The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1900-06-08
SCHOLARLY AND TIMELY.

Rev. Carlos II. Hanks Before the
Graduating Class Sunday Evening
Greatly Pleased All Who Were Fortu-
nate Enough to Hear II.
The evening service at the Congrega-
tional church Sunday night was most
happy one in every respect The mem:
bers of the graduating class appeared
at their best, and the evening was not,
as so many evenings have been on such
occasions, uncomfortably warm. Every
seat in the commodious auditorium was
filed and likewise every one in the
annex some time before the arrival of
the principal actors and auditors in the
evenings service. Many were even oc-
cupying standing room and every pos
sible place which could be taken up
with chairs, without violation of the
state law forbidding the filing of isles
with chairs, was placed at the disposal
of the friends of the graduates and the
other patrons of the schools.
When all was ready the class, pre-
ceded by Supt. E. L. Austin, the minis
ters of the city, and the school board,
marched into the auditorium to the
strains of stirring organ march and
took their places in the seats which had
been reserved for them. On the
rostrum were seated Supt. Austin, Rev.
John Sweet, Rev. w. w. Benson, Mr..
Wilbur Nelson, and Rev. G. II. Hanks.
The music of the evening was of the
kind which would be credit to any
paid city choir, Mr.. Ferry and his corps
of singers handling the two difficult
anthems with an ease, accuracy, and
graceful effect to which it was pleasure
to listen. The Congregational choir
has reputation for good work to sus-
tain anyway, but there is no doubt in
the minds of the audience that listened
to it Sunday night that it fully sus-
tanned its reputation in every respect.
1t was one of the most thoroughly en-
joyable features of the evening
The address of Mr.. Hanks would
have been happy surprise to any one
who. might have come with the idea
that he was to be bored with long dry
sermon-but there was probably none
who came with any such thot for even
if he had never heard Mr.. Hanks be-.
fore, he must have heard of the reputa-
ton which the popular pastor of the
Congregational church enjoys for ser.
mons whose only fault is brevity. The
sermon held the attention of all from
the moment when the speaker an
nounced that as he hoped to obtain
mercy so he should try to be merciful
and would not keep his hearers there
for long time, to the moment of his
closing sentence. 1t was a sermon full
of the broadest appreciation of the duty
the scholar owes to society which has
furnished him with the means of OBJ
tanning the start on the road to scholar
ship which he has already made, and
sympathetic appreciation of the situa-
ton in which young people just leaving
school find themselves. A synopsis of
the sermon is here given.
Text, John VII, XIV. Subject, "The
Greatest Scholar"
The character of Jesus has been for
every age the greatest enigma of its
philosophy, its literature and its life.
His character is absolutely unique; not
merely in the goodness which it dis
closes; not merely in being the highest
conceivable standard, of character; not
merely in its far reaching influence,
but it is unique also because it utterly
defies analysis, it cannot be accounted
for by the operation Of any known
forces of heredity, environment or edu-
cation.
When we apply any Of those tests
commonly applied to other lives, we
stand abashed in the presence of the
solemn mystery of Jesus. Born
yonder in an atmosphere of intense
bigotry and partisanship, He grows up
into a manhood as broad and generous
as the wide world. He soon passes
beyond the little carpenters shop.
Think of His insight, wisdom. culture,
delicate poise, knowledge of Goo,
nature and man. No wonder the
question trembled upon the lips of the
Jews-no wonder it trembles upon our
lips, "How knoweth this man letters?"
\Jesus knew the letters of their schools.
He was also master of the letters of life,
which spell out the solutions of the
problems of human hearts. Taking it
all in all Jesus was, in the truest sense
of the term, the rarest and the greatest
scholar. Our definition of scholarship
Is too limited. It is not mere learning
or attainment; 1t is temper, an atti-
tude of the mind. That temper is a
devotion to the truth, q devotion so
absolute that it can cast out prejudice
and passion, fatigue, inertia and fear in
the relentless endeavor to find out
concerning any question exactly what
is true. The man with that tempev is
essentially a scholar. We call Jesus