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RETURN TO 
 W. B. OLMSTED, 
 
4- W^-^ 
 
 Life and Sermons 
 
 Jonathan Allen, 
 
 Ph.D.,D.D.,LL.D., President of Alfred University 
 
 By his wife 
 
 He glorified life, exalted duty, and brought 
 us face to face with God.— Caroline H. Dall, LL.D. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED, 
 
 PUBLISHED BY SUBSCRIPTION. 
 
 ] H U 4 . 
 

 COPYRK'.HTKD 1S94 
 MRS. ABIGAIL A. ALLEN, 
 
 Pacific F'ress Publishing Co., Oakland, Cal. 
 
TO 
 
 ALFRED STUDENTS, 
 
 THIS WORK IS LOWINGLY DEDICATED 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Note.— Most grateful thanks are due the many teachers, students, and friends, who have, by their 
 written words and generous pecuniary help, made it possible to put these records in permanent form . 
 
 Many of these names will appear with what they have written in the book, but others, though not 
 mentioned, may be assued they have given strength and courage to the author to go on with her work. 
 The illustrations have been, with one exception, furnished by Mr. and Mrs. Irving Saunders. 
 
 [725520 
 
OBcJEGT OF THE BOOK. 
 
 ■^1 -^ VERY man's life is his own biography. He deUneates himself in 
 ■ A all his activities from childhood to the grave. President Allen's 
 ^^C5^ favorite motto was Cromwell's direction to his artist, "Paint 
 me as I am." In these pages we wish to present such a true picture ot the 
 man that those who read them may feel the power of his personal influence. 
 With some there may be a desire to know of the childhood, the environ- 
 ments and the struggles that helped to mould his character. We hope 
 this book may bring to such, hours of pleasure and profit, and as their 
 children shall know the life that he lived and the sermons that he preached 
 to their fathers and mothers, the knowledge may help them onward and 
 upward. Encouraged by this hope, and wishing to perpetuate his memory, 
 we have prepared this tribute of love. 
 
 We trust that all students and friends of Alfred University, past, present, 
 and future, will feel that it is to them, and for them, that this book has been 
 prepared. That through these pages they may catch a glimpse of the noble, 
 unselfish man so many of them have known and loved, is the fervent wish of 
 the author, A. A. Allen. 
 
 (V) 
 
INTRODUGTIOM. 
 
 O one understands better than the author herself how far short of 
 what President Allen was can any word picture portray him. 
 Those who knew him best continually found new surprises in the 
 freshness and fullness of his investigations, in every phase of life and ex- 
 perience. We cannot do better than give his own ideas of biography, as he 
 once wrote them: — 
 
 " Biography, the personal history of life and character, is an interesting 
 and instructive branch of literature. It is the best possible substitute for the 
 personal presence of those who have lived and acted for us. Their deeds and 
 experiences are here presented for example or warning. In it we see the 
 moving forces in the development of society, the origination of customs, 
 laws, governments. The moving, controlling spirits in the world's progress 
 are here revealed as struggling up through difficulties, from small beginnings, 
 to high stations and commanding influences, becoming ever-burning lights 
 for the inspiration and guidance of others. 
 
 "When a great, good, or original character arises, all have a desire to 
 know the springs of his power, the details of his living and doing. What- 
 ever came to such in opportunity and achievement, whatever influence he 
 started for human well being, becomes of especial interest. Strength of mind 
 and character, patriotism, love of liberty, poetic fire, religious elevation, and 
 all true greatness become highly instructive and finely inspirational. Truths 
 thus come to us, not as abstractions, but embodied, living, thinking, willing, 
 accomplishing, thereby influencing, developing character. It puts to the 
 test of practice multitudinous and abstract truths, reducing them to a con- 
 crete form. We see one excelling in patience, another in justice, another in 
 temperance, another in benevolence, while perhaps now and then one seems 
 to shine forth with all of the graces combined. Such lives are powerful influ- 
 ences for enkindling a longing for like living in others. The love of knowl- 
 edge which has kept a youth to his studies, seeking from afar the cloud- 
 capped summits of science, kindles in others a like love, producing a like 
 seeking. The patriot awakens a love of country; the philanthropist, a love 
 
VIU INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of human kind; the reformer, a love of progress; the devout lights up the 
 religious sentiments. 
 
 " In order for these goodly influences to become effective, biography must 
 have for its subjects characters, not of the bad and ignoble, not given to dry, 
 outward circumstances and conditions, not to accidental place and distinction, 
 but rather of those which "reveal the spiritual springs and processes, the 
 power of great purpose, the force of high aims and earnest, persistent 
 endeavor. Such make life real, earnest, inspirational, by permitting us to 
 walk arm in arm with them, to walk face to face with them, breathe the same 
 air, feel the same heat and light. 
 
 "Such being the influence of right biography, it evidently claims attention 
 in all plans for reading, should occupy a prominent place in all libraries for 
 the young. The wise, the good, the great, of all ages, should be permitted 
 to walk with us, to cross the threshold of all our homes, sit by our firesides with 
 us, enabling us to gather to ourselves those powers and methods by which 
 they have helped on the world's progress, and thus enabling us to fitly meet 
 the issues which they have bequeathed to us, thereby helping on the world 
 to still higher issues." 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Alfred in Early Times— Removal of Ancestors from Rhode Island to Alfred, 
 N. Y.— Six Weeks' Journeying through Forests— Judge Clark Crandall, the 
 Pioneer Father of the New Settlement— The New Home— Birthplace of 
 Jonathan Allen ^7 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Boyhood— Care of Younger Brothers and Sisters— Visits to Grandparents— First 
 Map of Alfred Made by Father Allen— Work in the Home— Early Habits of 
 Reading— Industry Cultivated— Sense of Justice Tried— First Interest in Tem- 
 perance Work— Sabbath in the Home— Attendance at Church— Religious 
 Culture a Safeguard to the Community— Social Life of Pioneers— First 
 Removal ^^ 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Select School Established— Chopping Wood to Pay Tuition— The Pupils 
 Providing Their Own Seats— First Declamation— Religious Awakening- 
 Making Maple Sugar— Sports and Games of Young People— Erection of the 
 "Horned Bug"— J. R. Irish as Teacher— Wm. C. Kenyon Following in 
 Charge of the School— Public Examination at Close of Term— Dramatic 
 Entertainment ^° 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Pioneer Life in Wisconsin — Decides for an Education and Returns to Alfred 
 —Welcomed by Friends— Life-work Begun— Teachers at Alfred— Assistant 
 in Mathematics 35 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Franklin Lyceum and Its Leading Members— The School Breezy with Re- 
 forms—Temperance at Alfred— Schools in Little Genesee and Ceres— Return 
 to Alfred— New School Buildings— Anniversary Days— Loading Sand- 
 Making Brick— General Interest in the School— Caring for the Sick— New 
 Societies Organized 4° 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Oberltn— " Underground Railroad "—Fugitives— Sabbath Discussion— Woman's 
 Rights Topics— Teaching in Milton, Wis.— Graduates at Oberlin before Re- 
 turning to Alfred 48 
 
 (ix) 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 General Advancement — Syndicate Formed — Co-workers — Marriage — Prepar- 
 ing Teachers for the Common Schools— Prosperity Followed Faithful Work- 
 General Agent for Educational Society— Birth and Death of First Child 54 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 College Charter and Grounds— Winter in Albany— Honors Conferred— 
 Various Ways of Students' Boarding— Burning of South Hall— Work on the 
 Campus— "The Picture-sque"— The Work of Beautifying — Music of the 
 Trees— " Power of the Beautiful" 59 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 In War Times— Our Soldier Boys— Going to Washington— On the March— Letter 
 from W. W. Brown— Extracts from an Address— Bravery of Alfred Boys— 
 "Starred Names" 69 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 \'acation Outings— Camping Out— To the White Mountains— Leroy 79 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 In Memoriam — Extracts from Memorial Sermon— "A Pilgrimage " 82 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Chosen President— Methods of Teaching — Elocution — Ordination— Sermons 
 and Lectures— Chapel Lectures 87 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Steinheim— Collecting Specimens in Vacations— Alfred Favorable for the Study 
 of Geology and Paleontology— South American Shells— Exterior of Building 
 to Represent Geological Formation at Alfred- Interior Representative of 
 Native Woods — Archaeology — Numismatics — Keramics — Land and Fresh 
 Water Shells— Oology— Paleontology— Miscellany 94 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Faithfulness of Trustees and Citizens— The Faculty— False Ideas of Students' 
 Needs — Success of Graduates — Words from Professor Pickett — Sermon, The 
 College Community 103 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Woman's Share in Education— Extracts from Sketches of Caroline H. Dall 
 and Mrs. Browning— Words from Mr. P. A. Burdick and Professor Rogers.... 1 13 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Home— Memories of the Home— President Allen's Lectures— "The Legacy 
 of the Present to the Future"— "Home and Parent" .118 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 CHAPTER XVir. 
 
 Vacation Tour in Europe— "The Cram Club"— Outward Bound— The Trip 
 Northward— Pleasantries— Ireland— Giant's Ring— The Home of Shakes- 
 peare— " New Place"— The Church of the Holy Trinity— Concerning 
 Schools— Rugby— Oxford— Cambridge— Making Hay— Chamouni and Mt. 
 Blanc— Merde Glace— Up Vesuvius— How the Rest Happened 125 
 
 CHAPTER XVIll. 
 
 Literary Societies and Library— The Four Lyceums— Session Rooms and 
 Public Entertainments— The Secret of His Influence— Alumni Meetings— The 
 Library ^48 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Western Trip in 1891— The Start— A Week in the National Park— Among 
 the Geysers— Return across the Dakotas and Minnesota, and Down the 
 Lakes • ^53 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 The Last Year— Work during Winter Evenings— Anniversary— Conclusion 158 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Memorial Services— Dr. Maxson's Prayer— Order of Exercises— Tributes from 
 Trustees, Teachers, and Students— Extracts from Alfred ^'w//— Remarks by 
 President Whitford, of Milton, Wisconsin— Short Poems from E. H. Everett, 
 E. E. Kenyon, Mary Bassett Clarke 161 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Views of President Allen's Character— On Behalt of Public Interests, 
 from Judge McLennan's Address— On Behalf of Moral Reforms, by Mr. P. A. 
 Burdick— A Completed Life-work, Judge N. M. Hubbard 171 
 
 CHAPTER XXIIL 
 
 Memories from Old Students— From Colonel Weston Flint— From Dr. Daniel 
 Lewis— Reminiscences of Alfred, by Judge Nye — Reminiscences of Alfred (2), 
 Charles A. Chapin— A Scientific Outing— Reminiscences of Alfred (3), Vande- 
 lia Varnum— The Teacher— Too Much Interest— Came to Our Help— Remi- 
 niscences of Alfred (4), Mary Setchel Haight— The Julia Ward Howe Contro- 
 versy—Words from Rev. E. M. Dunn— Christie Skinner Krusen— Susie M. 
 Burdick— Judge and Mrs. S. O. Thatcher— Hon. W. W. Brown— Rev. A. 
 Purdy— Professor Geo. Scott— Rev. L. C. Rogers 179 
 
SERMONS. 
 
 PACK. 
 
 God in All, All in God ^99 
 
 Professional or Life Labor 210 
 
 Death of the President 217 
 
 Faith 228 
 
 Obligation Imposed by Culture 243 
 
 Thanksgiving Sermon 254 
 
 Rev. Nathan Vars Hull 264 
 
 President James Abram Garfield 271 
 
 Bethel Theory of the Universe 282 
 
 TheShekinah 289 
 
 The Ministry of Beauty 297 
 
 The Ministry of Joy and Sorrow .^06 
 
 The Ideal College— A Light 3H 
 
 The People's Debt to Colleges 321 
 
 Personality 34 1 
 
 Christology 35° 
 
 God the Supreme Father— Man His Child 353 
 
 Co-workers with God 355 
 
 Ideal Youthful Growing 3^4 
 
 Divine Guidance and Help 375 
 
 The True Education 392 
 
 ( xiii ) 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 1. Portrait of President Allen Frontispiece 
 
 2. Birthplace Opposite 20 
 
 3. Group OF Early Teachers " 54 
 
 4. Walks TO Chapel AND Town,... " 66 
 
 5. Steinheim " 94 
 
 6. View in Upper Hall, Steinheim " 102 
 
 7. Group OF Teachers in 1884 " 112 
 
 8. The Family " 118 
 
 9. The Home " 124 
 
 10. The Cram Club " i44 
 
 11. A View OF University Buildings " 152 
 
 12. Over THE South Bridge " 178 
 
 1-5. South Corner IN THE Study " 198 
 
 (XV) 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 ALFRED IN EARLY TIMES. 
 
 BIRTH OF JONATHAN ALLEN. 
 
 JONATHAN ALLEN, the eldest son of Abram and 
 Dorcas Burdick Allen, was born in the town of Alfred, 
 January 26, 1823. He was the true son of this moun- 
 tain region, "this eagle's nest," as he was wont to call this lovely 
 valley. The record of some of his ancestors could be traced 
 back to the mountains of Scotland, and to the uplands of all the 
 countries from whence they came, even to the sacred hills of 
 Palestine. Thus in this wilderness they naturally sought a home 
 among the hills. 
 
 The New England States, with their rocky soil and fast 
 increasing population, became, early in the country's history, a 
 difficult place for a poor man to procure a home and competence. 
 Before and soon after the Revolution a few bold spirits sought 
 and made homes in the Western wilds, as most of this part of 
 New York was then known, but they had kept close to the lakes 
 and the valleys of the Susquehanna and Genesee, with their trib- 
 utaries. A few of the early settlers, however, had penetrated 
 as far as the foothills of the Alleghanies, but it was not till after 
 the year 1812 that safety from Indian raids, and the construction 
 of State and military roads, made the country desirable for the 
 general settler. Between the years 181 5 and 1820 hosts of fam- 
 ilies from Rhode Island and other States came to make new 
 homes in the part of the country where land was cheap, soil fer- 
 tile, cind there was an abundance of fuel for the long, cold win- 
 ters. Deep into the unbroken forests, through roads often only 
 underbrushed, up the winding valleys of the Chemung and Can- 
 
 ( n) 
 
1 8 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 acadea, came oxen and horses drawing the old Dutch wagons cov- 
 ered with coarse cloth that could be made into useful articles for 
 the family. On this one vehicle was often loaded all the house- 
 hold goods, among which would be disposed father, mother, and 
 children. 
 
 REMOVAL OF ANCESTORS FROM RHODE ISLAND. 
 
 Most of those that came to Alfred were from Rhode Island 
 and were descendants of the Independent Thinkers, who, with 
 Roger Williams, were driven out Irom the Plymouth Colony, 
 They claimed the right to worship God according to the Bible 
 and the dictates of their own consciences, but not according to 
 the rules of the church. Such men have always made the pio- 
 neers in all advance work or thought. 
 
 In 1817 came John Allen, and his wife. Amy McCumber 
 Allen, with three sons and four daughters, the eldest son remain- 
 ing in the East, while the married daughter and her husband 
 accompanied the parents in their removal. Katie, then a wee 
 girl, often told us how the neighbors and friends came weeping 
 to bid them good-by, never expecting to see their faces again 
 this side of heaven. This little girl was the "Aunt Katie" of 
 our memory, who, living nearly eighty years, welcomed often to 
 her home not only many of these friends, but numbers of their 
 grandchildren. 
 
 A yoke of oxen and a span of horses brought all the house- 
 hold goods of both families. Among these came the woolen 
 and flax wheels, with the cards for combing and preparing both 
 wool and flax, indispensable to the thrilty housewife of those days. 
 She it was who must spin, weave, and make by hand most of 
 the material used for clothing the family and furnishing the home. 
 
 SIX weeks' JOURNEY. 
 
 They brought with them little bags of seeds, especially of 
 apple and pear, together with peach, plum, and cherry stones, in 
 order to make a nursery as soon as jjossiblc It took tliem six 
 weeks to make the journey of five hundred miles — much of the 
 way being through unbroken forest. Often the road was almost 
 
ALFRED IN EARLY TIMES. 1 9 
 
 impassable and the streams were without bridges. The able- 
 bodied members of the family walked much of the distance, and 
 all were often obliged to camp and sleep under the trees or in 
 the wagons. Wolves and other wild animals sometimes made 
 these nights a terror by their shrieks and howls, though some- 
 one always remained as a sentinel, to keep up a blaze for safety 
 to themselves and their teams, as wild animals never approach 
 a bright fire. 
 
 Judge Clark Crandall, who, with a few other families, had 
 come into this wilderness as early as 1808, was the pioneer 
 father of the new setilement. It was he, with a few others, who 
 gave a hearty welcome to our travelers and made them feel at 
 once well repaid for the dangers and hardships they had endured 
 in coming to their new home. 
 
 THE NEW HOME. 
 
 Grandfather Allen was very fortunate in the selection of his 
 farm, one hundred and fifty acres of woodland, sloping to the 
 south and east. The most distinctive feature of these sturdy 
 Western settlers was their immediate preparation for intellectual 
 and spiritual culture ; consequently a building was erected for 
 worship and schools almost as soon as their dwelling houses. 
 These were of log, and rude, but answered the full purpose for 
 which they were intended. While waiting for their new house, 
 the family lived in a log schoolhouse, it being vacation. From 
 here every morning at six o'clock grandfather and the three 
 boys, John, of fourteen, George, of sixteen, and Abram,of eight- 
 een years went a mile over the hill through the dense forest to 
 cut down the trees and hew them into shape for building. 
 
 One morning when the noonday lunch was prepared for the 
 builders, there was nothing left for the hungry little ones at home. 
 Not a word had been said, but after they had gone, this brave 
 Scotch mother saddled her horse and rode eight or ten miles to 
 where a few families with means had come into the country 
 some years before and now had an abundance of food. The 
 Lockharts and Karrs of Karr Valley were among these. She 
 
20 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 brought back some flax to spin, and the pay for it in advance, 
 which consisted of a small bag of meal, some beans, and a little 
 meat, that she might have supper ready for the father and boys 
 when they returned. These horseback rides became so frequent 
 that every family in the settlement not only knew this intrepid 
 woman and her horse, but were glad to call her in to rest and 
 share their comforts. This undaunted spirit she bequeathed to 
 her grandson, as his especial inheritance. 
 
 James, the eldest son, married a Connecticut girl, and settled 
 two miles to the west. Abram, the second son, married, in 1821, 
 Dorcas Burdick, the daughter of a near neighbor. He secured 
 one hundred acres of land, upon which was already a small log 
 house. In this the family altar was erected, and here, in 1823, 
 Jonathan Allen, the eldest of six children, was born. 
 
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GhAPTER II. 
 
 BOYHOOD. 
 
 IN this new household busy years followed for the young 
 mother. The three brothers and two sisters that came dur- 
 ing the next five years became Jonathan's especial care in 
 all his early boyhood. He was always old and thoughtful for 
 his years. His brother, Deacon Allen, writes: "He was ever 
 our peacemaker, and the champion and protector of the little 
 twin sisters, always called 'the babies.'" As soon as they were 
 old enough to walk, all the bright, sunny days were spent in the 
 fields and woods around the home. The little girls placed in the 
 center, and the twin brothers one on each side, with the older 
 brothers each taking a hand of these, made quite a string of 
 babies, the eldest being less than seven years old. They would 
 walk, run, and sing, hunting baby treasures. These children of 
 the forest knew every sunny knoll where the first buds of spring 
 would open, and their tiny hands gathered each day their little 
 aprons full of the lovely hepatica, the long, glossy partridge 
 vines, with their scarlet fruit, the brown, velvety moss, and spicy 
 wintergreen. Some of these must always be kept for mother, 
 whose tender smile would well repay the loving little hearts. So 
 the bare feet pressed each sod on that bright hillside, where 
 some new flower, leaf, or bird's nest brought zest to the new day. 
 When weary, they would choose some sunny, mossy hillock or 
 shady nook, and lie down, a group of tired children, all falling 
 asleep save the ever-watchful Jonathan. 
 
 Perhaps, more than he himself knew, we owe his lifelong 
 heroic defense of woman to the tender care of these little sisters. 
 Rich or poor, black or white, he believed with all his soul that 
 woman, as a child of God, had a right to live her ow^n independ- 
 
 (21) 
 
22 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 ent life, and work out her own soul's destiny. In him she always 
 found a ready and fearless advocate. H is counsel to every young 
 woman was, "Go forward; trust in your own good sense and in 
 God for success." 
 
 He showed very early an uncommonly sensitive nature, as his 
 observations of all around him were keen, poetic, and lasting. 
 Once, when a small child, he was allowed to see a little cousin 
 buried. The horror of that baby being put into the ground 
 never left him, and through his whole life it was a dark shadow, 
 making him ever search eagerly for some better way. Indeed, 
 this was the first foreshadowing of the idea which in later years 
 developed into his earnest support of cremation. 
 
 VISITS TO GRANDPARENTS. 
 
 He was very fond of going to the homes of his grandparents. 
 Grandma Allen and Aunt Katie would always have some choice 
 apple or bit of sugar for their pet, and these expressions of love, 
 so rare to him, were among his brightest memories. When 
 staying the night, they would allow him to sit up later than his 
 wont, in order to stand by the little work table and snuff the 
 tallow dip. How he would watch the waning light, that his 
 power could make shine again ! They used to call him the "little 
 candle miller." The same snuffers, iron candlestick, and three- 
 legged table are now among the choice treasures of the Stein- 
 heim. How well he remembered the first time he was called a 
 good boy, for to those stern characters praise was considered 
 almost a sin, degenerating into flattery. 
 
 At Grandfather Burdick's there were two sick aunts, where 
 his willing hands and feet always proved hasty messengers to 
 minister to their many calls. Being at one time uncommonly 
 patient and helpful, one of them said, "You are a good boy, 
 Jonathan." The sensation was so new that he almost cried for 
 joy. At another time one of them said, "You would make a 
 good doctor." "I am too lazy for a doctor," came the ready 
 answer ; but, thinking it over, his childish fancy built up many 
 an air-castle of how he would ride around the country, like Doc- 
 
BOYHOOD. 23 
 
 tor John Collins, his ideal of manhood, and make everybody 
 well and happy. Yes, he would be a doctor, and know every- 
 thing. He seems to have inherited the best traits from both 
 his ancestries, developing from his earliest years the ready wit 
 and quick retort, followed by the joyous laugh, showing the 
 Norman blood of the Aliens, while it was accompanied by the 
 calm, conscientious judgment of the McCumbers, 
 
 New families were yearly added from the East to the com- 
 munity, and all the wild land was soon in the hands of these 
 settlers. The deer were fast disappearing from the forest and 
 the trout from the streams as sources of supply. With only a 
 few acres under cultivation, it can well be imagined that it would 
 be a hard struggle for Father Allen to make a living for a family 
 of eio-ht. He was well educated for the times, and ambitious, 
 teaching in district and singing schools in the winter, working 
 the farm in the summer, and surveying for all the country round. 
 He made the first map of the town of Alfred, which is now in 
 Steinheim. With all this variety of work, money was so scarce 
 that he was compelled to take for pay, produce, or whatever the 
 people had to spare. From one school, the only money he 
 received was seventy-five cents, the amount of the appropria- 
 tion for that district from the State funds. 
 
 WORK AT HOME. 
 
 The children were obliged to help about the work as soon as 
 they were old enough to do anything. A child of five or six 
 years could pull weeds, drop potatoes or corn, and do many 
 other things, so that each member of the family was often 
 employed from early morning till late in the evening. In the 
 busy season they were tending the stock, chopping the wood, 
 clearing new bits of forest, sowing, planting, hoeing, and reap- 
 ing, besides doing the many other farm duties that country boys 
 know so well. This intense toil for bread made it necessary to 
 be astir at an early hour. Five o'clock during the short days 
 and four o'clock during the long ones seldom found a healthy 
 member of the family asleep. Father Allen's "Hello, boys!" 
 
24 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 was not a very unwelcome sound during the warm season, but 
 in winter, when in those open log houses the springing out of 
 bed was often from under a snow bank into one, it was not a 
 pleasant exercise. 
 
 Needed at home to help his mother, and being very diffident, 
 Jonathan did not like school, yet he early learned to read and 
 understand books, committing many things to memory, among 
 which were Logan's "Lines lo the Cuckoo." He often said its 
 song and flight first gave him the idea of a world beyond the 
 hills that surrounded his father's house. Being left-handed, and 
 sensitive to ridicule, he did not learn to write until he was thir- 
 teen years of age. Only a few newspapers came to this section, 
 but the circulating library in town was a never-failing source of 
 happiness. His brother, Judge Ormanzo Allen, writes: "He 
 never cared to read histories of war, nor the lives of warriors, 
 but preferred books of travel, the biographies of famous men, 
 such as Franklin, or Alfred the Great — benefactors of mankind ; 
 of these he was never tired. King Alfred's life he would read 
 and reread, till many of its pages were memorized." Years 
 afterward the "introduction" of this book composed his first 
 speech, and was the first elocutionary exercise in Alfred School, 
 the description of which will appear later as he tells it. 
 
 RICH INHERITANCE OF POVERTY. 
 
 Poverty, when accompanied by noble parentage, is often the 
 richest inheritance of the young. Habits of industry, devel- 
 oped by useful work, with frugal fare, make strong, healthy bod- 
 ies and clear brains. Not one of this large, struggling fimiily 
 but that in after years made a success in life. The little sisters 
 became educated women and mothers, a saving influence in 
 society wherever they went. Of the twin brothers one is a 
 prominent lawyer. Judge Ormanzo Allen, of Austin, Minnesota, 
 whom all delight to honor. The other, Doctor Orlenzo Allen, 
 was a noted physician in the West. He was loved as few men 
 are, and finally gave his life to save one of his patients. The 
 eldest son. Deacon Loander Allen, is a noble Christian man, a 
 trusted counselor in church and town. 
 
BOYHOOD. 25 
 
 SENSE OF JUSTICE TRIED. 
 
 Jonathan, though so timid, was an independent, daring 
 thinker, and bold to speak when the right was in question. 
 Going one winter to school to his father, his sense of justice 
 was sorely tried by being severely punished for offenses that 
 were simply reproved in the other children. At home one 
 night he took the matter in hand and asked his father thereason 
 of this injustice. His father said that he did not wish to appear 
 partial to his own son. Although this was not fully satisfactory 
 to the boy, it made him better understand his father's motives. 
 
 Another instance occurred about this time which illustrates 
 his moral courage, but which shook his confidence in the judg- 
 ment of others. He had thought of his Grandfather Burdick 
 as the most perfect of men. He had also noticed that the 
 whisky which people drank made them act foolishly, but every 
 family in that day, whether rich or poor, must have a jug of 
 liquor, which was thought to be as necessary for health as the 
 daily food. Elder Eli S. Bailey, of blessed memory, deprecat- 
 ing its effects, not only upon church members but upon the min- 
 isters of the gospel, made a circuit of the churches on horse- 
 back, and, with all the fervor of his soulful convictions, his logic 
 and eloquent tongue, portrayed the danger of this practice. He 
 held a series of meetings in the schoolhouses and churches 
 wherever he went, pledging both old and young to total absti- 
 nence. Jonathan's whole nature was aroused by the truths set 
 forth, and he was among the first to give his name to the pledge. 
 On his way home he ran in, as usual, to Grandfather Burdick's, 
 where, telling of the meeting and of his pledge, his grandfather 
 sneeringly said, "You boys must think yourselves much wiser 
 than your elders." This, however, did not cause him to regret 
 his pledge, but the grandfather from that time lost much of his 
 power over the boy. 
 
 SABBATH IN THE HOME. 
 
 The Puritan idea of the sacredness of the Sabbath prevailed 
 in this town. In this family, early on Friday afternoon the farm 
 
26 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 work was put by, the evening duties finished, and the frugal 
 meal of "hasty pudding and milk ' partaken of, then the little 
 sisters had their bath, said their prayers, and were snugly tucked 
 away for the night. In warm weather the boys were allowed to 
 go to the near-by swimming pool to make themselves sweet and 
 pure for God's holy day. When in health the whole family 
 were regularly seen in their places in the house of worship. 
 Rev. Hiram Burdick writes: "When young, we attended the 
 same church, and in warm weather we boys appeared barefooted, 
 clad in tow or cotton cloth shirt and pants, with straw hats. 
 Coats and shoes in summer were a long after consideration. 
 During the cold season homemade suits of woolen cloth, with 
 cowhide shoes, were worn by both boys and girls." 
 
 Another writes, afterward Dr. Orlenzo Allen's wife: "My 
 first memory of the family was seeing them on their way to 
 church as they passed our house. Father Allen was a very 
 handsome man, tall and noble looking. He drove a span of fine 
 gray horses, always with a full load. The two pair of twins, 
 each pair dressed exactly alike and sitting together, made a very 
 vivid impression upon my memory." 
 
 The habit of attendance upon public worship, and all the 
 early influences of religious culture, proved a strong safeguard 
 to the virtue of this community. As soon as homes were pro- 
 vided, a church was built, the members giving work, lumber, 
 nails, shingles, and anything needed that they could provide. 
 Missionaries were sent out, receiving one-half bushel of wheat 
 per day for their labors. The minister was to receive what was 
 in the heart of each to give. 
 
 SOCIAL LIFE OF PIONEERS. 
 
 The social life of a pioneer people usually will take the form 
 of meetings for mutual assistance — bees, loggings, raisings, 
 sheep-shearings, huskings, apple-cuts, quiltings, or spinning 
 bees. Men, women, and children attended and lent a hand 
 wherever needed. The evenings thus spent often made bright 
 and restful the hard day's work. All their interests were freely 
 
BOYHOOD. 27 
 
 discussed — school, church, politics, or any news from the outside 
 world. 
 
 Young Allen, strong and large for his age, was a very essen- 
 tial factor in these g£,therings, from which he treasured every 
 new thought. This habit of attention, and of selecting from 
 all sources the best that was given, made him the thorough and 
 versatile scholar that he became in after years. President Allen 
 often said that his memory by nature was no better than that of 
 most boys, but he worked over each new thought till it was his 
 own, never to be forgotten. During his whole life the early 
 morning hours were to him the best of the day, and from his 
 home on that lovely hillside he could see the first blush of the 
 sun rising over the opposite mountain, covered with pines. No 
 Parsee ever worshiped with more zeal than did this boy this 
 divine and daily miracle. The deepest grief of his boyhood came 
 when it was necessary for the family to give up the home and 
 move a mile away, into a deep, narrow valley, where the forest- 
 covered hills hid the morning sun from view. He was now 
 thirteen years of age, thirsting for knowledge, but with such 
 limited opportunities for study that the future outlook was dark, 
 and began to have its depressing influence upon his strong, 
 buoyant nature. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 SELECT SCHOOL ESTABLISHED. 
 
 IN the fall of 1836, while chopping with his father and 
 brothers near the home, a gentleman came to the woods. 
 
 After a pleasant "good-morning" he said, "I have come 
 into town to start a select school, and would like to have you 
 send this boy," designating Jonathan. " I can't afford it," said 
 the father. Bethuel Church, for this was the man, thought a 
 moment: "We shall need wood, and I will take that for the 
 tuition." How the boy's heart bounded when the father said, 
 " If he will chop it, he can go." As four-foot wood was only 
 fifty cents a cord, it would take six cords to pay the $3.00 
 tuition. If it had taken sixty it would not have daunted the 
 boy. There was light and life ahead. But as father and 
 mother talked over before him the pros and cons in the evening, 
 it was made evident that he had nothing suitable to wear, and 
 new clothing was out of the question, so father said, "Jonathan, 
 I believe you must give it up." Argument was not thought of 
 in that New England household, but the tears would come in 
 spite of all the manly will to repress them. His father seeing 
 this, and remembering his promise, said, " If he feels like that, 
 he must go." His roundabout was made as presentable as 
 possible, and he went, carrying a chair for his seat, as each of 
 the others did. He has often said that with the memory of 
 that experience he could never refuse taking wood as tuition 
 from students. The encouragement thus given might be the 
 turning point in some other life. 
 
 Two miles over a high, bleak hill, thinly clad, and through 
 snowdrifts often covering the fences, might not seem a pleasant 
 prospect to the schoolboy now, but to him it was a daily joy, 
 
 (28) 
 
SELECT SCHOOL ESTABLISHED. 29 
 
 and, though he dared not, from fear of ridicule, eat the cold 
 johnnycake that was his dinner, till on his return home at night, 
 he was not hungry. There were no desks, so each pupil had 
 to hold his books and slate as best he could till boards could be 
 fitted up for that purpose. There were thirty-seven pupils, all 
 gathered from Alfred and vicinity, save two from Genesee and 
 one from Rhode Island. Allen was the youngest in the school, 
 and the least advanced, so he was obliged to recite alone in 
 arithmetic, but each lesson was perfect. After a week Mr. 
 Church, looking over the pupils at their work, saw young Allen 
 at work even beyond the others. "You there?" "Yes, sir," 
 "Then go into the first class," and before the term was out he 
 was one of the best in the most advanced class. In this select 
 school blackboards and other new methods were first intro- 
 duced. 
 
 FIRST DECLAMATION. 
 
 Of his first experience in elocution or declamation it is 
 written: "Then came compositions. Our young student often 
 found himself, as Virgil says, 'a goose among swans,' for he 
 could hardly write his own name, much less a composition. As 
 a compromise he was allowed to give a recitation. Yet with- 
 out any previous acquaintance with anything like elocution, he 
 had no idea how to proceed. When called upon for his piece 
 he commenced to speak from the place where he was sitting. 
 'Come out on the floor,' said the teacher. Utterly bewildered, 
 he grabbed a fellow pupil by the collar for support. 'Let go!' 
 cried the pupil. He did let go. but saw or heard nothing till 
 his selected paragraph— a fine passage from a standard author 
 on Alfred the Great— had been 'elocuted' almost at one breath." 
 From this experience dates his first determination to make a 
 speaker of himself. In his boyish way he put into this new 
 ambition the same ideas of perfection that characterized every- 
 thing he did. He committed to memory many passages from 
 his favorite authors, and began writing out his own ideas on 
 various subjects, and then practiced speaking them. He not 
 only carefully noted the subjects of sermons and lectures that 
 
30 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 he heard, but studied attentively the manner of their expression 
 and delivery. Elder Walter Gillett was his ideal as a speaker. 
 
 Mr. Church was the right man for such an enterprise, ini- 
 tiative, positive, enthusiastic, and having great faith in himself 
 and his pupils. He preached at the church, as well as taught 
 the school, during the winter, and his constant theme was edu- 
 cation. His private talks to both old and young were of the 
 needs in this community for a high school or academy. Charles 
 Hartshorn, a brother of Mrs. Sheldon, in whose house the school 
 was held, was just from the East and taught the district school 
 a mile away. These two men most earnestly sympathized in 
 all intellectual work. A debating society was formed, having 
 its meetings in the schoolhouse evenings, where old and young 
 from all the country round were invited to discuss questions of 
 public interest, especially those pertaining to education. So 
 far-reaching was this influence that the next winter each district- 
 for many miles around had its debating society. 
 
 At the close of the term there was an earnest religious 
 awakening, in which many found the Prince of Peace. Jona- 
 than Allen was one of that number, and with the inspiration of 
 that teacher, and that winter's work, he came into line with pro- 
 gressive thought, never going back, but always pressing for- 
 ward with a strong, high purpose, seldom found in a boy of 
 only fourteen, 
 
 MAKING MAPLE SUGAR. 
 
 The following spring he went into the sugar camp, always 
 glad when an uncommon flow of sap made it necessary to boil 
 all night, as he would then have a quiet time to read or study 
 by the firelight. Large maple trees made a heavy percentage 
 of the forest, and were a source of comfort and profit to the 
 farmers. As soon as a few warm days came in March, the 
 woods were penetrated through the snow by the ox-sleds loaded 
 with s.ap-buckets. The trees were tapped, a clearing made for 
 the fire, and a rude stone furnace built. On this rested the 
 large iron kettle in which the sap was boiled. A hut was built 
 as near the fire as possible, where a few bundles of straw made 
 seats by day and often a bed at night. 
 
SELECT SCHOOL ESTABLISHED. 3 1 
 
 PLEASURE AND WORK. 
 
 Though so earnest in study, he entered into all the sports 
 and games among the young people, for this boyish nature was 
 overflowing with a quaint humor. Fox and geese, hide and 
 seek, ten men morris, hunting and fishing occupied their spare 
 hours. The raccoon was a source of great mischief in all the 
 fields and gardens, and many a night was spent in trapping and 
 hunting these mischievous marauders. Wood could be sold at 
 the village, but sugar, cheese, and lumber were taken to Bath 
 and the Genesee Valley to exchange for wheat and household 
 necessities not to be procured in this region. The general farm 
 work began early in the spring, when the stones were picked 
 up from the grass lands. Plowing, sowing, planting, and hoeing 
 followed. Absorbed in plans for the future, which he kept to 
 himself, young Allen would rest now and then on his hoe- 
 handle, so that these daydreams became quite a source of pleas- 
 antry with the other workers. As soon as old enough to carry 
 the chain, he often helped his father in surveying, thus early 
 learning the rudiments of this branch of mathematics. Going 
 on with the study, he in time became independent in it, and 
 afterward taught surveying in the Institution. 
 
 The winter's work of 1836 being completed, the general 
 interest aroused by Bethuel Church and some of the older 
 students, led to the publication of a paper on education, edited 
 by Daniel C. Babcock and Amos W. Coon, and printed by 
 Orra Stillman. These, with other influences, had to do with 
 the erection of the building known among the students as the 
 "Horned Bug." Rev. James R. Irish, a student from Union 
 College, came to teach in the fall of 1837, teaching for two years 
 and preaching much of the time at the church. Jonathan was 
 always first in his classes, and his schoolmates tell how ready 
 he was to assist any of them in their studies. He was particu- 
 larly clear in mathematical demonstration. In this way he not 
 only learned to teach, but to plod patiently with the slow but 
 earnest students, leadino- them on to success. 
 
