BACCALAUREATE SERMON.

The Baccalaureate services of the Senior class were held in Appleton Chapel at 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon. The chapel, with the exception of the reserved seats on the floor, had been filled before a few minutes to 4, when the Seniors entered in procession from the front of Holworthy. The services began with an anthem, sung by the choir, a prayer, responsive reading from the twenty - seventh psalm and a second anthem preceded the reading of the scripture lesson from the fifth chapter of St. Matthew. After a prayer, an anthem and the singing of the hymn, "Awake My Soul," Dr. George A. Gordon, of the New Old South Church, delivered the Baccalaureate sermon.

Dr. Gordon took his text from the fifty-fourth verse of St. Luke's, twenty-fourth chapter: "While he blessed them, he was parted from them." From this brief account of the separation of Jesus and his disciples, Dr. Gordon drew a parallel of the parting of Harvard men from the ennobling influence of their College. Jesus' companionship, like his farewell, was a blessing; the Harvard influence too has been a blessing. Jesus was the way and the truth; Harvard, for Christ and the Church, has made her motto "Veritas."

What has Harvard given to the men who go out from her walls each year? First, she has taught them to estimate the worth of their own natures and the scope of their powers. By the scholastic tests of examinations she trains men in clearer self knowledge, in concentrated and readily commanded intellectual faculties. By the intercourse with their fellows, also, men are taught within her bounds this same keener knowledge of self, and a catholic judgment of their own strengths and weaknesses. They learn these same lessons in their attempts to imitate the achievements and to follow the ideals of some great teacher.

Secondly, Harvard teaches her sons the worth and value of the past as an inspiration to present work. The great works of literature--the Odyssey, the Iliad, Shakspere's works and Dante's and Goethe's--are expressions of human life and feeling and are inspiring to men of every age. Present achievement is the more perfect realization of past phenomena. Understanding of the past is power, and this power Harvard gives through her training to her sons.

Thirdly, Harvard teaches the invaluable lesson that knowledge is for service, and that the privileged position of students implies the responsibility of practical return. College men have opportunities beyond the ordinary, and to their friends, to their College, their nation and their God they owe extraordinary service.