Secrets of the Heart by Al Lacy Read Free Book Online

over her head.
    In the morning preaching service, Ira Sankey led the congregational singing and sang three solos. Before the final solo, Pastor Henson introduced evangelist Dwight L. Moody, who would come to the pulpit and preach immediately after the solo.
    Sankey was accompanied by piano and pump organ as he sang the great hymn “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded.”
    O sacred Head, now wounded,
With grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded
With thorns, Thine only crown,
How art Thou pale with anguish,
With sore abuse and scorn!
How does that visage languish
Which once was bright as morn!
    Kathleen noted that people around her were wiping away tears. The last two verses gripped Kathleen as the words came from Sankey’s deep baritone voice:
    What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered
Was all for sinners gain:
Mine, mine was the transgression,
But Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Saviour!
’Tis I deserve Thy place;
Look on me with Thy favour,
Vouchsafe to me Thy grace!
    What language shall I borrow
To thank Thee, dearest Friend,
For this, Thy dying sorrow,
Thy pity without end?
Oh, make me Thine forever!
And should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never
Outlive my love for Thee!
    Sankey, himself, was weeping as he finished the song and sat down on the platform beside the pastor.
    When the stout-bodied D. L. Moody stepped to the pulpit, he opened his Bible and preached from Matthew 27:29–31:
    “And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon him, and took the reed and smote him on the head. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.”
    Moody’s sermon took his hearers from the moment when the crown of thorns was put on the Lord’s head until He was nailed to the cross and died for sinners. Moody spoke of the fire that had hit Chicago’s west side the night before, using it as an illustration of the reality of a burning hell for those in the audience who were unsaved. But Jesus had come from heaven to earth for the express purpose of making the way for sinners to be saved and forgiven, and to miss hell. Moody wept as he elaborated on the Saviour’s suffering to keep sinners from hell. He closed the sermon with an invitation for the lost to come for salvation.
    A large number of people responded as the gathering rose to their feet, and Ira Sankey sang an invitation song.
    Hennie watched Kathleen from the corner of her eye and noticed that her friend kept her eyes downcast. Hennie felt a constraint to sayanything more to her right now, It was up to the Holy Spirit to do His work in Kathleen’s heart.

K ATHLEEN O’M ALLEY WAS UNUSUALLY QUIET as she climbed into the Killanin buggy beside Hennie.
    As Turlough Killanin guided the team out of the church parking lot, he said over his shoulder, “So what did you think of the services, Kathleen?”
    Evelyn adjusted herself on the front seat so she could easily turn and look at the girl.
    “Your services are quite different than those at our church, Mr. Killanin. I…I have never heard preaching like Mr. Moody’s.”
    “How is it different from the preaching in your own church, dear?” Evelyn asked.
    Kathleen blinked rapidly and smoothed the skirt of her dress. “We are never warned of ending up in a burning hell if we don’t repent and receive Jesus Christ into our hearts. We are simply told that if we follow our religion and do the best we can, we will go to heaven when we die. But Mr. Moody’s sermon was different. He seemed to have it in for religion.”
    “Well,” Turlough said, “the devil has come up with religion as a substitute for salvation. With religion, the emphasis is on what people can do to get themselves into heaven with the help of religious leaders and by following certain ordinances and the