Thanks for reading part one about these intriguing 19th century evangelists whose innovative techniques of preaching and singing the gospel influenced many generations for Christ, even into the 21st century. In Part 2 we pick up on the music man of the duo first and later join with D. L. Moody, the team leader. Thanks again for reading this research effort. It is an honor and joy to present it to you here.
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The Ira D. Sankey Story
Ira
David Sankey was born on August 28, 1840 to a wealthy Western Pennsylvanian
family in the village of Edinburg, on the Mahoning River. Ira’s parents, David
and Mary Sankey, moved from Edinburg when Ira was six-years-old to engage in a
shipping business, near the headwaters of the Shenango River. Later, his father
was elected to the State Legislature, holding that office for thirteen years.
Although he was raised in a pious Christian home, it was not until Sankey was
sixteen-years-old that he was converted, in his own words, “while attending
revival meetings at a church known as The King's Chapel, about three miles from
my home.” [1]
The
fortuitous meeting of D. L. Moody would come in 1870, at Indianapolis, Indiana,
during a denominational convention where Sankey was a representative. Moody was
to be leading a seven o’clock prayer meeting in the morning, and fellow
delegate Robert McMillan told Sankey, "… the singing here has been abominable;
I wish you would start up something when that man stops praying, if he ever
does."[2]
Ira chose to lead the hymn, “There Is a Fountain.” Afterward, McMillan
introduced Sankey to Moody. Ira would later write of this significant event,
“…and thus I met for the first time the man with whom, in the providence of
God, I was to be associated for the remainder of his life, or nearly thirty
years.”[3]
At
first the duo worked together among Moody’s Chicago congregation in early 1871.
They visited the poor, prayed with the sick, and conducted daily noon-time
prayer meetings.
Everything
changed on Sunday evening, October 8, 1871, when while conducting a crowded
service in Farwell Hall, and after Moody’s sermon, Sankey began to sing a solo.
He later recalled:
…standing
by the great organ at the rear of the platform I began the old, familiar hymn,
‘To-day
the Saviour calls.’ By the time I had reached the third verse, ‘To-day the
Saviour calls: For refuge fly; The storm of justice falls, And death is nigh,’
my voice was drowned by the loud noise of the fire engines rushing past the
hall and the tolling of bells, among which we could hear, ever and anon, the
deep, sullen tones of the great city bell, in the steeple of the old
court-house close at hand, ringing out a general alarm.[4]
The
start of the great Chicago Fire had produced a ruckus in the streets and the
congregation grew restless. Moody promptly closed the meeting, out of which he
and Sankey rushed away separately to assure the safety of the congregation and
to care for their own families. The duo would not meet again for more than two
months. They would eventually take a trip to Britain where everything seemed to
change in size and scope of ministry for the evangelists.
Britain and Beyond
After
their trip to Britain, the pair's first large campaign in America began on
October 31, 1875 in Brooklyn, with a choir of 250 voices, accompanied by a
large organ. In Philadelphia, the choir numbered 500 people. The New York
crusade accommodated a choir of 600 voices led by Sankey, and the audience became
the duo’s largest to date. Cities across America, Canada and Mexico invited the
team to minister. They traveled back to the British Isles between 1881-84,
where they discovered many dedicated Christ-followers from the preceding
crusades.
The
team was quite known for its social consciousness and attention to the poor,
perhaps an overflow from their days before international notoriety, while
ministering together in Chicago. Their concern for the downtrodden was evident
throughout, but was illustrated in one particular crusade in Tennessee, held
January 29-31, 1886.[5]
Sankey recalled in his memoir:
At
Chattanooga the colored people boycotted our meetings, the colored ministers
taking offense because they were not invited to take seats on the platform. We arranged
a special meeting for the colored people, and were surprised to find the church
nearly empty when we arrived. But Moody was not to be defeated in this way. He
went out into the street and gave personal invitation to hundreds of colored
people, and no further difficulty was experienced.[6]
Moody,
ever aware of the plight of the poor, was convinced that salvation would lead
to cleaner and better living in the inner cities of places like Chicago,
although he did not always address the social implications that led to the slum
conditions. Nevertheless, his impassioned preaching style was often emulated,
and the revival became a fixture in
the American urban setting.[7]
Publicity was an important component of the Moody crusades. One aspect that distinguished Moody
from his predecessor, evangelist Charles Finney, was Moody’s ability to
permeate both the religious and secular press; Finney rarely received attention
from secular newspapers of his day.[8]
Throughout his career, Moody utilized the press to his advantage. Although the
New York Times scathed the duo while in Britain on their first campaign—calling
them vulgar, course and ignorant fanatics[9]—the
sentiment reversed upon their return to America. The timing of their arrival
coincided with a domestic financial crisis and an onslaught of secularism, to
which their Christian message offered a welcomed prescription of needed
hopefulness and assurance.[10]
Music
was an essential part of the Moody/ Sankey crusades. Even though Moody himself
was tone-deaf, his son William remembered his father’s belief that singing had
