PENGINJIL DWIGHY LYMAN MOODY/ Dwight Lyman Moody Evangelist

Dwight L. Moody

Dwight Lyman Moody dilahirkan pada tanggal 5 Februari 1837 di Northfield Massachusetts. Dia baru saja berusia empat tahun saat ayahnya, seorang tukang batu bata, meninggal. Ditinggalkan bersama sembilan orang anak yang masih berusia di bawah tiga belas tahun, Betsey Moody sepenuhnya berkewajiban untuk memberi makan dan pakaian, serta membesarkan anak-anaknya yang amat banyak. Akibatnya, pendidikan yang diperoleh Dwight mungkin hanya setara dengan pendidikan hingga kelas lima Sekolah Dasar zaman sekarang.

Keinginan terbesar Dwight muda adalah pergi dari kota kecil Northfield dan menjadi orang kaya. Dia meninggalkan rumah saat berusia tujuh belas tahun untuk bekerja pada painannya di Boston sebagai pedagang sepatu. Tetapi keinginan sang paman agar Dwight mengikuti sekolah minggu, tempat para guru menantang para remaja untuk mempercayai Kristus sebagai pengampun dosa, membuka jalan bagi perubahan hidup Dwight.

Dwight senang bekerja sebagai penjual sepatu. Dia mempunyai keahlian alami dalam berdagang. Namun, Boston terlalu sesak bagi dirinya. Pada tahun 1856, saat dia berusia dua puluh tahun, Dwight pergi ke barat menuju Chicago tempat dia bekerja bagi C. E. Wisall, seorang pengusaha sepatu. Kali ini dia berambisi untuk mengumpulkan uang sebanyak 100.000 dolar. Beberapa tahun kemudian, Dwight berkeliling Midwest untuk memperkenalkan sepatu Wisell -- tetapi dia selalu kembali ke Chicago untuk mengantar anak-anak mengikuti misi sekolah minggu, akhirnya jumlah anak-anak itu dapat mencapai lebih dari seribu orang. Dia ikut berperan dalam mengurus sekolah minggu itu.

Salah seorang pekerja sekolah minggu, Emma Revell, menarik perhatian Moody. Dia mengumumkan pertunangannya dengan Emma, yang baru berusia enam belas tahun dengan pernyataan sederhana bahwa dirinya "tidak akan bersedia lagi untuk mengawal wanita muda lain pulang ke rumah"!

Moody muda menyadari minimnya pendidikan dan pengetahuan Alkitab yang dimilikinya sehingga dia merasa tidak dapat memenuhi syarat untuk menjadi seorang guru. Tetapi saat dirinya diminta untuk membantu pelayanan kunjungan ke rumah-rumah, Moody dengan enggan menemani seorang guru sakit-sakitan bernama Pak Hibbert yang ingin memenangkan jiwa setiap murid putri di kelasnya bagi Kristus sebelum dirinya meninggal. Pertobatan dan kembalinya "anak-anak perempuan kumuh" ini bagi Kristus berpengaruh besar dalam diri Moody sehingga dia berhenti menjual sepatu dengan tujuan "bekerja sepenuhnya bagi pelayanan Kristen".

The Young Man's Christian Association (YMCA) menunjuk Moody sebagai misionaris. Selama masa Perang Sipil, dia menjadi pendeta YMCA yang ditempatkan di pos tentara dekat Chicago. (Moody tidak ikut serta menjadi tentara karena dia berpendapat bahwa merampas hidup orang lain merupakan tindakan yang salah.) Di tengah masa perang, dia menikahi Emma Revell (saat itu berusia dua puluh tahun) dan dua tahun kemudian mereka mendapatkan seorang putri, yang juga diberi nama Emma.

Selama beberapa tahun berikutnya, Dwight Moody yang penuh semangat dan inovatif, membantu membuat misi sekolah minggunya berkembang menjadi Illinois Street Independent Church (Gereja Mandiri Jalan Illinois), mendaftar sebagai murid sekolah seminari, dan dipilih menjadi pemimpin YMCA Chicago.

Karena kerendahan hatinya untuk memulai menjalankan hidup hemat, kerja keras, dan ikatan keluarga yang erat, Moody berhasil mendekati rakyat jelata dan selalu memiliki rasa kasihan pada kaum miskin. Tetapi dia pun terkenal di antara pengabar Injil kaya yang membantu pelayanannya.

