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1FKL 2.1 -21 f.lsL q Q h Vol. 12, UNIVERSITY OF S0R1H CAROLINA, CHAPEL HILL, X. C, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 1904. So. 30. y OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION. HE COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES The One Hundred and Ninth Annual Commencement. GRADUATING CLASS OF FIFTY-SEVEN. Commencement Address by John Huston Finley, Ph.D., LL.D., of New York Sermon by Rev. James I. Vance, D.D., of New Jersey Alumni Address by F. D. Winston. Commencement Exercises for the year 1904 began at 11 A. M. Sun day, May 29th, with the annual baccalaureate sermon delivered in Gerrard Hall by the Rev. James I. Vance, D.D., pastor of the Dutch Reformed church, of Newark. N. LjDr. Vance is a Southern man, having been pastor of the First Presbyterian church in Nashville, Tennessee for several years. He is well known throughout the South and the University was fortunate in securing- him. At 11 o'clock the college bell ceased to ring. The Senior class is the man that makes the age, lather t Inn the age the man. Back of all else stands the man, the origi nal force dowered with intelligence, and as goes the man, so goes the world. The prime and constant need ol the world is not for more men, but for more man. Great men are not all of the world, but they make life possible for little men. They lift the race on their shoulders. They arelike the rock that stands between the drifting sands and the oasis shelter ed behind it. They stop the drift and conquer the desert. Here and preceded J-y.m)Dr.iYenable,( .Prof. I there, a great man .has toods rock like in his principles and convic tions, sheltering smaller and weak er lives, and on him, the storm meant for them and which would have destroyed them, has broken and spent itself. Thus it comes about that it is possible to write human history with the names of men. This is the true philosophy of events. God is in the business of making a man. Primarily, he is not forming govern ments and founding schools and leading armies and thrusting out reformations. He packs himself into a man and the man does the rest. The glory of a nation is not its laws, its trade, its institutions, its resources, but its people; and a college education that does not make a student more a man is a curriculum of wind. My text is also a portrait of the world's best man. What is he like? Williams, Rev. Dr. Vance, and Rev Mr. Moss, led by Chief Marshall Haywood, marched up the long aisles of the Hall, and were seated in a group just in front of the ros trum. The morning prayer was ot fered by Prof. Williams Dr. Ven able then presented Dr. Vance. Dr. Vance preached such a sermon as one seldom hears and its effect was added to by the fine presence and voice of the speaker. It was a great effort and made a distinct im pression. Text: "A man shall be as an hid ing place from the wind, and a co vert from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place; as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." My theme is "A.Man". Not so ciety but a man; not a nation, but a man; not a church but a man; not men but man; not a scholar or a poet or a soldier or a jurist or a statesman or a preacher, but a man; j Suppose you were asked to paint 4 A. man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the picture, what face would it be. Would you paint the face of" a the tempest; as rivers of water in scholar, a discoverer, a statesman, a dry place; as the shadow of a an orator, a scientist? Isaiah names g-r eat rock in a weary land." Such no calling or age. His ideal is not is the prophet's ideal and on this a provincial. He is a true cosmo field gathers the loftiest spirits ofjpolitan, a citizen of the world at the race. j large, and his greatness does not The text is a philosophy, a por-j depend on locality or dates. Two trait, a prophesy, a promise and a plea. It is a philosophy of life, and that philosophy is that the development and control of the world are in the hands of its best men. The key to the situation is not a machine, or a constitution, or an organization, or a dogma, but a man. The man is more important than his tools. It things characterize him. He is self resourceful, and he uses what he is and has for others. His glory is not in repression, but in expression of his great powers. He has the strength of the gran ite. The winds blow, the storms rage, the suns beat, but he is un moved and immovable. But he is as gentle as he is strong,, and as heights. considerate as he is resourceful He uses his great strength, not to glorify himself, but to bless those whom he may help. The weak lean on him, the frightened flee to him, the weai v lie down in his presence and rest, the thirsty are refreshed, the hungry are fed. Such is th ideal' man. He has learned the di vinity of service. Life has been consecrated with the sacrament of ministering-. He is an hiding place from the wind, a covert from the temsest, a fountain of refreshment to the thirsty, and