"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 don't care whether you have brains enough to fill a hogshead or
little enough to fill a thimble, you are up against this proposition:
You must begin to measure Christ by the rules of God instead of the
rules of men. Put him in the God class instead of in the man class;
judge Christ by his task and the work he performed, and see if he was
only a man."
The University of Pennsylvania would be turning out bigger men
than Jesus Christ, he said, if Christ were not the son of God. The
conditions and the opportunities are so much greater in these days,
he showed, that a real superman should be the product of our day if
education, society, business, politics and these varied interests could
produce such a thing.
"Jesus Christ is just as well known today as old Cleopatra, the
flat-nosed enchantress of the Nile, was known hundreds and hundreds of
years ago.
"Don't swell up like a poisoned pup and say that 'it doesn't meet with
my stupendous intellectual conception of what God intended should be
understood.' God should have waited until you were born and then called
you into counsel, I suppose. Say, fellows, I don't like to think that
there are any four-flushing, excess-baggage, lackadaisical fools like
that alive today, but there are a few.
"On the square, now, if you want to find a man of reason, would you go
down in the red-light district, where women are selling their honor
for money, or through the beer halls or fan-tan joints? You don't find
intellect there," he continued.
In contrast to these places, the evangelist described with remarkable
accuracy and emotion the scenes surrounding the death of President
McKinley and the burial ceremony at Canton, Ohio; how the great men
of the nation, all Christian men, passed by the flag-covered casket
and paid their silent tribute to the man who had died with Christian
confidence expressed in his last words.
"When I came out of that court-house at Canton, I said: 'Thank God, I'm
in good company, for the greatest men of my nation are on the side of
Jesus Christ,'" he added. From the farthest corner of the auditorium
there came a fervent "Amen," which found many repetitions in the brief
silence that followed.
Mr. Sunday reached a powerful climax when he described the
possibilities of the Judgment Day, and the efforts of the evil one to
lead into the dark, abysmal depths souls of men who have been popular
in the world. To those who have accepted Christ, the Saviour will
appear on that day as an advocate at the heavenly throne, he argued,
and the saved ones can turn to the devil and say:
[Illustration: BILLY SUNDAY AND HIS FAMILY AT HOME, MOUNT HOOD, WINONA
LAKE, INDIANA.]
"'Beat it, you old skin-flint. I have you skinned to a frazzle.
I have taken Jesus Christ and he's going to stand by me through all
eternity.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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