Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1881-06-30
ADGER COLLEGE.
\ BACCALAUREATE SERMON, 1
delivered Before Adgcr College,
st'nday, Juno ~, lssI, by REV.
q WI. Mckay, of Nl,aysviIle, SUM :
tor County, S. e. j"'i

4 sunday, Juno ID, lSSI, by Rev.
w. j. Mckay, of uaysviIle, sum-
tor County, S. e. ja'l
Y Phil. .lII:l3-14-'Drethren, count not nv.
self TO have apprehendedj bu, this one thing
do, forgetting those things which arc behind.
and reaching forth unto those things which arc
before. press toward the mark for the prize Of
tho high calling of God in Christ jesus"
Contemplating tho oharaotcr of Paul and
men like him, tho first Impression made
upon US perhaps is Que of depression. We
feel like the artist who hos boen gazing with
profoundest admiration upon picture which
he cannot hope to copy. Wo think Of
them as men whose attain,nents i'm grace ,;a
far above the utmost reach of our endeayor.
consequently our hope does not aspire to
that cmnence Of grace displayed in them.
Whereas the truth is, that apart from that
special inspiration which made them the
media of divine revelation, Isaiah and
David, John aud Paul were poor weak
sinful men like ourselves, involved with US
IN common guilt, iuheriting with US de.
pruved nature, tempted in all points like us
by common enemy, needing like US to be
cleansed through tho blood of common
Saviour, included with us under the same
plan OF grace aud subject to the sau,o Ia VS.
of spiritual development. Therefore VIC
conclude, without presumption, that 80 far
as the essentials Of Christiun grace are con-
ccrned, there is in tho lives of these cmi.
nent saints no excellence that we NAV not
hopefully aspire to. "By the grace of God
um what am" says the great Apostle
You have all the means of grace that he
had. Eliminate all that was unique in him;
think away that special Inspiration under
which he wrote as he was moved by the
Holy Ghoat;" think awuy his exceptional
powers Of mind, with their rare and pol
lshed culture; think away that iron oast of will
which made his character so pre- eminently
dynamic; think away these things and YOU
think away Puul the apostle; but you have
left Paul the Christian; you have left
life of personal holiness and mature Chris.
tian grace. Paul the apostle you may not
duplicate; Paul the Christian you NAV
become, with the blessing OF God, by using
the same means.
This Is clearly indicated in the text,
when the great man dwurfs himself, as it
wcrc, to our level, and plaoiC e himself upop
address them os "brethrcn," and then in
context exhorts them, "Bc ye followers to-
gether Of me" Now for our encourage
mcDt he tells us, in the passage before US,
how his own attainmcnts In gruce are made
lie brings before US section of his own
experimental piety aud from it educcs D
great law of Christiun life-Mc iau of
gracious progression.
The scientist have maxim, natura non
Jacu soffem-'nnturc never makes leop."
1t might be written on nll the works of
God. between the tiny acorn that lies
lightly 10 your hand, hiding an almost mi
croscop:c germ, and the giunt oak that
travcIy breast the storni, thero lies vast
difference. The space between the two has
not been accomplished by mighty effort
concentrated in ono gigantic leap, but by
the track of slow and gradual growth,
each year broadening little the sweep of
it's branches, deepening tho range of it's
roots and widening the circle of it's unnuix.
1t is 80 with the fruits of the Garth, the
seasons of the year, the development of
animals, the education of the mind, the
construction of the soicuccs, the history of
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. the law seems to
hold that excellence aud maturity are at
tainable not by on act, but by aooyh, not
by step, but by steps, not by u loap, but
by gradual steady development. WHY the
Gospel itself, as We find it in all its glorious
maturity in tho episto to the Romans, is
but the elimination of that germinaI prom,
ise of redemption through Christ given in
the Garden of Eden and just as tho aloe
exhales in it's one magnificent bloom all the
fragrance it has been maturing during its
century Of growth, 80 in that exposition of
the great doctrine of justification by faith
Paul gives to US the fragrant cssenoe of q
gospel matured only after forty centuries of
gradual development through typos and
shadows.
LIS it surprising thing, then, that, when
We find everywhere else that excellence is
attainable only through unremitting pro.
gress, We should find the kingdom Of giaco
ranged under the sway of tho same law?
Now the conditions OF this law, on its
human side, as given in the text, arc
these.
I. A fzcd and defnato objeot-"I
press toward the mark"
III. Concentration of effort to accomplish
that end--"This opo thing do"
Ill. Tho stimulus Of u suitable reward
81 press toward the mark for tho prize"
l. First, then, in order to make real and
substantial progress in grace tn, Christian
must fix his eye upon mark that he would
hit, standard that he would work up to,
an end that will concentrate tho energies
and unity the purposes of his life. When
leaden hail is sweeping tie field Of battle
the gun fred at random through T. qmoke
may kill an enemy, but the chances are ton
to one in favor of the skillful scout, whose