Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-06-15
The Sermon of an American Layman.

Most of the baccalaureate sermons
of the year are preached by clcrGymen.
That is natural and as it should be.
But one of the best we have read or
heard about is that preached by d lay
man, Whitelaw Reid, the diplomat and
Journalist. Probably he called it an
address rather than a sermon, how
ever, but that does not change its
character nor lessen the strength with
which he tells plain truths that it is
we'll for the graduate of today to I'M
derstand. The address was before the
serior class lit vassaf and 'wHy-rnp-
lished in Mr.. Rcid's paper, the New
York Tribune Evcgy graduating class,
whether composed of mon or women,
should read it.
Mr. Reds theme was the decadence
of the robust faith. will and purpose
which characterized the American of
an earlier genera ton and the growth in
llS pl,tttp III Nil'it 10 Nt'iNN wa 'N''N
society" of type which has little to
show in the way of iennobling belief
lofty aim or true enthusiasm. He
said: st>.tt
1T is a laisseZ-aller age; an age of
loosening anchors and drifting with
the tide of taking things as they are,
with cordial readiness to take them
hereafter as they come: of IN easy in
difference, whose universal attitude
toward each starting departure from
old standards is What does it mat
ter, anyway?"-an age, in short,
marked by a refined, "up-to-date'
adaptation of the. old Epicurean idea
that there is nothing in this world to do
but to eat and drink and make merry,
for tomorrow we die. AS Omar, prime
favorite of the flower. of this new
school has sung:
What boots 1t to repeat
How time is slipping underneath our feet
Unborn Tomorrow. and dead Yesterday,
Why fret about them If Today be
sweet. se-.4 .,"-
This loss Of worthy purpose in life
Mr.. Reid told the girls-is the natural
result, wherever it prevails. of the loss
of faith. The true standards are gone
ana right sense of the relative i'm
portance of things. Hence the mad
pursuit of wealth and. that attained
the struggle for social position, and
when You have the millions and are
lin society" the restless. feverish. in
satiable craving for amusement.
zone neNer. is for long where one
wants to be, or doing what one desires:
there must be necessarily a rushing to
and fro, and change of pursuits. all
under the glare Of electric lights and
the blare OF brass bands. If in the
country. one must hasten to the city,
where something is going on; if in the
city, one must fly to the country. where
the crowd is not so mixed and where
pleasanter house parties can be gath
cred; if in ones own land, one longs
for the houlevards or the Alps; if
abroad, one is eager to try the new
steamer back; if at tho seashore, one
wants suddenly to know what the
mountains are like, and can only find
amusement in going to see when
clothed in leather jackets, protected by
masks and goggles, and powdered with
dirt. rushing through the dusty air on
the highways at forty or fifty miles an
hour in Il Red Devil, and leaving the
luckless rustics in the way to go to n
fiend of any color they like"
Nor is it enough for the Americans
of the new type to be rich among the
rich, in the full swim of this "vehe-
ment vacuity;" they must be talked
about. they must see their names ,nd
faces perpetually in the newspapers.
"Gregariousness and glare are the ir-
redeemably vulgar notes of it ALL" If
one turns from society to politics he
sees a lack of stability, ,disquieting
popular hckieness. Mr.. Reid pointed to