Morning journal and courier., 1883-06-25

the trials of these parting days and in the slow but certain anticipations Of dawning manhood. won to this place of our daily wor- sbin to listen to the words of exhortation and encouragement, that you ! may make the contest of life contest of faith, and by so doing make 1t a contest of 1 hope and victory: we chsfge you 10 oiS- is less needful now than in former days for the Advancement of the race in knowledge 1 and culture and morality. 50 far as It's st- | tainments are genuine and permanent they | are the flowers and fruit of the heroic faith l of other times. Ihls 1alr clfAllAasAon ID Wnlcn we rejoice these quiet homes, the palaces of i industry and science and letters, this estab- | Iished law. this peaceful security, these soft ened manners, this free government, this | elevated and controlling public sentiment. l have been wrought for us by the the battlefield and the patient labor of many hero of faith whose name for l man is perhaps written in water, but shines | in tbe book of Gods memory in characters 1 glowing with light. There are men who call l themselves students ot history who would | have us believe that the continuance of these | blessings is assured without the continuance | of the faith which produced them, that Chris | tian civilization will remain and flourish as firmly and as beautifully without faith as with it, and that community Of millions Of men shall be as strong and as fair without faith in the living God as with it, or with a so-called faith that makes confessed ignorance the test of it's piety and negation the glory of it's creed
 It is equally true that for individual welfare faith is equally necessary. Culture can do much for man, especially
 when it applies the lessons which Christian
 unselfishness and refinement have required
 generations to mature and master. Culture
 when it abiures faith and denies Christ may
 make fair show of personal purity and
 honor, of self respect and public spirit, of
 chivalric and courteous manners and high
 moral aims. Literature and art also may be
 animated to a large extent by healthful
 moral energy and inspire their deVotees to
 noble sentiments, to philanthropit sacrifices,
 to refined courtesy and self-deny1ng life
 But the individual soul requires life giving
 mercy such as culture and letters can never iupart For the conscience in the crisis of it's inner and outer life, for the temptations that now and then shake a mans integrity to the center, under the awful strokes of over whelming calamity, for the solemn hour of approaching death, and along the pathway which conducts the lonely spirit to the pres ence of the living God-for all these ex- agencies of our human life faith is as much needed now as ever, and there are reasons | why to the thoughtful man it would seem to | be more needful now than ever before.
 Dismiss too the conceited and cowardly | thought that the contest of faith is more ! difficult now than in former days, especially 1 for educated men, Faith has always involved | a battle and it always will and for that mat l ter so has unbelief. The question is not, and never has been, which will you reject be- ! cause it is free from difficulties, but which l will you believe as between the more 1 and the fewer, the greater and the less. | Remember always that the difficulties of de- ! nial must be assumed by the man who is overcome by the difficulties of faith Athels- 1 tic science overwhelms the imagination with 1 the mystery and uselessness of 8 self-exlstent creator, and thinks it quite enough to prove l our faith with the greatness of its mystery. 1 But atheistic science forgets that the reason ] finds greater difficulty in accepting self -ex- l istent universe in which there are intelligent | spirits without a supreme intelligence to give ! it order, or will to give It force, or love te' \ fill it with blessings.
 ! It may be that science and philosophy have in 1 these times started new questions and raised l new objections, but whatever difficulties they | have made for faith they have made many 1 more for unbelief. Criticism finds new | problems in it's enlarged knowledge of an- I cient history and life, and now and then re- ! verses a traditionary opinion which had | been held sacred for ages. But every flash of it's torch which serves to deepen some minor shadow in the recovered past casts more brilliant light upon the central object of the Christian faith and hope. If the creed of the Christian church is less coni- dent in respect to many points once esteemed essential to faith, it is moro assured, more united and more fervent in respect to those commanding truths in which the Christian lives and loves and labors and dies. It IS not scientific demonstrations nor miracles, nor a voice from heaven, which are needed now so
 much as manhood and seif-sacrl- fee, the aggressive and fervid spirit, and above all the Christ like conservation which beft the simpler and stronger views of Christian truth, the more
 catholic conceptions of the kingdom Of God, and the more enlightened views of the Christian life which are the joy and the honor of our times.
 Remember, too, that as you make this faith your own you lay hold on eternal life. Of that life we know but little in its details,
 for we cannot anticipate many of It's exper- fences It is enough that we know that 1t is
 near enough to permit us by the faith of our
 daily life to scatter these earthly seeds Tn
 heavenly soil, the product of which shall
 bloom with flowers and glow with fruit that
 shall be immortal.
 How near that life may be to
 any one of you you know not,
 but you cannot doubt that it possibly may be
 near, since the experience of that bright Sat-
 urday in October last, so bright and sunny
 as to seem to exclude all thoughts of sadness
 and death, when one Of the gayest or your
 company exchanged onelife for another, as 1t
 were, in moment I shall not soon forget
 the experience of that day, nor it's lessons
 concerning the nearness of the earthly to the
 immortal life., would fain believe that this
 event has brought the eternal life nearer to
 the minds of many of you, and elevated your
 aims and hopes with respect to the hopes
 and activities and aims of the present. If
 the year that is now closing has been to many
 year of moral thoughtfulness and earn
 est reflection and spiritual resolve
 it has been no less year of conscious pro.
 gross, of cheerful activity and of manly en-
 joyment. You are so happy as to be assured that your college life has been life of more than usual success and satisfaction; and your
 prospects are more than usually fattering
 for career of usefulness and honor. What
 more can I wish for you than that each and
 all Of you may flight the good fight of faith
 and lay hold of eternal life" With these
 words I bid you an affectionate farewell.