in educational fields and who have satisfied the requirements of the various departments of Graceland College as represented. It seems a fitting time to raise the question as to whether with the gettingthe education acquired-they have also gained the understanding referred to in this text.

"As we ungrudgingly enter in upon that service society claims from us, and give up our strength, so will our capabilities for service be enlarged, and our strength be increased."

This scripture to me has this meaning: It is not enough that we lay hold upon all we can in the fields of learning open to us; it is more especially needful that we seek deep after that understanding of our relation to other men that shall make it possible for us to put to service the education secured in a manner that will bring the greatest good to the greatest number. With learning, with scholarship, there must go hand in hand a true appreciation of one's relation to society, of one's duty to his fellow-men.

TWO COLLEGE GRADUATES; A CONTRAST.

In each of the communities represented by the members of this class, I doubt not but that there may be found those who have and those who have not, with their advancement in learning, caught the inspiration of this text. From my associations with the sudents of Graceland in past years, especially during the time I, myself, attended the institution, I know that this has been true of those graduating from the college. I have in mind two young men who will serve us as examples.

One of these young men came from a distant State, and finished a prescribed course of the school. He returned to his home, and some time later was ordained and applied for a mission. He was in Lamoni, but not in the session of General Conference at the time of the reading of the appointments. When one of his associates informed him that he had been appointed to a certain field, he raised his right hand above his head and brought down his clenched fist in the open palm of his left, emphasizing these words: "Good-bye work; I'll never strike another tap." This young man is not in the mission field now. He is working with a shovel. He will be a failure in that vocation as he has been a failure as a missionary unless he learns to look upon life from a different viewpoint.

The other young man came also from a distant State. He also finished a course of study, by the way, the same course completed by the young man first mentioned. As he was leaving, after his graduation, he took me by the hand, and with tears coursing down his cheeks, said, "Brother John, I have been greatly benefited by my work in school and by my associations in Lamoni. I am going back home now and do all I can to benefit the people there, and to better the conditions of society." Some time later this young man was ordained, afterwards leaving a remunerative position in the business world to answer the call of the church. To-day he is occupying in an important mission, and in a place of responsibility and of trust. He will succeed. He has the right point of view.

HOARDING VERSUS SPENDING.

Education, then, is not for the benefit of the recipient only. It is not intended as a means of elevating one man above the problems and burdens of another. It should not be sought as a means of securing easy money. As a result of the sacrifices of other men, of the past and present, as a result of the achievements of society, there is made possible to the individual his educational opportunities. Education enlarges his capacities, it should enlarge and ennoble his service. In his turn the individual, himself, should render to society his portion.

This, then, is the thought of our text. If the members of this class of 1910 and '11 have not gained this point of view, their work at Graceland College has been a failure.

Let us read again our other text:

"There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty."

We have here the peculiar statement that under certain condi

tions there may be a scattering—a giving—and yet the thing given shall be increased. This principle is set forth in the experience of the poor widow. She willingly gave that which must have been held as priceless, and it returned to her again, her oil and meal being replenished and ample not only for the needs of the man of God, but also for those of her son and herself. Again, it is set forth in the experience of the lad in connection with the feeding of the multitude. He willingly gave his loaves and fishes, with the five thousand he was fed, and there remained unto him, after they had eaten, twelve baskets full,-his store had abundantly increased itself after its scattering.

These are but examples unto us of the thought contained in this second text. As the principle held true in the instances referred to, so will it hold true in the experience of each of us. As we give of our capabilities, as we ungrudgingly enter in upon that service society claims from us and give up of our strength, so will our capabilities for service be enlarged, and our strength be increased.

"There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth." Service properly rendered, increaseth the one serving, enlargeth his soul. This service withheld "tendeth to poverty," is dwarfing to the soul. Service, then, is the normal condition of man, the condition of enlargement and growth.

THE VISION OF SIR LAUNFAL.

This thought of increase with true service, is brought out strikingly in the beautiful poem, The Vision of Sir Launfal, by James Russell Lowell.

Tradition has it that the Holy Grail, the cup from which Jesus drank at the last supper, after having been brought by Joseph of Arimathea into England, was preserved in his family for many years. He who had the keeping of this sacred vessel was put under a vow of chastity and purity. One of Joseph's descendants broke his vow of chastity and the Holy Grail disappeared. It at once became an object of devout search. In this poem Sir Launfal prepares for the search, and as he lays himself down to rest on the night before his intended departure, into his sleep there comes a vision.