32 LIPE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 A lumber mill was built on Vandemark Creek, giving to the 
 farmers an opporunity to earn something when their teams were 
 not needed for the farm work. Father Allen would go to the 
 mill, get his lumber, and return home at night ready for an early 
 start with the load on the following morning. It took three 
 days to go to Bath and return, and four to go to Hammondsport. 
 As there were several teams going from the neighborhood, Jona- 
 than was often put in charge of the load, much of the way being 
 through the primeval forest. In these long, lonely rides he 
 learned much of nature in her varying moods. The birds were 
 his especial friends; he knew the note of each with a certainty 
 that never failed. How he would welcome those of earliest 
 spring! How he exulted in their freedom as their graceful 
 wings cut the air! He never would allow the children a canary 
 as an imprisoned pet. When the cuckoo made her rare visits 
 to our orchard, he never failed to call me to share his pleasure ; 
 the thrill of music that filled every tree top with melody, made 
 the morning hours the richest of the day. His love of early 
 hours grew with his advancing years. 
 
 WILLIAM C. KENVON AS TEACHER. 
 
 Mr. Irish having been ordained and taken the pastorate of 
 the church, William C. Kenyon took control of the school in 
 the spring term of 1839, with twenty-five scholars. For several 
 terms young Allen was his pupil, and was impressed by this 
 wonderful teacher. Later he writes of him: "He was one of 
 those slender, compact, nervous, magnetic men ; a man very 
 earnest, very incisive, somewhat radical, even eccentric, if you 
 please, yet very genuine. The first sight of him on his arrival 
 here to take charge of the school, stirred one young life to the core. 
 The first address that we heard him deliver roused and thrilled 
 us as no other, and we worked for days as in a dream; his teach- 
 ing was suggestive, electric, inspiring." Rev. James R. Irish 
 said of Kenyon, "He will get up, turn around, and sit down, 
 while I am getting up." 
 
 At seventeen young Allen was prepared for teaching, and 
 began his work in a district some eight miles from home. Many 
 
SELECT SCHOOL ESTABLISHED. 33 
 
 of his pupils were older than himself, and some of them belonged 
 to that rough element so common in new settlements. They 
 gloried in rowdyism, and boasted that they had often had three 
 or four teachers during the winter. With some heroic treat- 
 ment he went through the entire time for which he was hired, 
 the last weeks being the best part of his work, and what was 
 still better, he was not disgusted with teaching. When he was 
 eighteen he arranged to go down the Alleghany River with the 
 lumbermen to Cincinnati. This would give him an opportunity 
 to see the world and earn some money for books and study. 
 Many an air-castle was built on this plan, even to his going as 
 far as New Orleans. His brother. Judge Allen, writes that his 
 mother could not give her consent to this, so he gave up this 
 fairy dream and went back for the spring to the old sugar-camp 
 and humdrum life he knew so well. He had books now, and 
 every leisure hour was devoted to reading and study. He was 
 never satisfied till he had mastered a subject, not as mere knowl- 
 edge, but as something to be a part of himself. 
 
 PUBLIC EXHIBITION. 
 
 The school closed with a public examination of each class, 
 and was followed by speaking, reading, and dialogues, in which 
 most of the pupils took part. At the close of the spring term 
 of 1 84 1 Mrs. Susan Spicer writes: — 
 
 "The house was crowded. The interest of the evening 
 centered in a dramatic scene in which Jonathan Allen, then a 
 leading student in the academy, bore a conspicuous part. The 
 engrossing subject throughout the North was the slavery ques- 
 tion. Professor Kenyon was a man of uncompromising anti- 
 slavery sentiment. The recapture of slaves was then a com- 
 mon occurrence in the North, and a case of that kind had 
 recently occurred, accompanied with more than the usual atroc- 
 ities. Young Allen, then eighteen, proposed to the students 
 to reproduce that scene at this school exhibition by an original 
 dialogue. Mr, Allen represented the good Quaker who had 
 befriended, housed, and fed the fleeing fugitives, and proposed 
 to forward them on to Canada. The fugitives were represented 
 
34 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 by Students in tattered garments with blackened faces and hands, 
 while others represented the pursuing slaveholders, officers, and 
 assisting citizens. The slaves were seized at the home of the 
 good Quaker. A neighbor suggested that the cursed Quaker 
 be ridden on a rail, tarred, and feathered, which they proceeded 
 to do. Mr. Allen was entirely submissive, but talked to them 
 plainly of the cruel inhumanity of their system of slavery, 
 sharply denouncing their brutal practices, then, finally raising 
 his voice in cutting rebuke, he reached a climax unanticipated 
 even by himself. In impassioned, eloquent terms he told them 
 that their acts would react against them ; that, instead of sup- 
 pressing the antislavery sentiments, they would intensify and 
 .extend them; that every abuse of this kind would raise up for 
 them one hundred more friends; that in a little time the pen, 
 the press, and all the better elements of the North would array 
 themselves against them. Then he made the following state- 
 ments: 'God will not permit such an institution to exist in 
 America much longer. Even now I seem to hear its death 
 knell. God's repressing hand is laid upon you. The days of 
 slavery are already numbered, though it will die only after a 
 hard struggle. It will die only after a baptism of our whole 
 country in blood. Twenty years from now an antislavery Presi- 
 dent will be elected. You of the South will rebel and endeavor 
 to establish a slaveholder's oligarchy. The North will not sub- 
 mit to the dissolution of these States, and a fearful carnage will 
 follow. Slavery will be abolished, and God will preserve the 
 nation. May God be merciful to the people. God save the 
 poor and oppressed.' The interest in the narrative centers in 
 the mystery of young Allen's prophesying coming events so 
 definitely." 
 
 At the first meeting in Chapel Hall in 1861 to consider the 
 call of the government for volunteers to meet the new emer- 
 gency, in which Professor Allen took a leading part, the writer 
 of these pages rehearsed the forecast of twenty years previous, 
 and the narrative acted like magic. Professor Allen then looked 
 back upon that impromptu forecast as inexplicable except as it 
 was born of faith. 
 
GMAPTER IW. 
 
 PIONEER LIFE IN WISGONSIM. 
 
 EACHING in winter, going to school whenever possible, 
 and working on the farm, filled up the next year, when 
 the family decided to go to Wisconsin — a section just 
 opened to settlers. 
 
 My first memory of Jonathan Allen was in the spring term 
 of 1842. My sister, Harriet Maxson, five years my senior, 
 and myself were living at Mr. Irish's, who one day said, " I have 
 just told Abram Allen that if he takes his son Jonathan to Wis- 
 consin, he will become its governor." "Not one of my boys," 
 said Mr. Allen. "That one has a two-story head, I said," 
 remarked Mr. Irish. There was to be recitations that after- 
 noon, so I asked my sister if she knew the governor. "Why, 
 yes." "Show him to me." During that afternoon, when a tall, 
 diffident young man came upon the stage, she whispered, 
 "There is the governor." No doubt lacking confidence, he was 
 not quite a silly girl's idea of that great dignitary. He was 
 then nineteen, and in a few weeks went West with his family, 
 where his father and mother had hoped to have the children all 
 around them in their declining years. 
 
 Uncle Ethan Burdick was already in Milton, Wisconsin, 
 while Uncle George, with several other families, accompanied 
 ours on the journey there. Deacon L. Allen says of this time: 
 "The three families numbered twenty-four souls, all to be housed 
 in a building twenty-four by eighteen, while the new houses 
 were being built; but it was in summer time; the sweet hay 
 made nice beds for us boys, while the chamber floor was at 
 night covered with beds for the little ones." Here Jonathan 
 worked on the farm, did surveying in the summers, and taught 
 
 (35) 
 
36 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 school for two winters. Walking five miles across the prairie 
 to his school one morning in the face of a terrible blizzard, he 
 found when reaching the schoolhouse that breathing was almost 
 impossible. The effect of this lasted all winter. No doubt 
 that terrible experience weakened the valves of the heart and 
 laid the foundation of his heart disease. Nature had built him 
 with a wonderfully strong body, and healthful exercise, with 
 plain food, gave him almost a giant's strength. 
 
 Much of the land in that section belonged to "Uncle Sam," 
 he giving to all who would make homes upon it a farm for the 
 small sum of $1.25 per acre. Soil was so rich that it yielded 
 immense crops, with very little cultivation. Deer and wild fowl 
 were plentiful, and the streams teemed with fish. Going down 
 to Rock River with his brothers one winter's day, they made a 
 hole in the ice to fish through, but the fish came up in such 
 quantities that they threw away their hooks and gathered them 
 in by the basketful. When they had secured several barrels of 
 these great salmon, they drove home, giving liberally to their 
 neighbors, and having sufficient for themselves for the whole 
 season. 
 
 DECIDED FOR AN EDUCATION. 
 
 Being now twenty-one years . of age, Allen found himself 
 with money enough to take up a quarter section of land in the 
 spring of 1844. This his father and mother felt very anxious 
 for him to do. He started one morning for the land office at 
 Milwaukee some fifty miles away, walking all the long day — 
 thinking, thinking — his steps growing slower and slower as he 
 walked on. He knew that if he should take up the land he 
 must give up all that he held most dear — and for what? — a mess 
 of pottage. Should he starve his soul for a little of this world's 
 goods .^ He could not do it, but he would not be rash. He 
 stopped for the night outside the city at a farmhouse, where 
 he slept and dreamed over the matter. Before morning the 
 decision was made. That money would take him to school at 
 Alfred; strong arms would do the rest. The die was cast. He 
 had turned his back upon wealth. He walked; he ran; and, 
 
PIONEER LIFE IN WISCONSIN. -i^ 
 
 reaching home, said, "I must have an education; I have the 
 money and must go back to Alfred." No objection was raised, 
 but all the help possible from the loving hearts of father, mother, 
 brothers, and sisters was given. It was hardest to part from 
 the little sisters, then just blooming into young womanhood; 
 but he would make a way for them, v/hich he afterwards did. 
 The first boat of spring, coming down the lakes, through rough 
 waves, and storm and sleet, bore a happy young man back, not 
 only to his childhood's home, but to the means of intellectual 
 and spiritual growth. His former teacher, Professor Kenyon, 
 Uncle John, Aunt Katie, and many of the old friends warmly 
 welcomed him. Securing a little attic where he could be alone 
 for study, he boarded himself, usually cooking his own food. 
 He worked during the recess hours and vacations, besides 
 doing many extra things for a paralyzed uncle in whose house 
 he lived. Thus began his life work. 
 
 TEACHERS AT ALFRED. 
 
 He found associated with his model teacher, Professor 
 Wm. C. Kenyon, Mrs. Melissa Ward Kenyon, in the primary 
 branches, John D. Collins, in Latin, and Gordon Evans in 
 mathematics, Miss Caroline B. Maxson as preceptress and 
 teacher in modern languages and drawing. Of Mrs. Kenyon he 
 writes later: "As a teacher she was frank, sincere, cordial, quick 
 to appreciate effort, slow to give over the dull, ever the friend 
 of the diffident and uncultured. The poor and needy student 
 knew that in her a friend could always be foijnd." 
 
 Of Miss Caroline B. Maxson he writes: "Among the few 
 individuals who gave life and character to this institution was 
 our preceptress. Fitted by nature and culture for the position, 
 she became a living force in the school. With a high range of 
 mental grasp and sweep, with a comprehension of the subject 
 to be taught, clear and direct as light, with a self-poise that no 
 rudeness could jostle, mild, calm, serene, she gave a helpful 
 hand to the diffident and the discouraged, and with winsome 
 words helped them, inspired them." 
 
38 LIKE OF I'RKSIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 Scores of young men and women, many of them preparing 
 to be teachers, were a constant inspiration to each other. Dur- 
 ing those earlier times the studies of the young men and women 
 above the common branches were much more diverged than in 
 these later years. Few young women studied the higher math- 
 ematics or the classics. They were not known to speak in pub- 
 lic, either in rhetoricals, in societies, or on anniversary occasions, 
 but were confined to reading compositions. The proper style 
 was for them to appear on the rostrum, two by two, arm in arm, 
 mutual supports, while they read. Dialogues and colloquies, 
 then very much in vogue, furnished the only exceptions and the 
 only opportunity for displaying their grace of action. On the 
 other hand, the young men very seldom studied the modern 
 languages and never the fine arts. Two bashful boys after a 
 long and anxious consultation determined to seek the rudiments 
 of high art, thinking it would be a help in surveying. To this 
 end they blushingly presented themselves to the teacher as can- 
 didates for drawing. With irrepressible humor twinkling in her 
 eyes and lighting up her face, she replied, "Young gentlemen, 
 if you desire to take drawing, you need three things to begin 
 with, — a tow string, a hand sled, and a yellow dog." It is 
 needless to say that they beat a hasty retreat without making 
 any effort to obtain the prescribed drawing materials. 
 
 At this early time eleven weeks constituted a term. There 
 were four terms a year, with vacations correspondingly arranged, 
 in order to give the pupils an opportunity for teaching during 
 the winter, and for farm work during the summer. The school 
 had its beginning in the need felt by young people of limited 
 means for opportunities of higher culture than could be obtained 
 in the district schools, and on this broad foundation, irrespective 
 of sex, it has risen to its present infiuence. 
 
 ASSISTANT IN M A'lHEM A IKS. 
 
 Young Allen, as assistant in mathematics, often had large 
 classes. By his patience and thoroughness he won golden 
 opinions from his pupils and from all that knew of his work. 
 
PIONEER LIFE IN WISCONSIN. 39 
 
 Though having very Httle time for social culture, many lifelong 
 friendships grew out of these relations. 
 
 Professor James Marvin, Chancellor of Kansas University, 
 writes: "My first view of Alfred was from the summit of the 
 hill overlooking the town from the west. It was the 12th of 
 August, 1845. We were five young men, with a wagon loaded 
 with provisions, trunks, boxes, bedding, and cooking utensils. 
 This, with a weary farm team, fills the picture from the point of 
 observation. Joel Meriman and myself were passengers, and 
 new prospectors for the mines of learning in the valley. Little 
 note was taken of the objects by the way down the hills, until 
 one of the company called out, 'Halloo, Allen!' to a tall pedes- 
 trian under a broad-brimmed hat. 'How do you do?' The 
 point of the hill was too steep for an introduction. We only 
 heard, 'All right, sir.' But as we moved on, our driver, who 
 had been here before, entertained us with wonderful accounts of 
 the mathematical attainments of his angular friend. 'He was 
 pretty near as good as the boss in figures, but not up to Sayles 
 in Latin.' " 
 
GliAPTER W, 
 
 THE FRANKLIN LYCEUM. 
 
 HE Alfred Debating Society had been merged into the 
 Franklin Lyceum. "This association," Mr, Allen writes,- 
 "though unpretending, was very effective in training its 
 members into free, open, vigorous modes of thinking and 
 speaking — attainments that most of them have had occasion to 
 use on the broader arena of the world's manifold debates. The 
 early wants were few, three candles to be furnished each even- 
 ing. The by-laws were simple. No one was to leave the room 
 without the consent of the chairman. No one was to be per- 
 mitted to speak that was not in the session room within five 
 minutes of the ringing of the second bell. The leading mem- 
 bers were the learned Sayles, the poetic Collins, the logical 
 Wardner, the humorous Nye, the jocose Smith, the accurate 
 Pickett, the Byronic Scott, the eloquent Goodspeed, the good 
 Van Antwerp, the lucid Evans, the analytic Simpson, the saga- 
 cious Marvin, the gushing Manier, the versatile Clapp, the 
 suave Knox, the gentlemanly Ford, the scholarly Larkin, the 
 sedate Merriman, the flame-tongued Maxson, the susceptible 
 Spicer, the political Cameron, the Napoleonic Burdick, the 
 thoughtful Hurlburt, the pseudo- Byronic Cross, the nimble- 
 tongued Rathbun, the phrenologico-fatalistic Price, the calm 
 Payne, the vivacious Powers, the royal Purple, these and many 
 more brought their varied talents to enrich and make illustrious 
 the society." 
 
 The ladies were permitted to be present, listen to the dis- 
 cussion, and to read the papers, but were not expected to partici- 
 pate in the debates. 
 
 With such teachers and these co-workers, many of whom have 
 stood high in almost every profession and walk of life, it is not 
 (40) 
 
TEMPERANCE AT ALFRED. 4 1 
 
 Strange that most of the modern reform movements here found 
 active adherents. The school was breezy, and sometimes 
 stormy with the reformatory spirit. The dietetic reform, or 
 vegetarianism, was practically adopted by not a few. Anti- 
 slavery sentiment ran riot. Temperance had a sharp and 
 triumphant conflict. 
 
 TEMPERANCE AT ALFRED. 
 
 In common with the ideas and customs that generally pre- 
 vailed at the time, the first settlers at Alfred were not strictly 
 temperance men. Dr. H. P. Burdick in reviewing the temper- 
 ance work at an early date says: "The school from the first 
 became an active and efficient worker. Its teachers were pro- 
 nounced radicals, not in temperance only, but in all the great 
 reformatory movements of the age, standing like prophets on 
 the heights of reform, pointing the way, and leading up the 
 steeps of progress." He also says that " D. E. Maxson and J. 
 Allen went from place to place, forcing back the hosts of 
 intemperance, and holding points that older men had deserted 
 on the first approach of the enemy. 'Old men were never 
 able to hold these positions, and we know you boys can- 
 not,' was said to them, but they replied: 'No man dies too soon 
 nor too late who dies for the truth, for the right. Whether we 
 stand under the temperance flag, or fall under yours, we shall 
 fight. Strike our Institution, the educational home of unborn 
 generations, with lightning if need be, but never, while the life- 
 blood flows in our veins, shall it be struck with rum licenses.'" 
 
 The church and the school joined forces, and a general 
 interest was awakened in the town Steps were taken from 
 time to time till they finally resulted in driving rum from Alfred, 
 and it has been free from the curse of legal liquor selling ever 
 since. May the spirit that has thus far governed the good 
 people of Alfred in keeping away evil influences continue 
 through all its coming history. 
 
42 I.IFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 SCHOOLS IN LITTLE GENESEE AND CERES. 
 
 During the winter of 1845-46 Mr. Allen taught the school 
 in Little Genesee. Miss Maxson was teaching in Ceres, four 
 miles away, and unconsciously they became rivals for superior- 
 ity in methods of teaching. He received fifteen dollars per 
 month, with the privilege of boarding around among the patrons 
 of the school, or paying his board out of his salary. Wishing 
 time for study, he chose the latter, making his home with the 
 bright, pleasant family of Avery Langworthy. He had a 
 profitable winter, doing much good, and gaining the hearts of 
 pupils and parents. Little Genesee long boasted of its wonder- 
 ful teacher. 
 
 One afternoon the Ceres school visited that at Little Gene- 
 see, and soon afterward the Genesee school returned the visit, 
 filling the old schoolhouse to overflowing. Miss Maxson found 
 that Mr. Allen's methods with little children surpassed hers, 
 and adopted them the next term. 
 
 Having a few weeks to spare before returning to Alfred, 
 Mr. Allen went on a raft down the Alleghany River as far as 
 Pittsburg. He returned with some extra hard cash, and with 
 what was better, — a deeper knowledge of himself and of human 
 nature, — to be used as material for future work. 
 
 NEW SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
 
 Upon returning to Alfred to study and teach through the 
 summer term, he found that the growth of the school was 
 demanding new facilities for its departments. The trustees not 
 feeling warranted to assume the responsibility of new buildings. 
 Professors Kenyon and Sayles, with their approval, themselves 
 took up the work. These men were without means, but they 
 had great faith and began the enterprise. They borrowed 
 ten thousand dollars of Samuel White, of Whitesville (a great 
 sum for those times), selected and bought the site of the pres- 
 ent campus, then a native grove. In this they planned to 
 erect three buildings, — a gentlemen's dormitory thirty-five by 
 fifty feet, and three stories above the basement, to be located 
 
LOADINC SAND. 43 
 
 near where the Steuiheim now stands; a similar building for 
 the ladies was to be placed farther south, the upper story of 
 which was to be used for chapel and recitation rooms, with 
 winding stairs leading to the chapel from the outside. The 
 Middle Hall was to be the home of the families of Professors 
 Kenyon and Sayles. The basement was to contain the dining- 
 hall for students, with board at one dollar per week. Mr- 
 Allen entered with zeal into every plan of Professor Kenyon. 
 During these years, Anniversary day was the great day 
 bofh for students and people. Essays, orations, and dialogues 
 to the number of thirty-five or forty were given, and, though 
 each exercise was limited to time, it made an all-day literary 
 meeting. People came from many miles to hear their sons, 
 daughters, and friends. For many years the gathering place 
 was at the church, one mile below town, but on Anniversary 
 morning July 4, 1845, this building was crowded too much to 
 warrant accommodation for the still greater numbers who would 
 come later in the day. "What shall we do?" anxiously asked 
 Professor Kenyon. "Go to the grove," was the response. 
 "But nothing is ready," replied the professor. "It shall be, 
 sir, for the afternoon," answered Mr. Allen. "Go ahead," was 
 the reply. A team, hammer, and nails were soon secured, and 
 an assistant provided. A load of lumber near by was used for 
 the stage and seats. By the afternoon everything was in readi- 
 ness for the accommodation of five hundred people. 
 
 LOADING SAND. 
 
 With the same promptness all labor was performed; no 
 needed work was unworthy of the most faithful service. That 
 summer vacation he was Professor Kenyon's ready helper 
 everywhere. The new buildings were going up on the hill, and 
 much work was needed to be done. One evening the professor 
 said to him, "You may go for a load of sand in the morning." 
 "Very well, sir." The sand was drawn by oxen from a sand 
 bank two miles distant. Having made all arrangements the 
 evening before, he started for it at three o'clock in the morning. 
 
44 I^I1*'K OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 Finding the process of loading by carrying the sand in baskets 
 to be very slow, he hitched the team to the back of the wagon 
 and drew it up the bank, in order that the shoveling could be 
 done directly into it. This hastened the work so much that he 
 was able to return with the load before breakfast. As he did 
 not seem at all hurried afterward. Professor Kenyon said in his 
 quick, imperative way, "Young man, isn't it about time you 
 were getting ready to go for the sand?" "It is here, sir," was 
 the surprising reply. Before this time it had always taken 
 until noon to get a load, but now four loads instead of two were 
 brought each day. 
 
 MAKINC URICK. 
 
 Rev. Nathan Wardner, of Milton, Wisconsin, writes: "Dur- 
 ing the vacation of 1846, while together making brick for the 
 new buildings, Mr, Allen and myself had many talks about our 
 future life work. Neither of us had decided whether it would 
 be teaching or the ministry. He had been called to take 
 charge of the new academy at Milton, Wisconsin, and I had 
 received an invitation to teach in De Ruyter Institute. He 
 proposed that I should take the work at Milton, and he go to 
 De Ruyter. The matter had not been settled when the call 
 came to me from the China mission, and Professor Kenyon 
 persuaded Mr. Allen to remain at Alfred. He had often 
 expressed a desire to work in the foreign mission field, and for 
 many years afterward I looked to the time when he would join 
 me in China." 
 
 Mr. Allen never gave up the idea of foreign mission work 
 until, in 1858, having a call to join our Palestine Mission, he 
 accepted it. We were partially packed for the journey, when 
 there came a petition for us to remain, signed by so many 
 students and citizens that we concluded our work was here 
 in Alfred instead of in a foreign field. He never wavered in 
 his allegiance to this chosen work, though money, position, and 
 honor were offered him at different times, but they had little 
 attraction for him 
 
CARIN(; FOR THK SICK. 
 
 GENERAL INTEREST IN SCHOOL 
 
 45 
 
 It may well be imagined that the spending of $15,000 for 
 material and labor in so small a community as this was, made a 
 business boom in all departments of industry. Carpenters and 
 masons flocked here with their families, who must be housed 
 and fed. Thus naturally a great interest was created in the 
 school throughout the whole region round about. 
 
 The new buildings were ready for the students in the fall 
 term of 1846, and the opening found them filled to overflow- 
 ing. Board was put at $1.00 per week. Within a short time 
 (counting those who roomed in the village and came to the 
 boarding hall for their meals), the family numbered from one 
 hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty. Mr. Allen had 
 charge of the gentlemen's hall, and Miss Abigail A. Maxson, 
 who had now been appointed preceptress, had charge of the 
 south, or ladies' building. She had been away some years, by 
 request of Professor Kenyon, to prepare herself more thoroughly 
 for this work, and had taken her degree at Leroy Seminary, 
 afterwards Ingham University, one of the most popular ladies' 
 schools in the country. To fit the new order of things 
 unheard-of regulations became necessary, and it took time and 
 patience with both teachers and students to overcome the 
 friction. 
 
 .CARING EOR THE SICK. 
 
 The autumn of 1846 was a sickly season throughout the 
 country, and this school did not escape. A number of typhoid 
 fever cases occurred among the students. Care must be taken 
 of the sick ones, and no one proved so calmly masterful of the 
 situation as did Jonathan Allen. Spending three or four nights 
 a week in tenderly nursing the sick, besides teaching and recit- 
 ing in from eight to ten classes daily, he never complained nor 
 showed weariness of body or mind. His companions said he 
 was always leader where strength was required. It was true of 
 him, as he says of another: "He could easily walk forty 
 miles per day, could chop and pile more wood between sun and 
 
46 LIKE OK I'RKSIDENT ALLKN. 
 
 sun, or take a longer swathe in the hay held, than any competi- 
 tor. He worked with this masterful swing and stroke all 
 through life, doing the work of from three to five men, never 
 shrinking a pound of the world's burdens." The same year he 
 was chosen superintendent of the town schools, and visited 
 them all. While becoming better acquainted with the teachers, 
 he learned much of the needs of the schools, that proved to be 
 a preparation for his future work. 
 
 NEW SOCIETIES ORGANIZED. 
 
 Up to this time Alfred Academy had but one literary society, 
 called the Franklin Lyceum. Miss Maxson feeling the need of 
 similar training for girls, there was organized the Adelphian 
 Society. This association had a vigorous growth for some 
 years, discussing among other things many questions of 
 woman's work and needs. Mr. Allen gave every possible aid 
 to this new society, helping to frame their constitution, select 
 subjects for discussion, as well as helping to form their Rules of 
 Order. He procured the first woman who came to Alfred as a 
 lecturer. This was in the spring of 1847, when Mrs. Elizabeth 
 Oakes Smith came as Anniversary speaker. The Erie Railroad 
 was not yet completed, and staging some sixty miles was no 
 small undertaking in those days. Her presence was not only 
 an inspiration to the young women, but her eloquence left its 
 impression upon all. 
 
 The Dedaskalian, or Teachers' Association, was formed the 
 same year for both men and women. The Theological Society 
 was also organized on the same basis, and contained about 
 equal numbers of young men and women, yet the young men 
 did most of the public speaking. This order of things once 
 called forth such a question as this: "Why is this association 
 like a man with the palsy? Answer — Because the stronger half 
 does all the work." Jonathan Allen was a leading spirit in both 
 of these societies. The Dedaskalian spent a great deal of time 
 on parliamentary rules, seventy-two speeches being made one 
 evening upon a single point. Papers of great length, full of 
 
NEW SOCIETIES ORGANIZED. 47 
 
 fine analysis and criticism, were read. One that Mr. Allen 
 gave was twenty feet in length. 
 
 The Theological Society after a time changed its name to 
 that of Christian Association. All departments of religious 
 thought were freely discussed, and listened to by full houses. 
 Its members became the leaders of evangelical work in the 
 neighboring school districts. They visited from house to house, 
 holding Bible classes and prayer meetings. These often became 
 the nucleus of continued religious work. A deeper missionary 
 spirit was created in 1847, by a visit from our chosen mission- 
 aries to China, Rev. Solomon Carpenter and wife, and the set- 
 ting apart and ordination of Rev. Nathan Wardner and wife to 
 accompany them to their far-off field of labor. As Mr. Allen 
 has said: "Pupils attending the school but for a short time 
 caught a spirit in the air which continued to animate them in 
 after years. Though the amount of knowledge gained by them 
 might be small, yet the impulses received were great and lasting. 
 The seed sown was good, and for the most part fell upon good 
 ground, where it has grown and yielded abundantly through the 
 years." 
 
CHAPTER \J\. 
 
 OBERLIN. 
 
 R. ALLEN having completed the prescribed course 
 in Alfred Academy, determined to spend some time 
 in advance work, especially in the study of theol- 
 ogy. Oberlin College v^as then knov^m throughout 
 the country as not only a radical, anti-slavery school, but one in 
 which thorough religious training was a part of the college work. 
 This he decided was the school for him. Two other young 
 men, after talking the matter over, determined to go with him. 
 This was in the early spring of 1847. They had to travel by 
 stage much of the way from Buffalo to Oberlin. They reached 
 Cleveland on Friday evening and remained there over the Sab- 
 bath. 
 
 "Early on Sunday morning," writes Rev. A. C, Spicer, "Mr. 
 Allen said to his companions, 'As the stagecoach leaves here 
 for Oberlin this morning, I propose that we finish our journey 
 to-day.' The plan was at once agreed upon, and passage was 
 taken on the big four-horse stagecoach for Elyria and Oberlin, 
 Mr. Allen riding on the top, with the driver, to get a better 
 knowledge of the country. 
 
 "On the next day we made application for entrance into the 
 college. One of the first questions asked was, 'When did you 
 come into town?' Mr. Allen replied, 'Yesterday.' 'But [in sur- 
 prise], did you not know that the rules of our college forbid all 
 travel on the sabbath, and give definite notice that no student 
 will be accepted who has disregarded this regulation?' 'Yes,' 
 replied Mr. Allen, 'we had catalogues of your college.' 'Then 
 can you expect us to receive you?' 'We were unavoidably 
 delayed, and found ourselves in Cleveland on Friday night. 
 
 (48) 
 
UNDERGROUND RAIL.ROAD. 49 
 
 Remaining there over the Sabbath, we could see no reason why 
 we were not at liberty to ride here on Sunday, since the stages 
 were running on that day.' 'Then you are Seventh-day Bap- 
 tists are you? All right, ail right.' Soon President Mahan and 
 Professor Charles G. Finney entered the office, to whom the 
 young men were introduced, and to whom explanations of the 
 circumstances were given. By both these gentlemen they were 
 cordially welcomed, and were treated by all the professors with 
 great kindness, and excused from class exercises and other duties, 
 on the Sabbath. 
 
 "The next Sunday, when Pastor Finney gave an invitation* 
 to all new students to unite with the church during the time of 
 their stay in school, a special invitation was extended to Seventh- 
 day Baptists, assuring them that such church relationship need! 
 not embarrass them in the keeping of their own Sabbath. This 
 invitation was accepted. Mr. Allen afterward remarked that he 
 felt assured we were the more respected for the determination 
 to maintain what we thought to be religiously right. Such stead- 
 fastness to principle, in whatever position he was placed,, was 
 ever a characteristic of Mr. Allen's life." 
 
 UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 
 
 Oberlin was at that time a station on the "Underground 
 Railroad," and Mr. Spicer relates the following incident: — 
 
 "Early in September, 1848, I found myself at sunset near 
 the Cottage Hotel, when there came on the sharp run sixteen 
 adult negroes, hatless, coatless, shoeless, and almost breathless, 
 crying in terror: 'Oh, take care of us quick! Our masters are 
 coming! Masters are coming!' At the same time a man from 
 another point came on a running horse calling out, 'Take care 
 of those men; their masters are in hot pursuit.' 
 
 "A Boston gentleman, as quick as thought, exclaimed: 'Come, 
 follow me, boys. Friends, stay here and guard the hotel, and 
 don't one of you look toward the college.' He immediately 
 led the way, on a run, to Tappan Hall. Hardly were the fugi- 
 tives safe there before the pursuing slave-owners were in sight. 
 
50 
 
 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 A mass of college boys, citizens, and strangers surrounded the 
 ihotel and the streets leading to it. Thinking this unorganized 
 force needed leaders, I went after Allen, Larkin, and John M. 
 Langdon (a mulatto who afterward became member of Con- 
 gress and also minister to Hayti). By the time we were on 
 the ground, the pursuing party had arrived, ordered their steam- 
 ing horses cared for, and supper for themselves. While they 
 were thus engaged, a council of war vas called by the gentle- 
 man from Boston, and a plan of action soon adopted. Tappan 
 Hall was to be left seemingly unguarded, while twenty well- 
 armed men were to keep watch within the hall throughout the 
 night. The hotel was to be systematically protected on every 
 street and alley leading to it. The guards were armed with 
 '^uns, axes, pitchforks, scythes, clubs, or whatever else could be 
 grasped in the hurry. Commanders were chosen for the depart- 
 ments, of which Allen was one. 
 
 "That night was full of subdued excitement. After supper 
 the slave-owners and officers were out scrutinizing the guards 
 and barricades. They returned to the hotel, evidently consider- 
 ing themselves baffled. Young Allen went from street to street 
 among the men and boys, counseling them to hold their places, 
 but in no case to act with rashness or use violence except in 
 self-defense. He urged the colored people to retire, as there 
 were fugitives among them. 
 
 "A few hours later the slave-owners came out in full force, 
 but so formidable did they find the guards that they soon retired 
 to their hotel, never entering the campus in which stood Tap- 
 pan Hall, from whose dark windows the excited fugitives were 
 watching every movement. About one o'clock a sheriff ven- 
 tured out for a few moments, then all was quiet until morning. 
 At early dawn the force of pursuers ordered their teams and 
 drove to Elyria to await developments. 
 
 "Two days of quiet followed, during which plans were per- 
 fected to take the fugitives to Cleveland, where a vessel waited 
 to carry them to Canada. Friends all along the way were 
 informed of the situation, and prepared to lend aid if needed. 
 
WOMAN S RIGHTS TOPICS. 5 I 
 
 But the fugitives were guarded by such a force that they were 
 not molested, and Mr. Allen and other members of the escort 
 saw them safely on board the boat that was to land them in 
 Canada. 
 
 SABBATH DISCUSSION. 
 
 "At one time the young men from Alfred were challenged 
 by other members of the theological class to discuss the Sab- 
 bath question. The one side was to affirm the change of the 
 day by divine authority, the other to advocate the Sabbath of 
 the fourth commandment. One of the leaders who failed in 
 argument made the seventh-day students a subject of ridicule 
 for belonging to so small a sect — 'a denomination,' he said, 'not 
 even able to train their own theological students!' This, far 
 from turning them from what they believed to be God's truth, 
 only made them the more determined to build up, in the near 
 future, a school where our own young people could secure the 
 best of advantages, and to this work Jonathan Allen devoted 
 his life." 
 
 woman's RIGHTS TOPICS. 
 
 Though Oberlin was co-educational, it was conservative on 
 the subject of women's speaking in public. Miss Antoinette 
 Brown was a member of the theological class. When each 
 member was asked to give the reasons for the study of theol- 
 ogy, Mr. Allen was shocked and indignant to hear the professor 
 say to Miss Brown, "You will not be expected to state yours." 
 She immediately arose and left the room, not being able to 
 restrain her tears. Afterward, however, in the presence of the 
 class, she was asked to give her experience in being called to 
 her work. 
 
 The Alfred students boarded at Professor Fairchild's. The 
 discussion of "woman's rights" and other reform movements of 
 the day were agitating public sentiment everywhere. This 
 question was often discussed by the professor and the young 
 men at the dinner table, the discussion sometimes waxing 
 warm, as our boys always took the woman's side. 
 
52 
 
 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 At the close of the year Lucy Stone, of Boston (now of 
 world-wide fame), refused to graduate because she was not 
 allowed to read her own paper. This annoyed Professor Fair- 
 child, and one day he asked Mr. Allen, "How do you get along 
 with that question at Alfred?" "The most natural way in the 
 world. If a young woman is capable of writing a paper, she 
 ought to be able to read it," was the answer. Many years later 
 Lucy Stone was invited to Oberlin to deliver an address. 
 
 More than a score of years afterward, when President Allen 
 was invited to deliver the annual address at Oberlin, we were 
 the guests of President Fairchild. One day Mr. Allen asked 
 him how they had finally settled the question about the young 
 ladies reading, etc., etc. "Oh, the girls made such a fuss that 
 we were obliged to allow them to read their theses, but bless God 
 they have not yet asked to deliver orations!" was his quaint reply. 
 
 While at Oberlin, Professor Kenyon wrote often and freely 
 to Mr. Allen of his hopes in reference to building up the school 
 in a higher plane, even to the establishment of a college. Mr. 
 Allen entered warmly into his plans, and pledged his whole ener- 
 gies to the work. In answering his last letter. Professor Ken- 
 yon said: "Nothing has so cheered me as the words in your 
 letter. It will take time, and it may be a long, hard struggle, but 
 it can be done." 
 
 TEACHING IN MILTON, WISCONSIN. 
 
 In November, 1848, Mr. Allen, finding his health not good 
 and his funds low, went to Milton, Wisconsin, to teach in the 
 new academy with Mr. A. W. Coon. Mr. Coon, having been 
 one of the early promoters of the educational work at Alfred, 
 now became one of the pioneers of the same cause in the West. 
 I mention this because the leaders in advance work are too 
 often forgotten. 
 
 That winter Mr. Allen spent at his father's home, now full 
 of bright young people, his father being the jolliest boy among 
 them. His mother was happy to have her eldest son at home 
 again, and the love of the sisters expressed itself in every form 
 
TEACHING IN MILTON, WISCONSIN. 53 
 
 that could be given. It may well be imagined that the winter 
 was a pleasant and profitable one. He was solicited to remain 
 as principal of the academy, but, considering his pledge to Pro- 
 fessor Kenyon as sacred, he gave up the pleasanter path for that 
 of rugged duty. Returning to Oberlin to graduate, he then 
 came back to Alfred near the close of the spring term in June, 
 1849. 
 
