The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-11-02
DR. H. M. EDMONDS
 TALKS ON SUCCESS
Says Only Real Basis of
 Success Is Service
SOON TO BE NO KINGS
Gives Examples of Different Ideas of Success-Money, Position, Birth, Clothes, Education-But Says
 They Are Not Success

pr. Henry M. Edmonds, at the South Highlands Presbyterian church last night, delievered characteristic foreeful sermon on the subject, What Consti- tutes Success" Dr. Edmonds read from the twelfth chapter of Leviticus He told in the beginning of the wrong impress sions gained by young men and women as to what constitutes success and of how college orators initiated great men who visited the schools to speak of how young men in the callowness of youth imagined that clothes, or mannerisms meant success, of how small boys imi- tated their elders thinking they were achieving success
 Dr. Edmonds sermon in full follows:
 Some youn men and young women look at the external aspects of success and say, Well, that constitutes success, that Is the thing for mo to go aftetr, that is the thing for me to incorporate in my life' A boy believes 1t success if he can have 1t said of him that he can beat any hoy in town of his size. A little later on in life he regards himself most happy and would be so if he could wear his clothes with the fine abandon which charaoterizes certain older boys and men in his neighborhood; if he could just set his sholders to fit like that, if he only and carry himself with the ease that characterizes this or that youngster--that would be success.
 One Idea of Success
 T remember with what eyes of envy I regarded one young man in our town who always went into the Pullman when the passenger train came in and walked down the aisles to the water cooler and helped himself to glass of water, jus. as if he owned the train. And I said if ever I could get that fine disregard of the people on the train, if I could just swing on a train and appear at ease, life would be full Then, later on, I re- garded certain older ones who could visit barber shops and be shaved as having attained success, and I said if I could do that I would have achieved success.
 We think that certain brilliance of plumage is success. There is 0 time in speech is success and again we think that fine kind of silence is success. be- cause we see some men of this type who are successful. We think that a certain style of dress, of manner or method of speech constitutes success. But that is far from the truth and it gives rise to the ridiculous in those who attempt to initiate.
 Many men are going about the coun- try doing things they ought not to be doing, initiating others who nave made successes along this line. At college many of the embryonic orators initiated a great man who once visited the school to deliver lecture. He now is speaking to colleges throughout the country. His style of address is slow monotone; his voice could reach out over vast multi tudes and hold them in it's grip. Every little college had it's little orator who im- itated his style, thinking 1t was the only proper method of speaking. We can't t afford to initiate the things we do or wear or think
 T was once visiting in the home of 8 cousin, This cousin was a woman of perhaps 300 pounds in weight. It began to rain just as 1 was preparing to leave. I, however, had to go, and insisted upon leaving in the rain. She insisted that l should not go out into the rain. l in- | sisted that I would, and to prevent me I from so doing she ran around me and | interposed her form in the doorway-a thing which could properly have been | done by 120-pound girl of about Is years
 of age, but what appeared ridiculous in
 woman of about 'S5 years of age, and l 300 pounds in weight.
 Two Different Speakers 'T have seen two speakers on the same platform. One was great blusterer and forced us to believe his viewpoint by the very force of his expressions; he was a | man who spoke in terms of continents. After him there came another, little, thin man with a long face and curious screech for a voice. And vet he did his l type of work just as effectively as this other man had done Now. suppose the | large man had become obsessed of the | idea that the little mans mode of speak l ing was the proper way to do it, or the little fellow had attempted to be force- full? Each man in his own way achieved success.
 success Is impossible without a certain amount of money to begin with. They | say, If I had some money I would be prepared to begin my success Some oi | the biggest successes have been made | from poverty. The great men of the centuries have been poor. Columbus was a poor man; Gallileo was a, poor man, as l was also Shakespeare, Lincoln and a host of others Having gold is not success. | q was talking to young man not 1 long ago. I said you have a little cap ital and you can be as big as any man ir Alabama He said. No. there Is nc
 are some young men who have health and l strength and broad shoulders who gt
 around the country talking about pull The only pull that is worth anything ii | spelled p-u-s-h. A pull can get a mar | to a certain position, but he will have
 to retain his position by his ability.
 q know of a man who attained posi- ton of responsibility through pull. H.
 held on for a while, but eventually lost out because he did not have the ability
 saw him recently standing on a street -crner, his clothes much worn, and his i liry dropping, the embodiment of what
 rill will do for a man.
 Boys From the Country
 Some young men think that success
 ccrnes from fine breeding, aristocrati,
 ilu sage, blue blood. That Is not true. Ii it were not for the fact that some ugly
 sot of the common people comes out oi ! ths country to replenish the impoverish
 ed blood Of the city, the country. woult
 have besn lost long ago. The fact is
 2 ost of us in the city were countr,
 boosters but little while ago.
 Mothers have come to me crying, say iAy that their daughters were going t'
 ff,arrv common man. The idea ia fl