Heroes of Faith - Billy Sunday



Who is Billy Sunday? He is one of the Heroes of Faith and in this post I will share some interesting things about his life as well as quotes.

Billy Sunday was born on November 19, 1862 in Ames Iowa. Sadly his father William Ashley Sunday died just three days after Billy was born due to pnemonia. Therefore Billy Sunday grew up without his father. Billy began to play baseball for the Chicago White Stockings at the age of 21 years. Things did not go so well as he struck out the first 13 times at bat. Three years later, Billy Sunday came to know the Lord in Chicago through the witnessing of a woman named Mrs Clarke.  At the age of 26 he married the love of his life - Helen Thompson and they had four children though only two survived.
Billy Sunday left his professional baseball career to become an evangelist. He held his first evangelistic service in Iowa in 1886 and he would continue this work for some 40 years. He would invite people to make a decision for Christ and as they came forward make that commitment they would also shake Mr Sunday's hand - they would walk up the "sawdust trail".  He consistantly preached against dancing, gambling and the use of alcohol - calling it "demon rum"  and warned people of the dangers of hell with fire and brimstone type preaching. He kept up with the news of the day hoping to see positive changes but he is quoted as saying "It's just like putting a new frame around an old picture-the picture is unchanged."
Billy Sunday passed away on November 6, 1935 after suffering a heart attack.  Only two weeks earlier, he had preached at the funeral service of a dear long time friend. It is estimated that he preached to 80,000,000 people during his life as an evangelist.
I would like to share twelve of Billy Sunday's notable quotes:
1) Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile
2) The backslider likes the preaching that wouldn't hit the side of a house, while the real disciple is delighted when the truth brings him to his knees.
3) The Bible will always be full of things you cannot understand, as long as you will not live according to those you can understand
4)The reason you don't like the Bible, you old sinner, is because it knows all about you.
5)  Listen, I'm against sin. I'll kick it as long as I've got a foot, I'll fight it as long as I've got a fist, I've butt it as long as I've got a head, and I'll bite it as long as I've got a tooth. And when I'm old, fistless, footless, and toothless, I'll gum it till I go home to glory and it goes home to perdition
6) One reason sin flourishes is that it is treated like a cream puff instead of a rattlesnake.
7)  Hell is the highest reward the devil can offer you for being a servant of his.
8) The rivers of America will run with blood filled to their banks before we will submit to them taking the Bible out of our schools
9) I believe that a long step toward public morality will have been taken when sins are called by their right names.
10) Temptation is the devil looking through the keyhole. Yielding is opening the door and inviting him in.
11) Try praising your wife, even if it does frighten her at first.
12) I believe the Bible is the word of God from cover to cover.

What a great inspiration it is to read about this hero of faith - Billy Sunday.