GliAPTER UN. 
 
 GENERAL A D W A N G E M E M T. 
 
 SYNDICATE FORMED. 
 
 '^ I HE principals, Professors Kenyon and Sayles, had felt for 
 .JL some time that the teaching force of the school was in- 
 sufficient to meet the growing demands made by the 
 increase of numbers and the call for classes in the higher 
 branches. These men, with the preceptress, Miss Maxson, 
 were often required to teach from ten to fourteen classes a day. 
 Much work was also done by assistants who were students pay- 
 ing their way through school. Several of these young men 
 were consulted from time to time about plans to best meet the 
 interests and demands of the growing work. Afterward, some 
 of these became connected with the Institution. 
 
 CO-WORKERS. 
 
 On the Fourth of July, 1849, Mr. Allen entered with zeal 
 into Professor Kenyon's plan for reorganizing the Faculty, and 
 forming the compact, by and between Wm. C. Kenyon, Ira 
 Sayles, D. D. Picket, J. Marvin, D. E. Maxson, Darius Ford, 
 and J. Allen as associate principals and teachers to build up a 
 non-sectarian school. All were to share equally in the govern- 
 ment, teaching, and financial management, and agreed to labor 
 five years on a salary of four hundred dollars per year — the re- 
 mainder of the income to be used for the payment of debts and 
 needed improvements. This arrangement proved no exception 
 to the universal law that where income is made dependent upon 
 the financial success of any enterprise, it begets economy, indus- 
 try, and thrift. These young men were already warmly attached 
 to Professor Kenyon and to each other as co-workers in student 
 (54) 
 
<».t,-.^*. 
 
 Ocw^^onc^.Co- S, 
 
 GROUP OP~ EARLY TEACHERS. 
 
C.ENERAL ADVANCEMENT. 55 
 
 life. They believed in him and in themselves. All old students 
 will recognize Darwin E. Maxson as the fiery radical, the ready 
 talker, who in his chapel speeches made every heart to throb 
 and every face to glow, Daniel D. Picket, the conscientious 
 conservative, careful and exact in all things, as were the mathe- 
 matical problems themselves; James Marvin, the sagacious, 
 balancing power, his great, loving nature softening all discord- 
 ant elements; Darius Ford, the fine scholar, the bright, true 
 gentleman, never believing that "wisdom would die with him," 
 ever ready for advanced thought on all lines of human progress. 
 In a few years Professor Marvin left his position, he having 
 been induced to enter another field of work, and Professor E. P. 
 Larkin was called to take his place. He is remembered as one 
 of those thorough, versatile men that draw mental sustenance 
 from all things; he had traveled extensively, and one could not 
 converse with him without gaining some new thought. Such 
 were the men who were co-workers with Professor Allen, 
 
 marria(;e. 
 
 During the week following this compact came the Anniver- 
 sary exercises for the year. On July 12, after the speeches and 
 other exercises were finished (these being held in the grove 
 above the buildings), Professor Allen was married, by the Rev. 
 N. V. Hull, to Miss Abigail A. Maxson, the preceptress. 
 
 PROSPERITV FOLLOWED FAITHFUL WORK. 
 
 All these teachers spent their spare time, including their 
 vacations, in repairing and fitting up rooms, or at work upon the 
 Institution farm, or at whatever was most needing to be done. 
 At every point Professor Kenyon and his wife, Mrs. Melissa 
 Kenyon, were the leaders Professor Marvin, one of the 
 syndicate, afterward Chancellor of Kansas University, writes: 
 "With exalted hopes and enthusiasm at fever heat, we entered 
 upon our new career. The school increased rapidly; new build- 
 ings were planned and erected, more land secured, the farm 
 opened up, and the question of assuming collegiate rank and 
 
56 LIFE OF PRLSIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 honor was gravely discussed in our counsels. We were prepar- 
 ing many young men and women to enter with advanced stand- 
 ing in other colleges. The State reports gave us the credit of 
 sending out more and a higher grade of teachers than any other 
 similar Insiitution in the State. Why should we not have the 
 credit of the work done? 
 
 This increase of the teaching force gave all better opportu- 
 nities for study and more thorough work in the class room. As 
 the examinations were public, not only every pupil, but each 
 teacher, was put upon his mettle. President Allen writes of this 
 time: "It was the aim to make students that could think accu- 
 rately and speak promptly upon their feet. One class being 
 examined at a time, the examination created a good deal of inier- 
 •est, and was listened to by crov/ded houses of citizens, visitors, 
 and students. This tribunal was the same in kind and quality 
 as all after life's tribunals, with like attributes in its decisions." 
 The lady members of the Faculty, Mrs. Melissa Kenyon, Mrs. 
 Sayles, Mrs. Allen, Miss Susan Crandall, and Miss S. Coon, 
 were recognized by the public as doing no less efficient work 
 than did the other members of the Faculty. 
 
 Though there were necessarily changes in this Faculty from 
 year to year, still the growth of the school in all its departments 
 continued. The students, whether rich or poor, came from all 
 ■classes and many of the professions, and when they went back 
 they carried much of the spirit and enthusiasm gained at Alfred 
 into their various fields of life work. Alfred's special work at 
 that time was the training of educators for the common schools, 
 more than one hundred of these strong-principled young men 
 and women going out each year as teachers. 
 
 As a number of the leading teachers belonged to the 
 Seventh-day Baptist denomination, and as this people had long 
 felt the need of establishing a theological department in some 
 school, Alfred was thought of for this purpose. 
 
 AGENTS OF EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY. 
 
 Professors Kenyon and Allen had not only made this matter 
 a subject of thought, l)ut had kept it constantly before the peo- 
 
CENERAL ADVANCEMENT 
 
 57 
 
 pie in their denominational publications and yearly gatherings. 
 These men considered the educational interest as one of the 
 most important in denominational work, and to identify it with 
 the missionary, tract, and publishing associations, it was thought 
 best to have a society organized for this special object. 
 In 1852 an Educational Committee was therefore appointed to 
 look after this matter. This committee drew up a constitution, 
 which was adopted in 1854, after which Professors Kenyon and 
 Allen were appointed as agents to secure an endowment fund. 
 President W. C. Whitford, of Milton College, Wisconsin, says 
 of that time: "I believe that it was impossible for any other 
 man among us to take possession of these different interests and 
 opposing forces, and to combine and organize them as he did 
 effectually into a harmonious, permanent, and powerful move- 
 ment. I shall never cease to admire the addresses which he 
 delivered at that time while visiting some of our churches. 
 They were the most masterly discussions of certain fundamental 
 principles which it has ever been my privilege to hear. In my 
 opinion they have never been equaled by speakers in any of 
 our State and national associations. They were characterized 
 by a most comprehensive grasp of the vast field of the educa- 
 tional work, and a surprising insight into its various but associ- 
 ated departments and results. If I remember rightly, his prom- 
 inent theme was the informing and uplifting power which the 
 school exerts over the family, the church, and the civil govern- 
 ment." Again he says: " I recall at this moment a single re- 
 mark of most significant import, — Tf truth were offered me on 
 the one hand, and search for truth on the other, I would most 
 certainly choose the latter.' To him the active seeking devel- 
 oped far more than the passive receiving. A single idea wrought 
 out patiently and clearly in our daily reflections is worth more 
 to us than a thousand facts simply stored away in our memo- 
 ries." 
 
 Twenty thousand dollars were raised the first year by these 
 agents of the Educational Society. In 1855 Alfred was chosen 
 by the churches as the place in which to establish the theolog- 
 
58 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 ical department, and Mr. Allen was elected to take charge of it. 
 A number of young men and women of different denominations 
 were ready to enter the class, many of them having previously 
 been active members of the Theological Society. These young 
 people became the leaders in the religious growth of the school 
 and surrounding communities. They held Bible classes, prayer 
 meetings, and preaching services in all the schoolhouses 
 around. Seldom a term passed witholit especial religious inter- 
 est being aroused. The remarkable feature of all this was the 
 deep-seated and quiet work of the Spirit, so that we seldom 
 found a student in after years who did not hold to the higher 
 impulses and awakening which he received at these little meet- 
 ings. 
 
 This work extended till a number of churches grew up under 
 its influence, such as those at East Hebron, Oswayo, Roulet, 
 Honeyoye, Branch of Scio, and Bell's Run; and the University 
 became the mother of evangelistic work in all that section. 
 
 BIRTH AND DEATH OF WILLIE. 
 
 We both looked upon President Kenyon as our intellectual 
 father, so when a little boy came to bless our home, we did not 
 hesitate as to its name — William Kenyon represented our ideal 
 for him. We never thought he could leave us, so all plans were 
 made for perfect physical and spiritual development. He was 
 a goodly child, with a promise of long life, so when he left us 
 at the end of two years, we felt assured that had we known 
 better, practically, the laws of life, our boy would have been 
 spared to us. Mr. Allen then determined to know enough of 
 medicine to be able to care for his family, and during the years 
 that followed he took several courses of medical lectures. 
 
GliAPTER Wlll- 
 
 GOLLEGE CHARTER AND GROUNDS. 
 
 WINTER IN ALBANY. 
 
 MOST of the winter of 1856-57 was spent in Albany 
 securing our college charter. Hon. John M. David- 
 ^ son. of Wiscoy, W. W. Crandall, M. D., of Andover, 
 and Hon. S. O, Thatcher, of Hornellsville, were 
 Alfred students and' members of the Legislature. Mr. Allen 
 often said that these young men took off their coats, figura- 
 tively, and worked for the bill. It was introduced early in the 
 session and passed the first and second readings, but there it 
 stopped. Mr. Allen wonderingly stayed on for weeks and weeks, 
 not knowing some of the ways in Albany. One day upon ask- 
 ing a leading member in the House why the bill was so long 
 delayed, the gentleman laughingly replied, " It waits the bids." 
 "What do you mean?" "You know that here we have one 
 hand before, and the other behind." "But how is that?" ''In 
 other words, how much money is there in the bill?" "Not a 
 dollar," was the prompt reply. "Oh, that makes a difference!" 
 It was but a few days after this before the third reading was 
 called for. The regents at that time were opposed to small 
 colleges, and worked against the bill, the State superintendent 
 and all his under officers sharing their opposition. These depart- 
 ments, almost in a body, were on the floor when the hour came 
 for calling the roll, and to their utter astonishment the measure 
 passed the House with an overwhelming majority. 
 
 Doctor Woolworth, that grand old man who for so many 
 years stood at the head of our State educational interests, 
 became from this winter an earnest friend of Mr. Allen, often 
 consulting him on educational problems for the growth of the 
 
 (59) 
 
6o LIFE OF PRKSIDFNT ALLEN. 
 
 work throughout the State. At one of the yearly meetings for 
 the regents and educators of the State, the teachers were 
 thanking him for some changes that had been made in the 
 examination papers. Pointing to Mr. Allen's seat, he replied, 
 "Your thanks are due entirely to him and not to me." While 
 detained in Albany that winter Mr. Allen attended lectures in 
 the law school, was examined, and admitted to the bar. This 
 was not with the idea of ever practicing law, but with the 
 thought that the knowledge thus acquired would make him 
 more efficient in his chosen profession. 
 
 DUTY ABOVE ALL HONORS PREFERRED. 
 
 He had little desire for public recognition, and all honors 
 conferred upon him were entirely unsought. In 1873, when 
 the regents of the State of New York at Albany gave him the 
 degree of Doctor of Philosophy, he was greatly surprised. As 
 the sacred mantle was thrown over him, Doctor Woolworth 
 remarked, "This is well deserved, but too long deferred ; let us 
 telegraph your wife." 
 
 President Allen received the degree of Doctor of Divinity 
 from the State University of Kansas, in 1875, and in 1886 that 
 of Doctor of Laws, from his own beloved university. Impor- 
 tant educational positions in different States were many times 
 offered him. but his chosen work for Alfred far outweighed them 
 all, so he was satisfied to continue his labor there in the same 
 sacrificial spirit in which he had begun it. The recognition at 
 Albany that winter of the work hitherto done at Alfred not 
 only for the teachers of common schools, but for general educa- 
 tional interests, gave renewed courage and zeal to the friends 
 and teachers of the Institution. In the language of another, 
 "Allegany County, and all southwestern New York, owe more 
 for the high standing in intellectual and moral reforms to Wil- 
 liam C. Kenyon and his co-workers than to all other influences 
 combined." 
 
 In 1878 President White, of Cornell, Professor Clark, of 
 Canandagua, and President Allen, were appointed a committee 
 
COLLEGE CHARTER AND GROUNDS. 1 
 
 to meet with the presidents of Harvard, Amherst, and other 
 Massachusetts institutions, to consider in what manner the cur- 
 riculum of colleges and high schools could be harmonized. 
 
 DIFFERENT WAYS OF BOARDING. 
 
 The winter of 1858 found all the buildings full of students. 
 The price of board had been raised to one and a half dollars 
 per week, yet the family numbered over one hundred and thirty, 
 including teachers, students, and helpers. Besides these, many 
 from a distance found homes in the town, some boarding in pri- 
 vate families, others in clubs, where a number provided the 
 material and together paid a woman for cooking it. Still others 
 "boarded themselves," that is, they took rooms provided with 
 cooking stoves, and often, having brought provisions from their 
 homes, prepared their meals and did their own housework. 
 Brothers and sisters, or those from the same locality, many times 
 lived in this manner while pursuing their courses of study. 
 
 It was not an uncommon thing in the early days for a young 
 man to drive a cow — perhaps many miles — to Alfred, hire some 
 pasture land, and pay most of his expenses by selling the extra 
 milk that he did not require for himself. All these ways made 
 the expenses of the school much less, and gave even the poorest 
 an opportunity for the higher culture which they craved. Such 
 struggling students have always stood among the first in their 
 classes, and as they have gone out to the world's work, many of 
 them have held leading positions of responsibility and influence. 
 
 BURNING OF SOUTH HALL. 
 
 At that time Mr. Allen and myself had charge of the ladies' 
 building, called South Hall, while Professor Picket and wife 
 took the gentleman's, or North Hall. The new building for 
 chapel and recitation rooms had been completed the year before, 
 and the old chapel in the upper South Hall had been converted 
 into music rooms, with one room reserved for the ladies' liter- 
 ary society. This the young women had fitted up with carpet, 
 chairs, library case, rostrum, and desk, for their meetings. It 
 
62 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 seemed to the entire corps of teachers that the term was one of 
 uncommon promise for the winter's work. 
 
 On the morning of February 14, it being Sunday, some of 
 the young ladies were excused from appearing at breakfast at 
 seven o'clock. I went early from the table to care for our little 
 daughter Eva, then but two years of age. On entering the 
 building I heard her cries, and hastened forward to the bedroom, 
 where I found her nearly stifled with smoke. Her father, fol- 
 lowing, said, "There is fire above us." He hastened to the 
 room above and discovered a blaze between the clapboards and 
 ceiling. "The building must go. Get out the girls," he said. 
 This was done with dispatch. Baby was quickly wrapped in 
 her father's dressing-gown and given to the care of a trusty 
 young man; the sleepers were hastily roused, and in cloaks, 
 some in their stocking feet, rushed through the snow, then sev- 
 eral feet deep, to the new chapel. There was not time to save 
 everything, though the teachers, many students and citizens, 
 made great effort to do all that was possible. Heroic work was 
 done to save Middle Hall, which often caught the flames, though 
 a score of young men were on the roof working with buckets 
 of water. They stood there firmly till the building was safe, 
 though they afterward carried the marks of burnt faces, hands, 
 and coats. Elder Nathan Hull and Mr. Allen, from their 
 exposed positions, were, as it seemed, only saved by a miracle. 
 
 The houseless teachers and young ladies were all welcomed 
 for the time into the homes of the good people of Alfred. 
 Although there was no insurance on the burnt building, imme- 
 diate preparations were made for the erection of a new one, 
 which was to be much larger and nearer to the town. In little 
 more than a year afterward a fine brick hall, now known as the 
 Ladies' Boarding Hall, was ready for their use. 
 
 WORK ON THE CAMPUS. 
 
 The new buildings begun in 1845 were placed in the native 
 woods on a hillside full of natural springs. This made the soil 
 above the hardpan difficult to bring into shape. Stumps, logs, 
 
COLLEGE CHARTER AND GROUNDS. 63 
 
 the debris of the new buildings, the rough and muddy walks 
 and roads, were the cause of many a disagreeable experience. 
 
 A number of the girls asked the privilege of making flower 
 beds during their leisure hours. From this beginning there 
 came to be much enthusiasm, the young men often working 
 with willing hands to help them. In this way some spots of 
 fine annuals made bright here and there a little space in the 
 general unsightliness of the place. 
 
 Before this, in order to keep the Institution grounds open 
 down to Main Street, and also to have a better chance for 
 beautifying them, Professors Kenyon and Allen bought the plot 
 of ground north of Mr. Collins'. This was, years afterward, 
 given to the Institution, and a fountain, supplied from a hillside 
 spring, was placed in the center, while trees and shrubs were 
 planted round about. 
 
 After the South Hall was burned, in 1858, Mr. Allen hired 
 help to cover the debris and put that portion of the grounds in 
 shape. Thus, little by little, and year after year, was this work 
 carried on in the spare moments of those most busy in study 
 and literary work. One spring he made it a daily task to go 
 into the woods, uproot a young pine, bring it down on his 
 shoulders, and plant it at the noon recess. During that summer 
 some fifty-two trees were planted in this manner, and were all 
 growing nicely when winter came on. A heavy snow lay on 
 the ground all that winter; this was often covered with a hard 
 crust, so that it would bear up the sheep, that came over the tops 
 of the fences to browse upon these newly-planted trees, until all 
 of them were destroyed. I myself saw from my window the 
 last one — the finest tree we had — disappear in this way. The 
 tears would come in spite of all effort to overcome them. Mr. 
 Allen, however, took the disappointment philosophically, as he 
 did everything; but after the discouragements of that winter, 
 little was done toward beautifying the grounds for several years, 
 till they were better protected. 
 
64 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 "THE PICTURE-SQUE." 
 
 From his earliest connection with the school Professor 
 Allen felt that beautiful grounds and buildings were among the 
 best of educators. He desired the students to be surrounded 
 by what would give them types for spiritual achievements and 
 exalted motives for all they did. This idea, though it cost him 
 so much of sacrifice of self, was one great power in his life work. 
 He had many ways of awakening the ideas he wished to impress 
 upon the students. Rev. Frank Place says: "I shall never for- 
 get, when a boy, when just entering the academy, the first chapel 
 lecture I listened to from Professor Allen. He called his sub- 
 ject 'The Picture-Sque.' It was easily seen that he had long 
 been vainly trying to have an unsightly object (an old barn) 
 removed from the campus. For a few moments he spoke on 
 the real beauty of nature and art, and their influence over the 
 human soul, then, pointing to the offensive object, by sarcasm 
 and ridicule he set the students into roaring laughter. Becom- 
 ing eloquent over the subject of Greek and Latin, over ancient 
 ruins and architecture, he would suddenly bring in the idea of 
 bleating sheep and calves in an old barn, till the students knew 
 no bounds in expressing their applause." It is needless to say 
 that the offensive buildings were soon afterward removed. 
 
 As soon as the grounds came under his immediate care, 
 books were bought on landscape gardening, and a systematic 
 work of beautifying was begun. The ground was carefully 
 surveyed, and walks and drives laid out so as to get rid of the 
 ugly straight lines. These were also raised above the surround- 
 ing grounds by dirt and gravel, so that they would not be blocked 
 by the snows and drifts of winter, nor washed away by the 
 rains of summer. 
 
 THE WORK OF BEAUTIFYING. 
 
 Chapel lectures from time to time, and a general arousing of 
 the citizens, made such an impression that at one time more 
 than twenty teams were at work plowing, scraping, and bring- 
 ing gravel for walks, where many more hands put the material 
 
COLLEGE CHARTER AND GROUNDS. 65 
 
 in shape. The campus being so large, only a small portion of 
 it could be thoroughly prepared and planted each year. 
 
 In the grove where the new buildings were placed in 1846 
 the small trees and shrubs had been removed, leaving only the 
 larger elms and a few other trees standing. These, lacking the 
 protection of the undergrowth, soon died out, save a few that 
 had grown up in the open space. In replanting, the effort was 
 made to keep in harmony with nature; many flowering shrubs 
 and trees were planted, but elms and evergreens being favorites, 
 were made to frH the open spaces, because the soil and climate 
 of the hillside are especially favorable to their growth; besides 
 they were needed as wind-breaks to protect the walks and roads. 
 
 Mrs. Ida ¥. Kenyon, so long the teacher of German and 
 French, has been a valuable assistant in the development of this 
 work. For many years the early mornings of spring and sum- 
 mer have found her toiling patiently among her flower beds, 
 where she has cultivated a large variety of annuals and shrubs 
 that have been a joy to us all. 
 
 Mr. Allen once told the ladies when the Aid Society was to 
 meet in the hall that he would pay them more than they could 
 earn by their sewing if they would spend the afternoon at work 
 on the o-rounds; he would give them ten cents an hour and 
 their tea. After this liberal offer more than thirty playfully 
 turned out with hoes, shovels, pickaxes, and rakes, and, with 
 the help of students, a good deal of ground was put in order 
 and several flower beds made, but, more than all else, an enthusi- 
 asm was created for the general beautifying of the campus that 
 continued through the years. 
 
 MUSIC OF THE TREES. 
 
 During the summer of 1893 an old student was seen walk- 
 ing through the grounds. Later in the day, while making a call, 
 he remarked: 'Tt is now years since I was last on these grounds^ 
 so I have been leisurely strolling about, listening, as Professor 
 Allen said I would, to the music of my tree, and to those that 
 were planted at the same time with it. How well I remember 
 
66 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 the talk in chapel on the morning- of Arbor clay! The ground 
 had been prepared, the trees received, and were in readiness 
 beforehand. A general lecture was given on the 'Mission of 
 Beauty,' after which the students were notified that all could 
 help who wished to, in planting the trees. These ranged in price 
 from twenty-five cents to a dollar, and were, many of them, 
 paid for by those who planted them. President Allen said, 
 'You are planting for the future, and when in after years you 
 return, these trees will sing to you, and the music of your own 
 will be sweeter than any other.'" May the students long- con- 
 tinue to come back from time to time to enjoy the beauty they 
 have helped create. 
 
 No man better appreciated the value of money or the power 
 of the useful arts to build up for man's progress all that invent- 
 ors or philanthropists can do. How it feeds the hungry, clothes 
 the naked, and makes it possible to develop the higher sense of 
 beauty! On this subject we cannot do better than to quote from 
 his own words this "power of the beautiful": — 
 
 POWER OF THE BEAUTIFUL. 
 
 "Ignoring this service of the useful to the higher ends of 
 being, utility all too often compels the building of home and 
 school and church in the cheapest manner possible, innocent of 
 all finish or decoration. The angel of beauty plants flowers, 
 shrubbery, trees, hard by the door of home or school, to shake 
 down beauty upon all passers-by; all over the fields, to gladden 
 the hearts of all beholders; all along the old walls and fences, to 
 hide their deformity; all along by the pleasant watercourses, to 
 laugh when the brook sings; all around houses and barns, to 
 cover their ugliness; singing in the sunshine, laughing in the 
 storm, to console in the hour of sadness, to distill beauty on daily 
 toil, to help educate childhood, awakening a love for purity and 
 peace, for the beautiful, the noble, and the gocd. Utility, shoul- 
 dering his ax, goes forth, hews down the lithe and graceful elm, 
 all a-tremble with beauty, the generous maple, full of all sweet 
 sentiments, its branches a domestic circle, nestling down cozily 
 
COLLEGE CHARTER AND GROUNDS. 67 
 
 by the 'roof tree' of man, the slender, graceful poplar, palpi- 
 tating to every breeze, the singing pine, the noble oak — hews 
 them all down, casts them into the fire, and gives the land to 
 grass, beans, cabbages, potatoes, pumpkins. The beauty to 
 such of mountain stream and waterfall is their glorious mill 
 privileges. The same spirit too frequently takes the young, who 
 are still all a-tremble with sentiment, living, laughing, walking, 
 talking poems, — takes and cages them in little, low, half-made, 
 rickety old buildings, where Time, with his weather-brush dipped 
 in sunshine and shower, has been the painter, and, standing 
 where roads cross, if possible, and jutting far out into the same, 
 without flower, shrub, or tree, standing out cold, dismal, and for- 
 bidding, perhaps with backless benches, and crevices for wind 
 and storm to howl through, and a place, withal, where sheep and 
 swine love to congregate. Within such places many a dull, 
 tedious school day, with its long, juiceless, nerveless, mummyized 
 lessons, is whiled away, wherein the hungry soul of childhood is 
 far away, listening in fancy to the merry chatter of the brook, 
 or the cuckoo's monotonous, dreamy, soulful song, while the 
 'pea is putting on its bloom,' or snuffing through every cranny 
 of the old house the scent of new-mown hay, and the odorous 
 south wind, laden with the bloom of field and wood, wasting their 
 sweetness on the wilderness air. Thus taking lessons of flow- 
 ers and showers and rainbows and butterflies and fish and bird's 
 nests, they received instruction from teachers more potent than 
 schoolbook — most proper and efficient teachers for apt and dili- 
 gent pupils. 
 
 "An ideal school is a home, not indeed for supplying meats 
 and drinks for the bodies that perish, but a spirit home, where 
 hungering and thirsting souls are satisfied, where dormant ener- 
 gies are aroused, stimulated, inspired to noble life and action, 
 where spiritual growth, strength, harmony, and beauty are the 
 results; in short, develop all that is desirable to appear in future 
 life. An ideal school, like home, is one that is shut out from the 
 bustle and strife of life, — amid rural quietudes, where all its sur- 
 roundings are pure, simple, temperate, gentle, congenial, honest. 
 
68 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 industrious, intelligent, religious, — a community wherein joyous 
 childhood, ardent youth, earnest manhood, silver-locked age, all 
 are inspired by a common purpose, upheld by honest, rugged 
 toil, lit up by sincere affection, its quiet hours filled with glad- 
 some pursuits. These instruct the young spirit in lessons that 
 touch the inmost chords of the heart. In future years scenes 
 and words and deeds, like some old trail through the wood, 
 overgrown with brush and wild flowers, are revealed in their 
 dim outlines, bringing back the early lessons of the heart, when 
 apt and noble teachers, though humble, instructed in lessons, 
 rude it may be, yet the very reminders of which are as sacred 
 relics. To memory every such year appears as a continuous 
 summer without a gloom, every night a moon-lit and star-eyed 
 one, every cloud rainbow wreathed. The innocence of child- 
 hood bursting into the enthusiasm of youth, as the garden bud- 
 ding into bloom, is susceptible, impressible, palpitating with 
 gladness, as does a midsummer evening, breathing joy as the 
 rose breathes sweetness, jubilant as are the birds in a morning 
 of spring, sensitive to the touches of joy or sorrow, love or hate, 
 beauty or ugliness, crushed by a frown, thrilled with delight 
 by a token of affection, enraptured by every revelation of 
 beauty, going out spontaneously towards loveliness or nobleness, 
 towards thosir; tenderly devoted to their welfare, ready to be 
 nurtured under the watchcare of gentleness and piety. To 
 such all of education does not consist in what is learned from 
 books. Nature is its constant, faithful teacher, instructing in 
 truth, beauty, law, and goodness. Fields, woods, streams, light, 
 darkness, storm and sunshine, sky and clouds, all moods, all 
 voices, are lessons joyfully received, all instructing the eager 
 soul." 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 IN WAR TIMES. 
 
 HE Alfred teachers and students were no idle spectators of 
 the stirring events that for years threatened the life of our 
 republic. All sides of the greatquestions then agitating the 
 public mind were represented in the school. Sharp and often 
 angry debates on these questions formed continually a part of the 
 program of not only the gentlemen's but frequently of the ladies' 
 literary societies. Speakers from different parts of the country, 
 and frequent and enthusiastic chapel lectures, kept these absorb- 
 ing questions before the school and community. Naturally the 
 vicinity of Alfred, with its New England endowment of sturdy 
 character, became radical in all the burning political questions 
 of that day; consequently those students who were conservative 
 on these points received little sympathy in their ideas. 
 
 The call to make Kansas a free State was heeded by many 
 old Alfred students and alumni. Some of these early became 
 prominent men, not only in her Legislature, but in important 
 business enterprises. S. M. Thorp and Solon Thatcher in the 
 Senate, Dwight Thatcher as State printer, A. F. Randolph as 
 attorney general, L. J. Worden as State librarian, with other 
 names, might be mentioned, the years increasing the number of 
 our students there, but not lessening their influence. 
 
 In 1 86 1 came the terrible ordeal which meant life or death 
 to our country, before which our young men stood aghast, though 
 they did not shrink from personal responsibility. A call had 
 come for volunteers to save the Union. Companions walked the 
 streets with bated breath, and companies for military drill were 
 speedily organized. Praying circles met every evening, with 
 the one theme at heart — that of the salvation of our country. 
 
 (69) 
 
■JO LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 Every young man in the senior class enlisted, and all were 
 accepted save one, who was refused on account of nearsighted- 
 ness. These, with many other students and citizens, went to 
 Elmira to enter the 23d regiment of New York Volunteers. 
 The morning meeting in the chapel the day that our boys were to 
 leave can never be forgotten by any who were present. It was 
 crowded to overflowing by citizens and students, so there was 
 hardly standing room. The eleven members of the graduating 
 class werd called upon in turn to state their reasons for leaving 
 their studies and all peaceful pursuits, for the turmoil and uncer- 
 tainty of war. Every heart was stirred, especially when two of 
 them said, "We give our all — our lives — and never expect to 
 return." And so it proved, for these two came only in their 
 coffins, and that within a year. 
 
 Professor Darwin Maxson went as chaplain of the 23d regi- 
 ment. In all this movement Professor Allen took a prominent 
 part by encouraging and stimulating the patriotic sentiment of 
 the school, by giving all the assistance in his power to the young 
 men who went out, and by assuring their home friends that if 
 all were true to duty, an overruling Providence would certainly 
 guide all things for the best. He himself was only kept back 
 from going because the trustees and Faculty would not spare 
 him from what /key felt to be of more importance. As soon as 
 the term's work was over, he went to Elmira and thence on to 
 Washington to look after the interests of our student soldiers. 
 Of his observations and experiences at that time he wrote as 
 follows : — 
 
 WASHINGTONW^ARD. 
 
 "In harmony with the President's proclamation, we took seats at 
 12 M., July 14, not in Congress, but in the cars, Washingtonvvard. After 
 a few hours' ride amid the usual indications of the patriotism of the day, 
 we found ourselves at Elmira, a rendezvous of the New York Volunteers. 
 It was, of course, a gala day with both soldier and citizen. The soldier 
 was parading for the citizen, and the citizen feasting the soldier in antici- 
 pation of the departure on the morrow. The cha[)lain of the 23d very 
 cordially invited us to participate in the eating e.\ercises At the close, 
 however, we were coolly informed that we must pay for our supper by 
 
IN WAR TIMES. 
 
 71 
 
 taking the pulpit and- speechifying to the citizens and soldiers. We pro- 
 tested, afifinning that it was in violation of all the rites of hospitality as 
 handed down from most ancient times to make an invited guest pay for 
 his fare. 
 
 "Friend R, being more modest than myself, if possible, undertook to 
 run the guards, but, as he affirmed, found a blue-coated saint confronting 
 him, and with cold glittering steel appealing directly, steadily, irresist- 
 ibly, to his heart. So persuasive was the appeal that he yielded without 
 resistance. We concluded ourselves under martial law, and in obedience 
 to his behests, talked of all the big subjects we could think of — such as 
 war, peace, home, hearthstones, union, liberty, progress, sacrifice, human- 
 ity, religion. 
 
 "After restoring our exhausted energies, we started again with other 
 friends. Pleasant was the ride amid grain fields and grass fields, richly 
 burdened with the coming harvest; pleasant the broad valley set round 
 about with billowy hills, overspread at the time with a mottled covering 
 of sunshine and thunder shower. Delightful the ride along the trout 
 brooks, up among the great hills of the Keystone State, amid the rocks 
 from which are dug the keys that unlock her greatness, out into her 
 splendid valleys and flourishing cities, — great and prosperous country this 
 — too great, too glorious, to be destroyed by ambitious or disappointed 
 demagogues. 
 
 "On passing the line of freedom, and entering the outposts of slavery, 
 the signs of a free industry disappear, and the shabbiness and unthrift 
 of unwilling toil take their place. Just at this line, also, the work of the 
 defenders of the republic begins. Soldiers are posted all along the line 
 of the railroad, to guard it from the vandalism of the rebels. It takes a 
 very large force to guard and protect what conquest has won. This is 
 one of the great difficulties of the war. As we sped along through the 
 semi-wilderness region, soldiers' tents nestled thick and cozily in the 
 groves. The soldiers themselves, peeping out from their tents, preparing 
 their morning meal," or standing sentinel along the road, greeted us as we 
 passed, and evidently had not the least objection to the morning papers 
 that were tossed to them by the passengers. This was soldier life in its 
 quiet, picturesque aspect; the stirring, the crimson, was to come soon. 
 Baltimore was held obedient to the law and order by the unyielding grasp 
 of military power. Flying artillery were stationed at chief points in the 
 city, their cannon ranged so as to sweep the principal streets, or at a 
 moment's notice to rush to any place of disturbance. The whole aspect 
 of the city was that of a glum, unwilling loyalty. And thus, as Tenny- 
 son phrases it, with 'soldiers to right of us, soldiers to left of us, soldiers 
 
']2 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 in front, soldiers all about us, onward we rode, on through dust, decay, 
 and desolation, to Washington, the greatest of American humbugs.' 
 
 IN WASHINGTON. 
 
 "Washington City is one of the first outgrowths, and the present 
 rebellion has for its motive power slavery; its guiding star, State rights. 
 These controlled in founding the national capital. Pennsylvania, in her 
 sovereign capacity of State rights, failing, when appealed to, to protect 
 Congress from a body of mutineers from the Continental army. Congress 
 sought safety at Princeton, under the protection of New Jersey, and after- 
 ward adjourned to Annapolis, Maryland. Congress, thus a wandering 
 mendicant, dependent for its leave to be upon the good pleasure of State 
 sovereignty, began to look about itself for some permanent home of 
 safety. At this point the North and South collided ; and, at first, a double- 
 headed government was resolved upon, with one head resting upon the 
 Delaware, and the other upon the Potomac. Ultimately, however, 
 through the recusancy of Northern members, a compromise, by a 
 majority of three, was agreed upon, by which the Potomac was to be 
 honored with an undivided national capital. 
 
 "On entering Washington, great earnestness, life, activity, were every- 
 where apparent. Two influences, two forces, controlled, moved all — 
 military and legislative. Everybody seemed to be moving in one of two 
 streams — to the Capitol or to the camp. Everyone was talking about 
 law or war, and all law-making was for the war. Soldiers flocked every- 
 where- — in the streets, in Congress, and in the hotels — especially the offi- 
 cers. Heavy, white-topped army wagons perform their daily rounds of 
 relief, looking, in their long procession, like so many white-hooded sis- 
 ters of charity. The tents of the great army encircle the city, sitting 
 round in regimental groups to protect it from traitors without and trai- 
 tors within. . . . Many an officer evidently is out to the wars for a 
 good time generally, with glory thrown in. As for the case of the sol- 
 diers — the drill, the inconvenience of camp life, is it ijot for the common 
 soldier? Let him see to it. The privates say: 'Behold our officers! 
 What care they for us! Let us do as it seemeth to us good!' Never- 
 theless, the elements of a grand army are here, needing but the genius of 
 a great general to develop them. The enthusiasm, the patriotism, of the 
 voluntary soldiery is sublime. They are the heralds of that patriotism 
 to which the North was instantaneously and almost miraculously con- 
 verted by the fall of Sumter. May they soon be, likewise, the heralds 
 of the universal liberty to which the nations are doubtless very soon to 
 be converted." 
 
IN WAR TIMES. 73 
 
 ON THE MARCH. 
 
 While in Washington an order was made from the War 
 Department for an advance movement. Friends being allowed 
 to accompany the soldiers to the front, Mr. Allen, with several 
 hundred senators, congressmen, and citizens, went forward. 
 Marching with one of the New York regiments, he carried first 
 the knapsack and gua of one and then of another of the young 
 men, as they gave out in the rapid march. My last letter from 
 him was from Centerville, when they were expecting that the 
 following day would bring them to the battle field. Here, he 
 often said, was the first time he ever'realized that he might be 
 growing old. A soldier called to the young man whose tent he 
 was sharing, "Who is with you?" "Why, that old gentle- 
 man that marched down with us," was the reply. He said to 
 himself, "That must mean me, for my hair is getting gray." 
 
 The call was made for them to move forward. He never 
 forgot the picture of those wooded slopes on that early morn- 
 ing, over which were moving thousands of our noblest and best, 
 with all the paraphernalia of war. The few miles from Center- 
 ville to Bull Run were quickly traversed. Burnsides' battery 
 was placed behind a clump of trees and opened fire. This, 
 being answered by opposing forces, was kept up for many 
 hours, till every man was driven from the position. After the 
 firing had ceased, Mr, Allen remained behind one of the big 
 guns viewing the field of destruction, when suddenly his atten- 
 tion was called to a peculiar whizzing sound. Something said 
 to him, "That's for you!" He moved quickly aside, and at 
 that instant a large shell passed directly in line where he had 
 stood, and burst but a few feet behind him. 
 
