D. L. Moody said that his \u201cgreatest mistake\u201d occurred October 8, 1871. On that night his message was based on Pilate\u2019s question, \u201cWhat shall I do then with Jesus?\u201d (Matthew 27:22) As he concluded, he said, \u201cI wish you would seriously consider this subject, for next Sunday we will speak about the cross, and at that time I\u2019ll inquire, \u2018What will you do with Jesus?\u2019\u201d Ira Sankey then sang the closing hymn, which included the lines,<\/p>\n
Today the Saviour calls;
\n For refuge fly;
\n The storm of justice falls,
\n And death is nigh.<\/p>\n
Little did anyone know that these words would be the last ever heard in that huge hall. Even as they were being sung, the soloist\u2019s voice was nearly drowned out by the sound of clanging bells in the street. That was the night of the great Chicago fire which almost destroyed the entire city. Among the hundreds who died were some who earlier had been in Moody\u2019s audience. The evangelist was greatly distressed by this and lamented his tragic error in not asking men and women to receive the Lord that evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, whenever I preach,\u201d he said later, \u201cI press for a definite decision. I would rather lose my right hand than give people even a day to decide for Christ, for I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll ever see them again.\u201d The gospel invitation is a \u201ctoday only\u201d offer!<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
Paul Lee Tan, \u201cEncyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations.\u201d<\/p>\n
====================
\nAnother version from the Frederickburg Collection:<\/p>\n
During the early days of the ministry of Dwight L. Moody, the great evangelist launched a series of meetings in Chicago with promise of the largest crowds that he had ever addressed up to that time. He was speaking of the life of Christ, and on the first Sunday night, October 8, 1871, he took as his topic the trial before Pilate. As he came to the end of his message, he turned to Matthew 27:22, “What shall I do then with Jesus, who is called Christ?” He concluded, “I wish you would take this text home with you and turn it over in your minds during the week, and next Sabbath we will come to Calvary and the cross, and we will decide what to do with Jesus of Nazareth.”<\/p>\n
It may have been an artistic device. But speaking of it in later years, Moody called that conclusion to his morning’s address the greatest mistake of his life. Even while Mr. Sankey was singing the final hymn…<\/p>\n
Today the Savior calls;
\n For refuge fly;
\n The storm of justice falls,
\n And death is nigh<\/p>\n
…the fire engines began to sound on the street on their way to their first contact with the great Chicago fire in which Moody’s hall was laid in ashes, and in which it is estimated that over a thousand persons lost their lives. Moody never saw that congregation again, and some of those to whom he spoke on that night doubtlessly died.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
D. L. Moody said that his \u201cgreatest mistake\u201d occurred October 8, 1871. On that night his message was based on Pilate\u2019s question, \u201cWhat shall I do then with Jesus?\u201d (Matthew 27:22) As he concluded, he said, \u201cI wish you would seriously consider this subject, for next Sunday we will speak about the cross, and at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1939,4122,1420,99,1431,1521,4121],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4691"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4691\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}