| Show T BACCALAUREATE Delivered by President Talmage of the University 1 TH THEATRE WELL FILED AX AUDIEXCIfl HEPHESEXTIXQ THE CULTURE OF THE CITY 4 ie Aildres Listened to With Rapt Vttention from the Opxsniiis Until tHe Close True Significance of Commencement The Present II Duty A large audience representative of the culture of the city filled the theatre the-atre last evening when President Tal mage delivered the baccalaureate sermon ser-mon to the graduation class of Utah The chancellor and regents occupied j seats on the right of the stage the wives of the professors the seats on the 1 f wMile the members of the faculty were seated on the stage Commissioner Commission-er Lewis and Superintendent Mills faugh were interested listeners and the graduates occupied seats in the parquet Through a mishap the singers failed to appear and the musical selections ro omitted After an impressive invocation by Professor Matthews President Tal migeAplivered his sermon which was 1 fC11 to with wrapt attention from the opening until the close 1 he Sermon Followhii is a fairly full report of the bermoi rue pr in t ocrasion is in no sense an innovation on college customs inn h in-n ral Hat lit r is it in accordance wth a cuct im which has proved of n I lesome effect in institutions that sm rijer and greater than ours We hav gathered here not so much into 1spo S in-to common usage however as t > answer the calls of propriety and present necessity I were well l haps t at such an assembly as this a general gathering of our academic family with friends and well wishers c iull takf place within the walls of cur own shlastc home But this t nnnt bi fo though the university lialls are i CCOUF and though lodging and living rom is provided for all there is n > apartment beneath the in fctitutionV r If in which all the sons an I daugni = of the family can met at one tim I peak this not as a sj1 of r = trpss nor as the outpouring oic mplaint rather gladly indeed as vr of of ur increase of numbers and HS niden f the prevailing earnest nr s in attendance I is better that too small for us lare rooms rr ve smaI than tha mal looms afford space to tIar Ttwrefr w Te here now as to the ex use or rathr the reason for our c ming t gtthfr I appears to > be 111 pr th i HS the work of the year is irawing rear the period of tem Ilar suspension when most of the Hissroom routine and the toil of all al-l tu 1 service < is behind us we meet in s nie general capacity to review in rh ught some phases of our pleasing lib idtP struggle and the triumphs of tijpYar and perhaps to indulge a lirospi5 r glance on the small frac tn orytho road of the future whieh may be visible though but only soft so-ft m < u present vantage ground The I quiet and peace of this day of rest are pl suited to the purpose of our m ting And now fellow students as I aj dress you in behalf of your professors and teachers for it is not possible that each speak to you at lengthI desire 11 put aside all formality of method ind manner which might interfere with the attainment of our present object I do not intend to add yet an c thei to the lectures and set addresses to which you have listened in the halls f instruction nor to discuss in any th tail any special theme of philosophical philosophi-cal scientific or other such interest n I to attempt the presentation of thoughts that are wholly new Surely this lson is numbered among those you tlap learned that through the fjsjvfitj < weak powers of assimil 17 kitj > n characterizing human nature icPt ution is often essential to a comp com-p pension of truth We are not infrequently infre-quently benefited in listening to that which we already know I believe the rl urns of novelty in instruction are octanes overstated I regard the occasion as also others Incident to the rounding off of our < j oars work as a Sort of halting place at which we pause to refresh ourselves for future labor and in no sense as ant an-t nding of effort or a final consummation consumma-tion of purpose Graduation day is near at hand With all deference to those who look tut at the surface of things who rasp but the superficial meaning of < 6vJs and so object to the name by w hi h the occasion is known I confess 1 like much that misunderstood term designating a aay of days in the students stu-dents commencement I1 truth it is what the name implies n u a finale rather a shifting of the seen j > o provide a setting for another t c S tts about to begin in the drama of our lives The bit of paper or parchment at testd by official signature and orna menti d by seal and ribbon is often intcnreted too literally Know ye that whereas thIs student has satis fad rily tinisned or successfully c meted the work prescribed now tnerefore we award him this diploma pto Completed finished This is but finventional form How few there are who read between the engraved lines uf the Drecious document the true sig mfi atit nwhereas he has well begun his work and has given evidence of his ability and earnest cesire to continue i therefore we gladly though almost tremblingly certify thereto and bid him God speed in the struggle that lies before him What are all the endings of work on earth but beginnings finishings they are commencements A start to greater effort to higher endeavor graduation step by step advancement Such 4s indicated toy the very word from class to class department to department de-partment and the endthere is none in sight Our school dignified as i is by the name university like every one of the kind is after all but a preparatory prepara-tory school for the great educational institution of lifes experience and trial