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reapers; day laborers who, even by the side of the gospel ministry, have been workmen not needing to be ashamed; medical men who have ministered to the mind and heart diseased; counselors-at-law who have been advocates for Christ; a shepherd of Salisbury Plain in fullest sympathy with the shepherd king of Israel and the Good Shepherd our Lord. While the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, money may be the agent of all manner of blessing. And though money-making, sheer and simple, is not a high work, many a money-maker has gladdened the world.

Personal qualities, opening opportunity, and providential pressure determine what we are to do. Our free choice determines how we are to do it. In every honest calling there is room for a man, or a corner for a manikin. It may be the grinding business man, the mechanical manufacturer, the law-perverting advocate, the reckless journalist, the tricky politician, or, in a humbler way, a merchant like Amos Lawrence or William E. Dodge, a manufacturer like Appleton or Williston, a teacher like Tholuck, Arnold, or Hopkins, a lawyer like John Marshall, a journalist like Bryant, a legislator like Wilberforce or Shaftesbury, a statesman like Lincoln or Gladstone. The career of such men is beyond our dreams, but the character is within our reach. And it is never to be forgotten that, in whatever sphere, it is character that tells, and the want of character that kills-character in its simplicity and dignity, character in its decision and power. Here hinges the righteous verdict of posterity. The glamor

of spurious success fades away, the clamor of detraction dies out, and true manhood, divine manhood, stands forth at last to receive the homage of mankind. Among its myriads of forgotten celebrities, history will never cease to linger lovingly on such names as Alfred and Washington, Howard and Livingstone. Nor these historic men alone, but

"Meek souls there are who little dream

Their daily strife an angel's theme;
And there are souls that seem to dwell

Above this earth, so rich a spell

Floats round their steps, where'er they move,
Of hopes fulfilled and mutual love."

And thus it appears that the higher the aim the surer the attainment. Outer circumstance is contingent and evanescent; inner worth is certain and eternal. Excellence is infinitely more than excelling. It is the prize, thank God! that can be won. He that enters his special life-work with the purpose to fill it full of fidelity, beneficence, and love is the man whose life can never be a failure in the eye of God or man.

And the highest of all aims, which can be carried. into every sphere of life, is that of the apostle himself, "the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Some, to whom the grace is given, are enabled to see that the highest aim in the highest sphere is attained when they follow him in the gospel ministry, and some even in the missionary work. It was the cry of such a one: "My soul is not at rest. The voice of my departed Lord, 'Go teach all nations,' comes on the night air and

awakes mine ear. And I will go. Through ages of eternal years my spirit never shall repent that toil and victory once were mine below."

Young Gentlemen of the Graduating Class: I have endeavored to set before you the guaranties of a true and noble life. But they have been far more effectively set forth in many an actual life history from the time of him who uttered these burning words and lived that noble life. One bright example is worth a thousand precepts, and the world has been brightened with thousands of examples. You may well thank God that he has not only placed before you such an ideal, but that he offers the aid whereby the ideal may become real in any life. Say not: "It is high, I cannot attain unto it." Say rather: "It is high; with God's help I can attain unto it, and I will." You will encounter no end of discouragements. Openly or silently the world will say, or seem to say, that the whole notion is visionary; that no man follows or can follow such an ideal; that all men are selfish; that life is but a strife for existence, position, precedence, and the like. And, what is worse, you will encounter human selfishness in such innumerable forms and such unexpected quarters as almost to make the words seem true. But they are false, and death. is in them. Believe them not. Heed them not.. Like that other pilgrim, stop your ears, and run for the shining light. "Keep it in your eye, and go up directly thereto." Each of you carries to-day in his heart and in his hand the whole life he is to live. It is all before you

now; soon it will be behind you. all will then be irrevocable.

Many a

All now is possible; The call comes up to you

from every sphere of action. It is the same call as before, but with louder echoes and far more resounding answers. Many a man whose good work is almost ended would gladly begin again with you. Many a man whose life has been a failure would give much for another chance with you to-day. Remember, each of you, that you have but one life to live here below. live it well!

Oh,

THE PATH OF THE JUST.

BACCALAUREATE SERMON, JUNE 23, 1889.

But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. - PROVERBS 4:18.

OW constantly and how naturally does God's

How

Word associate goodness and light! The comparison is so fitting that you almost doubt that it is a comparison. It seems rather a symbol than a simile. Light enrobes the earth with beauty. It makes the leaf green and the flower fair, and reveals their verdure and their brightness to the eye. Withdraw the light and they are as though they were not.

It is the condition, too, of all outward and hopeful activity. The morning dawn unseals the eyes, unlocks the voice, unchains the movements of the living world. The coming on of total darkness stops the song of the bird, sends the beast to his resting place, and confuses the doings of man. Work ceases. The lost cannot

be found. The sailor on the lee shore casts anchor and wishes for day. The hard-pressed general wishes that night or Blücher would come.

So in the moral world true goodness or true religion clothes the world with its real joyousness and beauty. It diffuses bright colors and makes melody in the heart. It transforms the aspect of time and the hues of eternity. As the great orb of day dissipates the night of nature, fills the earth with the hum of hopeful life, and

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