Hot Grounders From the Bat of Billy Sunday on the Tabernacle Diamond
Palladium-Item. Fri, May 19, 1922 ·Page 15
Billy Sunday in action at Richmond, May 1922
Palladium-Item. Fri, May 19, 1922 ·Page 15
Month: May 2025
Palladium-Item. Fri, May 19, 1922 ·Page 15
Local female Bible teacher – Florence Kinney – teaches at the Richmond campaign (1022), newspaper account
Miss F. Kinney Arraigns
“Key to the Scriptures”
Miss Florence Kinney, member of the Sunday party, spent about three quarters of an hour yesterday afternoon on Mr. Sunday’s platform and went after Christian Science without mercy and by the time she had ended, the cult was ready for the junk heap from the standpoint of the lecturer.
Taking for her subject “Christian Science Compared to the Bible,” Miss Kinney placed the writings of Mrs. Eddy against the side of the Bible and the latter triumphed, according to the plaudits of the audience who were clearly on the side of Miss Kinney and the Word of God.
“Christian Science is neither christian or scientific,” Miss Kinney declared. “Mrs. Eddy says ‘matter is non-existent. All is mind.’ In other words if you are walking down the street and a ball hits you—well it would not be the ball. It was an idea that hit you.
“There is no such thing as a material world, according to Mrs. Eddy. All right. Then if there is no material world. Miss Kinney replied in answer to that and if matter is nonexistent as Mrs. Eddy says, then you and I are myths so there must not be such a thing as humanity. There is nothing to observe. Nothing to observe with, for we are all myths says Christian Science.
“Christian science is not scientific, because Mrs. Eddy denies what she says is not there. It is not difficult to prove that Christian Science is not Christian because Mrs. Eddy denies all the fundamentals of the christian religion.”
Miss Kinney took up the tenets of Christian Science reading passage after passage from Mrs. Eddy’s “Key to the Scriptures” claiming them all wrong and backed up her arguments with verse after verse from the Bible, repeatedly asking her audience which side they would take and always for herself declaring that she was going to stand upon the Word of God. Miss Kinney attacked Christian Science from a score of angles, arraigned it upon Holy Writ and left it a quivering mass.
Mrs. Eddy denies the personality of God, putting in His place an impersonal being, Miss Kinney said. Other denials she enumerated in the following arraignment:
Denial of the personality of the devil; denies reality of sin; denies the conception; denies the atonement; denies the death of Christ and the resurrection; denies the second coming of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit; denies prayer, declaring that it will lead people into temptation; denies death; denies that children are the fruit of the body.
Mrs. Eddy’s idea of the devil is that it is an error of the mortal mind, Miss Kinney said and to show that the thought is wrong for the glory of God,” and other passages from the Bible to combat the writings of Christian Science. “Sin is just an illusion of the mind,” Mrs. Eddy says, according to Miss Kinney.
Commenting on Mrs. Eddy’s denial of the conception, Miss Kinney says Mrs. Eddy claims that “Jesus was the result of Mary’s self-conscious communion with God and that Jesus is the human man and that Christ is the divine idea. Jesus Christ was not the one and the same person.
In contradiction to that Miss Kinney quoted God’s own words at the Saviour’s baptism. “This is my beloved Son.”
The atonement was held up. Mrs. Eddy’s definition on it and what the Bible says was read.
Jesus didn’t die, Mrs. Eddy says, was the next arraignment of Miss Kinney, like a lawyer before the bar of justice. According to Mrs. Eddy, He was in the tomb perfecting Christian Science. When He had perfected it then He came out. Mrs. Eddy says, charged the speaker.
The Christian Science idea of the resurrection, Miss Kinney said, is that the Master reappeared the third day of his “ascending thought.” This ascending thought is Christian Science, according to Mrs. Eddy, Miss Kinney said.
What the second coming of Christ means to the Christian Scientist is the awakening of the truth of Christian Science, Miss Kinney said.
What the coming of the Holy Ghost means to the Christian Scientist, according to their teaching, Miss Kinney declared, is the development of divine life and mean; Christian Science.
As Miss Kinney gave the Christian Science doctrine, she replied to them with a battery of Bible quotations that denied the statements as read from the “Key to the Scriptures.”
Although Mrs. Eddy will not accept the Old Testament as being inspired, declaring that it is part fables,” Miss Kinney said, the first verse in the Bible, “In the Beginning God,” Mrs. Eddy has changed it to, “In the beginning Christian Science.
