PRESIDENT NICHOLS' ADDRESS AT COMMENCEMENT VESPERS
"Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for behold, the Kingdom of God is within you."—St. Luke 17:21.
Life gains much of its value and most of its interest through contrasts. Change is one of its most fundamental laws, and changes rightly used by the individual are one of the greatest sources of power.
You of 1910 are approaching one of those changes. How will you use it? Many of you will go from among the closest and most intimate relations of friendship out among strangers and into strange places. What resources have you gathered to meet isolation in the crowd, what armor to do combat with loneliness ?
The power to work enthusiastically, intensively, at special tasks is a strong defence, but there come hours of weariness which cannot all be spent in sleep. One of life's greatest problems is the right use of recreation, and the character of some public entertainments in which many And amusement is to the thoughtful one of the most discouraging features of our complex civilization.
How shall a man spend the time which follows each day's work, which is given him for rest? In its uses lie the great chances of life, the'very roots of good and evil. Let no one be tempted to flee from himself, his own thoughts, or be led from his own companionship into any less worthy. Rather may he seek out pleasant places in which to be alone or to spend time in thoughtful company of those great spirits of the past, greater than any his circumstances may allow him in the flesh. These are the hours of freedom and it is the uses of freedom which make or mar the man. They finally determine him on his largest and subtlest side and work the very temper of the soul.
No man's respect is worth the winning who does not respect himself; no man's company worth the seeking who cannot bear to be alone; no man's friendship worth the having who is not on friendly terms with himself.
A deeper life is given to each one of you to tend, to nurture, to refine. You have strength to make of it almost anything you will, and may in the doing achieve riches beyond wealth and power and fame. Few men have come to greatness who have not known the uses of reflection.
But the time has come for a more intimate and personal word on the life of the spirit. Let no man hope to attain the fullest stature of his manhood and come into the whole of his spiritual birthright who is unused to contemplation, who cannot face his soul through thick and through thin in all of life's rough places. There is a nobility and strength in physical courage, but he who adds not to this that still finer and nobler courage of the spirit must fail in the severer tests of human experience.
If you are to achieve greatness of soul the will must be firm to meet disappointment, despondency, and, dejection, as well the heart be open to peace and exaltation, for these changes follow one another in the life of the spirit as night follows day, as dawn follows darkness. The ebb and flow of spiritual experience give the boldest contrasts which our life affords. Each day's public news brings heart-breaking records of the failure of men to meet high responsibilities, the accounts of men who acknowledge that saddest last defeat in suicide.
Face the storm when it comes upon you though its blackness seem without promise of a dawn. Run not from it but steadfastly fight it through. Meet it valiantly for if you fail to conquer you must fall. Value , the struggle as you value your life, for all that is best in your life, all that makes a strong man's life worth living, is at stake.
In all the ages the noblest, most inspiring utterances of human thought arise from courageous souls keeping faith through spiritual disaster. "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord, Lord, hear my voice," is a universal human heart. Out of a century we all have known, I choose but one of many voices:
"Oh yet we trust that somehow good Will be the final goal of ill, To pangs of nature, sins of will, Defects of doubt and taints of blood;
"That nothing walks with aimless feet; That not one life shall be destroy'd, Or cast as rubbish to the void, When God hath made the pile complete;
"That not a worm is cloven in vain; That not a moth with vain desire Is shrivel'd in a fruitless fire, Or but subserves another's gain.
"Behold, we know not anything; I can but trust that good shall fall At last—far off—at last, to all, And every winter change to spring.
"So runs my dream: but what am I? An infant crying in the night: An infant crying for the light: And with no language but a cry."
But this shows but the lesser half, for out of solitude arise moments "when the clouds are off the soul," when our silent thoughts are filled with ecstasy, and from out of the depths beyond our ken rises the vision. " I pray you let your thought rise with it and follow after it, for with love and peace will it satisfy you. You will ask no questions, feel no fear, for the soul has grown to man- hood and found its freedom. Follow the vision out into the hills by day, out under the stars by night. Seek large spaces for its entertainment, and know, while it is given you to know, the heart, of the world, the spirit of man and the all-embracing love of God.
"Hence in a season of calm weather Though inland far we be, Our souls have sight of that immortal sea Which brought us hither, Can in a moment travel thither, And see the children sport upon the shore, And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore."
"The Kingdom of God is within you." May each search himself diligently until he find it there.
