Religion: Sickle for the Harvest

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"We are standing on the verge of a great national revival," says Evangelist Billy Graham, "an oldfashioned, heaven-sent, Holy Ghost revival that will sweep the nation ... In the words of Joel: 'Put in the sickle while the harvest is ripe.' "

This week, in a big circus tent ("the largest revival tent in history") in downtown Los Angeles, Evangelist Graham seemed to be wielding the revival sickle as no one since Billy Sunday had wielded it. Sponsored and financed by businessmen, ministers and such groups as Christian Endeavor, Youth for Christ, and the Gideons, 31-year-old Billy Graham arrived in September to conduct a four-week revival.

S.R.O. Graham's sponsors, combined under the name "Christ for Greater Los Angeles," expected him to hold meetings for only four weeks. But this week he had already overstayed his original engagement by two weeks, and was drawing bigger crowds every night. Some 250,000 had crowded to hear him (the tent holds 6,280 but the standees fan out into the street), and nearly every prominent minister in Los Angeles had put in an appearance on Billy Graham's crowded platform.

Last week two notable local citizens publicly announced their conversion. War hero and onetime Olympic runner Louis Zamperini, 32, accompanied by his wife, hurried down the aisle. Said he: "From now on, I am going to be an honest-to-God Christian." Stuart Hamblen, radio star (cowboy band) also announced his "return to the teachings of Christ," and offered his string of seven race horses for sale.

Blond, trumpet-lunged North Carolinian William Franklin Graham Jr., a Southern Baptist minister who is also president of the Northwestern Schools in Minneapolis, dominates his huge audience from the moment he strides onstage to the strains of Send the Great Revival in My Soul. His lapel microphone which gives added volume to his deep, cavernous voice, allows him to pace the platform as he talks, rising to his toes to drive home a point, clenching his fists, stabbing his finger at the sky and straining to get his words to the furthermost corners of the tent.

Evangelist Graham pays little attention to the revival's finances ("The committee handles all that"), but the amount of money collected has astonished seasoned hands. Though only one collection is taken each session, contributions average 25¢ a head instead of the usual 7¢ for revivalgoers.

Says Billy Graham: "I want to do away with everything that is criticized in mass evangelism. We believe it is a spiritual service. We don't believe it is a concert or a show . . .

"Very rarely do I find an atheist . . . People aren't so smart-alecky any more. They're scared."