BILLY GRA
No Fire and Brims
By RICHARD TAUB AFTER THE chair of more than
Daily staff Kriter a thousand people, all volun-
B1ILLY Graham! That name in- teers, sang a hymn led by Shea, P
" spires for many a vision of one Graham began to ureach.
of those renowned fire and brim- The world is wicked, he said,
stone evangelists of another day, Just read a newspaper and you
one of those legendary men of the can see the world is rotten. It has
soap-box who were able to work always been rotten, because man
themselves and their audiences is naturally sinful.
into a frenzy, and by so doing ac-
complish the work they set out to. 1 IS figures were simple ones. -
Graham, however, doesn't fit The soul was like air. Christ
into this picture at all. was for us as sap is to the petals
Certainly he gesticulates amply. of a flower. The sap brings life to
At times while he was in Ney the flower, and Christ brings new
York's Madison Square Garden, life to our soul. Environmental
e mchange can't solve our problems.
e falmost shouted. His voice was "My watch is running slow. If I
forceful, on the excited side of take it off this arm and put it on
rhetorical, but never frenzied. my other arm, will it start run-
There were never uncontrolled ning right?" No, it will not. It's
shouts to heaven. . the inside, the workings that are
Instead he delivers with a voice all wrong, and it's the same thiig
moderated by deep sincerity, a with the soul. Atd the oly way
force carefully controlled. the soul can be cured is thrar:'uh
And yet Billy Graham - this the Lord Jru
is no news - is successful. Madi- Uis vocaulary gas limited
son Square Garden was packed for Hs the
his appearance, fuller than it has Then he ae t peop e so
be'en f or the Rangers in a hockeycoedwtsan fr li
geem or the Knicks in a basket- pulpit if they wished to make the
m ,r fheuKlerks in a aas sdDecision for Christ." He empha-
beall beencontest, ye r ni ssized that it wouldn't be he who
been in recent year for Ringling was making them come down, but
Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Cir- rather the Lord. It was the Lordi
'us. talkins in their e r.
Every seat in the house was He admitted that for some it
taken and people were standing, ' would be a lon walk, but "He
toot If Graham used mob psychol- alked a mighty long way for
ogy, as many critics of evangelists .,
maintain, it is of a rare and subtle y
kind. HERE would be other battles
E WAS effective. That night 1 head. The neighbors might
atk, it might affect somebody
about 1,500 people decided, at busiesswise, and relatives misht
least tentatively, to make the "De- exert pressure. Tlis walk vas
cision for Christ." They came nothing by comparison. But the
fromt es'erywh r n the Cardi E people who decided for Christ
from the ground floor to the third should get used to sacrifice.
balcony. The 1000-voice choir began to
Young and old, crippled and sing quietly and slightly off key,
strong, white and colored and or- as Billy gently exhorted people to
iental, poor, middle class and ap- come down. "I know you're fight-
parently wealthy walked across ing with yourselfes right now," he
the floor of the hall to the edge said softly, "But you'll decide
of Billy Graham's pulpit. And right. Some people have even
they made the walk despite the walked out the door and decided
20,000 pairs of eyes aimed curious- to come back."
ly at them.
For many of the people Griam And then the people started to
as a secial hero. T Gy ad rome come. At first only a trickle - one
to ' a 'rvici hers. nIby after 0t from the back; two from the right,
to his services night after 114,1t, hnfv rsxfo h ak
again and again, and wanted still then five or six from the back.
" more, When Graham spoke, mne an tote endlssly poured from
Garden was still. Twenty-two the doors and stood with be a
thousand people weie silent. thed a s o wit
And they listened hard for eg, ' bo- e t the ulpit.
ery word and were eager to re- G
epond whenever possible. Excited GREAT many of these 'ople
laughter greeted his feeblest joke weren't converts at all. Many
(which was rathc_ feeble.) came down already carrying Hi-
At thelyic giwasnratbe thfeeble.) bles and hymnbooks in their arms.
At the beginning of the pro- Some had crosses about their
gram he commented that some necks. Some came from the group
woman had written in praising attending the Baptist convention.
George Beverly Shea (he sings These people apparently felt like
hymns for the group) and sug- Nicodemus; they had never really
gested that he should sing with been reborn to the Lord Jesus.
the Metropolitan.
The crowd eagerly applauded --
-"And he does do a fine job," Gra- - --
ham said. And the crowd ap-
plauded. "And so does our pian-
i st," Graham said. Ad again the
crowd e erly applauded. "And
our organist," Graham said. Adj''~
this time there were even a few A N
rather guarded whistles.
GRAHAM talked down to his
audience. "How many of you
people have been here before?"
A great many hands .raised.
"There's a Baptist convention in
New York, Bow many of you TEAHOU
people are Baptiste? Raise your TEAH U
hands." A great many hands went HATFUL
up. "There certainly are a lot of H T U
Baptists here tonight. How many G A
of you people are something else?" GUYS A
A great deal of excited laughter MIA Ml
and more hands. I
He sounded like somebody ad- OH! ME
dressing a Sunday school class -
lower grades.
"Do you folks know what's go-~ p n i
ing happen latr this month?" Tryouts Open T
(silence) "That's right. We're
holding our closing rally at Yan-
what? Some people don't believe
kee Stadium. And do you know SEASON
that New York with all of its
people can fill Yankee Stadium MAIL OR
for a religious program. But we
think it can. I want all of you to Director
be there for that closing service
,and tell your friends and relatives
about it too. Now don't forget!" -
Monday, September 16, 1957-Page 1
LHA, CR USADER
tone, Just Sincerity and Publicity
Herein lies part of the secret to 1UDGING by 'he crowd who evangelist. Hell was mentioned
Graham's success. Many of the only once that night.
teople who "make the decision for made the decision, his picture ont one thrgh
t ofcontntmet, o surende of But itesd, through what ap-
Christ" are church goers, and may of contentment, of surrender 5f pears to be real sincerity, through
ven have considered themselves the soul to the Lord Jesus Christ, an amazing publicity build-up,
'eligious. appeals not to just a few isolated and through the ability to paint
But Graham is able to paint individuals or special cases. simple, clear pictures of inner
graphic pictures of how good it No Billy Graham doesn't ap- satisfaction through Christ, Gra-
eels and what it's like to receive ' ham is eminently successful at
Christ into one's heart. pear to be a fire and brimstone his vocation.
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