to lecture in New Jersey that after he had bought his ticket he hadn’t a cent left.  Thinking, however, he would be paid when the lecture was over, he went on.  But the lecture committee told him they would send a check.  Having no money to pay a hotel bill, he took the train back.  Reaching Philadelphia after midnight he boarded a trolley and told the conductor who he was and his predicament, offering to send the man the money for his fare next day.  But the conductor was not to be fooled, said he didn’t know Dr. Conwell from Adam, and put him off.  And Dr. Conwell walked twenty long blocks to his home, chuckling all the way at the humor of the situation.

He has a keen sense of humor, as his audiences know.  Though the spiritual side of his nature is so intense, his love of fun and appreciation of the humorous relieves him from being solemn or sanctimonious.  He is sunny, cheerful, ever ready at a chance meeting with a smile or a joke.  Children, who as a rule look upon a minister as a man enshrouded in solemn dignity, are delightfully surprised to find in him a jolly, fun-loving comrade, a fact which has much to do with the number of young people who throng Grace church and enter its membership.

The closeness of his walk with God is shown in his unbounded faith, in the implicit reliance he has in the power of prayer.  Though to the world he attacks the problems confronting him with shrewd, practical business sense, behind and underneath this, and greater than it all, is the earnestness with which he first seeks to know the will of God and the sincerity with which he consecrates himself to the work.  Christ is to him a very near personal friend, in very truth an Elder Brother to whom he constantly goes for guidance and help, Whose will he wants to do solely, in the current of Whose purpose he wants to move.  “Men who intend to serve the Lord should consecrate themselves in heart-searching and prayer,” he has said many and many a time.  And of prayer itself he says: 

“There is planted in every human heart this knowledge, namely, that there is a power beyond our reach, a mysterious potency shaping the forces of life, which if we would win we must have in our favor.  There come to us all, events over which we have no control by physical or mental power.  Is there any hope of guiding those mysterious forces?  Yes, friends, there is a way of securing them in our favor or preventing them from going against us.  How?  It is by prayer.  When a man has done all he can do, still there is a mighty, mysterious agency over which he needs influence to secure success.  The only way he can reach that is by prayer.”

He has good reason to believe in the power of prayer, for the answers he has received in some cases have seemed almost miraculous.