Billy in the Ring

BILLY GRAHAM V. CHICO VEJAR read the signs in Manhattan's Madison Square Garden (see SPORT). But the big event one night last week was the old battle of the Rev. Billy Graham v. the Devil. Evangelist Graham drew a laugh from a capacity crowd (22,000) by telling how a little boy in the audience had been disappointed when Billy turned out not to be his prize fighter namesake. Then, for the first time at a major meeting in New York, he moved in on the sinners of the big town.

"For the first time in the history of America, we are fighting with our backs to the wall," he thundered. "We are feeling fear. We're all worried about the hydrogen bomb." When such an attack does come, "the first target is New York City!" The New Yorkers -- middleaged, mostly female and intensely quiet -- shifted uneasily. They had come to hear Billy celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Word of Life Hour (Saturdays, 7:30 E.S.T., ABC), and they had filled the Garden well before the meeting began. In the street outside, another crowd of several thousand listened via loudspeakers, while 120 police and plainclothesmen coped with clogged traffic and pickpockets. In the corridors around the arena, the refreshment stands kept their beer and cigarettes out of the way, sold only coffee, soft drinks and hot dogs.

"New York, like any other city, needs a religious revival," cried Billy, his long hands molding the air, his hawklike, handsome face twisted with intensity. He has always fought shy of launching one of his full-dress crusades against New York's hard core of sin, but he evidently would like to try. As he spoke to the thousand-odd who answered his "invitation" to give themselves to Christ, Billy suggested how wonderful it would be if, some time in the future, they could do the same every night for three months. "But whether we come is not material," he added.

"That we have a spiritual revival is all important." Next major meetings between Billy and the Devil will be in Glasgow, March 19-April 30; London, May ; Paris (tentatively), June 5-12.

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