Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1891-06-29
COMMENCEMENT WEEK
Begins at Colby-PTssfdsnt emalis
BacoaiauTeats Sermon.

| Special TO the KEsxEBEc JouzxAL.1
WArERvILLE, June 2S-The Goth an
nus' commencement of Colby Univerrity
began this morning At 10 80 in The Baptist
church. After tbs usual preliminary sx
efcises, which included several selection
hy the choir and prayer by Rev. w. H.
Sp. ncer, ID. D., the president Of the uni
ve,si'y. Rev. Albion W. Small, Ph. D.,
delivered the baccalaureate sermon ir
presence OF a ceugre egalion which filed al
the pews. both on the floor and in the gal.
l-ri-s as we'll as the ezra seats that could
be .nprovised for the occasion. The regu-
lar services in the ether churches ere
given up or changed ont of courtesy to this
opening feature of the Colby commence
mers;
President Small's text was part Of the
| i3-h verse Of the 81 chapter Of John
"And this is the condemnation, this. the
| light is come into the world. and man loved
the darkness rs ler than The light
Dr.. Small spoke directly TO the members
of the class Of 81, who occupied the front
Fews OF the auditorium, and in the course
| 4 his remarks he said:
| The bs.is of Christian religion is un-
chsngeabie tru'h, just as re basis Of
a,fonomy or physics, or chemistry, 10 fact,
| lld2sd forever ia the constitution Of ma
ter. We may. upon scien .ic grounds,
nsir tsin differe 1t opinions upon the prob
| aba per cd dur lg which our sun will re-
m ia luminous; or We may miscal alculAte th ,
age OF the world ny few Insignificant de-
cades OF milleni q, more or less, but no one
| thirks hat these unce, .ainties will destroy
he facts which We fail =, comprehend
The religion Of Jesus Ch. let is, frst and
| foremost, a reco5 5ti or Of hat which IS,
in the unalterable constitution Of the moral
world. and Of individual moral baiogs -
nen spin, and weave, and bend. and
twist that ruth into all manner Of distor-
lions and dislocs ons, il 'heir theologie,
aud religious philan.hropies, but the truth
nevertheless sfsnde'1 sure. That truth
which is the cons,itu len Of our being. dis
covered itself in the life Of Jesus. You
will near me witness that in this college,
reiigicu, names and words, receive, for
tn ir own sake. very l..le reverence. You
have never been asked to bow to the au.
thority Of formulas which could not Justify
themselves to your Judgement; you have
never be en- held responsible for belisf in
anything for which sufficient reason could
not be assigned. you are therefore. pre-.
psred to hesr me candidly, when 1 try to
tell yuu, for The last time, what have tried
to tell in fragments through the year, that
there 10 truth in The personal revelaii On
Of Jesus, which is the subiimest reason
att ssed ny self-evident authority. 1 am
fsr,hest from desiring 10 use the name Of
Jesus in any ritual sense, or with any convei- :
tionai or dogmAic force. Read Of Jesus 81
you read Of Con!ueius, and Buddha, and
Socrates. and Marcus Aurelius Resd the
literstures Of The Olent, as honest men,
for Whist they tel, you about this span OF
life between the two awful inf1niIies Of
silence. Then read the Gospels, A. you
have rssd these other books. and answer
neither it is true that the light Of life that
had gimme red out from prophecy and pro-
| vidence in Jesus, aetually illumined the
world.
Scarcely more than fifty years $50 the
most comprehensive French thinker Of tbs
Ct untfy. Wishing to illustrate the limitations
OF human knowledge. asserted that the
nature of things forbids the possibility thai
men can ever learn the chemical compos,
ton of the sun. But the ink WAS hardly
dry upon the paee which published THU
claim when the spectre cone read the rev.
i slstion that bad blszed in the suuligh. ever
since our solsr system shs ped itself in
space. The truth which men had all the
centuries sought in vain, emerged At lasi
through the medium Of Jesus life.
"Do you remember that scene in the
iu lement hall st Jerusalem, in which r.
m IN sgnosticism sneefed ct the sccused oi
the Jews, its Ultimate and deperate doubt
Piiate saith unto him. What is truth ?
Next to the crucifIion, I am inclined to
reckon this as the most dramatic situation
in the whole Gospel tragedy. Here the
critical, curious lestioning Of the sges mel
the answer it had sought. The answer con-
fronts the qusstioDer without recognition
truth impersonate, lustrous in purity, "a
diant in rightness The light shone in tht
da .knsss and the darkness comprehended
it nott
1.-The path Of most intimate concern t
men is rot the metaphysics Of what is Of
has been before our hi ID, nor provision Of
| what will follow after death. The truth
that means the most for us, the truth thai
v;pdicates the whole cosmic machinery o1
tributary fact, the truth that affords the
largest promise. ,hst DEGREES the lordlies
command, tha. imparts the Coolest power
IS this same visible demonstration tha
human life means the potency Of such mora
DENOMINATIONS as sppeared in Christ
Manhood, in its manifold moral possibili.
lies is the initial truth Of the christian reve-
ls,ion. A thousand different processes ol
human velopemens had appeared, ant
passed With the tide OF time; toiler ant
tynnt, merchant and martyr, priest ane
poet, sage ard soldier, hermit and hero
sil without creating any profound respec
for life, or any exalted conception OF III
meaning. Ba. in Jesus the genuine mar