Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1905-06-30

Baccalaureate Sunday was observed at
the Congregational church on the 25th
and with weather that could be
called made to order for the occasion the
attendance was all that could be desired.
There being no services in the Baptist
and Methodist churches the congrega-
ton which gathered to listen to the
Baccalaureate sermon by President Ezra
Brainerd was a representative gathering
of the townspeople. Many of the alumni
were present President Brainerd's S
text was:
Judges xxi, %. Every man did that
which was right in his own eyes"
The following is an abstract of the
sermon:
These are the closing words of the
Book of Judges. The sacred writer has
finished his account of the darkest period
in Jewish history, period of gross dis
order, when revolving crimes were COM
mitted, when the wars of the lsraelites
with the heather in their midst, and
even with one another, were character
lied by an almost barbarious ferocity.
The historian tersely describes this state
of things in the significant words of the
text Every man did that which was
right in his own eyes" He does not
say that men deliberately choose to do
evil, that they intended to forsake the
worship of the true God, that they meant
to commit acts of fraud and violence.
Rather they purposed to do right; but
each man was his own judge of right.
There was no proper Difference to au-
thority; "in those days there was no
king of Israel" Every mans notions of
right took shape in the hot furnace of
his own passions; each was a law unto
himself, and consequently it was an age
of lawlessness.
My purpose this morning is to show
| how the religion of Christ affords certain
practical safeguards against this greatest
of all dangers in life, the danger of self
deception. But let us first consider the
magnitude of this danger; is it a fact
that men usually fall into sin and error
without knowing it:
| Look first at the intellectual side ot
the question. The human mind is Sc
constituted that it cannot believe wha
it knows to be untrue. A false creed il
never false creed to the one who hold,
it. Every mature person has for hi
mental furniture vast equipment o.
opinions and beliefs, but they are al
supposed to rest on good and sufficien
evidence. We push our inquiries int
every region where thought can travel
and to every question that may be pro
posed we want an answer.
When we turn to consider the ethica
side of our proposition, we find that il
most cases the same rule holds good.
is indeed true that man may be S,
depraved as to choose to do a sinful ac
! when fully aware of its sinfulness
Spurred n by selfish ambition, impellet
by unholy desire, men sometimes sill
deliberately against the clear light o
consciousness. But far more frequentl,
men do wrong, only after they hav,
convinced themselves that the propose,
act is not wrong. Conscience speaks il
such a still small voice, that it is los
amid the din and Glamour of our world,
passions.
Members of the graduating Glass =
Your interests are uppermost in ou
thoughts on this the last Sunday of you
college life. You are about to go fort
into the broad world to think and decid
for yourselves with fuller freedom
than you have ever exercised before
Life is before you with its possibilitie
of happiness and of high achievement
and also with its possibilities of mistak
and failure.
Is is the most earnest prayer of you
teachers that the coming years ma
bring you all that is most to be desired
health and honor, influence and powe
for good among men. We believe tina
Il sl a n