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

Baccalaureate Address Delivered by G. W. Titus

Last Sunday it was my privilege as well as yours, to listen to a very excellent and splendid address delivered from this pulpit. The remarks of the speaker were directed in the main to those whose faces were turned toward the west, to those who nave about fought the battle of life, finished their course, and who can now look forward in eager anticipation to the promised reward. Backward over the turbulent, yet glorious years of the past, our minds and thoughts were turned as we listened to the tributes .of love and praise so worthily heaped upon our sainted heroes of the civil war. And while we would love to tarry longer with these dear old veterans yet it is-ours at this time to turn our gaze away from the west, with its sinking sun, from the glorious achievements of our aged, to the east, with its rising sun, from the battlefields of- the past to the battlefields and conflicts of the unborn future. I must confess that it is with a feeling somewhat akin to fear and trembling that* I stand before this calss of young men and women, to try and bring to them a message of inspiration. How easy ‘it is to say the wrong thing, and how difficult to say that which is the most helpful and right. My earnest desire at this moment is that I shall not so much entertain you as to help you catch a higher and holier vision of life, that may remain with you throughout your pilgrimage. In-one sense I could leav4 no greater message with you than the thought contained in your excellent motto, “Achieve the Honorable.” It is perhaps futile for me to make mention of the fact that this is the red-letter day of your life. You stand today upon a threshold never before traversed by any of you. With eager anxiety and anticipation have you looked forward to the day of your graduation. Behold, it is here. You are bidding a fond farewell to your Alma Mater, to your teachers who have served you, and to class-mates. You are wondering what the future holds for you, as the new day dawns. Let me assure you in the introduction of what I am to say to you this evening that what you will be, and what you will become depends entirely upon yourself. You are the architect of your own fate. You may if you will carve your name among earth’s illustrious. The life victorious is yours if you will. You can lose out in the conflict, as many a one has done before you, and sink to a grave of shame, defeat and disgrace. Remember, however, that the great God never put you in this world to be a failure. On the contrary, He spreads before your vision, untold possibilities, such as man has never dreamed pf. Never in the history of the human race has there been a day like this. If you would stand upon the broad and sublime vistas of educational power, every college in the land throws wide its portals and bids you enter. Every university opens its arms to receive you. Would you pitch your tent toward the commercial city? Then it beckons,you on and says-there is room at the top. Would you stand as the champion of the peoples’ rights in yonder legislative hall ? Then listen to the voice of the nation, as it pleadsvfoi' more Washingtons, Henrys, Clays, Franklins, Websters, Jeffersons, Lincolns and its Wilsons. Thank God for a country that says to our young manhood: “The president’s chair awaits you if you have the metal.” Would you take your place by the side of the downtrodden as a social‘saviour, to lift them into higher planes of . living? Then never have you been so needed as now. Would you- waft abroad the divine truth* of the living God and His kingdom? His still small voice bids you come. Whatever may be your pathway, carry into your chosen work, your motto “Honor.” Standing as you are today, at the parting of the ways, I suppose it would be safe to say that there is no other thought that so fills your mind and heart as does the thought of Ambition. Indeed, no education is well founded, nor is it in any-sense complete unless there has been sown the seeds of ambition. Perhaps some of you are ambitious to have, some others to be, and some to do. Let me assure you that there is a grave danger lurking here, for there is such a thing as an ambition false as well as an ambition true. There is an ambition that is worthy and one that is debasing and unworthy. If one wished to suggest a name, or a life in which Ambition False reigned supreme, I think I should name Napoleon. He is the classical outstanding instance, not that I am sure he is any more guilty than thomands of persons before him and since. But in this character of history ambition insatiate, and unconcealed, had undisputed sway. He

fixed his gaze upon the' throne of France, and waded through the blood and tears of millions to attain his selfish purpose. He allowed no scruple of affection to stand in his way if he wished to add one more jewel to his crown. And after all, what did it amount to in the end. History has revealed him to us in his true light. He stands and will ever stanu as the colossal illustration of a man who sold his soul to gratify his lust for power. Some of you may think this a very harsh statement to make, concerning one of the mighty characters of history, but here is what Gladstone said of Napoleon: “Of all the gigantic intellects ever packed into any human skull, that which was packed into the cranium of Napoleon was the greatest.” Looking at the facts as they appear to us today, that intellect was prostituted. He might have written his name' across God’s Heavens in flaming letters of gold, but he fell by the wayside. Behold him as with defeated tread he beats the sands of Elba’s lonely isle. The only sounds are but the dashihg of the waves and they whisper the message, z

Members of this graduating class, I wish you to catch my right meaning. There is no one more anxious to have you succeed than the one who is preaching your sermon for you today. With your parents, teachers, friends and associates, I would say God speed you in your onward march through College hall and out upon the highways of life. But I would burn into your hearts and minds today, the thought that there is only one kind of a life that fails and that is the selfish life. Go! Write your name among the immortals of our land if you can, carve, your names among the records in the archives of the hall of fame if possible, but remember, you were made to serve. Did not the Master Teacher of all life not say, as He listened to a quarrel among His friends one day, “He that would be greatest among you let him be the servant of all.”

There is pother form which ambition very often takes. It it sometimes evidenced in the lives of the world’s wealthy. Is it not a truth that thousands of our best young men and women who have come up out of our schools and colleges, possessing wonderful talents, and who give every promise of a splendidly useful career, fall upon the way-side altar of weath? Indeed, we are not at all surprised at this for we have spent our money, time and energy, drilling into their minds the thought' that the chief end of education is 'to climb to the palace of wealth and fortune. There are those who would have us believe that all the sacrifices, expenditure and outlay entailed in the building up of our education system, has been to fit our young men and women for this altar. With all the vehemence of my soul I say No. If education means anything, it means the unfolding and the expansion of the life of an individual. Its purpose is to fit one for the higher and holier tasks of usefulness and service. You are familiar with the story of the life of Jay Gould, the American millionaire. I am not acquainted with any of the facts concerning his private life, other than it has been said of him, that he was not-unkind to his own family, and loved his home. Be that as it may, it is true that when he died a great howl of execrlion went up from the throats of ten thousand. It was the curses of the men he had ruined. Jay Gould was a strong man and he got. what he wanted. But he got it by riding rough-shod over human hearts. z He made his pile, he gratified his lust, and ambition. What was it worth? He and all others of his stripe would have us return to the inglorious past of “might makes right.” Standing before the tribunal bar of our God, where gold and silver are as worthless as the chaff which the wind driveth away, and where stocks and bonds are as nothing, the only message that can be written across such a life is “Failure.” , Again, let me say I do not wish to be misunderstood. I cannot believe that God Almighty wants a man to be a pauper. Think not that the way into the Kingdom of God is by scattering your eheckles to the four winds of heaven. Here is what I mean. At the peril of your soul you must dedicate your life, your talents, your all, to something higher and holier than the pursuit of wealth and fortune. In the circling of the years these things may come to you, and that is all well and good, but the God of us all has set before you the holier altar. Students, it will not be long until each one of you will take your place out in the world in the midst of its conflicts and struggles. You have the right to carve your name among (Continued on back page.) <