 About three o'clock there was a general feeling that the day 
 was won. He then started for Centerville, where the ambu- 
 lances had been taking the sick and wounded solJiers, in hopes 
 that he could assist in caring for them. In a short time 
 McDowell and staff rode past; this seemed a strange movement 
 to have the chief officer going to the rear. In a few moments 
 the wildest dash of cavalry and foot came rushing by, crying, 
 
74 I'IFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 "The black horse cavalry is coming," Someone, braver than 
 the others, tried to turn the tide, and ordered him to help, but 
 he replied, "I have nothing but ajackknife." Blankets, knap- 
 sacks, rifles, and everything that could impede the flight, were 
 thrown to the winds. Nearing Centerville, Senator Wade 
 stood in the road gesticulating wildly, and giving words of 
 cheer, trying to inspire the officers and men with courage. He 
 grabbed a soldier's bridle to hold it, but a quick saber stroke 
 across the wrist from the rider told of the wild, frantic spirit 
 that possessed the flying rabble on their retreat to Washington. 
 
 Hon. W. W. Brown writes: — 
 
 "The only time I met President Allen at the front during the war, 
 was immediately after the first battle of Bull Run. Truly this was an 
 opportune time to meet such a heroic soul as his. There never was a 
 more gloomy day in the historj^ of the war, or perhaps of the whole 
 period of our national existence. 
 
 "The great defeat came on the 2ist of July. All through that fight 
 our regiment — the 23d, N. Y. — was doomed to listen to the thunder of 
 the distant battle, but to take no part therein. The reports that came to 
 us during the early part of the battle were favorable, and not until the 
 morning papers came into camp did we learn of the disaster and deep 
 humiliation that had overtaken the defenders of the Union. A few hours 
 later came the evidence of defeat in the nature of panic and general 
 demoralization. The heroes of yesterday became the fleeing cowards of 
 to-day. 
 
 " In that battle President Allen had been an interested looker-on in 
 citizen apparel. With the great company who went forth from the capi- 
 tal to witness valor and victory, he marched in the van, like a trained 
 warrior. All the world knows how the ' Boys in Blue' maintained the 
 honor of the flag during all the long hours of that day, until Johnson 
 came, and Patterson came not! Then followed rout and retreat. The 
 slogan, 'On to Richmond,' of the morning, before set of sun was changed 
 to a ' hustle' for the Potomac, the Long Bridge, and the 'North Side.' 
 From the fated field of disaster came to our regiment Professor Allen, 
 cool and unperturbed, as if returning from an excursion with his class in 
 geology in the old days before the war. 
 
 "The coming of Professor Allen into our camp was like a ray of sun- 
 shine, and a harbinger of hope in a day of desolation. All others we 
 had seen from the battle field told only the doleful tale of disaster, and 
 
IN WAR TIMES. 75 
 
 prophesied of ultimate dismemberment of the nation. 'No army that 
 ever was or ever will be organized can drive the enemy from his 
 entrenchments,' came from the excited lips of every comer hurrying 
 from imagined danger. Not so with Professor Allen. There was no 
 discouragement in his words, nor prophecy of ultimate defeat in his 
 manner. 
 
 "About him gathered the first volunteers of Alfred, and from him 
 gained the inspiration that kindles hope, and the determination that is at 
 its best in the presence of calamity. His coming was a benediction to 
 us, and I believe not only those who had been his pupils, but all other 
 soldiers who heard his determined words, and saw his lofty bearing, 
 were the better fitted for the next day's work across the Long Bridge 
 and into the enemy's country. 
 
 " I can remember, after the long years that have intervened, few of 
 the words that were uttered by him, but I know they were all reassur- 
 ing, and we parted with him in a lively hope that one day we should 
 stand beneath the old 'Union sky' witli the blessed banner of freedom 
 still there, full high advanced. I never met him after that on the batde 
 field, but I knew his blessing attended us, and that his heart-beat was 
 attuned to the music of union and liberty." 
 
 GOD WILL OVERRULE FOR GOOD. 
 
 As corresponding secretary of the Educational Society, in 
 his report of 1862, Mr. Allen writes: — 
 
 "For the second time this society meets amid the storms of war and 
 of national peril, to consider questions of peace and good will, learning 
 and religion, to give, it may be, some slight impulse to those influences 
 that go to make up a Christian civilization. Yes, civil zvar, one of the 
 most terrible scourges with which a people can be afflicted, has befallen 
 us, — a scourge so terrible that even ancient Rome, with all of her martial 
 spirit, never granted triumphs, thanksgivings, holidays, or garlands, to 
 those who conquered in it. 
 
 "This conquest, however, is not a fortuitous event, bursting upon the 
 nation unforeseen and without cause or law. It is the legitimate, logi- 
 ical result of causes long operating. The social and political atmos- 
 phere has long been murky and tremulous with the approaching storm 
 that has burst upon us with such terrific fury. Prophet^ of Liberty, sol- 
 emn-voiced and earnest-worded, have long warned us that the great 
 struggle, unless cut short m righteousnes.s, must end in blood. Provi- 
 dence, as revealed in unfolding events, has warned us, has beckoned us 
 
76 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 away from the danger. All history is full of the solemn lesson, that all 
 great national epochs are but the unfolding of previously implanted 
 germs; and as is the germ, so will be the growth and fruitage. . . . 
 
 '•Though we may see nothing divine, no Christ, in war, though it may 
 come as a curse, a scourge permitted rather than as a blessing willed, 
 yet our faith assures us that God will overrule it, as all evil is overruled, 
 for ultimate good. Whatever may be our intentions as politicians, 
 patriots, or Christians, in the terrible struggle through which this nation 
 is passing, we rest in the confident assurance that God intends it shall 
 shake the nation until the shackles are shaken from every slave. 
 Though the conversion that descended as a miracle upon the higher 
 civilization of the North, on the fall of Sumter, was a conversion only 
 to patriotism, yet an awakening began therewith, which shall soon cul- 
 minate in unconditioned, individual freedom. The strategetic blunders, 
 the official incompetency, the treason in high places, the inefficiency, 
 indecision, and half measures, which may have thus far marked the con- 
 duct of the war, are all, doubtless, aiding the solution of the great prob- 
 lem of emancipation, are all unwilling, unwitting servants of liberty; 
 ever)' military defeat is, doubtless, a victory for freedom. 
 
 "Yes, verily, it has not been in vain that the heroes of this and other 
 
 days have lived, 'around whose brows death hath wreathed the bloody 
 
 laurel in the glitter of victory,' not in vain that the martyrs of all times 
 
 have left their 'du.st as a seed,' sure to spring up and bear fruit some day. 
 
 " ' God stands beyond the dim unknown, 
 
 Keeping ward and watch o'er his own.' 
 
 "Above the noise and confusion of all fraudful and treacherous rebel- 
 lions, the voice of the Divine Providence is sounding clear and calm, saying 
 to this people, ' Go forward, march on' in the van, henceforward as here- 
 tofore, of the nations. Though the way may lie through a Red Sea of 
 blood, may lead a long and w^eary march through the wilderness up to 
 the promisedland, yet the cloud and pillar shall go before, the angel of 
 liberty shall guide, and a good Providence preserve, and every temporary 
 defeat shall be an ultimate victory for humanity, every hero that falls 
 shall die for freedom and civilization, not only in this land, but in all 
 lands, not only for this age, but for all on-coming ages." 
 
 IT WAS FOR THE BEST. 
 
 As Lee's march into Pennsylvania was only a short time 
 before the close of our spring term in '62, Mr. Allen felt that 
 he could be spared to go to the front as field nurse. Miss 
 
IN WAR TIMES. 7/ 
 
 Phebe Evans was at that time going to carry our supplies to 
 the Washington hospitals. We had collected hundreds of dol- 
 lars' worth of necessaries for the sick and wounded soldiers. 
 Among these were more than a bushel of dried blackberries 
 and fifty gallons of blackberry wine, as there had been a special 
 call for these articles. A large trunk was also packed for Mr. 
 Allen to take to the field hospital. Before going, however, he 
 felt it a duty to talk of his plans to the graduating class which 
 was under his charge. To his great surprise, the young men 
 of the class refused to let him go; the young women, on the 
 contrary, sympathized with his enthusiasm, and censured the 
 young men for their selfishness. But they remained firm. 
 "Any number of good nurses could be found," they said, "but 
 there was but one Professor Allen, and his life was worth too 
 much to be sacrificed in such a manner." Most reluctantly he 
 gave up the idea, but no doubt God was in it. We feel now 
 that it would have cost him his life, as it did that of Professor 
 Allen of Columbia College. Several of these young men 
 themselves enlisted as soon as the term closed. 
 
 Our young men in the 23d, because of their freedom from 
 army vices, and their mutual helpfulness for one another, were 
 soon known as the "Alfred Boys." Th<-y were also recognized 
 for their unflinching bravery before the enemy (students generally 
 were). At one time in a severe struggle the Alfred boys seemed 
 to have turned a defeat into victory, and as their general came 
 up, he ordered the entire corps to salute them, which was done 
 with a right good will. One of them says that during their 
 first campaign, as the smoke of the batj;le cleared away, he 
 looked down the broken lines, and, seeing the Alfred boys 
 standing, said to himself, "They are praying for us at Alfred." 
 During the whole time of the war new recruits were frequently 
 going out from our ranks; several of our young men were pro- 
 moted, and many reenlisted after the expiration of their term of 
 service. 
 
ys life of president allen. 
 
 "starred names." 
 
 We cannot do better in closing this chapter than to quote 
 from Professor Allen's own words at that time concerning those 
 who did not return: — 
 
 "Year after year adds to the 'starred' names of our triennial cata- 
 logue. Hands clasped in youthful friendship and lov^e are unclasped 
 forever; youthful feet, tired with life's rugged pathway, rest; hearts pal- 
 pitating with all the generous enthusiasm of youth, beat nevermore; 
 young lives, rich with the varied and generous culture of the schools, 
 and redolent with the first fruitage of life's labors, with only a prophecy 
 of how their lives would haveblessed the world, if they had not been 
 thus early smitten down, are lost to the world. Especially do these 
 reminders of life's uncertainty and the certainty of death become most 
 emphatic in such times as these, when life is poured out so freely at the 
 behest of patriotism. This Institution has its representatives, both in 
 teachers and pupils, — yes, its children, — engaged in nearly all cam- 
 paigns, languishing in hospitals, mingling their blood with that of 
 brother patriots upon nearly all battle fields. We lament their fall, yet, 
 mingled with our sorrow, is a solemn joy that we can act, and offer life, 
 through such noble representatives, for human brotherhood, and law, 
 and government." 
 
GliAPTER X. 
 
 UAGATIOM OUTINGS. 
 
 I HE botany and geology classes were especially full during 
 .JL the spring term of 1858. The country around Alfred had 
 been thoroughly explored, till the various rocks and the 
 flora were familiar to most of the members. It was decided 
 that a part of the vacation be spent in camping out in some 
 new locality under the leadership of their teacher. Mr. Weston 
 Flint gave such a glowing account of the opportunities for study 
 on the Alleghany River near the Indian Reservation, and of 
 Rock City, that this point was chosen. It seemed at first that 
 the number of students wishing to go was enough to make a 
 small regiment, but the "lions in the way," suggested and dis- 
 cussed by parents and friends, soon sifted the number down to 
 six. These were Elvira Kenyon, Elizabeth Wright, Susan 
 Maxson, and Mr. Flint, beside Mr. Allen and myself. Miss 
 Wright, in her volume of "Lichen Tufts," has a chapter on this 
 vacation ramble, from which but a few extracts can be taken : — 
 
 "camping out." 
 
 "We were tired and wanted a holiday, so we went off into the woods, 
 out of the way of finery and etiquette and conventional rubbish. We 
 left the railroad at Great Valley. The woods and river here are still in 
 possession of the aboriginal inhabitants, the grave and friendly Senecas. 
 They did not take the trouble to stare after us nor to make impertinent 
 inquiries. It was a glorious July day, blue and golden, with the fiery 
 languor of summer's noon quivering in the heated air and only stirred 
 now and then by a cool breeze winding up the river. The old boatman 
 took our baggage and some of us in a skiff half a mile, and landed us in 
 as beautiful a spot as we could hope to find. We encamped on the grass 
 under the foliage of young trees which clothed our side of the stream. 
 We built three driftwood fires in a triangle, and within the area spread 
 
 (79) 
 
8o LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 our blankets in groups, and, with a roof of sky and stars above, and walls 
 of green tapestry about us, we lay down safe and happy, and watched the 
 sparks fly up like showers of stars among the leaves, and saw the smoke 
 go rolling upwards like clouds going to seek their kindred above. A 
 grateful content, such as comes to happy children, settled upon us like 
 the dew upon the grass, and those who did not sleep lay listening to the 
 voices of the night. We arose and ate our breakfast and chatted and 
 sang like the other happy creatures about us. The fullest flush of the 
 summer flowers was over, but enough yet blossomed to reward research 
 and continually whet our appetites for more. The seed growth of the 
 deep woods plants, too, was continually a feast of discovery to most of 
 us." 
 
 This was but one day's experience during the short weeks 
 when work and rest, study and play, were so closely connected 
 that the days were marked only by the garnered treasures that 
 came with them. We explored Rock City, where piles of con- 
 glomerate tower high above the general surface and extend 
 over miles of territory. We also visited some newly opened 
 coal beds in Pennsylvania, and sent back several well-filled boxes 
 of specimens by rail to Alfred. 
 
 Another summer holiday we followed the course of the 
 Genesee River from its source to where it empties into Lake 
 Ontario, gathering specimens, of course, as we progressed in 
 the journey. 
 
 TO THE WHITE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 During the summer of i860 Mr. Allen spent some time in 
 special studies at Andover Theological Seminary. We went 
 by steamer through Lake Ontario, then down the St. Lawrence, 
 through the Thousand Isles, stopping at Montreal; thence 
 onward over the White Mountains to Boston. We stopped for 
 two days in the vicinity of Mt. Washington, and spent a night 
 on its summit. Never shall I forget that morning ride on 
 horseback up the mountain. We went on from rocky point to 
 rocky point, till, leaving all vegetation below, we stood alone 
 against the sky, while below, as far as the eye could scan, rolled 
 the great waves of hill and dale, till they mingled with the 
 
VACATION OUTINGS. 
 
 clouds in the distance. During the night while I was sleeping, 
 Mr. Allen spent the time out on the great rocks in the moon- 
 light, impressed, he said, with the presence and power of the 
 Deity such as he had not known before, and never expected to 
 experience again. He called me to see the morning sun as it 
 came rolling up from the mists below, and hung, suspended, like 
 a great fire balloon, out to which it seemed we might walk on the 
 thick clouds all around us. The ride down was quiet and 
 pleasant, though it often seemed that the next plunge of the 
 horses must be out into space. 
 
 At Andover much of the time was spent in the study of 
 elocution. 
 
 LEROY 
 
 One summer we were invited by Leroy friends to bring our 
 working party to their place. We were glad to go, as that 
 section is the principal home of the cornifer^s and other fine 
 fossils. The whole party was entertained in the pleasant home 
 of our old-time friend, Nicholas Keeney. His son and daughter, 
 with others, joined daily in the excursions, they donating teams 
 to carry the party to and from the points of investigation, from 
 whence we took each night a load of rocks and flowers. Mrs. 
 Stanton, a former teacher, showed keen interest in the work, 
 selecting and giving us from her fine cabinet many rare shells 
 and specimens. Altogether, nearly a ton of specimens was 
 shipped to Alfred as a result of the visit It was a delightful 
 time spent with friends in the study of science. 
 
 These were only a few of the many trips taken during the 
 long holidays, but enough has been said to show that even the 
 time for resting was employed by Mr. Allen in working for the 
 best interests of the Institution he so much loved. 
 
GMAPTER XI. 
 
 IM MEMORIAM. 
 
 ^ I many students scattered far and wide the news of the 
 JL death of Mrs. Melissa Ward Kenyon came as that of a 
 mother. This occurred June 27, 1863, and the com- 
 mencement of that year opened sadly with her funeral service. 
 During the following years, though no less active in his 
 labors for the school, President Kenyon was gradually failing 
 in health and strength. His struggle against disease was long 
 and heroic, and, after seeking medical aid from various sources, 
 he decided to spend a year abroad. Accordingly, in October, 
 1866, accompanied by his wife, Mrs. Ida F. Kenyon, he sailed 
 for Europe. After spending the winter with Mrs. Kenyon's 
 friends in Prussia, they started together for the Orient, intending 
 to visit Egypt and Palestine, but were unable to go farther than 
 Geneva, I;?witzerland, his health causing them to turn back and 
 start homeward ; but failing strength compelled them to pause 
 in London. From there he wrote: "I am but a shadow, but 
 hope the shadow will last across the ocean, for I shall so rejoice 
 to reach America. May the Lord bless you all." His friends 
 had hoped the rest and change would bring the needed strength, 
 but in this they were doomed to disappointment, for a sad mes- 
 sage from London told that on the morning of June 27, 1867, 
 "he was at rest till the resurrection morn." Again the Com- 
 mencement exercises were shrouded with the pall of sorrow. 
 
 The following extract is taken from the memorial sermon 
 on the life of the first president of the University: — 
 
 '■ He devoutly believed that an appetite for work was one of the 
 noblest traits, to be sought after by all men, and one by which all diffi- 
 culties could be overcome. No ten-hour system for him. No man ever 
 got on and up in the world who worked only ten, if not at the same kind 
 
 (82) 
 
IN MEMORIAM. 83 
 
 of work, at something. He abhorred from the very depths of his soul 
 all dawdlers, all shiftless 'Jack at all trades' and good at none, all seekers 
 after the easy and shady places, all who could lean long on hoe-handles 
 or fences without getting tired, all bottomers of chairs and headers of 
 nail kegs about stores, groceries, and taverns. He enthused his students, 
 more or less, with the same spirit. He impressed upon them the impor- 
 tance, the glory of work. He made them feel that they were in this 
 world for the express purpose of doing something, and that they were in 
 school expressly to get a good ready to do this something. 
 
 "One of those slender, compact, nervous men, with a regal dome of 
 skull, filled and dripping with brains as the overflowing honeycomb 
 drips with honey, surcharged with mental magnetism and spiritual elec- 
 tricity, a man very earnest, very incisive, somewhat radical, yet very 
 genuine, he stirred many a young life to the core, dispelling through his 
 fiery energy, drowsiness, stupidity, and quickening them into vitality, 
 awakened their dormant powers, kindling their latent energies into fervor 
 and aspiration, and spurring on to high endeavor and noble achievement. 
 It took no ordinary rein and curb to hold such a fiery nature in check. 
 To him life was a fiery battle, and his voice ever rang out to the young 
 as the battle shout of a leader tried and true. Ever riding earnestly, 
 even furiously ahead, amid flame and smoke, he had words of cheer to 
 those who could spur up to his side or press hard after, but woe to the 
 laggard or the coward. If he descended like a thunderbolt upon the 
 stupid or the lazy, the frivolous or the rowdy, if gloved hands and 
 anointed locks, those symbols of affectation and foppery, found no favor 
 in his eyes, if schoolgirl prim and simper and frippery, those signs of 
 shallow mothers and silly daughters, were an abomination to him, yet 
 the earnest seeker after knowledge, the hard worker, and the needy, 
 found in him the gentleness of the dews of Hermon, the sacrifice and 
 help of a father. Did ever a needy student go to him for aid and not 
 get it, if it was in his power to assist? — Nay, times many has the help 
 been freely, generously offered without the asking, as many a one from 
 a full heart has testified. In short, in most of the essential attributes, his 
 was one of the truest and noblest of natures, ever full to overflowing with 
 generous impulses and sacrificial deeds. He was a man whose life was 
 constantly overleaping the prudential virtues, and taking on the heroic 
 and Christian ones of self-abnegation, with entire consecration to a defi- 
 nite and high purpose, achieving through self-sacrificing endeavor. In 
 teaching, he found his true calling, for teachers, no less than poets, are 
 born, not made. Aptness to teach is an inborn gift, not a manufactured 
 article. 
 
84 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 "Alfred Academy, growing into the University, was his only child, and 
 no parent ever watched more sleeplessly, or toiled more unremittingly, or 
 prayed more earnestly, for a child than he for it. Was it in want? The 
 bread of carefulness was kept from his own mouth that it might be fed. 
 Was it sick? With fingers upon its pulse, he watched through the long 
 weary hours its every symptom. Was its fair fame assailed? He came 
 to its rescue with all the intense earnestness of an outraged father. In 
 all hours of misfortune, of doubt and despondency, he had faith that 
 amounted to assurance, and, rising above the ashes of frustrated or 
 blighted prospects, he used all failures as stepping-stones to higher effort 
 and nobler achievement. Rising early from his sleepless couch — seldom, 
 for years, sleeping after three or four in the morning, often not after one 
 or two — his rush up and down stairs, in early morning, was more effec- 
 tual than alarm clock or chapel bell in arousing the sleepers, beginning 
 thus the toils of an anxious day, closing his wearisome labors late at 
 night, to gain only small relief through brief, intermittent sleep. 
 
 "The public, soon or late, crown with honor those who sacrifice for 
 other's sake. There is virtue in duly caring for the body, but the higher 
 sympathies and admiration of the world go with him who subjects all life 
 forces — even making them give way to the ends of public good. Fru- 
 gality is a virtue, but humanity is kindled into enthusiasm in beholding 
 the sacrifices and sharing the benefits of a generous nature. There is 
 virtue in discreetness and prudent reserve, but the man of noble, intense, 
 generous impulse is the one to whom the hearts of men, and most espe- 
 cially of youth, open most readily. Such an one stirs the dormant energies 
 of the soul and quickly awakens the latent forces of youthful natures. 
 Mankind bows before a positive character, one who, amid opposition and 
 ill will, if need be, presses fearlessly forward, with his eye fi.xed on the 
 great purpose of life set before himself 
 
 "Such was President Kenyon. The thousands of young men and 
 women who came under the influence of his life, and were quickened, 
 lifted, and strengthened thereby, are more than monuments, more than 
 riches, more than worldly titles to his memory. They are living powers, 
 awakened to a new life. Invigorated, inspired, cultured, in various 
 degrees, they have gone forth to the world's work, pressing into the 
 various positions of power and influence, moulding and directing thou- 
 sands of other minds, insomuch that, though dead, he speaks, and will 
 continue to .speak through on-coming ages, in a language many voiced. 
 He lives, and will work on through multitudinous hands in diverse pur- 
 suits and callings." 
 
IN MEMORIAM. ^5 
 
 President Kenyon was buried in the Abney Park Cemetery, 
 near London, but his remains were afterward brought to this 
 country, and now rest in the cemetery at Schenectady, by the 
 side of his first wife. 
 
 Another extract from President Allen's pen is here subjoined, 
 as it so beautifully expresses the affection and gratitude of his 
 heart toward the two who had done most for him in revealing 
 the way to the best that life could offer. It is entitled — 
 
 A PILGRIMAGE. 
 
 "Finding myself near the burial place of two whose memories are 
 sacred to me, in common with thousands of other old Alfred students, I 
 sought it, as if a shrine. After wandering wide, questing for the spot, I 
 found myself in front of a monument, on which I read at the top, 'Abel 
 Ward,' and, running my eye down the shaft, read, 'Sally Ward,' ' Melissa 
 B. Ward,' wife of Rev. W. C. Kenyon, president of Alfred University,' 
 then, 'William C. Kenyon,' and on low scroll headstones, at my feet, the 
 initials of these names. I had found the object of my search, and pros- 
 trate, in the hot, blistering sun, I wept, as it is given to man but seldom 
 in a lifetime to weep, wept regretful, grateful tears, while thronged mem- 
 ories of years long dead. Those dead years sprang to life again, and 
 talked with me. I was a boy once more, with intense longings for 
 knowledge. Then came a man* to Alfred, full of the goodness which 
 descends from on high. He took me by the hand and lifted me into 
 nobler living. He still lives as a benediction of goodness to all coming 
 within his influence. His successor came, full of intense energy and 
 enthusiasm, with the uplifting inspirations of a life nobly consecrated to 
 sacrificial living. His voice was the bugle call, his gesture the saber flash, 
 lifting us to our feet, and bidding us forward in life's battle. Then came 
 she whose life destiny was to be one with his. Together they labored 
 and sacrificed, passed under the cloud of adversity and sorrow, he in the 
 many-handed service of building an institution, without money, in a new 
 country, she in all service and sacrifice for the well-being of students, 
 nursing the sick, consoling the sorrowing, helping the needy. To me 
 they were as elder brother and sister, full of cheer in despondency, help 
 in need, care in sickness. What they were to me they were to hundreds 
 of others. 
 
 "The day was thus spent in sweet, sad memories, and, as the sun 
 
 ■James R. Irish. 
 
86 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 sank beyond the distant and beautiful hills, I returned to the city, but, 
 restless and agitated, I found myself, as night darkened, hastening, 
 almost unconsciously, back to the cemetery. All is hushed in the quie- 
 tude of night. The moonlight lies calm on walk and wood and water. 
 Tombstone and monument stand forth as sheeted ghosts. The hum of 
 insect, the murmur of water, the sounds from the distant city, all tend to 
 subdue and inspire with chastened sentiments. The hours of the night 
 glide by as silent sentinels, awakening spirit communings, earnest ques- 
 tionings of the here and the hereafter. The distant thunder of the mid- 
 night train, coming up from Albany, warns to hasten down and away. 
 Blessed are the memories of that pilgrimage. Blessed are the memories 
 of those earnest, faithful, sacrificial teachers." 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 CHOSEN PRESIDENT. 
 
 WHILE President Kenyon was in Europe, Professors 
 Wm. A. Rogers, E. P. Larkin, Thomas R. Williams, 
 A. R. Wightman, G. E. Tomlinson, and Allen alter- 
 nated in having general direction of the college. After the 
 death of President Kenyon in England, in 1867, Mr. Allen was 
 chosen by the trustees to permanently fill the position. This he 
 did not accept till after much careful consideration, not shrinking 
 from the labors or censure that such a charge must bring, but 
 from doubt of his ability to carry forward President Kenyon's 
 plans for the growth of the work. 
 
 METHODS OF TEACHING. 
 
 Quoting from Rev. B. C. Davis: "His methods of impart- 
 ing knowledge were unique. By a simple question he could 
 explode a theory, however subtle in its construction and prized 
 by its author, if anywhere it contained a false premise. Even 
 a true theory was often given up in disgust when subjected to 
 the trying questions with which he would test the thought of its 
 propounded 
 
 "In discussing a subject he did not endeavor to give us a 
 completed file of ready-made ideas and statements, to be stored 
 away upon the dusty shelves of memory, but he aimed, rather, 
 to put a thread into our hands, which, if followed up by personal 
 thought and original investigation, would lead into the labyrinth 
 of science, and there enable us to discover and pluck its rarest 
 and sweetest flowers. It was to develop the independent 
 thought and personal manhood of the student that he strove, 
 and he would spare no time and pains to accomplish this result. 
 
 (87) 
 
88 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 He impressed upon us that education was not so much a storing 
 of certain truths but a power to think and discover new truths 
 for ourselves. He sought to develop all sides of the student, 
 the physical, the moral, and the religious, as well as the intel- 
 lectual. He strove to make it the postulate of human person- 
 ality, that it should lead all men to become not only politically 
 free, but educated and also religious ; that the discovery of man 
 to himself must lead to the highest development of himself." 
 
 ELOCUTION. 
 
 In 1852 special attention was directed to the study of read- 
 ing and elocution by a Mr. Hamlin, from Boston, who went 
 through the country forming classes in many of the academies 
 and colleges for training young men in public speaking. The 
 power of the rostrum was then just beginning to make itself 
 generally felt upon questions of political and other interests. A 
 small class was organized at Alfred, Mr. Allen himself being the 
 most interested pupil in it. So much pains was taken that year 
 in training in this branch that at the next commencement a 
 marked improvement was shown in the speakers. During the 
 vacations, lessons were taken of Monroe, Russel, Porter, Mur- 
 dock, Booth, and all of the principal teachers in this country. 
 Young women were given the same opportunities as young men, 
 and during the forty years that followed, elocution was one of 
 the marked features of Alfred training. 
 
 In referring to this subject, President Allen, in his "His- 
 toric Sketch" of Alfred University, said: "Such was the feeble 
 beginning of that elocutionary enterprise, which has gradually 
 increased till it has attained its present imposing proportions. 
 As, in springtime, first there is heard the caw of the solitary 
 crow along the frosty, barren sky, then, as soft airs begin to 
 blow, comes the mellow-voiced bluebird, followed by the cheer- 
 ful sparrow, the happy robin, the gushing cat-bird, the soulful 
 cuckoo, and the rollicking bobolink, till all shrubs, and trees, and 
 vales, and hills, are vocal, even the deep blue heavens catch up 
 the joyous strains and flood the earth with bird song, so these 
 
ORDINATION. 89 
 
 elocutionary strains gathered volume, and variety, and richness, 
 filling, at first, the little schoolrooms, then overflowing into the 
 hilltop barns and out-of-the-way places, till now, in these later 
 years, and especially as these anniversary occasions draw on, 
 not only the chapel, but likewise each vale and wood and hill, 
 are voiced, yea, flooded, with the great tidal wave of commence- 
 ment eloquence." 
 
 During the spring terms, often as early as four o'clock, be- 
 fore life was astir in the valley, young men would go to Pro- 
 fessor Larkin's hill (a quarter of a mile away) and practice their 
 orations, to gain clearness and volume of voice, while Mr. Allen 
 would listen and criticise them from our front porch. 
 
 Rev. B. C. Davis says: "Most of us have, perhaps, enjoyed 
 him as a teacher best in his elocution classes. Here we were 
 charmed by the majesty of his bearing, his commanding, pow- 
 erful presence, yet so completely under the control of that won- 
 derful art. Our impressions of him as an artist in elocution can 
 never be forgotten. Then, when at length we were permitted 
 to enjoy his work in metaphysics and literature, we felt that we 
 had reached the acme of our college course. The president's 
 classes were the anticipation of the undergraduate, the joy of 
 the senior." 
 
 ORDINATION. 
 
 Mr. Allen was called to ordination by the first Alfred church, 
 not so much with a view^ to the work of the ministry in the 
 usual sense of the word as to the work of the theological 
 department of the university of which he was then at the head. 
 Of this time Rev. L. A. Platts writes: "He was ordained as a 
 minister of the gospel at the general conference at Milton, Wis- 
 consin, September 9, 1864, of which conference he was the 
 president. 
 
 "Professor Allen stood upon a temporary platform built be- 
 tween the pulpit and the window; the latter being removed, he 
 occupied a place very nearly in the open window, so that not 
 only all in the house, which was filled to its utmost capacity, but 
 
90 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 many who had gathered about the window on the outside, could 
 both see and hear. The examination covered the whole ground 
 of Christian doctrine and life. Professor Allen's answers were 
 both concise and comprehensive ; and more than once when the 
 form of the question did not furnish the base for the answer 
 which he wished to give, he himself gave shape to the question 
 by saying to the questioner, Tf that is what you mean, I 
 answer, Yes,' or 'No,' as the case might be. After the exami- 
 nation, he preached a sermon, in which he elaborated more fully 
 some of the doctrines hurriedly passed over in the examination. 
 It was the first service of the kind I had ever witnessed, and 
 made a lasting impression on my mind, as I was looking forward, 
 at no distant day, to such an ordeal in my own experience." 
 
 SERMONS AND LECTURES. 
 
 All of his sermons and lectures for more than fifty years 
 were most carefully prepared and studied, but were seldom 
 written out. He usually spoke from a few notes, directly to the 
 people, as he would teach a class. Not half of his baccalaureate 
 sermons were ever printed, so only a small part of his work in 
 that direction can be given in these pages. Here are some of 
 his reasons for not allowing more of his works to be published : 
 "Very little that is written will answer for all time. It is the 
 duty of the scholar to revise the thoughts of the past, adapt 
 them to the present, and accept such new ones as Providence 
 and man have evolved. We make all past knowledge the basis, 
 and not the limit, of research." 
 
 In 1857 he consented to fill the pulpit of a small church some 
 five miles from our home. This he continued to do for three 
 years, until a multitude of other duties caused him to resign. 
 It was often said that he there made the word of God full of 
 new meaning, even to opening the understanding of the chil- 
 dren to its power. The congregations, being very small at first, 
 gradually increased till the house was crowded. Many additions 
 were made to the church, and a general growth in spiritual 
 things^ was apparent. 
 
PRESIDENT ALLEN S CHAPEL LECTURES, 9I 
 
 His lectures, which were always well illustrated, embraced a 
 broad field of subjects. Being a complete master of the subject 
 in hand, those who listened could but be profoundly impressed 
 with the depth and power of his utterances. If his theme was 
 geology, specimens were brought from the nearest stream, hill- 
 side, or stone pile, and spread out before the audience, who 
 were told of the wonders, before unknown to them, which were 
 all about their own homes. In the same manner botany and other 
 sciences were explained and made interesting. Samples from 
 the cabinet were brought to illustrate his lectures on archaeology 
 and coins. 
 
 The chapel lectures took on the same type; they were always 
 what would promote growth and was most needed. One of the 
 students, Mr. D. E. Willard, says: "To me the day never 
 seemed to start right if I did not attend chapel, and then if 
 President Allen were not there the start seemed only half made. 
 How many, many times have I watched, almost with bated 
 breath, as he rose from his accustomed chair, to give his char- 
 acteristic signal of dismissal, to see if he were not on the point 
 of beginning to speak instead of at once dismissing us!" 
 
 Rev. L. C. Rogers says: "The Faculty of the University 
 attended the chapel services in a body. Beginning with the 
 president, who was first by name and first by office, the pro- 
 fessors in turn led the services. Then came addresses; and 
 who that heard the president's chapel talks can ever forget the 
 impressions made by them.^ They were so alive with all the 
 excellencies of a graceful oratory, sometimes so profound, so 
 learned, sometimes so apt, sometimes so witty, and sometimes 
 so cutting; but when such they left no sting in the bosom of the 
 ingenuous student." 
 
 PRESIDENT ALLEn's CHAPEL LECTURES. 
 
 Mrs. C. E. Groves writes : — 
 
 "It was my privilege to know President Allen through a period of 
 twenty-one consecutive terms, to meet him in all the relations of teacher 
 and pupil, and president and teacher, to sit under his instruction during 
 
92 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 the senior year, which in his prime was a rare privilege, to Hsten to him 
 from the lecture platform and the sacred desk, to be present on several 
 of the great occasions which stirred President Allen's soul to its pro- 
 foundest depths and gave him almost the utterance of a prophet; but 
 now as I look through the years and recall him in all the various places 
 where I knew him, I find that the most vivid pictures, which my mem- 
 ory holds of him and the power of his eloquence which has lost least 
 with the lapse of time, are connected with his morning 'speeches' in 
 the chapel. 
 
 "It was the custom of those years at Alfred that the professor who led 
 morning devotions should address the students for five, ten, or fifteen 
 minutes, if he felt inclined, and the range of thought in these talks was 
 as varied as the thought and research of the different teachers; so one 
 discoursed on science, one on mathematics, one gave methodical and 
 instructive talks on language, one preached and drew noble lessons from 
 the sacred word, one gave us the 'gold of silence,' but it was reserved 
 for President Allen to strike the fine chords that stretch between soul 
 and soul, to open before our eyes the possibilities of the future that made 
 life from that moment a grander, nobler boon, to lay upon our brows a 
 chrism, that, for many a sympathetic, susceptible nature, has proved a 
 lifelong consecration, and an aspiration to noble living. 
 
 "The circumstances and incidents which called forth these rare 
 addresses were varied; sometimes an example of self-denial on the part 
 of a struggling student had moved him; sometimes even a base action 
 had led him to reflect on the prostitution of privilege, and from dwelling 
 on that he would leap, in the contrast, to his highest conception of a 
 grandeur of achievement open to young people, and the solemn respon- 
 sibility of life for all. 
 
 "At one time he had been to Hornellsville the night before, to listen 
 to Anna Dickenson (I think in her powerful lecture called 'The Struggle 
 for Life'); he had felt the thrill of her magic eloquence, and the night's 
 reflection upon her theme had stirred him unusually; there was an inde- 
 scribable light on his countenance, and the talk which followed his 
 prayer gave free flow to his emotion. He spoke of the struggles Miss 
 Dickenson had depicted, the victory achieved through and over them, 
 and then enlarged upon the possibilities before all who were willing to 
 enter life's contest and compel its conquest. The words of these 
 addresses have mostly passed from memory; indeed, it was not those 
 that we noticed at the time; it was the great soul reaching out through 
 the words to our souls, and attuning them to the chord struck in his 
 own. How true the response was in some of these young natures was 
 
PRESIDENT ALLEN S CHAPEL LECTURES. 93 
 
 shown in the spell that held the body of students, that was not altogether 
 broken by the sweep of the president's hand which dismissed us, but 
 held many a one in thoughtful silence as we went down the walks, and 
 shown in their faces for hours afterwards. 
 
 "I have heard some of our American masters of oratory since, and 
 their gradual rise to eloquence is sublime, but for heights attained in the 
 swift course of brief addresses, and for power of appeal to his hearers, 
 President Allen stands, in my estimation, rival of the best." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 STEINHEIM. 
 
 ^^^TEINHEIM with its contents represents the spare 
 k^^ moments of the years when President Allen's life 
 •^^ was so filled with care and labor that it would seem 
 
 there could not be leisure for such an undertaking. 
 
