Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-07-05
COLBY COMM ENCEMENT.
Baccalaureate Sermon by President e..
ID. B. Pepper.
WATERyILLE, July 4.

w AAHn'AILE5 ouiy
Colby commencement was inaugurated this
afternoon with the bsccalaureate sermon by
Present G. d. B. Pepper, d. d. The fol-
lowing is An abstrrct of the sermon:
Be ye followers [imitatorsl of me, even as
l, also, am of Christi Cor. II: l.
The impulse to initiate exists in man and
brute alike. It's pow er which works for
good or evil. When controlled and directed
by reason, il Is potent in building manly
character. The apostle, with seeming van
ity, but real modesty, presents himself as,
in some respects, a model for imitation. He
knew that his life brought into bold relief
some lessons that were worth the learning.
OF these, the first is that every man should
be true to himself; should be himself and
never try to become another. Paul's indi-
viduality was singularly marked, and was
pc rsistently maintained. Another such man
can be found in neither sacred nor profane
history. In particular, he was many men in
one; each man distinct, opposites appearing,
yet as truly one as many. Thus at first
sight he seems to be logician, remorselessly
following his logic, and leaving behind
rhetorical chaos. Again, his rhetoric unites
with his logic to clothe in matchless beauty
his matchless strenth. A stern, severe man
is he now, without blanching looking into the
pit of hell, and vindicating the inviolable
authority of law. Look again and you see
one whose heart Is an exhaustless fountain
OF feeling, now tender, delicate, gentle, now
mighty as a torrent. We find him as a
mystic who keeps his gaze on the unseen
and eternal, that time and sense become even
less than shadows, and God Is all in all, but
even as we look and listen, he becomes the
man OF affairs, brim full of practical wisdom.
The marvellous uniqueness he preserved in
violate, and from this came his marvellous
power. Had he failed in this, he would have
gone to pieces and to nothing. So we best
initiate him when we keep intact our self
hood and individuality.
Again, Paufs life teaches us each to have
plan of lite. He never drifted or saun-
tered. lie had an end in view and a view
of the end. He was man of aim and pur-
pose. AS student he led his competitors
His public lite he began with downright and
clear-cut purpose to destroy the Christian
faith and the Christian disciples. He
swerved not from this purpose until the
heavenly vision arrested him and the heaven
| ly voice rebuked him. Instantly, as he
abandoned his old purpose, he sought new
one. His immediate cry was ''What shall
| do" In the ears that followed he kept
his aim and kept to it. He who has no pur-
pose for life has failed already. Time can
do no more for him than to work out the
failure already completed within.
As his life teaches US to form plan of
life, so it teaches US on what principles to
form it. He declares that as a prosecutor
he had been conscientious, but also bitterly
in sorrow comedies that he had been both
ignorant and exceeding mad. He was full of
party prejudice, natural pride and self
will There are many lives like his, con
scientiuus in measure, yet radically wrong
and bad. Their root is not kind. loving,
candid, catholic spirit. When he started on
his new course, il was in new spirit. He
made Gods will his own, and in that will he
found his plan of life. Yet it was not bar
rem and empty will that he obeyed. He
loved the will for what it contsined-its
treasures of sweet and holy life. He lived
not as a slave, but as a child. And SO the
more complete his subsection, the more per-
feet his freedom. That is q poor life that is
shaped by rule, even If the rule be Gods
That is rich life which finds in the rule the
treasures Of the spirit of Christ.
Paul shows us how TO execute Alright the
plan of life which is rightly formed. He
kept to his plan and allowed nothing to draw
him aside, He said truly s'this one thing
do" Yet again he knew how to bend to the
storm, to turn aside for breakers. to adjust
himself in circumstances. He became 'all
things to all men. He was also in dead
earnest, determined to make the utmost of
his powers and his opportunities. He had
but one life to live on earth. one course to
run. He spared not himself. Without this,
what would be have been or done? Without
this, who can be much or do much? he
hasted but he could also rest How patient
| ly-sometimes impatiently-how resolutely