Atlanta Daily World

Hope Of World Lies In Intangible Forces Of Christianity-Democracy Dr. Holmes Declares

Likening the present classes of college graduates to the forces of Elisha beset by the horses and chariots of the King of Syria, Dr. John Haynes Holmes, pastor of the Community Church of New York, told the graduating classes of Atlanta University, Spelman College and Morehouse College Sunday afternoon in the annual baccalaureate sermon that they must depend on the "intangible, invisible and imponderable" forces of righteousness to circumvent the forces of evil that right them about. The sermon was heard by one of the largest audiences ever assembled in Sisters Chapel on the Spelman College campus.

In voicing his concern for the well being of those who are leaving college today, he declared his concern was based on the fundamental fact that we are living in a world that has lost its security—political, economic and international—all that has in turn lost its confidence and is beset by fear. As insecurity has passed into fear, he said, so has fear passed into the cruelty and violence that is to be found everywhere in the world today. He expressed a further concern in the fact that the graduates to whom he spoke were members of a minority group that were suffering oppression by the majority forces. He compared the Negroes in America to the Jews in Germany and Poland, the white Russians in the Soviet Republic, the Catholics in Mexico and Spain, and the untouchables in India all of whom are today carrying the cross of civilization and walking the "via dolorosa." All these minority groups in Dr. Holmes' opinion, are faced by the same problems and must turn to the same spiritual forces for guidance and help.

In a world that has lost its political, economic and international security, and having lost this security is beset by fear, there are three great forces that can sustain an underprivileged or minority group Dr. Holmes declared. These forces he enumerated as the tradition and practice of democracy which are based on the principle that all men are created equal; the precepts and principles of Christianity, which embody the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man and the moral law of the universe which declares that in the long run right shall overcome wrong, light shall conquer darkness and peace shall prevail.

"At bottom there is nothing to fear," Dr. Holmes told the graduates. "whatever our sins and shortcomings may be there is always the tradition of a democracy, the ideal of Jesus Christ and the moral law which is that the will of God will be done."

The baccalaureate service was preceded by an academic procession, in which the graduating classes of Spelman College, Morehouse College and Atlanta University, were followed by the faculties of the three institutions and the visiting speakers. The procession entered the chapel to the strains of (Continued on Page 2, Col. 3)

are today carrying the cross of
Hope of World
(Continued from page 1)

the Triumphant March from Aida, and following the playing of "Ave Maria Stella" (Grieg) and the singing of Mendelssohn's "Come, Let Us Sing Unto the Lord" by the Atlanta-Spelman-Morehouse chorus, the Scriptures were read by Reverend D. H. Stanton, division Secretary of the American Bible Society.

A unique feature of the afternoon was the singing of the hymn, "The Voice of God is Calling," which had been written by Dr. Holmes in 1913 and which was set to the tune of "The Church is One Foundation." After the singing of this hymn, the prayer was offered by Dr. James Ross McCain, president of Agnes Scott College, and the spiritual, "Every Time I Hear the Spirit," was sung by the congregation.

In introducing the speaker of the day, Miss Florence M. Read, president of Spelman College and acting president of Atlanta University, recalled that the invitation to speak on this occasion had first been extended to Dr. Holmes by Dr. Hope more than a year before Dr. Hope's death, and she counted this further evidence of his far-sighted planning, the fruits of which Atlanta University will long enjoy.

Pointing to Dr. Holmes as a member of an old New England family, graduate of Harvard University, a civic and religious leader in New York City for more than thirty years, pastor since 1909 of the Community Church of that city, and a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, she described him as one of the few men of his generation who could not be intimidated and could be counted on to see the truth and to speak it fearlessly.

The sermon was followed by the singing of "Send Forth Thy Light" by the chorus and the spiritual, "Great Day, the Righteous Marching." The benediction was spoken by President S. H. Archer of Morehouse College and the March from "Tannhauser" concluded the exercises.

The functions of the commencement season will be resumed this morning at 10 o'clock when degrees of Master of Arts and Master of Science will be conferred by Atlanta University upon a large class of candidates and the address to the class will be made by Donald Slesinger formerly professor of law and associate dean of the division of social sciences of the University of Chicago. The exercises in Sisters Chapel will be open to the public.

Other events of the Atlanta University commencement week program will include the meeting of the alumni association at 6:30 o'clock this evening in the Atlanta University Library which will be followed by the annual banquet and reunion of the graduates and former students at 8 o'clock in the Atlanta University dormitories.