"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
I'll preach against any minister who is preaching false doctrines. I
don't give a rap who he is. I'll turn my guns loose against him, and
don't you forget that. Any man who is preaching false doctrines to the
people and vomiting out false doctrines to them will hear from me. I
want to say that the responsibility for no revivals in our cities and
towns has got to be laid at the doors of the ministry. Preachers sit
fighting their sham battles of different denominations, through their
cussedness, inquiring into fol-da-rol and tommyrot, and there sits
in the pews of the church that miserable old scoundrel who rents his
property out for a saloon and is going to hell; and that other old
scoundrel who rents his houses for houses of ill fame and is living
directly on the proceeds of prostitution, and he doesn't preach against
it. He is afraid he will turn the men against him. He is afraid of his
job. They are a lot of backsliders and the whole bunch will go to hell
together. They are afraid to come out against it.
I'll tell you what's the matter. Listen to me. The Church of
God has lost the spirit of concern today largely because of the
ministry--that's what's the matter with them. I'll allow no man or
woman to go beyond me in paying tribute to culture. I don't mean this
miserable "dog" business, shaking hands with two fingers. The less
brains some people have the harder they try to show you that they have
some, or think they have. I allow no man to go beyond me in paying
tribute to real, genuine culture, a tribute to intellectual greatness;
but when a man stands in the pulpit to preach he has got to be a man of
God. He has got to speak with the passion for souls. If you sleep in
the time of a revival God Almighty will wake you up.
There are lots of preachers who don't know Jesus. They know about him,
but they don't know him. Experience will do more than forty million
theories. I can experiment with religion just the same as I can with
water. No two knew Him exactly alike, but all loved Him. All would have
something to say.
Now for you preachers. When a man prays "Thy Kingdom Come" he will read
the Bible to find out the way to make it come. The preacher who prays
"Thy Kingdom Come" will not get all his reading from the new books or
from the magazines. He will not try to please the highbrows and in
pleasing them miss the masses. He will not try to tickle the palates
of the giraffes and then let the sheep starve. He will put his cookies
on the lower shelf. He will preach in a language that the commonest
laborer can understand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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