Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1915-05-04
LAYMEN WANT
BILLY SUNDAY
TO COME HERE
Take the Bit in Their Teeth
at Peddie Church
Meeting.
MINISTERS TIMID ON
QUESTION, BUT MAY JOIN
Many Thrills Precede Appoint
ment of Committee to
Handle Matter.

Billy Sunday, the baseball evan.
gelist, will come TO Newark if the
laymen can bring him here. This was
evidenced in no uncertain manner at
a meeting last night in the Peddie
Memorial Church, when ministerial
objectors to the hard hitting evan
gelist were swept off their feet by a
flood of religious enthusiasm.
If there were people in the audience
of more than four hundred who op-
posed Billy Sunday and his pictur-
esque methods of presenting Scrip
ture truths, they were in a hopeless
minority. The gathering was as rest
less as the sea. Waves Of Billy Sun
day sentiment swept away the moor
ings of opposition and rolled onward
until those who are inimical to the
former star of the baseball diamond
had to run or get their feet wet.
History was made in Peddie Me-
mortal Church last night. In the eff
forts for revival of religious inter
est in Newark the laymen played an
unusually prominent part. Men who
for years have been accustomed to
standing back in religious affairs and
allowing the ministers to do the work
LII 1Sl IufillSGlNeS lOTNdTu.
Not only were the majority of those
present-and they were all men
anxious for a religious awakening in
Newark, but they Were unit in the
belief that Billy Sunday was the one
man who carried the proper alarm
clock.
How then to go about the some-
what delicate task of inducing Mr.
Sunday to come to Newark and eX-
change right and left swings with
the evil spirit was the question upper
most in the minds of all 1t was
known to those in the audience that
there were among the ministers of
the city those who opposed Billy Sum-
day and his slang and homely cpl
grams.
DIR. Dawson Absent.
The interview published in yester-
days Evening Star, in which Rev. DIR.
w. J. Dawson, pastor of the First
Presbyterian Church, declared that
the calling of the meeting was SHARP
practiJtG and without sanction of the
Ministerial Association, had tended
to make the ministers present ex-
tremely cautious. The laymen, on
the other hand, were more bold and
evidently played for an opportunity
to stampede the meeting into commits
ting both the laymen and members
of the Ministerial Association to the
Billy Sunday project.
DIR. Dawson was not present and he
was not referred to by name. James
p. Dusenberry, a leader in his church,
however, had a large part in pre-
venting those present from commit
ting the Ministerial Association, of
which DR.. Dawson is past presi-
dent, to any definite action.
AS finally arranged. the plan is for
the 1aymen to appoint committee of
five men and seek the cooperation of
the Ministerial Association in bring
ing Sunday here. The opinion ap-
peared to be that the move would
prove successful.
That the ministers and laymen who
favor the coming of Sunday had
planned their meeting well, was evi-
denced by the cards of announcement.
These stated that there would be
Billy Sunday echo meeting, at Ped
die Memorial Church, Monday eve-
ming, May 3, at 7:45 O'clock" The
Continued on Page 9, Column So