£ifo ti)e ^C5t of beaming. 
 
 DISCOURSE 
 
 BEFOBE THE 
 
 GRADUATING CLASS OF HARVARD COLLEGE, 
 
 Delivered June IS^ 1856. 
 
 BY 
 
 FREDERIC D. HUNTINGTON, D.D., 
 
 PREACHER TO THE UNITERSITT, AND PLUMMEK PROFESSOR OF CHRISTIAN MORALS. 
 
 PRINTED BY REQUEST OF THE CLASS. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 JOHN BARTLETT, 
 
 BOOKSELLER AND PUBLISHER TO THE UNITERSITV. 
 
 1856. 
 
 A 
 
£ife tl)e ®£st of learning. 
 
 DISCOURSE 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 GRADUATING CLASS OF HARVARD COLLEGE, 
 
 Delivered June 15, 1856. 
 
 BY 
 
 FREDERIC D. HUNTINGTON, D.D., 
 
 PREACHER TO THE UNIVERSITY, AND PLUMMER PROFESSOR OF CHRISTIAN MORALS. 
 
 PRINTED BY REQUEST OP THE CLASS. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 JOHN BARTLETT, 
 
 BOOKSELLER AND PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 1856. 
 
 </SII 'Boyc 2. 
 
l^J^q/ 
 
 
 I 
 
 cambkidge: 
 metcalf and company, printers to the university. 
 
 NEW YORK PUBL. LIBR. 
 IM £XCUANQ£, 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 WHO IS A WISE MAN AND ENDUED WITH KNOWLEDGE AMONG YOU ? 
 LET HIM SHOW OUT OF A GOOD CONVERSATION HIS WORKS WITH 
 MEEKNESS OF WISDOM. — James iii. 13. 
 
 If we remember that the term that is here ren- 
 dered " conversation " bears a larger signification 
 than we commonly attach to that English word, — 
 meaning the whole action of life, the development of 
 character, the way a man works, turns, or behaves 
 himself in the world, — dvaaTpo(f)ri, — and if we re- 
 member that on that term falls the main emphasis of 
 the sentence, we shall get from the whole passage a 
 general declaration of remarkable point, and quite 
 appropriate to the special bearing of this service. 
 
 The scope of the writer's thought, paraphrasing 
 the statement a little, will be something like this : — 
 You speak of knowledge. You value intellectual 
 attainments. You honor wise or learned men. But 
 why do you value those attainments 1 Who are your 
 wise men 1 Let Christian truth tell you. The use 
 of knowledge is to guide and elevate conduct. Wise 
 men, or well-educated men, are those that make what 
 they know illuminate and enrich what they do. The 
 
1 
 
 
 2 1 . Jr 
 
 2 
 
 c ambeidge: 
 
 METCALP AND COMPANY, PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 WEV7 YORK PUBL. LIBRr 
 IN EXCUANQJS, 
 
 \ 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 WHO IS A WISE MAN AND ENDUED WITH KNOWLEDGE AMONG YOU '? 
 LET HIM SHOW OUT OF A GOOD CONVERSATION HIS WORKS WITH 
 
 MEEKNESS OF WISDOM. — James iii. 13. 
 
 If we remember that the term that is here ren- 
 dered " conversation " bears a larger signification 
 than we commonly attach to that English word, — 
 meaning the whole action of life, the development of 
 character, the way a man works, turns, or behaves 
 himself in the world, — avadTpoc^rj^ — and if we re- 
 member that on that term falls the main emphasis of 
 the sentence, we shall get from the whole passage a 
 general declaration of remarkable point, and quite 
 appropriate to the special bearing of this service. 
 
