“Nothing of the kind,” replied the other.  “What’s the matter with you?  Catch him out a night like this.”

“But I tell you that was Conwell’s voice,” said the first man.  “I know it.  Let’s follow him and see what he’s doing.”

Through the thickly falling snow, they could see the tall figure of Dr. Conwell with a large basket on one arm and leading a little child by the hand.  Keeping a sufficient distance behind, they followed him to a poor home in a little street, saw him enter, saw the light flash up and knew that he was living out in deed the doctrine he preached.  Silent, they turned away.  What his spoken word in The Temple could not do his ministry at midnight had accomplished, and they became loyal and devoted members of the church.

In conversation with a street car conductor at one time, he found the man eager to hear of Christ and His love, but unable to give heed on the car because he might be reported for inattention to his duties and lose his place.  Dr. Conwell asked him where he took dinner, and at the noon hour was there and, plainly and simply, as the man ate his lunch, told what Christ’s love in his heart and life would mean.

Such stories could be multiplied many times of this personal ministry that seeks day and night, in season and out, to make mankind better, to lift it up where it may grasp eternal truth.

Francis Willard says: 

“To move among the people on the common street; to meet them in the market-place on equal terms; to live among them not as saint or monk, but as a brother man with brother men; to serve God not with form or ritual, but in the free impulse of the soul; to bear the burden of society and relieve its needs; to carry on its multitudinous activities in the city, social, commercial, political, and philanthropic—­this is the religion of the Son of man.”  This is the religion of Dr. Conwell.

As a leader and organizer he is almost without an equal in church work.  He sees a need.  His practical mind goes to work to plan ways to meet it.  He organizes the work thoroughly and carefully; he rallies his workers about him and then leads them dauntlessly forward to success.  He has weathered many a fierce gale of opposition, won out in many a furious storm of criticism.  The greater the obstacles, the more brightly does his ability as a leader shine.  He seems to call up from some secret storehouse reserves of enthusiasm.  He gets everybody energetically and cheerfully at work, and the obstacles that seemed insurmountable suddenly melt away.  As some one has said, “He attempts the impossible, yet finds practical ways to accomplish it”

The way he met an unexpected demand for money during the building of the church illustrates this: 

The trustees had, as they thought, made provision for the renewal of a note of $2,000, due Dec. 27th.  Late Friday, Dec. 24th, the news came that the note could not be renewed, that it must be paid Monday.  They had no money, nothing could be done but appeal to the people on Sunday.