Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1921-06-16
BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS
WAS A SPLENDID ONE


the war technically at an end we have
been forced TO admit that materialism
was latent, If not active, on our side
We may not agree with Ambassador
harvey's statement that America en-
tered into the war TO save her own
SKIN, but We have been very CLOSELY
associated with certain enterprises of
national and international sort that
are very much suggestive of purposes
no more altruistic. Throughout the
war we heard frequently enough that
there would be new world after the
war We were led way by the re-
iteration into the expectation that
somehow the world would be miracu-
lously made into a near paradise. 1t
is not altogether pleasant to contem-
plate the condition Of the world at
the present time. There are still
many of US who insist on believing
that after we shall find ourselves we
shall have been able to prove the war
beneficial to humanity in general no
matter what its local distinctions.
But after all, humanity's lack Of con-
fidence war has been increased, and
this very lack Of confidence proves
that we cannot be sure that war is
the cause of betterment. If humanity
has been made better by the war and
If war is process sure to improve US,
then logically we must be willing to
have more wars and submit ourselves
to the terrible scourge for the good
OF our souls. But the horror with
which men view war is a denial The
still universal conviction that wars
must cease despite any lack Of conf
dence there may be in any existing
League of Nations, is an evidence
that we have no confidence in the
processes of war and no hope that
humanity shall rise as result Of
such unspeakable struggles.
"Never perhaps has the world ex-
hibited so much haste as during the
war. Manufacturing processes were
speeded up. Everywhere the cry was
for more speed. The intention of
other side TO manifest our co-opera-
America to have few men on the
ton became soon a determination To
year. Haste was everywhere. Men
nave two MILAN overseas within a
everywhere were driven as never be-
fore.
"The processes of haste, then, have
had wonderful opportunity to dem
onstrate themselves. In leisure, if
leisure be again granted to the world
we may repent.
'In the chapter read, Isaiah re-
minds Us of the processes of the
husbandman. He does not always
pluogh, he does not always SOW, he is
not always beating the grain. Each
process has its own time and season.
After the ploughing comes the sow
ing. There is the period of growth,
and then the period Of reaping, and
the period Of the threshing Of the
grain. The husbandman knows that
those processes cannot be FASTENED.
"And so in the world affairs there
is still room for the incurable opti-
mist. The processes of destruction
have had their day; the processes of
building seem to US likely to be in
terminably long. We are impatient
to see the world at once in condition
that can be described as normal. Scot
fers and skeptics are plentiful. They
tell US humanity has failed. They
tell us that idealism has persisted, but
the processes Of building are neces-
sarily slow. The processes of growth
are never instant, but at briefest are
seasonal and frequently consumptive
OF years and generations. He that
believeth shall not make haste. He
will observe that the ploughing, the
preparation Of the soil, must have its
time. There must be slow planting;
then there must be the slow waiting
through the season Of growth. There
must be the careful harvesting and
the leisurely threshing and winnow-
ing Of the grain.
God himself, the prophet would
tell us, is not always beating the
grain in order that the clean wheat
may fill the gamers. Gods processes
are like the husbandmans. There
may be the period Of the beating of
the grain, but there are the other
long waitings while the grain is
growing, or even while the grain is
maturing. Few of us have the long
view. To the child the work of the
ploughman is Of tremendous interest.
The rough furrow begins to appear
in the hard ground. After some days
the entire field is marked with rough
burrows from end to end and from
side to side. And then there is the
period of narrowing, of breaking of
the clods and of leyeling down the
ridges, and the processes Of rolling
and smoothing. On the day when
the child may look cot over the field
he may think that the poughmans
work is Of itself an end. The field is
level and smooth as far as eye can
reach. 1t has been an accomplish
ment of remarkable sort and vet the
husbandman knows that great as his
accomplishment may have heen it has
been futile if the seed shall never find
its way into the ground The child
with only a partial view of the life