How D. L. Moody Helped Me

By J. Wilbur Chapman, D. D.

I will tell you how to be saved, and how you may know you are a Christian. I was studying for the ministry, and I heard that D. L. Moody was to preach in Chicago, and I went down to hear him. I finally got into his after-meeting, and I shall never forget the thrill that went through me, when he came and sat down beside me as an inquirer. 

He asked me if I was a Christian. I said, "Mr. Moody, I am not sure whether I am a Christian or not." He asked me some questions as to whether I was a church member, and I said I was, but was not always sure whether I was a Christian or not. He very kindly took his Bible and opened it at the fifth chapter of John, and the twenty-fourth verse, which reads as follows: "Verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth my Word and believeth on Him that sent Me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." 

 

Suppose you had read that for the first time, wouldn’t you think it was wonderful? I read it through, and he said: "Do you believe it?" I said, "Yes." "Do you accept it?" I said, "Yes." "Well, are you a Christian?" "Mr. Moody, I sometimes think I am, and sometimes I am afraid I am not." He very kindly said, "Read it again." So I read it again. "Verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth my Word and believeth on Him that sent Me hath everlasting life, and shall not come unto condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."

Then he said, "Do you believe it?" I said, "Yes." "Do you receive Him?" I said, "Yes." "Well," he said, "are you a Christian?"

I just started to say over again that sometimes I was afraid I was not, when the only time in all the years I knew him, and loved him, he was sharp with me. He turned on me with his eyes flashing and said, "See here, whom are you doubting?"

Then I saw it for the first time, that when I was afraid I was not a Christian I was doubting God’s Word. I read it again with my eyes overflowing with tears. 

Since that day I have had many sorrows and many joys, but never have I doubted for a moment that I was a Christian, because God said it. 

Now what I ask you to do is to plant your feet upon this promise, and say "Yes, from this moment I know I am a Christian."

Reference:

J. Wilbur Chapman, "HOW D. L. MOODY HELPED ME," Herod de Wahrheit (April 1927), pp. 284-285. Excerpted from a gospel tract by the same title. Note: The magazine's title "Herod de Wahrheit," is German for "Herald of Truth". It appears to be an early 20th-century Amish Mennonite periodical that was published by the Mennonite Publishing House, Scottdale, PA.