And of the pupils the bust amongst us those even of whom we speak as strong and able are but feeble graduates from the primary L irses of the great establishment As wfcmeet with those who perhaps years Wlmeet the classrooms in which we ttT11 work with alternate smiles and sighs as we count their victories won and the defeats they have borne as those who are still In their novitiate mingle wiTh the elder brethren and the more experienced sisterhood who have passed to higher orders those who have received the post graduate degrees de-grees which the practical department gees of lifes great college alone can give surely we experience some check tour t-our disposition to rest in dan rom ease through undue satisfaction will the past believing that all has beer done Our relatively more advanced studies may have to be pursued under circumstances and amid surrounding t very different from those that have t marked our course heretofore The L earnest student sitting at his 3esk r with no tools but book and tablet and pen learns to love the monastic soli tufie of his study and may not take kin Y to the duties of the laboratory whe hands must work as well as i hea fcre aprons must be donned J g J 1 I n where fingers are stained and blistered And yet the laboratory is a necessary part in the equipment of any useful school Contrasts > even greater than these await the progressive workers I cite you an instance of a truly great man great in the integrity of his heart in the meekness and humility hu-mility of his spirit and in the divinely bestowed power with which he was endowed Moses the deliverer and lawgiver of Israel received his primary pri-mary education in the palaces of the Pharoahs robed and attended as became be-came the son of a king There amidst royal surroundings he learned princely ways and in time was prepared for more advanced instruction And what institution did he attend for this higher tuition and training The university of the wilderness While keeping his sheep in the desert he wrs free to commune with his God and to receive wisdom from the fountain foun-tain head of truth After forty years of this kind of schooling during which his powers of observation and judgment judg-ment were parfected his selfcontrol developed and the weakness of ignorance ignor-ance dissipated He was adjudged by the Great Teacher worthy of further advancement how to become leader and lawgiver to a nation the teacher and scourge of kings I And so with many more after an I adequate probation in palaces of learning learn-ing they are led by the divinely appointed ap-pointed circumstances of necessity into the wilderness of life there to ripen their experience to perfect their knowledge and happy indeed may they be for great will they become if the conditions of their appointed lot be ever made to soften and to beautify their natures Many of these lessons often the deeI jt and most valuable of all are not set down on the pro gramme of daily order they are not II considered in detail as we arrange our plans for schooling they belong to what we call general education which results from association with our fellows fel-lows and from contact with the world There has been in the recent period of human history a very general throwing open of the doors in schools and colleges but still there remains much of the cloistered air about these institutions of both high and low degree de-gree We must not we cannot remain re-main there closeted forever I would not keep a student in school for all time I would wish him passed when prepared as preparation goes to the more practical departments of life But he should go forth as perhaps he came not ina student indeed In the early stages of the years work this was declared to you and often In the course of the flying weeks has the lesson been repeated I trust that none have ignored i You were told and I tell you again that your alma mater expects of you demands of you indeed something more than simple devotion to prescribed classes True you are pupils of hers but more than that she regards you as her children and as such she takes an interest in-terest and pride in all your doings in your future as in your past Her ambition is that you become not alone I scholars but men and women in the truest and most honorable meaning of I the terms Your work may stand recorded re-corded on official registers as of high I grade in language literature mathematics mathe-matics art and science but if today you are not truer nobler better sons and daughters than when you entered upon your studies if your academic aca-demic training has not made and will not continue to make of you better citizens more honorable and more useful in the world you should count yourselves among the I failed and resolutely determine to redeem re-deem the record The modern aspect of education is preeminently a utilitarian I tarian one this is an encouraging I condition unless by utility we understand under-stand mere money getting power That I knowledge is most useful which puts and keeps its possessor in strictest j I harmony with the music of progress I with which the world today resounds To find ones place in the economy of j life to 1 it honorably unostentatiously I unostenta-tiously completely is the great duty of man Not to confute disorganize I and destroy but to build up and to subserve the general good I spoke of harmony and music what great lessons lie in the proper application of that comparison Life is musical labor is melodious to all whose ears are prepared to hear whose souls are attuned to respond In the combined orchestra and choir of effort pouring forth the sublime