4,994
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 4:
Line 4: − + + + +
More on Sunday as a user of demotic speech
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.
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:
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. High schools and colleges trained students elocution and rhetoric, and public speakers, including ministers were expected to use formal, educated English. A 1920 book for English teachers bracketed Sunday with a humorist famous for introducing slang into written English:
:...it would be interesting to study idioms and even slang. The latter may not be deemed wise by purists in English courses but all of us enjoy baseball slang, and [[George Ade]] and his rival in slang, Billy Sunday, are popular because they use these picturesque shortcuts that in many instances are destined to become the main paths of verbal expression.<ref>Hall-Quest, Albert Law (1920) ''The Textbook: How to Use and Judge it'', Macmillan, [http://books.google.com/books?id=a3bfVRnNovwC&pg=PA159&dq=%22billy+sunday%22+%22george+ade%22 p. 22]</ref>
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—"
:"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>.]
:[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>.]