Heroes of the Faith: Henry Moorhouse

A bedridden woman calls to ask for a visit and one small question opens a huge door: what should you call a Christian preacher, and what does that name say about who we are? We talk candidly about why “reverend” belongs to God, why titles can feel hollow, and why “Brother” points to something real a shared Father, a shared new birth, and a spiritual family that spans places we’ve never been and people we’ve never met.

From that personal moment, we move into a story with surprising weight: Henry Morehouse, the little-known evangelist nicknamed “the man that moved the man that moved the millions.” Before he preached Christ, he was a troublemaker, gambler, and gang leader who carried a pistol and expected his life to end badly. Then one word stops him cold: “Jesus.” We walk through the gospel pattern the transcript makes plain conviction, repentance, conversion, and the new life that follows and we linger on the striking picture of security in Christ, nestled close to the Lion of the tribe of Judah when the enemy comes back to reclaim what he lost.

The center of the episode is D. L. Moody’s own testimony about hearing Morehouse preach John 3:16 again and again, with an unusual challenge for the time: bring your Bible, open it, and test every claim from Genesis to Revelation. Moody admits his heart “began to thaw out,” and that his preaching changes from a message of God poised to strike to God pursuing sinners with love. If you care about evangelism, Bible study, Christian revival history, and the power of a single Scripture to reshape a ministry, this conversation is for you.

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Transcript

A Bedridden Listener And A Name

SPEAKER_00 0:02

All right now, good day to each and every one of you. I'm Brother James, and I greet you once again in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And I welcome you to the preaching of the cross radio broadcast. I got a phone call just yesterday from a woman who lives in our area, and she said, uh, I listen to your program every day. I can't get out to church. I'm bedridden. I've had a stroke. And I'd like to know if you could please come visit me, bring me some tapes to listen to, and just come by for a visit. So this morning, as I was out making calls, I I went by her home, and once I got past the dog, I get the dog put away, you know. And people say, Well, he doesn't bite. I always ask them how he eats. All dogs bite, that's the way God made them anyway. I I made my way on into the house and she offered me a seat. I sat down and and she said, What do I call you? Do I call you reverend? And I said, Well, no, that's that's God's name. Holy and reverend is his name, and I'm certainly not very reverend, you'll find that out. And she said, Why do I call you pastor? And I said, Well, you know, I really don't believe I do a good enough job at uh the pastoral ministry to uh I feel uncomfortable being called pastor because I I seem to fail so miserably in so many areas. She said, Well, I call you sir. Well, you know, my my wife does. That's her take on 1 Peter chapter number 3. Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord, and if we were in Britain, she could probably get away with with uh Lord, but uh it might be offensive people here in the States, and and my children call me sir, because I'm trying to teach them a little respect for authority. I said, Why don't you just call me? Are are you saved? Do you know Jesus Christ as your Savior? She said, Oh yes, I do. I said, Then call me Brother James, because God is our father. I'm your brother, you're my sister. And I said, That's that's God's doing. God hasn't made me a sir, God hasn't made me a pastor, God hasn't made me reverend, but but he certainly has made me your brother in Jesus Christ. And isn't it wonderful to know that we can be born again, born into God's family, the greatest family on the face of the earth, have so many brothers, so many sisters, people we've never met, and for the first time you you make someone's acquaintance, and you're just old friends, you've got so much to talk about, so many uh family stories and memories to uh to uh share one with another. And it's only because, it's only because we have the same father. We're born into the same family, and we have a common experience. We have a a life in common, and the living of that life in common, God's really, really been good to us. It's great to be saved, great to know Jesus Christ in a personal way.

