Little Visits with Great Americans, Vol. 2 (of 2): Or Success, Ideals and How to Attain Them
History
Little Visits with Great Americans, Vol. 2 (of 2): Or Success, Ideals and How to Attain Them
Success; United States -- Biography; United States -- History -- 19th century -- Biography
“I have never prepared a lecture or a sermon in my life, and I have
lectured for thirty-seven years. I seldom use even notes. When in the
pulpit, I rivet my attention on preaching, and think of nothing else.
“Application in the most severe form, and honesty, are the means by
which true success is attained. No matter what you do, do it to your
utmost. You and I may not do something as well as someone else, but
no stone should be unturned to do it to the best of our individual
ability. I have had a varied life, and many experiences, and I
attribute my success, if you are so pleased to call it, to always
requiring myself to do my level best, if only in driving a tack in
straight.”
XLV
An Inspiring Personality Wins a Noted Preacher Fame.
ONE of the brightest examples of early success in life is Frank W.
Gunsaulus, D.D., one of the sincerest friends of young men striving
to climb upward, that America has produced. Chicago has helped him,
and he has helped Chicago, to do great things. During his six years of
ministry in that city, before he left the pulpit and became president
of Armour Institute, he founded two notable institutions and raised
over $7,000,000 in money for charitable purposes. On the stormiest of
Sunday evenings, after a newspaper announcement that he will speak, an
audience two thousand five hundred strong will gather to hear him. It
was not an uncommon sight, during one of his series of winter sermons,
for men anxious to hear the splendid orator, to be lifted through
windows of Central Music Hall, when no more could get in at the doors.
His most conspicuous labor has been the founding of the famous Armour
Institute of Technology, which now has twelve hundred students, and of
which he is the president.
CAN A PREACHER BE A POWER?
I found him in the president’s office of Armour Institute.
“Do you think,” I said, “that it is more difficult for a preacher to
become a power in a nation than it is for a merchant, a lawyer, or a
politician?”
“Rather hard to say,” he answered. “There are prejudices against and
sympathies in favor of every class and profession. I think, however,
that a preacher is more like a doctor in his career. He is likely
to make a strong local impression, but not apt to become a national
figure. Given powerful convictions, an undertaking of things as they
are to-day, and steady work in the direction of setting things right,
and you may be sure a man is at least heading in the direction of
public favor, whether he ever attains it or not.”
“How did you manage to do the work you have done, in so short a time?”
“In the first place, I don’t think I have done so very much; and, in
the second place, the time seems rather long for what I have done. I
have worked hard, however.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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