The book “Acres of Diamonds: Our Every-day Opportunities” is a biography of Temple University founder Russell Conwell. At first, it seemed strange to me that a Christian pastor would place so much emphasis on money in his speeches. My first impression was that Conwell was one of those greedy pastors, preachers of a “prosperity gospel”, but this is not so: Conwell does not say that God will make you rich as a reward for joining the church, but that everyone should seek wealth through means of hard work. Still, it seemed strange to me, hearing from a Christian, all this emphasis on wealth, but, throughout the book, we see that what he means is that money is necessary even for the achievement of our good deeds, as this is the Western capitalist system, in which almost nothing is possible for those who do not have money. One should not have money simply for the sake of it, but to use it as a means to perform good deeds, in order to improve the lives of others and the community. Beautiful and plausible. But that doesn’t save the book from a fatal flaw that occurs throughout almost the entire text: it reads like one long piece of propaganda. You see, this book was not written by Conwell himself, but by someone else. And this person has done little investigation into Conwell’s flaws, while at the same time sparing no effort in praising him in every way at every opportunity that arises. This is highly tedious and embarrassing. If someone wrote a biography about me and wrote it that way, I would be embarrassed.
El libro “Acres of Diamonds: Our Every-day Opportunities” es una biografía del fundador de la Universidad de Temple, Russell Conwell. Al principio me pareció extraño que un pastor cristiano pusiera tanto énfasis en el dinero en sus discursos. Mi primera impresión fue que Conwell era uno de esos pastores codiciosos, predicadores de un “evangelio de la prosperidad”, pero no es así: Conwell no dice que Dios te hará rico como recompensa por unirte a la iglesia, sino que todos deben buscar riqueza a través del trabajo duro. Aún así, me pareció extraño escuchar de boca de un cristiano todo este énfasis en la riqueza, pero, a lo largo del libro, vemos que lo que quiere decir es que el dinero es necesario incluso para la realización de nuestras buenas obras, pues así es la cultura occidental. Vivemos en un sistema capitalista, en el que casi nada es posible para quienes no tienen dinero. No se debe tener dinero simplemente por tenerlo, sino utilizarlo como un medio para realizar buenas obras, con el fin de mejorar las vidas de los demás y de la comunidad. Hermoso y plausible. Pero eso no salva al libro de un defecto fatal que ocurre a lo largo de casi todo el texto: es muy forzado en la descripción de las calidades de Conwell. Este libro no fue escrito por el propio Conwell, sino por otra persona. Y esta persona ha investigado poco los defectos de Conwell, al mismo tiempo que hace total esfuerzo para elogiarlo en todos los sentidos en cada oportunidad que se presenta. Esto es muy tedioso. Si alguien escribiera una biografía sobre mí y la escribiera de esa manera, me daría vergüenza.
La libro “Acres of Diamonds: Our Every-day Opportunities” estas biografio de la fondinto de Temple University, Russell Conwell. Komence mi trovis strange, ke kristana pastro emfazas monon en siaj paroladoj. Mia unua impreso estis, ke Conwell estis unu el tiuj avidaj pastroj, predikantoj de “prospero evangelio”, sed tio ne estas la kazo: Conwell ne diras, ke Dio riĉigos vin kiel rekompenco pro aliĝo al la eklezio, sed ke ĉiuj serĉu riĉecon per laboro. Eĉ tiel, ŝajnis al mi strange aŭdi ĉi tiun emfazon pri riĉeco el la buŝo de kristano, sed, tra la libro, ni vidas, ke tio, kion li volas diri, estas, ke mono estas necesa eĉ por plenumi niajn bonajn farojn, ĉar tiel estas Okcidenta kulturo. Ni vivas en kapitalisma sistemo, en kiu preskaŭ nenio estas ebla por tiuj, kiuj ne havas monon. Vi ne havu monon simple por havi ĝin, sed vi devas uzi ĝin por fari bonajn agojn, por plibonigi la vivon de aliaj homoj kaj la komunumo. Bela kaj kredebla. Sed la libron havas fatalan difekton, kiu okazas tra preskaŭ la tuta teksto: ĝi ŝajnas kiel propagando. Ĉi tiu libro ne estis verkita de Conwell mem, sed de iu alia. Kaj ĉi tiu persono malmulte esploris la difektojn de Conwell, dum ankaŭ laŭdi lin ĉiumaniere ĉe ĉiu okazo. Ĉi tio estas tre teda. Se iu verkus biografion pri mi kaj skribus ĝin tiel, mi tre ruĝiĝus.
