Arizona republican., 1915-06-07
SiXty~ninc Members of the Graduating Class of the Tempe Normal Listen to Splendid Baccalaureate Sermon
EIGHT HUNDRED
 FILL THE HALL
Pastor of Christian Church Speaks of Higher PWr- pose in Life to One of Most Successful Senior Classes of Institution
Special to The Republican,

Special to The Republican,
 TEMPE. June 6.-An audience of nearly eight hundred people. members bf the congregations of the Tempe churches and people of the town, gath cred at the normal auditorium this evening to attend the annual baeca- laureate service and listen to d splen- did message to the graduating class delivered by the Rev. J. R. Rountree, pastor of the Christian church here. The graduates, sixty-nine of the seven 1 ty-siN members of the class of 1915 1 were present, marched in from the
 rear of the auditorium at the opening | Of the service and occupied seats to the | front on the lower floor.
 The several renditions by the Tempe
 normal quartet composed of Professors l J. l.. Johnson, J. l.. F'elton, J. B. Grif- | fins and R. E. Beckwith, were very | pleasing. Preceding the invocation by 1 Rev. Chas. H. Dains they sang fine
 Lord is My Shepherd" by Koschat and
 after the baccalaureate address by | ROuntree they sang Remember Now l Thou Creator by Rhodes. The ladies
 double quartet sang Gently Speak by | Ffllemore.
 1 Dr. Rountree's message to the gradu-
 ates was short. concise and was at 1 tentively listened to by the unusually | large audience.
 Taking the heart from the thir-
 teenth verse of the twenty eighth l chapter of Ezekiel we have these words, Thou vast in Eden. the garden of God" (R. VJ
 Most truly spoke the Persian poet, when he said:
 The moving finger writes. and hay ing writ.
 Moves on. Nor all your piety nor
 Shall lure it back to cancel half a line.
 Nor all your tears blot out a single word of it." (Omar) For every one of us the record Of our past deeds has been engraVen upon indestructibIe tablets and filed away in the archives of Time to be | brought forth again. only when We l shall have gone to render our final | accounting and to receive each of us according as our works shall have been. A day of reckoning will come and it's coming is as sure and cer- tain as that the darkness follows l the departing of the sun. None of our past deeds can be erased from the record. Far have they been removed beyond our con trol and We cannot call them back. But we can learn from them as we call them up in memory those les sons that We shall need to give us wisdom to make our future days fruitful of rich blessings of good | things.
 For many of us here. tonight. the pages of the record have been well filled and the balance sheet is crowd ed with item. The day of your ac- counting is near. But you. members of the senior class, have been living in a veritable garden of delight, an Eden. a garden of God. Tonight, as you stand upon the threshold looking from your Eden, full of hope and anticipatory joy, you gaze upon a landscape brilliant in it's offering of opportunities. The delightful eX- periences in the garden have but tended to increase your vigor and deepen your vision. Beyond the confines of your present-past are new fields of experiences to be eX- plored
 A flower unknown, a DOCK unread, tree with fruit unharvested; A path untrod; a house whose rooms
 Lack yet the hearts divine perfumes; A landscape whose wide border lies In silent shades heath silent skies;
 wondrous fountain yet unsealed;
 casket with it's gifts concealed;
 This is the year that for you waits Beyond tomorrow's mystic gates" God took Adam and placed him in F.den-beautiful beyond the power of language to express rich in every
 good thing that man could wish; almost unlimited in it's resources for
 enjoyment and blessing. Adam was
 hut to dress it and keep it; to use it
 and make it's possessions his own. Twas the greatest privilege that
 right that he possessed: merely by
 Gods own wish and pleasure. be- cause He Loved Adam and had put
 him there. Through no act of hIs, Adam was given all the riches of
 Gods creative act to enjoy. Twas q privilege incomparable, indescribable. All conditions of life in which we
 are surrounded with opportunity for
 obtaining knowledge for self inn provement. are privileged conditions.
 Eden, the garden of God Ours
 not by any inherent right that we (Continued on Page Five)