 " Where did you get the plan for your museum, the Stein- 
 heim.'*" was often asked of President Allen. The answer always 
 was, "It grew." We both loved the natural sciences, and all 
 through our earlier course of study collected many specimens, 
 especially in botany and geology. My brother, Matthew Max- 
 son, who had traveled extensively, often added to these, till we 
 had a very fair working collection. As the class in geology 
 passed from one instructor to another, we gladly loaned these 
 specimens for their use, but as there was no good place for keep- 
 ing them, they were mutilated and scattered, until one lone rep- 
 resentative was left. This was a specimen of lead ore, so rare 
 for the beauty and perfection of its crystals that my brother was 
 offered ten dollars for it at his mines at Galena, 111. Happen- 
 ing in the geology class one day, what was my astonishment to 
 see this pride of our treasures a mere fragment of its former 
 self, and without a single perfect crystal, I took it home, but 
 not without a few tears on the way. When the geological stud- 
 ies came under President Allen's charge, we went to work vig- 
 orously to make another collection. I had charge of the botany, 
 and both classes did a great deal of field work. During the 
 term of thirteen weeks the members of the botany class would 
 often collect, analyze, and arrange as many as three hundred 
 specimens. Students in geology were quite as enthusiastic, often 
 
 ( 94 ) 
 
STEINHEIM. 
 
STEINHEIM, 95 
 
 forming what was to them a most valuable nucleus for long 
 continuing their studies in the future. 
 
 During the long vacations many a summer day was spent 
 with hammer, basket, and botany box, in creek beds and ravines, 
 or over the hills, for something new. In a few years the collec- 
 tion represented many miles of the adjacent territory traveled 
 over in that manner, stretching out as far as Buffalo on the west, 
 Rochester on the north, on the east to the Atlantic, and as far 
 south as the Natural Bridge in Virginia. 
 
 Here at Alfred we are especially favored for the study of 
 geology and paleontology. In his description of this section. 
 President Allen writes: "This valley is the southern limit of the 
 drift, so that within three miles of the University there may be 
 found, in large and small bowlders, specimens of most of the 
 rocks as far north as Labrador that were hard enough to stand 
 the pressure of the journey. These are given to the students, 
 by nature, to be assisted and classified by them for their separate 
 collections." The native rocks of the Chemung groups are rich 
 in fossils, and the enthusiasm for years was such that men, 
 women, and children became earnest collectors. Often before 
 breakfast some little urchin would come to our door, ring the 
 bell, and, offering a little basket of his treasures, say: "President 
 Allen, do you want these .-^ I got them for you." There might 
 not be a pebble of any value, but they were accepted with 
 thanks, for it was the right culture for those young souls, which 
 he so desired to cultivate. Strangers often brought samples 
 from a distance for classification, and were disappointed when 
 their iron ores turned out shale, or their gold proved to be only 
 iron pyrites. 
 
 Brothers, sisters, and friends sent boxes, until the library and 
 much of the home was given over to cabinet shelves, cases, and 
 other arrangements for the accumulating specimens. In our 
 Eastern trips we had secured some Atlantic shells and became 
 interested in conchology. The land, and fresh water, shells of 
 this and the western regions were rapidly collected. 
 
 About this time Professor Larkin was professedly engaged 
 
96 LIFE OF rRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 in Peru, and, returning to Alfred once a year, brought large num- 
 bers of South American shells. A distinguished conchologist 
 had spent some time with him on the west coast of Chile, and, 
 with his usual enthusiasm for a new study. Professor Larkin 
 entered into the spirit of the collector, spending every leisure 
 hour in the new science, even dredging for the rarest shells. 
 During the vacation months he spent his evenings at our house 
 with Mr. Allen, classifying and arranging, often working till 
 after midnight. Everyone in the family became inspired with 
 the collector's spirit; even baby Alfred, just beginning to walk, 
 brought in his share of snails. When there were duplicates, 
 they exchanged specimens, and in study, as everywhere, were 
 mutual helpers. Professor Larkin left a very choice and well- 
 arranged collection, which is now the property of the University. 
 
 During the summer vacations we sometimes spent weeks in 
 traveling with horse and carriage, collecting and examining the 
 specimens found in perhaps over a hundred miles of territory. 
 When the load became heavy, it would be boxed and sent home. 
 In this way the collection kept on increasing till it threatened 
 to fill the whole house. 
 
 About this time Mrs. Ida F. Kenyon arranged to build a 
 small home just north of ours. After the land was surveyed, 
 the design selected, and the foundation laid, the idea was given 
 up. Mr. Allen had long desired a suitable building for his col- 
 lection. This being a convenient location, he bought it and 
 went on with the building. When completed, he found there 
 was not sufficient room for advancement, so, without much 
 change, he built on in front and at the rear, nearly doubling the 
 extent of museum room, yet keeping all so in harmony that the 
 beauty of the building was thereby enhanced. The whole is of 
 native rock, or that found in the drift, within a circuit of three 
 miles. It was Mr. Allen's idea to have the exterior of the 
 building an exponent of the geological formation of this region, 
 and the finish of the interior representative of the native woods, 
 and also of as many kinds as could be gathered from other parts 
 of the world. There are between seven and eight thousand 
 
STEINHEIM. 97 
 
 samples of different rocks in the outside walls, and several hun- 
 dreds of woods, including that of fruit trees and shrubs, worked 
 into the rooms of the building. It was the plan also to make 
 each collection a typical one in itself. 
 
 ARCH/EOLOGY. 
 
 While Mr. Allen was in Wisconsin, there was much interest 
 manifested by students of history, in the strange forms of burial 
 mounds throughout the West. A large number of. these were 
 in the region of Lake Koshkonong, where an uncle lived. In 
 company with some cousins he explored several of these 
 mounds, finding pottery, bones, axes, and other stone imple- 
 ments; but the most singular specimen was the remnant of a 
 large shell that must have come from the Gulf of Mexico. 
 This we kept, it becoming the nucleus of the present large col- 
 lection in that department. The interest thus created in pre- 
 historic peoples and in archaeology generally, has increased with 
 the more than fifty years of study and collecting. He could 
 never hear of anything in that line without arranging to see and 
 study the same, though many years were sometimes spent in 
 perfecting his plans. 
 
 After the death of an experienced archaeologist in the Sus- 
 quehanna Valley, his daughters advertised their collection for 
 sale as a whole. President Allen, learning of this, succeeded in 
 purchasing the three most valuable articles, one of these being 
 a bent stone tube, or bugle, the like of which is unknown. The 
 Smithsonian took a cast of this, as well as others of these rare 
 specimens. This was but one of the many opportunities that 
 came to him as a seeker. 
 
 The first stone peace pipe of the collection was given by my 
 niece, Eleanor Maxson Stimson, now of Plainfield, New Jersey. 
 It was found at Nile, N. Y., in the debris of a well, at a depth 
 of sixteen feet. It is of soapstone, with the mouthpiece fin- 
 ished with lead, and something like hieroglyphics on the side. 
 Since that time it has been observed that the New York speci- 
 mens, of which we have many, increase in artistic finish the 
 
90 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 deeper down they are found In the earth, showing that the 
 higher civiHzation was driven out by a more warhke and bar- 
 barous race. My brothers, Matthew and Frank Maxson, of 
 California, searched old caches and other Indian mounds, and 
 sent many rare things. George Maxson, from the South, 
 Henry Ledyard, from the Sandwich Islands, and others often 
 added to these. Professor Henry Ward, of Rochester, early 
 becoming interested in our work, at once informed President 
 Allen when anything of special interest came Into his hands, 
 thus giving him the first choice. Many rare and valuable spec- 
 imens have been obtained in this way. 
 
 NUMISMATICS. 
 
 While at Oberlln, In 185 1, Mr. Allen met a returned mis- 
 sionary from Palestine and Asia Minor He was an old man, 
 and had come back to his native land to die. He had, among 
 other collections, a bag of Roman, Greek, Arabic, and Asiatic 
 coins. Not having a permanent home, he was weary of carry- 
 ing them from place to place, and, needing money, he offered the 
 whole for a mere song. The coins were taken mostly to aid 
 the man in a financial way, and It was years afterward before we 
 knew their real value. We naturally supposed there must be 
 many duplicates among them. One summer vacation books 
 for their study were obtained, and the coins were carefully clas- 
 sified. Very few duplicates were found ; many were rare, and 
 some of exquisite workmanship and design. Before this time, 
 however, we had many American and foreign coins, and each 
 year since has added to the collection. 
 
 Dr. Darius Ford, of Elmira College, after his trip around the 
 world, divided his ti'easures with his friend, among which were 
 many coins. Dr. .Slayton, while spending a summer in North- 
 ern Italy, secured and brought to President Allen two very old 
 etruscan bronze pieces that were plowed up by a farmer. One 
 of these Is three inches in diameter. On one side is the double- 
 headed Janus, and on the reverse, the sacred ram. The other 
 piece, though smaller, is of finer metal, having on one face the 
 
STEINHEIM. 99 
 
 heavy-bearded Jupiter, and on the other Bacchus eating grapes. 
 The Rev. D. H. Davis and Mrs. John Fryer, missionaries 
 to China, have added valuable collections to our Chinese coins. 
 Eugene Rudiger and others have supplemented these from time 
 to time with coins from continental Europe and other countries. 
 President Allen felt a keen interest in this part of his work, 
 knowing that it offered a never-failing source of culture to the 
 student of history and of ancient art. His lectures on coins 
 impressed his listeners with the idea that there was much more 
 in them than their mere face value in money. 
 
 KERAMICS. 
 
 It was the design to make the department of keramics an 
 index of the early history of the people of this section of New 
 York. Although Steinheim contains a number of pieces of 
 pottery and china, some of them being quite choice, but little of 
 their history has been obtained as yet. One large platter of 
 flowing blue was a design for a set of dishes for a merchant of 
 Springfield, Massachusetts, when that town had but one church. 
 It represents the town with the village green in front. There 
 were but two sets of these dishes made, the one for the mer- 
 chant himself, the other for his pastor. This piece belonged to 
 the latter. 
 
 LAND AND FRESH "WATER SHELLS. 
 
 Seashells from every part of the world can be found in the 
 markets of almost any of the large cities, but the land and fresh 
 water shells must be sought through years of careful collecting, 
 study, and exchange. Every locality has its special species, that 
 must be assiduously worked for. In Steinheim there are about 
 ten thousand specimens of these, including most of the known 
 genera of the Helix, that having been a favorite shell with most 
 of the family. There are only about eight hundred species of 
 this genus known, and we have over seven hundred of these 
 many of which are rare. We have also a great variety of other 
 land shells, some being of great beauty. 
 
lOO LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 The great rivers of the United States have been called by 
 the conchologists of Europe "the happy hunting grounds of 
 the unios and onondontas." Of these bivalves there are in 
 Steinheim most of the known species from all parts of the 
 United States, these having cost much time and money to col- 
 lect. Once while President Allen was gathering them in the 
 Mississippi mud, he contracted a fever which nearly cost him his 
 life. Our lakes and all the fresh waters are teeming with the 
 univalves and most of the varieties of the more delicate shells, 
 in the study of which a conchologist might spend a long life. 
 Thousands of these are classified, the smaller ones being put in 
 bottles and labeled in such a manner that they can be studied 
 without handling. 
 
 OOLOGY. 
 
 This department represents the eggs of most of the native 
 birds, besides many foreign ones. There are also casts of eggs, 
 representing a number of the extinct species, one of these, 
 the egg of the Epiornis Max, being equal to one hundred and 
 forty hens' eggs. Dr. Mark Sheppard and Leon La Forge have 
 added large numbers to these. All are classified and arranged 
 for study, with as many of the nests as could be secured. 
 
 PALEONTOLOGY. 
 
 Our botanical specimens, animals, minerals, and fossils, num- 
 bering many thousands, have been mostly given to the museum 
 of the University, but President Allen, finding, nearly thirty 
 years ago, that the Chemung group was especially rich in dzc- 
 tyospongidcea, a fossil, then almost new to science, became inter- 
 ested in collecting this rare but well-defined sponge. Many 
 new species, representing those gathered from more than one 
 hundred miles of territory, were found each year, till over fifty 
 new varieties were in the collection. 
 
 During the spring, summer, and fall of '73, not only the 
 large geological class had become interested in this new fossil, 
 but many of the citizens and children were looking for these 
 
STEINHEIM. fO] 
 
 checkered stones, then called the ^//^/y^^/i4^4''.V JVIrNA^len had 
 previously secured some choice spe.dmene ffpra*.^ifdtH£(in\and 
 Bath, in Chemung County, some thfpfy'mi'tey aWayV F'nSing 
 them in Bath nearer the surface than elsewhere, he, with a num- 
 ber of friends, went to this point, where they and Dr. Seelover, 
 of that place, hired teams, plowed, raked, and secured over a 
 ton of this rock with its unique fossils. The next winter Pro- 
 fessors Larkin and Allen went to work to classify them, finding 
 and naming five new species. After weeks of this study, they, 
 thinking that Dr. Hall, our State geologist, ought to have the 
 credit of this work, sent many of them to him. Professor 
 Prosper Miller, of Friendship, upon opening a sandstone quarry, 
 also found many new varieties of these sponges. After this, 
 Wellsville and other localities were developed. 
 
 Alfred Allen, beginning young in the sciences, proved a val- 
 uable assistant to his father in Steinheim; so fortunate was he in 
 finding new localities of this sponge that Dr. Hall employed 
 him to collect for the State work, and named one species in his 
 honor-. A few years since, this entire collection was borrowed 
 by Professor Hall to make more perfect the State book that is 
 to be devoted to this order of fossils. Much money was spent 
 on this collection, until we had the most perfect representation 
 of this fossil that could be secured. It is unique and invaluable. 
 
 MISCELLANY. 
 
 For want of room most of the insects, stuffed birds, and all 
 of the botanical specimens that we had collected were given to 
 the Institution cabinet, yet it would be impossible to give even a 
 faint idea of all that Steinheim now contains. Things quaint 
 or rare, from near by or distant places, were procured and added 
 from time to time. The crania of ancient and modern peoples 
 fill a niche. Their implements of use, worship, dress, and burial 
 are represented by many specimens. There are also many 
 things used by the early settlers of Alfred and vicinity, the 
 study of which will give a good idea of its history, and show 
 the growth and progress of the place. 
 
I02 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 There are a largfe^number of primitive grinding mills of 
 stone, bes'des- numbers.of drinking and cooking utensils, made 
 of either stone or clay. Stone battle-axes, spear-heads, and 
 arrow-points, fill many cases in the museum, and stone and clay 
 piece pipes fill some of the niches. Those made of the red clay 
 that is only found near the upper Missouri River show the far- 
 reaching commercial relations of these primitive peoples. Upon 
 one of these is carved a human head, the features more nearly 
 resembling those of the old Aztec race than of the red man of 
 the present day. 
 
\IE\V l.\ Ul'l'Ek HALL srLI\lli:iM 
 

CHAPTER XIW. 
 
 FAITHFULNESS OF TRUSTEES AMD CITIZENS. 
 
 MR. ALLEN thoroughly appreciated the faithfulness 
 of the trustees of the Institution, who, through sun- 
 ^ shine or storm, were ever present at their stated 
 meetings, and ready to help build up the interests of the school. 
 Deacon B. F. Langworthy was for many years president of the 
 Board of Trustees. Being himself a thoroughly practical man, 
 and possessing the quiet tact to harmanize varied opinions, his 
 services have been invaluable. Elisha Potter (called by every- 
 body "Uncle Elisha") was treasurer for more than twenty 
 years. He always gave, without thought of recompense, much 
 time and hard work to the best interests of the Institution 
 which he had so deeply at heart. Often in vacations he and 
 Mr. Allen would burn the "midnight oil" in comparing and 
 settling accounts and making plans so that every dollar might 
 be used to the best advantage. 
 
 Uncle Maxson Stillman, now over ninety years of age, 
 planned and erected the first school building. He has been a 
 trustee and wise counselor during the entire life of the school. 
 Deacon George W. Allen, Albert Smith, Ira B, Crandall, Wm. 
 C. Burdick, Almond E. Crandall, S. D. Collins, Samuel Still- 
 man, Wm. M. Saunders, Silas Burdick, Maxson Green, Thomas 
 Ellis, Dr. H. P. Saunders, David R. Stillman, R. A. Thomas, 
 and others living near enough to attend the trustee meetings, 
 never allowed themselves to be absent without the gravest 
 reasons. 
 
 I would like to mention here the names of many more who 
 were just as faithful, but will only say that the community in 
 general met nobly the demands made upon them. When new 
 
 (■03) 
 
I04 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 buildings were needed, or debts must be paid, the response of 
 the people always came. Our community is not wealthy, yet 
 in 1887, at a time of special need, forty thousand dollars were 
 raised jn a few days, and all within sound of the chapel bell. 
 It is natural to overestimate those nearest and dearest us, and 
 on this account, no doubt, Mr. Allen sometimes overestimated 
 this people, yet I never can forget how happy and proud he 
 always was in referring to the way in which the great over- 
 hanging debt was at that time removed. 
 
 THE FACULTY. 
 
 The faculty has always been composed of men and women 
 of strong character, who have given their energies not only to 
 the building up of their own departments, but to everything 
 that would help the growth and prosperity of the University. 
 
 As the years have come and gone, there have been many 
 changes among these teachers. One by one others have come 
 in to fill the vacancies as they have occurred, these new ones 
 entering into the work with the same spirit that characterized 
 their predecessors. Dr. Thomas R. Williams and Professor E. 
 P. Larkin, after many years of earnest, sacrificial toil, were 
 called to lay aside earthly work while at their posts of duty. 
 Mrs. Ida F. Kenyon, Amelia Stillman, Dr. D. E. Maxson, 
 Professors H. C. Coon, A. B. Kenyon, and E. M. Tomlinson, 
 and others, have given the best years of their lives in con- 
 scientious work for those who came to Alfred seeking knowl- 
 edge. The reward of these teachers may have been meager 
 as the world counts money, but better than gold or silver is 
 the knowledge that higher aims and nobler purposes have come 
 to those for whom they have labored. 
 
 INDIAN STUDENTS. 
 
 At one time the chief of the Seneca Indians, himself a 
 Christian, came to us to secure homes for some of the girls of 
 his tribe. Besides book learning, he wished them to learn all 
 things that would go to make Christian homes. He said it was 
 
FAITHFULNESS OF TRUSTEES AND CITIZENS. 
 
 105 
 
 useless to educate the young braves only, for since they came 
 back to marry heathen wives, the future famiHes would be 
 scarcely above the old standard unless the girls were also edu- 
 cated. The mothers of this community heeded this call, and 
 during the next few years some fifteen of these girls were 
 trained in all home arts, while a part of the time was given to 
 school education. A number of the young Indian men were 
 also educated at the same time. We did not lose sight of these 
 maidens of the forest, but afterwards, when visiting them, we 
 found some of them mothers in pleasant homes, while others 
 were engaged in teaching or in missionary work among their 
 own people. 
 
 FALSE IDEAS OF STUDENTS* NEEDS. 
 
 President Allen could not remember when he did not love 
 Alfred and its people, so when he decided to make the school 
 his life work, he identified himself with all the interests of the 
 community. The people were a part of his family, or, rather, 
 he was a member of theirs. He labored to keep out all bane- 
 ful influences, and to build up all that would lead to advanced 
 thought or work. 
 
 The lecture, "The College Community," is placed in the 
 body of the book, because it will tell better than any words of 
 mine can, his appreciation of this people, his sensitiveness, 
 and watchful care of them for good. It not only shadows 
 forth his loving thought of the workers who have made Alfred 
 all it is, but it is a warning against the false notions that he felt 
 were in danger of creeping into the families of some of the 
 younger members of the place. The idea that a student, in 
 order to gain social advantages, must dance, play cards, have 
 late suppers, or keep late hours, when the brain needs rest for 
 its higher work, was, to him, an extremely false idea of a stu- 
 dent's needs. He strenuously opposed any secret organization 
 whatever getting a foothold here to drag down our young men, 
 as has been the case in many other colleges. The polish he 
 advocated was that which should come from within, from the 
 
I06 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 right understanding of ourselves and the relations we sustain to 
 humanity — in other words, that which should grow from the 
 Divine Spirit in manhood and womanhood. 
 
 For many years he was cheered by seeing that the students 
 who most closely followed out his ideas on this point were those 
 who afterward took leading positions, not only in their business 
 relations and professions, but who stood high socially as well. 
 
 SUCCESS OF GRADUATES. 
 
 Looking over the catalogue, "grandly successful" instead 
 of "failure" could be written against the names of the greater 
 number of the graduates. Long lists of names might be added 
 of those who have been and are successful in the different pro- 
 fessions and businesses of life. But not less brightly do the 
 helpful influences gained at Alfred still shine in thousands of 
 quiet homes scattered here and there all over our broad land. 
 
 FROM PROFESSOR PICKETT. 
 
 The followitig is from Professor D. D. Pickett, Ph. D., who 
 for twenty years was connected with the Institution as student 
 and teacher: — 
 
 "At Alfred the moral and religious influences were always decided 
 and salutary. Immoral, irreligious, and infidel sentiments found in the 
 school and in the community a place so unfavorable to their growth that 
 their propagation was seldom attempted. The Institution encouraged its 
 pupils to form habits of order, temperance, industry, perseverance, self- 
 rehance, and honesty. Its influence was felt, not in the western part of 
 New York only, but in all parts, as well as in many other States, North and 
 South. To this school many others, in different States, owe their origin 
 and success. Thousands of men and women will say, with feelings of 
 gratitude, that to Alfred they owe more than to all other schools and 
 influences combined. While to each human being his every hour is 
 invaluable, there seems to be in the life of all a pivotal point. On the 
 decision of this time will his future mainly depend. Like a delicate vane, 
 a slight force is sufficient to turn him in one direction or another. 
 This force may be the daily influence by which one is surrounded, a sin- 
 gle lecture or sermon, sometimes a word, seriously or jestingly spoken. 
 By parents and teachers this is too often forgotten. At Alfred however. 
 
FAITHFULNESS OF TRUSTEES AND CITIZENS. lO/ 
 
 this seemed always to be kept in mind. Who can estimate the good 
 thus done, tlie influences thus exerted, by earnest and devoted teachers, 
 upon hundreds of youth, just at the time when most susceptible to good 
 or bad impressions? While a few may disregard the instructions 
 received, thousands bless the day that they entered Alfred, and bless, too, 
 those whose faithful labors and instructions they may, at times, have 
 regarded as useless and perhaps irksome. I can never cease to be 
 grateful to Alfred. May her prosperity increase." 
 
 Better than any words of mine will Mr. Allen's written 
 thoughts tell the mental relationship that ought to exist be- 
 tween the college community and the college student. 
 
 THE COLLEGE COMMUNITY. 
 
 ''^Extracts from the baccalaureate sermon of President J. Allen, D. D., LL.D., preached 
 at the college chapel, June 24, 1888.] 
 
 The occupation of a community gives tone and character to it. All 
 legitimate and beneficial callings are worthy; but among the noblest and 
 worthiest is the enterprise of perfecting the young. This is preeminently 
 the enterprise of a college community, and should give tone and char- 
 acter to it. Sir William Hamilton truly said: "There is nothing great in 
 this world but man, and nothing great in man but mind." A community, 
 then, that is engaged, directly or indirectly, in upbuilding and perfecting, 
 not simply stone walls, or houses, or shops, or aught else material, but 
 mind, to the end of enlarging and enriching Christian civilization, is 
 engaged in one of the greatest enterprises that the world knows, far 
 transcending in importance all enterprises having for their end simple 
 physical well being. To this high work a college community is specially 
 called, and should be unreservedly consecrated. 
 
 This calling is emphasized, made significant and potential, from the 
 fact that it has to do with mind in its formative, plastic period. While 
 full-grown trees hurtle and knock th;ii gnarled branches together only 
 to break, the young tree is easily bent and trained to new modes of 
 growth. So, likewise, is youth the time to give bent and training to 
 character. Left to itself, it may run into waywardness and deformity, or 
 take on a deeper degradation, with more terrible consequences. A col- 
 lege community is freighted with the responsibility of directing and help- 
 ing this growth. Fast by the way, the people of such a community stand 
 over against each other on the Ebals or Gerizims of cursings or of bless- 
 ings, between which .students must pass to their possessions. Standing 
 thus they produce impressions, control influences, touch springs of action. 
 
I08 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 awaken latent energies, mould characters, determine destinies. To those 
 desirous of blessing the world, the college community offers a most 
 important and promising field of usefulness. If these fountains of influ- 
 ence be made and kept pure and sweet, then will the outflowing streams 
 impart life and health and strength to all peoples. As are college stu- 
 dents, so will ultimately be the world, especially in its higher reaches of 
 civilization. Blot out the colleges of a people, and one of their chiefest 
 and finest glories will have disappeared. They are at once both the 
 exponent of the present and the assurance of future human greatness. 
 From the real they prophesy of the possible. Their ideal calling and 
 aim shine out from every student lamp. The boisterous world does not 
 realize all this. 
 
 The college community should be surcharged with spiritual mag- 
 netism, delicate, sensitive, ethereal currents, that thrill and quicken all 
 coming within its influence. It will also be full of the inspirations that 
 spring from the latent possibilities of youth. These awaken longings, 
 aspirations, to climb to higher planes of attainment, with ampler sweeps 
 of mental vision, desires that become purposes to live and do nobly. To 
 the ingenuous youth, honestly desirous of making the most possible of 
 himself, such a right genuine college community is full of attractions, 
 inducements, inspirations. "The best culture," as has been well said, "is 
 one part drill and nine parts inspiration" — inspiration, not so much to 
 know something new as to become something better. For this end the 
 best and highest type of schools does not necessarily imply costly 
 appointments. The chief value of school life lies, not simply in the 
 knowledge acquired, in the accuracy of the scholarship attained, but in 
 the inspiration received, the mental balance and spiritual courage acquired, 
 enabling one to stand squarely and bravely on both feet, with a symmet- 
 rical and harmonious growth of all the faculties, begetting vigor in action, 
 power for achievement, the whole toned and warmed by kindly and gen- 
 erous sympathies and gentle amenities. Such culture comes, in no small 
 degree, from the peculiar and delightful atmosphere, associations, man- 
 ners, customs, and above all the spirit, pervading the community. All 
 of these subtle influences of life, which operate silently, awakening no 
 antagonisms, are of inestimable value in their bearing on the formation 
 of taste, manners, morals, character. Everything, however quiet and 
 unobtrusive, thus tending, all unconsciously it may be, to make the stu- 
 dent better and nobler, is beyond price. Such influences tone down 
 idio.syncrasies, reduce self-esteem, disturb self-complacency, abate self- 
 assurance, wear off angularities, weed out the rowdy and the braggart, 
 
FAITHFULNESS OF TRUSTEES AND CITIZENS. IO9 
 
 and restrain the wayward. Meanness is made despicable. Manfulness is 
 fostered and made significant. Self-respect, self-poise, and self-control are 
 nurtured. Earnest endeavor is induced, sympathies enlarged, the ameni- 
 ties cultivated, the appreciation of the importance of a careful, thorough, 
 broad, many-sided preparation for one's life work is enhanced. The 
 highest end of education is, therefore, not to make scholars, simply, nor 
 skilled workmen, but, rather, to develop characters, strong, noble, and 
 beautiful. 
 
 The specialized work, therefore, of a college community is culture. 
 This, in its completeness, is the awakening the living energies of all, 
 enabling them, severally, to grow, not simply by passive accretion, but 
 healthily, symmetrically, proportionally, and in harmonious relations to 
 environments, through the normal activities of these energies. By such 
 culture the intellect is not simply enlightened, but alertness, grasp, versa- 
 tility, are secured as well, the appetities are controlled, the sensibilities 
 refined and ennobled, energy and decision of will secured, thus perfecting 
 the best possible each individual, and giving preparation for continued 
 growth, and for all opportunity, privilege, and responsibility. To this 
 end these processes need to be transmitted into habits. Man is a being 
 of habits, resulting from early training. As is his training, so will be 
 these habits; as are his habits, so will be his character. They are both 
 the embodiment and exponent of character. That is truly culture which 
 subjects the wayward, wandering impulses and thoughts to orderly activ- 
 ities, which makes virtue, beauty, nobleness, goodness a second nature, 
 gives force, decision, fortitude, self-poise, courage, efficiency, awakens a 
 vigilance that relaxes no effort, a skill that vitalizes all resources, a per- 
 severance that never grows weary, a vigor that knows no decay, wherein 
 every right work, every humble yet sacred service, becomes a spon- 
 taneity and a joy. In order to produce these results, culture must be 
 free from one-sidedness and incompleteness, giving totality of develop- 
 ment. 
 
 In securing these ends, in addition to the school and the community, 
 nature lends valuable aid. She is a constant, faithful, and successful 
 teacher. Fields, woods, streams, sky and cloud, calm and storm, night 
 and day, all modes and moods, all seasons, all sights, all voices, have 
 lessons eagerly received and appropriated by the youthful spirit. 
 
 Our Institution is favored, both as to its origin and to its location. 
 Occupying this aerie in the mountains, it possesses in its environments 
 many admirable natural advantages. This region, lifted above the 
 fogs and mists and damp airs of the lowlands, while not possessing the 
 
IIO LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 grandeur of rugged mountain heights, or that of the wide, sweeping 
 plain, or of the solemn ocean, has that style of beauty wherein the reg- 
 ular uniformity of the graceful breaks abruptly into the spirited diversity 
 of the picturesque. It has the conditions well fitted to give both physical 
 and mental health, elasticity, alertness, and all vigorous, free, manly vir- 
 tues. The naturalist finds himself environed by a geology, paleontology, 
 flora, and fauna remarkable for their diversity and multiplicity, furnishing 
 a museum of nature's own providing, crowded with the very best mate- 
 rial, inviting the student to study nature at first hand. The aesthetic 
 sentiments, likewise, are constantly appealed to and nurtured. The angel 
 of beauty, with an eye to this, has sculptured these hills and valleys into 
 picturesque forms, and sown over them broadcast trees, shrubs, flowers, 
 in varied and rich profusion, and filled them with bird song. These fill 
 the eye and ear, interfusing the tedium of routine toil with lessons in 
 simple beauty, thereby enhancing the joys of life, making it purer, sweeter, 
 nobler, more worth living. In these the art student finds unrivaled 
 inducements to the direct study of the beautiful in nature. 
 
 " Glorious is the world without, but more glorious is the world 
 within." While thus spontaneously going to the outward world and 
 receiving unconscious tuition therefrom, or, with set purpose, studying 
 nature, yet the student's chief study is within the realm of mind. Neither 
 the one nor the other is complete of itself; neither is to extrude the other. 
 Both are to be conjoined and commingled. This alone gives complete 
 culture. Thereby the student dwells in the light of perpetual truth and 
 beauty, in an atmosphere of constant inspiration to nobleness and good- 
 ness. Both from nature and from within his own spirit he hears a voice 
 of " gentle stillness." He sees the glories of the divine robes, as they trail 
 through the universe. From his books the august excellencies of the 
 antique world and the inspiring excellencies of the modern world are 
 ever shining about him. Through these the most splendidly gifted 
 intellects of all time sit around his study table and hold converse with 
 him. Thus the most vigorous, subtle, and lofty thinkers of all the ages 
 gather about him and impart their own strong-pulsing life, enthrone in 
 serene preeminence enlightened reason, connected with the tenderest 
 sympathies and the profoundest reverence. He is thus heir of all the 
 ages. The walls of his study expand till they inclose the universe. 
 
 Students are especially quickened by the living personalities with 
 whom they mingle. As they meet in the varied, bright, beautiful, and 
 inspiring relations of school life, with common purpose and aspirations, 
 they enthuse to all that is strongest and best in each. These frequently 
 
FAITHFULNESS OF TRUSTEES AND CITIZENS. Ill 
 
 have a profounder effect upon the quality and compass of their educa- 
 tion than do set lessons and appointed teachers. Not a few can trace 
 their success or failure as students, not to their regular school work, but 
 to their associates. 
 
 Thus environed by rural life, within eye and ear shot of the refining 
 and elevating influences of nature, amid a community cultured, high- 
 toned, and sympathetic, and lighted by the undying lamp of thought, 
 passed on from age to age, with constantly increasing brilliancy and 
 power, student life is rendered the most favorable possible for getting 
 growth of intellect, strength of will, delicacy of sentiment, and all the 
 fairer blossoms of the spirit. Such school life, blending the old and new, 
 nature and life, makes the culture of each to-day the means whereby 
 each to-morrow shall give a truer, nobler life. In such a community, 
 with its strain of unworldly purity and beauty, kept fresh and dewy amid 
 the dusty drudgery of the common, all are englobed in a society that is 
 constantly perfecting itself through a free play of the best thoughts, the 
 finest sentiments, and gentle amenities, thereby multiplying all those 
 things that lend worth and dignity to life. 
 
 Above and beyond all else, a genuine religious life and culture 
 should be dominant in a college community. As all systems have a 
 unifying principle, as all beings rise in gradations to the highest, so all 
 lower modes and ends spontaneously rise towards the religious. Piety, 
 the blending of filial love and trust and loyal obedience, raises individuals 
 and communities from the plane of the simply moral to the religious. 
 This is the highest inspiration in all culture, the source of all spiritual 
 graces, the basis of all lofty character. It should, therefore, guide, con- 
 trol, and in.spire in all educational processes, as in all other activities. No 
 education is any guaranty of nobleness until this higher light floods the 
 soul, and there come a vision and a power that give victory over all the 
 discords of life, and the transcendant realities of the unseen become 
 dominant over the seen. Thus, all training, all preparation, is not simply 
 for the good of the individual, not to enable one to live in the conscious 
 struggle for personal well-being, not simply to work out one's individu- 
 ality, but through the forgetting of these, in seeking larger good of all, 
 to the end of making the will and kingdom of God prevail on the earth — 
 this is the highest and the best. Loyalty to truth and law, inspired by 
 reverence for the author of this truth and law, is the source and spring to 
 all right living and noble work. In proportion as individuals, communi- 
 ties, peoples, embody truth, become enlightened, follow the lead of law 
 in loyal and glad obedience, will they become strong and great in their 
 work, get influence, power, leadership. 
 
I I 2 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 The mission of a college community is thus especially to develop all 
 excellencies, and silently, yet surely, through those going out thence, 
 infusing humanity with a finer and nobler spirit, becoming thereby evan- 
 gels and teachers everywhere and at all times. Its mission is to empower 
 and send forth workers of all kinds. The students of to-day are soon to 
 become the leaders of society, the directors of affairs. Many of them are 
 destined to occupy high and commanding positions of influence and use- 
 fulness. They will have more to do in shaping the great interests of 
 humanity than any other equal number, and, perhaps, more than all that 
 are not being thus educated. The activities and progress of the present 
 require for these the broadest, highest, many-eyed, many-handed culture. 
 They will have to meet errors far reaching and subtle, false theories, 
 philosophies and traditions, both new and those grown gray in the respect 
 of the multitude. They will likewise be expected to lead in all pro- 
 gressive movements, to be heralds of a fairer and brighter dawn, the 
 inaugurators of new and better things. In order to fitly and successfully 
 fill these fields of future usefulness, they must needs submit to stern and 
 long-continued discipline, take to themselves the invigorating influences 
 of all generous training, manifold and comprehensive. 
 
 The hope of the world being thus so largely centered in the youth 
 being so educated, this community, in common with all other college 
 communities, is a center for originating influences whose encircling, 
 expanding waves beat out to all shores, whose fountains send streams 
 down all the channels of time, with an ever-increasing force and volume. 
 The importance of its work rivals, if not outrivals, all other enterprises, 
 for it is a feeder to them all. The training of youth, in the light of these 
 high ideals and for these great ends, is our special mission. To this have 
 we been called and set apart, as indicated in the guidance and support of 
 an approving providence. 
 
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CHAPTER XW- 
 
 WOMAM'S SHARE IN EDUGATIOM. 
 
 ALFRED, with its liberal policy, broad scope of training, 
 and co-education, has sent out many strong, thoughtful, 
 ^^^») earnest women. These, as mothers, teachers, doc- 
 tors, lawyers, ministers, missionaries, etc., have made the world 
 better and their own lives a success. In earliest manhood Mr. 
 Allen became convinced that our heavenly Father never meant 
 that man alone should move the civilization of the world to its 
 highest point. He had subdued the powers of nature till they 
 were slaves to do his bidding; but, with war, intemperance, and 
 their attendant evils still existing, man must remain a partial 
 savage till the spiritual forces of woman's soul should equally 
 share with him in the lifting of humanity up into the higher 
 plane of moral and spiritual living. Everywhere, with tongue 
 and pen, he advocated the dignity of the human soul and the 
 brotherhood of all men. How anxious he felt that our young, 
 talented girls should put aside all narrow, selfish views of life, 
 and move up to that plane! How heartily he welcomed every 
 woman in literature, on the platform, in law, in the pulpit, in 
 fact, everywhere, when she came forward to take her rightful 
 place beside man for the world's progress! His earnest sym- 
 pathy was with such as Lucretia Mott, Mrs. Staunton, Susan 
 B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, and Julia Ward Howe. From time 
 to time these and others were invited to Alfred to lecture, thus 
 sharing our home and strengthening the influences that had 
 made Alfred a leader in all the reformatory movements of the 
 day. Mrs. Caroline H. Dall, for her varied talents and breadth 
 of scholarship, early drew our attention to her work. Having 
 
 {■'3) 
 
114 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 cause to consult her on some point of interest to our young 
 women, she wrote, "Go forward, take the first step, and God 
 will show you the next." I select from his sketch in reference 
 to her the following: — 
 
 CAROLINE H. DALL. 
 
