The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1912-06-12
BACCALAUkTATE SERMON
Delivered Sunday Evening by Rev.
A. l.. Whitaker i'm Grace Epis-
COpal Church.

The members or the graduatin
lass OF 1912, faculty and schot
irectors of the Honesdale Hig
rhool attended Grace Episcopi
hurch Sunday evening and listene
D the excellent baccalaureate sci
ION delivered by Rev. A. l.. Whi
aker, rector of that church. II
aid in part:
My dear friends of Honesdale
High school, and fellow citizens
who are interested not only in
the more formal education of
the mind but also in the moral
and spiritual training of our
boys and girls, let me as l be-
gin this address, try to express
to you the feeling of RESPONSE
bility which comes to me as l
find myself in the presence OF
those whose minds are plastic,
whose hearts are still warm
with the fresh enthusiasm of
youth. This is a sacred privi-
lege-this opportunity which
has been granted me of saying
what is in my heart to say to
NhCoC yOuh5 lives.
Members of the Glass of
1912: In the first place permit
me to congratulate you upon
your most excellent class motto,
From Possibility to Reality"
II shall take text from
Scripture to match this text of
your own choosing, it will be
this: so God created man in
His Own Image" If you shall
have realized that text even in
the smallest degree in your
lives, you will have thus far
passed from your noblest possi-
bilities to their eternal reality
in the plan of God. Made in
the image of God" That shows
the estimate which God placed
on man. 1t is the measure OF
mans possibilities. But it 10
man who with the help Of God
must make that possibility an
actuality.
Not long ago at a gathering
of your class, l went to each
of you, so far as l could. and
asked you what plans you had
formed for your future. With
scarcely an exception you re-
piled that you had formed no
plans for your future careers.
l was at first surprised and
non-plussed. But when | re-
membered that it had not been
until | had been a graduate of
college of two years standing
that | had finally decided upon
my own life-work, my surprise
faded away. l became certain
that 1t would be not so desir-
able for me to advise you what
to do, as to try to lead you to
adopt certain standards of
thought and endeavor to meas
ure up to, no matter what your
work and place in life. High
school age is for the most part
too young to decide upon the
profession or life-work. But it
is assuredly not too young to
give earnest thought to the
moral bent and the attitude to-
ward life.
"Be sure you are right, then
go ahead" is a homely old
adage. Now many of you boys
and girls, you young men and
young women, are sure that
you have started right on your
journey of life, which may be
long one? Permit me to insist
most strongly that unless you
have come to some definite de-
cision as to which side you are
going to stand and fight on in
the battle of life, you will
either be fighting on the wrong
side in that battle, or you will
be OF that most disreputable ad-
1unct to any army, that mere
dead weight and demoralizer
OF any army, the rabble of
camp-followers.
am not asking you now to
make that decision which |
think you ought to make, If you
have not made 1t, to stand up
with Jesus Christ in his manly
struggle against the powers of
evil. For the moment | am
simply asking that you shall de-
eide to stand on the side of
right against wrong, of good
against evil, and that you shall
with alert eye and steady brain
keep yourself upon that side in
the great struggle.
I am going to plunge at once
into the heart of the problem
and attack some of the false
sentiments with which YOU
young men especially are as
sailed as you start out upon the
battle of life. You are told that
life is of value only for the
pleasure which one can get out
of ii, for the fortune in money
that you can acquire, or the
fame and position among your
fellowmen. First as for pleas
ure, they say to you young men,
Sow your wild oats now, and
then settle down later and be
respectable citizens" | will say
to you young men that my ex-
perience with human life, small
though it be when compared
with that of those who have
been longer in the work of the
ministry, is nevertheless suffi.
cient to convince me that it is
true that the young man who
sows his wild oats is sowing
damnation to himself in body
and mind and soul, he Is chain
ing himself to an old man Of
the sea from whom he car
never rid himself. He is plant
ing in his body the seeds of dis
ease, he is undermining hi: