The Paonia progressive and the Paonia newspaper., 1911-06-01
Annual BaccaIaureate
Sermon Sunday Evening


evening in honor of the annual Bac-
calaureate service for the graduating
class of the Paonia High school. The
hall had been beautifully decorated
with plants, flowers and ribbon and
promptly at eight O'Clock the class
of 1911 took their places in the seats
which had been reserved for them in
the center of the audience. After the
singing OF the doxology by the en-
tire congregation. Rev. Branon
made the Invocation, followed by a
solo. beautifully rendered by Miss
Wilson. Rev. Branon then read the
scripture lesson from the 18th chap
ter of Johns gospel. followed by
prayer, Rev. Stout leading the con-
gregation In their petitions. After
an anthem 10y the choir. Rev. +. II.
Robinson. pastor of the Congrega-
tional church. delivered the sermon.
taking as his text John. eighteenth
chapter. thirty-seventh verse, ITO
this end havefI been born, and to
this end am come into the world.
that I should bear witness unto the
truth" He said In part as follows:
These words are n part OF the most
remarkable dialogue recorded In all
history. The parties to this dialogue
Were PLATE. the representative to
time. Rome. and Jesus. representa-
tive of the greatest Spiritual king
dom of all times. the Kingdom of
Heaven. PLATE. boastiul. praud and
pompous. marveiing at the fact that
here was "A man, protesting to be
king. and yet submitting with no
show OF resistante TO the false accu-
sations OF the Jews. asked him. half
cynically. "art thou "a King them"
Jesus, meek. humble and unassum-
ing. raised his Inclined head, and
with straight. steady gaze. looked
full into the hard. cruel face OF his
Roman Judge and affirmed his ques-
ton thus: Thou sayest that | am
IA King: to this end have | been born.
and TO this end am | come into the
world. that should bear witness
unto the truth Here Jesus gave to
the world his great purpose In life.
The cleaving close to this purpose.
through suiferlf z. sacrifice and APP
parent defeat. made him worthy To
be called King.
Mr. Robinson treated his text un-
der three heads. ~ follows: The
Value of n Purpose in Life. The
true purpose of Mankind. Essential
qualities for the Attainment OF this
Purpose" He pointed out to- the
class that they had come so far In
their intellectual discipline because
they had had n purpose in life That
Others had dropped from the class
becanse they had not had proper
Incentive. But that now they had
arrived at new stage, and that
this was a real commencement OF
new work and new activities, wheth'
er they went further in their pursuit
of knowledge or not, that because ol
this they needed = new and greater
purpose, one that would sustain
them In hours OF disappointment and
defeat, and one that would temper
them In their hours of success and ex
haltation. Pointing to the purpose
of Jesus be told them that they dared
take nothing lower than that a'
their purpose. but that was the true
purpose OF mankind, to bear witness
unto the truth.
This purpose, he said, was wei
worthy-of their very bestefforts. Th'
word truth being the greatest wore
In the English language. He pointed
out the fact that truth and fact wer'
not synonomous. that a thing mighi
lie true whether 1t We're factual o.
not. 10 Illustrate this he pointed
them to the greatest parallels q
Christ, teaching the greatest truths
the Prodigal Son. and the Good Sa
maritan The Bible is n book o
truth, not necessarily n book o
facts. Would be critics VIII tell yot
that II the books of Ruth and Esthe