



Produced by Keith G. Richardson









WONDROUS LOVE

AND OTHER GOSPEL ADDRESSES

BY

D. L. MOODY

AUTHOR OF

"PREVAILING PRAYER" "SOVEREIGN GRACE" ETC.

DELIVERED DURING MESSRS. MOODY AND SANKEY'S

FIRST CAMPAIGN IN ENGLAND

PICKERING & INGLIS

14 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.C. 4

229 BOTHWELL STREET, GLASGOW, C. 2

29 GEORGE IV. BRIDGE, EDINBURGH



_THE WORLD-WIDE LIBRARY_

THE SEEKING SAVIOUR

By Dr. W. P. Mackay

Author of "Grace and Truth"

HOW AND WHEN

Do we Become Children of God?

50 Answers by Well-Known Men

THE GOOD SHEPHERD

By H. Forbes Witherby

ABUNDANT GRACE

By DR. W. P. MACKAY

Author of "Grace and Truth"

FORGIVENESS, LIFE AND GLORY

By Sir S. Arthur Blackwood

WONDROUS LOVE: Original Addresses

By D. L. Moody

First issued in 1876

Made and Printed in Great Britain



CONTENTS

Christ's Boundless Compassion

The New Birth

The Blood (Two Addresses)

Christ All in All

Naaman the Syrian

One Word--"Gospel"

The Way of Salvation

Eight "I wills" of Christ

The Right Kind of Faith

The Dying Thief



WONDROUS LOVE

   God loved the world of sinners lost
      And ruined by the fall;
   Salvation full, at highest cost,
      He offers free to all.
         Oh, 'twas love, 'twas wondrous love,
            The love of God to me;
         It brought my Saviour from above,
            To die on Calvary!
   E'en now by faith I claim Him mine,
      The risen Son of God;
   Redemption by His death I find,
      And cleansing through the blood.
   Love brings the glorious fulness in,
      And to His saints makes known
   The blessed rest from inbred sin,
      Through faith in Christ alone.
   Believing souls, rejoicing go;
      There shall to you be given
   A glorious foretaste, here below,
      Of endless life in heaven.
   Of victory now o'er Satan's power
      Let all the ransomed sing,
   And triumph in the dying hour
      Through Christ, the Lord, our King.



WONDROUS LOVE

_Addresses by_ D. L. Moody

CHRIST'S BOUNDLESS COMPASSION

"And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with
compassion toward them, and He healed their sick."--Matthew xiv. 14.

It is often recorded in Scripture that Jesus was moved by compassion;
and we are told in this verse that after the disciples of John had
come to Him and told Him that their master had been beheaded, that he
had been put to a cruel death, He went out into a desert place, and
the multitude followed Him, and that when He saw the multitude He had
"compassion" on them, and healed their sick. If He were here to-night
in person, standing in my place, His heart would be moved as He looked
down into your faces, because He could also look into your hearts, and
could read the burdens and troubles and sorrows you have to bear. They
are hidden from my eye, but He knows all about them, and so when the
multitude gathered round about Him, He knew how many weary, broken,
and aching hearts there were there. But He is here to-night, although
we cannot see Him with the bodily eye, and there is not a sorrow, or
trouble, or affliction which any of you are enduring but He knows all
about it; and He is the same to-night as He was when here upon
earth--the same Jesus, the same Man of compassion.

When He saw that multitude He had compassion on it, and healed their
sick; and I hope He will heal a great many sin-sick souls here, and
will bind up a great many broken hearts. And let me say, in the
opening of this sermon, that there is no heart so bruised and broken
but the Son of God will have compassion upon you, if you will let Him.
"He will not break a bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax." He
came into the world to bring mercy, and joy, and compassion, and love.

If I were an artist I should like to draw some pictures to-night, and
put before you that great multitude on which He had compassion. And
then I would draw another painting of that man coming to Him full of
leprosy, full of it from head to foot. There he was, banished from his
home, banished from his friends, and he comes to Jesus with his sad
and miserable story. And now, my friends, let us make

THE BIBLE STORIES REAL,

for that is what they are. Think of that man. Think how much he had
suffered. I don't know how many years he had been away from his wife
and children and home; but there he was. He had put on a strange and
particular garb, so that anybody coming near him might know that he
was unclean. And when he saw any one approaching him he had to raise
the warning cry, "Unclean! unclean! unclean!" Aye, and if the wife of
his bosom were to come out to tell him that a beloved child was sick
and dying, he durst not come near her, he was obliged to fly. He might
hear her voice at a distance, but he could not be there to see his
child in its last dying moments. He was, as it were, in a living
sepulchre; it was worse than death. There he was, dying by inches, an
outcast from everybody and everything, and not a hand put out to
relieve him. Oh, what a terrible life! Then think of him coming to
Christ, and when Christ saw him, it says He was moved with compassion.
He had a heart that beat in sympathy with the poor leper, He had
compassion on him, and the man came to Him and said, "Lord, if Thou
wilt, Thou cant make me clean." He knew there was no one to do it but
the Son of God Himself, and

