Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1915-02-12
Docs Billy Sunday Symbolic a Ma.
,tioual' Awakening?
(By p. the Religious Rambler in the

news; but the underlying Significance
of the facts is still more noteworthy
as news.
The two-score thousand persons who
daily crowd into the tabernacle, most
of them having come hours before the
advertised time of opening, are as
interesting as the unconventional
evangelist himself; but of more impor-
lance than either or both is the real
ly nationwide solicitude over the
question of religion.
There is widespread belief among
Christians that Billy Sundays Phila-
delphia campaign is the point at
which the fire is breaking out that will
sweep the prairie.
AS mere narrative of fact there is
mighty meaning in the populations
which have visited Sunday at Phila-
delphia from Boston, New York city,
Washington, Richmond, St. Louis.
Cincinnati, Duluth, Minneapolis, and
many other cities asking him to con-
duct meetings for them.
individuals and populations from as
tar south as Florida and from beyond
the Mississippi have travelled ali the
way to Philadelphia for the single and
express purpose of hearing Billy Sun
day and witnessing his meetings. Such
IL widespread concern for the things
of religion is highly Illuminating.
The religious press of the land is
featuring the Billy Sunday meetings,
so that they have become the one up-
permost theme of interest in strictly
religious circles.
Not only have the metropolitan dali
les of the land printed special arti-
cles upon Billy Sunday and his meet
lngs, but the great magazines have
taken him up, although their articles
cannot be printed for couple of
months yet.
All this has given old Philadelphia
which William Penn founded as "a
holy experiment" sort and amount
of advertising which city boosters
could not have done by any method
or amount of money.
Gospelling by the Press.
Most of the daily newspapers of
Philadelphia have published the Sun
day. sermons in full, daily, since the
beginning of the campaign. In addi-
ton, their extended reports of the
meetings have been sympathetic and
Skllltul. This is unprecedented pub
licity for religion: Strikingly, Sun
day does not employ press agent,
and all the newspaper space that is
devoted to his work is entirely out
side of his own planning.
Instances are already cropping out
of persons converted simply by read
ing the newspaper reports of the SER
mons. An entire family of church
goers presented itself in United
Presbyterian church in an OUTLYING
part of Philadelphia; Billy had got
them, though none had been near his
meeting. ! know Il manufacturer. n
clubman, and IMAM about town .
whose liquor chest has been unvisit-
ed for days, all because of the reports
OF the Sunday sermons. Now he has
gone to the meetings, and his friends
say he will surely "hit the trail"
Literally, millions of persons every
day are reading the primitive gospel
message, decked out i'm modern lin
guistic clothes, as Billy Sunday pre-
sents it. The United Churches Of
Philadelphia have not money enough
to buy this publicity. The great pub
hcation societies of the denominations
or the American Tract Society, or the
American Sunday School Union, de-
spite their huge funds and organiza-
ton, do not reach so many persons,
and so compe.lingly, as does the Billy
Sunday story through the secular
press.
The thickly encrusted shell of the
average persons apparent indiffer-
ence to religion has been cracked by
this unconventional instrument, whose
success is setting many persons to
quoting. the Scripture passage: "God
chose the foolish things of the world
that he might put to shame them
that are wise; and God chose the
weak things of the world that he
might put to shame the things that
are strong" Without respect to sta
ton or training, people have become
interested in Billy Sunday. The pro-
portion of those who show the antag-
onlSm is surprisingly small.
That religion is for all levels of So
ciety, and that the Lord does not in
quire about ones ancestors or bank
account before having personal deal
lngs with him, has been made plain
through the occasion of the Sunday
meetings: Billy has conducted morn
ing meetings in some of the most ey
elusive homes in Philadelphia. One
morning he was with the Biddles and
penitentiary; in both cases speaking
the vocabulary of his hearers The
most democratic spot in Philadel
phia is the turtle backed tabernacle
ON Logan Square, few steps from
the Roman Catholic Cathedral.
OF the multitude of incidental as .
poets Of the Sunday campaign, one of
the most striking has been the friend
mess shown by the Catholics. (
now Of instances where the parish
Priests have eXtolled the work of
Sunday, and have advised their mem
hers to hear him. There are always
:. percentage of Catholics in the tab
ernac C congregations, and have seen
RESTS there.
In addition 10 this friendliness be-
tween the major divisions of Chris
-cndomeRhere has been unparalleled
co operation among the local Protes-
i;nt churches. Aside from the clever
i!orts of the three Unitarian churches
To capitalize Sundays antagonism to
their teachings, there has been an ex-
traordinary solidarity of church SEN
Al.