While D.L. Moody was visiting C.H. Spurgeon [1] and Henry Varley [2], he met Henry Moorehouse, a young evangelist, a reformed pickpocket and a recent convert, who asked Moody if he should come to Chicago could he preach at Moody’s church. The lad was young, and having no beard, looked younger still. Moody (he was humble enough to admit later) judged he could not preach, but being polite he dissembled, “If you are in Chicago, come to see me.”
D.L. Moody & Henry Moorehouse
A few years later Moody received a telegram from Moorehouse that he was in the States and would like to come preach at Moody’s church. Moody sent back what he (Moody) described as a cold reply, “If you get to the West, come by to see me.” Soon another telegram arrived. Moorehouse was to be in Chicago on Thursday, could he preach?
Moody called the elders together, explained the situation including that Moody would be out of town Thursday and Friday, and arranged that the young man could preach at a Thursday meeting of small consequence and Moody would rectify any mischief caused on Sunday. Morehouse arrived and spoke on Thursday. As he announced his text, John 3:16, the elders, seat on the front row, glanced at each other knowingly. This was a young preacher indeed. They were used to Moody, pastor of the largest church in all Chicago; Dwight L. Moody, who would soon lend his name to Moody Bible Institute!
Moorehouse started with John 3:16 but going from Genesis to Revelation showed how God loves everyone. He quoted chapter and verse to show that everything he said was straight from God’s word. The elders were so impressed they invited him to speak the next night. When Moody arrived he inquired of his wife how things went with the young evangelist:
“Did you like him?”
“Very Much.”
“What did he preach on?”
“The love of God. He does not preach like you do. He preaches that God loves sinners.”
“Then he is wrong.”
Friday night, with Moody in attendance, Moorehouse announced his text as John 3:16 and proceeded to show from Genesis to Revelation that God loves even sinners. He had Biblical authority for everything he said. Moody was so impressed that he asked Moorehouse to preach Sunday. Once again Moorehouse started with “For God so loved the world…” but went from Genesis to Revelation using a different line of reasoning, better than the night before.
Moody was moved to tears hearing of the love of God. He said later that it entirely changed his preaching. He had been preaching an angry God chasing sinners with a sword, now he knew God was loving and sinners were running from the salvation He offered. Moody was also impressed that the people packing the church were bringing their Bibles with them. Although “it was hard to get a crowds up on a Monday”, he asked Moorehouse to speak again the next night, and the next, and the rest of the week. Every night the church was full and every night Moorehouse went through the Bible using a different, and always “sweeter”, line of reasoning that God loves us. And every night he used as his text John 3:16.
On the last night of his week speaking in Chicago, Mr. Moorehouse ended by saying: “Suppose I could borrow Jacob’s ladder. Suppose I could ascend that shining stairway until my feet stood on the sapphire pavements of the City of God. Suppose I could find Gabriel, the herald angel, who stands in the presence of God. Suppose I could say, ‘Tell me, Gabriel, how much does God love the world?’ I know what Gabriel would say. He would say, ‘Henry Moorehouse, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’”
It is better to KNOW one verse than to have a passing knowledge of the whole world.
[1] Spurgeon’s conversion story: As a lad of fifteen in 1850 he was making his way to the church he had been attending. Because of the storm, he decided to turn into a Primitive Methodist Church instead. The storm was so severe that the pastor of the church had been unable to get there. Only fifteen people were there, and the speaker was uneducated — barely able to read the scripture: Isaiah 45:22. Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.
The speaker was not eloquent, but God was there. “Look unto Me. Look is not hard, anyone can do it. You don’t need money or education. Look unto Me. Don’t look to yourself, look to Christ. Look, I am sweating great drops of blood for you. Look unto Me, I am scourged and spit upon; I am nailed to the cross, I die, I am buried, I rise and ascend, I am pleading before the Father’s throne, and all this for you.”
[2] My favorite Varley quote: “We try hard. We fail. We are sure we can succeed if we try harder tomorrow. We fail again. And if we succeed, it is only half success, half of what it would have been with God. We are all guilty. All. For I tell you tonight the world has yet to seen what God can do with one man wholly committed to Him.