Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1907-06-12
BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS.

IN his address TO the nigh school
graduating class last Sunday evening
Kew. Funnell said
You have taken as your motto:
I'VE can, because we think we can
This is but another way of saying, "All
things are possible TO him that believeth, -
again, "As man thinketh in his heart
so is he" Whittier says: "The tissue of
the life we weave with the colors all
our own,
And III the field of destiny, we reap as
we have sown."
"Men at sometimes are masters of
their fates
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our
stars, But in our selves, that we are un-
derlings."
Says Shakespeare: "a vase is begun
why as the wheel goes around, does it
turn out pitcher" says Horace,
"There is dew in our flower. and not
in another says Beecher. because one
opens its cup and takes it in, while the
olhSi NiOSSS 4lSSii anu NHS 'tAoP NHo Oh'
1t rests with the work man whether
rude piece of marble shall squared into
horse block or carved into an Apollo,or
a Nenus-de- Milo 1t is yours, if you
choose, to develop spiritual form more
beautiful than these, instinct with im-
mortal life, refulgent with all the glory
of charactar
"In the same family and under the
same circumstances one rears a stately
edihce, while his brother, vacillating and
incompetent, lives forever amid ruins"
From the same materials he may fashion
vessels of honor or dishonor. We find
what we are looking for. The geologist
sees design and order in the very pave
ment stones. The botanist reads vol
umes in the flowers and grasses when
troden thoughtlessly under loot by the
multitude
The astronomer gazesl with rapt soul
into the starry depths, while his fellows
seldom glance upward.
What you are to be really, you are now
potentially. as the future oak lies folded
in the acorn, so in the present lies your
future. Your success will be, can be but
a natural tree, developed from the seeds
OF your own sowing; the fragrance of its
blossoms and the richness of It's fruitage
will depend upon the nourishment alb
sorbed from your past and present.
Ruskin tells us that the earth we tread
beneath our feet is composed of clay and
sand and SCOT and water; and he tells us
if nature has her perfect work (in these
things) the clay will become porcelain,
and may be painted upon and placed in
the Kings palace; then again it may be-
come clear and hard and white and have
the power of drawing TO itself the blue
and red and the green and purple RAYS of
the sunlight, and become an opal. The
sand will become very hard and white,
and have the power of drawing to itself
the blue rays of the sunlight and become
a sapphire. The SCOT will become the
hardest and whitest substance known and
be changed into diamond The water
in the summer is a dewdrop and in the
winter crystallizes into a star"
Even so the homeliest lives. by draw
ing to themselves the coloring of truth.
sincerity, charity and faith may become
crystals and germs "of purest ray serene" "
Longfellow says:
"Our acts our angels are, or good or i'll.
Our fatal shadows, tina. walk by us still. "
All are architects of fate,
Working in these walls of time
Some with massive deeds and great,
Some with ornaments of rhyme:
For the structure that we raise,
Time is with materials filed;
Our todays and yesterdays
Are the blocks with which we build"