Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-06-06
CLOSING EXERCISES
FINALS OF GEORGETOWN UNI
VERSITY UNDER WAY.
Baccalaureate Sermon by Bishop Bros
nan at CASTOR Hall Last
Night.

The annual commencement exercises Oh
Georgetown University were begun yes
terday afternoon, when Right Rev. Aloyaus
Brosnan, member of the faculty OF
Woodstock College, Md, preached the Dac'
cslaureate sermon in CASTOR Hall, wbicf
was filled with the students and the'i
friends. This evening In CASTOR Hall the
graduating exercises of the law school vii
be held. Tomorrow evening the medica
and dental schools will graduate the classes
of 1904, while the commencement exercises
of the academic department will be held
Wednesday evening.
Father Brosnan yesterday afternoon took
his text from the gospel of st. John: 81
have charged and sent you to bring forth
that your fruit may remain" His theme
was the purpose of education and of educa-
tional institutions under the direction and
influence of the church. Father Brosnan
said that great university like George
town was intended as an uplifting force,
not only to the student body, but to the
community as well. The dangers of d.
vorcing intellectual training from morality
were pointed out by the clergyman, who de-
clared that history is full of stories OF
wrecked individuals and nations, gone
down in utter destruction because of a
false idea of education. Father Brosnan
said the university hopes to make its infu-
'ence felt in the community and the coun-
true and noble characters.
Character manifestS ITSELF he contin-
ued, in the outward conduct In high
achievements. But your man of fair exteri-
or conduct may be a hypocrite, for a man
may smile and smile and be a villain.
Therefore there is no true character with
out the inward spirit. The university to be
conducive to the best influences must be
set forth In the clear light of truth"
After dwelling upon the fact that mani
festations of the right spirit are love and
reverence for rightly constituted authority,
Father Brosnan said:
Must Respect Authority.
mo man can love or respect the laws of
the land If he hold in contempt the author
ity which forms and executes those laws;
no man can hearken to the voice that calls
him in the day of the nations need If he
hate the authority uttering that voice. But
where shall we find that authority made
lOvable? Not surely If 1t originate in some
compact made by our barbarous or semi
barbarous ancestors; not if 1t springs from
the brute theory that might makes right;
no: in the tortuOus intricacies of evolution
ism. Take any one of those shabby sys-
TENS, and you sanction logically all the
widest dreams of all the world schisms
with which this age of ours Is accursed-
anarchism, socialism, nihilism, absolutism.
My friends, you shall find no reverence in
authority until you hearken to the voice of
eternal truth.
Moral Improvement has not kept pace
with the intellectual advancement we
claim. Our literature is, to a large extent,
positively vicious; vice is paraded openly,
not merely through the mimic life of the
stage, but through real life, in high places
as well as in low. The absolute gullible-
ness of the American people in matters Of
religion the ease and readiness with
which whole multitudes catch up the Wild
est religious fads and most dangerous
fakes, is almost mystern! 1t shall be a
proverb in the centuries"
Father Brosnan told of an attempt to get
the consensus of opinion as to the beset-
ting sin of the nation The remedy for all
these evils. the speaker said, was in the re-
ligion of Jesus Christ, His church and edu-
cational institutions.