 The scope of the writer's thought, paraphrasing 
 the statement a little, will be something like this : — 
 You speak of knowledge. You value intellectual 
 attainments. You honor wise or learned men. But 
 why do you value those attainments ? Who are your 
 wise men % Let Christian truth tell you. The use 
 of knowledge is to guide and elevate conduct. Wise 
 men, or well-educated men, are those that make what 
 they know illuminate and enrich what they do. The 
 
proper termination of study is a strong, simple, con- 
 sistent character. The best attainments always pro- 
 duce a certain humility, or reverence, — a sense of 
 dependence on the great Source of Light, God, — 
 what is called " the meekness of wisdom." This feel- 
 ing is an inspiration to religious actions. The more 
 learning a true man gets, the more widely, the more 
 accurately, the more profoundly, he will see and 
 think ; and so, by consequence, the more he will see 
 what earnest labors there are to be done ; the more 
 he will think of the claims of God and man upon 
 him to turn all his resources and energies into the 
 channel of a beneficent activity. His attainments 
 will be worth having, just in proportion as they are 
 assimilated with the vital forces of his manhood; 
 and, by entering into the currents of spiritual pur- 
 pose and affection, they will inspire and nourish his 
 soul. If you would find out who among you is endued 
 with knowledge, and who is not, you can apply this 
 proof. Inquire who puts his knowledge into a " good 
 conversation," — a noble or beautiful manner of liv- 
 ing, — koXt) dvacrTpo(j)7], In a word, Character is the 
 final cause of study. Life is the test of learning. 
 
 I cannot help asking you to notice, in passing, how 
 exactly this idea fits in with the peculiar character- 
 istic of James, the Apostle that wrote this letter to 
 the churches. There is always a moral interest in a 
 coincidence between a man and his speech. It makes 
 the man more valid, and the speech more credible, 
 besides confirming and comforting our faith in human 
 sincerity generally. The New Testament is full of 
 these marks of genuineness. And they are nowhere 
 seen in a more striking and unconscious appearance 
 
than in James. Pre-eminently, he was the Apostle 
 of practical service. The first question about every- 
 thing with him was, What will it render of living, 
 human goodness '? Or, in our common phrase, How 
 will it work ] Let it be opinion, or faith, or preach- 
 ing, or charity. What are its fruits 1 What does it 
 come to '? So, here, of knowledge. Conduct is the 
 criterion of knowledge. Unless it yields a goodly 
 harvest here, much study is only a weariness to the 
 flesh, and a vanity of the mind. 
 
 A moment has come when you, my friends, whom 
 it is my privilege to address especially to-day, can 
 hardly help putting to yourselves the question, 
 whether your education, thus far, is worth what 
 you have given for it. The providence of God, who 
 interests himself so paternally and solemnly in every 
 new step we take, and who puts a voice of his own 
 into every event, though it seems the most regular, 
 or natural, or incidental, is urging that question home 
 upon you. The interruption of a routine that has 
 lasted several years, casts us back upon individual 
 choice and absolute principle. It is divinely in- 
 tended to. And so the closing up of one long and 
 important term of intellectual training, so costly of 
 time and means and faculty and strength, presses in 
 the Christian inquiry, whether what has been gained 
 is equal to such pains expended. 
 
 An unprofitable and possibly a dismal question, if 
 the answer w^ere not still in your own power ! But 
 it is. The great test of Life is yet to be applied. 
 And the time is coming. Whether what you have 
 gathered here is to lie a crude and unproductive 
 mass, in sluggish brains ; or, whether it is to be per- 
 
6 
 
 verted to the baleful purposes of a selfish and head- 
 strong will, — all the elaborate apparatus of educa- 
 tion turned into an engine of more effectual mischief; 
 or whether it shall be given to the noblest objects of 
 human hope, and thus consecrated to Christ ; — this is 
 the threefold choice that awaits your determination, 
 not to be evaded by any ingenuity, not to be forfeited 
 by any neglect. It is certainly a fit time, then, to 
 meditate the true and righteous uses of a Christian 
 scholarship. Three easy and tempting mistakes seem 
 to me to lie directly before you, — I might say before 
 us all, -^ exposing all our past industry to failure. 
 
