BACCALAUREATE SERMON

Rev. F. G. Peabody, D.D., preached the baccalaureate sermon to the Senior class in Appleton Chapel yesterday afternoon.

Dr. Peabody took as his text, "I am the Door, John, 10:7. There are two kinds of religion which make their appeal to opposite sides of human life, one kind treats of life as at rest, the other kind treats of life as at rest, the other kind treats, of life as in motion said Dr. Peabody. One is the answer to the prayer for peace, the other is the answer to the prayer for power. One is the religion of repose, the other is the religion of action. One is the religion of age, the other of youth. According to one the great word of the New Testament is the saying "I am the truth"; according to the other the most persuasive message of Jesus is the word "I am the door."

Both of these ways of religion are real, but today we turn to the latter, the one of progress and power in answer to the wholesome natural desire of many an eager, restless, hesitating, youthful life. The story of the higher education is the passage from the compulsion of the schoolroom to the liberty of the University. The story of life is similar. You do the shut-in task and it opens into the larger opportunity, you face the limited duty and the larger duty discloses itself just beyond. But what is the way of life that opens thus from door to door? It is nothing other than religion, for it is the view which opens through the door of religion that gives a meaning to the world, that sets one in a rational universe.

Much there may be in the order of the universe which still remains baffling and mysterious much postponement of knowledge in God's education of the human race; but what a step is taken towards sanity and self-control and peace of mind when one looks, upon the world as the scene of spiritual intention and desire, which give to its perplexing incidents their unity and worth. The religious life is like those Egyptian temples which in their outer courts looked through great free vistas to the fertile fields and the deep blue sky; but as the worshipers sought the central shrine, door after door swung open until at last the single life bowed in the central sanctuary where it found its God.

Such is then the first message of religion to an eager, forward-looking, undiscouraged, modern life--the message of expansion, liberty, spaciousness, hope. The normal healthy life hears the summons to go forward and welcomes the guide who opens the door. What is it to live but to pass from room to room of the great house of experience and to find each successive room more ample and satisfying.

On one of our gates, built in memory of a Harvard man, you read as you go in "Enter to grow in wisdom," and as you go out "Depart to serve they country and they kind." It is gate that is always open, and it swings easily both ways. Its inscription is a message of your College today. You have entered to grow in wisdom, now depart to serve your country and your kind.