IT was, said Billy Graham, with some pride, the largest evangelistic effort in history. His 1955 All-Scotland crusade had just come to an end after six long weeks. More than 2.5 million people had attended crusade meetings and relay services, and more than 50,000 “decisions for Christ” had been recorded. It was, he added, beyond anything he had ever imagined; and it was indicative of a great spiritual hunger in Scotland. There had been accusations of showmanship, he conceded, but showmanship did not affect the people in the little towns to which the services had been relayed – when, after all, they had not a person to see, only a voice to hear.
Graham’s residency in Scotland had included crusade meetings at the Kelvin Hall, and one at Hampden Park, attended by 100,000 people. On one particular lunchtime he had held a meeting in Bruce Street, Clydebank, which had drawn some 3,000 people, among them shipyard workers from John Brown’s, who had mostly given up their lunch-hour. They overflowed onto a nearby bombed site, though few recognised Graham as he walked through the crowd to the loudspeaker van that was his pulpit. “We will never have peace in the world,” he told them, “until our souls are restored.” Graham, who is circled in the photograph above at the end of the Clydebank meeting, is, incidentally, is still with us. He celebrated his 99th birthday two months ago.
Loading article content