Elon College, May 31—The 32nd annual commencement exercises began here Sunday morning at 11:30 with the baccalaureate sermon by Dr. R.C. Helfenstein, Dover, Del., pastor of the People’s Church of that city.
Dr. ? G. Newman, pastor of the college church, was in charge of the exerises and introduced the speaker. Professor G.P. Alexander, head of the Voice Department of the college, in the opening service rendered a solo, “O God, Have Mercy,” by Mendelssohn.
Dr. Helfenstein spoke on “The Challenge of Opportunity,” taking his text from Esther 4:14—“Who knoweth whether thou are not come to the Kingdom for such a time as this?”
Speaking to the graduating members of the Senior Class in particular and to the large audience in general Dr. Helfenstein declared that “the world in which we live today is a different world from that of six years ago.” Continuing, he said: “I do not contend that it is a better world than it was in the spring of 1914. But it is a different world, and it is our supreme privilege and a heaven imposed obligation resting upon us to help make it a better world. To be perfectly candid, I am willing to admit that at present, thought not in all, yet in many respects, the New World, on the threshold of which we now find ourselves, is not so good a world as was the old—the world before the war.
“There has been a perilous letting down of our moral, our civil and our social standards. We have been drifting with the tide. The alarming and demoralizing social reactions following the war, to which the present day has fallen heir; the economic unrest in every department of life; the industrial conflict; and the divisions of the cause of religion, make the present our of momentous significance to the future history of the world. The response that the present generation makes to its opportunities of service and advancement will determine the world’s progress for all time to come And if we fail humanity in this crucial hour, ‘so shall our judgment be forever.’
“There is no one thing for which the world stands in such need today as it does of a genuine and powerful love—love for the truth—love for one’s task—love for God, and love for mankind. We have tried to conquer and subdue the world with big ships, big guns, big armies, big navies, and with the biggest war of all times. But where are we? We have been beating against the air. We have failed with big armies and big navies. It is time we were trying big love. That is Christ’s way. If we had been trying Christ’s way even the past two generations, the white-winged dove of peace would now be nesting above all the parliaments of the world; the nations would long since have beaten their swords into plowshares and their bayonets into pruning hooks; nation would no long lift up sword against nation, neither would they learn war any more; men and nations would trust each other instead of casting toward all the end of suspicion; employer and employee would sit in harmonious council; capital and labor would cooperate with each other—and ‘righteousness would cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.’
“The enthronement of love is the personal, the social, the educational, the commercial, and the industrial life; and in the national and international life would speedily usher in the millennium of peace, prosperity and happiness which all right-minded men and women desire. It must be done sometime. But how is it going to be done? That is the problem? And who knows but that you, young men and women of this graduating class, have come to the Kingdom for such a time and such a task as this?”
“Upon the college and university graduates rest the great responsibilities today. The salvation of the world is largely in their hands. If they fail to carry on, the God pity the world!”
From the front page of The Alamance Gleaner, Graham, N.C., Thursday, June 1, 1922
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