BACCALAUREATE SERMON 



PRESIDENT MATTHEW HENRY BUCKHAM 

 University of Vermont 



Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, from 

 following the sheep, to be ruler over my people. — II Sam. 7 : 8. 



This is so frequent an occurrence in human experience, the 

 calling of men from the sheepcote to national leadership, that 

 it has become a commonplace of moralists. But it never ceases 

 to be an impressive fact, and may well be studied for the instruc- 

 tion with which it is charged. The callings of divine Providence 

 rest on good reasons which we may well seek to discover. Why 

 are shepherds of sheep so often called to be kings of men ? 



1. Let us try to get the essential out of that which is inciden- 

 tal in the fact under review. The pastoral calling stands for 

 much in itself. It is human life as first organized — social 

 life in its freshness and simplicity. Idealized in after ages it 

 inspires the poetry of the idyl and the pastoral. When life 

 becomes luxurious and corrupt a Tacitus or a Rousseau recalls 

 the pastoral life to men's imagination, and it becomes the fashion 

 to mimic its simplicity and innocence. But that which is good 

 in the pastoral life takes on a larger good in the more developed 

 agricultural life with its fixed homes, its seed time and harvests, 

 its granaries and fruits. God calls men to leadership also 

 from the furrow, from the harvest field, from the garden and 

 the vineyard. And we cannot stop here. From every humble 

 calling in life men have been advanced to high station — from 

 fishing and tent-making, from type-setting and rail-splitting, 

 from the tanner's vat and the shoemaker's bench, from the 

 sailing craft and the ferry boat, from opening and shutting of a 

 steam valve, from a hundred arts and industries. And was 



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