I MAY PUT it this way: there is a world of reason, modesty, charity and trust in the midst of, and opposed to, the oppressive and contentious world of deceit, anger, vilification and self-righteousness now made so manifest all about us again, as twenty years ago, by would-be exploiters. This former world is created and precariously maintained in all generations by civilized men, a world for which in the depths of our hearts I am sure we all yearn.

What I have wanted to say to you today is simply that in my view, as Harvard men, you are called to serve that world.

In earlier days at this baccalaureate service Harvard presidents have tried first to suggest this world and have then reiterated again a requirement to work for it, a basic tenet in our enduring liberal tradition. Life outside the academy was probably no more easy then than now, nor did my predecessors have any illusions about the difficulty and the only limited chances of what they were asking. But finally in a deep intent to be helpful they would go on to say, quite unashamedly, "Go forth and be strong."

Styles change, circumstances change. But from what we have been through together in your years and from what we have now come to sense of the difficulties and the dangers of this time, it seems to me we have earned the right again to speak in such terms.

In a world of violence, deceit and coercive evil- to experience which, most regrettably, you have not bad to wait to go outside- wishing in my turn to be helpful I would first pray for you clarity of vision. Then in a period as troubled and uncertain as any in our history, echoing my predecessors' words. I would say something quite similar to what has been said here so many times in the past, urging you not, from a feeling of helplessness, either to surrender to rage or to succumb to self-pity, but rather to go forth and be strong. Beyond this, since in such enterprise you will surely need help- as others who have gone before you have needed help- I would add a further prayer, that the grace of God may go with you and sustain you wherever you go and in whatever task to which you will be called.

Yours has been a college generation full of difficulty, double and confusion. Yet I would be lacking a fundamental faith in the wonder-working of this University if I were not convinced you will find, in retrospect, your time in college to have been extraordinarily maturing and rewarding. Difficulty brings self-knowledge. Out of trouble springs self-knowledge. Out of trouble springs inner strength and self-renewal. We see now in part only through the darkened glass. It will be your task to help make that vision clearer for yourself and for those near and dear to you through courage, faith, hope and love which have sustained others before you through trials every bit as great as yours. Go forth and be strong.