The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-31
DENNY BREACHES
 ON CHARACTER
cCa!aureate Sermon to Bir-
 mingham College Class
TAKES TEXT FROM EXODUS
Great Audience Hears wsp Known Clergyman Preach at First Meth. odst Church-Rev. Wheeler
 Last Night.

The Rev. pr, Collins Denny of Wander bilt university preached to an immense audience at the First Methodist church yesterday morning The occasion was the delivery of the baecalaureate sermon to the graduating class Of Birmingham college.
 The entire student body of tho college was in attendance. while all available space remaining downstairs or in the gallery was occupied by visitors and friends Of the college. Special music was given by the choir among others being a quartet selection, "The Lord Is in His Holy Temple by selby, and q soprano solo by Miss Tutwiler
 Dr. Denny was introduced byPresident Mccoy of Birmingham college, who re- ferred to him as a divine well known throughout the south The visiting pas tor preached from Exodus, 83-1S as test: 'I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory" These are the words of Moses who, after 
 nature and existence, asks of Jehovah still further interpretations of His word and work. Throughout his masterly ser mon pr. Denny emphasized the para mount importance of having high ideal in life He reviewed the great nations of antiquity, beginning with Greece, showing the variety of ideals maintained. He showed how narrow were the aims of the Athenians and Romans, who es- teemed nothing higher than luxury and sensual pleasure in life. He spoke Of Israers greatness not consisting in her warriors nor her statesmen and poets, but solely in her men of character-men great in their appreciation of character, in their desire after God, In their appre- citation and apprehension of the great factors of life.
 Character" said Dr. Denny, lis the one thing worth living for-not wealth, honor, learning, but character. Nothing admits a man into the presence of God but character; nothing expels him more surely from the gates of heaven than the lack of it. Such men of character as Moses feel, as he felt, a great longing in their souls for knowledge of the in- finite that they might become true images of their Maker"
 Dr. Denny thus emphasized the impor- tance of high ideals. An ideal he de- fined as the copy, the plan, the pattern or the standard according to which the life of man is fashioned. Every man has a copy. plan which through life he earn estly strives to reproduce. The more
 a1,, it A1,, a1.1ex every string of action in the soul In the end will come realization The des- tiny of mans life may be affected by his belief: As man thinketh in his heart, so is it. /"
 He showed how Christianity was evolved and realized from the ideal of religion held by those few stanch He brews who fathered the movement; how the American Revolution developed from the ideals of liberty entertained by our forefathers.
 ''The mind of man conceives a Utopia, a perfect state of all things this is an ideal that may or may not be realized. The divine mind conceived cosmos and a universe; that ideal was realized. Gods thoughts are deeds: God said, Let there be light ana there was llBnl. ours WOulu be so if we had the power to make them so Ideals govern the world, govern us. They show what we would be, not what we are or will be. Interest in a sub ject Is aroused In mans mind; then follows attention, concentration, absorp- ton and step toward realization. We often become like what we believe our selves to be liko as Ruskin says. Ma terialists so concentrate themselves upon matter that they believe In nothing but matter; even things divine become ma terial.
 "As Heine says, We do not take pos- session of ideas; they take possession of us.' ;" As an example, he took the case of Wesley, who, though born and bred a gentleman" yet poured out his heart to the rough miners of Bristol and Corn wall, because so firmly possessed of the idea Dr. Denny's sermon was eloquent and scholarly throughout.
 In the evening at S:15 the Rev. Harry F. Wheeler of Blocton addressed the Young Mems Christian association of the college at the college chapel