The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1915-01-12
TUESDAY, JANUARY y, 1915

THAT advertising pays will probably
be admitted by Billy Sunday, the man
who practically tumbled from a saloon
to the pulpit and who is now making
one Of his sensational efforts in Phila-
delphia. No man or business has re-
ceiyed more free advertising than this
~Tevivalist, who discards the name of
"William'' for that Of BILLY" and who
conducts his services along about the
same line, leaving the old-established
ways of his forefathers and going into
gospel hammering in a manner that
will best attract attention and a crowd.
Oldtime Bible readings. with calm, dis
passionate comments thereon, are thrown
aside for the lowest bits of slang, utter
ances which, if given out from any pull
pit in the country, would bring discredit
upon the minister and cause vacant
seats in the church. But for Billy Sun
day to do it seems all right. The people
Of Philadelphia flock in crowds to hear
him and to revel in his slangy utter
ances. Some OF the very best people of
that city interested themselves to the ex-
tent of providing a building large enough
to hold the crowds. Collections are
taken and when the entire expense of
the revival is paid the collections cease
until the last meeting when the proceeds
60 to Billy. 1t is said that in one of his
campaigns in Pittsburgh he carried
SEC, 900 home with him. So numerous
are the phrases and remarks made by
this man that it takes columns of the
daily newspaper to reproduce them, and
it may be said here that the space is
freely given. 1t may not be out of the
way to give n or two Of them here.
This is a beautiful thought to put out to
. Y sinners: why at Pentecost, one
M saved 5000 people. Now it takes
1900 to get one old buttermilk-eyed red
nosed, whiskey-soaked blasphemer. y
Imagine this from the lips of one who
comes pretty nearly to being a bias
phemer himself. There is another in
which Billy claims his mission is to save
sfour-hushers, takers and beggars."
How far would a Mount Holly minister
get with a sermon on that line of talk.
One more and we will leave hat part of
the subject. 1t is: "Some people are so
stingy that they never give up a dime
without whistling God be with you till
we meet again. This is apparently
D that has method in it, as it may
aus some of the auditors-using some
Of the slang that seems to be popular-to
sIoosen up" on that last collection.
The performances of Billy Sunday have
created considerable discussion and there
are probably as many who frown upon
him and his methods as there are those
who !ecommend them. One cores
pendent to a Philadelphia paper avs
that the present campaign will cost
about 100000 and suggests that this
money might well have been spent for
the benefit of the suffering poor of the
city. Those who have dared c~riticise
Sunday have been referred to the work
done by T almage, which is really UNI
fair to the memory of the latter, with
whom the present-day r~evivalist is not for
q moment to be compared, True, Mr.. Tai
mage excited laughter at one moment
and compelled silent gravity at the next,
but his utterances were beautiful and re-
fined, entirely the opposite of those of
Sunday who uses coarseness and sport
ing talk, and from all that has been pub
lished it is hard to see where his argu-
ments are novel, logical or convincing.
An exchange says that, Gin comparison
with Dwight Moody, one of the most
sincere and effective revivalists of the
long line Of such religious workers
America has produced, Sunday would
not show to good advantage. He is
more of the Sam Jones type, and if he is
really as sincere in his convictions as
that rude Georgian was, he may accom-
plish some good. AS to whether Sun
days crude and violent methods, his
vaudeville" humor, and the rank vul-
garity Of his utterances, from which be
contends he has ''cut out all slang
will long serve to stimulate an actual
spiritual awakening in an era of wide
spread education we are compelled to ex-
press a doubt" In the days of the old
fashioned ~revivalist, the speaker or ex-
horter would go home and rest himself
by prayer and further study of the Bible.
Billy Sunday goes home to be rubbed
down. by a professional caretaker, and
accidently have his picture taken for the
press. Yet one of the mans utterances
is to the effect that "Many a society
woman whose pictures get in the papers
regularly is nothing more than a silly
flip" But, of course, Billy Isl not a
ka.oa.o4x- e-.o