James T. Cleland - "A Love That Wanted Re - Renewing" (June 2, 1968)

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	(Church choir singing)	0:06
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	0:08
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	0:13
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	0:19
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	0:25
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	0:31
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	0:36
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	0:44
	(Church choir singing "Hallelujah" continuously)	0:57
	(Church choir increases tempo)	4:27
	(Church choir increases tempo)	4:43
	(Church choir reverts to normal tempo)	5:23
	(Church choir music ends)	6:22
-	Let us pray.	7:18
	Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts	7:21
	be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord,	7:26
	our strength, and our redeemer.	7:31
	Amen.	7:36
	In the dull and commonplace occurrences	7:46
	of day-to-day academic living,	7:50
	there are occasional happenings and events	7:55
	which carry with them an element of wondering surprise:	7:59
	defeating Georgia Tech in football,	8:05
	developing an Olympic runner,	8:13
	nurturing a Rhodes scholar,	8:18
	organizing a vigil with the concern of a Quaker meeting,	8:23
	and the discipline of a regiment of the guards,	8:30
	graduation.	8:36
	Now, what does want to say at such times beyond,	8:39
	"Jolly good? Three hot cheers? Well done."	8:43
	I do not know if you who are graduating are in this chapel	8:52
	voluntarily or per force,	8:57
	the door into the chapel today used to be the one-way	9:05
	into the indoor stadium on the morrow.	9:10
	I am here by order.	9:15
	The president is sidetracked by illness.	9:22
	The invitation to me to take his place was not a request	9:27
	conveyed by the university marshall, but a command.	9:32
	It was a proper command.	9:39
	I obeyed.	9:43
	My Calvinistic blood being not entirely	9:46
	thinned out by transfusions of Methodism.	9:50
	(Crowd laughing)	9:53
	What do I say to you who probably have no desire to be here	10:00
	looking upon the baccalaureate service as but	10:08
	the second last hurdle to be overcome before graduation.	10:11
	Now I promise you I shall deal with nothing new.	10:19
	You are in no mood to hear anything new.	10:24
	Let us begin right here at Duke,	10:30
	undergraduate Duke,	10:33
	in the field of literature,	10:36
	in the area of American poetry with Robert Frost.	10:39
	In his poetic soliloquy, "A Lone Striker,"	10:47
	Frost has given us a picture of a prodigal son	10:52
	in the far country of factories and time clocks.	10:57
	But before he became a mere cog in the machine,	11:03
	he came to himself by remembering what he had once loved	11:08
	and lost a while.	11:16
	And so headed back for another place, a wood,	11:19
	here's the poem about a textile worker	11:27
	in a New England mill town	11:30
	who was late for his shift and was therefore	11:34
	locked out for 30 minutes with his pay docked.	11:38
	The poem is called "A Lone Striker."	11:45
	The swinging mill bell changed its rate	11:51
	to tolling like the count of fate,	11:54
	and though at that the tardy ran,	11:58
	one failed to make the closing gate.	12:01
	There was a law of God or man	12:06
	that on the one who came too late	12:11
	the gate for half an hour be locked,	12:14
	his time be lost, his pittance docked.	12:18
	He stood rebuked and unemployed.	12:24
	The straining mill began to shake.	12:31
	The mill, though many-many-eyed,	12:35
	had eyes inscrutably opaque	12:38
	so that he couldn't look inside	12:42
	to see if some forlorn machine	12:44
	was standing idle for his sake.	12:48
	He couldn't hope its heart would break.	12:53
	And yet he thought he saw the scene:	12:57
	The air was full of dust of wool.	12:59
	A thousand yarns were under pull,	13:02
	but pull so slow, with such a twist,	13:05
	all day from spool to lesser spool,	13:10
	it seldom overtaxed their strength.	13:14
	They safely grew in slender length.	13:18
	And if one broke by any chance,	13:22
	the spinner saw it at a glance.	13:26
	The spinner still was there to spin.	13:29
	That's where the human still came in.	13:34
	Her deft hand showed with finger rings	13:38
	among the harplike spread of strings.	13:40
	She caught the pieces end to end	13:43
	and, with a touch that never missed,	13:46
	not so much tied as made them blend.	13:48
	Man's ingenuity was good.	13:54
	He saw it plainly where he stood,	13:59
	yet found it easy to resist.	14:04
	He knew another place, a wood,	14:10
	and in it, tall as trees, were cliffs,	14:15
	and if he stood on one of these,	14:19
	'twould be among the tops of trees,	14:21
