PRE-10-Chapter Ten
Chapter Ten
Moody and Shaw Compared and Contrasted—Extracts from the Sermons of Both—Moody’s Ticket and Shaw’s. A CERTAIN resemblance between Brother Shaw and the Evangelist Moody has doubtless been observed by many, and in ability to arrest and hold the attention of multitudes there was no doubt a marked similarity. At the same time, however, in respect to their teachings, there was a far more distinct and marked difference. Moody, although a Calvinist of the most pronounced New England type, always brought into prominence the more popular theories of the various religious parties, and kept out of sight the conflicting elements of the different systems. While sufficiently Calvinistic to reach those who had been brought up under such teaching, he did not carry it so far as to insist on the doctrine of particular redemption, or he never could have reached the masses, as he has done; and which must be attributed to his making the impression that the benefits of the death of Christ might be enjoyed, as they were freely offered, to all. This, of course, pleased those who accepted the doctrine of a general atonement; but it was always modified by the thought that, in order to accept the atonement, it was necessary to be made the subject of a special influence of the Holy Spirit; in this way, in effect, inserting the Calvinistic element into the Arminian view of the atonement, as in the former case he had inserted into the Calvinistic view of the atonement the Arminian element.
Carried out to its logical issue, the above method virtually denies human responsibility, by making the act of the sinner in accepting Christ to depend upon a mental and moral condition to be produced by an irresistible influence of the Holy Spirit. This was made manifest by one of his hearers, who, when asked by Moody why he had not become a Christian, replied in strict accordance with the teaching he had heard, “It has not struck me yet.” It was not by a rational, intelligent conviction, but by a miraculous and irresistible power, that he supposed the change would be effected. Indeed Mr. Moody’s own words are decisive upon this point. He says:
“Let us go out and bring all our friends here, and if there is poor preaching we can bring down from heaven the necessary blessings without good preaching. In Philadelphia a skeptic came in, just out of curiosity. He wanted to see the crowd, and he hadn’t more than crossed the threshold of the door before the Spirit of God met him; and I asked him if there was anything in the sermon that influenced him, in hopes that I was going to get something to encourage me; but he could not tell what the text was. I asked him if it were the singing? but he didn’t know what Mr. Sankey had sung. It was the power of God alone that converted him; and that is what we want in these meetings. If we have this power, when we invite our friends here the Lord will meet them, and will answer our prayers and save them.” A critic quite friendly to Mr. Moody says of him that “he dwells on what Christ has done in words which imply that absolutely nothing is left for man to do. In one of his addresses we find this sentence, in a paragraph whose whole tenor is to the same effect, and without qualification: “The idea that a man can work his way up to heaven is damnable.”
Mr. Moody is so absorbed in one statement of the apostles, “It is God that worketh in you,” that he sometimes forgets the other clause of the same sentence, “Work out your own salvation.” He insists, again and again, that absolutely no condition is annexed to God’s offer of free pardon. There is no intimation that it is necessary to renounce and forsake sin. In one of his addresses he used the following language: “I imagine some of you will say, ‘I haven’t anything to do.’ Well, you haven’t. Salvation has been worked out for you by another.” This without a word of qualification or reserve, and insisted on over, and over again. Apparently in Mr. Moody’s view, Christ’s sacrificial death has not only taken the place of the sinner’s punishment; it has saved him from all necessity for exertion. Of the New Testament exhortation, “Repent and believe,” Mr. Moody seems to recognize only the last half. From Genesis to Revelation he finds but one truth, free pardon through a substitutional atonement, with endless bliss or woe depending upon its acceptance by a single act of faith.”
Shaw perhaps never preached a discourse without bringing prominently forward the thought of human responsibility. One of his sermons is headed, “Hear, Believe, Do!” And while he always set forth what God, and Christ, and the Holy Spirit had to do in the work of human salvation, he never failed to show that something was needful on the part of man in order to its enjoyment, and that, not an acceptance by faith only of the offered grace, but a faith evinced by true repentance, and a yielding to, and walking in all the commandments of God.
Moody said to his hearers: “You can make yourselves Christians just about as easy as a black man can wash himself white.”
Shaw said to his: “‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ The Father is ready; the Son is ready; the Spirit is ready; ministers ready; angels ready; church ready; ordinances ready. ‘Christ is the author of an eternal salvation to all them that obey him.’ Sinner, are you ready? When all things are ready, why not come?” And again: “It is only in obedience to the divine law that man can reap the benefits resulting from the life of love, and death sacrifice of Christ. Indeed, no man can justly claim to be reconciled to God who is not willing to yield his will and life to God; for the evidence of reconciliation is subjection to the law of God.”
