The Portland daily press., 1880-07-26
WATERVILLE.
Commencement Week at Colby
University.
Tho Baccalaureate and Sermon Before
the Boardman Missionary Society.

VAUDEVILLE, July 25.-The exercises of
Commencement week at Colby University be-
gan today. The sermon before the Boardman
Missionary Society was delivered by G. B.
Crane, D. D., of Boston, from the text found
in II Corinthians, 10Th chapter, 14th verse 1
seek not yours but YOU The speaker said
that mans destiny and duty ON earth are to
seek, to find, to subdue, to possess, to own. In
crease of property is enlargement Of self per-
sonality. Christ seeks to make His own all the
Kingdoms of the earth and promises all things
to His disciples Property is that into which
one puts himself, his labor, his intellect, his
genius and his soul. Man must earn his pos
sessions in order to own title must put himself
into the heart of it. He must appreciate and
comprehend the thing possessed before he can
truly have property in it. Christ's followers
may have property in human souls.
First, by friendship. Enthroned in the heart
of my friend am king and my sceptre te-
walls.
Second, by education. The teacher leafns
tos impress of his genius and spirit upon Ire
minds and hearts of his pupils. He has prop
erty in immortal souls
Third, by redemption. This was the Lords
way. We also may communicate to the dead
in sin the life that thrills in us and for all
eternity shall have property in them.s
The preacher then urged upon the young
men about to enter the world to seek this high
est and most enduring property in human
souls,and. closed with an eloquent appeal in be-
half of foreign missions.
THE BACCALAUREATE SERMON.
The baccalaureate sermon by President Rob-
bins was founded on the text in Ii Cor, 18th
chapter, 18th verse-"While we look not at
the things which are seen but at the things
WI, oh, No 81,
ion of the invisible. The speaker said that
vision of the invisible is possible and in its
most general sense is the rational and common
experience of man. All vision is by the intel
lect, the senses being mere servitors of the
mind. In seeing the invisible intuition, in
ference, faith and imagination are called into
active use and the soul is directly conscious of
itself as knowing, willing being. This con-
scious knowledge of the invisible self is the
basis upon which all other unseen certainties
| rest. Our knowledge of another is equally in
tuitive. The soul sets over against itself
something not itself, and by an invisible. in
tellectual act the spirit and matter are both
known as invisible realities. Existence of
matter is known intuitively, but its particular
form is known only by inference. We appre-
hend the unseen forces of nature only by infer
ence. Thus science is built up.
Not only can we see the invisible but we
can see that the invisible is the greater reality
which underhes and supports tie visible. We
recognize in man a spiritual nature and from
the personality of the creature infer the per-
confirmed by evidence of design and the re-
cogniton of will behind the invisible forces
of nature not inherent in them. The visible is
seen by faith also which substantiates intui-
ton and inference Faith is the souls trust
in the truthfuluess of its own intellectual
powers. By faith in the intellectual nature of
other men and in their testimony we greatly
enlarge the sphere of our knowledge. This
is true In science as in religion. The physicists
see atoms, molecules. ether and the forces of
gravity by faith just as surely as the Christian
sees God and revealed truth by faith. The
point of dispute between science and religion
is not as to the organs of mental vision, but as
to the degree of evidence demanded in each.
In this respect Christianity has such superior
ity over science as nationally to compel faith.
Faith makes the unseen certain and real. The
imagination makes the apprehension of it pre-
sent and vivid. Science which scorns dreams
and boasts of holding fast to solid facts finds.
its researches impossible without the aid Of
the imagination. This royal gift to men
should have its due place in dealing with the
higher verities of religion.
The speaker then addressed the graduating
class and urged upon them the necessity Of
this vision of the invisible in their coming
straggle for success, saying as in the natural
world so in human society, unseen forces hold
sway To fail to recognize them in either
realm is folly, to defy them is madness. By
their resistless workings upon society the
fitted man finds his prepared place. Success
will be in proportion to the obedience paid
these unseen laws. Vision of the unseen is
especially necessary in efforts for the suprema-
ey OF righteousness in personal character. The
unseen and latent forces and tendencies with
in as we'll as from without must be apprehen-
ded, guarded against and directed. A steady
vision of the land that is very far off and Of
the King in his beauty will give to earthly life
its true perspective and to the events of time
their true proportions.