 I. The first danger is indifference. False objects 
 in life are positive destroyers ; but the absence of 
 any clear object is a waster almost equally consum- 
 ing, and with one order of minds even more seductive. 
 It would seem as if the natural effect of a compre- 
 hensive system of discipline must be to rouse the 
 will and direct its aim. Why translate the tongues 
 of so many tribes of men, if not to collect from them 
 some completer interpretation of the riddle of our 
 destiny '? Why explore the mysterious geography of 
 the mind itself, and interrogate the wondrous faculty 
 by which all knowledge comes, if not to gain new 
 data towards the solution of the oldest and deepest 
 problem, — Why was I born ] Why do I breathe 1 
 Whither do I tend"? How is it possible to trace the 
 moving processions of the ages, through paths seem- 
 ing so trivial while they were trod, but so solemn in 
 the echoes of their desertion, and not be sent back to 
 watch with a wiser eye which way our own steps lead 1 
 The whole contemplation of history is an incitement 
 to live purposely and earnestly. It is the very dig- 
 
nity of science, that it reads oiF to us, not only the 
 thoughts, but the plan of God, — a plan whose unity 
 and method demand some reflection and some copy, 
 even in natures so fantastic and wayward as ours. 
 Every lesson from creation proposes a task to be 
 done. Every disclosure of the Creator presents an 
 end to be achieved. 
 
 Yet I need hardly remind you how often we miss 
 this practical and personal issue of the most intelli- 
 gent study, — ever learning, but never coming to the 
 knowledge of that simple truth ! The lives of schol- 
 ars, so peculiarly solicited and stimulated to the 
 straitest determination, are given over, as often per- 
 haps as others, sometimes it appears oftener than any 
 others, — and certainly with a more palpable and mel- 
 ancholy abortiveness, — to aimless, nerveless, desultory 
 chance. How the treasures rust in our hands ! The 
 smooth stones out of the brook drop unused from our 
 grasp. The sling hangs loose at our side. Giant 
 Error walks defiant and unchallenged at the head of 
 his Philistine troops. The years run on, and no 
 resolute helm guides the rocking keel toward a land 
 of distinct and sacred promise. We are idly busy 
 with living, careless of life. Two causes encourage 
 this apathy. 
 
 One is, that the structure and habits of our in- 
 dustrial commonwealth expose the recent graduate 
 from college to a period of uncertainty in his employ- 
 ment. It cannot be denied, I think, that at present 
 there is some want of happy adjustment between the 
 academic career and the public stations it precedes. 
 The places of the higher and more intellectual labor 
 are not organized in proportion to the mechanical 
 
8 
 
 and trafficking vocations. The developments of 
 modern civilization have much widened the range of 
 selection, and almost bewilder the judgment. Two 
 or three clean-cut professions, technically learned, 
 do not, as formerly, distribute and absorb the whole 
 educated force. The same professions, meantime, for 
 better or for worse, cease to be technically, if not in 
 any other sense, learned^ and are occupied by candi- 
 dates who have rushed up to their gates by a shorter 
 road. The fact, however it comes about, seems to 
 stand, that an increasing number of college-bred men 
 wait, with an awkward pause, after their graduation, 
 undecided yet of what their " commencement " shall 
 be the beginning. Unless some positive predilec- 
 tion or early bias has happened to settle their choice 
 for them, an interval of doubt disturbs and enfee- 
 bles the steady drift and tenacity of their resolves. 
 It is' a crisis of trial and peril. Some men are hur- 
 ried by it into a choice that is foolish, and profanes 
 the after-existence. Others are diluted by it into a 
 spongy softness, and fall off into habits of literary 
 generality, or sentimental imbecility. What is want- 
 ed is a Christian efficiency of purpose, — a Chris- 
 tian decision not to let haste spoil the material, — a 
 Christian decision not to be content with vacilla- 
 tion. Delay too long, and there creeps upon the soul 
 a fatally satisfied unconcern. The descent is easier, 
 because the goads and exactions of a systematic dis- 
 cipline have just been taken off; the indolent free- 
 will often finds the charming liberty to do what it 
 pleases a wretched liberty to do nothing. Be guard- 
 ed against this dull catastrophe. Let not the bright 
 beginning slouch into a stupid sequel. What thy 
 
hand or thy brain findeth to do, do it with thy 
 might. For he only is the wise man, and endued 
 with knowledge among you, who keeps his life lively, 
 and shows fruits of his study in a goodly conver- 
 sation. 
 
