Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 May 1917 — SPOKE TO GRADUATING CLASS [ARTICLE]

SPOKE TO GRADUATING CLASS

Inspiring Sermon Delivered by Rev. F. H. Beard Sunday Evening. Rev. F. 11. Beard, pastor of the Baptist church, delivered a very able and inspiring sermon to the graduating class of the Rensselaer high school and an audience that taxed the capacity of the Presbyterian church Sunday evening. Rev. Beard chose for his subject the single word, “Stick,” and from this he drew lesson after lesson that if followed through life will ever prove of inestimable value. Stick to something; whatever you do, stick to it and success will attend you. Stick to your calling; stick to your friends and be a helper to them, but above all stick to Jesus of Nazareth as the greatest friend of all, for He will and does stick to you w’ith a devotion that passe th all human understanding. The speaker emphasized this stand with the following words: “The bible and Jesus Christ are the only things in all the universe to which we may stick eternally. “The bible or word of God is eternal. (1) We can afford to stick to it. Its history is verified. (2) Its science is faultless. (3) Its ethics of life is pure and exalting; no other so expansive. (4) Its teaching as ,to doctrine and duty is clear and certain. (5) Its precepts and examples are neither impossible nor irksome in application to or exemplification in life; stick to His word. “It is my earnest prayer that you one and all will so continue your education in the schools of higher learning and in the sterner but not the least important school of experience, that when your life’s work draws near the closing hour you can say with the Psalmist and of the Great Teacher, *1 have stuck to Thy testimonies,’ and with the wise one of old, ‘There is a friend that stieketh closer than a brother.* ”