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Vol. 14. UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, CHAPEL HILL, B.C., FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 1906. . 29 & 30. OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION. J- FTF LAST ACT IN DRAMA One Htutdred and Eleventh Com mencement Goes into History. A Strong Baccalaureate Sermon by Dr. H. V. Dewey, of Brooklyn, N. Y. Eloquent Sermon Before Y. IVL C. A. by Dr. S. C. Mitchell Alumni Address by Sliepard A. Bryan, of Atlanta, a Great Effort the betterment of social y has reck oned with it. Every govern men t has dealt with it, and there is no state iu which valuables are not kept under look and key and police men do not patrol the streets. Art, too, bears witness to this curse up on human lite. The last Judgment up.'iu the walls of the Sistine Chap el, the symphonies of Beethoven, the oratories of Handel, the operas of Waguer, are in testimony that the master painters and musicians have felt constrained to wrestle with this baneful factor. What philosophy has caljed evil, sociology has called vice, and government has called crime, and art has called ug liness, religion has called sin; and whatever the form of the faith, Christian or Pagan, its supreme ef- ; Sunday morning, and the campus as if awakening from the slumber of the two days previous, was alive i with people. Gathered round the, well, the center of the gathering, j were thirty-nine Seniors, clad for their first time in the scholastic ; o-arb of cap and gowu, the emblem': of presumed culture. jNouj were more" conscious of this tact than they, and they busied themselves with Questionings, "Is my cap on straight?", "Don't I look cute?" and other important matters. At 10:30 came the word to "Fall in". Tbe'unsteady group fell into line iu double file, the doors of the crowded chapel were thrown open, the newly-born alumni marched in and the Commencement of 1906 was on. , Professor II. H. Williams con ducted the devotional part of the service. After the singing of a hymn, he offered an eloquent and enlightened prayer for the graduat ing class. Dr. Venable then pre sented to the audience Dr. Harry P. Dewey, pastor of the Church of the Pilgrims, Brooklyn, N. Y. He chose for his text: St. John I, iii: 5. "And ye know that he was manifested to take away your sins, and in Him is no sin." Despite the wide separation which the barriers of position, cir cumstance, race and locality effect in the lives of the various elements of society, certain basal facts oper ate on mankind to bring humanity to common ground in their recogni tion. Among- these are the univer sal religious instinct, the inevitable inter-dependence of one class on another, the elemental emotions making for a kinship of sympathy, the common proneness of men to err the common danger of weakness and temptation. This last is the most fundamental of the traits of human kinship. Atid of all basal facts that level the barriers, perhaps the one that most directly apprises us of our democratic standing, that most un equivocally declares our essential equality, is the fact of our moral in firmity. How wide-spread the malady is. Every philosophy of life in the brains of great thinkers has taken account of it. Every soc iological movement looking toward (33? REV. H. P. DEWEY. fort has been to find some escape from this malignant power, some means of curing the wounded heel )f the giant who has gone limping through the ages because of the bite of the serpent. Nor do we look on merely as spectators. We are not in a play house watching a dranm. We are ourselves participators iu the per formance and it is intensely real. The blight of sin is upon us all. And with the reality of sin is inex tricably mixed that other reality of rUilt. The confession is forced from us of its own motion. The result? Separation. Tins is i.oL mere the ology, but the philosophy of life. It requires but little sintulness in life to darken the face of God from our eyes and to obscure and confuse our beliefs. Sin, fi nilt and m pa i a t i..n ! For giveness remains the one refuge. There is no fixed theory of atone ment, but the path lies over Cal vary, in which exists the supreme witness that sin is the same for all time and to the universal moral principle that purification and up lift are attained only at the price of the sufferings of innocence. But forgiveness is not the end. It frees, but it needs watchfulness to protect also. Man forgiven is still in danger. 