 Another cause of indifference to any lofty and 
 religious uses of education is a subservience to the 
 routine of professional tasks. "When the profession 
 has been chosen and entered, it may still put on 
 a yoke. Recurring drudgeries deaden enthusiasm. 
 The first ardor fades off. Monotony sings its drowsy 
 tune. Commonplace efforts will do for commonplace 
 business ; why stretch the powers beyond their wont- 
 ed mood? Mediocrity is safe and practicable; why 
 spur the aspirations by a swifter measure ? Because, 
 answers Christianity, they are the glory of your being. 
 Because unbounded powers are insulted by arbitrary 
 limits. Because the conquest of the possible into the 
 actual is the keenest fascination of true courage. 
 Because God never made us, and his institutions 
 never nurtured us, to be sluggish grinders in the 
 mill of repetition, but fellow-wrestlers with the heroes 
 and apostles, — striving for the great mastery, press- 
 ing toward the mark. And there is but one victory, 
 but one mark. However sloth may sleep, or cow- 
 ardice despair, or infidelity deny, there is nothing 
 less than a practical and progressive ripening of the 
 whole man for the glory of God, that can fill out the 
 passion of the really " wise man endued with knowl- 
 edge among you." The first sentence of Milton's 
 tract on the reforming of education is an exposition 
 of my text : " I am long since persuaded that, to do 
 or say aught worth memory or imitation, no purpose 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 should sooner move us than simply the love of God 
 
 and of mankind The end of learning is to 
 
 repair the ruins of our first parents by learning 
 to know God aright, and out of that knowledge 
 to be like him, — as we may the nearest be by 
 possessing our souls of true virtue, which, being 
 united to the heavenly grace of faith, makes up 
 the highest perfection.'' And how well he insists 
 on this definite and living purpose of the scholar, 
 when he speaks of " that methodical course where- 
 in our gentle and noble youth must proceed, by 
 the steady pace of learning onward, till they have 
 confirmed and solidly united the whole body of their 
 perfected knowledge, like the last embattling of a 
 Eoman legion " ! 
 
 II. But beyond indifference whether learning has 
 any grand object, — and sometimes, indeed, this side 
 of it, — lies the hinderance of a poor self-seeking. 
 Undoubtedly it is one of the most appalling proofs 
 of the vigor of the selfish passions, that they survive 
 as they do through all the liberalizing influence of a 
 catholic culture, and resist the generous impressions 
 of science, and even triumph over the charities of 
 good-fellowship, in the base hunger for luxury or 
 comfort. The Apostle does not say it is in a lu- 
 crative conversation, or a famous conversation, or a 
 comfortable conversation, that the works of the real 
 wisdom are shown forth, but in a " good conver- 
 sation." Nor is it in the pride, the distinction, the 
 notoriety, or the emoluments of wisdom, — the of- 
 fice, the salary, the applause, the furniture, — but 
 in " the meekness of wisdom." It is Wisdom for her 
 own pure and precious sake, — or rather for His 
 
11 
 
 sake who possessed her of old, in the beginning, 
 when he laid the foundations of the earth, — that he 
 loves and pursues. If scholarship holds itself affront- 
 ed by being degraded into the low wrangle of appe- 
 tites, for precedence or gold, religion calls it sacri- 
 lege. The right question, when you are laying your 
 plans for the future, is not. Which will yield me the 
 best living '? but, Which will yield me the best life ? 
 It cannot be that you have been out in the fields 
 of learning seeking jewels, to bring them in and 
 lay them down as purchase-money for equipage or 
 compliments. The legitimate children of Mammon, 
 schooled, not, as you have been, in the ample and 
 serene atmosphere of unselfish thought, but in the 
 closer chambers of mercenary calculation, — trained, 
 not) as you have been, in the royal company of great 
 persons from antiquity downward, but in the scram- 
 ble and devices of gain, — will beat you in that 
 rivalry ; and they ought to. How your educated 
 strength shall be devoted, should be settled by an- 
 other reference than the stock-list or the tax-bill. 
 All honest callings are honorable. If you carry your 
 acquirements into commerce, you may enter into a 
 worthy and magnanimous competition. There is 
 scope there for your largest faculty, and there is 
 need there of the broadest philosophy. But you 
 cannot decently go to turn your talents into mer- 
 chandise, to forget the communion with high exam- 
 ples, to square your notions of civil affairs by tha 
 self-interest of the market, to sell the nobility of 
 art and letters for some rich bargain, to barter con- 
 science for tariff or dividends, — to let your inde- 
 pendent duty as citizens and as patriots be appointed 
 
