An Unexpected Educator

D.L. Moody’s birthday is tomorrow, Feb. 5. In recognition of this important day, we asked our very own Moody “expert” to contribute his thoughts on this great man of God.

By Gregg Quiggle, professor of Theology at Moody Bible Institute, Chicago 
Almost 25 years ago, I walked into a classroom at Moody to teach my first class.  I knew a little about the school, but quite honestly I knew even less about Dwight Moody. I guess I thought he was a fundamentalist evangelist from Chicago.

Gregg Quiggle

Over the years, I have not only grown to know Moody Bible Institute, I have become fascinated by Mr. Moody. He was a remarkable man. It is true, he was an evangelist, but he was not really a fundamentalist. It is also true that although he lived in Chicago for some of his life, he always considered the small rural town where he was born, Northfield, Mass., his home. Indeed, after he returned from his breakthrough campaign in the United Kingdom in 1875, he made Northfield his center of operations.

One of the more interesting things I have learned about Mr. Moody was his commitment to education. It is hard to imagine a person less suited to become a leader in educational innovation. Moody was one of nine children. His father died when he was only five, and his mother Emma was financially strapped and eights months pregnant with twins. As a result, Moody got, at best, five years of formal education.

He never forgot what it was like to be a poor child deprived of education. Later in life on one of his trips to Scotland, he quaintly observed that he “regretted exceedingly he had never had a college education himself; but he did not get it, and he was doing the best he could without it.”[1] It is hardly surprising one of the emphases of his life was education, especially educating the poor children. A colleague remarked,

“The sight of poor boys and girls deprived of the means of education would not let him rest until he had provided some method by which their lives should be enriched and made more in accordance with Heaven’s designs for them. He dotted this fair plain with houses that young men and young women should have the means of so enlarging their lives that they might be useful to their fellows.”[2] 

By the time he died, Moody had been instrumental in the founding of four schools in the U.S. and another in Scotland. He also served on the board of trustees at Wellesley and Mount Holyoke.

Moody’s first school was designed for poor girls. Northfield Seminary for girls opened in Northfield, Mass. in1879 and was a trailblazer in women’s education. The second, the Mount Hermon Boy’s School, followed in 1881. Both schools mixed education, practical instruction and Bible training. They also were remarkable for their commitment of educating people of color. Moody aggressively recruited children of slaves, Native Americans and poor immigrants. Both schools included Roman Catholics. Commenting on these two schools, Moody remarked,

“These are the best pieces of work I have ever done. I have been able to set in motion streams which will continue long after I am gone.”

The Moody Bible Institute was added to these schools in 1886. It was urban and designed to prepare men and women for Christian service.

Now, as I walk around campus, I often think about Mr. Moody. I think of the poor boy who probably often wished he could go to school. I think about the remarkable vision and energy of the man that worked to make education possible for poor boys and girls. I think of his burden to train workers to serve Christ in His church. Dwight L. Moody was a gifted evangelist, but he was also an educator. Sometimes as I walk into the classroom, I think of Mr. Moody and what a privilege it is to teach here. I think (and hope) he would like what we have become.

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[1] William R. Moody, Life of Moody, 194. Moody often lamented his lack of education. “He himself had the scantiest equipment for his life-work, and he daily lamented¾though perhaps no one else ever did¾his deficiency.” Drummond, 85.

[2] Quoted in William R. Moody, Life of Moody, 563.