PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Wondrous Love, and other Gospel addresses
Moody, Dwight Lyman, 1837-1899 · 52,674 words · 204 reading sections
SIN PUT AWAY.
Again, I thought all my sins would be blazed out before the great white throne; that every sin committed in childhood and in secret, and every secret thought, and every evil desire, would be blazed out before the assembled universe; that every thing done in the dark would be brought to light. But, thanks be to God, the…
234 wordsSECTION 122WHAT GOD CANNOT DO.
In Ireland, some time ago, a teacher asked a little boy if there was anything that God could not do, and the little fellow said, "Yes; He cannot see my sins through the blood of Christ." That is just what He cannot do. The blood covers them. Is it not good news to get rid of your sin? You come here a sinner, and if yo…
229 wordsSECTION 123THE GREAT JUDGMENT-DAY.
I used to think that was a terrible day when I should be summoned before God, and could not tell till then whether I should have a seat on His right hand or on His left. Until I stood before the great white throne of judgment I could not tell whether I should hear the voice of God saying, "Depart from Me, ye cursed," o…
660 wordsSECTION 124THE FIRE ON THE PRAIRIE.
Out in our western country, in the autumn, when men go hunting, and there has not been for months any rain, sometimes the prairie grass catches fire, and there comes up a very strong wind, and the flames just roll along twenty feet high over that western desert, and go at the rate of thirty or forty miles an hour, cons…
357 wordsSECTION 125"NOW AND TO-MORROW."
You have all sinned and come short of the glory of God, but God comes, and says, "I will pardon you. Come now, and let us reason together." "Now" is one of the words of the Bible the devil is afraid of. He says, "Do not be in a hurry; there is plenty of time; do not be saved now." He knows the influence of that word "n…
200 wordsSECTION 126THE GOVERNOR IN THE CONDEMNED CELL.
A few years ago, when Pennsylvania had a Christian governor, there was a young man down in one of the counties who was arrested for murder. He was brought before the court, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death. His friends thought there would be no trouble in getting a reprieve or pardon. Because the governor wa…
398 wordsSECTION 127RECONCILIATION.
Sinner, I have got good news to tell you. There is one greater than the governor here to-night, and He wants to pardon every one. He does not want you to go away condemned. He wants to bring you from under condemnation; to pardon every soul. Will you have the pardon, or will you despise the gift of God? Will you despis…
423 wordsSECTION 128A MOTHER'S AFFECTION.
Well, this mother began to write and plead to the boy to write to his father first, and his father would forgive him; but the boy said, "I will never go home till father asks me." She pleaded with the father, but the father said, "No, I will never ask him." At last the mother was brought down to her sickbed, broken-he…
593 wordsSECTION 129THE WAY OF SALVATION
Read Acts xvi. 23, 40 I shall not preach a sermon; I have just one thought, and that is, to tell every anxious soul what they must do "to be saved." That is the first question of every one who is honestly and really inquiring "the way of salvation," and, God helping me, I will try to-night to make it plain to all.…
63 wordsSECTION 130BELIEVING.
If I say to you, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," you will reply, "Oh, believe! I have heard that word till I am sick and tired of it. Scarcely a week but I hear it in the church, or at a prayer-meeting, or at some drawing-room meeting." You have all heard it over and over again; I don't suppose there is a child her…
150 wordsSECTION 131RECEIVING.
Well, we'll take another word which means the same thing; perhaps you'll get hold of it better. "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as _received_ Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." Bear in mind, "received _Him_." That's it; not rece…
376 wordsSECTION 132THE RICH HUSBAND.
There was a shop-girl in Chicago, a few years ago; one day she could not have bought a pound's worth of anything; the next day she could go and buy a thousand pounds' worth of whatever she wanted. What made the difference? Why, she had married a rich husband; that was all. She had received him, and of course all he had…
114 wordsSECTION 133SEEKING A WIFE.
You know that Abraham sent his servant Eliezer a long journey to get a wife for his son Isaac. When Eliezer had got Rebekah, he wanted to be up and off with the young bride; but her mother and brother said, "No, she shall wait awhile." When Eliezer was determined to go, they said, "We will inquire of the damsel." And w…
178 wordsSECTION 134HE GAVE HIMSELF FOR YOU.
Ah, that is love! But bear in mind, my friends, that the moment Rebekah made up her mind to accept Isaac he became everything to her, so that she did not feel she was giving up anything for him. Ah, what a mistake some people make! They say, "I'd like to become a Christian if I hadn't to give up so much." Just turn rou…
195 wordsSECTION 135WHAT IS CHRIST TO YOU?
What is He willing to be to you, if you will have Him? Won't you be made heirs of heaven, joint-heirs with Christ--to reign with Him for ever and ever--to be His--to be with Him where He is--to be what He is? Think, then, of what He is, and of what He gives. You don't need to trouble yourselves at present about what yo…
260 wordsSECTION 136TAKE JESUS.