 
12 
 
 for you by the narrow gossip of the exchange or the 
 contracts of brokers' boards. Bear into whatever 
 mercantile engagements or profitable alliances you 
 encounter, a spirit that is genial with the sympa- 
 thies of all the peoples you have conversed with, — 
 self-denying with old sacrifices, fragrant with the 
 mountain air of meditation, sacred with the venera- 
 tion of holy traditions. Breathe the spirit of your 
 studies into the haunts of Trade. Touch the rough 
 customs of shops with the grace of a genuine refine- 
 ment. And do all that modesty will allow to raise 
 the strifes of property into a statelier degree, by as- 
 serting everywhere the supremacy of thinking man 
 over his possessions, and of simple justice over all 
 the policies and expediencies of the hour. Maintain 
 everywhere the absolute dignity of Truth, who has 
 chosen you once as her disciples and heralds, — and 
 never forget, however afiluence bids for your souls, 
 that you were here, set apart and dedicated as priests 
 in the unsordid Temple of Learning. 
 
 Consider, too, that there is a greediness of praise 
 just as radically selfish, if not quite so carnal, as the 
 lust for money. And precisely because it wears a 
 more intellectual look, it is a sin that ofiers a more 
 acceptable bait to cultivated men. But there is 
 nothing in it of " the meekness of wisdom." The 
 selfishness of vanity is at its root, and the selfishness 
 of ostentation is in its branches, — and green jeal- 
 ousies are canker-worms on all its leaves. He is not 
 half-educated, not the wise man, nor endued with 
 knowledge among you, who suborns the common 
 largesses of the past into a stepping-stone to per- 
 sonal renown, and prizes the light that is sent to 
 
13 
 
 warm the whole race into a brotherhood, only for 
 the distinctions it reveals between himself and his 
 kind. Not that is the genuine scholar's temper, nor 
 the goodly conversation. 
 
 III. Thirdly, it is no business of the liberal and 
 Christian scholar to become the hired servant of 
 party prejudice or sectarian interests. Science is 
 given and got for no such contemptible uses. Stu- 
 dents are congregated in a still and separate spot, on 
 neutral ground, remote as may be from all political 
 and ecclesiastical chicanery, on purpose that they 
 may grow and expand, aloof from the warping forces 
 of controversy. But, in a social state like ours, it 
 would take more than a Chinese wall, or the rules of 
 monastic seclusion, to shut out even from academic 
 groves the intruding conflicts of the forum and the 
 convention. Before you have passed out of the hear- 
 ing of the College bell, the recruiting ofEcers of state 
 and church will besiege you for your pledge. Con- 
 sider carefully, I pray you, before you give it to any 
 of them, how^ much you give with it, — whether your 
 manhood, whether your individuality, whether your 
 liberty of speech, whether the sanctity of a fearless 
 conviction. Here again scholarship and Christianity 
 both unite to put you on your guard. There are 
 little coteries enough, in art, in letters, in social opin- 
 ion, in public policy, in theologic speculation, that 
 will be delighted to enroll a new name on their lists. 
 Their captains will electioneer for you while you are 
 free, — flatter . you when you consent, — patronize 
 and cajole you when you are caught, — use and pay 
 you while you succumb, — abuse and torment you 
 when you rebel. Can you afford that servitude'^ 
 
14 
 
 Can learning afford it in your persons 1 And who, 
 in all these truckling and hard-drilled times, shall be 
 honest and free, if not they whose minds have been 
 balanced and poised by contemplating the reasons 
 of things 1 
 