	their upper branches round him wreathing,	14:24
	their breathing mingled with his breathing.	14:27
	If he stood.	14:35
	Enough of ifs.	14:38
	He knew a path that wanted walking.	14:41
	He knew a spring that wanted drinking.	14:45
	He knew a thought that wanted further thinking,	14:50
	a love that wanted re-renewing.	14:56
	Nor was this just a way of talking	15:00
	to save him the expense of doing.	15:02
	With him it boded action, deed.	15:05
	The factory was very fine.	15:09
	He wished it all the modern speed.	15:14
	Yet, after all, 'twas not divine,	15:19
	that is to say, 'twas not a church.	15:23
	He never would assume that he'd	15:27
	be any institution's need.	15:30
	But he said then and still would say,	15:32
	if there should ever come a day	15:36
	when industry seemed like to die	15:40
	because he left it in the lurch,	15:44
	or even merely seemed to pine	15:47
	for want of his approval, why,	15:50
	come get him	15:55
	they knew where to search.	15:57
	There are four lines there that have haunted me	16:02
	ever since I heard Robert Frost read that poem	16:03
	when we were colleagues at Amherst College.	16:07
	"He knew a path that wanted walking,	16:12
	he knew a spring that wanted drinking,	16:15
	a thought that wanted further thinking,	16:20
	a love that wanted re-renewing."	16:23
	You see the idea I want to play with.	16:28
	Is there anything in our lives,	16:33
	particularly in your lives, members of the graduating class,	16:36
	which will always be there because of you?	16:41
	Leighton, or Peyton,	16:46
	to be forgotten for a while and to be rediscovered	16:49
	unexpectedly, unintentionally,	16:54
	for better or for worse?	17:00
	Let's think about Duke, not the Duke that will be,	17:05
	but the Duke which surrounded, and nurtured.	17:09
	and angered, and excited, and bored us	17:14
	these past years.	17:19
	The chapel, the stadiums, the libraries,	17:22
	the auditoriums, the labs, the gardens,	17:27
	the union, the Chronicle, the faculty.	17:33
	Allen building.	17:38
	The coffee shop, the theater in the round,	17:46
	the singing groups, the cabin parties, the classrooms,	17:50
	picketing, the vigil.	17:54
	Is there anything there?	17:57
	Any path that's worth walking again,	18:00
	any spring to slate the thirst?	18:05
	Any thought which merits a second thought?	18:09
	Any love worth re-renewing?	18:15
	Let's think about some paths and springs	18:19
	and thoughts and loves.	18:21
	It's a fair supposition that most of you had to sit through	18:25
	some English course, even as elementary	18:28
	a semester survey as From Chaos to Kipling.	18:34
	But surely some folk have been introduced to you	18:42
	that you would gladly meet again,	18:46
	a few with whom you would like to become better acquainted.	18:49
	They're our Chaucer's Canterbury pilgrims	18:53
	who made even a Scottish Presbyterian wished that he	18:57
	were a Roman Catholic.	19:01
	(Crowd laughing)	19:03
	What if Hamlet with his spiritual crap,	19:08
	"To be or not to be?"	19:11
	Then our Falstaff, that rotund and genial rascal,	19:15
	and Porsche, smart, no doubt,	19:21
	but with good stuff in her mind and heart that she	19:25
	successfully challenged male supremacy.	19:28
	Think of Rip van Winkle, Prince of Sleepers, lucky beggar.	19:33
	And Mister Pickwick, a Sunday school edition	19:41
	of Mr. Falstaff.	19:45
	And Diana Vernon, Scott's only real heroine	19:47
	and Martin Adersmith in whom the scientific spirit	19:53
	became flesh.	19:57
	And Nat Turner, a new Negro folk hero	20:00
	created by a Duke man.	20:06
	There are places you will visit because you saw them	20:10
	in fancy here,	20:13
	old New York and old London,	20:15
	the Catskills and the Lake District,	20:20
	Chicago, hog butcher of the world.	20:24
	And Venice, Copenhagen, Paris, and even Edinburgh.	20:28
	Oh, I say that in the subdued tone.	20:37
	Finest thing that ever came out of Edinburgh	20:43
	was the 10 o'clock train to Glasgow.	20:46
	(Crowd laughing)	20:49
	Some of you are acquainted with the literature	20:57
	of other tongues with Greek tragedy	21:00
	and it's interweaving of fate and freewill,	21:03
	that old new riddle	21:08
	with Latin auditory, heavy, but shrewd,	21:12
	with German drama and the problem of every man in Faust,	21:17
	with the imagery of Dante	21:23
	and the logical despair of Camus.	21:26
	Oh, continue in that literary fellowship.	21:30
	Teach them all again, drink deep of some.	21:35
	There is refreshment and satisfaction at these springs.	21:40
	And then there's the whole range of scientific pursuits.	21:48
	You've been exposed to physics and chemistry,	21:52
	to botany and zoology, to geology, to astrophysics,	21:55
	bio-mathematics and neuro-anatomy.	22:02