The lecture was delivered in a cool dispassionate manner; there were no fiery utterances against Mrs. Eddy. Flowery phrases for anyone, but the cold recital of facts as the lecturer saw them. The exact words of Mrs. Eddy was quoted and the sequence built up upon logical thoughtful ground delivered by a thoughtful student. The combating evidence was the reading of the Scriptures, so that the lecture was exactly what its title said it was. It was the Bible against the “Key to the Scriptures” of Mrs. Eddy.
Cited in: The Richmond Item. Wed, May 17, 1922 ·Page 6
Editor: Miss Kinney may have lived at 22 South Fourteenth street; Miss Florence Kinney.
Billy Begins Fifth Week of Soul-Saving Campaign, Full of Energy and Zest
Richmond Palladium-Item. Wed, May 17, 1922 ·Page 7
What happened to the ‘Richmond’ Billy Sunday tabernacle after the campaign ended in early June 1922?
Tabernacle Sold
Earlham College trustees yesterday paid $2,200 for the [Richmond] tabernacle as it stands at South Fifteenth and Sixteenth streets. The check was paid to Ed Wilson, treasurer of the Sunday campaign and chairman of the salvage committee, which committee closed the deal.
It will be removed after the campaign closes. The Charleston, W. Va. tabernacle was sold for $1,000 and the money divided among the members of the Sunday party.
When the Charleston tabernacle was razed, men and boys spent days turning over the sawdust and many dollars in nickels, dimes, pennies and quarters were found.
Cited in: The Richmond Item. Tue, May 16, 1922 ·Page 1
“New Brand of Fighting Saint Demanded Today” c. 1922
The Richmond Item. Sun, May 14, 1922 ·Page 7
Helen ‘Ma” Sunday was a powerful force in Billy Sunday’s camapigns.
MA SUNDAY’S POWER SEEN IN CAMPAIGN
Her Judgment Determines Many Policies and Helps Evangelist in Work to Save Souls.
TAKES ACTIVE INTEREST
The balance wheel of the Sunday party, they call her.
Born of sturdy Scotch stock, Mrs. William A. Sunday uses all of the solidity and far-seeing qualities of her ancestry in matching the impetuous, quick action of Billy Sunday, and keeping the whole Sunday organization running in perfect trim.
As devoted to her husband as he is to her, she has been with him on most of his travels, and within between revivals and conferences the care of a family of four, and a home at Winona Lake.
‘Nell’s not much on looks,’ Sunday has told his Richmond audience, ‘but she has more horse sense than any other woman that I have ever seen, and every time I go against her judgment I get in bad.’
Energetic Personality
But Sunday’s own picture of her lacks one of her most forceful characteristics, her physical energy.
To follow a man of Sunday’s vitality on a revival campaign, and at the same time to rear four children, and care for a home requires more than ordinary physical endurance. But on top of it all Mrs. Sunday has continued to keep pace that has been set, and now not only takes care of the home at Winona Lake but is a general as the landscape gardener for their home town.
At the present time she is devoting her time to beautifying Winona Lake and keeping the home there in readiness for the week or two that Sunday pays there.
Knows How to Work
When Mrs. Sunday starts out on anything, she usually accomplished it. She has been known to work in the garden, and then go on a long trip herself. She has even been known to work in the garden when no one else could be found to do it.
Work in the garden is one of the diversions of Mrs. Sunday, and she often have found her hard at it, working among the flowers and shrubs that have fallen to her lot, but in the days when Mr. Sunday was a struggling evangelist barely making enough from town to town to pay the expenses of reaching the next place, Mrs. Sunday did all the work at home, cared for the children, and part of the time traveled with him, keeping the children in school at what ever place they were for the time.
The story of the courtship of Billy Sunday and Helen A. Thompson has been told many times, but it never loses its interest.
The two met just after Sunday’s conversion at the prayer meeting of the Jefferson Park Presbyterian church. ‘Nell is a Presbyterian, that is why I am one,’ Sunday said one night at the tabernacle.
Father Objected
Objections to a professional ball player on the part of the elder Thompson for a time made meetings between them difficult, but Mr. Thompson has said that since Sunday’s route to the ball park lay past his house, that Helen wore all the paint off the front porch by sweeping it while he passed.
While Sunday was with the Philadelphia team, Helen married him, and the honeymoon traveling was with the team.
Mrs. Sunday’s father was William Thompson, one of the pioneer manufacturers of Chicago, and was a soldier in the Civil war like Sunday’s father also.
Both of her parents were full Scotch, and she herself was born at Dundee, Illinois.
