Moody, Dwight Lyman

(1837–99)

   Missionary and Educator.

   Moody was born in Northfield, Massachusetts. He had a scanty education, but experienced an evangelical conversion and was received into membership of a Boston Congregational Church in 1856. After moving to Chicago, he began to organise a Sabbath school and he established the Illinois Street Church. With his associate, Ira D. sankey, he became a highly successful travelling evangelist. His 1873 tour of the British Isles was a triumph. More than two and a half million people heard him preach. He also travelled round the major cities of the United States – Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, St Louis, Cleveland and San Francisco. His campaigns were heralded by considerable publicity and he made a practice of co-operating with the local Churches. Altogether it has been estimated that he addressed more than a hundred million people and travelled over a million miles. He also founded educational institutions – Northfield Seminary for girls, Mount Hermon School for boys and the Chicago Evangelization Society (which became the Moody Bible Institute). He was one of a series of successful American evangelists whose tradition continues today with the various television and broadcasting ministries. Moody himself died during the course of a mission in Kansas City.

   J.F. Findlay Jnr, Dwight L. Moody: American Evangelist (1969).