Figure 1.--Here we see Dwight L. Moody and J. V. Farwell with the boys they had recruited for their first Sunday school at North Market Hallin Chicago during 1876. The Congregationalist Church had a social outreach program. Moody whio had grown up in poverty was interested in attracting working-class boys to the Church. Farwell was a friend and wealthy philantropist who helped finance some of Moody's projects. Put your cursor on the image to see a period colorized engraved version. It was entiteled 'Will it pay', apparently the publishers of the colorized engraving were not sure that these boys could be saved by the Church.

Dwight Lyman Moody was a noted 19th century American evalgelist and religious publisher. His father was a stone mason, but died at an early age and Dwight and his siblingsd grew up in abject poverty. He was raised in the Unitarian Church, but when he later worked for his uncle, was required to attend the Congrecational Church. He was converted by his sunday school teacher (1865). This began a remarkable career as a evangelical preacher. He founded the Northfield School and Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts (now combined as the Northfield Mount Hermon School), Moody Church and Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, and the Colportage Association. We note him supporting sunday schools for working-class children in Chicago at the time it was emerging as a major American city. J.V Farwell (1825-1908) was a millionaire philanthropist and coworker who gave land for the first YMCA building in Chicago. A reader asks, "Do we know what happened to the boys? They don't look a bad set of boys and a lot of tender loving care and good parenting might have kept the whipper snappers on the straight and narrow. Moody cared a lot and knew poverty and knew what to do to get out of it so I should think he was a good role model for the boys he rescued." This is all new to us. We have no idea how these boys made out. It would be interesting to know. A good chunk of HBC is pursuing new and interesting topics. I'm not sure that Moody and Farwell actually rescued these boys, I don't think it was like a settlement house. It was just getting them to attend sunday school. There may have been more to it, but I don;'t have any details at this time. A British reader tells us, "William Rakes did the samne thing in the UK. He played a big part in the Sunday School movement in the UK. Social issues followed."

Sources

Hanson, J.W. The life and works of the world's greatest evangelist, Dwight L. Moody: a complete and authentic review of the marvelous career of the most remarkable religious general in history (W.B. Conkey Co.: Chicago, 1900), 512p.

Created: 9:48 PM 4/28/2011
Last updated: 7:06 AM 4/29/2011