Oakwood University - Acorn Yearbook (Huntsville, AL)

Page 28 text:

President ' s Address The .J)(Co? ' al Value of a ILoJty T ' ur pose Worthy President, Members of the Faculty, Classmates, vStudents, and Friends: Purpose is the backbone of a life of courage. It is our master-ship of situations and our kingship of conditions and circumstances, fighting for the right and fight- ing to the end. We must never be at ease for the mere accomplishment of some task, but rekindle the altar flame of the soul, and untiringly raise our aspirations to a higher and still higher moral ideal. Nothing has the power to lift us above ourselves, and help us up the steep pathway of moral life, but our own purposes, sincerely cher- ished, however trivial, or however limited. The only fortune in this life worth the finding and which can be found by every- one is a lofty purpose, and it is not to be found in the balmy atmosphere of some foreign or distant land, neither in the gray dawn of coming time, but here and now. Who has ever set a noble purpose and fixed his eyes thereon and failed to receive an increase of moral strength? By dwelling upon it carefully and incessantly, we make it a part of our consciousness, and its radiance extends to the will, stirring it to renewed activity. No man has ever turned to that which is true, elevating, and noble, and looked upon it with a deep, ardent, and persistent gaze without being morally strengthened. Consider how the whole soul of man is composed into a kind of real harmony the moment he has a purpose. The highest motive of the life of the young Corsican com- mander was to gratify his ambition for purpose and glory. At the age of twenty- eight he framed his schemes, and at thirty he realized them. Three times he humbled the proud house of Hapsburg to the dust, three times he defeated the Russian armies, and tore to pieces the kingdom it took the Hohenzollerns centuries to build. Wehn a purpose is set, distrust, compunction, indignation, and despair, which lie like mastiffs beleaguering the soul of the purposeless, are stilled and begin to shrink, murmuring, far off into their caves. A man is then the man. Lack of purpose is an ether that puts us to sleep, and a cancer that eats out our very lives. As the sky is a roomy place, giving room for the sun, moon, and stars to more in their appointed ways without touching each other, so is the world of human life a great, wide, roomy place with a chance for every conceivable type. Each man builds his own particular planet of life and moves with it on its own selected orbit, througli this universe of interest, by the relation he sustains and the forms of action into which he enters. When a man becomes willing to live along the same level of achievement, content with no ambition, — that is the tragedy and defeat of life. But to grow higher, deeper, wider; to conquer difficulties and acquire more and more power; to feel all the faculties unfolding as the years go by; this makes life worth living. Live for something, have a purpose, And that purpose keep in view. Drifting like a helpless vessel. Thou canst ne ' er to life be true; Half the wrecks that strew life ' s ocean, If some star had been their guide. Might have long been riding safely, — But they drifted with the tide. W. C. Kn v. RDS.

Page 27 text:

Commencement Week Program Consecration Service, May 18, 1928 - 7:00 P. M. INVOCATION W. C. Martin ADDRESS -----.... President J. A. Tucker CONSECRATION PRAYER - - - - - - Mrs. L. E. Cunningham CONSECRATION SONG - - - Class RESPONSES --..-- --- Seniors - Juniors SONG -..---.---- Congregation BENEDICTION - F. J. Bryant Baccalaureate Service, May 19, 1928 - 1 1 :00 A. M. MARCH ---------- Mrs. Jennie Dobbins INVOCATION - President J. A. Tucker TENOR SOLO - - Emile A. Jarreau .SERMON Elder T. H. Allison MUSIC Male Quartet BENEDICTION Elder U. Bender Class Night Program, May 20, 1928 - 8:00 P. M. MARCH - ----- -- Mrs. Jennie Dobbins INVOCATION - - Charles Degering SONG - Class WELCOME ADDRESS ------- Thorington T. Frazier CLASS HISTORY - -.--..- Ethel E. Varnado MOTTO -....---- Harold D. Singleton MUSIC ----- Selected ANNUAL ADDRESS - - - - - - - - - W. C. Edwards CLASS ASPIRATIONS . . Hattie L. Stewart CLASS POEM -....--... Inez Brown ORATION - - - - Emile A. Jarreau ORATION - C. Raymond Wood CLASS AIM - - - - D. J. Dixon PRESENTATION OF GIFT Artie P. McNichols FAREWELL ADDRESS - - Celestine E, Reid SONG - - . - Class BENEDICTION O. B. Edwards Commencement Program, May 21, 1928 - 8:00 P. M. MARCH - Mrs. Jennie Dobbins INVOCATION E. C. Jacobsen VIOLIN SOLO ---------- W. C. Edwards ADDRESS --------- Professor J. C. Tompson PRESENTATION OF DIPLOMAS ----- PresidentJ. A. Tucker BENEDICTION . - . . Elder Nelson

Page 29 text:

Class Song Out among thy aged big oaks Thou hast laid in our minds great hopes. The long-looked day has come at last, While life ' s best days are in the past. In midst of nature ' s scenes and trees, Of forests, hills and balmy breeze, Into our characters we ' ve cast The truths and rich things that will last. You are the dearest spot we know, And through the world we all will go As ministers and workers then, Instilling God in hearts of men. Chorus : Close to our hearts, dear O. J. C, Shall ever thy memory be. Living for Him we ' ll make men see We ' re living too for O. J. C. Grace M. Hamilton.