The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-06-10
Annual BaCcaIaureate Delivered
by Rev. J. B. Reardon
THE CHURCH WAS CROWDED
Auspicious Opening of Seminar IS
Commencement Yesterday N% ses
Being Carried q ~ an
Ezceller Aer.

/ Glass Sunday exercises, which marked
the beginning of the 43d annual com.
mencement of Goddard seminary, were
held at the Uniyersalist church yesters
day forenoon at 1890 o'clock, the pas.
tor, Rev John b. Reardon, delivering a
foreeful bacealaureate sermon before the
1912 graduates, the student body and
large assemblage of friends and com
meneement week visitors. The attend
ance compared favorably with that of
| like occasions in years past and as the
first event of the commencement pro-
gram at Goddard it was full of promise
| for the pretentious exercises continuing
! through the week.
| The church was prettily decorated
| with flowers and potted plants, and
| across the rostrum was strung the class
MOTTO Labor Omna Vineit." Music for
| the service was furnished by a male
! quartet, consisting of DIR. ID. c. Jarvis,
Frederic Edwards, William Inglis and
| Nicholas Veale. The quartet was assist
| e9 by Prof w. A. Wheaton at the or
gan and Clayton +. Spencer, violinist.
| At the opening of the services, the MEM
bers of the graduating class and the fac
ulty members at Goddard filed into
church and were ushered to seats we'll
toward the front. The following order
of services was carried out; Prelude,
FESTIVAL Offertoire in d." (Battistel,
Prof. Wheaton anthem, Seek Ye the
Lord" (Roberts), DR.. Jarvis and quar-
tet invocation; responsive reading; an
them, my Faith Looks Up to Thee"
tSehnecker), Orpheus quartet and Mr..
Spencer; scripture reading; prayer; re-
sponse, Guide Us and Guard U.s."
(stanley). quartet; sermon, pastor; 20
du mein holder Abendstern," from
"Tannhauser," (Wagnerl, Mr.. Edwards
and Mr.. Grant, violin; hymn 1872; bene-
diction; postlude, "Pontifical March,"
tGuilmant) Prof. Wheaton.
Rev. Mr. Reardon chose the text Of
his inspiring discourse from the seventh
chapter of Joshua, second verse, which
reads, $50 up and view the country"
lie said in part as follows: Ii + had been
given to the opportunity to choose just
what particular gifts of the gods would
most desire to have bestowed upon me,
having in mind to choose that which
would bring me the most happiness and
bring, as well, happiness to those who
came in contact with me during life, |
should ask that | be granted the power
to see things as they really are, to
learn to tell the essential from the non
essential, to be granted the sense of pro-
portion, in short, to be enabled to look
ON life through true perspective, for
it seems to me that because of lack
OF that gift most failures come and that
most real success is accounted for by its
presence.
There is growing up pernieious phil
osophy which might Ybe termed the
worlds philosophy of life. Some of its
so-called wisdom is summed in maxims
as follows: Nothing succeeds like sue
cess; therefore 60 in for success, no mat
ter how much you have to lose honor
and principle to win it, Evil to him
who evil thinks; therefore dabble ins
nastiness; if your heart is right it won't
hurt YOU It's a thankless task TO
serve the public; therefore eschew pol.
tiles All virtue has its price All
roads to heaven; hell is a bug-a boo;
live about as YOU like Views
are changing nowadays: therefore don't
have any Permit me, in opening. to
warn you against such pernicious philos-
ophy. 1t may sometimes lead to sue
cess in some direction; but it never leads
to true happiness.
Life is pretty much what we make
it and we are apt to make it accord
ing to our plans, within certain limits.
Sometimes the best plans fail. Some
times the man who looks on life with
absolutely clear eyes senses some OBJ
;tacles of heredity, environment or cir
.umstance which stands in his way and
the carrying out of some
scheme which he has planned, or, see
ng the obstacle, fails to find way to
prevent its blocking his plans, but as
rule. what we see clearly and COM
lrehend fully. we can provide against.
\ well. planned life may not always be
but poorly planned life is
ure to be a failure and life strlc-
ure based on plan drawn in false
,erspeetive is poorly planned indeed.
"There are certain things which you
must do. certain things which You must
g, certain things which you cannot leave
ut of the account To start with, YOU
Iust earn money, YOU must be bread
rinner, in some capacity or other, YOU
annot disregard the financial side of
fe and the place which you are going
0 give that phase of life in the plan
ou are making is very important. Get
he right view of wealth. IL would be
impossible to conceive of a narrower,
,ore one-sidcd life than one spent sole
r in pursuit of wealth. But on the
ther hand, do not underestimate the
alue and power for good of money or
the necessity of earning it or
aving it.
"You viii need to provide large place
I your plan of life for the particular
usiness, trade or profession which YOU
itcnd following. The most unfortunate
ling in life is wrong choice of bus
less, persisted in. You can stand well
some line. If it does not happen to
e one kind of business at all. it is
,mething else. Find out what it is as
ION as you can and get into it. A
bod blacksmith is much more useful
ian poor lawyer and happier withal,
cause down in his heart, unless he is
a abject fool, a man knows whether or
ot he can do well that thing which he
.tempts and there is not much pleasure
realizing that you are a failure in
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