Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-06-18

sweep before his own door. I am
sure Kant must have had this in his
mind when he formulated his cele-
brated version of the Golden Rule.
l must act in such a way that I
can at the same time will that nv
maxim should become a universal
law. The first step towards setting
the world right is setting ourselves
right. find 1t impossible to believe,
for example. that anybody who pat
roniZes bootleggers here in America
can have such international con-
seriousness and such world vision as
will enable him to prescribe for the
ills of China and Russia and Central
Europe.
Legislation can do something to help
or hinder the progress Of righteousness,
but it can do not so much as some
! people think. An absolute monarch
could not by royal decree make bad
, people good. Leagues of Nations and
| World Courts are far richer in prom
Use than they are ever likely to prove
in fulfilment. Conventions and confer
enccs and drives make a great stir but
| they leave the world as they find it.
| The Kingdom of God cometh not with
observation. 1t is the lcavening proc
ess-slow, quiet. inconspicuous-by
| achieved.
BY virtue Of being college graduate
every one Of you will have a sphere of
| influence. In school, church, business,
| society, there are sure to be groups Of
| people looking to YOU for guidance. BY
| example first and then by counsel you
will exercise right influence, and in
fluence increases by geometrical pro-
! greSsion. Influence employs the rapid
process Of multiplication and little
soon becomes much. A London medi-
cal student, caught in shower. en-
tors an evanGelist's tent to get out of
the rain-and far away Labrador is
transformed. The great philosopher
who said there were two things that
filed his mind with awc-the starry
heavens above and the moral law
| within,-might we'll have added
third--the reach and power of human
| influence.
The debt that I am urging you to
| pay is no trific, easily discharged.
Indeed it is debt that keeps growing
as YOU keep paying. Beginning with de-
lay right where you are to pay the
nearcst-men, women, children all
| about you. Later on some of you make
speeches and write books and hold
public offices-for aught I know one
of you may in the days to come be
president of the League of Nations.
yet all these larger efforts for the
world bettcrment must have their
| the simplest duties faithfully per-
formed, in sacrifice. small or great,
Loyalty and willingly made.
Go pay thy debt 1t is measured
by the worlds need. You will find
your creditors everywhere. And do
not forget that one day your account
will be audited.
The services were closed by the
benediction which was given by the
Rev. /. B. Mower and the graduating
class filed out of the auditorium and
back to the campus.
The quartet which furnished the
music was composed of the Misses
Mordgridge and Flanders, Mr.. Tot
man and John L. Choate. Cecil NJ.
| Daggett accompanied the quartet on
the piano and Lee T. Nichols on the
| violin.
The Boardman Missionary service
| was held last evening in the First
! Baptist church in cOccnntion with the
commencement exercises at Colby
College.
The service consisted of several
| selections by a mixed choir and a
violin solo by Lee r. Nichols. Prayer
was offered by Rev. Walter Quar-
rington of the First Baptist church
and extracts from the scripture were
read by Rev. William 4. Smith of the
Congregational church.
President Arthur T. Roberts in
troduced the Rev. Otis Williams
Foyc, '9S. who gave the Boardman
| Missionary sermon. His address was
as follows:
Rev. o. w. Foye
1--WE are living in a world of pass
ing things. The astronomers tell us
that some stars are passing away and
others come to take their places They
have figured out how many millions
of years the fires of the sun VIII
burn and then go out. The earth on
which we live is constantly chang
ing, it is not now what it was once,
neither is it now what it is yet to be.
There have been ages of ice and up
hcavels, changes in climate and veg
citation. Where we now live was once
vast fields of ice which, in melting
determined the beds Of our lakes. the
| direction of our rivers. and the con-
tour of our shore line. The great Am
| crican desert of Utah and Southern
California, now only the land of sage
bush and cactus was once covered by
the waters of the sea, now more than
one hundred miles away. The ocean
never looks the same two days in
succession, the mountains are being
worn away by the elements, the rivers
change their courses, hills and valleys
are constantly being transformed.
We talk about things as being per-
mancnt, Il permanent home, perma-
| II, Iaf &c IN, e
to abide. They may abide for time,
but the change will come. l look out
upon this world and see masses of
men and women: they are sweating
and toiling, struggling and worrying.
quarreling and crowding-all for
what. We are building birds nests of
a summer season to be deserted and
| blown into shreds by the winter
blasts. The things that men are striv.
| ing for most have nothing permanent
in them. The night of joy passes and
even it's memory fades away. The
gold for which we struggle so bitterly
is snatched away by ruthless hand:
and the praises we sought, die with
the echo and are gone.
And vet this is not a doleful
world. 1t is not a world Of defeats.
not a world of mockery, it is not
WOTlu WIICH putS dppetiteS III VIC
| body and then laughs in cruel glee
| to see men strive to satisfy desire
always kept just beyond their reach.
There are things that abide, things
! that endure, that never pass away.
! Things that we attain we shall never
| lose, possessions which shall never
be taken from us. 1t is impossible to
so live that everything we do may
last. Into our daily toll. into our
pleasures, into our legitimate ambi-
tons we may put that which will
abide and not pass away with the
changing of things about us. We