Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-06-19
u BoWdoin Senior Class
by President Hyde.
The College Church Filled with
Graduates and Visitors.
PROGRAM For the week-.-Prize Speaking
in Memorial HALL, Tonight.

Brunswick, Me-, June 1S.-(SpeciaD.-
The week of Commencement began at
Bowdoin, today, with the annual Bac-
calaureate sermon to the graduating
class, which was delivered by Presi-
dent William Dewitt Hyde in the Col
lege church at o'clock. this afternoon.
At that hour the senior class march
ed into the edifice with cap and gowns
and took the seats reserved for them.
The church was completely filled with
visitors and the services were most i'm
pressivc the address OF President Hyde
being listened to with careful attention
throughout.
The text was from First Corinthians,
": "a: But with me it is very
small thing that 1 should be criticised
If you, or of mans criticism: yea, I
criticise not my own self: yet 1 am not
hereby justified; but he that criticiseth
HE is the Lord"
The speaker emphasized the necessi-
ty of criticism to the we'll being Of an
individual. but also pointed out that
the criticism should come from
source that makes it worthy of cOnsid-
Grafton. He said in substance:
Criticism is moral vaccination to
avert more serious disease. No man is
safe without it. Russia suppressed
criticism: and routed armies. sunken
fleets. ruined credit, and threatened
revolution are the results. Life insur-
Fri, To fl,o
searching criticism to which savings
banks are subjected; and as result
one who was recently a high officer and
owner of j majority of the stock of a
great life Insurance company stands
before the world charged with forms of
pfering. double dealing which amount
to the systematic .pilferirg of dimes
and nckels from thousands of widows
and orphans whom he had contracted
to protect.
Criticism is Of three kinds. First,
that of the public, WHICH knows little
or nothing of the facts. The second IS
cism of the Lord; that comes from
measuring ones conduct by the perfect
standard of justice and good will.
The man who cares much for the
first kind of criticism is "a coward and
q slave. The man who is concerned only
ahout the second is Il fanatic and
crank. The man who is sensitive to the
third becomes a hero and a power.
The criticism of the Lord involves
four things. First, a thorough knOwl-
edge of the facts of the situation: Sec
Ond; intimate knowledge of the facts
of the situation familiarity with the
laws that govern these facts. Third, the
judgment of the wise, living and dead
UPON these facts and laws; Fourth; the
good will of Christ. which seeks the
welfare of all the person.; whom our
acts affect.
BOwdoin College has always been
represented by men who took this four
fold criticism direct from God. 1t was
founded by descendants of the Hugue-
nots; men who risked exile, confisca-
ton ard living death in the galleys OF
the king of France. rather than be false
10 the call of God. President Woods
kept alive the best traditions of noble
architecture, dignified worship and
literary elegance that had been handed
he lived in a barren land. a Philistine
environment, and an iconoclastic age.
Professor Smyth was one of two citt-
zens of Brunswick, the other being d
colored man, to vote the original
Aboltionist ticket. The Brunswick
station Of the underground railroad
was at his house on College street. He
took counsel, not of the cOmmercialism
about him which cared moro for cotton
and cargoes than for liberty and hu-
man rights; but of the hard facts OF
the South; the traditions of English
liberty, and God the avcnger of the
doWntrodden and oppressed.
Nathalial Hawthorne, dedicating his
book to the most hated man in all the
North. when his publisher told him 1t
would kill its sale. showed that he
cared more for friendship than fame
William Pitt Fessenden threatened
with ostracism in Washington and
Continued on Page TwO.)