BV 
 
 4255 
 
 E>S5 
 
 On 'Beam 
 fDivine 
 
 B URTON 
 
 K 
 
 I 
 
Class JB^423S 
 Book_iExS5 
 
 Copyright's - — 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 
 
 HUMANUM CAPAX DIVINI 
 
We are children of God, and if children 
 then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs 
 with Christ. 
 
ON BEING DIVINE 
 
ON BEING DIVINE 
 
 A BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 MARION LeROY BURTON 
 
 PRESIDENT OF SMITH COLLEGE 
 
 THE PILGRIM PRESS 
 
 BOSTON CHICAGO 
 

 Copyright 1916 
 By FRANK M. SHELDON 
 
 ii ■ 
 
 NOV 27 1916 
 
 THE PILGRIM PRESS 
 BOSTON 
 
 CO 
 
 ©CI.A446614 
 
TO 
 THE CLASS OF 1916 
 AT SMITH COLLEGE 
 
 r 
 

 ■'S^ 
 
 ON BEING DIVINE 
 
 
/ have said, Ye are gods; and all of you 
 are children of the Most High. 
 
 Psalm 82: 6 
 
ON BEING DIVINE 
 
 To speak upon the subject of being 
 divine may seem at first thought bold 
 and presumptuous, if not irreverent. 
 Certainly the idea that man is divine is 
 quite contradictory to many of our 
 old theories of human nature and is 
 scarcely sustained by the present rela- 
 tions existing between the peoples of 
 Europe. 
 
 Even so the essential truth of our 
 theme is amply attested by Scripture 
 and is a central tenet in the teachings 
 of Jesus Christ. He taught us to say 
 "our Father." It is not a metaphysical 
 assumption which denies our limita- 
 tions but the confident assertion of our 
 rich possibilities as sons of God. 
 "Humanum cap ax divini." In reality 
 it is the fearless proclamation of the 
 modern interpretation of Jesus' esti- 
 mate of man. 
 
 What are the marks of a child of 
 God? Reverently we may ask, What 
 is it to be divine? What does it in- 
 volve to accept in actual living Jesus' 
 appraisal of a human being? 
 

 ^SS' ; 
 
 
 
 
 BE YOURSELF 
 
 First of all, it involves being your- 
 self and insisting upon living your own 
 life. Obviously to be yourself means 
 to be your best self. As a child of God 
 you have purposes and aspirations. 
 You have a world of values dependent 
 upon the things of the spirit. Being 
 divine means being yourself at your 
 best, for all that is finest in you is of 
 God. 
 
 The world, however, seems engaged 
 in a conspiracy to crush the individual. 
 Democracy would justify the tyranny 
 of the majority. Our age in its splen- 
 did emphasis upon social obligations 
 appears to argue against individuality. 
 A due regard for the past and a worthy 
 reverence for our elders counsels con- 
 servatism, which is often simply being 
 what others have been. Public opinion, 
 established custom, even fashion, de- 
 mand strict conformity to conven- 
 tionalities. A practical age seems to 
 confer its chief blessings upon the per- 
 
 **= 
 
ON BEING DIVINE 5 
 
 son who can compromise his ideals, 
 that is to say, who can fail to be him- 
 self. The subtle lure of our complex 
 civilization tends to rob us of strong 
 and virile personalities. The present 
 war disregards utterly the worth of 
 each man. Without failing to recog- 
 nize the essential truths in all these 
 mighty forces we must realize keenly 
 that they are making an unwarranted 
 demand when personal integrity and 
 independence are sacrificed. 
 
 It is of value to observe that Jesus 
 dared to be himself. It is one of the 
 clear evidences of his divinity. The 
 essential fact at the heart of the tempta- 
 tion of Jesus is that he insisted upon 
 living his own life. The same prin- 
 ciple finds constant expression in his 
 later ministry. He not only refused to 
 be made king but "when the days were 
 well nigh come that he should be re- 
 ceived up, he steadfastly set his face to 
 go up to Jerusalem." He was forced 
 to pay a terrible cost for clinging so 
 tenaciously to his inner purpose. It 
 brought misunderstanding, opposition, 
 suffering and death. But Jesus was 
 helping us to see what it is to be divine. 
 
