"Billy" Sunday, the Man and His Message: With his own words which have won thousands for ChristEllis, William T. (William Thomas)
Religion
"Billy" Sunday, the Man and His Message: With his own words which have won thousands for Christ
Ellis, William T. (William Thomas)
Baseball players -- United States -- Biography; Evangelists -- United States -- Biography; Sunday, Billy, 1862-1935
"You ought to live so that every one who comes near you will know that
you are a Christian. Do you? Does your milkman know that you are a
Christian? Does the man who brings your laundry know that you belong
to church? Does the man who hauls away your ashes know that you are
a Christian? Does your newsboy know that you have religion? Does the
butcher know that you are on your way to heaven? Some of you buy meat
on Saturday night, and have him deliver it Sunday morning, just to save
a little ice, and then you wonder why he doesn't go to church.
[Illustration: "DOES YOUR NEWSBOY KNOW THAT YOU HAVE RELIGION?"]
"If you had to get into heaven on the testimony of your washer-woman,
could you make it? If your getting into heaven depended on what your
dressmaker knows about your religion, would you land? If your husband
had to gain admittance to heaven on the testimony of his stenographer,
could he do it? If his salvation depended on what his clerks tell about
him, would he get there? A man ought to be as religious in business as
he is in church. He ought to be as religious in buying and selling as
he is in praying.
"There are so many church members who are not even known in their own
neighborhood as Christians. Out in Iowa where a meeting was held,
a man made up his mind that he would try to get an old sinner into
the Kingdom, and after chasing him around for three days he finally
cornered him. Then he talked to that old fellow for two hours, and then
the old scoundrel stroked his whiskers, and what do you think he said?
'Why, I've been a member of the church down there for fourteen years.'
Just think of it! A member of the church fourteen years, and a man had
to chase him three days, and talk with him two hours to find it out.
"You have let Jesus in? Yes, but you have put him in the spare-room.
You don't want him in the rooms where you live. Take him down into the
living-room. Take him into the dining-room. Take him into the parlor.
Take him into the kitchen. Live with him. Make him one of the family."
Then follows a Sundayesque description of how Jesus would find beer in
the refrigerator and throw it out; how he would find cards on the table
and throw them out; how he would find nasty music on the piano and
throw it out; how he would find cigarettes and throw them out.
"If you haven't Jesus in the rooms you live in, it's because you don't
want him," he says. "You're afraid of one of two things: you're afraid
because of the things he'll throw out if he comes in, or you're afraid
because of the things he'll bring with him if he comes in."
Here is how a great newspaper, the Philadelphia _North American_,
characterizes the ethical and political effectiveness of Mr. Sunday:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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