Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-06-14
The AcadrmY Commencement.

| with their fresh summer costumes some
thing of the gaiety and insoasctaRce Of their
school days Young GAINESVILLE, too, trims
his incipient nlOustache and bankers round
those stern palisades which for so many
months have repealed him from the en-
chanted gardens within, and anticipates
with triumph the two happy days when
they shall be no longer a barrier between
him and the ideal loYeliness which so long
has mingled with his dreams; nay, old
CIarksville himself shuffies off some forty of
D his years and frisks uncouthly under the
} inspiration of the happy season when
Sumer Is icumen in.
J All nature, in short, puts on its holiday
! attire to signalize the faltering step by
which the shrinking girl comes forth from
she seelusion of her novitiate to shine on
society in all the radiant charms OF seeomp-
lished womanhood.
THE BACcALAUREATE SERMON
The exercises of the commencement week
began on Sunday with the Baccalaureate
sermon, preached by the Rev. J. b. CottrelI,
d. d., of RussellvilIe, Ky. This gentlemen
has preached before in GAINESVILLE, and is
well known for the genial familiarity with
which he addresses his hearers on the mo-
mentous themes of religion, speaking as
friend TO friend with, none of the formal
diction considered by some as essential to
the dignity of the pulpit. His text was
taken from the fourth chapter of st. Johns
Gospel at verse IL and IA:
Jesus answered and said unto her, Whose
| ever drinketh of this water shall thirst
again but, whOSOever drinketh of the water
that shall give him. shall never thirst but
the water that 1 shall give hin, shall be in
him well of water springing up into ever
lasting life.
The whole interview of the Samaritan
woman with the Messiah a. the well was
made the subject of the sermon, and the
mai point which the preacher made of 1t
| was the human character of the Savior's
teaching. He showed that what touched
the heart of this woman was not the discus
| sion Of the comparative claims of worship
on Mount Moriah or Mount Gerizin it was
not the anticipation of Messiah's coming
looked for by both systems of worship, but
it was when with prophets insight the
Savior unveiled before her startled con-
science the shameful secrets of her former
| life that her conscience was smitten and
her soul shaken, and that, when in the ex-
| element of her conversion she spread the
news of Messiah's arrival, she called on men
to come and hear him, not because he had
preached religion higher than that SOL
/ emnized on either mountain, but she was
| full of its personal application to herself,
and said, "Come and see man which told
me all things that ever I did; this is the
| Christ" From this incident the preacher
took occasion to strike the keynote OF his
discourse, and described the Gospel as a
thing addressed to men as sentient and
moral beings,-as beings who can hope and |
| fear, love and hate, whose convictions may
be controlled by reason, and whose impul-
| ses dominated by conscience. 1t is not, he |
said, a mechanical force acting on inor-
| ganic matter, but the appeal of a righteous |
and loving being to beings who can appre- |
ciate the right and open their hearts to the |
overmastering influences of divine confess !
sion, religion of love towards men of love. |
The rest of the discourse was an eloquent |
commentary upon this theme closing with |
happy application to the present occasion. |
| He spoke OF the precious opportunity of the |
conscientious teacher for impressing Chris |
tian sentiments upon young people who |
are, by age and sex, peculiarly alive to all |
affectionate appeals; recognizing such |
teacher in the worthy Principal of our |
| GAINESVILLE Academy, he earnestly urged |
upon them that they should carry out with |
them into the wide world, ON which they |
were now entering, the principles of love |
and purity here inculcated upon them.
THE ALUMNE MEETING.
Monday morning was the reunion of the |
AIumne. The opening address was written |
by Miss Sallie Kennedy, but, in conse-
quence of her marriage and removal from
GAINESVILLE, was read by Miss Susan Dortch.
The leading idea in this composition was
the principle that life implies growth, and |
that the cessation of growth is death. APP
plying this principle to the spiritual as well
as the bodily constitution of the human
-4DV-- ,,
.4ttnuna, whom she welcomed, the question:
Have they been growing in the healthful,
intellectual and spiritual life whose rudi-
ments had been implanted by the teachings
of the institution to whose walls they had
then repaired to indulge in "reminiscences
of their undergraduate days? The lam
guage of this appeal was gracefuland affec-
tionate, and was enunciated with good taste
and feeling by the young lady who read it;
in short, was highly creditable to both au-
thor and reader.
Miss Jennie Mathis poem was, unfortu-
nately, inaudible to us in a great measure
We hope for the privilege of perusing it,
From what we heard of it, we understood
the young lady to disclaim the pretention OF
being poetess born avowing, on the con-
trary, that she a pOetess made and
made to order. She told us that she had by
nature none of the poetic elements in her
constitution, and that if there was any mer-
it in the present composition, it was due to
hard labor undertaken in obedience to
the young ladies who had conferred upon
her the honor of appointing her the Laure-
ate of the AIumne. All of which is very
well In the way of graceful self-abnegatiOn,
but admitting our very imperfect acquain-
lance with the composition in question: we
happen to-know that Miss NJ. is gifted with
fund of genius which, like the electric coil,
imparts to everything which it embraces,
magnetic attraction irresistible by old or
young We will take her word for anything
except the denial of her own merits; but,
until we peruse her poem, we refuse to be-
lieve in the absence of inspiration she at
tributes to it. The audience certainly
thought differently.
MR.. M'FARLAND's ADDRESS.
Next followed the address ofthe Hon. l.. b
Mcfarland to the graduating class. "Beau-
tg'' was the subject of his speech, and he
dealt with it in the spirit of the highest US
thetic criticism. He commenced with the
beauties Of Nature, in describing which he
closed his eloquent eFusiOn with a QUOTA
ton from Millions exquisite picture of In
cense breathing Morn, which passage he
read with a finely discriminating elocution.
Then he deScanted on Intellectual beauty,
passing before his audience in illustration
of it the whole history of art, ancient as
well as modern, and this brought him to the
beauty of Humanity, Physical, Int6ilectpal
and Moral, all eliminating in that highest
embodiment of Bestty known on earth,
the beautiful woman, and this led him, by
a natural transition, TO the topic suggested
by the occasion which elected the address,
the topic, namely, of female education It
led him TO insist upon the demand for that
moral and intellectual culture. whereby the
charms which she inherits as the privilege
of her sex are supplemented by mental ae-
complishments and spiritual graces which
make the female soul an antelope of the
exquisite frame which encloseS it.
That is the best we can do toward present.
ing a general abstract of Mr.. Netherlands
speech. 1t gives no conception whatever of
the beauty OF its language or the grace of its
delivery, which must remain closed book
to those who failed to hear it, for NO Gess
cription can give a conception of IL.
THE CONCERT.
The musical performance of Monday
night comprised some well selected and
well executed pieces, and we will say, gene