Show TO THE GRADUATES Rev H B Steelmans Baccalaureate Baccalau-reate Sermon at the University AT THE ASSEMBLY > HALL HEARD BY A LARGE AUDIENCE LAST EVENING A Double Text One From Paul and One From Herbert Spencer The Phenomenon of Religion Making n Supreme Demand Ijpoii the Attention At-tention of All Earnest Minded Students The farewell discourse to the graduating t gradu-ating class oif the University of Utah was delivered at the Assembly hall lat evening by the Rev H B Steel man of the First Baptist church An I I audience that filled every portion of fle evey porton the large building listened with marked I I interest to the very excellent sermon i THe graduating class of forty members i i occupied seats in tie front and center II I of the house while members of the faculty and board of j I fculy regents were seated on the stand Prof Stephens i I conducted the singing and of course i I i made that a feature of the evenings programme Mr Steelmans subject was The Relation of Religion to Life and was treated in a comprehensive and appropriate style The address was as follows I In providing for a baccalaureate sermon to its students a it university acknowledges its regard for religion and invites the preacher to address a class of people than whom none in the community are more given to sober thought or are more I truly possessed of high aspirations and noble purposes I shall endeavor to speak tonight a earnest and honest men who do their own thinking would have me to j speak upon a subject which is at once to all humanity of the highest concern I widest interest and deepest moment the I subject of religion With your permission I will take a I double text not because they wl of equal authority but because becuse they are represen I tative one from Paul the great apostle I of Christianity the other from Herbert Spencer a high priest of the modern i scientific spirit Paul at the beginning of the first century on Mars bgnng city of Socrates thus addressed the astute as-tute Grecian philosophers In God we live and move and have our being Her I bert Spencer at the close of the Nineteenth Nine-teenth century voicing the results of the modern spirit of inquiry echoes the very same thought for belays Amidst all the mysteries by WhICh we are surrounded sur-rounded nothing is more certain than that we are in the midst of an infinite and eternal energy from which all things proceed When theology and science leave that which is superficial and seek that which is fundamental they strike tey hands and unite their voices with a pce > t of humanity who sung in the Hebrew tongue three tnillennlums ago All my fountains are in Thee The spirit of scrutinizing inquiry which is stimulated in a higher institution of learning cannot be circumscribed by the shadowy boundaries of philology or by the known limits of exact science There are questions of deeper import thaa the derivation of a Greek word and of wider sweep than the circuit of the stars What of my origin yesterday my continuance today my hope for tomorrow What Is my relation to the universe in which move How shall I who bear about with me the consciousness of superior popsibili ties attain to my highest wellbeing The text furnishes the only answer Gol is the secret source and succor and crown of every life Ultimately the central vital ligion allinclusive question is the one of re lgon The instinct for religion i an essential I part of humanity I has been declared and never confuted that while there may I be towns without laws or coins or litera laws lter ture no one ha ever yet seen a people I without something that answered to a God and religious services A mans religion re-ligion however false it may be has an element about i which fastens itself about his heart His religious beliefs may be mass of superstition but a superstton he holds I them sacred and for the sake of them he will suffer all things Especially is this true of the Christian Men who have experienced ex-perienced in their hearts the love of the Savior who through faith in him are assured of the forgiveness of sins of peace with G adoption into His family and life of communion with heaven whi his I h-is better than life Their persecutors i have dracsed them at the heels of wild horses laid them upon redhot gridirons i pulled off the skin from their f < sh piece i by piece wrapped them in skins and daubed them with pitch and set them up in the emperors gardens at night to bur but the more they were hunted the moro they pressed to the judgment seat and askPd to b permitted to die for Christ In the face of such courage such unfaltering unfalter-ing faith such unswerving purpose such sublime heroism can any thoughtful man turn away with disdain and treat religion with contempt As well turn away from the sunlight I is true that multitudes of devout men and women have been misled false prophets proph-ets have brought countless millions under the strange spell of dark and abominable superstitions I is true also that various generations have killed their prophets and stoned those whom the Lord ha sent unto them But religion is a fact nevertheless never-theless fact of life of the most virile sqmn Its Impetus has persisted through all until there is no phenomenon more intricately or essentially Interwoven i through all the civilization and human progress And It was never more so than now under the blaze of the Inttprrlay light Never was the religious life of a people more intense and throbbing with energy than i is at this moment among th Americans and they are the most in tellicpnt and progressive people In the world The one ambition of thousands of the brightest and best in our institu tions of learning both east and west is to b a herald of the cross the glorious symbol nf that religion which is destined to e univpr What shall we