 "Over one field of reform she has made herself a sleepless sentinel, 
 that is, over all that concerns the interests, duties, and rights of woman, 
 For years she has suffered no author or journal of any eminence to 
 slur, misrepresent, or dwarf the cause without sending a word bullet 
 whizzing in that direction. Of course such fidelity has aroused a host 
 of antagonists, for it is a peculiarity of human nature not to like to be 
 hit, and Mrs. Dall has a wonderful talent for hitting that at which she 
 aims. She has probably disturbed more self-complacent conservatism, 
 or the half insolence and half laziness which assumes that title, than any 
 other woman now living. Her first series of lectures were sketches of 
 female character, but were not published. 
 
 "She has probably discussed a greater variety of topics, and covered 
 a wider range of subjects, than any other American woman, and there 
 is certainly no other by whom her learning can be gauged, who knows 
 so much of philology, archaeology, oriental history and languages, and 
 the results of modern Biblical criticism. 
 
 " Mrs. Dall truly holds the pen of a ready writer. Her depth of 
 culture and versatility of talent make her perfect mistress of the English 
 language. She never uses a word that will not strengthen or clear the 
 thought expressed, and what she utters is from the need of its being 
 said, whether in the interests of learned research, or in the instruction 
 or entertainment of the young, in matters relating to the practical 
 economies of life, or in furtherance of the great cause to which she has 
 especially devoted herself She thus impresses her hearers or readers 
 with respect, both for her subject and herself She realizes the sufferings 
 of humanity, and also the high possibilities of happiness within its reach, 
 hence her earnest sympathy has been given in words and works to help 
 every form of human woe. Mrs. Dall has been untiring in elaborating 
 every subject to which her attention has been given, spending months 
 in working up statistics, and when they were complete, using them to 
 the best advantage. What would have been, in the hands of common 
 historians, dry, prosaic facts, became, by her masterly touch, the bold 
 outlines of a grand panorama, in which human beings move and hearts 
 palpitate. The most stui:)id and careless cannot read her pages without 
 
WO.MAN S SHARE IN EDUCATION. II 5 
 
 becoming thoughtful, and the thoughtful are spontaneously moved to 
 action. 
 
 " To-day her position is in the front ranks of those who labor for the 
 elevation of woman, where she stands with a serene confidence in the 
 onward march and final triumph of grand ideas she has so long and 
 unfalteringly held up to the public. Her work on ' Woman's Rights ' 
 has been so exhaustive in logic and facts that it has been a golden 
 fountain, from which most of the later writers and lecturers have drawn, 
 often without so much as, 'By your leave, madam.' Her labor has been 
 very influential in opening the doors of colleges to woman. 
 
 "Mrs. Dall is endowed by nature with an exquisite sense of order 
 and fitness that pervades her entire being and governs all her acts, thus 
 making her life the richest, grandest volume of all that she has presented 
 to the world. Thousands working in avenues opened by her earnest 
 efforts will rise up to call her blessed." 
 
 Mrs. Dall being acknowledged as one of the finest female 
 scholars of our times in law as well as in literature, her name 
 was proposed to our Faculty for the title of LL.D. This was 
 granted by them in 1878, she being the first woman in modern 
 times to receive that title. Miss Maria Mitchell received hers 
 in 1882, from the college at Hanover, Indiana. , 
 
 The following slight extract is from President Allen's sketch 
 of Mrs. Browning as a poet: — 
 
 ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. 
 
 " From the earliest periods of time down through the succeeding ages 
 there has appeared a line of kings of song, whose thrones are more per- 
 manent than those of earthly sovereigns. To whom is our allegiance more 
 fully accorded, or sworn fealty more fully kept, than to those who have 
 touched into activity the secret springs of sensibility? What is it that 
 in every household makes the name of King David as familiar as that 
 of father or mother ? Is it that he was Israel's king? or that he gave to 
 the world those divine songs which have lived and rolled through the 
 dim aisles of buried ages, and still remain in majesty and power, shed- 
 ding their rays of divine light upon the human soul? And following in 
 the same line is grand old Homer. Blind and beggar that he was, he 
 left on record strains that are yet echoing along the swift-revolving cen- 
 turies. Thus they come — Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare. But here in 
 these latter days comes a zvoinan, who, in the words of her own favorite 
 
Il6 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 Shelle\', 'so learned in suffering what she taught in song' that the world 
 stands wondering by whose side she shall be crowned. Sister of Ten- 
 nyson, some have said; others, daughter of Shakespeare, reluctant to 
 own the greatness of her power, yet knowing her throne is so established 
 in the hearts of the world that it cannot be overthrown. But while these 
 critiques are talking and writing articles of measurement, we who love 
 her for her priceless gifts can, with a steady hand, place upon her head 
 the sacred crown of true and complete poet. 
 
 "Mrs. Browning's mind matured young. Being, through suffering 
 so many years, put by from all the active pleasures of life, learning seems 
 to' have been the one gift within her reach, and she grasped it with pas- 
 sionate earnestness. Early in life she became an accomplished scholar 
 in ancient literature, then, with her blind tutor, Boid, she read the Greek 
 poets with a love that has left its mark upon every page of her writings. 
 There in that room where she was so many years the prisoner of pain, 
 with no companions except a few chosen friends, her Hebrew Bible, a 
 shelf full of Greek books, and several volumes of polyglot reading, she 
 labored and suffered, gathering classic jewels with which to set her own 
 thoughts in after years. Mrs. Browning's genius as a poet is of two 
 kinds, lyric and 4i-amatic. As the rank of lyric poetry lies in the power 
 of the poet to coin his own soul in gems of song, she stands firmly with 
 its leaders. Her pen has caught an impulse from every phase of life, — 
 romance, chivalry, love, patriotism, humanity, divine life, and immor- 
 tality, a noble collection that shall live in the future, not as empty gob- 
 lets whose contents have been drained, but fountains that still flow when 
 the traveler who drank from them has passed on. 
 
 " It was that sense of divine life in her life that has exalted her so 
 high as a woman, that of all the works she has left her own life is the 
 sweetest, noblest poem of them all. Looking tlirough all the years of 
 her life, with the exception of infirm bodily health, which in her case 
 seems to be no hindrance but rather an aid to her spiritual growth, her' 
 external relations all present a round of perfect harmony with her highest 
 gifts. In the benefits of early culture, in the power of poetic thought 
 and expression, in the romance of impassioned love, and in the full frui- 
 tion of domestic joys, in that Italian home, with all its appliances of art 
 and circle of kindred spirits, her earthly course lies closed at last, like 
 some beautiful da)- lily whose closing sweetness yet lingers on the even- 
 ing air." 
 
WOMAN S SHARE IN EDUCATION. II 7 
 
 Mr. P. A. Burdick, the noted temperance evangelist, whom 
 Alfred was proud to claim, said at the service held in memory 
 of President Allen: — 
 
 "He was anions^ the first to believe in woman's equalit)- with man. 
 He believed that she had the riglit to an education outside of the old 
 established domestic lines. He believed that she had the right to think, 
 to act, to vote. He espoused these principles in the face of centuries of 
 prejudice. He demanded for woman the right to fill positions of trust, 
 to become lawyers, doctors, ministers of the gospel, and at a time when 
 it was but little less than martyrdom to promulgate such doctrine. He 
 builded better than he knew. His faith in the possibilities and capa- 
 bilities of womanhood took root in other lives, and he saw established 
 in Alfred University woman's equality with man." 
 
 Professor L. C. Rogers at the same service said: — 
 
 "hi the spirit of noble knighthood he stood for woman's rights. He 
 was an almost worshipful admirer of true womanhood. He gallantly 
 maintained woman's equal privilege with man to win in the common 
 struggle for maintenance, for place, and power. His sympathies were 
 always with the cause of truth and righteousness, as he was enabled to 
 see these issues." 
 
CHAPTER XWI 
 
 THE HOME, 
 
 ^^^^^RESIDENT ALLEN loved his home, and was never 
 
 y^ absent from it longer than necessary. The burdens 
 
 JL and disappointments that came under most trying 
 
 circumstances were dropped in the home circle, 
 
 where his genial tenderness and patience were lessons to all. 
 
 Our habits of living were so simple that sickness seldom 
 found its way into the family. Through his knowledge of med- 
 icine, the laws of life, and careful nursing, many a sick student 
 was restored to health. Our rooms were many times thrown 
 open to the sick, who were cared for as though they had been 
 members of the family. Sometimes for weeks together he 
 would not have a single night of sleep on this account. 
 
 A sad experience came in July, 1879. While Mr. Allen was 
 in Albany attending the Regents' Convocation, he became indis- 
 posed, and was advised by physicians to return home. This 
 advice was followed, he never dreaming that the trouble would 
 actually prove to be smallpox. During this illness of five weeks, 
 through the thoughtful suggestion of Dr. Sheppard, we were 
 quarantined in Steinheim. Although he recovered to all appear- 
 ance from its effects, yet he never afterward possessed the nerv- 
 ous vigor of former years. 
 
 At table, his ready wit and quaint story-telling were a never- 
 failing source of enjoyment and profit. The twilight hour often 
 found father and children with shout and laughter chasing one 
 another up and down through the house. "We're making too 
 much noise for mamma," was the signal to return to their 
 studies. In the development of their varied talents he took a 
 
 (.18) 
 
THE FAMILY. 
 
THE HOME. 119 
 
 special pride, always being careful to give them freedom in the 
 choice of their own lines of study when old enough to plan for 
 themselves. The winter evenings were sometimes devoted to 
 science — each child sharing in the general study of plants, shells, 
 and rocks. 
 
 Words of reproof were seldom heard, though no child or 
 inmate of the family ever thought of disobeying father's com- 
 mands. His love of fun and keen sense of the ridiculous some- 
 times made his relations even with delinquent students pleasant. 
 The study was the gathering place for such when the offense 
 was not grave enough to come before the Faculty. These young 
 people, being asked to give a history of the matter, would per- 
 haps leave out some important item, but from his sharp ques- 
 tions they would see how vain it was to hide the truth, as the 
 president seemed to know all about the offense and was com- 
 plete master of the situation. A paternal talk would follow, 
 from which many could date their first knowledge of his true 
 character. He was always much surprised and affected when 
 letters, plants, books, or anything came as tokens from these 
 students. 
 
 In warm weather the broad front porch, commanding one of 
 the finest views of the grounds and surrounding hills, was used 
 as a receiving parlor, where teachers, students, and friends often 
 gathered for social chats with the family. 
 
 MEMORIES OF THE HOME, BY MRS. LIZZIE NELSON FRYER. 
 
 I had looked toward Alfred as the ideal home of student 
 life, and first reached there in the autumn of 1869. 
 
 It was evening when the stage drove up the hill to President 
 Allen's house — conspicuous by the many lights in the win- 
 dows. Eva, a rosy-cheeked girl, not yet in long gowns, came 
 to the veranda to give me welcome. Her mother had gone 
 away for a few days to paint a picture of a friend's home, she 
 said, and she was left to entertain any who might come. Her 
 easy, cordial manner, while she told about the school, and the 
 different members of her family, was so reassuring that 
 
I20 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 little time was lost before we were discussing Longfellow, 
 Whittier, and Tennyson. Of these poets I had a schoolbook 
 knowledge, but when she talked of other works, such as "Torn 
 Brown's School Days," and "Ivanhoe," which she was holding 
 in her hand, I could say nothing except confess ignorance. 
 Scott was her "favorite author." Knowing little of him, and 
 other writers of whom she spoke. I retired that night mortified 
 that a girl so much younger than myself could converse intelli- 
 gently upon subjects unknown to me. Before morning, how- 
 ever, a decided resolution was made to know more of literature. 
 This was my first lesson at Alfred. 
 
 The term had been in session a fortnight or more, so it was 
 not easy to find a place in the classes I had planned to enter. 
 How vividly memory recalls a forenoon spent in complete fail- 
 ure in this respect! After an early excuse from the dinner 
 table, I sank into a chair in the parlor, to hide a coming flood of 
 tears. In the midst of the outburst who should quietly enter 
 but the president himself. "What's the trouble.^ Are you ill?" 
 he asked kindly. "No, only discouraged and homesick," was 
 the hesitating reply. "Glad to hear it. Glad to hear it.'' 
 Then by subtile questions he gradually drew out my experience 
 in teaching and "boarding round" that summer, and upon leav- 
 ing the room remarked: "You'll do. Young ladies who ever 
 amount to anything always have a cry when they come to 
 Alfred." Tliese words may have had a tinge of sarcasm, but 
 from- that hour I knew President Allen to be the students' 
 friend. 
 
 Before many days the home circle was made complete by 
 the return of Mrs. Allen and active, inquiring little May. 
 Alfred was a fair-haired, sturdy little fellow in dresses — the 
 baby and pet of the household. 
 
 Those were cheerful times in a happy home. At breakfast 
 all repeated verses of Scripture, which were sometimes chosen 
 from a scroll on the wall of the dining room. Then the father 
 followed with a touching, beautiful prayer. Every week-day 
 hour was crowded with duties of one kind or another, until in 
 
THE HOME. 121 
 
 early evening, before the chapel bell rang for "study hours," when 
 the family often spent a few moments together around the table, 
 perhaps in games of spelling, or of "word-making and word- 
 taking," or, maybe, in listening while one read aloud a chapter 
 from some new book. My first appreciation of Mrs. Stowe as 
 an author, was formed by coming down to hear "Oldtown 
 Folks" read in this manner. 
 
 So many were coming and going that the family was seldom 
 alone. Whether relatives, old students, or others, all were 
 made welcome, and "room for one more" was always found at 
 table. The presence of visitors never seemed in the least to 
 disturb the routine of work and study. Frequently some of the 
 teachers and students were invited for the evening, and then 
 books, pictures, curiosities and specimens from the cabinet (it 
 was before Steinheim) were examined and discussed in such a 
 bright, amusing manner that the visit was one long to be 
 remembered. Such evenings closed with music, readings, reci- 
 tations, or speeches from some of the friends or members of the 
 family. 
 
 President Allen was sometimes prevailed upon to give his 
 lectures in other places, "Temperance," "The Coming Man," 
 "The Coming Woman," and "World Building," were among 
 his favorite subjects. A trunk was taken filled with specimens 
 of the "stone age," rocks, fossils, shells, maps, and other things 
 to use in illustrations. More than once those who came to 
 listen, saw for the first time how the earth's history has been 
 traced by the finger of God upon the very stones under our feet. 
 
 Young men or young women now and then came in the 
 evening to the president's study to talk over the papers they 
 were writing, for either the Commencement or "Jubilee" sessions 
 of the lyceums. "President, if you will make a speech to- 
 morrow, it would help me as nothing else can, to finish the sub- 
 ject I have begun," was not an uncommon request. And those 
 chapel talks, what else was ever like them! How many eyes 
 they opened to scorn the low and trivial, and cultivate the noble 
 and eternal! How many went out from them fired with new 
 
122 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 desires, new ambitions, to live, and do, and suffer, if need be, 
 for the good of others! How the help they gave lingers in the 
 hearts of many till this day. 
 
 Through all the years comes back the president's talk one 
 Wednesday after rhetorical exercises, when the students were 
 excused to stroll in the woods. They were reminded that 
 there were "things better than beechnuts" to seek after, and 
 urged to look out of self to interpret the Father's thought to 
 them in the trees, rocks, and hills — in the voices of the falling 
 leaves and flowing waters. To one, on that afternoon, the earth 
 seemed indeed "holy ground;" the lecture had awakened a 
 radiant hope, a purpose to accomplish, a hungering and thirst- 
 ing of soul before unknown. 
 
 The following extracts are taken from one of President 
 Allen's addresses: — 
 
 THE GREAT LEGACY OE THE PRESENT TO THE FUTURE. 
 
 "The great legacies of the present to the future are the children. All 
 other gifts sink into insignificancy before these. What are farms, and 
 shops, and merchandise, and gold, and silver, in comparison with chil- 
 dren ? Yet, in the everyday bustle and drive of life, the parent may 
 foro-et that to his care are committed spirits with capacities for perpetual 
 growth, and that he should not use his children as agencies for amassing 
 wealth, counting their worth -by the dollars and cents they can earn. 
 Let sickness and death mark his child for a victim, and how will the 
 parental heart be stirred! How will conscience speak! How will he 
 pray, weep, agonize! How willingly would he give the whole world, 
 were it his to give, if health and life could thereby be purchased for the 
 stricken one! What are wealth and honor now? If such is the value 
 of health and life and physical well being, how should parents regard the 
 spiritual welfare of their children! Next to their own soul's salvation, 
 it is the duty of parents to seek the spiritual interests of their children, 
 to prepare them to enter properly upon the great mission of life. The 
 little hands clasping our hands, the little feet following fast in our foot- 
 steps, and crowding into every place and station, little hearts freighted 
 with eternal forces — these are to be led, guided, cultured. These little 
 ones, full of immortal vigor, nurtured into all that is generous and manly, 
 into all scholar!)- and Christian nobleness, are the greatest gifts which it 
 
THE HOME. 
 
 123 
 
 is possible for the present to bestow upon tlie future. What is a farm 
 to a noble child ? Yet how often does the father toil all of his days to 
 leave a good farm, or interest-bearing stocks, and therewith a miserable 
 son. He has been a good business man, but a most negligent parent. 
 The world may, or may not, thank him for his propert}'; but it will most 
 assuredly curse him for his children. Children will write the names of 
 their parents upon the coming age, either in letters of light, or in letters 
 dark and lurid. 
 
 HOME AND PARENT. 
 
 " Fast by the portals of the land of life and of promise, over against 
 each other, upon the Ebals and Gerizims of cursings and of blessings, 
 stand parents, teachers, and preachers, beneath whose benedictions or 
 maledictions must pass all generations in their march to their possessions. 
 The parent stands first, makes the first impressions, awakens the latent 
 powers of the soul, touches first the chords of affection, controls the 
 influences that first affect character. The parent stands by when the 
 child first chooses between right and wrong, between life and death; and 
 great is the power granted him over these decisions. The child works 
 or plays, goes or comes, weeps or laughs, is lazy or industrious, honest 
 or dishonest, liberal or parsimonious, religious or irreligious, in short, a 
 blessing or a curse, pretty much at the bidding of the parent. Who are 
 the youth growing up polluted with sin, their very breath a sirocco of 
 death ? — They are, for the most part, those who have been neglected at 
 home, not only neglected, perhaps, but have received positive instruction, 
 either by example or precept or both, in all manner of evil. Who 
 promise to become the support and protection of everything noble and 
 valuable in society — a blessing to humanity? Whence have sprung the 
 great and good of all ages? — From homes consecrated to truth and 
 religion. True, the good may in after times be changed to the bad, or 
 the bad to the good ; but these are the exceptions, not the law. Parents 
 under the blessing of heaven hold, in an emphatic sense, the keys of life 
 and death. How important, then, how responsible, the parental relation! 
 What undying interests cluster around their power! To a Christian 
 parent, desirous of blessing the world, his own family presents one of the 
 most important and promising fields of labor, a field designed by Pro\i- 
 dence for his especial culture. All other fields lie round about this field, 
 not in opposition, but in concentric relations. If such are the preroga- 
 tives of the parent, how important, even imperative, that they should be 
 rightly employed! If, as the apostle declares, the Christian who neglects 
 to provide for the temporal wants of his family has denied the faith, and 
 
124 LIl'E OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 is worse than an infidel, what terms of reprobation are sufficiently strong 
 and scathing for those who neglect the spiritual wants of their families, 
 sacrificing all for wealth or fashion ? Neither riches nor honor can com- 
 pensate the sacrifice. 
 
 "Home culture is preparatory and fundamental to all special training. 
 It is laying the foundations of character. It awakens latent energies. 
 It is the period of first and strong impressions. Without proper bias 
 given now, sad will be the future unfoldings of character. The innocency 
 of infancy may thus be left to run into the waywardness of youth and 
 the degeneracy of age, or an earlier and deeper d)'e may be given, with 
 a more terrible range of consequences. Spiritually great men almost 
 universally ascribe their greatness to early impressions, impulses given 
 them by their mothers, whose prayers and examples have been as the 
 dews of heaven upon their after lives. Biography continually points to 
 home as the nursery of most ministers, missionaries, . reformers, bene- 
 factors, wherein impulses there given become a part of the child's nature, 
 growing with his growth, strengthening with his strength. The culture 
 of such homes blends restraints, preventatives, awakenings, and unfold- 
 ings, checking the lower and awakening the higher forces of the soul. 
 The young spirit needs to grow amid the genial influences of love, and 
 the high inspiration of noble examples, and the light of great and solemn 
 truths, thereby led to seek goodness and greatness as its natural destiny, 
 its lawful inheritance. Having been educated in all nobleness and good- 
 ness at home, then are the young fitted for the further culture of the 
 schools." 
 

 -^ 
 
CHAPTER XV/II. 
 
 WAGATION TOUR IM EUROPE. 
 
 (^^^^^^ ETWEEN the years of 1875 and 1882 an earnest 
 |— ==^ effort was made to advance all departments of .the 
 
 Jl^ ^ work. New apparatus and building-s were needed 
 
 to meet the growing demands. Professor Larkin, 
 with his usual enthusiasm, was collecting funds from old stu- 
 dents, teachers, and friends, to carry forward the completion of 
 the Kenyon Memorial Hall. The library, chemical and 
 mechanical departments, with all other interests of the Institu- 
 tion, were in constant need of means for enlargement and com- 
 pletion, so that the necessary outlay of funds much exceeded 
 the income. The constant strain to make one dollar do the 
 work of ten became so great that the continued effort of mak- 
 ing "bricks without straw" began to tell upon Mr. Allen's 
 health and vigor. My own health, so long nearly perfect, now 
 seemed failing, thus adding sleepless nights to his many cares. 
 Our eldest daughter, Evangel, who had cheerfully shared all 
 the home burdens, married, and moved away. Added to all, 
 his nervous system was still suffering from the effects of the 
 smallpox, which he had in 1879. His friends observed his fail- 
 ing health, and after a time succeeded in inducing him to accept 
 the invitation of Mr. Charles Potter to go to Europe. 
 
 In the following pages Dr. A. H. Lewis enables the reader 
 to follow our travelers from point to point and gather a reflec- 
 tion of those experiences which brought them the richly-earned 
 rest, opportunities, and pleasure. To recall this journey was a 
 never-failing source of pleasure to President Allen, as well as 
 of profit to his friends. 
 
 (125) 
 
126 LIFE OF I'RKSIDFXT AIJ.EN, 
 
 THE CRAM CLUIJ. 
 
 A Special expression of personal regard for President Allen 
 was made by Charles Potter, Jr., Plainfield, N. J., in the spring 
 of 1882. Noticing that he was weary from overwork and 
 anxiety, Mr. Potter decided that an extended rest, and change 
 of scene, would be a means of profit and pleasure to the Presi- 
 dent, and a lasting benefit to the University. This resulted in 
 his making President Allen his guest for a European trip. At 
 the same time George H. Babcock, of Plainfield, determined to 
 make the same trip, with A. H. Lewis as his guest. So it 
 came about that a party of four congenial spirits entered upon 
 an experience which proved pleasant, profitable, and beneficial 
 in the highest degree. It deepened friendships already exist- 
 ing, and strengthened ties which have continued to hold the 
 o-roup in closest union. The "calling home" of President 
 Allen breaks the circle, and the remaining ones (one of whom 
 writes these lines) feel the deeper loneliness because so much 
 of what is brightest and best in the memory of those days, was 
 contributed by him, whom all so sincerely mourn. 
 
 Before the outward ocean voyage was completed, the party 
 was informally organized for literary purposes as ''The Cram 
 Club." The itinery determined upon included Ireland, Scot- 
 land, England, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland. 
 President Allen's choices touching scenes of scientific and his- 
 toric interest, formed a large factor in determining the places to 
 be visited. Every facility was furnished for the ease and com- 
 fort of the Club. Times and methods of travel were chosen 
 which would accomplish the purpose of enjoying the best in 
 natural scenery, art, literature, science, and religion, which the 
 Old World can offer, and yet conduce to the greatest physical 
 comfort and health of the party. President Allen entered into 
 it all with the zest of a scholar, the enthusiasm of a specialist, in 
 many departments, and the untrammeled enjoyment which 
 comes where common choices and growing friendships crown 
 all plans and all purposes. From time to time each member ol 
 the Club wrote letters to the Subbath Recorder. 
 
VACATION TOUR IN EUROPE. 1 27 
 
 The purpose of this chapter will be served best by permit- 
 ting the reader to catch glimpses of the trip, and especially of 
 President Allen, through extracts from these letters. His let- 
 ters, which were fewer than his friends wished (he hoped to 
 write more after reaching home), will be given nearly in full. 
 Extracts from those of the other members will be given only 
 when necessary to let the readers see more of the president, 
 the worthy "Nestor" of the Club, than they would otherwise 
 do. His signature, "Prex," appears with his letters. 
 
 Of the opening of the voyage, one wrote: — 
 
 "On the 13th of June a party of weary workers embarked on the • 
 steamship Arizona, for a summer's rest in foreign lands. After the 
 enthusiastic " Godspeeds " had been said by loving friends, their floral 
 tributes duly admired, and the city of New York had faded into the dis- 
 tance, an account was taken of the party, to know who was who. . . 
 
 "The names adopted were 'Prex,' 'Parson,' 'Press,' and 'Pundit,' the 
 latter because of the outrageous way in which he punned it. As an 
 expression of the compression of so much multuvi in parvo, we dubbed 
 ourselves the 'Cram Club,' a name which, no doubt, the steward 
 thought we richly deserved before the voyage was over. The two 
 'Profs.,' at least, expected to return home crammed full of information 
 on a variety of subjects. 
 
 OUTWARD BOUND. 
 
 "Our good ship carried us so smoothly and .steadily we found it hard 
 to realize that we were rushing through the water at the rate of twenty- 
 seven feet per second. Old ocean presented her calmest aspect all the 
 way, doubtless lulled to rest by the venerable appearance and flowing 
 beards of several of the party, enough like Neptune to have been his 
 sons; and, as a consequence, instead of sorrowful stories of seasick suf- 
 ferings, we have the pleasure to report that the Cram Ckib were on duty 
 at every meal during the voyage. 
 
 "On the morning of the eighth day out, while we were at breakfast, 
 word came that land was in sight. True, however, to the traditions of 
 the Club, all sat through the remainder of the meal, without missing a 
 dish, and then, seizing their fieldglasses, rushed upon deck. Two sharp 
 peaks slowly coming out of the mi.sty distance and the dim outline of a 
 range of mountains were all that could be seen. We soon found, how- 
 ever, we were off the Skelligs, on the coast of Ireland, some sixtv miles 
 
128 I.IFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 north of our course, owing to the fogs, which had hidden the sun for 
 three daj's. Old Sol, however, now put in an appearance, and a more 
 delightful sail was ne\er enjoyed by a happier crowd than was on the 
 Arizona that morning. Prex's and Parson's noses had put on their 
 brightest bloom during the voyage, and now, joined with their genial 
 smile and beaming countenances, added brillianc}- to the occasion, like 
 Jupiter and Mars among the starr)- hosts. . . . 
 
 QUEENSTOWN. 
 
 "At Queenstown we only stopped long enough to telegraph home' 
 to make a hasty visit to the Cathedral, to experience the sensation of 
 being foreigners in a foreign land, and to get a taste of the irrepressible 
 Irish beggar in the old hags who persisted in forcing upon us sprigs of 
 shamrock, when we took a small steamer up the charming river Lee to 
 Cork. In the early evening, amid beauties of hill and verdure rarel}- 
 surpassed, past castle and moat, and villa and cottage, queer-looking 
 sails and swift-gliding steamers, with the added charm of a bright-eyed 
 Irish maiden, with the richest of brogues, to rehearse the traditions of the 
 river — thus passed our first evening as foreigners." 
 
 THE TRIP NORTHWARD. 
 
 Another member of the Club described the trip nothward, 
 from which the following touches are taken: — 
 
 " Five miles out from Cork we pass in sight of the famous Blame}- 
 Castle, built in 1446, by McCarthy, then one of the petty kings of Ireland, 
 of which it had five. In it is the famous Blarne}' stone, which tradition 
 says lent to him who kissed it a free tongue. It is so located in the 
 wall that those who kissed it had to climb down to it head first, or be 
 let down by the heels by an assistant. To accomplish this, the w^omen 
 were put into sacks, which, tied around the neck, left only the head out; 
 but the sacks were few and expensive, and the arch enemy did not invent 
 paper sacks and sell them for a half cent each, until after the castle 
 became a ruin, and this practice had fallen into disuse, which accounts 
 for the fact that so few Irish women can use their tongues glibh'(?). 
 
 "I-^arther on, while two of our Club were taking observations with 
 their glasses, they uttered a scream of delight, for they had discovered 
 another 'ruin.' A little farther on, and another came into view. Both 
 seemed to be the lower portion of what might, in some remote age, have 
 been towers, say twenty-five feet square, and of unknown height, but for 
 the present, perhaps fifteen feet high. In our compartment of the car 
 
VACATION TOUR IN EURORE. . 1 29 
 
 was an intelligent-looking young Irishman. One of the excited mem_ 
 bers of this Club addressed our Irish friend: 'I beg your pardon sir, but 
 can you tell us what ruins those are?' He took a look, and remarked, 
 'Those are not ruins, gentlemen, they are limekilns.'" 
 
 PLEASANTRIES. 
 
 Pleasantries are an excellent agency in promoting rest. 
 These were not wholly wanting, nor by any means valueless, in 
 the experiences of the Club. The air of Ireland produced them 
 as naturally as appropriate soil does strawberries. The genial, 
 though always thoughtful, Prex contributed his share The 
 same trip which developed the limekiln ruins furnished still 
 deeper scientific enjoyment, as the following will show :— 
 
 " Prex, apparently, was asleep in the corner of the compartment. It 
 was agreed it would be a pity to disturb him, but when we came to an 
 extensive peat bog, knowing we had only to mention anything about 
 geology in an ordinary tone, and it would wake him out of the soundest 
 sleep, and being anxious to know what he thought of it, we said, 'Geo- 
 logical formations.' You ought to have seen how quick he was looking 
 out at that window, with fire in his eye, and every particular hair of 
 enthusiasm standing on end. 'Where is it?' he asked. We said we 
 were wondering to what formation those peat bogs belonged. , He 
 answered, without apparent hesitation, 'The same formation as the hard- 
 pan in Alfred, where it reaches up to the third rail in the fence, only the 
 bog has more vegetable matter of the two in it.' His knowledge of 
 these things is wonderful, isn't it? 
 
 " Earnestly looking out for ruins, two of the Club having learned to 
 know a limekiln from a castle, we discovered some animals. At the 
 distance from which we saw them, it was quite doubtful whether they 
 were Kerry cows, or mules. Knowing that Prex was tvell up in ' Dar- 
 win's descent of man,' we ventured to suggest that it would be well to 
 get his decision on the subject, especially as, among the many obstrep- 
 erous animals he had to deal with in the last few years, he must have 
 become well acquainted with the genus mule. We ventured to jog him 
 again, and asked him to tell us whether they were mules or Kerry cows. 
 He quietly remarked that they were donkeys, and as his countenance 
 beamed graciously upon us, he said, ' We are not so far removed from 
 them as we ought to be.' We could not quite see the pertinence of the 
 remark, but are solemnly of the opinion that when the young men of 
 
130 • LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 the University find Prex apparently asleep, they had, in the appropriate 
 words of the Songs of Solomon, 'better not stir him up till he please.'" 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 President Allen wrote of Ireland as follows:— 
 
 "From Killarney the Club took train on the Great Southern and 
 Western Railway of Ireland, in a first-class car — a kind, it is said, that 
 none save aristocrats, Americans, and fools ride in. Being Americans, 
 the Club just escaped the last-named class. The plain is bordered on 
 the south by the Carherbarnagh and the Baggeragh Mountains. The 
 first station of note is Mallow, beautifully located on the banks of the 
 Blackwater. The country around is quite romantic. Here, at the cas- 
 tle of Kilcalman, Spenser wrote his Faerie Queen, and read the manu- 
 script to Raleigh while seated on the banks of the Aubeg or Mulla 
 River. 
 
 " From Mallow to Limerick the road passes through a beautiful and 
 fertile valley, with the Ballyhoura Mountains on the right and the Mulla- 
 garick on the left. Limerick is one of the historic cities of Ireland. It 
 is situated on the banks of the Shannon, the most beautiful of Irish 
 rivers. The old town was formerly surrounded by a massive wall, and 
 withstood many a siege, the most modern of which were those by Crom- 
 well and William the Third. The cathedral and castle of Limerick are 
 noble specimens of ancient architecture. 
 
 " From Limerick to Dublin the country is prairie-like, beset with 
 peat bogs. Kildare, a city (:)n the way, was renowned in olden times for 
 its saints. In the chapel of St. Bridget a perennial fire was kept burning 
 for a thousand years by the nuns, for the benefit of poor strangers. It 
 is noted scientifically at present for the fine fossils found in its carbonif- 
 erous limestone, a few of which are on their winding way to Alfred. 
 
 "After restmg the Sabbath, the Club did the city on an Irish jaunting 
 car. To be well traveled, one must needs do a few cities mounted on 
 one of these cars, evidently the lineal descendant of the pack saddle of 
 donkey or cow, on which the original Irishman journeyed with his fam- 
 ily from Iran, his fatherland, in far Asia. The saddlebags of country 
 doctors and itinerant parsons, of other days, were a degenerate species of 
 the same. This pack saddle, as the years went by, slipped from donkey 
 onto a pair of wheels. The Club mounted on this, back to back, and 
 reclining on one elbow, with heads up, while the driver, seated on the 
 pummel, drove his staunch, fast-going Irish horse mile after mile without 
 flagging, over the city. Dublin, situated on the river Liffey, and the 
 
VACATION TOUR IN EUROPE. I3I 
 
 second city of the British Empire, has the reputation of being one of the 
 cleanest, most orderly, and civil cities in the world, and the Club found 
 it sustaining^ well its reputation. No disorder, no drunkenness, even no 
 smoking of cigars, was seen in its streets. 
 
 " Phoenix Park is second in size among European parks. Most of it 
 is left in the natural condition of pasture lands, and well stocked with 
 herds of cattle, sheep, and deer. The prevailing shrub is the hawthorn, 
 which, left to grow singl}^ over the ground,' assumes the form and 
 appearance of an apple tree, giving to large tracts of the park the appear- 
 ance of extensive orchards. 
 
 "Trinity College, or Dublin University, has College Park to itself 
 Its original charter dates back to 131 1. It has several fine buildings, the 
 most important of which are the Museum and Examination Hall. The 
 collections, outside of the birds of Ireland, are comparatively meager for 
 so richly endowed an institution. The students' dining hall is hung 
 around with portraits of man)' an illustrious man. The students eat 
 upon greasy old oaken tables while sitting on long, backless benches for 
 chairs. It would be interesting to note how American students would 
 tieat such fare. 
 
 "The instruction is carried on by means of lectures and periodical 
 examinations. The examinations under the direction of the Intermedi- 
 ate PIducation Board of Ireland were in progress, corresponding to the 
 Regential examinations in the State of New York. 
 
 " Everywhere and always the Club causes stare and wonder. When 
 the eyes of the natives are once set upon it, they remain fixed as long 
 as the Club is in sight. The beholders involuntarily lift themselves to 
 their utmost height and begin feeling for their beards, and calling the 
 attention of their neighbors to the bearded giants. Pundit's smooth lip, 
 all innocent and bland, detracts somewhat from the dignity of the scene. 
 The Parson feels sure that it is his hat which is attracting so much atten- 
 tion, having been assured that, with such a hat, he would be arrested for 
 a Fenian, and not infrequently he 
 
 ' Glowers around with prudent care. 
 Lest boggles catch him unaware ; ' 
 
 but when, hatless, the Club marches into the various dining halls, the 
 stare is all the same. 
 
 "As the Club crowds itself with difficulty into one of the hotel ele- 
 vators, the waiter remarks: 'Gentlemen, you are severely testing the 
 stren.gth of this elevator. It never lifted such a load before.' At first 
 its members were taken for returned Australians, rich and independent^ 
 but when heard to speak, the American origin of the Club was made 
 
132 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 sure, for they are the only people, the natives say, who speak English 
 clear from brogue. 
 
 "From Dublin to Belfast the country rapidly improves in appearance. 
 This region having been settled several centuries ago largely by immi- 
 grating Scotch Presbyterians, it shows all the energy and thrift of the 
 Scotch race. The Irish riots have little support or sympathy here. Few 
 towna have progressed in importance so rapidly as Belfast. In the course 
 of fifty years the population has increased nearly sixfold In 1879 ^^^ 
 population was two hundred and ten thousand. Of these fully two- 
 thirds are Protestants. It is situated on the river Lagan, just before it 
 flows into the elongated bay, known as Belfast Lough. Its chief indus- 
 tries are ship building and the manufacture of linen goods. The general 
 appearance of the town is that of a clean, thrifty city. 
 
 giant's ring, 
 
 situated about four miles from Belfast, is one of the most interesting 
 works of antiquity to be found in Ireland. It consists of an enormous 
 circle more than one-third of a mile in circumference. It is inclosed by 
 an immense mound of earth, about eighty feet broad at the base and 
 some thirty feet in height. Near the center stands a large cromlech, or 
 stone altar. It is attributed to the Druids, constituting one of the chief 
 places where they performed their religious rites, offering upon the altar 
 human sacrifices. . . . 
 
 Ireland is, indeed, an emerald set in the sea. Nature has made it 
 wondrous rich and beautiful. The Irish have one of the finest lands in 
 the world, but they are both priest and king ridden, and seem, as Press 
 sagely remarks, able to govern every land but their own. It has fur- 
 nished some of the brightest intellectual stars of which both Britain and 
 America can boast. Down in the southern portion the people are 
 sprightly, rollicking, warm, and demonstrative, yet improvident and beg- 
 garly. In the central portion the people are more hardy, cool, and 
 reserved, more industrious and prosperous. In the north the Scotch 
 Presbyterian element gives it almost a New England type of energy, 
 industry, and thrift. In the south, beggars and British soldiers hold 
 equal sway. In the central regions a few of each are found, while in the 
 north scarcely one of either is to be seen. Both blood and religion tell 
 wonderfully here, as elsewhere. Prex." 
 