	Is it wonderful that the Greeks had words in readiness	22:08
	for these new subjects?	22:12
	(Crowd laughing)	22:14
	Some of you, like me, are appalled by the ramifications	22:20
	of science.	22:25
	Others of you are fascinated.	22:26
	Some of you have just creeped through	22:29
	the required number of hours.	22:32
	Others of you are so happily and lively immersed in science	22:36
	as to make it both your profession and	22:40
	your avocation for the rest of your lives.	22:43
	I hope that you are all impressed with its method,	22:49
	to weigh and to measure accurately,	22:54
	to cut and to carve my nuclei,	23:00
	to discover and lay bare secrets with confidence.	23:06
	I hope that we appreciate the faith of the scientist	23:13
	to seek the truth,	23:17
	come whence it may, cost what it will.	23:20
	I hope we know the saints of science,	23:27
	Bacon, Kepler, Newton,	23:30
	Faraday, Darwin, Einstein.	23:35
	Make up your minds that there is a path	23:40
	which you will often walk,	23:43
	recalling over and over again,	23:45
	the perspectives you learned from your scientific studies,	23:47
	a passion for truth,	23:52
	a commitment to honest objective study	23:56
	and above all,	24:01
	a puzzled humility when you realize how little man knows	24:03
	and how much there is to be known.	24:11
	But for others of you,	24:16
	the wide range of the social sciences:	24:18
	history, political philosophy, government,	24:20
	sociology was your major.	24:24
	A few of you have taken part in the various domains of	24:27
	student government in your campus Tammany Halls.	24:31
	You've become sensitive to the interaction of theory and	24:37
	practice and you've run across ideas	24:42
	which keep repeating themselves down the centuries.	24:45
	There are the insistent difficult words,	24:50
	like "freedom."	24:53
	From what, to what?	24:55
	"Loyalty." How much,	25:00
	how wide and to which, what?	25:05
	"Justice." For whom, from whom, by whom.	25:10
	There's the even more interesting and vexing problem	25:19
	of the interrelatedness of words	25:22
	and the ideas which they convey.	25:24
	This is particularly true when two norms	25:27
	seem to come in conflict like liberty and law.	25:30
	Does one cancel out the other?	25:36
	Do they complement each other?	25:40
	Does law implement or restrict freedom?	25:43
	When? Where? How?	25:49
	what about patriotism and what old brotherhood?	25:56
	Is my loyalty to the United States hampered or sublimated	26:00
	by my allegiance to the United Nations?	26:06
	Can a man have two citizenships?	26:12
	Oh, that was the problem facing the Christian.	26:17
	As Paul put it, "My citizenship is in heaven."	26:21
	All right, what happens then	26:25
	when you come before an earthly court?	26:27
	The vigil has pointed out the clash of loyalties,	26:32
	or the classroom has but introduced you to thoughts	26:37
	that want further thinking to questions which will never	26:41
	be answered in any tidy fashion,	26:46
	which will haunt and fascinate us as long as we live.	26:50
	And think, you see where this last consideration	26:56
	is leading us?	26:59
	Let's do the area where basic questions are asked	27:01
	or should be asked to religion.	27:04
	It is important, maybe inevitable to ask about	27:09
	the quince and the quiver of life	27:13
	and how one should journey from birth to death.	27:19
	That came home to me again a few days ago	27:24
	when one of our medical residents died	27:29
	and his widow gave birth to their second child	27:32
	12 and a half hours after her husband's death.	27:38
	Death and life.	27:43
	Two rooms in the same house.	27:46
	When is death the last enemy, as St. Paul called it?	27:52
	When is death Sister Death, as St. Francis called it?	27:59
	Does it make any difference to how we live now	28:04
	if we believe that death is finny	28:08
	or if we believe that death is a doorway to another,	28:13
	but continuing life.	28:18
	One of the obvious facts of contemporary life,	28:22
	a frightening commonplace,	28:25
	is the awesome advance in man's mastery	28:28
	of his physical environment	28:32
	without a corresponding progress in spiritual sensitivity	28:34
	so as to discipline and direct that mastery.	28:42
	Science with its resolute will for discovery	28:48
	with its courage to discard outworn hypothesis	28:52
	with its exuberance in achievement has given us	28:57
	almost unimaginable power.	29:00
	But we do not know even theoretically	29:06
	what to do with that power	29:13
	for our salvation,	29:17
	that is for our good health.	29:19
	Oh, it's not enough that you all must graduates	29:23
	be as good as your fathers.	29:27
	You probably are as good as your fathers and mothers.	29:30
	I think you're better.	29:36
	But better enough for survival?	29:40
