The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1908-05-20

With Able Sermon by DR.. Bowers
Of Newberry Co|Iege-FinaI Exer
ercises Last Night by Graduatin!
Class and Literary Address by Prof
w. H. Hand, of Columbia.
The commencement exercises O.
| the Palmetto Collegiate Institute be-
| gan on Sunday morning with the bac
alaureate sermon by Rev. A. J. Bow
ers, D. D., of Newberry College, who
delivered fine oration to crowded
house. His sermon was one of the
most scholarly ever heard here anG
he held the undivided attention of the
immense throng from the time he be.
gan until the last word was spoken.
Weregret that our very limited space
will only permit our printing brief
sketches OF the discourse:
DR.. Bowers took for his text Esther
4:16.-''Go gather together all the
Jews that are present in Shushan, and
fast VT for me, and neither eat nor
drink three days, night or day; also
and my maidens will fast likewise;
and so will I 60 in unto the king
which is not according to law; and if
I perish, I perish"
DR.. Bowers said: 1.-THE noble Esth-
er here gives expression to the final
resolve of her generous heart and de-
clares her high and dauntless deter
mination to venture all for her people
and her duty. If it indeed be true
that truth is stranger than felton,"
this charming story Of the captive
Jewish maiden, Esther or Hadassah
her native name, is by all agreement
true and credible. In the days OF
SAhasuerus, sovereign Of one hundred
and tyenty-seven provinces reaching
from India to Ethiopia, in the third
year of his reign, she came by an I'M
expected and inaccoHntab!e concur
renee of events to be his queen; ard
from condition Of despised obscurity
and orphanhood she rose to share the
throne of Persia. On this wise, Vas
titi, the royal consort, haughUily de-
clined on q festal day to appear in al
her glorious beauty before her hus-
bands friends at banquet in the pal
ace and condemned the request and
its command alike OF her liege lord;
and for her pride and stubbornness
was dethroned. In all the realm in
strictest search none was found so
fair as Esther, none so fit to fill the
vacant queenship, none so modest,
none so charming to the eye and
heart of Ahasuerus; and ne bids her
share with him in all the opulence of
an empire.
"Butl life hath many turn, even in
a palace, and high position many a
vicisitude. Haman, a wicked favorite
of the court, deeply plans the ruin of
the captive 1seralites and ruthlessly
and relentlessly resolves that they
shall without exception die; for hate,
for bitter hate of Mordecai, the
queens near relative, who refused to
bow, like slave, before the william
courtier and make obeisance in me-
NAL worship. Haman had won, by
vile deceit and foul fattery, the kings
ready sanction and his signet, and the
decree went forth utterly to destroy
every Jew, without respect of age or
sex, and spoil his substance, through
out the limits of the kingdom.
1.-The fatal day comes on, and Nor
decai urges Esther, now with lofty re-
proach and now with despairing hope:
go in, 60 in, seek the kings pres
ence and his favor. Tho the law
makes it instant death even for the
qeen to enter unbidden into his inner
court, unless he at once extend his
golden sceptre, enter nevertheless,
and plead in Jehovah's name for US
and thee; for thou, too, and Jew, and
think not in thy weak cowardice, if
thou dost fail as in this the day of our
supremest peril, think not thy now
secret nativity shall be still concealed
and thy poor life spared whilst thy
brethren die like mean cattle at the
hands of Persian butchery. This is
the bold crisis of thy life; for this
hour thou vast born; to-day for thee
all the mystery Of life is revealed and
its meaning manifest. Courage, dear
heart; thou canst not turn deaf ear
this day to the clarion call of God and
thy countrymen."
How wildly runs the thread of du-
ty and how opposite the pleadings
and the argument of the faint soul
and it's frail body: "How can I, how
can I, risk so much, enough to make
the stoutest spirit quail before it., to
daunt the sternest heart. Perish I
shall, at my lords voice I must perish
and all my nation too." Temptation
whispers: "Thou art but a woman,
nay girl, a timid, shrinking maiden,
albeit a queen; it is not thine to brave
the kings consuming wrath and thrust
thy queenly head into the cruel jaws
of an angry lion. Let another, let
Mordecai. man, not thee, poor har-
rassed eart." But yet she ventures
Notwithstanding all. With high cour-
age, converted into dauntless daring,
even in a woman's soul and body, by
a mighty faith in Him who doth not
forget or fail, she ventures in; the
kings soul is thrilled by her winsome
beauty and lofty animation and at
her plea for pity grants all he: pray
er."
Here the speaker dwelt at some
length upon the higher law, declaring
that there is higher law than
MANS"
In closing his beautiful pe1Oration