Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Billy Sunday was a conservative evangelical who accepted fundamentalist doctrines. He affirmed and preached the inerrancy of the Bible, the virgin birth of Christ, the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, the bodily resurrection of Christ, a literal devil and hell, and the imminent return of Jesus Christ. At the turn of the 20th century, most Protestant church members, r Billy Sunday was a conservative evangelical who accepted fundamentalist doctrines.
At the turn of the 20th century, most Protestant church members, regardless of denomination, gave assent to these doctrines. Although Sunday was ordained by the Presbyterian Church in , his ministry was nondenominational, and he was not a strict Calvinist. He preached that individuals were, at least in part, responsible for their own salvation.
Kindle Edition , pages. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Billy Sunday Selected Sermons , please sign up. Be the first to ask a question about Billy Sunday Selected Sermons. Lists with This Book. From , the home began to accept children from all Iowa 99 counties, the Home was soon expanded and redesigned with small, home-like cottages replacing the barrack style dorms.
In , the Iowa State Legislature required that residents have employment before they left the home, in the interest of the residents, starting in , the Home was given custody of the children, so as to help place the children in good homes. The Home functioned on its own and was part of the community. The Orphans Band began marching in parades and gave concerts starting in the early s, in , the facility was renamed The Annie Wittenmyer Home by the Iowa State Legislature. In , the focus of the home shifted from that of orphanage to a special education. In , the Wittenmyer Home closed having helped an estimated 12, children, from until November , the Administration Building became a branch of the Davenport Public Library until the new Fairmount Branch was opened in January The historic district is made up of 25 resources, which includes 22 buildings and it is located on the east side of the city to the south of Garfield Park and the Duck Creek Parkway, which are across East 29th Street.
Oakdale Memorial Gardens where the graves are located is to the east across Eastern Avenue. The former right of way for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad is to the west, the railroad right of way is still active and in use by another railroad company.
Irish, trustee Map of the complex. Major League Baseball — Major League Baseball is a professional baseball organization, the oldest of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. A total of 30 teams now play in the National League and American League, the NL and AL operated as separate legal entities from and respectively. After cooperating but remaining legally separate entities since , the merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball in Baseballs first professional team was founded in Cincinnati in ,30 years after Abner Doubleday supposedly invented the game of baseball, the first few decades of professional baseball were characterized by rivalries between leagues and by players who often jumped from one team or league to another.
The period before in baseball was known as the dead-ball era, Baseball survived a conspiracy to fix the World Series, which came to be known as the Black Sox Scandal. The sport rose in popularity in the s, and survived potential downturns during the Great Depression, shortly after the war, baseballs color barrier was broken by Jackie Robinson.
The s and s were a time of expansion for the AL and NL, then new stadiums, Home runs dominated the game during the s, and media reports began to discuss the use of anabolic steroids among Major League players in the mids. In , an investigation produced the Mitchell Report, which implicated many players in the use of performance-enhancing substances, today, MLB is composed of thirty teams, twenty-nine in the United States and one in Canada.
Baseball broadcasts are aired on television, radio, and the Internet throughout North America, MLB has the highest season attendance of any sports league in the world with more than 73 million spectators in MLB is governed by the Major League Baseball Constitution and this document has undergone several incarnations since , with the most recent revisions being made in Under the direction of the Commissioner of Baseball, MLB hires and maintains the sports umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, MLB maintains a unique, controlling relationship over the sport, including most aspects of Minor League Baseball.
This ruling has been weakened only slightly in subsequent years, the weakened ruling granted more stability to the owners of teams and has resulted in values increasing at double-digit rates. There were several challenges to MLBs primacy in the sport between the s and the Federal League in , the last attempt at a new league was the aborted Continental League in There are five other executives, president, chief officer, chief legal officer, chief financial officer.
Its charter states that MLB Advanced Media holds editorial independence from the league, MLB Productions is a similarly structured wing of the league, focusing on video and traditional broadcast media. While all these phenomena contributed greatly, John Wesley and other early Methodists were at the root of sparking this new movement during the First Great Awakening, today, Evangelicals are found across many Protestant branches, as well as in various denominations not subsumed to a specific branch.
The movement gained momentum during the 18th and 19th centuries with the Great Awakenings in the United Kingdom. The Americas, Africa, and Asia are home to the majority of Evangelicals, United States has the largest concentration of Evangelicals in the world, its community forms a quarter of the population, is politically important and based mostly in the Bible Belt.
In the United Kingdom, Evangelicals are mostly represented in the Methodist Church, Baptist communities, Evangelicalism, a major part of popular Protestantism, is among the most dynamic religious movements in the contemporary world, alongside resurgent Islam. While on the rise globally, the world is particularly influenced by its spread. The first published use of evangelical in English came in when William Tyndale wrote He exhorteth them to proceed constantly in the evangelical truth. One year later Sir Thomas More produced the earliest recorded use in reference to a theological distinction when he spoke of Tyndale his evangelical brother Barns, during the Reformation, Protestant theologians embraced the label as referring to gospel truth.
Martin Luther referred to the evangelische Kirche to distinguish Protestants from Catholics in the Roman Catholic Church, into the 21st century, evangelical has continued in use as a synonym for Protestant in continental Europe, and elsewhere. This usage is reflected in the names of Protestant denominations such as the Evangelical Church in Germany, the term may also occur outside any religious context to characterize a generic missionary, reforming, or redeeming impulse or purpose. For example, the Times Literary Supplement refers to the rise, one influential definition of Evangelicalism has been proposed by historian David Bebbington.