Cited in: Palladium-Item. Tue, May 09, 1922 ·Page 1
Sunday’isms from May 9, 1922 Richmond campaign
CAUGHT ON THE FLY
The God-forsaken dance in the schools is—I’ll knock hell out of that here. And you taxpayers have to go down and pay the bill for immorality. It’s an outrage.
Faith is a mightier force than dynamite.
You can’t hurt the Bible any more than you can stop an ocean’s wave by blowing against it with a tin whistle.
This tabernacle represents God and Christianity.
We depend too little on God and too much on the soup kitchen. There are more full stomachs than bended knees in the church.
There’s no use to go after a skunk with cologne water.
Some of us are so slightly acquainted with God that we are afraid to trust Him.
Faith takes God at His word without an IF.
When you have done your best you can trust God with the consequences.
You can pass the buck to God any time you want to if you have done your part.
God will damn any church that will run a dance.
If you want to see a dead town wake up, do something out of the ordinary.
A preacher that can’t preach as though he had authority from God, is no success. He just jimmied his way into the pulpit or had a pull somewhere.
If some preachers would talk plain to sinners in the front pews, how soon the old ice house would thaw out.
If Bible results are expected then Bible preaching must be given to the people.
There is constant disappointment in the preacher who tries to shoot bear with bird shot.
A knowledge of the Bible without education is better than education without the Bible.
The man that God sends is always the right man.
The preacher who is afraid to speak the truth is as weak as Samson was with his hair cut.
When God calls a man to preach he expects him to be as natural as when he sneezes or snores.
A safe and sane ministry is a good deal like a horse—well, one that any woman can drive.
Eternity writes no wrinkles on the brow of time.
There are some people who laugh at other people’s misfortunes. There are a few fools like that in the world.
They haven’t got through shouting up there yet since Moody swept through the gates.
Nobody ever goes to hell that he isn’t warned by God.
I am not discounting the value of education. It draws out virtues and attractions that do not appear otherwise. Education alone can not make character. Education alone can not save a soul.
I am a Christian because God said so. God’s word is the last word. I know I am a Christian.
I am not an infidel because I am not a fool.
I can’t understand your indifference to God’s love.
No rattlesnake will crawl over a rope.
Hell must be an awful place if God Almighty loved us enough to give His Son to keep us out of there.
I don’t think any man does the right thing by his family if he does not prepare for his wife and her little brood after he’s gone. I carry thousands of dollars worth of insurance.
If you are not willing to serve God, you are a God-forsaken, black-hearted ingrate and you are a fool.
Salvation belongs to God and God states the terms by which you may have it.
If you want to come to God you must come through faith in Jesus Christ.
I challenge you Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Christians, United Brethren, to show me that I don’t preach the truth. I hurl it into your teeth.
God never taught me to beat a retreat.
Some fellows will go fishing and stand in the water up to their waists all day, and watch the bobber and never get a bite and say they are having a good time. But if the preacher happens to trespass five minutes over time on Sunday morning those same birds will pull their watches and begin to fidget.
It’s a waste of time to pray to the wrong God.
If you want God’s purity in Richmond, build up the broken down altars.
What we need in the church is less pie and more piety.
You can’t wait three weeks, Richmond, Ind., to get your crop.
Before you can pray right, you’ve got to do right.
O Richmond, God’s warriors have first got to be His worshippers.
Some people are married to the church or the choir or the organ.
The stone that’s in the foundation of a building is more important than the flag staff on the roof, although the stone is not so much in evidence.
Hellen “Ma” Sunday delivers message to 2,500 women in Richmond, Indiana.
2,500 HEAR MRS. SUNDAY
Wife of Evangelist Addresses Women at Two Churches on Sunday
More than 2,500 women heard the gospel message delivered Sunday afternoon at East Main street Friends and the First Methodist Episcopal churches by Mrs. W. A. Sunday. She appealed for an awakening of the church people to their responsibilities and especially for the conviction of Richmond church officials who have turned a deaf ear to the effort now being put forth by Mr. Sunday for the saving of men and women for the Christian life.
“There are not enough preachers in the world to tell God’s messages. The church must have an anxiety for people or sons and daughters will not be born into the Kingdom. The most important thing in the world is to win souls for Jesus Christ.
Sermon and Mrs. Clark.
“It has been said that Harry Monroe was responsible for winning Mr. Sunday to Jesus Christ. He was and he wasn’t. It was the wife of Colonel Clark who put her hand on Mr. Sunday’s shoulder and asked him to be a Christian. It was Harry Monroe’s sermon, Mrs. Clark and God who won my husband to Him.
