The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-06-09
q. AND M. COLLEGE.
REV. A. D. THAELLER breaches
THE BACCALAURGATE SER
MON.
Glass Night at the College Last Even
ing--Aiumri Addresses TocaY--Dr
McIver's Address Tonight.

| ndeief Il IoOh Vi youth AAid NhN"so -
his thought is well matured, it is
alive with the healthy, hopeful force of
young manhood.
1t was young man speaking to
Young men at Edenton street church
Sunday night when he delivered the
baccalaureate sermon to the gradu-
ates of go of the A and NJ. College.
And this is life eternal he read
his text, that they might know thee,
the only true GOD, and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent"
The more the ancient world ques-
toned and argued about this great
problem of life the nearer they came
TO the gulf of idiocy, and even Plato
wrote in his despair, I'VE can never
| know these things until one come to
us from the gods and tell us what they
are" Human intellect is not fitted to
cope with that of divine origin and di-
vine maintenance. But ''in the fulness
of time God sent forth his Son" and
in three years of preaching and teach
| ing. and in an awful death on hill
| side outside of an Eastern city, he
gave to the world the answers from
above, which in an eternity it could
| not have grasped from beneath. And
this is life eternal, that they might
know thee, the only true God, and
| Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent"
You see around you a universal toll
ing and struggingl and feverish hun
gering, the struggle for daily bread.
Bread as an end is ignoble, pitiable.
| We eat to-day; tomorrow we hunger
| and must be fed again. The woman
| of Samaria when Jesus told her OF the
| water of life, cried ''Sir, give me this
| water, that | thirst not, neither come
| hither to draw" Many there are that
| have this low, degrading conception
of life. The eternal life is as much
fact as the earthly life; land We being
dead in trepasses and sins, hath he
| uuickened yet the prophets lift up
their hands and plead in vain with hui
manity to feed the eternal soul. The
Emperor Julian who had fought
Christianity all his life, when he fell
dying, cried, "Galilean, thou hast CON
ouered." Oh, the bitterness of a life
that takes no account of the eternal.
"Simply to exist is not to live; eter-
nal existence is not eternal life. Peb-
bles exist, they do not live. And life
| ascends the scale until it reaches man;
and man only being the highest in
the order of all things created that
have organic life, can have eternal
life. But it must be attained. You
say he is an immortal soul that cannot
die. and is for this reason everlasting.
| Yes but the souls of the damned are
also everlasting, because OF their I'M
mortality. and hell is not life. it IS
| Eternal
life is not simply to be undying IN an
| external heaven. 1t consists not III
| simple existing but in knowing those
surroundings. The taking of the life
| is knowing God and knowing Christ.
And this "knowing" is being changed
| into his likeness. winning back that
perfect image and likeness OF Nod III
which our first parents were created.
| walk with Christ, speak with Him,
work with Him, and you nave taken
hold of eternal life.
Huxley SAYS, Perfect correspond
anoe would be perfect life" To know
1 God is to be in perfect touch with
God.
LET Christ come to you, not only 10
olive YOU physical and mental rest,
hut everything; and you will feel that
delicious life coursing through your
veins which YOU know to be eternal
because it is not yours but Christs.
There is but one way and that IS
Christ. travel it. no matter what III
costs YOU. Be faithful even unto
death. and you shall receive crown
of life.
s.Behold, now are we the sons OF
God: and it doth not yet appear what
we shall be; but we know that when
He shall appear we shall be like Him;
for we shall see Him as He is"
The sermon was a powerful effort,
pregnant with great thought.
The chapel of the \. and NJ. College
was prettily decorated in red and
white. it being class night for the grad
uates Of so. Graceful ivy, ferns, and
stately palms added to the tasteful ef-
feet of the decoration.
The hall was filled TO oVertiowlng
by the audience that gathered in honor
of the occasion.
Mr.. l.. Il. Whitfield, president of the
class, was master of ceremonies. lie
opened the programme with BRIEF
and pointed little speech.
Mr.. Jno Howard, of Tarboro, orator
from the Pullen Society, was the first
| speaker, and his subject, 1--WE Live IN
| leeds, N0U IN Years. lie ntliIuleu hi9
subject in a mastery manner, with eX-
cellent delivery. He reviewed the
great deeds that distinguished the
State, the Declaration of independence,
the war of revolution, the war for
Southern rights and the manly oppos.-
ton TO the despotism of the era OF
reconstruction. His subject was wei
treated and well delivered.
| Mr.. w. c. Jackson, of Pitt county,
orator from the Leazar Society, took
for his subject, THE Practical Value
OF Poetry" Poetry is not all moonshlne
and sentimentality, he argued, but has
a far-reaching value to mankind. Po-
etry is condensed prose, and many or
the greatest writer's have used it as the
best vehicle. for high and stately
thought His address was excellent
in matter and manner.
Mr. H. l.. Williams read the class
4t,-