Dwight Lyman Moody
February 5, 1837 – December 22, 1899
Shoe salesman turned global evangelist. Preached to an estimated 100 million people in pre-microphone era. Founded Moody Bible Institute (1886).
Tradition
Non-denominational evangelical
Era
Post-Civil War Revival
Preserved Sermons
Hundreds
Biography
Dwight Lyman Moody was born in Northfield, Massachusetts, to a poor stonemason who died when Dwight was four. Moody quit school at thirteen, sold shoes in Boston, and at seventeen was converted under his Sunday school teacher's witness. He moved to Chicago in 1856, made a fortune in shoes, and at age twenty-three abandoned business to work full-time in inner-city ministry — teaching Sunday school in the worst slum in Chicago and turning his apartment into a free orphanage. After the Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed his church, his home, and his life savings, Moody felt called to mass evangelism. Partnered with song leader Ira Sankey, Moody crisscrossed the United States and Britain from 1873 to 1899, holding 'campaigns' (multi-night meetings) in city after city. He had no seminary training, no ordination, and a thick Boston accent — and he reached more people for Christ than any preacher before him. He founded Moody Bible Institute in 1886, which still trains thousands of pastors and missionaries annually.
Legacy
Moody pioneered the modern revival meeting format, the gospel song hymn book (with Sankey), and large-scale lay evangelism. The Billy Graham model — citywide campaigns with massive choirs, professional musicians, and trained counselors — is a direct descendant of Moody's methods. Moody Bible Institute, Moody Publishers, and the Moody Church in Chicago all continue today.
Notable Sermons
What Think Ye of Christ?
1875Matthew 22:42
Moody's most-preached sermon — used in his British campaigns of 1873–75 that converted hundreds of thousands.
Read full sermonThe Blood
Hebrews 9:22
On the centrality of the atonement — preached at Moody's tabernacle meetings with thousands inquiring afterward.
Read full sermonHeaven
John 14:1-3
Moody's pastoral sermon on the believer's hope — preached countless times at funeral services and to dying inquirers.
Read full sermonThe Second Coming of Christ
Acts 1:11
Moody's premillennialist sermon — instrumental in spreading dispensationalism through American evangelicalism.
Read full sermonWhere Art Thou?
Genesis 3:9
Moody's signature evangelistic sermon — a direct, personal call to repentance using God's first question to Adam.
Read full sermonPublic Domain Note
All of D.L. Moody's sermons are in the public domain. The Moody Bible Institute Library and Bible Bulletin Board host the most complete free archives. Many were originally transcribed by stenographers at his crusades.
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