"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
Now, leave God out of the proposition for a minute. Never mind about
the new birth--that's his business. Jesus Christ became a man, bone
of our bone, flesh of our flesh. He died on the cross for us, so that
we might escape the penalty pronounced on us. Now, never mind about
anything but our part in salvation. Here it is: "Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."
You say, "Mr. Sunday, the Church is full of hypocrites." So's hell. I
say to you if you don't want to go to hell and live with that whole
bunch forever, come into the Church, where you won't have to associate
with them very long. There are no hypocrites in heaven.
You say, "Mr. Sunday, I can be a Christian and go to heaven without
joining a church." Yes, and you can go to Europe without getting on
board a steamer. The swimming's good--but the sharks are laying for
fellows who take that route. I don't believe you. If a man is truly
saved he will hunt for a church right away.
You say, "It's so mysterious. I don't understand." You'll be surprised
to find out how little you know. You plant a seed in the ground--that's
your part. You don't understand how it grows. How God makes that seed
grow is mysterious to you.
Some people think that they can't be converted unless they go down on
their knees in the straw at a camp-meeting, unless they pray all hours
of the night, and all nights of the week, while some old brother storms
heaven in prayer. Some think a man must lose sleep, must come down the
aisle with a haggard look, and he must froth at the mouth and dance and
shout. Some get it that way, and they don't think that the work I do is
genuine unless conversions are made in the same way that they have got
religion.
I want you to see what God put in black and white; that there can be a
sound, thorough conversion in an instant; that man can be converted as
quietly as the coming of day and never backslide. I do not find fault
with the way other people get religion. What I want and preach is the
fact that a man can be converted without any fuss.
If a man wants to shout and clap his hands in joy over his wife's
conversion, or if a wife wants to cry when her husband is converted, I
am not going to turn the hose on them, or put them in a strait-jacket.
When a man turns to God truly in conversion, I don't care what form his
conversion takes. I wasn't converted that way, but I do not rush around
and say, with gall and bitterness, that you are not saved because you
did not get religion the way I did. If we all got religion in the same
way, the devil might go to sleep with a regular Rip Van Winkle snooze
and still be on the job.
Look at Nicodemus. You could never get a man with the temperament of
Nicodemus near a camp meeting, to kneel down in the straw, or to shout
and sing. He was a quiet, thoughtful, honest, sincere and cautious man.
He wanted to know the truth and he was willing to walk in the light
when he found it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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