Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-12-31
~BILLY" SUNDAY AS
EVANGELIST AND MAN
Some of the Secrets Of His Marvellous
Power =" Psychological Preaching
Versatile in Interests and Activities.
Sunday Outside the Pulpit.
Bv TOM C. MIRKL

! MUCH has been said and much more writ
IVI ten about Rev. William A. Sunday, the
baseball player evangelist, fearless nayer OF
sin and sinners. the man who in seven short
| weeks turned Scranton and the entire Lacka-
wanna Valley upside down and inside out,
| who flashed across the vision OF 100000 peo-
pie like meteor to disappear and leave be-
hind him and his series Of remarkable meet
| ings a wake OF memories and results that
| bid fair to endure.
Billy Sunday is great, gauged by his own
achievements. To arouse In something like
half a million men the desire to lead better
| lives, TO be truer to Ideals, is in itself an
| accomplishment that challenges comparison
| with the very great of all time.
If It is admitted that the mans work and
| his achievements are worthy, then there is
little room to debate their degree. He simply
does more than any man OF his kind in the
memory Of the oldest living inhabtant. 1t
is not pertinent to adduce the fact that
certain percentage of his converts do not
! 'stlclS" For that matter neither do certain
| percentage of the initiates of a lodge, a cer-
| tain percentage of applicants for insurance
| a certain percentage of evidence taken under
| oath. The utter fallibility of human nature
must be admitted 1t has yet to be claimed
! that defectons from those Mr. Sunday en-
lists for better living are any more numer-
| GUS lnb1l ITOll InOSe S6CuTeu ny QUIET Ulen VI
| other means,
Sincerity and Psychology
| In judging his methods two things must be
| considered The first is the nature and char
acter of the men interested locally in
BILLY Sunday campaign, the second is the
freedom and drectness OF the operations
More convincing than either is personal
knowledge of the evangelist, and when this
has been attained by any one through weeks
of repeated contact under all sorts of trying
conviction upon the of the listener, all
| doubt Of the mans sincerity vanshes.
When a campaign is in prospect, he has
| the city organized for months ahead. BY
unconscious and almost imperceptbe de-
grees he directs general interest to religious
matters, arousing at the same time a great
amount of curiosity in himself and his COM
ing. At this stage of the proceedings he
makes not the slightest effort to conclliate
any one. The result is that local forces are
active, alert, united. These forces the
church forces, and if the man stopped there
the Sunday meetings would not be the great
success they invariably are.
But the very first thing he does when he
begins to talk is to attack the church folks
or rather the abuses they permit, and the
naying he gives pastors and people alike at
once challenges the interest and attention
of those outside the churches and they begin
to attend the meetings. They do not admit
| it, but they go to hear attack upon men
and women whom they believe have a "holier-
than thou" attitude toward the rest of the
world.
Secrets of His Versatility
Once Sunday has his crowds, the laws OF
| psychology make the rest certain. The evan
gelist puts simple proposition so simply
xith oil
| intellects can refuse assent.
1t is at this point that the great humanity
of the man is seen to be determining fac
| tor. Born farmer, his father dead before
| the boy ever saw the light of day, raised un-
| der conditions that early made him know
| the problems of life, struggling from his
| youth up, fighting for every mental acquisl-
| ton that has come to him, he never for
| instant has lost touch with life.
An omnivorous reader, he never retires to
| his study; a shrewd thinker and deft logi-
| clan, he never gives himself up to the pleas
| antres of philosophic contemplation.
| great traveller he at every angle touches
elbows with every phase of life-oficial, re-
| ligious, criminal--no element is foreign to
| him. With something very like inspiration
he can gauge his hearers in moment and
! direct his thoughts to them in exactly the
| terms best suited to their dispositions.
He knows that a great mass of people can
never direct their minds long in a definite
| channel, and so he constantly varies the line
| of his thought, always recurring to the main
theme He knows that emotional stress can
not long be maintained and that contrast is
the basis of emphasis Therefore just before
the climax of each sermon he introduces
some note OF pathos-sometimes out of line
| with the main body of his discourse and
III tn pIn nnh tha Gnal tNUnf
with that emphasis which results in hun
dreds and hundreds coming forward and
taking stand for the church and for God,
when the invitation is given
The sermons, prepared with great care,
| built up by many changes and additions, are
not selected until he enters the pulpit Many
times he changes his mind after he has
taken place on the platform. The slang
which is such advertised feature of his
talks is pronouncedly evident only in a
small number OF them. Vehement thought
and emphatic delivery, however, character
ize every public utterance of the man, and
this too when he breaches four sermons
day, any one of which would utterly exhaust
the average man.
The Man Himself
Billy" Sundays personal habits are sim
pie. He eats heartily, but OF plain foods.
His single nerve stimulant is eofree. of which
he is very fond. When under stress he is
restless II conveyance is not in instant
waiting, he win start TO walk. Wherever ne
is he engages some one in conversation, and
more often he asks questions than answers
them. To this and his habit OF miscellaneous
reading is to be attributed his astonishing
versatility.
Agriculture he knows as well as most
farmers. Medicine and law he can discuss