Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1908-06-26
SERMON.
Baccaiaureate Sermon of Presi-
dent Breinerd June Fl, 1903

Q
man and he saw.
President Brainerd in his address to
the Graduating Class said in part as
follows -
Men are often timorous because
blind to the thousand gracious agen-
cies that surround them. In life we
see danger first, and only later a way
of escape from the danger. We are by
nature more apprehensive of evil than
of good on life's battle field we seem
to see our foes more readily than our
friends. From childhood to old age
nine-tenths of our fears are ground
less. Either they are the ghosts Of
our own imagination, or a full knowl-
edge of the situation would reveal to
us an easy way of escape How
natural it is for the child to be afraid
in the dark, and how fears vanish as
phantoms when the light appears 1t
is as true in the moral world as in the
physical: our dread and anxiety come
largely from our being in mental
darkness.
Victory in life is not necessarily a
conquest over natural forces it is not
the avoidance Of disease and accident
and the maintenance of bodily health.
This may fail US in spite of Our best
efforts. But we may each of us enter
into the larger life of the soul in all
its fullness, even though manned OF
encountered by physical infrmity
Neither does success in life imply OF
necessity the attainment of a fail
amount of this worlds goods. Oul
years in life may be spent in hardship
with but few of the, comforts and
privileges that wealth can procure
But it is within the power of every
man to lay up treasures of another
sort, which will in the end prove more
useful and enduring. Honor and
social position may not be within oul
grasp, though we may be diligent in
business and faithful in all life's duties
But in SO doing, we shall not fail of a
better reward, nobility of character
and fitness for sphere of higher we'll
being hereafter.
Practical wisdom teaches US, thai
the evils of the outer world are rea
evils largely because of our menta
attitude toward them. The anxieties
of life, its hardships, its misfortunes
arise for the most part from ones lack
of knowledge, or from ones lack o.
courage. The healthy soul lives in
atmosphere of hope. Melancholy is
simply disease, as is also pessimism
Shakespeare has given us the correct
diagnosis, when he makes Hamlet
say, ait goes SO heavily with my
disposition, that this goodly frame
the Earth, seems to me a sterile
promontory, this brave Exchanging
firament, this majestical roof frettec
with golden fire, appears no Other
thing to me than a foul and pestilen'
congregation of vapours."
Gods world is a world of beaut,
and order and goodness and this in
spite of the thorns and thiStles, ir
spite of the pain, and the toll, and
the strife of our mortal lot. The
courageous soul will transmute all
these evils into good.
"Sudden the worse turns the bes,
to the brave,
The black minutes at end"
'Tis only the pusillanimous soul that
would 'be carried to the skies on
flowery beds of ease The mani
soul, as Browning has taught us, will
"welcome each rebuff
That turns earth's smoothnes:
rough,
Each sting that bids nor sit mol
stand, but CO."
AS you leave the quiet haunts Of
College and enter with the vigor Of
youth into the thick of lifes warfare
your Alma Mater bids you Godspeed
May yours be the faith that can exalt
life, make the human will Triumphant
over all obstacles, and lift the sou
into that serene ether, that ever lie: