Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1901-06-17

threshold into the outside world. He
told them they would find temptation and
struggles.
He said he would not speak to them so
much as students, but as men, for after
all students are much like other people
he had not been so long out of the col
lege halls himself, and he knew that
f, students were like other people. He said
he wanted to speak to them on the one
great spiritual truth; the realities set forth
in the Christian religion. He said the
graduates had been engaged in outward
dealings with things seen and temporal,
but that they might gain just as firm a
hold on spiritual things.
The minister chose as the subject of
his sermon The Everlastingness of Char
acter," and upon this as a keynote he
played the whole gamut of moral, spirit
ual and religious life in the most musical
harmony, and to the sweetest melody
ever set to the music of Christian char
acter. He said there were two classes:
the wicked and the righteous, and two
destinies. He defined character mega
lively by telling what it was not He
said character and reputation were used
anonymously, but character is coinci-
dent with reputation.
Reputation is what we are as man
knows us; Character, what God, the All
Wise, knows that we are. The public
estimates us in more or less slovenly
way. A man in public is not just what
he is in his home, in the eyes OF his wife
and children. Character is essentially ::
Not the man the public knows; not the
man his friends know; not the man his
more intimate friends know; not the man
we ourselves know; but the man God
knows. The minister contrasted char
acter and reputation in the matter OF per-
manency. He said reputation passes
away; character always remains. Posi-
lively. "chai acter is the impress of GER
tain substances received.
He illustrated this with the die and the
sealing wax into which a character was
nodded; OF the old way of fashioning
pottery on the wheel of clay which re-
ceived the impress from the moistened
thumb of the potter, until beautiful dish
or urn was turned out. He said charac-
ter is first of all that impress which we
have received from our environment. A
man comes into community, and it is
at once asked of him "what stamp or
type OF man is he p You mean by
that what has been the moral character
of that man; what prevailing influences
have left their moral impress upon his
manhood. He said it was wonderful
thought that we are impressed by things
about US, and to illustrate this he told OF
the Scotch boy, OF his early training in
that country of mountains, lakes and
rivers. The Scotch boy loved freedom
and liberty. and whether he go North,
East, South or West, he will fight for
liberty that is inspired within him.
He said character is something more
than mere stamp; like humanity, it has
| life; it thinks; it wills. He said Emmer-
son had truly said !: "Man is fagot OF
thunderbolts. If character be anything
it is the development of the inherent
powers and faculties in our lives. Char
acter is Christlikeress; il is Christlifeness.
DIR. Guthrie gave beautiful description
OF the Spanish peasant who watched CO.
lumbus ships sail on their voyage of dis
covery of the new world. He told graphic.
| ally how the one on shore saw those
ships disappear; first the hull. then the
mast, until the ensign of Spain at the
masthead had melted away with the line
where sea and horizon meet. That Spanish
peasant would probably have said and
thought that was the last of Columbus
and those ships.
But the grandson Of that peasant would
watch the ships sail for the new world,
just as his grandfather did years before.
He would tiptoe and shade his eyes with
his hands till he saw them fade away,
but he had faith, and knew they would
come back again from that rich, new
country discovered by his grandfather.
The illustration. as DIR. Guthrie gave it,
was beautiful and most graphic word
painting gem of oratory. He con.
trasted time and eternity. He said: "Time
is something cut off; time is a slice oi
eternity; mere pebble rolling down
from the Rocky Mountains of eternity.
Time is drop of water in the great
ocean OF eternity; time is so much oi
eternity as we can pass our minds around
time is just so much OF eternity as we can
put mental fence about and cultivate.
Eternity is endless time.
In summing up the points of his ser
mon DIR. Guthrie again impressed hi: