The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1916-05-30
philadelphia Ledger

word has come to nave q more restrict
ed meaning Whitefield, who came to
Philadelphia and preached in the open
nunciation of sin in a voice so loud
that it was heard a quarter of a mile
away, was of the type represented in
these later years by Billy" Sunday
and his imitators. Charles Grandson
Finney, who stirred Ohio and then the
rest of the country in the middle of the
last century, was also an evangelist.
Marvellous stories are told of the in
fluence of his preaching upon his hear
ers, but not quite so marvellous as
those told of the preaching of Jona-
than Edwards in much earlier day.
But Edwards preached in community
of only 1000 people. He created what
the psychologists call an epidemic of
religious emotion, followed by an epi-
demic of suicides. The whole commun-
ity was made peculiarly susceptible to
mental suggestion. When one man
confessed his sins another followed
example. Then when one man killed
himself in an excess of emotion others
found it impossible to resist the same
impulse.
All the evangelists have been an un-
common sort of men. Moody was un-
imaginative and stolid, but was filled
with burning faith. Billy" Sunday
has the imagination of a sophomore
and the vocabulary of prize-fighter,
and he accepts the Bible with the lit.
eralness of those who believe that it's
punctuation and division into verses
and chapters is inspired. B. Fay Mills,
who has just died, was man of diff
ferent type. Even in the height of his
fame as an evangelist, between 1886
and 1896, it was whispered about that
he was unorthodox, and there were
those who said that he ought to be on
the stage as an actor instead of preach
ing the gospel. He looked like an ac-
tor. He had the rich, full, melodious
voice of an actor. He charmed by his
eloquence and persuaded by his plead
ing, but those who were not moved by
him found it impossible to escape the
conclusion that he was acting a part.
And he was, in a way, an actor, for
Bacon or Shakespeare, or whoever it
was who wrote the plays, remarked
that the worlds a stage and that we
are all acting our part on it. Some of
use were a little more theatric than
others. There may be greater differ
ences, but it must be admitted that
some of us are open to the charge of
play-acting.
The career of Mills was theatric
from the beginning. He was born in
Railway, N. j., the son of preacher,
and he justified the old saying that
ministers sons, and deacons' daugh-
ters are pretty wild. He was disso-
lutte and wastrel. He set out for Aus
tralia to escape the restraints of a
more civilized community. He got as
far as California and while he was
waiting for his ship in San Francisco
he lost his money in gambling place.
He decided to end it all by killing him
| self, but before he drank the poison or
| jumped into the bay or fred the shot
he read Bible verse which halted him
as suddenly as the voice in the thunder
halted Paul on his way to Damascus.
! He came back to the East and fitted
| himself for the work of a preacher.
| He became pastor of Congregational
| Church in Rutland, VT, and then of a
Presbyterian Church in Albany, N. Y,
and before long set out on the career
of an evangelist. Crowds flocked to
hear him. In the ten years of his great.
est activity it is said that 100000 per.
! sons were converted under his preach
ing. Then there were reports that he
had not entirely abandoned the disso
lutte habits of his youth. They may
have sprung from envy or they may
have been due to his retirement during
periods Of exhaustion from his labors
But they persisted,
Those who had been skeptical of his
orthodoxy were not surprised when
about IT or Is years ago he gave up
his evangelistic work, abandoned the
orthodox communion and accepted the
pastorate of a Unitarian church. His
own explanation, however, was simple
enough He said
II left my evangelistic work, first
because / despaired of the possibility
of a genuine, widespread awakening
and inspiration of the church; second
because of social vision, by which
came to conceive of Christ as the Saw
ior of the social organization rather
than of individuals third, because OF
the universal viewpoint which came to
me through my study of the great
books of all ages and nations, through
which the Bible ceased to be to me the
exclusively inspired word of God"
Last year he abandoned his hetero-