The Portland daily press., 1891-06-29
IT is COLBYS Commencement WEEK.
Its Beginning Was Favored Yester-
day with Smiling Skies.
President smaIl's Eloquent Words on
tho Truth of Christianity.
Sons of the University who Have
Died During the Year.

WATERvILLE, June 2S.-Commencement
week at Colby began today with fair .weath-
er. The baccalaureate sermon by President
Small at the Baptist church was heard by a
large congregation. The senior class attend
ed In body. Rev. w. III. Spencer of this
city offered prayer. President Small said:
"The basis Of the Christian religion Is in un-
changeable truth. just as the basis of astron-
my, or physics, or chemistry is fact lodged
forever In the constitution of matter. We
may, upon scientific grounds, maintain diff
ferent opinions upon the probable period
during which our sun will remain luminous,
or we may miscalulate the age of the world
by few Insignificant decades Of millennia
more or less, but these uncertainties will not
destroy the facts which we fall to compre-
hend. The religions0f Jesus Christ is. first
and foremost, a recognition of that which
Is. in the unalterable constitution of the NOR
al world, and of individual moral beings.
Read OF Jesus as you read Of. Confucius and
Buddha, and Socrates, and Marcus Aurelius.
Read the literatures of the Orient as honest
men for what they tell you about this span
of life between the two infinities of silence.
Then read the Gospels as you have read
true that the light OF life that had glimmered
out from prophecy and providence, in Jesus
actually illumined the world. Do you re-
member that scene in the judgment hall at
Jerusalem, In which Roman agnosticism
mate and desperate doubtp "Pilate saith
unto Him, what is truth?" Next to the cru
cifxion. | am inclined to reckon this as the
most dramatic situation in the whole Gospel
tragedy. Here the critical, curious ques-
tioning of the ages met the.answer 1t had
sought. The answer confronts the question
or. Without the recognition of the truth,
impersouate, lustrouS in purity, radiant in
rightness, the light sh0ne in the darkness,
and the darkness c0mprehended 1t not. The
truth is of most intimate concern to men. 1t
Is not the metaphysics of what Is or has been
before our birth, nor provision OF what will
follow after death.
1.-The truth that means the most for us, is
this same visible demonstration that human
life means the potency Of such. moral con-
summations as appeared in Christ. Man.
hood, In its manifold moral possibilities, Is
the initial truth of the Christian revelation.
A thousand different phases of human de-
vel0pment had appeared and passed with the
tide of time, all without creating any pro-
found respect for life, or any exalted con-
ception of its meaning. But In Jesus, the
genuine man appeared, and life received its
explanation and human obligation its stand
ard. Gods word to us In Jesus is not be-
hold the man, but behold man. The most
significant moral fact which men have seen
face to face is the fact of the sublime sacra-
ment of manlness which Jesus published.
The brightest truth that the world ever saw
shines out OF the emergence OF the real man
among partial men and.spurious men. The
light which you ought to see, the perception
with which reasonable, ethical religion may
well begin, Is that the spiritual pOse and
symmetry and excellence of Jesus are the
most splendid realizationS that we know of
rational and right and finished life. You
may begin your religion, II you will, with
the perception that the difference between
your holiness and that of Jesus Is the meas
ure of the diminution Of your manhood.
And this Is the condemnation. This light is
in the world and men love the darkness in
stead. l said would show you self evil
dent truth for the starting point of religion.
/ think have kept my promise. You can
not deny the sovereign worLhiness of good
ness without cendemning yourself in your
own judgment. Moral acknowledgement Of
this sovereignty is the beginning of relig-
ion."
The Neurology.
Following is the neurology of the alumni
of Colby University for the year 1S9O-91:
-1833-Jonathan Everett Farnham, L. D., born
in EEttttlsb9Ee Rsssy Ay91str sasd dfs s1
NJ on%%inss 6Srn SI5a i in
Brooklyn, IN Z, September Is. 1888,
aged II.
ington, Me-, March "a, 1880; died In Du-
buque Iowa, May 81, aged 81.
1s57-Augustus Allen Fletcher, born in Belmont,
Me-, November 10, 1882; died in Lincoln
Vile, Me-, April 25, 1891, aged So.
1S59-Rev. Charles Henry Rowe A. NJ, born in
Guilford, Me-, January 19, 1884 died in
Newton, Mass, November 29, 1890, aged
65.
1S62-Col. Whiting Stevens Clark, A. NJ. born in
Sangervilie, Me-, November 2S, 1887;
died In Des Moines, Iowa, April 26, 1891,
aged SO.
186S-Willlam Henry Lambert, Phi. d. born in
Durham, Me-, August =, 1843; died in
Fall River, Mass, November A., 1880, aged
At.
1S73-Lieut John Herbert Philbrick, A. NJ, U.
3. A., born in Waterville, Me-, July IL,
1868; died in Sacketts Harbor, N. Y. July
"a, 1890, aged 81.
1SS8-Walter Breasier Sucking, born In Moscow,
Me-, July 8. 1862; died In Georgetown,
Colo, March "a, 1891, aged %.