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VOLUME NI/faE
NUMBER SEVENTEEN
Alumni Address at Recent Mercer University Commencement, Macon, Ga,, Delivered by Dr. A. J. Moncrief, Who as a
Student in ’9B, Won the State Oratorical Championship For Mercer at “The Grand”, in Atlanta.
R. President: If the exigencies of
this occasion require that the
speaker shall deliver a literary
critique, I shall fail to meet them.
I come to the duty of the hour with
more of the passion of the prophet
than of the ambition of the critic.
My sole desire at this time is to
deliver to the young. men of this
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institution a message which shall magnify the
ideals embodied in the theory of Christian edu
cation, and to intensify in them the desire to
illustrate these ideals in the spheres of service
which are awaiting their occupancy when they
shall go out from these dedicated halls.
And what auspices could be more inspiring
for such a message? Could one but bring him
self into harmony with the divine forces that
have wrought in the life of this institution from
its incipiency—feel the inspiration that gave
it birth in the great soul of Jesse Mercer; real
ize the faith that has borne it through the years
of struggle and achievement, and know' the
high hopes that throb in the hearts of the trus
tees today, as they look out upon the future
with dreams of a “Greater Mercer” —he must
feel that here is an expression of the thought
of God for a higher type of manhood. Under
these splendid auspices I would speak to you
today on the theme: A Man And His Task.
And, first I would congratulate you, young
gentlemen, upon the great good fortune that
has cast your lot in the lap of this twentieth
century. Youth in every age has been poten
tial, but to be young in the morning of this
century is surpassing good. Each of the cen
turies has had its own elements of
but “Time’s noblest offspring is the last.”
Carlyle said: “The centuries are lineal chil
dren of one another,” so the present century is
the heir of all the glory of the past. The ac
cumulated wisdom and power of all the ages
is the heritage of today. Since the dark ages
we have had centuries of exploration, discov
ery, conquest, revolution and invention, and
perhaps this will be designated as the century
of centralization. It is yet young, but thus
far it is characterized by a world-spirit. The
ambition of the rulers of every nation is to be
world-powers; the captains of industry are no
longer content with continental dominion; the
heads of the great commercial institutions are
not satisfied with less than a world wide patron
age ; educational leaders are making efforts to
standardize and unify the educational forces of
the world, and the militant Church is planning
to preach the Gospel to the whole world in this
generation. The word “universal” has become
a by-word in every mouth. Even the common
“A MAN AND HIS TASK”
ATLANTA. GA.. JUNE
people are speaking the language of the great
Hugo, who said: “I am a citizen of the world,
humanity is my country.” Modern means of
transportation and communication have
brought the whole world into a small compass,
and the peoples of all the nations are mingling
in the common currents of life that ebb and
flow around the world Manifestly, we have
entered upon a new era of thought and achieve
ment. What the century shall bring forth e’er
its course is run is a matter of no iittle wonder,
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DR. A. J. MONCRIEF.
for an empire is throbbing in every brain, and
the very atmosphere that envelopes the earth
seems all aquiver with expectancy
But if the heritage of this young century is
rich, its spirit daring and its prospect glorious,
its perils are more numerous and its problems
more complex than the race has yet had to deal
with. So, upon this generation are imposed re
sponsibilities quite commensurate with its op
portunities To guide the race through these
perils, and solve these problems to the consum
mation of the ideals of Christian civilization
is—
I. The Task for the Man.
In the performance of this task each of the
Christian nations has its distinctive mission to
the whole, as well as its peculiar problems. Jo
siah Strong, writing of “The Anglo-Saxon and
the World Future,” says that every race that
has left its impress upon the world has stood
for some distinctive idea, and that the Anglo-
Saxon is the representative of the ideas of civil
liberty and spiritual religion. Emerson said
in substance that America owed her independ
ence, not to the prowess of American arms, but
to the triumphant march of an idea. It was
this Anglo-Saxon idea of the kingship and high
priesthood of the individual soul. The ferment
of this idea gave rise to the century of revolu
tion, out of which came the new order of de
mocracy. Finding fearless expression in such
men as Luther, Cromwell, William of Orange
and others, this idea transformed the civiliza
tion of the Old World. The despotic powers
that partitioned the continent of Europe among
them, exercising absolute authority over their
subjects, in the boast of “the divine right of
kings,” could not stand before the Anglo-
Saxon’s passion for liberty and equality.
1. Statecraft: —
But it was on this side the great deeps that
divide the hemispheres that there was to arise
a new civilization, whose founders, impelled
by devotion to these ideas, were to build a na
tion whose government and institutions should
embody and illustrate these democratic prin
ciples. And this nation has entered upon this
century a world-power. Scarcely more than
one century and the third part of another have
passed since the Stars and Stripes were flung
forth to the winds as the symbol of a free na
tion, yet within that time the domain of that
flag has spread from shore to shore, and the
breezes that sweep the furthermost seas kiss its
flauting folds. And the glorious destiny of
America is to give liberty to the oppressed, and
teach the nations the benefits of free govern
ment and spiritual worship.
Yet, it must not be thought that the ideal of
free government is fully realized and that all
the problems involving the principles of liber
ty and equality have I pen solved. Such is far
from the facts. One has only to follow the
political discussions of today to discover how
far apart the great political parties, and even
the factions within the parties, are on the very
theory of democracy.
It was my privilege recently to hear two po
litical discussions on succeeding days. The
first was by Leslie M. Shaw, an able representa
tive of the conservative wing of the Republican
party; the other by Woodrow Wilson, an equal
continued on Page 6.)
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