The Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, Bishop of Massachusetts, preached the Baccalaureate Sermon to the members of the class of Ninety-five in Appleton Chapel yesterday afternoon. The sermon is given in full below:

"My text is the first verse of the first chapter of Isaiah: 'Hearken unto me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord. Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn.'

"This is an appeal to the past.

"The prophet was trying to arouse the people to higher ambitions and a nobler life. He had reasoned with them, had spurred them with a fear of God's judgments, had fired them with a glimpse of the future and of the promises to those that seek the Lord. And then, in the text, he struck their sense of honor and loyalty by an appeal to the past. Their history though checquered had been an honorable one; their father, Abraham, had in the spirit of faith migrated to the west and settled in a new country. From small beginnings they had grown to be a great people. Illustrious names crowded their annals, faith and patriotism were the watchwords of their fathers, deeds of chivalry were celebrated in their songs. It was of such stuff that they were made, of such a history that they came forth, therefore the prophet felt and had a right to feel that an appeal to the past would rouse in them the noblest ambitions. 'Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn,' is his cry, 'and unto Abraham your father.' Such an appeal is the privilege of those nations that have behind them a long and noble history. Other peoples have their sources of inspiration, new countries have the great stimulus of youth. But this is one of the privileges of honorable years.

"Men of the class of ninety-five, you are gathered here this afternoon to catch some fire from off this altar and to carry it with you through life. In a few days you will pass out the college gate and, with happy memories of Harvard in the background, your thoughts will be intent on the future. I might try to strike the several notes of the prophet: I could tell you from the lives of some of my own college mates of how God's judgments fall upon those that seek unrighteousness, - the sermon caught from a few unhappy and cursed lives would speak stronger words than any prophetic warnings. You would respond with eagerness to an appeal to the future and to the rewards that come to them that seek the right. But my sole appeal today is to the past. I want to lead you to a study of a few of the early principles of Harvard's history and thus to a few of the principles of what I think should be a Harvard man's character.

"And I am the more glad to take this line today because their is growing a feeling among many, even cultivated people, that a university can be created without a history, that large funds and wise management may accomplish for a university in a few years all that centuries of wise management can do. That there is an element of truth in this, we all agree. That certain studies and scientific researches are not dependent upon historic surroundings and a rich atmosphere of culture is true. But if a university has for its work also the development of the whole man, growth in culture and the encouragement of the humanities, then surely historic associations, a noble lineage, ancient memories and an atmosphere enriched with generations of culture have their great influence. And it is from these often that the student gains his noblest aspirations. Let us look then unto the rock whence we are hewn.

"As the freshman just arrived from his distant home first passes through the college gate, he reads upon the wall a legend which strikes a new note in his life.

" 'After God had carried us safe to New England and we had builded our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God's worship, and settled the civil government, one of the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity, dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when our present ministers shall lie in the dust.'

"It is a voice from the past, from 'New England's first fruits.'

"For several years the student lives within the associations of the college; the very buildings are living voices of men long dead, the trees whisper of ancient memories, the atmosphere is full of history. And then, as in yonder Theatre he takes his degree, his eye catches the Latin legend above him and in reading those lines the last note of his college life is struck.

" 'Here in the forest-grown uncultivated lands, English men exiled from home, In the sixteen hundred and thirty-sixth year after Christ's birth, In the sixth year after bringing their colony hither, Thinking that before all else they ought to cultivate wisdom, Founded by act of the people a school, And dedicated to Christ and the church this their foundation, Which being increased by the bounty of John Harvard and by lovers of learning here and abroad continually helped and finally entrusted to the loyal care of its children, From a small beginning brought to a mightier growth, By Presidents, Fellows, Overseers and Faculty with counsels, foresight and care. To the best arts, to virtues, social and personal, Has given and still gives culture. They that he instructed shall shine like the glory of the firmament, And they that educate many to righteousness, Like stars for ceaseless eternities.'

"In the light of these two inscriptions let us gather together elements which inhere in the foundation and history of Harvard and see how they appeal to our sense of duty and privilege. Dedicated to Christ and the Church this their foundation.'

"The one feature that stands out in the beginnings of this college is the deep religious spirit.

"Whatever opinion one may have about the function of religion in a university today, there is no question as to what its position was in the early history of the college.

"It was not a mere coincidence that our Puritan fore-fathers happening to be men of strong religious conviction and also of English university education, founded a college in the 6th year of the colony.