Robert Shackleton

“ Pierre, one day, was in the park during a few hours' leave. His soldier companions, knowing nothing of his love for St. Cloud, often rallied him on his propensity for solitary walks, and were wont to tell him teasingly that there must be an affair of the heart. And Pierre, half embarrassed, half laughing, but entirely earnest, always gave asseverative denial—always till the day when first he saw Yvonne. ”

“ II THE BEGINNING AT OLD LEXINGTON
It is not because he is a minister that Russell Conwell is such a force in the world. He went into the ministry because he was sincerely and profoundly a Christian, and because he felt that as a minister he could do more good in the world than in any other capacity. But being a minister is but an incident, so to speak. The important thing is not that he is a minister, but that he is himself! ”

“ Pierre Petibon had returned! In the tiny gardens, built impossibly behind the houses on the steep hillsides; at the windows overlooking the narrow streets or opening toward distant views of the Seine or the wooded Meudon heights; in the little shops where the people gathered for petty barter and endless gossip—the news was eagerly discussed. The very town itself—the little old town that, from the place to which it has scrambled on the steep hillside, looks out so brightly toward Paris—seemed to have taken on a curious eagerness of aspect ”

“ Most favorite of all maxims with this man of maxims, is "Let Patience have her perfect work." Over and over he loves to say it, and his friends laugh about his love for it, and he knows that they do and laughs about it himself. "I tire them all," he says, "for they hear me say it every day."
But he says it every day because it means so much to him. It stands, in his mind, as a constant warning against anger or impatience or over-haste—faults to which his impetuous temperament is prone, though few have ever seen him either angry or impatient or hasty, so well does he exercise self-control. ”

“ Conwell said, in one of his self-revealing conversations:
"I feel, whenever I preach, that there is always one person in the congregation to whom, in all probability, I shall never preach again, and therefore I feel that I must exert my utmost power in that last chance." And in this, even if this were all, one sees why each of his sermons is so impressive, and why his energy never lags. Always, with him, is the feeling that he is in the world to do all the good he can possibly do; not a moment, not an opportunity, must be lost. ”

“ They shall be because they are.
St. Cloud is close to Paris. From the park you feel that you could toss a stone there; you know you could easily walk there. But Parisians love to consider it a journey, and to make it a journey, and therefore a journey it is. And for no class of Parisians is it so popular as for the numberless wedding parties who love to drive there, proud and happy, in the afternoons, after the marriage ceremony at the mairie. It is one of the old customs, and therefore it must ever be observed.
Even as a lad Pierre used to watch the wedding parties with delighted curiosity. ”

“ And Conwell himself is a dreamer: first of all he is a dreamer; it is the most important fact in regard to him! It is because he is a dreamer and visualizes his dreams that he can plan the great things that to other men would seem impossibilities; and then his intensely practical side—his intense efficiency, his power, his skill, his patience, his fine earnestness, his mastery over others, develop his dreams into realities. He dreams dreams and sees visions—but his visions are never visionary and his dreams become facts. ”

“ The words came in a fluttered voice of marvellous sweetness, and he saw that the girl herself was sweeter than the voice. He lay down again, but now with his head on his arm, and watched the fluttered girl subside into tranquillity. She was one of a party of a score or so, all garbed alike in blouselike gowns of soft hue, and they were convoyed by a nun, whose white cap, turned back at the sides in queer square bends, stretched far forward over her gentle face. The girls paced slowly on together, and their young voices rose in a lilting carol ”

“ Even as a young man Conwell won local fame as an orator. At the outbreak of the Civil War he began making patriotic speeches that gained enlistments. After going to the front he was sent back home for a time, on furlough, to make more speeches to draw more recruits, for his speeches were so persuasive, so powerful, so full of homely and patriotic feeling, that the men who heard them thronged into the ranks. And as a preacher he uses persuasion, power, simple and homely eloquence, to draw men to the ranks of Christianity. ”

“ Then it was that Lieutenant Henri Lebrun came, and outside of the bar racks he and Pierre were at first good friends, and the two went, arm in arm, to see Yvonne, and Henri gayly told him that he had won the prettiest girl in France. "But no pretty girl can catch me unless she is rich," Henri added; whereat Pierre felt grievously hurt, and as if the foundation of friendship were slipping away. ”

“ I shall write of Russell H. Conwell.
As a farmer's boy he was the leader of the boys of the rocky region that was his home; as a school-teacher he won devotion; as a newspaper correspondent he gained fame; as a soldier in the Civil War he rose to important rank; as a lawyer he developed a large practice; as an author he wrote books that reached a mighty total of sales. He left the law for the ministry and is the active head of a great church that he raised from nothingness. He is the most popular lecturer in the world and yearly speaks to many thousands. ”

