Russell H. Conwell eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 351 pages of information about Russell H. Conwell.

Russell H. Conwell eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 351 pages of information about Russell H. Conwell.

During the building of The Temple many associations were formed which, when the need was over, merged into others.  As Burdette says: 

“Often a working guild of some sort is brought into existence for a specific but transient purpose; the object accomplished, the work completed, the society disbands, or merges into some other organization, or reorganizes under a new name for some new work.  The work of Grace Church is like the operations of a great army; recruits are coming to the front constantly; regiments being assigned to this corps, and suddenly withdrawn to reinforce that one; two or three commands consolidated for a sudden emergency; one regiment deployed along a great line of small posts; infantry detailed into the batteries, cavalry dismounted for light infantry service, yet all the time in all this apparent confusion and restless change which bewilders the civilian, everything is clear and plain and perfectly regular and methodical to the commanding general and his subordinates.”

Another association of this kind was the “Committee of One Hundred,” organized in 1891.  The suggestion for its organization came from the Young Women’s Association.  A number of them went to the Trustees and proposed that the Board should appoint a committee of fifty from among the congregation to devise ways and means to raise money for paying off the floating indebtedness of the church.  The suggestion was adopted.  The Committee of Fifty was appointed, each organization of the church being represented in it by one or more members.  It met for organization in 1892.  The Young Women’s Association, pledged itself to raise $1,000 during the year.  Other societies pledged certain sums.  Individuals went to work to swell the amount, and in one year, the Committee reported that the floating debt of the church, which at the time of the Committee’s organization was $25,000, was paid.  Encouraged by this success the Committee enlarged itself to one hundred and vigorously attacked the work of paying off the mortgage of $15,200 on the ground on which the college was to be built.

Among the minor associations of the church that promoted good fellowship and did a definite good work in their time were the “Tourists’ Club,” a social development of the Young Women’s Association.  The members took an ideal European trip while sitting in the pleasant reading room in the Lower Temple.  A route of travel was laid out a month in advance.  Each member present took some part; to one was assigned the principal buildings; to another, some famous painting; to others, parks, hotels, places of amusement, ruins, etc., until at the close of the evening they almost could hear the tongue of the strange land through which in fancy they had journeyed.  Maps and pictures helped to materialize the journey.

The “Girls” Auxiliary was formed to meet the needs of the younger members of the church.  Any girl under sixteen could become a member by the payment of monthly dues of five cents.  There were classes in embroidery, elocution, sewing, etc.

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Russell H. Conwell from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.