Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-03-02
PASTOR SAYS
! SUNDAY WILL RAISE
STORM IN THAT CITY
Rev. Mr.. Campbell Forsees
the Evangelist Breaking
Up Conventionalism and
Driving Out Faddists
and Rationalists.
Nv THE REV. J. L. CAMPBELL

Bv THE REV. j. L. CAMPBELL
Pep. Mr.. Campbell is pastor Of the First
panfist church, of Cambridge, Mass. He
,cas head OF the delegation of ministers
ron, Boston u came TO Phtlddetphtd to
s,pite Mr.. SUNDAY TO conduct q reUtUdt
nannaion there. He has remained IN this
citv as a guest of tho Rev. DR.. John Cor
don. s7f4 North 18th street.
Az one of the delegation coming from
Boston it has been with the keenest in
,srest that [ have attended the services
AZ the BILLY" Sunday tabernacle in Phil
odelphla. For over a year the question of
hs coming to our city has been agitated,
and this fact in itself has made our
newspapers alive to all information that
could be gathered about the evangelist
and his methods.
\ Mr. sundays name has become a house,
hold word throughout New England and
there has been a remarkable Increase OF
,tnanimity among evangelical Christians
in his favor. His alleged antics in the
nt,Ipit. however, and the slang with which
his speech was said to be punctuated and
The violence of his denunciation also re-
ceiyed prominent notice and made some
people wonder.
THREE CLASSES OPPOSE.
Two classes of the community have
been violently opposed to Mr.. Sundays
coming to Boston. These have been the
brewers and the Unitarians, an interest
ing combination. To them should be
added. but hardly in the same group, a
third class-some theological professors
and pastors who are tainted with the
Views of Unitarianism. These men have
not scrupled to take the money contrib
uted by orthodoxy to undermine the faith
that has given them the positions which
they now occupy.
After a pastorate OF IL years in the
largest Protestant church in Cambridge,
and knowing Boston as I do, l am asked
thls question, Twill Billy Sunday sue
coed in Boston and what may we expect
as n result of his three months cam
paign which begins in our city in DC
tober 1852"
In reply I may say that his ermo
are altogether of a stronger and better
quality than ! had anticipated. They are
carefully written. The diction is good,
the sentences we'll constructed and the
marshaling of facts and arguments are
clearly conceived and powerfully pre-
scented. No one is left for a moment in
uncertainty as to his meaning. His ap-
peal is more to the intellect thar to the
emotions.
NO LACK OF
There is nothing about his discourses
that would indicate n lack of education.
They could be preached in any college or
university in the land. 1t is when he
turns aside from his manuscript to add
emphasis to what he has been saying that
his extraordinary language appears. Yet
the man is in such an intense white heat
of earnestness and so anxious 10 drive
home his point that what he does and
says is forgotten and he sweeps his audi
ences irresistibly on with him.
His sermons are not of the usual even
g~elistic type. They are more apologetic.
They deal with defense, of the Christian
faith. Mr.. Sunday believes that men are
lost. His denunciations of sin are ter
rife, reminding one of the Hebrew prob
cts, and he has unlimited faith in Chrlsts
power to save. In the atoning sacrifice of
Calvary, he has a perfect and the only
remedy for human woes and needs. These
are the secrets of his marvellous power.
Where there Is SO much to
and thank God for one regrets to sug-
gest any criticism. l am told that in
the early sermons of the campaign he
used more slang han now. Occasionally
his denunciations are said to have been
even reckless. When one comes to see
and hear the man, however, he is led to
understand and make allowance for this.
PRAYERS A DISAPPOINTMENT.
Mr.. Sundays prayers are a disappoint-
ment. They are a combination of address
and prayer and there is sometimes a lack
of reverence when he approaches God
that one could wish was different. Say
what we will to men, but when we APP
proach the Throne of Grace we should
remove our shoes from off our feet, for
the ground is holy. Even here, however,
people keep in mind as accounting for
this irreverence the strain under which
he is laboring and his intense earnestness.
What effect will Mr.. Sunday have in
Boston? He will raise a storm. He will
break up conventionalism and drive fad
dlsts and loose religionlsts and rational
lists into bitter hostility. He will find
there, on the other hand, the New Eng
land conscience n an interest in things
OF religion. He will be backed by mighty
men or God and a host of them. 1t is
10 be hoped that he will not kill himself
by oYerwork before that time. 1 venture
TO predict that the greatest work in all
MS marvellous life lies before him in the
metropolis of New England.