Conversionism, or belief in the necessity of being again, has been a constant theme of Evangelicalism since its beginnings. To Evangelicals, the message of the gospel is justification by faith in Christ and repentance, or turning away. Conversion differentiates the Christian from the non-Christian, and the change in life it leads to is marked by both a rejection of sin and a corresponding personal holiness of life. A conversion experience can be emotional, including grief and sorrow for sin followed by great relief at receiving forgiveness, the stress on conversion is further differentiated from other forms of Protestantism by the belief that an assurance of salvation will accompany conversion.
Among Evangelicals, individuals have testified to both sudden and gradual conversions, biblicism is reverence for the Bible and a high regard for biblical authority. All Evangelicals believe in inspiration, though they disagree over how this inspiration should be defined.
Hot From the Preachers Mound: The Sermons of Billy Sunday (Revival Classics Library)
Christianity — Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point for the religion. It is the worlds largest religion, with over 2. Christian theology is summarized in creeds such as the Apostles Creed and his incarnation, earthly ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning good news.
The term gospel also refers to accounts of Jesuss life and teaching, four of which—Matthew, Mark, Luke. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion that began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the mid-1st century, following the Age of Discovery, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world through missionary work and colonization. Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, throughout its history, Christianity has weathered schisms and theological disputes that have resulted in many distinct churches and denominations.
Worldwide, the three largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the denominations of Protestantism. There are many important differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible, concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds. They began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith.
Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. The Baptists have been non-creedal in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another. Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church, the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, the Apostles Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith.
It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists and this particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator, each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome.
Most Christians accept the use of creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the mentioned above. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament.
The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept, Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin. Illinois is the most populous of the states and North Dakota the least, a report from the United States Census put the population of the Midwest at 65,, Chicago and its suburbs form the largest metropolitan area with 9. Louis, Greater Cleveland, Greater Cincinnati, Kansas City metro area, the term Midwestern has been in use since the s to refer to portions of the central United States.
A variant term, Middle West, has used since the 19th century. Another term sometimes applied to the general region is the heartland. Other designations for the region have fallen out of use, such as the Northwest or Old Northwest, the Northwest Territory was one of the earliest territories of the United States, stretching northwest from the Ohio River to northern Minnesota and upper-Mississippi.
The upper-Mississippi watershed including the Missouri and Illinois Rivers was the setting for the earlier French settlements of the Illinois Country, economically the region is balanced between heavy industry and agriculture, with finance and services such as medicine and education becoming increasingly important. Its central location makes it a crossroads for river boats, railroads, autos, trucks. Politically the region swings back and forth between the parties, and thus is heavily contested and often decisive in elections, after the sociological study Middletown, which was based on Muncie, Indiana, commentators used Midwestern cities as typical of the nation.
The region has a higher ratio than the Northeast, the West. Traditional definitions of the Midwest include the Northwest Ordinance Old Northwest states, the states of the Old Northwest are also known as Great Lakes states and are east-north central in the United States. The Ohio River runs along the section while the Mississippi River runs north to south near the center.
Sermon — A sermon is an oration, lecture, or talk by a member of a religious institution or clergy. Sermons address a Biblical, theological, religious, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, elements of the sermon often include exposition, exhortation and practical application. In Christianity, a sermon is delivered in a place of worship from an elevated architectural feature, variously known as a pulpit.
The word sermon comes from a Middle English word which was derived from Old French, the word can mean conversation, which could mean that early sermons were delivered in the form of question and answer, and that only later did it come to mean a monologue. In modern language, the sermon is used in secular terms, pejoratively, to describe a lengthy or tedious speech delivered with great passion, by any person. A sermonette is a short sermon, in Christianity, a sermon is typically identified as an address or discourse delivered to an assembly of Christians, typically containing theological or moral instruction.
Although it is called a homily, the original distinction between a sermon and a homily was that a sermon was delivered by a clergyman while a homily was read from a printed copy by a layman. In the 20th century the distinction has become one of the sermon being likely to be longer, have more structure, homilies are usually considered to be a type of sermon, usually narrative or biographical, see sermon types below.
The word sermon is used to describe many famous moments in Christian history, the most famous example is the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus of Nazareth. This address was given around 30 AD, and is recounted in the Gospel of Matthew as being delivered on a mount on the end of the Sea of Galilee. It is also contained in some of the gospel narratives. During the later history of Christianity, several figures became known for their addresses that later became regarded as sermons, examples in the early church include Peter, Stephen, Tertullian and John Chrysostom. These addresses were used to spread Christianity across Europe and Asia Minor, and as such are not sermons in the modern sense, the sermon has been an important part of Christian services since Early Christianity, and remains prominent in both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.
Lay preachers sometimes figure in these traditions of worship, for example the Methodist local preachers, the Franciscans are another important preaching order, Travelling preachers, usually friars, were an important feature of late medieval Catholicism. The academic study of sermons, the analysis and classification of their preparation, composition, a controversial issue that aroused strong feelings in Early Modern Britain was whether sermons should be read from a fully prepared text, or extemporized, perhaps from some notes.
