James T. Cleland - "The Thrill of Tradition" (December 9, 1973)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(gentle organ music) | 0:08 | |
- | On the occasion of Founders' Day, | 0:31 |
Duke University gathers to remember its traditions, | 0:36 | |
especially to express appreciation | 0:42 | |
to James Buchanan Duke and the members of the Duke family, | 0:49 | |
but even more to express appreciation | 0:54 | |
for the spirit of generosity, | 0:57 | |
the spirit of understanding with | 1:01 | |
the broader aspects of wealth | 1:07 | |
and what wealth could accomplish. | 1:11 | |
And as we stand here today, | 1:14 | |
approaching 50 years as a university, | 1:18 | |
we remember that that wealth has been used | 1:22 | |
to touch the lives of literally | 1:26 | |
hundreds of thousands of people | 1:29 | |
through medical services, through education, | 1:33 | |
through the life of this chapel. | 1:37 | |
And so on this Founders' Day, we express our appreciation | 1:40 | |
for the kind of spirit exhibited by Mr. Duke | 1:44 | |
and the members of his family. | 1:49 | |
- | Let us pray. | 1:56 |
O God, on this day of remembrance and celebration, | 2:00 | |
we give thanks to Thee for all those | 2:07 | |
through whom Thou hast blessed our lives; | 2:09 | |
for all persons who have made us sensitive to others; | 2:15 | |
those whose influence has been a healing grace; | 2:19 | |
for all dear friends and kindred of our homes, | 2:25 | |
whose faces we see no more, but whose love is ever with us; | 2:28 | |
for this university; | 2:37 | |
for the lives and influence and concern | 2:40 | |
and gifts of the Duke family; | 2:42 | |
for those who first felt it important | 2:46 | |
that religion and learning should be wed indissolubly; | 2:49 | |
for those who wanted a great towering church | 2:55 | |
at the center of this university, | 2:58 | |
and placed rooms of study, learning, | 3:02 | |
research, and recreation around it; | 3:05 | |
for benefactors and trustees and administrators | 3:11 | |
whose gifts of time, energy, money, and ideas | 3:14 | |
have made of this university a place of learning, | 3:21 | |
of devotion and of service to others; | 3:26 | |
for persons of daily labor | 3:31 | |
who have kept this a place of beauty; | 3:35 | |
for teachers who have sought | 3:40 | |
and shared their knowledge of the truth, | 3:41 | |
that truth which frees the mind and motivates the will; | 3:45 | |
for students who have come to gain and have left to give, | 3:53 | |
and both here and abroad, have made this a better place; | 3:59 | |
for all those, O God, through whose sacrifice we now live, | 4:08 | |
may we hold them in eternal remembrance | 4:16 | |
and think of them as those | 4:22 | |
in that city whose gates are not shut by day | 4:24 | |
and where there is no night; | 4:29 | |
may we be dedicated now to work for a world | 4:33 | |
where justice is the way of life, | 4:36 | |
where fear is dispelled and where love is common to us all. | 4:39 | |
O Lord, save us Thy people | 4:47 | |
and bless Thine heritage to us. | 4:51 | |
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. | 4:55 | |
(solemn choral music) | 6:23 | |
(solemn organ music) | 7:45 | |
(congregation sings solemnly) | 8:19 | |
(solemn organ music) | 11:44 | |
(solemn choral music) | 13:11 | |
Be seated, please. | 13:53 | |
Let us pray. | 14:08 | |
O Lord, holy and righteous God, | 14:13 | |
we acknowledge before Thee that we do not fear Thee | 14:21 | |
and that we do not love Thee above all things; | 14:27 | |
we do not delight in prayer, nor take pleasure in Thy word; | 14:32 | |
we do not really love our neighbor; | 14:40 | |
we lack the conscience | 14:45 | |
that should accompany our Christian profession; | 14:47 | |
our hearts are divided, | 14:52 | |
crossed by doubts and by guilty desires. | 14:55 | |
We find ourselves wanting | 15:00 | |
before Thee, O God. | 15:04 | |
We ask of Thee, whose nature and whose name is love, | 15:09 | |
