Category: Artifact

Billy Sunday’s revival pulpit, 1902–1909

A sermon-by-sermon look at what Billy preached when he wasn’t on a Chautauqua platform — drawn from contemporary newspaper coverage across eight formative years.

Billy Sunday sermon notes. Grace College. Morgan Library. 2025

By the time Billy Sunday stepped onto a Chautauqua stage in 1903, he had already been preaching revival meetings for nearly a decade. The Chautauqua circuit got the broadside posters, the souvenir programs, and the syndicated newspaper coverage — but the revivals were where the real work happened: multi-week tabernacle campaigns, day-after-day preaching, and the slow accumulation of converts that built his reputation. The titles below are what newspapers actually named when they covered those revivals (and a handful of related events). Where the press only gave a topic or a Bible text, that’s all we get.

1902 — Wheaton, Illinois

No formal titles, but the Chicago Tribune and the Waterloo Courier flagged the subjects Sunday was hitting that May:

  • Sabbath-breaking (with specific shots at the Chicago Golf Club)
  • Dance
  • Card playing

A June 4 Omaha Daily News dispatch — the first newspaper record of his pulpit theatrics — describes him leaping twenty feet up the church aisle mid-sermon. The titles weren’t memorable yet; the delivery already was.

1903 — Marengo, Illinois

On Sunday, March 29, Billy preached to men only while Helen Sunday preached to women only. Sixty converts that day. No titles preserved for either sermon — but Helen’s appearance is one of the earliest documented instances of her in a public preaching role, three years before her formal full-time commitment to the campaign trail.

1904 — Rockford, Illinois

Across fifty services in a 5,000-seat tabernacle, two key sermons stood out in the press coverage:

  • “Square your lives by the Bible”
  • A denunciation of evolution as “all rot” and a “damnable theory”

The evolution sermon is significant. This is the first public documented instance of Sunday taking on evolution — six full years before the Modernist-Fundamentalist controversy reached its peak.

1904 — Richmond, Indiana

Sunday afternoon, September 4, at the Chautauqua Grove (a revival-style setting on the Chautauqua grounds), Sunday preached on a text from the Gospels:

  • Text: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass away”

The Daily Palladium described his manner as “full of fire, enthusiasm, truth, with an unusual use of the language which is startling in effect.” A second evening address followed; no title preserved.

1905 — Mason City, Iowa

January 29 men-only afternoon:

  • “Chickens Come Home to Roost” / “Hot Cakes on the Griddle”

Fifty immediate conversions from a crowd of two thousand men. The double-titling in the press suggests Sunday may have used either phrase to refer to the same sermon — or that he riffed between the two metaphors during delivery. Either way, this is the earliest colorful, slangy sermon title in the archive — a hint of the homespun pulpit voice that would define his later style.

1906 — Rochester, Minnesota

Opening weekend (Saturday December 30, 1905 and Sunday December 31), three sermons in the span of a day and a half:

  • “Revival” (opening Saturday evening)
  • “Christian Warfare” (Sunday afternoon)
  • “Answered Skeptics” (Sunday evening)

Opening night quote, captured by the Olmsted County Democrat: “I don’t pretend to preach like your preachers, if I did, you wouldn’t need me.”

1906 — Prophetstown, Illinois

Among the major sermons in this 28-day campaign — which converted 714 people in a town of just 1,200 — was:

  • “Evolution a Sham”

Two years after Rockford, the evolution sermon now had a formal title and a regular slot in the revival rotation.

1906 — Salida, Colorado

When the revival tent collapsed under snow in early October, Sunday relocated to a local church and then to a 400-seat opera house. Among the featured talks:

  • A eulogy for Abraham Lincoln
  • A tribute to President Theodore Roosevelt
  • “Read good books and keep good company” — a moral admonition: “Every gambler and drunkard became so by imitating the gang he went with.”

1907 — Kankakee, Illinois

The Streator Times for January 26, 1907 carried extended transcription under the headline “REV. BILLY SUNDAY DEFINES WHAT HE TERMS SOCIETY OF THE PRESENT DAY” — a sermon comparing high-society Pompeii imagery to back-room beer joints, with the famous line:

I fear that cursed gang of society more than I do all the town loafers in that beer joint.

