The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-29
DR. H|LLES OPENS
 LYCEUMCOURSE Speaks at High School on Cromwell and The Five
 Liberties"

The 1914 lyceum course of the Bir-
 mingham High school was opened last night with lecture by Dr. Newell Dwight Hilles. pastor of the Plymouth church. Boston, before an audience es- timated at 500 who sat almost breath less during the hour and three-q quar- ters which the lecture consumed. pr. Hilles. always a pleasing speak CT. was said to be in unusually fine form last night by those who have heard him on his previous visits to Birmingham His eloquence held the wrapt attention of~his hearers and
 while not in the least theatrical he was intensely dramatic at times. pr. Hilles spoke with deep feeling and
 earnestness and seemed to be carried
 away with the magnitude of his theme which was cromwell and the Five Lib erties.n
 He was introduced by Charles A. Brown, principal of the Central High school, and chairman of the lyceum committee in few words in which he paid graceful tribute to Dr. Hilles
 both as a lecturer and as a preacher. pr. Hilles responded in kind and im-
 mediately launched into his subject America, he said owes Cromwell a great debt for he was the father of
 the democratic ligerty as now known | throughout the world. He it was who broke the power Of feudalism and | bridged the gap between the aris-
 tocracy and serfdom and for that act
 not only America but the world owes
 him a great debt, said the speaker. | La tl,a ok, ,,.s< x%f da.. raey and was termed an "elder brother l of Washington and Lincoln"
 | Dr. Hilles attempted no elaborate de l fense of the defects in Cromwell s character. The man was like a con-
 tinent. he said. with mountains and valleys and peaks. His defects he l likened to the, shadows cast by the heights of his genius. As a great man
 he had great faults, he said, but they were the faults of his time.
 1 particular feature of the lecture was Dr. Hilles passionate condemna 1 ton of war. "the genius of barbarism. l In speaking in this connection he bit- 1 terly denounced the course of Germany l in the present European struggle. "All I the waters of the Rhine cannot wash
 out the guilt of Germany in her treat
 mention of Belgium he exclaimed and some of his other utterances on the I subject were equally as denunciatory. | Dr. Hilles spoke nearly two hours I but despite the length of the lecture there was not a sign of impatience. l He has appeared In Birmingham sew era1 times previously. but all who ex- pressed themselves last night agreed that never before had he spoken so leloquently and forcefully and that his Cromwell and the Five Liberties" was one of the greatest lectures ever heard from platform in Birming gham. Those who heard Dr. Hilles lecture at the High sch ool last night will be interested in his books because of what they heard. Of the dozen or so that he has written the Birmingham public library has several of the best. His latest work is novel entitled. "The Story of Phaedrus; How He Got the Greatest Book In the World" It is story that is mainly fiction but fs both plausible and readable. There are many dramatic incidents and situations and the whole has been ingeniously Imagined and woven together
 Perhaps his best known book is "A Mans Value to Society; Studies in Self-Culture and Character" "The Qnest of Happiness; a Study of Victory Over -Lifes Troubles" attracts many people by it's tile,
 The book entitled "1nfluence or Christ In Modern Life" is a study of the problems of the church in Amer ican society.