^■f Q *^•«^■ 
 
 A 
 
 BY THE 
 
 y 
 
 REV. W. P. SHROM. 
 
FEB 11 1953 ^ 
 
 '£X16 
 
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 ^ FEB 11 1953^;^ 
 
 SERMON 
 
 1>K!JVEKKD 
 
 BEFORE THE STUDENTS 
 
 OV 
 
 lebanoH iailep College, 
 
 -A^ivj>>'ij.i^E, r>^^. 
 
 BY 
 
 / 
 
 Mmk m ^ SmmBM^ M. M., 
 
 SABBATH, JUNE 2, 1872. 
 
 ^)^ifm£,MMM& 0r TMM ^^T^wmm^i^s. 
 
 LEBANON, PA. : 
 Pen>.syi-vanier, Pkint. 
 
 1872 
 

 
 
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 Text.— Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace ; tliereby good shall come unto thee. 
 —Job XXII : 21. 
 
 Every man should have an acquaintance with God. There is no sphere of 
 life in which, as active agents, men are not beUer qualified for their duties when 
 controlled by the Holy Spirit. There is no employment that is not exalted and 
 dignified when those engaged in it are men possessing the Spirit of Christ — 
 Both to the worker and the work much is added when Christ is added, for He is 
 all — and should be all in all. 
 
 But while this is universally true, there are special reasons why every student 
 should have an acquaintance with God, — why he should have frequent, free 
 communication with Him, — living in an intimate relation to Him, — reasons I 
 mean, in addition to those having direct reference to eternal interests, and 
 which apply equally to every man, and which are infinite in importance. 
 
 1. A student's mind is in process of development. His intellectual powers 
 are expanded and strengthened by continued exercise. It is possible for this 
 development of intellectual faculties to take place without effecting in any way 
 the moral faculties. A man may become a good mathematician and this in no 
 way tend to make him consciencious- He may be skillful in tracing Greek aiad 
 Hebrew roots but not able to break off a bad habit. He may with ease traverse 
 the varied lines of history ; be at home in science and philosophy, theorize 
 upon systems of religion with as much skill as a doctor of divinity, yet not 
 have called out one emotion that developed his moral nature. 
 
 An education is imperfect in so far as it fails to effect the whole man — in 
 whom there are at least three interests to be attended to, — viz: the moral, the 
 intellectual ^xid the physical. Neither of these can be neglected without pos- 
 itive loss— a loss not only in the parts neglected but a loss to what is attended 
 to. The mind develops best when each of the other interests receives due at- 
 tion, and only then. 
 
 In a course of study there is development in the student whatever exists in 
 his nature, provided it be properly exercised. When a child loves its parent 
 tenderly and truly, that affection becomes deeper, purer and stronger as the 
 
2 
 
 child, under careful instruction, ripens into manhood. The tendency of ed- ^ 
 ucation is to elevate and strengthen the whole man, — all his finer sensibilities 
 and attributes. Here is found one of the false suppositions of the ignorant, in. 
 thiukingthst graduation from college, implies that the student has learned 
 the required number of facts, and is, in consequence set free with the attendant 
 honors. It is looked upon as a taking in, or pouring in process, — as if there 
 had been introduced into the mind proportionate amounts of Latin, Greek, 
 Mathematics, Natural Science, Philosophy, &c , and that the sum of all these 
 constitutes the student's education. This is far from the truth. It is not to 
 gather facts ihat you are here as students; It i? not to learo ; It is to develop, 
 to discipline, to e-ducn^~to lead out the powers that are in the growing man. 
 In this leading out process all that is within you, tha^ is exerv?ised and at- 
 tended to, is lead out,— tliat is, it is developed and brought under better dis- 
 cipline. 
 
 1 Now in order that there may be moral principles developed, they nuif:t not 
 I only exist in the intellectual conceptions, but must be brought into actual ex- 
 ercise as moral principles. There is a wide difference between having a high 
 I intellectual nature of a moral quality arid possessing it in reality as a moral 
 quality. A man may have an intellectuil acquaintance with God, -may in- 
 tellectually possess very commendable apprehensio»is of Gold's love, but this 
 will never develop love for God in his own heart. To accomplish this he must 
 actively, and in reality love Him. The only way to grow benevolent is by the 
 actual exercise of giving, the only way to cultivate conscience i^ by living con- 
 scientiously, in all things. 
 
