CLASS OF 1886.—“THE PROGRESSIVES.”
“We study for light, to bless with light.”
CLASS ORGANIZATION.
President—The Rev. B. P. Snow, Biddeford, Maine.
Vice Presidents—The Rev. J. C. Whitley, Salisbury, Maryland; Mr. L. F. Houghton, Peoria, Illinois; Mr. Walter Y. Morgan, Cleveland, Ohio; Mrs. Delia Browne, Louisville, Kentucky; Miss Florence Finch, Palestine, Texas.
Secretary—The Rev. W. L. Austin, New Albany, Ind.
“For light!” and “with light!” as the words we repeat,
Yet fuller and deeper the message they bring;
Still through every volume each line that we meet
In undertone earnest our motto shall ring.
“For light” do we ponder the history vast
Which spreads through the ages its sunshine and shade,
“With light” for the present, we come from the past,
With lessons whose impress we can not evade.
“For light” must we study the many-hued lines
Which Greece with her delicate pencil has traced;
While Rome with her pride and her grandeur combines
To deepen the picture no time can efface.
“For light” at the portals of Nature we wait—
Descend to her rocks and mount up to her stars—
Her atoms diffuse and her gases collate,
Yet learn, as her secrets she slowly unbars,
How, filling, pervading, encompassing all,
Still law—mighty law—through all systems doth reign;
The world and the atom respond to its call,
The dewdrop and ocean are bound by its chain.
“For light,” above all, when our vesper has chimed,
We bathe in the beams of an unsetting Sun;
When thus up the ladder of prayer we have climbed,
“With light” shall be blessed many thousands through one.
“For light!” and “with light!” ’tis for this we would live,
O fling our glad banner abroad to the sky!
Truths won for ourselves unto others we give,
Till light never-clouded shall greet us on high.
Alice C. Jennings, Class of ’86.