The Washington herald., 1916-05-21
The Emotional Evangelist.
Ry JOHN ID. HARRY,

The Emotional Evangelist.
by JOHN ID. BARRY.
1t must be conceded that Billy Sunday, far
from losing by the criticism of his theological
opinions and his methods has greatly proited.
incidentally, he has shown self-control and good
sense. 1t is true that on the platform, he some
times loses his head and says things that he
probably regrets when he calms down. But it is
also true that, in his calmer moments, he has
the good fortune to be guided by cmincntly
sensible adviser He likes to pay tributes Of
gratitude to his wife, kindly smiling woman,
whose of humor is ono of her finest
assets
1t is, | believe not TO the dscredit but to
the credit Of the clergymcn that, in the main,
they have taken friendly attitude toward this
old-fashioncd type Of evangelist. They recognize
that just as there arc nine and ninety ways point
cd out by Rudyard Kipng, OF writing tribal
lays. there many more than nine and ninety
ways OF reaching the human heart. And OF all
the ways OF reaching nc multitude i difficult
task, too, for those who have not the secret,
Billy Sundays is one OF the most effective
Whether the effect lasts Is another question, very
interesting in itself and worth pondcring over.
There those who GisapProvc of emotional
conversions altogether aud say that they arc like
u ,
however is not the fac: They often lead to
reactions, like other kinds OF conversions, but
they do not lead to reactions inevitably. Many
Of the greatest conversions the world has ever
Enown have been distinctly emotional and have
made a revolutionary change in character and in
methods of living. Prof. William James has
gone claboratcly into TIL, subject in that bril-
liant work. "Narictics Of Religious Experience"
which would be good hook to rc-rcad at this
time, when W. are all more or less interested in
the variety OF evangelist typihcd by Rilly Sun
day.
What interests nc most in Sunday IS that
OF all the clcrgymcn | have ever known, he is
one OF the most democratic. 50 often when d
gets religion, in his devotion to God or
what he believes to be his devotion to God, he
alienatcs himself from mankind or finds himself
alienated. In other words, his humanity is ap-
Parcntly sacrihccd to his spirituality. But as VIC
all know, in this kind OF situation there is
kind Of contradiction Most OF us have little
patience with the religion that makes itself an
aristocracy. The attribute OF true spirituality is
not exclusive. 1t is inclusive But the contradic-
ton is common that there arc those who
actually fear those who become spiritual or as
is sometimes said, pious.
A father OF my acquaintance takes towards
his sons attitude very like that OF Billy
Sundays. He talks slang with them. He dis
Cus>cs subjects that most fathers would not
dare to mention in the presence OF their sons
He laughs when the boys make remarks that
not quite proper and he often SAYS improper
things in their presence OF all the fathers that
know he is the clos st to his children. He
once talked with me at length about his
children and about the relation they maintained
together 'My father good deal OF a
hypOCrItc in his attitude toward US boyS, though
he didn't mean to be He was merely following
out what he regarded his duty He was like
good many other fathers. He used to take
high and mighty moral tone with US that
made very tired We knew that VIC weren't
perfect ourselves, and We also knew that he
wasn't perfect either. In TACT, before we grew
to be men VIC knew great deal about him that
he never in the world would have suspected
that we could possibly hnd out Now if he had
brought up right and kept us on good
human basis with himself VIC shouldn't have
cared. But VIC judged him harshly and We
resented his treatment OF US and we lost a
good many OF tho advantages that would have
resulted from having a healthy intimacy
with him, In fact we didn't have anv intimacy
with him at all, and ", established an attitude
OF mind toward him that, even when VIC had
grown to be men, VIC could not change So,
when had children OF my own | resolved to
take another course and. though | haven't been
by any means perfect nthcr, | think my
method has worked out pretty WE'LL"
There is no doubt about that fathers methods
working out pretty we'll, and there is no doubt
that Billy Sundays methods works out we'll 10
those it is aimed at 1t is not for the people
who regard formality as important and who
think that the latter is 4" insignificant as the
spirit or more insignificant Undoubtedly Billy
Sunday has his faults, and some of them are
very unpleasant When he gets on the platform
he often loses control and says things that he
ought not to say. That he is, on the whole,
sincere |, for one have no doubt But sin