anthem endeavor strains of the great now in soft and peaceful tones now in rolling volumes that thunder forth the passages of struggle each is a singer or an operator with his part so necessary i o the harmony of the majestic whole A traveler who sojourned so-journed for 3 time in the Italian clime of song tells of an instructive experience He entered at evening time a little church in a small hamlet where only poor people lived In the course of the service the congregation sang and our visitor was surprised at the discord that marked the effort toward to-ward musical praise Being himself a lover of sweet sound he was greatly distressed and rose to leave the chapel and its earnest but untrained singers As he reached the door he caught the pure tones of one whose voice was in strictest time and tune His eye swept the congregation oer in search of the sweet musician as one may peer among the foliage of the copse to catch sight of some feathered songster whose notes have entered his soul He had little trouble in recognizing the object of his searching search-Ing gaze A woman stood at the foot of the gae pulpit steps beautiful in the soulful expression of her countenance as soulul the sweetness of her voice her notes a seeming all the purer from contrast con-trast And on she sang paying little trast to the discordant accompaniment accompani-ment She made no effort to drown the other voices had she so done she might have wandered far from her the own course of melody Before stanza was finished a dozen were singing sing-ing in harmony with her and by ones I and twos they followed her lead till the hymn closed with every voice in earnest tune So sings a single worker amongst the masses who know no more than to shriek and how Sing on devout soul let thy companions disturb thee not nor cause thee to skip a bar nor drop a note through their discord without thy consciousness or theirs sooner cr later they will sing with thee or cess to disturb if thou art right and they are wrong Thou mayest not he th director di-rector of the choir therefore seek not to compel Pure devotion to duty is a power that will make itself felt for good It is not in the order of nature that all shall play or sing the same tart some perform solos but then khcre are duets and quartets and passages in which the sound of every voica and every piece must be heard or the music is marred I see among my friends some who have been assigned to simple and pleasing ditties they sing as the brook sings bubbling sweet Tis refreshing ts citeh ever is soothed in so few of their lines one their society After listening to martial mar-tial strains and mighty thoughts that suggest lifes endless strife and endeavor en-deavor seek them if you long for rest Then turn to others whose life perhaps is a heavier one who e song is fraught with the roar of the sea the cry of the wind the thundr of inclement storm To know sich to listen to the great anthem of their destiny Is to imbibe the spirit of trong desire and mighty effort And again there are others whose entire work may be likened to a funeral Urge sad marches affecting cadences hey sing with drooping head or Inger the keys with tearful eyes eaching the word of resignation ond of devotion in sorrow Tell me fellow fel-low singers has each of us learned Ms place in the choir are we best nrepared for treble or basso To ex cute the desfgn of the divine com ooscf not a line can be lost not a lot or tittle may fail I you sing It not some one else will fill the place th < performance will not be stopped And now to change the figure let I 1 me urge upon you the study of present pres-ent duty Tonight your hearts are full of hope the future Is illumined you think lightly of the obstacles besetting be-setting your path toward success of the struggle that must be waged The soft yielding vessel has been shaped upon the potters wheel perhaps with some skill assuredly with earnest intent ski assuredl tent if the plastic material has been I well tempered we fear the less the trial of the morrow when the hot furnace flame Is to test the heart and try the frame to stamp with honor or with shame these vessels made of clay Look forward guided by the best counsel you can secure and above all by the promptings of your own prayerful hearts trustful and humble Lay out your course of travel and of work This decided upon look to the ground beneath your feet and lose no time in speculations concerning concern-ing futurity I stood once on a dark winter night bya railway track at a station waiting wait-ing for the train that was to carry me home to shelter and warmth A storm had been raging for days and not a few fears had been expressed that railway travel would be impeded But promptly on time the train place and while reached the halting whie the water tank was being filled and some adjustment of cars made I ventured to ask the engineer how he liked his occupation how he regarded the dangers of his calling particularly particu-larly how he felt on such a night when the powers of destruction seemed all at large His answer was a lesson long to be remembered in the philosophy of life and duty Look phiosophy the headlight illumines the track for a hundred yards or more so much of my life is clear Perhaps miles ahead the way may be obstructed ob-structed the bed washed out the bridge swept away but I try to cover the hundred yards of lighted road and before I have done so another shown And travel as part is clearly fast as I may the light Is always ahead for the rest I must trust to Providence I hardly expected to find diver so able a teacher in the grimy but I took my seat in the