“I can’t understand why the elders and officers of the churches shouldn’t come to the tabernacle and help raise the standard of the church of God. If some of us would make a confession in our own homes maybe we could lead some of our children to Christ. Don’t you think your boys and girls aren’t watching you. Regardless of whether they say anything or not they know what you are doing and if you need to make a public confession of your sins, you should do it. If you do a definite thing at a definite time for Jesus Christ, He will bless you.
“If your religion amounts to the time you spend in church or at prayer meeting, it isn’t the Christianity God intended you should have.”
One of 57 Children.
Mrs. Sunday said she was one of 57 children who decided to live the Christian life, her decision taking place when she was 12 years of age. She stated that, at the age of 15 years, she was asked to teach a Sunday school class in the Third Presbyterian church at Chicago. This she did for three years. At the age of 18 years, while attending a revival service at the church, she was convicted of the necessity for leading someone to live the better life. Her success in leading her Sunday school class to Christ was successful, she stated, however, saying there was one girl she did not reach. After 30 years she met that person in Detroit and was instrumental in directing her on the right pathway. Mrs. Sunday now wears a handsome wrist watch given her by that woman, as an expression of her friend’s gratitude.
The singing at the East Main street service was in charge of Mrs. Virginia Asher with Mrs. A. H. Backus at the piano. Miss Florence Kinney held the crowd at the First Methodist church by the gospel message which she delivered. The singing was conducted by Mrs. Lloyd E. Harter.
Cited in: The Richmond Item. Tue, May 09, 1922 ·Page 6
Why did Billy Sunday use slang in his sermons? He tells us . . .
TIME FOR SLANG SAYS SUNDAY
Evangelist Explains Why He Uses Language of Streets In His Sermons
“Richmond ministers are dead right when they declare that if they said in their own pulpits some of the things I say in mine, it would sound ridiculous,” Billy Sunday admitted yesterday.
“There is a time and a place for all things,” continued Sunday. “Staid old church people, reared in Sunday schools, prayer meetings and churches and familiar with elegant phraseology, do not need to have things told them in the plain language of the street in order to comprehend them. Richmond ministers preach to about the same crowd every Sunday and they understand them perfectly.
Short Over Heads.
“But I speak to multitudes whose fathers never darken a church door. If I put them to the usual pulpit terms it would be clouds over their heads. Some of my hearers never went to school, never received church training. Their vocabulary is often limited to 500 words—many of them idioms of the street and slang, and some of them bordering on cuss words. Now I do not use cuss words, but I use the slang or phrase of the street that I know they will understand and respond to—and they do.
“I saw a man seated in front of me in the tabernacle whose dress and appearance showed he was a sport. He was plainly no church-goer. When I said in my sermon, ‘Don’t pass the buck!’ his face lighted up immediately. He was all smiles and he quickly got the idea I was trying to convey. Had I used highfalutin terms they would have been wasted on him.
Never So.
“When Lincoln used the word ‘sugar coated’ in one of his messages, Secretary of State Seward said he would never do—it was not refined enough.
“All right, you put in a better word,” Lincoln told Seward. Next day Seward came back and said he couldn’t find a better word, and ‘sugar-coated’ remained in the message.
Lincoln said there never would come a time when the American people would not know what ‘sugar-coated’ meant.
The apostle said: ‘By their works ye shall know them’—and when I put it: ‘Show me! I’m from Missouri,’ the man of the street not used to going to church gets the idea in a jiffy.”
Cited in: The Richmond Item. Sun, May 07, 1922 ·Page 6
“Say Jesus…”: What Billy Sunday’s Public Prayers Reveal about the Man, His Mission, and His Master
Note: To read Billy Sunday’s actual prayers, as they were published in the local paper in Richmond, visit this link.
In the spring of 1922, evangelist Billy Sunday descended upon Richmond, Indiana, for a multi-week revival campaign. Thousands flocked to the great wooden tabernacle built for the occasion. They came to hear Sunday’s famously theatrical sermons—but they also heard him pray.
Many of these prayers were transcribed by local newspapers, preserving a unique glimpse into Sunday’s heart when he spoke not to the crowds, but to Christ.
What do these prayers tell us about the man? What did he care about most? What themes, ideas, and images kept surfacing? What unusual moments give us insight into the soul of this revivalist?
After reviewing more than two dozen of his public prayers from the Richmond campaign, a compelling portrait emerges—equal parts preacher, prophet, and penitent.
1. Evangelistic Zeal and Urgency
Above all, Billy Sunday was an evangelist. His prayers are not casual introductions or polite benedictions—they are urgent appeals to heaven for conversions on earth.
