Excellent talk. It's very nearly identical to the commencement speech he gave at my graduation from Snow College in 2010. And most interestingly enough, about a month or so ago that speech was brought to my mind because of something a dear friend posted on facebook about never giving up in one's pursuit of success. I thought of Elder Holland's warnings and caution about "success" and felt to share with my friend his prophetic counsel. I searched for and found my audio recording of Elder Holland's speech and laboriously transcribed it to share with my friend. That was about a month ago and now I happen upon this thread with a very similar speech he gave at BYU. I really needed this, so thank you for sharing. "Success" in the great and spacious building is, ultimately, a failure of grand and eternal proportions when we discover that the fruit of the tree of life is what we should have been striving for all along.
Anyways, here's the transcript (being self-transcribed all errors are mine) from Elder Holland's commencement speech at my graduation from Snow College in 2010:
I want to speak briefly to the graduates. I've gone back to draw from your undergraduate curriculum and mine. These are some old, old voices. I'm getting older. Somebody said "young men speak of the future because they have no past, old men speak of the past because they have no future." I have so perilously little future that I've gone back to the past. These are old voices. I've gone back, in fact, to my own class coursework and some papers that I wrote. They're actually a little damp, things were moist on the ark - we do better with preservation of records now - to speak nothing of that "turkey residue" that you spoke of earlier. But I think I can dry them off and I think I can smooth these out enough to teach a vignette or two from history, and for some of the reasons that we go to college and that seek the wisdom of those who've gone before us.
The first piece of advice comes from those wrenching moments of the English reformation - that pivotal Tudor period when the whole world was changed because Henry VIII wanted a divorce. My, upon what small hinges the doors of history swing! Truly do we sing "God moves in mysterious way His wonders to perform." This world was reshaped by Henry's determination to be rid of Catherine of Aragon and to have the hand of Anne Boleyn. To understand this drama we have to know the second most powerful man in the British realm at the time - the masterful Thomas Wolsey. Son of an educated Suffolk butcher, Wolsey's driving ambition and immense talent brought him through rapid rise to Oxford University and into the [Catholic] church where he quickly became chaplain to Henry VII, Henry's father.
When Henry VIII ascended to the throne Wolsey's fortunes prospered even more dramatically. In addition to high church positions, including archbishop of York and finally cardinal, he came to the most influential member of the king's privy council. Quickly enough he was the controlling figure in all matters of state and every political move made by his monarch. He loved display and wealth, he lived in royal splendor, he reveled in power. Then Anne Boleyn came into his life. Young Henry was determined to move heaven, earth, his present wife, and the Roman Catholic Church to have her. But the obstacles were nearly insurmountable. He told Wolsey to surmount them. Wolsey did not, and the failure proved to be fatal.
In spite of such a remarkable and virtually unprecedented rise to political power, Wolsey's fall was sudden and total. It was very complete. Unable to get Rome's approval for a divorce, Wolsey was stripped by king Henry of every office and every property, was accused of treason and ordered to appear to the tower in London. In great distress he set out for the capital to be tried and surely executed. On the way, fortunately, he fell ill and died.
With the help of young Will Shakespeare - who sends his congratulations to you this morning and asks to be remembered as I left the ark - I invite you to hear cardinal Wolsey's farewell lament. This is from Shakespeare:
"Farewell! a long farewell, to all my greatness! This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth the tender leaves of hope; to-morrow blossoms, and bears his blushing honours thick upon him; the third day comes a frost, a killing frost, and nips his root, and then he falls, as I do. I have ventured, like wanton boys that swim on bladders, these many summers in a sea of glory, but far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride at length broke under me, and now has left me - left me weary, and old with service, to the mercy of a rude stream, that must for ever hide me. Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate you! O, how wretched is that poor man that hangs on princes' favours! When he falls, he falls like Lucifer, never to hope again."
At that point in the play his protégé Cromwell enters the room. They speak quietly with tears and Wolsey commands, again in Shakespeare's language:
"Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition: by that sin fell the angels; how can man, then, the image of his Maker, hope to win by it? Love thyself last: cherish those hearts that hate thee: corruption wins not more than honesty. O Cromwell, Cromwell! Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my king, I would not in mine age be left naked to my enemies! Farewell, the hopes of court! My hopes now in Heaven dwell!"
Students, on this commencement day, a once powerful British friend issues a caution to you against that maneuvering of the ladder of success, which only too late lets you discover it was leaning against the wrong wall. Blushing honors as the world bestows them - they're inexorably nipped by a killing frost. High blown pride - it'll always break under us, like those children swimming in a "sea of glory," he said, we'll one day find ourselves beyond our depth. Weary, old with service, life closing in disappointment and disrepute Wolsey "falls like Lucifer, never to hope again." What a tragic end to such a gifted beginning! What a pathetic farewell to a life that held such promise - as yours does!
And I repeat, where did it go wrong? It went wrong when ambition became more important than conviction, when corruption transcended fidelity, when power and wealth created a thirst that honest living could not satisfy. This entire planet has been going through the most severe economic recession since the legendary tragedy of the Great Depression of 80 years ago - and we're still not out of the woods of this economic nightmare as we meet here this morning! And what brought it on? What brought it on was the 21st century equivalent of Thomas Wolsey - that's what brought it on!
May I repeat, could there be sadder words than those from the lips of a Snow College graduate fifty, or sixty, or seventy years from today, " Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate you! Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my king" or my company, or my country club, "He would not in mine age have left naked to mine enemies!" Thomas Wolsey raises his voice from the grave to whisper to you 478 years later, that painful moment in his life, "don't make the mistake I made" he says.
