The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1903-06-04
THE BACCAIAUREATE SERMON.
Rev. Gratz Delivers Baccalaureate Sermon
at Congregational Church.


The baccalaureate service at the
Congregational church Sunday morn
ing was well attended and the church
was crowded. The floral decorations
were lavish with the green of the
woodland, and about the altar and
| rostrum were palms and ferns, and
evergreen and in the center aisle were
two ribbons of evergreen suspended
from the chandeliers. A bunch of
roses were fastened with pink ribbon
to the lamp shade over the pulpit.
The class colors were green and pink,
and the decorations suggested these
colors The members of the GRADUATE
ing class occupied pew by themselves
to the right of the pulpit. The sermon
which was preached by Rev. Gratz was
most appropriate for the occasion. Mr..
Gratz chose as his topic, 1.-THE First
Things First" choosing his text from
I Cor. 1913, ''Now abideth faith, hope
and love, but the greatest OF these is
love-"
Mr.. Gratz said in part: 1.-THE Apos-
tie Paul had been putting into con-
trast things temporal and things
eternal, the things that will vanish
away and the things that will abide.
He had been writing of eloquence and
points out that that gift even in it's
highest development may be echoing
brass and changing cymbal. He men
tons the prophetic gifts and tells US
that they shall be cast aside and in
complete. And even knowledge at the
best is but incomplete and will be
cast aside.
But in the midst of these temporal
and vanishing things Paul sees some
things that are temporal, some things
that vanish not away. But now
abideth faith, hope and love, these
three Therefore he writes 'Covet
earnestly the best gifts
LAST Monday was the one hundreth
anniversary OF the birth of Ralph
Waldo Emerson, one of. America IS
greatest teachers. He turned his back
upon the allurements of wealth, the
temptations of fame. He turned away
from the great city and the historic
pulpit and from the overtures of public
favor and private wealth and sought
solitude and silence and poverty. For
he said, Life is too short for career.
have no time to make money; I must
make the first things first, and he gave
himself to plain living and high think
ing The first things first. know of
no more important message for our age
that is being swept off it's feet by the
desire for wealth and fame. What
Ruskin called the goddess of getting
on has many devotees in our day and
the danger is that she will be enshrined
as Americas goddess. Not that we
ought not to get on, but the spirit
manifested in the advice given our
youth to-day, Money counts, get rich,
honestly if you can but get rich,' is
wholly wrong. There is purple and
fine linen for the body, but the brain
and the spirit is left to hide it's naked
ness as best it may. The body fares
sumptuously every day but the heart
has died for want of bread. God help
the poor man who has nothing but
money, whose purse is full but whose
brain is like an empty barn, whose
body lives in a splendid palace but
whose spirit is shivering for want of
proper care"
An illustration was made of how
Balzac who expended all of his wealth
in building a magnificent house and
was unable to furnish it, and he wrote
on bits of paper what he desired to
place in his mansion and pinned the
pieces of paper where he would have