Aug. 1. 1911 



477 



As I stood by the side of the bed he said: "Oh! I 

 have to die," in a faltering voice, and tears came to 

 his eyes. I said: "Well. I5ro. Hilton, we shall all 

 have to go some time, and it proliably won't be very 

 long before many of your bee-keeping friends will 

 be with you on the other shore." He said, "But i 

 am not afraid to die. I would go to-night if neces- 

 sary." 



And so we talked together of the end that was so 

 near to him, and of the future home. When we 

 .said a final good-by. of course we all felt it would 

 be the last time we would meet on earth. 



Mr. Hilton was a good man. He spoke tenderly 

 of his wife and also his children. It was hard for 

 him to leave them, for his life and hopes were 

 bound up so much in his family. He spoke of the 

 son, who was in the government employ in the 

 far West, and of another .son who had just grad- 

 uated from high school, I believe. It seemed too 

 bad that he had to be taken away from his family 

 that he loved .so much. Hut it must be all right, al- 

 though we can not iinder.ftand irhy. He was ready 

 to go or to stay, whichever the call should be. 



I thought perhaps you might like a little of the 

 foregoing, as. it was a personal experience that I 

 had with him. He seemed appreciative of m.v 

 meeting him at the boat when he arrived, also 

 spending some time with him at the hospital, and 

 then seeing him off the evening he left on his la.st 

 ' journe.v to his home in Fremont. As the boat 

 moved out from the shore it seemed just as if Mr. 

 Hilton was "crossing the river " to that far-away 

 city wlience none ever return. There were pro- 

 found impressions that came upon me as I thought 

 of it in that way. 



Money and every thing earthl.v all seeni of very 

 little importance when one comes to the end of 

 life. Only a clean life and the resultant character 

 avail when the time comes to answer God"s call to 

 come up higher. 



Chicago, .luly 20. Geo. W. York. 



" BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL, KNOW THEM." 



I suppose that most of our readers know 

 more or less of the wonderful work done in 

 our great cities by the evangelist who is 

 better known as Billy Sunday. I confess I 

 do not like to hear him called "Billy." It 

 seems to me that "the Rev. Mr. Sunday" 

 would sound very much better. And in 

 the same line .there has been considerable 

 criticism in regard to his slang phrases when 

 talking. But I have said, first and last, let 

 him go on so long as his ministry, such as 

 it is, is not only bearing fruit but good fruit. 

 Quite a few ministers have criticised his 

 methods. Some have said they would not 

 want to invite him to their town; but at a 

 recent Sunday-school conference a minister 

 arose and remarked that he worked with 

 Billy Sunday in a certain city two years 

 ago; and so far as his converts not "holding 

 out "was concerned he thought they had 

 held out remarkably well, for many of them 

 were going into other towns and neighbor- 

 hoods, preaching the gospel in their own 

 particular way. I suppose he meant, of 

 course, it was laymen's preaching. 



Here is a clipping from the Plain Dealer, 

 giving some of the facts in regard to the re- 

 cent work in Toledo; and God knows, if peo- 

 ple generally do not, that Toledo, with its 

 hundreds of saloons, has been for a long 

 time a hotbed of wickedness and crime. 



Evangelist Billy Sunday received S15,423.58 to-day 

 from the citizens of Toledo as a reward for his six 

 weeks' efforts to drive the devil out of Toledo. 



This breaks all previous records established by 

 Mr. Sunday, the largest amount he had ever receiv- 

 ed previous to his Toledo engagement being at New- 

 castle, Pa., where he received S13,200. A feature of 

 the Toledo collection is that approximately ¥10,000 

 of the amount was given by people of ordinary 



means. The highest contribution was ?1000 by Lam- 

 son Brothers. The next three highest were >?500 

 gifts from the First National Bank, T. W. Warner, 

 and >'2.30 from Tiedtke Brother.s. 



The number of conversions reached approximate- 

 ly 7300. which also breaks all previous records. 

 Sunday was so pleased with his Toledo offering, 

 that, instead of closing to-night, he decided to 

 preach one more sermon to-morrow. 



Just think of it, friends — 7oOO converts! I 

 wondered first if it was not a mistake of the 

 printer. Now, another great revival evan- 

 gelist. Rev. Mr. Bederwood, has been hold- 

 ing meetings recently in Akron, a pretty 

 fair-sized city only twenty miles east of Me- 

 dina. The result or outcome has attracted 

 so much attention that I had one of my 

 happy surprises when I found the following 

 in a recent number of the Sunday-school 

 Times: 



WHY THE TOBACCO WENT. 



The Gospel Messenger, of recent date, recorded 

 this incident: At a recent evangelistic meeting in 

 Akron, Dhio, a large package of tobacco was thrown 

 on the platform just before the closing prayer was 

 to be offered, and a voice in the large audience said. 

 " I can't pray with that in my pocket." Not a word 

 had been said about tobacco, but this was the sig- 

 nal to others, and before the meeting closed the 

 platform had a goodl.y collection ai tobacco, cigar- 

 ettes, pipes, etc., willingly discarded by the owners. 

 — E. E. Lowry, M. I)., y^ew Mddisoii, Ohio. 



There is a big moral to the above. Al- 

 though not a word was said about tobacco, 

 this new-born child coming into the king- 

 dom of God recognized, without being told 

 by anybody, that that jjackage of tobacco 

 on his person was a stumbling-block, and 

 that it was inconsistent with his leading in 

 prayer; and as an indorsement of his deci- 

 sion others followed. Xo wonder that the 

 audience felt that that was GocVs work when 

 more tobacco and cigarettes and pipes were 

 contriVjuted so as to make a "goodly collec- 

 tion." When an old friend of mine was 

 once considering the matter of accepting 

 the Lord Jesus Christ for his Savior and 

 friend he almost startled me by saying, 

 " Mr. Root, if I start out to be a Christian I 

 have got to give up my tobacco." I replied, 

 ' ' Who said so, Fred?" He answered prompt- 

 ly, "I said so. A church-member has no 

 business with tobacco." Now, I had not 

 said a word to him in regard to tobacco and 

 other filthy habits. It was God's Hoh/ 

 Spirit that took up its cleansing work with 

 the acknowledged sinner in all of these cases. 

 ^^'hen the work of any revival results in 

 conversions like these we may well stand 

 back in awe, and recognize in it the hand of 

 the Almighty. "By their fruits ye shall 

 know them." 



Considerable criticism has also come up 

 in regard to the large amounts of money 

 Billy Sunday has received. But my reply 

 wotild be to this, that it has all been a vol- 

 untary and freewill contribtition; and if Mr. 

 Sunday uses it to help the helpless, instead 

 of enriching himself, we can rejoice again. 

 From the fact that he has refused tremen- 

 dous salaries to work in some other way 

 than evangelistic preaching, I am inclined 

 to think he luill make a good use of all the 

 money tendered him, 



