Billy Sunday (1862–1935) was a professional baseball player who later became a well-known American evangelist. It is estimated that he preached to over 100 million people during his over 300 revivals meetings. Estimates are that over 300,000 souls gave their heart to Christ through his ministry. Until Billy Graham, no American evangelist preached to as many millions as Sunday.
Sunday’s father died of pneumonia when he was just four-months old. His mother remarried but her second husband decided to leave the family. Unable to provide for all of her children Sunday’s mother sent Billy and his older brother to live in an orphan home. At the age of 21 the Chicago White Stockings noticed his athletic ability and signed Billy to a major league baseball contract. He was an exciting player who played in the majors for eight years.
While Sunday was a success on the baseball diamond his personal life was another story. In 1886, after one of his drinking binges, an evangelistic team from the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago found him in the gutter. Billy, when they shared the gospel with him, accepted the call of Christ and was wonderfully transformed into a changed man. In 1891, Sunday decided to retire from baseball and began to work as an assistant secretary for the YMCA where he learned invaluable experience and training for his life’s calling as an evangelist.
Sunday was ordained in 1903, and soon decided to become an independent evangelist. He used his fame as a former baseball player to attract crowds and soon he was preaching to large audiences all across America. As the crowds grew Sunday began preaching in tents because the buildings weren’t large enough to hold all who came to hear him preach.
While Sunday’s message of the gospel was sound his preaching style was anything but orthodox. As a speaker he was flamboyant and unrefined. In fact, he once said: “I want to preach the gospel so plainly that men can come from the factories and not have to bring a dictionary.”1 According to the website GotQuestions.org: “He worked tirelessly, preaching nearly 20,000 sermons, an average of 42 per month. At the peak of his ministry, he was preaching more than 20 times a week. In 1935 Billy Sunday suffered a mild heart attack, and, after ignoring the doctor’s order to rest, he passed away that same year on November 6 in Chicago. His last sermon was on the text ‘What must I do to be saved?’ (Acts 16:30).”2
Below are some of Billy Sunday’s more colorful quotes.3
“If you are a stranger to prayer, you are a stranger to the greatest source of power known to human beings.”
“One reason sin flourishes is that it is treated like a cream puff instead of a rattlesnake.”
“Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile.”
“If you lack joy, your Christianity must be leaking somewhere.”
“Sinners cannot find God for the same reason that criminals cannot find a policeman: They aren’t looking!”
“Let’s quit fiddling with religion and do something to bring the world to Christ.”
“The reason you don’t like the Bible, you old sinner, is because it knows all about you.”
“The law tells me how crooked I am. Grace comes along and straightens me out.”
“We have a God who delights in impossibilities.”
“When the word of God says one thing and scholarship says another, scholarship can go to hell.”
“Give your face to God, and He will put his shine on it.”
“The saloon is a liar. It promises good cheer and sends sorrow. It promises prosperity and sends adversity. It promises happiness and sends misery…. It is God’s worst enemy and the devil’s best friend.”
“Personal liberty is not personal license.”
“I am an old-fashioned preacher of the old-time religion, that has warmed this cold world’s heart for two thousand years.”
1 Who was Billy Sunday? | GotQuestions.org
2 Who was Billy Sunday? | GotQuestions.org
3 All of these quotes are from the following website:
TOP 25 QUOTES BY BILLY SUNDAY (of 104) | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)