Faith in the Efficacy of Prayer, April 1917 – importance of prayer

The Kansas City Star. Sun, Apr 01, 1917 ·Page 41

The first important thing was to get the whole Christian population of the city to praying for the success of the campaign. Prayer is the one great secret of Billy Sunday’s success, he says himself. He prays without ceasing. The members of his party pray always. Every difficulty that arises is a subject of prayer. If some preacher declines to take part in the revival they pray for him and keep on praying. They pray for little things and big things. Billy catches cold; the whole party prays for him. His voice gets husky; they all begin praying. There is indecision as to which city the next campaign would better be held in; Billy and his party begin praying to be led aright. It is prayer, prayer, prayer, constantly.

And so, great maps of New York were hung upon the wall at headquarters. Each church and school was marked with a tack, a redheaded tack denoting a Methodist church, a blue tack a Baptist church, and so on. Then all of Greater New York was divided into districts and the work of prayer began.

An executive committee was named with twenty-seven men on it, each one a hustler. John D. Rockefeller jr. and William Jay Schieffelin, two of the richest men in New York, are on the committee, and both are actively working.