Dwight Lyman Moody c. 1900

Recently, I have been reading some of the sermons of D.L. Moody, the great evangelist.  One sermon I came across was entitled, “On the Death of Mr. P.P. Bliss.”  It was preached on December 31st, 1876, at a Memorial Service for Philip Bliss.  Bliss was a great American composer and hymn writer, having written Hallelujah! What a Savior, Almost Persuaded, Hold the Fort, Wonderful Words of Life, Let the Lower Lights be Burning, as well as the music for It Is Well With My Soul.  Tragically, Bliss and his wife died in the Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster when he was only 35 years old.  His death was a sudden shock to Christians all across our country.

Having probably attended over 100 funerals in my lifetime, I was curious to read what Moody said.  What text would he preach from?  What would be his main points?  In the end, I found the sermon to be fascinating.  In my mind, I could hear the great evangelist pleading with his listeners.  I could picture the tears streaming down his face.  Today I would like to share with you just a few of the words Moody spoke:

I expected to enjoy, this afternoon, coming around here and hearing our friend Mr. Bliss sing the Gospel and our friend Mr. Whittle preach. I was telling my wife, when I got home Friday night, that I was really glad I didn’t have to work so hard on this Sabbath. I cannot tell you what a disappointment it has been to me. I have looked forward to those two men of God coming to this city. I had arranged and made my plans to stay over a few days, in order to hear and enjoy their services. Ever since I heard that I would have to take their place this afternoon, there has been just one text running in my mind. I cannot keep it out: “Therefore be ye also ready.” You who have heard me preach the past three months, I think I will bear witness to this, that I haven’t said much about death. Perhaps I haven’t been faithful in this regard. I’d always rather tell about life; perhaps there’s not been warning enough in my preaching. But I feel that, if I should hold my peace this afternoon, and not lift up my voice and warn you to make ready for death, God might lay me aside and put some one else in my place; I must speak and forewarn you.

……….

I want to warn you to-day; I want to plead with you to-day. And it is because I love you that I come to plead with you. I am sure there is nothing else that could induce me to speak this afternoon. I felt rather like going into my room and locking the door, and trying to learn what this providence means. I don’t expect to find out yet; I’m not sure I’ll ever know. But—(the speaker paused in deep emotion), I just felt I’d got to come down here this afternoon and cry out: “Therefore be ye also ready!” Make ready before the close of this sermon! Just ask yourselves this question, “Am I ready to meet God this moment?” If not, when will you be? God would not tell us to be ready, if he did not give us the power, unless it was something within our reach.

The thought is put into some of your minds that I am trying to take advantage of the death of this good man to frighten you and scare you; and I haven’t any doubt Satan is doing this work, at this moment. Right here let me notice that some say I’m preaching for effect. That’s what I am doing. I want to affect you; I want to rouse you out of your death-sleep, when I warn you to prepare to meet your God; for “in such hour as you think not the Son of man cometh.” It is just from pure love, pure friendship to you, that I warn you; the thought that I am trying to frighten you from selfish motives is from the pit of hell. You take a true mother; if she does not warn her child when playing with fire, you say she’s not what she professes to be, not a true mother. If a father sees his boy going to ruin and don’t warn him, is he a true father? I say, it is the single power of love that makes me warn you. Suppose I walk by a house on fire, with a man and woman in it, and their seven children. If I don’t call out, hammer on the door, smash in the windows if necessary, and cry out, “Escape if you can,” what would you say? You would say, I ought not to live. If souls are going down to death and hell all around me—I verily believe such live to-day, and some are in this building—how can I hold my peace, and not cry out at the top of my voice: “Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”

…

But, my friends, while we are mourning here, are we ready? We cannot call them back. We may mourn for them; we may mourn for the sad misfortune that has befallen ourselves. But what is our loss is their gain. It is better for them there than here; it is better to be “absent from the body, and present with the Lord.” Shall you join him in that blessed land? Say, are you ready?

…

My friends, I call upon you to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, I call upon you to prepare this day and this hour to meet your God. I lift up my voice, in warning, to all of this assembly. Would you not rather be in the place of Mr. and Mrs. Bliss, and die as they did, in that terrible wreck, by that appalling accident—would you not rather choose that, than to live on twenty-five years, or a hundred years, and die without God, and go down in despair to dark rivers of eternal death! Oh, it was appalling! But I would rather, a thousand times, have been on that train that dark night, and taken that awful leap and met my God as I believe Mr. and Mrs. Bliss have met him, than to have the wealth of worlds and die without God and hope! Oh, if you are not ready, make ready just now! I think a great many tears should be shed for the sins of the past year. If you take my advice, you will not go out of this Tabernacle this night until you have tasted repentance, and the joy of sins forgiven. Go into the inquiry-room and ask some of the Christian people to tell you the way of life, to tell you what to do to be saved. Say, “I want to be ready to meet my God to-night; for I don’t know the day or the hour he may summon me.”

I hope that you are “ready.”  The day will come for all of us.  Let us take heed of these words that the great evangelist spoke almost 138 years ago.

That’s all for today.

Stephen

PS #1 – You can read the entire text of Moody’s sermon at this website.

PS #2 – Remember, there is no early service this week!  Our 10:30 am service will be a unique communion service that focuses on the last words of Jesus – “It Is Finished.”