The Joy of Winning Souls

I have never lost sight of Jesus Christ since that evening on which I encountered Him the first time. But for years I believed that I was not competent to work for God. I was also never asked to do something.

When I arrived in Chicago, I rented a room and gathered young people together. After I did this for awhile, I established a Sunday School. I believed numbers meant everything, and so I worked for numbers. When less than 1000 people attended Sunday School, I was disappointed. But when attendance reached 1200 to 1500 people, I was proud. No one experienced salvation. There was no harvest.

Then God opened my eyes. We had a class of young girls who, without exception, were very silly and inattentive. One Sunday, the teacher was ill and I took over the class. They laughed in my face, and I felt like opening the door and throwing them out of class.

In the next week, the teacher of this class visited me. He looked very pale and ill. “What is troubling you?” I asked him. “I recently had bleeding in the lungs again. The doctor said I can’t live here. I need go back to New York. I think I will go home to die.” He seemed very dejected, and when I asked him why, he answered: “I did not lead one single girl in my class to Jesus. I think I harmed the girls more than I helped them.”

Never before had I heard someone speak like this.  And I had to think about it. After awhile, I said, “Maybe you should go to them and tell them how you feel. If you’d like to, we can go together.” He agreed. It was one of the nicest trips that I had on earth.

We went to the house of one of these girls. The teacher spoke with her about the salvation of her soul. There was no more laughing here. Her eyes filled with tears. After he had explained the way of life to her, he asked me to pray. Never before in my life had I prayed to God that He would save a young girl. But we prayed, and God heard our pleading.  

The next day, we went out together again. After ten days, the teacher came to me in my store with a glowing face. “Brother Moody,” he said, “the last student in my class has surrendered herself to Christ.” We had a wonderful time of celebration. The next evening, he had to leave, so I called his class together one more time for a prayer meeting. On that evening, God set a fire in my soul that has not since extinguished. The teacher, now deathly ill, sat between his students, spoke with them, and read the 14th chapter of the Gospel of John. We sang, “Blessed be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love.” Then we knelt down to pray.

I had just wanted to stand up again when one girl from the class began to pray for her sick teacher. Then another one prayed and another one, and before we stood up, the whole class had prayed. As I went home, I pleaded: “Oh God, let me rather die than lose the blessing that I have received tonight!”

The next evening, I went to the train station to wish him farewell. Before the train left, one of his students came, and soon all of them had gathered. What a gathering it was! We tried to sing, but our voices broke. When the train began to move, the teacher pointed upward, meaning that we would see him in heaven.

I didn’t know what this experience would cost me. I could no longer work at my regular job in the store. After I had experienced the foretaste of another world, the emptiness of making money no longer appealed to me. Should I give up my store and devote myself to the work of God, or should I continue on as I was? God helped me choose the right way. And I have never regretted my choice. How precious it is to be able to lead a soul out of the darkness of this world into the wonderful light and freedom of the gospel!

D.L. Moody (1837-1899)