1907 — Fairfield, Iowa

The densest single-day sermon documentation in the entire 1902–1909 run came on Sunday, April 28, when Sunday preached three sermons in a single day — each anchored on a different Bible text. Adding the campaign opener three weeks earlier, the Fairfield set looks like this:

  • Opening sermon (April 4) — “Revive Us Again”
  • April 28 morning — John 14:15–16, “If ye abide in me…”
  • April 28 afternoon — “Choose you this day whom you will serve”
  • April 28 evening — Hebrews 9:27, “It is appointed unto man once to die”

1907 — Gibson City, Illinois

Both of these were preached during the Gibson City revival (June 13 – July 14) and transcribed in regional newspapers in August:

  • Sermon on John 7:17 (transcribed August 23)
  • Sermon on “Hell” (transcribed August 30)

Worth noting: Sunday’s brother died in early July during this campaign, and Billy could not leave the revival to attend the funeral. His son was also born on the opening day of the same campaign — a stark personal bookend to the month.

1909 — Spokane, Washington

The first revival Sunday ever held in a city of more than 100,000. Two sermons stand out:

  • “Tomorrow” — preached as the final sermon. This is the first documented use of “Tomorrow” as a closing sermon, the dramatic emotional close that would become a signature pattern of his big-city campaigns.
  • “Booze” — delivered twice during the campaign, tied directly to a local political moment: 110 representative men were sent on a special train to Olympia to lobby for a county-unit option bill while Sunday gave the sermon.

1909 — Springfield, Illinois

During a campaign that produced 4,729 converts over six weeks, one sermon was singled out by the press for its size and effect:

  • “Judgment” — a Sunday afternoon sermon preached to 8,000 men. 300 conversions from that single message.

On the final day, April 11, Sunday saw 774 conversions in a single day — the largest single-day total of his career to that point. The title of that sermon wasn’t preserved.

Patterns worth noting

Across eight years of revival work, the named sermon archive divides cleanly into three groups:

Named sermons

Roughly ten distinct titles documented across the period: “Chickens Come Home to Roost,” “Revival,” “Christian Warfare,” “Answered Skeptics,” “Evolution a Sham,” “Revive Us Again,” “Choose you this day whom you will serve,” “Tomorrow,” “Booze,” “Judgment.” These are the sermons newspapers cared enough to name.

Scripture-anchored, title unknown

Six sermons documented only by their Bible text: John 14:15–16, Hebrews 9:27, John 7:17, the “Hell” sermon, “Heaven and earth shall pass away,” and “Square your lives by the Bible.” The press recorded the verse but not the rhetorical hook.

Topic-only documentation

A larger group documented only by subject: Sabbath-breaking, dance, card playing, evolution, the Lincoln eulogy, the Roosevelt tribute, the “Society of the Present Day” sermon. The newspaper covered what he talked about, not what he called it.

Two milestones stand out from this sermon archive. The first is the evolution opposition, traceable from 1904 Rockford forward — Sunday was hitting evolution on the revival circuit a full half-decade before it would become a national fundamentalist flashpoint. The second is the premiere of “Tomorrow” at Spokane in February 1909, used for the first time as a final sermon. That single rhetorical pattern — the emotional closing call framed around the word tomorrow — would anchor his big-city campaigns for the next twenty years.

A note on what’s missing: the multi-week revivals at Decatur (1908), Cedar Rapids (1909), and Joplin (1909) collectively produced hundreds of sermons that the press summarized in numbers — 178 messages at Cedar Rapids alone — but rarely titled individually. Future digging in local Iowa and Missouri papers for those campaigns may surface a richer sermon catalog.

Source: data curated from contemporary newspaper coverage, Sunday family records, and the Wheaton archives, compiled in the Sunday Master Speaking List, 2026.

How to cite this post

Chicago: McNutt, Kraig. “Billy Sunday’s Revival Pulpit, 1902–1909.” Evangelist Billy Sunday (1862–1935), June 1, 2026. https://evangelistbillysunday.com/2026/06/01/billy-sundays-revival-pulpit-1902-1909/.

