Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 129, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1915 — Barcalaureate Address Delivered by G. W. Titus. [ARTICLE]

Barcalaureate Address Delivered by G. W. Titus.

(Oontifiued from first page.) earth’s richest, mount the ladder just as high as you can,' but never forget that there are greater and more priceless riches than the gold and silver of the mountains. Russian Czar and Tolstoi. Members of this graduating class, if you have followed me thus far in what I have said, you will be asking, What then is the True Ambition? I shall endeavor to £ newer this in a few wo.*ds. True ambition is to live out the best that is in you. To me it is a wonderful and a sublime thought, that God, Himself finds fulfillment through what you are. If this old world is full of chaos, God demands that you do your share to bring out of this chaotic mass the more perfect day. If the conflict between right and wrong is being waged, your God demands that you stand on the battlefield and with arm bared strike your blow for honor and the right. If your fellow-man is bowed down with his burdens and sorrows, yours is the task to cool his fevered brow and to share his load. Yes, you are to be God’s agent to bring about the better day. Would you shrink from the holy task? Dare you shrivel your soul on that which is less? Like him who shouted to the seamen of old as they were about to engage in the battle of Trafalgar, “England expects every man to do his duty,” so there comes to you today the ringing message from the. Admiral of Life, God expects you to do your highest duty. True ambition is that of a man who is not afraid to endure, not afraid to sacrifice, who is not afraid to spend his soul. Now young men and women, I want to warn you before I go any further, against possible disappointment and discouragement. It may be that while I have been speaking in these terms, that some of the veterans of life in this assembly are saying: “That preacher will change his whole philosophy of life in a few more years. Just wait until he gets a few more years over his head and he will then see how sadly life can spoil and trample our ideals in the mire.” Oh, the tragedies of human life, the blighted hopes, the unfinished tasks. Behold the old men with the frost of the years in their locks, who are just doing their day’s work in patience expecting nothing more. There are hosts of young people who began life just as you are doing. They expected great things and believed mighty things awaited them. But now the evening of life has approached and their march is toward the west. They know their hopes were not realized. They say the world stood in the way. Ah, how sad is the twilight of such a life. But, my friend, you are only saying what has been said a thousand times, and yet I dare stand before you at this time and say that in God’s plans or you there is no room for failure, pessimism, or discouragement. Fail and it is because you want to fail. The men whose names enrich the tablets of our memories, who are thy? Are they not the ones who have laughed discouragement in the face? Were they not the men who marched triumphantly over the pessimists of their day? Were they not men of \a mighty and benign faith? It was pessimism that planted the crown of thorns upon the brow of the Peerless Galilean. It was pessimism that nailed Him to the cross, but it was faith and optimism that raised Him. Pessimism and blindness said to Oliver Cromwell, religious fanatic and fool—Magna Charta and glorious political freedom for the Anglo-Saxon world was his answer.

Fools and bigots said the world to the Pilgrim Fathers, as the little Mayflour cut her moorings from the shores of old England. Their answer as the centuries have passed is America, God’s splendid country. Let slavery alone, they demanded of Lincoln. His answer is—a nation free and equal built upon the Brotherhood of Man. Fool and knave, they said to Stephenson, as he stood-upon the running board of the locomotive he had invented. He answers us with the modern railway. Fanatic, they said of Marconi. His answer is the wireless telegraphy of today. Ah, yes, you will have your dark days, your storms, and the tempests may beat upon your soul. There will come the days when you will lie down with aching limb and fevered brow, but hold fast, and never give up the struggle. The true soul never calls quits. He plumes his pinions for a loftier flight, when the skies are filled with tempest. Yes, you will have to fight on, but remember to him who fights the royal battle to him belongs the victor’s crown.

Graduates, as I near the close of my address to you this evening, there is one thing I am compelled to say. It is the wisest council that I or anyone else, be he teacher, preacher, philosopher, or what not, and it is this: Choose that life wherein you can throw your best energies for God and righteousness. Have a high and holy purpose in life. Do not fear to give back to God the life He entrusted to you. Therefore, we send you forth. Will you fail? Will you come*short and go down in defeat with others who have gone this way before you? Will you disappoint and sadden the hearts of those who have sacrificed on your behalf? No! You will not fail—ho true, honest soul ever does. Be courageous, be diligent, be large-hearted, be wise, and your end is victory. Your teachers send you forth with confidence. Your friends see gou go with great

hope and confidence. -We bid you a God-speed as you say a fond adieu to your dear old Alma Mater. ■Go forth to win—the day is thine, By guiding strength and grace divine, For martyrs, saints and angels see, And wait the cry of victory. Go forth! Go forth! O, soldiers strong and brave, - Go forth! Go forth, nor let thine armor fail The weak to lift, the lost to save. Go forth .to fight as soldiers must, Nor ever let thine armor rust. Thy leader to the front has gone, And heavenly voices call thee on.