 It is not against the more open and offensive ag- 
 gressions of such combined interests that these warn- 
 ings are directed, so much as against devices that are 
 more specious and plausible. We have committed 
 ourselves, in our social experiment, to the govern- 
 ment of public opinion, even more than of public 
 law. Unless the original fountains of it are kept 
 healthy and pure, we are in the most complicated 
 and disastrous of anarchies. Already thoughtful 
 men cannot look far about them, without seeing what 
 beginnings of ruinous and despotic power, of mis- 
 judgment, of defamation, of vituperation, are craftily 
 growing up in these bigotries of our democracy. 
 Truth is scarcely seen for what it is, but only for the 
 image and superscription it bears, nor prized for its 
 beauty, but for its currency. The few that venture 
 on a practical assertion of the boasted liberality, have 
 to be catechized, and menaced, and ostracized, so far 
 as the puny persecutions of wordy batteries can os- 
 tracize. Oppose to these degrading dictations all the 
 massive resistance of your knowledge, the muscle of 
 your manhood, and the sincerity of your faith. 
 
 Faith, I say. For it is not the independence of 
 self-will, not the vain ambition of peculiarity, not 
 the insolent contempt of the past, or of other men, 
 or of righteous authority, that I exhort you to. It 
 is the honest loyalty to the one only Authority, in- 
 stead of mortal counterfeits. It is the appeal from 
 
16 
 
 custom to Christ, — from party and sect to the Holy 
 Spirit, — from mortal majorities to God. There 
 is no right religious reverence which does not fear 
 the one only Master more than unpopularity or re- 
 proach. What we want is that humility, growing 
 ever deeper with all growing heights of attainment, 
 — that penitential confession of sins, that meekness 
 of wisdom, which bends with unutterable awe be- 
 fore the secret voice of the Most High, before the 
 open command of the Bible, and which, being turned 
 " into a native and heroic valor," makes men " hate 
 the cowardice of doing wrong." 
 
 Let us ponder, then, the great claims that are laid 
 on our educated men. The country has claims, — 
 never more than now. We need more of that sort 
 of education which stirs and fosters, from beginning 
 to end, a loyal zeal for the central and dominant 
 ideas that lie at the foundation of the Eepublic. 
 The scholar is not well trained that has not been 
 formed day -by day into a Christian patriot. Our 
 universities ought all to be nurseries, not of national 
 exclusiveness, or national vanity, but of a just na- 
 tional honor, virtue, and devotion. They should rear 
 and send forth prophets for the American Israel, — 
 prophets brave and blameless, and speaking ever 
 with a " Thus saith the Lord," — prophets that no 
 sophistry can bewilder, no tyrant silence, no blud- 
 geon terrify, no flattery blind. Out of libraries, and 
 out of laboratories, and out of the forearming con- 
 tests of debate, let them send forth, for each impend- 
 ing struggle of Right with Wrong, thinkers and 
 speakers "fraught with a universal insight, ingen- 
 
16 
 
 uous and matchless men." For as said that stanch 
 old English republican of two centuries ago, in 
 language suiting us to-day, There is a study of poli- 
 tics worthy of Christian scholars, " that they may 
 not, in a dangerous fit of the commonwealth, be 
 such poor, shaken, uncertain reeds, of such a totter- 
 ing conscience, as many of our great counsellors 
 have lately shown themselves, but steadfast pillars 
 of the state." 
 
 Universal humanity has claims. That " good con- 
 versation " of the Christian scholar condescends to 
 converse with the lowest oifshoot of the human 
 stock. That "meekness of wisdom" stoops gladly 
 to help the weakest wayfarer; to hear the story of 
 wrong or weakness from the faintest or most un- 
 lettered lips ; to sympathize with the wants of the 
 vagrant, or the sorrows of the slave ; to bring all 
 the sublime resources of culture, the magic of inven- 
 tion, and the facilities of genius, to ease the bur- 
 dens of penury, to open the path to the helpless, to 
 pay respect and wages to unpaid toil, to inspire 
 brute force with intelligence, to marshal idle men 
 and women and children into ranks of self-sustain- 
 ing labor. This is a worthy end for the best schol- 
 arship of the age, — 
 
 " How best to help the slender store, 
 How mend the dwellings, of the poor, — 
 How gain in life, as life advances, 
 Valor and charity more and more." 
 
