beneficence conjoined. To this all training, culture, acquisition, influence, owe eternal obligation. The calling in life is doubtless the primary channel through which it shall go forth. But it will exude through the hard rind of a vocation and spread its savor abroad. And no sphere is too narrow to hold a large-hearted

man.

Such elevation of purpose is confined to no calling. Its bright examples are everywhere. Perhaps the clerical profession and evangelistic work naturally yield the largest supply. But there has been many a missionary who has lived at home, and many a minister of mercy who was never ordained. There have been men of wealth, too many, thank God! to be reckoned up, who have held and used their wealth as stewards of God, not waiting for death to unlock their hold; jurists like Hale, Marshall, and Jay, devoted to the maintenance of all that is right and true and good; brilliant advocates like Erskine, consecrated to the public weal; philanthropists like Wilberforce, born to luxury and temptation, offering all on the altar of self-sacrifice; teachers like Arnold, who have broken over the limitations of technical work to form and build noble characters in young men; statesmen of whom America has had some and England now has one, who, with whatever of mistake, will command men's lasting admiration for the lofty integrity of their aim. These, no doubt, are bright particular stars. But there are, thank God! a great company of men like-minded in places less conspicuous; and they dignify our common life and elevate

our common lot, transfusing this daily round of duty with the perennial glow of their warm hearts.

"As the ample moon

In the deep stillness of a summer even,
Rising behind a thick and lofty grove,
Burns like an unconsuming fire of light

In the green trees; and kindling on all sides
Their leafy umbrage, turns the dusky veil
Into a substance glorious as her own,
Yea with her own incorporate, by power
Capacious and serene; like power abides
In man's celestial spirit; virtue thus
Sets forth and magnifies herself; thus feeds
A calm and beautiful and silent fire,

From the incumbrances of mortal life."

Yes, it is the elevation of our purpose that makes and saves the worth of human life. Otherwise believe the bitter wail of the old Lydian monarch: "Count no man happy till he is dead." How often the vista as seen from the end is to that from the beginning as through the telescope reversed. How often there is a latent satire in the funeral pomp of earthly greatness. The glitter of Solomon's obsequies barely antedated the loud complaint of "heavy burdens." It certainly was a grand sight when the iron car rolled through London conveying the Iron Duke's remains to the vaults of St. Paul's to sleep by the side of Nelson, but it no longer drew, as once it might, the hearts of the whole British people. It was a more dazzling scene when the great catafalque bore the form of a greater

warrior than he to its resting place under the dome of the Invalides beneath that marvelous drapery of storied banners and flashing record of victories. But those banners, did they rustle, would breathe the endless sigh of oppressed nations, and the inscriptions, did they break silence, would utter the wail of slaughtered myriads. A stranger and more weird spectacle it was three years ago in July when a small steamer was making her way down the Nile from the Theban plain to Cairo, and all along the banks as she passed, the poor Copts and Fellahin hailed her with firing of muskets, wild gesticulations, and frantic cries; for by some strange intuition they knew that she bore from the tombs of the Pharaohs the shriveled remains of some eight ancient queens and ten monarchs, mostly older than the Exodus among them Thotmes the great conqueror, Seti the great warrior builder, and Rameses the supposed great oppressor. In the midst of that unprecedented cargo of dead royalty, as if in irony, in the coffin and around the mummy of the forgotten Amen-hotep lay the blue larkspur, the yellow safflower, and the white lotus with its pink-tipped sepals, all as bright of hue as when they were culled thirty-five hundred years ago, as if to say reprovingly from amid this mummied magnificence:

The characters that soothe and heal and bless
Are scattered at the feet of man like flowers."

How different from such spectacular scenes as these the procession when the martyred Lincoln passed from

Washington to Springfield amid the nation's tears, or when Alexander Duff was borne to his rest at Edinburgh, and beside his bier good men of all classes and confessions lined the way, and magistrate and subject, peer and citizen, student and professor, minister and missionary, and representatives of the Scotch, English, American, and Indian churches trod the funeral march while the deep-toned bell of Barclay church sounded the universal grief, and the heart of Scotland hovered around the grave. It was the answer of soul to soul, the fitting eulogium upon largeness of heart in its highest form.

Young Gentlemen of the Graduating Class: Your work here and our work for you are almost ended. We have done what we could to expand the intellect, to show you at least the continent of knowledge, to cultivate the wide sympathy, and hold up the highest aim of life. The institution from which you graduate has confessedly been characterized by breadth and strength. The company of Alumni you join are a body of stalwart men. There is no shibboleth on their tongues and no petty local stamp on their characters. Largeness of heart has been their standard and eminent and multiform usefulness their achievement. In almost every line of life I might point to you examples, many of them illustrious, of some or all the qualities I have set before you; a noble array of teachers, jurists, statesmen, scholars, business men, journalists, theologians, preachers, missionaries. I will not name them

now though the roll-call might thrill your hearts. May you prove yourselves worthy to join that noble company, and honor, I will not say your Alma Mater but your Father in heaven and bless your fellow men. Into whatever sphere of life you go carry a broad, high manhood. Should you enter, as so many now do, upon some form of business life let it not be said of you at life's end,

"He in a close and dusky counting house

Smoke-dried and seared and shriveled up his heart";

but so carry yourselves that education shall dignify wealth and the wealth shall bless all things needy and good. Or if, as is more likely, you shall enter on some literary, scientific, or professional career, fill that sphere, small or great, full to overflowing. Be evermore larger than your calling. Be first a man and after that a professional man. Pray, like him of old, for largeness of heart, and a better largeness of heart than his. Your earnest prayer shall be a prophecy. In such a spirit go forth and we shall certainly hear good of you in after life or in the life after. Amen.