Graduation Address

"Address to the Graduating Class" University Monthly 38, 6 (May 1919): 161-163. (UA Case 67, Box 1)

I count it an honor and a privilege to address the graduating class of the University of New Brunswick at this Encaenia, and the more so because I know that some of you are not only students who have won a coveted degree from your Alma Mater, but men who have done your share in winning the Great War—men in whose hearts the love of justice, the fire of patriotism and the will for sacrifice called from the quiet and congenial studies of these academic halls to the stern duties and hardships of war.

I congratulate you that you responded so nobly to the call, and also (need I say it?) that you have returned in safety and covered with glory.

The degree which you receive today may be taken as an outward token and symbol of the education and training afforded within this institution of learning. But your experience of these past months has added to your acquisition of knowledge and to the literary attainments you have achieved here—an increment of power and of practical strength which it has been the good fortune of few college graduates of other generations to obtain.

And I am sure that the discipline of war, and the experience of the stern realities, through which you have so gallantly passed, will enhance the character of your training, and give to your degree in this year of grace, 1919, a peculiar value of its own.

I congratulate you most heartily on the successful completion of your course at our old Alma Mater. I say "our" old Alma Mater, for I cannot keep from my thoughts today the fact that, 35 years ago, I stood in your place to receive my Bachelor's Degree, for which I had toiled and worked for three long years. And I prized it much! But I assure you it appeared a very different matter at the end of that time than it did at the beginning. Then, I thought that after such a course of study and of work I should have become a very prodigy of learning; but, when the time had passed (I don't mind telling you now), I found that the chief thing I had learned was how little I knew and what a vast store of knowledge still lay untouched—and it seems to have been growing larger ever since!

It is not right that I should take any of the few minutes allowed to me this afternoon to speak of things or persons that were present then, but as I look around on these familiar walls, I note the absence of many who then were the very life of the place. And especially one well remembered form and face who held the love and veneration of the whole student body of those days—my old revered and honored teacher and friend, Dr. L. W. Bailey, who for nearly 60 years has graced with his presence these Encaenial gatherings and who now, in his old age and in the hour of his bereavement, commands the loving
respectful sympathy of the whole community.

Boundless Possibilities Of A New World

But I must not dwell on what is past, but on that which is to come. An old man's thoughts are on the past, the young man's on the future; and I feel young enough today to stand with you upon the border of the new life and, with you, gaze out into the regions which lie beyond—regions big with possibilities and problems of a new era—and bid you good luck and Godspeed on your entry to the "wide, wide world!" To be living in this present time, with all the boundless possibilities of a new world, as it is now emerging from the cataclysm of war, all ready for recreation and reconstruction, is a privilege indeed. And to be living and to be young, as you are, in the midst of all the stirring movements of the present age—this should be a perfect ecstacy of joy. In the era which is dawning upon the world, new possibilities hitherto undreamed of, lie before you, and new problems await your solution. It is for the young men (aye, and women, too), such as yourselves today, to develop those possibilities and to solve those possibilities and to solve those problems; in a word, to guide the destiny of our land, and, under God, to determine the character of its social and political, its moral and religious life. This is a great task. It is so full of difficulties, and so beset with dangers through the present world-wide turmoil and unrest, that it may well daunt the stoutest heart.

But this is no time for pessimism; nor is there any room or reason for it here. As we look back upon the past four years, and more, of deadly strife and war, and remember the fearful odds that were met and overcome, and as we recognize the manifest over-ruling providence of God's hand, it would be strange indeed did we not look upon the future with confidence and hope. It only needs that you now set out upon your new life with the same undaunted courage which stood by you when you responded to your country's call, and with the same devotion to the principles of justice, righteousness and truth, play your part in the time which is to come.

We hear much of democracy in these days as though that were the panacea for all the ills of social life; but, believe me, it is not democracy, nor any other form of government, which, alone, can make our country great. It is the principle of righteousness, justice and fair play between man and man which shall bring about an era of peace and prosperity, of good will and mutual confidence, in the community in which we live. It is only the upholding of these divine principles among men which will make the world "safe for democracy." But further, democracy itself must be imbued with the spirit of righteousness, which is nothing less than the spirit of God incarnate, or it will be no boon to man. And, I believe, it is only when our people realize this, and work in earnest to bring it about, that we shall find society taking on that character which God intended it should have. We may think of human society as a great, living, pulsating organism.

All Have Sphere Of Activity

Just as in any one body there are the various parts, all necessary and all working together, not all equally strong and compelling but all essential to the proper working of the whole, all permeated by the life of the whole body and each one fed and nourished and made equal to its work by the quickening fluid of the red blood, so in society, among all its different members, high and low, rich and poor, strong and weak, learned and unlearned, employing and employed, cooperation for the good of each and of all can only be maintained by the right action of each in responding to the call peculiar to its own position and actuated by the spirit of service and of unselfish love.

And this applies quite as much to you young ladies who are graduating today as to the men. You are a part of the body of society and have your own work to do as much as they. Indeed, the peculiar duties and privileges of womanhood can never be altered or set aside by the advantages of higher education. The refinements of education do but enhance the peculiar gifts and faculties of your sex, which, under God, I believe can do more for the betterment of the world and the amelioration of the condition of human life than any other agency which God has made. Only remember, that higher education does not set aside the God-given duties of womanhood, nor does it create a third and a different order of human beings! Men and women God created them, and men and women they will remain until the end of time. God has His use for both, and there can be no rivalry between the two, for each is the complement of the other, not the antagonist.

Be this then the aim of all—to set first and foremost righteousness, justice and fair dealing in the world; to be of mutual service and of mutual support. And, as the years roll by, you will understand more and more clearly that a good conscience and a sense of duty rightly done, brings truer satisfaction than all the treasures of ill-gotten gold or unearned honor and applause. And your state of mind, when in after years you come to dwell upon the past, will amply justify the Psalmist's words, "Keep innocency and take heed unto the thing that is right, for that shall bring a man peace at the last."