1897

Sixty-five years ago this June, President William Jewett Tucker delivered a memorable baccalaureate sermon, "A Man's World and His Soul," to the Class of 1897. We wish there were space to reprint the whole of it, but since that cannot be, we quote for our few remaining members and all other Dartmouth men this concluding section:

"The training of an educated man, if it is anything morally, ought to give the advantage of estimating values at their actual worth. He ought to be able to defend himself against the smart, cheap, superficial side of the world. He ought to know the difference between professional success which has no other value than money, or something as transient. Every calling and every business has two sides, all can be organized into the right conscience of the world; each and all can be used to the loss of soul with no real gain to the world.

"I cannot be mistaken in assuming that the young men and women who are going out year after year from institutions of learning, as you are going out, are doing nothing to make the world more worthy of the ambitions of men. If not, if we are graduating young men and young women without moral vision who have no power to strive for the better method, who must succ umb after a little and swell the volume of the thoughtless, indifferent, self-seeking throng, then we need to revise our training quite as much on the intellectual as on the moral side.

"The Scriptures use good, heart-searching language about men who do not know enough not to be deceived and caught in the mere temptation of worldliness, and to every man who is taking hold of the world in the mere spirit of calculation the words of our Lord come with vivid and startling force. 'What have you when you have your world and are minus your soul?'

"Who can compute the earnings of great souls who will tell me of those who have gone before and opened our way into a larger world? The roll of honor of this class in coming years may disclose the names of those who have fought for their souls as men fight for their lives. The course of study which you have now completed if it has any moral advantage has fitted you to do this very thing. It has fitted you for the forward movement of the world.

"There is a world not only of living men but of living forces. The world means organized power. It is represented in many ways. We cannot ignore the use of that power if we want to have men, to help them in body and in soul. The man who fears this world, or misunderstands it, or underestimates its moral value, will certainly lose it. And he who loses his world will lose the thing of greatest value next to his own soul.

"Men of the Class of 1897, I would not hold before you impossible ideals nor stir within you any unreal ambitions. The world which opens to you is not essentially different from that which you leave behind. It is an everyday world with plain duties and inexorable demands upon your industry, patience and courage. This is your world by all the rights which belong to any man who may not surpass you in courage, honesty, industry, and faith.

"Use your opportunities for right doing as they come to hand. Others and greater ones will follow as fast as you can meet them. Get into the way of simple resolute action. Some day your trial will come, and the test of your manhood will meet it naturally, and with it will come the first sense of mastery of the world. Gradually you will develop powers of resistance and powers of attack. You will begin to count in your vocation for the things that count in the things that make for honor, truth and righteousness. Your resources will be increased. Having been found faithful in the things which were least you will be put in trust of greater things. You may or you may not have some supreme opportunity. That does not matter. You will have gained your world and kept your soul. Is this an unreasonable condition or expectation on my part for any member of this class? Whatever may have been wrought in you for good may that good be multiplied as you put it to use. But be not content with that. Let the world know your presence and feel your power."

We of the Class of Ninety-seven, Dartmouth College, feel in deep sorrow the death of Mrs. Horace Pender, the wife of our classmate. Yet it is not all sorrow we feel for we all have experienced a knowledge of God's blessing. We know Mrs. Pender saw those blessings, snow white, shining from God's mountains. From those mountain streams have flowed springs of blessing into the life of Mrs. Pender. The day has passed. God has called her to His eternal rest. We shall meet again.

Acting Secretary

Secretary and Treasurer 118 Brooklawn Ave. Bridgeport 4, Conn.