Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1912 — Class Address. [ARTICLE]

Class Address.

The class of 1912 has chosen for its motto “Light, Love, Life.” In these three-monosyllables lie mountainous thoughts, ideas that contain the germs of well-ordered and consistent existence. We would not be enrolled in that school which fawningly looks backward for its ideals and inspirations to an age that gave the lie to its beliefs by its every day practices, to the times that could turn from a convulsion of enthusiasm over tne golden precept “Love thy neighbor as thyself” to trample its fellowman into the mire of slavery and serfdom. We would drink the refreshing draughts of optimism with «*-e lirm conviction that the preset* day is the best time in the world’s history rather than look upon it as an age that spells defeat of two thousand years of Christian progress. . . . V V, ; F ' This optimism implies not blindness to the evils of our own day, but unbounded faith in the ultimate triumph of white and shining truth. If the sheen and glamour of the past dazzles us, it is because the hideous vices of by-gone days are obscured by the oblivious haze of centuries. If the evils of the day overwhelm us, it is because our vision is too dull to comprehend the age. Reason and Revelation, gifts of • the same almighty and all-wise Being, cannot be at variance. He who disregards either burns up a fruitful source of light, the guiding principle of the universe. To follow unflinchingly the light of truth and, guided by an infallible pilot, to explore the seis of the physical universe is reason’s noblest act of homage to reason’s God. If God is loved proportionately

as He is known, the same law holds for creatures, with this exception, however, that the former is loved as an end in Himself, the latter simply as stepping stones byi which we mount up to the infinite Genius that lies back of all creation. Light reveals to us the co-ordination and subordination of creatures. It disrCloses the harmony of the universe. Harmony begets admiration; admiration, love. We speak here of love in its widest sense, of that feeling of awe inspired by a knowledge of the fitness of things, of the tie that binds rational creatures to their Creator and through Him to all other creatures. Aa such it is the moving power of the world. The record of the acts of God, of all the noblest achievements of man is the history of love. It called the world into existence; it brought down the Son of Man from the bosom of the Father; it links man to his Creator and to his fellowman. In love are grounded all human and divine institutions, the family, society, religion. Fear can be overcome, but love is irresistible. It surmounts all obstacles by its irrepressible impulses; it chastens all things by its parity of its own breath; it refines by the tire of its intensity. The understanding guided by a luminous insight into things and the will moved by a love for order find issue in life. By life we mean not mere existence by a conscientious struggle to fulfill the functions of existence. Inanimate and irrational creation performs this mission of its very nature and in obedience to the inexorable laws of the universe. The young plant reaches upward towards the light and strives for perfection in virtue of the life germ contained in its seed. ‘Man as a free agent attains his end through the operation of his intellect and win. This co-operation of intellect and will results in action, and action is life. Real existence is. therefore, the more perfect in proportion as the understanding is illumined and the will inclined to follow the dictates of love. , But, we may declare, the picture is that Of an ideal world? Our own times, are, indeed, filled with forces and counterforces, with true and false principles that build up and tear down. Life at its best is more coinplicated than any set of formulas that science can deviser Yet the general law remains that is only' conscientious effort to reach ideals that gives to the world healthy and progressive civilization. The heroes of yesterday may be the fallen Dago ns of today. This fact does argue chaos in the world but rather the forward march of mankind. The duties of citizenship with all that the word implies are incumbent on every individual. The key to the successful performance of these duties is contained in the three little words that the class has chosen for its motto. With the resolution to follow the light, to have an ever greater love for God and humanity and in life to reduce these principles to practice in order to be an influence for good in the humble spheres in which we move, the class of 1912 bids good-bye to the field of its present labors and enters upon the larger one of the future. ■ Animated by these same principles <ur professors have labored with us during the years of our college life. For all this we returti our heartfelt thanks. During our school days deep and loving friendships have been formed between our fellow students and us but we leave today knowing that true friendship is beyond the accident of time and place. To all farewell!