“It is well known that he was a lawyer before entering the ministry, and orphans, guardians, widows, and young men entering business come to him asking him to make wills, contracts, etc., and to give them points of law concerning their undertakings.  Weddings and funerals claim his attention.  Urgent messages to visit the sick and the dying and the unfortunate come to him, and these appeals are answered first either by himself or the associate pastor; the cries of the suffering making the most eloquent of all appeals to these two busy men.”

Frequently he comes to the church again in the afternoon to meet some one by appointment.  Both afternoon and evening are crowded with engagements to see people, to make addresses, to attend special meetings of various kinds, with College and Hospital duties.

“I am expected to preside at six different meetings to-night,” he said smilingly to a friend at The Temple one evening as the membership began to stream in to look after its different lines of work.

Much, of the time during the winter he is away lecturing, but he keeps in constant communication with The Temple and its work.  By letter, wire or telephone he is ready to respond to any emergency requiring his advice or suggestion.  These lecture trips carry him all over the country, but they are so carefully planned that with rare exceptions he is in the pulpit Sunday morning.  Frequently, when returning, he wires for his secretary to meet him part way, if from the West, at Harrisburg or Altoona; if from the South, at Washington or beyond.  The secretary brings the mail and the remaining hours of the journey are filled with work, dictating letters, articles for magazines or press, possibly material for a book, whatever work most presses.

Pastoral calls in the usual sense of the term cannot be made in a membership of more than three thousand.  But visits to the sick, to the poor, to the dying, are paid whenever the call comes.  To help and console the afflicted, to point the way to Christ, is the work nearest and dearest to Dr. Conwell’s heart and always comes first.  Funerals, too, claim a large part of the pastor’s time, seven in one day among the Grace Church membership calling for the services of both Dr. Conwell and his associate.  Weddings are not an unimportant feature, six having been one day’s record at The Temple.

Of his Sundays, his secretary says: 

“From the time of rising until half-past eight, he gives special attention to the subject of the morning sermon, and usually selects his text and general line of thought before sitting down to breakfast.  After family prayers, he spends half an hour in his study, at home, examining books and authorities in the completion of his sermon.  Sometimes he is unable to select a text until reaching The Temple.  He has, though rarely, made his selection after taking his place at the pulpit.

“At nine-thirty, he is always promptly in his place at the opening of the Young Men’s prayer-meeting or at the Women’s prayer-meeting in the Lower Temple.  At the Young Men’s meeting he plays the organ and leads the singing.  If he takes any other part in the meeting he is very brief, in talk or prayer.