Tag: Billy Sunday

Billy Sunday in Bellingham, Washington: Six Weeks that Stirred the City (April–May 1910)

After wrapping up in Danville, Illinois (early April 1910), Billy and his family left for
Bellingham aboard a train.

When Billy Sunday arrived in Bellingham, Washington, in the spring of 1910, the city knew something significant was about to happen.

His campaign formally began on April 17, 1910, and was scheduled to run for six weeks through May 29. Even before the opening service, anticipation was high. On April 16, The Bellingham Herald placed the coming revival on the front page, signaling that this was not just another religious meeting but a major civic event.

From the start, the campaign drew extensive attention. Local and regional newspapers covered Sunday’s meetings with unusual depth and frequency. By May 2, The Seattle Star was featuring the revival prominently on its own front page, evidence that Sunday’s influence extended far beyond Bellingham into the broader Pacific Northwest.

One of the most remarkable days came on Sunday, May 1. That evening, approximately 15,000 people crowded into the tabernacle and surrounding grounds to hear Sunday preach. The turnout was stunning for a city of Bellingham’s size at the time. Collections that day totaled $3,201.10, a substantial sum in 1910, reflecting both the generosity of the crowd and the financial scale of Sunday’s campaigns. That same service also recorded 140 conversions, showing that this was not merely spectacle but a movement that claimed measurable spiritual results.

Interest in Sunday’s work went beyond daily newspaper reports. On May 8, The Bellingham Herald devoted magazine-style coverage to the revival, suggesting that the meetings had become a defining moment in the city’s public life rather than a passing event.

Perhaps the most revealing glimpse into Sunday himself came from an interview published in The Daily Herald of Everett on May 18 under the title “Billy Sunday: His Methods, His Ideas and His Work.” In it, Sunday rejected the idea that his success came from showmanship or gimmicks. He explained his approach in characteristically plain terms:

“I haven’t any tricks. I’m just an old-fashioned preacher. I tell people in plain words the simple truth, that they are lost in sin and need salvation. I just preach the Bible – that’s all.”

That statement captures the heart of his appeal in Bellingham. He did not present himself as a social reformer, a political activist, or a religious entertainer. He came as a straightforward revival preacher who believed that the Bible, clearly proclaimed, could still change lives.

By the time the campaign concluded on May 29, Bellingham had experienced six weeks of intense preaching, packed crowds, and sustained public attention. For many residents, these meetings likely became a defining memory of the year 1910—a season when their city was temporarily at the center of a national religious movement.

The Bellingham campaign illustrates why Billy Sunday was such a powerful figure in early twentieth-century America. He could command enormous crowds, attract front-page coverage, inspire generous giving, and still insist that his effectiveness rested not on method but on message. In Bellingham, as in so many other cities, Sunday left behind not just statistics, but stories of a community stirred by revival.

Billy Sunday New York City campaign, c. 1917

“New York City gave me $120,485, Mr. Sunday said, and I turned over every cent for the work that I had said I would. I went to Chicago, and the city gave me $65,000 and I gave the sum to the Pacific Garden mission. I give away a tenth of my income. And that is all right. I do not advertise all the things I do with my money. I do not tell all the world the things that I pay off. You follow me around, some of you, and I will make you dizzy with the money I give away. But I don’t have to tell anyone. It is written down above so that is all that matters.”
As reported by The Richmond Item. Fri, May 26, 1922 ·

Billy’s New York Tribune editorial
The letter was typed on the back of Richmond January 1919 letterhead

New York Tribune
New York City N.Y.

For ten weeks in New York, I went the limit of my strength preaching Christ and Him crucified, explaining as plainly as I could the plan of Salvation as revealed in the Bible. Hundreds of thousands flocked to the old Tabernacle at One Hundred and sixty-eighth street and Broadway (the dearest spot in little old New York to me) and tens of thousands publicly expressed their faith in His atoning blood, proving beyond question of a doubt that people are willing and eager to go hear the Bible explained but will not go to hear it explained away.

There is no Christianity without the deity of Christ, there is no Salvation without faith in the atonement of Christ on Calvary. The doctrine that God is the father of us all and that “self-sacrifice is the key to Heaven” is religious bunk. The fountain head of this horrible war that has drenched the world with blood you will find was in that infamous hellish theology made in Germany. It is now showing its fangs in Russia.

The future existence of our government and its institutions depend in a large measure upon the class of people who will soon be called upon to assist in solving the grave problems that lie just ahead of us. It has been well said that this is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Therefore, it can rise no higher than the plane of its citizenship. Christianity is the only weapon with which we may successfully contend against extreme Socialism, Bolshevism, I.W. Wism and Anarchy.

When I pronounced the benediction the last night in New York my responsibility for the work there ended. I’ve never yet been satisfied with the results of any campaign I have ever conducted. No business house does as much business as it would like to do. No newspaper ever has as large a circulation as the owner would like to have. No doctor saves as many lives as he would like to save. I have never seen as many people accept Christ as I would like to see but I do my utmost in every campaign.

