Religion: Sunday into Heaven

Probably the first people in Heaven who recognized the stocky man in the morning coat and pin-striped trousers were some onetime residents of Kansas City who were singing Brighten the Corner Where You Are. They had expected that sooner or later Billy Sunday would walk briskly in. Nor were they surprised when Billy Sunday strode up to Jesus Christ, shook Him by the hand and said: “Jesus, thank you. I’m glad you honored me withsalvation. I’m glad you honored me with the privilege of preaching your gospel. . . . Now, Jesus, I’d like to see old Aunty Griffith.”

When old Aunty Griffith appeared, she asked: ”How are you, William? When did you leave the earth?”

“Last night, Granny.”

“I’m awful glad to see you, Willy, and I live right next door to your mom.”

“Good, Granny, I knew Jesus would let you in.”

Next Billy Sunday asked to see Abraham and his boys. Abraham introduced him to Isaac.

“Howdy do, Isaac, where is Jacob? Hello, Joseph! Say, old man, that was a rough deal they tried to put over on you down in Egypt, when that woman tried to tempt you and you looked her square in the face and pushed her away. Say, Joseph, I like you.” Then Billy Sunday asked for Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip. Finally he asked a favor of Jesus: Could he hang around the gate to welcome his family in? “You can sit right there, Bill, if you want to. It’s all right.” So he hung around the gate, waiting to say: “Hello, Helen! Hey, George! Hey, Will! Hey, little Paul! Come on in!” Whether the Rev. William Ashley Sunday went to Heaven last week no one on earth could tell. That he would go there was his firm conviction, voiced in many a revival sermon. Just how he would enter Heaven, whom he would find there, what he would say to Jesus and what Jesus would say to him he once told a Kansas City congregation in great detail (see above). Billy Sunday spoke frequently of his death. He exclaimed: “I’d like to pass out with a Bible under my head.” In Chicago one night last week the onetime baseballer who had preached to 85,000,000 people and. by his own estimate, converted 1,000,000 sinners, lay abed, with no Bible under his head. No longer an influence in the religious life of his time, he was 72, his fortune spent on his errant sons, his health gone in preaching on what he called “the kerosene circuit.” To his wife whom he always called “Ma” he said: “Oh, I feel so dizzy.” Then he died.