Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1890-06-27


University of Vermont and State Agricul-
tural college opened auspiciousy Sunday
afternoon with the delivery of the baccalau-
reate sermon at the College street church by
President NJ. H. Buckham. The day was
delightfully."- cool and the seating capacity
of the church was exhausted by congrega-
ton that included many of the leading resi-
dents of the city as well as number OF
prominent alumni from out of town who
have come to participate in the enjoyments
of another commencement Prof
S. F. Emerson occupied seat
upon the platform with President Buckham,
,nd read the 2,th chapter of Acts.
The sermon by the President was an
able as well as timely utterance and it was
pronounced by competent judges ono of the
best baccaaureate sermons ever delivered by
him.
PRESIDENT BUCKHAM'S SERMON.
After 10 long time there beat down
tempestuous wind called Euraquia; and
when the ship was caught and could not
face the wind, we gave way to it aud were
driven. Acts xvii, II.
Three times over in this short description
we read how the ship was driven by the
wind. as though ii had been mere drift
wood. as though /Folus had all the will and
the purpose, and man were his plaything
and victim. Bad seamanshp breads the
wind and drifts before it; good scamanship
welcomes the wind uses it, chooses its own
way not merely in spite of the wind, but
by its help.
There is here something very suggestive
of the condition of modern thought and
life. The intellectual world to-day is in
condition in which navigation was in the
10Th century-forsaking the midland sea
f,,- ncri,, priti irfY
from safe point of view the ventures of
current thought, he would admire the bold
ness-if he We're not compelled to censure
the rashness-with which explorers are
pushing away FROM everything established
and secure, aud would at the same time pity
the iuadequacy of our equipments and the
incompetency of our methods for succeeding
i'll such perious adventures. There will
doubtless come a time when our spiritual
successors, looking back from those days of
oceanic and aerial navigation, will say of
us; ''St. Paul's little ship, and its methods
of seamanship were no better fitted for At
lantic voyages than was the thinking of the
18Th century for the enterprises upon which
it so rashly embarked. How much it
at the mercy of seasons, and currents,
and contrary winds, how it was blown
about by pu1fs of conceit and gusts of SEN
tment ard when a storm, Euraquilo,
blew off from some hostile philosophy, how
was it driven hither and thither up and
down in Adria, and was finally saved only
by the apostolic truth it reluctantly
carried y
1t may be profitable for us to consider on
the one side the peril of drifting, and on
the other side the need and opportunity of
pilotage Toward what are we drifting !?
toward what ought we to steer these are
.I f.,r
Calling attention by way of illustration
to two or three movements of our times
which we may properly call driftings, and
beginning with the outward relations of
men, we find that in social life there is q
drift toward ndvidualism-toward what
a great French writer has happily phrased
''egostic independence. The principle of
this movement is the doctrine of individual
rights, which is essentially dersive prin-
ciple. For, though men may band together
to assert their common rights, yet when
those rights are secured, the enjoyment of
them is a solitary enjoyment, and tends to
promote isolation and independence. In
thought it begets endless diversity of opin-
ion and fondness for differing; "quot
homincs tot sententiae" In religion it has
produced multiplicity of sccts, in domestic
life the separation of interests frequent di-
vorces, and increase of celibacy. Its motto
is Gam my brothers. keeper - its spirit
too often is that of the cruel taunt of the
priests to the repentant traitor "What is
that to us, see thou to that" ''True we
tempted you and we profit by your sin, but
as 10 the sin, thou to that" There
seems to be something in civilization itself
which favors individualism. The working
of the industrial system makes each man
less consciously dependent on others All
the arts bring their supplies to ones door
before he is awake in the morning; solitary
reading snpplants conversation; science in
vites to solitude and stands in the place of
society; through the telephone one can
communicate with all the world and have
society with none Nature has provided
God has provided, men with three natural
societies, the home, the church, the civil
community, which furnish exactly what
human nature in its various fortunes Graves
OF society, What men are yearning for
and striving to reach in all these frantic
efforts at society is the true home life, the
true church life the true state life. lie
who guides men back into these, or rather
forward into fuller appreciation of their
benefits than man has ever had, is the true
pilot.
1t must be sufficiently obvious that in
thought the age is drifting toward disbe-
Of the day-the latest fad of the literary
and semi scientific and quasi-religious lead
ers and their imtators, to say miracles dc
not happen 1t is the drift of the times
not exactly the spirit of the age, but it may
soon be. Here, If anywhere, the though
Of the times need pilotagc. And as thu
church, only half freed from the snpersti
tions OF pnganism, is mainly responsible
for the eXtravagances which drove though
into denial, so must true Christian doc
trine guide mankind back into
safe and rational belief in th
miraculous. First and foremost ther
must be total disavowal Of the old erro
that a miracle Is a violator of law. i
must be announced with all the authority
of a legitimate infallibility that no power
full spirit, good or bad, can ever break
law of the Universe, and that God neve
will; that by no trick of devil, by no fla
of omnipotence, not even in answer t.
prayer, or to convert a sceptic, or to brinI
about any conceivable good, will two anC