coach to ponder over the lesson quite content ponde to leave my safety in the hands of one whose soul was so full of faith Faith Ah that was an example of Fnih pure faith of which the theologian theolo-gian talks for which we pray No blind indifference that may be naught but rashness under another name but trusting hope and unfailing confidence trustng dence in an overruling power in whose hands rests the safety of all Ride on part of the path is clear be sure thou art on the right road be sure thy duty tells thee to proceed and the darkness of the years deepest night will be dissipated as fast s thou canst travel That such faith is essential to a true regard of life and a proper performance perform-ance of its duties is now very generally gener-ally recognized Any effort that increases In-creases such trust betters our entire life I has been said that intellec lfe all tual development tends to quench al faith and to exalt the mind above the soul Such I not development or progress but retrogression I we designate such training by the name education we do but misuse the term A true education is that which develops the entire organism and of this the spiritual part claims full recognition in any scheme of training train-ing An unsymmetrical development must resul in deformity and deformity de-formity is always unnatural hideous whether it produce an unsightly growth of muscle and the dwarfing of spirit and mind or the reverse Intellectual In-tellectual power unaccompanied un tempered by the element of spiritual life may be the attribute of a giant but giants are monstrosities literally and figuratively The I influences of religion are as necessary to the perfect development of man as is the dew essential to the growth of the plant and the sun shjne to the ripening and mellowing of fruit True religion Is a powerful educator Ana wnat is true religion in the present sense Not my faith because it is mine not yours because it is your not the proclaiming of orthodoxy because in accordance with my views to the exclusion of heterodoxy hetero-doxy because not mine but any form of spiritual belief founded in sincerity and applied to the growth of the faculties and the perfecting of the soul The scholar who is so engrossed in the pursuit of knowledge of men and things that he has no time nor inclination to heed the cravings of the spirit for food without which i can be regarded as wise So too the spiritually minded if neglectful of physical and mental demands will become no less an example of deformity de-formity he will grow into an enthusiast en-thusiast a zealot a bigot deprived by his own indiscretion of the power to judge and even the capacity of intelligent in-telligent worship What mal calls secular learning and what he knows as religion are handmaidens engaged in reciprocal service Religion mingles the sweets of humility the fragrance of prayer and the nourishing elements of faith with the draughts of knowledge which but for such addition were intoxicating in-toxicating and would act more as stimuli than as food Learning which comes from the cultivation of judgment judg-ment and the development of mind power strengthens and supplements the ministrations of her sister curbing curb-ing the tendency to unbalanced zeal removing the excrescences of abnormal abnor-mal growth pruning and shaping the tree of each ones life I has been said that higher education is not conducive con-ducive to religious growth that the indications of science and the speculations specu-lations of philosophy tend to weaken the foundations of faith and even that those teachings argue the nonexistence non-existence of an overruling power which man calls God Search and see if such extravagant views are held by the truly wise they are usually the words of the unfortunate few who have mistaken knowledge for wisdom the form for the substance the word of the tongue for the power that moves i Knowledge and wisdom far from being one have oft times no connections The teachings of science and of philosophy and I mean by such not the words of men who are called scientists or philosophers of mere students in these great schools of thought and work but the voice of nature herself as she is heard in the study cell in the forest among the hills on the sea in the chemists laboratory and beneath the astronomers astrono-mers dome all declare the existence of a superhuman or as we may say in a guarded sense a supernatural power ever guiding all governing beneficent Students you have been offered during dur-ing the school session now closing a course of incidental lectures by specialists among your professors each treating of his own subject from a professional point of view and all leading to the conclusion just announced an-nounced a divine power Those lectures lec-tures while varied in subject and treatment proved so truly a unit In the foundational teachings as to suggest sug-gest the title the testimony of the sciences in favor of theism But the theism so indicated as true is far removed re-moved from sectarian creed wholly devoid of petty bias I may not be it is not likely that God can be found with microscope and scalpel with test tube or flask with goniometer telescope but with such tools the student earnestly working cannot fail i to recognize a power beyond his vision yet a power of which the pulses and the motions are unmistakable unmistak-able The extent of our solar system once seemed to man more limited than it does at present and the discovery of the most distant planetary family was due to a recognition of an attractive attrac-tive force inexplicable except on the supposition of the