Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-02-15
Sunday Afternoon
and Night

l. NAL prepared sermon delivered yes.
terday afternoon and last night by
BILLY" Sunday. The evangelist does not
adhere to his sermon. Deviations-and
they were many. picturesque and cherac-
teristically forceful-are to be found in
the general account OF what took place
yesterday at the tabernacle.
"I have chosen a text of which every
man here this afternoon will believe at
least a part. Some may say thap this
can't be. Some may say. 4 can't be-
lieve In Jesus Christ l can't believe In
the Bible. / can't believe III eternal life
Yet, there Is not one among you VINO
will not agree with at least the first part
of my text.
" IT is appointed to all men once to
die You believe that, don't your You
all agree that 1t Ia appointed TO all men
once to die You'll all accept that.
But my next text adds, And after
death, the Judgment
"If YOU admit the first proposition of
the text, how can you have the audacity
TO reject the last part7 BY every rule
of reason or logic, when you adni' one
part you must admit all.
what n change there would be In your
life II you only accepted all of this text
We have the words of Jesus that all
those VINO DelleNb IN HIM SHHll tOilo nv
everlasting life with Him and that for
them there shall be no judgment We
have this assurance of Paul that there is
no Judgment for those who are followers
OF Christ.
whether you're a Christian or not a
Christian. you'll all be there. But I'm
not worried about this judgment for my
self The Christian has no need to rear.
The Christian will not be there to be
Judged, but to receive the reward for his
rishteousness. The sinner will be judged.
II have prayed that thousands or
people shall come down these aisles and
give me the honor of taking them by the
hand in the name Of Jesus Christ. am
not concerned for myself, but for you. L
have worked here as my own salvation
depended upon 1t. couldn't have work.
ed harder IL it had. am tired, so tired
1 sometimes feel that I'll fall Into bed
and not get UP.
II have special reasons for choosing
this text this afternoon. It's personal
question. 1t raises a question for you.
You must settle 1t for yourself You must
eat for yourself, and you must settle the
question of accepting Jesus Christ Tor
yourself. II il were left to me to settle
It, every man here would instantly take
his stand on the side of God. But can't
settle II for you. Even God Almighty
can't save q soul against the individuals
will.
Respects Honest Doubter
IT pray God that the words of my text
will ring In your ears long after you've
forgotten my face and long after the
tabernacle has been torn down; when
have gone to other states to preach the
word of God. 1 pray that you'll hear
them above the clash of hammers In your
shops, above the din of exploding powder
in the mines. l pray that when you
walk the streets the echo of your steps
will cry, The judgment! the judgment!
the judgment!
Religion isn't a matter of feeling or of
emotion. 1t isn't doing just whatever
you want to do. Suppose you worked
for a firm, were given some orders to
perform, then said: 4 don't want to do
it You'd get your walking papers quick
enough.
you say there are hypocrites in the
church There are hypocrites in the
lodge. There are hypocrites everywhere.
But because some men are hypocrites Is
no reason why you should not do right.
There'n be no hypocrites in heaven. And
If you want to get into heaven you'd
better get into the church with few of
them now. On the day of judgment God
will say to the hypocrite, Get over on
the left there, your elevator will be going
down in a few minutes
81 have every respect for an honest
doubter. Some men are so constituted
that they are naturally skeptical. Such
a man can see the reasonableness of
But I have no respect
for the man who isn't honest about 1t.
When / was assistant secretary OF the
Y. M. C.. A. in Chicago, I had II. L.
Hastings. who edited an antl-infidel
paper, send me $500 copies OF it. Bob
InRersoll was delivering three lectures in
McVickers' Theatre. and l had these
copies distributed to the people on the
sidewalk as they went in or out. The
first night Ingersoll had a big audience.
The next night 1t was smaller. and on
the third night it had dwindled almost
to nothing.
every day at nocn, while Ingersoll
was lecturing, Hastings would go to old
Farwell Hall and answer Ingersolls
of the night before. One
night Ingersoll painted one of those Won
derful word pictures for which he was
justly famous. He was a master of the
use of words, Men and women would
applaud and cheer and wave their hats
and handkerchiefs, and the waves of
sound would rise and fall like great
waves of the sea. AS two men were 60
ing home from his lecture one of them
said TO the other: Bob certainly cleaned
'em up tonight The other man said:
There's one thing he didn't clean up.
He didn't clean up the religion of my old
mother
This is the word picture IngersolI,
painted;
"I would rather have been a French
peasant and worn wooden shoes; would
rather have lived In a hut. with a vine
growing over tho door and the grapes
growing and ripening in the autumn sun;
would rather have been that peasant,
with my wife by my side and my chill
dren upon my knees twinlng their arms
Of affection about me; / would rather
have been that poor French peasant and
gone down at least TO the eternal promls-
Guilty OF the dust. followed by those who