6 ON BEING DIVINE 
 
 Being yourself, then, assumes a new 
 significance. Naturally it does not 
 mean being undemocratic or unsocial. 
 Surely it does not require one to be un- 
 reasonable, or dogmatic, or stubborn, 
 or blind to any of the worthy relation- 
 ships of life. But it does call for inde- 
 pendence, clear vision, inner certainty, 
 loyalty to ideals and a complete identi- 
 fication of yourself with your prin- 
 ciples. It involves for us, as it did for 
 Jesus, fearful struggles and bitter ex- 
 periences. It requires every person to 
 guard his own life as a holy and 
 inviolable gift of God. There come 
 crises in every life when no other per- 
 son, neither employer nor associate, 
 nor friend nor lover, nor brother nor 
 sister, nor father nor mother, nor hus- 
 band nor wife, nor any agency nor 
 power, can venture to decide for you 
 or to presume upon you. In such an 
 hour to be divine compels you instinc- 
 tively to arise and say, "I must be 
 myself." 
 
 " This above all, — to thine own self be true; 
 And it must follow, as the night the day, 
 Thou canst not then be false to any man." 
 
II 
 
 BE AN HEIR OF GOD 
 
 There are fatal dangers in trying to 
 be yourself even at your best. It gives 
 a false emphasis to life. Conceit and 
 narrowness are almost inevitable by- 
 products. Self is not primary. A self- 
 centered world is not a real world. 
 Standards lack objectivity, and life is 
 not social. One is deprived of the 
 strength and inspiration found alone in 
 the great objective, independent order 
 of the world. 
 
 Being divine is being a child of God. 
 The apostle Paul formulated this truth 
 when he wrote to the Romans that "we 
 are children of God; and if children 
 then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs 
 with Christ." To be an heir of God 
 shifts the emphasis instantly from your- 
 self to God. It means that we are liv- 
 ing in filial relationship with the 
 Father, that we are his kindred, his 
 offspring, and inherit by nature his 
 character and purposes. It implies 
 that we are his representatives among 
 
- 
 
 8 ON BEING DIVINE 
 
 men, and that his cause is our cause. 
 At heart, it requires of us as worthy 
 children that we make God's will our 
 will, that we lose ourselves in the 
 consciousness of being God's ambas- 
 sadors. 
 
 How illuminating it is to test this 
 principle by the life of Christ. Above 
 everything else he conceived himself 
 to be his Father's representative. This 
 is the unique impression which he 
 made upon everyone. His supreme 
 aim was to do the Father's will. 
 "Nevertheless not as I will but as thou 
 wilt" was the prayer which summa- 
 rized his life. He even asserts his one- 
 ness with God and declares without 
 hesitation that "all things have been 
 delivered" unto him of his Father. 
 His constant purpose was to express 
 God. For this reason he attacked sin, 
 preached the Kingdom and was willing 
 to die for his cause. All that he taught, 
 or did, or was, came from his Father. 
 He dared to be himself just because 
 he was a child of God. 
 
 We, too, can live our own lives only 
 as we claim our heritage as joint-heirs 
 with Christ. Being an heir of God 
 
 
 V€S33* 
 
will solve for us many perplexing 
 questions. It will define our attitude 
 to ourselves. From one point of view 
 it will overwhelm us with a profound 
 sense of humility. It will not be mere 
 self-distrust, or self-depreciation, or 
 lack of confidence in our abilities and 
 powers. It will be rather the strong 
 conviction that self is of value only as 
 it expresses God. From another point 
 of view it will endow us with an 
 astounding consciousness of authority 
 and innate worth. This sense of power 
 will not be synonymous with self-suf- 
 ficiency, or conceit, or pride of talent, 
 or narrow-minded dogmatism. It will 
 be the authority of one who is repre- 
 senting God. Jesus Christ impressed 
 the world both with his humility and 
 with his power. Of him they said that 
 he taught them as one having authority. 
 The secret of his life lay in his certainty 
 of the Father, and his matchless devo- 
 tion to the Father's will. By the same 
 method and by that alone can we be 
 children of the Most High. 
 
