Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1860-08-03
UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT.
FIFTY-SIxTH COMMENCEMENT.
E IL DAY
The Baccalaureate Sermon

| peWs directly ~ 'front.' ana near 10 Jue pulllt
President Pease announced as his text, Matt
TX: %, 'Accordin. to your faith be 1t unit,
you, - and as his subject the great truth con
tanned therein. that the posture and aJidin,
results Of life are determined By Faith. Ii
proceeded to define the Faith of the Gospe
by distinguishing it from capricious desire
and from the spirit Of experimenting upor
the Divine veracity, goodness and power
which is indeed the direct opposite of Faith
Faith never contemplates anything contrary
to the nature of the things which belong t.
its proper sphere. 1t is distinguished from
every other kind Of knowledge, belief and
confidence, by its object. 1t believes God. the
Bible as the Word Of God, and His Proyi-
dence because the Universe is controlled and
upheld by God. It's objects are spiritual ob-
jects, and its exercise implies spirit
ual faculty, or organ, through which
the mind has its intuition Of spiritual
truth. This organ is the Reason
through which the mind has IDEAS Of God
and eternity, apprehends the Unconditional
the Absolute, the Infinite, the Perfect-ideas
which cannot reach us through the senses.
Belief is the assent Of the Understanding, on
evidence, to truths Of which it has no imme
date knowledge Faith is the highest kind
Of knowledge by experience. It is tie sub
stance If things hoped for.
But devils believe, vet have no Faith, and
men have spiritual intuitions, who are
strangers to the exercise Of Faith. Another
element besides the intuition Of the truth,
therefore, is necessary to faith and that is
the embracing the objects Of spiritual appre-
hension with the total consent OF the heart
and entire obedience of the VIII We thus
reach the definition Of Faith as an active
| principle in the soul. 1t is the union in the
same subject, Of a direct beholdius Of the
truth by the eye Of the spirit, and the hearty
embracing Of it in all the powers and fcul-
ties Of the soul
Faith, then. must be the highest act Of the
human sJul,-and if there be either truth or
reason, either God or man, then there must
be Faith This condition OF being is precisely
our id5l of the normal condition Of man It
was the harmony between the Reason and
the VIII in man, in his original and true
idea, indeed, which made him man It was
the loss Of it that ruined him it is the re
coyery If it which restores him.
Tie question Of questions is how are the
great issues Of lite to be wrought OUT
| by what forces, agencies and means? Ifyou
study the character Of the great, controlling,
master spirits Of the world, You viii fad
that they possessed, in a high degree clear
ness Of conception, ardency # desire, and
strength Of VIII As an instance Of this
the speaker named Julius Cesar, than whom
there never lived a mightier and more impe-
rial soul. The object of his ambition was
to be THE foremost man Of all the world -
and it was as wei defined as il was grand
To that object all his powers were steadily
directed with an intensity Of purpose that
made him literally iayincjble. For him, less
than the whole was nothing Death may
cut short the career Of such man, but the
fame Of ''the mighty Julius" is just as il
lustrious as if he had ruled the empire be
won and left to Augustus. OF course these
elements of character are differently COM
binei in different men. \ man in whom
their proportion Is Just, is never enyious or
jealous When a nan complains that soci-
ETY. does not appreciate him, YOU may set it
down Us a whimpering confession Of inca
pacity. The convenient scapc goat of weak
and wicked men is,-soci1y.
The human mind has confidence IN truth.
50 far as it is recognized as truth, but tins
confidence falls entirely short Of Faith, an
less it receives the truth as God S truth. tits
an error to refer faith to some conclusion or |
Inference Of the human UNDERSTANDING
There is also another error, arising from the |
refusal to recognize Reason as the organ of |
spiritual intuiuous and the organ being
absent, Of course there can be no perception
objects, and no knowledge of God |
Yet this error carries its own refutation. II
we have no idea whose possibility we deny.
our denial is nonsense. The root Of this
error, which is defended in the philosophy Of
Sir VIM. Hamilton and his followers. lies in
the concpHoas of the under
Standing with the ideas Of reason, and in
consequence reducing the possible range Of
human experience ana knowledge to the
Units Of the faculty Judging according to
ense.' Our faith then becomes blind
redulity or groundless presumption. no
onger "the substance Of things hoped for.
he evidence Of things not seen but tie
tado'o Of things dreamed Of the presumption
f things not revealed
Bat what is the great result to be reached
Y Faith? 1t is, that cut of our state of al
.naton We may become reconclieI to God
{ Is, too, that other men may become Joint
eirs with US Of the same heavenly inherit
nee. The con itions oflaith in the Christian
eas being assumed, it is evident that the
lnounc, ment Of the text is a rational Iq,c.
: well as q divine promise.
Whoever therefore has Faith must, to the
gree in which he exercises it, have the es
n'iais Of true well being, and viii use his
'cuAarity Of temperament as the channel
winch service to God and man may flow.
ne spirit Oh gain does not compel a man to |
coyetous give him faith and be will f
mass worldly goods for spiritual ends Il
moro"s nature does not force a man 70 - o.
coward. give him faith and he turns his V
mili;y to fear Of sin, and avoidance of the p
'peIauoe Of evil. There is baseness enough b
r the irasciblo man to be angry with, and t
# STA not. Give the ambitious man faith C
d he will find abundant Indictment to 20 t.
to perfection. Behold the wondrous art Ii
Ich changes ills into their opposites, which n