The Tupelo journal., 1912-05-03
Graduating Exercises.

morning when Rev. A. 0. Price OF
Tupelo. preached the Commencement
sermon in the college chapel. On Mon.
day morning the exercises were con.
cluded with an interesting program OF
essays, music, awarding of diplomas
and the baccalaureate address by Pres.
ident H. L. Whitfield of Columbus.
The graduates were Robert Thompson,
Mitchell Wiygul. Bertrand L~auderdale,
sa~lutatotian and Miss Mary Clark, val
edictorian. J.. M. Clark awarded the
diplomas.
Following is the address of Miss
Mary Elizabeth Clark, read upon the
occasion of her graduation from the
Shannon High School April 29th. Miss
Clark has the distinction of being the
first lady graduate from this school:
When we hear the oft-repeated and
contemptuous slurs passed upon the
church by the business and social world
of TODAY, the words of the Psalmist re-
tuln to us with great %fervor, "Why DO
the heather rage and the people i'm
agine a vain thing?"
We read with awe the writings OF
Ingersoll, Voltaire and others a n q
praise their eloquence and learning,
knowing at the same time they are
wofully wrong. Still no n has as vet
been able to rout their arguments. Why
is it that we do not draw u robes
about us and carefully refrain from
contact with these villifiers of vi most
holy faith? If they spoke disparingly
of our nation there would SUI ely be a
.ry of "Down with the traitors" If
they sought to overthrow our homes
the cry of ''away with the ic~onoclasts,'
would pierce the heavens, but when
they decry our religion, the press per-
mits their books to be published and
thousands of young men have turned
skeptics on this account.
Why is all this? Man physically
speaking was what he is today before
Christianity was known. The world
sings the praise of the fortitude of the
S~partans. the learning of the Athen-
ians, the bold daring of the Romans,
the steady aGvancessof the >AnRlo-Sax-
ons. but where does woman appear in
these nations save in their DOWNFALL?
At the hsnds of Cleopatra fell the glo-
nv of the Ptolomes and even mighty
Rome trembled on its pinnacles of
power. We can only surmise what
would have been the hlstory~of these
two nations had she welded her pow
erful influence for good!
We could name others who became
famous, ever though they reached their
fame by paths of blood, but they are
few. What was the woman OF anti
guilty? Nothing more than a slave to
her parents and a vassal to her hus-
band.
We countenance the attacks of Bob
.Ingersoll, but had a woman who owes
her liberty. her social prestige, and
even her honor to Christianity made
them. we would scorn her as a veno-
nous being and make haste to cry
''unclean.'
We often hear it said that it is the
learning of the times that has raised
woman to her social status of the pres
emit. But is it? Has the woman OF
paganism~ progressed one iota in the
last one thousand years? She has not.
The hahn of Turkey. the seragfios OF
Persia exist now as then. And woman
bows in meek submission to the will OF
her lord and master. She is never seen
on the streets unless she is heavily
yelled, she has no property rights, not
even any personal rights. for her a
rage is made without her knowledge
or consent, and she is bartered and sold
as if she were an inanimate being.
You say as Japan advances in a po-
litical way she also raises her social
scales, and woman is there no longer "a
little better than a dog and a little low
er than a horse" but then comes the
question, "Could Japan have advanced
politically without the overruling influ-
ence of Americanism?"4An wherever
"Old Glory" Is raised 1t carries with 1t
the mighty banner of the cross.
So 1t is with all nations who have not
felt the overwhelming spirit of the
meek and lowly Nazarene.
The names of many women flash out
brilliantly in the great galaxy that clus.
ters about Mt. Sinai, who obeyed theil
Creator toTthe extent of the light that
lay within them. but even then they
were denied the full effulgence thai
streamed from Calvary.
They were ~pharasaical in their creee
and never knew the softening influence
of their Savior.
1t is around the women of the New
Testament and later epochs that thu
radiance of the cross streams in its full
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