Many clergymen openly recycled large chunks of published sermons in their own preaching, such sermons include John Wesleys 53 Standard Sermons, John Chrysostoms Homily on the Resurrection and Gregory Nazianzus homily On the Theophany, or Birthday of Christ. The 80 sermons in German of the Dominican Johannes Tauler were read for centuries after his death, martin Luther published his sermons on the Sunday lessons for the edification of readers. Prohibition in the United States — Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages that remained in place from to One result was that many communities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries introduced alcohol prohibition, Prohibition supporters, called drys, presented it as a victory for public morals and health.
Promoted by the dry crusaders, a movement was led by rural Protestants and social Progressives in the Prohibition, Democratic and it gained a national grass roots base through the Womans Christian Temperance Union. After it was coordinated by the Anti-Saloon League, Prohibition was mandated in state after state, then finally nationwide under the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in Enabling legislation, known as the Volstead Act, set down the rules for enforcing the ban, for example, religious uses of wine were allowed.
Private ownership and consumption of alcohol were not made illegal under federal law, in the s the laws were widely disregarded, and tax revenues were lost. Opposition mobilized nationwide, and Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, some states continued statewide prohibition, marking one of the last stages of the Progressive Era. Anti-prohibitionists, known as wets, criticized the ban as an intrusion of mainly rural Protestant ideals on a central aspect of urban, immigrant. Some researchers contend that its failure is attributable more to a changing historical context than to characteristics of the law itself.
Criticism remains that Prohibition led to unintended consequences such as the growth of urban crime organizations, as an experiment it lost supporters every year, and lost tax revenue that governments needed when the Great Depression began in Senate proposed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 18,, upon being approved by a 36th state on January 16,, the amendment was ratified as a part of the Constitution. The act established the definition of intoxicating liquors as well as penalties for producing them. Although the Volstead Act prohibited the sale of alcohol, the government lacked resources to enforce it.
By the terms of the amendment, the country went dry one year later, by , in New York City alone, there were anywhere from 30, to , speakeasy clubs. While Prohibition was successful in reducing the amount of liquor consumed, it stimulated the proliferation of rampant underground, organized, many were astonished and disenchanted with the rise of spectacular gangland crimes, when prohibition was supposed to reduce crime. Prohibition lost its advocates one by one, while the wet opposition talked of personal liberty, new tax revenues from legal beer and liquor, and the scourge of organized crime.
Conservatism — Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes retaining traditional social institutions in the context of culture and civilization.
The term, historically associated with right-wing politics, has since used to describe a wide range of views. There is no set of policies that are universally regarded as conservative, because the meaning of conservatism depends on what is considered traditional in a given place. Thus conservatives from different parts of the world—each upholding their respective traditions—may disagree on a range of issues. In contrast to the definition of conservatism, political theorists such as Corey Robin define conservatism primarily in terms of a general defense of social.
In Great Britain, conservative ideas emerged in the Tory movement during the Restoration period, Toryism supported a hierarchical society with a monarch who ruled by divine right. Tories opposed the idea that sovereignty derived from the people, and rejected the authority of parliament, Robert Filmers Patriarcha, or the Natural Power of Kings, published posthumously in but written before the English Civil War of —, became accepted as the statement of their doctrine.
However, the Glorious Revolution of destroyed this principle to some degree by establishing a government in England. Faced with defeat, the Tories reformed their movement, now holding that sovereignty was vested in the three estates of Crown, Lords, and Commons rather than solely in the Crown, Toryism became marginalized during the long period of Whig ascendancy in the 18th century. Conservatives typically see Richard Hooker as the father of conservatism, along with the Marquess of Halifax, David Hume.
Halifax promoted pragmatism in government, whilst Hume argued against political rationalism and utopianism, Burke served as the private secretary to the Marquis of Rockingham and as official pamphleteer to the Rockingham branch of the Whig party. Together with the Tories, they were the conservatives in the late 18th century United Kingdom, Burkes views were a mixture of liberal and conservative. He supported the American Revolution of — but abhorred the violence of the French Revolution and he insisted on standards of honor derived from the medieval aristocratic tradition, and saw the aristocracy as the nations natural leaders.
That meant limits on the powers of the Crown, since he found the institutions of Parliament to be better informed than commissions appointed by the executive and he favored an established church, but allowed for a degree of religious toleration. Burke justified the order on the basis of tradition, tradition represented the wisdom of the species and he valued community.
Burke was a leading theorist in his day, finding extreme idealism an endangerment to broader liberties, despite their influence on future conservative thought, none of these early contributors were explicitly involved in Tory politics. Hooker lived in the 16th century, long before the advent of toryism, whilst Hume was an apolitical philosopher, Burke described himself as a Whig.
Shortly after Burkes death in , conservatism revived as a political force as the Whigs suffered a series of internal divisions. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For the fictional character, see Men of Honor. University of Chicago Press, , xvii: According to Lyle Dorsett, Sunday was "much better educated than the typical American. University of Iowa Press. In , Anson recalled that his aunt "finally induced me to give Billy a chance in Chicago. She was what you call a dyed-in-the-wool fan and never missed a game the Marshalltown club ever played.
Anson of the Chicago team had an aunt in Marshalltown that I became a big leaguer. She praised my playing to Anson, told him I was about the fastest fielder on earth and insisted that he give me a chance with Chicago and he agreed. However, contemporary newspaper accounts report eleven strikeouts at most, with two of his other at-bats reported simply as outs, probably not made by striking out. Sunday's verifiable strikeouts-in-a-row are four.
Sunday had been uncomfortable with this race and tried to withdraw. Anson persuaded Sunday to run because a great deal of money had been bet on the outcome, some of it put up by Sunday's teammates. In later years he regretted having been involved in a gambling event. The win was noted by contemporary newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune November 9, , quoted in Knickerbocker, 47 , as "by three yards", or about ten feet.