to forgive us; and in forgiving, | 15:16 | |
to heal us so that in our lives | 15:21 | |
some things will finally be changed for good. | 15:23 | |
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. | 15:30 | |
Hear now these words of assurance | 15:40 | |
from the Book of Romans. | 15:44 | |
"There is therefore now | 15:48 | |
no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, | 15:53 | |
who walk not according to the flesh, | 15:59 | |
but according to the Spirit." | 16:03 | |
Amen. | 16:08 | |
Let us pray together our Prayer of Thanksgiving. | 16:11 | |
O Lord our God, the author and giver of all good things, | 16:18 | |
we thank Thee for all Thy mercies | 16:25 | |
and for Thy loving care over all Thy creatures. | 16:28 | |
We bless Thee for the gift of life, | 16:32 | |
for Thy protection round about us, | 16:36 | |
for Thy guiding hand upon us, | 16:39 | |
and for the tokens of Thy love within us. | 16:42 | |
We thank Thee for friendship and duty, | 16:46 | |
for good hopes and precious memories, | 16:49 | |
for the joys that cheer us, | 16:52 | |
and the trials that teach us to trust in Thee. | 16:55 | |
Most of all, we thank Thee for the saving knowledge | 16:59 | |
of Thy son our savior, | 17:02 | |
for the living presence of Thy spirit the Comforter, | 17:05 | |
for Thy church the body of Christ, | 17:09 | |
for the ministry of word and sacrament, | 17:12 | |
and for all the means of grace. | 17:15 | |
In all these things, O Heavenly Father, | 17:18 | |
make us wise unto a right use of Thy benefits, | 17:21 | |
that we may render an acceptable thanksgiving unto Thee | 17:26 | |
all the days of our life. | 17:30 | |
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. | 17:32 | |
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; | 17:37 | |
Thy kingdom come; | 17:44 | |
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 17:46 | |
Give us this day our daily bread; | 17:50 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 17:53 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us; | 17:56 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 18:01 | |
but deliver us from evil: | 18:03 | |
For Thine is the kingdom, | 18:05 | |
and the power, and the glory, forever. | 18:08 | |
Amen. | 18:11 | |
(melodic organ music) | 18:14 | |
♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪ | 18:22 | |
♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪ | 18:27 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 18:29 | |
♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪ | 18:32 | |
♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪ | 18:37 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 18:39 | |
♪ For the Lord God ♪ | 18:42 | |
♪ Omnipotent reigneth ♪ | 18:46 | |
♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪ | 18:50 | |
♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪ | 18:52 | |
♪ For the Lord God ♪ | 18:55 | |
♪ Omnipotent reigneth ♪ | 18:59 | |
♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪ | 19:03 | |
♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪ | 19:05 | |
(solemn choral music) | 19:08 | |
♪ The kingdom of this world ♪ | 19:39 | |
♪ Is become ♪ | 19:46 | |
♪ The kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ ♪ | 19:50 | |
♪ And of His Christ ♪ | 19:58 | |
♪ And He shall reign for ever and ever ♪ | 20:01 | |
♪ And He shall reign for ever and ever ♪ | 20:07 | |
♪ And He shall reign for ever and ever ♪ | 20:14 | |
♪ And He shall reign for ever and ever ♪ | 20:21 | |
♪ King of kings ♪ | 20:28 | |
♪ For ever and ever ♪ | 20:30 | |
♪ And Lord of lords ♪ | 20:35 | |
♪ King of kings ♪ | 20:43 | |
♪ For ever and ever ♪ | 20:45 | |
♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪ | 20:48 | |
♪ And Lord of lords ♪ | 20:50 | |
♪ For ever and ever ♪ | 20:53 | |
♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪ | 20:56 | |
♪ King of kings ♪ | 20:58 | |
♪ For ever and ever ♪ | 21:00 | |
♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪ | 21:03 | |
