Full Attendance for Rev. Baker's Forceful Sermon

Pennsylvania, 1915

Song Service Preceding Address Was Again A Feature of Evening

The evangelistic service in St. James church last evening was largely attended and was expressive of the interest being shown in the meetings conducted by Rev. J. B. Baker, pastor.

The usual fifteen minutes of song service preceding the special musical features were a solo by Mrs. Zinn, entitled "The Light of the World is Jesus," and a duet by Pauline and Jacob Rudisill, "The Old Account Was Settled Long Ago". The Scripture lesson was taken from the story of blind Bartimaeus, Mark 10. The text was taken from the Scripture lesson "Arise, he calleth thee."

Fragments of the sermon were:

"The blind man can read by means of raised type and is often not as blind as many of us. When the blind man cried out, Jesus stopped. Jesus always hears when we call. Do you believe God answers prayers? The blind man was heard because of his faith. No matter how low your boy may be or what he is doing, his prospects are as bright as God's promises. Jesus knew what the man needed but he asked him what he wanted him to do for him. He said he wanted his sight and Jesus said, 'Thy faith has made thee whole.' The man then went his way which was Jesus' way. 'Arise, he calleth thee.' Just as many voices called the man to come to Jesus, so many voices have called you.

"Your childhood has called you. Do you grow in your Christian life as you did when you were a child? You are not growing if you are hanging around some two-story hell-hole drinking beer and whiskey. Your own children call you. The cry of the small child at night suggests how we should cry to God in sorrow and trouble. The child trusts his father, absolutely, and so should you. Nothing appeals to a father like the outstretched hand of a child. So also God has compassion and love toward those coming to him.

"The prayers of your wives call you. Billy Sunday said, 'If the women were as bad as men, God would throw the whole human race into hell.' Women have often asked me to pray for their husbands but husbands have never asked me to pray for their wives, only in times of sickness. When she pleads for your soul, the immortal speaks. These songs call you. Do you have such songs out in the world? You are purer and happier and better for having heard them. Your past calls you. Some people say that it is no one's business what I do but it is God's business. He bought you with an infinite price.

"The Bible calls you. It is an art gallery, a beautiful arbor, a wonderful well. It is to deliver a message but you turned it aside. Your lives are like American coins in Europe — they will not pass in another world. Finally, Jesus' life and death call you. Come and heed all these influences calling you tonight."

Tonight is C. E. night when all the Christian Endeavorers will march in before the beginning of the service and take places reserved for them.

Cottage prayer meetings will be held at 2 o'clock this afternoon at homes of C. S. Reaser II, Milton Roth, Geo. W. Spangler, Huber B. Miller.

—The Star and Sentinel, Gettysburg, PA, Jan. 15, 1915, p. 2.

Priest's Surplice on Fire; Billy Sunday Destroys Pulpit

1908

Priest's Surplice on Fire

Presence of Mind Averts Panic in Church Crowded With Children

Presence of mind prevented a serious panic in St. Josephs Catholic Church at Newport, R.I. during the children's mass yesterday, with many little ones occupying the body of the church and adults in large numbers also present.

The first communicants among the children were receiving communion from the Rev. James Mahon, the pastor, when a candle on a votive table at the left of the altar set fire to Father Mahon's surplice.

A woman in the congregation yelled fire. In a second many of the congregation were on their feet, when the Rev. Dr. William A. Doran, who was celebrant of the mass rushed to Father Mahon's side and with his hands beat out the flames, while both priests called upon the people to remain in their seats.



Sinners On The Bases

Billy Sunday Brings Them Home With Liners From Pulpit

The Rev. Billy Sunday, the former baseball player who has been holding a series of revivals at Sharon, Pa., closed his engagement at the Tabernacle last night. The minister got so excited during his last sermon at Sharon that he pounded the pulpit into strips.

He plucked off a piece of the hard wood and wielded it as if it was a baseball bat, knocking out liners to bring home the stragglers on the bases.

During his talk he would measure off the distance from the pulpit as if he was sizing up his position at an imaginary curve ball and watch it shoot out into the right or left field of his audience.

Among his hearers were many baseball fans and they watched the revivalist with envy.

—The Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, NY, June 1, 1908, page 5.

Billy Sunday Lashes Syracuse Women in Tabernacle

Syracuse, New York, 1915

BILLY SUNDAY LASHES WOMEN IN TABERNACLE

BUT HE TELLS SYRACUSE MEN ARE MUCH WORSE THAN WOMANKIND

"YOU WOMEN CAN MAKE HOME A HELL OR HEAVEN," SAYS EVANGELIST

SYRACUSE, N. Y., Nov. 12. — Syracuse is smarting today under the vigorous lashing for card playing, beer drinking and unGodliness administered by Rev. "Billy" Sunday, who is holding revival meetings here.

"Broken homes and broken lives seem to go hand in hand. They are inseparably connected," shouted Sunday, in an excoriation of vice.

"Many sons and daughters are brought up in idleness. The women are silly, frivolous, extravagant. They allow themselves to be flattered, cajoled and bamboozled by a lot of jilted jays with cracked characters.

"You women can make a hell of a home or a heaven of a home.

MOTHERS NEGLECT HOMES

"I tell you what's the matter with you mothers: You are neglecting your home for the lodge, for your clubs, for your literaries and your societies.

"I don't want to advocate that you should lick your children all the time, but when it's needed. There are homes in which the switch should hang on the wall and underneath it the motto: 'I Need Thee Every Hour.'

"I believe that if the motherhood of this country were no better than the manhood, God would dump the whole thing in hell.

"You'll never save Syracuse from intemperance if you run a booze joint in your home and keep beer and wine in your cellar.

"You can put a library on every corner and let every church member be a college graduate, but that will never save you from hell.

SCRUB THE HOBO — BAH!

"You can have your clubs, your literary societies and your Keeley cures; you can go into the red light districts and have a girl add a few ruffles to her dress to lengthen it; you can scrub the hobo, but that will never save anyone.

"Do you suppose that God wants to work with a hand that is lifting a beer glass one minute and a deck of cards or a novel the next?

"If a church member plays cards he ought to be expelled from church.

"Many a life knows no song. They seem to say: Where is the joy that once I knew when first I loved the Lord?

"It's back where you left it — back there where you sidestepped your virtue and winked at another woman.

"I have known boys who made a success of life who had an old materialistic, irreligious father, but I never knew of anyone to succeed who had a Godless, card playing mother.

"When Napoleon Bonaparte was asked, 'What do you regard as the greatest need of France?' he replied, 'Mothers, mothers, mothers.'

LAUDS TRUE MOTHERS

"I believe that the greatest work done in this world is done by true mothers. The last thing the devil robs a boy of is what he learned at mother's knee."

"Once when my wife was ill, the doctor said she should have some beer. I ordered a case, then thought better of it and said:

"'Wife, I'll see you in your coffin before I'll give you beer.'

"I think the doctor was a liar, and the doctor who prescribes beer is nothing but a jackass."

—The Lima Daily News, Lima, Ohio, November 12, 1915, page 9.