Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1901-06-11

Ty 10 lne graduating class Oh Marietta
College Sunday evening:
1t is my privilege today for the first
time to face a graduating class of Mar
ietta College, and to give them if /
may some message of help as they go
forth from these scenes to the work of
life. And | am privileged further to
speak not as an instructor to his stu
dents, but as a Christian minister to
those he has learned to call friends. in
whose future he has an intense inter-
est, and In whose successes he will re-
joice. As look into your faces, mem
bers of the Glass of 1901. and realize
that every one of you is already fixed
in the Christians faith and hope and
love, my message must meet you upon
that plane. | rejoice therefore to
point you to the Christians aim in life.
] take as my text.
Philippians iii:12. Il press on, if so
be that l may apprehend that for
which also / was apprehended by
Christ Jesus"
The strenuous life is most properly
commended to us on all sides in these
| days. We are learning more and more
that success in life is won; it does NOT
happen. AS the competition in the
professions and in business grows
keener, success becomes more and
more the reward, not so much of gen.
| ius. as of hard and persistent effort 1t
is fortunate that this is so-that the
idler and dawdler are pushed to the
wall, and the man with energy and
capacity for hard work and a willing
ness to do hard work. comes to the
front. 1t is of this strenuous living
that Paul speaks when he says, !
press on. Life for him was a race, a
continual striving toward goal. To
his activity there could be no cessation
until the aim of life was attained, and
the goal of life reached. 1t is impos-
sible to over-emphasize the necessity
for this sort of strenuous pressing on
if true success in life is to be attained.
And even if the goal is not reached,
| and the success striven for is not who'll
ly gained, still this is the nobler way
to live. For as the poet says,
Better to strive and climb
And never reach the goal,
Than to drift along with time
An idle worthless soul.
Aye. better to climb and fall,
Or sow, though the yield be small,
Than to throw away day after day
And never strive at ALL"
1t is however to the further lesson { f
the text that would direct attention
today. Granted that life must be
| ever an earnest striving what shall be
the goal of that striving? What is the
| ideal we are to set before ourselves
To what distant port shall we steer. our
life's bark? 1t is at this point that the
lesson of our text is most needed TO-
day.
We are living in an age of excessive
| individualism. Personal liberty is a
| favorite doctrine. Each man is eX-
pected to make his own religious creed
his own political platform, to do as he
| pleases in manners and dress. Idio-
| syncrasy is applauded, parade of indie
| pendence is everywhere seen, violation
of the customs. the conventionalities,
the decencies of society is winked at.
| Inc hereto, the agnostic, the boor, the
! rowdy, the lawbreaker,-these are for
/ many true heroes. Our children even
are taught that they must choose for
| themselves. So the boy or girl decides
| all questions of life without consulting
| parents or friends. Parental author.
| ity is nearly eliminated from many
| families. There are parents that are
! little more than servants to their owT
! children; and strange to say they no
| only meekly acquiesce in this abnor.
NAL situation, but they seek to justify
it. We are gravely told that we must
break the child's will, we must train il
to choose for itself. Which is tTu
within certain limitations, but what i:
really meant by it? Who decides to-
day whether the boy shall stay a
home evenings and go to bed in prope
season, or spend his evenings on tn
streets or in the billiard saloon? Who
determines his smoking habits? Wht
chooses for him his companions? Il
how many cases is it the boy himself
to whom parents have given free rein
trusting, hoping in a blind way. tina
somebody somewhere somehow viii
save their boy from ruin. And doe
mother or daughter decide whethe
many dances, and late hours, and fire
quent callers shall be allowed her
True, the will is to be trained b,
choosing for itself, but have we forgot
ten in these days that the first lessol
for the will, first in point of time, frs
in Importance, is the lesson of obed
ience, of submitting the will to high
on, yt,,1 of loarninu IN ojva IN ona'