The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-07-09
From the Burlington Free Press.

From the Burlington Free Press.
Abstract of President BucIsham,s
Baccalaureate Sermon.
The Presidents text was Acts XVI :32-
''Thereupon, o King, / was not disobedient
unto the heavenly vison;" and his dis
course was beautiful and powerful enforce
ment upon his young hearers, as his last
lesson at the close of their scientific and in
tcllectual training in the University, of the
fact that the highest truth is reached not
by scientific research or intellectual induc-
ton, but by spiritual revelation. He said
The most intellectual and most logical of
the apostles here declares himselfa believer
in visions. Indeed his Christian life began
with vision. and in one of his epistles he
speaks of ''comng to visions and revela-
tions" as things peculiar to him. When an
enthusiast or devotee speaks thus we can
account for the hallucination, but when
clear-headed thinker like Paul avows that
his whole life has been changed by an ap-
partition it at first confounds us. Give me,
says the man of strong sense and reflection,
something better than the baseless fabric of
dream to shape my life by. In some such
mood, perhaps, was Paul as he journeyed
to Damascus. He had prejudged the case
against Christianity. But this vision, not
of the night, but of the day, coming when
| every faculty was alert, sent him to retire
ment and prayer, from which he came Il
new man; and we find nothing here which
requires us to withdraw our respect from
Paul as man of common sense and calm
| judgment. His conversion differs from that
of any other man only in the accessories
The new revelation, the flashing in of truth,
were such as make the birth and growth of
grace in every Christian. With such refec-
tons the preacher introduced the main
statement of his discourse-that Spiritual
truth ai'od.ys Games Ia tie soul By receldtiOn
on tie fart IF God, and By cisiol, on tie part
IF man.
This principle S valid to some extent even
in physical science. Great discoveries have
ever bcheld the truth before they wrought
out its demonstration, as Columbus saw the
new world before he discovered it, and lie
Vorrier the new planet, and Newton the
law of attraction, before he proved it.
Scientific research is not mere grasping
for possibilities. Scientific confidence does
not wait for demonstration. IfNewton had
never discovered the disconcerting error in
his calculations he would not the less have
been certain that he had OWNED Alright the
law OF uou III Inc rcmorse. God has planted
III us eonhdance in our munitions.
In morals, this principle has an aus
application. We need no demonstration
that we ought to speak the truth. No child
could be taught that lie is wrong, if his
conscience did not confirm the statement.
Man as man made in the image of God, al
ways has in him the evidence fhis high an
cestry. He can say this is right and this
wrong, and nothing on earth or in Heaven
can contradict him.
The highest of all truth, spiritual truth,
can be perceived by man by direct vision
Not that we can dispense with revelation
Revelation in part assumes that there is il
man this capacity for spiritual vision. Faith
is defined by the apostle as 'seeing things
not seen" by the natural eye. The Bible
is full of texts that set forth this doctrine
Revelation does not address itself to the in
tellect. 1t tells us what to believe and how
to obey. There is not n single complete
demonstration in the Bible. 1t reveals
truth as one who would say Here is food
for the hungry, eat and be welcome. 1t of.
fers no official guaranty that the food is
wholesome. If its tones are ever discordan
we have but to retire into the serener air
where secular noises cannot reach us, and
in devout meditation lay our ears more
closely to the chords along which the Di-
vine Spirit breathes his truth to the listen
ing soul. Experience confirms this view
as witness Augustine and Luther and Bun
yam and scores of others who have noticed
the breaking in of light on the soul, al
though coming from voices and appearance
analogous to those of Paul's vision. AL
must own that there is something within
them, which whether obeyed or disobeyed
confirms this truth. Nor do the false visions
as of Swedenborg and the Mystcs, nisprov
it, any more than the fact that sailors oftel
mistake clouds for land, lessen the value o.
our physical vision.
Still further, not only can the humal
spirit apprehend spiritual truth directly
it can apprehend it in other way
A spiritual idea can be seen only in Wis
ion. Proof, for instance, of the being o
God has no cogency for mind unable o
unwilling to believe in a God without tn
argument. fla man challenges us to prov
the medicinal power of prayer on the pa
tients in particular ward in hospital, AM
the challenge were accepted, and the result
proves the statement. will he pray now
But if in some crises between death an
life, and his faith breaks through the chain
of pride, and his soul goes out to God i
supplcation-for him thenceforth tn
v Throne of Grace abides. lie has seen il
and though he turns his back upon it, h
: knows it is there. In this, the philosophe
has no advantage over the wayfaring mar
s The grandest truth beams alike upon tn
cotter and the sage. Aud for scholasti
pcdants, who endeavor to confuse the fait
of plain people by perplexing their intellect
they will always have the reply, REASONABLE
as it is effectual Let me get home an
get my old Bible in my hands and care M
r. for your fine spun logic. And by such sin
pie faith of believing souls, rather than b
the argumentatve defences of Christianit,
vital religion survives, and trumphs in tn
lives of men. Christianity is for men, M
for thinking men--that is not for men VIII
think only and suppress the rest of the
nature. And it is not for the intellec
though it enlarges and glorifics it. II
0. who does not accept the truth as lit
child with the child's large, round, ope
eyes to see, and the child's heart to trus
:, shall not enter the Kingdom ofGod.
e. The sublime doctrines of immortality,
to the Incarnation, of the Divine sacrifice Il
sin, of regeneration, ofthe Holy Spirit cal
not be established by observation and indu
= ton. That is the worst skepticism whit
n denies that there is a spiritual realm, III
cernible by different faculties from those
a. nature, and because it cannot receive Il
truth without asking leave of the low pra
= teal Judgment, is disobedient to heaven
vision. rf.tI.I,t. .sna. ora,
n This brings us to the practical point III
NJ the truth requires not acqulcscence b
VI obedience. III we ask, is n man immorta