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Billy Sunday
William
Ashley Sunday was born in Ames, Iowa as the son of a Civil War soldier,
on November 19, 1862. Because his father died when he was less than a
year old, "Billy" was raised in an orphanage. His young days
were hard, working in a hotel and later for Colonel John Scott.
During
high school young Sunday worked as a janitor. In 1883 he joined the
"White Sox," becoming a professional baseball player; he
played in the major leagues for seven years. He was converted to Christ
in 1886.
Sunday
gave up his baseball career in March, 1891 to become an assistant YMCA
secretary. After three years of work at the YMCA and acting as assistant
to Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman, Sunday began preaching in his own services. He
was ordained to the ministry in 1903 by the Presbytery of Chicago.
Sunday preached in the army camps during World War I and later held
city-wide meetings in the various cities across America. He refused to
accept invitations offered him to go abroad.
In
one meeting in Philadelphia over 2.3 million attended his crusade during
a period of eight weeks. Sunday held campaigns for over twenty years and
literally "burned out for Christ." At the close of each
service throngs of people came forward and grasped the evangelist's hand
to signify their conversion. Such action was called "hitting the
sawdust trail" because the tabernacle floors were covered with
sawdust. Sunday was noted for acrobatic feats on the platform as he
preached.
The
worst ever said of him was that he occasionally let his humor run wild;
the best ever said about him was that he reached a million lives for
Christ - the drunken, the down and out, the homeless, the common man.
His blazing-fisted bare-handed evangelism lives in American history. He
was probably a factor in preparing the country for the passage of the
Eighteenth (Liquor prohibition) Amendment to the US Constitution.
Billy
Sunday died in Chicago, November 6, 1935; services were held in the
Moody Memorial Church with 4,400 present.
There
is a story saying that when Billy Sunday was converted and joined the
church, a Christian man put his arm on the young man's shoulder and said,
"William, there are three simple rules I can give to you, and if you
will hold to them you will never write "backslider" afer your
name.
"Take
15 minutes each day to listen to God talking to you; take 15 minutes each
day to talk to God; take 15 minutes each day to talk to others about
God."
This
young convert was deeply impressed and determined to make these the rules
of his life. From that day onward throughout his life he made it a rule to
spend the first moments of his day alone with God and God's Word. Before
he read a letter, looked at a paper or even read a telegram, he went first
to the Bible, that the first impression of the day might be what he got
directly from God.
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