The Clayton call. (Clayton, Del.) 188?-189?, 1897-07-06

cal economy and Judge 1ntelllgeEtly as
which will best conserve the highest in-
terests OF the people. And If she has
committed this power to you it's with
the implied understanding that you will
use it in a careful study of the country S
needs and cast your influence at all
times on the side of better laws, of eff
cient office holders and of wiser hand
ling OF public questions by those in au-
thorisy over you. You may SO use this
power thus committed TO You IN way
that will be disastrous to yourselves and
to the State or you may moke of it a
great blessing 1t may deepen your al
ready preconceived prejudices about
things and people and SO make you in
capable of listening to reason. or it
may give you larger and better judg-
ment of truth than you would otherwise
have. You may use it as a weapon to
dethrone God from your heart or through
it you may stand forth as an able cham
pion OF all that is good and true
But oh! my dear young friends. do
no. forget tisat you have this power only
in very small measure. Do not imag
inc you can lay aside your studies at
this point. You have only begun. There
are fields of thought into which you
have not as yet looked. There are deeps
of literature. of science, of history, of
the intellectual side of Christianity, of
poetry, of art, which lie before You un-
sounded If you hope to keep up with
the times you must go on studying as
long as you live;f for there is a new TeYel-
alton of the phenomena of nature every
decade, which will necessltate contin-
nous shifting of your views to harmon-
ize with the newly discovered facts.
With these few words of advice dis
posed of, my mind now turns to differ
ent matter. / have described you, young
ladies' and gentlemen of the Graduating
Glass, as about to be sent out into the
world MS Noah sent his doves out upon
the flood. The idea now presses upon
me to wonder and try to fortell how you
will return to us after you have obtained
your freedom and go forth to think and
act for and become law within your
selves. That you will come back in after
years to the scenes of this day, if not in
person at least in thought. in heart, I
have no doubt Often from the world,
when care and disappointment and
humiliation have been beating like some
fierce tempest upon your heart, you will
look back to this day and recall these
scenes and they will come to you over
the years like some bright, sweet vision
from heaven. I wish to place You, now.
yonder in the goth century as old men
and women with your race nearly run
and then l would bring that battered
form and face Of yours pack here to day
and place it beside that face of yours
that is looking up at me in all the fresh
ne. ard purity of youth. What kind
of form and face will they be?
There are three possibilities for you.
~ MAY READ ON THAT wRINKIED coUN-
TENANcE, UNREST FAILURE, DIsAP-
PoINTMENT. UNREINED PASSION.
The first dove that Noah forced out of
the ark found no rest for>the sole of her
! foot. a erent Painter once discovered a
boy on the street of certain city with a
face so beautiful, so like cherub. that
he took the lad IN and painted him and
placed the portrait on his wall as the
very embodiment of all that was limo
cent and pure. Years went by and the
artist conceived the idea of making a
companion picture 10 that one. but the
latter must be perfect contrast to the
former. He stood in the streets and
studied the throngs Of faces that passed
him but he could never find one that was
debased enough to suit his purpose
Then he visited the streets where GRIM
inaIs and outlaws lived but he could not
get face as depraved as he desired
Still bent on his purpose he one day
called at tue cells where the condemned
were kept. And there he saw an old
young man. sensual, haggard. sln-stained
depraved, with not trace of any virtue
left in his face. He painted this demon
and placed the picture upon the wall
beside the other A short time after.
wards be discovered that they were the
portraits of one and the same man. The
man had come back to himself there
upon the wall of that artists room to
look with his blear, blood-shots tseyes and
his broken heart upon his own boyhood
and long in vain that he might become
child again. Shall this be the fate OF
any one OF you? God forbid. We pray
God that you may quit yourselves like
men, living in the world yet avoiding its
evil.
(2). possibility is that you may
return as Noah's dove, sent out the sec
ond came back with an olive branch In
her mouth; the symbol of peace and
earthly prosperity. You may make name
for yourself in some department of life's
activity. You. young men, may strug-
gle up to an honorable place in the bus
mess world or in one of the professions
You, young ladies, may have the shap-
ing of the lives of some good, strong,
talented men or find vocation for your
selves in which you may excel. In the
past some Smyrna youth have succeeded
why notyou in the future7
(3). Your third possibility is still more
exalted than the others-you may imi
tate the dove winch Noah sent forth fol
the third tire which did not come bacl
in person but gave the patriarch the as
surance that the dread deluge was gone
and the prisoner might now go out oi
the ark with safety. 1t is good thing
to go oHt into the world and make your
fortune, my young friends, and these
who in after years will rejoice most oyel
any success you may have, will be these
friends of Your youth now clustering
about you to day. But there's one
thing better than the making of youl
personal fortune, it is helping on the
fortunes of others; it is SO to act ou
there in the world as to infuse into the
hearts of your anxious. suspicious, un-
certain fellow travellers the conviction
of there being largerlife for them than
that they are now living; the assurance
that faith and hope and charity are rea
virtues. that honesty is the hest policy,
that true happiness consists in this "tt
do justly. and TO love mercy and to wall
humbly with thy God - When in til,
great hereafter you shall meet again a
the feet of God. bearing down the gift
which the world has bestowed upon you
that one of you will be accounted the