Category: 1922

The final numbers of the Richmond, Indiana, 1922 campaign?

As reported below in the Palladium-Item. Mon, May 29, 1922 ·Page 1

GIVE SUNDAY $10,718 ON FINAL NIGHT

“Fine, That’s Dandy, You Did Great” Evangelist Declares as Total Amount Is Read by Chairman.

5,007 ARE CONVERTED

REVIVAL DATA

Sunday’s offering $10,718.04

Campaign expenses $17,000.00

Trail Hitters 5,876

Attendance 247,250

Tabernacle sermons 75

Total sermons 76

Prayer meetings 352

Richmond presented Billy Sunday with $10,718.04 as a result of the final collections on Sunday, and the donations were received during the week from persons who did not expect to be in Richmond on Sunday.

“Fine, that’s dandy, you did great,” Sunday said as the total amount was read by Ed Wilson, treasurer of the campaign, who handed a draft for that amount to Mr. Sunday.

“I saw more tears tonight than I ever seen in any town for a long time, and if we could just continue for two weeks more we could just more than make things hum” Sunday said.

On the last Sunday in Charleston, the collections were announced as $34,658.

“The papers in this town have done better in covering this campaign from every angle than any other city I have been in.” – Billy Sunday

Thanks Local People

Thanks for the services of the men and women who had taken part in the campaign, were given before and after the sermon.

“If the other people had stood behind the campaign here with the enthusiasm and loyalty that the newspapers have shown and the committees have taken their part, the campaign here would have been a big success,” Rev. E. Howard Brown, pastor of the East Main Street Friends meetings, said in asking for the envelopes.

“I have envelopes here showing that most of the different churches did not get in their reports, and we have a number of men and women who came forward and signed cards saying that they accepted Jesus as their personal savior, and the denominations probably have their records.”

Creates Big Racquet

Will Romey, junior, on behalf of the boys who had been singing in the choir, presented Mr. Sunday with a record the chorus leader with a record of the boys’ singing, and the audience applauded.

Before the sermon all of the members of the party were called to the platform to say goodbye to the audience. Only Albert Peterson was absent, he having left last Wednesday to attend the funeral of his grandmother at Ottumwa, Iowa. “Pete’s all right, pure gold,” Sunday declared.

As the members of the party were leaving the platform Mrs. Sunday placed her hand on Mr. Sunday’s shoulder, and said, “If you see the members of the party are pure gold too, from here down through the list.”

The audience applauded.

Thanks Newspapers

Mr. Sunday said, “The papers in this town have done better in covering this campaign from every angle than any other city I have been in.”

He continued, “If it hadn’t been for the automobiles that they loaned to the party during the campaign, Mrs. Asher, George Sunday, and Bob Matthews, sang their final punctuating melodies, and the audience joined in singing the last hymn of the other musical number of greatest interest was Mr. Brown’s singing of “I Am Praying for You.”

The chorus sang the first and second phrases while the big, long floor of the tabernacle sang the second and last phrases. The music that echoed down the longer stretches of the tabernacle, was like a choir in a huge cathedral, and the music seemed to chance to carry through long rows of columns.

Billy Sunday preached 95 times during his Richmond, Indiana campaign in 1922

Billy Sunday preached 75 times in the tabernacle during the six weeks of his Richmond campaign (April 16 – June 4), and at least another 15 times outside the tabernacle, in surrounding towns close to Richmond. He sometimes preached four times in one day.

As reported in The Richmond Item. Sun, May 28, 1922 · age 7:

NINETY SERMONS TO LAST NIGHT

Old Man Statistics Gives Some Interesting Figures to The Item Reporters

Old Man Statistics dropped into The Item press box, yesterday, and when the reporters were not there, left a bundle of facts. He said Billy Sunday would preach his ninetieth sermon Saturday night, since the day he arrived at Richmond.

That seemed rather too many for the reporter who checked up on it. Yep! Old Man Statistics was all right, it appeared. With the sermon last night Mr. Sunday, has preached 90 at the tabernacle, if one counted the afternoon that Mr. Sunday spoke to the children when the Sunday school convention was held there.

To bring the total to 90, Old Man Statistics, mentioned two sermons at the country club, others at the high school, Earlham college or at the Pennsylvania shops. Then came trips to Portland, Anderson, Greenville, Bradford, O., and the morning sermons each day this week, at Liberty, Hagerstown, Spiceland and Cambridge City.

New song introduced at May 1922 Richmond campaign for attendees

  1. Oh, happy day when Billy came,
    To teach us faith in Jesus name
    He taught us how to work and pray,
    And live more closely every day.
    Chorus:Happy day, happy day
    When Billy came for a six weeks’ stay.
  2. Oh, happy day when “Rodie” came
    And with his smile put gloom to shame,
    He taught us how to laugh and sing,
    And go home blessing every thing.
    Chorus:Happy day, happy day
    When “Rodie” came for a six weeks stay.
  3. Oh, happy day when Mrs. Asher came,
    To sing the praises of our King.
    There’s Bob and Pete, Miss Kinney too
    Who teach us how to chase the blues.
    Chorus:Happy day, happy day
    When Rapp signed up for this six weeks stay.

Cited in: Palladium-Item. Thu, May 18, 1922 ·Page 1

Billy Sunday in action at Richmond, May 1922

The Richmond Item. Wed, May 17, 1922 ·Page 1


Hot Grounders From the Bat of Billy Sunday on the Tabernacle Diamond

Palladium-Item. Thu, May 18, 1922 ·Page 7
“Billy”I am trying my level best to please God,” says Billy Sunday
Palladium-Item. Fri, May 19, 1922 ·Page 15
Palladium-Item. Mon, May 22, 1922 ·Page 7

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.

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