The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-06-03
COMMENCEMENT
OPENS At TRINITY
Dr.. J. F. CroWeIl Delivers
Baccalaureate Sermon
THE FLAG AND THE CROSS
The Outer and Inner Keys of Western
Civilization.
THE FLAG AND THE CROSS
A GRAND SUBJECT GRANDLY HANDLED
The Graduating 0rations Will be Delivered
Tuesday Evening and DR.. Henry Van
Dyke Will Speak on We'd
nasday Mnrnin0.
nesday Morning
Especial to News and Observer

Durham, N. c.. June 1.-THE Craven
Memorial Hall at Trinity College was
crowded Sunday night on the occasion of
the baccalaureate address by DR.. John
f. Crowell. of Washington, ID. G.
The subject of the address was, 1.-THE
Flag and the Cross in Social Policy" In
the beginning of his remarks, DR.. Crowell
expressed his qualification at being able
to speak for the first time in the hall
erected to the memory of the founder of
Trinity College.
The speaker said: "Within the great
sociological experiment which we call
Christendom population and territory are
divided into established groups of politi-
cal families, to which we give the name
of nations The dominant force in this
family~of nations is the tendency to press
farther and farther forward their mast
cry over their physical environment,
and their capacity to maintain the ascen-
dency of the spiritual over the physical.
All that lies within the majestic sweep
of the first of those tendencies is SYM
bolized in the flag On this, the credit
side of the social process, we place all
that measure of welfare which freedom
and order under the flag have enabled
men to achieve. The second of these
tendencies-the dominion of the spirit
over the f1esh-is symbolized in the cross.
On this side we debit ourselves with all
those glorious demands of duty which
have lifted men by the dynamics of self
sacrifice to the secret place of the Most
High. Under these two categories are
gathered all the assets and liabilities of
social progress. BY the economic re-
Ivh hop
ment we measure the estimate of it's
worth. BY the measure of sacrifice of
these temporal which men make for
spiritual achievement, we make appraise-
ment of the strength of the spiritual
purpose.
THE balancing of these two powers in
the set purpose of the rational mind give
us what we call social equality. In the
flag and the cross we have the outer
and the inner keys of Western civiliza-
ton, whether economic or religious. The
centers around which all greatness and
all growth crystalize are either essen
TALLY economic or religious. From these
centers have ever sprung the construc-
tive forces by which modern society has
builded the temple of humanity. In
economic interest our rights are vested
sacred sense of duty is defined and de-
veloped. BY both, our institutions are
reared, and our ideals realized. The
proper union of both in the right social
policy puts man in harmony with nature,
and with God. Only in this union can
we realize that conservation of popular
power to purposes higher than that of
material ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. The democ-
Il NF
United States of America, can never be
said to be triumphant until it shall have
triumphed over itself, and put itself, by
economic sacrifice at the service Of it's
fellowman wherever there is need of it's
ministry, for nothing is truer than this
that the future belongs to that nation
which most wisely interprets these ten
denotes and ministers to the want of the
present.
1.-The four great changes with which
one has to reckon now, in thinking of
the United States as a people. are-CD
geographical engagements in the direc-
ton of maritime activity; (2) material
primary in those fundamental resources,
which lie at the basis of the economic
greatness among the industrially pro-
gressive nations of the West; CD IN
creased responsibility in international
| relations; ca that elevation of thought
and unification of purpose which come
| to a free people when they awaken to
| the consciousness of having entered upon
an era of new problems and possibilities.
| This broadening of the basis of ma
| tionalities has been justified on the
ground of our internal development. We
| hear much of the commercial necessity
| of maintaining our international position.
| But important as this enlargement of OPP
| portunity may be- important as it may
! seem to the far-sighted commercial mind
| to give the nation a larger outlet for its
| surplus, l do not see that this theory
| explains the attitude of the national
| thought toward it's international respon-
! sibilities. There is a deeper explanation
| than this. 1t is not the needs of Ameri-
| can commerce, but the American con-
| science that has lifted the popular con-
viction out of the low level of self salts
| faction up to the heights of sacrifice. II
| is no longer a question whether or not
| the flag shall come down; it is ques-
| tion of whether the cross, the central
| emblem of all Christian history, shall be
| kept up, to shed it's light over the
| wrecks left by the lust of conquest.
| "But there is a point beyond which
popular progress cannot go, except by
broadening the basis or deepening the
| foundations of the spiritual understand
| ing of the individual. The disallowe(
idea of the kingdom of heaven among
men must yet become the head of the
corner.
Zone of the characteristics of these
different times is the relative greater
emphasis which is laid upon the socia
4 Y e