The herald., 1894-06-25
THE BACCAlAUREATE SERMON
Delivered at the University by
DR.. j. 2. Widney.
Rev. j. s. Thomson breaches on the
Prodigal Son.
Sermon at tho Y. w. G. A.-Interssting
Services at tho Simpson Taber-
nacie In Memory OF fH.s
Bishop simpson.

The baccalaureate sermon OF the Uni
versity of Southern California was
preached by President w .dney at the
university chapel yesterday morning
before a large audience who filed the
building.
TIE sermon was preiaced by the re-
mark that ordinarily baccalaureate
sermon is q semi-religious philosophical
lecture, but that school claiming re-
lgion az it Its foundation should give to
its graduates, as they go out from its
walls, something deeper, more abiding,
as its parting message.
Christ had been in the months OF
wandering surrounded by men asking
question of the things OF this life, ques-
,ions Of their law, questions OF rules,
OF precedence. OF tithes. and OF tribute.
Always thoughts and interests OF this
life. As one weary OF it all, OF the
Griviality of such matters in the face OF
eternity, He turns, and putting 1t all
aside, Gays in effect to them: Why talk
OF these things? Why discuss that
old law which have come to set aside
Why trouble over tithes Of mint and
anise and cummin? Why take undue
thought as to what ys shall eat, and
what ye shall drink, and wherewithal
W shall be clothed? There is something
greater than all these. And then came
that question which is the text for to-
day:
what is man profted If he shall gain the
whole world and lose his own soul? or what
shall man give In exchange for his soul?-
Matthew, XVI; 70
The earth is only great battle ground.
There is the battling OF physical forces.
The slow construction of the earth's
crust and the more sudden upheaval Of
the earthquake, are ever lifting up the
mountain ranges only that the storms
may rage about them, and the rains
beat upon them, and frost and food
dsintegrate and wash them down. One
stands upon the solid rock OF Old Badly
thousands OF feet above the valleys be-
low, yet the time was when other thou
sands OF feet above lowered the crests OF
etill higher mountains, now disintegrat-
ed and washed down to make the fertile
plains below.
The waters OF the sea find their way
trough the crevices Of the earth to the
internal explosion, and q volcano Ia
built up. The eruption OF Sumbawa
ehook quarter of a globe.
Animal battles with animal In the
contest for the survival of the tittest.
Man in his savage state battles with
his fellow man. We dig down in old
caves and find battle axe and spear and
arrowhead of stone, and by them the
Wondering skulls Of prehistoric man
gashed and shattered in combat.
Army battles with army, and king
"a. ~ H. - -
cycles races rise and precipitate them
selves upon other races, moved by some
deep. seated race instinct of migration.
1t was thus that Asia and the North
precipitated themselves upon Rome.
Yet these battlings are only of the
years. The years 90 by and the savage
has lain down with the rotting trees be-
meath which he fought. to mingle in q
common mold. Armies cease from con-
flict. The sound OF arms dies away and
the struggling hosts pass on to join the
greater army of the dead. Kingdoms
fall, and vanish SO utterly from the
minds OF men that only when eSchlieman
digs through the successive strata of q
tabled Troas, or q Cesnola explores the
brown hills OF Cyprus, do men say:
Here people once dwelt. And the
volcano bushes its deep roar. leaving
only blackened crater and old fire.
burnt slag. and men look and say
Here the earth fires once burst forth. I
have thus travelled over miles of the
lava OF the Arizona mesas. Even the
earthoua AXE. as the ages 60 by, loses its
upheaving force and the great geologic
mountains melt away.
eat one night looking through a tel
eecope at the moon. watched its pale.
cold face and the vast volcanic craters,
with the shadows of the sunlight slowly
creeping from the rocky lodges of the
rim across the plain below; the only life
was the glancing light Of the sun and
the still life OF the shadows as they crept
ghos!-like across the dead expsnse. 1t
was the far off play OF death lights about
the still walls OF tomb.
And 80, as the great central fires slowly
d 9 out, and the sunlight grows chill,
must come the touch of death to the liv-
i & forces Of the green earth, and the
long battle of earth and air and fire and
water will be ended in the hush of
world death.
Yet, through it all another battle is
wsged, greater. more incessant. more en-
during, more isr-reaching; a battle
whose beginning is in time, but whose