Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1891-06-26
COMMENCEMENT WEEK
OPENS SUNDAY FOR THE 18th
TIME.
Tho Baccnlaureate Sermon by Presiden
Buck hs m-Address Before tho College
Y. DT. @. A. by Rev. DR.. +. f. Leavens
of Pnssalc, n. j.

President Buckhan at the College street
church. The day was very warm, as Is al
ways the case, the few cool commencement
seasons with which the graduates and their
friends are favored serving as the excep-
tions to prove the rule. In spite Of
the heat, howev,r, the church was
more than filed when the graduating class
OF % young men and five young women
took the front seats that had been reserved
for them. Rev. +. T. Dewhurst of the
Berean Baptist church read a selection of
scripture and offered prayer A squartette
composed OF Misses Brush and Stanley and
Messrs. Bell and Bosworth, sang "Cantate
Domino and 81 will call upon Thee " both
by Dudley Buck. President Buckham took
for his subject christianity and social re-
FORMS" The sermon follows:
PRESIDENT BUCKHAM's SERMON.
The iugdom of heaven is like unto leaven
which a woman took and held in three meas
ures Of meal till the whole was leavened.
Matt. xiii, 80.
Does Christianity as such specially inter
est itself In social problems, and has 1t dis
tinct conception of social well-being which
it aims to realizeP These questions, always
pertinent, are at the present time urgent
and well nigh imperative.
To be frank with ourselves the appar-
ent attitude of Christianity toward
these urgent human problems Is at
first disappointing. An enthusiastic re-
former, sincerely desiring to help his
fellow men in bettering their condition,
comes as In duty bound. to the New Tosta
inent for guidance.
Is it too much to say that having read 1t
carefully through no has not found the
guidance which he thought he had reason to
expect He knows from history that IL our
Lords time society was in fearful state of
corruption, and that in the time OF the
apostles it grew sensibly worse; that the
rule of the TIberiuses and the heroes, the nd
ministrations Of proconsuls and praetors, the
slave-mangoes, the dssolute condition of the
family, that hundred bad institutions and
thousand bad customs, seemed to appeal
to the reformer OF that generation for re-
vival of the scathing denunciations which
which tho prophets Of old had uttered
against the denominations Of their
times, and for the reconstructive
word and power which should
bring forth new political aud
social status. He fluids to say the truth
very little which answers to this expecta-
ton Our Lord bids the inquirer render to
Caesar the things that are CtBsar's, and adds
no word to relieve or limit the injunction
though Caesar were Tiberus. st. Paul is
strong and outspoken in his assertion
that the powers that be are ordained of
God, aud that he that resisteth the power
resisteth the ordinance of God, although he
knew the actual powers to be unjust and
tyrannical through and through--as though
the sceptre Of imperial rule were sceptre
of Righteousness. There are no red re-
publican texts in the New Testament
few that are apparently radical or revolu-
tlonary. 1t seems indeed to have been
easier for those who would inculcate the
prerogatiyes Of rulers and the submission of
subjects to find texts to their liking than
for reformers and advocates of popular
rights. On a cursory reading, the New Tes-
timents seems to favor existing institutions,
20 lncucate a conservative amiabe acquios-
once with things they are There is even
worse aspect of the case. When certain
nen wash their hands OF all public response
ility, claiming that they ere so good or
hat public affairs are so bad that to touch
public interest is deii.ement they seem tc
themselves TO have our Lords example tC
sustain them, and point 10 what they consd
er his sublime indifference to all that
we call public affairs. 1t would
shock the religio sensiOllitles of very many
TO conceive of Jesus as living in our day and
taking part in public life: of the apostles AS
sharing in the activities Of modern socet y
es voting, holding office, joining in public
debate bearing arms and the like. We all
to some extent, conceive Of our Lord auC
His immediate disciples a, merely religious
persons, more like monks thnn like men anc
CitiH Is. And from this comes the common
conception OF religion as concerned only
with piety and the next world, and a
rather degrading itself by entering int,
ff,r alyt,,
y: Christians to live in.
But when we look moro deeply into tn
teaching Of our Lord and the apostles, w
find more than at first appears. From tn
very outset OF the evangehc era We begin t
hear of what we should call, in modern phase
Il new regime. Both John the Baptist an,
Jesus preached, "Repent for the kingdom
OF Heaven is at hand. - 1t is part of gu
churchly training TO understand by thi
phrase merely that new religious dispen
satlon was herGlded, new plan of sal va
ton, new organization for saving souls
For a long period in fact till very recen
times, those who were sent to preach th
Kingdom OF God in new lands, seem to hav
confined themselves to purely ecoelesasu
cal view OF human salvation-that
TO bringing about certain spiritura
affections and acts in individual,
II the church a spiritual body was in a
apparently hourishing condition no grea
impatieuce was manifested to bring about
social renovation. 1t was not consdere
to be any necessary function Of Christiant
as such to reconstruct human society. w
have had vigorous revival in our day c
this conception OF Christian prop,
gandism, --an exhortation to mission
aries TO put Off civilization,
resume the habits Of primitive ma
in order to be able to carry to the heathe
in sympathetic way the one only impol
tant thing, the message of Christ to To-
souls. But is not this fatally narrow an
totally inadequate view of that kingdom
God which John hernldsd and which Chris
preached and which his apostles helped me
TO begin TO realize | repeat that the kim
dom of God, the kingdom of heaven as JesI
and the Apostles used the phrase, means
new regime for mankind, a reconstructio
of humanity resulting in a reconstruction
human society in all its relations. VIII