OCR Text |
Show CONSCIENCE, THE FOUNDATION FOUNDA-TION OF A REPUBLIC Education of American Youth Conscience Consci-ence the Foundation of an Empire Webster's Advice to Young MenDefinition MenDefi-nition of Conscience Conscience a National asset Norman McLeod and the British Association How Great Men Are Made. Tho invitation extended by the President and Regents of the Utah College of Agriculture and Economies to Dean Harris, Chaplain to Kearns St. Ann's Orphanage. Salt Lake City, is a pleasing in- dication of the broad and tolerant spirit which y characterizes our western life. This is the first occasion, oc-casion, in the history of the college, that a Catholic A priest has delivered the Baccalaureate sermon. The f Dean is almost effusive in the expression of his ap-( ap-( J. precision of the hospitality and courtesy of Dr. ' Sr Widtsne. the President of the IT. A. C, the Board fvi Trustees, the members of the Faculty and the citizens of Logan. . THE ADDRESS. I Mr. President. I beg to thank you most eor- t dially for the honor you have done me in asking ine to address such a representative body of the intellect in-tellect andjculture and strength of our magnificent State of Utah and its sister States. Ladies and gentlemen. I see before me very largely young men whose energy and enterprise and honesty are the hope of our country; young menwho have been trained under our educational system, and whose entire future will be influenced by our educational ideas. I have no doubt that you, as young men, looking into the future as well as upon the past and present, pres-ent, will take the deepest interest in all that concerns con-cerns the building up of tur nationality, and. more particularly in that part of it which depends upon the education of the youth of the Republic. And by education I mean the building of character and nil that concerns the religious, political, industrial, social and commercial interests of our gTeat country. coun-try. ' N6w at the very foundation of all character and education there must be a conscience, for without conscience there can be no character, and education educa-tion itself must become perverted. One among our greatest statesmen and orators, Daniel Webster, advised young men to give close attention to definitions. If your distinguished President, Pres-ident, Dr. Widtspe, were giving a definition of conscience, con-science, he would, I assume, make that definition scholastic; with his wealth of erudition he could hardly do otherwise. But with his permission and yours, I will use today a simple and practical definition, defi-nition, easily understood and easily applied. Conscience, Thomas 'a Kempis' tells us, is the voice of God dwelling in every human soul, encour-i'f encour-i'f aging the 6oul when it acts in harmony with the ' laws of nature and revealed precepts of its Creator, ; and rebuking it when it violates these laws and ; 1 ' precepts. I ' In conscience there is a moral judgment respect- J, I ing right and wrong; not right and wrong in the , ' " abstract, nor right and wrong in the conduct of an- other, but right and wrong in one's own conduct. (3 rowing out of this moral judgment, or accompanying accom-panying it, there is a sensation, a feeling, an emotion, emo-tion, call it what we may, that we have done, as responsible re-sponsible beings, what we ought or ought not to have done. Depending upon this moral judgment, proceed- ing from this emotion, there is a sense of obligation, i I a consciousness of duty. A man notmly knows, ' but he feels, that in the words of our catechisms "he should avoid evil and do good." When we speak of conscience, as a. national asset, as-set, or in a national relation, we have. in mind the family, the conduct of personal affairs, and the conduct of public business, in their relation to the individual and to society at large; for when conscience con-science is respected in these three realms, it makes for the preservation and perpetuity of the state and its institutions. There is a tendency in our day for parents to throw upon the schools certain parental responsibilities which in the times of our fathers and grandfathers were assumed by the father and mother. I plead for a return to the past, and for such a conscience in the father as shall put upon himself a responsibility for the up-bringing of his children in such a manner and in such a spirit and with such ideals that they shall take their place in the Repub-, Repub-, lie bye and bye, ready for its duties and responsi- bililk's, worthy of high things and equal to high endeavor. It It is obvious that conscience in the transaction of business is necessary to the successful prosccu- ion of the multitudinous affairs of our business world. A year ago the financiers of Salt Lake City were filled with anxiety lest the financial trouble through which some in that city were passing should result in a general loss of confidence; for upon the confidence of the people in our institutions and in the men who direct them, the business of the inter-mountain inter-mountain tates depends. Withdraw confidence and the entire fabric is shattered. This is so obvious that I need only draw attention to it in passing. Confidence between business man and business