FROM HARVARD'S HISTORY.

The Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, Bishop of Massachusetts, preached the Baccalaureate Sermon to the members of the class of Ninety-five in Appleton Chapel yesterday afternoon. The sermon is given in full below:

"My text is the first verse of the first chapter of Isaiah: 'Hearken unto me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord. Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn.'

"This is an appeal to the past.

"The prophet was trying to arouse the people to higher ambitions and a nobler life. He had reasoned with them, had spurred them with a fear of God's judgments, had fired them with a glimpse of the future and of the promises to those that seek the Lord. And then, in the text, he struck their sense of honor and loyalty by an appeal to the past. Their history though checquered had been an honorable one; their father, Abraham, had in the spirit of faith migrated to the west and settled in a new country. From small beginnings they had grown to be a great people. Illustrious names crowded their annals, faith and patriotism were the watchwords of their fathers, deeds of chivalry were celebrated in their songs. It was of such stuff that they were made, of such a history that they came forth, therefore the prophet felt and had a right to feel that an appeal to the past would rouse in them the noblest ambitions. 'Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn,' is his cry, 'and unto Abraham your father.' Such an appeal is the privilege of those nations that have behind them a long and noble history. Other peoples have their sources of inspiration, new countries have the great stimulus of youth. But this is one of the privileges of honorable years.

"Men of the class of ninety-five, you are gathered here this afternoon to catch some fire from off this altar and to carry it with you through life. In a few days you will pass out the college gate and, with happy memories of Harvard in the background, your thoughts will be intent on the future. I might try to strike the several notes of the prophet: I could tell you from the lives of some of my own college mates of how God's judgments fall upon those that seek unrighteousness, - the sermon caught from a few unhappy and cursed lives would speak stronger words than any prophetic warnings. You would respond with eagerness to an appeal to the future and to the rewards that come to them that seek the right. But my sole appeal today is to the past. I want to lead you to a study of a few of the early principles of Harvard's history and thus to a few of the principles of what I think should be a Harvard man's character.

"And I am the more glad to take this line today because their is growing a feeling among many, even cultivated people, that a university can be created without a history, that large funds and wise management may accomplish for a university in a few years all that centuries of wise management can do. That there is an element of truth in this, we all agree. That certain studies and scientific researches are not dependent upon historic surroundings and a rich atmosphere of culture is true. But if a university has for its work also the development of the whole man, growth in culture and the encouragement of the humanities, then surely historic associations, a noble lineage, ancient memories and an atmosphere enriched with generations of culture have their great influence. And it is from these often that the student gains his noblest aspirations. Let us look then unto the rock whence we are hewn.

"As the freshman just arrived from his distant home first passes through the college gate, he reads upon the wall a legend which strikes a new note in his life.

" 'After God had carried us safe to New England and we had builded our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God's worship, and settled the civil government, one of the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity, dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when our present ministers shall lie in the dust.'

"It is a voice from the past, from 'New England's first fruits.'

"For several years the student lives within the associations of the college; the very buildings are living voices of men long dead, the trees whisper of ancient memories, the atmosphere is full of history. And then, as in yonder Theatre he takes his degree, his eye catches the Latin legend above him and in reading those lines the last note of his college life is struck.

" 'Here in the forest-grown uncultivated lands, English men exiled from home, In the sixteen hundred and thirty-sixth year after Christ's birth, In the sixth year after bringing their colony hither, Thinking that before all else they ought to cultivate wisdom, Founded by act of the people a school, And dedicated to Christ and the church this their foundation, Which being increased by the bounty of John Harvard and by lovers of learning here and abroad continually helped and finally entrusted to the loyal care of its children, From a small beginning brought to a mightier growth, By Presidents, Fellows, Overseers and Faculty with counsels, foresight and care. To the best arts, to virtues, social and personal, Has given and still gives culture. They that he instructed shall shine like the glory of the firmament, And they that educate many to righteousness, Like stars for ceaseless eternities.'

"In the light of these two inscriptions let us gather together elements which inhere in the foundation and history of Harvard and see how they appeal to our sense of duty and privilege. Dedicated to Christ and the Church this their foundation.'

"The one feature that stands out in the beginnings of this college is the deep religious spirit.

"Whatever opinion one may have about the function of religion in a university today, there is no question as to what its position was in the early history of the college.

"It was not a mere coincidence that our Puritan fore-fathers happening to be men of strong religious conviction and also of English university education, founded a college in the 6th year of the colony.

"The Christian religion is at the basis of our civil as well as educational institutions - Christ and His church are necessarily and essentially the patrons of culture, the inspirers of education and the founders of colleges. There have been times when the church has been recreant to her trust. But history has shown that in the long run and considering the contemporary conditions she has been faithful. The past has shown that with religion at the basis of our civilization, culture will be sustained, sound learning encouraged and character upbuilt. But we have had no assuring evidence from history or from modern life that without Christ and character will remain true and strong, sound learning be upheld, or culture sustained, fine, deep and ennobling.

