Radcliffe College - Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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Baccalaureate Address was to irzinsiorin the world into the Kingdom of God. Wotild that e'.'erj.' one might receive the baptism of fire, might be filled with the pa-sion uf Christ! b la-sus not only taught people to do something,-He taught tht-ni lu he something! 'lihere are two ways of being something. Une is lu sei before you an ideal and laboriously to try to build up the virtues necessary to it and cut out the vices that impede it. This is slow and hard. Jesus did not do this. He did not say to men. You ought to be good. You must cultivate this virtue to- day :uid the next to-morrow. You must get rid of this fault now and the other next week! He said, Your sins are forgiven. You :ire Gods child. Go in peace and sin no more. He did not tell them they ought to be something. He made them feel they were something! XfVhen they felt it they were it! This is faithg this is the new birth. l-le will send you out into the world with that conviction in your hearts! Now are we the children of God, -- to rejoice in tribulation, to triumph over injustice, to be brave and glad and true. Come, then, to Him, that at His touch you may feel the sweeping and rushing of the mighty wind upon your heart, the kindling of the tongues of flame upon your mind,-and go forth in the high consciousness that you are the children of God, with one great purpose in your hearts,-to follow Christ and to transform the world into the Kingdom of God! JOHN HOPKINS DENISON. 10 e

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Baccalaureate Address 5 X S last the interest fades and the dull vacant look reappears. The mind which is stirred only after this fashion becomes a junk shop, filled with the most varied assortment of trash. No curious and venture- some magpie could gain a more strange assortment of old bones and fancy feathers and useless toys! It would be a shocking and pa- thetic sight to have the contents of the mind of the average man to-day voided here on the floor before you! What is the remedy for this? The only adequate remedy is the baptism of fire! There is in the mind of every man the possibility of turning on power. When you are training a man to know some- thing, the power is what we call interest. If you cannot connect interest with what you tell him, your work is vain. In the edu- cation that trains men to do things,-and indeed in all true edu- cation, -the power is a controlling purpose. If a man has one great center of interest, one over-mastering purpose, it unifies his whole mind and brings every fact of knowledge into relation with it. As in a recent novel, it may be that a man's controlling purpose is the success of a patent medicine. At once the world is changed,-all facts gather about this center, every man is interesting as a possible patientg every locality, every form of art and literature, suggests opportunities of advertising his remedy! I-lis life, his intelligence. goes tingling out on a thousand live wires of intcrcstg he is a part of all that he sees, and all is a part of his plan! The educated man must have a purpose to coordinate his knowledge- the higher and truer the purpose, the more real is his education and culture. Christ gave to every man whom lle taught one over-mastering purpose which made the whole world of interest and every man in it: it connected them vitaly witi the whole system of human knowl- edge! 'l'hat purpose in its simplest form was expressed in llis word, Follow me! ln its 'argest signiticance it was to trans- form and redeem the word. That little group caught llis spirit.- they were baptized with tire: ttey went out to conquer the world. to storm the gates of hel: no deed was too small to he of worth. no obstacle too great to attack. 'l'hey became educated lmecause all life hecame signilicant! hey imecame educators because they gave a new and higher interpretation to all life. This is your end! This Christ will do for you! lie will give you a purpose, -a great over- masteriug purpose that will donnnate your lite! 'l'hen whether you darn stockings or write poetry. whether you stay at li--me to do the household chores or get to the foreign tielfl. every smallest ac! and word is signitieant! lt is all a part of the great vocation! ln every deed you hear llis call. lfollow me! lhat great purpose 9

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