The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-03-27
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS
l went to church sunday. bid you?

went to church Sunday. Did you?
 $
 This is a churchgoing community. It
 always has been and I hope it always
 will be.
 I went to the Southside Baptist church to hear Miss Elinor Stafford Millar, the great Young woman's Christian associa- ton worker.
 It's seldom I get a Sunday off and so l had made up my mind to rest, but I'm glad I was persuaded not to lounge about the house.
 | 1 got a real, sure-enough, genuine sur prise in Miss Millar. I had heard people talk extravagantly about her, but with the cynicism of an old reporter I dis counted their enthusiasm or set it down to their lack of discrimination.
 But, believe me, Miss Millar is the real thing. She is all her most enthusiastic friends say about her and then some; if she will pardon me for putting it in such slangy way.
 l To begin with, she had a great place in which to speak, and a big crowd to hear her. The Southsde Baptist church | is a classic piece of architecture. The or gan is great, the choir excellent, the con- gregational singing hearty the ushers polite, and the pastor popular, and it was perfect day.
 1 thought Miss Mllar was going to talk about the Young Woman's Christian as- | sociaton. She never mentioned it. l thought she was going to talk about rescue work among the women. She never did it. The only resctie mentioned was that of Clarence" young man who | is now fitting himself for service at the Moody Bible institute in Chicago | She never did thing I expected her to do, but she did much I wasn't expecting, and hence the surprise and pleasure she gave me-
 hope she will pardon me, but she is no "dowdy" Englishwoman. Oh, I know many of King Georges subjects are cor tight little isle" who have come to our shores as uplifters who looked like they knew about everything save the art of dressing becomingy.
 Now, this may strike you as strange, but when she stepped out on the pulpit said, Thank the Lord, she knows how to wear clothes" She was beautifully though not overdressed. From hat to shoes she a poem in brown with a red rose in her corsage for dash of color
 She struck me as an artist without hav- ing served an apprenticeship; an artist in dress, in thought, in speech, in action, in ability; to use stage term, to "get it over"-that is, to make her personality felt
 She led in the singing of America" she read a chapter in the Bible, she preached a sermon, and she closed with prayer and she showed in it all that she was woman of talent, culture, and heart power. From the Baptist viewpoint, 1t was a bit out of order for her to be preaching in a Baptist pulpit. It was enough to make Paul turn over in his grave to have a woman read his twelfth chapter of Romans and expound It. I'm going to sidestep just here, for I'm writing as mere reporter and not as controversial ist.
 some of our Baptist theologians for frowning down on permitting women to lpreach. for if all the women who do it preach as well as the wonderful Aus tralian of whom I'm now writing, some of us would soon be out of job
 She took text, and what's more, she stuck to it a whole lot better than most men; and the way Miss Millar handled the Scriptures was wonderful. I know she opened new and helpful avenues of thought to me.
 HoNo Hcdiu oL urdLldtlC pTeaCnlnS, but never really knew what superb act ing could do to foster gospel truths until heard and saw Miss Millar in action. Without doubt she is one of the greatest actresses have ever seen. This is not to minimize or dsparage her conservation and spiritual force but to magnify the way in which she took some of the hack neyed pulpit themes and outworn terms of theology and transformed them into living. breathing, vital truths for twen- tieth century men and women. Did you see how she dwelt upon Pauls earnest, impetuous burning words to the dissolute Romans whom he had never seen but whom he longed to visit, "F be- seech you?" How she played upon them how she drove them home to all of us will long be remembered by those who heard her.
 It was also masterful way in which she took Paul's counsel of presenting our bodies living sacrifice" and lifted it ! above mere personal purity to burn deep into our very souls until we were ready l to lay our bodies on the altar of patriotic service.
 Shakespeare well says "He jests at scars who never felt wound" but this
 womans story of how the first of 50,0O0 l Australian volunteers had given their