The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1915-04-25
.PRESEN AGE:
IS INDECENT
AND VULGAR:
Says Chicago Preacher i'm De-
tending Billy Sundays
Style of Preaching.

| z & r. 4 l. n j - & 4 y
PITTSBURG, Pa, Apr. 24.An=
sWer to the arrangement of Billy"
Sunday by DR.. AndreWF. West. dean
/ of the graduate school Of Princeton
university, who recently characterize
ed the evangelist as coarse. vulgar.
1 blasphemOus, ifreFerent and abus-
i've" and his activities as 'travesties
upon the. teachings Of Christ" was
voiced by the Rev. DR.. James NJ.
! Gray,sdean tof the Moody Bible Insti-
tute of Chicago.
DR.. Gray ~ no speaks of the base
ball evanEe LIST as being, possibly. the
fLord's anointed. In Pittsburg for
the closing lecture at the Smithfeld
EStreet Methodist church before the
Union Bible class which grew out
l:nf the Sunday meetings last year in
tFPittsbuTg ,,g#
.4 staunchly supporting the baseball
Evangelist but decryins the crop of
l3copYiRts mi hat5are already showing
themselves sconrge tothe church.
| bringing the minor note into the.
song of praise for Billy Sunday"
4 DR. Grey. in the Fort Pitt hotel de-
EcIared tina tsthe opinion expressed by
1.-THE Princeton dean were stricturesr
| upon the evangelist's sermons.
Princeton university was free TO
its motives could not be lmpugned.
/ Sunday was invited to Princeton by
the eologieal $school. not by the I'M
diversity, the Theological school is lot.
lfunder university Jurisdiction.
THE quotations from Sundays
sermon taken by themselves and in
l.cold blood would seem to justify
the structures put3upe them, but two
or three qualifying facts are to be
kept in mind.
I'm the first place this is a vulgar
and indecent age. The worst days
OF Rome and Greece are being re-
heated in al our. great actiSities and
it seems necessary to meet the sit
Iuation on It's own ground. The peo-
pie need to be talked to ina language
they seem best able to understand.
Perhaps Mr.. Sunday wassraised to
meet the eXigency and end owed with
the vocabulary for the times.
In the second place. strange as it
may appear, the most cultured and
refined people or our churches at
tend Mr.. Sunday S meetings and are
|fenthp siastic, over. them. This is as
tstrue of the women as OF the men.
Flocks ofFWomen, many of them of
lthe2hi CHER grade. who-traveled from
| New York to Philadelphia to attend
the MEETINGS, testihedsto having been
greatly blessed by them. Some of
them said that some. Or other they
Ibid not serious notice his vulgarity
ltor slang.
I'm the third place, that souls are
being saved there may be no tques-
ton. 1t is charged against Mr.. Sun
day that he is .lnoreBof political or
moral reformer than preacher of
the gospel, but feel ttatYthat i'm
preston grows out of his sermons or
remarks. III
| Under these : Giro unlstancess one
needs tor be cautious III the whole
sale,and unqualified condemnation OF,
Mr. Sunday, est he.thei putting forth
his hand to- touch the Lords anon
ted.
The greatest charm to follow
this work. said Dr:.gG ray in conclus-
ion. Is the crop OF 1copyists' that
will be raised and that are, indeed.
already showing themselves. 1f the
church could be spared or this
scnurge, the minor note would not
be So Comment, in the nraise Cor.
Billy Sunday,
Dean West IL in his state on Sun
day quoted numerous specimens of
billy Sundays "frreverent famil=
liarity' toward God and OF his "swaE-
gerinE impiety These we're made
after a study Of the sermons Of the
evangelist In Philadelphia. %
Many OF Mr.. Sunday S remark Is, a
Dean West declared are personally
abusive or disgusting or slanderous.'.
/ ~ - o. - q ~ - AsA,