 This truth has been formulated very 
 clearly by Mr. Ruskin. In speaking of 
 such men as Albert Durer and Sir 
 
 
10 ON BEING DIVINE 
 
 Isaac Newton he said : "They have a 
 curious undersense of powerlessness, 
 feeling that the power is not in them, 
 but through them, that they could not 
 do or be anything else than God made 
 them, and they see something divine 
 and God-made in every other man they 
 meet, and are endlessly, foolishly, in- 
 credibly merciful." In reality, God 
 provides the dynamic for being our- 
 selves. Paradoxical as it may sound, 
 we can only be ourselves by being heirs 
 of God. 
 
Ill 
 
 BE A CREATOR 
 
 True purpose must result in worthy 
 action. Emerson said, "All men stand 
 in need of expression. In love, in art, 
 in politics, in labor, in games, we study 
 to utter our secret." If we are heirs of 
 God we must be at work. Christ 
 taught this truth most emphatically in 
 the great Mountain Sermon. "Not 
 everyone that saith unto me, Lord, 
 Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven, but he that doeth the will of 
 my Father who is in heaven. By their 
 fruits ye shall know them. Every good 
 tree bringeth forth good fruit." Even 
 as a boy Jesus exemplified this truth. 
 To his anxious parents who found him 
 in the temple he said: "How is it that 
 ye sought me. Know ye not that I 
 must be about my Father's business?" 
 At one time he told his disciples that 
 his very sustenance was to do the will 
 of him that sent him and to accomplish 
 his work. 
 
 Moreover Christ was an original, 
 
12 ON BEING DIVINE 
 
 creative thinker and worker. His 
 uniqueness consists not only in his dar- 
 ing to be himself, not in his conscious 
 union with God, but also in his being 
 deliberately and intentionally an in- 
 novator. He came not to destroy but 
 to fulfill. Specific illustrations of this 
 policy abound in the life of Christ. 
 He violated social standards. He was 
 a friend of publicans and sinners. He 
 acted repeatedly on principles which 
 defied the established law. He healed 
 on the Sabbath day and disregarded 
 their distinctions of ceremonial clean- 
 ness and uncleanness. He did not hesi- 
 tate to attack the religious aristocracy 
 of his day nor to uproot the legalized 
 forms of graft which had grown up 
 in the temple. Jesus did not do these 
 things just to be an innovator. He did 
 them because the realities of life de- 
 manded them. He was independent of 
 the past. Truth for him knew no time 
 distinctions. He was capable of think- 
 ing in new terms and of devising new 
 methods of work. He was essentially 
 a creator. 
 
 The world today is in need of cre- 
 ators, who, daring to be true to their 
 
ON BEING DIVINE 13 
 
 best and aiming to be God's agents, are 
 forced by some inner compulsion to 
 grapple with our evils and to discover 
 the remedies which will correct them. 
 Every problem is a call for a creator. 
 Social injustice, special privileges, 
 political evils, industrial wrongs, edu- 
 cational inefficiency, international mis- 
 understandings are the voice of God 
 pleading with his heirs to be creative, 
 constructive workers in his world. 
 
 Life itself demands creators-. It is 
 not static. Nothing abides. Change 
 alone is permanent. Every hour brings 
 new issues. In every realm of human 
 activity there exists the demand for the 
 inventive, discovering spirit of the sons 
 of God. 
 
 Being divine, then, calls us to express 
 our inner purposes by being creators, 
 by co-operating with God in making 
 his world and in establishing his King- 
 dom. It gives us a great and worthy 
 cause demanding all the creative en- 
 ergy which we possess. It compels us 
 to grow and to develop with a chang- 
 ing, evolving world. To be divine 
 means work, — hard, painstaking, se- 
 vere, continuous toil. This is the cru- 
 
14 ON BEING DIVINE 
 
 cial test to which life will put our 
 divinity. It is the attribute of God 
 himself. When the Jews persecuted 
 Jesus because he healed a man on the 
 Sabbath day, he simply announced to 
 them: "My father worketh even until 
 now and I work." Every heir of God 
 must abound in the work of the Lord. 
 
