Reaching out is the American way

Celebrate 50 years of good advice from vocalist Diana Ross, whose first solo recording – “Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand)” – debuted in 1970.

When Diana sang: “Make this world a better place…” she could have been singing praise to Edward Kimball.

As a Bible studies teacher in Boston in 1855, Kimball reached out and touched the shoulder of a troubled young man named Dwight Lyman Moody. That action became the catalyst for an evangelical chain reaction of Biblical proportions.

Kimball, who was working as a carpet merchant in Boston, had volunteered to lead a young men’s study group on Sunday mornings at the local Congregational church.

One of the lads who attended was Dwight, 17. He had recently moved from western Massachusetts to Boston, in order to work for his uncles, Samuel and Lemuel Holton. They owned a gentlemen’s boot and shoe store. Among the terms of employment was a requirement that Dwight attend Sunday worship services.

Dwight was teased as a “greenhorn from the country” who struggled to find the Bible passages they were studying. Kimball reprimanded the “scoffers” and vowed to help elevate Dwight from spiritual darkness to see the light.

One Saturday in April 1855, Kimball decided to drop in at the shoe store and speak to Dwight. Kimball later wrote about the encounter.

“I found him in the back, wrapping up shoes in paper and putting them on shelves. I went up to him and put my hand on his shoulder, and made my plea; I simply told Dwight of Christ’s love for him and the love Christ wanted in return.”

The morning star rose in Dwight’s heart, reported biographer Kevin Belmonte. Dwight remembered that moment as well, saying that “the sun was shining brighter than ever…the birds were singing for my benefit…the old elms waved their branches for joy…all nature was at peace.”

This was the beginning of a spiritual legacy that led D. L. Moody from the shoe store to the pulpit, as he embarked on a path of greatness as an evangelist. Moody held to the thought that “faith makes all things possible.”

D. L. Moody

On one of his many trips to preach in Great Britain, Moody was welcomed by Baptist evangelist Frederick Brotherton Meyer in York, North Yorkshire, England.

They developed a friendship, and in 1891, Meyer accepted an invitation to preach in Moody’s hometown of Northfield, Mass.

One of the attendees at that service was John Wilbur Chapman, a Presbyterian minister from Indiana. Meyer commented: “If you are not willing to give up everything for Christ, are you willing to be made willing?”

Chapman said: “That remark changed my whole ministry; it seemed like a new star in the sky of my life.” He took evangelism to a whole new level, and recruited a big-league baseball player named Billy Sunday to be his second-in-command on the revival circuit.

When it was Sunday’s turn to ascend to America’s evangelistic first fiddler, he anointed Mordecai Ham as the heir apparent.

Ham made his mark by reaching out and touching a 15-year-old farm boy named Billy Frank Graham…seemingly completing a powerful, motivational, spiritual journey that began with Edward Kimball’s visit to a shoe store.

Hence, we could declare “the end.” Shall we box this story away for storage on the shelf of “blessed memories?”

If we do, we run the risk of encountering the wrath from preachers like Moody, Meyer, Chapman, Sunday, Ham and Graham.

For, you see, Edward Kimball was not a “fade away” kind of guy.