Tahun 1867, Moody menghabiskan waktu empat bulan untuk berkunjung dan berbicara di YMCA Inggris. Saat berada di Inggris, dia bertemu dengan dua orang yang beriman teguh, Charles Spurgeon dan George Muller. Dia juga bertemu dengan Pendeta Henry Varley, yang menantang Moody dengan perkataan, "Dunia ini belum melihat tindakan yang dapat Tuhan lakukan melalui seorang pria yang sepenuhnya mengabdi kepada-Nya." Kata-kata ini sangat memengaruhi Moody sehingga dia berjanji untuk menjadi pria seperti itu.

Tahun 1870, pada Pertemuan Internasional YMCA, dia mendengar nyanyian seorang penyanyi lagu pujian yang bernyanyi dengan suara amat mengesankan. Dia mengajak Ira Sankey untuk bergabung dengan dirinya dan menjadi pemimpin musik; selama dua dekade selanjutnya "Moody dan Sankey" menjadi terkenal sebagai tim pengabar Injil dunia.

Pada tanggal 8 Oktober 1871, Kebakaran Besar Chicago menghancurkan rumah baru Moody, Aula Farwell YMCA yang didirikan atas bantuan Moody, dan Gereja Jalan Illinois. Awalnya dia merasa terguncang, tetapi kemudian Moody segera menyadari bahwa tumbangnya pelayanan organisasinya di Chicago sebagai sebuah kesempatan untuk terjun sepenuhnya dalam pelayanan pengabaran Injil.

Dimulailah era kampanye pengkotbah-pengkotbah besar, dimulai di Inggris Raya (Inggris, Skotlandia, dan Irlandia).

Kampanye berikutnya membawa dia kembali ke Inggris Raya (seluruhnya tujuh kali), ke New England, Meksiko, Kanada, Amerika Serikat bagian barat, Eropa, Holy Land (Tanah Suci) -- dan seterusnya sampai dia meninggal pada akhir abad ke-19.

Pada tahun 1876, dia membeli sebidang lahan di Northfield, Massachusetts, tempat ibunya masih tinggal. Di tempat ini dia menghabiskan bulan-bulan musim panas, menikmati waktu bersama anak-anaknya dan kemudian cucu-cucunya. Walaupun Moody hanya mengenyam sedikit pendidikan, dia berhasil mendirikan dua sekolah di daerah ini: Sekolah Seminari Putri Northfield dan Sekolah Putra Gunung Hermon.

Sementara itu di Chicago, seorang wanita bernama Emiline Dryer mendapat penglihatan mengenai sekolah Alkitab bagi orang awam. Dia ingin Moody, yang ahli dalam berorganisasi dan mencari dana, membuat penglihatan itu menjadi sebuah kenyataan. Institut Alkitab Chicago dibuka secara resmi pada tahun 1889; setelah Moody meninggal, nama institut tersebut diubah menjadi Institut Alkitab Moody.

Moody juga membantu dalam mendirikan dua perusahaan percetakan, yaitu Fleming H. Revell (diberi nama sesuai dengan nama saudara laki-laki Emma, yang menerbitkan banyak khotbah Moody), dan Bible Institute Colportage Association (Asosiasi Kolportase Institut Alkitab (kemudian berubah nama menjadi Moody Press).

Tahun 1892, saat berada di atas kapal Spree dalam perjalanan kembali menuju Amerika Serikat bersama anaknya Will, sebuah kecelakaan yang hampir berakibat fatal terjadi di laut. Hal ini mengakibatkan Moody melipatgandakan waktu berkhotbahnya -- walaupun dokter telah menasihatinya untuk mengurangi kegiatan. Moody beralasan, waktu sangat singkat! Orang-orang terhilang masih banyak! Bagi dirinya, yang terpenting hanyalah bekerja bagi Kristus. Hal ini membuat dirinya mengadakan kampanye besar selama Pekan Raya Sedunia Chicago pada tahun berikutnya -- enam bulan lamanya ia berkhotbah dengan menyewa tenda Sirkus Adam Forepaugh. Putra bungsunya, Paul, yang saat itu baru berusia lima belas tahun, menemanipya selama kampanye ini.

