"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
Or would you introduce a bill saying, if you pay $1,000 a year you can
kill any one you don't like; or by paying $500 a year you can attack
any girl you want to; or by paying $100 a year you can steal anything
that suits you? That's what you do with the dirtiest, rottenest gang
this side of hell. You say for so much a year you can have a license
to make staggering, reeling, drunken sots, murderers and thieves and
vagabonds. You say, "Bill, you're too hard on the whisky." I don't
agree. Not on your life. There was a fellow going along the pike and
a farmer's dog ran snapping at him. He tried to drive it back with a
pitchfork he carried, and failing to do so he pinned it to the ground
with the prongs. Out came the farmer: "Hey, why don't you use the other
end of that fork?" He answered, "Why didn't the dog come at me with the
other end?"
Personal Liberty
Personal liberty is not personal license. I dare not exercise personal
liberty if it infringes on the liberty of others. Our forefathers did
not fight and die for personal license but for personal liberty bounded
by laws. Personal liberty is the liberty of a murderer, a burglar, a
seducer, or a wolf that wants to remain in a sheep fold, or the weasel
in a hen roost. You have no right to vote for an institution that is
going to drag your sons and daughters to hell.
If you were the only persons in this city you would have a perfect
right to drive your horse down the street at breakneck speed; you would
have a right to make a race track out of the streets for your auto; you
could build a slaughter house in the public square; you could build a
glue factory in the public square. But when the population increases
from one to 600,000 you can't do it. You say, "Why can't I run my auto?
I own it. Why can't I run my horse? I own it. Why can't I build the
slaughter house? I own the lot." Yes, but there are 600,000 people here
now and other people have rights.
So law stands between you and personal liberty, you miserable dog.
You can't build a slaughter house in your front yard, because the law
says you can't. As long as I am standing here on this platform I have
personal liberty. I can swing my arms at will. But the minute any one
else steps on the platform my personal liberty ceases. It stops just
one inch from the other fellow's nose.
When you come staggering home, cussing right and left and spewing
and spitting, your wife suffers, your children suffer. Don't think
that you are the only one that suffers. A man that goes to the
penitentiary makes his wife and children suffer just as much as he
does. You're placing a shame on your wife and children. If you're a
dirty, low-down, filthy, drunken, whisky-soaked bum you'll affect all
with whom you come in contact. If you're a God-fearing man you will
influence all with whom you come in contact. You can't live by yourself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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