"Possibly this sounds commonplace and conventionally sermonic. But it is a commonplace which occasionally needs repetition, for one hears now and again from men whose whole lineage is full of Christian saints and whose character is saturated with the Christian prayers, hopes and theologies of their fathers, that Christ and His Church, having done their work, must now give way to the ascendancy of culture and reason and ethics. To repeat the words of James Russell Lowell, they are 'degenerate sons of heroic ancestors, who, having been trained in a society educated in schools, the foundations of which were laid by men of faith and piety, now turn and kick down the ladder by which they have climbed up and persuade men to live without God and leave them to die without hope.'

"Granted, however, that such men are not representative, but rather the results of an over-ripe culture, there are many men of education, true, high-minded and of Christian ideals, who believe that Christ and His church are at the basis of our civilization, who sympathize with Christian truth, who feel that ideally the church is the stronghold of the highest types of character, but who do not practically turn hand, voice or life to the sustaining of the Christian church of today.

"We hear that theology is out of date, that the average religion is Philistine, that the worship is crude, that the ethics are out of perspective, and that the church lacks in intelligence, in force and in character.

"Perhaps it is so. It may be that the critics are right; but I know of no more ignorant critic than a busy man who gets his theology from the newspapers and reviews his Christian ethics from the reading of ecclesiastical controversies, and his knowledge of the work from emotional exhorters, and who never goes to the original sources of Christ and the church itself.

"What, then, the church needs, even if the criticism be only partially true, is the loyalty and devotion of men of culture - men who, by refinement, will keep the church from Philistianism, by openness of mind will save her from narrowness, and by singleness of purpose will keep her true to her high aims.

"Do not understand this as an appeal for more ministers - not that; I simply want to say that when you leave college and get to work in your calling and settle in your home, there will be various other interests that will claim you - clubs, professional and social, and political duties; but there will be one institution in the town that has somehow outlived all others, an institution that has sustained the ideal of the Christian family, that encourages education, inspires character, upholds the brotherhood of man, and has the charm of charity - the Christian church. It needs you - your personal interest, your sympathy, your correction, your life; and you need it, for without it and what it represents you will be in danger of sinking into professional Philistinism yourself, into the heavy commercial spirit or the ordinary educated machine that makes money, turns it over, spends some, and leaves the rest, without having felt the uplifting spirit that Christ reveals to us. One can speak of this with greater confidence in the shadow of Harvard, for by her charter and traditions the church stands with open face and clean eye towards the truth.

"The founders of this college had their deep convictions; much of their theology is not our theology, but they had such confidence in Christ as the truth and in his church as the interpreter and friend of truth that they bade this college go on in the search for the truth, knowing that rightly conceived, every discovery of truth in every department of Knowledge would lead to the glory of Christ and his church.

"Men have sometimes tried to set the final interpretation of Christian Truth in one or another century, in the day of Athanasius or Luther or Calvin and to close the interpretation of the scriptures then. Our fathers in the college seal laid the Bible wide open to the light of the all centuries and across it wrote the legend 'Veritas.'

"The Truth is the best of thought and life here. Whatever faults Harvard may have, she is sensitive to the spirit of truth. With patient, unflagging devotion and the keenest enthusiasm the student reaches out for the truth.

"That same spirit follows the son of Harvard through life if he be true to his college.

"In the interpretation of the law and the defence of his client, the advocate seeks no mean or technical success, but the truth; in the church the minister desires not first to defend his own position, but to know what is the truth; in politics the legislator or the voter thinks not first of party success and popular legislation, but what is, on the whole, in the name of and for the cause of the truth; in the intricate social problems the citizen's chief concern is not the protection of his own interests, the strengthening of his own prejudices or the defence of his own class, but what on the whole will lead men to the truth. Of you as well as of those whose names are written in yonder Hall, Lowell speaks in his Commemoration Ode:

" 'Those love truth best who to themselves are true,

And what they dare to dream of dare to do.'

"Another characteristic stands out from the legend with which I began this sermon and from the history of the college. 'Founded by act of the people,' The college was the creation of the whole community. From the General Court she received her charter and financial aid; through it she was governed. The college never has been nor can be separate and distinct from the people and their dearest interests. Public spirit moves through her as the winds from the surrounding country sweep through her elms. The pulse of the people can be felt and the movements of the nation anticipated.

"How suggestive is the letter of one of the Fellows of the College in the early years of the Revolution: "The young gentlemen have already taken up with politics. They have caught the spirit of the time. Their declamations and forensic disputes breathe the spirit of liberty.'

