New-York tribune., 1877-06-25
A LIVE or FAITH.
SERMON DY PRESIDENT PUrrgR TO THE GRADUATING
ACC on VALE

CLASS or YALE.
NEw-HAvEN, June 24.-PTcsident Porter de-
Iivered his baccalaureate ormon in Battel Chapel
to-day He took his text from lid Corinthians j., 81
Not for that dominion over your faith, but are
helpers Of your Joy; for by faith We stand"
" For by faith yo stand" take this ~ what tie
translator OF understood it to mean. give
it In its connection because the preceding clauses Illus
rac AMI enforce my theme VIZ, that personal Faith IN
the personal Christ the essential Of rounded manhood
and successful fc BY faith, and by faith only, does
any man stand the highest and best Of the word.
as is related 20 himself to bis Creator, TO the preseHt
life and the future.
Having discussed his subject at some length President
Porter addressed the sra luatns class follows:
YoUSo GENrIENEs TUE GRADUATING CLASS:
commend these thoughts TO YOU as pertinent 10
aud thinking world into which you about
10 enter. Hitherto you have looked ont upon TINS
wOrd through the OOphOes OF this soquesered retreat
not unaware, Indeed OF the great movements without
aud responding to them ,i solnewaat WIN o
and responsive hes been this sympathy, 1t is
one thing 10 gaze at q eouiict from distant hight
and another to 80 snol demanded into the contest,
man against man. You have also been more Occn
pied vita the discipline ana the cycltomens Or your col
legc life than with tile formation OF deilDJ theory OF
life aud yet each Of You has been aturing 5dCh
theory, consciously unc0nsc0u ly and is gong forth
to Apply II IN action III j. al TINS moment lust Us
yOu are awakening to the conviction that you
must have "a ths,ry and asking yourselves what
II is. that in almost The last words OF counsel ana
frendship which / shall spedk To- you, ! have en-
earnest Christian faith should hold in yOuF theory
OF manhood and or action. ii would not be strange
II III t.eSo days OF nippant d0emailain IN phi,os9phy
ana or bohemian concelt Ia literature, tho fhth OF
OF yOn unsettled, and the high and ferven
enthusiasm of some who believe were lowered. or
one thlhg De assured, That no calamity can befal
scholar serious the loss Of personal faith IN the
living tod and the Christ who has inspired all mat we
most value IN the sentiment OF modern literature
aud MADEIRA life II man must struggle with modern
doubt, let him struggle alone and with manly and
nesl spllt as drowning man struggles Tor frD stand
Ing place AVOID, as the breath OF the pesLence, the
Sncerng or confident assumption that faith IN etor-
nal ana sacred yeriIy-nay, rather III living persons
supernatural Teyelaions-lnust 9ye way before the
scNerer nght Cf modern thinking, and with 1t must
assertion is false. While modern thinking in mar
conclusions as positive as they are narrow, ~ more
| cetilnly than ever. when prosecuted in liberal
spirit oyens the mud TO ystas Of thought in every direc
t0n winch lead tho soul to personal God who ersoI-
ally interested IN man. Avoid, still more dangerous
the impression that unsettled faith cherished DALI
ance WIN ones religious onyctions is sign OF intellect
ual courage or strength. Unbecf quite often
dare not waits upon his wonld@ Nothing can posi-,
big be more injurious 10 the intellect than prolonged
them a manly spirit Nothing can be more unmauly
than 70 play hide and with arguments
| or more seryile than to wait for new revelations
from some idcized leader OF opinion. Nothing can
raWa from the heavens OF the living God. and the ban
shmen from the earth OF the Christ who blessed and
Eth OF the thinker his tenderness man. his hope for
man. his iah IN man, and mis- patience with man, are
|
| culture VIII become less and less refined or less
ana less satisfying Nothing be for tho con
science than that the magnetic pfcsence OF God should
cease to enforce its often feeble aud vacllatng com
nands Nothing can be more harmful TO the hfe OF
man or Intellectual consistency than that faith should
wholly die our OF 1t and cease 10 be tho
| spring OF It's activities its joys and hopes, And
| as Tor Tue community, shuddcrs with not
unreasonable horror al the very thought OF what VIII
come the athestc theories with which the thinker OF
the ese days begiles his readers or amlses himself
once put III practice by the of labor and OF action
G ne east We fy say Is mat what seems as harmless a.,
experiments OF the teacher, rend and consume the
and sustained.