MLA: McNutt, Kraig. “Billy Sunday’s Revival Pulpit, 1902–1909.” Evangelist Billy Sunday (1862–1935), 1 June 2026, evangelistbillysunday.com/2026/06/01/billy-sundays-revival-pulpit-1902-1909/.

APA: McNutt, K. (2026, June 1). Billy Sunday’s revival pulpit, 1902–1909. Evangelist Billy Sunday (1862–1935). https://evangelistbillysunday.com/2026/06/01/billy-sundays-revival-pulpit-1902-1909/

Turabian: McNutt, Kraig. “Billy Sunday’s Revival Pulpit, 1902–1909.” Evangelist Billy Sunday (1862–1935). June 1, 2026. https://evangelistbillysunday.com/2026/06/01/billy-sundays-revival-pulpit-1902-1909/.

His power: what is it?

Cited in: The Philadelphia Evening Ledger. January 5, 1915:5. – William Rader

Billy Sunday is not easily defined. Power conceals its secret. Psychologists would call it hypnotism; theologians, the power of the spirit; the ethical teacher, the gift of truth; the dramatist, the art of the player; while others declare:

His strength is as the strength of ten,
Because his heart is pure.

Billy Sunday is a good actor. Each sermon is carefully prepared, and some of it read from manuscript. Certain climaxes are illustrated. At one point he slides to a base; at another, kneels, or leaps upon the pulpit desk, or smashes a chair to pieces. Edward Everett did not more carefully prepare a speech with its proper gestures than does this evangelist build his sermons. The local color with which he decorates his main thought is taken from the city in which he speaks.

His imagination interested me. Speaking on “The Grenadier,” the consideration of his theme invited the use of the imagination, and he gave it full play. The sermon was an application of military attributes to practical life, a rebuke to the “wind-jammer” of the prayer meeting, and an appeal to the man who has taken an oath to be good to go out and honor it. He assailed the “saphead” who criticises the Church, and the description he gave of Daniel in the lion’s den and of the head of John the Baptist on a charger will not be forgotten.

I confess to a liking for his so-called slang. Most of it is plain English with a punch in it. It is the punch which preachers and editors and people who use words generally lack. Words are like shot, made to strike, and especially when used to influence great bodies of people. It is refreshing to hear a man say what he thinks and say it as he pleases—a thing most public men signally fail to do.

HIT TYPEWRITER KEYS FOR PASTOR; THEN “HIT TRAIL”

Cited from: The Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger. January 2, 1915:3.

Miss Grace Saxe, “Billy” Sunday’s Prayer Meeting Organizer, Tells of Her Conversion.

“Billy” Sunday’s right-hand woman, whose other name is Miss Grace Saxe, is just as much a woman as though she didn’t hold one of the most important positions in the whole Sunday organization, a position which might make even a man forget all else but the responsibilities of his work.

For one of the very first things she did on arriving in Philadelphia several days in advance of the opening of the campaign was to launch forth on an energetic shopping tour.

“I simply had to have some pretty clothes to wear, to conduct my meetings,” she said, smiling nervously, at “Billy” Sunday’s home, 1914 Spring Garden street, happy, but exhausted, at the termination of her first work in Philadelphia.

Miss Saxe is the person whom Mr. Sunday has selected for the very vital work of organizing the neighborhood prayer meetings in the various cities where the revivals are conducted, and it is her particular duty to bring religion into as many of the private homes as she can possibly get into touch with and to make it a permanent factor of those homes.

“Our work would be a very poor thing indeed,” she said earnestly, “if we worked at these people up to a state of high religious fervor only to let them drop back again and cool off soon after the campaign was over.”

TELLS OF HER CONVERSION

“Although the revivals have not yet started, I cannot help feeling that the way Philadelphia has received us has been nothing short of magnificent. Already 5000 homes have been thrown open to these prayer meetings and more than 15,000 volunteers have come forward and signified their intention of fostering these meetings permanently and keeping the spirit of Christ in the home indefinitely.

