Turning from Conflict to Conversion

Maltbie D. Babcock, author of This Is My Father’s World and a Presbyterian pastor in Brooklyn, introduced a free pew system in his church, upsetting a wealthy woman who found strangers in her usual seat. Angered, she vowed never to speak to him again.

In response, Dr. Babcock visited her home multiple times, but her maid consistently turned him away. On his fourth visit, he insisted on waiting in the parlor. The woman, upstairs with her family,…