The weekly Oskaloosa herald. [volume] (Oskaloosa, Iowa) 1855-1885, 1877-06-14
OSKALOOSA COLLEGE.
Ninth Annual Commencement Exercises.
An Enjoyable Occasion and one long to
be Remembered.

possess literary tastes and Keen appre-
citation of the all-important work of edu,
eating our young men and women. The
occasion being the Ninth Annual Com
mencement of Oskaloosa College. Our
city had an unusual number of visitors
from abroad and from their general APP
pearance and demeanor one could guess
with unerring certainty what brought
them here. They had come as friends of
the Institution, to encourage it by their
presence, to look upon their sons and
daughters with fond parental anticipations
as they performed the last grand act in
the drama of student-life, and to live over
the bright days, away back, when they
stood upon the college rostrum and court
ed the praises and applause of the people
| while they in matchless eloquence expa-
tiated upon the many virtues of the
ancients and the glory Of the age in which
they lived, and portrayed in mournful
tones the moral degeneracy of the men
living in, and the corruption of, a more
modern time. What privilege we have
to thus assemble, at least once a year, and
enjoy the pleasures such occasions afford,
and experience the delightful sensations
which come upon US, as memory carries
US back to those halcyon days. We love
to think and write about these things, but
time and space will not permit of our do
ing so at length on this occasion.
The brilliant send off commencement
received on Sunday morning at the Chris
tian Chapel where large and apprecia-
tive audience had assembled to listen to
the annual Bacalaureate sermon by Pres
ident Lucy, threw everybody into fever
of joyful expectation of the good things to
follow. We regret that space will not
| permit of our giving the address in full,
but the following extracts will give toll
erably fair idea of what the speaker en-
deavored to impress upon his hearers:
EDUCATION IN MORAL POINT OF VIEW.
| TEXT.-Eph. Ga; And We fathers, provoke
not your children to wrath; but bring them up
| in the nurture instruction. and admonition
| Ldsciplinel of the Lord"
| The passage selected is an injunction to par
ents, and as such ii Is specific and needs no COM
| mcnt. The nurture or instruction spoken of
obviously includes religious instruction and just
| as certainly includes that admonitiOn disci-
pline that is necessary to render the individual
| upright and moral in character. 1t is the nur-
ture and admonition of the Lord. That is, such
instruction and such discipline as the Lord
| gives and approves.
No one will question for a moment the fact
| that this training is an imperative duty. The
| only question upon which it is possible for In
| telIigent people to differ is as to the means to
| be employed in obeying this injunction.
| This language is addressed to christians and
| comes TO them as commandment that must
not be disobeYed. This language meets the APP
| proval of the man of the world of the present
| day who has the good of society and of his
] country at heart.
| lpropose to treat this passage as applicable
to the teacher of youth in any grade or class of
| schools as one who stands in the place of par
| ent. I'm loco PARENTS is the technical name
! and legal distinction belonging to every teach
in the land. Under this title the courts of the
country defend Kim in his right to govern and
| superintend the instruction and conduct of his
pupils.
| Whatever, therefore, is predicated of the par
| ent 50 far as educationis concerned may be
| predcated of the teacher, and any system of
education that does not recognize this conelu-
| sion is radically defective. The
| educator instructs the youth not so much to
cause the mind TO develop as to direct the intel
| lectual and moral forces of his nature as TO
| give the individual the realization in himself of
the highest purposes of his being. His aim is land
should be- to secure the development of all that
is good in his nature and the suppression of all
that is evil. In word, the intelligent end of all
legitimate education is the moral Improvement
of the race. These views
ic truths. Yet the notion is quite prevalent that
a teacher, especially teacher in our public
schools, is only teacher of the intellect and
not of the affections. And in reference 10 the
teacher in our so called Denominational Colleg-
es on the other hand he is supposed to be en-
gagged in examining his pupils with special the
OlOgy, teaching tenets. and dogmas and forms,
giving the husks of morality without the life
! spirit thereof Here are two distinct and erro-
neOus popular notions. The truth is that the
intelligent instructors IN both these schools SuS-
tain practically about the same relation to their
pupils, and may and ought to give them the
same moral instruction and training
The law of growth of intellect consequent upon
exercise is admitted. Is there
any reason why the moral faculties will not be
awakened and the conscience educated by the
| imperative duty of a system of education to
produce a good man and pure woman. for
| that is the lever that moves the world; but am
more anxious that the moral perceptions shall
| be clear and the moral convictions decided, for
these furnish the motives for the exercise of
intellectual force ana giye direction 10 all lts
MY children who has broad views of human life
and duty, one whose nature is in full sympathy
with all that is good and pure and noble, one
whose life is continually devoted to truth, one
who has just fear OF God and SINCERE love OF
humanity; .,,.1. What at is sot the
ion which makes the one, true and living God
the object of our worship and his son Jesus
Christ the author of our salvation. The law of
God as revealed in the Bible is the authoritative
source of moral law. God who knows the end
from the beginning discovers our relations to
us, and then because those revelations are in
harmony with our natures we receive them.
| They are necessarily true, but more than that,
| they are authoritatively true.
! l say therefore, that there can be no cOmprom-
Use made in regard to the use of the Bible in our
education as the authoritative source of all NOR
al instruction as well religious instruction. 1t
! is not enc of many treatises of equal rank. 1t
is the law the revelation OF truths and relations
| not otherwise known to us. Christians can not
consent to the removal of the Bible from its po-
| sitiOn as the moral instructor of youth and at
the same time maintain the integrity of their
religion. maintain, therefore,
that the moral faculties should receive constant
attention throughout our whole course OF IN
struction, and that the Bible is the only proper
| authority and guide in that instruction and dis
| cipIine.
| The body Of the discourse is taken up
in an agreement to sustain the positions
set forth in the foregoing extracts. 1t is
impossible to do justice to the argument
in so brief space. Suffice it to say that
the argument is conducted in two forms,
| first, the q priOri considerations, that is,
reasoning from cause to effect and show
ing that from the constitution of the mind
and the law Of its development the NOR
al powers must of necessity be called into
action constantly with every act of intel
lect, and therefore those powers ought to
receive constant attention and training;
and, second, the argument is conducted
posteriori, that is, from effect to cause,
showing from the results known to be pro-
duced when there has been any proper at
| tention to this department of our nature,
and from the results known to be produ-
ced when these faculties have been left out
of consideration and care, that on the one
hand trustworthy character has been pro.
duced, and on the other hand, every form
of vice has grown up in intellectual socie-
ty.
THE LITERARY SOCIETIES.
Among the prominent features of this
institution are its literary societies-the
Philomathi, and Athenian (men's), and
the Stella Crinita, and Phi Chi Theta, (la-
dies) societies. One or two evenings out
of every week they have entertainments
for their own general literary culture, and
at the close of the school year they join
together with their representative orators
upon the rostrum, and give a union exhi-
bition to which the public are specially in
vited. On Tuesday and Wednesday even
iDgs occurred two of these delightful en-
tertainments, and the large audience that
assembled in the College chapel, was suf
ficient evidence of their attractiveness and
popularity. We have not room sufficient
or we would gladly give the different pro.
grammes here.
COMMENCEMENT DAY.
MORNING SESSION.
Thursday morning dawned bright and
just cool enough to be quite comfortable
in our best clothes. Long before the APP
| no;ytad honr large crowds of our citizens