Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Man's True Destiny: Baccalaureate Address, to the First Graduating Class of Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa., August 31st, 1853
But on this occasion, we have something more than such an anniversary in its ordinary form. I see before me the first Graduating Class of one institution, which is, in a certain sense, at the same time, the last of a whole series of such Classes be longing to the history of another. These seem to rise in long review before my mind, and to join their presence with yours in the tender solemnities of this parting hour. You will not take it amiss then, if I consider myself speaking to them along with you, in the present address. It is in virtue of a past re lation only, at all events, a relation which has now come to an end, that I am here to speak at all. Let this relation then be own ed to-day in its broadest extent. Let me feel that the farewell words I now utter, are dedicated as a tribute of affection to all the Alumni, to all who have ever been students of Marshall College.
The true destination of man, the proper end of his being and life, lies beyond the present world in an order of things which is supernatural; and it is absolutely necessary that he should know this, and have supreme practical regard to the fact, in order that he may not live in vain.
This is the theme on Which I propose to speak; the one great thought I wish to bring before you, and to leave with you, in the full earnestness of its own proper consequences and rela tions. May the Spirit of all truth and grace so hallow the naturally sacred associations of this present occasion, that they may serve to fix deeply and lastingly in your minds the living force of the thought itself, so that it shall be found hereafter the pole-star of your existence, lighting it till life shall end on wards and upwards always to the glorious immortality of the saints in heaven.
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