Morning journal and courier., 1883-06-25
ao,rrusi srlS Gutriisr.
Monday. June 25, 1883.
BaccaIaureate Sermon.

BaccaIaureate Sermon.
 TcoNrrNUED FROM SECOND PAGE.
 cess. At first thought it seems paradox to think or sneak of a fight by faith or to con meet contest which implies Individuality and indenendence with the idea of faith, which implies dependence and help. Perhaps we cannot state the problem. nor solve it better than by tracing it's history in human experi- euce. Before the times of Christ and of Paul earnest men of many nations and under a great variety of circumstances had made an earnest business of the contest with passion and sin in their own souls and in the world about them. The need of this strife they saw and felt with @ clearness and strength of feeling to which the most of men in these easier times are utter strangers. They felt the burdens and sorrows of individual and collective human life They experienced the impulses to evil as they were constantly re- vived in their own souls. They were ap- palled at the energy and strength with which sin organized itself afresh to resist and defy all the individual and joint desires of those who would reform themselves and reform so- ciety.
 On sudden, and yet as not wholly unex- pected, 8 few of the race are confronted with person who overawes them by the mystery of this being attracts them by the strange. ness of his condescension, who wins their con- tidence by the largeness of his invitations. and subdues their hearts by his lovo under meath. The effect upon their character and springs of action is new creation The few who describe it, like Paul and Peter and John, declare that they were born by it into new life, and their writings give jubilant expression to the new life of hope and vic- tory which they began to live by their joyful gratitude to the living Christ.
 What they saw of themselves is observed of others, and hundreds, thousands and tens l of thousands share in the impulse which has R~,ka | all comprehended in faith, in the matchlees personality of the dying and risen Christ. | t'This is the victory that overcometh the | world even our faith" The life which I \ live in the flesh live by faith in the love of | God, who loved me and gave himself for me. II The story of Christ's life and death is told | from believing and loving lips in portraitures | SO definite and touching as could only have ! been taken from an original. For nearly | sixty generations the story has made sub | stantially the same impression upon the great | mass of men who have read it with any sense
 of their moral needs in the conflict with self | and sense and sin, and the story when be- lieved has ministered the same peace and rest | and joy. Now and then 8 reader, now and then school of writers has fancied or req soned that some imaginative myth or cun
 ming device has so skillfully invested this central figure of ideal power as to give it the
 energy and power of living person, but SC |
 fanciful and so discordant their theories tha
 the world has soon returned to the origina l version that the story contained the truth oi
 God With here and there an exception i
 may be said to be true that every man in al
 these generations who has felt and confessed
 that he has any need of Christ in the con test of life, has felt and confessed
 that Christ was to him the power and trutI
 of God. To the multitude of believing soul
 he is at this moment invested with 8 subdu
 ing and transforming power, and reigns, bl
 common acclaim, monarch over the hearts
 of great company of all those who have re
 sorted to him in the stress and need of thei1
 lives.
 And now what do we learn from this his
 tory of faith concerning the nature of faith
 First of all that faith is eminently the act ol
 attitude of person towards person. w fight the battle of life under a leader an(
 master and friend whom we follow and love
 and obey, and in whom we trust end triumph | and rejoice, in one word in whom We believe But though we fight the battle by Christ's hell
 and by gratitude towards him, we fight it cut ! each man for himself. Subjectively faith i: | an act, 8 disposition, loving and obedi ent will Objectively it rests or | the living Christ, to whom all power is given \ in heaven and earth, and with whom is ali | sympathizing, all forgiving and therefore al
 subduing love.
 Next we distinguish the practical faith bJ l which a man lives and acts from the specu. l lative theology by which he reflects and i analyses and reasons. Both are cencerre
 with she same object, the same person in his
 relations to man and God. Faith is a very
 different thing from theology, though it is
 the germ of theology, just as dormant or growing bud is not an expanded or full growr
 tree. In both faith and theology there ii an | intellectual element, because in both we use
 the intellect. But in the one case we use l the intellect that we may feel and love and l obey and act in the other that we may
 analyze and explain and conceive and
 understand. The infant intellect apprehends
 the rainbow when this glorious vision from l heaven first breaks upon it's rejoicing and
 wondering eyes. No one will question that
 the physicist uses his intellect when he ana | lyzes and explains and defines the rainbow l by the pulsations of the light. Each uses his | mind; the one in apprehending the fact in | it's simple and most obvious relations, the l other in those which are complex ard re-
 mote. Herein is illustrated the faith and the
 creed of the practical and the theological be | liever. They are not antagonistic nor execu- sive. The consummate theologian may have as strong and earnest practical faith as his unrefecting neighbor. Nay, his faith is so far richer and stronger as it is justified to his re- fective thinking and enriched by his ampler knowledge. On the other hand well req soned creed may be to a slender, practical faith what an arabi- tious and well-framed scaffolding is to a | scanty and narrow house upon treacherous foundation. So, again, practical faith may be rational and effective to man who can | neither state nor defend the convictions | which control his life and affections. This | distinction is of no slight importance to every earnestly thinking man. They enable | us to understand that the Christian faith is practically one in all the varieties of defini- | tion and argument which it assumes, and with all the heat and bitterness which they engender, they justify the extreme earnest ness in theological discussion on the one hand, and the largest charity and confidence and fellowship on the other. They not only sanction the right but confer the obligation to leave many questions unsettled and yet to cleave with the utmost tenacity to those fun damental facts which are essential to victory.
 This brings us back to our theme. Faith, to be effective, needs not only to be personal, but positive. If faith is to help us against our adversaries itmust be composed and cer- tain. If faith connects us with person, we must know in whom we believe, who he is so far as to be assured what he will be to us, what in our joys, what in our sorrows, what in our griefs and what in our fears, what in our life and what in our death. It follows that if we are to contend by our faith we are. to contend for our faith, simply because man without positive convictions cannot contend at all, especially in an age which is shivering with doubt and uncertainty in ev- ry fibre of it's intellectual life; at time when every voulme presents sRnoyel theolog- ical theory or new ethical specula- tion, either new negation or @ new sheer; when the foundations of all sorts of truth were never so confidently questioned, nor the best accredited facts so freely challenged, nor the extremest needs of mans nature were so boldly, nor the most sa- cred of his hopes and aspirations so fippGnt- ly disposed of-at time whom not few be- ieving souls are terrified with an undefned alarm, lest perhaps the foundations of their hopes and sacrifices shall sink into yawning abyss. The cry of distress is whispered from many lips and the anguish is felt in many unbelief."
 At such time, love to others as wall as duty to ourselves requires that every man who has 8 faith should make it positive, clear and energetic. No man is worth