Born Again Into God’s Family

SPEAKER_00 3:02

All right, you settled in. Are you ready for the story of another hero of the Christian faith? Another of those great men and women that uh well that most people have never even heard of. Now, if I ask you, if I ask you today, have you ever heard of Dwight L. Moody? Have you ever heard of D. L. Moody? No doubt you'd say, Oh yes, certainly, I've heard of D. L. Moody, that great evangelist that won so many millions to Jesus Christ. All right. What if I said, have you ever heard of Henry Moorehouse? You'd say, Well, how do you spell that? M-O-O-R-H-O-U-S-E. Henry Moorehouse. You'd probably say no. He only lived forty years, from eighteen forty to eighteen eighty. But on the program today, we're going to learn something about this man, and you'll learn about his connection to Dwight L. Moody and many others.

Meet Henry Morehouse Behind Moody

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Henry Morehouse is called the man that moved the man that moved the millions, referring to his influence with Dwight Lyman Moody. Who was the man they familiarly called Harry? Well, he was born in Manchester. His father was a kind, hard working Christian who taught classes for the Methodist Sunday school. At twelve years of age, Henry Morehouse went to work in a shop where he gravitated to the most mischievous of the young people. Now I've noticed something. I've noticed something over the years. The children who tend toward rebellion can instinctively find out those other children who tend toward rebellion. I've found the children who are timid and scared to death to do anything wrong. Now that doesn't mean they wouldn't like to do it. They tend to find out those who are the same way. I've found the girls that are loose in their morals and careless in their conduct will always appeal to boys that are loose in their morals and careless in their conduct. I've found that the chaste girls attract the best of the boys. I believe the saying is birds of a feather flock together. And that was true in the life of Henry Morehouse. He he was a troublemaker, if you will, and he fell in with the troublemakers. He was daring. He loved to do daredevil feats. As a young man, he was sent to jail on several occasions. At sixteen, he was on his own. He was a gambler and a gang leader. He carried a pistol in the days when such was not so common, and he carried it for the purpose of killing himself should the need arise. He planned on getting into trouble. He lived a life of trouble, and he even made provision to take his own life if the trouble ever grew so great that he could not escape it. He was reckless, he was devious, he was thieving, he was often suicidal. That's not the type of beginning you would expect for the tale of someone who was going to become a hero of the Christian faith, but God, God has long been in the business of saving the worst of men and making them the finest of Christians. It was during the 1959 revival in England that Lord Radstock, whom we've taught you something about, Reginald Radcliffe and Richard Weaver, those are names also familiar to our listeners, preached in Manchester, and one of Henry Morehouse's friends was converted. He then went and spoke to Henry. That's the way it's supposed to be. Then, passing the Alhambra Circus in Manchester, where Richard Weaver was preaching, Henry heard a commotion. Thinking a fight was on, he rushed in, expecting to join a brawl, one of his favorite pastimes. Instead, he was arrested by one word Jesus. He heard that word and he froze. It was a voice to his conscience. He doesn't remember, or told that he did not remember hearing anything else that night. Not another thing inside that circus tent, but the word Jesus. After a hard struggle of weeks of abject misery under genuine conviction, Henry Morehouse came to know Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. Conviction of sin always precedes repentance, and repentance always precedes conversion. Conversion always precedes a new life. To illustrate how he had served his infernal master before his conversion, Henry would tell of a man who bet on dog fights. His bulldog was one of the best. But after a bad night at the fights he was carrying his torn up dog under his arm. Disgusted at the dog's poor showing, as he passed the zoo that night he threw the creature over the gate and into the lion's den to get rid of it. Later as he passed the zoo he spied a strange sight. There was his fighting dog, recuperating from his wounds, as he rested under the lazy paw of a great lion. Realizing his mistake, he went to the zoo keeper to report his lost property and demanded his dog back. The zookeeper responded, Go and get him. Henry would add, I had served Satan well, but one day the old devil lost me, and I found myself at the feet of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Every once in a while the devil comes back to reclaim me, but when he does, I just nestle close to the lion of the tribe of Judah and say to the devil, Come and get me. Then he would break into Thomas Kelly's hymn Happy are they who trust in Jesus, sweet their portion is in sure. When the foe on others seizes, he will keep his own secure, and praise his holy name he does it. He will keep you secure.

