Los Angeles herald., 1907-07-01
GRADUATING WEEK
COMES TO AN END
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS HEAR
BAccALAUREATE
Rev. Robert J. Burdette Finds Lesson
in Abraham's Obedience to Divine
Command to March "Under
Sealed Orders"

Sealed Orders"
Graduating week for the '07 class at Los
Angeles high school closed yesterday
when DIR. Robert J. Burdette of the
Temple Baptist church preached the bac-
calaureate sermon to the students. over
100 of the pupils gathered at the Aud
itorium to hear the popular preacher
speak on the topic under Sealed Orders" "
DR.. Burdette took for his text Genesis 12:l.
Get thee out of thy country, and from
thy kindred and from thy fathers house.
unto land that I will show thee-and ]
will make thy name great"
Out she swung from her moorings
And over the harbor bar,
AS the moon was slowly rising
She faded from sight afar;
And we traced her cleaning canvas
BY the twinkling evening star.
None knew the port she sailed for.
Nor whittier her course would pc;
All of her way was shrouded
In silence and mystery;
She was sailing under sealed orders
To be opened out at sea.
"Already you have heard the voice of
God that called to an old man. the son of
Chaldean shepherd, nearly 1000 years
gone blythe voice that calls some time
to every soul.
Voyage Is Begun
"And in a measure you have no choice
but to obey. You have begun your voy-
age. Yesterday you were school boys and
school girls. This morning you are men
and women. Yesterday the wish of a
school teacher was a command; the Will
of the principal was your conscience. To-
day you think and do for yourself Yes
terday you belonged to the school, To-
day you belong to the state. The govern
ment, in hour Of sudden need and grave
emergency, may lay it's hand upon the
shoulder of any man in this class and say:
Your country has need of you. You are
her soldier. She may ask for your life,
in it's very morning time. And you will
not refuse it her. And 1t may say to you,
who were but yesterday happy, care
free school girl: You are strong enough
now to make a greater sacrifice than l
ask of the soldier-to live, where he dies.
Your are strong enough to suffer, and
woman wise to garland your breaking
heart with smiles-the girlish happiness of
them made tenderly beautiful by woman s
sorrow The voice of GOD has called to
you, Get thee out of thy country! Out
of the pleasant high school land
"Out of the glorious days and the beau
tiful nights. Out of the land of the
dreams and hopes and generous ambitions
of boyhood and girlhood. Such a dear,
sweet land 1t has been to you and, please
God, such a well beloved land it will
always be to you. Pray day by day, as
l will pray for you, that you may never
lose the love and the faith and the splen-
did enthusiasm of high school land but
the land itself you have already left.
Dear as it was and is to you. closely as
your heart strings tendriled themselves
about the portals of it's gates, you have
torn them away, though there may come
with the memory of the parting, God
alone knows what heart ache and home
sick longings.
Left Own Country
"You have left your own country never
to return to it. Sweet visions of Mesopo-
tama will come to you, dimly limned on
the canvas of the twilight Strains Of
half remembered songs and the faintness
Of dream music will haunt your souls in
the silences of the night. But you can
never go back there. You have started on,
weighed anchor for the long voyage.
you may touch as many coasts as old
Ulysses till you become a name for al
ways roaming with hungry heart but
you will never touch again the port from
which you sailed last Friday afternoon.
Sometimes, looking backward from some
high cloud-reaching peak that lifts It's
head above the seas on some happy
island of memory. you may catch sweet
gimpses of it. But you mustn't look back
too often, nor yet too longingly lest you
miss the greater things the grander pros
peet, God has waiting just a little ways
before you. Look for little happy,
grateful minute, then once more turn your
faces toward the newer world
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for your purpose
holds
OF all the western stars, until you die
"'Get thee out of thy country, and from
thy kindred and from thy fathers house.
Fair and safe that country has been to
YOU The roof tree of your fathers house
has sheltered you from sun and storm;
fathers arm has been your strong de-
fense against harm and hurt. A mother S
counsel has guided you with the unset
fshness of love. A dear, safe place, this
pleasant harbor of the home land. So
was the land of Egypt to Gods people. 1t
was the granary of the world. And the
garden of 1t all was the land of Goshen,
where his people dwelt. They ate bread to
the full and were fed from the savory
flesh pots. Then thrilled the voice of God
into their souls, Out of the dimpling fields
of wheat and the perfumed garden-into
the pillows of the sea-under the cloud
SWatne0 awe OF the mountain Oh HBlt-
nings-into the hunger and thirst of the
desert-people the hungry wilderness
with your dead until your generation
fades from the race-waste your lives like
waves of the sea against the hordes of
the wilds and the walled cities of your
foes-scatter your lives along the trail
thrown away like cumbersome things
follow the cloud and the fire unquestion-
only that God leads-and
when Se world says Lostv 10. the noun
tain peaks of history shall flame with
your names-all the world of all the COM
ing centuries, all the migrations and
of the restless tribes of men
shall group around you, and the story of
the ages shall begin with the day Abra
ham. your father, heard the voice of
God.
/" Get thee out of thy country and
Moses your lawgiver heard him say, Go
forward All the great world religions
look to this one permanent, unchanging
center of faith and obedience as the
fountain head each of its own special
faith and teaching Our father Abraham,
cries the Jew. in the tongues of 1000 years.
Our father Abraham echoes the Moham
medan from the tents and mosques of
A tIo a,,Il