Moody also made the great mistake of systematically avoiding any mention of the ordinance of baptism, except to reason it away, and show its entire uselessness in the plan of salvation. In his plan it had no place, no use. He seemed to have forgotten that baptism was one of the conditions of salvation as set forth in the great commission, under which he claimed to preach; that it was everywhere enjoined by the apostles and primitive preachers, and that in their days an unbaptized convert was unknown. With them the command to be baptized was as universal as the commands to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and to repent. Mr. Moody entirely ignored it, and in this respect was like a recruiting officer who omits one of the terms of enlistment, a physician who omits one of the essential elements of a prescription, and on the same principle that leads him to ignore baptism would deny the necessity of a ceremony to marriage, a seal to a covenant, an official name to a pardon. His method was to soften down the harsher elements of the creed under which he had been reared; and it must be added that he also suppressed certain plain teachings of the Scriptures; that he failed utterly to “declare all the counsel of God.” In this respect, Shaw presented a striking contrast to the earnest, gifted, yet erring Moody. While insisting as earnestly as he on the necessity of faith, he also insisted on repentance toward God, and on the necessity of giving evidence of unfeigned faith, and sincere repentance by obedience to the clearly expressed will of the Master, and the uniform teaching of the apostles in regard to baptism. He taught all that Moody did in regard to faith in the Lord Jesus; and all that Moody omitted, and the Scriptures taught with regard to the ordinance, which is very generally regarded as the seal of the covenant between the returning sinner and the Savior, who accepts his submission, and freely pardons.
Moody came before his hearers claiming to be the bearer of a message from Christ to them, but kept back a part of that message, nay, claimed that a portion of the message was useless. Shaw came before his hearers with the same claim, and declared the entire message of him for whom he spake. To be convinced of this, the reader has only to consult the Acts of Apostles, and see whether the inspired preachers found in Moody, or Shaw the most faithful imitator. To anxious, inquiring sinners, Moody never gave the same answer that was given to the same class by the apostles. Shaw never gave any other answer than that given by the apostles. Moody, unlike the apostles, never baptized his converts. Shaw, like the apostles, did invariably baptize his. The very language of the Acts of Apostles could be used without violence in regard to the results of Shaw’s labors: the people “hearing believed, and were baptized.” In no instance was this true of the results of the preaching of the other. In a word, Moody was a modern evangelist, using modern methods and expedients, but Shaw was an evangelist of the ancient type, telling to men in modern times the old, old story, as it was told by Peter on Pentecost, or by Paul to the Philippian jailer. The difference between them did not consist in Moody giving the greater prominence to faith, which really was the most prominent feature of his preaching, and Shaw giving the greater prominence to baptism, which really was not the case. He insisted quite as strongly as did Moody on the absolute necessity of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; taught that “without faith it is impossible to please God;” made it in fact an indispensable element in the salvation of the sinner; and, in addition to this, taught the indispensable necessity of repentance, making it even more prominent than Moody did, insisting that “God hath commanded all men everywhere to repent,” following it up by the solemn reason that “He hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness; thus giving the very strongest motive to men to turn from their sins. In addition to this, he invariably taught that every penitent believer should “be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins;” adding thus to the teachings of Moody an act of obedience by which faith and repentance were manifested; an act in which the names of the Father, Son, and Spirit, meet; an act in which allegiance to Satan is renounced, and allegiance to Christ pledged; an act in which submission is manifested by the sinner, and acceptance by the Savior; for in that solemn act the sinner is said to be buried with Christ and to put on Christ. With Moody, this act had neither place nor significance in the Christian scheme. With Shaw, it was as much a part of the gospel plan, and enjoined with as much authority, as faith, repentance, or any other element of that plan, and as clearly one of the conditions of pardon as faith in the Lord Jesus Christ itself. He did not, however, attribute to it a cleansing, saving power. No one could be further from believing that water, or anything short of the blood of Christ, could cleanse the soul from sin, than he; and yet he did believe and teach that pardon was promised and bestowed on the penitent believer, when he sought it in this act of obedience, and in accordance with the teaching of the word of God. If Moody was disposed to regard baptism as useless, or at best one of the least commandments, Shaw did not so discriminate. It was enough for him to know that it was a divine command; nor did he forget that those who should break even the least of the commandments, and teach others to do so, should be esteemed least in the kingdom of heaven. Anything bearing the seal of divine authority was sacred to him. Moody said, on more than one occasion: “If baptizing a man would save him, I would do nothing else but baptize. Every man and woman I meet on the street I would persuade to be baptized. I would not wait for anything; I’d even baptize them while they were asleep, for fear that they might die before I got a chance at them.”