Sunday "attended one game of the World series, but declared himself so disgusted with the umpiring that he stayed away from the remaining contests. Sunday could never remember the date of this experience, although he made repeated reference to it. The oft-told conversion story poses a number of chronological difficulties. The best explication of the problems and their partial solutions is Knickerbocker, 59—63, 79— One newspaper reporting on the Garner revival "to be conducted by W.
Lynn was employed by the Sundays for twenty years; she effectively became a member of the Sunday family and died in their house. Firstenberger has documented more than seventy individuals who were members of the Sunday evangelistic team through the years of Billy Sunday's ministry. Virginia Asher and her husband William had known the Sundays since the s and had previously worked for Dwight L. Moody and other evangelists.
Asher organized permanent, post-campaign "Virginia Asher Councils" to continue work among those who, during that period, were called "businesswomen. MacDonald was also an assistant in Billy Sunday, the Man and Method. Hero of the Heartland: Billy Sunday and the Transformation of American Society, — Fundamentalist leader Bob Jones, Jr. Reminiscences and Reflections Greenville, South Carolina: Bob Jones University Press, , The pudding was designed to bake in the oven during his sermon and be ready when the family came home from the meeting. Weisberger, They Gathered at the River: Little, Brown and Company, , The movie stars won, 1—0, and Sunday jokingly complained that his team could not get a break from the umpires, Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin.
Wilbur Chapman, wrote that he could not think of a time that Sunday had "had opportunity for conversation" that he had not asked, "Do you need any money? A good description of the house and its furnishings is in Firstenberger, 80— Do you know that incident made such an im- pression on me that I was a good boy for for I reckon as much as two weeks. Another familiar incident of these early days in which his grandfather figures which he frequently tells in another sermon indicates the activities of the farm.
He describes it as follows: When I was a little boy my grandfather said to me: He leaned the ladder to a sour crab-apple tree, climbed up and sawed off some of the limbs, split them and shoved in them some little pear sprouts as big as my finger and twice as long, and around them he tied a string and put in some beeswax. I said, "Grandpa, what are you doing? He introduced a graft of another variety and that changed the nature of the tree.
Shortly after he left the asylum young Sunday came to Nevada, Iowa, where he was given a home with Colonel John Scott, a veteran of the Union army, who at one time served his state as lieutenant governor. Colonel Scott was a breeder of Shetland ponies, and the boy helped to care for them in return for his board and clothes.
Hall, mayor of Nevada, and one of the many loyal supporters of the evangelist in that town, is always glad to talk of the man who has brought fame to their little place. In a letter he says: Bill Sunday, in boyhood days, was no angel, but was a good, average, energetic boy. He was fond of all kinds of sports. He had a record of running yards in 10 seconds; a fine swimmer, and could out-jump any of the other boys. Many people here insist that the world has never pro- duced as good a ball-player. His position was center field.
He was a sure batter and a good base- runner.
See a Problem?
What was a one-base hit for others, was a two-bagger for him. In a game at Marshalltown, Iowa, Captain Anson, from Chicago, saw him work and took him back with him to Chicago, where he played on the Chicago team. Billy liked the girls and was a favorite among them. He was popular also with his boy associates.
He was fair-minded, and never stirred up strife. He dis- played no traits in youth of becoming the preacher he now is. Finally there is the judgment of his mother. After more than 50 years acquaintance with the man who is a mystery to so many thousands, Mrs. Stowe gives a vivid word picture of the boyhood days of the evangelist, coupled invariably with the loving comments of a fond mother. Whenever one speaks of her evangelist son her face lights up with a smile and she invariably re- marks: He was always so.
The farm was located near Ames, not far from the agricul- tural school of that name, and was owned by the evangelist's grandfather, "Squire" J. Cory, who was a typical pioneer of the Middle West. According to his mother, Billy was the pride of his grandfather's heart and was taught many of his boyish athletic tricks by him. When but a mere baby the "Squire" would place the boy upon his outstretched hand and raise him high in the air.
His mother tells of his favorite childhood pet, a big shepherd named "Watch. He surely loved that dog and I don't hardly think that he has forgotten his old playmate yet, although he has had several such pets since. Did you ask if he has always worked like he does now? I guess he has. When just a boy he would go after things pell-mell and it seemed that he always had an extra supply of energy. Some might call his methods nervousness but it appears to me just the way he is made because he has been the same ever since I can remember. Even though he works ever so hard it is just his fashion and I guess he can stand it.
He is built peculiarly, that is why so many people do not understand him when they meet or watch him. At times, I know he seems to be snappy, but it is his style when he is busy and he has no idea he is hurting the feelings of any one. He was just the same when he was a boy. He always put his whole soul into everything that he did, whether it was work or play.
I guess that is what has helped to make him the man he is. I can remember that many times before he was ten years old he would go down to the college where the boys were playing ball and get in the game with them. After his grandfather died he and Ed Ed is his brother who lives out in North Dakota went to school at Marshalltown. My, but I missed my children so much. Their father had died during the civil war while serving in the 23d Iowa down south, and he never got to see Willie. His name was Willie, too, and we named the baby for him.
