The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-06-14

sermon for tho graduates OF Brown at
tho First Baptist church yesterday after
noon.
The service was opened with prayer
by Rev DR.. King, pastor Of the church.
and Prof B. +. Clark acting president
of the university, read the scripture lesson
of the day from Second Timothy.
The Text of the Sermon.
The text Of the sermon was:
ps. iv 6: There be many that say:
Who will show US any goodY Lord lift
Thou up the light OF Thy .countenance
upon us.
A summary OF the discourse Is: One
might think that verse was written this
morning and the Ink was not yet dry,
so fresh vital and up-to date Is our Bible.
DE Quincy has divided all the books OF
the world into tho literature OF knowledge
and the literature OF power. An almanac.
n newspaper, u treatise on optics or 0eoQ-
raphy belongs to the literature Of knowl-
edge. Its sole object is 10 communicate
facts 60 enable MS to know more things.
But poem, an essay, mover, a sermon,
n vision, seeks not 10 enlarge the circle of
things known, but 30 enlarge the soul
of tho knower; not 60 increase the num-
ber Of facts In our mental catalogue, but
10 give depth, richness, beauty aud glory
to the spirit Of man. Now the literature
Of knowledge Is always getting out OF
date; the literature Of power Is youngest
when Oldest
Now, the Bible belongs TO the literature
OF power To remember that will solve
thousand perplexities for the Biblical
student The Bible gives us facts indeed
concerning Moses and Paul and Jesus.
But it's chief aim is not 10 toll us on what
summit Moses died, or what documents
he wrote, but to enable us like him TO
SEQ the invisible; not TO show us where
Paul was shipwrecked, but TO impart the
Pauline quality of soul; not to tell us
where Capernaum and Golgotha were, but
'that believing we might have life
through His name.
This fourth Psalm, written by some un-
known singer in the far, dim past, gives
| us no facts whatever. but it offers us
| solution of life's deepest and darkest prob
! loms The third Psalm Is morning,
while this fourth Psalm Is AN evening
| hymn. Ii Is easy TO sing in the morning,
| while tie enemy Ia still out Of sight II
will not be afraid" he cries. "of tens of
thousands Of people that have set them
selves against me round about. But in
| the evening he comes home weary and
worn with the struggle, deserted by
| friends, betrayed by foes and sits dow n
| again to sing. And this Is his song
! '0Ihero be many that say, who will show
us any good; Lord lift Thou up the light
l
| manyY Who are they?
Army of the Disappointed.
First. The disappointed Is man
we used TO know, bright, keen, courageous,
| and now after ten years we meet him
| again--the light has faded from his eye,
| elasticity from his step, ne has Joined the
great army Of the disappointed. He set
| his heart on certain things in life and the
nf ha ~
him to realize that those things will never
bs his. Now he is struggling but baf1ied,
| like lion i'm net only immeshed more
deeply by his vain endeavor. Henceforth
the man sums up his whole career in tho
words of the disciples on the way to
Emmaus: "We trusted.
Now, how shall we meet this army Of
the disappointed? With argument? We
can indeed show that the good in life
outweighs the evil, that death does not
love shining mark can prove by statis-
tics that the good live longest, can ex-
plain laboriously that disappointments
develop character. But did You ever try
to argue with n man in sorrow? If so,
you will never do 10 a second time.
Take for example the questions con-
nected with suicide. Pagan moralists
often defended 1t. Indeed, with their
light they could hardly do otherwise. Ii
n God IS In his world, who has given me
on me, then to desert my post Is not only
cowardicc and treachory, hut Is TO defy
His appointment, and the worst possible
way OF living is to refuse to live at all.
Abundance Breeds Pessimism.
Second. The disillusonized bv success
The pessimism of our time does not
spring from poverty and deprivation. IL
springs from wealth and culture and
abundance. Do you not recognize daily
the sadness of modern literatureY Our
stories are no longer the fairy tales, in
which the people lived happily ever after
no longer the sunday school books in
which the good boy was always rewarded,
but pictures painted by bitter realism,
and the joyous ending of ''Waverly" is
replaced by the conclusion of less OF tho
Urbervilles: Tho President of the i'm
mortals had finished his sport with Tess "
Gentlemen of the graduating class. sew
entcen years ago today l stood i'm your
place. What | owe To the old college.
under God words cannot utter. The
same spreading elms wero benGing over
the samo venerable church, when j stood
in yonder pew to receive from Ezekiel
Gilman Robinson - venerable nomen -
parting charge and benediotion. And
now have come back, not rs some sage
PoloniuS with sage precepts for You lin
memory TO character, bur TO stand beside
you a. some Laertes, who has been in the
lnlCh ol lHe HgHt anu returns 10 say
" Brothers. tho fight is goodly, the strug-
gle Is magnificent, equip yourselves with
God and you cannot fail 2"
BE not afraid Of life. Most pathetically
the wise man wrote of old age: They
shall be afraid Of that which Is high
But you, ! beseech you. love the high,
cherish tho ideal, rally round the impossi-
bic
The Coronation Of Self-Mastery.
You do not labor under the delusion
that You have finished your education.
The real degrees in tho republic of letters
are not conferred by university corona
ti0ns or enclosed I'm ribhoned parcbmeuts.
They are the cOronati1ns II self-masterv
and silent victory I'm the inner cham bors
of the soul Having mastered yourselves,
YOU shall surely take the city. For your
coming every good cause Is waiting. For
your strength. devotion, enthusiasm, the
whole weary world is longing For your
AID al the perplexed problems Of our
social, INDUSTRIAL ana religious life are
crying. For your coming the twentieth
century, already knocking at the door,
listens and hopes and prays.