you are, in the great and complicated mechanism of human society, face to face with a thousand problems that affect most vitally the destiny and welfare of the race. To turn back or falter now is cowardice. To fail in your duty to the civil and social order which prevents humanity from any backward movement and transmits civilization with all its accumulated blessings to the future, would be pusilanimous. Here you are, touching elbows with countless human beings, every one of whom is as weak and helpless as yourselves, when he undertakes to go alone, but strong and mighty for heroic effort when he has the help and sympathy of his fellow creatures who are embarked with him in the same great enterprise of human life. To neglect or refuse a helping hand to your fellow-workers in God's great mills, to your fellow travellers in the solemn journey to the grave, would be not only to misconceive the object of your existence, but to substitute for philanthropy and generosity, selfishness and meanness. Above all, you must work for large and enduring ends. Life is too short and too serious to be wasted in pettiness and triviality. I do not mean, of course, that you should demand for every performance a great theatre and a vast audience; nor do I mean that you should desire to make every act of your life, not only spectacular, but of the character and quality by which epochs are made. I refer rather to the spirit and purpose of your activity. The father's provision for his children, the mother's care of an infant, the daily work for daily bread, may be so performed as to become the very stepping-stones to the kingdom of God. Let me remind you that if you work in this spirit your work will remain-it will be for eternity and not for time-for eternity, because it will be taken up into the composite of human experience and be transmitted from generation to generation so long as humanity shall endure; for eternity, because your own souls will be transformed and uplifted by it, and because having entered into the mysterious fabric of character it will be the one substance which you will carry with you beyond the confines of the grave. I need not assure you that wherever you go, or however you fare, your Alma Mater will follow you with most affectionate interest. Her wisdom has tried to guide you thus far. Her love has endeavored to find a lodgment in your hearts. In every possible way she has sought to put her impress upon you, and now, as she sends you forth, bearing her honors, she gives you most hopeful and tender salutations and bids you the Godspeed and farewell. PEACE AND SERVICE.* Heigh-ho for a cool sylvan dell No more ambition's goal, my guide, Amidst the towering hills, Peaceful and calm, steadfast as they, I'll watch the furcate swallows' flight The water fowl shall lend their songs When scarlet sky and darkening dales To nose the air; when night birds sing My birchen keel I'll ride And live my dream, my dream of peace, *Class Poem read in Goddard Chapel, June 14, 1901, by Frank Howe Benedict. And he trustingly lay him down On the wave-kissed, moss-clad shore And watched his camp-fire's dying light Soft winds caressed his manly brow, The dew-drops circled there; The starry night was well nigh spent An aged form, grown white with years, O death-like hour, oppressive in thy calm! The pain of watching, waiting for that time Men sailed the sea in years agone in search And then drift back again; but Amen-Rah The east, or man awoke from speechless stone: O dews and zephyrs of this silent hour! The Grecian hand that gave to voiceless stone And steadfast potent faith of Doric heart; And though you may have kissed the pallid brow Of some worn sleeper as you came this way, Whose cheek but yester-noon was flushed with youth, Full well do I remember that sad day Whose love for me can ne'er again be known. My cup was bitter and my thirsting heart Was sought and here I've lived through dragging years Than those fair days when life had lost its hope. Or else defeat; the one to be assuaged With cadent tears of those whom most we love, O could I live it all again! I'd choose The way where action zests each troubled day, For then I know my heart would be so full Of love for God and life and man That there would be no room within my breast For human longings and the soul's unrest. Stay, night winds, stay! I feel some presence near! A longing soul within this solitude! And measured breathing guides my feet to where The sweet embrace of immortality. But I'll arouse within his passive breast |