a “great and at times overpowering religious value.” [11]
Moody felt that before the evangelist arose, people were oftentimes already
moved and persuaded—that many decisions for Christ were actually made during
the singing.[12]
The music portion of a typical meeting would begin with a solid half-hour of
congregational singing, intermingled with Sankey’s own free-flowing,
somewhere-between-singing-and-speaking vocal style, in order to maintain a
focus for the congregation—to keep their minds from wandering.[13]
An
innovative concept of the Moody/ Sankey evangelistic presentations originated
from the philosophy that to improve the quality of a meeting was to make it
interesting.[14]
This included arranging the music, preaching, Scripture readings, solos, etc.,
in a thoroughly appealing and disarming manor.[15]
As another technique to make the services interesting, the duo was also at the
forefront of approving the visibility of musical instruments in the services,
as opposed to placing them out of sight. There is a caricature of Sankey in the
Ira D. Sankey Collection at The Lawrence County (New Castle, PA)
Historical Society, which shows the song leader playing his portable
cabinet organ at the front of the platform during a crusade.[16]
Sankey
helped influence change in music and worship of late-19th century churches,
many of which were hostile toward “worldly” song. He helped gain the approval
of many to use gospel hymns in order to reach the hearts of Christians. Much of
the spread of gospel hymns came from Sankey’s own vast collection, many of
which he himself co-wrote and assembled in the 1,200-plus collection called Sacred Songs and Solos. “The American
Gospel Hymn,” observes a British contemporary, J. S. Curwen, “is nothing if it
is not emotional. It takes a simple phrase and repeats it over and over again.”[17]
James
Findlay wrote in a Moody biography that the “taproot of the evangelical
experience and practice…is found in the conversion of the individual sinner.”[18]
This reality prompted Moody to focus on providing several innovations in order
to effectively reach the single sinner within the multitude. This included
making use of neutral public spaces rather than church buildings in which to
hold meetings, constructing special areas called “inquiry rooms” within the
venues where the penitent could be facilitated. He also instituted
house-to-house canvassing of residents prior to crusades and recruited
charitable funding by the business community.[19]
These efforts facilitated large crowds to allow the duo to deliver an engaging
presentation, leading thousands to Christ over the years.
The Moody/ Sankey Legacy in
the 21st Century
One
of the greatest legacies the duo left future generations was their love of
family. On extended travels they were known to take their loved ones along.
Moody’s son William spoke lovingly of his father, saying:
No
work was so important as to make him neglect his family duties and privileges.
He took keen interest in the experiences of his sons at school and college, and
shared their joys and entered into the excitement of their sports with the zest
of a fellow-student. The slightest matter that caused sorrow or pain to any
member of his family, even the youngest, engaged at once his personal concern,
and no drudgery of house or farm was beneath his notice or sympathetic
interest. He had learned the secret of being a confidant of all, sharing
others' burdens, weeping with the sorrowing and rejoicing with those glad of
heart.[20]
Conclusion
Together
Moody and Sankey would develop innovative evangelistic techniques, including
aggressive salesmanship, using the press to advertise the meetings, and
utilizing the power of song to bring about great successes in the campaigns.
They also harnessed support for their projects through Christian businessmen;
they many times preferred large buildings with increased functionality to
church buildings in which to hold meetings. They understood the potent
significance of reaching young people, and opened an “inquiry room” in the
venues for those who wanted to repent.
Taking
into consideration all of the evangelistic innovations that were developed in
the 19th century, which were utilized throughout the 20th
century from Billy Sunday to Billy Graham, evangelical Christians the 21st
century owe much to the “dynamic duo.” Moody and Sankey’s pioneer spirit
prompted the increase of advanced techniques to reach people around the world
with the love of Jesus Christ.
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[1] Ira David Sankey, Sankey’s
Story of the Gospel Hymns and of Sacred Songs and Solos (London: The Sunday School
Times Company, 1906), 3.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid., 7.
[4] Ibid., 9.
[5] “Moody and Sankey’s Dates,” The New York Times, January 25, 1886.
[7] Gonzalez, 254.
[8] William G. McLoughlin, Modern Revivalism: Charles Grandison Finney
to Billy Graham (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2004), 219.
[9] The
New York Times, July 5, 1875, p. 1.
[10] Ibid., February 12, 1876.
[11] William Moody, 529.
[12] Ibid.
[13] James F. Findlay, Dwight L. Moody: American Evangelist, 1837-1899 (Eugene, OR: Wipf
& Stock Publishers, 2007), 207.
[14] Ibid., 210.
[15] Hustad, 235.
[16] Caricature of Sankey in the Ira D. Sankey Collection at The Lawrence County Historical Society, http://www.lawrencechs.com/museum/collections/ira-d-sankey-collection/ (accessed November 18, 2016).
[17] John S. Curwen, Studies in Worship Muisc,
Second Series (London: J. Curwen & Sons, 1885), 40.
[18] Findlay, 81.
[19] Dr.
David Maas, “The Life and Times of D. L. Moody,” Christian History Institute, Issue 25, 1990, https://www.christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/life-and-times-of-moody/
(accessed November 18, 2016).
