St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-06-08
DIPLOMAS HANDED OUT.
HA&LiNE COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES
ARE WITNESSED.
BY AN IMMENSE coNcoURsE.

1t was annual commencement OF the
college. and all the students and their
friends who could do so were present.
Rev. DIR. Bristol, of Evanston. Ill.,, was
to give the annual address, and eXpecta-
ton OF the literary treat brought
scores of outsiders to listen to il.
He is practically the preacher of
the great Methodist Northwestern
university at Evanston, really part
of Chicago, as his church is the
leading Methodist church Of the city.
A more wonderful collection of ancient
and modern data, eloQuently couched,
has rarely been heard at any college
commencement. lie spoke very rapid
~, and his address consumed an hour
and forty minutes in the delivery. But
no one grew tired or left the chapel. At
times the burning. thrilling words of
the orator made The vast audience forget
the decorum, OF the sanctuary, and round
after round of applause shook the build
ing.
DR.. Bristol was introduced by Presi-
dent Bridgman at 2:l5, and some eX-
tracts from his marvellous discourse are
as follows:
Three hundred years after the age of
Perlcles the glory OF Greece had YAH
ished like a dream, and her career as
the most highly developed civilization
Of history had passed away like a very
tale Of enchantment. Almost too Splen-
did and fascinating TO seem true. For
500 years succeeding the Roman con-
quest this civilization suffered decline
III art. learning, craftsmanship, man
hood and all that once made it the high
est realization of culture in organized
society. Then, like Rome, its conqnerer.
weakened by Its sensualiSn, 1t fell
before the relentless invaders.
The reign of culture was ended.
As yet the North Was not well out of
vigorous savagery. The light of art
and letters had not penetrated the
gloom of barbariSm. / he Saxons aud
NornanS. Britons and Franks. with all
their native proves, were strangers to
polite learning. By the niuth century
they had come in the development OF
inslitutionalism to the feudalism ill
which they remained for the four sue
ceeding centuries.
Finally the sky began to clear. Dante
appeared, the first great epoch poet
since Virgil. He became the father of
azure classical. Dante Was followed by
Petrarch and Boccaccio who imbibed
the literary tastes and the reformatCry
politics OF the exlled Tuscan. Gina
bean. the painter; Arnalfo, the
sculptor and ar b tect: Gioito,
who painted Dante's portrait. came
to be recognized as the heraldS of the
new arch era. Lorenzo was the political
arbiter OF Italy, and the patron of
learning; Michael Angelo, whose works
were permeated with the spirit of
Dante, was the Regeneration OF art. He
rescued painting aud sculpture. from
the paganism of antiquity and pledged
them to Christianity and righteousness.
Sayonarola was the reformer OF the
renaissance, and a martyr to the gospel
of love and purity, the preacher patriot
OF his age. This man broke the
horrible spell of dark ages, moral ill.,
difference, woke the: peoples COLI.
science. Sayonarola was the fore
runner OF Luther. and his very failure
proved that a Luther~waS needed as tine
champion Of religious reformation,
and OF Christian progress. ~
THE REFORMATION.
The central idea vi renaissance was
culture, Of the reformation, faith. We
are indebted to the Christian church FOR
the preservation of aIl the jewels that
He'll from the broken and Shattered
crown of ancient culture. Art, litera-
ture and wealth were declining. and
with them was involved the so-calied
new civilization. Luther was histori-
caily the reaper of the fruitful results
of remote aud much earlier SoWingS.
Luther came when the hour of need
struck i'll the history of this great eyOllI-
tiGn of religious freedom. The foun-
tain head of the MODEST streams of
modern literature WAS Luther's trans
lation OF the Bible. 1t created a
literary German. There came demand
(0ut of that great intellectual awakening
OF the Fifteenth century, for still
another form of freedom. Columbus
was child OF the renaissance, and he
embodied in his adventurous character
its progressive spirit. He might have
gazed with COpernicuS into the heavenly
mysteries and splend0rs, or listened to
the epic song Of Ariosto, he might have
heard the stormy eloquence of Savon-
arola, watched the chlsel strokes of
pencil of the divine Raphael
paint the sweet INN ortaliles of his Ma
donnas: he might have learned from
Gutenberg's own lips how his great
brain achieved the printing press, or
have seen with his own eyes Caxton
give England its first printed book; he
might have smiled at the subtle wit
and cunning satire of Erasmus. or, have
bowed III reverence to hear the celestial
language OF Kempis; he might nave
looked into the eyes OF Luther or Sir
Thomas More, and have held converse
with Vasco de Cana and Cabot, with
GorteZ, PiZarro and Ponce de Leon.
These wtle grants in these days, and
ill their midst stood Columbus, If not SO
universal genius as Angelo, nor so
profound and philosophical scholar as
Erasmus, nor SO jealous a religiOnist as
Luther. yet above them all he lowered
as the greatest history making person
atty OF the age. The man whose
high and glorious destiny it was to
open new world to human enterprise
and a new era to civilization.
Westward the star Of empire takes
its course. Civilized humanity
thousand years B. Z. populated the
of Christ it was gathered along the
eastern and northern shores OF The
Mediterranean. In the time of Column
bus 1t was peering with an almost
prophetic vision towards those burning
sunsets which seemed lined with the
giOrified portals of so1ue new
and wonderful world. Arc!imedes
did not go TO the bath tub to find new
law OF physics; Gaiyanl did not go into
the kitchen 10 find voliaic electricity,
Gaiileo did not go into the cathedral of
Pisa 10 find the isochroiial property OF
the pendulum; Newton did Eot fall
asleep under the apple tree 20 ind the
law of gravity: Watt did not sit down
before The suffering teakettls IL fad
the power of steam; Marshall did not
excavate for the mill race in California
10 lind gold, and Columbus did not sail
into the west to find new world.
Humanity will forever appreciate and
honor the men who have had the genius
to meet with such splendid accidents.
In referring to the lack of our intel
lectual growth as compared with other
nations, he said: ut took The Greeks
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