The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1894-06-01
ANNUAL SER N.
Rev. L. w. Beattie Gives the Annual
Religious Discourse to the
Normal Graduates.

| Every one of the 600 seats in the
| Normal hall, save those reserved for
the graduating class, were filled be-
| fore 1880 o'clock Sunday forenoon.
Before the service began fully 200
more people were given extra seats,
and the capacity of the large room
were pretty well tested. The gradual
ing class marched in a body, about
eighty strong, shortly before the eX-
ercises began.
The doXology was sung, after which
Rev. J. E. Stout pronounced an inyo-
cation. The singing of 'Gloria" fol-
| lowed, and then Mr. III. f. Waring
read a scripture lesson, Psalm 121, and
the audience united in singing the
hymn, 1.-THE Lords Day." Rev L. w.
Beattie then read a scripture lesson,
l Cor. IL.
A choir, composed of Miss Esther
Ellis, Miss Esther Grannis, Geo. e.
Brett, Alvin Davis, Mrs. FL. l. Parry,
Miss May Usher Griffin, John r.
Thomas and Evan Hughes, rendered
''Te Deum" very nicely. Rev. j. T.
Stout offered prayer.
Rev. L. W. Beattie preached the an
nual sermon to the graduating class,
taking for his text, IL Cor. " II:
"While we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things
which are not seen: for the things
which are seen are tempOral: but the
things which are not seen are eternal"
In opening, he referred to mans
sensuous nature, and referred to the
| five senses as being mere channels. of
knowledge. He compared the sensu-
Gus to the spiritual iside of mans ma
ture. Some things cannot be obtain
ed in any physical way. he said, as for
instance, love. 1t belongs to the
spiritual world and through the
spiritual world it is to be obtained
We may say that the mountains eX-
hibit the strength of God, and that
the heavens disclose His majesty. 1t
is a myth. The mountains and the
heavens may fall, but the thoughts
obtained by looking at various objects
of nature and the love of God remain
forever. A person never saw patrio-
tism, although he has read of it and
felt II. power thrill his veins. Pa
triotism in it's essential nature is
spiritual power. One cannot see God,
because He is spirit, and the natural
vision cannot see the spiritual. The
things that were seen by the prophets
were temporal, but they served their
purpose Daniel lives because the
things not seen are eternal. He lives
today and stands as representative
of a truth. The old barOns are gone,
but wherever fuedaliSm was connect
ed with honor it still lives. All the
spiritual lives, but we throw the tenn
poral away because it is worthless.
The body of the dead child is gone,
ali that is temporal, but does not it
still live? The love that tWined itself
about the soul is still there, and we
hold it's love because God has made
US SO that we can. We see the spirit
nature and worship of men in all ages.
Man has now come to Sift the truths
down to a reasonable basis, and Wor-
ships at the foot of the stool of God.
Heaven and earth may pass away, but
the word of Christ will not. The two
worlds, the sensuous and the spirit
ual, 60 together where rightly under
stood.
Mr. Beattie then addressed himself
to the graduating class, which arose,
and made an application of his sermon
to their cases. He drew an illustra-
tion of a worm which in course of
time developes into beautiful but
terfiy; but a germ is apt to get into
the worm and destroy the germ of the
butterfly and the worm remains a
worm. He urged the members of the
class to so live that the spiritual sides
of their natures might be rightly de-
veloped. There is the bad side to the
spiritual development, but the right
development would ensure happiness
and the reward of heaven.
Music followed, Lead Kindly
Light"
The audience united in singing the
hymn, Creation" and Rev. Mr.