Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-06-11
A BEACON LIGHT,
Held Forth to Guide the Bark OF
Youth
Across the Tempestuous Sea Of life-last
Evenings Baccelaureate Sermon
70 the Class of '83.

Fourth street M r.. CnurCn neAu ~
enormous congregation ~astevening, called
together to hear the b~accelaureate sermon
of Rev. Dr.. Smith, the pastor. The space
within the altar rail was handsomely dec
GRATED with flowers and potted plants. A
large floral cross on tue right OF the pulpit
being especially handsome. The young
ladies of the graduating class occupied
pews on the extreme right, their principal
Miss A. Taylor, being at the head. After
the choir had rendered q selection, and the
lO3sth hymn had been SUNG dy the congre'
cation. Rev. DR.. d. A.. Cunningham led In
PRAYER. invoking the Divine benediction
upon the young ladies just entering the
battle of life. Rev. DR.. Cook then read the
Scriptural lesson from the last chapter OF
Deuteronomy, and at its conclusion Dr.
Smith preached from the following text:
PIsGAH:-THE VISIONS.
And Moses went up from the plains OF
Moab unto the OF Nebo, 70 the Top
the Lord showed him all the land. Deut.
NXXIV-l.
This was the last vision of Moses. 1t was
at once the realization and the failure OF
his souls fondest aspirations. For more
than forty years, hkessome kohinoor to the
seeker of pearls, the promised land had
swan and swung in the far OH horizon OF
his hopes. Called Of God to be the deliverer
of Israel, and their leader from Egypt to
Canaan, he had looked forward to the time,
when, standing upon some Lebanon or
Zion, with the last foe beneath his feet, be
should behold Israel quiet and happy IN
the possession of cities and towns that they
builded not, and reveling in the luxuries
Of a
LAND THAI GOD HAD MADE
10 flow with milk and hoAey.
How cruel, after all these years OF wait
ing, seemed the command: Get thee up
into this mountain Abarim," NNNll-i9-
50. What mockery to gaze upon a land on
which his foot was forbid to tread. To us,
locking back upon that scene through the
Vista OF more than thirty centuries, prone
as we are in our weakness and ir%religious.
ness to regard every thwarting OF
our plans as an unmiXed EVIL,
it would seem to be a disappointment for
which nothing could atone. Not SO thought
the hoary old law giver. Chastened by a
thousand conflicts, purified by a thousand
fires, he had learned unmurmuring and
cheerful acquiescence in the Divine will.
He had failed to glorify God before the peo-
pie. The Lord was wroth with me for
your sake was his explanation. And so,
without a murmuring word, he places the
reins of empire into tie hand OF Joshua,
Utters his parting blessing, and with his
back upon Israel, he makes his way
straight to
THE MOUNT or VISION.
See him in the crisp air Of that early morn
as be leaves the tent OF Israel. 4 wall
breaks from the orphaned hosts as though
in mourning for their first borT, but he
rauSes not. One hundred Il twenty
winters have come and gone since his
mother hid him in thai ark of slime, yet
IS his eve not dimmed or his natural force
absted. His tread was as firm and his
form as erect, as, when more han eighty
wears ago, he led the Egyptian hosts to
victory and gilded the name of Pharaoh
with its brightest splendors. Now his
bronzed brow CLOVIS with the dawn
OF a coming rapture, and his
eye kindles with the light of the land to
which he is fastening. His thin, grey
locks fall upon his massive shoulders and
are the sport of the mountain breeze.
Pulling his mantle closely about him,
with "a firm step he presses onward. AL
ready the distant fountain peaks are In
view. Now glimpses of broad plains, tringed
with the silver of the far.off sea, break up.
Oh him. And now his sandalled feet press
AItt DAhB hN NJ 'f lNNhh . . sAA
and the land in all its bewildering glory
bursts upon his enraptured vision. Natur-
ally, the view from Pisgah is one OF mar
velIous beauty. The modern traveller
standing upOn its summit looks back to
the desert where lay the s~un-browned tents
of ~IsraeI'S army. now ready for marching.
Before him was Jericho, the key to the
Land Of Promise. Beyond was spread out
the whole range OF the mountains OF PaleS'
tine in its four. fold masses. There were
HermOn and Lebanon in the east and
north; the hills of Ga!lilee Overhanglng
the lake of Geunesareth; the wide opening
where lay the plain OF EsdraslOn; the
rounded SUBMITS of Ebal and of Geriginl,
while immediately in front OF him the
hills of Judea, and in their midst the
grey rocks and Struggling houses
OF the village Of Bethlehem. All this
may be seen by the traveller Of to day, but
To the eye of Moses, appeared more than
mortal, before or since, ever beheld. The
Lord showed him., says the text, all the
land of Gilead unto Dan, and all Naphtha
Ii, and the land Of Ephraim, and Manas-
sch, and all the land Of Judah unto the ut.
most sea, and thb south, and the plain OF
the valley of Jericho, the city OF palm trees
uato,Zoar.'
SUCH WAS The VISION.
There lay in all its shimmering beauty the
land of promise. TransiiXed and be~ilder-
cred by the vision, the dllated frame could
no longer contain the imprisoned spirit.
It's wild throbbingS Smote to ruin the gold
en- bow and severed the golden cord, and
quick rs the pulSing Of a soul the earthly
gave place to the heavenly, the pilgrim
feet pressed the streets Of the upper Jeru.
salem, and his eyes opened to the glorics
% the heavenly Canaan.
We have said this was his last vision.
Doubtless TO him, as 10 Us all, visions had
come and gone. Wonder in the palace of
the PharaOhs, the heir apparent to the
throne. there arose a vision OF earthly
glory. but the sigAt of his suffering breth-
rem filled him with horror, and crushing
the vision as a bauble beneath his feet,
he turned his back upon it forever.
Then, there arose upon him he vision OF
a Ge.iverer. Vague and irdlS,iuCt, like
Spme fAr.otf ignus fatuus, it lured him on
until. in his wanderings in Horeb, the
Angel Of God met him and held up before
ham the Divine ideal. Later still, amid the
smoke and thunder of Sinai, there was
given the vision OF a peculiar people, a
royal priesthood, q holy natioa,' and this.
mingled with the vision Of rest and quiet,
OF PLENTY AND oLoRY.
to which he should conduct them, Shone
on like a star in the forehead Of night IN.
til il faded into the brighter glory of the
vision of which We have spoken. Aud
thus is it ever. Every pathway is cheered
hy visions. PiSEahs must neei be climbed
by every pilgrim. The present, however
glorious, is only the promise vi a brighter
iutUre-the desert through which we
travel TO our promised Canaan. Visions
are the heritage of our race. They are the
proclaimers of human possibility; the
prophecies of human attainment. To day
| come 10 speak to those whose feet stand
81 last upon one OF life's Pisgahs. For
yesrs its glowing summit has lured you
on amid the tolls and di~scouragements
OF student life. Now, this desert is be-
hind you and before you, awaiting the
tread of your eager feet, lies the promised
land Of womaRhood.
To-day, addressing you for the last time
as your pastor, | would endeavor 10 eX-
plain to you the object and meaning Of
LIES Pisgahs.
Ny first thosght is that they are God
given. Like Moses, we are Coded to their
giddiest heights. Wearied by the toll and
pilgrimage of the desert, it is the divine
voice that