"Finally, the Big One," blared a headline in 1957, when a dashing young evangelist named Billy Graham was poised to launch his first crusade in the largest and, by reputation, most wicked city in the nation. "Save New York!"

The buzz surrounding this famous itinerant preacher's foray into Manhattan was at times more pulp than truly epic, but that crusade still stands as one of the most momentous events in American religious history. It not only marked the first time a preacher reached a significant audience through television, but it also helped establish him as the leading spiritual figure in the country, a pivotal player in the reemergence of US evangelical Protestantism.

Now, this weekend, as he prepares for his perhaps final crusade, the Rev. Billy Graham returns to "the big one," New York City, at the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens.

The octogenarian evangelist, dealing with several ailments, has proclaimed it almost certain that he will not preach in such a public venue again. If true, this Sunday will mark the end of a career that, spanning six decades, has made Mr. Graham one of the best-respected public figures in the nation's history.

It's a fact not without irony, since Graham came of age when evangelists were seen more as Elmer Gantry figures - traveling hucksters, hypocrites out to make a buck. Evangelical Protestants, too, bruised after decades of battles with Darwinism, liberal Christianity, and academic critiques of the Bible, had mostly withdrawn from public life, retreating into a defensive "fundamentalism" that could only react to culture, not shape it.

"Billy Graham, for evangelicals, put us on the national stage in a light that reflected well on us, maybe for the first time in a long time," says Larry Lyon, professor of sociology and dean of the Graduate School at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. "There was great pride in his accomplishments, especially at that time in the 1950s and '60s, when the idea of 'evangelical Protestant' was seen with a more jaundiced eye by the establishment than they are today, when they've largely become the establishment."

Even now, few Christian leaders can claim the near universal respect given to Graham. Many others have large followings and significant political clout, but none has transcended his or her particular constituencies to play a larger national roles quite as he has.

Like most evangelists, Graham had the requisite charisma to be an exciting and inspiring preacher. With his James Dean good looks, his chiseled jaw, and fiery blue eyes, he had a rare ability to exude both determined strength and gentle sensitivity.

But the key, perhaps, was his message. Unlike many of his evangelistic peers, both before and since, Graham decided to preach a simple, positive message, one that avoided the controversies that obsessed other conservative Christians.

"He was reared as a fundamentalist, who very self-consciously, early in his career, decided to forsake the fundamentalism of his childhood in favor of a broader, more inclusive, evangelicalism, which was not so separatist or sectarian," says Randall Balmer, professor of American religion at Barnard College in New York.

"Here is a man who wasn't damning everyone and everything to hell unless they were exactly like him," says Dr. Lyon. "Here was a man preaching peace and love in a nonthreatening manner that really spoke to a much broader audience."

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