The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-06-02
AT THE UNIVERSITY.
FIRsT THREE DAYS OF COM
MENCEMENT EXERCISES.


-
by Bishop Thompson-Address to the
Law Class by Hon. HI. G. Connor-So-
cfety OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES of Class
of,79-CIasssDay Exercises ofs the
Graduating Glass. Fs
Correspondence of the Messenger.)
Chapel Hill, n. c., May 29th-
The exercises of the university's one
hundred and fourth annual commence
ment began on Sunday morning with
the baccalaureate sermon, which was
delivered by the Rt. Rev. Hugh Miller
Thompson, bishop of Mississippi. An
unusually large crowd gathered to hear
Bishop Thompson, attracted by his far
famed reputation as a teacher and
preacher. No one went away disap-
pointed. The general opinion is extrav-
agantly favorable, and a host of new
admirers have been added to the al
ready long list OF those that have re-
spected and honored the eminent di-
vine.
The substance of the bishops sermon
was as follows:
Second Timothy, iv; 6, Z: For I am
now ready to be offered and the time OF
my departure is at hand. I have fought
a good fight, I have finished my ourse
1 have kept the faith" 1t was an old
man advising a young man 1t is a
very bold thing to do under any cir
cumstances for there are few men
whose lives are not largely failures, and
the old nan who writes this is a pris-
oner at Rome does not expect to
come out of the prison until he comes
to die, yet he advises n in the full
flush Of manhood.
The prisoners ancestors were kings
and princes and prophets when the old
Norman-blooded English were running
wild in the German forests. His pedi-
gree was a part Of the nations life. He
was educated in Jerusalem at the high
est school to learn the theology of his
own people; was educated in Greek lit
erature;. was a m lawyer and a
Roman gentleman. He was not only a
Jew Of high descent and highly educat-
ed, but he was a Roman citizen. His
psychology was that of Plato-body,
soul and spirit make. up the man. This
man began life with every element Of
success; but one day there came to him
a conviction and he cast way every
advantage he had in life; his friends
turned against him and ~slandered him.
and heaped malediction and persecution
upon him, who had been the hope of the
race, with any place open to him as
a Roman or as a Jew. He had gone to
a sect which every man talked against.
He left all the advantages at the very
dawn of life, not for great rewards, for
I him he was aware of what awaited
him-bonds and punishment, imprisOn-
ment and shipWreck and at the last the
Roman prison and the Roman death.
And yet this man had decided to ad-
wise the young man he loved as a son
to take the same course. BY the
measure of the forum, ST. Paul had
made a most abject failure, yet he does
not seem to think he has failed. Il
have taught a good fight, I nave finish
I'd the course laid out, 1 have kept the
faith, henceforth there is laid UP for
me a crown of righteousness He
claimed the victory with is feet on the
brink. of the grave and the grave
crumbling underneath them, and the
| grave a bloody one.
| Is st. PauTs measure of success ours?
I believe it to be the sole abiding meas
| ure of success for all men worth the
| name man. There is only one thing
which a man can hold as a permanent
| possession in the face Of a condition like
PauIs and that is his own personal
| character. The rich man becomes poor
/ LIN CT Ia lIlo41 4AoC ~ IolASo " yONI
| estimation of a man, because he has
| brought out of that failure his whole
manhood untouched, strengthened, and
| you honor the man for the grand way in
which he bore the failure; h manhood
! of the man is there yet. To all men fit
| to judge, st. Paul knew there had been
| no failure but a grand success. Was
st. Paul or Nero victor? You and I
today answer without hesitation, the
prisoner was the victor. Nero is a
name blackened by the thought of every
! man as long as he lives on the earth.
Every Christian flag that casts its
| shadows OF every ocean a and every
sea is a memorial of st. Paul. The
words he spoke, the thoughts he wrote
have made your lives, mine, the mill
lions, what they are. His views of life
| are stamped into the souls of the lead
ers of mankind. I know no such name
in history that is human. In the center
Of London there scars above o into
the blue Wren'e dome, h shadows fall
on the streets and on the crowding
masses, and a golden cross crowns it
all. Whose is This church? st. Paul's.
They do 10 build such monuments for
kings. for heroes. And this man dies
brings out of life is life itself. Those
who enter it need not blind their eyes
to that fact. There is no shame in the
fact that life is a struggle for existence.
There are friends here, friends in boy
hood, friends in manhood, but they will
be striving with one another in a few
months Am I going to say like a Zoo
that it is wrong, that men should not
come to close grips with each other and
see who is the better man. We have
got to wrestle it out and see who sur
wives. But shall it be a manly struggle
or a brutal struggle; shall a nan fight
like a wolf or q fox, or like a man?
Just as man plays foot ball, just as he
| works in the boat race, shall he not
work in life the same way? Why hate
your opponent? College ethics would
| not sustain you in hating your opponent
in the game, and one day the ethics of
the world will not sustain you. It is a
! fight, a battle, but the battle must be
| fought with neither malice nor cruelty
J nor hate.
Now young gentlemen Of the senior
class, your shady days are passing
rapidly. Over you yet wave the boughs
of springtime n h grass is green
| under your feet and the GOODNESS falls
about You, but out yonder as o look
| on Is dry sand and the burning desert
and the hot sun and the toll. What you
are will be decided there largely by
r. H.%