Portrait of a Graduate
Simply put, a Coram Deo graduate is clothed in holy robes for glory. What does this mean?
This phrase, drawn from the closing lines of American Puritan poet Edward Taylor’s “Huswifery,” captures the soul of our graduate. His prayer culminates in these words:
”Then clothe therewith mine understanding, will,
Affections, judgement, conscience, memory,
My words and actions, that their shine may fill
My ways with glory and Thee glorify.
Then mine apparel shall display before Ye
That I am clothed in holy robes for glory.”
Taylor’s image expresses what we seek to cultivate in every Coram Deo student—a life wholly surrendered, fully formed, and beautifully adorned in Christ.
“Clothe”
To be clothed implies previous nakedness. Our students acknowledge their fallenness and desperate need for grace. From their first day to graduation, their education aims at surrender, shedding the fig leaves of self-reliance and putting on Christ in all things (Col. 3:12–17).
“Understanding, Will, Affections”
Following Plato’s tripartite conception of the soul, these three words correspond to the student’s intellectual, moral, and aesthetic life:
Understanding: The “head”—the capacity for reason and discernment—trained through vigorous study, the pursuit of truth, and the formation of a Christ-centered worldview.
Will: The “chest”—the moral center where convictions are forged—strengthened through habit, sacrifice, and love of what is right.
Affections: The “heart”—the seat of longing and desire—shaped through encounters with beauty, joy, and transcendent glory.
“Judgment, Conscience, Memory”
These serve as the inner compass of the graduate’s soul, standards by which his head, heart, and hands are guided.
Judgment enables the student to discern truth from falsehood, good from evil, beauty from ugliness in the confused and clattering maelstrom of the world (Heb. 5:14).
Conscience, literally meaning “with knowledge,” is the moral compass, calibrated by right judgment, that guides the student’s will to act on what he knows to be true and good.
Memory includes not only the power of recall but a deeper, Edenic ache, a sanctified imagination that remembers what humanity was made for and longs for its restoration.
“Words and Actions”
What forms the soul inwardly must shine outwardly (Matt. 7:15-20). A Coram Deo graduate follows Christ fully; his speech, his conduct, and his loves testify to the internal formation that has taken root.
“That their shine may fill my ways with glory and thee glorify”
The Coram Deo graduate fully embodies the principle put forth by the Westminster Catechism: that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. By completing an educational endeavor that rightly aligns his understanding, will, and affections toward what is True, Good, and Beautiful, the student lives a life in which God gets all the glory and he gets all the good. By glorifying God in all things, the student achieves the good life, full of shining glory (Matt. 5:16).
So when you see a Coram Deo student walk across the stage, dressed in cap and gown, know this: they wear more than regalia. They are clothed in holy robes for glory.
