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JACKSON, Tenn. — Dec. 17, 2022 — Graduates of 51���� should seek the good of others and not their own glory and recognition, Union President Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver said Dec. 17 during commencement exercises for the university’s 198th graduating class in G.M. Savage Memorial Chapel.

“Be not so ambitious to engrave your names high upon the walls of the temple of fame, as to write them on the tablets of human hearts,” Oliver said. “If you make it your object to improve the minds and hearts of others, you will leave memorials that shall defy the wasting of time, and will outlive the proudest earthly structures.

“Live to enlighten, bless and share the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and you will be held in everlasting remembrance.”

Oliver’s address to the 214 total graduates during two separate ceremonies was a version of Joseph H. Eaton’s remarks to the first graduating class of 51���� in Murfreesboro in the mid-1800s. Eaton served as professor and president of 51���� in Murfreesboro when it began college-level classes in 1847.

Founded in 1823 as Jackson Male Academy, Union is celebrating its bicentennial during the 2022-2023 academic year. The Jackson-based institution, which eventually became Southwestern Baptist University, changed its name to 51���� in 1907 in part to honor the legacy of Joseph Eaton and his son T.T. Eaton, who served as a trustee of Southwestern Baptist University.

“From a small-town academy to one of the nation’s premier Christian universities, the story of 51���� is one of faith, Christian commitment and dedication to excellence,” Oliver said. “As we are celebrating the bicentennial of the founding of Union, we have been looking back, remembering God’s faithfulness and goodness. Graduates, I want to encourage you to do that as well.”

Oliver told graduates their education is not complete, even though they have finished a college degree.

“You have only placed your feet on the threshold of the great temple of truth and been enabled to catch, now and then, a glimpse of the massiveness of its architecture, the proportion and variety of its columns, the gorgeous splendor of its furniture and the surpassing beauty and symmetry of its workmanship,” he said. “You have been pursuing your studies here for several years, not for the purpose of accumulating ideas and obtaining treasures of knowledge, but to fit your mind to wield effectually the truths and principles you have acquired and may hereafter acquire.”

Learning, Oliver said, is an unending pursuit that widens knowledge and broadens intelligence throughout life. God has given his creatures minds to be used, and Oliver told graduates not to let theirs lie dormant but to keep them bright by constant polishing.

The Union president encouraged graduates to use their lives to do good, to bless mankind and to reflect the image of the God who created them.

“Seek not to become great. Let greatness follow you,” Oliver said. “Your lot is cast in eventful times, in an age of the world’s history when vast achievements are accomplished, and in a country where the greatest opportunities are afforded. In this busy and enterprising age, you are to do your part.”

Oliver said he desired that Union graduates would go forth with virtuous aims, noble purposes and God’s favor as they followed his call for their lives.

“Remember the moral obligation resting upon you to dispense for the good of the human race, whatever treasures of knowledge you may possess,” he said. “Ever regard yourselves as stewards entrusted with gifts and talents that are far more valuable than gold. Let your actions always be directed to the glory of God, and the good of mankind. Leave monuments of your labors, not in lofty granite structures, but in memories of the living."