	Does our religious heritage offer us any guidance?	29:46
	Our spiritual heritage is the Judeo-Christian faith,	29:51
	which faith Duke University has symbolized in this chapel.	29:56
	This religious tradition environment is recognized this	30:02
	very day in the fact that an alumni service,	30:08
	this baccalaureate service, the Hippocratic Oath ceremony,	30:12
	the pinning ceremony for graduating nurses	30:18
	and the Divinity School closing service of	30:22
	Holy Communion are all taking place today in this building	30:24
	erected to the glory of God	30:32
	in the name of his son, Jesus, the Christ.	30:35
	Now Jesus was a Jew.	30:39
	I've told you before that my mother	30:44
	could never understand that.	30:45
	How could Jesus have been a Jew when God was a Presbyterian?	30:50
	(Crowd laughing)	30:54
	I'm sure the first question she asked	31:00
	when she got to heaven,	31:02
	and I'm sure she was disappointed with the answer.	31:02
	She may have left, in fact.	31:05
	Jesus was a Jew and when he summed up his creed	31:10
	in one sentence,	31:14
	he did what Frost's lone striker decided he should do.	31:17
	Jesus took two thoughts that wanted further thinking,	31:24
	combined them and gave them to his disciples	31:31
	as a love that has to be constantly renewed.	31:37
	He took the central thought of Israel, the Shamar,	31:43
	the Lord, our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord	31:49
	like God with all thy heart, soul, mind,	31:55
	and strength,	31:59
	or as the medics would put it psychosomatically.	32:02
	(Crowd laughing)	32:05
	But the new thing that Jesus did was to link that	32:10
	with another verse, not from Deuteronomy,	32:15
	but from Leviticus,	32:19
	thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge	32:21
	against the children of thy people,	32:27
	but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself	32:29
	and having indissoluble united them,	32:34
	Jesus added, "There is no other commandment	32:39
	greater than these."	32:45
	These two now made into one.	32:48
	But Jesus did not complete the job of rethinking.	32:54
	He left that to his followers in every generation.	33:01
	Those of us who take him seriously,	33:06
	though not literally, have to ask,	33:09
	and so seeking questions,	33:13
	"What is the meaning of love?	33:16
	How can love be commanded?	33:19
	What is the relation of love to truth?	33:26
	Which has the priority, when?	33:31
	Who is my neighbor?	33:38
	How wide is the neighborliness, which is brotherhood?	33:41
	Does love include both justice and mercy,	33:49
	and which is stressed when?	33:55
	How far is my personal freedom subordinated to goodwill	34:00
	for the brethren?	34:05
	Can they ever be one and the same?	34:07
	Is self-love assumed or denied by Jesus?"	34:11
	Now these are thoughts that want further thinking.	34:21
	And then more thinking after that.	34:26
	If you think on them,	34:32
	you may decide to discard them and seek elsewhere	34:34
	for your guidance in your pilgrimage	34:41
	between birth and death.	34:44
	If you wrestle with them until they bless you,	34:47
	you may find here a love renewed,	34:53
	a spring that gives us the water of life.	34:58
	And so, goodbye,	35:05
	and good luck to you all.	35:10
	In the name of the Lord.	35:14
	And now let the congregation rise	35:18
	and receive the blessing of God.	35:21
	Unto God's gracious mercy and protection	35:32
	do we commit you.	35:38
	The Lord bless you	35:41
	and keep you.	35:45
	The Lord make his face to shine upon you	35:48
	and be gracious unto you.	35:52
	The Lord lift up his countenance upon you	35:55
	and give you peace and joy	35:59
	this day and forevermore.	36:04

Item Info

Title:

James T. Cleland - "A Love That Wanted Re - Renewing" (June 2, 1968)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4t14zr19

Date:

June 2, 1968

Speaker:

Cleland, James T. (James Tough), 1903-1974

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0437
ref6077_zcr
uachapelsermaud
duke:628560
dcrau002428
ark:/87924/r4t14zr19
88219344-63f1-4081-936d-1174c396d315

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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English

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United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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James T. Cleland - "A Love That Wanted Re - Renewing" (June 2, 1968)

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1. James T. Cleland - "A Love That Wanted Re-Renewing: The Baccalaureate Sermon" (June 2, 1968)

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James T. Cleland - "A Love That Wanted Re - Renewing" (June 2, 1968)

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