The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-06-10


students in these great schools Of
| thought and work, but the voice of
nature herself, as she is heard in the
! study cell, in the forest, among the
| hills. on the sea, in the chemists
| laboratory, and beneath the aStrOnO-
mer's dome, all declare the existence
of Il super-human, or as we may say
in a guarded sense-a supernatural
power, ever guiding, all governing,
beneficent
Students you have been offered dur
ing the school session now closing a
course of incidental lectures by
specialists among your professors,
each treating of his own subject from
professional point of view, and all
leading to the conclusion just an
nounced-a divine power. Those lee
lures while varied in subject and
treatment proved so truly a unit in
the foundational teachings as to sug-
gest the title 1.-The testimony of the
sciences in favor of theism." But the
theiSm SO indicated as true is far re-
moved from Sectarian creed, wholly
devoid of petty bias. 1t may not be,
1t is not likely that God can be found
with microscope and scalpel, with
test tube or flask, with goniometer or
telescope; but with such tools the
student earnestly working, cannot
tail to recognize a power beyond his
vision, yet a power of which the
pulses and the motions are unmistak-
able. The extent of our solar system
once seemed to man more limited than
it does at present; and the discovery
of the most distant planetary family
was due to recognition of an attrac-
tive force ineXplicable except on the
supposition of the existence of other
planets. The astronomer tracing
known bodies along their orbital
paths. could feel the pull. could see
the wire that drew them from mar
rover course; he saw not Neptune,
as he piled calculations sheet on sheet;
but the existence of the orb was
clearly indicated, and needing such
indications it was sought for and
found. Theory alone could never have
revealed them, though theory was in
complete. unsatisfactory without it,
but the practical search, instigated
by theory led to the great demonStra-
ton. And what is all science but
theory. compared to the practical
influence of prayerful reliance on the
assistance of an omniScient, Omnipo-
tent power? Disregard not the ir@i-
trembling of the needle that declares
the magnetic influence the instinct
within that speaks of a life and a
life-giver far beyond human power of
explanation or comprehension. AS
you sit beneath the canopied dome
bordering in the silence of night over
the perturbations, the yearnings
which the soul cannot ignore, turn in
the direction of those yearning i'm
pulses, and with the penetrating.
space annihilating, time annulling
glass of prayer and faith, seek the
source of that pervading force.
AS your voices are lifted in praise
of science and art, of philosophy and
knowledge in general. be not like
Belshazzar of old and his impious
host who while worshipping their
dieties of wood and stone. of iron and
of brass forgot the God in whose
hands their breath rested. and whose
were all their ways. And let no one
think he is of little worth as a sub
ject of care and compassion to this
beneficent power, the Father of his
spirit. We may be weak and small
but our Makers care extends alike to
small and great, for His eye behold
eth all which are-sees without search
and cometh without care, nor lies the
babe nearer the nursing place than
Allah's smallest child to Allah's
grace"
Let this trust in God be wisely ex-
ercised; it will be the more complete
and sincere. Our Father is not pleased
with profeSSed trust which becomes
the cloak of idleneSS, the excuse for
leaving work undone Our depend
ence on him if acceptable, must be
associated with effort to work for our
selves; this is declared alike by the
scriptural records of inspiration and
revelation, as by the example of "a
ture in every part of her domain.
Dependence and independence, terms
antithetical in form are by no means
opposed in their nature. Independ-
ence that ScornS assistance, and par
ticularly that which refuses the aid
that is all essential is not manly; it is
naughty. Work is honorable and pleas
ing in Divine eyes as among men.
Learning should dignity labor, should
increase the enjoyment of life in the
discharge of duty. The facilities CT
fered by schools such as ours are for
the workers, the toilers, the masses.
Were 1t otherwise, were these oppor-
tunities provided for those alone who
are to become doctors, and lawyers.
and professors, there would be little
excuse for the great expenditure of
means and effort involved: for the
appropriation of public funds, the de-
votion of private charities; for the
sacrifices made by parents-the brow
sweat, and the heart sweat which go
to meet the price of these privileges.
Our former graduates are now found
as will those of the future be found.
not only in professional chairs, or in
places of public trust and emolument,
worthy as is the ambition to fill such
stations, but also in the field, at the
carpenters bench, with the instru-
ments of hand craft at command.
The pillow, the trowel, and the hammer
are as useful tools and quite as
worthy of our respect as are the mic
roscope and the pen. Any professed
system of education which engenders
a distaste for labor is dangerous in
the extreme. Books, schools, colleges
and universities should aid the toiler
in his duty, showing purpose for his
work, teaching method and plan in
its execution: not turn him away from
work, and make of him an idler. The
school course is an apprenticeship in
the use of the tools by which the work
of life is to be wrought.
The development of such power and
skill has been the chief purpose of the
instruction impaired to you. In the
brief period of three, four, or six
years which your courses have cover
ed, any attempt to exhaust tn sub
jects of study would have been futile.
Your teachers have striven less earn
ostlv to te9ch mathematics or science
than to indicate good, and as they be-
st methods of pursuing
such studies; to start you upon the
course, leaving you now to proceed
alone. Some of you are about to bid