The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1915-03-11
BILLY SUNDAY, THE.
MAN AND HIS MESSAGE
Dr. Russell Cecil Gives Ministers His Impressions Rich
monder Loves Quiet and Order in Church ServceCannot
Condemn Methods Which Brought 100000 to Christ.

seem to be wise to me. or In good taste,
IL they are honored of God in win
ming men to Christ / do not sit in
judgment upon them.
From my point of view. Billy Sun
day breaches the gospel of Christ in
most wonderful way. He is charged
by some with preaching Seventeenth
Century Theology, What do these
critics mean by Seventeenth Century
Theology? l lave been laboring un-
der the impression that the Resorma
ton was a revival Of Biblical Tner logy,
and that Luther. Calvin. Knox and
other reformers carried the world
back to the theology OF the New Tes-
lament, the theology preached by Mr..
Sunday. He sees the horror, the hide
BUSINESS. and the destructive power of
sin; he sees II and. describes 1t In a,
way to make men tremble. His effort
is to make his hearers seew hat the
Apostle Paul calls the exceeding sin
fulness of SIM" He believes, as Paul
did. that "al1 have sinned and come
short OF glory of God; and II we
are TO be saved. we must be Justified
freely by His Grace through the re-
demption which is in Christ Jesus. p"
While he sees and depicts the awful
. ness of sin On the one hand; he holds
up Christ as TIE only Saviour of sin
ners md INN ediateiy available for
every pentient and believing sinner.
have never heard a man who could
hold up the Saviour in more at
tractive way than he does, But he
does not fail to make clear the diff
ference between a man who believes
in Christ and the one who does not
believe in Him. Men must repent
of their sins. and believe in Christ.
they are to be saved. there Is alb
solutely no other way of salvation.
This is what our Lord Himself taught.
and II is what the apostles taught,
or / have failed to read the New Tetta-
ment Scriptures Alright. Mr. Sunday
breaches a gospel of hope In his
view 1t does not make any difference
what a man has done, If he repents
of his sin and comes to the Saviour
he may have life; and no man can
present the offer of salvation in a
more attractive and winning way.
Exalts the Church.
He also exalts the church Some of
his critics say that he reflects upon the
church. which. after all, is the great
est moral and spiritual force in the
world they say he takes delight in
holding up the members of the church
and the Christian ministry to ridi-
Guile. This is far from true. as have
heard and read his sermons. He at
tacks with great severity and sarcasm
the members OF the church who are
not doing anything in the church for
the salvation OF the world; and he
does not hesitate to criticlse with
equal severitv merely perfunctory
and formal ministry. In this. how
ever, he uses no stronger language
than that used by the Lord Himself
upon the Pharisees of His day, whom
he denounced as "hypocrites. and to
whom He said, I'VE serpents, we gem
Grafton of vipers. how can ye escape
the damnation Of hell?" Billy Sun
day has never said anything severer
than those words. But while he cr..i-
cises immoral and worldly church
members and indifferent and ineffi-
cient ministers. he believes in the
church as "ti,e Body of Christ which
He loved and purchased with His
own blood" and which Is the pillar
and ground of truth: and he urges
those who are converted under his
preaching0 unite with the church
1t is remarkable fact. also. that
large numbers of those who are
brought to confession under his
preaching unite with the churches.
BILLY blessing.
I believe that Billy Sunday is a
blessing to the community which he
visits. / certainly hope that he Wi
come to our city; and feel quite sure
that if he does come. he will come, as
the Apostle Paul says. ''in the fullncss
of the blessing OF the gospel OF
Christ"