Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1889-06-17
SMITH COLLEGE COMMENCE
MENT.
The BaccalauIeate Sermon and Address
to Graduates.

NORTHAMPTON, Mass, June IS.
The following is an abstract of the bacca
laureate sermon delivered here today BY L.
Clark Seelye of Smith College. Subject,
knowledge Through Obedience" Text,
John VII, i7-''lf any man will DO His will
he shall know the doctrine"
That there is a higher and stronger will
than our own is one of the first lessons in
life. Nature teaches it. Physical laws
were not made BY man. Within a certain
limit man may use natural forces but the
service eIacted must be according to rules
already prescribed. Nature serves us only
As we obey her master.
The laws of mind also do not depend on
the consent of men. Poetry. music and ed
ucation are not subject to human tribunals
Poetry becomes poetry, not because Greeks
Hebrews or literary critics agree to call it
80, but because it Obeys the eternal laws of
beauty and truth Everywhere human
thought is met by a sovereign and eternal
intelligence, whose mandates are no less
controlling because impalpable ard unseen.
1t is the same in the moral world. There
we find laws of righteousness and Justice
which we are as impotent to change as are
the force of gravity or the transmission of
light No strikes can ever alter the fl xed
wages of sin or the fixed rewards of virtue.
IL Is this universal sovereign power which is
indicated IN the words, If any man will do
His will he shall ksow the doctrine" +" and the
lesson which they teacn is this: True
knowledge comes through oh dience TO a
supreme will, AS revealed in nature and
human experience.
That ignorance comes through disobedi
ence of physical laws it needs but little OBJ
sersation To perceive. There can be no
progress in science where lust is unbridled
Passion consumes the reason it enslaves. No
matter what the native genius OF the mutual
requirements may be, the sovereignty of
brutal appetite will prove fatal to the intel
lectuai life. The Illicit fruit desired to
make one wise makes the transgressor in
capable at last of discerning good from evil
Similar ignorance follows where men be-
come the slaves of their occupations, and
business takes the place of Gods law. One
does not know as much about ones trade as
if one were less subject to it.
The dayspring of knowledge comes when
men are obedient to the truth of their Crea-
tor. Modern scientists no longer seek to
construct a universe according to their own
fancies, but according to its laws, They ask
submissvely for facts.
In natural and in moral science the prom
Use of the text holds equally good aud has
been rs fully verified. Where the love of
truth and righteousness prevails, there, intel
ligenee takes the place of superstition, and
faith suppants credullty However we may
interpret the life of Christ, il was evidently
one controlled by supreme devotion to the
truth No other man has solved so clearly
and so satisfactorily the darkest and most
perplexiDg problems of human life. What
well established doctrine of ethics or relig-
ion has not Jesus Christ most clearly euun-
ciated? Our best moral teachers are his pu
pits, our statesmen learn from him the doc
trine of equal rights, our teachers find in his
idea of human perfection, the strongest in
centive to intellectual culture, our theoogi-
ans look to him for the ctearest revelation of
perfect God
OF no other person can it be so truly said
"He is the light of the world" Those who
have been most filled with his spirit of obe
dience have been in ever age the gre atest
teachers of the truth You may count over
the names of those to whom the world is
most indebted for the truths which stand the
test of time. ar d you will find them without
exception, loyal servants of a higher will
than their own. 1t is not difficult to see why
this should be so The christian spirit Sc
cures right action, the use of every power
according to its original design. Flesh and
soul become helpmstes. The enthronement
of the higher sovereignty of the truth frees
the mind of the manifold hindersnces which
come from self love.