THE CHEMAWA AMERICAN
H. E. WADSWORTH, Superintendent
VOLUME U
OCTOBER, J 9 I3
NUMBER I
THE VOCATION OF SERVICE
BY D R . W ILLIAM W ALLACE Y O U N G SO N OF Portland, Oregon
HE following splendid article constituted our bacca-
aureate sermon at commencement last June. Ow
ing to circumstances we were unable to publish it in
our last issue. It would be hard to imagine a more
effectively delivered sermon. Among other things,
Dr. Youngson said:
There was a time when a man was great as he con
quered something—as he strutted about with sword and plume. In an
other age he was great as he discovered something, as he widened the
human horizon. In another age he was great as he invented something
and increased commerce. In the age of wheels and machinery, which
is rapidly passing, he was great who combined things and lifted him
self to the pinnacle of the millionaire.
It is the glory of our time that the “ vocation of service” is coming
to outrank them all. The device on the banner borne by the grand
army of youth, as it marches through this great twentieth century, is
not “ excelsior,” some form of self-exaltation, but “ I serve.”
Perhaps the heroic centuries have all passed. Oh! to have lived a
hundred years ago when the struggle for human liberty was on, or to
have witnessed the springtime of the modern world in the Renaissance,
but listen!
“ W e are liv in g , we are m oving,
In a g ra n d and aw ful tim e,
In an age on ages te llin g
To th e liv in g is su b lim e .’’
That world into which you are moving is as big with history and
fascination and possibility as any age of the past. The human prob
lem has only been fairly stated, not solved. Now it will be our task to
help build a new civilization strong as the old, but fair and l>eautiful
by the qualities of mercy.
Civilization grows like the coral island of the sea resting securely on
the past yet appropriating new material from the currents that flow