Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1914-06-26
114TH COMMENCEMENT
Middlebury College Graduates Glass of 46
Men and Women

cred the baccalaureate sermon before
large congregation. His text was;
"When | was a child, | spake as a
child, felt as child, thought as a
child: now that am become man, l
have put away childish things l
Corinthians 1871
The sermon in part was as follows :
81 do not plead that college men
merely retain respect for the church as
an institution which has claimed the
devotion of many rare spirits and which
has been of great service to society;
that they continue to reverence the
Holy Bible, because it has been use
full text book of morals in the education
of the race, or because it contains pas
sages of great literary beauty and
power; nor that they merely treat with
consideration the doctrines which have
sustained noble souls and which have
commanded the respect of many great
minds. Religious manhood demands
more vigorous attitude than this. 1t
! requires earliest anu lllOIOuSl Cll VI 1 ~
think through religious questions for
ones self, to work out personal creed
that shall be the expression of his own
conviction on the important problems of
life with which religion is concerned.
| am aware that creeds are not highly
in favor in these times. 1t is popular
to reproach them as refugees for timld
spirits, as attempts to stifle investiga-
ton and check the progress of free
thought, as ministers of unjust author
ty over the mind and conscience. | do
not deny that they have been so en-
ployed, but the fault has been in the
spirit of those who used them wrong
! fully The misuse of any institution
or practice does not prove that 1t may
not have a true and proper use.
creed is simply formal statement or
definition of the convictions of an indi
vidual or an association of individuals.
| Every man has one, whether he real
ICES it or not. 1t may be very vague or
indefinite, perhaps inconsistent and il
| logical, but as a working theory of life
| it is present nevertheless and seriously
affects his conduct.
THE creed of an earnest man, who
Nas attained some measure of knoWl-
,dge of the world thought and life,
should not be vague and illogical, but
definite and clear, and in harmony with
his knowledge in other spheres, and
expressive of the spirit of his life.
Large portions of it may be in forms
which have been hallowed by time.
Some articles may be adapted from the
confessions of the past, with new
meanings attached to many terms,
but held in no less sincerity. Other
convictions will be new, ones very
own, forged from his own observations
and experiences and held in the same
fixity and courage with which the
saints of older days testified to the
faith which God delivered to them. 1t
is the truth which claims our reverence,
not of necessity that which is old, nor
yet that which is new, but that which
commands our minds and holds our
conscience as in harmony with the
reality the great God has enabled US to
see
"There are realities in this world,
challenging our attention, upon which
we must make pronouncement. We
must have some thought about the
world itself, the vast mass of things,
whether it is ineligible or no, whether
it is thing of system and order or
law, or of chaos and chance. 1t has
been testified that there is a spirit in all
things, that mind is master and that
matter is its slave The opposite tes-
timony has been rendered, that spirit
is a delusion and that which seems
mind is the manifestation of matter.
These views have consequences and
shape the manner of the men who hold
them, &" If the dead are not raised, let
us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. "
A man must place himself on one side
or the other. He must live, and the spirit
or the flesh must command his life. We
must choose some day whom we will
serve, and that choice should be delib
crate and thoughtful, with regard to
all the evidence from every source,
with the pitiess use of logic and all
the powers of mind with which we are
endowed. Such an issue is not to be
determinedby impulse or sentiment, by
tender associations or by gentle feel
ings. If Baal be God, follow him, de-
spite all consequences. Let a man use
his mind, and all that is mature and
strong within him. Let him read the
scriptures with open intelligence, shield
ing no fact from the light, refusing no
information from any source as to the