The Personal TouchChapman, J. Wilbur (John Wilbur)
Religion
The Personal Touch
Chapman, J. Wilbur (John Wilbur)
Evangelistic work; Salvation -- Christianity
D.L. Moody was thus won to Christ. His Sunday School teacher in Boston
was Mr E.D. Kimball. He was not one of the ordinary type of Sunday
School teachers. Mere literal instruction on Sunday did not satisfy his
ideal of the teacher's duty. He knew his boys, and if he knew them, it
was because he studied them, because he became acquainted with their
occupations and aims, visiting them during the week. It was his custom,
moreover, to find opportunity to give to his boys an opportunity to use
his experience in seeking the better things of the Spirit. The day came
when he resolved to speak to young Moody about Christ, and about his
soul.
"I started down to Holton's shoe store," says Mr Kimball. "When I was
nearly there, I began to wonder whether I ought to go just then, during
business hours. And I thought maybe my mission might embarrass the boy,
that when I went away the other clerks might ask who I was, and when
they learned might taunt Moody and ask if I was trying to make a good
boy out of him. While I was pondering over it all, I passed the store
without noticing it. Then when I found I had gone by the door, I
determined to make a dash for it and have it over at once. I found
Moody in the back part of the store wrapping up shoes in paper and
putting them on shelves. I went up to him and put my hand on his
shoulder, and as I leaned over I placed my foot upon a shoe box. Then I
made my plea, and I feel that it was really a very weak one. I don't
know just what words I used, nor could Mr Moody tell. I simply told him
of Christ's love for him and the love Christ wanted in return. That was
all there was of it. I think Mr Moody said afterwards that there were
tears in my eyes. It seemed that the young man was just ready for the
light that then broke upon him, for there at once in the back of that
shoe store in Boston the future great evangelist gave himself and his
life to Christ."
Many years afterward Mr Moody himself told the story of that day. "When
I was in Boston," he said, "I used to attend a Sunday School class, and
one day, I recollect, my teacher came around behind the counter of the
shop I was at work in, and put his hand upon my shoulder, and talked to
me about Christ and my soul. I had not felt that I had a soul till
then. I said to myself. This is a very strange thing. Here is a man who
never saw me till lately, and he is weeping over my sins, and I never
shed a tear about them. But, I understand it now, and know what it is
to have a passion for men's souls and weep over their sins. I don't
remember what he said, but I can feel the power of that man's hand on
my shoulder to-night. It was not long after that I was brought into the
Kingdom of God."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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