Billy Sunday War On Sin

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The Protestant Billy Sunday

 

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McCheyne

Robert Murray McCheyne

Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree
 Jehovah Tsidkenu meant nothing to me
(Robert Murray McCheyne)

We sang this hymn yesterday morning in church. We started off with two short Psalms (133 and 134) which have but 5 verses between them, so we run them into one another and sang them to the same tune. We then sang, after the scripture reading, McCheyne's testimony hymn and then, after the message, finished off with the hymn "Jesus my Saviour is precious to me." I preached on John 7:37-39 on the Lord's great invitation on the last day of the feast for all the thirsty ones to come and drink. I did not preach it evangelistically (although I introduced it as such) because I wanted to preach the gospel at night (from John 5:40). So, I concentrated on what we have when we come to Christ with a view of encouraging and teaching the Christians present.  For those interested in outlines, I pointed out that when we come to Christ, we have:

1) The reality and not the shadow (i.e. no longer the type i.e. the Feast/Tabernacles but the thing typified i.e. Christ who tabernacled among us)

2) The satisfaction and not the thirst (obvious from text)

3) The fullness and not the limitation - we now have the Holy Spirit given more fully than before (v38-39).

I enjoyed better liberty at night, but nevertheless the folk seemed to enjoy the morning message. 

I chose McCheyne's hymn because he mentions "I drank at the fountain, life giving and free" which obviously tied in with the text. However, as you will observe, this is not the quote I head this blog post with. The words above actually came with more sweetness to my soul. Friends had obviously witnessed to McCheyne when he was yet unsaved. His older brother, David, who passed away early (as indeed Robert did) had a great impact upon him. But they not only witnessed to him about Christ crucfied ("Christ on the tree") but they did so (in McCheyne's words) "with rapture."  It was not mechancial, nor out of a mere sense of duty. Their souls were enraptured with Christ, much like the church in the Song of Solomon. Fittingly, Song of Solomon was McCheyne's favourite book of the Bible. 

Maybe you have never heard of McCheyne. I was asked a while ago as to which book I had read and would recommend. I chose McCheyne's biography by his close friend Andrew Bonar for its sheer spirituality. Books have gone and gone in my library but this one ever will remain. It formed part of my life when as a young believer, I rushed home from my work to devour more of its pages in the summer of 1979. 

The Robert Murray McCheyne Resource

Centenary Message of his birth (Banner of Truth)  

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Gresham Machen on Billy Sunday

Short, interesting video on the life and ministry of American ordained Presbyterian evangelist, Billy Sunday. It reminded me of fellow Presbyterian, Gresham Machen's impressions when he went to hear him preach in Philadlephia. Machen did not get a minister's ticket that would have got him nearer the platform and had to queue in heavy rain. He eventually got into the Tabernacle before, having to stand at one of the back corners from where he could hardly make out even the preacher's face. (There were 20,000 in attendance even on that stormy night.)  He heard most of the sermon, but felt too much out of things to give a proper impression of the meeting. Afterwards, he made his way into the centre of the Tabernacle where he listened to the vast choir and afterwards to the discussion of methods before hundreds of church workers. Machen later recorded, "This last part impressed me as much as anything else." 

Repeating again, that he felt unable to judge Sunday, he did say that Sunday preached on Romans 12:1 "and the treatment was thoroughly textual" He continued: "I was impressed as I have seldom been with the permanent power of great words. In an enviornment so intensely modern, the words of Paul seem to be as up to date as they ever were." Again, Machen (who was not noted for suffering fools gladly) commented: "The big argument for Billy Sunday is the result of his preaching. 'By their fruits, ye shall know them'." 

Machen returned to hear Sunday, a few days later. He obtained his ministerial ticket and got closer. This advantage encouraged him to say that he was more impressed than the previous visit. Sunday preached on 2 Samuel 12:13 "And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die." He described the sermon as being "old fashioned evangelism of the most powerful and elemental kind" but did not warm to some of Sunday's antics, which he confessed left him "cold" and were not his. Nevertheless, he had to confess that "the total impact of the sermon was great" especially after Sunday stood on the chair and preached "the boundlessness of God's mercy" coming on the back of a sermon where "the sinfulness of sin had truly been presented". Machen concluded, "In the last five or ten minutes of that sermon, I got a new realisation of the power of the gospel." 

Billy Sunday was actively opposed by the Unitarians in Philadelphia. Machen stated: "I like Billy Sunday for the enemies he has."  Sunday was asked to go to Princeton University and address meetings there. Princeton itself was deeply divided over Sunday, with the Princeton newspapers on the attack. This had an effect on Machen: "The result of the whole thing is to make me more and more enthusiastic for the work that Billy Sunday is doing." Again, there was the need for Machen to distance himself from some of Sunday's methods: 

"His methods are as different from ours as could possibly be imagined from ours, but we support him to a man simply because, in an age of defection, he is preaching the gospel. We are not ashamed of his 'antiquated theology'; it is nothing in the world but the message of the cross, long neglected, which is manifesting its old power."

Machen was asked, at short notice, to address a prayer meeting in Princeton at this time. He did so and spoke informally about the relationship between Sunday's evangelism and Princeton theology. Perhaps at this point, it may be a good thing to remind my reader that the theology known as "Princeton Theology" is solidly Calvinist. It's main proponents were men like the Hodges, BB Warfield and Gresham Machen himself. Machen records that the relationship between Sunday's evangelism and the Calvinist "Princeton Theology" is "I think, very close." 

From anything that I have read of Sunday, (a limited statement) he has never particularly indicated  any adherance to Calvinism, other than accepting ordination at the hands of a Calvinistic church. Machen's observations are therefore the more interesting.

* Billy Sunday and #Hamblin   
* Is Billy Sunday really a Fundamentalist hero?  

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