His father had always liked the name Ashley, so that is where Willie got his middle name. Learned dissertations on the value of Mr. Sunday's work; arguments about his theology; questions about his methods fail to cast the light upon his work and his character as thoroughly as the simple details from the lips of his mother uttered when she was well past It is in this university that W. Sunday has acquired his Ph. Moody, William Lloyd Garrison, Guiseppe Garibaldi and the many others whose lives shine as beacons throughout the realm of history.
Persistently the world's inquiry of a man who has achieved is what was his educa- tion, thinking to learn through that the route by which he blazed his way to an eminence which makes men marvel. If it were the way, and not the man, then all who tread the path might hope to reach pre- eminence. History will not endorse this philosophy.
It is the individual, the aspiring soul, the endeavoring mind which grasps each problem as it comes, and solves it; which wrestles with each difficulty, and throws it; which ultimately finds itself breathing in the rarified air which God has ordained for the elect of history. Sunday is authorized to write himself, reverend, an ordained minister of the Presbyterian church, and that fact alone would pre- suppose a considerable academic career. This as- 41 42 REV. Few men probably ever came to their ordination by a more peculiar route than has the famous baseball evangelist.
The poverty of his youth and the early life in the orphan asylums was not conducive to deep learning or profound thinking, however intimately it might acquaint him with the joys and griefs of life. The country school house undoubtedly gave him his first rudiments of knowledge. From his own lips there is authority for the statement that he was in no ways a remarkable student: When I was a little boy out in Iowa, he says, at the end of the term of school it was customary for the teachers to give us little cards, with a hand in one corner holding a scroll, and in that scroll was a place to write the name.
I never car- ried off the champion long-distance belt for verse quoting, either. If you ever saw an American kid, I was one. Earlier than most boys, however, he became con- vinced of the value of an education, and by work and sacrifice, he made possible through his own efforts what school training he received.
It was in the late seventies according to Mr. Hall, of Nevada, Iowa, that he came to that town to take up his high school studies, having prepared himself as best he might in the country schools and at the orphanages. Hall, is authority for the statement, that while he attended high school for several years, he did not graduate. According to the evangelist, his choice of studies ran to geography and history. It was in this capacity that an event took place which is frequently referred to by the evangelist in his sermons: I was working, as he tells it, in a school house where I went to school when a boy out in Iowa.
One day I went up to the bank to get my check cashed. Another fellow was standing beside me at the cashier's window and we both shoved our checks in at the same time. As I was standing in the middle of the sidewalk debating with myself what to do, along came a friend of mine, who is one of the biggest lawyers in Kansas City. I told him about the extra money and he told me to keep it and nobody would be the wiser.
I went ahead for years until finally one time I was down in Terre Haute with Dr. Every time I got down to pray, God seemed to tap me on the shoulder and say, "Remember the From an unfinished high school course to an ordained minister is a far cry, however, and there was many a pungent lesson in the school of life before this first acknowledgment by the world of what he was, could take place. It must not be forgotten that one of the great elements of his success has been the remarkable familiarity which he has with every phase of work-a-day life. In boyhood, a farmer; in youth, a care-taker of animals, and apprenticed to a worker in wood; a professional ball player before he was 20, he put in the time between seasons in a variety of work which kept him in proper form.
One of these ex- periences was that of fireman on what is now the Chicago and Northwestern. As soon as he became a recognized ball player, his travels naturally took him over a considerable portion of the United States and afforded him the privilege of becoming acquainted with a great many varieties of people, and different phases of life as these differentiated themselves in the East and the West, and the North and the South. His next effort at school work, however, relates to his connection with the Northwestern University where he took service in in the capacity of baseball coach.
Nathan Wilbur Helm, principal, Evanston Academy, says of the evangelist: He is entered on our books as William Amos.. Fisk says he is the same man. He took work here called "Rhetorical Exercises," which in- cluded elocution. It is impossible to tell who his teacher was, because this was rather a general public exercise in which students were required to take part regularly, but were not under the charge of any one teacher. I regret that Mr. Sunday was not here longer as a regular student, but according to our records, and Dr.
Fisk's statement, the facts above given apply to his sojourn here. However, I feel pleased that he was here even in that capacity. Fisk says that Mr. Sunday had been converted at that time, but was not actively in religious work. His influence on the ball field was excellent, and he stopped the practice of swearing, which had gotten to be somewhat of a habit with a number of boys on the team.
More baseball, then his Young Men's Christian Association work, and finally his excursion into the evangelical field in company with other men whose reputation he has since equaled or distanced, and during all of which period he was a careful student not only of the Bible, but of current literature and everything of interest which came his way, and then he was ready for the recognition of his service to the church in general.
Previous to his ordination Mr. Sunday had been recognized as an elder in the Jefferson Park Presby- terian church, which he had joined shortly after his marriage to Helen M. By August i, , he had been licensed to preach the gospel, but it was not until that he come up for ordination. In view of the controversies which have appeared in 46 REV. The Committee on Education, through Rev.
Plumer Bryan, chairman, so recommending, Mr. Sunday, a licentiate of Presbytery, desiring to enter the ministery, was examined for ordination. His examiantion being sustained, it was ordered that when Presbytery adjourn it be to meet Wednesday, April 15, in Jefferson Park church, for the purpose of his ordination, that Rev. Vance, to preside, propound con- stitutional questions and offer ordaining prayer, and Rev. Alexander Patterson to give the charge to the evangelist. Presbytery met pursuant to above adjourn- ment, in Jefferson Park church, April 15, 8 p.
