Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1900-06-15
THE BAOCALAUREATE.
Rev. II. +. loves Sermon Before the
High School Class of 1900.
Living In the Condolences of the Pres
ence of God the Keynote.


ence of God the Keynote.
The baccalaureate sermon before the
graduating class was preached in the Con-
gregatonal church Sunday evening by
Rev. Ralph F. Lowe, pastor Of the Metho-
dist church. The members of the class,
the teachers and the school board occupied
front pews, and the rest of the seating
capacity, including all the galleries, were
occupied by the townspeople. The pulpit
was decorated with palms, ferns, daisies
and other cut 1)wers, The program
opened with a voluntary by f. Z. Lett
singer and was followed by a selection by
the Centre church male quartet. The
other numbers included: Scripture read
ing by Rev. r. X. Marvin, of the Unver-
salist church; hymn, announced by Rev.
F. L. Marble, of the Baptist church;
prayer by Rev. f. Q ). Osgool of the
Unitarian church; male quartet; sermon;
hymn, announced by Rev. ii. r. Miles, of
the Centre church; benediction by Rev
Mr. Lowe; postude. The subject of Rev.
Mr.. loves sermon was "Realzing the
presence of God, and his text was job
XXXI., "Doth he not see my ways
and count all my steps" The sermon was
intensely practical and was delivered with
out notes. 1t was, in substance, as
follows:
"a little before the place where this
text is chosen Job vndicates his character
as public man. In this chapter he vim
dicates his private character. He says he
has made a covenant with his eyes that he
shall not look on anything that will pollute
his character. Doth God not see my ways
and count all my steps? OF what avail
would it be for me TO sin? God sees me;
l cannot escape from Him What would
be the effect upon you if you should take
the thought of the text as the guiding prin-
ciple of your life? What would be the re-
suit upon your character if you should con
stantly attempt TO realize the presence of
! God? One effect would be to restore
vanishing note of reverence that seems to
have slipped away with the growing years
of the 10Th century.
at is sadly apparent that we are lacking
in reverence. Some of the noblest char
acters in Bible history have been sung in
college doggerel until they have lost dig
nifty. We could do well to initiate the Is
raelites in one respect. They believed
themselves to be under the immediate pro-
lection of jehovah 1t was this quality
that gave dignity, grandeur and reverence
to the Hebrews. IL was this same quality
that gave sturdiness TO the Puritans. We
do not need to adopt all the crude theology
of the Hebrews or the harsh creeds OF the
Puritans, but if we could take as the under
lying thought of our everyday life that God
is actually with us il would do much toward
restoring the fading note of reverence.
There would also be involved with this
reverence a deeper love and respect for our
neighbors, for we are all children of one
father and we all have Jesus Christ as our
elder brother and saviour.
Living in the presence of God would
prevent life from becoming trivial and
commonplace. We pity the drunkaId and
sometimes the criminal, but another class
deserves as much pity, and that is the class
who have no purpose in life. Conscious
ness of God brings us into the upper ether
where ideals can flourish. Isaiah was a
statesman prophet, but he could have had
no vision in a Tammany wigwam There
are not many things more sad than to see
a man who at 20 had dreams of making
the world better, while at 40 he is content
with mere money getting while the things
that make life worth living have evaporat-
ed. Live in the presence Of God and then
ideals will remain.
but living in the conscious presence of
God will do more than develop reverence
and lift above triviality or preserve the
ideals of youth; it will transform the en-
tire life, for godliness is profitable not
merely for the life to come but for that
which now is. When you take God into
your soul transforming process instantly
begins. Atoms of selfshness are disasso-
ciated and hurled off from your being; par
tices of self-seeking and meanness that
you perhaps never suspected before begin
to evaporate; dark stains of heredity weak
ness or personal sin fade out under the
brilliant light of God. To be rich or to
hold Office is not the chief end of man,
neither is unpopularity necessarily an evil
thing. Every man is to be respected pri-
marily for his innate possibilities. He
has the capacity, even though unused, fol
becoming like the Son of God. Such q
view transforms life because it takes one
out of the narrow realm of self and resets
in the infinite orbit of God.
retaliation of the presence of Goo
finally becomes the touch stone by which
all thoughts, actions and motives are test
ed. To one who lives thus in the presence
of the living God life becomes in noble
sense probation, because at our own vii
everything that comes to us is passed unde
the scrutiny of God in the soul
members of the class of 1900. Believ
| ing that it is better to drive one nail HON,
, than merely to start several, let me Civ,
, you practical illustration of the theme
, There is remarkable little book entitled
The Practice of the Presence of God,
. written by Nicholas Herman of Lorrain
in the 18th century. Herman says that il
a., order to form a habit of conversing will
! God continually and referring all we do t.
Him we must at first apply ourselves witt
, some diligence, but that after a little car
. we should find His love inwardly excitin
us to it with little difficulty. Frequent
a in prayer ourlthOughts wander from God
then by an effort of will we can draw then
4 back again to God.
! Il feel certain that all of us desire tina
+ every member OF this class shall meet wit
i. the largest degree of success in life. What
9 ever success you may attain unto remen
/. Der that nothing will give you a create
p amount of satisfaction nothing can pc:
" siblY fit you any better for the conflict an
# disappointments of life than to live in tn
IS consciousness of the presence of God"