Category: 1921

The following account (excerpted) is in the Morgan Library Billy Sunday Archives.

“Life and Labors of William A. Sunday”

[Billy’s own view of his first sermon.]

“I diagnosed the sins and difficulties of people as existing in the gray matter. I figured I had to show people. You ought to have heard my [first] sermon. It was a hummer. I had stacks of books all around me. There were words that would make the jaws of a Greek professor squeak for a week. When I sprung it, it went off like a firecracker and busted in the middle. I figured that I was going to the old sinful world to its knees and yet nothing happened. Then I loaded my old muzzle loading gun with ipecac , buttermilk, rough on rats, rock salt and whatever else came handy and the gang has been ducking and the feathers flying ever since. I was wrong. It was the heart and not the gray matter that was wrong.

“In 1891 Sunday left baseball to become secretary of religious work at the Chicago Y.M.C.A. After three years he became advance man for J.Wilbur Chapman, also holding meetings in connection with the campaigns. About Jan.1,1896 Chapman returned to the pastorate and simultaneously Sunday received his first call [editor: this is not correct] as an evangelist. This meeting was held at Garner, Iowa and dates the beginning of this mans remarkable career.”

[Billy as a man of prayer.]

In regard to the personality of the man I would say first that he is fundamentally a man of prayer. Let the mistaken critic of Sunday rid himself at once of the notion that his meetings are merely big displays of the powers of advertising and organized enthusiasm and the product of a man who is called “a great salesman”. The life of the man and the activities of a campaign are shot through and through with prayer. In every place where he holds a meeting he chooses a secluded spot from whence he storms heaven. This place becomes a Bethel to him. In prayer he is natural. His prayers are not long but to the point and usually open with “and now Jesus” from whence he proceeds in his peculiar manner to pray for all the matters pertaining to the success of the meetings. Without prayer he believes he would be as Samson shorn of his strength. He makes no decision or takes no step without first taking the matter to the Lord.

[Billy’s passion for souls?”

He has an intense passion for souls. Here is a man who carries the people of a community upon his heart and is ready to give his very life and strength and energy in order to see them saved. He will continue day after day, preaching twice and three times only to see men turn to God.

[Billy’s power of perception?]

Mr. Sunday is endowed with a remarkable power of perception. Passing through a building he sees things that readily lend themselves for sermon stuff. His remarkable memory is brought into evidence in his sermons as he pours forth anecdote, history, statistics and quotations from literature with remarkable rapidity. He is equipped with a clear eye that takes in the entire tabernacle into its scope and gives him a remarkable advantage over his audience.

[Billy’s executive ability?]

We must here mention the executive ability of the man. He has the happy faculty of surrounding himself with co-workers who are very efficient and it is to the credit of Mr. Sunday that the personnel of his staff is the same today that it was in 1916 with the possible exception of the tabernacle building as my memory fails me on this point. Space will not permit us to discuss the form of organization in a campaign except the fact that towns from 5 to 20 miles from the seat of activity are touched through the organized spirit of prayer that emanates from the campaign.

[Billy’s imagination?]

His imagination enables him to make the commonplace radiant with beauty. He uses no Greek or Latin but the plainest and most expressive language. He calls things by their right name and often his words burn and blister. It is doubtful if there is any living preacher who can pour out such a stream of red-hot and sizzling adjectives to show his scorn and contempt for sin. There are moments when he makes you think of the way Jesus denounced the scribes and Pharisees.

[Billy’s use of slang?]

We must give a little space to the matter of slang. It is futile to attempt to apologize in behalf of Mr. Sunday as he would not welcome such an apology. It is his point of contact. He calls it, “corn bread and potatoes”. Asked to tone down his preaching in this regard he replied to a committee of ministers that, “If I preached like you do I would have about as many people to preach to as you do.” Slang is defined as language in the making and unconventional speech. Study carefully the Bible characters whom God has used. How many are there of the stereotyped kind? It was the rams horn rather than the silver trumpet that led Joshua’s army to victory. Samson thinned the army of the alien with the jaw-bone of an ass. David used a sling and Shamgar an ox goad and we are also reminded that the Master himself “taught not as the scribes”.

[Billy’s use of illustrations?]

. . . his style is direct and expressive. His sermons teem with illustrations that illustrate. He combs the ends of the earth for material for his sermons and his ready references to science, history, literature and other branches both delight and stagger the hearer. Sentiment, pathos, logic, word pictures, impersonation etc are all used to drive home truth.