The Project Gutenberg EBook of Russell H. Conwell, by Agnes Rush Burr

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Title: Russell H. Conwell

Author: Agnes Rush Burr

Release Date: March 3, 2004 [EBook #11421]

Language: English

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[Illustration: RUSSELL H CONWELL]

RUSSELL H. CONWELL

Founder of the Institutional Church in America

THE WORK AND THE MAN

BY

AGNES RUSH BURR

With His Two Famous Lectures as Recently Delivered, entitled "Acres of
Diamonds," and "Personal Glimpses of Celebrated Men and Women"

With an Appreciative Introduction by FLOYD W. TOMKINS, D.D., LL.D.

1905

TO THE MEMBERS

OF

GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH

TO THOSE WHO IN THE OLD DAYS WORKED WITH SUCH SELF SACRIFICE AND DEVOTION TO BUILD THE TEMPLE WALLS; TO THOSE WHO IN THE LATER DAYS ANYWHERE WORK IN LIKE SPIRIT TO ENLARGE THEIR SPHERE OF USEFULNESS,

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED

AN APPRECIATION

The measure of greatness is helpfulness. We have gone back to the method of the Master and learned to test men not by wealth, nor by birth, nor by intellectual power, but by service. Wealth is not to be despised if it is untainted and consecrated. Ancestry is noble if the good survives and the bad perishes in him who boasts of his forebears. Intellectual force is worthy if only it can escape from that cursed attendant, conceit. But they sink, one and all into insignificance when character is considered; for character is the child of godly parents whose names are self-denial and love. The man who lives not for himself but for others, and who has a heart big enough to take all men into its living sympathies—he is the man we delight to honor.

Biographies have a large place in present day literature. A woman long associated with some foreign potentates tells her story and it is read with unhealthy avidity. Some man fights many battles, and his career told by an amiable critic excites temporary interest. Yet as we read we are unsatisfied. The heart and mind, consciously or unconsciously, ask for some deeds other than those of arms and sycophancies. Did he make the world better by his living? Were rough places smoothed and crooked things straightened by his energies? And withal, had he that tender grace which drew little children to him and made him the knight-attendant of the feeble and overborne amongst his fellows? The life from which men draw daily can alone make a book richly worth the reading.

It is good that something should be known of a man whilst he yet lives. We are overcrowded with monuments commemorating those into whose faces we cannot look for inspiration. It is always easy to strew flowers upon the tomb. But to hear somewhat of living realities; to grasp the hand which has wrought, and feel the thrill while we hear of the struggles which made it a beautiful hand; to see the face marked by lines cut with the chisel of inner experience and the sword of lonely misunderstanding and perchance of biting criticism, and learn how the brave contest spelt out a life-history on feature and brow;—this is at once to know the man and his career.

This life of a man justly honored and loved in Philadelphia will find a welcome seldom accorded to the routine biography. It is difficult for one who rejoices in Dr. Conwell's friendship to speak in tempered language. It is yet more difficult to do justice to the great work which Church and College and Hospital, united in a trinity of service, have accomplished in our very midst. God hath done mighty things through this His servant, and the end is not yet. To attend the Temple services on Sunday and feel the pulse of worship is to enter into a blessed fellowship with God and men. To see the thousands pursuing their studies during the week in Temple College and to realize the thoroughness of the work done is to gain a belief in Christian education. To move through the beautiful Hospital and mark the gentle ministration of Christian physician and nurse is to learn what Jesus meant when, quoting Hosea, He said: "I will have mercy and not sacrifice." And these all bring one very near to the great human heart, the intelligent and far-reaching judgment, the ripe and real religion of him whose life this volume tells.

May God bless Dr. Conwell in the days to come, and graciously spare him to us for many years! We need such men in this old sin-stained and weary world. He is an inspiration to his brothers in the ministry of Jesus Christ, He is a proof of the power in the world of pure Christianity. He is a friend to all that is good, a foe to all that is evil, a strength to the weak, a comforter to the sorrowing, a man of God.

He would not suffer these words to be printed if he saw them. But they come from the heart of one who loves, honors, and reverences him for his character and his deeds. They are the words of a friend.

[Illustration: Floyd W. Tomkins Church of the Holy Trinity
Philadelphia, Oct. 6th 1905.]

FOREWORD

CONWELL THE PIONEER

Speaking of Russell Conwell's career, a Western paper has called it, "a pioneer life."

No phrase better describes it.

Dr. Conwell preaches to the largest Protestant congregation in America each Sunday. He is the founder and president of a college that has a yearly roll-call of three thousand students. He is the founder and president of a hospital that annually treats more than five thousand patients. Yet great as these achievements are, they are yet greater in prophecy than in fulfilment. For they are the first landmarks in a new world of philanthropic work. He has blazed a path through the dark, tangled wilderness of tradition and convention, hewing away the worthless, making a straight road for progress, letting in God's clear light to show what the world needs done and how to do it.

He has shown how a church can reach out into the home, the business, the social life of thousands of people until their religion is their life, their life a religion. He has given the word "church" its real meaning. No longer is it a building merely for worship, but, with doors never closed, it is a vital part of the community and the lives of the people.

He has proven that the great masses of people are hungry and thirsty for knowledge. The halls of Temple College have resounded to the tread of an army of working men and women more than fifty thousand strong. The man with an hour a day and a few dollars a year is as eager and as welcome a student there, and has the same educational opportunities to the same grade of learning as though he had the birthright of leisure and money which opens the doors to Harvard and Yale.

He has shown that a hospital can be built not merely as a charity, not merely as a necessity, but as a visible