D.L. and Ira arrived in Edinburgh on Saturday, November 22, 1873. They were scheduled to hold their first meeting in the city the following evening. They were both apprehensive about how things would go. Church leaders in Scotland were all well-educated in theology, and D.L. fretted over the fact that he was a lay preacher with little schooling and no formal theological training. Meanwhile, Ira fretted over the music. The Scots did not allow musical accompaniment in their churches. In fact, they didn’t allow what they called “human hymns,” that is, any modern hymns. The only thing sung in Scottish churches were psalms set to chantlike music. Ira wondered how the Scots would take to his portable organ—his “fist full o’whistles,” as the Scots had already nicknamed it—not to mention the contemporary hymns he sang.
Things did not start well with the Edinburgh campaign. A huge crowd gathered to hear D.L. preach the first night, but D.L. had lost his voice and was unable to speak. A local pastor at the meeting spoke in his place. On the second night, D.L. had his voice back and was able to speak, but Ira’s organ had fallen off the back of a cab as it rounded a corner too fast on the way to the meeting. The organ was broken and in need of repair, and so there was no music the second night. On the third night, however, things came together. Ira sang and D.L. preached, and many people responded to the invitation to receive Christ. Night after night the crowd attending the meetings continued to grow, until there was not even standing room left.
As the campaign continued, everyone in Edinburgh knew who D. L. Moody and Ira Sankey were. In fact, the men’s names were soon known all over Scotland, and invitations to preach in other cities poured in.
It had been hard going at first, but D.L. noticed that after a couple of weeks, those coming to the meetings embraced the organ and the modern hymns that Ira sang. With the help of the Sacred Songs and Solos songbook, they were able to sing along with Ira on the choruses.
In mid-January 1874 D.L. and Ira reluctantly agreed it was time to move on. During their stay in Edinburgh, many newspapers around the country had reported on the “religious phenomenon” taking place in that city. As a result, when D.L. set up meetings in other places around Scotland, thousands came to hear him preach.
From Edinburgh D.L. and Ira went to Dundee and held meetings there and then moved on to Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city. In Glasgow D.L. and Ira held meetings in various churches, and when the crowds attending got too large, they moved to City Hall. When the crowds became too big for that venue, D.L. relocated the meetings to Kibble Palace in the Botanic Gardens, the largest hall in Glasgow, which they managed to fill night after night. From time to time D.L. and Ira would return to Edinburgh to hold more meetings there.
In August 1874 D.L. went alone on an extensive tour of northern Scotland while Ira stayed in Edinburgh to be with his wife. Ira’s father brought their two sons, Harry and Edward, over from the United States to be with them, since Ira and Fanny were now well past the original six months they had intended to stay in the British Isles. The boys arrived just in time for the birth of their brother, Allen. In all, D.L. and Ira spent nearly ten months in Scotland, preaching in churches and halls all over the country. D.L. rejoiced that in that time many thousands of Scottish people came to Christ.
From Scotland D.L. and Ira crossed the Irish Sea to Belfast, Ireland, to hold meetings. Huge crowds of Christians and non-Christians listened and responded to D.L.’s preaching and Ira’s singing. Belfast was in the Protestant-dominated north of Ireland, but D.L. also wanted to hold meetings in the Catholic-dominated south. A number of people advised against this, but D.L. was determined, and he and Ira headed to Dublin to hold a campaign there. The meetings were held in the Exhibition Palace. Thousands of people—Catholics, Protestants, and the unchurched—came to hear D.L. preach each night. So many Catholics were coming to the meetings that the Catholic prelate, Cardinal Cullen, issued an edict forbidding Catholics to attend the meetings. D.L. chuckled when he learned this, because it seemed to him that the edict had little effect. Thousands of Catholics continued to flock to the meetings.
From Ireland D.L. and Ira returned to England, where they held meetings in a number of cities, again with thousands turning up to hear D.L. preach. By now D.L. had his sights set on the greatest challenge of all that still lay before him—London.
Sprawling London was one of the world’s largest cities with a population of over five million people. To effectively preach the gospel in a city so big would take careful planning. Happily, D.L. was a detailed planner. He formed a committee of influential laymen to help with the task, and together they diligently prayed and then planned the best way to impact the entire city for Christ. They decided to divide the city into four quadrants and hold campaigns in each quadrant. The first was North London, where they held meetings in the huge Agricultural Hall in Islington. At the first meeting eighteen thousand people packed into the hall to hear D.L. and Ira. Even D.L. was stunned by the huge crowd and by the number of people wanting to come to Christ at the end of the meeting. Eighteen thousand people showed up the next night, and the night after that. Night after night they came, and night after night hundreds responded to the call for salvation.
D.L. and Ira moved on from North London to the poorer East End. Because this part of the city did not have a hall big enough for the meetings, Bow Street Hall was erected for that purpose. The hall was a large barnlike structure that could seat ten thousand people. It was sheathed in corrugated iron, and sawdust covered the dirt floor. From the start Bow Street Hall was packed each night. And each night several hundred people responded to the call to give their lives to Christ. After the main crowd had departed, small groups would be dotted about the hall as counselors talked and prayed and shared Bible passages with those wanting salvation.
Many Christians also attended the meetings, and D.L.’s message to them was always the same: “Many Christians are noted for their lack of activity in the service of their Master. They are always waiting for something to happen before they do a job for God. Let me tell you this, my English brothers and sisters. Don’t wait for something to turn up. Go and turn something up!”
