William Sunday, Father of the Evangelist Mother of the Evangelist FACING Frontispiece Certified Copy of Record in Adjutant-General's Squire Martin Corey, Mr. Sunday's Grandfather Sunday in His Old National League Uniform Enough for Two" Mrs. W. A. Sunday Mr. and Mrs. William Thompson, Mrs. Sunday's "Billy," Roy and Ed. The Day Before-What Happened to Sunday's Last Tent on the Closing Day at Salida, Col. My First Bible-A Worn-out Bible "Billy" Jr. As He Looks To-day. 49 54 59 68 77 83 94 Mr. and Mrs. Sunday, Helen, "Billy" Jr., George, "Be It Ever So Humble, There's No Place Like Living Room and Dining Room in Home at Mr. and Mrs. Sunday on the Golf Links. FACING 163 174 180 As He Appears at Home, Between Meetings Pittsburg Tabernacle-Estimated Seating Capacity A Single Sheet from Mr. Sunday's Sermon Notes. 189 240 257 260 Mr. and Mrs. Sunday Leading 22,000 People in 269 T INTRODUCTORY HE making of this book has not been undertaken as a defense of Mr. Sunday, for he needs none; the Master whom he so energetically serves having put His seal upon his labors in a way that the whole continent has been compelled to take note of. But the book is put into the hand of the reader with the hope and the prayer that through it he may come to know the real Billy Sunday, and learn how wondrously the Lord of Hosts is using him. I undertook this work believing that I ought to do it. Some years ago I was with Mr. Sunday as his confidential assistant, and so came to know him intimately. This made me conversant with the way in which his great campaigns are conducted, and gave me a knowledge of the details and machinery of his meetings. Having been a student of character all my life, I do not believe any other man has a clearer comprehension of the real Sunday than myself. Others who have been associated with him may possibly know him as well, but I am confident no one can know him better. I made his acquaintance soon after his conversion, and have kept in touch with him ever since. I have summered and wintered with him. Have eaten and slept with him. I have seen him in the limelight and in private life. I know his great passion for souls, and how it drives him to pour out his life and strength in trying to win them. I know how he preaches and what he preaches for. I know how he lives, and I know how he gives, and I know that he hasn't a drop of mercenary blood in his veins. I know how he tithes every dollar of his income. I know how religiously and quietly he is continually doing good with his money. I know of many struggling ones whose hearts he gladdens with timely help; of missions and struggling causes he aids, and I know of poor families supported by his bounty. I know that however unconventional his language may be, his preaching has in it the spirit of Christ and the power of Christ, and that it accomplishes what Christ commissioned His disciples to do. I know that he believes the Bible to be the word of God, and believes himself to be a messenger from God. I know that he fears neither man nor devil when he stands in the pulpit, and if it came to a test would go to the stake for his faith. A more honest or zealous man I have never known. He puts his very life and soul into every message he gives, and has kept on the go nearly all the year round for years without rest. This is the man in whose wake new buildings spring up for churches and Christian Associations for both young men and young women. The man who quickens the religious life of every church within fifty miles of where he preaches; even of those that antagonize his meetings. This is the man whose preaching makes religion something more than a name to conjure with. This is the man whom not only the common people, but all kinds of people hear gladly, because they can understand him. This is the man whose preaching makes people pay debts that have been outlawed, and brings long separated husbands and wives together in loving reconciliation. The preaching that fills every church in the community with new life and new blood; makes a market for Bibles by the ten thousand, and makes religion the chief topic of conversation everywhere. His preaching creates respect for the Sabbath and the house of God; makes it easier to enforce the laws; reduces crime, and slaps the devil squarely in the face wherever he shows his cloven hoof. It closes saloons and opens prayer meetings, and rekindles the fire on burnt out family altars. Mr. Sunday is not an uncertainty or an experiment. From his first meeting to his last he has had unbroken success. He has never held a meeting that did not result in a revival that reached the whole community, and he has never preached in a building large enough to admit all who thronged to hear him. There were places where Moody failed, and there have been places where all great evangelists have failed, but Sunday has never failed anywhere. He has been holding great evangelistic meetings for almost twenty years, nearly every one in a tabernacle built especially for it, and almost every meeting has been greater than the last. His converts are numbered by multitudes, and will compare with those who have accepted Christ in any meeting. Nicodemus was not blind in both eyes when he said to Jesus: "No man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him." And this is the message the Master gave to the disciples of John the Baptist: "Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached." Try Billy Sunday by this test, and every unprejudiced Christian man will be compelled to admit that he is a man sent of God. INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. ELIJAH P. BROWN. |