"It is not without its meaning to us that under yonder elm Washington first took command of the American Army and that the Massachusetts Legislature driven from the State House by the cannon of the British troops, met in the college chapel, or that the College having waited for a century and a half before conferring the degree of Doctor of Laws to men outside her own number, elected George Washington as the first to whom this order should be given. Or to take a later scene, in the early days of the Civil War in 1861, the diary of the treasurer of the college tells of how he used to come to Cambridge at eight in the morning to drill the 'College troops.' A large faction of that company of students that marched around the college yard were within three or four years found dead upon the battle field.

"The community has given the college man the privileges in which he glories; the college man rejoices in the opportunity to serve the community. Public spirit finds a home in the college.

"You have already anticipated my application of this thought - your duty in public service. The upturning of crime and degradation in our greatest city suggests a joint action, and in that our brethren have been in the van. There, however, the worst feature was not the crime of the criminal or the degradation of already degraded office holders, but the lethargy of the city, the silent abetting of masses of intelligent people of the crimes, the selfishness of business men, householders who would rather bribe than have their peace disturbed. We have yet to learn that every citizen has his public duty. But my thoughts today are in quieter lines. Many of you are not going to the largest cities, but to the smaller ones, to towns and villages. Degradation in a man is easily recognized, but when scattered through smaller communities is unnoticed. The elements that inhere in New York are in our towns and villages varied crimes in extent and depth; the crime, also the degradation and the lethargy. Pure unselfish and loyal citizenship is needed throughout the country as well as in the city. Back in the country road vice lurks and purity waits long for succor. Each man's duty is nearest to his hand.

"There are two more suggestions that I want to make in the application of public spirit - they are simple and I believe that they are timely.

"Upon our common school system democracy stands. That the children of this republic receive the foundation of an education and gain the elements of a firm character is essential. Because the public schools are concerned with the rudiments of education and with children, the sentiment has sometimes gone abroad that any sensible average American can undertake the responsibility of our schools. The public schools have therefore in a few large cities fallen into the hands of politicians and the institution on which our public safety depends has become the football of political parties and ward room deals. In many of our smaller cities the management of the schools has been given to men who however worthy as average citizens have not the refined, sympathetic or cultured qualities which enable them to meet the demands of the best education of children. To the public school system the American people have given themselves with marvelous devotion, where there has not been the highest skill there has been at least the greatest self-sacrifice. There is, therefore, a call today upon the public spirit of university men - that wherever they may be, and whatever profession they may enter they feel a responsibility for the common schools, and by work and sacrifice do their part in strengthening our republic in its foundations My other point is a very different one, - This nation has, we believe, a great and peculiar mission in the history of mankind.

"It is not a nation formed for conquest or colonization. The condition of nations in Europe and the east, with their great standing armies, eating up the people's earnings, creating mutual suspicion, is enough to make angels weep. That with all our civilization, arts, culture and religion, the people of this 19th century have not reached the highest point in mutual confidence is a marvel. Much has been done in the last half century. Much remains to be done.

It becomes the educated men in America to use all their influence in keeping the nation to her high purpose - that of giving to the world the example of a people, united, free, self-governed, and skilled in the arts of peace.

"Let each man do his part towards checking the spirit of jingoism and insolence towards other nations that occasionally disgraces our national councils and that appeals to the passions and self-pride of the people. Let each man also do his part towards encouraging a spirit which will make our relations with other nations those of honor, self-restraint and peace.

"Men of the class of '95: By a few suggestions of the past I have tried to help you see a few of the duties of the future. For generation after generation this college has received from the community, its officers, and alumni, untold gifts, the fullest devotion and the richest sacrifice.

"You now stand to the University as its last and, we trust, its richest fruit. Here you have dreamed dreams and seen visions. For the most glorious of those dreams and the loveliest of these visions you will be held responsible. If you should fail of your highest purposes in life, you will not be able to fall back upon the excuse that the highest ideals have not been given, for they are yours now. What you will do with them remains for you to answer.

"In the days of King Charles the First, a young man of the English middle class took his degree at the University of Cambridge. Although no book records it, we know he must have had visions of high duty and privilege. He was only a humble minister and weak in body, but he was also, as one of his contemporaries writes, 'a godly gentleman and a lover of learning.' His vision of duty carried him to this land. Amidst the poverty and hardships of the day, he had before him the vision of a greater people. And as he became weaker in body, the dreams and memories of his old University at Cambridge must have beckoned him to a greater opportunity. The little community in which he lived was planning the foundation of a college. To it the young minister gave his thought and prayers, and dying, John Harvard left to it his library and half his moderate fortune.

"While the memory of that life hovers about this place, the men of Harvard will have an inspiration to live up to their highest visions.

"Look unto the rock whence you are hewn. Look unto your fathers, and may God be with you."

After the sermon the Baccalaureate hymn, by H. H. Yeames, '95, was sung. The choir sang during the service the following selections: "Awake, put on thy strength," Stainer; "Sing Alleluia forth," Buck; "Peace and Light," Chadwick.