The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-06-18
WEsTBROOK SEMINARY.
Baccaiaureate Sermon by Rev. J. G.
Snow.

Inc Baccalaureate sermon before the students
OF Westbrook Seminary was given last evening
az Inc Universalist church, Stevens Plains by
Rev. j. G. Snow. There was large congrega-
ton IN attendance and the discourse was close
ly listened to throughout
Line preacher took his. text from 1st Corin-
thlans, I'LL, 8. "For we are laborers together
WIN God." Every intelligent person on enter
lug into life is. in certain true sense, taken
INTO partnership with his Maker BY Divine
constitution man is made co-laborer with
GOD. In this world God executes only in part.
he gives the broad fields, but their cultivation
- ieIt to man. Nature builds no seminaries
nor factories nor railroads. The domestic ami
mails which serve US, the vegetable food that
comes to our tables have been brought to their
present perfection by the care and intelligence
Oh man. Nature never made an OK, nor pota-
TO- nor rose, such as serve and feed AMI de.
light US to-day
God makes direct provision for the lower
RANKS of life. The bee proceeds at once to
make its perfect cell, the bird its nest But
man is thrown upon the world the most I'M
knowing and helpless of beings. God gives 10
=.
nlm TO acquire his knowledge, create his cloth
ing and build his house. The first result is
seeming disadvantage to man, for he cannot
run as the fox, nor see as the eagle nor spin as
tne spider. But this is more than counter
balanced by the intelligence which enables him
az length to create the helps by which he out
runs the fox and looks thousand times farther
mo 10 space than any eagles eye can pierce.
Inc grades OF being below man, in their own
ACTIVITY, really improve nothing. Bee, bird
Inh liza &C.,
t1elr works and yet the world would not be
advanced single hairs breadth toward great
er perfection. The lament of the preacher
c con be chanted in its most literal GERMS:
The thing that hath been, 1T is that which
shall be; and that which is done is that which
shall be done, and there Is nothing new under
the sun"
But to man has been given the high preroga-
tive of invoking that which has not been.
Made in the image of the Creator, he has origi-
mating power. And that this power may have
field of exercise God has left something for
man to do in creating the instruments he would
use, the clothes he would wear, the houses he
would inhabit, and also in bringing on unto
uller development that which is below him.
What IS true outwardly is true of mans in
ward life. God never made hero, nor a saint,
for neither heroism nor saintship can be created
and conferred from without. God makes us ca
pable of these things but leaves it with us, in
the exercise of our powers, to be heroic or saint
~. Liz cAdmpleS OF unI2lIerlng courage and
sanity devotion gathered from history, show
that the results of patient, self-imposed disci-
pline have been added to the SOULS original en-
dowment. God makes the man, but man la
boring together with God, makes the hero and
the saint. Nor need it detract from the glory
OF the Creator that he calls to share in his work
those whom he has created in his own image
A true consciousness of this high prerogative
will excite solemnity rather than PRIDE Were
man nothing he could have no obligation. Per-
s0nal agency is indispensable to personal re-
sponsibility, and unto whom much is given.
of him shall be much required
In conclusion the speaker urged those whom
he was addressing to accept and cherish the as
surance that they were empowered and called
to be laborers together with God in lettering
the world in which they are placed. They
might not become conspicuous benefactors but
they could add to the world good and make
some sphere in life more richly blessed because
of their presence in it.
The following is the programme for Com
mencement:
Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday forenoon exam
nation.
Wednesday P. M.-Trustee Meeting.
Evening-Junor Exhibition.
Thursday-Commencemen Day.
9.30-Commencement Exercises.
IL M-Commencement Dinner.
3P. M.-OratiOn before Alumni.
4.30-Alumni Meeting.
S.00-ReuniOn.
Frday-Excursion of graduating class and friends
to Little Chebeague Island.
Thursday-Commencement Exercises at $50.
Dinner p M.
Grafton before Alumni $50.
Alumni notwithstanding at Hersey Hall.