 But before any of these moral qualities can be successfury and truly d(tve\. 
 oped, it is necessary that you acquaint yourself with God, — that you be at 
 peace with Him. By nature we are enemies to God, and must be reconciled to 
 Hun, we are foreigners and stranger.^ to Ris commonwealth and must renew our 
 allegiance and our acquaintance. Ibis v\e can do through Jesus Christ our 
 Mediator* 
 
 If we are reconciled to God and his love is implanted in the heart, — if the 
 
 j chief desire of the heart be to love Him, to know Him, and to glorify Him 
 
 j more and more in our lives, then as the mind passes out into new fields of 
 
 I thought, it is to find new reasons for loving Him. As we go neeper into the 
 
 I book of nature it is only to find His name more legibly written on every page 
 
 j The speechless flower elegantly teaches us of His wisdom, and His love. If 
 
 I science lead us into the earth, behold He is there! for in His mighty power 
 
 I hath He made it. — The rocks whisper to us of His eternity. Or if in our in_ 
 
 j quiries we are led out into space, where in thought we keep step with the mo- 
 
 sjj tion and music of the spheres, and watch them with wonder, in their pathless 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ffl^ 
 

 courses, we hear a voice from their midst calling aloud to us, "T^e heavens de- 
 clare the glory of God, and the firmament show eih His handiwork. Day unto day 
 idtereth speech and night unto night showeth knowledge.'' Full of adoration, 
 yet humbled by our conceptiou of His immensity we shout back in answer, 
 ''When Icondder Thy heavens, the ivork of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars 
 which Thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou art mindfid of him, or the son 
 of man that Thou visitest him. 
 
 I say then, youDg gentlemen, that with the love of Go.] buroing within 
 year hearts, — filling you with a desire to know more and more of Him, you 
 will mount up on philosophy, science and art, as with wings. Each of these 
 bringinjjT you into a more perfect knowledge of Him whose you are and for 
 whose glory you live. Every new conquest of thought, every new science will 
 impress convic/Ious of the Divine Attributes deeper and deeper upon your 
 hearts, or reveal to you some new pjiase of God's character. You may sa^ with 
 the prophet of old, 'From the top of the rocks I see Him, and from the hills I 
 behold him." 
 
 2. I now add that it is important that this ac juaintanre with God be made 
 at the beginning of a course of study. In this there is no time to be lost. 
 
 (1) Tlse devtlopineut of christian character is a matter of growth. The 
 earlier it i.s introduced into life, the more carefully it is cultivated, the more 
 rap'diy will it approximate a state of maturity. Your college life is decidedly 
 a period of development, —a time of growth and discipline. If the first prin- 
 ciples of chiistianity are early introduced into the heart, they share in the gen" 
 eral growth. There will be a mutual acting and reacting between the mental 
 and moral u.itures, each bettering the condition and hastening the growth ot 
 the other. To possess a true moral character implies a cultivation of patient 
 humility and endurance; a freedom fiom selfishness, envy and jealousy , a liv" 
 ing tar above and ap^rt from ^he common tricks and schisms, and thrusts of 
 narrow minded worldly men. It implies a cultivated self-control and self- 
 respect, without which a man is but a child of chance— a slave to passion. To 
 attain these is not the work of a day, but the labor of a lifetime. For such a 
 character you should seek wich as much anxiety and pat lent enduranca as the 
 rasner seeks his fortune, and value it as highly as the miser does his gold. 
 