From Reckless Sin To Conversion

SPEAKER_00 9:42

John Hambleton, a converted actor, appreciated the earnestness of young Moorehouse and became a mentor and co worker to Henry. And Henry needed mentoring. His conversion was dramatic, but so had been his former life of sin. The eighteen fifties and eighteen sixties in England were a time of fearless evangelism. By comparison to his fellow workers, Henry Morehouse was not a powerful orator or a brilliant organizer. He was a small man. In his thirties he was still called the boy preacher because of his diminutive size. He must have been an oddity standing among specimens such as Richard Weaver, otherwise known as Undaunted Dick, the boxer from the coal pits, whose style Morehouse largely followed. Other fellow preachers included Edward Usher, a dockyard laborer, Henry Varley the butcher, Reginald Radcliffe, the Liverpool lawyer, Brown Low North, the converted high roller, and Joshua Poole, known as Fiddler Josh. A rough band if you ever met one. A most unlikely cast of characters, yet all saved by the grace of God, all washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, all preaching the good news to sinners. Henry's call to devote all his time to evangelism came through a man known as the Hatless Preacher. Everybody in those days wore hats, but one evening when Henry was engaged in crying his wares as auctioneer of notions and rapping for bids, the man appeared in the crowd and shouted, Thou ought to have thy Bible in thy hand out amongst the people and not that hammer for the devil, and immediately left. That abrupt speech was a thunderbolt to Henry. He dropped the auctioneer's hammer, went to Liverpool looking for John Hambleton, and entered with him on an evangelistic tour. Henry labored as an evangelist without a fixed salary or human promise of support. Now here's a preacher traveling, preaching, living by faith, and what was his call to the ministry? Just some man that heard a ringing voice in a public place and walked into the crowd and reminded this man or spoke to this man and told him he ought to be using that voice to preach Jesus Christ. And he did. He left his fishing nets, if you will, and entered the ministry. In Dublin, Henry Booley, B.E. W L E Y, erected a large building to be used for the gospel of Jesus Christ. The auditorium built on Lower Marion Street could seat two thousand five hundred persons. Marion Hall was opened in eighteen sixty three. Throngs came to hear Denham Smith, Henry Morehouse, George Mueller, FC Bland, and Richard Weaver. Eternity alone will reveal the numbers of whom it may truly be said that this and that man was born there. From this church building many have gone forth to various parts of the world serving God as evangelists and missionaries, who owe their salvation to the Word of God they heard preached in Marion Hall. If they could not get them in, they went out to them. The power of the gospel invaded the most vice ridden haunts. Sometimes fourteen theaters were filled in London on a Sunday night for gospel meetings. These labors more abundant are told in John Hambleton's book Buds, Blossoms, and Fruits of the Revival.

Mentors And A Call To Evangelize

SPEAKER_00 13:11

I've not found it yet, but when I do, I'd like to read it. Around the year 1864, the last public execution at Armley Jail in Leeds took place. Two men named Myers and Sarge were hanged. Henry Morehouse, one of the best known evangelists of his time, took advantage of the occasion. In company with Gawin Kirkham and William Walker, they made their way to the place where the execution would occur. There was gathered a great multitude waiting to see the convicted and condemned criminals hanged by the neck. When Morehouse, Kirkham, and Walker reached that place, they made their way to a platform nigh unto this gathering, and they preached the gospel. Oh, it created a considerable stir in the city, but it brought about lasting results. You couldn't have a better illustration. You couldn't have a larger crowd, not in those days. And these fearless men seized upon the opportunity to preach the good news that you did not have to die in your sins. You may die for them, but you didn't have to die in them. You could trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and be born again just as surely as that thief that hung next to Jesus so many centuries before.