Henry Bentz, corresponding member; J. Wilbur Chapman, President, New York. Wilbur Chapman preached sermon. Vance propounded constitutional questions and offered prayer of or- dination. Alexander Patterson gave charge to evangelist. Adjourned with benediction by the newly ordained minister, Rev. Sunday has never been particular about be- ing called Reverend.
- The Soulmate Solution: Attracting the Perfect Life Partner (Book One).
- Me & My Boyfriend.
- Skater-Babe (The Portsmouth Place Stories Book 2).
- Billy Sunday Selected Sermons by Billy Sunday.
- .
- Billy Sunday - WikiVisually?
Plain "Bill" or "Billy" is the appellation which seems to be dearest to his heart. Still less is he inclined to use the title Doctor of Divinity, which is the last honor which has been con- ferred upon him in academic circles. Sunday at the commencement exercises June 13, Sunday was not able to be present, being engaged in evangelistic services at Beaver Falls, so the degree was conferred in absentia.
We count it to the honor of Westminster that she did this thing. Sunday knows his Bible, which is the true body of divinity in theolog- ical lore. Sunday has devoted his life to the supreme task of world evangelization for which the Bible is the great charter. He is, therefore, both in scholarship and practical effort entitled to the degree.
Just as a Doctor of Medicine is sup- posed to know the Science of Medicine and practice the art of healing, so a Doctor of Divinity who knows the truth about God and practices the art of saving is entitled to the degree. In many institu- tions it is customary to bestow the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity upon those who are men noted for their knowledge of "the traditions of the scribes and Pharisees" than for knowledge and practical use of the Bible itself. Patched and disjointed as are these efforts at acquiring the knowledge which to many men comes through channels so simple and natural that they are never conscious of them, they afford no real index to the attainment or the ability of the man.
Agriculture he knows as well as most farmers; medicine and law he can discuss freely with professionals. Even those preachers who find that he is not profound theolog- ically, do not say that he is not sound. Art and 48 REV. The stars are not unknown to him. A colossal capac- ity for figures is staggering to those who become lost even in the ordinary intricacies of bookkeeping. His reading has been diversified and extremely wide- spread. He has a keen knowledge of the thing that will appeal to an audience, and a selective spirit which enables him to judge almost intuitively the story, the episode or the comparison which will most readily appeal to his hearers.
During the course of his campaigns he addresses in one day the society women of the city, and in the same half day the convicts of the penitentiary. He dines with the governor of the state, addresses the legislature, speaks to shopmen in large factories and is ready within a few minutes to launch upon a pro- found exposition of some Bible theme. It is almost impossible to hit upon a subject for conversation where he is not better informed than the average person and at least able to discuss intelligently with those who have specialized in that line.
In this respect his mind shows much in common with that of the great Napoleon whose versatility and adapta- bility were the marvel of his generation. A phenom- enal memory has been of material assistance in the proper use of his diversified knowledge. He calls by name readily men and women whom he has not seen for years, and then only for a brief period. He quotes verbatim whole passages not only of the Scriptures but of the English classics, and reproduces, with ac- curacy, those most baffling compilation of statistics, the government reports, which deal with labor, agri- culture, commerce and the traffic of the world.
Johnson Still an authority on baseball A veteran's opinion. In a word, those who were chosen to be messengers of the new salvation were of the people, and they preached primarily to the people. In varying degrees this has been true of all great evangelists who have achieved an acceptable ranking in history. It is true Luther was equipped with the academic training of the clergy of his time, but his life, his habits and his language were essentially those of the common people. The German into which he trans- lated the Holy Writ, is the German of the masses, and on his authority alone against all lexicographers, there are German expressions sanctioned which do not conform to the ordinary usages of good German dic- tion.
Modern evangelism has numerous, if not such marked, examples of the same truth. Nor do these men ever shake off the vernacular of their early calling and association. Human nature is so constituted that that which smacks of the soil, is considered to smack of sincerity. What there is about studious and philosophical preparation that robs the masses of confidence in the man, who uses it, it might be hard to explain. The fact that such a seem- 51 52 REV. There is no question but that baseball is the great American game. Its appeal is to thousands where the appeal of any other sport is to hundreds.
It is dis- tinctively American. Its vigorous, if unschooled ex- ertions typify the American spirit, restless of all con- trol. Full of the element of contest, rapid in its action, exhilarating in its effect, essentially a contest in every aspect, the game is a reflex of the national life of to- day. Sunday, His messenger, or whether mere natural causes suffi- ciently account for the bounding popularity of the evangelist, who came from the ranks of the most popular sport in America, is a matter for speculation, the outcome of which is of no particular importance.
Whether a coincidence or a cause leading to an effect, is immaterial. The facts are that in stepping from a baseball team to the rostrum of a tabernacle Mr. Sunday achieved a feat without parallel in modern history, but quite in keeping with the best traditions of the calling he espouses. It is not of record that the evangelist cherished any youthful ambition to shine upon the baseball field. Rather it is probable that baseball meant to him what it means to most healthy boys, a pleasant sport and an agreeable means by which they may express their energy.
His history is peculiar only in that he had come to extraordinary fame in his baseball work before he took up what has proved to be his life activity. Anson, popularly known as "Captain" Anson, or "Pop" Anson, is baseball tradi- tion. It has been the remark of sporting editors that Billy Sunday never worked in a "brush" league, but stepped full fledged, a star, into the arena of the national game when he became a member of the White Sox team in Sunday remained with the Chicago organization for five years, and for all that time head- ing the batting order he played either right or center field.
