St. Paul daily globe., 1889-06-03
HIS PARTING WORDS.
Spoken by President North
rop to the Graduating
Class.
Compliments to the Seniors
for Their Industry and
Loyalty.
Preceded by an Eloquent
Baccalaureate Ad-
dress,
In Which Ex-Gov. Pillsbury
Comes In for a Eul-
ogy.

An audience of at least 1000 persons
gathered at the Coliseum yesterday aft
ernOon on the occasion OF the annual
baccalaureate praise service. with which
the university commencement week is
inaugurated. Though the day was
cloudy and threatened rain before the
service began, the interior Of the Coli
scum was comfortably warm. The aft
ernoon exercises began promptly with
a solo and chorus, ''Oh, Had l the
Wings of Dove" by the Gounod
club, directed by Charles H. Morse.
President f. A. McCurdy, of Manchester
college, read the Scripture lesson, and
Rev. C.. A. Van Anda offered prayer.
The Gounod club sang the chorus from
"The Messiah" And the Glory of the
LOrd.'
THE BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS
was then delivered by President
NOrthrop, who took text from the
NINETEEN Psalm, twelfth verse: $50
teach us to number our days that we
may apply our hearts unto wisdom"
The wise man," he said, lis he who
knows what is best. Wisdom, as de-
fined by an eminent Christian philOso-
pher, consists in estimating all things
at their true value Job makes God
himself say: The fear of the Lord
that is wisdom The two definitions
are not inconsistent. If we estimate all
things at their true value we cannot fall
to place God foremost i'll our thoughts.
The fear of the LOrd-that is pre-emi-
nently wisdom, because it places the
highest value on that which is highest
and best in the universe"
The poet COWper has pointed out the
fact that ''knowledge and wisdom, far
from being one, have Oftentimes no
connection" and no better example
could be cited to illustrate this truth
than Solomon, usually called the wisest
OF men. 1t is said that there came of
all people to hear his wisdom, and his
was wisdom you hear far better than
see. 1t was in words, not in deeds.
Looking at his whole life, we are re-
minded of the English king who never
said foolish thing and never did a
wise one. Solomon understood and
appreciated the excellence of all moral
virtues; no man could discourse so well
as he on duties, public and private.
And yet he did not act according to his
knowledge. No man who reads Solo
mons proverbs can doubt that he knew
what was wisdom; but no man who
reads the story of hlSlife can believe
that in any true sense he himself was
wise.
KNOWLEDGE IS NOT WISDOM.
Aaron Burr had knowledge, but no
wisdom. Byron, Shelley, Poe-all had
knowledge but no wisdom. George
Washington had but little knowledge,
but great wisdom. A certain amount
of knowledge is necessary for
every one. The common sense legisla-
tion of the day requires every person to
attend school long enough to get that
necessary amount of knowledge. The
paths that lie open to the young are al
most innumerable. The least inviting
is that of manual labor, assisted by little
or no thought. The man with no educa-
ton will take this path because he can
take no other, and the boy who wishes
to walk in that path all his life can make
sure of doing so by not getting an edu-
cation. The proportion OF labor and
thought in the higher calllngs was
described, and the speaker continued:
''But whether it be invention, creation,
inspiration OF accumulation, the wise
man does not necessarily do what he
thinks best in itself, but what, being
good. he can do best. Better be good
be good business man than a poor
lawyer; better produce wealth and ac-
cumulate it than create worthless
literature: better, in short, have heart
of knowledge and wisdom; what one can
do best, then do it. Daniel Webster
was great lawyer, early at the head of
American bar. He was wise in
choosing to be what he was. AS
a business man he would probably
been obliged to make an assignment
for the benefit of his creditors at least
once a year. But in choosing these
various paths of life
THE DECIDING QUESTION
in every case should be, not what man
can get, but what he can do. Even if
one gets knowledge, the ultimate ques-
ton is, what can he do with it?''
These principles the president pro-
ceeded to apply to single phase Of
modern life, the "money getting" His
argument was based on recognition of
the fact that modern life is based upon
money. that the civilization and the
kingdom of God on earth depend
schools, churches, public institutions
for the support of the blind, the deaf
and the feeble-minded. Money was the
backbone of charity, and home and for
eign missions. 1t was as wise, then, he
thought, for the man who could create
values and so gain honest wealth to do
so as 1t was for the man who could Gre
ate thought and produce literature to do
so. The great trouble with the world
was that men were not satisfied with
keeping reasonable amount of wealth,
but were anxious to get all they could,
and keep all they had. They set
the getting of wealth before them as an
end. The pursuit of wealth under
snch conditions was not enobling. 1t
reacted On the man himself. making
him narrow and selfish and shut him
out from the best and sweetest pleas
ures of life. The president was glad to
name conspicuous examples of men
who had made wealth means of rails
ing humanity. Such men as James
Hopkins and George Peabody deserved
to live with the creators of thought be-
cause they had set their wealth to work
to produce thought creators. A more
interesting example he found at home
and thus introduced:
A TRIBUTE TO GOV. PILLSYURY.
ssThe names of other men, who with