In 1870 Dwight L. Moody, an American evangelist and Sunday school worker, stirred the people of Great Britain by religious campaigns in the large halls of the provincial cities of England and Scotland, and then in London where for months he attracted crowds to his meetings. He preached the evangelical gospel of human sin and the necessity of salvation through Jesus Christ, but he also emphasized the love of God that sought to draw the sinner to Himself. Moody was able to recover many who had lost interest in religion and he aroused thousands of unchurched people. He returned to America and for a number of years he continued his successful career of evangelism, supplementing it with the development of educational institutions which he organized for boys and girls. In his later years, he held summer conferences at Northfield, Massachusetts that drew together thousands of Christian people eager to hear the best speakers and leaders from England and America. Although not formally trained, Moody was a gifted speaker and evangelist and by 1871 he had erected a large church on LaSalle Street, near the site of the current Moody Memorial Church. Ira David Sankey joined him in Chicago and helped him further his evangelistic efforts with hymn singing. An advocate of education, Moody opened the Northfield seminary for young women in 1879 in Northfield, Massachusetts and, in 1881, the adjacent Mount Hermon School for boys. In 1889 he established in Chicago the first Bible school of its kind in the country, the Chicago Evangelization Society. Renamed later the Moody Bible Institute, it trained Christian workers in Bible study and in practical methods of social reform. He founded the Colportage Association in 1895 to produce Christian literature at a modest price for mass distribution. He died during a crusade in Kansas City.
Impact: In addition to the many programs and institutions Moody established and the countless people he led to Christ, he and Sankey created a model for teamwork that influenced future evangelists like Billy Sunday and Billy Graham.