The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-06-02
FAIR YOUNG GRADUATES.
PEACE INSTITUTE. CONFERS IT'S
DIPLOMA ON TWENTY
YOUNG LADIES.
Rev. Or. Peyton n. Hoge Preaches tne
BaccaIaureate Sermon---Rev. c. g.
varde,l Delivers the Address to the
Graduating CIass--Art Levee To-Day.
Annual Concert To-Night.

Annual Concert Tonight.
Palms and magnolias, roses and
water-lillies adorned the pulpit of the
First Presbyterian church Sunday
morning.
A hundred lovely school girls dressed
in pure white shed an atmosphere OF
nurity and innocence oyer the cong're-
cation.
Rev. DR.. Peyton III. Hoge, the noted
Wilmington divine, was the preacher
of the morning, and his sermon to the
graduating class of Peace Institute
was full of the richness of high
thought. graceful in rhetoric, charm
ing in delivery.
DR.. Hoee has the face of a scholar and
the brow of a profound thinker. And
now and then through the stout wool
OF thought he flashes a thread of deli
cious humor.
1t is regretted that space can be found
for only a synopsis of his sermon:
Matthew 6:2S, 30, Consider the lilies
of the field, how they grow; they toll
not. neither do they spin; but Solo
mon in all his glory was not arrayed
like one of these"
The season of spring impresses two
facts most wildly upon the mind. No
one can look around them with half an
eve and not be impressed with the fact
of beauty. The fields brown and sere
put on robe of living green. The
forests that stood stark and bare are
dressed in the same hue. The violet
and the snow drop put up their modest
bloom before winter is quite gone.
The narcissus and the datfodil
follow and presently the whole chorus
of flowers burst into bloom, while the
lilv and the rose-the queens of the
garden-fill the air with bloom and
fragrance. The fields are f1ecked
with daisies The broad Savannahs of
the coast are enriched with golden
pitchers and the purple iris. And as
our Lord looked forth upon the
plains of Galilee empurpled with
the gorgeous hues of the Palestine lily
he could compare them to. Nothing but.
the TyTian dyes of the robes of Solo
mon-a1rd that to the disparagement
of the work of human art.
The other is the fact of life. All
these robes of beauty have been woven
without sound of the busy flying shut
tie, or the clacking of looms, but by
the silent unseen forces of life. In the
springwe are brought face to face with
the mysteries of life and growth and
resurrection. Tt almost seems that Ma
ture sports with mans timld fears
by laughing the fact of the resurrec-
ton into his face Myriads of tiny
graves are opened, myriads of tiny cot
fins are burst asunder, myriads of
tiny grave-clothes torn apart, and in
field and forest and gardens, from
leaf-bud and f1ower-bud, from seed
and corn and bulb, the imprisoned
life bursts forth and the world is cloth
ed with beauty.
Our Lord tells us to study the flow
ers. And whether we study them
scientifically with the botanist and
biologist, aesthetically with those who
adorn with them their homes or imi-
tate them in their apparel, or practical
ly with the florist who seeks to culti-
waite them under the best conditions
and to the best advantage, these same
two facts present themselves-beauty
and growth. And these are the facts
that we must consider when we study
them spiritually. The immediate APP
plication of our Lords reference to
the flowers is to teach the lesson of
faith for clothing as the reference to
the birds teaching the lesson of faith
for food. In cutting loose from old
associates and old employments to seek
first and supremely the Kingdom of
God, He would free them from anx-
iety on these points. But the words
of Christ are great principles whose
meaning cannot be exhausted by the
immediate application given them.
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an incident to that faith that looks
to God for all spiritual bearings.
The text then presents to us an'ideal,
and that ideal is spiritual beauty; and
presents to US a process. process
not of toll and effort, but of life and
growth. The embodiment of that
ideal is. of course, Jesus Christ himself.
Solomon stands for the contamination
of external grandeur. Jesus Christ
for the contamination of moral and
spiritual beauty. He was to teach the
world that
"TTis not the palm, the sceptre and
the ball,
The sword, the mace, the crown inn
perial,
The intertissued robe of gold and
pearl,
The farced title running fore the
King,
The throne he sits on nor the full tide
of power
That beats upon the high shore OF this
world;
No, not all these, thrice gorgeous cere-
mony-"
that make the king; but purity OF
heart, truth of character, kingliness
of soul, the majesty of lofty purpose,
and the greatness of service rendered
to mankind. AS his beauty was in
ward, moral, spiritual, it did not of
course attract the eye like the pomp
and pageantry of earthly royalty. To
most of His own generation-to all
but the Jew who saw with spiritual
eye, He was root out of dry ground,
He had no form nor comeliness, and
when they saw Him, there was no beau
ty in Him that they should desire Him.
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