The name is absent

Religion, the Sole Solution 167

May I concrete these rambling thoughts and present them
to you, young men and women standing at the open gates
of a wider and fairer future? Human worth is moral
worth. Man’s proper measure is character, conduct is three
fourths of life; right-doing brings the deepest and most
lasting content and gladness to the heart of man. Goodness
of life tends to length of days, to health, to success. It is
not possible to respect one’s self and to make no sacrifice
for one’s fellow-men. What we need above all things is
the man, the influence, the institution with power to nourish
the life of the soul, to give us faith, hope, and love.

What we sow we reap, whether there be a question of
individuals or of nations. We do not need more of new
laws; what we need is a new spirit, a more real faith in God,
a more real love of our fellow-man, more honesty, more
charity, more chastity, more unselfishness. Morality, and
not legality, is the only foundation upon which a free gov-
ernment can securely rest.

Young men and young women, carry out with you from
the halls of this institution the mighty work in science, in
letters, and in the arts upon which these men have expended
themselves, but also carry with it the message that you have
seen in their daily lives, that it is not down in the valleys of
sense but high up in the spiritual peaks that man really
lives.

J. M. Kirwin.

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