Sermon that Birth a Million Dollars

This story proves the truth of that old saying, “where there’s a will, there’s
a way.”

The late Frank W. Gunsaulus, who began his preaching career in the stockyards region of South
Chicago.
While Dr. Gunsaulus was going through college, he observed many
defects in the educational system, defects which he believed he could correct, if
he were the head of a college. His deepest desire was to become the directing head
of an educational institution in which young men and women would be taught
to “learn by doing.”
He made up his mind to organize a new college in which he could carry
out his ideas, without being handicapped by orthodox methods of education.
He needed a million dollars to put the project across! Where was he to lay
his hands on so large a sum of money? That was the question that absorbed most
of this ambitious young preacher’s thought.
But he couldn’t seem to make any progress.
Every night he took that thought to bed with him. He got up with it in the
morning. He took it with him everywhere he went. He turned it over and over in
his mind until it became a consuming obsession with him. A million dollars is a
lot of money. He recognized that fact, but he also recognized the truth that the
only limitation is that which one sets up in one’s own mind.
Being a philosopher as well as a preacher, Dr. Gunsaulus recognized, as
do all who succeed in life, that DEFINITENESS OF PURPOSE is the starting
point from which one must begin. He recognized, too, that definiteness of
purpose takes on animation, life, and power when backed by a BURNING
DESIRE to translate that purpose into its material equivalent.
He knew all these great truths, yet he did not know where, or how to lay
his hands on a million dollars. The natural procedure would have been to give
up and quit, by saying, “Ah well, my idea is a good one, but I cannot do anything
with it, because I never can procure the necessary million dollars.” That is exactly
what the majority of people would have said, but it is not what Dr. Gunsaulus
said. What he said, and what he did are so important that I now introduce him,
and let him speak for himself.
“One Saturday afternoon I sat in my room thinking of ways and means of
raising the money to carry out my plans. For nearly two years, I had been
thinking, but I had done nothing but think!
“The time had come for ACTION!
“I made up my mind, then and there, that I would get the necessary
million dollars within a week. How? I was not concerned about that. The main
thing of importance was the decision to get the money within a specified time,
and I want to tell you that the moment I reached a definite decision to get the
money within a specified time, a strange feeling of assurance came over me, such
as I had never before experienced. Something inside me seemed to say, ‘Why
didn’t you reach that decision a long time ago? The money was waiting for you
all the time!’
“Things began to happen in a hurry. I called the newspapers and
announced I would preach a sermon the following morning, entitled, ‘What I
would do if I had a Million Dollars.’
“I went to work on the sermon immediately, but I must tell you, frankly,

TO BE CONTINUED…