♪ Lord of lords ♪ | 21:06 | |
♪ King of kings ♪ | 21:10 | |
♪ And Lord of lords ♪ | 21:11 | |
♪ And He shall reign ♪ | 21:14 | |
♪ He shall reign ♪ | 21:16 | |
♪ And He shall reign ♪ | 21:17 | |
♪ He shall reign ♪ | 21:20 | |
♪ He shall reign ♪ | 21:21 | |
♪ He shall reign ♪ | ||
♪ King of kings ♪ | 21:27 | |
♪ For ever and ever ♪ | 21:30 | |
♪ And Lord of lords ♪ | 21:32 | |
♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪ | 21:35 | |
♪ He shall reign for ever and ever ♪ | 21:37 | |
♪ King of kings and Lord of lords ♪ | 21:45 | |
♪ King of kings and Lord of lords ♪ | 21:50 | |
♪ He shall reign for ever and ever ♪ | 21:55 | |
♪ For ever and ever ♪ | 22:02 | |
♪ For ever and ever ♪ | 22:05 | |
♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪ | 22:07 | |
♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪ | 22:09 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 22:14 | |
- | In the fifth chapter of Matthew, it is written, | 22:43 |
"Think not that I have come | 22:48 | |
to abolish the law and the prophets: | 22:50 | |
I have come not to abolish them, but to fulfill them. | 22:53 | |
For truly I say to you, | 22:58 | |
'till heaven and earth pass away, | 23:00 | |
not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law | 23:02 | |
until all is accomplished. | 23:06 | |
Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments | 23:09 | |
and teaches men so | 23:12 | |
shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven, | 23:14 | |
but he who does them and teaches them | 23:18 | |
shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. | 23:21 | |
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds | 23:25 | |
that of the scribes and Pharisees, | 23:28 | |
you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. | 23:31 | |
You have heard that it was said to the men of old, | 23:34 | |
'You shall not kill; | 23:39 | |
and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.' | 23:41 | |
But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother | 23:46 | |
shall be liable to judgment; | 23:51 | |
whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council; | 23:54 | |
and whoever says, 'You fool,' | 23:57 | |
shall be liable to the hell of fire. | 23:59 | |
So if you are offering your gift at the altar | 24:02 | |
and there remember that your brother | 24:07 | |
has something against you, | 24:09 | |
leave your gift there before the altar and go; | 24:11 | |
first to be reconciled to your brother, | 24:15 | |
and then come and offer your gift." | 24:18 | |
(solemn choral music) | 24:24 | |
- | Together let us affirm our faith. | 25:06 |
We believe in God: who has created and is creating, | 25:11 | |
who has come into true man Jesus, | 25:16 | |
to reconcile and make new, | 25:19 | |
who works in us and others by His Spirit. | 25:22 | |
We trust Him. | 25:26 | |
He calls us to be in His church: | 25:28 | |
to celebrate His presence, to love and serve others, | 25:32 | |
to seek justice and resist evil, | 25:37 | |
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, | 25:40 | |
our judge and our hope. | 25:44 | |
In life, in death, in life beyond death, | 25:47 | |
God is with us. | 25:51 | |
We are not alone. | 25:54 | |
Thanks be to God. | 25:56 | |
The Lord be with you. | 25:59 | |
- | And with your spirit. | 26:01 |
- | Let us pray. | 26:02 |
O God, our Heavenly Father, | 26:16 | |
Thou who hast declare Thy glory and Thy handiwork | 26:20 | |
in the heavens and on earth, | 26:23 | |
deliver us, we ask of Thee, in our daily living and working, | 26:28 | |
that we may live the lives Thou hast created us to live, | 26:34 | |
in truth, in beauty, and in love, | 26:38 | |
with the desire to serve Thee as Thy children | 26:44 | |
and to care for other as we would have them care for us. | 26:49 | |
This day, O God, we remember all in this place | 26:57 | |
who prepare for the end of this semester of learning. | 27:01 | |
May the faculty be fair in their testing and evaluating. | 27:07 | |
