The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1915-06-03
A SPLENDID BACCAl AURfATE SERMON
Delivered BY Rev Ronk Pastor of thedeon Brethren Church,
to the Class Of Is at the Opera Horse Sunday Evening"
Honorable School Board, Honor

oN>~N'
students, Friends: !.
We are gathered by custom i'm
memorial on this baccalaureate oc-
casion for the farewell benediction
on this years graduates.
Glass of 1915, you stand on veneer
able ground. A thousand summers
have thrown open their gorgeous
doors to other graduates as this radi-
ant June does for you; for thous-
and successive years your predeces-
sors have gathered in kindred fash
ion for the baccalaureate blessing.
/ said venerable ground and
custom immemorial! When Deca-
tur county was still bowling will
derness and the Indian warrior WOO
ed his dusky mate on the banks OF
Little River and Grand River, Har-
ward and Yale and William and
Mary were gathering as we DO to-
night for the baccalaureate address.
Farther back yet-when Columbus
discovered America, Cordoba and
Louvain-m Louvain, which
survived the petty squabbles OF ages
only to perish in the present red
holocaust of barbarity-these schools
were annually gathering as we do
tonight. Farther back yet-when
the Crusaders went forth in the glad
young days of chivalry to search for
the Holy Grail, the University OF
Paris was pronouncing upon each
years graduates the baccalaureate
blessing. Farther back yet-When
William, the Conqueror, set his iron
heel on English soil and conquered
our Anglo-Saxon forefathers, old
Oxford was gathering together her
sons and daughters as we do tonight.
Farther back yet-when Charlie
magne conquered our Saxon fore
fathers and drove them with bloody
sword in hordes through the rivers
while the priest stood on the bank
pronouncing the baptismal formula
even then old Byzantium, now Con-
stantinople, was sending forth her
scholars as we do now with the
blessing of the church. Farther back
yet-when Carlemagne's grand
father, Charles Martel-Charles, the
Hammer-with hammerlike blows
drove back the Saracen hordes from
Africa and broke forever the power
of the Crescent in Europe, even then
at Antioch and Rome the graduates
of the schools were gathering for the
baccalaureate even as you do to-
night.
Such a venerable custom, perpet-
uated by so many generations with
fidelity and fervor for a thousand
unbroken years must be based on
some profound and universal prln-
ciple yelling up from the deepest
experience of the race.
What is the meaning-What4 the
principle, what the inmost signifl-
canoe of our gathering here! Just
this: it is the combined experience
Of generations that there is some
thing more basic than culture, some
thing more fundamental than know
ledge and that something Is char
acter.
Glass of 1915, as you stand facing
the broad highway of life, trained,
cultured by years OF study, remem-
ber-you stand or fall, not by cul-
ture, not by learning but by charac-
ter. The world has been indulgent
thus ar-tonight, officially at least
you pass from the realm OF youth
and childhood into your full man
hood and wOmanhOod. Hence1orth
the world will Judge you-9udge
you-jostle you or salute you, poost
you, or boot you, according to lts
Judgment of your character.
To have persisted thus 1ar, 10
have performed your tasks, passed
your examinations, and come up mere
tonight as you do, is certain 1ndl-
cation of character. The commun-
ity. your friends and loved ones,
have gathered to honor you,-not
your attachments, for they are slight
compared with the sum total OF
to honor your per-
sistence, fidelity, industry, in other
words, your traits of character.
Glass OF 1915, salute you at the
narting of the ways! These have
been happy years; how happy you
are only beginning to realize, VIII
not fully realize till fifteen more
wears have rolled around. The hero
ic past has been opened to you.
Great souls of other ages nave
tramped across the stage OF lie:
You have become their friends and
have learned to love them Your
have been sharpened;
YOU have learned to appreciate the
hast in the worlds music, art, liter !!
ature Your sensibilities are keen,
keener than they will be in years to
come, when they are bIunted by the
sorrow and travail and disappoint--
ments Of life. You have formed
warm friendships. trust, friend
ships that will survive the hurrylng
Years with their changes: Moreover,
You have labored and endured hard
ship, privation, sacrifice, even suf-
fering I fear we of older years too
often forget this side Of school life
and too hastily judge it as only sup
critical and frivolous from the ever
present, irrepressible spirit Of youth.
You have labored, sacrificed, suner-
ID and your parents have borne
eyen greater hardships. They are
here tonight with the love-light IN
their eyes. They have given for you
even their hearts blood-thetrs is
the victory as we'll as yours. NO
me knows the agony with which
they have watched your feet pass by
the slippery places. Tonight there is
deep relief that the danger Is pass
Parents! Father and Mothers,
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