The theocrat. [volume] (Zion City [i.e. Zion], Ill.) 1914-1949, 1915-06-05
COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES OF
ZION CITY HIGH SCHOOL

ZION CITY HIGH SCHOOL
The Annual Commencement exercises
of the Zion City High School were held
in Shiloh Tabernacle Thursday evening,
June Sd, 1915.
The graduating class consisted of
seven young ladies and eight young men.
The class, together with Mr.. G. E.
Bayler, Principal of the High School,
were seated upon the platform with
Apostle E. L. Carey and the Rev. Will
bur Glenn Voliva, General Overseer of
the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church
in Zion The Eighth grade graduates
from the three Junior schools to the
number Of ffty-two, occupied seats in
the Choir galleries Immediately in the
rear of the platform.
From Z 80 until 800 p. m. the Zion
Senior Orchestra furnished suitable
music which was greatly appreciated by
the large audience present. The Devo-
tional exercises were conducted by Apos-
tie E. L. Carey The principal feature
of the evening was the address by Rev.
Wilbur Glenn Voliva, General Overseer
of the Christian Catholic Apostolic
Church in Zion. His subject was, "The
Phenomena and the Laws of Two
Worlds"
The speaker, after briefly referring to
the meaning of the words composing his
subject, stated that while the subject
was couched in words Of science rather
than in words of religion, he would
endeavor to confne himself to language
as free of technical, scientific terms as
possible. The speaker then proceeded
so-called laws of Nature, and the intel
lectual and spiritual laws were in reality
one law which had it's source of being in
God Himself, and that if it were possible
to discover all of the laws operating in
the organic and in the inorganic worlds,
and in the natural and spiritual worlds
an absolute science would be arrived at.
The speaker proceeded to show that
between real science and religion there
was no conflict. He drew contrast be-
tween organic and inorganic existence,
and showed that the main difference was
that in organic existence there was the
element which is called Life" and that |
none of the genius of man has ever been,
or will ever be able to change inorganic
existence into organic existence; that |
only God, the Maker, has the power to
give life.
The speaker clearly enunciated the
principles which Zion contends for, that
life is three-fold- animal, psychical and
spiritual, and he proceeded to elucidate
briefly the differences, and that while
see and hear and feel, his chief object
was not to be able to perform these
functions, but is rather to live beyond
and above the animal life in the realms
of mind and spirit.
The speaker showed that it was i'm
possible by the training of the intel
lectual life only to attain unto the spirit
ual; that man in order to be in harmony
with Gods laws must be in communion
with God, by which he meant that mans
spirit must be attuned to Gods Spirit,
and that the process of development was
a continuing process; that the laws of !
growth did not cease operating while
mans spirit occupied his physical or ami
NAL body, but that his real self continued
to develop. The speaker affirmed that /
he was firm believer in the continuity
of law. He also mentioned another
principle of law which was the work
which he styled the 'Retrograde Prin-
ciple," by which he meant that if a man
chose an environment which was not
full of health he would decline in his
physical, intellectual and spiritual exis-
tence. In other words, he would be in
the way of the antithesis of life; that is,
death, or that state where he would not
be in communion with God.
The speaker showed that the develop
ment of the physical and psychical is
not the end of existence, but only the
beginning, and he emphasized the
thought for the young people to grasp
that while they had completed certain
curse of study, and that their bodies and
minds had been developed in certain