O livro “Acres of Diamonds: Our Every-day Opportunities” é uma biografia do fundador da Temple University, Russell Conwell. A princípio achei estranho que um pastor cristão enfatizasse o dinheiro em seus discursos. Minha primeira impressão foi de que Conwell era um daqueles pastores gananciosos, pregadores do “evangelho da prosperidade”, mas não é o caso: Conwell não está dizendo que Deus o tornará rico como recompensa por ingressar na igreja, mas que todos deveriam buscar riqueza através do trabalho. Mesmo assim, me pareceu estranho ouvir essa ênfase na riqueza da boca de um cristão, mas, ao longo do livro, vemos que o que ele quer dizer é que o dinheiro é necessário até para realizarmos nossas boas obras, pois é assim que a cultura ocidental é. Vivemos num sistema capitalista em que quase nada é possível para quem não tem dinheiro. Você não deve ter dinheiro simplesmente para tê-lo, mas deve usá-lo para fazer boas ações, para melhorar a vida de outras pessoas e da comunidade. Bonito e crível. Mas o livro tem uma falha fatal que ocorre em quase todo o texto: parece propaganda. Este livro não foi escrito pelo próprio Conwell, mas por outra pessoa. E essa pessoa investigou pouco as falhas de Conwell, ao mesmo tempo que o elogiou de todas as maneiras e em todas as oportunidades. Isso é muito tedioso. Se alguém escrevesse uma biografia sobre mim e a escrevesse assim, eu ficaria muito vermelho.
99 a 100:
A man dies, but his good work lives.
188 a 192:
Ali Hafed heard all about diamonds, how much they were worth, and went to his bed that night a poor man. He had not lost anything, but he was poor because he was discontented, and discontented because he feared he was poor. He said, “I want a mine of diamonds,” and he lay awake all night.
209 a 210:
So he sold his farm, collected his money, left his family in charge of a neighbor, and away he went in search of diamonds. He began his search, very properly to my mind, at the Mountains of the Moon. Afterward he came around into Palestine, then wandered on into Europe, and at last when his money was all spent and he was in rags, wretchedness, and poverty, he stood on the shore of that bay at Barcelona, in Spain, when a great tidal wave came rolling in between the pillars of Hercules, and the poor, afflicted, suffering, dying man could not resist the awful temptation to cast himself into that incoming tide, and he sank beneath its foaming crest, never to rise in this life again.
298 a 304:
There was a man living in Pennsylvania, not unlike some Pennsylvanians you have seen, who owned a farm, and he did with that farm just what I should do with a farm if I owned one in Pennsylvania–he sold it. But before he sold it he decided to secure employment collecting coal-oil for his cousin, who was in the business in Canada, where they first discovered oil on this continent.
306 a 308:
You see, friends, this farmer was not altogether a foolish man. No, he was not. He did not leave his farm until he had something else to do. _*Of all the simpletons the stars shine on I don’t know of a worse one than the man who leaves one job before he has gotten another_.
358 a 363:
_*If they had raised that boy’s pay from $15 to $15.60 he would have stayed and been proud of the place, but when they put it up to $45 at one leap, he said, “Mother, I won’t work for $45 a week. The idea of a man with a brain like mine working for $45 a week!_ Let’s go out in California and stake out gold-mines and silver-mines, and be immensely rich.”
365 a 366:
Said his mother, “Now, Charlie, it is just as well to be happy as it is to be rich.”
372 a 378:
They sold out in Massachusetts, and instead of going to California they went to Wisconsin, where he went into the employ of the Superior Copper Mining Company at $15 a week again, but with the proviso in his contract that he should have an interest in any mines he should discover for the company. I don’t believe he ever discovered a mine, and if I am looking in the face of any stockholder of that copper company you wish he had discovered something or other.
505 a 509:
Says another young man, “I hear sometimes of men that get millions of dollars dishonestly.” Yes, of course you do, and so do I. But they are so rare a thing in fact that the newspapers talk about them all the time as a matter of news until you get the idea that all the other rich men got rich dishonestly.
541:
I say, then, you ought to have money.
566 a 568:
Money is power, money is force, money will do good as well as harm. In the hands of good men and women it could accomplish, and it has accomplished, good.
779 a 783:
He takes his bride into a finer mansion, it may be, but he is obliged to go all the way through it and say to his wife, “My mother gave me that, my mother gave me that, and my mother gave me this,” until his wife wishes she had married his mother.
795 a 800:
But as a rule the rich men will not let their sons do the very thing that made them great. As a rule, the rich man will not allow his son to work–and his mother! Why, she would think it was a social disgrace if her poor, weak, little lily-fingered, sissy sort of a boy had to earn his living with honest toil.
