The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1916-11-20
MORE THAN 10000
IN SUNDAYS
AUDIENCES
Twenty Thousand More Turned
Away From Tabernacle
TOPIC WAS BROKEN ALTAR"
Evangelist Says Many Preachers Fail
Because They Fear to Be
Sensational.

Boston, Nov. 19.-"Billy" Sunday
preached to three capacity audience
today. More than $1,000 people at
tended the meetings and about 2O,00o
were turned away for lack of room.
1t was the greatest day so far in the
Boston campaign. Broken affairs,
"Billy's" new sermon, was the sub
ject at the morning service. The at
ternoon sermon was taken from the
text of II Timothy, ii: Is. For the
evening sermon the baseball evange-
list spoke on Deliver the goods"
In his morning sermon M. Sunday
said that too many preachers were
afraid of being sensational. lie SAID
that preachers should be outspoken
and say what they believed no mat
ter whose feelings might be hurt. The
evangelist criticized the Unitarians,
Universalists and Christian scientists
at the afternoon meeting.
Mr.. Sunday said in part at the morn
ing meeting: Seek first the KING
dom of God and his righteousness, as
much in force today as 1t was 2OOO
years ago, and the man who does 1t
will have stirring time and make
the devil lots of trouble. There was
nothing so much needed in lsraePs
God cont Me
right man to the front to bring II
about. Let us see how he proceeded 10
do it. First, call to your attention
that fact that he did his work iu
way that was natural and unconyen-
tional. He had the backbone to be
himself. He wasn't piped down and
dominated by the personality OF some
other man He didn't ape anybody's
peculiarities or eccentricities. He had
some of his own, and had the courage
to keep them and use them for all
they were worth, and the preacher
who is afraid to be like him in this
respect will be as weak in his minis
try as Samson was after his haircut
when God calls man to preach
he expects him to do it as naturally
as he sneezes or coughs or snores.
His own individuality Is to him what
the steel frame is to the skyscraper,
and when he surrenders it in vain en-
deaver to be like some one else, down
goes his ministerial meathouse. he
has failed to become the bright and
shining light he might have been, and
so his candlestick is taken away from
him. Many preachers have a bar
rem ministry because they lose the
power of their personality by imitat-
ing some one who has been success
full.
"A lot of us, too. are afraid Of do
ing anything sensational. | have no
more patience with such than | have
with horse that SHES at wheel
barrow or a woman who goes into
mysteries at the sight of mouse.
Study the chapter of the text and you
will discover that about everything
the Carmelite did was sensational,
and it was because of this that he
woke up the whole country. If shut
ting off the rainfall for three years
wasn't sensational nothing ever was.
1t raised the biggest stir the country
had ever known and made Ahab and
Jezebel mad enough to bit them
selves.
"If you don't want to see a dead
town or a dead church, wake up,
don't be afraid of doing something out
of the common. There is plenty of
Bible warrant for not pushing things
aside Just because they may happen
to be little sensational. 1t was
sensational when Noah built the ark
and loaded it with its strange cargo,
and IL was sensational when Jonah
went through the streets of Nineveh.
covered with dried seaweed, and crap
hically told the story Of his three
days experience in the belly of the
whale.
"The first time Jesus went into
synagog after beginning his ministry
he created big sensation by teach
ing not as the scribes, but as one
having authority. The preacher who
cannot teach as one having authority
has no call from God to teach at all,
Read the 23d chapter OF Matthew and
you will find sensational preaching,
every sentence of which cuts like a
razor And then look at Pentecost
Can you imagine anything more sen.
sational than what was said and done
in Jerusalem that day Note. too,
how sensational John the Baptist, was
in what he was and what he said and
did No doubt II was because he was
not one OF a bunch that "all Jerusa-
lem went out to hear him"
"'Why don't people go to church,
is a great question that is always be-
ing asked. My guess is, that It is