The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1922-05-19
COMMENCEMENT OF
UNION CITY SCHOOLS
Rev. Hudgins' Baccalaureate Sermon
and Other Exercises.


ifcation not only to the Superin-
tendent of the City Schools, Mr..
Ranck, but to the minister Rev. ].
L. Hudgins, who was formerly pastor
of the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church in Union City, and the entire
faculty and patrons and friends of the
City Schools to witness the general
attendance of so large a crowd as
that assembled last Sunday morning
at the Methodist Church for the oc-
casion of the baccalaureate sermon
by Rev. Hudgins Not since the days
of Annual Conference, probably, has
there been so large a crowd in the
church.
The members of the 1922 class,
U.C.H.S., were seated on the organ
platform facing the audience and the
church was decorated with flowers
appropriate to the occasion.
Rev. Hudgins took his text as fol-
lows: Behold how great matter
little fire kindleth James 3:5.
There are three general elements
of things material. One is fire, and
there is enough ignition in single
match to destroy the world Another
is water, and a single drop may be
employed to explode all the combust-
ible material in existence.
Then we have the element of hui
man life, and here the minister un-
dertook to reveal the hand of God in
the work of creation. The soul is
not a possession of man, but the soul
is man. And God, in his divine wis
/ dom, saw in universal creation the
development of civilization and the
expansion of the soul. Therefore man
| is an instrument in the divine plans.
Man, with limited vision, was able
to see only the beginning of these
plans, but God saw the compile
tion of the work instituted, and
he saw also the glorification of man
and the upbuilding of the Spiritual
Kingdom.
The minister quoted the epochal
periods of the civilization of man
kind, beginning with Abraham and
proceeding with Joseph, the deliver
ance of his chosen people; then with
Moses, the lawgiver; further on with
Esther and Ruth, and then with the
great apostle Paul. Coming on down
he spoke of Martin Luther; and now
he gives us a man of the world, but
one who was directed by the hand OF
God-Christophe Columbus-in the
discovery of the new world. Abra-
ham Lincoln was used in the eman-
cipation of the world from slavery,
and Frances Willard in delivering the
human race from alcoholism.
This sermon was applied to the
class and in the work before them in
the general Christian civilization of
the world. There is only one civili-
cation and that is Christian civiliza-
tion.
The sermon was listened to with
rapt attention and interest by the
large audience, and skepticism as
we'll as indifference bowed it's head
in reverence to the wisdom of the
minister's words.
Senior Glass Roll: Elizabeth AL
exander, Rachel Burrus, nellie Bond,
Joe Callicott, Bernice Flack, John T.
Flack Katherine Garrigan, Opal
Glisson, Harry Grissom, Levi Jordan,
Annie Margaret McClanahan, Mozelle
Glover, Noel L. Glover, Mary Arden
Mailing, Jessie Roberta Pruett, Ruth
Powell James L. Rippy, Charles Rey-
nolds, Betsy Spradlin, Sallie Jewel
Stone, Mary Lee Schmidt, Earl Smith,
Mary Louise Shropshire Landrith
Thomas, Sue Wheeler, Gus White,
Novella Wilkerson.