 From Belfast the Club took steamer for Glasgow. Few- 
 men are better prepared to enjoy Scotland than was President 
 Allen. A poet by nature, familiar with Scotch literature and 
 
VACATION TOUR IN EUROPE. 1 33 
 
 history, an enthusiastic lover of mountains, and all that is grand 
 in natural scenery, the treasures of Scotland gave him con- 
 stant delight. Prex and Parson made a special visit to Ayr, 
 and the scenes which gave birth to Tarn O'Shanter and other 
 of Robert Burns' poems. The Club visited mountains and 
 lakes, Stirling. Edinburgh, that Athens of Europe, Abbotsford, 
 with its memories of Scotland's greatest novelist, Melrose, and 
 Drybury, and so southward to England. On the way to 
 London Prex left the Club at Leicester, that he might visit 
 Cambridge, Oxford, and Stratford-upon-Avon before we went to 
 the continent. He wrote of these places that which appears 
 below: — 
 
 THE HOME OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 "Stratford-upon-Avon, the home of Shakespeare, is situated upon 
 the Avon, a beautiful river, quietly flowing through a broad and fertile 
 valley, in the southwest border of Warwickshire, that shire which, in 
 olden time, was well called the heart of England. Stratford is a quaint 
 old town, the reddest town I ever set eyes on. Being built of a very 
 light red brick, and free from the smoke and smut of manufacturing 
 towns, the houses have a wonderfully bright and cheery aspect. It 
 would be a very dull town, the inhabitants say, if it were not for Shakes- 
 peare. His constantly widening fame and influence draw an ever- 
 increasing stream of travel here, the great majority of whom are Ameri- 
 cans and Germans. The hotel registers show eight-tenths of all the 
 visitors at present to be from America. 
 
 "The people of Warwickshire, including Stratford, are physically the 
 finest we have seen in England, and speak English freest from brogue. 
 It has a vibrant roll and resonance that are very pleasing to the ear. 
 
 "The house in which Shakespeare was born, after having passed 
 through many changes and uses, was, in 1847, bought in by a national 
 subscription, for some $16,000, and placed in the hands of trustees in 
 behalf of the nation. Under the direction of the Birthplace Committee, 
 it has been restored, as near as possible, to its original condition. The 
 restoration of the exterior is regarded as 'the most careful and successful 
 work of the kind ever accomplished.' The internal portion, where the 
 family lived, remains essentially the same as when the Shakespeare family 
 resided here. The whole building is in the Elizabethan style of family 
 residences. 
 
134 LIP^E OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 "On enterinij the house from Henley Street the visitor first passes 
 into the old family kitchen. The floor is of stone, well worn with the 
 footsteps of three hundred years. There is a roomy fireplace, the sides 
 built of brick, having the chimney-piece above, cut, with a low pointed 
 arch, out of a massive beam of oak. At either end of the fireplace are 
 stone seats built into the jambs, on which the children used to sit to 
 keep warm when the embers were low. Stooping low, under the mantel- 
 piece, I crowded myself into the small seat where little William was 
 wont to sit, with cold toes and benumbed fingers, and wipe off his tears 
 with his sleeve, or, in happier moods, crack his boyish jokes and let off 
 poetic squibs. 
 
 "Above the kitchen is the room in which the poet was born. It is a 
 low-roofed apartment. Huge oaken beams project from the plastered 
 walls, the stairway and floor of thick oaken boards, worm-eaten and worn. 
 Myriad penciled and inked autographs cover the walls, ceilings, and win- 
 dows, so continuous and closely written as to give the walls the appear- 
 ance of being covered with spider webs. 
 
 "Behind the birth-room, entered by a doorway some five feet high, is 
 another curious old apartment, whose heavy beams and thick oaken floor 
 give an idea of strength and enduringness. Portraits of the poet adorn 
 the walls; the chief of these is a life-sized bust in oil, known as the Strat- 
 ford portrait. It was found in an old house here, and is considered a 
 genuine painting from life. It is kept in an iron safe, which is thrown 
 open during the day and closed at night. 
 
 "Other rooms contain the Shakespearean Library and Museum, in 
 which are to be found copies of the earliest editions of liis works, and 
 everything obtainable connected with him. One of the most interesting 
 objects is the old bench and writing desk occupied by Shakespeare while 
 a boy at school. The way in which he both used and misused this desk 
 with pen and ink and knife, would delight the eye of a Yankee boy, who 
 considers the chief use of a knife to whittle desks. I was permitted to 
 sit in the chair which the poet used to occupy when he presided at the 
 meeting of the Stratford Club. Washington Irving, in his 'Sketch Book,' 
 asserts that from its constant use this chair had to be re-bottomed every 
 three years. The guides say that Irving drew entirely on his imagination 
 for this statement, as the original oak has withstood the wear and tear of 
 three hundred years. 
 
 "new plack," 
 
 the home of Shakespeare's mature years, and where he died, has been 
 entirely destroyed; but the garden and grounds connected therewith 
 
VACATION TOUR IN EUROPE. 1 35 
 
 have been converted into a beautiful little park, stretching down to the 
 Avon. To this park the public are admitted. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY, 
 
 where Shakespeare is buried, stands pleasantly and picturesquely on the 
 banks of the Avon. It is supposed to have been originally built in the 
 time of William the Conqueror. It is a cruciform building, consisting of 
 a nave and side aisles, a transept, and a chancel. The tower and spire 
 rise from the center of the cross to a height of one hundred and sixty- 
 three feet. From gateway to doorway the visitor passes along an alley 
 of thick, overarching lime trees. 
 
 "The gravestones of the Shakespeare family lie in a row in front of 
 the altar rails. In a niche at one side is a half-length figure of Shakes- 
 peare, placed there within seven years after his death, by his daughter. 
 The bust is painted and supposed to have been taken from life. It repre- 
 sents him with full, round face, parted lips, large hazel eyes, full nose, high 
 forehead, hair and beard auburn. The dress is a scarlet doublet, slashed 
 on the breast, over which is a loose black gown without sleeves. Before 
 him is a cushion, the upper part crimson, the lower green. The poet is 
 represented as writing on this cushion. The right hand formerly held a 
 pen. Beneath this cushion is inscribed in Latin: ' In judgment a Nestor, 
 in genius a Socrates, in art a Virgil. The earth covers him, the people 
 mourn for him, Olympus has him.' 
 
 "The slab placed over the grave of Shakespeare has a small brass 
 plate with this curious inscription : — 
 
 " ' Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare 
 To dig the dust enclosed heare; 
 Blesse be ye man yt spares the stones. 
 And cusst be he yt moves my bones.' 
 
 "Prex." 
 
 Touching educational matters, as a whole, the president 
 wrote the following: — 
 
 CONCERNING SCHOOLS. 
 
 "Leaving a more detailed account of the internal operations of the 
 schools of Scotland and England to some future occasion, I here give 
 simply a bird's-eye view of their external appearance. 
 
 "The new buildings of Glasgow University are, both as to location 
 and architectural design, the finest school buildings in the British Isles. 
 It stands on an eminence, overlooking a curve of Kelvin Grove Park, 
 and commands a splendid view over a great part of Renfewshire. It is a 
 
136 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 rectangular structure, six hundred feet long and three hundred feet broad, 
 and is planned in two quadrangles, divided by the Common Hall. It has 
 a south main frontage of five hundred and thirty-two feet, with a tower 
 and spire when complete, three hundred feet high. The estimated cost 
 is to be ^2,430,000. We spent a pleasant hour looking through its mu- 
 seum, library, dining room, and other parts. 
 
 "The University of Edinburgh is in a low-lying, unpleasant location. 
 Its surroundings of narrow and crowded streets deprive its substantial 
 buildings of much of their effect externally; but a view of the interior of 
 the quadrangle completely changes the first impression of the visitor. 
 The buildings around the quadrangle form a fine architectural composi- 
 tion. The university was founded in 1582, by a charter from James VI. 
 It has never possessed the great revenues of many other universities, but 
 has attained to its world-wide renown through the eminence of many of 
 its professors, especially in metaphysics, classics, and medicine. Professor 
 Huxley has recently been elected to its chair of natural history at a salary 
 of ;$ 1 0,000 a year. 
 
 RUGBY. 
 
 "Whoever has read either the 'Life of Dr. Arnold,' or 'Tom Brown 
 at Rugby,' cannot fail to have a warm and abiding interest in Rugby. 
 Rugby is situated on a fertile plain, and had been a very quiet place till 
 the railways broke in upon its peace, deriving its chief interest from its 
 school. The school is one of the four great preparatory schools where 
 the English youth fit for Oxford or Cambridge. When Dr. Arnold be- 
 came its head master, it at once was lifted out of the dull level routine 
 pervading the schools at that time, and became a leading influence in bet- 
 tering the condition of English education. 
 
 "The boys, upon their ample playground, appeared very much as 
 Tom Brown described them — boys ranging from eight to sixteen years of 
 age. The grounds are ample, and shaded with magnificent elms and 
 limes. Sheep share the grounds with the boys, and keep the grass short 
 for the convenience of play. The boys are gathered in four or five board- 
 ing halls, each presided over by a teacher. 
 
 "The old chapel in which Dr. Arnold preached has been replaced by 
 a new one, built on the same spot. Arnold's body is buried directly be- 
 neath where the communion table stood in the old chapel, a plate of glass, 
 with his name inscribed thereon, marking the spot. As we stood over 
 the spot, we mutually agreed that he was a great man, and one that had 
 been, and still is, a power in the cause of education. The chair and desk 
 used by him in the class room are preserved in an alcove as sacred relics. 
 
VACATION TOUR IN EUROPE. 13;' 
 
 The backless benches, and level boards, bespattered with ink, for desks 
 for the boys, remain as of old, reminding one of the time of old log school- 
 houses in America. The English evidently believed in giving backbone 
 to their boys by compelling them to use it for self-support. It was curi- 
 ous to note how even educated youth persist in the misapplication of the 
 'h.' It was Dr. Harnold every time. 
 
 "It was natural and easy to follow Tom Brown from Rugby to Ox- 
 ford. Oxford University is emphatically a city of colleges, clustered to- 
 gether down by the river, where the old ford for oxen crossed the Upper 
 Thames, given here the more classical name of Isis. The various col- 
 leges are all built after the same monastic type. Each is composed of 
 one to four quadrangles, with the buildings of each quadrangle facing in 
 upon an open court, with their backs turned upon the world, looking out 
 to it through small and often barred windows. The Oxford building 
 stone, being a soft, friable tertiary limestone, is easily worked, and its light 
 cream color gives it a pleasing effect while new, but it easily crumbles 
 under the tooth of time. This has given to the college buildings, a few 
 centuries old, a wonderfully gnawed and ragged appearance. This has 
 been rendered still worse by an attempt in some former age to preserve 
 the stone by covering it with a coating of cement. Time has broken and 
 pealed this coating, leaving it hanging in black scabs and blisters. The 
 buildings, as a whole, have a decidedly monkish aspect. 
 
 "Cambridge, in this as in several other respects, has a more modern 
 appearance. Having no building stone in its neighborhood, it at first 
 built with brick. These, of late years, have been replaced or cased with 
 stone, largely the Portland, giving it quite a modernized appearance. 
 Cambridge has also the finer college park and grounds. The Cam, being 
 a smaller and less rapid river than the Isis, has been largely utilized for 
 beautifying the grounds and for the pleasure of students. It has been 
 walled into a channel from forty to eighty feet wide, with diminutive 
 canals leading off, here and there, through the park, the river itself run- 
 ning through some of the college quadrangles. The walks are bordered 
 by thick, overarching elms and clear, running streams, making one of 
 the most picturesque and delightful parks that I have seen. 
 
 "I attended service at Christ Church College, Oxford, and listened 
 to a most artistic intoning and reading. Preparatory to this, I had lis- 
 tened to the greatest clangor of bells. Probably it would be difficult to 
 find elsewhere an equal number of bells in the same area as swing in the 
 
l^S LIFE OP^ PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 belfries of these clustered colleges, and when set to swinging at the same 
 time their clanging is bewildering. 
 
 " The people of Oxford are physically the worst looking, and the 
 people of Cambridge have the worst brogue, of any we have met in 
 England. Prex." 
 
 From England the Club went to Paris, and saw it in detail; 
 from Paris, to Switzerland, by way of Geneva, beautiful and 
 historic; up Lake Geneva and the Rhone, to Martigny ; over 
 the Tete Noire Pass to Chamouni, Mt. Blanc, Montauvert, 
 Mer de Glace, etc. All this must be passed here with a few 
 touches. In crossing the mountains from Martigny to Cha- 
 mouni, Prex and Parson indulged in 
 
 MAKING HAY, 
 
 which was duly chronicled in these words: — - 
 
 "Higher up we are beyond all but thin meadows and mountain ever- 
 greens. The fields are full of people. Haying is fairly begun. Most 
 of the workers are women. They do the heaviest parts. The scene 
 awoke boyhood memories in Prex and Parson, and at one point, far 
 up the mountain, where in a little meadow three women and one old 
 man were mowing, they climbed the wall which kept the meadow from 
 sliding into the path, and astonished the natives by proposing to finish 
 the meadow on a short contract. Evidently deeming it a huge joke, the 
 old man yielded his scythe to the Parson, and a comely Swiss maiden, 
 with uncontrollable laughter, gave hers to Prex. The swaths are car- 
 ried diagonally down the steep incline. The scythes are short, broad, 
 .straight, the snaths an indescribable combination of straight sticks and 
 pegs set at different angles. One could stand only by planting his heels 
 deep in the soft earth at each step, and leaning in part upon the stout 
 snath at every stroke. We soon conquered the situation and finished 
 full swaths in triumph. This brought loud applause, and the joyous 
 laughter of the women followed us until we were out of hearing. It was 
 evidently the event of the season." 
 
 Some experiences in and about 
 
 CHAMOUNI AND MT. BLANC 
 
 must be retold, because the story is so nearly a personal one 
 concerning the president. Of him one of the Club said: — 
 
VACATION TOUR IN EUROPE. 1 39 
 
 " Have you ever seen New York newsboys on their first day in the 
 country? Then you have some idea of the cahii enthusiasm with which 
 these two sedate and venerable college professors took their first view of 
 a glacier. From the hotel it showed us a surface about one mile in 
 width and six miles long, like the surface of a sea whose high tossing 
 billows and deep hollows have been frozen solid in a moment, or like 
 an instantaneous photograph of a raging sea. Farther up the mountain 
 they told us we could see miles more of the river of ice, with its three 
 converging branches, and so Prex and Parson proposed to climb the 
 mountain and see. Pundit set his aneroid to the known height of the 
 hotel, one thousand nine hundred and twenty-one meters (six thousand 
 feet), and, with Alpine stocks in hand, we started. At six thousand 
 eight hundred feet the guide said we were as far as was usual to go, but 
 from here there was no better view than from below. Above was a wild 
 waste of broken stone, and the guide said there was no path, but by this 
 time Prex was far above us, and on we followed, over rocks and patches 
 of ancient snow, with now and then a bright green nook spangled with 
 beautiful forget-me-nots, mountain daisies, — 'marguerite,' — and blue 
 gentian, until we stood on a plateau seven thousand four hundred feet 
 high, giving a charming view of the valley below. Chamouni was like 
 a toy village at our feet, and the distant roar of the Arve came to our 
 ears like the dying murmur of an evening hymn. We could trace its 
 course like a thread of silver, from its source in the Glacier de Argentier, 
 down through the valley a long way toward Geneva, where it joins the 
 Rhone. Six thousand feet above us rose the sharp pinnacles of the 
 Aiguilles Vert, while behind them were the equally inaccessible Aiguilles 
 de Blailierre and dii Plan, like the pinnacles of an enormous Gothic 
 cathedral. One can see here whence arose the inspiration in those 
 architects of old who have given us such poems in stone as the cathedrals 
 at Cologne and Milan. But beautiful as the view was from here, it gave 
 us nothing more of the Mer de Glace, and so Prex and Parson mounted 
 still higher, but Pundit was content to rest here to enjoy the scene, and 
 watch some adventurous sheep which had wandered thus far in search 
 of pasturage. Prex followed the guide for a while, until he found he was 
 crawling along the face of a cliff, where a misstep would have sent him 
 headlong three thousand feet into the valley, when he backed out, and 
 sought a path of his own, which, if no better, at least did not make quite 
 so bold an exhibit of its dangers, and pretty soon he and Parson stood 
 on a point seven thousand six hundred feet high, from which we noticed 
 that the cry 'PLxcelsior' came down to us in rather wavering tones, and 
 
140 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 not long after the D. D.'s followed. It is wonderful how many things 
 a practical eye will find in a pile of rocks. Prex gathered specimen after 
 specimen, which the guide took good-naturedly, and put into his pockets 
 — and what pockets they were! I never saw so many on mortal man 
 before; but they were all full before we got back, the guide remarking 
 that 'he was willing to carry all he could, but he couldn't carry the whole 
 mountain ! ' . . . 
 
 MER DE GLACE. 
 
 "After a lunch and rest at the Montauvert Hotel we started to cross 
 the glacier. Descending the steep face of the gorge seven hundred and 
 fifty feet, we came to the foot of the moraine. Here in a little shanty, 
 Prex found some fine fossils gathered from the debris of the glacier, 
 which were quickly purchased and added to the load of the guide. The 
 moraine here is about one hundred feet high, and over it we clambered, 
 passing boulders as. large as a good-sized house, and came to the edge 
 of the ice, where we had another climb, or clitne, if you choose to spell 
 it that way, up steps cut into its glassy surface. 
 
 "The face of the glacier is anything but smooth or clean, but is 
 wrinkled and dirty as the face of an Italian beggar, magnified one thou- 
 sand diameters. Little rills of ice-cold water, clear as crystal, trickle 
 down its surface and gather in its hollows and form streams, which soon 
 disappear in some crevasse, to see the light next at the foot of the glacier. 
 One large stream ran into a hole a few feet in diameter, with a roar, and 
 was lost to view. We cared not to trace its way through the six hun- 
 dred feet of ice to the bottom, where it joined its fellows. It was wel- 
 come to go alone, so far as we were concerned. There was a strip of 
 stones and dirt down the middle of the glacier, which seemed at first to 
 be a center moraine, but which was only a little windrow of dirt upon 
 its surface. Here Prex and Parson paused, held a mass meeting, and 
 passed a unanimous vote of thanks to Providence, and everybody con- 
 cerned, for the privileges of the day. . . . 
 
 " Beyond the Mmivais pas we come to the Chapcaii, a resting place 
 so called from a rock which overhangs it, and assumes a form suggesting 
 the name. Here we stop a little, to rest and take some slight refresh- 
 ment, while Prex uncovers his head, and, with becoming gravity, drinks 
 to the health of the overhanging cliffs. Well may he wish to propitiate 
 them, for has he not been robbing them of choice treasures, which are 
 swelling his every pocket, and peeping out at unexpected places? He 
 afterwards admitted having pocketed no less than forty-four different 
 varieties of plants and flowers, all of which were new to him. . . . 
 
VACATION TOUR IN EUROPE. I4I 
 
 "The sun was giving his last good-night kiss to Mont Blanc, and her 
 face was still suffused with blushes, as we rode into the yard of the hotel, 
 tired and hungry, but well satisfied with our day's work in the Alps." 
 
 The companionship of President Allen on such a day, and 
 the sharing of such experiences with him, remains one of the 
 bright pictures in a series of undimmed memories. 
 
 The Club entered Italy by the Mount Cenis tunnel, visited 
 Milan, Genoa, Pisa, Rome, Naples, Florence, Venice, Milan 
 again, and returned to Southern Switzerland by the wonderful 
 St. Gothard tunnel, a few days after it was first opened. It is 
 impossible to say what is enjoyed most in a land which is so 
 beautiful, and where everything is so inwoven with the world's 
 history, poetry, and destiny. In Italy, if anywhere, Prex was 
 at his best. Rome, around which so much of the world's his- 
 tory has centered for more than a score of centuries, is an inex- 
 haustible mine,' which the Club worked diligently, and from 
 which the president brought many things that now enrich his 
 monument, the Steinheim, where his treasures and his ashes 
 rest together. 
 
 UP VESUVIUS. 
 
 Some experiences at Mount Vesuvius brought an accident to 
 the president, and great anxiety to the Club; but his strength 
 of body and character shone through this misfortune, like the 
 sun breaking through the clouds of a vanquished storm; as 
 the story runs on the reader will see how much reason for anx- 
 iety, and how much cause for gratitude because of the final out- 
 come of that which was at the time so threatening. One of the 
 Club wrote of the accident in the following words: — 
 
 "On the 24th of July, 1882, we left Rome at 6 a. m. for Naples, and 
 reached there in time to visit the reopened grave of Pompeii, with its 
 story of rude magnificence, semi-barbaric splendor, and not-to-be-told 
 moral degradation. As we came back to Naples in the early evening, 
 Vesuvius put on a crown of fire, and showed a stream of lava, which, 
 like a thread of arterial blood, crept down the side of the cone toward 
 Pompeii. We retired early, to be called at 2:30 a. m., for the ascent of 
 Vesuvius. The 'being called' was an unnecessary precaution. Our 
 
142 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 rooms were on the ground floor of the new ' Hotel Vesuvius,' on the 
 shore of the bay, and at a point where our disturbed slumbers dreamed 
 that all forms of Neapolitan life combined to make all forms of sound 
 that human tongues or donkeys' throats could fashion, throughout the 
 livelong night. These dreams were so real that we lay awake waiting 
 to be called, and were glad to get out into the cool starlight of the early 
 morning, and be off at 3 o'clock. We drove for three miles before we 
 were out of the city, most of the way along the shore of the bay. By 
 this time we were beginning to climb the slope of the mountain. For 
 two or three miles the hillside is covered with vineyards and gardens, 
 with fig and other fruit trees closely set. The richest fruits grow on the 
 lava-covered sides, where time has pulverized and cultivation has deep- 
 ened and enriched the soil. As we rise, the gardens recede, the well- 
 kept road zigzags by sharper and shorter turns, until we are on the bare 
 waste of lava. It is piled above, around, below, in all fantastic shapes, 
 just as it cooled. Where we are now for some thousands of acres we 
 see the results of the eruption of 1872. It is as devoid of life as the 
 heart of the African desert — a great sea of molten desolation, transfixed 
 when all its waves and currents were at war, and yet so full of latent 
 motion that the whole mountain side seems ready to start again, and you 
 involuntarily hold your breath at some sharp turn, lest the grinding of 
 the slow-climbing wheels of the carriage set it flowing again, and sweep 
 you away. At 7 o'clock we reach the foot of the cone, and the railroad, 
 eleven miles from our hotel. This railroad is a modern affair, which saves 
 the fatigue of the last mile of the ascent; and a few hours later we found 
 great reason to be thankful for its existence. It runs by an endless 
 chain and stationary engine at the base of the cone. The angle of ascent 
 is about thirty degrees, or one foot rise for each two traversed. The car 
 is wide enough for two on a seat, and, sitting and standing, will contain 
 about a dozen persons. The sides are open, and only a light arm rail at 
 the end of the seat is between the passenger and the abyss. The car 
 climbs as if by " hitches," and seems so weary at times that you shrink into 
 your seat, for fear it will collapse and all go to instantaneous ruin. If 
 there were trees or aught else along the way to hide the scene a little, it 
 would be better for uneasy nerves. You see the tracks underneath, the 
 cables alongside, the station overhead as you look up, or below as you 
 look down; all else is ashes, lava, sky. People with weak nerves can 
 easily find places where they will be happier. It is too early for break- 
 fast with these leisurely Italians at the little restaurant, so we order it to 
 be ready an hour and a half later, mount the car, and go up. 
 
VACATION TOUR IN EUROPE. 1 43 
 
 "From the upper station a zigzag path leads to the ' old crater,' in 
 about twenty minutes. Look down. We are far, far above the clouds, 
 which cover half the city and the widespreading plain below. The 
 waters of the bay blend with the clouds until the ships appear absolutely to 
 sail in the heavens. The surroundings make one's nerves tingle, and the 
 undertone of excitement becomes exultation as we stand and take breath, 
 four thousand feet above the water below. There are no expletives to do 
 the scene ju.stice, in words ; we admire and adore in joyous silence. 
 
 "From this point each man must have a guide to 'pull him ' over the 
 line of loose ashes and rough lava, between us and the dead crater. It 
 is impossible to describe the top of Vesuvius so as to give a complete 
 idea to one who has not seen it. The lowlands and ordinary moun- 
 tains furnish nothing analogous. It will approach a description to .sa}- 
 that the old crater is like a caldron kettle holding several acres of 
 molten iron, cooled in an instant, just when it was boiling and bubbling 
 into .miniature mountains and whirlpools, crusted so that you can cross 
 it, taking care to avoid holes and cracks, from which steam and smoke 
 and sulphuric gas spurt and fizz as though the fires under the kettle 
 were very far from being extinguished; over all is a thick incrustation 
 of sulphur. Across and up we go toward the new and active crater. If 
 it be difficult to describe the old crater, it is doubly so to paint the active 
 one in words. We now stand on the outer rim, the narrow, crumbling 
 edge of a great, irregular basin, too narrow to walk on except in single 
 file. Sloping inward precipitously for a hundred and fifty feet, and then 
 rising sharply fifty feet or more, lies the path to the rim of the second 
 basin, from where you look directly into the hot heart of the mountain, 
 from whence the steam and smoke ascend with continuous roar like the 
 voice of twenty Niagaras. Every few minutes — sometimes seconds only 
 — sharp explosions take place, flinging stones and lava high above the 
 rim of the crater, and often above the column of smoke. 
 
 "'Shall we go down?' — 'Yes.' The sides are too steep for walking 
 and too loose for climbing. The moment you step over the rim every- 
 thing begins to slide — sulphur, ashes, lava, guides, travelers, in one grand 
 avalanche. Thus we go, four travelers, four special guides, one general 
 guide, and four or five boys who are bound to turn an honest franc by 
 rushing over the edge of the second rim to put a penny into the soft 
 lava and bring it back thus imbedded, for a keepsake. Under the loose 
 lava and amid the ashes lurk ten thousand jets of sulphuric gas, waiting 
 to rush into the faces of those who dare to invade this vestibule of hades. 
 By the time you have reached the rim of the inner basin, you are glad to 
 
144 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 breathe through the folds of your handkerchief, held closely over the 
 nose, as the only means of avoiding suffocation. Vesuvius seemed dis- 
 turbed by our coming, for scarcely had we gained the inner rim, where 
 all below us was too hot and fresh to be incrusted with sulphur, and was 
 black as the heart of an encaverned midnight, when he shouted to the 
 hidden artillerymen, and up came two or three shots in quick succession, 
 the blotches of red lava falling around, some at our own feet, we dodging 
 like playful children under a shower of apples from shaken boughs. 
 The boys rush over the edge and deposit the pennies, bringing the lava 
 back on the end of a stick; the wind veers a little; the cloud of smoke 
 and sulphurous gas from the crater threatens to envelop us. Such an 
 embrace means quick suffocation. The chief guide cries, ' Hurry! 
 hurry!' and we rush, pulled, pushed, climbing, jumping, going, no one 
 knows how, until we stand again on the outer rim, where a breath of 
 pure air from below clears the vapors, and we stand, panting and exultant. 
 
 HOW THE REST HAPPENED. 
 
 '"Shall we go over on the other side and see the flowing lava?' 'Is 
 it far?' 'Fifteen minutes to go down to the point where we can reach 
 the stream, and forty-five to climb back.' 'All right.' On the steep 
 sides of Vesuvius one can go down hundreds of feet in a brief period. 
 We went in the face of an Italian sunshine, and found the heat intense. 
 The outer edge of the lava stream was cool enough to walk on, but not 
 to stand still on. It warmed through the soles of one's shoes as though 
 they were pasteboard. It was irregular, rough-edged, cooled, and cool- 
 ing in all fantastic shapes. It lay in ridges and lapped over in cornice- 
 like edges, as snowdrifts do. It was full of chasms and caves. Only the 
 'general guide' is now with us; he leads. Parson, being the heaviest of 
 the Club — avoirdupois — lingers a little. It cracks under his weight; all 
 have stopped to catch breath, and the guide is shouting to his fellows, 
 who are partly down the pass, waiting for an extra dollar for pulling us 
 back to the summit. Full of scientific enthusiasm, Prex has pressed to 
 the farthest point reached by the guide, for one more look, and for a mo- 
 ment is out of sight behind a great wart of lava. A subdued 'hallo' is 
 heard, and he appears, hat in hand, his head and face streaming with 
 blood. We are all at his side instantly. The story is brief The lava 
 broke as he attempted to spring across a chasm; his hands were full of 
 specimens; he plunged forward, striking the sharp ridge of the freshly- 
 cooled lava; the sharper points penetrated his thick felt hat, and the 
 knife-like edge of lava cut an ugly gash four and onc-Jialf inches long 
 
'^ <9 
 
 ^ tEV.A.ll.LEWL\D.Jj, f. ' 
 
 5f;?e " QrafT) Qub." 
 
VACATION TOUR IN EUROPE. I 4.5 
 
 across the left side of his head, the skull showing at the deepest point. 
 A hasty examination shows the skull to be sound, and no large arteries 
 severed. It bleeds profusely. We bind it with three handkerchiefs, 
 shout to a boy to go for water, call the waiting guides, and prepare for 
 what seems the best thing, to retrace our steps. The climb is by far the 
 hardest of the day. Two strong guides take charge of the wounded 
 Prex, and two more of Press, who, having once been the victim of a 
 Severe sunstroke, now shows strong symptoms of yielding again to the 
 heat, which is terrific, coupled with sulphuric gas. Pundit and Parson 
 each have a guide, and so we commence to climb, the wounded man 
 ahead, his guides enjoined to go slow, and let him rest often, for we fear 
 excessive hemorrhage. He is brave, and climbs as eagerly now as before 
 he sought the dangerous spoils. Part of the way up Press yields still 
 more to the fierce heat, and unfavorable symptoms increase. His guides 
 lift him to their shoulders for a while, a favorable reaction takes place, 
 and he takes his feet again. Just how, or in how long a time, we made 
 the ascent, the writer does not know. Under God's blessing it was 
 accomplished. The mountain top brought freedom from the excessive 
 heat and stifling vapors, and at the railroad a bucket of water reached us. 
 After resting, and bathing the wounded and sun-stricken heads, we made 
 the descent. Here was a new trouble: The military police, who repre- 
 sent the government, fearing still worse results, urged our immediate 
 departure for Naples. We urged rest for the patients, and breakfast. At 
 last they granted twenty minutes. We took enough, without consulting 
 our watches, for rest, some coffee, and a little food. These brought favor- 
 able results to all the Club, and before we reached Naples both Prex and 
 Press were 'maist as weel as new.' The wounded man insisted that the 
 Club should 'treat the case,' and by 3 p. m. we had the wound dressed, 
 and the patient ' resting nicely.' 
 
 "At 9 o'clock that night four weary men leaned back in the four cor- 
 •ners of a 'first-class compartment' on the night train for Rome, and four 
 grateful hearts gave thanks unto Him who watcheth over his children, 
 and gives unseen protection in the hour of danger. 
 
 "Thus we saw Vesuvius." 
 
 The calmness of soul, the steadiness of nerve, and the 
 absence of all complaint, marked the noble manliness of President 
 Allen under these trying circumstances, as few other things 
 could have done. A fev^^ days afterward he said: "If I had 
 found that I was fatally hurt, I intended to ask you to cremate 
 
146 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 me there. I believe in cremation. It was but a little way below 
 there that Byron cremated Shelley, and it would have been far 
 better than to have taken my body home." This was said as 
 quietly as a child would speak of his playthings. But a far 
 pleasanter incident has come to the knowledge of the writer. 
 Some time after his return from Europe, on a given Sabbath 
 morning, President Allen preached a wonderful sermon on 
 "spiritual transfiguration." Those who heard it seemed to listen 
 to one who had been on the "holy mount" and talked with 
 God. When asked whence came the inspiration out of which 
 the sermon grew, he said, "My experience at Vesuvius." The 
 writer can understand what he meant, for when we had made 
 that terrible ascent, after he was hurt, and stood looking out on 
 the blue bay of Naples, with its white-winged ships, while the 
 cool breath fanned his feverish, blood-stained face, it was 
 indeed the mount of redemption and of transfiguration. And, 
 oh, how his redeemed spirit must now rejoice in the blessed 
 realities of the spiritual glory of which that scene was a faint 
 picture! 
 
 Space fails, and the rest of the delightful journey must 
 remain unwritten here. The Club returned to Rome, went to 
 Florence, and then to Venice, beautiful, restful, noiseless Venice, 
 whose liquid streets rise and fall with the heart throbs of the 
 Adriatic Sea, and lull wearied travelers like the whispered lullaby 
 of mother's lips. While we rested here, and just when we knew 
 the wounded head needed special care. Dr. Daniel Lewis, a 
 loyal alumnus of the University, appeared on the scene. He 
 dressed the wound, and assured us that it was "doing finely," 
 and so helped to lift the only shadow that drifted across the 
 horizon of that summer of rest. Leaving Italy the Club visited 
 Southern Switzerland, Luzerne lake and city, Mount Riga, 
 Basle, Baden-Baden, Coblentz, Wiesbaden, Ems, Mayence, 
 Heidelburg, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Frankfort, Amsterdam, Haar- 
 lem, Rotterdam, Hague, and back to London, to Liverpool, and 
 Chester, and at length home. 
 
 It is more than eleven years since we sailed on that bright June 
 
VACATION TOUR IN EUROPE. 1 47 
 
 day, returning when autumn was ripe and golden. The scenes 
 and experiences of that deHghtful summer He in the sunlight of 
 memory, as the purple hills lie in the golden haze of a declining 
 September afternoon. Lingering in all the memories, and mak- 
 ing- an integral and important part of them, is Prex, genial, 
 gentlemanly, unselfish, enriching by his culture, enhancing by 
 his nobleness, and sanctifying by his religious faith, all places and 
 all experiences. He has taken the final homeward journey 
 first, and while we wait, Press, Pundit,* and Parson unite to 
 bring this grateful tribute to the memory of him whom one 
 could not know as we knew him without enshrining him among 
 the best of earthly friends. 
 
 *Since this was written, ''Pundit," too, has finished life's journey, to meet the 
 fast-gathering company of redeemed ones. 
 
GliAPTER XUIII. 
 
 LITERARY SOCIETIES AND LIBRARY. 
 
 THE FOUR LYCEUMS. 
 
 ^ I HE general unrest that comes into all student life was 
 JL especially apparent in attempts to form new associations 
 or societies. As the years went on, the Franklin Lyceum 
 came to be the especial organ for the older students, thus giv- 
 ing the younger members very little opportunity for the improve- 
 ment it offered. On this account the "Rough and Ready" 
 society was formed, where at each meeting all the members 
 were expected to take part, whether they were specially prepared 
 or not. The Platonic and Amphyctionic societies grew from 
 the desire of those in the Greek and Latin classes to give more 
 attention to classical literature, history, philosophy, and law. 
 For a time there was an effort, though unsuccessful, to unite all 
 these interests into the Theological and Dedaskalian or Teachers' 
 association — which it was thought would meet the demands of 
 all classes. These were to give equal opportunities to both 
 sexes. They all flourished for a time, but aft;erward split up 
 into branches, out of which have grown the four lyceums that 
 have for many years maintained their individuality, and afforded 
 opportunities for growth and improvement to by far the greater 
 number of those who have come to Alfred. 
 
 The "Orophilian"- — lover of oratory — was formed in 1850, 
 the members coming mostly from the "Amphyctionics." It 
 adopted ''Eloqiientia Mundnm Regif for its motto, as being 
 the most expressive of the design in its organization. Professor 
 W. R. Prentice says "that in founding the society they builded 
 
 (148) 
 
LITERARY SOCIETIES AND LIHRARV. 1 49 
 
 better than they knew. Their object was to secure better 
 advantages in learning the art of public speaking. They 
 founded a society which has kept on making public speakers 
 down through the years." 
 
 The "Alleghanian" — Head of the Mighty was formed in 
 185 I. It has proved, as its members hoped, a prophecy, since 
 from its small beginning it has become a m;ghty stream in its 
 educating influence. Its motto is '" Perseverantia Omnia Vin- 
 citr 
 
 After the first ladies' society, the "Alphadelphian," had lost 
 itself in the other co-working associations, a new sjciety was 
 formed, in 1850, called the " Ladies' Literary." Mrs. Professor 
 Marvin, then preceptress, was its first president. In 1864 it 
 took the name "Alfriedian," with the motto "Excelsior," a true 
 index of its long, vigorous, and still active work. 
 
 The "Ladies' Athenaeum," afterwards "Athenasan," was or- 
 ganized in 1859. \\.svi\o\.\.o xs,"' La Sagesse soutient U Universe 
 Of its early history May Allen Champlin says: "This new lyceum 
 was very kindly received by the older ones, the 'Ladies' Liter- 
 ary' sending delegates and the 'Alleghanian' and 'Orophilian' 
 both passing resolutions to receive its members as sisters. As 
 a lyceum it has been equal to any other in generosity as well as 
 in literary merit." 
 
 SESSION ROOMS AND PUBLIC ENTERTAINMENTS. 
 
