The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-07-22
By JEFF BAILEY

'The newspaper taught me how to preach, said Dr. George R. Stuart pas tor of the First Methodist church, and ever since I got on to what the people are interested in, I have had people in numbers to preach to, and the resultant good has overpaid me for this invest ment in time that it cost me to learn what was popular among the people.
 Now one must not get the idea that this popular and forceful Birmingham minister picks words that are popular and to express it in street vernacular,
 plays to the galleries'-for he absolutely does not. He ascertains what people are interested in, then puts the right kind of words, stories, gospel facts and sacred music to it. and immediately he creates a hit
 One has only to visit his church to verify the statement that he draws from 1860 to 20Oo people, hot or cold, and that is evidence of the fact that he has studied his business, which is preaching the gospel.
 Newspaper men are not like buzzards though some people sometimes call them that, I expect" he ssld. While it is U uc tldl@llity IldIlS dIOuilu anu Scl Wlldl they want, you never see them hanging al ound a dead one-they always camp where there is a live one.
 Several years ago I was in Chatta nooga. I realized that I was not getting the crowds that I ought to have in order to reach as many people as I felt that I was entitled to reach in city of the size of Chattanooga. I began to study human nature a little. I soon learned that everybody in Chattanooga nearly, read the morning paper--the Times-an the next thought that penetrated my head was, What do they read?' and there is where I started campaign.
 T asked every man l met if he had read so and so and so on. until I soon learned that the people always read four things in newspaper-social and local news. personals. scandal and catas- trophes. It was easy to see what people were interested in, and then came my task of leaving the lessons and morals everyday stories, and make them inter- esting and instructive, as well as edify- ing to my congregations. That I have succeeded, I am not saving, but I be- lieve that I am getting better results
 Dr. Stuart is one of the greatest epi- gram dTllStS III lHt SOutHSIIl IIlIliSli5 .. He has a happy faculty of cracking the nail right on the head, and yet the "bang" does not grate on your nerves. He can preach on good roads. politics, food conservation, conscription, the worlds war, peace. shady trees and babbling brookss or anything else-and as is common verbiage around newspaper office, his sermons have the "punch'- they are snappy, full of humanisms and distinctly educational and elevating He never resorts to sapstck methods, though gently through each discourse he allows an easy flow of humor that shows he is man with red blood in his veins and just as human as any man who sits in front of him.
 Today Dr. Stuart Is going to preach on svrhe Value of Economy" at the morning service at il o'clock, and in this sermon he will bring out some strong points on economy. The extremes of economy and the ideas of the stingy, little person will be shown, as well as the part the spendthrift plays in this world. The effects on character crea- tion of solidity. perfect balance, and the benefit of economy to others will be cited. Dr. Stuart intends to show Ger many's greatest asset in the present war -economy-where we waste $100, coo. .oOU worth of food each year, enough to ai- low Germany to whip us
 In the evening Dr. Stuart will take as his subject 'Is This Gods War;" and