James T. Cleland - "The Thrill of Tradition" (December 9, 1973)

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	(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

Title:

James T. Cleland - "The Thrill of Tradition" (December 9, 1973)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4sq8vk2d

Date:

December 9, 1973

Speaker:

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

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0681
ref6564_p57
uachapelsermaud
duke:628399
dcrau002659
ark:/87924/r4sq8vk2d
8900a1f0-f5ae-4b49-9c17-325e8cbfa1e6

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Related Resources:

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

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

Rights:

No Re-Use

In Copyright

Rights Note:

This material is made available for research, scholarship, and private study. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations: https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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James T. Cleland - "The Thrill of Tradition" (December 9, 1973)

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1. James T. Cleland - "The Thrill of Tradition" (December 9, 1972)

2. James T. Cleland - "The Thrill of Tradition" (December 9, 1973)

Duke University Archives

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