The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-06-14
VALUE OF MOTIVE
BacCalaureate Sermon to
HaSbrouck'S Graduates
st. Johns Church.
DR.. SToDDARD'S ELOQUENT WORDS
Loftiness Of Principle and Stead
fastness Of Purpose the Aim
to Be Held in View.

The Rev. E. u. StoGdard, In st. Johns
Church, yesterday morning, preached the
baccalaureate sermon to the graduating
class of Hasbrouck Institute. The gradu-
ates met in the Sunday school room and
just before the service began marched
into the church and up the centre aisle to
seats near the front that had been re-
served for them and the faculty, all Of
whom were present. After the regular
morning service DR.. Stoddard preached
from the following text, which is found in
l. Cor. Is: 5S~:-"Therefore, my beloved
brethren, be We ~steadfast, unmovable, al
ways Astounding in the work of the Lord,
for as much as We know that your work
is not in vain in the Lord DR.. Stod-
dard said among other things
And SO the apostle calls on man for
no ecclesiastical ecstacy, no impossible
self immolation, no fantastic spiritual
posturing, because all these things,
Though very attractive perhaps to us, can
not for a moment compare in Gods sight
with the quiet, cheerful doing of that
which is His will. We begin to see hen
that our text is perhaps quite a fitting
climax for this wonderful chapter. Just
because we nave so high and wonderful
a destiny we are to go home and be good.
Our first thought is the value Of a high
motive. 1t is a mistake of small men to
employ small motive for small deeds.
Great men bring noble motives with
which to dig bitches or open oysters. The
royal family, for example, orders a suit
of clothing, and, 10! what al oppor-
tunity, with assidulty therefor, what de-
votion. Gather the most skillful artisans,
supervise the most minute detail, let the
- =
the finest work. But for the honest
bridesmaids coat. whose dollar is as good
as a kings, why anyone may attend to
that. The motive is low, therefore let
the work be meagre
You are to address a graduating class
from Hasbrouck's. The call is fattering,
the motive correspondingly high. You
devote to it, therefore, time, with elo-
quence. But for your Sunday School
class-oh, any sort of preparation will do
for that, the time between dinner and
the call bell, the shreds of your mental
machinery.
know you have Who are here today, as
you look out into your future, high and
noble ideals. He is to b. a scholar, a
s shrffl 9ha h esrnaDs Of a dRs Gfsi He readers Il so
rule empires or command in the tented
field; Yet what year by year does he
90 tndC ne may accomplish all THIS why
he digs away at Greek and Latin work.
He puzzles over impossible problems.
While the careless and the giddy, those
their good times, he is ~grubbing lin the
classical and elegant language of the
schools), bending over midnight desks
and s%nuffing midnight candles.
Here is a young business man, going
forth with aim of honorable wealth, Wis
lens before him Of Wall street kings,
And Aaap What Toe he aaa do? s SITS down Tallf under
three dollars a week, with long hours
and a drudgery that his father could not
have paid him to do at home. Or he en-
tiers the lowest stages of a mill and picks
over greasy wool that he may learn wool |
values, or he masters the secret of the
we turn to the life of lives, to our blessed
Lord. What a motive was that set be-
fore him. To save a world. to destroy
heaven, to lift men into sons of God.
And who has no high motive? The
tramp, the ~vagabond, the man who lives
upon his wits or his wife, the man who
instead of climbing waits to be lifted by
the easy hands of circumstance and so in
the end falls and falls forever. Our first
do, the meanest thing. the greatest
thing, from the highest motive, as a son
of God, as an heir of Immortality, as
one of whom this fifteenth chapter is
I'VE now come down to our second
thought. A motive then is not enough,
" IN SLGduldSlH6SS a mOJlVR how 1
ever high. ends nowhere. Under the in
spiration then of the high motive, your
life, my friends, must move steadfastly
end. And now let us Illustrate again
how men are doing this all about us. |
Here is q man realizing the high motive
and because of it. he determines to choose /
a definite end in life let US say the goal Of
commercial honesty. Towards that he
PLAUSIBLE argument, in spite Of losses. He
remembers the old French proverb:-'God
does not pay every Saturday night, but
Our last thought is BE steadfast
and unmovable because that sort Of work
Is not in vain in the Lord. MY dear
all other labor is vain. Is it not nnr
experience, that it is vain? First Of ali.
o9lnK OF me lnevitable paid occupations
ana lever luxury, the wages of millions
so small that there is no rest nor hone
ms tniS +; sac OF the grave. Think how much
or enslave men. Think of those who have
succeeded yet. not succeeded. who have
ed the ladder of fame to be thrust nm
duly down. Think of the perils of those
who really succeed, how in every depart
ready at the slightest mistake to taLe
their places and ready often to see that
# possible such mistakes are made. Then
think how easily and often the bitter
struggle leads to sin and our success
brings US the curses of men and the
wrath OF God. Is not such labor vain? If
have the same hope and the same mr.
pose as the horse in his, is not our labor
vain? 10y
but If this life is a school: If . Fa+har
has put US here in kindness, not that we
may get fun or even bones out of life.
put that we may get character: if this
life after that graduation which men cali
death; II It is brief even at the Iongest
leads, then we are indeed to live ii nohlv
beautifully, but 1t is of no consequence
who we are and what we are. SO thai
holy. honest, .God-fearing, obedient and
be AT to graduate when our career is