“One phase of the work that I am particularly interested in is teaching people how to read the Bible. There are many who have a great desire to study the Book of God, but who do not know how to go about it, and organizing teaching, high school girls and women in city houses, into Bible classes is my chief duty.

Miss Saxe’s career has been an interesting one. Born in Iowa, she “entered” St. Louis to accept a position as court stenographer, and it was while she was energetically hitting the keys in the city that something occurred which, to use her own expression, “made her see the light.”

“Up until that time,” she said, a little shamefacedly, “I was rather an unregenerate creature. I used to come to town in Lyons, Dr. A. B. Simpson came to town and I was engaged to go and take down in shorthand a series of his lectures. There were about ten of them, and in addition to having to hear them I also had to go all over them again, transcribing them on the typewriter.

“TURNS DOWN” ROOSEVELT

“They made me think, and soon after I began a very careful study of the Bible. Later on I was engaged to work with the Rev. Dwight L. Moody, of Chicago, and after that I traveled abroad with Torrey and Alexander. By that time the work of making a Christian out of me was completed.

“Later on I happened to be in Egypt taking a little vacation when I received a request to go up the Nile and meet Mr. Roosevelt at Luxor, there to take down some of his lectures, but I found I was spoiled for that sort of thing. I had become so interested in religious work that nothing else seemed to satisfy, and it was soon after this that I accepted Mr. Sunday’s offer to become a member of his organization, and have worked with him ever since.”

Miss Saxe has the calm, placid Madonna-like face of one who is at peace with the world and herself.

“The test of his wonderful work is in the results that he gets. Day after day hundreds of testimonials come in which show the lasting conversions that he is responsible for.

“Only the other day a man sent a letter from Waterloo, Iowa, where a revival was conducted some three years ago, saying that he was thankful for the change that had been brought about in him, that he was willing even to have his name used if other conversions might be effected thereby.

“For 30 years this Johnny Bates had been a confirmed drunkard. His wife got disgusted and divorced him, his children grew away from him and he went down into the very depths. Three years ago he hit the sawdust trail and since then has never touched a drop. He now holds a splendid lucrative position and his wife has remarried him. That is but one of the many cases which testify to the indisputably good work that Mr. Sunday is doing.”

Cited from: The Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger. January 2, 1915:3.

Sermon: When chickens come home to roost

One of Billy’s favorite sermons was When chickens come home to Roost. He would preach it often and usually in the first 1-2 weeks of a revival.

What was the sermon about?

In “Chickens Come Home to Roost,” Billy Sunday argues that sin is never isolated or harmless—it inevitably returns with consequences that grow over time. What begins as a small compromise develops into habit, then character, and ultimately destruction. He emphasizes that sin corrupts the individual internally before it manifests outwardly, dulling the conscience and weakening the will. Sunday also stresses that sin is not merely personal; it affects families, communities, and even nations. He dismantles common excuses—denial, delay, and comparison—and insists that no one escapes moral accountability. The sermon builds toward an urgent appeal: repentance must happen now, before sin’s consequences fully mature and bring irreversible damage.

Representative Quote:
“Your sin may seem quiet tonight, but it will rise up tomorrow and demand its wages.”

The sawdust Trail poem

This poem was sent to Billy and Ma c.1922. It is housed in Morgan Library at Grace College.

Transcription

THE SAW-DUST TRAIL

The Devil sure is hiding out
Since Billy Sunday came to town;
He’s getting knocked and cuffed about,
For Billy’s surely got him down.
He smashed his nose and blacked his eye—
The Devil howled a mighty wail
When sinners heard the pleading cry
And marched along the saw-dust trail.

The Devil now is quite a monk
Since Billy tore his mask aside;
He does not show one bit of spunk—
Begs us to spare his rotten hide;
With injured look and sickly smile
He hopes that pity will avail.
Ah no! for hundreds yet will file
Right down along the saw-dust trail.

The primrose path where evil lures
Is shown in all its bleak despair;
All pleasures fade—not one endures—
When we have reached old Satan’s lair.
And Billy shows the hateful Thing
That makes our lives a woeful tale;
You almost hear Hell’s anvils ring,
And we are drawn to hit the trail.