THE GREAT HEART OF CHRIST

was moved with compassion towards him. Hear the gracious words that
fell from His lips--"I will; be thou clean!" and the leprosy fled, and
the man was made whole immediately. Look at him now on his way back
home to his wife and children and friends! No longer an outcast, no
longer a loathsome thing, no longer cursed with that terrible leprous
disease, but going back to his friends rejoicing. Now, my friends, you
may say you pity a man who was so badly off, but did it ever strike
you that you are a thousand times worse off? The leprosy of the soul
is far worse than the leprosy of the body. I would rather a thousand
times have the body full of leprosy than go down to hell with the soul
full of sin. A good deal better that this right hand of mine were
lopped off, that this right foot should decay, and that I should go
halt and lame and blind all the days of my life, than be banished from
God by the leprosy of sin. Hear the wailing and the agony and the woe
that is going up from this earth caused by sin! If there is one poor
sin-sick soul filled with leprosy here to-night, if you come to Christ
He will have compassion on you, and say, as He did to that man, "I
will; be thou clean."

THE DEAD RAISED.

Well, now we come to the next picture that represents Him as moved
with compassion. Look into that little home. There is a poor widow
sitting there. Perhaps a few months before she had buried her husband,
and now she has an only son. How she dotes upon him! She looks to him
to be her stay and her support and friend in her old age. She loves
him far better than her own life-blood. But see, at last sickness
enters the dwelling, and death comes with it, and lays his ice-cold
hand upon the young man. You can see that widowed mother watching over
him day and night; but at last those eyes are closed, and that loved
voice is hushed, she thinks, for ever. She will never see or hear him
more after he is buried out of her sight. And so the hour comes for
his burial. Many of you have been in the house of mourning, and have
been with your friends when they have gone to the grave and looked at
the loved one for the last time. There is not one here, I dare say,
who has not lost some beloved one. I never went to a funeral and saw a
mother take the last look of her child but it has pierced my heart,
and I could not keep back the tears at such a sight. Well, the mother
kisses her only son on that poor, icy forehead; it is her last kiss,
her last look, and now the body is covered up, and they put him on the
bier and start for the place of burial. She had a great many friends,
The little town of Nain was moved at the sight of the widow's only son
being borne away. I see that great crowd as they come pushing out of
the gates; but over yonder are thirteen men, weary, and dusty, and
tired, and they have to stand by the wayside to let this great crowd
pass by, and the Son of God is in this group, and the others with Him
are His disciples. And He looked upon that scene and saw the mother
with her broken heart; He saw it bleeding, crushed, and wounded, and
it touched His heart. Yes, the great heart of the Son of God was moved
with compassion, and He came up and touched the bier, and said,

"YOUNG MAN, ARISE!"

and the young man came forth. I can see the multitude startled and
astonished; I can see the widowed mother going back rejoicing with the
morning rays of the resurrection shining in her heart. Yes, He had
indeed compassion on her. And there is not a widow in this hall but
Christ's voice will respond to your trouble and give you peace. Oh,
dear friends, let me say to you whose hearts are aching, you need a
friend like Jesus. He is just the friend the widow needs; He is just
the friend every poor bleeding heart needs; He will have compassion on
you and will bind up your wounded, bleeding heart if you will only
come to Him just as you are. He will receive you, without upbraiding
or chastising, to His loving bosom, and say, "Peace, be still," and
you can walk in the unclouded sunlight of His love from this night.
Christ will be worth more to you than all the world besides. He is
just the friend that all of you need; and I pray God you may every one
of you know Him from this hour as your Saviour and friend.

THE MAN WHO WAS ROBBED AND SPOILED.