Moody adalah seorang pria dengan sekumpulan hal yang tampak bertentangan. Tanpa mengenyam cukup pendidikan, dia berhasil mendirikan tiga sekolah. Dia berkhotbah bagi ribuan orang di seluruh dunia, tetapi dia diingat oleh anak-anaknya sebagai ayah yang tetap memerhatikan keluarga. Dia berpelukan dengan negarawan, namun memiliki perhatian khusus pada para pemuda-dan kuda-kuda. Dia senang membuat lelucon sederhana; saat di rumah dia memakai "pakaian tidak layak pakai", menunggang kuda, dan mengendarai kereta dengan kecepatan sangat berbahaya mengelilingi lahannya di Northfield. Salah seorang putranya berkata bahwa dia adalah "Peter Pan gemuk dan berjanggut, seorang anak' laki-laki yang tidak-pernah sungguh-sungguh menjadi dewasa."

Sesaat sebelum abad baru dimulai, jantung lemahnya memaksa Moody untuk segera mengakhiri perjalanan pengkhotbahannya. Pada usia enam puluh dua tahun, dia meninggal, tepatnya pada tanggal 22 Desember 1899, di rumahnya di Northfield, tempat dia dikuburkan.

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Dwight Lyman Moody: Evangelist; born at Northfield, Massachusetts, [United States], February 5, 1837; died there December 22, 1899. He was the sixth of the nine children of Edwin and Betsy Moody (née Holton). His father, who was a mason, died in 1841 (aged 41) and the family was in very straitened circumstances for years. His mother died in 1895, aged ninety. Moody received his first religious impressions in the village Unitarian church and his first missionary work was in getting pupils for its Sunday-school, which he attended. His schooling was carried only as far as the district school could take him, and while a young boy he had to earn his living. In 1854 he resolved to try his fortunes in Boston, and there was hired by his uncle, Samuel Holton, as a clerk in his boot and shoe store. One of the conditions of his engagement was that he should regularly attend his uncle's church, the Mount Vernon (Orthodox) Congregational Church, and also its Sunday-school. This promise he faithfully kept and was so much impressed by the truths he heard taught that in 1855 he applied for admission into the church. But his examination was not considered satisfactory and his application was held over for a year when he was thought to have made sufficient attainments in theology for church membership. In September 1856, he went to Chicago and quickly found a more lucrative position than his uncle could offer him, and made a reputation as a salesman and traveler in the shoe trade. He also accumulated $7,000 toward the $100,000 upon which he had set his heart. But while diligent in his business and uncommonly successful he became absorbed more and more in religious work. His energies were first spent upon the Sunday-school as teacher, as gatherer-in of new pupils, and most unpromising ones, who under his instruction improved marvelously, and then as superintendent of the North Market Hall Sunday-school which he built up until it had a membership of 1,500 and out of it in 1863 the Illinois Street Church was formed. He thus was well known in the state as a Sunday-school worker. From the time of his coming to Chicago he had entered heartily into the work of the Young Men's Christian Association, and he raised a huge part of the money for its building, not once but twice, for the first was burned in 1867, and the second in 1871. In 1861 he gave up business and was an independent city missionary, then agent of the Christian Commission in the Civil War and after that again in Sunday-school work and the secretary of the Chicago Young Men's Christian Association. But as yet he had done nothing to give him international fame.

In 1867 he made a visit to Great Britain on account of his wife's health -- he had married in 1862. He made some valuable acquaintances and did a little evangelistic work. One of his converts was John Kenneth Mackenzie. In 1872 he was again in Great Britain, held numerous meetings and won the esteem of prominent Evangelicals. From these he received an invitation to return for general revival work. He came the next year, bringing with him Ira David Sankey, who was henceforth to be linked with him in fame as a revivalist. They landed at Liverpool on June 17, 1873, and held their first services in York. Moody's downright preaching and Sankey's simple but soul stirring singing won attention, and as they passed from city to city they were heard by great crowds. They spent two years in this arduous labor, and then returned to America. Their fame was now in all the churches and invitations poured in upon them to do at home what they had done abroad, so they repeated these services and duplicated their successes, and that in all parts of the country. In 1881 and again in 1891 and 1892 they were in the United Kingdom. One of their most loyal supporters was Henry Drummond, who owed to them the quickening of his religious life in 1874.

In 1892 Moody by invitation of friends made a brief visit to the Holy Land. It was on his return to London that autumn that he first knew of the heart difficulty which ultimately caused his death. It may have been this knowledge that induced him during his remaining years to seek rather to deepen the spiritual life of professing Christians through church services of the ordinary quiet type, than to address the enormous miscellaneous crowds in all kinds of buildings as he did in earlier days. It was while holding services in Kansas City, Missouri, on November 16, 1899, that he broke down, and, although he was able to reach home, he was fatally stricken and soon after died.