 (2.) It {^dangerous to advance far into a course of study without an acquain- 
 tance with God, because one tendency of study is to lead a student to expect 
 demonstration, before he accepts any proposition as true. He demands proof 
 for every statement This is not, in itself, unrefisonable, nor improper, but the 
 danger lies in his demanding a kind and degree of proof, which from the nature of 
 the case cannot be furnished. Some become extremely mathematical in their way 
 of thiokiug, and consequently reject everything that cannot be brought to their 
 
 P 
 
minds under the form of a mathematical proposition, carefully stated and clearly 
 proved. The tendency with such a mind would be to reject the doctrine of the 
 Trinity, or to set aside the Person of Christ Other minds deal with visible 
 facts, and cannot be satisfied fully until they have seen or handled. Others do 
 not stop with facts but persistently push beyond these into the reason of every 
 phenomenon, rejecting every proposition that cannot be logically stated and 
 understood, While Christianity is abundantly established by satisfactory evi- 
 dence, it does not force itself upon individual peculiarities, and because of its 
 origin and nature, it cannot be brought -wholly within the limits of finite com- 
 prehension. Every man in course of study is in danger of developing in such 
 a direction as at least to give him much trouble, anxiety and doubt, in accept- 
 ing Christianity, or perhaps be the occasion of rejecting it altogether* There 
 is a world of truth and meaning in the remark of a German Philosopher, who 
 said, "The most important subject, and th* first problem of philosophy, is the 
 restoration in man of the lost image of God.'' Intellectual development is safe 
 only after a man is "born again," after his immortal nature h'as been made anew, 
 and he has been adopted into the family of God, 
 
 (3.) A student's life is one of doubt. There is no period of life, either earlier 
 or later, in which a man is so liable to be misguided, because of an unsettled 
 state of mind, or when every truth appears so deeply veiled in doubt. It 
 is a period of examination, of investigation, of formation. T^^e mind is contin- 
 ually taking on nCfV shapes; it is moulding and remoulding 
 
 The student learns in every department of his course the uncertainty of things, 
 and is convinced of his own inability to discover absolute truths. The subjects 
 investigated are new ; of necessity they are passed over rapidly and are not 
 always well understood. There is not time for thoughts to mature. All this 
 sort of exercise has som3 sort of tendency to create an unsettled state, and to 
 cultivate doubt, in the growing mind,— I say growing, because like things might 
 not thus efiect a mind once mature. I know of nothing that will counter-bal- 
 ance these tendencies so well as Christianity* This introduces into the heart 
 something that is absolutely certain and that in the greatest doubt will bring 
 relief. When truly realized the hea^-t is fortified by it. Logic can not shake 
 off* the effects and deep convictions of the Holy Spirit. Without stme anchorage 
 to the soul there is great danger of these doubts ripening into skepticism and 
 infidelity. When a man becomefc! sm infidel he is only a wrecked hope— a 
 miserable creature. He drifts through life as aimlessly and uselessly as the 
 bubble floats upon the tide,— or as the vessel without a pilot drifts upon the 
 ocean, driven hither and thither by the winds. It is dreadful for any one to 
 become doubtful on matters of religion, but it is more intensely so for a young 
 
 rs*. 
 
man or woman of cultivated miud. My own observation in this matter has 
 been, that very few young men who pass through college without becoming 
 christians, ever become such afterwards, and especially has this been true when 
 there were tendencit s toward infidelity. But ifthe heart be first united to God, the 
 eflect ot study greatly streogihens the chord by which it is bound. Day by 
 day, as the student nears the end of his collegiate journey, he may realize more 
 and more that this anchorage is both sure and steadfast. 
 
 8. You need an acquaintance with God to sustain you while in college, for 
 college life is not without its temptations, trials and diseouragements. Of these 
 I can name only a few. There are two sources of temptation that are perhaps 
 more demoralizing to a student's success than any other, viz: idleness and love 
 of pleasure. It is not here implied that every moment must find a book in 
 hand, nor that there is no pleasure to be found in a course of study. But it is 
 implied and expected that no time will be wasted unnecessarily, and that pleas- 
 ure seeking will be at most only a secondary matter, and that this be found some- 
 where within the limits of those things which cultivate and refine, thus fitting 
 the growing man for future usefulness. 
 
 To be a christian is t'^ be conscientious in aH things, and to be conscientious 
 is to possess a strons/ stimulus to duty. It may be that not every one who is a 
 christian realizes this — that is, not every one realizes that he can study better, 
 recite better, economize better time when these duties are made a matter of 
 conscience. If so, it is y oar own fault. Everything with a christian ought to be 
 a mattei of conscience -ought to be done promptly and well done, because it 
 is right, and this sense of right when cultivated is powerful in its effect, both in 
 moulding character and in moving to action. 
 
