Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-06-24
Bates College Commencement.

Commencement exercises at this institution
in Lewiston, begun yesterday afternoon
with the Baccalaureate serm n by President
Cheney, at the Maine Street Free Baptis,
church;
President Cheney's text was in 1st Kings,
3:7, 81 am but little child; know not how
to go out or come in His theme was 1.-The
Public Man" First was treated the relation
of the public man to the public, AMI, second
| ly, the public to the public man. Under the
first head he said that the public man should
| like Solomon acknowledge frankly that he is
but a child Men always appear best when
in some respects they are children, and
| they are the best when so. The public man
should fear God. The fool SAYS in his heart
there is no God, but he is the truly wise man
who says in his heart there is God. The
shock is terrible to society when the faith of
a man in the humblest walks of life staggers
over the proposition that there is God; but
what shock when public men make bold to
declare their atheism, or, what is the same
thing in its results, when they manage the at-
fairs of the State as though they were atheists
In the darkest hour of the rebellion good men
felt that they were safe, because Lincoln fear
ed God. This fear of God before the eyes OF
the great and good martyr President came out
in his letter to Col Hodges of Kentucky, and
in the few but eloquent words he uttered at
the conservation of the Gettysburg cemetery.
The public man should be pure in life and
heart; should recognize his mistakes and seek
to correct them. 1t is not the worst thing to
make mistake-great good may sometimes
come out of mistake, but it is bad for a man
to doggedly cling to it, and will not be con-
WINGED that he is wrong. Instances were cit
ed where great men made mistakes, saw their
error, and were willing to abandon them. He
paid high compliment to Douglass. notwith-
standing his bad record on slavery. and urged
the saving Of the Washington Treaty.
The public man should be true to the public
In accepting trusts from the people, he must
not betray them. How sad are the hearts Of
the people when they see those in whom they
have confided pulling down what they have
spent years in building up.
Secondly, President Cheney discussed the
obligations Of the public to the public man.
Too much should not be expected of him.
Like other men he should be Above to have
his friends, and fair play should be accorded
TO him. The President then proceeded to adj
dress more particularly the graduating class,
enforcing upon their minds their duties
public men. lie invited them to return next
year to participate in celebrating the first de-
cade of the College. The sermon occupied
an hour in its delivery.
In the evening a sermon was preached by
Prof. Fullonton before the Theological school.
the speaker selecting as his text, Proverbs,
chap. viii, Il. "t nto you oh men, call,
and my Voice is unto the sons Of men.
The leading feature of his discourse was
that God had sent to men special message
through the medium of revelation. The di-
vine and supernatural of this message can
alone be proved by divine interposition, or
miracle. This is just what the skeptic would
demand if we had no such evidence to allegs.
But we have miracles well attested, which
togt Their with other irreproachable proof con-
stitute chain Of evidence not easily broken.
Divine communication is valuable for its
representative of the true character and con-
dition of man. 1t is also valuable, for in it
we have revealed both our help and deliver
ance.
Happy the young men who go forth from
these halls to publish this message to waiting
thousands II they do it in all fidelity and
love for souls, men will hear, and come and
be saved, and it may be said of them: GLOW
beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of
them that bring good tdings. that publish sal
Walton.
The Commencement exercises proper will
take place on Wednesday. The following
are the members of the graduating class :
Fritz Walter Baldwin, Coatcooke, ?. O..
Clarence Augustus Bickford, Portland Her
bert Blake, Lisbon; John Sewall Brown,
Bridgewater, y. H.. Alonzo Marston Garce
lon, Lewiston; George Edwin Gay, Concord,
y. H.; Edward Jasper Goodwin, York;
Charles Loray Hunt, Auburn; John Ambrose
Jones Iewiston Arthur Given Moulton,
Greene; Edwin Francis Mason, Hallowell
Frederic Henry Peckham, Westport, Mass. :;
George Herbert Stockbridge Lewiston; The
odorc Greenlaw Wilder, Passport