Russell Conwell

Russell Conwell, the founder and first president of Temple University, was a social reformer who responded to the changing needs of the city in the late nineteenth century. His message was one of uplift: people can help themselves. In his lecture, “Acres of Diamonds,” given 6,000 times, he told of a rancher in California who, upon hearing that people had discovered gold in southern California, sold his ranch and went south, never to return. A Colonel Sutter, who bought his ranch, built a mill by a stream running through it.

One day, his little daughter was playing in the stream and showed him some glittering sand she found. The glittering sand contained gold, and by the time Conwell wrote, thirty-eight million had been taken from a very few acres. Conwell noted that many people go great distances looking for something better, when if they had the faith and imagination to see them, great opportunities are often near at hand.*!? (Exod 4:2; Eccl 9:10) (Imagination, Opportunities, Possibilities) (EEJ)