 But a student needs to be sustained in the frequent trials with which he 
 meets,— trials arising from failure in the recitation room, from the success of a 
 rival student, from the frequent jealousy springing up from various causes 
 from the feelings which arise when he is completely discouraged with hia own 
 efforts, because every new attempt at success is accompanied with greater fail- 
 ure. He needs to be sustained during those long days, that come only too 
 often in every students life, when from some unknown cause he cannot study 
 with any success when there are headaches and heartaches, when the mind 
 , wanders homeward in search of absent friends, or scenes long since past, when 
 he grows weary of books and hates school, when the sight of his teacher is the 
 sight of his master, to think of him is to think of a tyrant; when he grow^ 
 almost desperate, and resolves to break away from his prison house and live 
 free like the birds. Have you not realized such days and such feelings ? I 
 think there are few classes of men who work as hard, with as many temptations 
 
6 
 
 and discouragements, and as little sympathy, as hard working students. The 
 day laborer may toil to great weariness, but he can turn about each evening 
 and see what he has don9. The student may toil almost to exhaustion, for a 
 whole year, yet be unable to see that he has accomplished anything perma- 
 nently. 
 
 Many of you are anxiously looking to tbe future, impatient to complete your 
 course, wondering what you will do, and where you will be whea you get 
 through. The great trouble with many of you now is a want of means. The 
 future is dark, the way seems shut up before you. As many students are dis- 
 couraged on this as on all other accounts. Now for all these ilia — these temp- 
 tations, trials and discouragements I have a remedy to suggest. It is to be so 
 well acquainted with God that you can freely carry all these to Hira, making 
 Him your confident and private cooselor It is in these apparently little things 
 that you most especially need assistanee Your teachers can d« but little f(ir 
 you in these matters. The outside world cannot at all appreciate your feelings, 
 you need not expect much sympathy from any earthly source You may not be 
 able to escape these trials but you can find much sympathy, comfort and help 
 in Christ 
 
 I am not now speaking at random, am not speakiug in general terms which 
 may or may not include these ills of the .student. 1 speak of that in wjiich I 
 have had myself some bitter but some ssveet experience I speak also of wltat 
 I know from the testimony (^f others, bur most of all I. ptak from what I Know 
 of Christ Jesus, who taught both by pre-*ept and example. It was HIh clnef 
 business while on earth to b«ud up broken hearts, to heal wounded spirits, to 
 sustain the weak and feeble, to feed the hungry and t<) supply rhose who were 
 in want. He remainb the same yesterday, to-day and forever. ** We have not 
 a High Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities." To 
 sympathize with man seems to be the great work of his h(im;in nature, to ad- 
 minister to his wants and work for his good the part of the Divine nature. 
 
 Are you then in doubt as to a future profession ? Do not decide on anything 
 in your own strength. Carry the matter before God and in your daily com- 
 munication with Him and in Christ's name ask His direction. Are you short 
 of means? Is your return to study next year extren?ely doubtful on this ac- 
 count? Have you been going in and out these past few dayf with a heavy 
 heart because the future was so dark ? If you yre God's child, go to your 
 Father and ask, for He loves to give to you, mor« than you love to receive. He 
 is more willing to give than earthly parents are to give to their children. If 
 He withheld not to give his own Son when we were all enemies, since we ar© 
 His children He will not withhold now these meaner things, which are but as 
 ^ the dust of His feet— as compared with the gift of His Son. 
 
7 
 
 Acquaint then, yourselves with God, be at peace with Him, and all these 
 good things will come unto you. Iq Him ydu have comfort and help, iii Him 
 you have direction and strength. He who said ^' I will not leave you comfortless'*, 
 will verify that promise in every one of you who put your trust in Him. 
 