pay thpn Certainly this That in the closing decades of thp Nineteenth conturv the phenomenon of j religion makes a sunromp demand upon the I intelligent and svmpathetc attention of ev j erv earn < 5tm5nd < Ki student of men and things Will the young men and young women wo-men of Utah respond with their best trained powers to separate the ore from the dross the incidental and provincial from the essential and universal In this day of r15jdous parliaments it i5 a hot of great fascination as well a of profound concern True religion in Its nature is so extensive exten-sive and Intensive that it mav exist apart from any special symbol I cannot be compressed Into the mould of any formal ceremony or creedal confession In the Ions list of notable men whose piety has enriched the world there are illustrious names representing creeds which arc regarded re-garded as mutualy destructive Romanism I Roman-ism and Protestantism are at swords points dogmatically Toplady the Calvinistic Cal-vinistic author of Rock of Ages could spend his last energies in denouncing the I supposed fatal doctrine of Charles Wesley Wes-ley the Armlnian author of Jesus Lover of My Soul But each hymn tells of a religious life which springs from the same fountainhead Romanist Protestant Protes-tant Calvinist Arminlan Unitarian each may be afraid of the others philosophy osophy and in opposition to his theology j and yet worship the same God in spnit and in truth The skeptical literature I i of this and preceding centuries Is largely 1 duo to the failure to discriminate I between i be-tween the inner life of religion and the j unnatural and grotesque often narrow I i and gross forms In which ecclesiastics have sought to express it Voltaire j launched his satirical sneers not at the sweet and righteous teachings of Jesus but at the current abominations of belief I be-lief the empty and meaningless forms and the Insatiable dominations of the j I ruling hierarchy I True religion cannot be measured byte by-te amount of ceremonial it cannot be determined by the process of addition it I Is Infinitely more than our dogmatism which today essays to compass and limit the Almighty but which tomorrow may be found in the wolrds mUf um nn a strange relic of the past The rlsirtful place of ceremony and specific cWPd is < second and never first They should spring out of the inward religious life which alono can interpret and assimilate them and give them power But the undue un-due exaltation of the symbol above the thing symbolized results in the intolerance intoler-ance of agnosticism and skepticism on the one hand and on the FePlclsm the equally vicious intolerance of sectarianIsm sectarian-Ism Religion In its essence Is not me 1 1 < chanical it is not dogmatic it Is vital dogmatc I is a process of life it is the lifethrob fountain as it pulsates from the souls deepest A great theologian defines religion a the life of God in the soul of man Paul says Alive unto God Jesus says Born from above born of the spirit of God True religion is life in the higher high-er realm of the spirit and so the life eternal When God created man he gave him a tripartite nature body soul and spirit The greatest of these is spirit And according to Gods evolutionary order or-der the spirit is the last to come into conscious life Just a in nature i Is First the blade then tho ear then the full corn in the ear s with man it Is first the physical then the mental and last of all the spiritual and It is only with the unfolding of the spiritual that we begin to realize the true blessedness of living One may enjoyhis physical life tp the full he may know tho exhilaration aration of mental growth and the intoxication intox-ication of mental achievement but when In the fullness of time and in response to the leading of the Spirit of God we begin to live in our spirit and feel the first throb of that new life as it thrills in the center of our being the experience is transcendent The deepest longings of the soul begIn to be satisfied Where clouds and thick darkness were new light begins be-gins to dawn and presently the sunbursts sun-bursts forth in glory Where before was dread and fear and disquiet almost to despair now there is hope joy and peace a hone which maketh us not ashamed joy unspeakable and full of glory peace that passeth understanding understand-ing yea that floweth broad and deep down with love We are communing with an unseen presence most holy most blessed most loving in whom we find absolute repose There are many sitting before me who understand exactly what I mean I is the experience of true religion I Is God coming into the inner sanctuary of the soul I is the soul coming into harmony har-mony with God and that is life life par excellence Adopting the language of science it is the spiritual organism of the soul In correspondence with its essential environment and this environment is the infinite and eternal energy from which all things proceed i is God in whom i we live and move and have our being j This life of God in the soul of man tvhich Is the essential thing In religion is not conditioned upon submission to any ceremonial or the acceptance of my special dogma or yours But we are human and immediately we set to work to explain our experience by theorizing and dogmatizing and we label our spec I utations orthodoxy We build our little lit-tle ecclesiastical house and imagine that only by entrance thither can light be found But the almighty and infinite God laughs us to scorn and whenever and wherever a soul is ready to receive i he dispenses his light and life We hurl our anathemas at those who do not pronounce our shibboleth of orthodoxy and even appeal to heaven saying Lord he followeth not after us but foloweth ater God speaking from heaven his dwelling place declares that he is no respector