Time and again he pleads, “Help them to walk down here,” or “May many tonight say, ‘Here is my hand, my heart, my pledge.’” He speaks to God with the language of altar calls. He prays as a man storming the gates of hell to rescue the lost.
In one prayer, he imagines a vast spiritual migration:
“Help hundreds of men and women to walk down the aisles tonight and take their stand for Christ… inside here, and the people outside here… help them all tonight to take their stand for Jesus Christ.”
His prayers are saturated with urgency, especially for those who might never get another chance.
2. The Devil Is Real—and He’s the Enemy
Sunday believed in the devil. Not as a metaphor, but as a malevolent force actively working to destroy lives and communities. He blames Satan for:
- Every penitentiary,
- Every broken home,
- Every alcoholic and prostitute,
- Every grave dug in rebellion against God.
In his words:
“It seems to me the devil has dug enough graves… carved enough epitaphs… made enough drunkards… enough whoremongers.”
He prays for the devil to be “beaten back” and envisions him retreating from Richmond on “crutches,” staggering in defeat. This isn’t poetic fluff—it reflects a core conviction: revival is spiritual warfare, and prayer is how you fight.
3. A God of Nearness, Not Abstraction
For all of Sunday’s thundering urgency, his prayers also reveal a tender intimacy with Christ. He doesn’t begin with “Our most gracious heavenly Father,” but with the familiar, almost childlike invocation:
“Say Jesus…”
He pictures Jesus leaning over heaven’s battlements, watching, weeping, waiting. He describes God’s heart as a harbor in a storm:
“It is big enough for a world to hide in.”
And when Sunday talks about Christ’s presence, he appeals to the common-sense faith of farmers and factory workers:
“We can’t see You… but we know You are here. We don’t see the air either, but we know it’s there. We’re breathing it.”
4. Confession of Inadequacy
One of the most human aspects of Sunday’s prayers is how often he admits weakness. Despite his celebrity and rhetorical firepower, Sunday repeatedly tells Jesus:
- “I feel distressingly inadequate.”
- “I don’t know what more to say.”
- “If I’ve failed, it’s from the head, not the heart.”
In one powerful moment, he imagines standing before God in eternity and being asked whether he preached the truth. He answers each divine question with clarity and conviction, but it’s clear he is not self-congratulatory—he’s a servant hoping he has done enough.
5. Gratitude and Specificity
Sunday doesn’t just thank God in broad strokes. He prays for:
- The Starr Piano Factory
- The Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs
- The Odd Fellows and Masonic lodges
- Factory workers, businesswomen, farmers, police, firemen, and clerks
- His team: Rodey, Bob, Mrs. Asher, and others by name
This detailed intercession reflects a preacher deeply connected to his audience, not only spiritually, but culturally and economically.
6. Theology in the Trenches
Sunday’s theology comes through clearly:
- The Bible is true.
- Jesus is the only way of salvation.
- Hell is eternal.
- The Holy Spirit is active.
- Salvation is by faith, not works.
But what’s unique is how conversational and concrete these doctrines become in prayer. He doesn’t just affirm them—he reasons with God about them, preaches them back to heaven, and pleads for their consequences to take root in people’s lives.
7. Vivid, Unusual, and Creative Moments
A few standout moments show Sunday’s inventive imagination:
- Mock Interview at the Judgment Seat: He prays as if answering Jesus’ questions about whether he preached the full counsel of God—including hell, the Cross, and the exclusivity of Christ.
- Agricultural Intercession: In one prayer, he pleads for protection from potato bugs, green aphids, boll weevils, and chinch bugs—spiritual warfare with an entomological twist!
- Preaching Boards: As the tabernacle was to be converted into a gymnasium, Sunday says, “Every knot hole will seem to preach a sermon. Every board will be precious.” Even the building itself becomes a kind of legacy.
- Evangelism by Auto: He imagines a man driving home from the tabernacle and being stopped by a sword-bearing angel with the question, “Did you solve the problem—what shall it profit a man if he gain the world and lose his soul?”
Conclusion: A Man on Fire, A Gospel on Display
Billy Sunday’s Richmond prayers are far more than stage-setting; they are the spiritual lifeblood of the campaign. Through them we meet a man convinced of eternal realities, obsessed with souls, conversing with God like an old friend, and pouring out every ounce of energy to bring people to Christ.
And though the world has changed in a thousand ways since 1922, the raw passion of these prayers still speaks. They call us back to a faith that is urgent, concrete, emotional, and unashamed.
Sunday once imagined God asking, “Bill, did you preach the truth?”
His prayers leave little doubt how he would answer:
“I did.”
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Evangelist Billy Sunday (1862-1935) 