Dwight L. Moody Goes South
The news of the battle of Fort Donelson, on the 15th of February, 1862, was the signal for sending to the field a special committee of relief, composed of the Rev. Robert Patterson, D.D., Mr. Moody, and Mr. Jacobs. With them went a number of other brethren from Chicago, eager to minister to the sick and wounded and dying.
On board the steamer from Cairo a discussion arose as to the most efficient way of doing the new work before them. Mr. Moody, full of the idea of saving souls, urged that the very first business in every case was to find out whether the sick or dying man were a child of God; if so, then it was not necessary to spend much time on him -- he being safe enough already. If not, he was to be pointed at once to the Saviour.
Robert Collyer, the Unitarian, took the sanitary view of the question. He declared that the first comforts to be administered to these men who were ready to perish were whisky, brandy, milk-punch, and the like. "Brace up the nerves of the poor fellows," said he, "and help to keep them alive, rather than begin by trying to prepare them for death."
The Rev. Dr. Patton, Congregationalist, thought that both the brethren were right, and both were wrong. He was in favour of a double treatment, varied to suit each particular case; though agreeing with Mr. Moody that, if the poor fellow were actually dying, the thing to be done was to offer him a short and swift salvation, by telling him the story of the thief on the cross.
Mr. Collyer was on his feet in a moment. "What!" said he, "are we to tell our dying heroes, who have gone forth to fight our battles and save our flag, while we stay comfortably at home, -- are we to talk to them about thieves?"
The storm of applause which greeted this patriotic speech showed that the crowd, on the boat, the most of whom knew but little, and cared still less, about questions of theology, were full of that strange belief common to both armies in all battles, that patriotism is one form of piety, and that, somehow or other, though in a way not laid down in the Bible, to die for one's country is a quick way of getting to heaven. This doctrine was taught by the ancient heathen, orators and poets; later by Mohammed; still later by Joseph Smith, the Mormon. The Russian priests and officers taught it to their soldiers in the Crimea ; while the leaders of the Southern army are reported to have been in the same faith. But the Wide experience of the Christian Commission with thousands of brave men at the point of death proved that Mr. Moody was right; for there is no record of a soldier dying with heaven in sight, unless by faith he first had seen the Saviour on the cross. No man, be he soldier or civilian, is redeemed by his own death.
Back and forth, between Chicago and the various camps and battlefields, with tireless vigour and jubilant faith, Mr. Moody toiled and travelled, during the four terrible years of war; which, by the work of the Christian Commission, were transformed from four great harvests of death into four great harvests of souls for the garner of the Lord in heaven. Wave after wave of patriotism and Christian devotion swept over the land. Love of country and love of Christ were minded, so that no one could tell where one ended and the other began.
Like the men who go down to the sea in ships, Moody and his brethren saw God's wonders, in camp and field. Having so many sinners to point to the Saviour, and so little time in which to do it, they prayed to the Lord to do His "short work." So many men found the Saviour, and died while they were praying for them, that they came to have a strange familiarity with heaven. These souls seemed to be messengers between them and God, carrying rip continually the fresh and glowing record of the work they were doing in His name. And so simple and easy did it become for them to "ask and receive," that they were rather surprised if the penitent for whose conversion they prayed was not blessed before they reached the Amen.
From D. L. Moody and His Work by Reverend W. H. Daniels (Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1875).
