The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-06-07
SERMON TO FIT THE TIMES
Is ALWAYS AN UN-
SELFISH LOVE OF HUMANITY.
A Dig AT PRESENT DAY REFoRMERs.
No Greater Calamity can BefalI Young Men
Than Prudence" "a Prudent Youth
is a Coward Prudence Belongs
to Old Age"
to Old Age"

Durham, N. c., June 7.-(Special.)-
President Kilgo delivered his annual ser
mon to the graduating class of Trinity
College in Main Street Methodist church
Sunday night to an immense eongrega-
ton. 1t was a very fine sermon. lie be-
gan by saying:
Just Il little while ago we met in the
chapel and went in a body to the South
ern depot TO see the departure Of the
Durham Light Infantry, who had been
ordered away to war. We found Il vast
multitude of people assembled under
the control of strange impulse, and as
we moved among them, we were very
conscious of the great sea of feeling that
dashed its pillows through our thoughts.
And this hour to you young men and to
our community is akin to that. You
are in The thought and appreciation of
this assembly more than you have ever
been" He spoke on christian Patriot
ISM" choosing Nehemiah as his type.
give few extracts from the sermon:
patriotism is not the smallests spirit
known to the human soul, nor is it in
any sense an unhallowed spirit. 1t is
that spirit in our constitution which God
has appointed guardian of the sacred
products Of our history, and CONSERVATION
of all hopes which may animate Il coun-
try. Besides all this, while you sit here
the roar of the cannon is heard and
America is trying to drive from this
country the people who first discovered
it, And it is Il queer incident in history
that they are trying to drive them out
ae In 20 fhpallub which they
entered, and the spirit of patriotism is
loud among us just now The stars
and stripes hang from our windows, float
ut the top of our tiag-masts, and are
worn upon the lapel Of the coats,
not only of the old but of the child that
paddles in the gutter on the street.
And then you are about to be plunged
into another American political cam
paign. / could wish for You and the coun-
try that we had postponed the campaign
till we had finished our war with Spain.
Both of these things will call for more
than the ordinary patriotic feelings
which belong to us.
You will note that / have not decided
to talk to you upon the general subject
Of patriotism. but upon the special sub
iect of Christian patriotism. You should
never forget that Christ has typed every
thing. He has put the seal of his own
thought and his own life on every worthy
spirit among men. So that there IS
Christian society and Christian fellow
ship. and Christian faith, Christian
hope and also Christian patriotism, just
as distinct as the thought and character
of Christ can make them. / have no apol-
ogy to make for thus limiting it, for in
the limitation we enlarge the range
of our thought. Your Alma Mater was
founded for the purpose of promulgating
the thought and life of Christ. Those
men who toiled Mt its foundation knew
of no other purpose, and those men who
brought it along and committed it to us
had ne other motive, and | trust that you
have not found in it any other motive.
nehemiah had the basis of his patriot-
ism in his temperament He was what
YOU would call an imprudent man. He
was inprudent because he was young
and true. No greater calamity can be-
fall You than prudence. Prudence be-
longs 10 old age, to limbs that will not
support as they once did, TO thought more
sluggish than it once was, to hands less
able 10 toll than they once were. I'm
prudence of spirit, burning emotions, des-
perate purposes, hurried action, ener-
getic minds, they are the things that be-
long to the young. and the great move
ments of the world those great periods
that have dashed it forward with
desperate blindness, have been the work
Of imprudent youth.
"A prudent youth is a coward. You
have no time to be prudent and when
ever a young man apologies for his slug
gish movements on the ground that he
thinks prudence the better part of val0r.
he is simply taking n good old proverb
behind which to hide a great deal Of
Incidence and cowardice. The pulse
that beats between 80 and so times a
minute was never ordained of God to be
behind n sluggish life. Blunders, no
doubt, Nehemiah made, the only apology
for them was that they We're the blum
ders Of hurried purposes and nobility,
and the world can always overlook them.
But when man takes time to calculate
and then fails as malice of forethought
there are no grounds upon which to
excuse him.
God made You young, you can't help
Yourself, ] am glad of it. 1T would be
il crime to harness your youth inside Of
the prudence Of three-score years. The
old world always wants the throb, the
stirthe energy of daring young manhood,
and old America to-day is not so old
and decrepid that she cannot survive n
little of your impatient energy. Had
Nehemiah been an older man you would
have never had his history. Had David
been an older man you would never have
had his history, and the Son Of God
waited simply impatiently till the thirty
wears came. and was the Saviour of the
world sweltering in blood before gray
hairs had grown on his brow.
II am very careful Mt this point, young
gentlemen. because | do not wish You to
be towards. If | had you in the class
room / would use another word. There
is always IA common everyday sphere for
any spirit that may be in man. Not
| always can man stand in great emf
nence, not always should he do 1t.