Moody Meets The Boy Preacher

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Through incessant labors in Britain, Henry Morehouse, never strong at best, showed fatigue. He set out for the U.S., arriving in Philadelphia in 1868. His welcome was so hearty and his ministry so appreciated that he paid five visits in the following ten years. How he moved the man who moved the world is told by D. L. Moody himself. In 1867, Moody went to Dublin, Ireland, where he met Henry Morehouse, the boy preacher, who introduced himself and said he would like to come to Chicago and preach. I'm quoting now from Moody's own words. I looked at him. He was a beardless boy. Didn't look as if he were more than seventeen. And I said to myself he can't preach. He wanted me to let him know what boat I was going on as he would like to return with me. I thought he could not preach, and I did not let him know. But I'd not been in Chicago a great many weeks before I got a letter which said he had arrived in this country and that he would come to Chicago and preach for me if I wanted him. I sat down and wrote a very cold letter. I said, If you come west, call on me. I thought that would be the last I should hear of him, but soon I got another letter saying he was still in this country and would come on if I wanted him. I wrote again, telling him if he happened to come west to drop in on me. In the course of a few days I got a letter stating that next Thursday he would be in Chicago. What to do with him I did not know. I had made up my mind he couldn't preach. I was going to be out of town Thursday and Friday, and I told some of the officers of the church, there's a man coming here Thursday who wants to preach. I don't know whether he can or not. You'd better let him try, and I'll be back on Saturday. They said there was a good deal of interest in the church, and they did not think they should have him preach then he was a stranger and he might do more harm than good. Well, I said you'd better try him, let him preach two nights. And they finally let him preach. When I got back on Saturday morning, I was anxious to know how he got on. The first thing I said to my wife when I got to the house was, How's that young Irishman coming along? I had met him in Dublin and took him to be an Irishman, but he happened to be an Englishman. How do people like him? Did you like him? She said yes very much. He has preached two sermons from John three sixteen, and I think you will like him, although he preaches a little different from what you do. How's that? Well, he tells sinners that God loves them. Well, said I, he is wrong. She said, I think you will agree with him when you hear him because he backs up everything he says with the word of God. Well, I went down to church that night, and I noticed everyone brought his Bible. This is something they had not done formerly. My friends, began Morehouse, if you will turn to the third chapter of John and the sixteenth verse you will find my text. This was unheard of in America at the time. A preacher encouraging people to bring their Bibles and examine them while he preached. This is something that was just was not done. Moody goes on to say he preached a most extraordinary sermon from that verse. He did not divide the text into secondly and thirdly and fourthly. He just took it as a whole. And then went through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation to prove that in all ages God loved the world. That he sent prophets and patriarchs and holy men to warn them, and last of all sent his son. They murdered him. And then he sent the Holy Ghost. I never knew up to that time that God loved us so much. This heart of mine began to thaw out, and I could not keep back the tears. It was like good news from a far country. I just drank it in. Those are the words of Dwight L. Moody. As the boy preacher was used of God to change his life and the course of his ministry, his preaching would never be the same. Moody went on to say. The next night there was a great crowd. For the people liked to hear that God loves them, and he said, My friends, if you will turn in your Bible to the third chapter of John and the sixteenth verse, you will find my text. And he preached another, another, a different, extraordinary sermon from that wonderful verse. And he went on proving God's love again from Genesis to Revelation. He could turn to almost any part of the Bible and prove it. I thought that sermon was better than the other one. He struck a higher chord than ever, and it was sweet to my soul to hear it. The next night, and it's pretty hard to get a crowd out in Chicago on Monday night. He should be here now. He should be here a hundred and forty years later. But Moody said they came. He said again, my friends, if you will turn to the sixteenth verse of the third chapter of John, you will find my text. And he again followed it out to prove that God loves us. He just beat it down into our hearts. I have never doubted it since. I used to preach that God was behind the sinner with a double edged sword, ready to hew him down. I'm done with that. I preach now that God is behind the sinner with love, and he is running from the God of love. Tuesday night came. And we thought surely he had exhausted that text and would take another, but he preached the sixth sermon from that wonderful text, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have. Not going to have when you die, but have it right here and right now, everlasting life. Although many years have rolled away, his hearers never have forgotten it. The seventh night came, and he went into the pulpit. Every eye was upon him. All were anxious to know what he was going to preach about. He said, My friends, I cannot find one as good as the old one, so we will go back to the third chapter of John of the sixteenth verse, and he preached a seventh sermon from that wonderful text. I remember the close of that sermon. Said he, My friends, for a whole week I have been trying to tell you how much God loves you, but I cannot do it with this poor stammering tongue. If I could borrow Jacob's ladder, climb up into heaven, and ask Gabriel who stands in the presence of the Almighty, if he could tell me how much love the God the Father has for the world, all he could say would be God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. It was a revelation to Moody. He said, I have never forgotten those nights, I have preached a different gospel since, and I have had more power with God and man since then. Moody had seen the inexhaustibility of Scripture. From that time he became a diligent student of the Bible, not a man who just Just took a verse as a text and then preached. He asked Morehouse how to study. He invited friends to his Chicago home for Bible readings. This event connected Moody to the writings of C. H. McIntosh, which Moody endorsed and promoted. Thereafter, Moody sought out and welcomed the influence of Morehouse's friends. He had meetings in the opera house, and scarcely a day passed he didn't spend an hour with FC Bland studying over the Bible.

