The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-04-24
LARGE CROWD
GREETS billy
IN AFTERNOON
Visitors Pack Tabernacle to
Capacity and Enthusiast
cally Receive Spiritual Mes
sage of Evangelist.
NEARLY 5000 PRESENT

Surrounding territory paid tribute
to Billy Sundays power, when he
preached Sunday afternoon on "The
Hour is Come" before a packed tab
ernacle. that a show of hands proved
to be largely composed of out of town
people.
Hundreds of people stood about the
edges. and outside the doors and win
dows after the 5000 seats OF the au-
ditorium had been taken, making Il
total crowd of nearly 5000.
The overflow swarmed over the
platform, into the vacant seats of the
chorus, and passed even into the press
boxes at the sides.
Tremendous Crowd.
Its Billy Sunday meeting" de-
clared Albert Peterson the custodian,
and for Billy Sunday 1t was.
The applause for Mr. Rodeheaver,
and later Mr.. Sunday as they reached
the platform was as spontaneous as
| it was greater than any yet given in
/. Richmond. Through the sermon, the
! laughter sprang more genuinely free,
! the clapping was more sincere and
| strong, and at the end, when Sunday
] finished with the story OF the Chicago
| tough who said his only prayer, Nov
II Lay Me Down to Sleep" while lying
in the gutter, wounded to death, the
/ silence was deep, and while one man
in the front rows, as typical OF the
audience, was drawing deep slow
breaths, and holding his head down,
| tiny, far-away applause, broke out
/ Sunday Leads Choir.
/ The music of the chorus broke into
the applause that might have been
/ heard, and few minutes later the
great congregation, still in the build
ing, was following Billy Sunday while
he led the chorus, with all the vigor
and abandon of a cheer leader.
THE hour is come" declared Sun
day, ito present yourself to God, to
: realize that the church is here for
purpose and not as an end in itself.
! Hitting at the preachers and the peo-
pie who do not believe in reviyals,
: Sunday surged and fought about the
platform. They don't like his meth
ods," he shouted, that is what the
politicians thought of Daniel when
they had him cast into the lions den,
that is what the Pharisees thought of
Jesus when they spit in his face and
threw stones at Him."
: Rushes Across Platform
Here Sunday suddenly spit on the
2 floor, and raced across the platform.
l in the action of throwing stones.
"They didn't like His methods" he
shouted.
But when in his rage at the people
that sit around and argue and talk
: about means, without doing anything,
: Sunday tried to spit his thought at the
; audience, he could only sputter, There
+. are not words enough"
Whirling and waving his fists in the
: air, has face red and hot from action,
I he faced the chorus, "Rody, tell them
s what | think of things like that" he
s said.
I THE cause of Jesus is matter for
fighting" he shouted. I'VE fight dis
ease; we fight evil; we fight all those
things; we must fight for the cause
of Jesus
Scores Flabby Preachers
Turning his attention to the min
listers who tried to speak softly in their
church, he scored them when they
feared to face the truth.
THE time has come for plainness Of
speech on the part of our ministers
You admire the man that tells YOU
what you are, who has the force to tel
the truth You admire the physician
!, who tells you what is physically BAD
with you. Why, then, should you hate
and vilify the preacher who will tel
you what is the matter with you moral
!, ly?" he asked.
y The minister who breaches tn,
q dainty way is letting his church b'
1t an end unto itself, and the dew
n laughs in hell, because he wants tina
5. kind of a church"
le First Effort to Preach.
20 Telling of his first attempts L
preach, Mr.. Sunday brought wavt
of real laughter from the audience
9 He told of his attempt to write ser
e mon with long words. and compiicate
lie sentences, and full of real English.
lie But" he said, cit didn't stir any
N body No body was saved and every
Sc thing was just as it was
70 Then l took down my old gospe
n. gun, and loaded it with pepper, sou
RI milk, strychnine. dynamite, and barbe
lie wire, lowered the muZzle, and turne
g her loose, and the feathers have bee
n flying and the fellows hunting f.
Is cover ever since"
ne Homer Rodeheaver tried a new pla
y for singing Brighten the Corne
II Where You Are" On the chorus tn
er left side sang the first phrase, th
right side the second, the chorus tn
variation, and the last twenty row
the last phrase.
The words of the last of the son!
II: coming down the long tabernacle Il
OF wards the front, welled in like It'd
le- over the harbor bar, miles away.
DC Rev. e. Howard Brown. of the Ea;
90 Main Street Friends church offere
IS the opening prayer.
to one to whom this honor should g
my mother"
IN If Jesus Christ would come dow
ny that aisle, I'd leave this platform {