_Sunday says Devil Growls when 10,000 Confess their Wrongs._
“Oh, Jesus, isn’t this a great spectacle? This must make you smile, Jesus.
I know it does me. And devil, this sight must make you growl. I can hear
you saying, ‘What’s Bill Sunday doing up there? Look at that crowd of
10,000 people standing because they’re sorry they broke any of God’s
commandments. We’ve got to get busy or we’ll lose thousands. Come on all
you devils, get out of hell. Get out I say.’
“And Jesus, I’ll bet all those devils are trembling when they look up
here, and I’ll bet all the angels in heaven are rejoicing and shouting
with joy. I can see mothers and fathers up there saying, ‘Get back, Moses,
get back Solomon, get back David, you haven’t got any children down there.
Let me look and see if my boy or girl is in that audience. Yes, there she
is down in section 27; yes, there is my boy over by post 14; thank God for
that.’
“And, oh, Jesus, if any preacher here tonight has got cold feet, help him
to stiffen up; give him backbone so he can fight for you. And, Jesus,
bless these preachers, thank them for deepening the spirit here tonight.
Bless all newspaper boys who are giving us such wonderful reports.
Bless all in their offices that we met the other day—all of the clerks,
stenographers, printers, pressmen and from the men that own the papers
down to the boys that sell the papers on the street.
“And, Jesus, bless this choir, bless the ushers, bless the Chief, the
Mayor, the Governor, help the state officials, Jesus. And bless this old
state and this city and may we have a rousing time here. Guide us and keep
us for your sake, Jesus, amen, amen, amen and amen. Good night.”
“HITTING THE SAWDUST TRAIL.”
The meaning “to hit the sawdust trail,” has a beautiful and appropriate
meaning. It was first used when Sunday and his party were in the midst
of a campaign among the lumbermen on Puget Sound. At the tabernacle at
Bellingham, Washington. The floor of the tabernacle was covered with the
sawdust from the lumber camp and the lumbermen, when any of their men went
down front to speak to Rev. Sunday, called it “Hitting the Trail.”
In the lumber camps in the mountains there is a trail that leads through
the fastness of the wooded mountain side covered by wood chips, so as to
make it conspicuous by night as well as by day. The woodsmen some time
wander far away from camp and are lost in the primeval forest. In their
wanderings, if they can “hit the trail,” they are saved, as it leads to
the safety and shelter of the camp. So on the pathway of life if you can,
“hit the trail,” of God’s mercy through the Lord Jesus Christ you are led
to safety. So these rude lumbermen called the giving up of self to God and
going down the sawdust isle of the tabernacle—“Hitting the Trail.”
The phrase stuck to the Sunday party ever since and it has a thrilling
touch of the wildwood and a meaning that is very appropriate and beautiful
when taken in the language of the backwoods.