Russell H. Conwell, founder of the Institutional church in America : $b the work and the manBurr, Agnes Rush
Religion
Russell H. Conwell, founder of the Institutional church in America : $b the work and the man
Burr, Agnes Rush
Conwell, Russell H., 1843-1925; Minneapolis (Minn.) -- Biography
"The church of Christ should be so conducted always as to save the
largest number of souls, and in the saving of souls the Institutional
church may be of great assistance," said Russell Conwell in an address
on "The Institutional Church." "It is of little matter what your
theories are or what mine are; God, in His providence, is moving His
church onward and moving it upward at the same time, adjusting it
to new situations, fitting it to new conditions and to advancing
civilization, requiring us to use the new instrumentalities he has
placed in our hands for the purpose of saving the greatest number of
human souls."
The conditions confronting him, the leader of this church studied. He
turned his eyes backward over the years. He thought of his own boyhood
when church was so distasteful. He thought of those ten busy years in
Boston when he had worked among all classes of humanity, with churches
on all sides, yet few reaching down into the lives of the people in
any vital way. He knew of the silent, agonizing cry for help, for
comfort, for light, that went up without ceasing day and night from
humanity in sorrow, in suffering, in affliction, went up as it were to
skies of brass, yet he knew a loving Savior stood ready to pour forth
his healing love, a Divine Spirit waited only the means, to lay a
healing touch on sore hearts. What was needed was a simple, practical,
real way to make it understandable to men, to bring them into the
right environment, to make their hearts and minds receptive, to point
the way to peace, joy and eternal life. He brought to bear on this
problem all the practical, trained skill of the lawyer, the keen
insight and common sense, the knowledge of the world, of the traveler
and writer. Every experience of his own life he probed for help and
light on this great work Nothing was done haphazard. He studied the
wants of men. He clearly saw the need. He calmly surveyed the field,
then he went to work with practical common sense to fill it, filling
his people with the enthusiasm and the faith that led him, doing with
a will all there was to do, and then leaving the rest with God. Never
did he think of himself, of how he might lighten his tasks, give
himself a little more leisure or rest. The work needing to be done and
how to do it was his study day and night.
[Illustration: This Picture Shows the Four Speaking Tubes Which
Connect by Telephone with the Samaritan Hospital]
A reporter of the "Philadelphia Press" once asked Dr. George A. Peltz,
the associate pastor of Grace Church, "if you were called upon to
express in three words the secret of the mysterious power that has
raised Grace Church from almost nothing to a membership of more than
three thousand, that has built this Temple, founded a college, opened
a hospital, and set every man, woman and child in the congregation to
working, what would be your answer?"
"Sanctified common sense," was the Doctor's unhesitating reply.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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