My friends, accept my advice, and take Jesus with you when you leave this hall. Remember, He is the gift of God offered to _whosoever_. You belong to that class, don't you? Just take _Him_; that's the first thing you have to do. When you go to cut down a tree, you don't take the axe and commence to hew down the branche…
92 wordsSECTION 137RUTH AND ORPAH.
Now, another case--Ruth and Orpah. Many are like these two young widows. A crisis had come in their lives; they had lost their husbands, and had been living up there in the mountains of Moab. Often had they visited the graves of their dear ones, and perhaps planted a few flowers there, and watered them with their tears…
255 wordsSECTION 138A BLESSED DECISION.
Orpah loved Naomi, but not enough to leave all for her; while Ruth loved her mother so much, that the leaving of her people seemed nothing to her. Oh, may God draw out all your hearts, so that you may leave _all_ and follow Him! We never hear any more of Orpah; the curtain falls upon her life. Perhaps she died away up …
192 wordsSECTION 139TRUSTING.
Many get hold of that when they cannot get hold of "believe" or "receive." You all know what it is to trust. If it were not for trust, there would be a terrible commotion in this building to-night. If you could not trust that the roof was firmly put up, you would get out pretty quick; and if you could not trust these …
144 wordsSECTION 140THE DUBLIN MERCHANT.
In Dublin I was speaking to a lady in the inquiry-room, when I noticed a gentleman walking up and down before the door. I went forward and said, "Are you a Christian?" He was very angry, and turned on his heel and left me. The following Sunday night I was preaching about "receiving," and I put the question, "Who'll rec…
190 wordsSECTION 141SALVATION IS A FREE GIFT,
and it is a free gift _for us_. Can you buy it? It is a free gift, presented to "whosoever." Suppose I were to say, I will give this Bible to "whosoever"; what have you got to do? Why, nothing but take it. But a man comes forward, and says, "I'd like that Bible very much." "Well, didn't I say 'whosoever'?" "Yes; but I'…
213 wordsSECTION 142THE USELESSNESS OF TRYING.
Man is always trying to do something. This miserable word "try" is keeping thousands out of heaven. When I hear men speak of "trying," I generally tell them it is the way down to death and hell. I believe more souls are lost through "trying" than any other way. You have often tried, and as often failed; and as long as …
208 wordsSECTION 143PRESENT SALVATION.
Another verse that has been used a great deal during the past two years, and I feel that I rest my own salvation on it, is John v. 24. I trust God will write it on your hearts, and burn it down into your souls. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, _hath_ everlasti…
258 wordsSECTION 144"TAKE, TAKE!"
A lady in Glasgow came to me, and said, "Mr. Moody, you are always saying 'Take, take!' Is there any place in the Bible where it says 'Take,' or is it only a word you use? I have been looking in the Bible for it, but cannot see it." "Why," I said, "the Bible is sealed with it; it is almost the last word in the Bible. '…
194 wordsSECTION 145AN ANXIOUS INQUIRER.
A lady came to my house the other night, anxious about her soul; but after some conversation she left, without finding peace. She came again, and I asked, "What is the trouble?" "I haven't got peace." I took her to this verse, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life" (John iii. 36). I just held up that litt…
192 wordsSECTION 146THE DEBT PAID.
Suppose I owed Mr. Wanamaker a thousand pounds, and I became a bankrupt; I would have nothing to pay, so he might send me to prison. But suppose Mr. Stone heard of it, and says, "I don't want to see Moody taken to prison." So he pays the debt for me, and gets the receipt. When I see the receipt, I know that I am free. …
237 wordsSECTION 147THE GREAT QUESTION.
Now, one question: What are you going to do with Christ? You have got to settle that question. You may get angry, like a man a short time ago, who marched out of a church, saying, "What right has that American to make such a statement?" But it is true; you must settle it. Pilate wanted to shirk the responsibility, and …
201 wordsSECTION 148GUILTY, BUT SAFE.
A man was once being tried for a crime, the punishment of which was death. The witnesses came in one by one, and testified to his guilt; but there he stood, quite calm and unmoved. The judge and the jury were quite surprised at his indifference; they could not understand how he could take such a serious matter so calml…
229 wordsSECTION 149THE CHICAGO FIRE.
After the Chicago fire took place, a great many things were sent to us from all parts of the world. The boxes they came in were labelled "For the people who were burned out," and all a man had to do was to prove that he had been burned out, and he got a share. So here, you have but to prove that you are poor, miserable…
113 wordsSECTION 150THE LOST SCHOLAR.
