The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-08-31

have labored; no matter whether the
movement which enlisted your hearts
interest is local, state, national or world
wide, there is an arm back of every
righteous cause-an arm strong enough
TO give victory to truth.
Three Lines of Progress
shall only bring before you three lines
of progress, progress in intelligence, In
morals and in the science of government;
but these lines are SO important that
there is no excuse for pessimlsm II prog
ress along these lines can be shown. And
it is not difficult to support the proposi-
to find evidence of progress-it is rather
to find time in which to present all that
might be brought forward.
Let us begin with the worlds advance
in intelligence. Every year finds larger
percentage of the people of the world able
to read and write-able to study history,
and knowing the past, Judge the futures
every year finds more schools more stu
dents in attendance and higher stand
ard of education. And this is not true
today only, but every day; not in one
place only, but everywhere.
only few generations ago the best
people thought that Cod never intended
the masses to be educated, and now we
say that when God gave brains to all He
gave the best possible proof of His desire
that all should enjoy the benefits of men
tai discipline. None of US think ourself
wise enough to draw a line through socie-
ty and to say that the children on one
side shouIasbe educated and the children
on the other side condemned to the night
of ignorance. The American ideal is that
there shall be an open door before every
child and that every child shall be urged
to make the largest possible use of their
educational opportunities. This is not
only the American ideal, but 1t is the
ideal toward which the whole world is
moving, our nation leading the way. We
have such faith in the value of education,
as shown by the fact that we desire i
for ourselves and provide it for those
about US, that if there were no other
sign Of progress this advance in education
throughout the world would in itself
make the future bright with hope.
But it would be of doubtful advantage
to educate men and make their minds
stronger-stronger for harm as well as for
good-if we were not putting back of
those stronger minds heart develop
ment that would assure society that this
larger mental power would be employed
for the advancement of the common veal.
Progress of Intelligence
I come, therefore, to the second branch
of my subject and assert that the worlds
progress in morals is equal to its prog
ress in intelligence. In fact if I were
called upon to decide the question I would
be compelled to say that. just at this
moral awakening is even more abundant
than the evidence of universal advance
in education.
The era of brotherhood is upon us.
There is better understanding of broth
erhood today than there ever has been
before; more of a sense of kinship among
men. There is more altruism on earth
than the earth has previously known and
more in the United States than in any
other country in the world.
Let me bring~to your attention just
few OF the many organized efforts that
are being made to lift the standard of
morals. In this country something like
a million men have. during the last 10
years, been brought into mems clubs and
Bible classes. After the individual clubs
were organized in the various churches,
national brotherhoods were formed
The brotherhood of the church with
which am connected was organized less
than FIVE years ago. now nearly every
great denomination has a national broth
erhood, and these organizations have, In
turn, been federated under inter-denomi-
national committees. We have great or
ganizauons, like the Christian Endeavor
society, for instance with 100000 mem
bers-more than one-third of them added
within the last four years. we have the
Young womens Christian association
and the Young Mems Christian associa-
ton, the latter with 100000 members
half of them in the United States. You
may be interested to know that the
amount expended through the Young