existence of other planets The astronomer tracing known bodies along their orbital paths could feel the pull could seethe see-the wire that drew them from a narrower nar-rower course he saw not Neptune as he piled calculations sheet on sheet but the existence of the orb was clearly indicated and heeding such indications it was sought for and found Theory alone could never have revealed them though theory was incomplete in-complete unsatisfactory without i but the practical search instigated by theory led to the great demonstration demonstra-tion And what Is all science but theory compared to the practical Influence of prayerful reliance on the assistance of an omniscient omnipotent omnipo-tent power Disregard not the id eations of your science work the trembling of the needle that declares the magnetic Influence the instinct within that speaks of a life and a lifegiver far beyond human power of explanation or comprehension As you sit beneath the canopied dome pondering in the silence of night oVer the perturbations the yearnings which the soul cannot ignore turn in the direction of those yearning impulses im-pulses and with the penetrating space annihilating time annulling glass of prayer and faith seek the source of that pervading force As your voices are lifted in praise of science and art of philosophy and knowledge in general be not like Belshazzar of old and his impious host who while worshipping their dieties of wood and stone of iron and of brass forgot the God in whose hands their breath rested and whose were all their ways And let no one think he is of little worth as a subject sub-ject of care and compassion to this beneficent power the Father of his spirit We may be weak and small but our Makers care extends alike to small and great for His eye behold eth all which are sees without search and cometh without care nor lies the babe nearer the nursing place than Allahs smallest child to Allahs grace Let this trust in God be wisely exercised ex-ercised It will be the more complete and sincere Our Father is not pleased with professed trust which becomes the cloak of idleness the excuse for leaving work undone Our dependence depend-ence on him if acceptable must be associated with effort to work for ourselves our-selves this is declared alike by the scriptural records of inspiration and revelation as by the example of ra ture in every part of her domain Dependence and independence terms antithetical in form are by no means opposed in their nature Independence Independ-ence that scorns assistance and particularly par-ticularly that which refuses the aid that is all essential is not manly it is haughty Work is honorable and pleasing pleas-Ing in Divine eyes as among men Learning should dignify labor should increase the enjoyment of life in the discharge of duty The facilities offered of-fered by schools such as ours are for the workers the toilers the masses Were it otherwise were these opportunities oppor-tunities provided for those alone who are to become doctors and lawyers and professors there would be little excuse for the great expenditure of means and effort involved for the appropriation of public funds the devotion i de-votion of private charities for the sacrifices made by parentsthe brow sweat and the heart sweat which go to meet the price of these privileges Our former graduates are now found as will those of the future ba found not only in professional chairs or in places of public trust and emolument worthy as is the ambition to fill such stations but also in the field at the carpenters bench with the instruments instru-ments of hand craft at command The plow the trowel and the hammer are as useful tools and quite as worthy of our respect as are the microscope mic-roscope and the pen Any professed system of education which engenders a distaste for labor is dangerous in the extreme Books schools colleges and universities should aid the toiler in his duty showing purpose for his work teaching method and plan in its execution not turn him away from work and make of him an idler The school course is an apprenticeship in the use of the tools by which the work of life is to be wrought The development of such power and skill has been the chief purpose of the instruction imparted to you In the brief period of three four or six vears which your courses have covered cover-ed any attempt to exhaust th subjects sub-jects of study wouid have been futile Your teachers have striven less earn tlv to tcieh mathematics or science than to Indicate good and as they bet be-t methods of pursuing such studies to start you upon the course leaving you now to proceed alone Some of you are about to bid lnl to tho instructors and the class TI von have worked and to follow other teachers perhaps to become teachers unto others Be tore any one can successfully discharge dis-charge the duties of such an exalted calling he must be in truth a teacher unto himself Physician heal thy self has grown trite as an adage applicable to every one who is ready to pluck the mote from his brothers eye while making no effort to remove the beam that obstructs his own vision Self taught self made men are often referred to as exceptional instances of progression without the aid of professional instructors but In truth we are all to a great degree elf taught all self made The student unable to help himself the pupil relying lying implicitly upon the guidance of tutors Is still in leading strings He must learn to walk alone and his purpose should be to discharge in some degree his debt of honor toward those who helped him in his infancy by assisting his less experienced fellows