A Baccalaureate Sermon 205
righteous character and the knightly ambitions of loyalty
to the Divine King. Related to our Maker as His servants,
we are to think of life as having the one reigning purpose
to fulfill that relation in every sphere; so that life shall
be to us an unbroken unity, all legitimate toil may give op-
portunities for righteousness, and men and women may find
ways to serve the Most High wherever their tasks are
placed.
Again, it is necessary to point out that religion must be
more than a check and restraint from wrong, more than
an effort to avoid future pain, more than a vague effort
after future happiness. It must necessarily be a restraint
against wrong, a means to conquer sin; but it must go fur-
ther, and be a means to set the heart on holiness, to develop
positive love for God and a realization of sympathy and
unity. It is duty not only not to disobey the commandments,
but likewise duty positively to love the Heavenly Father.
The duty of loving and serving God is not to be left
unfulfilled on the claim that His moral commandments are
not being violated; the claim that flagrant sin is not being
done; the claim that the offense is merely omission and not
commission. The man with the one talent is the type of
life which is so speciously pleaded, so easily adopted that
its error and peril need emphatic declaration. He put from
him the divine gift and call and opportunity, making no
effort to employ them in fruitful ways. It is the type of
life which is sunk in self, waves religion away, and justifies
itself with the claim that it is crowded with its own busi-
ness and is not an evil-doer. But religion cannot be waved
away; preoccupation is no excuse and no justification; the
very first business is to be useful to God; it is not an optional
matter; the fundamental duty is unfulfilled when the man
is not loving God; and if the cooperation which that love