From, Chicago at the end of five years Sunday went to Pittsburgh, and later on to Philadelphia. More than 20 years of active work in promulgat- ing the gospel has not cooled the ardor of his en- thusiasm for the national game, nor abated one jot or tittle the friendship he feels for the men who are still keeping it before the public, or for the older fellows who have had to get out of the way of the younger generation. Baseball and baseball lingo are a concomitant part and attractive feature of many of his best known sermons. A hearty welcome and an opportunity for a chat is always afforded those who come to discuss old times, or the changes in the game as it is played today.
A man whose experience would fill volumes and whose career is brilliant with many exceptional achievements in other lines, the magazines still turn to him for articles on baseball, and he is regularly 54 REV. Sunday goes in the furtherance of his evangelical campaigns, he meets with many who recall his White Sox days and not infrequently these form a nucleus of the subsequent crowds which rally to his support.
As a unit these men insist that Sunday was a great baseball player. Most pertinent to quote, however, is his brother-in-law, Wm. Thompson, who as a boy traveled with the Chicago team, and who took more than a boy's interest in the courtship between Mr. Sunday and Miss Thompson, which was in progress at the time. Thompson in a recent interview thus outlined his brother-in-law's baseball career: He certainly was a punk hitter, but on the bases he was, by all odds, the fastest man in the big league. Did you know that Billy was the first man in this country to run a yards in 10 seconds flat?
I saw him do it. At the time it was considered a marvelous thing and Billy got national prominence as a result. Everybody on the team always worked to get Billy on the bases because they knew that if he once got to first he was almost certain to score. As a base-stealer Billy didn't have a rival. Just as Ty Cobb is the terror to present-day catchers, Billy was the terror in his day.
I've seen him many a time start to slide into the bases when he would be 20 feet away, and nine times out of ten he'd make it. All the spectators would see would be a cloud of dust. Billy was such a twister that it was almost impossible for a baseman to get the ball on him. Billy played in the field and, believed me, he could cover a lot of ground, too. He was a favorite with everybody on the club, and especially with the fans. He was a great "kidder," too, and no matter what they hurled at him from the stands, he came right back at 'em with a still hotter one.
Maybe you've noticed he's some talker today. Sunday's own version of his work and his success in it does not materially differ from that of Mr. Where I excelled was in speed, and I always led the batting order, because I was a dangerous man to have on bases with heavy batters behind me. Sunday's agility, there seems to be no shadow of a doubt. Current sporting writers compare him to Ty Cobb and others in the limelight at the present moment. He is given credit for establishing the mark of encircling the bases from a standing start in 14 seconds, an achievement calculated to try the wind and limb of the most perfect athlete.
One base- ball writer says: He probably caused more wide throws than any other player the game has ever known, because of his specialty of "going down to first" like a streak of greased electricity. When he hit the ball, infielders yelled, "Hurry it up! He was ac- knowledged champion sprinter of the National League. This led to a match race once with Arlie Latham, who held like honors in the American. BILLY SUNDAY More than the contest with speed, however, in this particular instance, was a contest that went on within the breast of the young baseball star, who at the time had been recently converted.
At a luncheon tendered to him in one of the clubs at Columbus, Mr. Sunday gave his own version of the race with Arlie Latham: Arlie Latham could do the same in the American League, so we fixed it up to have a race one Sunday afternoon. But in the meantime I got converted. I went to Cap Anson and said: I'm converted and I can't run that race on Sunday. If you don't win that race they'll have to eat snowballs next winter.
You go down to St. Louis and run that race and fix it up with God afterwards. I then went before the presbytery and told 'em all and stuck to the church, and after eight years they ordained me as a minister. And then the other day Westminster gave me an honorary "D.
Another speed contest which attracted national attention at the time was an unexpected "go" with H. Johnson, a man very well known in his day. As the South Bend Tribune tells it: Johnson, who at that time was heralded as the fastest runner of the day. Sunday accepted a challenge, left the diamond for the day, donned a track suit, dug his spikes into the sands of the track at Chicago beach, on Lake Michigan, and raced Johnson, who was in the pink of condition, and who had just returned from capturing the Sheffield championship in England.
We started off like a shot, said Sunday while in a reminiscent mood the other day. I was used to speedy work on the diamond but not on a straight track. I led Johnson for 80 yards, and then he began to crawl up on me. Everything blurred before me. The crowd seemed to swim before my eyes as I ran, but I could see the finish line getting nearer and nearer.
The distance was yards. Johnson and I neared the line neck- and-neck. He ran lower than I did and breasted the tape just six inches ahead of me and won. The timers had six watches on us. After the race Johnson turned, grasped my hand and told me that in two weeks' time he could train me so that I could beat him by five feet with but a little training.
Full text of "Spectacular career of Rev. Billy Sunday, famous baseball evangelist"
I said "nothing doing," though, and went back to the diamond and played. Quoting from another article: Sunday probably has the longest lower leg, that is, from the knee to the foot, of any man ever seen in this city. It has powerful bulging muscles near the knee, tapering down to actual thinness near the ankle, a runner's foot in every particular. At Steubenville, when the national championships were drawing to a crisis, Sunday could not refrain 58 REV.
The conversation is typical, in that it dis- plays the loyalty of the man, both to his past associates and to the calling in which he first won recognition. Cap could swing on that ball my, how he could swing! He could give a terrific swat and there isn't a batter today that can surpass him. And as to pitchers, John Clarkson topped them all. John was the only man I ever saw who would throw overhanded and make the ball go down and then up. He used to wear his finger nails down to the quick in throwing that ball and would have his fingers and the ball covered with blood.
