"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
Participation in the meetings makes the people themselves feel the
importance of their own part. They are not merely a crowd coming to be
talked at; they share in the meetings. The newspapers comment upon them
even as upon the sermon. All are uplifted by the glow of geniality and
camaraderie which pervades the Tabernacle. For the songs and slogans
and banners of the delegations greatly help to swell the interest of
the meetings.
All this is wholesome, democratic and typically American. This
good-natured crowd does not become unreal or artificial simply because
it is facing the fundamental verities of the human soul.
Outspokenness in loyalty, a characteristic of Sunday converts,
expresses itself through many channels. Taught by the delegation idea,
as well as by the sermon, the importance of standing up to be counted,
the friends and converts of the evangelist are always ready for the
great parade which usually is held toward the close of the campaign.
The simple basis for this street demonstration is found in the old
Scripture, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so." The idea of the Roman
imperial triumph survives in the Billy Sunday parade. It is a testimony
to the multitudes of the loyalty of Christians to the Gospel.
Beyond all question, a tremendous impression is made upon a city by
the thousands of marching men whom the evangelist first leads and then
reviews. A street parade is a visualization of the forces of the
Church in a community. Many a man of the street, who might be unmoved
by many arguments, however powerful, cannot escape the impression
of the might of the massed multitudes of men who march through the
streets, thousands strong. Some twenty thousand men were in the Sunday
parade at Scranton. Nobody who witnessed them, be he never so heedless
a scoffer, could again speak slightingly of the Church. Religion loses
whatever traits of femininity it may have possessed, before the Sunday
campaign is over.
Those most practical of men, the politicians, are quick to take
cognizance of this new power that has arisen in the community's life.
They know that every one of these men not only has a vote, but is a
center of influence for the things in which he believes.
The heartening effect of such a great demonstration as this upon the
obscure, lonely and discouraged saints is beyond calculation.
The great hosts of the Billy Sunday campaign are returning to first
principles by taking religion out into the highways and making it
talked about, even as the Founder of the Church created a commotion
in the highways of Capernaum and Jerusalem. These marching men are a
sermon one or two miles long. The impression made upon youth is not to
be registered by any means in the possession of men. Every Christian
the world around must be grateful to this evangelist and his associates
for giving the sort of demonstration, which cannot be misunderstood by
the world at large, of the virility and the immensity of the hosts of
heaven on earth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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