ans so much to him. It stands,
in his mind, as a constant warning against anger or impatience or
over-haste--faults to which his impetuous temperament is prone, though
few have ever seen him either angry or impatient or hasty, so well does
he exercise self-control. Those who have long known him well have
said to me that they have never heard him censure any one; that his
forbearance and kindness are wonderful.

He is a sensitive man beneath his composure; he has suffered, and
keenly, when he has been unjustly attacked; he feels pain of that sort
for a long time, too, for even the passing of years does not entirely
deaden it.

"When I have been hurt, or when I have talked with annoying cranks, I
have tried to let Patience have her perfect work, for those very people,
if you have patience with them, may afterward be of help."

And he went on to talk a little of his early years in Philadelphia, and
he said, with sadness, that it had pained him to meet with opposition,
and that it had even come from ministers of his own denomination, for he
had been so misunderstood and misjudged; but, he added, the momentary
somberness lifting, even his bitter enemies had been won over with
patience.

I could understand a good deal of what he meant, for one of the Baptist
ministers of Philadelphia had said to me, with some shame, that at first
it used actually to be the case that when Dr. Conwell would enter one of
the regular ministers' meetings, all would hold aloof, not a single one
stepping forward to meet or greet him.

"And it was all through our jealousy of his success," said the minister,
vehemently. "He came to this city a stranger, and he won instant
popularity, and we couldn't stand it, and so we pounced upon things that
he did that were altogether unimportant. The rest of us were so jealous
of his winning throngs that we couldn't see the good in him. And it
hurt Dr. Conwell so much that for ten years he did not come to our
conferences. But all this was changed long ago. Now no minister is so
welcomed as he is, and I don't believe that there ever has been a single
time since he started coming again that he hasn't been asked to say
something to us. We got over our jealousy long ago and we all love him."

Nor is it only that the clergymen of his own denomination admire him,
for not long ago, such having been Dr. Conwell's triumph in the city of
his adoption, the rector of the most powerful and aristocratic church in
Philade