And some of you fellows talk about the "squeeze play" and other new plays of the diamond. We used to make those same plays 25 years ago, only we didn't have any fancy names for them. Four times that I know of I scored from second base on an infield hit. We didn't wear any gloves in those days. But you know in those days fouls did not count as strikes.
Mike Kelley was really respon- sible for the present rule. It became an art and he'd get the pitcher tired. He would stand at the plate all day if they hadn't made the new rule on foul. It was during his career as a baseball player that Mr. Naturally this event made a decided change in his life, and while, by his own confession, he was somewhat given to excesses in his earlier day, it is interesting to know that in a general way his character and his habits were of a good order. He was esteemed by all who knew him.
That their standards of life were not the standards of leaders in ethical thought is a criticism of present-day society, and not of the man. In this connection it is worth while to quote Mr. Richter, editor of Sporting Life, probably the best known publication of its class in this country. I never had the pleasure of personal acquaint- ance with Mr. Sunday, and therefore cannot speak with the authority of intimate knowledge of his personality or character.
But I never heard any- thing but good of him from those who knew him or associated with him. He stood high with his teammates, and that is a splendid credential in my opinion, as no hypocrite could associate long with ball players without being unmasked and, per con- sequence, being treated with merited contempt, and perhaps let severely alone by a class never chary in expression of their views of men and things and endowed with little reverence, as a rule.
Sunday's own story of his conversion at Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago The resolutions that followed. Each man looks at them in the light of his own philosophy of living. Few men have come to great prominence in the world without having some date or event set out that transcended with vividness from the rest of their lives. Particularly is this true of the great men in the world of religion. Occasionally one will find a great divine who says of himself: No such lack of certainty concerns the life of Mr.
A definite Sunday night in the fall of stands out vividly in his recollections over all the other nights of his life. That event has been the subject of one of the greatest sermons the evangelist ever delivers. It has been heard in more than cities, twice that number of newspapers have printed it, and yet it thrills each time with a sense of newness and truth that makes a profound impression on all who sit beneath its spell. Sunday's mother was a Methodist. As a boy he had been schooled in the usages of that church. Students of cause and effect may like to ascribe the 63 64 REV. There is none who can deny them the right to that opinion, although it will not be the one generally ac- cepted.
Sunday's mother was a Corey," writes a friend of the family, "and emotionalism was a prom- inent trait in their make-up. But here again no sufficient reason is forthcoming to account exactly for what took place when it did. No one who examines the facts from without can hope to have the knowledge that comes from a survey within. No philosophical disputation could add any truth to the statement as the evangelist himself has outlined it, and certainly none could be put so forcefully.
Billy Sunday
Sunday stands today an ordained minister of the Presbyterian church, and emotionalism is not essentially a Presbyterian trait. True to the earliest influences of his home, he exemplifies the benefit of his mother's church, the foundation of which were laid in evangelism.
At the time of his conversion. Sunday had been a baseball player of national reputation for four years ; he was in receipt of a salary which at the time was considered very large. As life goes, for men of that class, success and whatever hap- piness that is supposed to bring with it was already his. Nothing that life in future years has brought him has ever caused him to deprecate his earlier call- ing and his associates. Without being blinded to their faults, he has always had for them the greatest charity.
The life of a baseball player is in no sense cal- culated to induce religious reflection. It is not to be presumed, therefore, that the conversion of the baseball player Billy Sunday was predi- cated upon his previous religious activities other than that of his very early home days.
Hundreds of thou- sands of persons have heard him tell the story, and dozens of men have attempted to write it, but none have achieved an approximation of success when he has departed in any way from a verbatim report. Sunday tells the story: Twenty-six years ago I walked down a street in Chicago in company with some ball players who were famous in this world some of them are dead now and we went into a saloon. It was Sunday afternoon and we got tanked up, and then went and sat down on a corner.
I never go by that place but I pray. It is Van Buren street, Chicago. As I said, we walked on down the street to the corner. It was a vacant lot at that time. We sat down on the curbing. Across the street a company of men and women were playing on instruments horns, flutes and slide trombones and the others were singing the gospel hymns that I used to hear my mother sing back in. And God painted on the canvas of my memory a vivid picture of the scenes of other days and other faces.
Many have long since turned to dust. I sobbed and sobbed and a young man stepped out and said: I am sure you will enjoy it. You can hear drunk- ards tell how they have been saved and girls tell how they have been saved from the red light district. We've come to the parting of the ways," and I turned my back on them.
Some of them laughed and some of them mocked me ; one of them gave me encouragement; others never said a word. Twenty-six years ago I turned and left that little group on the corner of State and Madison streets, walked to the little mission, went on my knees and staggered out of sin and into the arms of the Savior. She was a Presby- terian, so I am a Presbyterian. The next day I had to go out to the ball park and practice. Every morning at 10 o'clock we had to be out there and practice. I never slept that night. I was afraid of the horse-laugh that gang would give me because I had taken my stand for Jesus Christ.
I walked down to the old ball grounds. I will never forget it. I slipped my key into the wicket gate, and the first man to meet me after I got inside was Mike Kelley. Up came Mike Kelley. Religion is not my long suit, but I'll help you all I can. There wasn't a fellow in that gang who knocked ; every fellow had a word of encouragement for me.