The superintendent of a Sabbath school in Edinburgh was walking down the street one day, when he met a policeman leading a little boy by the hand, who was crying bitterly. He stopped, and asked the policeman what was the matter with the boy. "Oh," said the officer, "he has got lost." The superintendent asked to look at…
186 wordsSECTION 151THREE YEARS SEEKING JESUS.
One night, when preaching in Philadelphia, right down by the side of the pulpit there was a young lady, whose eyes were riveted on me as if she were drinking in every word. It is precious to preach to people like that; they generally get good, even if the sermon be poor. I got interested in her, and after I had done t…
340 wordsSECTION 152FEELINGS, THE DEVIL'S STRATAGEM.
"Feelings" is the last plank the devil sticks out, just as your feet are getting on the "Rock of Ages." He sees the poor trembling sinner just finding his way to the Saviour, when he shoves out this plank, and the poor sinner thinks he's "all right now." Some sermon you have heard arouses you, but then you feel all rig…
320 wordsSECTION 153"WORTHY OF ALL ACCEPTATION."
Surely you can trust God to-night. You must have a very poor opinion of God if you cannot trust Him. You have only to come to Him thus--receive Him, trust Him. What more can you do, and what less can you do than trust Him? Is He not worthy of it? Now, let us be perfectly still a moment, and while the voice of man is hu…
149 wordsSECTION 154EIGHT "I WILLS" OF CHRIST
Read Matt. xi. 28, 29 I wish to call your attention to eight "I wills" of Christ. 1. The first one you will find in Matthew xi. 28: "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and…
40 wordsSECTION 155I WILL GIVE YOU REST.
Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." Now I never met a person that did not want rest. That man or woman is not living on the face of the earth that doesn't want rest. We read of the rich man that …
408 wordsSECTION 156PEACE.
Now, in John xiv. 27, there is a promise which is very precious to me. Christ says, "Peace I leave with you"; I am going away, but I am not going to take away My peace from you; that I leave behind Me. "My peace I give unto you." Mark that little expression "My _peace_"--"My peace I give unto you." A good many people l…
352 wordsSECTION 157I WILL IN NO WISE CAST OUT."
Surely that is broad enough--is it not? I don't care who the man or woman is; I don't care what your trials, what your troubles, what your sorrows, or what your sins are, if you will only come straight to the Master, He will not cast you out. Come then, poor sinner; come just as you are, and take Him at His word. Ther…
446 wordsSECTION 158THIS MAN RECEIVETH SINNERS.
Here in London there is no society that would have such a man as John Bunyan once was in their company; yet the Lord saved him, and welcomed him into His kingdom. Here is some poor miserable drunkard cast out by his father and mother, and deserted by all his friends, but the Lord has received him. I have known some of …
265 wordsSECTION 159"I WILL: BE THOU CLEAN."
And immediately the leprosy left him. That's another _I will_ I want to call your attention to. Now, if there is any man or woman here full of the leprosy of sin, if you will but go to the Master and tell all your case to Him, He will speak to you as He did to that poor leper, and say, "I will: be thou clean," and the …
122 wordsSECTION 160THE DEVIL'S CASTAWAYS.
One day when Whitfield was preaching, he said the Lord was so anxious to save souls that He would take in the devil's castaways. Lady Huntingdon remonstrated with him, and said he ought not to make such statements. A little while after, however, there came to his preaching a poor fallen woman, an outcast from society. …
267 wordsSECTION 161"I WILL" OF CONFESSION.
Now, that's the next thing that takes place after a man is saved. We have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, and the next thing is to get our mouths opened. We have to confess Christ here in this dark world, and tell His love to others. We are not to be ashamed of the Son of God. A man thinks it a great honour when…
236 wordsSECTION 162"I WILL" OF SERVICE.
There are a good many Christians here, I believe, that have been quickened and aroused to say, "I want to do some service for Christ." Well, Christ says, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." There is no Christian who cannot help to bring some one to the Saviour. Christ says, "And I, if I be lifted up, will …
144 wordsSECTION 163PETER HAD A GOOD HAUL ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST.
I doubt if he ever caught so many fish in one day as he did men on that day of Pentecost. Why, it would have broken every net they had on board, if they had had to drag up three thousand fishes. Our Lord said, "Follow Me, Peter, and I will make you a fisher of men"; and Peter simply obeyed Him, and there, on that day …
145 wordsSECTION 164INQUIRY MEETINGS.
But the great matter is to _hold inquiry meetings_, and thus pull the net in, and see if you have caught anything. If you are always mending and setting the net, you won't catch many fish. Whoever heard of a man going out to fish, and setting his net, and then letting it stop there, and never pulling it in? Why, everyb…
276 wordsSECTION 165JUST PULL IN THE NET.