May they seek ways to allow their students | 27:13 | |
to communicate their true grasp of truth and knowledge. | 27:16 | |
May they not trick or be deceptive | 27:22 | |
or unkind in their questions | 27:26 | |
and required papers and final exams. | 27:28 | |
May the students be honest in their response to testing. | 27:34 | |
May their papers and answers and solutions | 27:42 | |
reveal their own understandings of ideas and concepts. | 27:44 | |
May they be at ease and relaxed | 27:51 | |
so that mind and body will function at best. | 27:56 | |
And now, O God, the protector of all who trust in Thee, | 28:04 | |
without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy, | 28:10 | |
increase and multiply upon us and within us Thy mercy, | 28:15 | |
that with Thou being our ruler and guide, | 28:20 | |
we may so pass through these things temporal | 28:25 | |
that we lose not those things eternal. | 28:28 | |
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, | 28:33 | |
to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit, | 28:36 | |
one God, the honor, glory, dominion, and praise, forever. | 28:39 | |
And now, will the congregation join with me | 28:50 | |
in this Litany of Commemoration. | 28:52 | |
The response in italics. | 28:55 | |
Almighty and eternal God, | 29:00 | |
in whom our fathers and mothers trusted, | 29:02 | |
we, their children, on this day of remembrance, | 29:06 | |
offer unto Thee our Litany of Commemoration-- | 29:09 | |
(congregation responds faintly) | 29:14 | |
For the men and women of this state: | 29:17 | |
Methodists and Quakers, farmers and merchants, | 29:21 | |
teachers and administrators who believed in education | 29:26 | |
and made their belief prevail-- | 29:31 | |
(congregation responds faintly) | 29:35 | |
For the embodiment of their dreams: | 29:38 | |
private school, academy, college, university, | 29:41 | |
founded in hope, continued with perseverance, | 29:47 | |
growing in outreach, established in assurance-- | 29:51 | |
(congregation responds faintly) | 29:57 | |
For educators, whose vision was matched by their courage, | 30:00 | |
whose patience was tempered by their indignation, | 30:06 | |
whose idealism was moderated by their awareness of sin-- | 30:11 | |
(congregation responds faintly) | 30:17 | |
For the Duke family, father, sons and their wives, | 30:19 | |
grandchildren, and continuing generations, | 30:26 | |
who, with wonder and surprise, | 30:31 | |
bewilderment and tenacity, laid a good foundation, | 30:34 | |
built a worthy school and provided for exciting growth | 30:38 | |
beyond their kin in years unseen-- | 30:43 | |
(congregation responds faintly) | 30:48 | |
For the continuance of good ideas: | 30:50 | |
the union of truth and reverence, | 30:53 | |
the freedom of responsible academic thought, | 30:57 | |
and the right of public concern, | 31:00 | |
the joint care of the body and the spirit, | 31:04 | |
the linking of science and humanities, | 31:08 | |
the realization that the old order changeth-- | 31:11 | |
(congregation responds faintly) | 31:16 | |
For the future of our university, | 31:19 | |
established to Thy glory | 31:22 | |
and for the relief of humanities estate, | 31:25 | |
for the consecration of the discontent of the young, | 31:29 | |
for wisdom and the conservatism of the middle aged, | 31:33 | |
for resiliency and the obstinacy of the old, | 31:37 | |
for understanding, cooperation, | 31:41 | |
and a sense of humor within our community-- | 31:44 | |
(congregation responds faintly) | 31:49 | |
And to Thee we shall ascribe as is most due, | 31:51 | |
all praise and glory, world without end, Amen. | 31:56 | |
The preacher for this occasion, | 32:07 | |
the 49th anniversary of the founding of this university, | 32:13 | |
is a preacher beloved by us all, | 32:20 | |
the Reverend Dr. James T. Cleland, | 32:23 | |
Dean Emeritus of Duke Chapel. | 32:27 | |
Dr. Cleland. | 32:31 | |
