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Line 2: − Sunday was unabashedly uneducated and spoke in the plain speech of ordinary people, a marked contrast to the dignified style of other ministers. By 1914, he was a national celebrity, conducting campaigns in big cities which lasted many weeks and attracted tens of thousands of people. In 1917, he conducted a ten-week campaign in New York in which 98,000 people accepted Christ.<ref name=billysundayorg/>. Gale's ''American Decades'' says that by 1920 he was the best-known evangelist in America. + + + + + + + + +
A 1907 account
'''Billy Sunday''' (full name: ''William Ashley Sunday'') (1862-1935) was a famous baseball player who became an even more famous revivalist minister. He set baseball records by rounding the bases in fourteen seconds, and in 1891 set a record by stealing 90 bases in 116 games. In that year, Philadelphia Phillies offered Sunday $400/month, but he turned them down to accept an $83/month job as "Secretary of the Religious Department" at a YMCA. He hosted his first revival meeting in Iowa in 1897 and became an ordained Presbyterian minister in 1903.<ref name=billysundayorg>[http://billysunday.org/ Billy Sunday Remembered]: ran bases in 14 seconds. [http://billysunday.org/timeline.php3 Billy Sunday timeline]: birth-death dates, base-stealing, turned down Phillies for YMCA, first revival meeting in 1897, ordained 1903, 98,000 accepted Christ in 1917 New York campaign.</ref>
'''Billy Sunday''' (full name: ''William Ashley Sunday'') (1862-1935) was a famous baseball player who became an even more famous revivalist minister. He set baseball records by rounding the bases in fourteen seconds, and in 1891 set a record by stealing 90 bases in 116 games. In that year, Philadelphia Phillies offered Sunday $400/month, but he turned them down to accept an $83/month job as "Secretary of the Religious Department" at a YMCA. He hosted his first revival meeting in Iowa in 1897 and became an ordained Presbyterian minister in 1903.<ref name=billysundayorg>[http://billysunday.org/ Billy Sunday Remembered]: ran bases in 14 seconds. [http://billysunday.org/timeline.php3 Billy Sunday timeline]: birth-death dates, base-stealing, turned down Phillies for YMCA, first revival meeting in 1897, ordained 1903, 98,000 accepted Christ in 1917 New York campaign.</ref>
By 1914, he was a national celebrity, conducting campaigns in big cities which lasted many weeks and attracted tens of thousands of people. In 1917, he conducted a ten-week campaign in New York in which 98,000 people accepted Christ.<ref name=billysundayorg/>. Gale's ''American Decades'' says that by 1920 he was the best-known evangelist in America.
Sunday was unabashedly uneducated and spoke in the plain speech of ordinary people, a marked contrast to the dignified style of other ministers. This was quite unusual, even shocking at the time. A 1907 profile tells of him retelling New Testament stories in his own style:
:"Oh, but the Devil is a smooth guy! ... So the devil went out in the wilderness after the Saviour. Now, Christ was a man. He had all the attributes of a man. He was tired, he was hungry, he was lonely, just the way you and I would have been. And the Devil walks up to him and says—"
:[Here the preacher drew himself into as fine a personification of the sneering arrogance of Mephistopheles as ever was achieved by Sir Henry Irving<ref>A famous actor, perhaps the most famous of all time</ref>.]
:"He says, 'Son of God, hey?'"
The commentator notes that at the first meetings, local ministers had "looked at each other and were horrified," but were won over, and quotes one as saying
:"The man has trampled all over me and my theology. He has kicked my teachings up and down that platform like a football. He has outraged every ideal I have had regarding my sacred profession. But what does that count, as against the results he has accomplished? My congregation will be increased by hundreds. I didn't do it. Sunday did it. It is for me to humble myself and thank God for his help. He is doing God's work. That I know."<ref>Denison, Lindsay (1907), "The Rev. Billy Sunday and his War on the Devil." ''The American Magazine'' '''64'''(5), September 1907, ([http://books.google.com/books?id=8eYvAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA451-IA2&dq=%22billy+sunday%22#PPA454,M1 p. 454]</ref>
He fiercely opposed alcohol:
He fiercely opposed alcohol: