Bowling Green State University - Key Yearbook (Bowling Green, OH)

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TI-IE. UPPER ROOM T is written in The Book that Christ sent Peter and John ahead into the city to discover a place where He might eat the Passover with the disciples. The Savior instructed them to enquire of a certain man, And he shall shew you a large upper room furnished: there make ready. And Christ and the Twelve here partook of the Last Supper. No scene in history is more humble in setting, and none is more memor- able. It has been portrayed by various artists, but its wonder and beauty lie on the further side of all language. This upper room was the meeting place of the Master and His disciples in that long ago: it is today the symbol of communion between man and God. In the life of every individual is felt the need of a quiet place, hidden from the world of bustle and distraction, where man may commune with the Infinite and be fed by the bread of life. This upper room is a place of refuge and a real necessity. Here the tumult of the world dies into silence, and the thoughts of man are turned upon the realities of his being. It is here that he gets the vision which enables him to observe the sorrows and the seeming deserts of the daily life without losing faith in the infinite love. Those whom we see surrendering in the battle are those who have never dined in the upper room at that invisible table of which the bread enables man to conquer. In the silent hour, we may partake of this bread, as those of old time were sent manna from heaven. And he that eateth of this bread shall live forever. Who, more than the college student, needs this communion of the upper room? In the rush and stress of constant preparation and recitation, there comes the crying need of such a help, a retreat where one may think, a room apart into which one may enter, as the wearied pass from the hot and noisy street into the cool silence of a welcoming cathedral. This is the great error many students commit when they arrange their courses: they forget to plan for the quiet hour, when they can put the daily tasks into right relations with one another and with the inner life. Have you felt yourself hurried and driven? The coming of new tasks was perhaps so incessant that you were unable to make your own that which was offered. One of the greatest needs of students is to obtain a perspective, to see what the many and varied phases of the school day mean as a part of life. And forsthis is needed the upper room, the quiet period of solitude, when the in- dividual may face self, and commune with soul, which is communion with the Divine. It is not enough to know life's offerings with the mind-one must realize with the soul. We have need of both society and solitude. The two are complementary, as are summer and winter, day and night, exercise and rest. Society makes us members of the collective life of mankind: solitude gives vigor and richness to the individual life. The life of the hermit, and the life of the man who thinks with the herd, are alike imperfect lives. The complete life is that of the mag- nificent man-of-war: it can share in the life and discipline of the fleet, or it can sail the seas alone. 9

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Ah g El TO THE CLASSES OF l9I8 HE message the College has for you is just the message that your country, that life itself, has for you. It is the message of devotion, of sacrifice, of loyalty, of patriotism. During these glorious days we are being born again. In this new birth our souls are cleansed of all the dross of materialism and we realize that life itself is great and kingly in the measure in which it is a life of love and sacrifice for the welfare of humanity. We begin to see that industry exists for the sake of society, churches for the community, homes for manhood and womanhood, governments for the governed, and schools for citizenship. 'Tis the teacher's task to build up day by day through well-considered and dispassionate knowledge such ideals of home and country that sacrifices, even the sacrifice of life itself, will be made gladly for those ideals in war and in peace. Let us sweeten life with high ideals and noble thoughts. Let us courage- ously point out the domestic problems that confront us that they may be solved by the light of the truth. Let us open the eyes of the youth to the world oppor- tunities that await America. Let us train the youth to meet those oppor- tunities. Let us inspire them with such love for humanity that every page of American history shall be bright with deeds of justice for all mankind. Let every school house be an altar to our country, every teacher a source of inspiration. Let no son or daughter of Bowling Green fail in this. For to fail in this is to fail utterly. The schools, even more than armies and navies, the teachers, even more than soldiers, are the hope of democracy. Zff

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The Upper Room-Continued Every great work of the world has first existed in the mind of its maker. and its plan was patiently wrought in solitary study. As was said by Bacon, a pioneer in scientific thought and investigation, so might it be said by all the creators of the world: My spirit hath been much alone. It is in the silence that the student comes to know himself, to realize his limitations and his abilities: in the quiet hour, he comes into agreement with the Power about him and into intelligent relations with his world. One's duty is to one's fellows, but much of the truth comes when alone. The prophets of the world have beheld the vision when in the desert or upon the lonely summit of a hill. On Nebo's lonely mountain. Moses heard the words by which the peoples since that time have reached their highest levelsg in a solitary place apart, our Saviour fought the tempterg in solitude He drank the final cup of suffering before He went up the steep way to Calvary. What is the purpose of a college life? The students who can answer that question are those who have found it for themselves. The purpose and reward are not to be had from text-books. Many find knowledge of a kind, but miss the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge-the recognition of self as a part of the race. Those who have succeeded are they who, in the self-communion of the upper room, have established lines of communication between their lives and the world about them. Too often students in college mistakenly give too much time to school, and too little to the business of living. The upper room has no place, and so the accumulating weight of the days' tasks weighs heavy upon them. The history of the race is the record of the human spirit striving upward for light, struggling to understand itself and its environment. The leaders in thought and action in every age have been the men and women who have had vision, that vision which is the fruit of self-communion. It is written of St. Catherine of Siena that she made a little interior oratory within her own soul. Is not this interior oratory the fountain of our strength? It is this power which aids us in meeting the routine of daily tasks, the routine which is at once a weight and a blessing of life. The student who thus plays the game of life is brought to that adjustment to his environment and to his powers and limitations which is the end of educa- tion. To possess this adjustment is to command oneself in the crises of one's life. It is this adjustment of the individual to self and to the world which brings repose, one of the objects for which humanity is ever seeking. In strife, we hope for peace: in sorrow and anxiety, we look for the better day: in winter, we look forward to the fiowers of spring: in college, we yearn for the time when We shall have time to live. Repose is the great lesson which nature teaches. The poets of every race have sung of the quiet healing and inner strength which earth gives to her children. On every height, wrote Goethe, there lies re- pose. The shaded woods and lonely mountain peaks give freedom and the satisfaction of a spiritual need. Men and women never feel so much inclined to worship God as when alone in the cool and silent Woods. The groves were God's first temples. How impressive is the growth of a mighty tree! Its strength will with- stand the storms of ages, but its growth is calm and soundless. The field takes unto itself the seed. and holds it to its bosom. Then begins that marvel- ous alchemy which sends up a new and larger life. This, too, is the calm of nature. Who is so poor that he has not lived through the hush and quiet of a summer Sunday morning in the country? A sweet peace lies upon the people and their fields, healing the past week's wounds. The earth appears a vast I0