 

 IV 
 BE A SAVIOR 
 
 Being divine is being something 
 more than any of the things we have 
 been discussing. In a sense to be divine 
 is to be infinite and eternal. It is a 
 thing of the spirit, defying analysis and 
 statement. Is it possible for us to catch 
 even faintly this spirit which pervades 
 the very idea of divinity? Perhaps by 
 approaching it from several points of 
 view and then by recognizing that all 
 these elements combine to produce one 
 great stupendous truth we shall come as 
 near as possible to the realization of 
 our aim. 
 
 To be divine is to be possessed of a 
 spirit which permeates all that one 
 does or thinks or dreams. It must be 
 the reality to which the Apostle Paul 
 alluded when he spoke of "the glorious 
 liberty of the children of God." It 
 brings serenity in the midst of storm 
 and trustfulness in the presence of 
 uncertainty. It creates unconquerable 
 hope when enemies assail and mighty 
 
16 ON BEING DIVINE 
 
 forces of opposition are aroused. It is 
 the certainty of ultimate triumph what- 
 ever the present hour may hold of de- 
 feat, or dismay, or even death. This 
 characteristic of Jesus was never shown 
 more dramatically than when, on the 
 eve of his crucifixion as a base crim- 
 inal, he sat down with his disciples and 
 prophetically established a symbolic 
 memorial of his death, in absolute as- 
 surance of his coming victory. "Verily 
 I say unto you, I shall no more drink 
 of the fruit of the vine, until that day 
 when I drink it new in the Kingdom 
 of God." To be divine is to be mar- 
 vellously, incredibly confident. 
 
 " The year's at the spring, 
 And day's at the morn; 
 Morning's at seven; 
 The hill-side's dew-pearled; 
 The lark's on the wing; 
 The snail's on the thorn; 
 God's in His heaven — 
 All's right with the world!" 
 
 To be divine is to love. "I say unto 
 you love your enemies and pray for 
 them that persecute you that ye may be 
 sons of your Father who is in heaven; 
 for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil 
 
ON BEING DIVINE 17 
 
 and the good and sendeth rain on the 
 just and the unjust." It is a love which 
 recognizes no barriers of color, creed 
 or nationality. It knows that all men 
 are children of the Father, that all 
 mankind is divine. Above all it is a 
 forgiving love. The prodigal was "no 
 more worthy to be called a son," but 
 nothing could rob him of his potential 
 sonship. When he arose and went to 
 his father, he was welcomed. Prob- 
 ably Jesus taught no newer or stranger 
 truth than a love which included un- 
 limited forgiveness. To be divine is to 
 know that love never faileth. 
 
 But love in a world of sin means in- 
 evitably that the lover must suffer. In 
 proportion as love is deep and genuine, 
 suffering will be bitter and intense. 
 This is the meaning of the cross of 
 Christ. This is the very center of our 
 thought of God. He carries in his 
 heart an eternal cross of woe, because 
 his children have wandered into a far 
 country. To be divine is to suffer. 
 The reality of our divine life may be 
 measured by our suffering both for our 
 own sin, and, more particularly, for 
 that of society. We are "heirs of God 
 
 
 30 
 
 i I 
 
18 ON BEING DIVINE 
 
 and joint heirs with Christ; if so be 
 that we suffer with him." 
 
