The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1901-06-07
ANNUAL SERMON.
Normal Graduates Hear Words
of Wisdom.
Rev. r. NJ. Rule Urges Them to Have
Faith in God, Which Will Give
Them Victorious Life.

The annual sermon to the normal
school graduating class was preached
Sunday afternoon at the Presby
terrain church by DR.. F. M. Rule of st.
Paul, formerly pastor of the NJ. E.
church in this city. The hundred
members of the class who are to re-
ceive their. diplomas this week occu
pied reserved seats in the center of the
church, and the large congregation
filed the remainder of the church.
The altar was beautifully decorated
with cut flowers and potted plants.
The order of services was carried out
as published Saturday and the music
was particularly good.
Rev. Rules theme was THE Vic
torious Life and his text was "This
is the victory that overcometh the
world, even our faith" John 5 40
The sermon was a most excellent one.
He said that people cannot reach
their best without recognizing their
relation to the divine. The age of
doubt, pessimism, materialism is pass
ing. The heart of man cannot be sat
isfed without faith in God, in man.
and in the future life. Education
now deals with mental and spiritual
facts as facts and will do so more and
more in the future. The doctrine of
evolution is quietly taking its place
among the hypothesis by which ex-
plorations have been made, and hu
mainly is taking a new hold on faith.
However, we are compelled to ad-
nit the presence of evil All that is in
the world is not fit for the use of man.
The victorious life is that which ex-
tends good over evil Such life must
have solid foundation, it must have
a faith that rests on the historic past
on absolute fact, not on finely con-
structed fable. The enemies of Chris
tianity have sounded an alarm by ap-
pealing to history, but never before
have so many histories of the life of
Christ been written. This new study
has come upon the world like fresh
descent of holy spirit. Faith is the
rock foundation for all business, gov
eminent. etc. --,---.-. .s-
A man whose aim in life is merely
the enhancing of self interest is living
on a low plane, for personal happi
ness is an inadequate end. The true
Of SC h HI
is the end of the victorious life and is
worth living for. A small ambition
can never make a great man. There
is in the true Christian, power for the
regeneration of the world.
There is a spirit of anarchy
in the world today. What is
needed is liberty under law.
The liberty which was bought at such
a tremendous price and which we
have inherited is not to be allowed to
run to license. The victorious life has
enough of liberty.
The Scriptures have been put
through a searching investigation and
they abide Not one jot or little of
God word written on these pages
shall ever pass away.
We have been so morbidly afraid of
uniting church and state that we have
we'll nigh left God out of consideration
in the schools. The real danger to the
world today is a God forgotten secu-
larism.
Mr.. Rule addressed the graduating
class, which stood while he spoke to
it. He urged the members to make
theirs the victorious life. They had
entered the largest profession, which
contains $780, 900 teachers, 250 600 of
these being women. He thought that
the proportion would hold good in this
class, and said "God bless the women
consecrated to such noble work ;"
The class should be teachers rather
than professors. They were to put
their lives into the work, but it would
not count for much if those lives were
not victorious. They have as sublime
a task as was ever given to mortals,
and it is well worth the doing
In order to succeed they must enter
their work with the spirit of Christ.