Evening High School - Owl Yearbook (Reading, PA)

Page 94 text:

82 THE OWL BACCALAUREATE SERMON The Reverend John J. Judyclci Saint Mary's Roman Catholic Catholic They who instruct many unto justice, shall shine as stars for all eternity. I do not know any more glorious privilege that America has won by the long martyrdom through which she has passed to the ever-growing freedom of our own time than the privilege of being, of all the nations under heaven, that one in which every question-religious, educational or po- litical-soonest assumes and longest keeps that free and democratic aspect which every such question necessarily possesses. Yes, other nations may have won what human judgment might deem a greater place, they may have wrought out a noble history-may have advanced science-have created an undying literature. Let them have-as indeed they have- their place and their honor. But all the time our Colonial Pilgrim- Fathers' place was, sitting at the feet of Jesus, look- ing up through tears to the crucified, image of an agony greater than their own, and drawing from the red rain of martyr's blood,-that fell upon them so copiously and so long, the heavenly vigor that has enabled them to practice and seek religious freedom .on Plymouth shores. Colonial America chose the better part, she has transmitted it to usg We to-day, thank God, are Christians, prizing our Christianity and ready, as our fathers were, to -apply that Christianity as a test to every question, educational and social, that claims our attention. And I do not know any question that has a larger claim on the heart of an Americanicitizen than the question concerning which it has become my privilege and honor to speak to you to-day. Surely there is no subject that can so nearly touch, or so deeply interest, the feelings of a Christian people than the subject of education and Christian morality. And approaching such a subject, and feeling that brighter things and better times have begun for

Page 93 text:

THE OWL Eerrralaureatv lgrngrum Organ Prelude- Pastorale ........ A ........... Guilmant J. Kenneth Christman, Organist, St. Paul's Reformed Church Processional Hymn . .......... .... ...... P 1 eyel Hymn Prayer of Invocation .... The Rev. Joseph R. Wood, D.D. H Pastor, First Baptist Church 4 Anthem- Cherubim Song ................ Bortnyanski A Cappella Choir, Reading Senior High School 1 Direction-Miss Kathryn I-Iassler Scripture Lesson-II Peter 1 : 1-8 ............. Rev. Wood T Response by Choir Congregational Hymn .... ...... ......... . . ..Masoiz Sermon .................... Rev. Father-John J. Judycki They who .instruct many unto justiee, shall shin'e as stars for all eternity. , 1 If -,Q ' Prayer. ..... .... T he Rev. Father John J. Judycki Sevenfold Amen ' Anthem- Beautiful Savior by F. Meliun Christiansen The Choir Benediction, .... Rev. Wood Recesslonal Hymn ................... .Smart Postlude-Epilogue on Old Hundred . . . ..... Farrar

Page 95 text:

THE OWL , 83 us-my first word upon the subject must needs be a word of congratulation. We all know the sad story of the persecution suffered by our Pilgrim fathers in the olden time. How they braved death and torture for the faith and religion they loved 5 how fire, and the sword, and the gibbet, and the prison were tried, and tried in vain, to shake their allegiance to their Godg how persecution beat upon them, like the rock, unmoved. Oh! my brethren, there is not a lonely hillside in our land where our fathers have not met to worshipg not a mountain cavern that has not echoed with the voices of their secret prayer, the green sward of our country might well be red, because of the religious blood it has hidden. And, oh! is it strange that I, a priest, standing in this stately room to speak to you about education, should deem it fit that my first word upon such a subject should be a Word of congratulation, and a word, too, of solemn warning? We stand to-day released from the bondage of the past, one by one the chains have fallen from our limbs, We raise our brows and lift' our free hearts to heaven. Oh, my breth- ren, if we suffered ourselves to become indifferent about the religion to which we have won the right, would we not de- serve to be forgotten by the God Whose hand guided us in our history? You remember how on one occasion our Blessed Lord was surrounded by admiring crowds, who hung enraptured on His sacred lips. His disciples thought He was engaged in' matters of deep moment, and so He was. But they thought, too, that these matters were of too deep moment to be interrupted by the intrusion of children, and when some mothers broughttheir children, that He might lay His hands on them and bless them, the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus, who knew so well the value of children's souls, spoke the words that stand as an everlasting testimony of how the Saviour of the World regarded the welfare of children: Suf- fer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of God. Yes, I say to you, you workers of the world, be solicitous