Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1892-05-26
The Commencement Sermon at
Mississippi College.
The Eloquent Hawthorne's
Tribute to the Great Fore
runner.
His Example Worthy of Emula-
ton by all Preachers and
ReformerS.
Pulpit AutOmatOns and Sham
Professors Caricaturcd and
Sacrificed by the Noted
Georgia Preacher.

Special to the Mississippi Leader.l
CLINTON, MISS, May 22.-Dr. ]. B.
Hawthorne of Atlanta, Ga, preached
the commencement sermon before the
students of Mississippi College here
to-day. The spacious College Chapel
was well filled with students of Missis-
sippi and Hillman Colleges, officers and
teachers of these noted institutions,
citizens of the town and visitors. The
sermon was every way worthy of the
occasion and the preacher. He began
by reading the first portion of the 18th
chapter of Matthew, and took for his
text the words of the Savior in the 18th
verse Among them that are born of
women, there hath not arisen great
er than John the Baptist"
The God-inspiring surroundings
amidst which John was reared in his will
derness home were graphically and elo-
quently portrayed. 1t was a time of
physical and spiritual preparation.
Thirty years we're spent in preparing for
eight months of active work. 1T is
not the quantity of labor one does but
the quality of it that tells" The splend-
or of Johns physical manhood were
strongly emphasized.
The eloquent divine then entered
into the heart of his theme with that
earnestness and impressive elequence
for which he is celebrated. The fol-
lowing are some excerpts from the
sermon, which consumed one hour and
five minutes in its delivery.
John the Baptist was q man in the
noblest sense, before he was preacher.
This is Gods order, and our disregard
of it has let into the pulpit thousands
of ecclesiastical parvenues, dudes and
dead beats. You cannot build palace
out of straw You cannot paint great
and enduring picture out of mud. You
cannot develop toad into a nighten-
gale. nor a snail into a race horse. 1t
takes something more than a mere
biped to make jurist, of a statesman
or preacher it takes man. First q
man, and then judge first a man,
and then senator; first man, and
then minister of Jesus Christ.
That Judge on the bench who, like
necessity, knows no law, or who, if he
knows it, is morally incapable or i'm
partial administration of it, is not a
judge. Why? Because he is not a
man.
That member of the last Georgia
Legislature who, when asked what were
the geological formations of his coun-
ty, replied: Il think they are mostly
Baptists," is not statesman. Why ?
Because he IS not q man.
That bloated bundle of rags there
who goes to the ballot box and votes
for whisky, is not an American citizen.
Why? Because he as not q man. He
is mere chattel, which is always ready
to be put on the market and sold.
That something up there in the pull
pit in clerical attire of the most ap-
proved and conventional pattern; that
mild hammered, soft toned and punctil-
ious creature who straddleS every ques-
ton which concerns the community
until the powers that be in his cOngre-
CATION authorize him to speak, is not
a preacher, a mouth-piece of the Lord
God. Why? Because he is destitute
of the most essential element of true
manhood. He is mere pulpit autom-
atom whose movements are directed
from the pew.
Let us consider some of the exhibit
tions of Johns greatness. His great
ness was seen in his manifest indiffer-
ence to detraction and calumny. He
came to the work of preaching unher-
aided and unknown. Obscure in his
origin. denizen of the wilderness, un-
taught by the Doctors of the law, what
chasing had he as teacher of public
men? That he was sneered at is i'm
Piled in question which Jesus put to
the multitude. "What went We out in
to the wilderness to see? A reed
shaken by the wind ?" That was evil
IDENTIFY their just conception of John.
They regarded him as mere upstart
a breeder of cheap sensation a little
fiuttering thing in the air which would
soon exhaust itself and disappear.
But we infer from another question
which Jesus asked them, that they had
done more than sneer at the wilderness
preacher. They had maliciously sland-
cred him. They had charged him with
working for selfish ends. "What went
We out, for to see? A man clothed in
soft raiment? Behold they that wear
soft clothing are in Kings houses"
But John was unm0ved and undis-
turbed by these foolish and these
slanderous criticisms. Conscious of
his strength and the rectitude of his
motives, he continued to declare the
message of God to the people. !.
This is substantially the history of
every true reformer in religion, or
philosophy, or science, or politics. He
is first an imposter, maker of cheap
notoriety, sensation that will live only
for a day. Bye-and-bye those who have
laughed at him will get serious. Yea,
they will get mad and say that he is a
rascal. He is morally rotten. He is
working for money or Office.
Still later when they see that they
have accomplished nothing, they viii
get over their madness and say, well,
is he not prophet indeed? Yea, he
is more than a prophet. We never
saw his equal y Oh We prophets, re-
formers, men of real merit and high
resolved, destined to power and fame,
don't be afraid of your traducers.
Don't be afraid of the newspapers.
They viii belittle you today and crown
you tomorrow. They called Napoleon
a pretender, Corsician, thief; but
later they put the imperial corenet
upon his brow and shouted, "Long live
Napoleon
Ii your cause is just, your motive
pure and you are conscious of your