Mighty Moody

NON-FICTION

D. L. MOODY: A WORKER IN SOULS-- Gamaliel Bradford--Doran ($3.50). "Are you a Christian?" This was Dwight Lyman Moody's habitual salute to those whose souls he wished to preserve for eternity. Gamaliel Bradford, wishing to preserve the heroic figure of the evangelist, asks a few questions in return. Since D. L. Moody is no longer alive to answer the questions, Author Bradford.must supply his own replies. A wise and searching biographer, he explains very credibly a person who, in an age of great preachers, Was perhaps the tallest and most mighty among them.

Evangelist Moody was born in 1837, became a shoe-seller, then an ardent saver of .souls. He hammered on the word of God as if it had been a heel-peg, with, determination, with insistence, with enormous vigor, but without superfluous gesticulation. Said D. L. Moody, early in his career: "... I wouldn't let a day pass without speaking to some one about their soul's salvation . . . There will be 365 in a year that shall hear the gospel from my lips." With Ira David Sankey, who sang hymns, he toured the U. S. and England, giving his solution to the gigantic crossword puzzle of the universe. . Before he died, he wrote this beginning-..for his autobiography: "Some day you will read in the papers that D. L. Moody is dead. Don't you believe a word of it. At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now." If this last statement is true, Moody, apprised of Author Bradford's clever, scholarly history, is possibly both surprised and indignant.