The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-06-09

by no means predict defeat That the genius of our people had not failed in the long run to find the right way and to follow 1t. That even now the pendu- lum seems to have swung to the one extreme and soon would begin its back ward stroke. That the people are learn ing that not from written laws and many statutes, but out of the human heart proceed the issues of life and of death.
 Samford's Address.
 The speech before the literary socities by T. D. Sanford of Opelilka was able and forceful
 His speech was full of thought and produced deep impression.
 After paying a touching compliment to the Southern university, full of good works and blessed memories, he took for his subject line of thought on charac- ter building. He said:
 Standing a few nights ago in the fair capital of our proud state. under the blaze of an electric light, watching the luminous spots as they were transform ing night Into day, and noting the con- stant and rapidly moving cars, to and fro. as they transported the apparently thoughtless thousands who thronged tho thoroughfares of that beautid old his toric city, I thought of the wonderful developments in physical science that could transform the plunging, surging waters of mighty river 40 miles distant that had remained latent for all these centuries into this wonderful substance we call electricity and transmit 1t over cable less than the size of your finger to give light and life and joy and hap piness to this multitude of men and women.
 "I thought of the ase,' he said, "in | which we are living-of advancement, of | progress, of prosperity, of change. How l that old things pass away and are for 1 gotten. How that old ways are discard l ed to give place to improvement. How | that the landmarks of the ages have 1 tottered and fallen under the burden Of time and the monuments of antiquity remain only as sad and silent sentinels of the departed glory of those days that live only in story and song. l thought of the wonderful discoveries and in- ventions following each other in such maryelously rapid succession. They are the results of the persistent, tireless, ener- getic delving of human thought into the mysteries of hidden things.
 "It does seem," he said fin the ma terial world within the past century, especially that the councils of the AL mighty have yielded to the thoughts of man the marvellous secrets of omniscience, have permitted by him to be wrought the works of omnipotence, and have poured into the lap of the present the pent up blessings of the infinite past. Who can foretell the possibilities of hu- man thought in the material world during the coming century,"
 He said: My mind fell upon serious subjects and said to myself: Is there nothing In the universe of God that the corroding tooth of time does not touch% For the civilization of man does not change, nor that is not crushed beneath the ever-revolving wheels of progress and prosperity?
 And this thought came to my mind as I watched the fair devotees of fashion and society as they passed in gay stream to scenes of festivity and mirth: Through all the centuries there has been no change in moral truth And this Is the message" said the speaker 1T would leave with these students: Moral worth is the only solid foundation of character and that is the same yesterday today and forever
 Improvement there has been,' said the speaker, lin social manners. Art finds increasing ornamentation with ad- vancing years. Mechanical genius keeps pace with the centuries in mechanical development Jurisprudence is a pro- gressve science and human laws change with each recurring session of the legis- lature. Physical grace. under the in fluence of the genial rays of culture has lifted human beings to the plain of gen. tlemen and greater women. But 1t Is not in the power of time, nor talent, nor
  from the great fundamental truths that underlie character"
 In the storms of life MT. Sanford said integrity is the refuge of the soul and character the shining shield in every hour or trial. When God implanted within the conception of human heart the divine attributes of truth, virtue and integrity He stamped them with His immortal seal and placed them as fixed unchange able stars /n the horizon of the soul these are the basic elements of charac- ter.'
 The speaker proceeded in a carefully prepared address and in a masterful man. ner to develop this thought and dwelt especially upon the growth of character as the result of thinking. He asserted that as a man thinks in life so will his character be and so will he deport him. self. He proclaimed that the teachers and parents and patriots of this age have a great problem to solve and great duty to perform in regulating the literature of this day as 1t flows in uniting and much of it in putrid streams from the press of the country He stated that the thought full man believes what he believes, not because of the ancient promulgation of his creed, but because it has passed through the fires of truth in the crucible of thought. This wonderful power of thought he said, like all gifts from the Great CnVer, imposes corresponulnS responsibilities.
 You cannot tell when you began to think" he said, but when you did be- gin to think you began to form char acter The culprit who stands disgraced before court of justice, accused of some awful crime, does not look so much to the day of the deed as to the years of his youth for the genius of his moral disaster
 la arta ad thoughts and must direct our thoughts, else the evil consequences will be mani- 1 fest in some overt act ere we travel far along the highway of life. He as- serted that we can so accustom ourselves by constant. persistent. continuous