The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-12-03
y, Honest-to- Goodness, BeLieue in Babie

wood Community church, and Dr. Brubaker of the Ensley Highlands chureh-while regretting the ab- sence of Dr. Alexander of the East Lake Presbyterian church-I fell into a state of forgetfulness of my beautiful surroundings; the pastors study which I had previously seen, which is so charmingly furnished; the primary department of the Sun day school; the rest rooms; the many other beautiful spots in the church and turned my attention al- most exclusively to the minister who had inspired all of this.
 And when Dr. Edmonds took his text-for the Thanksgiving sermon "a gem of literary, biblical lore. couldn't help as l listened to his words, thinking:
 What a wonderful, peaceful, setting for this wonderful min ister-this wonderful man-who is more than a minister-since he is primarily, first of all, and always, a man.
 High erected thoughts seated in the heart of courtesy" as Sir Phil lip Sidney chose to describe a gentleman" has made Dr. Edmonds the friend of not only his own de- nomination, in this great city of ours, but the friend of people of every denomination.
 Again thought as 1 sat in the beautiful edifice, so recently eom- pleted-at least part of it-and so happy in its outcome-a home for Dr. Edmonds and his loyal, whole hearted congregation:
 "What happy thought to clothe a church in beautiful garments, beautiful music, sweet companion- ship; and how Hawthorne must have thought of this when he wrote those amazing words:
 "'The Christian religion is like stained glass window in beautiful church where every ray of light re- veals a harmony of unspeakable splendors.
 As Dr. Edmonds sent forth his message at the gladsome Thanks giving season, and l listened with close attention to his words-I went to my happy home surrounded by the sweetest family that has ever been granted to so unworthy per son and I sat down to my little old typewriter (you see never stop; no. not even on Thanksgiving Day) and penned these thoughts of pr. Ed monds, Give always wanted to say in print what I've said often about this wonderful man to his many friends and to mine), and while l am not photographer, neither a mental photographer-picturing the mind and the character of such wonderful personality as Dr. Ed monds. yet I dare to draw these outlines with what Mir. Kipling calls in "L'Envoi," "brushes of comets hair;
 Dr. Edmonds in the first place to me is one of the greatest vocab- ularists have ever known. He is an acrobat with words; he juggles with words like the juggler with his swords and his pistols on the stage; and it looks so easy-but it has taken years for the juggler to per l feet his art; so with this man of words-so beautifully chosen; so symmetrically attuned.
 l Which means that he twists his words into quaint arabesques of verbal felicity-making dramatic and spectacular exhibition of ethical technique.
 To these words Dr. Edmonds joins a golden voice of rare range and flexibility.
 Have you ever noticed that his voice is never above colloquial?
 It does not pass into maudlin sem timent on the one hand, nor yet into hysterical excess on the other.
 It seems to make the whole house resonant with music, the cadenees being so wonderfully preserved, the articulation so clear, and the em- phasis so just, that nothing is either 1 lost to the ear or to the mind.
 It is as though his words "leaped out in invisible characters before the inward eye" as some one has said of the great French actor, Co., quelin.
 Cultivated to a rare degree of refinement that expresses the swift est transitions of feeling with un- failing propriety, Dr. Edmonds voice and his well chosen words are the perfect instruments of a tenn perament both sensitive and refined.
 So modest is he that he is the last man alive who would claim any kin ship with the attributes l have clothed him with; on the other hand, if one were to mention his many oifts. voice, vocabulary, manner, with his keen sense of humor-that saving grace of all whether one be minister or heathen-Dr. Edmonds would probably answer in the anus ing lines of the poet:
 i've lost my portmanteau.'
 "I pity your grief"
 "All my sermons are Tn It.
 q pity the thief"
 In short, as brilliantly as he breaches, Dr. Edmonds IS the man of action; the leader; the soldier ai- ways on the firing line, either m war or in peace; else how could ne have accomplished the splendid thing that he has done, in having so loyal and so splendid a congrega- tion-to dedicate such an edifice III token of their love for him, q mon ument to the beautiful influence Of his deeply religious life, an offering to the glory of God in the highest.
 To Dr. Edmonds, it seems to me, the lamp by which he sees the pan orama of life and Eliminates its meaning is a real interest, not in the asdead past" but the living pres ent"-the unquenchable spirit of Ulysses predominating..
 SFor my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset and the
 lights ,r, ;,