The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1915-01-26

| with enrolled membership OF over 500
Il Superintendent Hopper. of the Lackawanna
County Sunday School Association, reports the
county membership increased from $4,000 to
$4,000, and the most significant fact Of the
10000 gain in members is that ninety per cent
Of them were men--men who could qualify in
organized adult Bible classes.
/ That Billy Sunday reached men is evidenced
by another fact. At the last meeting In the
tn bernacle for men, Sunday. April 10, at p.
NJ, Mr.. Rodeheaver requested that all men
who had stopped hitting the booze" since Mr..
Sunday came to the city raise the right hand,
and Immediately hands shot up,-men Wed
with each other in trying to raise their hands
higher. How many were there? From where
the writer sat, on the steps OF the platform. 1t
seemed If almost every man in that audi
cnce of 10000 men had his hand up. From
competent judges II estimated that no less
than 5000. and probably 5000, had become
total abstainers. Here was visible evidence, and
cur hearts still glow at its remembrance.
conservative estimate places the number OF to-
tai abstainers in this valley the result of the
Sunday campaign at not less than 10000 men,
saying nothing about the women
Some people say that the Sunday campaign
was failure. Who say this? Brewers and sa-
loonkeepers Can refute their statements?
The report of the internal revenue collector for
/ this district Is of value. He reports for the
/ first six months of this calendar year. 1900
gallons of whiskey less consumed than in the
preceding six months. $4,000 barrels of beer
less than, for the same period last year, and
corresponding decrease in tobacco
The number of licensed places in Lackawanna
County last year was $50. The number of
licenses granted this year 925, but among
these there number not taken up and
=. Up to October "a over 800 transfers Of licenses
had been granted applied for, the most unu-
sual number of transfers known in Lacka-
wanna County.
/ To sum I'D the investigation as to whether
I the campaign paid: One church gained in
ceipts $500. about fourteen per cent Of the
entire cost of the campaign. If the 500 churches
within the territory embraced gained average
I Of only 5000 per year Though $500 is believed
to be nearer the true amount) the churches will
nave gained in receipts the first year from $780,.
900 to 81 $4,000 for an expenditure of $4,000
II the 10000 new now in Lackawanna
County Sunday schools contributed on aver
age only ten cents man each Sunday for fifty
Sundays in the year. the Sunday schools will
have gained $4,000, $4,000 more than the
entire cost of the campaign.
If the 10000 booze quitting men spent an
average Of 50 per man each week for fifty weeks
in the year for intoxicants 1--WE have numerous
personal testimonies OF booze bills that range
from $40 to $3.50 per month";, then for an in
vestment OF $4,000 have diverted $1,000. 600
per year from the hotel and saloons into hon
orable and legitimate business channels and
into the churches. You say these figures
too high; they not too high Well, cut the
amount in two; 1T worth $4,000 to divert
$500, 600 into legitimate business channels and
into the churches?
| The other day the writer asked an executive
auditor of one OF our largest corporations what
effect the Sunday campaign had on their en-
}ployes.
! Our employees have been Transformed" he
replied. ut was the greatest institute for efi-
Iciency that We have ever known In efficiency
the company has gained In one month several
times the cost of the tabernacle. and in actual
leash from loss OF time. leave OF absence Gntox-
icaton), sickness tdissipation) I'm any one
month an amount equal to the entire cost OF the
10 bernacle"
Was it worth $4,000 In advertising to the
I city Of Scranton to have il known that 1t
good place to live in? {And it is Come and
lsee.) Was it worth s4S 900 to have II. 900 per-
sons tof whom 800 Roman Catholics) "hit
the trail coming they did from almost every
State east OF the Mississippi River and from
some States west, and from the Dominion OF
Canada, not mentioning the number OF for
eigners residents of this valley?
The writer personally knows wives who. il
they had the money, would willingly have paid
s4S.000 individually for the restoration OF their
husbands and their sons 1t was a common
sight to see father and hit the trail together
ana we have many instances where whole fami-
lies were converted. where previously not sim
Eie member was follower of the Master.
Did it pay? The temporal side Ia so large
mat 1t almost obscures the spiritual What
about the spiritual? The results can never be
estimated and will never be known until the
righteous Judge shall make them known at that
Day!
Billy Sunday grams
Ny God shall supply all my needs-not all
l
don't need one. Mr.. Wanamaker has given me
the use of his all the time am In philadelphia
God can make Andrew Carnegie and John D.
Rockefeller look like plugged counterfeit cent
beside a $1,000 government bond.
IL you're old society booze holster and
card player, it's because you'd rather be that
than a praying Christian.
Don't You come whining around me. Just
you tell God you're old four fusher and
don't wan: to be decent.
God will damn you for what you don't do in
this campaign. You say you go to the taberna-
Gle. So does the saloonkeeper so do the women
from the redlight. What do you do that they
don't?
A lot OF the stuff they call religion these days
is the faith OF the devil
Listen. preachers, you can't try to please some
old double chin society dame or a man with a
money bag
wish to God have revival in literature.
l wish some OF you would go home this after
noon and burn some of the books in your libra
ries, like they did in Ephesus, under Paurs
preaching. If you did that, some Of you
wouldn't have enough paper in your house to
wad gun or curl your hair.
The preacher that saw some OF you walk
into prayer meeting would have nervous pros
tration.
A lot OF you deacons and elders ought to be
down here your knees.