- | The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with us all. | 32:45 |
Today at this university service of worship, | 32:53 | |
we rightly celebrate Founders' Day, | 32:57 | |
but notice where the apostrophe is placed. | 33:02 | |
It recognizes that founders is a plural | 33:08 | |
and not a singular noun. | 33:12 | |
Even so, the date chosen to recognize our academic birthday | 33:16 | |
is the Sunday nearest to the signing of the indenture, | 33:24 | |
on December 11, | 33:30 | |
which transformed Trinity College into Duke University | 33:34 | |
as one item in a catalog of manifold benevolence. | 33:39 | |
Hence, Founders' Day is centralized, | 33:48 | |
focused on James Buchanan Duke, | 33:52 | |
which is understandable and valid | 33:56 | |
if we keep in mind that his name personifies in itself | 34:00 | |
many people before him, | 34:06 | |
with him, after him, | 34:11 | |
folk at this service today. | 34:16 | |
We are remembering those who beget us academically | 34:21 | |
and raised us and nurtured us. | 34:26 | |
We are here to be grateful, to praise men and women. | 34:31 | |
We are here only because | 34:38 | |
they were here before us. | 34:42 | |
We are here because a wealthy man | 34:48 | |
wanted to do something for his native state | 34:51 | |
and to name a university as a memorial to his father. | 34:57 | |
Now, this annual service has become a tradition, | 35:06 | |
something handed on from year to year, | 35:11 | |
though it is a recent tradition, | 35:15 | |
dating only from 1966. | 35:19 | |
This is about the eighth service. | 35:23 | |
Now, what is a tradition? | 35:27 | |
For some folk, it is an established fact. | 35:33 | |
Fibber McGee defined it, "as an unwritten law | 35:39 | |
that nobody dares to bust. | 35:46 | |
On account of if they do, | 35:50 | |
it'll be made into a written law | 35:53 | |
and somebody's liable to repeal it, | 35:56 | |
and then the fat's in the fire." | 36:00 | |
You can't repeal a tradition. | 36:05 | |
You can't repeal a tradition. | 36:10 | |
It's there for better or for worse. | 36:12 | |
For other folk, a tradition is stability. | 36:18 | |
I wish that there were time to quote the first two pages | 36:24 | |
of "Fiddler on the Roof." | 36:28 | |
What kept the Fiddler from falling off the roof? | 36:32 | |
Tradition. | 36:37 | |
Listen to Tevye. | 36:40 | |
Because of our traditions, | 36:42 | |
everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do. | 36:44 | |
For yet others, tradition is a groove | 36:54 | |
which may become a grave, | 36:59 | |
the decadence which leads to death. | 37:03 | |
An American speaking to Sir Arthur Rostron, | 37:07 | |
Commodore of the Cunard line some years ago, said, | 37:11 | |
"You've got what we haven't got. | 37:16 | |
You've got traditions. | 37:22 | |
But don't let them be your master. | 37:26 | |
Traditions are good ballast, but poor cargo." | 37:31 | |
Did the Cunard line forget that? | 37:40 | |
What then is this service for us? | 37:44 | |
A fact to be accepted. | 37:47 | |
An assurance of stability. | 37:50 | |
A gesture to the dead past. | 37:55 | |
Now right there, the preparation of the sermon bogged down | 38:00 | |
for some time. | 38:07 | |
And what restarted it was the remembrance of the passage | 38:10 | |
from the Sermon on the Mount, | 38:15 | |
which was read as our scripture lesson. | 38:18 | |
It's a very confusing passage, | 38:22 | |
which suggests that the so-called Sermon on the Mount | 38:26 | |
was an anthology of Jesus preaching, | 38:30 | |
rather than one elongated utterance. | 38:34 | |
What interest me there is Jesus' attitude to the Jewish law, | 38:39 | |
the Torah, the tradition. | 38:45 | |
He says that He did not come to destroy it, | 38:50 | |
though He bent it regularly and sometimes broke it. | 38:57 | |
And yet He did not say that He had come to keep it, | 39:03 | |
though He appreciated its value. | 39:08 | |
His viewpoint was that He had come to fulfill it. | 39:11 | |