863 a 868:
His fortune was made by his losing something, which taught him the great lesson that he must only invest himself or his money in something that people need. When will you salesmen learn it? When will you manufacturers learn that you must know the changing needs of humanity if you would succeed in life?
1188 a 1192:
Why isn’t Philadelphia a greater city in its greater wealth? Why does New York excel Philadelphia? People say, “Because of her harbor.” Why do many other cities of the United States get ahead of Philadelphia now? There is only one answer, and that is because our own people talk down their own city.
1223 a 1224:
The people rule, or should rule, and if they do, we do not need the greater men in office.
1273 a 1277:
We ought to teach that, however humble a man’s station may be, if he does his full duty in that place he is just as much entitled to the American people’s honor as is the king upon his throne. But we do not so teach. We are now teaching everywhere that the generals do all the fighting.
1470 a 1471:
Howells went on to say that, so he was told, the colonel’s success was principally due to his making the church attractive to young people.
1476 a 1481:
“Attractive to young people.” Yes, one can recognize that to-day, just as it was recognized in Lexington. And it may be added that he at the same time attracts older people, too! In this, indeed, lies his power. He makes his church interesting, his sermons interesting, his lectures interesting. He is himself interesting! Because of his being interesting, he gains attention. The attention gained, he inspires.
1981 a 1982:
I rather suppose the old-time martyrs rather enjoyed themselves in being martyrs!
2015 a 2017:
Every step forward, every triumph achieved, comes not alone from his own enthusiasm, but because of his putting that enthusiasm into others.
2137 a 2140:
And the amber-colored tiles in the inner walls of the church bear, under the glaze, the names of thousands of his people; for every one, young or old, who helped in the building, even to the giving of a single dollar, has his name inscribed there.
2163 a 2170:
At the outbreak of the Civil War he began making patriotic speeches that gained enlistments. After going to the front he was sent back home for a time, on furlough, to make more speeches to draw more recruits, for his speeches were so persuasive, so powerful, so full of homely and patriotic feeling, that the men who heard them thronged into the ranks. And as a preacher he uses persuasion, power, simple and homely eloquence, to draw men to the ranks of Christianity.
2184 a 2186:
His voice is soft-pitched and never breaks, even now when he is over seventy, because, so he explains it, he always speaks in his natural voice. There is never a straining after effect.
2190 a 2194:
“Enthusiasm invites enthusiasm,” is another of his points of importance; and one understands that it is by deliberate purpose, and not by chance, that he tries with such tremendous effort to put enthusiasm into his hearers with every sermon and every lecture that he delivers.
2203 a 2204:
He never fears to use humor, and it is always very simple and obvious and effective.
2262 a 2263:
Always remember, as you preach, that you are striving to save at least one soul with every sermon.
2474 a 2475:
Trust in God and do the next thing.
2537 a 2540:
And he intensely believes in prayer–faith can move mountains; but always he believes that it is better not to wait for the mountains thus to be moved, but to go right out and get to work at moving them.
2671 a 2672:
But he was original and he was popular, and therefore there were misunderstanding and jealousy.
2958 a 2962:
And it needs also to be understood that, outside of his own beloved Temple, he would prefer to go to a little church or a little hall and to speak to the forgotten people, in the hope of encouraging and inspiring them and filling them with hopeful glow, rather than to speak to the rich and comfortable.
3176 a 3177:
Awaken in the character of young laboring men and women a determined ambition to be useful to their fellow-men.
3276 a 3277:
The state money is invested in the brains and hearts of the ambitious.
3282 a 3286:
His belief in education, and in the highest attainable education, is profound, and it is not only on account of the abstract pleasure and value of education, but its power of increasing actual earning power and thus making a worker of more value to both himself and the community.
3368 a 3369:
I should like to see the possibility of higher education offered to every one in the United States who works for a living.
3621 a 3623:
Deeply religious though he is, he does not force religion into conversation on ordinary subjects or upon people who may not be interested in it.
3628 a 3632:
His sermons are, it may almost literally be said, parable after parable; although he himself would be the last man to say this, for it would sound as if he claimed to model after the greatest of all examples. His own way of putting it is that he uses stories frequently because people are more impressed by illustrations than by argument.
3707 a 3710:
If he is really set upon doing anything, little or big, adverse criticism does not disturb his serenity. Some years ago he began wearing a huge diamond, whose size attracted much criticism and caustic comment. He never said a word in defense; he just kept on wearing the diamond.
3719 a 3720:
The ambition of Russell Conwell is to continue working and working until the very last moment of his life.
3777 a 3779:
And I tell them that I am hoping to leave behind me men who will do more work than I have done.