His doctrines may not all be clear,
But Billy’s surely fighting sin;
We know his motives are sincere,
And we can’t help from joining in.
He makes you see the battle strong
That’s not for cowards who would quail;
We join the right against the wrong,
And march right down the saw-dust trail!

Old Satan thought he had a cinch
On Charleston souls, both young and old;
But now he knows he’s in a pinch,
For Billy’s punch has knocked him cold.
Aggressive Right will always win—
The Serpent knows he’s doomed to fail;
He cowers low, with sickly grin,
When strong men hit the saw-dust trail!

Charleston, W. Va.
March 20, 1922.

T. J. Honaker

“With my compliments, and very great admiration for ‘Billy.’”

The Circus That Tried to Hire Billy Sunday, c. 1917

And Why the Offer Destroys the Claim That He Preached for Money

One of the most common criticisms leveled against evangelist Billy Sunday is that he preached for money.

Critics point to the generous love offerings that were sometimes taken at the close of his revival campaigns and conclude that Sunday must have been motivated by financial gain. It is an easy accusation to make. But historical evidence tells a very different story.

One remarkable document from 1917 puts the matter in perspective.

On February 28, 1917, Billy Sunday received an extraordinary letter from the president of the United States Circus Corporation. The proposal was simple, bold, and almost unbelievable.

The circus wanted Billy Sunday to join the show.

Original 1917 contract. Grace College. Morgan Library.

The letter opened by reminding Sunday of the enormous audiences that circuses attracted:

“Did you ever pause to consider that from twelve to fifteen thousand persons go twice a day to enjoy the average first class circus performance?”

The promoter explained that the company was launching what he called a “Million-Dollar” motorized circus, equipped with fleets of specially designed trucks and trailers that would carry the show from city to city.

The scale was enormous. Tens of thousands of people attended circus performances daily.

And the circus president believed Billy Sunday could preach to them.

Then came the offer.

“I… offer you a weekly salary of $14,000, or $2,000 a day, for as many weeks of the coming summer season as you can give.”

To grasp how staggering this proposal was, consider the numbers.

If Sunday had accepted the offer and worked for roughly ninety to one hundred days during the summer season, he would have earned between $180,000 and $200,000 in 1917.

Adjusted for inflation, that is roughly $4 million today.

In return, the circus would provide transportation, luxury touring cars for Sunday and his staff, and access to massive crowds across the country.

The promoter even suggested that Sunday hold revival meetings on Sundays as part of the circus program.

But here is the crucial point.

The proposal made no provision for Sunday to keep offerings from those meetings. In fact, the letter suggested that the proceeds from Sunday services could go largely or entirely to charity.

The circus wanted Billy Sunday not as a fundraiser—but as an attraction.

A headline act.

A revivalist who could preach to the largest audiences in America.

And yet Billy Sunday refused.

The Economics of Sunday’s Real Ministry

Now compare this circus offer to the income Sunday actually received during the same years.

During the summer Chautauqua season, Sunday could deliver 50 to 70 speaking engagements.

Typical speaking fees ranged from $250 to $500 per engagement.

That means a strong Chautauqua season might produce:

  • $12,500 on the low end
  • $35,000 on the high end

Even at the very top of that range, the circus contract would have paid five to six times more.

In other words, if Billy Sunday had been motivated primarily by money, the decision would have been obvious.

He could have become the highest-paid religious speaker in America simply by joining a circus.

Instead, he chose the sawdust trail.

He chose the revival tabernacle.

He chose the ministry that demanded months of exhausting preaching, travel, prayer meetings, counseling, and organization.

And he did it for far less money than the circus was willing to pay.

Rare original Sparks Bros Circus photograph showing evangelist Billy Sunday and Charles Sparks.

Why the Critics Miss the Point

Billy Sunday never pretended that money did not matter. Revival campaigns required large temporary tabernacles, choirs, staff members, and enormous logistical efforts.

But Sunday consistently refused opportunities that would have turned his preaching into entertainment.

The 1917 circus contract proves it.