Now what does this mean for the tradition? | 39:19 | |
It's not to be set aside and ignored. | 39:23 | |
It's too valuable. | 39:27 | |
A faith is nourished by its roots. | 39:30 | |
And yet He did not worry over much about keeping the law | 39:37 | |
despite its value. | 39:42 | |
He was more interested in truth than in tradition. | 39:45 | |
He believed He had come to fulfill the law, | 39:51 | |
to bring it to perfection, | 39:57 | |
to be true to its spirit rather than to its letter. | 40:00 | |
The fact, the stability of the tradition, He accepted; | 40:06 | |
He strove to revitalize it | 40:11 | |
so that it would not become the decadence | 40:15 | |
which leads to death. | 40:18 | |
Americans who understand their Constitution | 40:21 | |
should appreciate this viewpoint. | 40:26 | |
Now what does it all this to do with Founders' Day at Duke? | 40:32 | |
We are heirs of a tradition, | 40:38 | |
one which antedates Trinity College | 40:42 | |
and one which is still nurtured | 40:46 | |
by members of the Duke family. | 40:49 | |
What saddens me is that, by and large, | 40:53 | |
most of us know but little of our history. | 40:58 | |
With the exception of the Bassett case, | 41:05 | |
there's hardly an undergraduate student | 41:09 | |
and probably few graduate students and faculty members | 41:14 | |
who could give an accurate account | 41:19 | |
of the academic development from Brown's Schoolhouse | 41:22 | |
to Union Institute to Normal College | 41:28 | |
to Trinity College to Duke University. | 41:32 | |
I couldn't do it until I wrote this sermon. | 41:38 | |
And I'm still hazy on it. | 41:43 | |
And no one in Allen Building ever seem to be anxious | 41:47 | |
that any of us, administration, faculty, staff, students, | 41:52 | |
should be consciously aware of the institution | 41:58 | |
to which we had come for better or for worse. | 42:02 | |
Only The Chronicle gives us information and commentary. | 42:08 | |
One watches the old landmarks fall, | 42:16 | |
ODK, Red Friars, White Duchy, | 42:20 | |
the all-day religious Sunday | 42:27 | |
which was as dull as a Scottish Sabbath. | 42:30 | |
Good riddance maybe. | 42:35 | |
But it's never wise to give up a good custom | 42:38 | |
until we have something better to put in its place. | 42:42 | |
What is the better? | 42:47 | |
There was one interesting gesture to tradition | 42:50 | |
last academic year. | 42:54 | |
The Commencement Committee, | 42:57 | |
which included, I think, seven students, | 43:00 | |
voted that the baccalaureate sermon | 43:04 | |
should be delivered twice at commencement | 43:08 | |
so that everyone could get into the chapel, | 43:13 | |
the central building of the university. | 43:18 | |
On Saturday afternoon | 43:22 | |
for the graduate and professional schools, | 43:24 | |
and 1,000 people were here. | 43:27 | |
On Sunday morning for the undergraduate colleges, | 43:30 | |
2,000 were here. | 43:35 | |
Now that isn't the keeping of a commencement tradition, | 43:38 | |
that is the fulfilling of a commencement tradition. | 43:41 | |
There was a new thrill to that tradition. | 43:45 | |
Founders' Day could be a thrilling one. | 43:51 | |
It has sometimes been surrounded | 43:55 | |
with nastiness in The Chronicle | 43:57 | |
and with apathy in the academic community. | 44:00 | |
Moreover, apart from the music, | 44:04 | |
there's been nothing particularly exciting | 44:07 | |
about the service. | 44:10 | |
Whatever one may think of JB Duke, | 44:13 | |
swashbuckler, tycoon, economic royalist, | 44:16 | |
he cared for North Carolina | 44:24 | |
and for the interweaving of eruditio et religio | 44:29 | |
in the expansion of Trinity College, | 44:36 | |
which would remain a college, | 44:40 | |
the first college within the new multiversity. | 44:43 | |
He evidently felt like Andrew Carnegie, | 44:51 | |
the Scottish steel magnate of Pittsburgh | 44:54 | |
who helped pay my way through Glasgow University, | 44:59 | |
that to die rich is to die disgraced. | 45:04 | |
