Russell Herman Conwell (1843 - 1925), after graduating from Yale University had a diverse career, serving as a Captain in the Union Army during the American Civil War (before his graduation), attorney, newspaper editor, author and, finally, a clergyman. As an attorney, Dr. Conwell became involved in re-building a church in Lexington. Massachusetts and decided , in 1879, to become a minster. Dr. Conwell was ordained as a Baptist minister in that same church in 1880.

Dr. Conwell became a tireless, arguably driven, minister, aggressive in his career as a clergyman. Only in this capacity could he have turned an initial donation of 57 cents into the Temple Baptist Church in Philadelphia. The following is Dr. Conwell’s account of the event that initiated the chain of events leading to construction of the church.

“One afternoon a little girl, who had eagerly wished to go, turned back from the Sunday-school door, crying bitterly because they had told her that there was no more room. But a tall, black-haired man met her, noticed her tears and, stopping, asked why it was that she was crying. She sobbingly replied that it was because they could not let her into the Sunday-school.

“I lifted her to my shoulder”, says Dr. Conwell, in telling of this; for after hearing the story elsewhere I asked him to tell it to me himself, for it seemed almost too strange to be true. “I lifted her to my shoulder” - and one realizes the pretty scene it must have made for the little girl to go through the crowd of people, drying her tears and riding proudly on the shoulders of the kindly, tall, dark man! “I said to her that I would take her in, and I did so, and I said to her that we should some day have a room big enough for all who should come. And when she went home she told her parents - I only learned this afterward - that she was going to save money to help build the larger church and Sunday-school that Dr. Conwell wanted! Her parents pleasantly humored her in the idea and let her run errands and do little tasks to earn pennies, and she began dropping the pennies into her bank.

She was a lovable little thing - but in only a few weeks after that she was taken suddenly ill and died; and at the funeral her father told me, quietly, of how his little girl had been saving money for a building-fund. And there, at the funeral, he handed me what she had saved - just fifty-seven cents in pennies”.

Dr. Conwell does not say how deeply he was moved; he is, after all, a man of very few words as to his own emotions. But a deep tenderness had crept into his voice.

“At a meeting of the church trustees, I told of this gift of fifty-seven cents - the first gift toward the proposed building-fund of the new church that was some time to exist. For until then the matter had barely been spoken of, as a new church building had been simply a possibility for the future.

The trustees seemed much impressed, and it turned out that they were far more impressed than I could possibly have hoped, for in a few days one of them came to me and said that he thought it would be an excellent idea to buy a lot on Broad Street - the very lot on which the building now stands”.

It was characteristic of Dr. Conwell that he did not point out, what every one who knows him would understand, that it was his own inspiration put into the trustees which resulted in this quick and definite move on the part of one of them.

“I talked the matter over with the owner of the property, and told him of the beginning of the fund, the story of the little girl. The man was not one of our church, nor in fact, was he a church-goer at all, but he listened attentively to the tale of the fifty-seven cents and simply said he was quite ready to go ahead and sell us that piece of land for ten thousand dollars, taking - and the unexpectedness of this deeply touched me - taking a first payment of just fifty-seven cents and letting the entire balance stand on a five-per-cent. mortgage!

And it seemed to me that it would be the right thing to accept this unexpectedly liberal proposition, and I went over the entire matter on that basis with the trustees and some of the other members, and all the people were soon talking of having a new church. But it was not done in that way, after all, for, fine though that way would have been, there was to be one still finer.

Not long after my talk with the man who owned the land, and his surprisingly good-hearted proposition, an exchange was arranged for me one evening with a Mount Holly church, and my wife went with me. We came back late, and it was cold, wet and miserable, but as we approached our home we saw that it was all lighted from top to bottom, and it was clear that it was full of people. I said to my wife that they seemed to be having a better time than we had had, and we went in, curious to know what it was all about. And it turned out that our absence had been intentionally arranged, and that the church people had gathered at our home to meet us on our return. And I was utterly amazed, for the spokesman told me that the entire ten thousand dollars had been raised and that the land for the church that I wanted was free of debt. And all had come so quickly and directly from that dear little girl’s fifty-seven cents”.

Despite having written 10 books (including biographies of Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes and James A. Garfield), spearheaded construction of Temple Baptist Church, founded Temple University and the Samaritan Hospital, as well as taking over the Garretson Hospital, Dr. Conwell is best known as a tireless orator, having delivered his “ACRES OF DIAMONDS” lecture over 6,000 separate occasions. The income received from these lectures was donated by Dr. Conwell to assist young men attend college.

“I determined”, he says, “that whatever I could do to make the way easier at college for other young men working their way, I would do”.

And so, many years ago, he began to devote every dollar he made from “Acres of Diamonds” to this definite purpose. He has what may be termed a waiting-list. On that list are very few cases he has looked into personally. Infinitely busy man that he is, he cannot do extensive personal investigation. A large proportion of his names come to him from college presidents who know of students in their own colleges in need of such a helping hand.

“Every night … when my lecture is over and the check is in my hand, I sit down in my room in the hotel … and subtract, from the total sum received, my actual expenses for that place, make out a check for the difference and send it to some young man on my list. And I always send with the check a letter of advice and helpfulness, expressing my hope that it will be of some service to him and telling him that he is to feel under no obligation except to his Lord. I feel strongly, and I try to make every young man feel, that there must be no sense of obligation to me personally” (Acres of Diamonds).

“Acres of Diamonds” is the best known story from his lecture. There are a total of three separate and distinct stories, having the common theme that the “Grass is always greener on the other side of the fence”. In each of the stories, the Protagonist rushes off to seek his fortune, selling his property for a pittance in order to be free to find his fortune. Of course, in each story, the protagonist is unsuccessful in his quest for riches. Meanwhile, the new property owner, in exploring his new property discovers incredible wealth. In the case of “Acres of Diamonds”, the Golconda diamond mine itself.

The obvious message Dr. Conwell is attempting to deliver is that we should be sure we have explored all the potential currently available to us before we rush off in pursuit of a dream.

“The lecture, to quote … Dr. Conwell himself, is designed to help “every person, of either sex, who cherishes the high resolve of sustaining a career of usefulness and honor”. It is a lecture of helpfulness. And it is a lecture, when given with Conwell’s voice, face and manner, full of fascination. And yet it is all so simple!

It is packed full of inspiration, of suggestion, of aid. He alters it to meet the local circumstances of the thousands of different places in which he delivers it. But the base remains the same. And even those to whom it is an old story will go to hear him time after time” (Acres of Diamonds).

This and many other classic books in the “Personal Development” genre are available on the Integrated Success Program web-site.

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