If you only catch one, it will be something. It may be a little child, but I have known a little child convert a whole family. Why, you don't know what's in that little dull-headed boy in the inquiry-room; he may become a Martin Luther, a reformer that shall make the world tremble--you cannot tell. God uses the weak th…
134 wordsSECTION 166COMMON SENSE.
That's the plain English of it. If a man preaches the gospel, and preaches it faithfully, he ought to expect results then and there. But after he has proclaimed the glad tidings, let him have an inquiry meeting, and, if necessary, a second meeting, and go to the people's houses and talk and pray with them, and in that …
258 wordsSECTION 167CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED.
There's a void in every man's bosom that wants filling up, and if we only approach them with the right kind of bait we shall catch them. This poor world needs a Saviour; and if we are going to be successful in catching men, we must preach Christ crucified--_not His life only, but His death_. And if we are only faithful…
188 wordsSECTION 168PAUL AND HIS WRITINGS.
Think of Paul up yonder. Why people are going up every day and every hour, the men and women that have been brought to Christ through his writings. He set streams in motion that have flowed on for more than a thousand years. I can imagine men going up there and saying, "Paul, I thank thee for writing that letter to the…
275 wordsSECTION 169"I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU COMFORTLESS."
To me it is a sweet thought, that Christ has not left us alone in this dark wilderness here below. Although He has gone up on high, and taken His seat by the Father's throne, He has not left us. The better translation is, "I will not leave you orphans." He did not leave Joseph when they cast him into prison. "God was w…
106 wordsSECTION 170NO SEPARATION.
If we have got Christ with us we can do all things. Do not let us be thinking how weak we are. Let us lift up our eyes to Him, and think of Him as our Elder Brother, who has all power given to Him in heaven and on earth. He says: "Lo, I am with you, even to the end of the world." Some of our children and friends leave …
228 wordsSECTION 171THE "I WILL" OF RESURRECTION.
To me it is a very sweet thought to think that I have a Saviour who has power over death. My blessed Master holds the keys of death and hell. I pity the poor unbeliever and the poor infidel. They have no hope in resurrection. But every child of God can open that chapter and read the promise, and his heart ought to leap…
354 wordsSECTION 172THE "I WILL" OF GLORY.
That was in His last prayer in the guest-chamber, on the last night before He was crucified and died that terrible death on Calvary. I see some here whose countenances begin to light up at the thought that they shall be with the King in His beauty by and by. Yes; there is a glorious day before us in the future. Some th…
172 wordsSECTION 173DEATH NEVER COMES THERE.
It is banished from that heavenly land. Sickness, and pain, and sorrow come not there to mar that grand and glorious home where we shall be by and by with the Master. God's family will be all together there. Glorious future, my friends! Yes, glorious day! and it may be a great deal nearer than many of us think. During …
96 wordsSECTION 174THE SINNER'S "I WILL."
And now there is just one _I will_ that I want you to say, and that is the _I will_ of the sinner. You have got the eight "I wills" of Christ: (1) He will give us rest; (2) He will not cast out the vilest, but will receive all that come; (3) He will make us clean; (4) He will confess us as His; (5) He will make us succ…
109 wordsSECTION 175"I WILL ARISE, AND GO TO MY FATHER."
Who will say it this afternoon? Who will come to God as the poor prodigal did? I can see him now. Perhaps he is looking over those blue hills; and away in the distance he can see the home he has left, and he knows that there's a loving father, a grey-headed man there; and he says, I perish here in a foreign land, while…
367 wordsSECTION 176THE RIGHT KIND OF FAITH
"Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"--Acts xvi. 30. I do not know of any more important truth to bring out than the answer to this question, because that is the beginning of everything with regard to the divine life. A man must know he is saved before there is any peace, or joy, or comfort. The answer to the question i…
185 wordsSECTION 177THE BIBLE DEFINITION OF FAITH.
People say, "What is faith?" Now the Bible definition of faith is perhaps as good as any one that we know of. We are told in Hebrews xi., "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Now faith is--what? The substance, or, as you have it in the margin, "ground" or "confidence." In o…
232 wordsSECTION 178FAITH IS AN OUTWARD LOOK.
We are to have faith in God, and not in man. A great many people place their faith in men, and they pin their faith to other people's doctrines and creeds. Not long ago I heard of a man who was asked what he believed. He said he believed what his church believed. "What does your church believe?" "The church believes wh…
168 wordsSECTION 179PUT NO CONFIDENCE IN MAN.
Let me call your attention to a few verses where God has warned us not to put faith in man: Jeremiah xvii. 5: "Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh;…
505 wordsSECTION 180THE GREAT DELUSION OF OUR DAY.
We are living in very strange days. Some people tell us it does not make any difference what a man believes if he is only sincere. One church is just as good as another if you are only sincere. I do not believe any greater delusion ever came out of the pit of hell than that. It is ruining more souls at the present time…
213 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.