Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1891-06-16
RANDoLPH-MACoN COLLEGE.
Baccalaureate Sermon by Rev. DIR. Tudor
Faculty and Board Meetings.

rCorrespondence of,the Richmond Dispatch.l
ASHLAND. June 15.-Sunday broke bright
and beautiful. The campus has never
looked brighter or better since Randolph
Macon College has been located in our
midst. Long before IL o'clock, the time
appointed for the opening services incl
dent to the annual commencement, num-
bers of our people were seen on their way
TO the Duncan-Memorial chapel, where
Rev. W.lV. Tudor, ID. D., OF Broad-Street
church. Richmond. was to preach the
baccalaureate sermon. The church was
filled. Inside the chancel-rail were seated
DR.. Tudor and Rev. Mr.. Young, the pastor
here. Before the desk was beautiful
bunch of white lilies and ferns.
THE BAccALAUBKATE.
After the usual services before the ser
mon were concluded DR.. Tudor took for
his text John xviii: 1T is expedient for
Won that | 90 away." The sermon cOmpre-
hended-frst. the introduction of the sub
iect and then the discussion in two points.
Day and night come and 90, 1t ia expe-
dent for us that things go as well as
come. Spring-time. childhood, and youth
90 away. II is eXpedient. Succession,
outgrowth, circularity are inherent IN the
necessary processes OF LIE. some Things
are better gone than staying, as
the bad the false, the wrong. All
written history is but a few tragmentary
notes of the great past of man that Is gone
away. It profits little to look backward or
forward in curious inquiry. The culture
of humanity steadily advances, and human
progress toward the end is accomplished
ever midway between vanishing past ana
the dissolving views of as dim a future.
Jesus said 10 his disciples: lt IS eX-
pedient for you that / go away" when II
might seem to human judgment that it
were better he should stay. lie left his
disciples TO themselves.
1. Self-reliance. To be pTecipated INTO
self-reliance discovers self TO conscious
ness. The knowledge of self, or Of what
man Is. can never come by precept, II must
come by consciousness. What we call pro-
gress and culture is only man developing
himself to consciousness. what is he
then!
sELF-RKLIANCE.
A child Of God, inheriting Gods powers,
although at the long. uncomfortable. range
of the finite from the infinite. To the last
he shall be left 20 self and consciousness
TO know himself. For all the grandest ends
confined 10 this life there is no more i'm
portant subject than self-reliance. The
teacher leaves the student 10 himself TO
work out the problem or study. There l.
n self for every man and every age. A
man must in some sort be original
TO be ANYTHING. A boy will trade his
iack-knife he gave O nickel for, for another
article, and trade again, and come out
TWENTY-FIVE cents ahead. Another boy
will watch him closely and initiate him,
and be without knife or money at night.
Self-reliance and there is success for every
individuality. A fellow who was intended
for a mechanic sets up for a merchant and
his lite is a failure. The trouble Is there
are too many gentlemen nowadays and too
few men. A fellow who was intended for
NOTHING but a preacher takes to the law
and misses the tide in his affairs.
The lesson of self-reliance Christ taught
in the highest truths. What teacher,
what a power in society He would have
been, we might conceive, staying. He
went away. He withdrew the very vision
of God with us that He was. 1t was ex-
pedient.
HIS OWN DESTINY.
Man is working out his own being and
destiny. Jesus lived out the human life
and achieved his glory. Other sons of
God would arise. The world was thick
with the sons of God. II was inherent IN
God-made man to be the very child OF his
Father, and TO the consciousness OF that
| self he could be recovered only by coming
to himself, as the prodigal did. There Is a
self which is mans independent, divine
| kingdom. He must be that self. He has
| dared and done of self. He has shaken
| the world with himself. He has asserted,
and delivered, and signaliZed himself. He
has eviscerated the planet of its stone,
and coal, and iron, and then nd
| den furiously over its surface with
| the unchecked course and triumphant
scream Of the conqueror. He conquers
new worlds with his glass and handles the
| telescope as if surveying his future home.
| He has no care for that which Is gone. He
| is equal to the present. he has moral au-
| tonomy and is not an automatOn. The
CLEAN and stirring of self within him have
| awanened the ideas of moral culture ire
pressible in all ages. Christianity takes
| him by the arm and rouses him to know
| himself. Luke ill.,, 49, (which was the
son OF Enos, which was the son of Seth
which was the son Of Adam, which was the
son of God"
THE HOLY SPIRIT.
2. Christ's explanation of his departure
was, Il will send the Comforter" the
Holy Spirit. Things come as well as 60
| Jesus goes, the Spirit comes: successive
| dispensation to bring man to himself. II
was the spirit of Christ that made Him the
| Son of God. "As many as are led by the
| Is man child of the devil or O child oil
| God? II depends upon the spirit he has.
1t is his redemption that the good spirit
grieved away by his sin, comes TO him
again. This is prominently of all time
| the spiritual age; the age of faith
conquering materialism by purely
| spiritual forces; by a very baptism
an inpouring of the spirit from
the spirit world. The early Pentecost j:
not needed. The spirit insists upon the
distinctly spiritual; and man grows upor
| q % l,a Nf.vai off ha id
| the spirit in the place of Christ, and thou.
sands and millions of the sons of God are
! doing in the earth the works of Christ and
| greater works than His, as He said. Now
| we see why miracles have ceased. Christi
| anity splritualiZes man. Here is charac
| ter, the works of the flesh are manifest
| and the fruits of the Spirit. The Father
will give the Holy Spirit to them that ash
| Him, and'to such he gives power to become
fhe sons of God. Once more Christ shall
come, as once he went. and with Him re
| turning we shall be like Him." we shall
see Him as He is. and we shall be as He IS
Dazzling destiny.
The sermon was listened to with marked
| attention, and elected as many if not NOR,
| favorable comments than any that ha:
been preached here in long time.
IMPORTANT MEETISGG.
Tonight the faculty of Randolph-Al Macon
| College are holding meeting at which
much business IS being done. Who are to
receive diplomas will be determined TO.
morrow morning at o'clock. The Board
| of Trustees hold an important meeting
Two trustees will be elected to ell yacan
| cies that are now existing in the board
! Rev. James A. Duncan and Rev. George
| w. Carter. both of Lynchburg, arrived
this afternoon, to be here during the com.
meneement exercises.
OTHER NOTES.
Rev. William Frost Bishop, OF Black
stone, Nottoway county. preached twice
yesterday 10 large congregations at the
| pEeabyteriAn church; Mr. Bishop was at