The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1877-06-29
COMMENCEMENT So BACCALAURE-
ATE.

anniversary of Middlebury College COM
menced with The Baccalaureate dis
course by President Hulburt on Sunday
afternoon. The weather was fine, the
roads excellent, aud goodly audience
assembled at the Congregational church
at the appointed hour, representing all
the towns around, and besides many
strangers were present.
Rev. S. L. Blake of Concord, N H.,
assisted in the preliminary services
Appropriate music was happily rem
dered by the choir.
DIR. Hulburt selected as his text I'd
Cor. 9;12. "Seeing thou that we have
such hope we use great plainness of
speech"
He supposed himself attending a
church service on five consecutive Sab
baths and listening to sermons by the
pastor, first, on the subject of sin, its
nature, extent and guilt, with pungent
application to the audience. The hear
er's conscience is awakened and he rea-
sons with himself whether he shall act
upon the suggestion of his quickened
conscience or reject the preachers the
ories altogether. He finally suspends
his judgment and waits for the second
discourse. The next subject is moral
inability.
The sinner is shown that in his apos-
tasy he has no power of self-recovery,
no reserved and latent power within
him which can enable him to deliver
himself from his state of guilt. AS the
dead tree has no power to stand forth
again in the glory of its summer foli-
age, so the sinner dead in trespasses and
sins has no self-restoring power.
1t must be creative power which can
change sinner from his lost condition
into a state ofpurity and holiness. The
hearer again reasons with himself as TO
the course he shall pursue and con-
cludes as before that he will hear more
of what the speaker has to say.
The third Sabbath, the discourse
touches upon the reality and power of
Satanic agency, showing the relations
of fallen and wicked spirits to men and
the baleful influence they exert, and
awakens in the hearer terrible sense
Of alarm at the thought of exposure to
the wiles of the arch enemy Again
the listener revolves the matter in his
mind, arriving at nothing definite ex-
cept the determination to hear more.
| The fourth sermon considers and en-
forces the doctrine of future punish.
ment, showing not only that man is q
guilty sinner, disabled and already con.
demned, and without divine interven.
ton hopelessly lost sinner, called to
war against flesh and blood and princi
palities and powers, but also exposed to
just punishment, "a catastrophe whose
bounds the Imagination cannot com.
pass" These truths are enforced will
argument, denunciation and entreaty
Knowing the terror of the Lord he per.
suades men.
The sinner is disturbed, alarmed
move by the urgency of the appeal, fill
ed with "a certain fearful looking fol
of judgment and of fiery indignation
that shall devour the ungodly," and hC
again asks himself what he shall do
He longs for relief from the fearful con
dition in which he finds himself, som,
"shadow of q great rock in a weary
land" some friend who is able to save
Ii is IN this frame of mind that the seeker
after truth goes to hear the fifth dis
course. This sermon is founded Oh th,
text "For God so loved the world thai
he gave his only begotten son, tina
whosoever believeth in him shall no
perish but have everlasting life. Fo
God sent not his son into the world t,
condemn the world, but that the worlC
through him might be saved" Th
preacher speaks of the love of God il
the mystery of his Sons incarnation, il
his cross and passion, in his death AM
burial, and in his glorious resurrection
and ascension; how he tasted death 70
every man and bore the indignity of II
so that the loss of human soul is tn
most needless event that can happen il
the universe. The preacher nov
knows nothing in the pulpit save Jesu
Christ and Him crucified. He make
the sinner feel that his necessity is s.
great, his unwOrthiness so deep an,
his salvation so costly that ON any term
possible with God, he should accoun
salvation privilege and much NOR
OH the conditions offered. God come
to the sinner according to his needs
Ia he sinner? Christ Is his redeemer
Is he disabled? Christ is his helper. |
he beleaguered? Christ is the fountain
opened for him. Is he stumbler o.
the dark mountains? Christ is the way
Is he in conflict of opinion? Christ
the truth. Is he dead In trespasses an
sins? Christ Is the life. Is he benign,
ed2 Christ is the light.
Thus, if one wishes to find out whs
Christ's offices are, he can get the infol
nation by taking an inventory of tn
sinners needs. Now it all appears i
a new light. 1t is "God manifest in th
flesh" Light like the morning Ina
come bursting in upon the mind, an
the listener is forced to reconstructio
of all his previous religious views. TIL
preacher has for his pulpit themes VI
riety of subjects. He is not always {
the sinner his own sinful self; not a
ways circumscribing the vision to tn
fact of ones own helpnessness; nc
confining the view to the assaults of III
lost spirits; neither does he all the tim
, hold him TO the fearful looking for {
judgment; but he gives the unspeakabl
gift, his Son our Savior. lie will acceI
this gift, confident of Gods provisio
of mercy for him. And with this gi
and this hope he accepts the doctrines {
the pulpit that give such hope withor
reserve, even though 1t use much plair
ness of speech, charging him with 81
but saving him from it and in spite {
1t. Let II assert that man Is moral
disabled and in condition of utter hell
8 lessness, for he is not saved because i
Q is not weak and helpless, but in spite {
|, it. If it does assert that there are falle
Q spirits, II also gives hope of salvatio
8 from their baleful influence. So th
pulpit may tell of future punishmel
and the world prepared for the dev
and his angels, for 1t also announces
gospel of hope, which is like an anchC
to the soul, both sure and steadfast. II
is not saved because there is no futul
punishment, but because there is and
spite of 1t. Let man accept the gosp
Of Jesus Christ according TO its wort
TO him-God's valuation for him-an
4. he has no occasion to fear anything frol
those doctrines which are commonly a
counted severe, somber, threatening.
When the sinner accepts Christ, Il
so-called offensive and repulsive do
trines which enforce a fearful lookin
for of judgment and offlery indignatio
. which deyour the ungodly. receive Il