The next picture which I shall show you to illustrate Christ's
compassion is the man that was going down to Jericho and fell among
thieves. They had taken away his coat, aye, and if he had a watch they
would have taken that as well. However, they took his money, and
stripped him, and left him half dead. Look at him wounded, bleeding,
dying; and now comes down the road a priest, and he looks upon the
scene. His heart might have been touched, but he was not moved with
compassion enough to help the poor man. He might have said, "Poor
fellow"; but he passed by on the other side and left him. After him
came down a Levite, and he said, "Poor man"; but he was not moved with
compassion to help him. Ah, there are a good many like the priest and
Levite! Perhaps some of you coming down to this hall meet a drunkard
reeling in the street, and just say, "Poor fellow," or it may be you
laugh because he stammers out some foolish thing. We are very unlike
the Son of God. At last a Samaritan came down that way, and he looked
down on the man and had compassion on him. He got off his beast, and
took oil and poured it into his wounds, and bound them up, and took
him out of the ditch, helpless as he was, and placed him on his own
beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. That good
Samaritan represents your Christ and mine. He came into the world to
seek and to save

THAT WHICH WAS LOST.

Young man, have you come to London, and fallen in with bad companions?
Have they taken you to theatres and vicious places, and left you
bleeding and wounded? Oh, come to-night to the Son of God, and He will
have compassion on you, and take you off from the dunghill, and
transform you, and lift you up into His kingdom, and into the heights
of His glory, if you will only let Him! I do not care who you are; I
do not care what your past life may have been. As He said to the poor
woman caught in adultery, "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no
more." He had compassion upon her, and He will have compassion on you.
That man coming down from Jerusalem to Jericho represents thousands in
London, and that good Samaritan represents the Son of God. Young man,
Jesus Christ has set His heart on saving you. Will you receive His
love and compassion? Do not have such hard thoughts about the Son of
God. Do not think He has come to condemn you. He has come to save you.

THE PRODIGAL.

But I should like to draw another picture, another scene--that young
man going away from his home that we read of in the fifteenth chapter
of Luke; an ungrateful man, an ungrateful wretch as ever one saw. He
could not wait for his inheritance till his father was dead, he wanted
his share at once; and so he said to his father, "Give me the goods
that belong to me," and his good old father gives him the goods, and
away he goes. I can see him now as he starts on his journey, full of
pride, boastful and arrogant, going out to see life, off in grand
style to some foreign country--say, going down to London. How many
have come down to London, that being the far country to them,
squandering all their money. Yes, he was a popular man as long as he
had money. His friends last as long as his money lasts; a very popular
young man in London, "hail-fellow-well-met" greets him everywhere. He
always paid the liquor bill and cigars. Yes, he had plenty of friends
in London. What grand folly! But when his money was gone, where were
his friends? Oh, you that serve the devil, you have a hard master!
Well, when the prodigal's money was all gone, of course they laughed
at him, and called him a fool; and so he was. What a blind, misguided
young man he was! Just see what he lost. He lost his father's home,
his table and food, and testimony, and every comfort, and lost his
work, except what he got down there while feeding those swine. He was
in an unlawful business. And that's just what

THE BACKSLIDER

is doing; he is in the devil's pay. You are losing your time and
testimony. No one has any confidence in a backslider; for even the
world despises such a character. This young man lost his testimony.
Look at him amongst the swine. At last one in that far country comes
along, and, taking stock of him, says, "Look at that miserable,
wretched, dirty, barefooted fellow taking care of swine." "Ah," says
the prodigal, "don't talk to me like that. Why, my father's a rich
man, and has got servants better dressed than you are." "Don't tell me
that," says the other. "If you had such a father as that, I know very
well he wouldn't own you." And no one would believe him.

HE HAD LOST HIS TESTIMONY.

No one believes a backslider. Let him talk about his enjoyment with
God, nobody believes it. Oh, poor backslider, I pity you! You had
better come home again. Well, at last the poor prodigal comes to
himself, and he says, "I will arise and go to my father," and now he
starts. Look at him as he goes along, pale and hungry, with his head
down; his strength is exhausted, and perhaps disease in his frame, and
so shattered that no one would know him but his father. Love is keen
to detect its object. The old man has often been longing for his
return. I can see him many a night up on the house-top looking out to
catch a glimpse of him. Many a long night he has wrestled with God
that his prodigal son might come back. Everything he had heard from
that far country told him his boy was going to ruin as fast as he
could go. The old man spent much time in prayer for him, and at last
faith begins to arise, and he says, "I believe God will send back my
boy"; and one day the old man sees afar off that long-lost boy. He
does not know him by his dress, but he detected the gait of him, and
he says to himself, "Yes, that's my boy." I see him now pass down the
stairs; he rushes along the highway; he is running. Ah! that is just
like God. Many a time in the Bible God is represented as running; He
is in great haste to meet the backslider. Yes, the old man is running;
he sees him afar off, and he has compassion on him. The boy wanted to
tell him his story what he had done, and where he had been, but the
old man could not wait to hear him; his heart was filled with