"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
And they answered, "Leave our hogs and go." A fellow says it is rather
a strange request for the devils to make, to ask permission to enter
into hogs. I don't know--if I was a devil I would rather live in a
good, decent hog than in lots of men. If you will drive the hog out you
won't have to carry slop to him, so I will try to help you get rid of
the hog.
And they told Jesus to leave the country. They said: "You are hurting
our business."
Interest in Manhood
"Have you no interest in manhood?"
"We have no interest in that; just take your disciples and leave, for
you are hurting our business."
That is the attitude of the liquor traffic toward the Church, and
State, and Government, and the preacher that has the backbone to fight
the most damnable, corrupt institution that ever wriggled out of hell
and fastened itself on the public.
I am a temperance Republican down to my toes. Who is the man that
fights the whisky business in the South? It is the Democrats! They have
driven the business from Kansas, they have driven it from Georgia, and
Maine and Mississippi and North Carolina and North Dakota and Oklahoma
and Tennessee and West Virginia. And they have driven it out of 1,756
counties. And it is the rock-ribbed Democratic South that is fighting
the saloon. They started this fight that is sweeping like fire over
the United States. You might as well try and dam Niagara Falls with
toothpicks as to stop the reform wave sweeping our land. The Democratic
party of Florida has put a temperance plank in its platform and the
Republican party of every state would nail that plank in their platform
if they thought it would carry the election. It is simply a matter
of decency and manhood, irrespective of politics. It is prosperity
against poverty, sobriety against drunkenness, honesty against
thieving, heaven against hell. Don't you want to see men sober? Brutal,
staggering men transformed into respectable citizens? "No," said a
saloon-keeper, "to hell with men. We are interested in our business, we
have no interest in humanity."
After all is said that can be said upon the liquor traffic, its
influence is degrading upon the individual, the family, politics and
business, and upon everything that you touch in this old world. For
the time has long gone by when there is any ground for arguments as
to its ill effects. All are agreed on that point. There is just one
prime reason why the saloon has not been knocked into hell, and that is
the false statement that "the saloons are needed to help lighten the
taxes." The saloon business has never paid, and it has cost fifty times
more than the revenue derived from it.
Does the Saloon Help Business?
I challenge you to show me where the saloon has ever helped business,
education, church, morals or anything we hold dear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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