Commencement: The 'Final' Examination Follows

There are some thoughts that suggest themselves for those who are leaving school to find their

future. First, the finishers in life are entitled to some kind of special citation. What a good thing it is to

finish a good thing–to follow through. Then there is the swiftness with which the year has passed–and

the fact that future years will also move with swiftness, increasingly so, which suggests the need for

making early and solid decisions–for Commencement is simply what it says: a place from which to

begin to go. Men were meant to work willingly, to pursue good purposes, to produce more that they

consume, to respect the strength and soundness of solvency, to be a participating part–in short, to be

profitable and not “unprofitable servants” as the Master suggested. Service is never quite convenient.

Nothing that interferes with comfort or pleasure or personal preference is ever quite convenient. But we

have to learn to set aside convenience and personal preferences, if we are to be effective and

“profitable” in the sincerest sense. We have to learn also to take pressures. The pressures of life exceed

the pressures of school, because they are much more varied, much more intense at times. After

Commencement the problems are no longer theoretical, no longer mere paper problems. There are real

and far reaching facts to face. Indeed, in a sense, the so-called “final” examination comes after Commencement. The honors, the diplomas, the credentials must represent our personal ability to

perform, must represent what we are, what we know, what we can do–if they are to mean much. And

so was we leave school and enter the day-to-day doing if what we have been preparing to do, we have

yet to take the highest test: to prove ourselves to be knowing, understanding, sincere in service, willing

to work, with the good-sense to stay solvent–and to be profitable servants. The highest test is ahead.

May God help you to pass it– all you who come to Commencement–this day– and always into the

farthest reaches of the future.