to the tired the shadow ot a great rock in a weary land. The text is a prophesy as well as a portrait. It is a declaration of what shall come to pass. It is the announcement of a man that shall ippear. The world shall look upon his fr ee and be blessed- He shall stand among his fellows and icalize the ideal. This is no fancy sketch, but a picture of real life. The man will arrive, the prophesy will come to pass. The man has arrived, and the prophesy has been fulfilled. It was fulfilled in Jesus of Naza reth. Christ was the human life of God. When God was about to do his best for our world he became t t r i a man. instead or taking some au gust throne in this celestial world, and summoning the seraphic and angelic court, God became a man. Does the sublime significance of that xaet break on us? It is enough to fire stupidity with the soul of genius. It 'is enough to pulse a clod with inspiration and stir life beneath the ribs of death. It looks as if God envied man his opportunity and would say: "Let me stand in your place for awhile; let me live your life, and, have your chance." Since the day God be came a man in order to do his best work, how can any man think life stale or life's opportunity tame? The topless heavens are at your ve'ry door, and eternity invites you to adventure yourself. The kind of man Christ became is related in the text. It is the bi ography of Jesus. He was an hiding- place from the wind and a cov ert from the tempest. He stood where the currents are strongest and checked the drifts. The most dangerous drift in human life is sin, Christ at Calvary was the Rock' of Ages," checking the sin- drift and making- possible the re demption of mankind. The text is also a promise It is a promise of what a man shall be. It is a divine commission for the common, average life, Just an ordinary man shall rise up out. of littleness and parsimony and medi ocrity into the grandeur and glory and of the portrait. Jesus is a revela tion of the higher and liner possi bilities there are for every man who trusts him. Man never knew how high he could climb until Christ came. Jesus lias scaled tne Heights of character and service for human ity, and he is calling us up the To be saved is to become Christ-like.' Salvation is vastly more than a scheme to keep out of the medieval geheiina or to g'et into a mechanical paradise. To be saved is to become like the man Christ Jesus. The mission of the gospel is to produce men and women made in the image of Christ, armed with his mind, permeated with his spiiit. Such are to be the Saviors of the world. The World's best man is a Christian man; not in the narrow dogmatic sense, not in the sillv rit ualistic sense, not in the bigoted, ecclesiastical sense, but in the large and glorious Christ-like sense. To become .such is possible for every man. Finally my text is a plea. It is a plea that you become what it por trays. Your best clamors for rec ognition. It is thundering at the door of your life and saying-, "Let me in." You have no right to be a worse man than the very best man you can possibly l-e. The world's need pleads for men on whose strength it may lean, in whose in tegrity it may rely, bv whose sym pathy it may live, and in whose la bors it. may hope. It needs good men to make faith in goodness pos sible, and men in truth to make truth currency. It is v. ithin your power to call up his text from the cold type of the ninted page and make it instinct with the life-best of your own pur pose. I here is a chance tor you to call back the historic Christ from the gospel story and reincarnate him in the life of the modern world. The fact that you may pleads that' you do. With such a sublime sta tion possible, what shame to live a lower life! Be a man! If in the years that are to come, you shall exploit through the call ing of your choice and in the com munity where you live the meas ures of a real man, the University will never rue the day it sends you out with its name on your forehead and God will not disown you in the day of life's finals. SUNDAY NIGHT. At 8 P. M. the annual sermon before the Young Men's Christian Association was preached I)' the Rev. G. H. Detwiler, D.D., presid ing elder of the Charlotte District of the Methodist Church. Gerrard Hall was again full and the audi- ence. listened nun toe closest atten tion. Dr. Detwiler came with a reputation behind him and lived up to it fully ih his impressive sermon ..mi r- . r m . mi. .. on l ne i1 unction or 1 rue Man- hood." Text: "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his inner being shall flow rivers of living water." Personality is one of the funda mental facts of Divine revelation. The opening statement of the rec ord is, "In the beginning- God crea ted," and the closing statement, "I am Alpha and Omega." The lowest level of Divine inspiration (Continued on 3d pae.) .A if V if:
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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June 6, 1904, edition 1
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