Had Plenty of Audacity

1895

How Mr. Moody Once Organized a Great Charity In Ten Minutes.

On one occasion Dwight L. Moody had convened a great conference in Liverpool, writes Professor Drummond in McClure's Magazine. The theme for discussion was a favorite one, "How to Reach the Masses." One of the speakers, the Rev. Charles Garrett, in a powerful speech, expressed his conviction that the chief want of the masses in Liverpool was the institution of cheap houses of refreshment to counteract the saloons. When he had finished, Mr. Moody called upon him to speak for ten minutes more. That ten minutes might almost be said to have been a crisis in the social history of Liverpool. Mr. Moody spent it in whispered conversation with gentlemen on the platform.

No sooner was the speaker done than Mr. Moody sprang to his feet and announced that a company had been formed to carry out the objects Mr. Garrett had advocated; that various gentlemen, whom he named — Mr. Alexander Balfour, Mr. Samuel Smith, M. P., Mr. Lockhart and others — had each taken 1,000 shares of $5 each, and that the subscription list would be open till the end of the meeting. The capital was gathered almost before the adjournment, and a company floated under the name of the British Workmen company, limited, which has not only worked a small revolution in Liverpool, but — what was not contemplated or wished for, except as an index of healthy business — paid a handsome dividend to the shareholders,

For 20 years this company has gone on increasing. Its ramifications are in every quarter of the city; it has returned 10 per cent throughout the whole period, except for one strike year, when it returned 7, and, above all, it has been copied by cities and towns innumerable all over Great Britain.

To Mr. Garrett, who unconsciously set the ball a-rolling, the personal consequences were as curious as they were unexpected. "You must take charge of this thing," said Mr. Moody to him, "or at least you must keep your eye on it." "That cannot be," was the reply. "I am a Wesleyan. My three years in Liverpool have expired. I must pass to another circuit." "No," said Mr. Moody, "you must stay here." Mr. Garrett assured him it was quite impossible; the Methodist conference made no exceptions. But Mr. Moody would not be beaten. He got up a petition to the conference. It was granted — an almost unheard of thing — and Mr. Garrett remains in his Liverpool church to this day. This last incident proves at least one thing — that Mr. Moody's audacity is at least equaled by his influence.