The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-06-13
President of Washburn Preach
es BaccaIaureate Sermon.
ga Calling and a Career" His
Subject.
WORE CAP AND GOWN.
,TWenty-fOur Seniors Occupied
the Front Seats.
Rev. Charles Nj. Sheldon and
Topeka Choral Society Assist.


burn college, arrayed in his collegiate
robes, delivered to the Washburn
graduating class on Sunday morning
at the college chapel the annual bac-
calaureate sermon on the subject, "A
Calling and a Career"
The twenty-four members of the
senior class who occupied the front
seats of the crowded chapel were
given some good advice on the subject
of right living and proper ideals. They
were told to select their calling, do
their best, and let the career take care
of itself.
The Rev. Charles NJ. Sheldon as
sisted President Plass in the services.
Music was furnished by the Topeka
Choral society. Two magnificent. Sc
lections were sung by this organiza-
ton, one Unfold Ye Portals Ever
lasting" by Gounod, and the other
'Send Out the Light" by the same
composer. George B. Penny dean of
the school of fine arts. was at the
piano The chapel stage was hand
somely decorated with palms.
'Baccalaur" is word meaning
bachelor, and a "baccalaureate ser
mon" is a sermon delivered to bach
elors. After the commencement ex-
ercises Wednesday, the twenty-four
members of the graduating class will
be bachelors-some of literature, some
of arts, some of science. The bach
elors of music will also get diplomas,
but the doctors of medicine who
finished their course in the medical
department received their diplomas
month ago.
Caps and gowns are getting to be
quite a common thing at Washburn.
Not only has President Plass taken to
wearing his cap and gown on state
occasions, but all the members of the
senior class and quite a number of
the head professors are adopting the
classic garb.
The baccalaureate sermon preached
Sunday by President Plass was con-
sidered by many one of the strongest
ever delivered at Washburn on such
an occasion. It was in part as fol-
lows:
1T was formerly held that there
were very few of lifes occupations to
which one could receive a call Orig
inally the ministry was about the only
one. A man might choose to become a
lawyer, but he must be called to be-
come a minister. A strong line of de-
marcatiOn was drawn between the sec
ular' and the sacred A man who de-
voted mis- life to the sacred must be
called; while a man who consumed his
time with the secular did so because
he was not summoned to consecrate his
talents to the sacred. Should he, with
out a distinct call, choose the sacred,
the act was regarded as sinful, and his
devotion as sacrilegiOus.
Now the sacred and the secular are
discovered to be inseparably intertwin-
ed. Realms once supposedly distinc-
tive are seen to intermingle.
IF one chooses q profession, and
makes no mistake in his choice; if one
enters some sphere Of life and finds it
the sphere to which he is supremely
adapted, he is called to that profession
and to that sphere just as truly as
though he had seen some heavenly
messenger or heard some divine voice
directing in the way he should go. The
call consists in the divine forces of
aptitude and of circums lance blending
to designate the sphere and to adapt the
individual to it. Every worthy sphere
of life thus becomes a sacred calling,
and demands the highest devotion.
THE career, on the other nand, differs
from the avOcatiOn or calling, much as
the sparkling medal of the general diff
fers from the unnoted endeavors of
the young recruit. It may be regarded
as the calling viewed from the stand
point Of its worthy completion The
ultimate goal the climax of the calling
is the career. We choose the calling
as an occupation; we achieve the ca
Teer as the result of faithfulness in
that occupation.
IAN this leads to the observation
that we should choose the calling, and
leave the career to care for itself. No
man can grace a calling to be sure
unless he aims to excel; but, just as
truly, no man can be Indifferent to the
claims of his calling and hope event
ually to achieve in it a career. The
one objection to fixing the eye upon the
mountains summit as we go along, is
that it keeps us from close observance
of the path we tread. Better, carefully
to note the way, and observantly to
rest the eye upon the beauties that en-
shrine the course, and peacefully to
reach our home before the shadows of
evening gather round, though we may
never make the summit, than, with a
- IT ~-1.@
miss the way, and stumble a crushed
and mangled mass beneath the cliff
EagernesS for a career is species of
rainbOw-chaSing that neither brings
down the rainbow nor leads to the pot
of gold supposed to await ones coming
at it's further end"
In conclusion. DR.. PlasS addressed
the graduates as follows:
Members of the Graduating Glass:
Il do not want what I have said
about a calling and career to discour-
age the ambitious hopes of any of YOU
do not desire your aims in life to fall
short of the determination to win the
highest possible degree of success. 1
want simply to give you the right am
bition, the proper motive, the correct
aim, that you may do things with the
best possible spirit and with the most
worthy incentive. right thing done
with a wrong motive sometimes proves
less beneficial than a wrong thing done
with a right motive. That you may be
led to do the right thing with the right
motive is what I earnestly desire
1.-The only way to do, is to do. The
only way to accomplish results, is to
20 ahead and accomplish results. The
only way to secure success is to Sc
cure success The only process by
which one can achieve a career, is
Iv the process of achieving a career
To be intrepid, to be determined, in
donlitable. devoted to duty loyal to
ideals, answering in ones purpose
never discouraged, forgetting the
day and its duties when once it is
past and planning forthwith for the
next duty and the new day, counting