Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-09-15
THROWS DOWN
CHALLENGE ON
OPENING DAY
Continued from Page one.)

WHICH ne SAID Will prove useless
against the spirit of rampant pa
triotism in the hearts of the Amer
lean people. The closing words oil
this attack he made while standing
upon the pulpit, where he jumped
from a chair. With one foot upon
the chair and the other upon the
rostrum he shouted out over the
audience, Come on, forces of evil
in the tri-cities. 1 defy you. Come
on Come on"
The evangelist did not exclude
the audience from his policy Of in
/ formality and comfort He urged
all men, on account of the warmth
/ of the day, to remove their coats
I as he did. The greater part of his
{ sermon was delivered while he was
in shirt sleeves. Women were, like
/ wise, asked to take off their hats,
/ so that no ones view of the plat
| form might be unnecessarily OBJ
7 structed.
ROdeheaVer Sings Solo.
/ The afternoon song service, pre-
ceding the sermon, was featured by
a vocal solo by Mr. Rodeheaver, Il
I Walk With the King" in which he
| displayed his great ability. His
/ famous voice filled the great room
/ with rich tones, and was one of the
/ pleasing features of the service
I The auditorium was wisely plan
ned, as was seen a bit later, when
its wonderful acoustics carried
\the strains of The Little Brown
Church in the Vale" sung in the
lowest pianissimo by tn choir, to
all corners of the room. The song
was heard as well near the doors
at the extreme distance from the
rostrum, as in the front row
Rev J. Clark Granger led the
opening prayer Mr. ROdeheaver
again favored with a trombone solo
as the accompaniment to the col
lection. The ushers received the
characteristic bidding from Rev
Sunday, "AlI right, ushers, go to it
and get all they've got"
Before starting upon his text,
Sunday called all the members of
his party present at the time, upon
the rostrum, to be introduced to the
crowd. He added to this ceremony
by telling the religious sect to
which each of them belonged as he
d
member of a different church In
order as he introduced them, they
are: H. H. Pitzer, Homer Rode
HEAVIER. William Peterson, Fred W
Rapp, Robert Matthews, Miss Grace
SAKE, Mrs. William Asher. Miss
Florence E. Kinney, Mrs. William
Ashley Sunday.
"GOd'S Grenadiers" is Topic.
The topic of his afternoon ser
mon was Gods Grenadiers," the
text being taken from Luke, 24:49,
''Tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem,
until We be endued with the power
from on high"
The trouble with the church to-
day." he said, is that nobody wants
TO be among the shock troops, the
grenadiers, who like those of old in
battle, go out to fight the forces of
evil where the press is the thick
est. There are too many dead ones. |
They have sat around in church
pewS so long they've widowed !
You have to do something worth |
while to be a Christian-not con-
fine yourself to keeping a spot II !
inches square upon bench in a |
church warm for a few hours a |
week.
IF the first 20 verses of the ser
mon on the mount were lived up to !
by the whole American public to-
day, the greatest spiritual awaken |
ing which the world has ever
known would take place, churches !
would be crowded, the treasures
now empty would be replenished
and running over, labor would
shake hands with capital, the So
Cial problems would be done away
with. It's all the lack of just plain
practical Christianity.
I'm not here to sell you any
thing, or to buy anything from you.
I'm here to help you to see the
way to live better in the eyes of
God. The thing which is causing
The high cost of living everybody
bowls about today is a lack of pro-
duction. Too many of US are slack
adding nothing to
the worlds storehoUses," were
some of his statements. Later he
said, illustrating the practical value
Of religion:
@Needs Airship to Get to HeIl.'
IF this community were to close
1p the churches and drive out all I
preachers and priests. real estate I
would not be worth 10 per cent on
he dollar. Anyone sneering at the !
church, and therefore sneering at i
Christ, one higher and more rever- I
Ind than his earthly parents. is so t
ow down that lie needs an airship Z
10 get to hell"
The audience was worked up to a
high pitch of enthusiasm toward
he close of his sermon when he {
Toiced intense patriotic feeling in S
with religious fervor. q
He led up to his point with the old '
md wel-known story of Napoleon c
md the drummer boy, who, when a
commanded to beat retreat, re I
lied that he didn't know how Z
Lets know like the drummer Z
10Y that we can beat charge that /
will make the dead waken into +
ife. We can and will beat the evil o
orces back and back and down to il
he lowest circles of hell where o
iiey belong. 1t was that indomi- il
able courage which filled our boys. Il
he Yanks in khaki, when they
harged ouver the mud and chaos il
( No Mans Land, through every Il
hing, to victory, God bless EN-. c.
cts sing that old rallying tune. b
he Battle Hymn Of the Repub- G
c'" And the evangelist led the b
inging, beating time while stand A
p, a. I