In a city where I held a campaign there was a church four squares from the Tabernacle. The pastor did not openly oppose the meeting, but he did not encourage his people to help. He had no ushers from his church in the aisles, no singers in the choir, no personal workers in the building, nobody on the committees. Neither he nor his church made any special investment of time energy or money. A few weeks after the meeting closed, he published a statement that though his church was scarcely more than a stone’s throw from the Tabernacle there were no results, and the campaign was a failure.

In the same city another pastor, whose church was seven miles away, entered actively into the campaign. His men were ushers, his singers were in the choir, his workers zealous and untiring in their efforts to win others. He and his people invested largely in time, strength and money and within two weeks after the campaign closed nearly one hundred persons united with his church on profession of faith. And this pastor published a statement that the campaign was a great success. To the one object failure – to the other, a triumphant success. One used a hammer, the other a saw, draw your own conclusions.

As long as God gives me strength I will keep pounding away at the fortifications of sin and pointing men to Jesus Christ as the only way of Salvation, no matter who knocks.

Don’t worry about old John Barleycorn. He has been tried, convicted, sentenced by forty states and today he sits strapped in the chair waiting for the executioner to pull the lever. His time is about up. I’ve given him a few uppercuts myself during the past twenty-five years and you can write it down in your blue book that I’m getting ready to preach his funeral sermon and close with the doxology.

W.A. Sunday

Postcard shows Toledo welcomes Billy and company in April 1911

Colorized by owner.

Billy Sunday’s Toledo Campaign (April 9 – May 21, 1911)

Billy Sunday’s 1911 revival in Toledo, Ohio, was one of the most anticipated evangelistic events the city had ever seen. Running for six intense weeks—from April 9 to May 21—the campaign opened with extraordinary momentum. On opening Sunday alone, more than 30,000 people attended three services, immediately signaling the citywide interest and spiritual hunger surrounding Sunday’s arrival.

The revival was held in a massive temporary tabernacle measuring 160 by 220 feet, with seating for 7,000 people, plus an additional 1,000 seats in the choir loft. Night after night, the structure filled with working men and women, families, and curious onlookers drawn by Sunday’s reputation for plainspoken preaching, moral urgency, and energetic delivery.

Organizers initially hoped for 20,000 conversions, a figure reflecting Toledo’s size and the scale of the meetings. While that expectation proved optimistic, the final results were still remarkable: 7,323 people publicly professed conversion, surpassing Sunday’s previous record at New Castle. The response confirmed Toledo as one of the strongest campaigns of his early national prominence.

Financial support from the city was equally notable. Total offerings reached $14,423.58, breaking Sunday’s earlier giving record of $10,000 at New Castle. Newspapers emphasized that these contributions came largely from people of ordinary means, underscoring the grassroots character of Sunday’s appeal and the broad civic buy-in to the revival.

By the time the campaign concluded in late May, Toledo had experienced weeks of sustained attention on spiritual renewal, personal reform, and public morality. Though it fell short of early conversion projections, the Toledo campaign stood as a record-setting and influential moment in Billy Sunday’s rise as America’s most prominent evangelist of the Progressive Era.

Where was the ‘tabernacle’ site and location during the 1923 Billy Sunday revival in Louisville, Kentucky?

Billy used the newly constructed Kosair Auditorium for his Louisville revival meetings (April 22 – June 2).

” . . . during the six weeks of the revival to be held at the Kosair Auditorium, on Broadway between Floyd and Brook streets.” Source – newspaper

Now location of the 1922-23 Kosair Auditorium, adjacent to the Kosair Temple (now the Norton Research Institute).

The current Norton Research Institute was the original Kosair Temple, NOT the Auditorium. 224 E. Broadway (between Brook and Jackson Streets)

The Auditorium (Broadway between Floyd and Brook) pre-dated the Temple and likely served as a temporary venue while the Shrine built its new home a few blocks east (between Brook and Jackson).

The Courier-Journal. Mon, Apr 23, 1923 ·Page 1

The Winona Lake Billy Sunday Tabernacle was demolished in May 1992

I was living in Winona Lake in 1992 – attending Grace Theological Seminary – when the Billy Sunday Tabernacle was demolished. Knowing this was the last time anyone would see the sole remaining Sunday tabernacle in America, I took these pictures.

Coverage: The Indianapolis Star. Sun, May 17, 1992.

Two Objects Aim of Every Big Revival, Grace Saxe, 1914 – Symbolism of the Pentateuch

Note: Grace Saxe was the lead Bible teacher for Billy Sunday from 1911 – 1921.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Fri, Jan 30, 1914 ·Page 7

Miss Grace Saxe Compares Life of Old Israelites With That of Christian Today.

