FAMOUS EVANGELIST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22261, 8 November 1935, Page 11

FAMOUS EVANGELIST

DEATH OF "BILLY" SUNDAY REMARKABLE CAREER (Received November 7, 5.5 p.m.) CHICAGO, Nov. 6 The death is announced of the famous ''' evangelist Mr. William A. ("Billy") - Sunday, aged 72. ' " ri The late Mr. William Ashley Sunday was born at Ames, lowa, and educated at the North-Western University and Westminster College, New Wilmington. From 1883 to 1890 he was a professional | baseball player in the Chicago, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia teams of tho' National League and then made a bigj change in his career by becoming i assistant-secretary of the Chicago 1 brauch of the Y.M.C.A. In 1896 he I gave up that post to be aferoving evangelist. "Billy" Sunday's methods were original. He employed the very vivid, but strange-coined phrases which make the language of the baseball field distinct from that of any other sport. His! appeal was to the people and he reached them through their understanding of that game, so popular in America. He was soon recognised as a great character. Enormous crowds attended his meetings and he addressed them with unrestrained freedom, apply-; ing at timcss the roughest terms of baseball in Biblical exhortations. If he thought an expression so coarse as to be barely printable would best drive home a point, he used it. /•

In 1903 he was ordained a minister;'£ of the Presbyterian Church by the Chicago Presbytery and in the next;., year began his most intensive campaign. His methods of appeal appear to r have suited liis audiences admirably, for"he claimed that in tho next three years he won "from 1000 to 3000 converts a month." In 1912 the Westminster College conferred on him the degree of D.D. Mr. Sunday continued his evangelistic tours of tho chief cities of th«-" — United States, concerning himself mainly with a fierce condemnation oft; alcohol. In 1918 the Chicago Presbytery elected him its delegate to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church at Columbus, Ohio. In the Presidential election campaign of 1928 he worked with enthusiasm for prohibition. A commentator once wrote of the deceased: "If there are crudities and objectionable features in "Billy" Sun-. rw day's methods, some of which can-,.*? not bo overlooked, on tho other handle there are genuine and definite results that cannot be ignored. This much cannot bo gainsaid. "Billy" Sunday is tremendously in earnest. He preaches the Gospol according to his light, and he preaches it with a passionate ■earnestness that absorbs every ounce of"-'-his energy. 'I live to preach,' he said* one evening. And everyboctojk believes, 1 that that is true."