The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-06-03
Mr.. P0U SPEAKS TO-DAY
And the Alumni Meeting and Alumni
Luncheon Will be Held.
HON II. A. HERBERT SPEAKS TOMORROW
The Faculty Reception viii b. the Social Even
Tonight and TIE Senior Ball Win
Close the Festivities on
Wedne cdov Nnbt
Wedne sday Night.
Especial to News and Observer.

Especial 20 News and Observer
Chapel Hill, N. c., June 1.-The one
hundredth and seventh annual COM
mencement of the University of North
Carolina began today with the baccal-
aureate sermon by DR.. 0. E. Brown. of
Vanderbilt University.
The exercises were fttingly opened
with the touching hymn, Come Holy
Conforter,' after which Prof. r. H.
Williams of the Department of Philoso-
lEv, read a few Well chosen verses His
prayer. showing the attitude of the Uni
yersjty to her students and the students
to The University. was full OF paUhos
and significance. 1t was a prayer char
acteristic of one who loves the Universe
~, ably and eloquently presented and it
will have a potent influence over the
graduating class fof 1902.
DR.. Venable, in few selected words.
Introduced Dr. Brown .of Vanderbilt
University, who delivered the baccalau-
reate sermon.
DR.. Browns sermon was the effort of
a master 1t was a logical, practical and
forceful discourse. void of any attempts
at flights of oratory, sound. helpful and
comforting. to the point patriotic 1t
was indeed the voice of a prophet speak
ing in no uncertain tones, calculated to
inspire the manhood of North Carolina
TO higher and nobler ideals. and was
heard with intense interest.
The text was John 1910: II came that
they may have life and may have it
abundantly." The preacher began by
saying that the literature of today
abounded in biographies and among them
biographies of Christ multiply most rap
idly, Christ refuses to he credited with
work less essential than iife-giving He
was not a creed maker or a code maker,
but life iver.
One of the most marked features of
life is its power of unity. 1t has the gift
of maintaining its integrity and a con-
tinued flow or change 1t is here that
the materialist is baffled. All life seems
working with mysterious harmony to
some appointed end, but rational or
spiritual life must get it's unity and mean
ing from some appointed end of it's own
selection. The quality and worth of
every personal life is, therefore, deter
mined by the supreme purpose which acts
as its organizing principle. If Jesus is
truly and by emirence the life giver and
the giver of life in abundance, he must
be able to supply an object and a purpose
for living which will give unity and de-
cision to character as well as richness
and largeness of personality Cecil
Rhodes reached this philosophy of life
when he decided that 81 the great thing
is to have an object at the beginning of
life sufficiently lofty to make it worth
while spending your life in order to
obtain it, One of the greatest contribu-
tions to personal life will thus be to
supply it with its idea of the highest
good" The highest, richest life cannot
he lived without the worthiest, truest
idea of "the highest good" be self-cen-
tered, and take no larger scope than per-
sonal success in business or a profess
sion. that it will give meagerness and
scantness to the life. 1T may give unity
and definiteness, but it will be at the
expense of richness and fullness. He
who worships at the shrine of personal
success. changes the glory of the incor-
ruptible God for the likeness of corrupt
bic man and will surely suffer the penalty
laid down by Paul and become vain in
his reasGnngs and have his senseless
heart darkened. Apart from Christ, men
have lived for the family and have there
found object which has given unity
and strength and grace to life But liv-
ing solely for ones own family may be
simply an extended selfishness and may
leave whole areas of ones nature I'M
touched. When men grew too large for
the family to engross them. they then
began to live for the tribe or nation and
patriotism became the ruling principle of
their lives. Loyalty and patriotism are
ennobling and charging but it is easy
to see that patriotism may be only type
of prevncialism and in its very intensity
may dwarf and blunt as much as inspire
and enrich. Even Cecil Rhodes, trans
cending. living simply for ones country,
took as his highest practical ideal the
working for the unity of the English
speaking race and the extension of the
sway of 1.-The best of the races" a race
whose ascending makes for Justice, Lii
-herty and Peace.
But even the English world cannot be
induced to select the life of Cecil Rhodes.
with all his Anglo-Saxon LOYALTY as the
ideal life We look to another, of whom
Mr. Mill has said that religion cannot
be said to have made a bad choice in
pitching on this man as the ideal rep
resentative and guide of humanity"
Jesus Will hear to no statement of the
highest good that falls short of the
Kingdom of God.
Another marked feature of life is its
nower of growth Jesus set the standard
for rrowth UNNECESSARILY higher than he
found it, He transformed the standard
of measure from man to God. Jesus re-
moved the barriers to a full and SYM
metrical human growth. He gave the
spirit the mastery over the flesh. He
renowned doubt and questioning as to
God and His character and brought men
meridian certainty not only that God is
but he is being or person of holy love
and perfect goodness who creates, sus-
tains and orders all things. Jesus also
provided the positive means of the largest
growth and the highest life He awoke