The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1915-04-18

glorious beauty of righteousness: you have lifted
} the lid off the hatchway to hell and have flung
wide open the gates Of pearl that give into the
Heavenly City.
/ You have exalted true manhood, and shown
the meanness and littelness OF moral cowardtce
! you have magnified the marriage relation and
slorified the home, while scathing the moral
indebtedness of double living men, and the in
iTuity and meanness of the double standard of
| morals affected and justified by many; you have
/ shown our young men that they cannot SOW
wild oats and expect to reap harvest of good
grain and you have made it plain that the ma
/ tcrial world ia the unsubstantial and vanishing
world. and that the unseen and spiritual world
is the true and enduring world And all this
lou have done, not only according TO your Bible,
but in accordance with the principles of highest
moral science held alike By Christians and mere
tnoralists.
Fearless In Your Ministry.
You have been fearless and unafraid in your
denunciation Of sin and sinners. You have not
/ IA wned upon or played the sycophant the
rich and the mighty ones Of the earth. You
have accepted with quietness and strength all
! the criticisms and SANDERS that have been heap
/ cd upon you. You have given smile for q
\ blow, and a hat ha for
1 Billy you are great man. and take our
hats off 10 you. and fer the moment cast aside
the mask of editorial reserve on all religious
questions to allow our hearts as well as our
heads, to speak our honest word of praise. ad-
mIration and love- for even we OF the reporters
gallery and the editorial chair the better for
your Inspiring ministry.
We pass over the criticism OF your style your
manners, your baseball slang. and all the other
things true false which have been urged
! AGAINST you, as our eyes pass over the hideous
g2rgoyles that shoot out their tongues Mt us
! from the of the great cathedrals and &C
knowledge that these things only emphasize the
1 beauty lying back and behind them. Indeed,
these things have been used by you and most
! effectually. DIS hammers with which TO send
home to their heads the nails and spikes Of
truth that you have been driving into our hearts
and c0nsciences We do not cast away n whole
. box of luscious stra wberries because there are
a few specked even rotten ones among them,
or on the top of the basket. even as the honest
OK does not refuse to chew the sweet truss Of
hay because there few briars and thorns
or bitter weeds among It.
This TO You personally, Billy.
Preached n Mighty Host
Now with serious though nor more
honest and sincere q note, we venture 10 say
this for the great evangelist who Is just con-
Guiding his work in this city. He has preached
to more than 1000. coo hearers in these eleven
weeks; not ali different people, but that In q low
aggregate Of all who have heard him. No
4, man. living dead. has made at7crr-4
record. But this Is not all Through the entire
press of the city his sermons have been printed.
- practically in full. and II Is safe to say that
through the press Ne has reached at least l. 600.
zoe readers every day. all the way from Phila-
dcpha To San Francisco and Seattle Thousands
; heard
than ten times.
These millions OF hearers and readers have
been made up OF every class Of people from
the poor down outs among men and wo-
mon to the very highest class Of our citizens
, The high brows of the colleges, the captains
of industry; the merchants and manufacturers:
, the great railroad Inagnates: bankers: lawyers
doctors; the governors OF States; congressra
the Secretary OF stote; mayors; judges Of the
; courts: and hundreds of preachers who not
wont to sit the feet OF other preachers But
the great mass Of his hearers has been of the
= sturdy common people who constitute the ba *
g ground Of our community. Great manufac-
. tuTers and merchants have not only heard him
/ for themselves. but have organized their EN-
y ployes by hundreds ana thousands and sent them
10 the tabernacle to hear tho great preacher
Think of 10000 employees Of the Pennsylvania
d railroad G o Hahy in one masscd group going
10 the tabeI are and other groups OF men
(half many more) on tho night shifts going
Together nj another time, or or 200 members
. Of the Produce Exchange sitting, shoulder tC
q shoulder. to listen 10 his stirring messages, de-
livered IN the language and terms Of corn
Thousands of college students and moro thou
sands OF the bright young people from the gram
=, mar and nigh schools and academies Of the city
have been again and again to hear him. MANY
: times twice In the week 10000 men only have
gathered to hear him. And all who have heart
him have wanted 20 hear him again.
Neither grosesquerie vaudeville could do
n this Once in a while is sufficient for there
=, things,
Not the Man But the Message.
What has done IT. What has called together
this audience of 10000 twice day for ter
weeks? Thousands of them often waiting pa
tiently for hour two at the door of the
tabernacle to get ia.
The answer is. not the only but pre-
eminently his message
This combination Of man and message ex
r plains this phenomenon. Neither the man MOI
the message taken apart from the other
could do it, but In combination they have done
IT, No man without that message could do it
Not Booth nor Saivini. Henry Irving. Nc
woman could do it, Not Ellen Terry Bern
: hardt. Caruso could not do II Patti could not
do II. not with their wonderful voices andd
songs. Bob Ingersoll, matcihess orator ht
was could not do it, even though he had for his
u theme the Mistakes Of Moses No infdel nj
: free thinker socialist nor labor unonist, nor
politician could do it, No scientist could do It
No philosopher could do It. If any one thinks
So let them build "a $50 900 tabernacle and
speak in il for eleven weeks twice day. and
/ see what would happen
II Then why and how has Billy Sunday done
| it? Not because ne is master platform oraror
: That would not do it, But because no has a
message that appeals 10 all that Is deepest truegt
land best in human nature Harold Begbie says
that all men conscious Of "unha ppiness and
3, Iunftness": and therefore. when a master comes
VIII re these WI universal