Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1909-06-17

uurlnS tneSe CLOSING commencement
days. But they will testify, not to the
failure of college discipline, but to its
success. They are the unmistakable
evidence of real hunger for universal
knowledge. The purpose of college
education is not 10 furnish you with
all knowledge, but TO give you taste
for 1t. 1t is TO open the blind eyes
that they may see-to unstop the deaf
ears that they may hear, and to arouse
the spirit OF reflection, that man may
think. Has Alma College done this for
you! Has it brought you into an intel
ligent sympathy with all being? VIII
you henceforth bend upon all nature
The quirt of loving eyer"
If so you may be "smitten down, but
not destroyed You may feel with
Sir Isaac Newton that you have only
picked up few pebbles on the shore OF
the ocean of knowledge, but you may
also see with him the invisible hand
of God, which holds the stars in the
grasp of the universal law. Ii you
have found here an unquenchable de
sire TO observe and know what may be
known i'm the universe of being, then l
welcome you TO the wealth and lifelong
happiness of John Kepler-an Isaac
Walton, Gilbert White, a James An
derson, a Louis Aggasiz, a Thomas Ed
ison, Luther Burbank.
Am | mistaken, my young friends,
when l say that one of the saddest
things in your college experience has
been that you have had TO unlearn so
many things? Many of the idols of
your earlier days, have they not been
cruelty shattered, and now lie PROSTATE
az your feet? Those model men and
women about whose brows you saw the
halo of sainthood, when you were
boys and girls, where are they now?
Are they still upon the pedestal of
your ideal, perfect i'm thought and
deed? Or have you found them to be
Inen and women of flesh and blood
them in unreasoning anger. in unbe-
coming selfishness, i'm stubborn and re-
bellious pride. i'm cruel and bitter hate?
How sad TO you was the day that wit
messed their fall.
Is it not true also, that much of your
early faith i'm that which was sacred
and holy, has been cruelty shaken?
Those early visions of the beautiful
heaven with its golden streets and
gates of pearl and walls of jasper. and
that appalling lake of fire with the de-
Slairing faces of tortured souls and
low of flame, those visions of JOY and
terror. are they not gone? The fact
that you have left them behind shows
the progress you have made. But what
have you instead of them? Have you
an intelligent, self-reiant and dis
terminating mind? Then be not dis
mayed. Your four years of college
have made you rich. TO see the truth
Sift out the truth. and self-reliantly to
cleave to the truth, these are the
masks of an elevated mind. As well
seek to cross the Atlantic without
rudder or compass, as to commit ones
self to the voyage of life without an
intelligent. self-reliant mind. BE
strong. then. BE free. BE not an echo
of the books you have read the Feet
ures you have heard, or the sermons to
which you have listened.
"He who depends upon his mind and
limbs,
Needs neither cork or bladder when he
swims.
Nor will by empty breath be puffed
along,
As not himself - but in his helpen-
strong"
BE yourselves See the truth through 1
your own eyes. Then wait not for some /
one to declare il. BE first to see It, /
to preach it, to defend it, yea, though
all men forsake il and flee away
hope YOU will permit me to call /
Your attention to another disappoint- !
ment i'm this backward look. When you /
came here you were told that the
wealth of the great literature of the /
world would be uncovered to you. You
would not have TO read a Homer per-
erted by Pope, Plato disfigured by
Jewett. a Goethe misconstrued by Car
lyle. st. PauIs' message TO the Ro-
mans tormented by revisors-English
and American. You would instead he
permitted to drink from the original
fountains. The languages OF the great
English, German. Roman
and Greek would all be taught here;
and all the riches of their wisdom en-
shrined I'm the literatures would he laid
at your feet. You came. you saw-and
did you conquer? You entered upon
the work of studying the "dry-as-dust"
i