John 3:16 And A New Gospel Emphasis

SPEAKER_00 22:27

In eighteen seventy, Henry Morehouse wed a Christian woman named Mary, who had often witnessed to him in his lost days. They wished for nine children. Years afterward an acquaintance asked, How about that large family, Henry? He replied, My heavenly father knew what was best for Henry. He has given me one little paralyzed girl, and she has done more to soften my heart than other poor little children, and that than a crowd of healthy ones could have done. Speaking on the promise I will help thee, yea will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness, he said, I have a little child at home, seven years old, paralyzed from babyhood, who seeing me with a parcel I wanted to take upstairs, said, I will carry the parcel for you, father. How can you carry the parcel, Minnie? I asked. She said, I will carry the parcel and you will carry me. During the last few years of his life he preached from a mobile bookstore, a novel idea that Henry introduced which caught on across Ireland, England, and Australia. In two years he sold a hundred and fifty thousand Bibles and Testaments, gave away millions of books and tracts. In eighteen seventy six his service was evidently closing. His last year of labor was painful. Doctors said his heart was twice the size it ought to be. He said if it were the Lord's will to raise me up again, I should like to preach from the text God so loved the world. But he never preached again. He died on december twenty eighth, eighteen eighty at only forty years of age. The bodies of Richard Weaver and Henry Morehouse lie near each other in Ardwick Cemetery, Manchester. John three hundred sixteen is engraved on Morehouse's stone. John Hamilton's farewell interview with Henry summed up his life. He said calling to see him on Monday last before he left us, I grasp his arms, and his face betokened that the enemy death was doing his last work, and said, Harry, we shall soon meet up yonder. He replied while gasping for breath, sure, sure, sure. How plainly visible is the work of God in putting into such a little frail vessel as our brother, such a treasure, showing us all that the excellency of the power is of God. In Henry's last letter he wrote, Ask prayer for me to suffer for Christ better than I ever preached for him. I only want to glorify him. From jail to the ministry.

Suffering, Legacy, And A Final Appeal

SPEAKER_00 24:59

This little man who lived but forty years, he preached the love of God through the Lord Jesus Christ, and not only brought thousands, perhaps tens of thousands to Jesus Christ through his preaching, but was responsible for millions of others coming to know the Lord through the preaching of Dwight Al Moody. My friend, did you know that God so loved the world includes you, that he gave his only begotten son, includes you, that whosoever believeth in him includes you, should not perish but have everlasting life includes you. Have you put your belief, your faith, your trust in God's beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. No one else died for your sins. No one else can save you from hell fire. But if you will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, God will give you as a free gift forever lasting life. What great love. What a great savior.