The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1915-05-21
DR.. BLACK DELIVERED SPLEN-
DID BAccALAUREATE SER
MON SUNDAY.
TO INSTITUTE SENIOR CLASS
Besoueht them to make Christian Liv-
ing the Aim of Their Lives, and
to Follow the Master, Who Emanci-
pated Womanhood.

the graduating class OF the COlumDle
Institute. 1t was marked by helpful
suggestions, characterized by noble
ideals, and expressed in terse cpl
grammatic language.
DR.. Black said in part:
Il am come that they might have
life, and that they might have it more
abundantly."-St. John 1910.
THE commencement has come
which in one sense is an ending. In
another, it is the beginning of a
broader life for which the school has
been preparation. That must be why
we speak Of Commencement
Gone are the months and years
of sunny companionship. Past be-
yond recall the jest and merriment
the study hours and lectures, the
talks and walks and plans, and the
exchange of condolences, which have
bound whole class into an endear'
ing family group. Now all this is to
be but bright and vanishing memo.
~, and each must separate from 9TH
er to enter upon new sphere. Care.
Less, joyous girlhood must give way
ere long to the sober responsibilities
OF womanhood. Whatof college dreams
and ideals? Will they be fulfilled
Will there be for some, as the feet
years pass, any lowering and grey
skies? No prophet however wise can
draw with certainty the picture of
one single career. Fast shut are the
leaves in that mysterious Book of
the Future.
Nevertheless, we are not to be
dispirited because we cannot know
what of veal or woe is ahead. The
very uncertainty is challenge to be
ready to 'act we'll your part" The
graduate girl will find smiles and
10Y and laughter, and there are splen.
did friendships which are possible,
even out in the big, toiling world.
Life is filed with compensations for
what we think is irrevocably lost. But
the foundation for true content you
shall not find save in the religion of
the NaZarene, who came that we
might have life, and more abundantly.
ut is so natural that you should
love life, for it is a divine impulse.
And how good 1t is, as the poet has
phrased 1.-THE mere living! How
at to employ all the heart and the
soul and the senses for ever in joy!"
This morning | would like espec-
tally to speak good word for Jesus
Christ to the girl graduate, as lin
&eringly she casts look upon the
Eine-wreathed walls and turrets Of
her old school home, and as she peers
wistfully into the cloudy future-she
who loves life, and would see good
days fain would point to Jesus as
girlhood's, as woman's truest friend.
would magnify Him as the emanci-
pator of the sex which the world had
consigned to inferiority, plaything
and chattel of mans selfish domin-
.aon. Who but the Christ put in motion
that divine current of justice which
IN our own day, especially, has gather
ed momentum? Our Lord dignified
and exalted all human nature; woman
In her helplessness, childhood in its
Innocence. His gospel is a gospel of
eternal values, and not that Of the
Superman, not that Of might makes
right.
In what degradation have the wo.
men OF the East particularly, been
Gnthralled, and what an innovation
was our Blessed Lords attitude upon
all previous religious teaching. How
much your sex owes to Him no tongue
can tell! Have you ever gone
through the pages of the four Cos
pels to note His tender, loving in.
aerest and how many personal inter
views He had with women?
Religion, my friends, is the need
~ oil, but its greatest blessing has
been to womankind, because Jesus
Christ has made righteousness, and
not brutality and self-interest, the
standard OF values.
THANK God, women have given
love for love to their best friend and
In all the centuries have been fore
most in religious endeavor. How
much men owe to her example CT
spirituality, and how the work of the
church would have faltered without
her ceaseless, consecrated service.
"The call still rings in your ears,
my sisters, to be witnesses, to do
each your part in retaining the
world from sin, selhshness, and mis-.
cry. God has set you in the Home
the Home, which is his institution,
eAe Home which Is the bedrock upon