Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1914-05-31
~ HE preaching of Billy Sun
day is now the greatest sub
l. ject of discussion among the

churches are not attracting the peo-
pie as they ought to, but Billy Sun
day gets them.
Every time Billy Sunday holds
revival meeting he draws crowds so
large that churches and halls will not
hold them, and the police have to be
called to keep them from overcrowd-
ing the buildings.
As a result of his eight weeks CAM
paign in Pittsburg, city greatly
troubled with vice and disorder, tue
most remarkable results were OBJ
tanned. The Cambria Steel Company,
one of the greatest manufacturing
concerns in the country, established
q religious department at its plant,
with a regular minister; department
stores in the city organized morning
prayer meeting and Bible classes for
their employees; the newspapers made
Sundays sermons their leading fea-
ture.
In Scranton a poker club Of wealthy
business men gave up cards and
started a Bible class in disused
garage.
Profanity decreased in the big
plants sobriety made for a higher
and steadier output; the new religi-
Gus motive generated ambition and
self-respect. Industry takes off its
hat to Billy Sunday" writes the Rev.
]. H. Odell, of Scranton.
Complaints were made that the stu
dents of the University of Pennsyl
vania were becoming addicted to
drinking and dissipated living. Billy
Sunday held series Of meetingA
there and the young men became ref
ular church attendants and at the
same time better students.
The Rev. DR.. Maitland Alexander,
pastor of the First Presbyterian
Church, of Pittsburg, who, although
head Of a fashionable congregation,
is warm supporter of Sunday, says
that he practically put the saloons out
of business in Scranton and Wilkes
Barre, which are IN the mining dis
tricts and have been cursed by drunk
enness.
How does Billy Sunday do 1t? He
attacks the most evident evils and
sins of the day and he attacks them in
language that everybody understands.
He uses common, violent slang in his
denunciations of drinking He uses
phrases of the prize ring and barroom
to describe the events of sacred his
baseball player, and the mildest OF
his SMILES are borrowed from base
ball.
Many ministers have criticised him.
complaining that his methods are vul-
gar and that the people converted by
them do not stay converted. Sunday
has spoken of these ministers as
'grafters and stiffs who talk bum
bull con-"
Here are a few typical examples
of the startling manner in which Billy
Sunday paraphrases the events Of
sacred history:
IAN oath was binding in the olden
days. When Daniel found a bunch
Of cut-throats trying to put their
hands in the public trough he fought
them to finish. They wanted to get
him out of the way and they inyeigled
the King into making law that any
one who should refuse to worship him
as God should be cast into den of
lions for thirty days. Daniel still
prayed to his own God, and he was
thrown into the den.
When the King found that the
gang had worked shell-game on him,
he wanted to get Daniel out of the
den, but he swore by the law of the
Modes and Persians that he would do
as he promised. He couldn't get
around the oath. You can't tell me
that you can raise a dead level to d
perpendicular
"Herod got a bunch of high-rollers
around him. They were all soused, car
rying loads like battleships Young
Salome wiggled around the bunch,
stuck her foot out at quarter of
twelve, and got the crowd going. I
can imagine the cries of that drunken
old lobster, and then he said: Sis.
you're peach; I'll give you,anything
you want, even If it is half of my
kingdom; that was a great stunt of
yours-what will you have? And the
girl hiked off to her old God-forsaken
licentious mother, and told her of the
offer Herod had made. She told the
girl to get the head Of John the Bap-
fist, who had called her down for
infdelity. He made her mad. The
girl went back to the drunken old
man. She told him what she wanted.
He turned pale. He tried to save
John, but he couldn't for his oath s
sake
The vigor of his language, his
slang, the SMILES, that appeal to the
simplest minds, all combine to awaken
the interest and arouse the emotions
of his hearers. After such. pic
turesque but slangy passages as those
Just quoted he will make an observa-
ton showing real spiritual insight,
like the following:
"The personality, the divinity and
the attributes Of the Holy Ghost af-
ford one of the most inspiring, one OF
the most beneficial examples in our
spiritual life. We are told that when
the Holy Spirit came to Pentecost,
he came as the rushing of a mighty
wind and oyer-urging expectancy.
When Jesus was baptized in the River
Jordan, Of John, out from the expanse
If heaven was seen to float the Spirit
IF God like snowflake, and they
heard sound as of whirling wings,
and the Holy Spirit, in the form of