The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1918-05-10
YOUNG LADIES OF
COLUMBIA INSTITUTE
HEAR GREAT ADDRESS
DELIVERED SUNDAY MORNING BY
DR.. GEORGE o. WATTS AT
ST. PETERS CHURCH.
"A SLAVE GIRLS OPPORTUNITY"
Was The Theme of the Speaker-Text
Taken From II Kings Fifth Verse
Splendid Music BY Miss McCarty
and Mrs. Gilbert.

"''N W. % S'|~'s
The commencement sermon to the
graduating class of Columbia 1nsti-
tue was delivered from the pulpit of
st. Peters church Sunday morning at
eleven o'clock to large audience.
DR.. George O. Watts, the speaker took
as his theme "a Slave Girls Oppor-
tunity" taken from second Kinds,
fifth verse. "And his flesh came
again like unto the flesh of little
child, and he was Clean"
These words form the happy ending
to the story of how great warrior
was once cured of the loathsome dis
ease of leprosy. And the marvel of
this happiness that came to this home,
saddened by the spectre of untimely
death, was that it was realized
through the kindly service rendered
by simple slave-girl. She was
young Israelitish girl who had been
dragged from her native land by
band of Syrian raiders. No longer
free to follow the impulses Of free
youth, she found herself a slave in
the household of Naaman, Syrian
general Her task was to wait on the
mistress of the household. She soon
discovered that there was unhappi-
ness and gloom in this home. The
master was afflicted with an incur
able disease And when, in the in
timacy of the boudoir, her mistress al
luded to the cause of domestic sad
ness, this young girl suddenly re-
membered that back in her native
land, there was man who was famed
for his woodworking power. She
was sure that he could do what all
others had failed to do-cure Naaman
of his leprosy. Then this slave-girls
mistress repeated the conversation to
her husband who at once set out to
find Elisha, of whom the slave had
spoken. And so it came about that
Naaman was cured. This slave-girl
lives today on the pages of the great
est hood in the world; in company
with Abraham, David, Solomon, she
has survived the ravages of time. Had
she not been forced into slavery, none
of us today would know that she ever
lived. Little did she know that her
humble service would be held up as
an example for emulation throughout
the ages to come. The very limita-
tons of her unhappy circumstances
of slavery, was her opportunity to
be kind and to do good. Had her heart
been made bitter by the theft of her
childhood's rights, she might have de-
rived malicious joy out of her mas
ter's sufferings, and she might have
withheld her suggestion. But misfor-
tune had not soured her disposition
and though her body was in slavery,
yet her heart was free from pettiness.
1t is so often the case that when out
ward circumstances are hopeless, all
in HOPELESS Harsh facts make hard
hearts.
If a slave girl of twenty-five hun
dred years ago, could bear witness to
the splendor of girl-hood, and find
in the dreary life of slave an op-
portunity to make her life count,
though in quiet and humble way,
how much more should it be so in the
life of the free girl of today, of all
OF us. If slave girl in a dark age
could seize her opportunity when it
came, how much more should we
seize the many opportunities that
come to us in this enlightened era of
the worlds history. Where she grasp
ed one opportunity, we let hundreds
go by us. Perhaps there was time
when opportunities were few and far
between in the life of the average
person. Shakespeare sang of the
tide in the affairs of men which taken
at the flood, lead on to fortune. There
we have the suggestion that the flood
tide, opportunity, comes but once, and
if one fails to seize it, he companions
himself with remorse the rest of his
days. That opportunities for great
and unusual achievements are few no
one will deny, but that, as our days
and weeks and months and years are
SO are the chances that we have for
developing creative power, for making
our lives count, for helping the world
along, is truism written on the
pages of common life.
1t was not anything extraordinary
that this slave-girl If antiquity did. !
1t did not require learning, nor wealth, |
nor position. There was only one
and that was warm
and willing heart. With this common.
often much despised equipment, she |
earned the right to live in the hearts
Of men. Her inheritance was in the
place where her lot had fallen.