 At heart to be divine is to be a savior. 
 Confidence in the ultimate victory of 
 good, love for all mankind, suffering 
 in the presence of evil are the elements 
 of saviorhood. God was in Christ 
 reconciling the world unto himself. 
 His great Father heart was yearning 
 to save the children of his Kingdom. 
 Being divine is in the last analysis the 
 giving of ourselves for the saving of 
 the world. "Saving" here means mak- 
 ing bad men good, filthy cities clean, 
 corrupt politics pure, selfish business 
 honest, and unjust social conditions 
 righteous. Solemn responsibilities in- 
 here in divinity. We must be ourselves 
 at our best, we must be heirs of God, 
 we must be creators at work with the 
 Father, in order to save the world and 
 to establish his Kingdom. To whom- 
 soever much is given of him shall much 
 be required. We must help all man- 
 kind to claim its birthright. To be 
 potentially divine is to be supremely 
 human. 
 
 
ADDRESS TO THE CLASS 
 
 And now, members of the gradu- 
 ating class, I have said ye are gods and 
 all of you are children of the Most 
 High. If any one of you doubts this 
 staggering assertion I wish you could 
 look into your father's and your 
 mother's heart. They know that you 
 are a child of God. Each of you pos- 
 sesses a mystic charm for a parent's 
 heart. It was not easy for them that 
 day when you took the train to go to 
 college for the first time. They were 
 willing to give you up because they 
 had great expectations for you. They 
 sent you here because they wanted you 
 to find yourself, to acquire the ability 
 to get on independently, to develop a 
 sense of responsibility, to deepen your 
 appreciation of fine things and to estab- 
 lish your world of values and judg- 
 ments. 
 
 As the years have come and gone 
 they have wondered how college life 
 was actually going with you, how you 
 were fitting into a new world, and how 
 
 ■ • 
 
20 ON BEING DIVINE 
 
 you were meeting the tests of your fel- 
 low students. I can see your busy 
 father quickly sort over great piles of 
 mail and instinctively pick out the en- 
 velope marked "Northampton" — the 
 one letter in which he was really inter- 
 ested. He probably read it at the 
 breakfast table. I can see your mother 
 reading your letter again alone, with 
 mingled feelings of loneliness and 
 gladness but with a deep gratitude, 
 also, for you and your maturing life. 
 Doubtless they have come to visit you 
 and have gone away, I feel sure, not 
 knowing whether the difficulty of leav- 
 ing you was greater than their deep 
 sense of satisfaction at your achieve- 
 ments in the development of character 
 and the cultivation of personality. 
 These four years have put their mark 
 on you, but your experience has been 
 paralleled in the lives and hearts of 
 those who have loved you with an ever- 
 lasting love. Perhaps today you appre- 
 ciate that love more than you ever have 
 before. You understand now, in a 
 measure, why they have expected so 
 much of you. 
 
 In this beautiful relationship you 
 
 ^^= 
 
ON BEING DIVINE 21 
 
 may find the full meaning of the mes- 
 sage I have attempted to bring to you 
 today. These hopes of your parents are 
 a symbol of God's expectations for 
 your life. We face today the astound- 
 ing, overwhelming, thrilling fact that 
 God himself has intense desires for 
 each of you as his child. This is the 
 glory, the fascination, the solemn 
 promise of life. We need not be 
 ashamed today if our hearts are full of 
 joy and our eyes are full of tears. 
 We have sensed the potentialities of 
 being divine. It is a moment of su- 
 preme worth, — a moment fraught with 
 infinite possibilities for all the beautiful 
 years to come. My final wish for each 
 of you is that you may have the courage 
 to live your own life, that you may 
 claim your place as a daughter in the 
 great family of the Father, that you 
 may know the joy and satisfaction of 
 working with God, that you may help 
 someone who is lost to find the way 
 back to the Father's house. In a word, 
 and I say it reverently, may you be di- 
 vine! "Behold, what manner of love 
 the Father hath bestowed upon us, that 
 we should be called children of God. 
 
 
22 ON BEING DIVINE 
 
 Beloved, now are we the children of 
 God, and it is not yet made manifest 
 what we shall be." 
 
 May the Lord bless thee and keep thee, 
 The Lord make his face to shine upon thee 
 
 and be gracious unto thee, 
 The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee 
 
 and give thee peace. 
 
We are children of God, and if children 
 then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs 
 with Christ. 
 
t 
 
 HUMANUM CAPAX DIVINI 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 022 168 936 7