of persons but in every nation he that j feareth him and worketh righteousness I is accepted of him whether he b Jew i or Gentile Greek or barbarian Scythian bond or free 0 friend is this life yours Have you had an experience of its thrilling inspiring inspir-ing uplifting power Surely you will make it your first concern I will purify your emotions quicken your percepUons strengthen your reason rectify and energize I ener-gize your will fill you wih tunquenchable hope give you an outlook beyond the I prison wall of earths horizon and bring Into the whole realm of your individual life an enlargement and enrichment ineffable Inef-fable Tat we need to make life worth I living is this higher life of the soul No revelation of the map of the future with Its kingdoms and glories is for one moment mo-ment to be compared with the revelation in our hearts today of spiritual life And this experience may be yours 0 man I whosoever thou art and wheresoever thou I dwellest The way is not shrouded in j I inscrutable mystery it is not guarded l by an > secret initiation or priestly rite I I God is more willing to give the Holy I Spirit to those who ask him than earthly I I parents are to give good gifts to their children Ask and ye shall receive seek and ye shall find knock and It shall be opened unto you Follow the I Holy Spirit for As many are led by the spirit of God they are the sons of God I children then heirs heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ How can anyone any-one have more All things are yours and ye are Christs and Christs is Gods I This higher life of the spiritled man this true religion has in i possibilities unspeakably blessed to the whole human I race for the world that now is I has an outward expression o L Its own which tnere is no mistaiving a nvery irom neav en the monopoly ugf which heaven gives Ito I-to no class or people And a everyone I here present knows who has had an experimental ex-perimental acquaintance with true religion i relig-ion Its signmanual is love Men do not gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles By their fruits ye shall know them Jesus says Thou shalt love the Lord thy God wth all thy heart and thy neighbor a thyself and again Anew A-new commandment I give bate you that ye love one another Paul says Love is the fulfilling of the law Paul says again though I speak wiht the tongues of men and of angels though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries mys-teries and all knowlede though I bestow be-stow all my goods to feed the poor and give my body to be burned and have not love I have become a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal All these things go for naught as a expression of true religion for where true religion is there love is also He that loveth not know eth not God for God is love Love is the blending attribute in the character of God I is the mightiest power in the universe uni-verse persistent persuasive unconquerable unconquer-able When it ha possession o men i is like a well of living water perpetually overflowing for the blessing of all within its reach Now this I say that love overleaping all ecclesiastical boundaries is the distinguishing feature of the new life of the spirit The person in possession of it no longer reads the Decalogue a something outside of and apart from himself him-self but as something the rather which God has written by His own finger in the fleshly tablets of his own heart Shall he curse God Shall he He Shall he steal Shall he defrafld his neighbor No verily and not because the prohibition prohibi-tion is found in the Book but because ton these things do violence to his newborn life of love The fruit of the spirit is love joy peace longsuffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance What a revolution reformation regeneration regen-eration would the firevalence of these graces avail to make morally socially politically yea even ecclesiastically this world of ours No longer would there be any place for selfish selfseeking unholy un-holy ambition insult retaliation oppression oppres-sion and wrong which having possessed Individuals families and nations have played such a part in the tragedy of the world This mighty transformation this glorious consummation mustomc Exactly Ex-actly this Is involved in the programme of Jesus the wonderful teacher of religion relig-ion the worlds greatest seer and only Savior who taught us to pray Thy kingdom come thy will he done on earth as i is in heaven Tills great achievement achieve-ment of which the prophets and poets of every age have spoken cannot be obtained by force or reached by legislation but only by the touch of life Every soul that is alive In the spirit may be a center and source of life to others Only so will the culmination kingdom of God on earth hasten t its 0 young man young woman during these years of preparation for life have you not somewhere in some solemn hour consecrated all your Godgiven cowers I to the highest service of humanity Onlv 1 herein can your pledge be fulfilled rollaway roll-away the stone If perchance you have not and let the Lord God of Heaven sneak thy spirit Into life let him endow it abundantly abun-dantly with that rich and manifold grace gce which is peculiarly Its own Tho life which in this world ministers to righteousness and peace and love will 1f right hereafter And then though your future career he over so humble God will radiate I with glory as i ministers to that coming time when nations shall beat their swords into plowshares and learn the arts of war no more when instead rarn stead of the thorn shall come up the fig tree and instad of thl briar hal come up the myrtle tre when the mountains moun-tains and hills hal break forth ipto plnjr I I clap Ins pfl their nil hands the trees of the field shall |