Morning journal and courier., 1885-06-22
Monday, June 22. 1885.
RACOALAUREATE SERMON.
EooNcLUpED FROM FIRST PAeE.l

RACCALAUH BATE SGINH4ONs
 CONCLUDED FROM FIRST PAGE.l
 warrior or martyr, nay even in woman or that could compare with that with winch the Christian faith has clothed itself as with an armour of mail. It is equally pertinent but almost equally unexpected that knowiedge or discriminating judgment should be especially enioined. The injunction to temperance in the control of the animal impulses might oc- casion no surprise nor that of patient endur- ance, although the temperance that comes or & spiritual tastes of higher quality and pa tience that is sustained by faith can literally endure all things. Gedliness or reverent deyotedness as habit of the soul ,as we have already said, is virtue of Jewish and Chris tian parentage in it's eminent sense, and love of the brethren as special affection is emi- nently Christian. But how came this ideal into the thoughts of men, and further how came it to be invested with such honor and authority in the hearts of mena
 This ideal, let it be remembered when ta-
 ken as whole, is @ Christian ideal of the
 life which every man ought to
 aspire to live. The Christian believer has
 learned to acknowledge its associations, to
 bow before it's authority and struggle for It's
 realization The excellence Of this ideal has
 become more and more generally cordially
 approved by those whose opinions command
 respect or represent the consenting Judg-
 ncnt of their fellows. But how was It
 when these words were first written. How
 would they have sounded in the ear ot the
 thoughtful Stoio who had chanced to hear
 them in Christian assembly, or recognized
 them as expressing the aspirations and 1udg-
 ments of the early disciples. Possibly he
 might have honored the motives while he
 commiserated the judgment ot these Well
 meaning but weakly men. As tor the Vlf
 tues named, most of them would have been
 a positive offence to his convictions and his
 tastes. And as for the populace who pro
 fessed no philosophy, as to the average Ro-
 man world, the men who farmed the reve-
 nue and filled the offices and directed and
 paid for the public games, would
 not philosophers and the great public have regarded them all with utter contempt or disdain as being weak and mean, utterly inconsistent with the hard sense of men of culture, and, consequently, as having little no authority with e1thers
 What contrast is in the views of the ideal of life between the literature even of Cicero and of Horace and the English literature of Coleridge and Tennyson, or even of Froude and Matthew Arnold! And how has this change been brought about? How many ser mons and exhortations has it cost, and how fuences at home and abroad, how many bold defenders and silent actors of the better life? All along during these strug- gling years the great words of the New Testa ment have been devoutly perused in Chris tian homes and in Christian closets. Every where the story could be read, the crucifix which could be seen in wayside chapel or solemn cathedral, has witnessed patient love, that cour age stronger than death, and the pictured virgin has looked an example of tender compassion and patient intercesslon. Manifold other influences also have wrought into the worlds opinion and rule of life 6tle
 .e4o .<~F f1, ,Is tian sentiment that has displaced the ol maxims and sentiments of selishness, of cruelty, of revenge and of arrogance till the old and worn laws of savageness and butch cry have given place to the new command ment that Christ gave to his disciples and has baptized into new name and has enact ed as a new rule of ideal aspiration and ac tion. It would seem in view of all this progress in the past that whatever the con duct and character of thinking men were likely to be, this rule of thinking and feeling was and would remain forever unchanged, that the rule which prescribes virtue, knowl- edge, temperance and patience and godliness and love of the brethren and charity would forever stand in speculative honor as sacred truth. All this would seem to be natural and actual. And yet it is not exactly so. One of the strange aspects of our own times is an attempt in some quarters to return to the hard Stoic ideal and to reject the Christian rule of feel ing and of conduct. It is the theoretic ex- altation of selfishness and self-seeking and the condemnation of the temper and acts which are oharacteristically Christian. It would seem as though with the rejection of the doctrine that God is the father of spirits the inference is tacitly implied or silently en- forced that his creatures should no longer be the objects of sympathizing pity or Christ like sacrifice: that under the sanction of a theory of physics which finds the origin of the universe in pantheistic fine mist, the rule for human ethics was condensed into the maxim, look out for myself and assert and establish all thine interests into rights. IL would seem as though men in Christendom were to be divided into two classes-those which believe in the Father of spirits, who is an example and the inspirer of love to men in all it's forms of self-sacrifee, and those who deny God and believe in looking out for themselves. If this is so there is the more reason that we should re-enact as our rule in life, giving all diligence, gin your faith sup ply virtue, and in your virtue knowledge. and in your knowledge temperance, and in your temperance patience, and in your pa tience god1iness, and in your godliness love of the brethren and in your love of the brethren love.
 This leads us to the thought, ''Such life is an assured success" "If these things are yours and abound they make you to be not idle, nor unfaithful unto the knowledge of our. Lord Jesus Christi "For if ye do these things ye shall never stumble" Such a life this-a life characterized by these features cannot be a failure. Whatever sac rifces it may Involve, whatever losses it may appoint, whatever enemies it may make, poverty or sickness it may bring, if it be 8 life of faith within, exemplifed by activity without, in all these forms of act and suffering it will be life of light and peace and hope. No other plan of life can assure success, for the reason that success of any other kind involves conditions which no man can control; as bodily and mental health, foresight, friends, favoring eircum- stances, and those thousand accidents which mar or make ones future, none of which are to any man. But if a man main tains a supreme allegiance to Christ as his Master and guide, and if he exemplifes that faith by all the activities of human nature and the opportunities of human life he can not fail. Every day brings it's occasion for duty ,and the demands of duty are responded to at every instant of his life when he hears an order from his Master. Every fellowman whom he encounters utters a call for sym pathy or help protest or reproof, every earthly duty is both enforced and transfe- ured by this light which it reflects from heaven. The experiences of the past give him courage and hope for the future. The power of habit becomes second nature to 5ubIdlu tuu III POA 1lLl III HIS COllTS0. ln6 attestation of his own experiences and the sunlight of his own aspirations assure him that he walks in the truth and in the light
 Philosophy, both ancient and modern can teach 6 man to bear and endure most of the evils of life with patience and self-control. It can also enforce forecast and manifold lessons of prudence in avoiding greater and lesser evils; and whatever it can teach him it not only will teach, but it is needful that he should learn The gospel does not dispense with this neces- sity nor with the aid of philosophy or com mon sense. It sends him to the school of common sense and experience, and bids him learn the lessons which they inculcate, and hear them as the voice of the Master by mo tives which no philosophy can furnish. The Christian philosophy of life is the far thest removed from sentimental moonshine, on the one hand. which feeds the words of an inflated and learned phraseology, as it is from the doglnatism of 8 hard and Goddess so-called common sense.
 A suited pietism that hides it's head in the clouds and rarely looks upon the ground on which it is forced to tread, will stumble at every step and bring the worlds ridieule and contempt, as it sees him reel and fall. But Christian common sense, that is radiant with Christian love, exalts human nature to it's highest manifestations and gives the humblest men in the 1owliest position dig nifty that commands respect.
 The gospel does not promise to the rash
 and reckless, because they are innocent and
 earnest, any exemption from the natural con-