 4. When we follow the student beyond the threshold of his Alma Mater, 
 when he takes his place among men as a scholar and a man, nothing more em- 
 inently fits him for his new place and relation than the spirit of Christ dwelling 
 in him. So true does this appear to my mind that I cannot even conceive of 
 success without it. Suppose that after graduation a young man becomes a 
 merchant, a lawyer, a physician or a statesman, and accemplishes all that he 
 undertakes, — gratifies the desires of his heart, yet is a stranger to God. Re- 
 member the wakefulne?s, the anxiety, the perplexity, the doubt, the fear, dis- 
 appointment, planning, schemirrg and fretting, before the end was reached. 
 Has the man succeeded ? Has such a man reached the highest possible attain- 
 ment even in this life? Have you ever met a man however successful in these 
 respects, who expressed entire satisfaction? Lord Ohesterfie'd worshiped at the 
 shrine of pleasure, yet he grew so melancholy that his life \\'as a burden to him. 
 Of life he says, "It is a dull journey. As for myself ray course is more than 
 half passed over, aui I mean to sleep iu the coach the rest of the journey," 
 " May be few of you will, upon the whole, be more successful than Lord Byron 
 supposing that you are not christians. Yet in the bitter disappointment of his 
 heart, he cries out, 
 
 "Alas it is delusion all. 
 
 The future cheats us from afar; 
 Nor can we be what we recall, 
 
 Nor dare we think on what we are." 
 
 However scholarly you become, however successful in any profession or occupation, 
 however wealthy you become, none of these things will, at the end of the journey, 
 be so strouii a proof of having spent a successful life, as to have so lived that this 
 thought will be in the memories of those who mourn for you, or be engraved upon 
 the monument that marks the spot where your body rests, "5e walked with God, 
 for he knew Him, and was at peace with Bim.'* 
 
 I have named some of the attendant benefits of Christianity. These are by no 
 means all that might be named, nor am I sure that they are the greatest, yet they 
 are sufficieniifi^iumber and importance to demand the most careful consideration. 
 I have not mentioned these as the chief motives by which you are to be guided and 
 influenced in seeking an acquaintance with God, but only as happy consequences 
 of living in such relation to him. The chief reasons for your becoming christians 
 are of a higher arm' nobler kind. And in order that these effects be most 
 permanent, it is necessary that your motives for becoming christians be most ex- 
 alted and pure. God is to be sought for what He is, — for His own sake rather than 
 
^Y§ 
 
 ^> 
 
 8 c/ 
 
 for yours. Think of Him and not of yourselves. Let what I have named be but « 
 helps to you, influencing you, tliat you may become acquainted with Him in all His 
 goodness, love and mercy. And be sure that while you seek Him for what He is 
 in Himself, in His infinite mercy He will save you, not for what you are, but because 
 He loves you, and for the sake of His own dear son, who ever intercedes for you. 
 I exhort you then, in conclusion, to make the glory of God the great end of life,— 
 in school and out of it. Do this, not selfishly, but for the sake of God, the Father, 
 Jesus Christ, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Sauctifier and Comforter. Let it be 
 the chief study of life to know more of God, to become intimate y acquainted with 
 Him. Let it be the chief labor of life, to exalt the honor and excellency of His 
 great name. Let those of you who are yet strangers to Him, make this coming 
 commencement the beginning of a neiv life indeed — not of some new profession or 
 employment— but of an eternal life, that has its great end in doing God's will. — 
 May the church and the world be better for your having lived as educated men and 
 women. With a sanctified education, yourselves consecrated to God, you may add 
 much both to the church and the world. I believe that the time will then come 
 when you will far more perfectly comprehend the great benefit of your^ education 
 in being able to know more, and enjoy more of God in Heaven, throughout eter- 
 nity. I believe that the advantages of an education in this life are few and small 
 compared with what they will be hereafter, only provided however that we are now 
 given to Him. Believing this, I must on the other hand believe that being stran. 
 gers to Him, our increase in intellectual power will only increase our sufi"ering, by 
 enabling us to realize more fully our miserable, lost condition — from which may, 
 God in his infinite mercy deliver you. May the Holy Spirit co-operate with your 
 most earnest efforts and lead you to a true acquaintance which shall result in, 
 making you perfectly blessed in Him to all eternity. And though you now 'see 
 through a glass darUy, you shall see Him face to face,'' "for when Christ appears 
 you shall see Him as He is, for you shall be like Him," — to which end may God 
 lead you. Amen. 
 
V 
 
BX9878.9 .S56 
 
 A sermon delivered before the students 
 
 Princeton Theological Semlnary-Speer Librar 
 
 1 1012 00047 4314 
 
 i