The Portland daily press., 1878-07-22
COLBY COMMENCEMENT.
BaccaIureate Sermon by President Rob

BaccaIureate Sermon by President Rob
bins.
WATERvILLE, July 2l.-Commencsment at
Colby University began today with baccalur.
cate sermon, which war delivered at the Bap-
tist church this afternoon by President Robbins
A large and apprecative audience was In at
tendance. The following is abstract of the
sermon:
Text, Luke, 22:A-"And there was strife
among them which of them should be account
ed the greatest" Theme, the sin and folly of
ambition. After an introduction calling atten-
tion to the wide prevanence of the spirit, the
preacher unfoded his theme in answers to
three questions. First what is ambition? Sec
ond, why is it sin? Third, why is it folly?
Ambition was defined to be the selfish pursuit
of pre-eminence, the adjective in the definition
being emphasized as essential to its correctness
Three classes of ambitious men were discrimin-
ated First, those who desire not to be, but to
be regarded, eminent; second, those who desire
to surpass others, who if there were no compe-
titors to be beaten would care nothing for the
goal; third, those who desire some good for the
sake of the personal enjoyment or advantage
which ID may afford, irrespective of the inter-
ests or opinions. or relations of others. Ambi
tion is a sin because it is the selfish pursuit
pre-eminence, since selfshness is the very es-
sence of sin. He whose supreme end is self
will necessarily under the power of sufficient
temptation, sacrificed anything that stands be-
tween him and his'end. Hence he soul in
which ambition reigps, sinking inevitably by
dark gravitation, becomes by degrees narrow
and sordid and cruel and devish. Innumera.
BILE forms of sn-meanness, treachery, deceit,
cruelty, reckless disregard of human Iife-re-
veal the exceeding sinfulness of the root from
which they spring. This point was pertinently
illustrated from history and current life. The
follp of ambition is equally evident; first, be-
cause it fails in its end, g., happiness. Under
this head the preacher naturally passed to an
unitarian philosophy. The element of truth
in that philosophy viz, that man was made for
the good, and that the impulse to seek it is the
motive cause of all moral action whatever, was
recognized as essential to any sound and endur-
ing system of ethics This impulse to seek the
good is selflove aud its qualification is legi.
innate but the explanation of the fact that an
useful life is the only happy life is disclosed
in the grand fact of which the utitarian
philosophy loses sight that the good for which
man was made and which he Graves is found
supremely in God. Hence be finds his bappi-
ness in obedience to the Divine law, Thou
shaltlo the Lord thy God with;all thy heart,
and thy neighbor as thyself'' for love is that
supreme passion of the human soul which
finds its only.possible satisfaction in giving to
its object in absolute selfforgetfulness and
selfsurrender. Love renders selfshness i'm
possible. He that dwelleth in love dweleth in
God and is hence sharer of God 8 blessedness.
If the souls need of God be ignored, in vain is
the attempt to satisfy it in any merely human
| relations however desirable. Happiness then
is possible only as we lose sight of ourselves in
| our search for it, 1t follows and follows inevi-
| tably as a shadow of the august form of Deity.
Made itself an end it eludes its pursuer like an
| ignis fatuus leading him into dismal bogs and
ferns, whose exhalations feed the dolefal fires.
Hence it is that ambition as the selfish pursuit
| of pre-eminence fails of its end. Its prizes are
| always apples of Sodom, never worth what
| they cost, bring no satisfaction equal to the
| toll and travel by which they are won, always
| carry the sting of wasted powers. Ambition is
| folly secondly because it fails to awaken the
| highest power of achievement Man was made
| for communion j. e., for co-partnership with
| God, and heDse separated from him by amb-
tion he loses the faith, the wisdom, the power
which can come from him alone. Said Christ
the incarnate God, Separate from me We can
do nothing in the highest realm of human
action. nothing truly worthy Of your manhood
as bearing Gods image" Here the men of
| faith were contrasted with the men of ambi-
ton, showing that in nobility of personal char
acter and in the grandeur of their achievements
| the former far surpassed the latter. The folly
| of ambition appears thirdly and supremely in
| the reason that it robs the soul of its eterna
| reward. The preacher concluded with an ad-
dress to the graduating class enforcing the les.
| sons of the discourse.
In the evening Rev. Alvah Hovey, D. D. of
Newton Theological Seminary, preached SER
| mon before the Boardman Missionary Society
and the Young Mems Christian Association.