-08

His Career Is Discussed by Rev. j..
Cumming Smith.

The Rev. ]. Cumming Smith delivered an
interesting discourse last night at the
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church on
Dwight l.. Moody" He said in part:
After having seen the rich ancestral
legacieS bequeathed we are not surprised
at the depth of Mr.. Moodys faith. He was
too earnest to nurse fanciful or hysterical
religion. 1t is hardly too much to say that
Mr.. Moody redeemed the evangelistic line
of effort from the contempt which IT had
earned from manly men. He preached re-
pentance and righteousness and personal
responsibility. AS years ripened his view,
he spoke of the dark hells he saw with
sorrow, but far more of heaven and OF
heaven on earth as pre-eminent power.
Here it is but just to say that, as time
rounded out his manhood and consequently
mellowed and ennobled his Interpretation of
the New Testament, little cloud had fall
en- on him. Some who saw nothing but
the phase of terror and rescue in the gospel
felt that Moody appealed less to sinners
than to believers.
"They thought him less terrifying and
victorious in the revival meeting because
he urged with all his might a larger life
among the church people. We can only re-
mark that, IL the charge is true, Moody
must belong to the peerage of Peter and
Paul. The best way to win sinners is to
rouse and ennoble the Christians.
"MoodyS methods not only showed prog
ress. but were marvelously symmetrical.
He brought the Bible to the forefront. He
avoided isms. He never snarled at
churches, but helped them. He believed
| that men are fed into strength by great
truths wrought out into life. He taught
ali Bible lovers not to frown on science.
and was himself a bosom friend of Drum
| mond and a favorite at the universities.
Then, apart from his unique mastery of
| the word, he took care to originate benev-
| olent movements as the fitting accompani-
| ment of a revival. Here his instinct was
unerring. He has by his example taught a
guilty church that ii must dwarf If ever it
lots or functions hanpvOlpnpa MO01V
no sooner entered a city than he looked
| eagerly around for some unoccupied de-
partment of benevolence, and at once he
| raised funds to equip some school or read
| ing room or boarding house to help the
particular class uncared for
| MEN of the world at once liked his prac-
teal sense. Men of brains, weary of mere
sermons, liked a preacher who heard
groans on this side the pit, who kept faith
and works tightly held together. He urged
| his converts to believe in missions. He was
| free from cant. His prayers were marches
/ to battle.
"He revived hymn singing by the masses.
| as Luther and Wesley had done. His whole
There lay his genius. He would fail in
the severe select sphere where Philips
| Brooks refgned supreme. He certainly
could not touch the realm Of thought where
Beecher reveled, the great prophet and
genius. Woe to the skies If all the stars
are alike.
| How tame and undramatic our human
| history If leaders were but echoes of one
| another. He filled his own place and has
left large blank. Yet, no. He has created
| a school of common sensed, consecrated
| evangelists who can carry out his work.
| His death bed was simple coronation and
| his last sentences were Examinations.
| every great and enduring power tends
| to create and multiply itself in kindred
| powers, and while the world confesses to a
| sense of solemn loneliness when the mighty
| masters leave us, yet We rejoice i'm the
| deathlessness of Gods truth and the in
| crease of those who are lifting our human
| life to higher plane