The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1922-06-12
REV. MINOR J. ROSS DELIVERS
BACCALAUREATE SERMON TO
GRADUATES OF HIGH SCHOOL

sum UP the message IN single WORD
OK the greatest Of all Books. and that
one word Is "life." Get at the heart OF
all that Is taught therein. and life is
nesting against that heart. One
thought, determines every other
| thought; one fact interprets and ar
ranges everything, and that one fact,
so dominant and regal, is the deep
fact OF life. Deeper than faith, for
faith IS but a name, unless It issues
from a heart that lives; deeper than
Hove, though God Himself be love, for
without life love would be Impossible,
lie Is the compendium of the Book.
the aweet epitone Of all its news; 1t is
the word that gathers in itself the
music and tho ministry Of the great
Teacher
Il came that they may have life and
may have II abundantly." AL that
He camo to teach. all that He was is
summed and conferred in that little
word, Life
We come now to our second text
which consists of a single question.
What Is your lIfe?" Since we have
In the preceding discussion. tired to
give proper emphasis to the thought Of
personal way. What is your life?"
There are many answers, ancient
and modern, and here is one;
Life is an arrow; therefore you must
know
What mark to aim at. how to draw
the bow,
Then draw it to its head and let it
60"
Henry van Dyke. whose lines I have
Just quoted, Is the author of a book
called straight Sermons" He is also
a maker OF straight verse-verse that
arrow-like, goes singing to the mark.
Let us accept his smile then. Life is
an arrow, and like the arrow, must
have an aim must have q way ira
versatile, must have power to send it
straight and on.
Life Must Have q Mark.
A marksman without a mark, a run
ner without a goal a builder without
plan. a traveller without a destina-
ton, a ship without a PORTRAIT is
tragedy,
What then. is the aim OF life? We
are knocking here at a wonderful door
and yet we need not knock with timid
hand. There are no blind alleys in
life. 1t leads on by predestined path
to great goal, casting aside ell neg
ative definitions. Is the fullest possible
realization OF the highest self The
end of life, says DIR. George Hamilton
Combs. rs expression and not repres-
sion, self-realization and not self-de-
NAL"
Repressions, self -limitings. self-de-
malls, are OF value only as they make
for higher realization. The athlete
denies himself many bodily pleasures,
but the merit is not In the denial: the
merit is IN the higher realization. The
denies himself ease and pleas
ure yet his reward Is not in the sac
rifice, but In the greater garnered wis
dom. God wants a full life not an
empty life-a life whose lowest and
whose highest notes are alike reso-
nant and full. If the devil is not in a
vacuum, neither is God.
Here are we at life's beginning with
definite potentiallties. and our supreme
concern is their education and devel-
opment. To make the most OF the life |
stuff given US is life's true aim. To
unfold our native powers Is our high |
est privilege.
This demands, at the very outset, |
the wisdom of choice and the grace |
of exclusion. We can not develop to |
their utmost stretch of possibilities all |
Of LIES gifts. II a man makes of his |
arm, his leg, all that can be made of |
the arm, the leg, he has time for little |
else. To bring every organ and cap
ability of the body to full-orbed de-
yelopment were task too great for
our short lives. To cultivate to its |
asst inch of yielding single faculty
If the mind-memory, say. would eat
lp all the hours. Unable to bring all,
We are shut up TO selection, and choice
must be of the best.
This. then, is the mark at which to [
him life's arrows; the largest devel-
,pment OF the highest self-the sound
IF the mountain notes with trumpet
'orce and volume--the living of a full L
life whose fullness comes through Him
Who said, Il have come that We might
nave life. and that We might have it
more abundantly."
Must Also Have a Way.
A way hindered and barricaded, 1t
nay be, yet traversable. Here the ar
-OW SlulllG ADSS hui uolQ dllO6CLnCt
good. AS the arrow speeds from the
BOW It meets with no resistance save
hat of the soft air. but life's arrows
often fan split and battered at the
DOT of an unyielding wall. Is it in
iced like that? Is there ever an eff
,ectual hindering of noble aim? Is
my life foredoomed to failure? Is the
way blocked7
4
If God has set before Us all single
lim-the highest realization Of the
highest self--and then thrust us into
universe where the aim cannot be
-ealized by all then is He a partial
sod, and malignant also! II any life
S a predestined failure (and not to
end the arrow to the mark is a fall
lre). then no sort of easuistry, or cum
lingness of preacher explanation. can
Justify the God of things as they are.
70 put into the heart of man an in 4
tinct, and then provide no place in
lfe for its realization. were unworthy +,
God who creates the instinct of the