The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-12-22
Special Services Attract Record OutpOuring of Worshipers = Music and Decorations Appropriate to Christmas Tide a Fea- ture

church edifices in Greater Bir-
 mingham in city-wide series
 of special Christmas services. Glints of sunshine and a
 balmy temperature attracted a
 record outpouring, and many
 churches were packed to ca- pacity at both morning and eve ming services, while additional programmes were given in the
 mid-afternoon.
 Birmingham pastors generally adopted yesterday as the Sunday for special hol- ] iday services and from the point or at tendance the religious events were upon larger scale than observed here in many years.
 Decorations in the various edifices car l ried out the spirit of the season with holly mistletoe and evergreens hung and 1 strewn in profusion.
 1 Musical programmes were more elabor- ! ate and sermons, in the faftermath Of the world war and in time of prosperity were of unusual significance
 CHRISTMAS STORY !
 was the White Christmas exercises at the First Methodist church at 3:30 o'clock l in the afternoon. Under direction of Mrs. l Nellie w Ehlers a pageant was given ] in two parts. The first was the Christ
 mas Story. presented by F. T. Glass, Jr Cecil Self. John Mabry, Erwin Jackson, Mrs. Lucille Glass and Misses Reevs,
 Crawson, League Carr, Lolita Hodges. May Mcintosh and Marie Weems. The
 second part. "America's Gift of Love to 1 Her Children was presented by Judith Steele Ellis Watts, Annie Morris Ezelle
 and Dorothy Kirkland.
 | Dr. George R. Stuart at the morning service spoke on "Is Our Christmas Cele-
 bration an Alabaster Box or the Kiss of Judas" In the evening he spoke on The
 Significance of Christmas Giving" l The musical programme was given by 1 J D. McGill, tenor and director; Mrs Leon Cole, Miss Lima Vogt. Leon Cole
 Mrs. K. M Morrison. Miss Liiie Gold stein, Miss Nancy Lum, 9Arthur Thomas,
 S. M. Thomas. R. D. Coffman, Mrs. Tom
 Peace. Miss Rebecca Bazemore, F. l.. Much more and C. Jones.
 I At the Southsde Baptist church Dr.
 James Edgar Dillard, pastor, a beautiful
 bronze honor roll, with 131 names in- scribed thereon, was unveiled with im- presented the tablet to the soldiers in be- I half of the church. Response was by J. B. Conyers.
 . The pastor delivered a sermon appro- priate to the occasion, the topic being, 1 Soldiers of Peace" in which he spoke
 of several wounded in the list and the
 two who made the supreme sacrifice. 1 Dr. John A. MacSporran, at the First | Presbyterian church, spoke on His Star"
 He declared every man has his star. It l is the shining ideal in the sky of his soul
 SUNDAY SCHOOL GLASSES 1 White Sunday was observed at the 1 South Highlands Presbyterian church
 yesterday afternoon by the Sunday 1 school classes, the choir assisting them
 in rendering the programme
 l The primary classes sang a number of songs. Miss Emma Lee recited "The Christmas Vision' and Miss Caroline 1 Rosenstihl gave a vocal selection.
 The church had been decorated in white and evergreens. At the conclu- l sion of the services the members of the Sunday school presented their gifts !, which go to the mission maintained by the church.
 1 Dr. Iohn McNeill made short ad- dress. directed mainly to the sma1lef children. in which he told the story of Jesus childhood and boyhood, saying 1 that he was sure Jesus was not the kind
 of boy that went unwillingly or hesi- tatingly to do the errands his father | or mother sent him upon; that he learned his lessons in school, and did the things he should do. At the morn- ing service, Dr. McNeil1 preached on the birth and life of Christ. taking his text from Luke 2:15-1s
 l Look Up Your Hour of Redemption 1 Draweth Nigh" was the subject of.the Rev. Albert Massey, at Christ English Lutheran church.
 The sunrise of history" he sAtI, "the time to which all ages past ran up and in it found completion, came on the first Christmas. From highest heaven God came to earth most low His Son. the Messenger of the Eternal The coming of this babe brought into the world saving power"
 From to o'clock in the evening a special service was given at the First Baptist church. In the auditorium a platform of green and white had been erected. There were holly and pine I trees covered with snow. In the dis tance gleamed a white cross just over a manager of white. bright star shin- ing above. In the smanger were de- fl posted gifts for the Baptist orphanage at Evergreen. The programme was di- rected by Miss Alice Hale and CO.,
 workers and included songs and, stories.
 violin solos and a reading by Miss
 Marguerite Clarke.
 l
 Miss Dana Hilliard was chairman of
 the programme given at the Ruhama Baptist church at o'clock in the aft ernoon. Special music was directed by
 Prof. Paul De Launay. head of the con- servatory of music at Howard College. Sermon was by pr. J. c. Stivender. 1 The decorations at the First Chris tian church were unusually attractive. , A large trellis covered with artificial snow fringed with icicles, took up the space on the platform. Gates opening , oa1t from the trellis led to white cross } in an alcove. tinseled stars arranged foverhead A blue background and blue : light added to the effectiveness. II A cantata, "The Story of Bethlehem , was given. The sermon was by pr. R, N Simpson
 , Services at the Fifth Avenue Pres l byterian church were most impressive. Sunday school pupils at the morning
 service carried white flags. The pro-
 gramme was built around birthday tpageant. Those who took part were:
 Mrs. J. NJ Broadly, Miss Marie Green.
 Miss Maggie Mae Hayes, Mrs. S. R.
 Ransom. Mrs. B. P. Sims, w. M. Tidwell, Mrs. Leroy Holt, Gerald Smith, w. R.
 Jones. Miss Louise Godbee. Miss
 Louise Rule, Miss Mary Lucy Connor, I Miss Catherine Rule, Miss Margaret