News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1918-06-26
BACCALAUREATE SERMON
[Continued from page 81

and accepted the offer He drove back
down the road and then turning the
horses about, snapped his long whip
and once more rapidly approached the
hotel. With the same grace and skill as
before he swung those horses around the
bends. And once again he swung 'the
horses in under the portecochere and the
horses seemed TO stop still irf the very
hoofmarks where they had stood before.
The driver dis mounted, touched his cap
and held out his hand and the man will
ingly paid the reward, while tie on.
lockers applauded.
An hour later that same driver. stag
gered thru the door of a saloon in IL a
village, so intoxicated that he could bard
ly stand. He knew how to master and
control six powerful horses but he was
not master of himself nor could he con-
troll himself. master of horses, but
slave to maddening thirst.
Some men may have power to control
and be masters over Empires but have
not the moral strength to master or con-
troll themselves. Today we find our
selves fighting a nation which is. under
the control of one man. One who is the
master of millions of people but who is a
slave to a maddening thirst of a ,lfsh
ambition which has thrown world into
chaos and strife.
AS young idealists, know that your
earnest desires are to be the
highest and MODEST and best May I
suggest then how to attain unto these
things? viii you allow me to tell you
the great thing that will help you to
attain unto your goal? II is this: To be
masters of yourselves. That may have
been in your minds already. I do not
know what your secret desires were, but |
if that was the thought that was in your |
minds you could not have chosen as a |
goal anything higher or better or nobler. |
And to accomplish that, my young
friends, 1t takes strength, A man eau
inherit riches, and Empires; peoples may
come under his control through the Of
fees of his forefathers, but he must fight
with his own hands and his own heart
and his own soul if he is to be matter of
hi~self, You have a task before You
. vt will take all OF the strength that you
CO.. aoqoi"". and t Is a task that, try as
! EH..'-0 conu0t accomplish alone. |
x w. poe, ia. ,,araing as you start ou5
now in life to accomplish this great thing
that You cannot do it alone. Though you
may have the physical strength of Sam
son and the physical power of Hercules,
Or the physical might of both, you can.
not do it alone. Men have tried it and
failed; learn lesson from their expert
ences and do not attempt it alone.
If you are to be m asters of yourselves
you must let the spirit of Jesus Christ and
the power of Almigty God work with
you. That brings us to the thought of
the text which have chosen: Be strong
in the LORD and in the power of his
might.
We cannot realize unless we have earn.
estly tried it, how much more we can
accomplish when we let God work with
us. Let me give you an illustration. 1t
will interest you because it is High
School story. l took walk with the i
physical director of the "Y'' hut where
am working just a few days ago. Be-
tore going into "Y" work be was the
coach of East High School in Minneapolis
He was telling me of the best game of !
football that his boys ever played in the !
five years that he coached that team.
Championship game between the East |
and West High Schools of that city. |
Both teams we're working hard t. win |
that game. Interest thru'out the city |
was at the highest pitch.
To win that game meant a great deal |
to that coach. He said 81 hardly slept |
wink the night before the game. The /
different plays were constantly running |
thru my mind. What | would say to my |
boys as a last bit of advice / tried to get |
in order so that l would not forget any |
thing l confess that several times L |
prayed that the men would win that |
game The next day went early to the |
field where the game was to be played.
arrived at the dressing rooms about
half past twelve. Most of my boys were !
already there, and before one o'clock the |
rest of the fellows had arrived. Every |
boy was on Lis nerves there was no jok-
ing or fooling. They felt that they were
going into the battle of their lives. We
got to talking about the game and one of |
them said to me, Batch. we got to beat
'em. Y know Batch prayed last night |
that we'd win this game, that shows how !
much want to win it." Do you know |
that every one of those fellows with the
exception of the Captain of the team had
prayed that they might win that game.
And then the Captain said, VI guess
fellers, that I'm the only one that didn't
Tray, guess I'm pretty poor kind OF a |
Captain but want to win this game aust
as much as anyone here and if praying |
will help to do it then L N going to pray
right now. And he did, out loud, and
that prayer put a lump in my throat.
Zee, they were an earnest bunch. Ihen
we went out onto that field My wife
was in the grand stand and just before
the whistle blew she came down the steps