Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-05-27
LISTEN TO A SERMON
ASSEMBLY OF GRADUATES OF
HOWARD UNIVERSITY.

Two hundred and ifty-one graduates and
large number of students of the Howard
University assembled in Andrew Rankin
Memorial Chapel yesterday afternoon to
hear the baccalaureate sermon by the pres
ident of the university. Rev. Wilbur T..
Thlrkield
The exercises were opened with prayer by
Dean Fairfield OF the department of arts
and sciences. Gounod's 'Sanctus,'' from
the mass of st. Cecilia, was sung by a
mixed choir under the direction of Miss
Lula Chilters. DR.. Thirkield announced his
text as The Power of Unseen Realities
Hebrews. XII, "a.
Hundreds can talk for one who can
think: thousands can think for one who can
see the speaker said. To see clearly is
poetry. prophecy, religion, all in one; so
said John Ruskin, the seer. come to you
with a plea for seeing-a vision of the I'M
seen and eternal. 1 have read to you from
that chapter of seers; the record of men
who were tall and titanic because they
saw.
The speaker then gave in rapid outline
the record of that prophet of old who amid
darkness. stood for light, amid the SEN
suous. stood for the spiritual, amid doubt
stood for faith: who. In the midst of the
shifting, changing. temporal. stood aloft
with the light of the unseen holy upon his
face for the unseen. the enduring, the
eternal. The explanation of the endurance
of Moses through suffering. trial. loneliness
and doubt Is given. He endured as seeing
Him who is Invisible.
LAS graduates you are going forth into
a world of strong materialistic tendencies,
II was added. Mighty forces. material
and seen are at the fore. The god of this
world hath blinded the eyes OF men so they
cannot see The din OF this world Nth NIL
ed their ears until they canrot near II you
are to lead strong, brave. self-sacrihcing
lives OF service that shall endure, your
vt ~ NJ the unseen and eternal.
The phrase, seeing the Invisible. Is not
only good scripture. but good science MOO
ern science has affirmed that the invisible
things of God, from the creation or the
world are clearly seen. Just as, through
his sense perceptions on the ground OF ex-
perienCe man affirms the existence OF the
visible. so. through the spiritual percep-
lions. on the ground OF experience, he
posts the invisible. So the moral and re-
ligious nature of man. christianity has
never claimed TO be the solution of a
theory. but only the solving of problem.
and it is the only solution to the complex
problem of life and destiny.
our feelings outline and direct our men
tai DEVELOPMENT. Our deepest moral life is
grounded in feeling. Just God has given
the body five senses by which It may feel
out realize and see the visible, so he has
given the spiritual nature sixth or highest
sense by which he may feel out. know, see
the invisible. This power is faith which is
the demonstration of the unseen. Faith is
an attitude of the soul opening to the
divine"
Lives of Service
President Thirkield made an appeal to the
graduates for lives of service being the
aim Of all true education. He said
You observe that ! have not given you
a sermon of academic counsel, but of mere
moral maxlms. My aim has been rather to
Int your eyes To a vision of the unseen and
the eternal with the conviction that, in the
hour OF temptation and trial. in the stress
and storm OF life. II Is the man of vision