The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1914-07-03
THE LOST CHORD
OF COMMENCEMENT
TEXT OF ADDRESS THAT DR.. J. w.
GREY DESIGNED TO GIVE
PART TWO.

"But, again: wisdom is defense.
/ speak now of its utilitarian vein only
its commercial value. Even here,
the merchandise of it is better than
the merchandise of silver, and the gain
thereof than fine gold, because it is
causal, fundamental, first of all.
"Down here IN this bread and butter
world where man must toll for susten-
ance and where he must eat or starve,
knowledge is a defense. What can
man do in this hour of the worlds his
tory even in the coarse, practical, COM
mercial world unattended by this shield ?
] He is shut out from all professions and
from almost every trade; shut out from
books wherein we read the experiences
of the past, mans wisest te acher for
the past, mans wisest teacher for to-
day, his safest prophet for tomorrow.
Sadly must he seek his place among
'the hewers of wood and the drawers
of water to find even here in this hour
of applied natural forces demand for
the skilled mechanic and civil engineer.
There is hardly place for him in all
the civilized world today. Oh! the utter
defenselessness of ignorance, none of
YOU before me know. God grant that
the youngest child you teach in the
public school here may never know it!
knowledge is defense, the best
defense in the business world. Banks
may break as they undoubtedly have
broken here; buildings may go up in
smoke-the property of life time lost
in an hour; the millionaire of today may
be a beggar tomorrow. But every draw
on knowledge multiplies your bank ac-
count. You cannot lose it save to find
it-increased a hundred fold. The more
it is tested the more it comes forth as
gold, and there is no adversely in human
life so severe no financial defeat so dis
astrous, that you are not left with SUBJ
stantial capital, to begin again, with
hope, life's battle.
"Then get knowledge if only for its
utility-its commercial valne as meas
ured in the money markets of the
world. And get it thoroughly, and in
its use, as Theodore Roosevelt said to
the students at Ann Arbor, in its use
make the world your beneficiary 1t
will serve you well. knowledge is a
defense.
"But let us pass from the scaffolding
of this language now, from the steps
beneath, marble though they may be,
into the temple itself, to behold its
glory. But the excellency of knowl-
edge is that wisdom giveth life to him
that hath it.
81 have not yet spoken to you of
life but of existence merely, cold, COM
mon, practical animal existence. Wis
dom giveth life. Like animals we are
born; like animals we eat and drink and
fight for bread, but we are to live like
men.
"What is it that you quoted in your
sophomore days, I'VE live in deeds,
not years, in thoughts, not breath. we
should count time by heart throbs. He
most lives who thinks most, feels the
noblest, acts the best.
"And the transcendent glory of the
hour in which we live is, that man is
apprehending, somewhat, the real char
acter of manhood, the divine side of
human life; that wealth and knowledge
and physical power are but the bull
warks of the inner kingdom, the real
kingdom of the soul-over which physi-
cal accidents and death have no power.
This great truth the Carpenter of Naz- ,
.areth, both by his birth and mission
came to teach the world From whence
hath this man these things? 2 they said,
and what wisdom is this that is given
unto him? Is not this the carpenter
the son of Mary? Can any good thing |
come out of Nazareth
"These ape the narrow, sensuous
questions of the past, asked by men
chained to their environment only in
market knowledge and slaves of the |
earth, and these are the captious utili-
tartan questions asked today by the
narrow oligarchies of blood and the
narrower oligarchies of wealth. Christ
answered that contemptuous question
for all time, revealing the sublime
character of his mission on earth. Il
am come that they might have life and
that they might have it more abun-
dantly, who said to the astonishment
of those who pitied his low estate, as
you may say to the pity and solicitude
Of your earth visioned friend. Il have
meat to eat that We know aot Of, and
both by his lowly birth and his exalted
life gave to man his first and his last