The University daily. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 18??-????, 1892-06-07
AS TR I.JElI NOW
IS When Isiah Uttered /

f.
las When Isiah Uttered Il
-FOUR THOUSAND YEARS AGO.
4 Brief synopsis Of The Baccalaureate
Sermon.
Isaiah 81 4 A man shall be as a
hiding place from the wind, and covert
from the tempest Jas q river OF water In q
dry place, as d shadow of great rock
| in d weary land. 4
The message of Isaiah IS message
for all time His doctrine Of 1the
remnant Il. an ever needed protest
against what has been tailed The
$780, = fhs eSsisfltE Fke his
ItI& u he world IS nothing more
t6a.i the Biography ofgreat men who
Ehafs lived Id ii. Great men are not
Indeed the whole Of. life but they are
the condition of all life. Without
big men the little ones could hardly
live at all The personal influence
in science, art and literature and
material wealth is their strength
and power. The shelter and foun-
tain forces Of history. The highest
forces Of the world. God redeems
the world BY the individual and not
by the multitude The hope Of the
world is inits rare souls. Into their
hearts lie pours the spirit of his
power, and upon their heads he lays
the hands of his conservation. What
ever materialism may teach as to the
influence of secondary causes upon
civilization, Gods philosophy of
history is one that recognizes the
significance ofgreat men. !.
1 The illustration Of the text is
full of the poetry Of the desert. The
people to whom it was addressed
were familiar with the. picture it sug
gests. They knew how the drifting
sands Of the desert were constantly
encroaching upon the arabic land.
Except where some cliff or craig
broke the force of the deadly winds
and the drifting of burning sands,
made a shelter where the grass might
grow, and where at last fountains
might spring up and make an oasis
Of the desert. So does a great man
serve his generation by arresting the
drift Of deadly forces, blind and fatal
as the desert winds which sweep
down human history. This has been
true in material things. To the
primitive man nature and its forces
must have been a. constant peril.
The sun burned them; the water
drowned them; its wild winds froze
them its wild beasts preyed upon
them they lived in constant dread
of these fierce fetterless forces of the
wilderness. But into some souls
God breathed freedom and some
strong man stood up and defied ma
ture. The story is preserved for us
in, the myths and legends of many
peoples. Hercules cleansing foul
ness and Staying the dragon and the
lion; Theseus tanning savage beasts
and men; Arthur making roads, Of
light in the wilderness of Britain;
Hiawatha fighting famine and the
fever for his people; but specially
the myth of Prometheus.ssss
In our boast of the inventive gem
Jus Of the nineteenth century we are.
apt to forget how great were these
earlier inventors. The man who first
shaped an car, or trimmed sail, OF
made fire, or a brick ! it is in the
shelter of these great ones that all,
material civilization hides. They
arrested the drift of the wild powers
of nature that threatened to sub.
merge manhood and iH their shadow
has been wrought the work of Watts,
and Arkwright, Fulton, Morse and
Edison.
III. And this has been as true in
spiritual as in material things. In
the early ages ofidolatry the worship
of the visible and the tangible was
threatened to submerge all devotion
and all religion. When Abraham
came from Ghaldea, sell -axiled, wan
dering westward ii a strange quest
for God his faith has taught faith to-
the world. He has become the father
fof the faithful. And in the shadow
of his great name hide the three
great spiritual religions. Like one.
at later date when the supersti-
ton Of force, the tyranny of the ma
jority, the fallacy Of strength. the
panic Of popularity was sweeping
away and destroying the spiritual
enthusiasms of Israel, Isaiah declar-
ed: In quietness and confidence
shall be your strength and deliver
ance came. When the dark drift Of
Jewish custom spread its tyranny
over the gentle world even apostles
were carried away BY it. onk man,
Paul, saved Christianity and rescued
liberty from the bondage of ritual
and ceremony. And when an I'm
holly alliance, Church and State,
Il rrN-fnf :, r. Z, FL 49, . r