"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
At Kansas City, Kansas, before the saloons were closed, they were
getting ready to build an addition to the jail. Now the doors swing
idly on the hinges and there is nobody to lock in the jails. And the
commissioner of the Poor Farm says there is a wonderful falling off
of old men and women coming to the Poor House, because their sons and
daughters are saving their money and have quit spending it for drink.
And they had to employ eighteen new school teachers for 600 boys and
girls, between the ages of twelve and eighteen, that had never gone to
school before because they had to help a drunken father support the
family. And they have just set aside $200,000 to build a new school
house, and the bonded indebtedness was reduced $245,000 in one year
without the saloon revenue. And don't you know another thing: In 1906,
when they had the saloon, the population, according to the directory,
was 89,655. According to the census of 1907 the population was 100,835,
or an increase of twelve per cent in one year, without the grog-shop.
In two years the bank deposits increased $3,930,000.
You say, drive out the saloon and you kill business--Ha! ha! "Blessed
are the dead that die in the Lord."
I tell you, gentlemen, the American home is the dearest heritage of
the people, for the people, and by the people, and when a man can
go from home in the morning with the kisses of wife and children
on his lips, and come back at night with an empty dinner bucket to
a happy home, that man is a better man, whether white or black.
Whatever takes away the comforts of home--whatever degrades that man
or woman--whatever invades the sanctity of the home, is the deadliest
foe to the home, to church, to state and school, and the saloon is the
deadliest foe to the home, the church and the state, on top of God
Almighty's dirt. And if all the combined forces of hell should assemble
in conclave, and with them all the men on earth that hate and despise
God, and purity, and virtue--if all the scum of the earth could mingle
with the denizens of hell to try to think of the deadliest institution
to home, to church and state, I tell you, sir, the combined hellish
intelligence could not conceive of or bring an institution that could
touch the hem of the garment of the open licensed saloon to damn the
home and manhood, and womanhood, and business and every other good
thing on God's earth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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