Sir Launfal sees himself ride forth boldly and proudly from his castle. He is bent on the finding of the Holy Grail. From the leprous beggar crouching at his gate, Sir Launfal shrinks with loathing, and in scorn he tosses him a piece of gold. In this language the leper refuses the gift:

The leper raised not the gold from the dust:
"Better to me the poor man's crust,

Better the blessing of the poor,

Though I turn me empty from his door;

That is no true alms which the hand can hold;

He gives nothing but worthless gold

Who gives from the sense of duty;

But he who gives a slender mite,

And gives to that which is out of sight,

That thread of the all-sustaining beauty

Which runs through all and doth all unite,—

The hand can not clasp the whole of his alms,

The heart outstretches its eager palms,

For God goes with it and makes it store

To the soul that was starving in darkness before."

The scene changes, and Sir Launfal "an old, bent man, worn out and frail," returning from his long and fruitless search finds another heir possesed of his earldom. He turns "from his own hard gate" and in the "barbed air" of the "Christmastide," drawing about him his "raiment thin and spare," he sits him down to muse "of a sunnier clime." In upon his reveries there break these words, "For Christ's sweet sake, I beg an alms." Turning, Sir Launfal sees cowering beside him a "grewsome thing," a leper "in the desolate horror of his disease."

Sir Launfal looks not upon the leper through the proud and scornful eyes of his maiden knighthood. In the morn of his service, the leper appeared to him only as a thing of loathing, to be pacified by the glint of gold; . . . but now Sir Launfal, chastened and corrected by the vicissitudes of life, sees in him "an image of him who died on the tree," a brother deserving of sympathy; and he recognizes the occasion as an opportunity for service. He remembers with remorse "in what a haughty guise" he had before "flung an alms to leprosy."

The heart within him was ashes and dust;
He parted in twain his single crust,
He broke the ice on the streamlet's brink,
And gave the leper to eat and drink.

As Sir Launfal again muses "a light shone round about the place"; the leper no longer crouches by his side, but transformed, he stands "shining and tall and fair and straight" and from his divine lips fall these words:

"Lo, it is I, be not afraid!

In many climes, without avail,

Thou hast spent thy life for the Holy Grail;
Behold, it is here, this cup which thou

Didst fill at the streamlet for me but now;

This crust is my body broken for thee,

This water His blood that died on the tree;

The Holy Supper is kept, indeed,

In whatso we share with another's need;

Not what we give, but what we share,

For the gift without the giver is bare;

Who gives himself, with his alms feeds three-
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me."

There is much of worth that might be drawn from these beautiful lines. Upon this occasion, however, we can only pause to notice that which has a direct bearing upon the thought we have especially in mind. In the words of the transformed leper, we have this fact set forth: By true service the individual enlarges himself, enlarges his neighbor, and enlarges the great cause of good at work among men. Indeed, the language of our text is true: "There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth."

THE EXAMPLE OF JESUS.

In the life of Jesus, who is our example in all things, we find this truth beautifully demonstrated. Jesus gives himself up wholly to his work. He forgets self in his service to humanity; even the foxes provide themselves with holes, and the fowls of the air themselves with nests, but the Son of Man provides not himself with a place to lay his head. Upon the cross he forgets self in his concern for others: "Father, forgive them;" "Woman, behold thy son." It is only in the greatest agony and the extremest trial that the Savior is self-conscious and even then he is not self-centered. Out of the agony of the garden, when he prays the Father that the cup may pass, come the words, "Not my will, but thine, be done." When on Calvary he seems left alone and there is wrung from his soul the heart-rending cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me,' he remembers that which has been written, "and that the Scriptures might be fulfilled," says, "I thirst." Then looking up into the face of the great God, he dismisses from his mind his personal suffering and agony with the noble words, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." Thinking then only of that part of his mission already completed, that service rendered, in the great joy of his triumph there bursts from his lips the words, "It is finished." It is by this spirit shown in times of great agony, that Jesus demonstrates to us his divinity, and his worth as an example. And in this giving of himself wholly to mankind, he enlarges himself, he enlarges the possibilities of each of us, and he enlarges the good of this world. These, then, are the thoughts we glean from our texts: In the advancing of ourselves in that which is educational, if we would be in the way of success, we must strive for that point of view, for that appreciation of the needs and rights of others, for that understanding that shall make it possible for us to be of the greatest benefit to society; as we enter in upon our work among men and in the interests of the cause of the Master, there will come to us the consciousness that right service, ungrudgingly given, will enlarge us, our fellow-men, and the good that is in the world.

To the young people of this class I bring these thoughts. I trust that in the affairs of life, in the vocations open to them, they may find success. I commend them to God, praying that his grace may attend them in their work.