Morning journal and courier., 1884-06-23
yOnrnsI xa1 Geusis1.
RaccaIaureate Sermon.
TooNr1NUED FROM FIRST PAGE l

tale or an empty farce that now and then be-
 comes terrible tragedy? When I die will
 that he the end of me Do give myself up with a shudder to dust and forgetfulness or
 tune my death song into an imaginative
 hRrangue over my survival in the thoughts
 and purposes of succeeding generations, or do I with loyal and grateful trust and with triumphant peace say, ''Whether live live
 unto the Lord, whether I die die unto the
 Lord; living or dying am the Lord's?"
 Truths and theories like these are the l truths that wake to perish never to the thoughtful soul. With them he cannot but 1 wrestle as Q strong man for his life, that he may know in whom and in what he may l trust. They are fitted to rouse and ! invigorate the critical thinker to the utmost Out of their intellectual and emotional life they have fed and stimulated the greatest of men to their highest and best. Every edu- cated man who has not yet settled with him. self whether they are truths in the light of disciplined reflection has not begun even to think.
 Connected with these questionings. there are others of far inferior interest, important indeed because knowledge of every kind is important but not vital to our faith. IT. ese inquiries have divided Christian thinkers from the earliest times. They relate to the ! literature of the scriptures the minutise of I their interpretation, the extent of their ln- spiration, the extent of their authority, the | S~ | theology and scores of other matters con- fessedly of inferior importance. If any or all of these made of the first importance | by thousands and even by tens of thousands, | they are not so regarded by multItudes of other believers, as thoughtful, as cultivated and as Christian as they.
 We think it of vital importance to the prog ress of the kingdom of God that the intelli- | gent defenders of Christian truth should dis l tinguish between these vital and fundamental truths and those of inferior importance. It is upon the strong redoubts that the chief interest of any contest must center and 1t is upon their defence or capture that the issue must depend. We know that many able and earnest defenders of the common cause seem | to think that the outworks are as important as the citadel. They have little sympathy and sometimes less charity for those who ! will surrender single position because they believe 1t untenabie or not worth fighting for. It must also be frankly confessed that the new light of criticism in literature, history, science and philosophy have kindled bright | and broad monday in respect to many ques- lions which were not dreamed of by the men of other generations. Into the light of that monday. the great principles and facts of the | Christian scheme must surely come in these ! days of fiery and unsparing criticism. The | true defenders of the Christian faith at such | times, the men who would be martyrs if mar | tyrs were called for, are the men who are | willing to cast the principles of their faith ! into the fires of scientific criticism and are
 content if the wood, hay and stubbls shall be ] utterly consumed. They are the true de- lenders of the faith because they do not love Christianity better than the truth, but love | Christianity because they have proved it to ] be true, and moreover because they can dis I tinguish that which is transient from that ! which survives in all time. If Christianity is
 to stand in this generation it must stand by ! the efforts of this class of expounders and de- lenders, and it is the educated men of this | generation who must exercise themselves to | faith that is strong because it is discriminat- l ing and intelligent and therefore is catholic and tolerant.
 4. Reflective intelligence adds enormously | to individual usefulness. We contend that questions of duty as truly as questions of
 faith require the light which comes from
 i earnest and intelligent reflection. It is al
 | ways real mistake and sometimes serious
 mistake to suppose that the conscience which
 is to the life what the eye is to the body ii
 never darksned or burdened even when il
 gropeS or strains after the light. The Great
 Teacher has surely taught us better than this
 ] in the words "If the light that Is in thee be
 l darkness, how great is that darkness" To l contend or conclude that only an honest
 mind is wanted to make the life consistent, l transparent and beautiful in the eyes of all l who look on, has. just resemblance of truth i enough to hide and recommend an enormous ! error. The inner spirit may indeed be in- ! spired of God to 8 child's simplicity, but the | occasions are constant in which there is call l and need that in understanding 1e should be l men, and the weak-minded but honest heart ed servant of duty is constantly making prac- | tical blunders by ill-timed words and mis- ! taken conduct Nothing but respect for his honesty preserves him oftentimes from being
 lauf he'd at for his weak or wrong headed | error. It is also mistake to suppose that what is called an average understanding is all ] that is needed for the wise conduct of life in critical hours. The man who gives thought \ to the question, what shall I believe cannot | but ask at times with equal earnestness l 'What shall do?'' The earnest actions that are fired by zeal and controlled by thought | have Che steel in them of enlightened conVic- 1 tions and they cut their way like steel. The | fervor that flames out of the slowly kindled
 coals of inward reflection is like the touch of | a seraph sent from the presence and altar of | God, which inspire words and deeds of duty | with prophets power. On the other hand
 zeal fak duty that is guided and energized by
 no soMG ard well reasoned convictions is the | wild fire of windy enthusiasm which burns | itself out for want of fuel, or the sulphurfous | flame of the malignant fanatic who ends by | cursipg and denouncing those whom he hoped Go bless and save. Ten thousand times has 1t been proved that unenlightened moral | earnestness has brought the very name of conscience and duty into public moekery and made them stench in the nostrils of the | sober minded. It would seem to be weakness I to hold that duty can be severed from the in | tellect in the practical affairs of life. It is | next to madness to entertain the idea that | duty can furnish it's own inspiration at a time | when the results of conduct are scrutinized | by thousand critical eyes and the mistakes | of good men are blazoned in scores of news- papers.
 ,. WhaS is true of private activity is true
 of social movements. They all cry out for | intelligence as the condition of success. The l world was never so wakeful as ct present to
 social combinations for human welfare. The l cause of political and administrative reform, l of public education in every plane, of tenn perance by political and moral instrumental 1 ty, of missionary and evangelistic efforts, of the arrest and prevention of pauperism, poverty and crime, or rcomprehensiVely of the l elevation of society and of man by social | agencies, never received so much attention as | at present. If the first flush of zeal and hope
 in respect to some of these interests has
 abated and given way to the depressing con- l clusion that social regeneration must be long l delayed, the assurance has but deepened in | many minds that were society but half awak- ened to what it could do and might hope for 0 glorious day would soon be seen to come
 up the sky. With these hopes the conviction l is more and more established that every so- clal movement that is founded on false and
 defective principles will sooner or later be | completely wrecked or suffer some desperate
 reaction. Now and then some tidal wave of ] reform sweeps over the land, as in temper l ance legislation for prohibition or high li- l cense, or popular education, or evangelism, 1 or some radical notion about the currency or | property in land, and the half-truths that are
 parsded upon the banners or shouted in the | rallying cries seem to move the entire com
 munity. So far as such movement repre- 1 sents principle that is sound and true it is | irresistible. true principle once set in mo- | tion is omnipotent. The men and the com-
 munity which oppose are to it simply as the
 cannon shot. They simply convert it into 8 ball of fire which burns and shatters what | ever it strikes. So far as such a movement l represents only half truth the error neu- tralizes the truth, and it repels as often as it | constrains or wins, and is itself ground into powder by the reaction which it provokes There are those who say, "The cause is good on the whole; why not join with it? It will do more good than harm. We cannot
 stay to make it perfect; the people are impa-
 tient; this is no time to think, only to act. 7" There are times when it is safe to respond to
 such an appeal, when the end is so great and | good and the means are wise and direct
 that to stand aloof or to criticise is almost an
 act of treason to one's kind. But it is not