The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1909-05-21
BACCALAUREATE
SERMON PREACHED
BY DR.. WHITAKER
KNOXVILLE RECTOR OCCUPIES
PULPIT OF ST. PETERS
CHURCH.
AN INTERESTING DISCOURSE
Special Music Rendered-SerVlces a
Part Of Commencement Exercises
at Columbia misunderstood Sy-
nopsis Given.

nopsis Given.
The services at St. Peters church
Sunday morning were a part of the
commencement exercises of the Co
lumbia Institute. At this service Rev
w B. Whitaker, Rector of ST. Johns
church, Knoxville, delivered the bac-
calaureate sermon to the graduating
class of the school, a synopsis of
which is given. The order of service
was the same as on other occasions.
Mr.. Capers, Rector of the school, read
the scripture lessons and prayers. The
music was especially arranged for the
occasion by Miss Herndon. Lloyd's
TIE Deum was sung by Mrs. George
Martin, Miss Ara Edwards and
Barnett Hine MY Faith Looks Up to
Thee" was sung by Mrs. Martin and
Miss Mildred Rigby for the offertory.
Following is a short synopsis of Mr.
Whitaker's sermon:
Thou hast kept the good wine until
now. st. John 2:10.
/ The ruler of the feast, who said that
to the bridegroom at the wedding
feast at Cana of Galilee was not the
only man who bore greater witness to
the work of Christ than he was aware
of. Those who said of him Himself
he cannot save" 1T is expedient that
one man die for the people" and This
man receiveth Sinners" spoke pro-
| founder truths than they knew.
Similarly the toast master declared
, what is in fact the effect OF Christ's
presence and workings in the affairs OF
life, and he declared that Christ re-
versed the accustomed order.
The natural human order is: "Ev-
cry man at the beginning doth set
forth good wine, and, when men have
we'll drunk, then that which is worse.
Childhood has more Zest for life than
mature life. It's foods is sweeter to
the taste, its sleep sounder, its joys
whole hearted. In infancy heaven
lies about US, but as the years pass
the splendor fades into the light OF
common day. We become languid ana
unenthusiastic. II pleasure Is our
aim we soon find that pleasure alone
does not satisfy, but actually bellttles
and yitiates life. If labor is our aim
and success rewards us, and oppor-
tunity hastily presses upon our brow
a crown of thorns, waited with iron.
And even when all seems well, the END I
is at hand. Just as we see the clear
est what life means, we find that our
capacity to attai nwhat we see is
diminishing, and that we are unable
tn retain that we have. Physically
we become infirm. Intellectually our
horizon becomes contracted and our
heaven lower. The very moral sense,
which had grown from intelligence
through strength and tenderness, now
PLAYS us strange freaks; and, seeing
that the good are not so good or the
wicked so bad, as we once thought
they we're, it goes further than the
French writer who said, ITO know all
&c to pardon ALL" and declares that
"To know all is to see there is noth-
inc to pardon. Our whole nature
comes to a humiilating end. Eccle-
siastes calls the end "The evil day IN !
which we have no pleasure" Omar
the Person speaks of it as the time
when
.Death finds us soiled, though we were
pure at birth;
With grief we go, although we came
with mirth;
watered with tears, and burned with
fires of woe,
And casting life to winds, we rest IN
earth"
But Jesus Christ reyerses tnls pio-
,ess. His "All Hail" on the Resurrec- !
ion Morn declared to humanity and
10 individual that not death but life s
.eigned, not evil but good, not disap- 8
continent but fruition
The facts of the earth-life remain 5
Unchanged. there is the same labor 9
anxiety, disappointment, Illustration oil
lesire; but their relation changes; !;
bev are only the Introductory chap
ors If the real biography Of man
IS the 'tribulations of child are not
na pltimates of its life, as the exis-
ence is not the finality but phase Oh
,fe means to the fuller life OF the
49, -, - IIaavan1v Father,