Contrast with this the following from Shaw, on the same subject, as given by a reporter who attended one of his meetings:
“We never heard the New Testament figure of Christ, the bridegroom, applied with greater power. He said when a young couple contracted to be married, and possessed the heart and the will for the change, all that was needed of course was the marriage ceremony to induct them into this new state or relationship to each other. That done, they are legally man and wife. They felt before precisely as they do now, only the formula of the law was wanting to permit the woman taking his name, and allowing him to claim her as his wife. So with becoming a Christian. With faith in the testimony presented comes repentance, and this produces a resolution to turn away from the past life. The change of heart is succeeded by the third step; that is, baptism into the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost. The act of baptism does not change the convert’s heart—faith in the truths of the gospel did that before. It only indicates his altered condition; it is a seal to show that he has left the world and gone upon the Lord’s side. Then he takes Christ’s name, just as the wife takes the name of her husband when the nuptial pledge has been given. As the wife would have no authority under human law to assume the name of the husband before the marriage ceremony, so: according to the New Testament, no convert can claim the name of Christian without tile final act of baptism, the line dividing the kingdom of the Devil from the kingdom of God.”
Moody seemed to regard the first item in the great commission, “He that believeth,” so important as to render the rest of no value whatever; just as a man might unwisely do, who, seeing the importance of a mainspring in a watch, should so far overrate it as to regard everything else as useless; while Shaw was like a wiser man, who realized that even the mainspring was useless, unless all the other parts were in harmonious relation to it; that the absence of any part, wheel, hand, or dial, would destroy the unity and usefulness of the whole. Shaw declared the whole counsel of God. If it seem harsh, it is nevertheless true that Moody did not.
Moody’s work did not contemplate the planting and training of churches. When he brought a man up to the point of saying, “I am for Christ,” his work was done. No formal confession of faith in Christ was demanded; no union with the church insisted upon. His work was as imperfect as would be that of the recruiting officer who would get men up to the point of willingness to enlist, and yet neither tell them how they from citizens became soldiers; nothing of being mustered in, of the uniform, of the armor, of the drill. When the same point was reached by Shaw it was regarded as but the initial step to a great life-work; it was the entrance upon a pilgrimage that would end but with life; a race where the crown was at the end; a warfare in which there was no rest until the last battle was fought and the victory won.
Hence, while he labored earnestly to win men to the service of Christ, he strove, with equal earnestness, to induce all such to put on the whole armor, to fight the good fight, to press forward, to lay aside every weight and the easily besetting sin, to run with patience, to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, assuring them that their labor in the Lord would not be in vain. The result has been that his work lives though he be dead, and gives promise of being a permanent one. The interest excited by Moody’s visits, in many places, instead of developing into permanent good and steady growth, has been followed by a revulsion, anything but favorable to the cause of religion—a meteor’s light, followed by intense darkness.
Under the labors of Shaw, weak churches have been strengthened, unnumbered hearts comforted; none left asking in vain, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” New churches have been formed, which have grown up into strength and usefulness, and, if his works lack the meteor’s splendors, they have the steady and serene light of the stars. In zeal, energy, earnestness, in ceaseless, tireless work, there was a resemblance between the two men which few could fail to observe and admire; but, as we have shown, in their methods they could scarcely have differed more widely. Let us close the contrast with two cases.
Moody said: “When you go to the station and take a ticket for London, and seat yourself in the train, the guard will come and look at your ticket. He looks at that, not you. The blood is God’s ticket. God says have you got your ticket, or token? If you are behind the blood you are as safe as on the golden pavement of heaven. Wake up, for you’ll never get to heaven unless you are floated thither on the crimson tide of Christ’s precious blood.”
Shaw said: “Time is short, and we have only one trip through the world, and no coming back to rectify mistakes, or make up lost opportunities; therefore do not wait to pack your trunk until the whistle blows. Have your trunk packed and a through ticket all ready before train time. Genuine tickets are stamped, ‘He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved.’”
Moody’s ticket fixes the attention on what Christ has done to save man, but does not show how the benefits of that death may be appropriated and enjoyed by the sinner, and is calculated to make the impression that Christ’s death paid the debt, and thus set the guilty free. Shaw’s ticket fixes the attention on what is necessary to be done by the sinner in order to avail himself of the benefits of Christ’s death; shows that obedience is as necessary on the part of the sinner as dying on the part of the Savior; shows that Christ is “the author of an eternal salvation” (not to all men in virtue of his death), but “to all them that obey him.” Moody taught that salvation was wrought out by Christ. Shaw, that while Christ died to save man, he must “work out his own salvation with fear and trembling.” Moody makes everything to depend on the physician. Shaw makes the sin-sick man show his trust in the physician by taking the remedy. Moody, separates faith and works. Shaw insists on their going together. Moody did not, and could not express his views in the words of Scripture. Shaw could and did express his, in the very words of Christ himself. Moody, as far as we can learn, never baptized a single convert. Shaw baptized many thousands of those who heard the gospel from his lips, and were persuaded to turn from their sins to God. Which of them followed the teaching of Christ, and the example of the apostles?