One evening in 1883, a...
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One evening in 1883, a London physician by the name of Wilfred T. Grenfell made his way home down a dark street, having just tended to a maternity case. He passed a great tent on the way and thought it might be a circus. On closer inspection he discovered that a huge crowd had gathered for some kind of service. He decided to stay a while. An old man was praying when he entered. The long, boring prayer convinced him he had made a mistake. He was just about to get up and leave when suddenly a younger, energetic man on the stage stood to his feet and shouted, "Let us sing a hymn while our brother finishes his prayer." Grenfell learned that the one who interrupted the praying man was the speaker of the evening, and he decided to stay. Grenfell had attended formal Anglican services before, but he had never encountered such common sense, humor, and unconventionality in his former worship experience. Disturbing the ritual of his parish church simply was not done. The speaker was the American evangelist D. L. Moody. Grenfell marked that night as the beginning of his own serious Christian journey. It all began when he met a religious leader who put people ahead of ritual. Later, he learned that the dynamic source of such a practical approach toward Christianity was none other than Jesus himself who taught that "the sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath." -- Hasler