It's time to rehearse our history, | 45:12 | |
to know whence we've come, | 45:16 | |
to recover the thrill of the Duke tradition. | 45:18 | |
If we do that, we may have a chance to fulfill it, | 45:22 | |
to do what the long line of founders hoped to do. | 45:28 | |
December 11th, 1974, next year, | 45:36 | |
is the 50th anniversary, | 45:42 | |
the golden anniversary of the indenture. | 45:45 | |
It comes in the midst of the epoch campaign | 45:50 | |
with a goal of $162 million. | 45:54 | |
Cannot we make that December 11 | 46:00 | |
a whole day of celebration here on the campus, | 46:04 | |
an occasion worthy of the founders, all of them, | 46:09 | |
and of the contemporary donors | 46:15 | |
of these epochal millions of dollars? | 46:18 | |
Let me sketch what might transpire | 46:23 | |
in the light of Founders' day at Glasgow University, | 46:26 | |
my own alma mater. | 46:31 | |
Once in my life I was part of it, | 46:34 | |
from nine o'clock in the morning until 11 o'clock at night, | 46:39 | |
and at least four Duke faculty members | 46:45 | |
have happily lived through it. | 46:49 | |
At 9 a.m., the honorary degree candidates | 46:54 | |
sign the register, a clad in scarlet | 46:57 | |
and given a cup of coffee. | 47:02 | |
At 10 a.m., there is a service in the chapel without sermon. | 47:06 | |
Now that's unique in Presbyterian Scotland, | 47:12 | |
but it's become a tradition, without sermon. | 47:16 | |
The principal of the university | 47:22 | |
recites the names of the founders, | 47:24 | |
starting with Nicholas the fifth, | 47:27 | |
who, on January 7th, 1451, | 47:31 | |
issued a papal bull for a Studium Generali | 47:37 | |
to be established at Glasgow. | 47:42 | |
That is a forerunner of the indenture. | 47:45 | |
The most moving part of the service | 47:51 | |
was when the principal, pointing to right and to left, | 47:54 | |
acknowledged the names of graduates and students | 48:01 | |
inscribed on the walls who had died in two world wars. | 48:05 | |
The chapel itself is a memorial | 48:15 | |
to the 755 sons of the university | 48:18 | |
who gave their lives in the war of 1914, 1918. | 48:24 | |
755. | 48:29 | |
Then comes the awarding of honorary degrees, | 48:34 | |
anything from 12 to 20. | 48:39 | |
In the Bute Hall, which I remembered primarily | 48:42 | |
as the place where I took examinations, | 48:47 | |
the hall was packed jam. | 48:51 | |
Why? | 48:56 | |
To see the distinguished recipients perhaps. | 48:58 | |
The real reason was to hear the citations. | 49:03 | |
They were all written by the same two men | 49:09 | |
and were full of wit and wisdom and surprises. | 49:13 | |
Let me give you one example. | 49:18 | |
A handsome man, Central European, was presented for an LLD, | 49:21 | |
the honorary doctorate in law. | 49:28 | |
His merits were entirely in the field of folk dancing. | 49:32 | |
Entirely. | 49:39 | |
Finest folk dancer in Europe, | 49:41 | |
who wrote folk dance music and played folk dance music. | 49:43 | |
And it was described at length to the amazement of all, | 49:48 | |
including the chancellor, Lord Boyd Orr, | 49:51 | |
over 80 years old, with beetling eyebrows | 49:55 | |
twice the length of John Lewis', | 50:00 | |
who talked about ecology and population explosion | 50:03 | |
60 years ago. | 50:07 | |
You could see he was baffled. | 50:10 | |
An honorary doctorate in law for folk dancing? | 50:13 | |
But the play must go on. | 50:20 | |
And just as the honoree | 50:23 | |
was about to kneel down in front of the chancellor | 50:25 | |
and literally be capped with a velvet tam o' shanter | 50:29 | |
on the head, the presenter broke in, | 50:33 | |
"Oh, Mr. Chancellor, I forgot to tell you. | 50:36 | |
He's a Nobel Prize winner in mathematics | 50:42 | |
or physics or something." | 50:46 | |
And the whole place breathed out. | 50:49 | |
Just (exhales sharply). | 50:52 | |
And a wave of laughter swept the hall. | 50:54 | |
Do you remember anything like that at a Duke graduation? | 50:58 | |
