with all who undertook this task, criticism unmer
ciful and unjust was visited, and every effort that
unscrupulous and influential men could use, was
put forth to destroy this college and brand its
friends with crime.
Ridicule, sneers, villification, reproach and con.
tempt were indulged and unconcealed, until the
very name of the institution provoked a pitying
smile, and its teachers were stigmatized by the
classical schools as Apostles of the Gospel of dirt.
Before these storms professors deserted and students
fled, but through it all, with unvarying courage and
patient hope, our brave friend stood to his post
and to his courage and fidelity the institution owes
its life to-day.
He acted as its president when no other man
could be found who would take the place, and
when a president was elected he ',quietly stepped
back and took up the regular duties of his profes
sorial chair. This he did not once nor twice but
four times he was called to take the helm. He re
fused. the office when it was offered • by the
board and it was through his recommendation and
influence that our present president was elected to
the position that he now so ably fills.
Where does history tell of a more disinterested
man. We read and admire the magnaminity
of the patriots of Greece and Rome, of theunself
ish devotion of men who although banished front
those they held most clear, yet when their stricken
land called with outstretched arms on them for
help, they forgot the injustice of their countrymen
and the neglect that their native land had shown
and instantly responded to their country's call,and
their might expended for it, retired to the humble
walks of private life. •
Surely! surely ! it is not unfitting in you to
honor and cherish the memory of' this superior
man. To "strew flowers with full hands" on his
humble grave, and in this public way to express
your sorrow and sense of loss, over the departing
from your midst of a noble soul
THE FREE LANCE.
OUTLINE OF MEMORIAL DISCOURSE,
Delivered in State College chapel, Jan. to, 1892
—by—
Text ; IsAIAH, XL, viii.—'['he grass withereth
and the flower fadeth ; but the word of our God
standeth forever.
I JOHN, If, xvii.—The world passeth away and
the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of
God abideth forever.
Although these two passages stand in the scrip
tures so far apart from each other the lessons
which they teach are similar. They both speak
of the contract which obtains between that which
is temporal and that which is eternal. The first
sets before us the frailty of human life under the
grass which perishes beneath the noonday sun ;
the second, which in reality is a quotation of the
first, has a wider scope, a larger meaning. "The
world," says the apostle, pointing to
. the mighty
empire of Rome, with its immense organization,
its accumulated resources, its power and splendor
—reproving in short, to all that was exterior to
the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ among men—
"the world," with its ambitions, and desires, and
plans, and purposes must pass away, must perish.
But there is one thing that will survive the ''wreck
of matter and the crash of worlds," one thing
that will outlast all merely human interests. "He
that doeth the will of God abideth forever."
Placing these two passages side by side we find
that they both show the uncertain tenure of the
individual life and the interests that fill it, and the
fleeting, mistable nature of the scene upon which
it is enacted. They also characterize two differ
ent types of things that, by contrast, are unchang
ing and eternal One the will, the purpose, the
love of God ; the other the human soul which has
obeyed his will.
We make this our theme to-clay for the purpose
of reminding ourselves how completely, and how
tenderly the Bible responds to the very cry of grief,
or pain, or sorrow, or bereavement that goes up
from human lips. Never do we see the shadow of
PROF. E. F. DAVIS