The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1892-07-01

| ' c"t hoW many thousand
as good, and some better than YOU
VIII nave to get along through life
without this great boon. Some not
even able to read or write and vet
they have been successful. Your
parents have no, had your advantages
put they have made splendid record,
some OF them perhaps will outshine
you.
We think We could not live without
books and papers, but many wise
and great ones have had but one or
two books and some none at all. We
could make books if there were none.
or we could, like the shepherds of old
times, 60 out and study the great un-
written book of Nature and gather ms.
plration and even know God.
Money is great luxury, because
1t commands luxuries; and that is
what every one of you are after. 1t
may be unkind for me to say it. but
am sure if the school teachers of the
next 20 years were to teach without
pay there would not be two members
IN the graduating class. And vet we
can live without money. Some of the
greatest and best men of sacred and
profane history have had none. What
was money to Elijah or John on Pat
mos or Robson Crusoe or Napoleon
Bonaparte.
When you cross this threshold to
return no more your anxiety will be
tor position. Whenever you hear
of vacancy you will be trying for it
and If you could know to dav that
there was no position for you for ten
years the courage would all go out of
your hearts and YOU would see nothing
before you but starvation and the
poor-house. am afraid you would be
driven to suicide.
And yet more than half the human
race are without positions. You will
think nlne-tenths of them are when
you put in an application for a school
and find that you are, maybe, the
twenty-hfth applicant.
Let even pulpit be vacant, and if
1t is of any prominence at all, the
Church officials will be overwhelmed
with men who want to preach a trial
sermon. And yet position is not
necessary for our success, else the
army of martyrs for the cause Of
Christ and men who, like St. Paul or
John Bunyon, were imprisoned for
Years at time, were failure.
You have come from good homes
and perhaps the sweetest flavor in
your graduation is the thought of the
home. going and the precious days of
rest and recriation at home after this
long siege of study. But many of the
best and noblest this earth has ever
known had not the luxury Of a home.
John Howard Payne who wrote most
delightfully."- about home had none.
Perhaps that's the reason he wrote so
well. He knew it from its loss.
Home Is not necessary to our success
in life, else were the career of Jesus of
Nazareth a failure for he had not
where to lay his head. And yet we
are concerned and anxious about all
these things, sometimes even to the
extent of iretting, while we neglect or
treat lightly the one thing of which
He who spake as never man spake
said, it is "The one thing needful."
You can get along without all of these
but without this you cannot. Oh
What IS it then and how may it be
obtained?
1t is that which Mary chose and
Jesus said shall not be taken away
from her,-a woman sitting at the feet
of Jesus and hearing his word. A
little thing apparently, but the Son of
God commended it as above every
thing else. Christ's word and pro-
per understanding of it, or THE Re
igion of Jesus Christ, this Is the
one thing needfaA. This it is, which
if sought first, He has said "All these
things shall be added unto you'-all
necessary things-food, clothing,
homes, friends. position. This found
and your life cannot be failure.
Wha. is success? The amount of
money you can make, or the honor
you can command, or the positions
you can fill? Oh no. But the
amount of good you can do, the
people you can bless, the elevation of
the standard of morality, the bettcring
of society, leading the thoughts of
men into purer and higher channels,
by precept and example enforcing the
Golden Rule, by being a light in a
dark place.
Some Of these things may be ac-
complished by EDUCATION and training,
but nothing can SO effectually do this
great work of life as the word and
mind of Jesus Christ. He is the one
who if lifted up will draw all men un-
70 him. And he can be lifted up
only in human lives. 1t is when men
see that we have been with Christ and
| learned of him The Great Teacher.