The Saint Paul globe., 1897-06-07
ERE THEY 60 FORTH
HAMLINE GRADUATES ARE URGED
TO STAND FAST TO THE
FAITH.
PRESIDENT G. H. BRIDGMAN
DELIVERS THE USUAL BACCALAU-
REATE ADDRESS TO THE 1897
CLASS.
REV. S. F. KERFooT, AN ALUMNus,
Also Spoke ut the University in the
Evening With Especial Refer
ence to Things Current.

The baccalaureate address to the
senior class of Hamline university was
delivered yesterday morning by Presi-
dent George H. Bridgman, in the
| chapel.
Promptly at the hour announced DR.
Bridgman and members of the faculty
from both schools took their places
urCn the platform, and as Clarence Z.
Krinbill played an appropriate selec-
ton, the senior class clad in Oxford
cap and gown. numbering fifty-five,
| marched in and occupied the first three
rows that had been reserved for them
in front of the platform.
The floral decora ions on the rcstrum
were most beautiful and elaborate,
! having been arranged by the class CT
| 49, and consisted largely OF palms.
! ferns and red and white roses.
! The university quartette, consisting
! of Messrs. Chester Fl. Tether, Robert
Taylor, Joseph Nj. Hackney and Will
liam Brink, rendered Sweney's Peace!
+ 1t Is /, after which the opening prayer
/ was made by Dean l.. II. Crafts, Of the
medical school Mrs. G. D. Hayes, of
! st. Paul, then sang d cOntralto SOLO,
/ Eternal Rest by Nj. Riccofonini. o.
! lowing, Dean Loren H. BatchC ldor r ad
! the Scripture Lesson"
! Dr. Eridgman took for his text
I. Cor XIV, IS: "Howbeit that was not
| first which is spiritual, but that which
/ is natural, and afterWard that which
! is spiritual
| He SAID: Paul is speaking mere of tie
| natural body and of the spiritual body, but he
takes occasion to give expression to broad
principle, which is capable of very general
! application.
1t applies equally well to all our in err
| rretations Of truth. 1t is just true here
! as it IS of bodies, that there is the first, !"
which is natural" and there is the latter
Ward" which IS spiritual"
! The Bible shows mans early paradise to
! have been a garden. It sets his future home
! before him a city. Now, all the wealth
| of city is taken out of the ground The
! perfect heaven will be the perfect unfold
! ing Of human ideas man found them in the
written revelation of the Faoher-written
upon the heavens. which declare His glory
written upon the day ana night, upon the
! seasons and upon every mark of His handi-
! work, which the various and beauteous land
| scape portl ays.
When Paul announced the words of his
text, he spake them, as | have already init
mated, parenthetcally, in the midst of great
! argument. He spake them as a declaration
OF a foundation principle, as key truth
! which must be used to secure the inter
| probation OF this material system of things
He would have us remember at all times
that the spiritual is the supreme end Of
human achievement, according to the will
Of the great Creator. And he would have
US learn that ell our journey through this
! natural sphere is & journey toward the
! spiritual; that all spiritual conceptions must
be formed through the natural and that all
| students fail In their final examination who
have not found the spiritual truth which is
set forth in every physical unfolding of the
mind of God.
Our text reads: THAT is not first. which
is spiritual, but that which is natural.''i And
! If the reading concluded there, we would be
! disappointed, who seek above all things to
! know the mind of the Father concerning u.s.
But our bewilderment is relieved by the
added clause: ''Aterward that which is
spiritual" This settles the question; that
the spiritual is the final clause or-end of
all created things, in that it is first: first
IN Importance; first as supreme To it all
things tend and for it all things are
But; according to the text, the spiritual is
the afterward; in order of time, or in order
OF sequence. If all things else lead up to it,
then all things else must precede-or be first
in time or order Everywhere we sur
by reference to the words we use to ex-
press spiritual qualities. Such words as
| high, low, dark and eight great
and small are originally descriptive of ma
terial or natural conditions. They all re-
late to substance. But they have come I'D
from the realm of matter to the realm of
spirit. How came they? Man brought them
with him as he came upward himself A
| little meditation will make 1t clear to us
! that all our language is a reaection of nature
ana IS borrowed from natural sights and
about the souls experiences until nature steps
in and gives US the alphabet of expression for
our thoughts and feelings.
When Christians realize that the earth is
now fdll OF the glory of God and we only
! want eyes and ears to search it; when they
! desire to see The Fathers will in everything
that waits along the earthly path, as did
| the Son OF God, and the Son of Man m His
! pursuance of this career. then shall come
! the day when 'the valleys and the hills
! shall sing praises unto Cod Then shall
! the vision of the apocalyptic seer be the real
/ experience Of the earthly day-when every
creature which is in heaven and on the
earth and such as are in the sea are heard
saying, blessing and honor and glory and
! power be unto Him that sitteth upon the
| th'""n ard unto the J4nmh forever
In the light Of this divine law Of operation
must all our views and theories be weighed.
We must come forward to the spiritual
Christ himself said the li:eral kilieth 1t
killeth if it killeth us from the spiritual.
which is the goal of all the literal. Our views
ness, are all too small when we adhere too
closely to the literal. The letter must be-
and it must be first. The wisest never
| learned without it and never will.
! And so you see that the subject before us
! teaches us the unlimited value and the divine
! obligation of what we call education-the
! study of the natural through which. alone
! spiritual truths are to reach US.
| IT ordinary Christians have divine call
! to aim at, higher standard than thar of
| the customary morality around them then
surely the scholar who is set on the track
! OF truth and inspired to pursue it, to whom
are opened the richest treasures of thought
and learning, whose mind is widened by the
most far-reachiBg views of the natural word
and of human life of Christian truth and
duty, must acknowledge that these are vet
weightier obligations resting upon him. that
he is under special requirements to be better
and to do more than others.
President Bridgman, in his closing re-
marks, spoke of the superior obliga-
tiOns resting upon the class. as edu-
Gated men and women, that they
! should honor their Christian profession
! by their love and zeal and beneficent
works; that superior obligations rested
upon them as members of society: they
would be leaders of thought; a friend
! OF human kind should allay existing
! strIfes and discOrds and bind all class
! es OF society together in the golden
| chains Of mutual kindness and respect.
that they had superior obligations 70
| the state and to their Christian church
The class then stood up, and DR..
Brldgman addressed them as follows:
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Glass of '97:
That course of instruction which has had
for its high aim to render you literally edu-
Gated men and women terminates with this
service. At such moment this the mind
naturally reverts to the past, to those tender
/ associations and generous memories which
unite by peculiar and sacred bond those
who have been companions in study for so
long a period, III the very glow of their youth
nurtured together under the enobling 4sir-
huanee of liberal culture and interknit by
sweet communities of thought and feeling
there must even be something sacred and en-
dearing in the relations which you have here
sustained TO each other. Nor can we forget
that of those who set out with you not all
hD.a AD1n IOr,f