The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-02-09
By DOLLY DALRYMPLE

s1T"N OR the first time in my life have sIT1 met preacher who doesn't lay all the blame of the world and it's follies, foibles and fancies upon those Foutside of the church: more than that, .he points out the defects of the church 'as an institution, and suggests remedies which if carried out ought to bring religion more closely and more intimately into the lives of eager, pulsating human ity and offer the refuge and the tangi- ble, vital. human Rock of Ages for which men have so longed in the days gone by.
 .t The one to whom l refer is Dr. Harris E. Kirk of Baltimore. the well known scholar writer and theologian, whose pastorate during the past r years of the Franklin Street Presbyterian church in the Oriole City, has been distinguished by true Christian service, a devotion to principles and theories and high stan dard of all that goes toward making religion solace as well as duty.
 Dr. Kirk formerly lived in Birmingham and Bessemer and numbers his friends by the scores in both places; after an absence of many years he is receiving the most cordial of welcomes and Birming- ham feels especially indebted to pr J. w. MacSporran of the First Presbyte- lfan church, who has invited Dr. Kirk here to deliver his masterful "Expos- tory Lectures,' which he has already given in Northfield, Mass Philadelphia, St Louis and Baltimore, on the subject of The Prophecies of Isaiah in Relation to the Morale of Reconstruction"
 pr. Kirk is a big man every way you look at him; he is tall and powerfully built; big of girth; broad of shoulders and deep of chest. His large head, with  athick, muscular neck; he impresses you ..sas big physically, mentally and morally. for he has the brains and the backbone, the conviction and the power of express sion, to promote his ideas and the cour- age to carry them out.
 Interviewing Dr. Kirk is about as easy as sharing wireless waves with fish hook; he $ just as dynamlc; just as elu- sive; his words flash by you like tee- graph poles a fast going passenger train and your brain whirls with the vi- ~-tality, the energy, and the enthusiasm of the man; yes-a living dynamo, I'd say; restless, earnest, vital,
 Dr. Kirk talked with me about the ef- feet of his lectures, first telling me ot how. boy. he belonged to the First Presbyterian church here, under the late beloved pr. l.. S. Handley's pastorate; he was i member of the Sunday school class of MT. James A. Going and he pleasantly refers to the amateur theat ricals of those days (more than p years ago. when Mrs. R. H. Pearson was in- strumental in presenting The Mikado for the benefit of the Church of the Ad- vent in which he took part.
 Tt was a temptation" pr. Kirk ad- mits honestly, "the amateur theatricals we had in those days-to choose the stage as calling; indeed, 1 was very much divided in my choice of a vocation in life; on one hand, strongly attracted to my business which had to do with real estate and stocks and bonds, and on the other hand to the stage. Then came an epochal period when I. found myself wondering and thinking just what the best use was that l could make ot my life. l made up my mind to go into the church. it was not an accident It was a premeditated plan; l arranged to attend the University of the South at Clarksville and the more studiously l applied myself at college the more firm ly I was convinced that 1 ought to de- dicate my life to the church..
 ''Of course, the only real conviction a man has, Dr. Kirk continued, of his fitness for the ministry is his per- sonal contact with the work. to mee. the tests. and they are far more diffi- cult in these times than they wers formerly. Then, in the early days of my ministry I mean. homogeneous society, an Anglo-SaXon constituency obtained. while today there are huge heterogeneous cities. modern individ- naliSm, and increased mobility of life,