fel-lows who are perhaps still in their toddling period The aspiring painter paint-er the gifted sculptor the student of science of letters of law must in due time leave the feet of his masters and go forth to paint and to chisel to read and to indite for themselves and for others The power of imitation is not to be despised but the capacity of Independent and original work is the characteristic of genius I believe there is at least a spark of this celes ial fire within the nature of every man but in few instances is i shield Id and fanned so that i becomes any thing more than a spark The dependent student unwilling to attempt work of Juooself is compar able to a stonebrought In from the roadside and placed amid the fire is warmed It may glow red or white from the intensity of the heat that operates upon it as long as the external ex-ternal force of its fiery energy is maintained but it becomes cold again as soon as i is exposed The true fuel burns steadily and brightly because be-cause of the latent energy of its own being Or compare the student teacher to a simple organism The mental nourishment nourish-ment gathered from living teachers from books and from the experiences of life is to be digested assimilated before i can again be put forth as working power These mysterious pwer processes of digestion and assimilation are processes of transformation the latent energy of growth garnered in ener the plant tissue of leaf and stem of root fruit and seed which serve men for food do not reappear as vegetable energy The flesh of the deer or the ox upon which we subsist may not manifest its powers through the human hu-man body as brute strength or speed of foot but in the effusion of the poets soul in the deep reasoning of the philosopher osopher the skill of the experimental scientist in the masterly touch of the artist in the words of the theologian the voice of the prophet Leighton has told us that the man who puts forth only what he has received is like a sheep that eats grass and grows grass instead of wool upon its back Car lyles omnivorous reader is not extinct he continues to absorb everything absorbable ab-sorbable as a sponge takes up water and returns i again under pressure only a little dirtier Or again he has been compared to an hourglass the sand runs in and runs out leaving no trace of its passage but the wearing away of the instrument The teacher must be a student an educated manTis man-Tis a poor recommendation for a shoemaker shoe-maker to go with his own footcover ing down at the heel or for the tailor to appear in poorly fitting garments or rags or for the minister who professes to be the pastor of the flock to be himself him-self a black sheep or worse a wolf with the ewes fleece upon his back The teacher untaught and unteachable is as the tailor untailored the shoemaker shoe-maker unshod the preacher unsanoti fed fedI is the duty of every citizen to make himself as valuable as he can in the commonwealth And education the development of power and consequent conse-quent usefulness is the means offered for thus increasing the value of the individual The worth of the state is the worth of the individual composing it and so toy bettering himself the citizen contributes to the general good Selfishness in improvement is purely unselfish The human mind the soul of man are no longer regarded as growing by mere accretion as the crystal grows by addition from without with-out layer on layer but as an organism of the highest type which is nourished from within increasing in strength by the marvelous process of intususcep tionLook I Look at the dog rose blossoming on its thorny bush by the roadside Though beautiful as most flowers are i gives little promise of excellence its corolla is single its perfume is weak yet by proper training and pruning through strict attention to the essential essen-tial conditions of its life it may be developed into a gorgeous blossom shedding its sweet and powerful fragrance frag-rance afar The crabapple is sour astringent and uninviting the fruit is small the pulp is scarce deserving deserv-ing the name so typical of wild and untrained qualities that we speak in metaphor of a human being uncontrolled uncon-trolled and acrid as crabbed Yet what a change has the horticulturist wrought in the plant The choicest of our apples have come from this stock pomes ribh large and juiceful the brushy shrub becomes a shapely umbrageous um-brageous tree no longer spending its energies in mere Increase of substance of comparatively useless wood and gnarled branches but a tree capable of bearing fruit that suggests again the beauties and delights of Eden Now as are training and pruning to the dog rose and the crab such is true education to the human mind I wish to make another comparison asking your care however in its application ap-plication for terms of money value are too often misapplied in the measure meas-ure of educational worth The iron ore taken from our mines is practically worthless in its natural state We do not reckon its value by the pound but when converted into pig iron according accord-ing to official quotation it is worth from 3 to 4 cents per pound convert it into steel and it commands a prjce over four times as great Operate upon still further as for instance by being worked up into screws it sells at 1 a pound As steel wire perhaps 5 As fine jewel screws for watches it is quoted at 3500 per pound and as hair springs for high grade watches it ranks in value at 16000 per pound A pound of pure gold is worth but a fiftieth part as much as the last price quoted Thus iron by all means the most valuable becomes