Moody had "consecrated common sense." He was honest, preached a Calvinistic creed which he accepted with all his heart, and was master of an effective style. His sermons and shorter addresses abound in personal allusions, in shrewd remarks and home thrusts. He had a hatred of shams and scant respect for persons who had only place to recommend them. He was often abrupt, sometimes brusk. He had no polish, small education, but he knew the English Bible and accepted it literally. He was fond of treating Bible characters very familiarly and enlivening his sermons by imaginary conversations with and between them. But that he was truly bent upon promoting the kingdom of God by the ways he thought most helpful there is no doubt. Like other great revivalists he had much praise which was undesirable, but he never lost his head. He also never allowed excitement to carry his audiences off their feet. For sanity, sincerity, spirituality, and success Moody goes into the very first rank of revival preachers.

During Moody's and Sankey's mission at Newcastle, England, in 1873, the first form of the familiar hymn-book which bears their name appeared in response to the necessity of having a book which was adapted to their needs. This book was originally little better than a small pamphlet, but it was enlarged and has taken on various shapes and had varied contents while preserving its main features. The sale of the book in its different forms has been enormous. Up to 1900, more than a million and a quarter of dollars had been paid its compilers in royalties. Of his share in this money Moody made noble use, and thus opened a chapter in his life which is less known to the public, but will have more permanent interest than his preaching. For with it he founded, or helped to found, the chain of educational institutions which does not bear his name but which is his greatest monument. The first was the Northfield Seminary for Young Women, erected and carried on in his native town. It dates from 1879. This is a school which trains girls for college, if they go so far, but in any case gives them good instruction permeated with religion. All the work of the house is done by the students. In 1881 Mount Hermon School for Young Men was started. The two schools are only a few miles apart. The students are taken at very low rates, combine manual training with the usual school courses, and are under strong religious influences, The Bible Institute for Home and Foreign Missions in Chicago [now Moody Bible Institute], open to both sexes, is another of the educational aids which owe their origin to him. The Students' Conferences and the Northfield Christian Workers' Conference, both of which meet annually at Northfield, were inaugurated by him. They have exerted a great influence, and of a very sane and thoughtful type.

In church connection Moody belonged to the independent Chicago Avenue Church. In his activities he belonged to the Church universal.

Bibliography: The principal biography is by his son, W. R. Moody, Now York, 1900. Others are by R. Drummond, New York, 1900; J. S. Ogilvie, ib. 1900; and A. W. Williams, Philadelphia 1900. Phases of Moody's life and work are treated in: T. S. J., D L. Moody at Home, New York, 1886; H. M. Wharton, A Month with Moody in Chicago,Baltimore, 1894; H. B. Hartsler, Moody in Chicago, New York, 1894.

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Dwight L. Moody, (born Feb. 5, 1837, East Northfield, Mass., U.S.—died Dec. 22, 1899, Northfield, Mass.) prominent American evangelist who set the pattern for later evangelism in large cities.

Moody left his mother’s farm at 17 to work in Boston and there was converted from Unitarianism to fundamentalist evangelicalism. In 1856 he moved to Chicago and prospered as a shoe salesman but in 1860 gave up business for missionary work. He worked with the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA; 1861–73), was president of the Chicago YMCA, founded the Moody Church, and engaged in slum mission work.

In 1870 he met Ira D. Sankey, a hymn writer, and with him became noted for contributing to the growth of the “gospel hymn.” They made extended evangelical tours in Great Britain (1873–75, 1881–84). Moody shunned divisive sectarian doctrines, deplored “higher criticism” of the Bible, the Social Gospelmovement, and the theory of evolution. Instead he colourfully and intensely preached “the old-fashioned gospel,” emphasizing a literal interpretation of the Bible and looking toward the premillennial Second Coming.

Moody’s mass revivals were financed by prominent businessmen who believed he would alleviate the hardships of the poor. Moody himself ardently supported various charities but felt that social problems could be solved only by the divine regeneration of individuals. As well as conducting revivals, he directed annual Bible conferences at Northfield, Mass., where he founded a seminary for girls in 1879. In 1889 he founded the Chicago Bible Institute (now the Moody Bible Institute).

http://www.biblebelievers.com/moody/