Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-04-17
BILLY SUNDAY TRIES
OLD TIME RELIGION
ON MODERN GOTHAM
Famous Evangelist Offers
Nothing New TO New York,
the Graveyard of Preach
erS"-Can He Make Good?
BY REV. CHARLES STEELE.


NEW YORK April 14.-Can Billy
Sunday make good in New York?
His critics have been saving New
York will be his Waterloo. and that
what got across elsewhere would not
go here.
But even Billy himself thought the
same thing a couple of years ago. and
frankly fought shy of an evangelistiC
campaign in the worlds biggest city.
And vet Sunday has been literally
forced into the fight i'm New York. He
has been drawn into il in spite Of him
self and Ma" for Ma" Sunday feared
this big town as much as Billy did and
she uId all she could. at one time, 10
keep him out of IT,
But Billy Sunday is here-his great
revival opened this week-and he's GO
ing 10 have the fight of his life-and he
knows il. And New York will also know
il before he gets through.
Billy believes that forces which have
been opposing him in his campaigns in
other cities are TO make a united attack
upon him here. and that they have
raised a fund of half a million dollars
TO discredit him not only with the pub
lie hut with the church people.
I have often heard Sunday use the
picturesque language for which he Is
famous. but when. in his first address,
he paid his respects 10 the crowd that
is after his scalp. for the first time
since I've heard him. he hesitated De-
cause even his choice vocabulary did not
contain words numerous and forceful
enough to characterize the men he was
trimming
Standing on top of his little pulpit he
dared them TO come on and do their
"dirtiest"
The way Sunday proposes 10 do this
is not by preaching a new gospel In
his very first address. delivered to 10000
people. he declared:
Il bring you nothing new. I'm an
old-fashioned preacher of the old-time
religion. I have no use for the doc
trine of the universal Fatherhood Of
God and the Brotherhood of Man
And when "ROdy." Sundays leader Of
the music. sang his first solo. he Sc
lected one about the 'old-fashioned
faith" in which he warned his hearers
TO flee from the terrors of hell
This wrold is going to hell so fast
she's breaking the speed limit" said
Sunday.
Here. then. is the keynote of this
rreatest of mOCern evangelistic cam
paigns i'm Americas biggest city. It's
.he old-time religion that was good
enough for mother" and which its eX-
ponents say ais good enough for me-. =
And the most experienced observers
-theolOgical professors. social workers
church officials. professors of psychol-
ogy-are watching the campaign with
CRITICAL eye. not necessarily opposed to
il. but intensely interested in learning
how the message and the method which
cot across in other cities will get across
m what is everywhere admitted to be
the hardest city in America TO reach
with any kind of campaign.
Sunday made his first big hit with
the crowd when he said that after his
workers are paid and all legitimate ex-
penses are met. every dollar of the free
will Offering" will go TO the work of the
Red Cross society and the army work
ers OF the Young Mems Christian asso-
citation.
1t will be interesting to watch the out
come of this battle royal during the next
three months. Next to the war, it will
be the biggest feature engaging the at
tention of the metropolis.
More than this. the Sunday campaign
will attract the attention of the Chris
tian forces of the world, because this
is the most highly organized and in some
respects the most important evangelistic
campaign conducted in the recent his
tory OF the church.
Back of the campaign are some of the
most prominent and successful business
men in this country. They are putting
into il all the genius that made their
own enterprises stand out in the COM
mercial world.
Actively engaged As committeeman
and special workers are some of the
best known religious leaders on two
hemispheres.
I saw on the platform at the open
ing meeting men who are famous the
world over. And way back at the rear.
scarcely observed even by those near
him. modestly sat John ID. Rockefeller.
Jr., who. with several other men of
great wealth. are members of the com
mittee responsible for the Billy Sunday
campaign
Whatever the genius of experts could
furnish or money could buy. which was
regarded as necessary to make this cam
paiEn win. has been supplied.
And so New York. which has been
called The Graveyard of Preachers,
because almost every minister of promi-
nence who came here to save New
York has soon been buried out of sight
New York. which listened for a few
days TO Dowie Of Zion City. then laughed
and forgot him-New York, which
caused even Moody. the greatest evan
gelist Of the last generation, to seem ia
have finally lost his grip-New York
the city to which everybody wants 10
go before they go to heaven-New York
has Billy Sunday to see if he cannot
save il from hell"