for its most refined uses the most costly metal There are yet other considerations which should impel the young people of our community to the fullest possible possi-ble Improvement of their opportunities These may be summed up under the expressive name of gratitude Our mountain home has been so recently redeemed from its desert condition that many of those who have been instrumental in effecting the wondrous change still walk amongst us and the glory they have won in making i possible pos-sible for you and me to enjoy the educational edu-cational facilities now so abundantly supplied will never fade Young men and young women of Utah you of that class to which I count myself with honor in belonging the youth of this landlet us strive as never human beings be-ings have striven before let us develop de-velop until we become a community of philosophers and sages inventors and discoverers masters of the worlds great affairs we shall never surpass the achievements or dim the lustre of our worthy fathers and mothers of the founders of the commonwealth the devoted promoters of its interests who have given their bone and sinew their hearts blood to making this region re-gion what it is today When a great architect lays his plans for a gorgeous structure he considers every detail of design and construction He sees the edifice rising from foundation to pin acle and rejoices in the prospect He looks about for men to whom he can pntr1 t th tnmiihn Sit fho foundation tbewiid and for this work he seeks hornyhanded toilers wtfio are not afraid of exertion strongmen strong-men who can move and shape the huge blocks for corner stones and the base of walls Then the walls are reared the roof is set and lighter work becomes the order of the day Indoors workers are called for and soon the painters and decorators whose heaviest heavi-est tool Is the pencil or the brush are at work But what would all their labor amount to if the foundation were poorly laid If your study has been thorough if your devotion has been heartfelt you should need today no external incentive incent-ive to your work You should work for the love of work seek truth for its own sake Strive to be great and every good man is great I you deserve de-serve your name of graduates you are habituated to doing good Habit is an essential part of our being I ha been falsely called second nature Man has no second nature His habits are part of his nature and will greatly direct and control his actions Put forth your exertions willingly unreservedly un-reservedly I is required of you that no effort shall be spared that no labor shall be considered too arduous A teacher once declared that he would not count none among his friends who urged or tempted him at any tie to do other than his best He was afraid of the friend who solicited a few remarks re-marks or a brief essay that he could toss off without thought or trouble Every line he wrote every sentence he spoke was born of an attempt to do his best and when accomplished whether praised or neglected his comment com-ment was that and better will do Shun the delusion that best efforts are to be made only on special occasions You have received freely now go forth and freely give When the great Teacher of Nazareth walked with his disciples in the temple tem-ple corriflors he saw the rich and the great capt their treasures into the eel fi 5 the sanctuary They came with haughty mien and much display of charity And there came yet another an-other a widow poor and humble When she thought no eye observed her she cast in her two mites and sorrowed that she had not more to give Then the master said to those who were with him Of a truth I say unto you that this poor widow has cast in more than they all for all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerIngs offer-Ings of God but she of her penury hath cast in all the living she hath The time of graduation is generally the time of congratulation You receive re-ceive the good wishes of your friends you learn something of the best they think of you Now tell me what do you think of yourselves Can you apply ap-ply strict analytical tests and ascertain ascer-tain your own true worth and fitness Few there are among you who have this power Some are prone to exalt their own virtues and ignore their faults I commend you to the practice of selfesteem I have little confidence for him who does not love himself A man should love himself with a true and holy love an affection at once impassipned and impassionate Not an unhallowed affection comparative to lustful love this is selfish and therefore sinful i leads to arrogance and conceit but he should esteem himself for his work for his lineage is child of God and heir to salvation to the extent that he will shrink from every debasing act or thought that has a downward trend Happy is he who has ibecome a fair and agreeable companion com-panion unto himself with heart and mind so thoroughly furnished as to welcome the hour of selfcommunion How different js he from the other who lost to virtue lost to manly thought lost to the noble sallies of the soul doth think it solitude to be alone My student friends I have kept my promise to speak to you tonight on common topics Perhaps you have wearied of such plain remarks but life is made up of commonplaces Those of you who leave us now go forth with our hearty and prayerful wishes for your future and those who return will be welcQmef to other stages of preparation prepar-ation that they may be the better prepared pre-pared to follow those who go May you be worthy your high estate devoted your de-voted God to self to fellow man and to |
