The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-03-11
Is Religion Dead?

New York does not lack prea cheers
who strive for sensational effects In
their pulpit orat0ry, or gladly resort to
rhetorical violence In their efforts tn
arouse their auditors to good works and
godly lives. Yet we do not remember
that even the most daring Of these min
listers Of the Gospel has ever turned
nway 5000 would be hearers after 5000
Ind been packed into the auditorium
In which his npssage was 10 be deliv.
cred. This Is the thing that BILLY
SUNDAY did on Monday night at Car.
negie Hall.
Mr.. SUNDAYS methods are not novel.
lie is, indeed. old fashioned to a de-
gree. His doctrine Is Of The simplest.
lie breaches heaven and hell, Con and
the devil, In the familiar manner OF
the camp meeting evangelist. His ap.
peals are crude and rough. lie does
not seek TO win his converts with honey.
but belabors them with threats. He
uses coplously the slang Of the street.
There Is no refinement OF diction. no
careful balancing Of phrases, no effort
to soften his denmclatiOns. to excuse
sinners, to make the path Of the right.
eous seem easy. Harsh. blunt. uncVm-
promising. how does he achieve re-
suits thnt have put him In unique po.
sition in this country today
The churches wonder and complain
Mt their empty pews. Religion is
dead" means the depairing Christian:
1t has been killed by eolf, by Sunday
baseball by socialism. by Indifference,
by a cheap scphisticat!On that springs
from petty bit Of half education.
swallowed but not digested. And mean
while BILLY SUNDAY achieves such tri-
,nnphs at the sinners bench as recall
the noble days OF old. and give life 10
a gallery OF worthless at whose actlvi-
ties the knowing poke mild fun.
BILLY SUNDAY will do In the Middle
West. In the rural environment" say
the wise men. ThereW,on BILLY Sun.
DAY betakes himself to the towns and
cities that rejoice to call themselves
urban. and turns them upside down.
repeating with their SNUG populations
his successes with the supposedly less
alert ruralists. He comes 10 the capt.
tai Of supercilious provincialism. self
m tisfied, conceited New York, and the
belated police are put to It to handle
the crowd he draws.
That BILLY SUNDAY. In his own Ian
guage. has 1.-THE punch" Is plain; but
that does not explain everything.
Other men not less sincere, not less de-
voted than BILLY SUNDAY fail where
he brings prosperity TO his cause. IL II
that he has the gift, the mysterious
call. which marks one man out of thou
sands to do the particular kind of work
in which he engages?
Over tire value OF rhe results Oh
talnei by evangelical work Of the sort
done by billy SUNDAY there Is still
dispute. The camp meeting and the
revival have been subjected to the stat.
istlcian's impartial examination and
condemned In tabular statements. The
backsliders are notorious: yet there n re
some who do not backslide, some brands
plucked from the burning. some repen-
tant ones who amend their ways. Per-
haps the stutlstlcian cannot tell the
whole story In his carefully revised
columns.
One thing billy SUNDAY does prove.
The talk of n decline In religious In
terest Is without substantial basis. The
hopes and fears Of immortality POSSESS
the human heart. Perhaps the institu-
tional church. with Its subtle Invitation
to faith through shower baths, gym
nasiulns, moving picture shows, and
dance halls may not draw them out to
expression, but when the master chord
Is touched they reveal themselves In
these days rs they did In the times OF
our fathers.