“ But the imagination of Conwell early pictured great new buildings with accommodations for thousands! In time the dream was realized, the imagination became a fact, and now those second-floor doors actually open from the Temple Church into the Temple University!
You see, he always thinks big! He dreams big dreams and wins big success. All his life he has talked and preached success, and it is a real and very practical belief with him that it is just as easy to do a large thing as a small one, and, in fact, a little easier! ”

“ Conwell's triumph in the city of his adoption, the rector of the most powerful and aristocratic church in Philadelphia voluntarily paid lofty tribute to his aims and ability, [Pg 115] his work and his personal worth. "He is an inspiration to his brothers in the ministry of Jesus Christ," so this Episcopalian rector wrote. "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. These words come from the heart of one who loves, honors, and reverences him for his character and his deeds." ”

“ In short, so well did Pierre acquit himself, and so well was he vouched for by the good people of the town, that he and Yvonne were allowed to speak with each other. "We never refuse to consider good opportunities for the marriage of the girls under our charge," said the Sister, simply. "All are orphans, and there is only a little dot for each—interest from a special fund left by the rich lady who founded the school." ”

“ They occupy a great curving space behind the pulpit, and put their hearts into song. And as the congregation disperse and the choir filter down, sometimes they are still singing and some of them continue to sing as they go slowly out toward the doors. They are happy—Conwell himself is happy—all the congregation are happy. He makes everybody feel happy in coming to church; he makes the church attractive just as Howells was so long ago told that he did in Lexington.
And there is something more than happiness; there is a sense of ease, of comfort, of general joy, that is quite unmistakable. ”

“ It was too large a sum to ask the church people to make up, for they were not rich and they had already been giving splendidly, of their slender means, for the church and then for the university. There was no rich man to turn to; the men famous for enormous charitable gifts have never let themselves be interested in any of the work of Russell Conwell. ”

“ When Pierre's term of service was over he returned to St. Cloud, and was told that Lebrun was with the garrison at Vincennes, and that the Lieutenant and Yvonne—who had not been in St. Cloud since her return to the Paris school shortly after the affray in the barracks-yard—were undoubtedly to be married within a short time.
He went to Boulogne, determined to leave the country forever. His father had recently died, and had left him a little money. But at Boulogne he hesitated. He obtained a position with a wealthy man, who put opportunities in his way. ”

“ Like all great men, he not only does big things, but keeps in touch with myriad details. When his assistant, announcing the funeral of an old member, hesitates about the street and number and says that they can be found in the telephone directory, Dr. Conwell's deep voice breaks quietly in with, "Such a number [giving it] , Dauphin Street"—quietly, and in a low tone, yet every one in the church hears distinctly every syllable of that low voice. ”

“ So when it was absolutely necessary to have ten thousand dollars the possibilities of money had been exhausted, whether from congregation or individuals.
Russell Conwell, in spite of his superb optimism, [Pg 110] is also a man of deep depressions, and this is because of the very fire and fervor of his nature, for always in such a nature there is a balancing. He believes in success; success must come!—success is in itself almost a religion with him—success for himself and for all the world who will try for it! But there are times when he is sad and doubtful over some particular possibility. ”

“ And now the soft-voiced Sister would sometimes lead her troop slowly along the road which looks down into the barracks-yard, and sometimes she would let the girls lean over the stone wall and watch the battalions below go through their drill. ”

“ He is apt to fling his arms widespread as he prays, in a fine gesture that he never uses at other times, and he looks upward with the dignity of a man who, talking to a higher being, is proud of being a friend and confidant. One does not need to be a Christian to appreciate the beauty and fineness of Conwell's prayers. ”

“ In the streets and the gardens and the shops of St. Cloud, and where the people gather about the fountain that, half-way up the hill, blocks the narrow, twisting Rue Royale, the story was told and retold. ”

“ The constant earnestness of Conwell, his desire to let no chance slip by of helping a fellow-man, puts often into his voice, when he preaches, a note of eagerness, of anxiety. But when he prays, when he turns to God, his manner undergoes a subtle and unconscious change. A load has slipped off his shoulders and has been assumed by a higher power. ”

“ He is one of those rare men who always seize and hold the attention. When he speaks, men listen. It is quality, temperament, control—the word is immaterial, but the fact is very material indeed.
Some quarter of a century ago Conwell published a little book for students on the study and practice [Pg 95] of oratory. That "clear-cut articulation is the charm of eloquence" is one of his insisted-upon statements, and it well illustrates the lifelong practice of the man himself, for every word as he talks can be heard in every part of a large building, yet always he speaks without apparent effort. ”

“ Ground was broken for the building in 1889, in 1891 it was opened for worship, and then came years of raising money to clear it. But it was long ago placed completely out of debt, and with only a single large subscription—one of ten thousand dollars—for the church is not in a wealthy neighborhood, nor is the congregation made up of the great and rich.
The church is built of stone, and its interior is a great amphitheater. Special attention has been given to fresh air and light; there is nothing of the dim, religious light that goes with medieval churchliness. ”