'A word trembled in the prayers of Jesus and fell from the pen of Paul, "Sanctifica tion" the indication of a lifelong progress. Those who are added to the church are "being saved". We are in a process of becoming. What then are the means by which we may accomplish our sanctilica tion? First is the stead fase gaze at Christ. Bring the Christian ideal into the shop, the office, the store; the schoolroom, the parlor, the club, .the street; keep before you in your life the life of Christ. Again we must take the divine life indirectly through these person alities which refract the rainbow hues of beauty tis through a prism. In conclusion Dr. Dewey pleaded for prayer as a means to sanctifica tiou: that it was difficult to under stand prayer, how the One who beholds end from beginning can be influenced by a human petition. But if prayer is a great mystery it is also a great realily. .SERMON BEFORE Y. M. C. A. Sunday night Gerrard Hall was again filled with a large and appre ciative audience to hear the animal address before the Young Men's Christian Association. Dr. S. C. Mitchell, of the faculty of Rich mond College, Richmond, Va., was the speaker of the evening. He is prominent in the religious and edu cational life of Virginia. After a scriptural reading by Dr. James D. Bruner, and prayer by Dr. Thomas Hume, Dr. Mitchell was introduced by Dr. Bruner. He took as his text St. John 9:4, "J must work the works of Him that sent me, for the night cometh, when no man can work." Jesus was an extremely busy man. He busied Himself, however, not with things for selfish ends or ma terial gain, but with things which are universal, concerning and in volving the welfare of all men. The unity in His work springs 0ui of a conscious principle. We think of the will of God as an external, unchangeable, inexorable, law. Christ conceived it to Ik- pur pose. He merely asks of us thai we co-operate with the divine pur poses which are at work in the world, in history, in art, iu science, Such co-operation will set free all our dormant self-initiative and crown our efforts with the dignity and power of purpose. There are two concept ions, of thv 'world, fixity, and iluidity. When jthe man passes to the conception of j fluidity he steps to tlK. world of resh and vigorous crcativcncs. Here boundless possibilities await one. Jesus wanted to arouse in us the spirit of energy. He was sur charged with it himself and affect ed all who came in contact with him, inspiring them to action. All these reasons for Christ's ac tivity are equally applicable to you and me. Christ did four things for the blind man: he restored his sight, opened to him the possibility of a noble career, sacrificed business interests to go to his aid at once, in. spite of the fact that the Jews had fast him out and it took moral and physical courage to have dealings with him; he revealed to him God in his own person. These were the works of God which were to be made manifest. Can we, then, draw from Christ's works an idea as to the relative val ue of the efforts which we are to put forth with varying aims? God's schedule of occupations in oi ler of value would probably be, Srst, the pursuit of truth. Truth is different from traditions, which can accomplish and sustain nothing. In the South party solidity and slavery have crushed out spontan eity. The second occupation iu God's schedule would be the exertion of personal influence. Third would be deeds of mercy. Tkc pursuit of truth should come first. Fourth, and last comes business. Most of - us, it is to be feared, place business first, Christ would reverse that order. The race-problem, which is fac ing the Southern people is admitted ly the most nearly insoluble of the problems existing today. Its solu tion will demand all the patience, all the forbearance, all the statesman-hip which Christianity can give. By the use of these we can not fail. But victory and success will come not by might or by the sword, but by justice, sympathy, and mutual helpfulness. INTERSOCIETY BANQUET Save for the giant contest on the diamond between the Seniors and the faculty Monday lived up to its reputation as a day unmarked by stirring events. The only other feature was the inter-society ban quet Monday night. At 8:15 a long line of hungry in dividuals, both intellectually and physically, was loitering patiently in front of Commons Hall and when the doors were thrown open two hundred and fifty filed ,in. Down the entire length of the iall two long tables stretched. joined by another at the farther eud of the hall. And nc.er iu staid old Chapel Hill was there just such a banquet as Jie one which followed. . .... i i i.. i i l. ue iUiumiauee oi aiumnt was no ticeably smaller than usual, but this was atoned for by the iloubLd attendance of the students. Mr. John A. Parker gracefully acted the part oi toast master. Four student speakers endeavor ed to overcome the obstacles of un limited space and speak to one liun (Uontiuucd on Seventh 1'tijjn. ) j 1 if t i- It if
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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June 8, 1906, edition 1
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