I have never heard one so unique.  It fastened the evening’s lesson.  It was not formal.  The benediction was a blessing indeed.  It broke every rule of church form.  It was a charming close, however.  No one else but Conwell could do it.  Probably no one will try.  Instantly at the close of the service, all the people turned to each other and shook hands.  They entered into familiar conversation.  Many spoke to me and invited me to come again.  There was no restraint.  All was homelike and happy.  It was blessed to be there.”

CHAPTER XVIII

FIRST DAYS AT GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH

Early plans for Church Efficiency.  Practical Methods for Church Work.  The Growing Membership.  Need of a New Building.

The preaching filled the church.  Men and women felt that to miss a sermon was to miss inspiration and strength for the coming week’s work, a broader outlook on life, a deeper hold on spiritual truths.  But it was more than the sermons that carried the church work forward by leaps and bounds, added hundreds to its membership, made it a power for good in the neighborhood that gradually began to be felt all over the city.

The spirit of the sermons took practical form.  Mr. Conwell followed no traditions or conventions in his church work.  He studied the needs of the neighborhood and the hour.  Then he went to work with practical, common sense to meet them.  First he determined the church should be a home, a church home, but nevertheless a home in its true sense, overflowing with love, with kindness, with hospitality for the stranger within its gates.  Committees were formed to make strangers welcome, to greet them cordially, find them a seat if possible, see that they had hymn books, and invite them heartily to come again.  And every member felt he belonged to this committee even if not actually appointed on it, and made the stranger who might sit near him feel that he was a welcome guest.  When the church became more crowded, members gave up their seats to strangers and sat on the pulpit, and it was no unusual sight in the church at Berks and Mervine streets to see the pulpit, as well as every other inch of space in the auditorium, crowded.  Finally, when even this did not give room enough to accommodate all who thronged its doors, members took turns in staying away from certain services.  No one who has not enjoyed the spiritual uplift, the good fellowship of a Grace Church service can appreciate what a genuine personal sacrifice that was.

After the service, Mr. Conwell stationed himself at the door and shook hands with all as they left, adding some little remark to show his personal interest in their welfare if they were members, or a cordial invitation to come again, if a stranger.  The remembrance of that hearty handclasp, that frank, friendly interest, lingered and stamped with a personal flavor upon the hearer’s heart, the truths of Christianity that had been preached in such simple, clear, yet forcible fashion from the pulpit.