Moody left home at age 17 and became a shoe salesman.

The first time he applied for church membership, it was denied him because he failed an oral examination on Christian doctrine.

When he first came to Chicago in 1856, his goal in life was to amass a fortune of $100,000.

Moody ministered to soldiers in the American Civil War.

His engagement to Emma Revell was formalized by the unassuming announcement that he would no longer be free to escort other young ladies home after church meetings.

Abraham Lincoln visited Moody’s Sunday school, and President Grant attended one of his revival services.

He chose to use theaters and lecture halls rather than churches for his meetings.

Moody’s house in Chicago burned down twice; his Chicago YMCA building burned three times. Moody raised funds for the rebuilding each time.

D.L. Moody was never pastor of the church that grew out of his Sunday school work and that today bears his name.

At the Chicago World’s Exhibition in 1893, in a single day, over 130,000 people attended evangelistic meetings coordinated by Moody.

D.L. and his son Will survived a near-fatal accident at sea.

It is estimated that Moody traveled more than one million miles and addressed more than one hundred million people during his evangelistic career.

Moody’s revivals often elicited relief programs for the poor.

Moody once preached on Calvary’s hill on an Easter Sunday.

Moody was personally acquainted with George Muller, the orphanage founder; Lord Shaftesbury, the great social reformer; and Charles H. Spurgeon, the prince of preachers.

All three schools founded by Moody in the late nineteenth century are thriving today.

Copyright © 1989 by the author or Christianity Today/Christian History magazine.
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