Page:How to Get Strong (1899).pdf/499

 was taught me from my boyhood, and open-air exercise in the discharge of my duties has no doubt contributed to bodily vigor."

Born at Northfield, Massachusetts, in 1837. He was but four years old when his father died; of slender education; at seventeen salesman in a Boston shoe-store; at nineteen went to Chicago; became a home missionary; hired four pews in the Plymouth Congregational Church, and kept them full of young men each Sabbath; established a great Sunday-school and did such missionary work that his power was soon felt all over the land; vast audiences flocked to hear him speak and Sankey sing; was equally successful in Europe; has continued the work in this country; has established the Moody School at Northfield, Massachusetts, which i 3 very large and successful, and appears to be full of vigor and enthusiasm all the time.

The Christian Advocate attempts an analysis of "Moody and his Power" thus: "The Evening Post says it is rather remarkable that Mr. Moody's influence has told more powerfully among college students than any other class of men. This statement is indubitable. Oxford and Cambridge students heard him with delight; and many of them are said to have entered upon the Christian life under his appeals.

"But though remarkable, it is explicable. Practical sense, unaffected and direct style, self-confidence induced by success, immense physical vigor, predominance of Anglo-Saxon in his speech, shrewd, management of crowds, keeping on the best terms with the press, plentiful use of illustrative facts personally attested, and the element of surprise to college students growing out of the contrast with the didactic discourses to which they are accustomed; and the fact that those who delivered said discourses seem to sit at the feet of this untutored man, are among the natural elements of his power.

"Besides, he has accumulated a vast amount of knowledge, and obviously has a well-defined theory of human nature and how to mould it. To this must be added great earnestness and his constant declaration that the sole source of his reliance is the Holy Spirit.