Billy Graham The personal story of the man, his message, and his mission by Stanley High HERE at last is the full, authentic, stirring story of Billy Graham the dynamic evangelist whose amazing, international ministry has been called "The phenomenon of the mid-twentieth century." Though only thirty-eight years old, Billy Graham has probably preached, face to face, to more people than any spokesman for Christianity in all history: an estimated 20,000,000. Another 20,000,000 listen to his weekly radio program The Hour of Decision. More astounding still, under his ministry more than 1,000,000 persons have been converted and remain, a remarkable majority of them, devout and practicing Christians. Billy Graham is, first of all, the personal story of the man, of his teen-age beginnings as a preacher; of how today he draws and moves such vast audiences; of those, fore- TD:II V most among them Ruth Bell Graham, his D1U J wife, who play leading parts in his work. It is also the story, told dramatically and firsthand, of Billy Graham's Crusades: how they are prepared for, organized, financed and, even more dramatically, how in scores of cities across the United States, in Canada, Great Britain, Europe, and Asia, they put religion on the front page and make it the chief topic ofjnan-in-the-street conversa- McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. New York Toronto London BILLY GRAHAM Copyright 1956 by Stanley High, All rights in this book are reserved. It may not be used for dramatic, motion-, or talking picture purposes without written authorization from the holder of these rights. Nor may the book or parts thereof be repro- duced in any manner whatsoever without permission in writing, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews* For information, address the McGraw- Hill Book Company, Inc., Trade Department, 330 West 42d Street, New York 36 , New York. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 56-11952 Published by the McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. Printed in the United States of America For Tim whose gift is an understanding heart ACKNOWLEDGMENT It was on assignment as an editor of The Reader's Digest that I first met Billy Graham at his home in Montreal, North Caro- lina, in May, 1954. Over the two succeeding years, at home and abroad, my repeated contacts with him and my opportunity to observe, firsthand, his "Crusades" and their consequences were almost wholly due to similar Reader's Digest assignments and resulted in five articles which have appeared in that maga- zine. There are many to whom, for help in assembling the ma- terial for Billy Graham, I am indebted: to Ruth and Billy Graham for their wholehearted approval of and cooperation in this undertaking; to Mel Larson for his painstaking research; to members of the Billy Graham Team; to my associates, Doro- thy B. Gardner and Mary Allen Thompson. But my first and, by all odds, greatest indebtedness is to The Reader's Digest and to DeWitt Wallace, its editor. Stanley High Contents Introduction: The Great Succession 1 1. What Manner of Man? 15 2. How Can He Be So Sure? 33 3. As One Having Authority 49 4. Few Are Chosen 69 5. A Long Way from Palatka 85 6. Out of the South 101 7. The Ruth Graham Story 117 8. ". And Some, Evangelists" 133 9. It Takes Money 151 10. London: Revival Drama 169 11. Europe and Asia: The Universal Hunger 187* 12. Religion Reaches the Man in the Street 199 13. Does It Last? 217 14. What Becomes of the Converts? 233 15. In the. Wake of the U.S. .Crusades 249 < > .. - . < 16. Revival in Our Time? 265 Illustrations Following page 150 The most recent portrait of Billy Graham A characteristic speaking stance In Toronto's Coliseum, the first few of nearly 700 per- sons making "decisions for Christ" Ruth and Billy Graham look over construction of their mountainside home Golf his favorite relaxation Billy Graham speaking in Trafalgar Square during his 1954 Greater London Crusade A hundred thousand persons listen to Billy Graham in an improvised stadium in South India Billy Graham and family on his return from 1954 Crusade in Europe Introduction: The great succession IF, AS IS POSSIBLE, the big story of mid-twentieth-century America turns out to be religion, then, on the human level, the big name in that story is likely to be Billy Graham. This, if it happens, will not be for statistical or intellectual reasons, but for others of greater moment. Statistically, the success of Billy Graham, important and impressive as it is, is only one among many indications that, by every quantitative measurement, religion in the United States is booming. By that measurementj[his ministry is an un- precedented phenomenon in an area where much seems, at present, to be unprecedented. ) Moreover, if it should happen again that religion stands in need of intellectual defenders as it did not many decades ago it is not likely that Billy Graham would be recruited or that, in such a cause, he would offer his services. This would not be because of what would be held to be his intellectual limi- tationswhich he would be among the first to admit, even to magnifyT A more important reason would be the fact that his entire ministry has been an expression of the conviction that for any generation and for all kinds and conditions of people, for Nicodemus quite as much as for the Samaritan Woman, the discovery of the reality of God is not chiefly an intellectual, but an empirical achievement. He is sure faith can be bolstered by reason as his own faith increasingly is. But with him, as with most, the vitality of that faith is a product less of argu- ment than of experience. He would say, as Martin Luther did, "To believe in God is to go down on your knees." \ In his relatively short ministry, Billy Graham has probably preached, face to face, to more people than any spokesman for the faith in all Christian history: by the end of 1955, no less than 20,000,000. It is probable, also, that more people, under his ministry, in his Crusades and through his radio and film ministries, have made "decisions for Christ": an estimated 1,000,000. But, amazing as these figures are, I do not believe that his is likely to be the big name of this religious era chiefly for quantitative, but rather for qualitative reasons. The biggest difference his ministry may make is not of numbers, but of kind. He will never add significantly to theology's arguments for God, The more important possibility is that he may add significantly to the number of Christians who, beyond argu- ment, have found Him. From such a leaven there could be restored to the church something of its earlier zeal for making that kind of Christians and something of its one-time knowl- edge of how to go about it. Many churchmen honestly doubt and some will vehemently deny that any such consequences as these are w prospect from the ministry of Billy Graham. But one fact, I think, can be made clear even to Billy Graham's critics: the man and his ministry are in the revival-producing tradition. Moreover, the potential significance of his ministry can hardly be understood apart from some understanding of revivals and revivalists. It is a striking fact about revivals that, whenever they come* they are essentially so much the same. For one thing, they do not come by human calculation or planning. Neither is their coming predictable. What can be said about them and it can be said, I think, about all of them which have had great signifi- cance is that, as Dr. Alexander Whyte pointed out in the mid-nineteenth century, "There is a divine mystery about re- vivals. God's sovereignty is in them." Whether or not such a revival is now in the making and whether or not Billy Graham will be its instrument, it is also true that for every revival there is such a human instrument In his book, Wesley and His Century, Dr. W. H. Fitchett says, "A great revival is usually linked with a single commanding figure." In connection with almost every spiritual awakening, says Dr. Charles T. Cook, "it would seem to be God's purpose to choose a man who will sum up in himself the yearnings of his time a man divinely gifted and empowered to interpret to his own generation their deepest needs, and to declare the remedy." On the face of it, of course, the church should be the ade- quate instrument of revival and the minister its evangelist Whatever the place of religious need, some church with plant, personnel, and program is within at least physical reach of it. Whatever the kind of religious need, the church is committed and no less than once every seven days reaffirms the canons of its committiaent to a Gospel adequate to meet it. Further than that the basic doctrines the statements of faith of almost every Protestant denomination contain that same unqualified commitment. If the available resources, material and spiritual, of the church were being made adequately available, then revivals, as something stirred from without the church's normal opera- tions by someone outside its conventional ministry, would be save, perhaps, as a special exercise for the devout unneces- sary and unlikely. Revivals are a result of the fact that the available resources of the church are not being made ade- 3 quately available.