Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1895-06-28
HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES,
Twenty Nine Members of the
Glass of 1895,

Sunday afternoon witnessed the first of
the public exercises which marked the
close of school life for the class Of '95 of
the High school, the baccalaureate sermon
being delivered before them and large
company Of their friends by Rev. A. j.
Houph of the Methodist church. The serv-
ice took place at the Baptist church, and
shortly after o'clock the class, led by
John Rider and Robert Aldrich and
followed by the faculty, entered the au-
dience room.
The choir sang beautiful anthem, after
which parts of the 18th and 18th chapters
of [ Kings was read and prayer was offered.
The text of the discourse was ! Kings XVII,
2. 3: "And the word of the Lord came
unto him saying, Get thee hence and turn
thee eastward" We are in the presence
of life, the speaker said, on a living world,
in a living universe. We are the guests of
God, who invites us to life-his life. But
we must grow into it with the soul, which
is like him. The height of ones standing
in the universe is the measure of our like
ness to him who made it.
The theme of the discourse was the
growth of the soul, to illustrate which
life had been chosen from the heart of the
ages-Elijah, a man walking along our
levels, human all through, with a soul
growing and coming to power by methods
always modern because they are divine.
The Scripture reading had given the story
of Elijah sent of God to the brook Cherith,
to be ministered to by Gods care; thence
to Zarephath, to bless and minister to the
widow and her son, then to Carmel to meet
and defeat the priests of Baal,
Elijah's first step is obedience to the
higher Voice. lie heard the same voices
which we hear to-day of policy, pleasure,
sefishness, pride, passion, cowardice, dis
cOuragement, but above them the highest
voice soul can hear, which always calls
toward the sunrise, bidding him 60 to the
brook Cherith, to drink of its waters and
receive food from the ravens. The bird
and brook period has a place in every
growing life when things are provided for
us, when we are receivers. 1t is the time
of filling up. A ship swings at her moor
ings, called vainly by tides and winds, un-
til she is filled with stores for the voyage
over deep, mysterious seas. Nature sends
all her children to school, and asks moth
ing of them but that they learn the divine
art of coming slowly, like souls, to SYM
metry and power We cannot put this pc
riod in at any other stage of life. Ships
cannot be stored when out in mid-ocean
Souls cannot be stored after the time of
preparation is passed.
But this period ends One morning
Elijah awoke to find the brook dry and the
ravens vanished. Then the voice came
again, bidding him go to Zarephath, where
there was need He was not to cease re-
ceivng, but must begin giving out-be
changed from reservoir to a channel. The
channel period comes to every growing
life. Jesus said, "Freely We have received,
freely gives" his followers were to become
priests of ministry, even as 'the son of
man Gang not to be minstered unto, but
to minister" At the wedding feast at
Cana, the servants filled the jars with
water, but drew out wine. The quality of
the master had gone into his gift. One
tide of life flows into natures heart, but it
breaks out here a rose, there a fruit tree,
the channel importing to the current its
own life qualities. We must not only give,
but we must give better quality than we re-
ceive. We do not know how rich our
life is until we begin to give it out. Elijah,
in the raising of the widows son, under
took the impossible, and found that he
welded forces belonging only to Cod be-
causelhe used them only for him. Over every
gateway of the unattained is written "Im-
possible" 1t is our privilege to have such
a quality of life that we may write below
it, "All things are possible to him that be-
lieveth." All the progress of the world
has been through the doors of the impoSsi-
BILE. Pour out your lives. There is more in
them than the best human teachers have
placed there. God has put more sweet,
clean, germinant life in human soul than
he has poured into the countless worlds,
but we must pour it out to find it.
Carmel follows Iarephath in the growth
of Elijah, the period of mortal conflict.
There is need in the world and wrong is
here also. But we need not hasten to the
battlefield. If we have growing souls that
field awaits us somewhere. We are apt
to think we are ready for Carmel upon
leaving the bird and brook period. Moral
battlefields are white with the bones of the
bird and brook type of reformers, who per
ished in their premature attempts. Park
hurst got his growth before he tackled
Tammany. Lincoln came up by slow de-
grees to his field of conflict. Patience is a
prime element in soul growth. Grow into
your age or community The spirit of i'm
patience is in the air today. Souls rush
into life's battles half armed and are
beaten; into its markets unframed and are
defrauded. Jesus fingers through eighteen
years of unbroken silence at Nazareth,
ing of his touch. SIN patience possess We
your souls"
Courage ministers to growth. We can
not live grandly without it; not the battle
field courage, but that, equally noble, which
can be brought into common, everyday
use, courage to live humbly, to forego
present advantages for gain and honor and
keep clean soul.
Faith in ones fellow men is an element
in soul growth. Elijah supposed he was
the only faithful man in Israel and the
Lord had to tell him there were 1000 others.
1t will be great loss to us if we go out
into the world believing that we are the
only good people in it. There are thous-
ands of white souls in all the walks of life.
You are going out into sweet world,
growing sweeter; into clean world, grow
ing cleaner; into a brotherhood growing
more brOtherly; where the world is swing
ing as never before into the radiance of
the face of God.
Members of the graduating class: You
have had your bird and brook period in an
ideal village, passing between happy homes
and model school, high in its aims, its
methods, its teaching ability, its eXpecta-
tions and its attanments worthy to be
called a High school. But that period has
passed. You have been receiving, you
must now give. The channel period has
come to your lives Henceforth, wherever
you stand, not ceasing to receive, you must
add to that process the diviner act of Civ
ing. Do not stand in awe of large demands.
Face the impossible. You are in a rich
universe; the supply trains keep pace with
the march of its souls. Stay out of the