(congregation laughs) | 51:02 | |
Do you remember as interesting an honorary degree citation? | 51:04 | |
Only one that equals it, I think, | 51:09 | |
is when William Lyon Phelps presented Walt Disney | 51:11 | |
for an Emmy at Yale. | 51:15 | |
And all he did was to quote Horace from the Ars Poetica | 51:18 | |
and then translate it | 51:23 | |
for the benefit of those who were not classical scholars. | 51:24 | |
The mountains were in travail and produced a mouse. | 51:28 | |
(congregation laughs) | 51:34 | |
You don't have to say anymore. | 51:35 | |
You don't have to. | 51:38 | |
Then following that was luncheon, | 51:43 | |
presided over by the principal, Sir Hector Hetherington, | 51:46 | |
who has visited Duke and is kind of a distant relation | 51:49 | |
to Duncan Hetherington in our anatomy department. | 51:57 | |
The afternoon is spent by the various degree recipients | 52:02 | |
with people in their fields of interest. | 52:06 | |
Dinner is departmental, rather than university-wide | 52:09 | |
and then follows a reception. | 52:14 | |
Evening dress and academic gown and hood, | 52:16 | |
a running buffet down each side | 52:21 | |
of the transformed Bute Hall, | 52:23 | |
semi-classical music by a military band, | 52:25 | |
which metamorphoses into dance music, | 52:29 | |
carriages at 11 o'clock. | 52:32 | |
One is king or queen for a day. | 52:35 | |
Now think of such a ceremony in the chapel | 52:41 | |
and in the indoor stadium on December 11th, 1974, | 52:45 | |
unless the stadium has been preempted for a basketball game | 52:50 | |
or a rock concert. | 52:54 | |
Think of a herd or bevy of degree recipients | 52:57 | |
distinguished in the fields which JB Duke had in mind, | 53:02 | |
liberal arts, the sciences, religion, law, | 53:06 | |
education, business administration, engineering, | 53:12 | |
medicine, nursing, the graduate school; | 53:16 | |
add the others which would've met with his approval, | 53:21 | |
drama, art, music, and on and on and on | 53:24 | |
and give the students and the faculty | 53:29 | |
a chance to meet those people, | 53:31 | |
have a reception in the indoor stadium at night. | 53:35 | |
Judging from the daily press, | 53:39 | |
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | 53:42 | |
does a better job on its university day | 53:45 | |
when it commemorates | 53:50 | |
the laying of the cornerstone of Old East building | 53:53 | |
on October 12th, 1793. | 53:56 | |
Does a better job than Duke does with Founders' Day. | 53:59 | |
We have a year to prepare something | 54:05 | |
worthy of the 50th anniversary. | 54:08 | |
We have a year to be educated, consciously educated, | 54:12 | |
about our past and its bearing on our present | 54:16 | |
and on the future. | 54:20 | |
And then we may know if the tradition has been destroyed | 54:23 | |
or kept or fulfilled. | 54:29 | |
Then we may find out if this is really, quote, | 54:33 | |
a time for greatness, end of quote, | 54:38 | |
one which will ask much of those | 54:42 | |
to whom much has been given. | 54:46 | |
We may even find if there is such a thing | 54:51 | |
as the thrill of tradition. | 54:57 | |
Let us pray. | 55:03 | |
Almighty God, Creator and Sustainer, | 55:08 | |
who has set us in a world where no man liveth to himself, | 55:13 | |
where no man die to himself. | 55:21 | |
Again, we give Thee thanks for the founders | 55:26 | |
who brought our university to life | 55:30 | |
and for the benefactors who maintain and enlarge its life, | 55:33 | |
asking Thee to use it as an instrument of Thy peace | 55:40 | |
to Thy glory and for the relief of man's estate | 55:46 | |
and this, we pray, in the spirit of Him | 55:52 | |
who is called teacher, master, and Lord. | 55:56 | |
So let it be. | 56:05 | |
(solemn organ music) | 56:13 | |
(solemn choral music) | 57:14 | |
(solemn organ music) | 1:01:43 | |
(solemn choral music) | 1:03:14 |
Item Info
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