Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1911-06-23

President John Nj. Thomas opened
the 111th commencement Of MiddlebLry
College Sunday by delivering the bac-
calaureate sermon to the members of
the graduating class. His subject was
''The Discernment of Responsibility,
and his text Exodus 4:13: "And he said,
Oh Lord, send pray thee by the hand
OF him whom thou wilt send. He said:
If ever a man seemed providentially
destined to his mission, it was Moses,
the emancipator of Israel. A son of
the bondmen, their race-passion in his
blood, yet nourshed in the habit of
mastery and domination by the states
manship of "a world-empire, every cir
cumstance of his youth predetermined
him for contest with Pharaoh and the
salvation of his people. Yet favored as
he was, and marked for the work of
national deliVerance, when it came to
the point of getting at the work itself,
he held back and was exceedingly re-
luctant. At every step he found an OBJ
lection. His people would not believe
that he was sent to them. He was not
eloquent, but slow of speech and of
slow tongue. At last, when every OBJ
lection was met and there was no fur
ther excuse to proffer, he exclaimed,
"Oh Lord, send | pray thee by the
hand of him whom thou wilt send!
Send, but not by me, by any one else,
Lord, but not by mel
The emancipator of Israel was not an
exception in his resistance of the call to
9ecial responsibility. Such resistance
is natural, is well-nigh universal. There
has been no holy time in which favored
ones could discern tasks of high emprize
as their tasks, and proceed without a
question as to their work. There is no
holy land of air so clear as to allow i'm
mediate vision of duty, with no simmer
of uncertainty, with no fog or mist to
darken and obscure the way. In other
words, the discernment of responsibility
Is by no means an easy task, nor a COM
mon grace. The man who sees work
that needs doing, in the community, or
for the world at large, and sets himself
promptly and tiXedly at that work, de-
serves much credit 1t is altogether
likely that a score of other men have
felt the same need, perceived the same
opening, men too who were Just as well
fitted for the undertaking, perhaps even
better, and for whom no excuse was
availing that did not apply in equal
degree to the more responsive and
obedient brother who accepted the call
Very rarely is a good man asked to do
a thing, task largely worth while and
we'll within his capacity, who does not
at first say that he is not at all fitted
for it 1t never discourages one at all
experienced in the solicitation of serv-
ice, when friend to whom he suggests
a duty replies that his talents are not at
all equal to that work. One rather eX-
poets that answer. 1t is natural atti-
tude. Gods mighty servants have never
gone at their work at the first with
careless confidence, but in weakness,
and in fear, and with much trembling.
A question of duty is not a question of
how one feels about it at first but
whether he can get away from it when
he really looks it in the face.
Men and women are needed in our
time to take up the work of spiritual
influence, and by strong, positive stand
for all that is right and noble lift the
world to worthier life. The common
run of folk are too worldly. There is
an earthiness, smallness about the air
we breathe that is not healthful We
are inheritors of long ages of barbaric
struggle for sufficient food and clothing.
In the makeup of every nerve and
tissue is the passion to acquire. The