“When did you begin to have a visible influence on affairs, such as you
have since exercised?”
“Just as soon as I began to formulate and follow what I considered to
be the true ideal of the minister.”
“And that ideal was?”
“That the question to be handled by a preacher must not be theological,
but sociological.”
“How did this conviction work out at Columbus?”
“The church became too small for the congregation, and so we had to
move to the opera house.
“My work there showed me that any place may be a pulpit,—editorial
chair, managerial chair, almost anything. I began to realize that a
whole and proper work would be to get hold of the Christian forces
outside the ecclesiastical machine and get them organized into
activity. I was not sure about my plan yet, however, so I left Columbus
for Newtonville, Massachusetts, and took time to review my studies.
There I came under the influence of Phillips Brooks. When I began once
more to get a clear idea of what I wanted to do, I went to Baltimore,
on a call, and preached two years at Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church.
“I came to Chicago in 1872. Plymouth Church offered an absolutely
free pulpit, and an opportunity to work out some plans that I thought
desirable.”