THE PRESIDENT'S VALEDICTORY ADDRESS TO CLASS OF 1927
At the Baccalaureate service on Commencement Sunday President Hopkins delivered the following valedictory to the graduating class : Men of 1927:
For a little time we pause on the threshhold of your transfer from this College to what elsewhere has been called "The Larger Campus." Never have the opportunities for accomplishment in the world been more great; never have the problems awaiting solution been more absorbingly interesting; never has the demand for courage and intelligence been more peremptory. God grant that the College substantiation of your efforts for self-education may have been well devised!
A great thinker and a great citizen, Dr. George A. Gordon, says in his autobiography that he has always wished to write a book entitled "From Authority, through Anarchy, to Insight." This is the natural progression of mental processes by which the thoughtful man acquires belief. He who has never questioned accepted doctrine can never be certain of the sincerity of his discipleship to valid principles.
Herein the college method and the college purpose are often misunderstood. These deliberately stimulate the disposition of men to question precedent and to accept anarchy of thought as necessary stages of the road to insight. These are only stages, however, and if one were to lose sight of this fact, for him the college would have striven in vain.
Insight we must have and it must be the insight of strong and valiant men, who have come to know that power arises alone from conviction and that constructive progress is always charted by humble min,ds, which recognize the claims of true authority.
Meanwhile, let us not ignore the zest that lies in present-day conditions or in the challenge of a time which is perplexing and difficult ! The spirit of a true sportsman finds no satisfaction in an easy competition.
In "The Crisis," Thomas Paine wrote in critical days long ago, "These are the times that try men's souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis shrink. The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value."
Men of 1927, we look for no summer soldiers or sunshine patriots in your ranks. We look to you as men seeking not ease but satisfaction. The College has brought you to your mark. Time, the great starter, bids you "Go." May the spirit of each one of you be that of one who "rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race."
The Lord bless thee and keep thee.
The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace.
