The Portland daily press., 1893-06-26
WEsTBRooK SEMINARY.
The Baccalaureate- Sermon Preached to
the Graduating Glass Yesterday by Presi-
dent Ell. S. Whitman.

Commencement at Westbrook Semi
nary began yesterday with the bacca-
laureate by President H. S. Whitman.
The formal exercises of graduation will
not, however, take place until Thursday
and Friday, the early portion of the
week being given up to examinations.
Although the weather yesterday was
not all that could be desired. All Souls
church was filed with large audience
when the young men and women of the
graduating class filed in to take their
seats in the ssfront row according to the
immemorial custom at baccalaureate SER
mons.
Rev. Dr.. Henry Blanchard assisted in
the service, giving the opening invoca-
ton.
Mr. Whitman chose for his text the
21st verse of the xxi. chapter of Ezekiel:
For the King of Babylon stood at the
parting of the way, at the head of the
two ways, to use divination.' Beginning
with this illustration the
preacher applied the text to the part
ing of the ways in life when the choice
shall not depend upon divination, but
upon deliberate choice. He spoke of the
interest and concern with which he had
watched the progress of the class through
school days and Of his anxiety to speak
some word which should go with them
as guide and support for the
fin stand hn cnid a.
the parting of the way in the deeper
sense that, whereas others have chosen
for you hitherto, now you must chose
for yourselves. OF the two ways before
you one slopes upward to light and life;
the other downward to death and obi
Won. l do not believe that any one of
you would deliberately choose the down
ward course; but you may find your
selves upon it through neglect or from
false ideas.
For the best and happiest future it is
necessary first to have purpose. No
happy future opens for the young man
OF woman who has no purpose to direct
the activities. Some one has said:
Sow an act and you reap habit; SOW
habit and you have character The.
weak, purposeless man may wait like
Micawber for something to turn up; but
complish anything high or good. A pur-
pose must underly character and posi-
ton.
Fidelity is another first necessity for
true success. The presence or absence
of this characteristic is especially
noticeable in the scholar and to the
teacher its presence promises better than
genius or talent if they are unaccompa-
MED by fidelity, Wherever it is found
that this quality of fidelity is established
in the character the boy who possesses it
is sure of an honorable future. Hard
labor is the accompaniment of this char
acteristic. There is but one road to high
achievement and this is the road of hard
and unremitting toll. Genius is not alb
solved from this labor. Charles Dickens,
great as was his intellect, worked long
and continuously on his novels.
The world today calls for trained men,
and training can never be obtained until
wholly our own.
The quality of persistence is the neces-
sarys accompanies of the ability to
labor. A young woman Tor young
map can scarcely have too much will
power if it bes developed or directed
| in the right manner.
My young friends, carry this persistence
into your life work, and when difficulties
like the Alps, lie before you, say with
the great Napoleon, there shall be no
| Alps"
There is one more step in that true
| way, which may be called growth. You
| must grow, in mind, in grace, in right
eousness. Your school days may be end
ed, it is true, but there are treasures of
wisdom to be garnered not only from
| books but also from the great throbbing
| world. And especially must you grow
in moral character. If you fail to do that
your failure is indeed complete. We
| may not live by ourselves alone. The
words of your class motto, ''Non Nobis
| Solunaf" express the sentiment that we
must have in life. It is only by losing
our life that we can find it. It is only by
living for others that we may know how
to live. We must learn to give of our
life or strength, our treasure and our
tolls for God, for humanity and the
world. Do not dare to live unto your
selves alone, SO that all the vast pathetic
music made up by the joys and sorrows
of your fellow men shall fall upon your
ears UNDECIDED.