And they did. All over London missions were opened, serving meals to the poor, running Sunday schools, distributing clothing and other items, and, of course, proclaiming the gospel to all who would listen.
While D.L. was grateful to see the fruit of these Christians’ labor among the poor and needy of the city, he also worked hard to bring the wealthy of London to Christ. At the same time that he was holding meetings at Bow Street Hall in the East End, he was running meetings at the Royal Opera House in Haymarket in central London. D.L. and Ira conducted the service in the East End at seven in the evening and then raced across the city in a horse-drawn carriage to hold a meeting at the Royal Opera House at nine. When they arrived at the Opera House, the main floor and the galleries were packed with the sophisticated people of the city. Even though these were people of privilege and money, they too responded to D.L.’s message of salvation.
While in London, D.L. was asked to speak at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. The five-thousand-seat auditorium was packed with students studying in Charles Spurgeon’s college, Baptist ministers gathering in the city for their annual conference, and members of the congregation. D.L. was greatly moved as he stood in the pulpit that Spurgeon occupied each Sunday. Now their roles were reversed. D.L. had come to the tabernacle in 1867 with Emma to hear Spurgeon preach. In the course of that sermon he had silently prayed that God would make him a great preacher like Spurgeon. Now, eight years later, here he was standing in Charles Spurgeon’s pulpit, preaching to him and his congregation.
In late summer 1875 the London campaign came to a successful conclusion, and it was time for the Americans to return home. D.L. had come intending to spend six months preaching in the British Isles but had ended up staying over two years. Although he didn’t have exact numbers, D.L. was certain that in that time he and Ira had met their goal of bringing ten thousand new converts to Christ. In London alone, D.L. had preached to nearly two and a half million people.
On August 4, 1875, D.L. led his family up the gangplank onto the SS Spain for the trip back across the Atlantic. His time in the British Isles had been rewarding but exhausting, and he looked forward to slipping back into the United States unnoticed and taking a well-earned rest. That rest would prove nearly impossible to take.
Chapter 13
Home
The ship docked in New York on the morning of August 14, 1875. D.L.’s fame had gone before him, and he was immediately surrounded by newspaper reporters clamoring to interview him. D.L. had little to say. When asked what he was going to do next, he replied, “Go home to Northfield to see my mother.”
The Moody family caught the train to Northfield and were met at the station by two of D.L.’s brothers, Samuel and Edwin, who still lived at home with their mother. D.L. sniffed the crisp country air. How much more he felt at home here than in the smoggy, grimy cities of industrial England. Soon D.L. was sitting in the parlor at the family farmhouse with his mother and brothers. After Emma and Willie had been introduced to all the relatives who gathered at the farmhouse to greet D.L. and his family, they headed out to play in the barn with their cousins.
The small house was crowded with the four members of D.L.’s family plus his mother and two brothers, but they all managed to fit. More than anything else, D.L. was thrilled to be home once again. He loved to walk and ride in the hills around the family home. He took Emma and the children on picnics high in the hills, where they could see for miles up and down the Connecticut River valley. He showed little Emma and Willie where he had pastured the cows as a boy and had picked berries and gathered chestnuts in the fall. A few days after arriving in Northfield, the entire Moody household took a boat ride on the Connecticut River to visit Uncle Cyrus.
D.L. was happy to find that his seventy-year-old mother, now with white hair, was still enjoying good health. His mother cooked and cleaned and tended the chickens, even though they were a source of frustration to her. She explained to D.L. how the chickens kept escaping into her neighbor’s cornfield. The neighbor, Elisha Alexander, was making quite an issue out of the chickens coming and eating his corn. Betsy Moody just wished the whole situation would go away, but it didn’t. The chickens just kept heading for Elisha’s cornfield.
D.L. enjoyed everything about being back in his hometown. In the evenings, after the children had gone to bed, he and his mother and brothers sat around talking. D.L.’s mother and younger brother Sam wanted to hear all about England. Betsy had proudly kept all of the newspaper clippings D.L. had sent her from the British Isles. Although D.L. could tell that his mother was proud of his achievements, Betsy was also fiercely opposed to the religious message he preached. “I was born a Unitarian, and I will die a Unitarian,” was all she would say, “so don’t you waste your breath on me.”
There were, however, those in Northfield and the surrounding area who were eager to hear D.L. preach, and he agreed to preach one Sunday afternoon at the local Trinitarian church. When the meeting started, the old church was packed beyond capacity. D.L. announced the opening hymn. As they sang, his brother George hurriedly made his way to the front. He whispered into D.L.’s ear that so many people were in the church that the foundations were starting to give way and the church was in danger of collapse. Knowing that he had to act quickly before someone got hurt, D.L. said a quick prayer. At the end of the first verse of the hymn, he raised his hand and, with a smile, calmly announced that since it was such a beautiful afternoon and there were so many people outside who couldn’t get in, they would all move outside and he would preach from the church porch. The crowd moved outside and sat on the grass. Ira, who had also come to the meeting, set up his portable organ on the narrow porch, and D.L. took his place next to him. The people sang and D.L. preached. Afterward people a mile away reported having heard the singing and D.L.’s voice, like a gentle breeze carrying them down the Connecticut River valley.
