Billy's Victory in London

By almost any standard of measurement, Billy Graham's month-long Lon don crusade (TIME, June 10) ended as still another record-smashing triumph for the tireless evangelist. In all, Billy preached to 955,368 people, more than in any previous 30-day period in his life, and inspired 42,487 to come for ward to make their "decision for Christ." Despite early rumors that the crusade, which cost $840,000 to mount, might become his first major campaign to lose money, it had an estimated $42,000 surplus. Last week, when Billy sailed home to rest up for his next crusade (in Berlin, starting Oct. 16), he left be hind him an army of 22,000 Christian laymen who had helped with the cru sade and are now ready to continue their work for evangelism in local churches. Still another permanent result of the crusade was the formation in London of 6,000 new Bible-study groups, which Billy calls "bridges be tween the church and God."

What pleased Billy most about his nightly Earl's Court rallies was the high attendance of young people, "whom you could see coming, with their long hair and miniskirts." He estimated that 70% of his listeners were under 25. Equally encouraging to the evangelist was his discovery that public indifference to England's churches did not mean a revolt "against God, or against religion, the Bible, or Christ." England, Billy declared, has a "widespread interest in religion," and may be on the verge of a "moral and spiritual revival."

Expectedly, there were some cool clerical appraisals of Graham's showmanship and "assembly-line approach" to salvation. Anglican Bishop John (Honest to God) Robinson paid tribute to Graham's personal integrity but dismissed his style as "the old-fashioned fundamentalist Gospel, pounding away at sin and bombarding us with texts. This is not evangelism." Summing up for the Anglican Church Times, the Rev. Cecil Northcott charged that "the Graham crusade is a redundant anachronism in a world which demands that its Christianity shall be seen in community life, in social justice, and racial honesty. To be 'saved' at Earl's Court is not the answer to the plight of mankind, nor is it the answer for your own personal salvation."

There were also plenty of churchmen more willing to give Billy his due. Among them was London's Anglican Bishop Robert Stopford, a high churchman who has previously been cool to the idea of the crusade. "We hope and pray," he said, "that the great influence of Dr. Graham's personality and message will be lasting in the lives of very many people."

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