No college class was ever graduated with half the state and splendor of
ceremony that was observed on that first Recognition Day, in a ritual
prepared by Dr. Vincent, and observed to the letter every year since
1882. He chose to call it not a Commencement, but a Recognition, the
members of the Circle being _recognized_ on that day as having completed
the course and entitled to membership in the Society of the Hall in the
Grove, the Alumni Association of the C. L. S. C.
A procession was formed, its divisions meeting in different places. The
graduating class met before the Golden Gate at St. Paul's Grove, a gate
which is opened but once in the year and through which none may pass
except those who have completed the course of reading and study of the
C. L. S. C. Over the gate hung a silk flag which had been carried by the
Rev. Albert D. Vail of New York to many of the famous places in the
world of literature, art, and religion. It had been waved from the
summit of the Great Pyramid, of Mount Sinai in the Desert, and Mount
Tabor in the Holy Land. It had been laid in the Manger at Bethlehem, and
in the traditional tomb of Jesus in Holy Sepulcher Church. It had
fluttered upon the Sea of Galilee, upon Mount Lebanon, in the house
where Paul was converted at Damascus, and under the dome of St. Sophia
in Constantinople. It had been at the Acropolis and Mars' Hill in
Athens, to Westminster Abbey, and to Shakespeare's tomb at Stratford, to
the graves of Walter Scott and Robert Burns. Upon its stripes were
inscribed the names of forty-eight places to which that flag had been
carried. The class stood before the Golden Gate, still kept closed until
the moment should come for it to be opened, and in two sections the
members read a responsive service from the Bible, having wisdom and
especially the highest wisdom of all, the knowledge of God, as its
subject.
[Illustration: Lutheran Headquarters]
[Illustration: United Presbyterian Chapel]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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