p. 115 | God is Love by D. L. Moody

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Apr 5, 1877

God is Love.

By D. L. Moody

I used to think that God was behind the sinner with a double-edged sword, ready to hew him down. But I went over to England in 1867, and one Sunday night, while in Dublin, I went to hear the boy preacher. I didn’t know who he was, but he said he would like to come to America, and I looked at him, but didn’t think he could preach. However, he told me to write to him and let me know if I wanted him, and I didn’t want him, so I didn’t write. But he came over here and reminded me of the night I met him in Dublin. I wrote him a rather cold letter, but I got another in return, saying that he probably would be in Chicago soon, and if I wanted him to preach he would preach. Well, I didn’t know what to do with him. I was going out of town just then, and so I said to the officers of the church, “I wish you would let this man preach.” They didn’t much want to, but I said, “Let him preach Thursday and Friday nights, anyway.” And so he came and preached.

When I got back home, the first thing I said to my wife was, “How did that Irishman get along?” And she said, “Why, they like him very well; but he preaches very different from you. He preaches that God loves men.” Well, I said, “he must be wrong.” That’s what we all say when anybody differs from us. “Well,” said my wife, “I think you’ll like him because he proves everything by Scripture.” Well, I went to hear him Sunday. And he preached from that 16th verse of the 3d chapter of John, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And I noticed a smile all over the audience. He had preached two sermons from that text, and yet they wanted to hear another. And he went through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, to prove that God loved man. And I noticed that many people brought their Bibles and referred to the passages to be quoted. Monday night there was a great crowd there to hear him, and he said: “My friends, if you will turn to the 16th verse of the third chapter of John, you will find my text. Well, there was a great smile all over the audience. I thought that was about the best sermon I ever heard. It was better than the first one and it melted my heart. My heart went out toward the people as it never went before, and I asked God to forgive me for not having loved them better.

The next night the crowd was still larger; and again he said: “My friends, if you will turn to the 16th verse of the 3d chapter of John, you will find my text.” And he preached a wonderful sermon and touched a higher chord that night. The next night we went again, and thought surely he couldn’t preach again from those words, but he said: “My friends, I want to speak to you on the 16th verse of the 3d chapter of John.” And, sure enough, he preached a sixth sermon from that text, and touched a higher chord than before. Well, the next day he got up and said, “My friends, I’ve been hunting all day long for a new text, but I can’t find one, so you will please turn to the 16th verse of the 3d chapter of John.”

And I remember well one thing he said: “For a week I have been trying to tell you how much God loves you, but my poor, stammering tongue is not able to do it. If I could get Jacob’s ladder and go up to Heaven and ask Gabriel if God loved man, all Gabriel could say would be: “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And, my friends, I have been preaching a different gospel ever since.—D. L. Moody.