"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
So a Sunday evangelistic campaign is a marvel of organization. It
spells efficiency at every turn and is a lesson to the communities
which do Christian work in haphazard, hit-or-miss fashion. Work and
faith are written large over every series of Sunday meetings.
Sunday never took a course in psychology, but he understands the crowd
mind. He knows how to deal with multitudes. He sees clearly where the
masses must come from, and so he sets to work to bring them out of the
homes of the working people. He goes beyond the church circles for his
congregations, and makes his appeal to the popular taste. He frankly
aims to strike the average of the common people. For he is after that
host which too often the preacher knows nothing about.
People must be set to talking about religion and about the Sunday
campaign if the latter is to succeed. Indifference is the foe of all
foes to be feared by an evangelist. Even hostile criticism really
serves a religious purpose, for it directs attention to the messenger
and the message. Knowledge of this is the reason why Sunday always
devotes his earliest sermons in a campaign to the subjects likeliest
to create comment. These are the discourses that contain the largest
proportion of startling views and language.
Part of the task of a man who would move a city for Christ is to
consolidate Christian sentiment and to create a Church consciousness.
Sunday is at great pains to get his own "crowd" behind him. He evokes
that loyalty which alone makes organized work and war effective.
So he insists that churches must unite before he will visit a city.
Also he asks that they surrender their Sunday services, all uniting in
common worship in the Tabernacle. For these campaigns are not Billy
Sunday meetings: they are an effort toward a revival of religion on the
part of the united Christian forces of a community. If anybody thinks
the evangelist disparages the Church, he need but recall the particular
effort Sunday makes to solidify the Church folk: that reveals his real
estimate of the Church. He would no more attempt a revival without
church co-operation than a general would besiege a city without an
army. This Christian unity which he requires first of all is a sermon
in itself.
Before one has looked very deeply into the work of Evangelist Sunday
he perceives that it is no new message the man speaks, but that it is
his modernization of language and of methods that makes possible the
achieving of great results by the old Gospel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account