Billy Sunday
William Ashley "Billy" Sunday was an American athlete who, after being a popular outfielder in baseball's National League during the 1880s, became the most celebrated and influential American evangelist during the first two decades of the 20th century.
Born into poverty in Iowa, Sunday spent some years in an orphanage before working at odd jobs and playing for local running and baseball teams. His speed and agility provided him the opportunity to play baseball in the major leagues for eight years, where he was an average hitter and a good fielder known for his base-running.
Converted to evangelical Christianity in the 1880s, Sunday left baseball for the Christian ministry. He gradually developed his skills as a pulpit evangelist in the Midwest and then, during the early 20th century, he became the nation's most famous evangelist with his colloquial sermons and frenetic delivery. Sunday held widely reported campaigns in America's largest cities, and he attracted the largest crowds of any evangelist before the advent of electronic sound systems. He also made a great deal of money and was welcomed into the homes of the wealthy and influential. Sunday was a strong supporter of Prohibition, and his preaching almost certainly played a significant role in the adoption of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919.
Despite questions about his income, no scandal ever touched Sunday. He was sincerely devoted to his wife, who also managed his campaigns, but his three sons disappointed him. His audiences grew smaller during the 1920s as Sunday grew older, religious revivals became less popular, and alternate sources of entertainment appeared. Nevertheless, Sunday continued to preach and remained a stalwart defender of conservative Christianity until his death.
While Billy Sunday was a remarkable evangelist of his time, one of his greatest converts is Dr. Billy Graham. Dr. Graham writes about his conversion in this book, "Just As I Am" published by HarperCollins in 1997.
“Temptation is the devil looking through the keyhole. Yielding is opening the door and inviting him in.”
“The law tells me how crooked I am. Grace comes along and straightens me out.”
“The only way to keep a broken vessel full is to keep it always under the tap.”
“One reason sin flourishes is that it is treated like a cream puff instead of a rattlesnake.”
“Yank some of the groans out of your prayers and shove in some shouts.”
“Give your face to God, and He will put his shine on it.”
“The Bible will always be full of things you cannot understand, as long as you will not live according to those you can understand.”
“The backslider likes the preaching that wouldn't hit the side of a house, while the real disciple is delighted when the truth brings him to his knees.”
“The reason you don't like the Bible, you old sinner, is because it knows all about you.”
“You can't measure manhood with a tape line around his biceps.”
“Better die an old maid, sister, than marry the wrong man.”
“Whenever a day comes when I can stand and preach God's Word without an agony of anxiety lest the people will not accept Christ; whenever a day comes when I can see men and women coming down the aisles without joy in my heart, I'll quit preaching.”
“O Devil, why do you hit us when we are down? Old boy, I know that you have no time for me, and I guess that you have about learned that I have no time for you. I will never apologize for anything I have ever done against you. If I have ever said anything that has does not hurt you, tell me about it, and I'll take it out of my sermon.”
“Listen, I'm against sin. I'll kick it as long as I've got a foot, I'll fight it as long as I've got a fist, I've butt it as long as I've got a head, and I'll bite it as long as I've got a tooth. And when I'm old, fistless, footless, and toothless, I'll gum it till I go home to glory and it goes home to perdition.”
“Being a kind, emperor, or president is mighty small potatoes compared to being a mother. Commanding an army is little more than sweeping a street compared with training a boy or girl. The mother of Moses did more for the world than all the kinds that Egypt ever had. Oh, you wait until you reach the mountains of eternity, then read the mothers' names in God's Hall of Fame.”
“Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile.”