 Above all, Christ has claims. And his claims are 
 supreme. They transcend, they underlie, they en- 
 compass, all beside. The Lord of souls is Lord of 
 the sciences as well. Common gratitude challenges 
 
17 
 
 obedience and love for Him, in whose name every 
 hope of civilization moves to its fulfilment, and every 
 affection of mankind realizes itself in peace. It must 
 be a personal obedience, — a personal love. No 
 general and cold confession, no vague and rhetorical 
 loyalty, no heartless and high-sounding praises, can 
 satisfy that Gospel of regeneration on which salva- 
 tion depends. Penitence, trust, consecration, prayer, 
 righteousness, — these will ; for God is Love, and his 
 forgiveness waits. Every thought and imagination 
 must be brought into captivity to the holy obedience 
 of the Son of God. All knowledge that is not rooted 
 and centred there vanishes away. " "Who is a wise 
 man and endued with knowledge among you 1 " He 
 is the believing student, the studious disciple. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Graduating Class, our doctrine 
 culminates here. 
 
 Every considerable change in the form of our life 
 is meant to suggest to us something original as to its 
 spirit. The dissolving of one set of relations moves 
 the question by what law new sets shall be organ- 
 ized. When farewells and distance threaten manly 
 friendships, what is more unavoidable than to think 
 what arm shall keep the friend that is parted from, 
 and whether there is not One Friendship in whose 
 Eternal and Almighty clasp every human affection 
 finds its safety 1 The separation of classmates opens 
 spaces about each one's personality which let in 
 light from above on all your plans and habits. A 
 change of residence puts us to asking why we live 
 at all ; how long we shall need any earthly dwelling ; 
 whether we deserve any. How shall your tuition 
 3 
 
18 
 
 justify these years, and your future be adequate to 
 the past] 
 
 That question, like every other that an earnest ex- 
 perience asks, God's Book of Life answers. 
 
 Life is the test of Learning. Character is the cri- 
 terion of knowledge. Not what a man has, but what 
 he is, is the question, after all. The quality of soul 
 is more than the quantity of information. Personal, 
 spiritual substance is the final resultant. Have that, 
 and your intellectual furnishings and attainments 
 will turn, with no violent contortion, but with a 
 natural tendency and harmony, — a working to- 
 gether, conversation, dvaa-rpo^ij, — to the loftiest uses. 
 Add faith to knowledge, and your education will be 
 worth what it has cost. Your lives will honor 
 and justify your preparation. Say, every morning, 
 with the simple confidence of the holy child in 
 the Temple, " Lord, here am I ! " and he will send 
 you to noble and effectual victories. Your wisdom 
 will tell to issues that are divine, and that wisdom 
 the Eternal Providence will watch, because it is 
 matured in the spiritual school of Him who knows 
 all that is in man. 
 
 " Lift up your eyes to the fields ; they are white 
 already to harvest." With the blessing of that 
 Providence, go to the field of your slow, patient work. 
 That slowness of the result may be the bitterest 
 element in the discipline. 
 
 " To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, 
 Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, 
 To the last syllable of recorded time." 
 
 Be content to wait for Him with whom ages are 
 days. 
 
19 
 
 " If but this tedious battle could be fought, 
 With Sparta's heroes, at one rocky pass, 
 One day be spent in dying, men had sought 
 The spot, and been cut down like mower's grass. 
 If in the heart of nature we might strive, 
 Challenge to single combat the great power. 
 Welcome the conflict ! But no ; half alive. 
 We skirmish with our foe long hour by hour." 
 
 Nevertheless, — nevertheless, — in due season ye 
 shall reap, if ye faint not. Go out with faith, with 
 supplication. Ye shall come again in the Jubilee 
 and Sabbath of the Resurrection rejoicing. And 
 then, be content if it shall be with you as with the 
 solemn pictured figures of the returning warriors, in 
 the historical galleries of the Italian city, where the 
 reverent and pious victors are seen, not in chariots, 
 nor with sceptres, nor on thrones, nor with crowns 
 on their heads, but kneeling, the crowns lifted in 
 their hands, looking upward, and giving thanks to 
 God.