man, and confidence in the officials of our great financial finan-cial institutions, is necessary to commercial stabil-itv stabil-itv and progress. Underlying confidence is con- J -irnce. Conscience in public affairs, political and commercial makes the difference between a great nation and a decaying nation, a progressive nation and a retrogressing nation. There are worse thmes v- V " ' -i I, : tU, . ' v ( ! fry i ' . . i .: i Very Rev. Dean Harris, D. D., LL. D. . i . in politics than party animosities. Party or individual indi-vidual lack Jof . conscience is worse. I am not of those who rejoice when there is nothing of strenuous strenu-ous feeling between the representatives of parties, or who think that in this there is promise of an early millenium. I do not rejoice when there is no occasion occa-sion for great differences of opinion, and for profound pro-found feeling growing out of those differences. It is well for a nation when there are occasions for deep feeling growing out of profound convictions. Stalwart convictions, like stalwart faith, are elements ele-ments of greatness wnether in an individual or a nation. It is deplorable when, in any country, those who frame the laws or direct the business of a nation, or those who have to do with the explanation and interpretation of the law, or its execution, are ready to compromise with conscience, and jauntily and easily turn from the right and do the wrong. I would plead, if it were necessary to plead, for such a conscience in the individual, in the family, in business and in politics, as should hold our people to high ideals for social and national ends. The celebrated Scotch divine. Xorman HcLeod, once attended a meeting of the British Association and was not pleased with the coquetting of the members of the society with Darwin's theory of evolution and the "Descent of Man." McLeod was an orthodox Presbyterian, and his rugged faith in the verbal inspiration of the Bible protested against any expression of opinion which imperilled the inspirational in-spirational tradition. Returning to Edinburough, he expressed his contempt for Darwin and the members mem-bers of the British Association by sending them the first chapter of Genesis according to Darwin. This is how it read when he mailed it: First Verse "The earth was without form and void." Second verse "A meteor fell upon the earth." Third verse "The result was fish, flesh and fowl." Fourth verse "From these proceeded the British Brit-ish Association." Fifth verse "And the British Association pro nounced it all tolerably good." There are those who admit that there, has been a .marvelous evolution in the past in national organization or-ganization and ideals. They have seen where the material universe was without form and void. They have seen the fall of the meteor. They have seen coming out of the meteor fish, flesh and fowl, and from fish, flesh and fowl they have seen the evolution evolu-tion of themselves and their times. But the unfortunate un-fortunate thing is that they pronounce it all "tolerably "tol-erably good." They are satisfied and look for nothing noth-ing greater in the future. They are distrustful, if not pessimistic, when the face the question as to whether anything better can be done among nations na-tions than iias been done already. So long as our nation continues to give birth to great statesmen with a conscience, to produce such leaders of men as the late Mr. Cleveland and the man now at the helm of the Ship of State Mr. Taft, the Republic must continue to prosper and move forward. Why should there not be in this land, and in this century, with all the best of the centuries to teach us, with all the accumulated resources religious, intellectual, moral of the present day, why should there not be evolved an imperial ideal better than anv that was known when Rome ruled the world; betler than the dream of Bonaparte;, better than any material shape that taakes form in the vision of a Czar or a Kaiser or perhaps a Mikado; better than even that splendid and mighty reality which our fathers actualized and wrought out upon this Glorious earth. Why not? Why may not the future offer a more transcendent vision, an ideal more lofty and then, a reality grander and more exalted than 'anything the present holds or the past has knMx. President and Ladies and Gentlemen, it is ' p g ,llllt 1 1 up,, 1 mi i iii'I' - "' with some such hopes, with such visions, that I approach ap-proach my own duty, and invite you to approach your own duty, as citizens of the United States today. to-day. The present conditions of our country are favorable to the production of great men. Great tasks, great responsibilities, great duties, obligations obliga-tions and opportunities, make men great. The Bedouin Arab wants to know only where to pitch his black tent, where to find pasture for his camels or his horses, and how best to advance his own interests in-terests and the little interests of his tribe. Now look the world over today and where will you find in any country greater questions facing a people, greater problems to be solved, greater responsibilities responsibili-ties looming up before them than the problems which now confront the American people. (To be continued.) |