Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1894-06-22

Tuesday evening, all the exercises were
full of interest. This years class was com
posed of eight members as follows
College preparatory course Ellen Web
ster Brown and Edith Marsh Esterbrook.
English course Hortense Agnes Hall,
Mary Lovisa Halliday, Florence Cynthia
Lamson, Julia Belle Persons, William
Henry Haywood, jr., and Leon Gilbert
Yeaw.
BaccaIaureate Sermon.
The sermon before the class of '94 was
preached by Rev. f. b. Leavlt at the
Unitarian church Sunday evening The
usual devotional service of the church was
used, Miss Gregg and Mr.. Miller assist
ing in the musical portions The subject
of Mr.. Leavitt's sermon was The endless
battle" The text was from EcClesiastes:
There is no discharge in that war" In
plain earnest words the preacher urged
upon his Young hearers the great truth SO
hard to learn, that in the battle of life,
whether in school or in businesS-mOst of
all in every mans battle with his own
self-there is no discharge; there is never
time when one may lay down his weapons
and say the work is done. There are
men who work and think and live their
lives as though life were thing of shreds
and patches-as though one days work
and one days thoughts had nothing to do
with the next days work and thoughts.
They look upon life as war in which
every now and then there is a discharge
A leave of absence granted. They do their
work to finish it without a thought of its
effect upon themselves. They forget that
no man writes line, planes board, digs
with his spade, swings his hammer,
solves an equation, studies his Greek or
French-that his life is not affected by the
way he does any one of these things. You
cannot write lie and not be something of
a liar: you cannot cheat here and there a
| little in the Conduct of your business, with
out becoming dishonest; you cannot do a
| piece of work with pen, or saw, or hammer,
| and do it in careless and sloyeny fashion
| and not be more of a sloyen afterwards,
| and more inclined to do sloyenly the next
piece of work you undertake.
"In a word, my young friends, there IS nc
discharge in the war of life. That is the
awful thing about the words you speak,
the thoughts you permit to idle in your
brain, and the kind of work you do from
day to day. The words and thoughts and
actions do not leave you never to return
leave YOU without responsibility for them
|
become part of you. You are the words
YOU speak, the thoughts you think, thu
acts you do. Many men and women foo
themselves into believing that they arr
apart from their words and actions-tha
the words and actions may be one qualit!
while they can still be of another. Moth
ing could be more false, nothing could b.
more disappointing in its results to tn
| man ar woman concerned, than to try Il
separate what one is from what one think
and does. Slowly but surely what you ca
and drink,-what you think and feel am
say-slowly but surely these become you
are YOU, and are not to be escaped from
nor will they discharge you from allegianc
to them. There is no discharge in tina
war
How many of us, my young friends
have not deceived ourselves in this matter
Some temptation has come and we hav
made believe to ourselves that we cOul
take a vacation from virtue that we coul
90 to Captain Conscience and get leave {
absence, and then indulge ourselves, an
come back into the ranks as valuable q
= before we went. But it is the vanity {
e yanities One cannot divide up his life
= that fashion and make it appear that on
5 part of his life has no connection with I'll
a other. This war of life ends only at I'll
grave. A human soul must always be
!. training, must always be Obedient, mu
= always be i'm practice"
n Such was the thought of his strong NJ
:. lifting and inspiring discourse, emphasizin
s to these young men and women the tru