Morning journal and courier., 1892-06-27
YALE COMMENCEMENT.
The Raccalaureate Sermon Delivered
Yesterday at Battell Chapel by
President Timothy Dwight-The
Entfre Discourse.

CONTINUED FROM SECOND PAGE
shts IL tie World hodhg forth ne word
These words of Paul to his Philippian
rethren had immediate reference to the
piritual life which they had received by
ecoming Christian believers. If may
80 them as applicable also to the mental
fe which an education inspired by Chris
ian teaching and Christian faith imparts,
hey will be found, am sure, my young
riends of the graduating class, to have
pecial appropriateness to the hour that Is
low upon us, and will prove very sugges-
i've OF fitting thought. The letter from
which they are taken was letter of love,
which was written with the most tender
of old associations in the
years gone by, and with the feeling that
here might never be a meeting again be-
tween the writer and the reader. It was q
letter accordingly which carried in itself
farewell of benediction. The words of
such farewell, whatever they may be,
cannot but have an impressiveness for us
when similar words are to be spoken in
our hearing. for it is the Christian ele-
ment, which this writer and his associates
had received into their souls life, that
gives to our friendship Of to-day their
most sacred character. The recollections
of the past years and the separation
which now begins for US may bring the
words, therefore, very near to our expert
ence.
The letter was also one which took
hold, at this final hour, upon realized facts
in the readers history, and upon attain
ments already made by them, and which
appealed to these facts in confidence and
with hope. The years had not been with
out meaning. They had brought to the
reader peculiar lfe-the same which the
writer knew in himself distinguishing
them, by it's very existence within them,
from other men among whom they had
their dwelling place or passed through
their daily duties. This life of theirs, the
writer, who had known them as friend
with more OF less of intimacy ever since
the beginning of their Christian history,
felt that he might now assume as reality
which was beyond question:, and reality
also which might be expected to manifest
itself in the coming time. He could
therefore found his exhortation upon it.,
and make it the basis Of what he would
say to them as to the manner of their hv-
ing in the future years, when the POSSIBLE
ity of his addressing them with the voice
or the pen should have passed away.
Such realized facts in experience, and such
attachments in mental or spiritual life, per
tain likewise, as of necessity, to men who,
like US, have lived together for consider
able period under the higher influences of
the world. The Christian education which
we receive does not leave US at the end
where we were at the beginning. A dis
tinguishing element is brought to us and
placed in us, which makes us new and
larger men, and, as q consequence, the re-
especial emphasis when the turning point
of the years come. We stand thus neal
to Paul and his readers as the word of his
exhortation meets our eye and thought
even as we do when his word of farewell
falls upon our ear. Let US follow the sug
gestions of the words according to the ap
plication which is thus given to them.
The writer, as we may observe, does no
put his main sentence in the form of al
exhortation, but only suggests the exhor
tation in the secondary clause. He doe
not say to the readers, Become lights, max
ing this the great effort and work of you
life. He says, You are lights; you ar
seen by all about you as such. This is tn
existing fact with reference to you, whicl
must be recognized, and to which we mus
make our appeal. There is in that whicl
has been impaired to you, or which yor
have already gained, an Illuminating pow
or, even after the manner of the grea
lights which appear in the heavens and en-
tighten the natural world. Be consciou
of what you are; and let the result follow
The word, however, which declares wha
they are, does not make the declaration t.
the end Of giving the readers an exalted
note IF themselves Of fnrrirry III ai
thoughts, in any way, towards what the,
possess as in itself the ultimate good. 1
calls their minds simply to the power per
tanning to them as something which is t.
be acknowledged, and on the foundation
of which, as thus their own, they are t.
act. They are something; therefore the
are to do something. There is to be moth
ing Of undue self consciousness about II
or of harmful self-esteem. There is onl
to be realization of the truth to such ez
tent and fullness that the truth may caus
its voice to be heard in the life, and ma
direct the life.
How clearly this is evident as we cor
| meet the words with the religious charac
ter which the writer had Immediately i
his thought. These men to whom he wa
| writing had found in the teaching whic
| they had heard certain new principles an
| life-forces, of whose existence they ha
| known nothing in their earlier e1perienc,
AS these principles and forces had estat
| lished themselves in the soul, q transform
| ing and upbuilding power had been rea
| lied for the men; and because of the rea
ization in them an enlightening force fe
others had also become manifest. Thos
who saw them saw what they were. The,
was no necessity for exhortation in orde
that they might be thus seen. There ws
no legitimate place for self esteem becaus
they were seen. The life was there and
manifested itself. That was ALL The lii
was like the Illuminating body in the NJ
per heaven 1t had light, and therefore
gave light. The light in it's outgoing wa
only the result of the. light in its real e.
istence within. If the Christian believe
had to be urged to live 80 that he could b
seen as light in the world. this very fac
proved that he had not become, in tn
complete sense, a Christian believer. If b
became proud or self -conceited becaus
there was light-power manifest in him, tn
| feeling which he cherished was in sue
contradiction to the true character Of
believer, as to darken and obscure the yer
light power itself. When the write
therefore said to his readers, Ye are see
as luminaries in the world, he gave no e.
hortation and suffered no self esteem; b
only set forth the chief and all-importar
fact relating to them, that they might max
it, in manly way, the basis of their az
tivity in the service of men.
| 1t is with the Christian education, an
the mental life awakened by it, as it
| with the Christian character itself. I'll
measure may be different, but the realit
| is the same The educated man, who's
mind has taken into itself, under the tru
inspiration the thought and knowlede
which have been impaired to it, has b.
come, by reason of its education, an tilt
minating power If the light is indee
within him, he need not wait for it to
seen, or be exhorted to grow into SOM
thing more or other than he is, in orde
that it may be seen. It will be seer
Wherever he may be the light will shin
forth. He may know this as the gres
fact of his life; and if he is true man b
| will direct his course and action in ACCORD
ance with it. As he knows it, however
its call to him will be not to think of hin
The light testi6es of itself as power, bu
not of power which turns inward for th
clarifying of the man who possesses i
The movement of the light is outward, an
the man in whom it is can be rightly COZ
scious of it only as going outward. II
Illuminating body Eliminates not itsel
but the world. It does not see or rest
its own glory, but it is seen.
When the words of the apostle, Their.
fore, are addressed to you, my youn
friends, in view of the educated life who
you have lived here, and which you al
hoping to live hereafter, they do not spea
of anything on account of which you ma
| boast of yourselves as COMPARED with othe
men, or which may tend to sel6shness c
any sort. They simply tell you of blesl
ing, of realized fact, of life-power poi