A hometown newspaper where D. L. Moody was preaching ridiculed some of Moody’s stories and illustrations. The reporter admitted they were interesting and that Moody had an appealing way of telling them, but he felt they were untrue and only told to rouse the emotions of the audience.
Having been assigned to report the sermons, he one night asked those in charge of the meeting if he might challenge Moody to supply proof that his stories were true. Permission was granted, and the newsman took a seat near the platform.
Moody’s subject that night was spiritual light, and to illustrate a point he told a story. The reporter had just begun to write when suddenly he laid aside his notebook and listened.
The substance of the story was this:
One evening a man was walking along a street in the shopping center of a city where the stores were all brightly lit and beautifully decorated. At one window he noticed three little girls, two of whom were intensely interested in what they saw in the window. Curiosity overcame him, and he turned aside to see what could so excite them. It was then he discovered that one of the little girls was blind. The other two were trying to describe to her the beautiful things in the window. They seemed to forget that she was blind and almost scolded her for not being as interested as they were.
“Why,” they said, “can’t you see that doll house and the baby doll? And the pretty pink dress she has on?”
But the poor, little, blind girl stood with a blank expression on her face, totally unable to appreciate the beautiful things before her.
“Now,” said Mr. Moody, “this is only an illustration of the efforts which we Christians are making to arouse the unconverted to an interest and delight in spiritual things. The reason we cannot do so is because the sinner is spiritually blind.”
Moody had scarcely concluded his sermon when the reporter was on the platform and demanded where he had heard that story.
“Oh,” said Moody, “I read it in one of the daily papers; I have forgotten which one.”
“Then,” said the reporter, “I wrote that story myself. I was the man who saw that little blind girl. But I never thought of such an application as you have made of it tonight. I see now that I am spiritually blind!”
By means of the gospel light he saw himself a sinner in need of a Saviour. He learned that God had so loved him as to give His Son to die for him on the cross of Calvary and that God on the third day had raised Him from the dead and made Him both Lord and Christ. He learned that Jesus Christ is not only the Messiah of Israel, but the Saviour of the world.
That night the atheistic reporter accepted Christ as his own Saviour and found joy and peace in believing.