``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.''
Dr. Conwell did some beautiful and unusual
things in his church, instituted some beautiful and
unusual customs, and one can see how narrow and
hasty criticisms charged him, long ago, with
sensationalism--charges long since forgotten except
through the hurt still felt by Dr. Conwell himself.
``They used to charge me with making a circus
of the church--as if it were possible for me to
make a circus of the church!'' And his tone was
one of grieved amazement after all these years.
But he was original and he was popular, and
therefore there were misunderstanding and jealousy.
His Easter services, for example, years
ago, became widely talked of and eagerly
anticipated because each sermon would be wrought
around some fine symbol; and he would hold in
his hand, in the pulpit, the blue robin's egg, or
the white dove, or the stem of lilies, or whatever
he had chosen as the particular symbol for the
particular sermon, and that symbol would give
him the central thought for his discourse, accented
as it would be by the actual symbol itself in view
of the congregation.
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