No, for Snow [College] graduates it must be the permanent things, the reliable things forever: truth and industry and love, family and friends, humility and sacrifice and faith. As you stand on the threshold of your bright and beautiful future may heaven strip from you this very hour - this very instant - any budding taste you may have for acquiring unseemly wealth, or authoritarian power, or worldly acclaim for that acclaim's sake. I pray you'll always have money sufficient for your needs. And I pray you'll always exert a righteous influence wherever life's journey takes you. But I ask you not to be lured by the siren's song of avarice and greed, or the quest for unrighteous dominion over your fellow men and women. Student life and student wages have already taught you that to be happy you do not need the most expensive car, the most fashionable clothing, nor the most elegant furnishings in your home. Furthermore, in the years ahead, neither your self-esteem nor your standing before God will hinge on you being at the top of a corporate pyramid. Don't advance yourself ever through compromise! Don't feather your nest with what you've plucked dishonorably from someone else! Remember, that at the end, surely God will be looking only for clean hands, not full ones.
The second piece of counsel is briefer and related, it comes from a younger write, Rudyard Kipling, who wrote only 146 years ago - just a kid - Nobel prize winner, unofficial spokesman for the British empire, he of "Jungle Book" and "Gunga Din" fame. Almost everyone quotes Kipling's recessional, but almost no one remembers when it was written or why. It was written for queen Victoria's diamond jubilee in 1897. And in spite of such an unprecedented era in English history, this piece was at least as much a warning as it was a celebration. The British empire was at the zenith of its imperial grandeur, but Kipling soberly asked Victoria's subjects to consider the love of God and the sacrifice of thousands of people which had made that present moment possible, and with what arrogance and ingratitude it might forever be thrown away. In a double entendre that proved to be prophetic Kipling asks if the British empire would see a recessional of quite a different kind:
The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
Part of what needs to be said on any graduation day where we celebrate so much of what you newly gained and what excitingly lies ahead, is to remind one another never to forget what has been so generously given to us by those in the past. Today's the day of delightful tumult and joyful shouting - a day of marvelous celebration. You graduates are the featured stars - center stage - and rightly so! This should be one of the greatest days of your life - I pray it will be! But take time, today - this very day - to remember again what so many have sacrificed and done for you in order that you could be here today. Parents, family, faculty, friends, staff, administrators, some of you have spouses, some of you have infant children, thousands of people - including the faithful taxpayers of this state, and its leaders - have made it possible for you to rejoice as young kings and queens, captains today. The true meaning of such blessings can be lost all to easily if we fail to offer that ancient and everlasting sacrifice, "an humble and a contrite heart." Long after this service is over, long after we're far from Ephraim and these splendid days on this beautiful campus, long after the musical notes of our own recessional from this service have fallen into the silent past, still then, forever, we must pray "Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!" Promise to remember Snow College, its wonderful traditions, and the people who made all of this possible for you today. And when you do remember, be grateful.
Lastly, I bring you counsel from a gifted son of an English ironmonger - a brilliant young man who studied law, travelled the world, but came home to find his true calling in poetry and in the pulpit. John Donne, the greatest of all the metaphysical poets, reached the pinnacle of ministerial success becoming the dean of St. Paul's cathedral, and preaching regularly before Charles I and the royal family. The best of his sermons are unequaled in the history of the English church. Almost totally neglected for 300 years before being "discovered" (in quotes), largely in the 20th century, John Dunn returns from the grave today, with his friends, to give Snow College graduates a final word of encouragement from him as you step out onto the path leading firmly into your future. Life can, on occasion, be difficult. Kids, you already know that - you've discovered it and you'll have opportunity to discover it in the years that lie ahead. You may suffer some discouragement there and some disappointment, and you may feel on some days genuine despair. You may even make a mistake or two, and worry that the chance to succeed, or be safe, or be happy in life, has eluded you forever because of those mistakes. Above all else I ask you to remember this: such troubled times pass, or at least they can if you want them to. They are never permanent. Darkness always yields to light. The sun always rises. And so do our hopes, and so do our dreams. During these inevitable days of discouragement, and some recurring times of trouble in our lives, we must never forget this counsel from our English preacher friend. He wrote:
“We ask our daily bread, and God never says, ‘You should have come yesterday.’ He never says, 'I've run out, you'll have to try again tomorrow.' No, he says, ‘Today if you will hear my voice, today I will hear yours.’ God brought light out of darkness, not out of a lesser light; He can bring summer out of your winter, though you had no hope of spring; though in the ways of fortune, or misunderstanding, or conscience, thou hast been benighted till now, wintered, frozen, clouded and eclipsed, damp and benumbed, smothered and stupified till now, nevertheless God comes to thee, not as in the dawning of the day, not as in the bud of the spring, but as the sun at full noon, banishing all shadows, as the sheaves in harvest, to fill all penuries, all occasions invite His mercies, and all times are His seasons. We cannot have the fruits of the earth but in their seasons; but God hath made no decrees to distinguish the season of His mercy; in Paradise, the fruits were ripe the first minute, and in Heaven it is always beautifully autumn, His mercies are forever in their maturity."
Above all else you have learned here, may you leave this great school secured in the promise of God's unfailing love for you. You undoubtedly will, as Donne says, have days when you feel dark, and cold, and eclipsed. But if you desire God's mercy I promise you that help will come to you, "not as in the dawning of the day, not as the bud of the spring, but as the sun at full noon, banishing every shadow. All occasions invite divine mercy, and in Heaven it's always harvest time." I congratulate you on your very significant achievement today. May God bless you with abundant beauty and profound peace all the days of your life. I wish you God speed in lives of happiness and service and spiritual strength. I pray these will be yours, forever and forever. Congratulations!
