"BILLY" SUNDAY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 290, 3 September 1919, Page 3

"BILLY" SUNDAY

AN EVANGELIST EXTBAOKDINARY.

_ A larce congregatioa fillwl every seat' in the Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church last evening to hear Mr. J. Bissett's talk on "Billy Sundivy, tho Smy American Evangelist," whose "Biblo in Slang" hns created much diverse criticism in high places. Mr. Bissett, who chamnions Sunday, likened him to the disciple J'obn, and credits the ex-baseball player of Cliicago icith similar powers and a similar mission to men. The speaker toUlHhe story of Billy, the "hot gospeller" of modern times.. He was born in 1862 during the Civil War, and his father die<h while serving in the Northern Army when Billy was a month, old. His mother struggled with her babes until her strength failed, and Billy and his elder brother were sent to a soldiers' orphanage, and from there to a farm, where Billy-'as a mere !ad had to milk ten cows before breaking his fast. Billy grew to love outdoor sport, and his prn£ciency_ at baseball ensured for him ' a professional career. With five other bailers he was lounging one evening in Madison i Avenue, when a group of men and women from the Garden Pacific Mission commenced an open-air meeting opposite them. All scoffed and sneered at the street worshippers, snvc Billy, who wae calmly attentive, iuul wheii at tho conclusion a speaker invited them to come along to tho hall, Billy made his choice, and vent along, to the profound amazement and disgust of his friends. That night Billy was converted, and he never looked back. THs energy ami resource were so gTentvthat he was offered tin assistant qeoretarysliip of filio Y.M.C.A., and left that to go ahead of Dr. Chapman. / After that tour, which lasted 3i yearE, Billy himself was' invited to conduct a mission, and so he merged into a preacher.

Jlr. Bissett heard him electrify mulierices of 20,1)00 nightly in Now York. Although the great, tent was seven miles from the centre oi' the city, there wus always a difficulty in getting in. He, on the Inst evening of Sunday's New York mission left town nt 5 p.m. to hear the address nt 8 p.m. Though armed with a Minister's pas's, it wns 0.15 p.m. before he was able to, yet .inside, and there were thousande outside who never liaJ a chance. The- entrance of Billy iSui!(lay was like a ray of sunshine. lie, was a speaker - who requira! a bis platform and who used it all, yet 'behind him was a choir of 'JfiOO voices. He hit very hard—hit the people, so to speak, where they lived. He had a burning mcs?ngo from God to deliver, and to do it comfortably ho took off his coat and rolled up his sleeves. It might sound ridiculous, but in Now York at times it wns very hot, ur.d Billy did what every othir man would have liked to have done —lie was natural. Some en'M that he over-indulged in slang. Tt might be so, but personally Mr. Bissett testified that ho had never heard Sunday say anything that could not bo said in itny pulpit in New Zealand.