The Chicago Fire by D. L. Moody

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 23, 1875

The Chicago Fire.

By D. L. Moody

It was my sad lot to be in the Chicago fire. As the flames rolled down our streets, destroying everything in their onward march, I saw the great and the honorable, the learned and the wise, fleeing before the fire with the beggar, and the thief, and the harlot. All were alike. As the flames swept through the city, it was like the Judgment day. Neither the mayor, nor the mighty men, nor the wise men, could stop those flames. They were all on a level then, and many who were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars were left paupers that night.

In like manner, when the day of Judgment comes there will be no difference. When the deluge came there was no difference; Noah’s ark was worth more than all the world. The day before, it was the world’s laughing-stock, and if it had been put up at auction, you could not have got anybody to buy it for fire-wood. But the deluge came, and then it was worth more than all the world together. And when the day of Judgment comes, Christ will be worth more than ten thousand worlds. And if it was a terrible thing in the days of Noah to die outside the ark, it will be far more terrible for us to go down in our sins to a Christless grave. —D. L. Moody.