There is a remarkable correspondence between the experiences of the chosen people of Israel and of the saved soul,” said Miss Grace Saxe yesterday afternoon before her Bible class in the tabernacle. Miss Saxe has begun a study of the books of the Bible, their arrangements and their significance and her class which occupies the platform at the close of the afternoon meeting in the tabernacle fills every seat. Miss Saxe said:

The symbolism of the Pentateuch is remarkable. No less remarkable is the order of these first five books. Genesis is the book of beginnings and yet before it closes it shows the beginning of the entrance of sin. Exodus is the book of redemption symbolized by the release from bondage in Egypt. Leviticus is the book of worship showing the experience of redemption. Numbers, the book of journeying the experiences of the redeemed from day to day, while Deuteronomy is the book of instruction to the redeemed, the plan of regeneration.

Note the steps from Egypt, through the Wilderness to Canaan. Egypt typifies the world, Satan’s domain; the Wilderness, the place of the unsurrendered to God, while Canaan symbolizes the spirit-filled, spirit-controlled Christian life.

We are asked where we get our authority for this comparison of the life of the Israelites and the life of the Christian. You will find it in I Cor. 10:4.

As the Israelites left Egypt and wandered for 40 years in the Wilderness there is one thing I want you to note, that when they looked back toward Egypt they longed for the fish, the melons, cucumbers, leeks, onions and garlic. Each stage of longing was lower, stronger and ranker. The picture is exact in every particular.

Every great revival has two objects. The first is to get people to obey God, to come out for Him. That is the first great crisis. The second object is to get the wilderness Christians to take a second step into the promised land, the land of Canaan, instead of wandering and drifting about. This is the second great crisis.

Miss Saxe will continue her study of the books of the Bible each afternoon at the close of the afternoon meeting. On Saturday afternoon of next week she will outline a plan for neighborhood Bible classes to continue after the close of the present Sunday meetings.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Fri, Jan 30, 1914 ·Page 7

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.

Billy Refuses to Help “Make Circus of Religion”

The Washington Herald. January 7, 1918

Billy Sunday told about 9,000 persons who attended his afternoon meeting in the Tabernacle how the “movie” people had offered him a cold $1,000,000 to pose for a film serial. And he told them how he had replied to their offer in this fashion:

“You can’t commercialize my mug for $10,000,000; you’re not going to get any help from me to make a circus of God’s religion. Not on your tintype.”

The “movie” reference was injected into Billy’s remarks through the presence of several “movie” cameramen at the Tabernacle just before he came into the building. They tried hard to “slip one over” on Billy and catch him as he got out of his limousine and started for the Tabernacle door. “Ma” Sunday, who was with Billy, protected the evangelist from the pointed cameras and pushed him inside the big building.

“Big Hand” for Billy.

The crowd cheered Billy to the echo. On the platform was Mrs. Marshall Field, widow of the noted Chicago merchant, with a party of friends from the Windy City. They, too, cheered Billy’s references to the “movie men.”

Billy’s afternoon sermon was chuck full of patriotic references and of slambang punches at “old Kaiser Bill.” And just before he finished it, he asked all those in the big audience who would pledge themselves to give undivided support to the national government in “its hour of need” to stand up. And the entire audience arose. Then he asked for a “Chautauqua salute,” and thousands of handkerchiefs waved over the great auditorium.

Billy took a hard slam at the “knocker,” who, he said, “is always going up and down the land, shouting that we are not prepared and that we should have done so and so long ago.”

“You folks ought to remember,” shouted Billy, “that we have a whale of a job on our hands. But we’ve got a whale of a country and we’re going to put it over. And we don’t propose to unsheath the sword until we have that gang on its knees pleading with Uncle Sam to call off the war.”

In his sermon Billy spoke of the drummer boy in Napoleon’s army who refused to beat a “retreat” when ordered by his commander. He looked squarely into the eyes of about 100 soldiers who were in the Tabernacle and declared loudly: “We don’t know how to beat a retreat either, do we boys? You bet your life we don’t! But we can beat a charge that can dig a grave so deep for that bunch of Kaiser Bill’s hot dogs that they won’t even hear the Angel Gabriel’s horn on the last day.”

The soldiers cheered Billy and the big crowd joined in. Billy emphasized that “we’ve got to scrap as well as play” and he declared that with such a fine army and such a navy as Uncle Sam boasts, there “isn’t a power anywhere in the world that can stand up against it, much less that bunch of cut-throats who would drag their Hohenzollern teachings into the land of the free.”

Billy took a hard rap at the Industrial Workers of the World and declared that if he had anything to do with “that bunch,” they all “would have faced the firing squad long ago.” His sermon was a likening of the Christian workers of the world to the grenadiers of old and the point he emphasized was that Christians everywhere are “fighters for the cause of Christ” in just as much the same sense as are the soldiers fighting now the cause of the allies.