El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-02-12
HOW SUNDAY PLAYS ON EMOTIONS;
FEARS AND GRIEF5, FAV0RITE5
After Joke He Suddenly Switches to That Little White
Hearse and Then Onto Something About Mothers
Funeral Comforts His Face and Acts, Even
Acting Role of Christ Crucified On Cross

, the air Home, Sweet. Home" Thou
sands are singing. Their faces are lift
ed They make no secret of their
tears
1t is the rarest sort of exception to
see in the congregation a face in which
Is objective interest in how Sunday is
doing things to the crowd sWaying it
to his will They are watching only
for what he is going to do next. MINI
iCry, sarcasm, slapSrick comedy, pugl-
listic fist-flashes-he brings them all
into play, until with their rocking
laughter the hall is like a vast pink
sea in commotiOn. He shocks them;
and the sound of their sharply taken
breath is like wind gust in thunder
weather.
Playing on Fenrs and Griefs.
you sneer at revival he hurled
that when you sneer at a revival, you
spit in the face of God, that you jab
your dirty hands into the bleeding
palms and feet and body of Christ that
you stone him on his way to GOlgOtha,
and you laugh at him-Hai ha, ha, ha,
hai" He reeled across the stage, leer-
ing like fiend drooling, bowling.
Many people have remarked the curious
MephistOphelian cast Of his mobile
face That day, acting the tortured
maniac, he brought all the demons
into play. Women put their hands over
their eyes, as though they could not
bear it.
He stabs them with pathos, following
a laugh
Jesus Christ never preached a fu-
neral sermon" he said once. Every
time he went to a funeral he busted
it up by raising the dead"
Appeals to Grief.
While the mirth was still going, he
twisted his features into fiendish hate.
His arms, flung wide, clawed wildly.
Anybody who says Jesus Christ
couldn't raise the dead is q dirty, in
famous liar" he screamed.
In an instant he had relaxed every
muscle in his face. His voice came
brokenly, like the voice of little boy
about to cry.
Don't you wish Jesus had been there
when they backed up the white hearse !
to your door and took your baby away
to sleep out there in the cemetery
A terrible moaning swept over the |
benches. For an instant a WOman's /
hysterical sObbing rose above it. Then ,
the sObbing died away in the signs and
the murmurs- Sunday went on
@DOn't you wish Jesus had been |
there when your mother went away2' !
He appeals to them with all the sides /
of his own personality, and he appeals !
to them with the personalities of all /
history. He tells often how one of the |
great actors of the SOS offered him a I
salary as an underStudy. On /
the platform in Philadelphia he has /
acted every character from NdIuans Ln6 ]
leper, Shaping at mosquitoes IN his !
bath in the Jordan, to Robert Z. Lee,
proudly declining the presidency of the /
Louisiana lottery, With irresistible /
he has brought Mary and 1
Martha into the kitchens and DarlOrs
Of Philadelphia. He has slid for bases
on the platform. He has played Christ
Opher Columbus, shouting from the |
poop Of the storm tossed Santa Maria:
sail on Sail on"
nnFa
He has leaned over the pulpit-the
great umpire of the universe, shouting
Town from the battlements or heaven:
you're Out!-this is a sermon for men
only" He has played the part of the
men who bound Christ, the men who
5pat at him, the men who gambled for
his garments. With a daring and eff
rOnteTy which stunned his audience
quite as much as the acting itself, he
las acted the part of Christ on the
ross.
All of the laughter, all Of the tears.
nevertheless, are only the preparation |
or the invitation. 1t is when calling
or converts that Sunday most tries /
llWays his most powerful. His last
'limaX is most dramatic. He saves the
scene Of the cross for the last From
he climax he sweeps into prayer,
the devout with his easy
familiarity with the Deity.
ooh, Lord, I tell you they're a fine
punch. Oh, Lord, I know they've got
he sand and the nerve and the grit
o take their stand for you. Oh, Lord,
hey've got the punch here in PhidaleI-
,hia. Oh. God, we thank thee that
hOu art the God who brought Shadrach I
1eshach and AbednegO Unsinged from
he fiery furnace"
PLENTY of Resources.
In this strain he will go on to enum-
rate all the miracles in the bible all
he heroic exploits in Christian his !
DRY. The strained voice rises and falls
n stormy cadences. The arms move | ,
hythmically. The head is thrown far
Jack. The eyes are tight shut On the
eathly pale face there is no notion /
Except the wild writing Of the lips
The strain snaps. He leaps across
he platform. Perhaps he picks up !
hair and whirls it in a full circle | Z
Ossing it away from him, letting it roll |
o the edge of the platform. He swirls !
lis right arm.
Come on" ne rOars. Come on II
. p