The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-05-26
BISHOP GA|LOR
AT ST. MARY'S
Grand Sermon From a Grand
Man.
INTERPRETATION OF LIFE
Chapel Was Packed Beyond The DoorS--- The
Mystery Of Life and Its Explanalich---
Another Grand Sermon Last
Night.

- ShtOPNi CT 81 MdlJ = OCHOOl WIS
packed and jammed Sunday morning for
the Bacoalaureate Sermon to the gradu-
ates by Bishop Thomas f. Gailor of Ten
nessee. Every available space, except a
narrow passageway down the middle aisle,
was filled with chairs and even then some
had to stand outside of the doors.
The sermon was upon life. its mystery
and its explanation, and it was grand
from every standpoint, depth, intellectu-
ality, scholarship, delivery, language, all
included. At times the Bishop had quite
the rapidty of utterance Of the great
Phillips Brooks, and at those times his
choice of words and use of them were
maryelously apt and happy.
The Bishop made personally a magnifi-
cent impression He is a grand looking
man, rather tall, powerfully built and
heavy, with a great massive head and
smooth face free from the lines of worldly
care and passion. 1t is the face of man
physically powerful, philosopher who has
found the summum bonum OF the universe
in the divine mystery, and can look upon
the wrongs, injustice, contradictions and
sins of the world as part of the great
plan OF the great Master of ALL
1t was a beautiful service The giils,
all in white, neary filled the chapel. and
sang the chants of the lovely morning
service with rare power and sweetness.
Two of the young ladies acted as ushers.
and two more took up the collection while
the splendid offertory was sung
In the chancel, assisting in the service,
were Rt. Rev. Joseph Blount Cheshire,
Bishop of THIS diocese; Rev Theodore u.
Bratton, rector of St. Mary's School, and
Bishop-elect of Mississippi, and Rev.
Henry Holmes, of Columbia, S. C.
Bishop Gailor's text was from
Deuteronomy, chapter 3D. the 47th verse:
For it is not vain thing for YOU be-
cause it is your life" These words OF
Moses, he said, are a claim and a chal-
lenge for the supremacy of Gods law
Religion is supposed by some, he went
on to be a kind of luxury or sentiment
depending upon certain surroundings or
conditions OF mind. Some men and wo-
men seem to wear religion as a suit Of
Sunday clothes, to be removed during the
week; some seem to regard it as a spe-
eial provision for the depression OF old
age or sickness; and some seem to re-
gard it as a .Ad OF talent or genius given
only to few. like a genius for poetry OF
painting. "But religion" said the Bishop,
SIS the individual personal relation Of
every man o God Wherever there is life
there must be religion To ignore it is
to make ones manhood dwarfed and mar
row"
After this introduction Bishop Gator
announced his subject, the relation Of re-
ligion to our life. What a beautiful ana
splendid thing is life!" he exclaimed. III
our religion be co-terminous with our life,
it is very pertinent and important for us
TO ask: What is the value and the meas
ure of this thing that we call our life?"
A great many discoveries of science, the
speaker continued, seem to belittle mans
Importance. Astronomy, for instance,
makes mans life fade away in
insgniicance. Geology piles up the
years of the worlds duration until
the mind grows dizzy. and our
own part grows so small that we can
hardly see it. The microscope reveals to
us a wonderful world of ininitesimal life
that swarms and flies and creeps about
us, that our eyes are too dim to see and
our ears too dull to hear. What is man
but one phase of this structural life FIX
anime him, and you find that his organism
is OF the animal. His belief in himself is
a mere delusion. He is a descendant of
ape, mammal mollusk, what not?"
'.And this is one Interpretation of life;
but it is false" said the Bishop, 1T
solves no problem. You do not prove
anything when you prove mans insignil-
canoe; for by that very faculty by which
you demonstrate his littleness you display
the best evidence of his greatness. This
creature which can pass Judgment on his
own life is an unrivalled creature There
is in him not only analysis, but synthesis
as well"
Here came a splendid summing up OF
the grandest achievements of mankind,
making the laws of nature do his bidding,
the rough stones into beau
tiful monuments the inarticulate NUT
terings of the brute into articulate Ian
guage. All the wonderful inventions were
touched upon with a word here and there
in this connection. The universe in its
vastness and might could rise up and
crush man in an instant, but, as Pascal
said man would still be superior, for he
would know that he had been crushed
and the universe would not
But the pessimist says man is only OF
today, and is soon dead and forgotten.
This is a life full of trouble. There is
no justice in it, there is nothing but luck
Many a boy and girl have had to start out
IN life handicapped, without friends, de-
formed in body perhaps. without strength
or courage to fight the battles of the
world. On the other hand some come inc
the world with all sunshine, all that can
make happiness, and these fling away all
the opportunities of life in mere idle con-
tempt. Those that would use the oppr-