The entertainment industry was willing to pay him millions in today’s dollars to headline the largest traveling show in America.

He said no.

The same evangelist who was accused of preaching for money walked away from a fortune.

And that fact should cause us to reconsider the narrative that Sunday’s critics often repeat.

Billy Sunday may have been many things—a fiery preacher, a former baseball player, a relentless evangelist—but the historical record shows that he was not in the ministry merely for the money.

If he had been, the circus would have had its star.

Instead, the revival fires continued to burn.

Did you know?

“It may not be generally known, but ‘Billy’ Sunday supports a mission on Van Buren street, Chicago, paying all the expenses of maintaining it out of his own pocket. He is also educating twenty boys and paying for it with his own money. These boys are waifs he has picked up out of the street. In this he is following the plan of the late Sam Jones, who in his lifetime educated hundreds of poor boys and made useful citizens out of them.”

The Kalamazoo Gazette. Fri, Jul 23, 1909 ·Page 4

When did Billy Sunday play professional baseball?

Billy Sunday played professional baseball from 1883 to 1890.

Here is the basic timeline of his baseball career:

1883–1887 — Chicago White Stockings (National League)

  • Discovered by manager Cap Anson while playing for a local amateur team in Marshalltown, Iowa.
  • Joined the Chicago White Stockings (now the Chicago Cubs) in 1883.
  • Known more for speed and defense in the outfield than for hitting.
  • Played on the 1885 and 1886 National League championship teams.

1888–1890 — Pittsburgh Alleghenys (National League)

  • Traded to Pittsburgh in 1888.
  • Continued as an outfielder and base runner.

1890 — Philadelphia Phillies (Players’ League)

  • Jumped to the short-lived Players’ League in 1890 with the Philadelphia Phillies.
  • This was his final season in professional baseball.

Career Snapshot

  • Years: 1883–1890
  • Teams:
    • Chicago White Stockings (1883–1887)
    • Pittsburgh Alleghenys (1888–1890)
    • Philadelphia Phillies – Players’ League (1890)
  • Position: Outfielder
  • Batting Average: .248
  • Games Played: 499
  • Stolen Bases: 95

After Baseball

After leaving baseball in 1890, Sunday worked briefly with the Chicago YMCA, where his speaking ability began to emerge. Within a few years he joined the evangelistic team of J. Wilbur Chapman, launching the ministry that eventually made him the most famous evangelist in America before Billy Graham.

After Baseball

Here is a photo gallery of baseball related images associated with Billy Sunday.

Need help identifying this Billy Sunday Tabernacle

I recently acquired this image. It is obviously a Billy Sunday Tabernacle but I can’t 100% confirm its location.

It is close to his Lima and Toledo tabernacles, but its not one of those.

I am hoping the town in the background and the house on the right helps it being properly identified.

It feels like the 19-teens.

It almost feels like its Pennsylvania. I know he did a revival in Sharon, PA (May 1st – June 22, 1908. Sharon, PA (Shenango Valley).

Please put your thoughts in the Comments field.

Mother’s Day, 1909

ONE of the most impressive and successful days in the great campaign was Mother’s Day, as suggested by Rev. Mr. Sunday. The following request was published:

Every person is requested to wear a white flower or ribbon to-day in honor of mother. If your mother is alive do her an act of kindness. Telegraph or write to her, or give her a gift to express your love. If mother is not alive, perform an act of kindness to somebody else’s mother. The services at the tabernacle will be for mothers, although everybody is invited. Businessmen are invited to close their places of business from two to four o’clock, or at least to let as many employees off as possible. An offering will be taken at the tabernacle to be given to the Woman’s Club to be distributed to the charities of the city as the club deems best.

 W. A. Sunday

Source (text above): 1909 Springfield, Illinois souvenir booklet

A ‘salvation’ decision card for a Billy Sunday revival

Here is what a ‘trail hitter’ filled out who walked the sawdust trail during a Billy Sunday revival. Omaha saw 13,000+ conversions, closing on October 24, 1915 (opening Sept 5). Billy preached at least 96 times just in the tabernacle during this revival, and scores more outside of the tabernacle venue.