The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1911-05-25
ADDRESS TO CLASS
Rev. j. P. Levings Delivers Baccalau-
reate Sermon to High School
Graduating Class of III.

A Masterfui Discourse Which Was
Listened to by a Large and
Appreciative Audience.
Rev. Father Levings of St. Ed
wards Catholic church, in his par
ticularly attractive style of rendition,
delivered the baccalaureatte sermon
to the Princeton high school gradual,
ing class on Sunday evening. Many
people we're there to listen to the ex-
cellent discourse and, it is unneces-
sary to state, the sermon was duly
appreciated, both by the graduating
class and people of mature years. It
was an address from which all could
derive benefit if they but followed the
advice of the speaker. The musical
numbers, consisting of vocal selec-
lions by a quartet consisting of Mes
danes Galley and Briggs and Messrs.
Ewing and Briggs, a violin duet by
Donald Marshall and Herbert Fisher,
and selections by the high school or
chestra, we're rendered in excellent
manner. There vas a scripture read
ing by Rev. Fisher, and Rev.
Goodell offered a prayer and pro-
nounced the benediction. Decora-
lions of flowers and foliage, inter-
mingled with the class colors, pro-
duced very enchanting effect.
Father Levings' address was as fol-
lows:
Theme: To aviod shipwreck on
LIES voyage.
Text: 1.-The rowers have brought
thee into great waters; the east wind
hath broken thee in the midst of the
seas.' Ezekiel XXXVII, 26.
In the chapter from which this text
is taken the pleasure-]oving city OF
Tyre is compared to a ship. At first
splendid, proud, gallant, and then
dismantled, struggling, lost; "broken
by the seas in the depths of the
waters"
The contrast between the two condi-
lions of the ship is no greater than
that We often meet in human life.
Multitudes ofyoung men and women
are leaving our schools and colleges
these days. They are making fair
start upon their voyage of life, with
every prospect of success. They have
talent, energy, health and friends;
apparently the winds are favrable,
the sea smooth; no clouds feck their
horizon. But as time passes one sees
them drifting from the shore out into
the deep, dark toubled whirlpool and
destruction, the talents have been
squandered, the advantages wasted,
the career blasted, the soul, perhaps,
all but wrecked.
In the text the wreck appears to
have been attributable to "the
rowers." Who are these rowers?
We may, in the first place, regard
them as ones companions. Our COM
panions exercise vast influence
over US, unconscious though it may
be. Our nature is social. We form
friendships, and then we are swayed
by them. 1t is very difficult to stand
out against the current and the tide.
A group of school boys together
will engage in follies and ugly doings
which no one of their number would
think of committing alone. The cry
is, "Be a man" and the poor
weakling, with blinded eyes and his
false conception of manliness, plays
"the fool"
One cunning knave among hard
worked clerks or hard pressed labor.
ers will entangle them in the mesh OF
dishonest schemes and clever lies.
An idle set of fast young men can
conceive crimes, lay plans, perform
deeds which not one of them could
work out by himself, which will cast
humiliation upon whole community
and wreck the lives of all concerned.
If you make companions of the de-
PRAYED you will end in being de-
PRAYED, "cum electo electus eris; Q,
cum perverso pervert eris."
Again, the Growers" may. be re.
garded as a mans own appetites.
And, to control our wayward, wan
dering spirit, God plants in the midst
of our soul the spirit of truth, to steer
our course amid the storms of life. as
the compass guides the bark through
dark, tenpestuous ocean: II will
not leave you orphans, but will send
you the Paraclete, and when He, the