Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-12-12
IOWA GUARD BOYS
HEAR EVANGELIST
THIRTY-Slx BOYS OCCUPY RE.
SERVED SECTION IN SUNDAY
TABERNACLE.
BY GORDON LATHRoP.

! BY GORDON LATHROP.
yDes Moines, Dec. 1O.-There were
thirty-six uniformed boys of the Fifty
sixth Iowa guard occupying reserv-
ed section in the tabernacle the even
ing Bill Sunday preached from the
text: "lf any man shall do His will,
he shall know of the teaching, whether
it be of God ="
Three minutes after the evangelist
cried Bring the old flags, boys, and
come on there were thrty-three OF
them in the penitential section. In
another five minutes the one remain
ing officer had led the way and the
squad was in full muster on the sal
walton benches. On this night, two
hundred in all came forward. Well
dressed, clean cut, efficient looking
men and women were largely in the
majority.
The sermon deserved greater
manifestation. There were more
homely expressions. more artistic
mannerisms than Sunday has employ
ed for quite while but he came
about as, near as mortal man can to
the achievement of his wish In con-
nection with the theme. That wish
! was expressed in this manner in the
beginning of the sermon: I'D like
to tear off all the swaddling clothes
that man has put around the Word
and present it with all the simplicity
that God gave it."
By actual count he applied the ap-
pellation fool unadorned and with
variations, twenty-three times during
the first twenty minutes of the SER
mon The sort of person who came
, in for about fifteen of the twenty
three applications Of the word was
the wise mutt who seems to think
God should have taken him into His
confidence That sort Of skeptic
Sunday bears with the honest doubt
err was described as person who
hadn't brains enough to amuse play
full kitten. Altogether he or she was
"fool' nine times, a big fool five
times, great big fool' four times,
a "jackass and fool" three times, a
fool and a jackass'' two times.
With this earnest beginning, Sunday
launched into series of vivid illus
trations that had for an object the
driving home of the thought that the
acceptance of Christ. the deity, would
come with the application to ones
life of His teachings.
Sunday convulsed his audience
when he depicted wedding cere-
mony at which, after the bride had
been asked: do you accept this man
as your lawful welded ETC., she re-
piled, "Why, Bill, I'm afraid I can't
hold out The fact that this would
be an unh card of thing for a soon-to-be
bride to say at the critical moment of
man-made contract in which faith
was an essential factor, was used by
Sunday in meeting the plant of those
who evade an expression OF accept
ance of spiritual contract on the
ground that they are afraid they can't
| hold out
| Faith. faith. faith" repeated the
evangelist. "You can't convict a man
, of crime without you admit that faith
| in judge and jury is the basis of your
legal system. Business is done on
faith. Marriages are contracted on
faith. Even when you plant things
in the ground you have faith that they
will grow and yield"
He confessed that infdels who spoke
grandly of morality without Chris
tianity' gave him the stomach ache.
'This world never knew the A. B. c..
of morality until Christianity came
into it." he declared. ITO deny the
Creator while striving to solve the
mysteries of creation is like accept
ing the electric light while denying
the dynamo he continued.
Perhaps the most striking illustra-
ton Sunday used in preaching that
development in spiritual consciousness
is matter of progression as is the
development of anything else was
when the evangelist told some hith-
erto unmentioned things about his
own life.
He had previously, In the course OF
the sermon, mentioned that he was
an ordained minister and had receiv-
ed the degree of doctor of divinity al
though he had never seen the inside
of seminary Toward the close OF
the sermon he related in an irresist-
IDLY funny manner how at the begin
ming of his evangelistic career he was
ment lasting more than week be-
cause he knew only seven sermons.
Often. he said, the ministers would
peg MIN 10 eXleliu LIS eHSoSSAAi0ii..
mo, I cant think Of it, he would
say 81 am needed elsewhere
Sunday then told how night after
night he has read and studied that ne
might be worthy of wider field. a
field that now is his. He was not wor'
thy of a Denver, a Des Moines or a
Philadelphia engagement then but ne
! had developed Sunday here said
that he had read Stoddard's lectures
five times and many other books more
than once and that there We're very
few standard books in science, phil,
osophy or history that he had not
studied. He had accepted the "A. B,
c. that night thirty years ago when
Right Fielder Bill Sunday signed up
with God That first step was what
he asked for now of the men and WON
en- before him. "Its only a step to
I Jesus. Why not take it now" plead
ed. God will show you the way
after that
FIVE RAHROADFRS a.