 These four lyceums long since became permanent institu- 
 tions of the University, all holding their regular weekly sessions 
 during the school year. The gentlemen have occupied rooms 
 in Chapel Hall, while the Ladies' Boarding Hall has provided 
 those for the young ladies. These rooms have all been nicely fur- 
 nished by their respective societies, and are provided with mu- 
 sical instruments and libraries. For many years the membership 
 in the four lyceums has averaged about the same in numbers. 
 
 Near the holiday time in winter, and at the close of the 
 spring term, each society has given a public entertainment. 
 Often at these times the older members have been recalled to 
 
150 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 & 
 
 give addresses or other assistance. Naturally there has been 
 much pleasant rivalry on these occasions, and seldom has it 
 occurred that any one society has felt to have fallen below the 
 others in their public sessions. I am glad to say that no secret 
 organization has ever obtained a foothold in the University. 
 
 THE SECRET OF HIS INFLUENCE. 
 
 During the many years that the metaphysics and general train- 
 ing for the senior year came under Dr. Allen's care, he often had 
 from nine to ten classes in a day; this was severe, yet he was 
 equal to the task. The morning hours before chapel were pre- 
 ferred for elocution, and the last hours in the afternoon for 
 geology or botany, as this gave more time for field work. His 
 evening classes were open to citizens. These were often held 
 in the home, where ancient history, Chaucer, and Shakespeare 
 were favorite subjects for consideration. These classes, though 
 beginning with a small number, often increased till it would be 
 difficult to find seats for all. 
 
 Dr. D. R. Ford, of Elmira, Dr. Allen's lifelong friend and 
 co-worker, expressed the thought at the memorial service that 
 the secret of his wonderful power and influence, and the incalcu- 
 lable benefit he had been to the students of Alfred University, 
 were rendered possible only by his tact and originality in the 
 art of organizing. This faculty was exemplified in the assist- 
 ance he was constantly giving to the different organizations as 
 they were developed by the growth of the institution in its dif- 
 ferent branches. 
 
 ALUMNI MEETINGS. 
 
 The Alumni Association, though it had long held regular 
 meetings at commencement time, was organized in 1886 at the 
 semi-centennial meeting of the University. Judge S. O. 
 Thatcher, of the Supreme Court of Kansas, was chosen its pres- 
 ident. This office has been held by Dr. Daniel Lewis, of New 
 York, Judge P. B. McLennan, Judge S. M. Dexter, of Elmira, 
 and Hon. W. W. Brown, of Bradford, Pa. 
 
LITERARY SOCIETIES AND LIBRARY. I5I 
 
 THE LIBRARY. 
 
 For increased efficiency, the theological library and those of 
 the four literary societies were, with the University library, 
 consolidated at the first meeting of the Alumni Association. 
 Since that time the private libraries of Professor Larkin and 
 President Allen have been added to these, and the main room 
 on the second floor of Kenyon Memorial Hall has been fitted 
 up for a general library and reading room. It is all indexed 
 and catalogued on the "Dewey system, "and is open to students 
 and teachers every school day in the week. 
 
 Mrs. L. T. Stanton writes of the library: — 
 
 "Were it possible to give a vivid word picture of Alfred University- 
 library in 1891-92, it would be another illustrative instance of the per- 
 sonal element in the character of President Allen, that made his hfe like 
 a benediction to multitudes of young people. You would see the bright 
 room, with its great windows overlooking the beautiful hills and valleys, 
 the cases filled with books, in which are the life thoughts of the best 
 minds of all ages, the long tables around which the students gather for 
 quiet study, while the quick ticking of the clock tells off the passing 
 hours. The chapel bell rings, the third recitation hour is at an end. In 
 a few minutes the doors of the librar}- open and the senior class of '92, 
 bright, eager, full of joyous earnestness, enters, followed by the grand, 
 courtly form of President Allen. How they crowd around him, won by 
 that genial, buoyant nature, that always had time to give himself, and 
 whose very presence added new value to everything! Eager questions 
 w^ere asked by the scholarly man, who was equally at home in science, 
 art, literature, logic, philosophy, and theology. 
 
 "His mental movements were clear and rapid, and all felt that behind 
 his unconsciousness of self was the hiding of great power. Passing from 
 case to case, familiar with all the books, and reading intuitively the minds 
 of others, he was ready to advise or direct each one to the needed source 
 of knowledge. By his words of shrewd wit, humor, or wisdom, he awak- 
 ened and stimulated their minds, until their faces shone with the joy of 
 mental activity. 
 
 "There was always the most eager yet friendly rivalry among the , 
 seniors in their quest for books relating to their college work. Some- 
 times an hour or more would thus be spent in the library, until one after 
 another of the class, having secured their desired help, would go out, and 
 
 b 
 
152 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 then President Allen would settle down for a little quiet research or 
 recreation for himself among the books or late periodicals. 
 
 "Not to the senior class alone, but to all students of the University, 
 this care-encumbered man gave his time, and that rarer gift, inspiring 
 power. They went out from his presence feeling that such a manhood 
 was a royal gift; and, thrilled with the impulse to a nobler life thus exem- 
 plified, many were vitalized with a power that determined the develop- 
 ment and fruitage of their after lives. Such a whole-hearted admiration 
 of a noble Christian man is the richest influence that can come into a 
 young life." 
 
GliAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE WESTERN TRIP IN 1891. 
 
 THE START. 
 
 ^1% /I"^- ALLEN had quite given up the idea of visiting 
 i ^ I our own wonderlands in the great West, as he had 
 V^^ never seen his way clear for such a journey. How- 
 ever, this desire was gratified in 1891, when Judge and Mrs. N. 
 M.. Hubbard, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, made us their guests for 
 the summer vacation of that year. Taking us via the Central 
 Pacific Railroad over the Rockies, thence on to the sea, we 
 returned by the Northern Pacific down the lakes from Duluth, 
 through Canada, and back to old Allegany. 
 
 Our college campus never looked more inviting than on 
 that early morning when we rode out under the elms, all jew- 
 eled with dew, on our way to the train that was to take us west- 
 ward. Just before reaching Chicago the Judge met us, and, 
 smiling from under his new summer hat, took our checks and 
 ourselves in charge. "From that hour," Mr. Allen remarked, 
 "we had no more responsibility than women or children." Break- 
 fasting the next morning at Cedar Rapids with the. family, we 
 rested for a week preparatory to taking the further journey, 
 meanwhile making a short visit to friends in Austin, Minnesota. 
 Judge and Mrs. Hubbard and our two selves were to form the 
 quiet traveling party, which they had spared no pains in arrang- 
 ing for before our arrival. Looking back it seems as though 
 no other number of weeks could count as many days of sun- 
 shine as those that greeted-us on that journey. Our beautiful 
 car, with all its modern ' improvements for comfort and rest, 
 
 ( -53) 
 
154 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 would let US go to sleep in one State and awake the next morn- 
 ing in another, as we sped onward over the great plains. Day 
 by day the bright sunshine lent its charm in bringing out the 
 lights and shadows over boundless plain, distant mountain, 
 fathomless cafion, or overhanging rocks. 
 
 It was planned to reach the Columbia River just at daylight, 
 so as to have the journey by boat during the daytime. As we 
 sailed down that queen of rivers, we felt that writers, poets, and 
 artists have all failed to paint its grandeur and beauty. Every- 
 where basaltic columns rose up hundreds of feet from the midst of 
 the water, as though Vulcan in his anger had thrown out some 
 great thunderbolt in defying man's attempts to utilize nature. 
 Here and there the great basaltic walls lining the banks would 
 melt away to rich alluvial land, that must be tempting to the 
 pioneer. 
 
 All too soon we reached Portland, Oregon. It was surpris- 
 ing to find here, as well as in other cities of the Pacific Coast, 
 all the modern improvements in street cars, buildings, etc., often 
 carried to much greater perfection than even in our old Eastern 
 cities. Electric or cable cars seemed largely to have taken the 
 place of the ordinary horse cars. These would mount up the 
 high bluffs with as much ease as though going on level ground- 
 Often a ride on these cars to the end of their routes and return 
 would give a better idea of the cities than by going in any other 
 way. 
 
 Tacoma and Seattle are built in terraces into the sides of 
 the bluffs, so that sometimes from the second story you could 
 go out into one street, and from the lower story, into the one 
 below. Here we found sister Emeline Allen Wood — one of 
 the "little sisters" — who was now a grandmother with silver hair. 
 We had not seen her for many a year, but felt that the heart 
 welcome was as tender and fresh as though we had parted but 
 yesterday. P>om her front steps could be seen old Tacoma, 
 whose giant face looked into ours, till it seemed that with arms 
 but a little longer we could shake hands with the giant himself. 
 And vet the mountain was more than sixty miles away. 
 
THE WESTERN TRIP IX 1 89 1. 155 
 
 At Seattle our stay was delightful. Here we met lawyer 
 Frank Steel, one of our old student boys of many years before. 
 A drive around Victoria made us feel that we must certainly be 
 on the rocky coast of New England, so alike are they in general 
 appearance and geological formation. 
 
 A WEEK TN THE NATIONAL PARK. 
 
 The Northern Pacific brought us to Livingston, from 
 whence our steps were directed toward the great National 
 Park. Here a week was spent, with new surprises awaiting us 
 each day. You may have read many a description of this glori- 
 ous part of our country, but should the English and all other 
 languages be exhausted in trying to give descriptive pictures, 
 only a faint shadow of the truth could be revealed. 
 
 Leaving Livingston on the train that would take us to Cin- 
 nabar, twenty miles distant, we journeyed by stage the remain- 
 ing nine miles to the Mammoth Hot Springs. Here, before 
 entering the Park, our dear Mrs. Hubbard was prostrated by 
 mountain fever, so we were obliged to forego the society of our 
 friends the rest of the journey. 
 
 It is not strange- that the magnificent region of the park 
 should so long have been unknown, except to the Indians and 
 a few bold adventurers, for, being in a valley of such altitude, it 
 is inaccessible, on account of snow, only for a few of the summer 
 months. It is surrounded by snow-clad mountains, full of 
 impassable canons, much of it being covered with the primeval 
 forests of gigantic pines. It is crowded with rushing, sulphur- 
 ous vapors, rising constantly here and there and everywhere, 
 and so strangely bursting upon the unwary traveler that it is no 
 wonder it seemed to the untutored savage the very gateway to 
 the abode of evil spirits. Three miles from the Mammoth Hot 
 Springs the golden gate to the park is entered. Here the 
 government has spent thousands upon blasting a driveway 
 through the solid rock, yet we must crowd against the pre- 
 cipitous wall or feel that we were to be plunged into the raging 
 torrent below. 
 
156 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 A few miles further on and we are at Glass Mountain, where 
 even the roadway is made of precious obsidian. 
 
 At Beaver Lake we caught our first sight of those interest- 
 ing, artistic little builders from which the lake is named. Being 
 so well protected by law, they seemed to have quite lost their 
 fear of man. 
 
 Riding on we saw now and then the rising mist from some 
 distant geyser, but no true idea of one was gained till we 
 reached Norris Basin. Here we thought them wonderful, but 
 on our return saw how insignificant they were, compared to 
 those we had then seen. 
 
 At Grand Caiion — the Niagara of the Yellowstone — the river 
 leaps hundreds of feet into an abyss that makes the head swim. 
 Here, as everywhere upon the trip, as soon as the stage stopped, 
 Mr. Allen was off to seek some commanding point of view, 
 returning only in time for the onward ride. Often in the early 
 dawn he would be out looking at the wonders spread before 
 him, and perhaps gathering some choice specimens for the home 
 collection. Judge Hubbard often said on the journey, "It is a 
 constant surprise to see the freshness of his enthusiasm." 
 
 Marvels were everywhere. At Yellowstone we found that 
 even the bears had lost their fear, so that they would come out 
 of the woods to eat with the pigs, or steal choice morsels from 
 the huts of the workmen. The deer and bison were frightened 
 only by the noise of the steam whistle. 
 
 From Yellowstone Lake the road led down the Devil's 
 Slide, a way so steep that the passengers felt every moment 
 they must be thrown upon the backs of the horses. We preferred 
 to walk. At Trout Creek the funny Irish proprietor of the eat- 
 ing booth greeted us with, "Come right in, professor; we were 
 looking for you, and, though we haven't yet secured the antlers, 
 we may before you return." The Irish blunder, so near the 
 truth, caused a roar of laughter that was followed up all through 
 the dinner hour by the traveling companions who had been with 
 us for weeks. 
 
 The Lower Geyser basin, where we spent a glorious night, 
 
rilK WESTERN TRIP IN I 89 I. I 57 
 
 was reached near the close of the day. From here to the Upper 
 Geyser was a continued succession of surprises, from the great 
 lake of liquid fire, whose overflow once in seven years filled the 
 entire valley with desolation, to the tiny springs, with all their 
 wondrous blending of prismatic colors. There were also springs 
 throwing up piles of many-hued clays, which were known as 
 "Paint Pots." At the Upper Basin we spent several hours 
 watching more than fifty of these seething fountains. Here 
 "Old Faithful" from his boiling caldron threw up a shaft of 
 spray one hundred and fifty feet high every sixty minutes. 
 Some forty of these fountains seen from the steps of the hotel 
 were playing at irregular intervals, and took all kinds of fantas- 
 tic shapes. Among these "Baby F'ountain" shot up its tiny 
 spray every sixty seconds. 
 
 Everything connected with this strange land, so like what 
 scientists tell us must have been the state of the world when 
 new, has been so often told and retold in prose and poetry that 
 even our children are familiar with all that language can paint 
 or tongue can tell, so we forbear here to say more than that 
 these new experiences to us were full of joy and renewed life. 
 
 HOMEWARD. 
 
 Rich in the treasures gathered and experiences gained, we 
 came homeward across the Dakotas and Minnesota, as far as 
 Duluth, thence down the lakes, reaching Alfred in time for the 
 beginning of the fall term. 
 
 Afterward the days and weeks of our Westward journey, 
 with pleasant, joyful memories, were often re-lived in our home 
 and with our friends. We both felt more indebted than can be 
 expressed to the thoughtful and bountiful generosity of our 
 friends Judge and Mrs. Hubbard. 
 
CHAPTER XX, 
 
 THE LAST YEAR, 
 
 AFTER the return from the West, there were the usual 
 preparations to be made for the opening of the school 
 ^^^ year. The strength imparted by change and travel 
 was severely taxed. All departments of the University were 
 crowded. For some years the seniors had been trained on the 
 academic plan. The president gave out the subjects to the 
 classes, stated the line of investigation, told them what books 
 to consult, or gave them a "finding list." The themes being 
 written out, the papers were brought into the class for dis- 
 cussion, he going to the library and pointing out sources of 
 information to them that had been neglected. Extra time was 
 allowed this class for practice in different styles of writing and 
 in elocution. 
 
 During the year carpenters had been kept at work making 
 new cases for Steinheim. Many of the winter evenings were 
 spent in classifying new specimens and rearranging the old 
 ones. The study floor was many times covered with trays con- 
 taining these, while one was always on the table, to be attended 
 to at odd moments. 
 
 He especially enjoyed the work of that spring term, the 
 "last class" always being, for the time, his best one. When 
 the seniors came in one day to greet him, he said that he often 
 felt, as Plato expressed himself, that in future years he would 
 be glad to see how well they were carrying out their early train- 
 ing, as he had watched with interest the after progress of senior 
 classes for fifty years. 
 ( 158) 
 
THE LAST YEAR. 
 
 ^59 
 
 At anniversary time a large number of old students were 
 with us, and it seemed that we had never better enjoyed com- 
 mencement week. Dr. Robert Collyer was there to give the 
 annual address. Dr. Allen told the friends who were anxious 
 about his health that he felt he was doing the best work of his 
 life. But when all were gone, we knew that he was very weary, 
 but still hoped that the vacation would restore him. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Our daughter, Mrs. Champlin, and family were with us 
 during the season, Mr. Champlin being of great assistance in 
 many ways. As the vacation was not giving the needed rest, 
 the family urged Mr. Allen to go away, where the sight of what 
 needed-to-be-done would not tempt him to overwork. In reply 
 he would quote from John Ouincy Adams, "An old man has 
 no time for rest." Seeing him at work on the campus one day. 
 Rev. L. E. Livermore said, "This is too hard for you," but he 
 smilingly replied, "I do not want to look down upon imperfect 
 work here when I get up therer 
 
 Preparations were made for the new term as usual, but, after 
 consultation with his physician, he decided to put his classes 
 into Mr. Champlin's hands for a few days, he appointing the 
 lessons and indicating how he would have them treated, and 
 receiving a full report from the class room every day. But he 
 grew rapidly worse. 
 
 A few days before he left us, he asked for the manuscript 
 of his last sermon. He thought it would refresh him to give 
 it a few last touches. Over this he occupied himself for two 
 days, and then laid down his pen forever. Every day the very 
 sunshine was brightened by the fruit, flowers, and other things 
 that the love of friends provided. Letters that came over- 
 flowing with tenderness gladdened his heart. Not being able 
 to lie down at all, he spent much of the time at the open win- 
 dows, looking out upon the grounds and watching the students, 
 or, as he always called them, his "children," as they came and 
 
1 6o LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 went from the class rooms. A smile of recognition from him 
 always greeted them as they passed by. 
 
 On the morning of the 21st of September, 1892, those who 
 stood near him showed upon their faces their deep sympathy 
 with his suffering. " I am happy," he said; "why cannot you 
 be so?" These were his last words. In a few moments he 
 had passed beyond mortal ken, and when those who stood by 
 looked at the dear face for the sign of "peace," they saw, in- 
 stead, a glorious joy. The "last enemy" had been conquered. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 MEMORIAL SERUIGES. 
 
 JONATHAN ALLEN, Ph. D.. D. D., LL.D., presi- 
 dent of Alfred University, died at his home in Alfred, 
 N. Y., of disease of the heart, September 21, 1892, in 
 the seventieth year of his age. 
 
 Brief but touching funeral services were held on Friday, 
 September 23, in the home where President Allen had spent 
 the greater part of his life. The house, veranda, hall, and 
 campus in front were completely packed with friends who had 
 come to pay the last tribute of respect to him whose name had 
 been a household word in all parts of the country for nearly 
 half a century, one who was loved by all, the rich and poor 
 alike. 
 
 The solemn hush that fell upon that great assembly told 
 better than any words could of the deep feeling that touched 
 every heart. The profusion of flowers, autumn leaves, and 
 vines, that loving hands had draped and twined about the rooms 
 and casket, betokened the love and esteem in which the de- 
 ceased was held by the community where he had lived and 
 moved, but which neither words nor fragrant emblems could 
 fittingly express. 
 
 The services were simple and conducted in a very quiet 
 manner. The trustees and members of the Faculty were seated 
 as mourners. Prayer was offered by Dr. D. E. Maxson, and 
 Rev. L. C. Rogers read selections from the Scriptures. Intro- 
 ductory remarks, by Dr. L. A. Platts, were followed by befitting 
 words from Dr. D. R. Ford, of Elmira, and President W. C. 
 Whitford, of Milton, Wis. The services were interspersed by 
 
 (.6,) 
 
1 62 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 well-selected music, and were closed with prayer by Rev. L. E. 
 Livermore. 
 
 It has been thought best to insert Ur. Maxson's prayer in 
 this place: — 
 
 "O thou great and glorious, holy and heavenly Father, Father of us 
 all. Father of our spirits, thou art the Maker of our bodies, and therefore 
 rightfully takest them away in thine own good time! We thank thee 
 for the glorious doctrines, evidences, and triumphs over death in the 
 resurrection of life. Our heavenly Father, with bowed heads and sad 
 hearts we mourn the occasion which brings us here this morning; and 
 yet we are glad for this plan of redemption, glad that thy servant came 
 into that plan which made his life grand, beautiful, and glorious so long 
 among us. May the inspiration from his life gather force with gathering 
 years. O God, bless the thousands on whom his benedictions of word 
 and deed have fallen all over the land! Bless the Faculty with whom he 
 has toiled so lovingly, and who have looked to him with so much ten- 
 derness and affection. Strengthen for the work, now tiiat this one 
 has fallen, that will fall on those who remain. O God, give additional 
 strength, that the work may go on with the students, teachers, and 
 trustees! Father, may our hearts never faint, may our zeal never dimin- 
 ish. Thou only canst heal the hearts that are broken. Strengthen 
 her who needs thy support; give the dear children grace to bear afflic- 
 tion and deprivation, and help them to cultivate in their lives the Spirit 
 that guided him. Be with us in this hour, and grant that we may leave 
 this house with nobler purposes and inspirations. We ask it in Jesus' 
 name. Amen." 
 
 After the services the senior class, as pallbearers, accom- 
 panied the casket to the train, as it ^was conveyed to Buffalo 
 for cremation. This was in accordance with an oft-expressed 
 wish of President Allen that his body be incinerated. The cre- 
 mation took place at 10:30 o'clock on Saturday morning, the 
 24th inst., in the presence of a number of old students living 
 in that vicinity. Rev. Dr. A. J. Purdy conducted short and 
 impressive services in the chapel connected with the crematory. 
 The next day Mr. George G. Champlin, Professor A. B. Kenyon, 
 and Mr. Place returned from Buffalo, bearing the precious ashes, 
 which were deposited in a beautiful Greek vase of alabaster. 
 
MEMOKIAl, SERVICES. 
 
 163 
 
 The vase came from the island of Cos, the country and home 
 of Hippocrates, and once held the bones and ashes of the first 
 king of that isle. It dates from 1200 b. c. 
 
 At the same hour of the services in Buffalo memorial serv- 
 ices were held in the Alfred church, when the following program 
 was carried out: — 
 
 OKDliK OF EXERCISES. 
 
 Choir 
 
 - Rev. B. C. Davis 
 
 Rev. L. E. Livermore 
 
 1. Sentence, "Blessed Are Tiiey That Mourn," 
 
 2. Invocation, .--_-_ 
 
 3. Scripture lesson, - - - - . - 
 
 Ps. 20:1,2; Matt. 5: 3-12; 1 Cor. 15: 12-21, 39-45, 54-58. 
 
 4. Prayer, ------- Rev. Dr. D. E. Maxson 
 
 5. Hymn, "Nearer, My God, to Thee," - - _ Congregation 
 
 MEMORIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 6. On behalf of the trustees, - - - 
 
 7. On behalf of the Faculty, 
 
 8. Hymn, "Jesus, Lover of My Soul," - 
 
 9. On behalf of the students, - - . 
 
 10. On behalf of the alumni, - - - . 
 
 11. On behalf of public interests, 
 
 12. Hymn, "Wait and Murmur Not," 
 
 13. On behalf of the Education Society, 
 
 14. On behalf of the church and denomination, 
 
 15. On behalf of moral reform, 
 
 16. Hymn, "Mournfully, Tenderly, Linger We Here," 
 
 17. Benediction. 
 
 Rev. Dr. L. A. Platts 
 
 Rev. L. C. Rogers 
 
 Choir 
 
 Rev. B. C. Davis 
 
 Rev. Dr. D. R. Ford 
 
 Judge P. B, McLennan 
 
 Choir 
 
 Rev. Dr. W. C. Whitford 
 
 Rev. Dr. T. R. Williams 
 
 P. A. Burdick, Esq. 
 
 Choir 
 
 The church was tastefully decorated with flowers and autumn 
 leaves, and the large portrait of the president, surrounded with 
 a wreath of roses, was suspended in front of the organ. 
 
 Telegrams of condolence were received by the family from 
 all parts of the country, one of which, from Mrs. Lizzie Nelson 
 Fryer, from Oakland, Cal, was read during the services. It 
 was this: "His life was a blessed inspiration, and his memory 
 is precious beyond words. With tenderest sympathy." This 
 expressed the sentiment of the many that came during those 
 days from those who had learned from him life's truer meaning. 
 
164 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 The trustees offered the following resolutions, which have 
 been placed upon their records: — 
 
 "Whereas, It has pleased the all-wise heavenly Father to remove from 
 us our fellow trustee and honored president, Jonathan Allen, whose death 
 has filled all our hearts with sorrow; therefore, 
 
 " Rcso/ved, That we bow in meek submission to the all-perfect and 
 divine will. 
 
 "Resolved, That we place upon record our appreciation of the faithful 
 services of President Allen in his connection with this Institution for 
 more than fifty years, — first as a tutor, then as a professor in the Academy 
 and University, and finally as president for the last twenty-five years. 
 
 "Resolved, That we also recognize and gratefully appreciate the 
 untiring zeal with which he served as a trustee of the University, doing 
 duty upon committees, and otherwise striving to promote the best inter- 
 ests of our beloved Institution. 
 
 " Resolved, That in his death we mourn the loss of a noble Christian 
 gentleman, a profound scholar, a successful educator, and a true friend 
 of every noble cause. 
 
 "Resolved, That, while thus recording our own grief and sense of loss, 
 we do not forget those who, in addition to these sorrows, shared by us 
 all, mourn the loss of a devoted husband and father; and we do tenderly 
 commend them to the loving care of Him in whose presence is fullness 
 of joy, and at whose right hand our beloved fellow-worker, our honored 
 president, has found the sweet fruition of his earnest life and trusting 
 faith." 
 
 This tribute to the memory of President J. Allen is fur- 
 nished by his late associates, — -the Faculty of the University: — 
 
 "God, in his all-wise but mysterious providence, having seen fit to 
 remove by death our beloved and respected associate, Rev. Dr. J. Allen, 
 president of Alfred University, we do hereby cordially unite in testifying 
 to our very great regard for him as a scholar, a teacher, and a Christian 
 gentleman. 
 
 " He was indeed extremely modest in the possession of these various 
 accomplishments and attainments. Our relation to him, however, gave 
 us the coveted opportunity of knowing, as also of appreciating, his ample 
 stores of useful knowledge, his breadth of scholarship, his love of learn- 
 ing, his clo.se and patient application to study and to his work as teacher, 
 his mental acumen, his self-poise, and the correctness of his judgment 
 
MEMORIAL SERVICES. 165 
 
 and of his intuitions. To all these scholarly distinctions must be added 
 his genuine love of mankind, which made him everywhere and always 
 genial, and the friend and favorite of students. 
 
 "We take pleasure in testifying also to the moral worth of our late 
 associate, and to his genuine Christlikeness of character. We refer with 
 pride and satisfaction to his inherent nobility of nature, his high man- 
 hood qualities, accompanied always with commanding dignity of person, 
 the unsullied purity of his life, his self-sacrificing spirit, his devotion to 
 principle, his courageous advocacy of social and moral reforms, his 
 tender-heartedness, his helpfulness, his constant kindness to the poor, his 
 trust in God, and his love for and fellowship with all true Christians. 
 We are glad to be able to say that our associations with our now de- 
 parted brother have been uniformly pleasant. We have truly loved and 
 respected him, and looked to him as the venerable father and head of 
 our beloved University. In offering this humble tribute of respect to his 
 memory, we are profoundly impressed with a sense of the loss which this 
 death occasions, not only to ourselves, to the alumni and students of 
 Alfred University, and to the general public, but also and especially to 
 the surviving members of his deeply afflicted family, with whom we feel- 
 ingly share the burden of this bereavement, and to whom we heartily 
 extend our assurances of high regard and tender sympathy. 
 
 "As surviving members of the Faculty of Alfred University, inspired, 
 as we tru.st we are and ever shall be, by the life of our now departed 
 associate, we conclude this brief memorial with our fervent thanks to the 
 kind heavenly Father for giving us so illustrious an example of real 
 worth and true nobility of character for our further study and fuller imi- 
 tation." 
 
 The Alfred Sun of that date says: — 
 
 "In the death of President Allen, Alfred loses a prominent and influ- 
 ential citizen, Alfred University a loved and honored teacher, and the 
 country a profound scholar and learned educator. His life has been so 
 closely interwoven with this Institution of learning that his name and the 
 University were synonymous. 
 
 "When at about ten o'clock on Wednesday morning the old chapel 
 bell began to toll in mournful tones, everyone understood too well what 
 it said, yet all whispered, ' Is he dead ? ' We could not realize it, although 
 we had come to expect it. The scene which presented itself in front of 
 the chapel, as student after student stopped to mingle tears and sighs 
 with those of their fellows, could but portray the intense love and grati- 
 
l66 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 tilde that they had for him whose Hfe had fled, but whose hfe had been 
 an example for the noblest to imitate. Much has been said of the great- 
 ness and goodness of this life that is spent, but the half will never be 
 told, for words cannot express it, and only will it be known when the 
 recording angel in that great day shall read it from the pages of the 
 Book of Life. Although President Allen will be with us no more in 
 chapel, and no more will we see that grand and beautiful figure about 
 the campus, yet his memory will ever be bright in the minds and hearts 
 of the many whom he has helped to nobler and better lives. Of him the 
 words of Bryant might be truthfully used: — 
 
 '"Sustained and soothed 
 By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, 
 Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch 
 About him and Hes down to pleasant dreams.' " 
 
 At a meeting of the students on Wednesday afternoon, 
 the following resolutions were offered to the memory of Rev. 
 Dr. J. Allen, president, deceased: — 
 
 "We, the students of Alfred University, and members of its literary 
 societies, having been called this day, by the death of our beloved presi- 
 dent, Rev. Dr. J. Allen, to part with one so loved and honored, do hereby 
 express our high appreciation of his worth and worthiness, the true 
 nobility of his nature, the manhood qualities he possessed, his kindliness 
 of heart, his self-forgetfulness, and his ever loving care of others, his sub- 
 lime and unbroken faith in the divine Saviour of mankind. 
 
 "In offering this tribute to the memory of our dear departed presi- 
 dent and friend, we can but express our sense of deep loss which this 
 death brings to ourselves and others, and especially to his bereaved 
 family, to whom we extend the expression of our true affection and 
 tender sympathy. Committee." 
 
 Note. — Much that was said at the memorial services has been inserted in other 
 chapters of this book. 
 
MEMORIAL SERVICES. I 67 
 
 REMARKS BY PRESIDENT W. G. WHITFORD, 
 OF MILTON, WIS 
 
 "I bring a message of sympathy and heartfelt grief to this com- 
 munity and the members of the University from the people of Milton, 
 embracing the Faculty and students of the college there, old graduates 
 of Alfred, and citizens who knew President Allen in his youth. There 
 have been committed to me special words of love and condolence to the 
 afflicted family, particularly to the esteemed wife. We mingle our sorrow 
 with that of a great multitude of acquaintances and friends in different 
 parts of the country. 
 
 "It is known that the deceased president spent a portion of his young 
 manhood in Milton. The farmhouse in which he lived, and the fields 
 which he harvested, are still pointed out to us. His parents resided 
 there the last years of their life, and he was an occasional visitor at their 
 home. At such times he was always greeted with pleasure, not only by 
 his relatives, but also by his earliest friends living there. For several 
 terms he was the principal of the old Milton Academy, and was after- 
 ward invited to become the permanent president of that institution, before 
 he was elected to the same position in your University. Other ties unite 
 us most closely with you, especially the older inhabitants of Alfred, and 
 cause us also to feel deeply this bereavement. Our first settlers emi- 
 grated from your hills and valleys, and brought with them the educa- 
 tional spirit which was imparted to them in the first years of the history 
 of your Institution. They made Milton College the child of Alfred Uni- 
 versity, finding in the latter nearly fifty years ago their example and 
 their model. The first teacher here was the first teacher there; the 
 studies pursued here were the studies adopted there. No educational 
 worker in our denomination has ever been more fully convinced than 
 was President Allen that collegiate schools, like that at Milton, should 
 be organized and conducted among our churches in the West. From 
 him we have received words of approval and encouragement in our labors. 
 Why should we not grieve at his death ? 
 
 "The internal life of President Allen, the secret of his great influence 
 over others, and the instruction in his classes, — with all these you are 
 familiar, and they have guided, moulded, and stimulated your very beings. 
 But he has been filling a place which connected him with movements 
 and persons outside of your locality, and even beyond the boundaries of 
 your State and the nation. His stadents and associates are found in the 
 four quarters of the globe, in an exalted station in the National Senate of 
 
l68 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 this country, in the humble and useful occupation of a district school- 
 teacher, and in the honorable pursuits lying between these. He chose 
 the labors of an instructor, and that at the head of a strong University, 
 so that he could affect most powerfully the lives of young men and 
 women coming in contact with him, and fit them most successfully for a 
 beneficent and happy career. He thus made the most goodly and last- 
 ing impressions upon hundreds and thousands in our denomination, 
 some of whom are our chiefest and best beloved leaders. The teacher 
 is the prime mover in the affairs of the church, society at large, and the 
 civil power. He stands at the fountain head of all streams of whole- 
 some influence. To inform and direct the boys and girl§ of a great 
 community is to assume charge of the grown-up men and women, of 
 controlling intelligence and energy therein. Such labor is worthy to 
 engage exclusively the thoughts and the heart of any man of superior 
 endowments of soul. No one else understood this fact better than did 
 President Allen; so he was contented to occupy, and faithfully, as his 
 life's work, the position he filled with such distinction. He never sought 
 some ofificial place, which he would have greatly honored, in a wider 
 educational field or in the councils of the nation. 
 
 "We have, in the past few years, been called to mourn the death of 
 our most eminent teachers, those who originated, managed, and gave 
 success to our denominational schools. The first on the list was the 
 talented and knightly-souled Kenyon, your former president, who gave 
 you the confidence and the ability to found here a University. I stood 
 about a year since before the house in London, England, where he 
 breathed his last, and thought of his enthusiasm, the lightning speed of 
 his intellect, and the vigor of his purpose, as exhibited here with his 
 coworkers in the training of the youth, whom he guided with almost 
 unexampled skill. Next came the fatherly, self-denying, and large- 
 minded Irish, whose toils here in the early days of your Institution, and 
 later at De Ruyte^, will ever be remembered by his grateful and loving- 
 pupils. Recently we bade adieu to the gentle, scholarly, and polished 
 Carpenter, our first college graduate of this century, and the first prin- 
 cipal of a school established by our people. His body rests in a foreign 
 grave. Last we stand in the presence of the remains of the dignified, 
 comprehensive, and philosophical Allen, whose mind was rounded like 
 a ball, and could roll in any direction it chose. He was not a specialist, 
 a mere agitator, but he had the ability to grasp the ultimate principles 
 of any subject within the range of human investigation, and at the same 
 time to collect and arrange the many details of that subject into a prac- 
 tical unity under the guidance of those principles. This is a rare gift. 
 
MEMORIAL SERVICES. 
 
 69 
 
 In conducting the interests of your Institution, in participating in the 
 affairs of your community, and in suggesting the work of our denomi- 
 nation, he has been a masterful organizer. His place cannot be easily 
 supplied. 
 
 "It is meet that we attend these funeral services on the grounds of 
 the University, in sight of its buildings, in the midst of this scenery loved 
 so well, and surrounded by those interesting associations with which 
 President Allen had become most familiar through fifty-six years of his 
 life as a student and a teacher in this village. Look upon the hallowed 
 place, contemplate and admire his noble work, consider how he has 
 moved here the lever which has lifted to a higher level many choice 
 spirits, and the tasks which they have accomplished, and resolve that 
 your aims, your efforts, and your natures shall in the future be worthier 
 and still more useful because of his example, his instruction, and his 
 devotion to you." 
 
 For we speak of you cheerfully always 
 
 As journeying on ; 
 Not as one who is dead do we name you — 
 
 We say you are gone. 
 
 For how could we speak of you sadly, 
 
 We who watched while the grace 
 Of eternity's wonderful beauty 
 
 Grew over your face ? 
 
 "M. E. H. Everett. 
 
 'Alas! what tribute may I bear 
 
 To thee, dear father, friend of my far-off youth ? 
 With dimmed eyes and whitening hair 
 
 I turn to lay upon thy grave, in ruth, 
 One flower of love, and drop a grateful tear. 
 
 Thy grave! where may I find thy grave ? 
 
 No green slope of thy native hills 
 Cherishes one violet thy dear dust gave. 
 
 The mighty music of the pine tree thrills 
 Along the forest column s nave, 
 
yO LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 " But lingers not around thy sacred tomb. 
 
 I listen to the tossings of the troubled sea, 
 If he may murmur news of thy last home. 
 
 Nor land, nor wind, nor sea, can show to me 
 A mound, a stone, that marks thy earthly doom. 
 
 " 'Tis well ; who loves but nature's outward grace, 
 The tree, the flower, the stone, let him receive 
 Such tribute. Who hath power to trace 
 
 In human lives the record he would leave 
 Wins what no cenotaph can give, nor death efface. 
 
 " Elvira E. Kenyon. 
 
 'And has the chieftain fallen— he. 
 
 The strong and true, the grand and free, 
 
 A leader in the realm of thought, 
 
 Who to his lifelong purpose brought 
 
 Endurance, courage, pure desire, 
 
 A living faith, a soul of fire, 
 
 The steadfastness of heart and will, 
 
 Life's holiest mission to fulfill ? 
 
 ' He is not dead. In all that gives 
 To life its value, still he lives. 
 In influence, usefulness, and power. 
 He lives most worthily this hour. 
 He lives in hearts whose love is warm. 
 In characters he helped to form. 
 In countless lives made pure and bright 
 By his example, precepts, light. 
 
 " f)eath but as God's evangel came ; 
 The grave no victory could claim. 
 And, backward borne by heavenly breeze. 
 We catch such whisperings as these, 
 ' Be earnest, diligent, and strive 
 Each day a nobler life to live. 
 Whate'er your work, where'er you rove. 
 Faithful to God and duty prove. ' 
 
 " Mary Bassett Clarke. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 UIEWS OF PRESIDENT ALLEN'S GHARAGTER. 
 
 ON BEHALF OF PUBLIC INTERESTS. 
 [Extracts from the address of Judge P. B. LcLennan.] 
 
 SUCH a life as has been portrayed upon this sad occasion, 
 President Allen's life, must of necessity have materially 
 affected public interests ; a character so grand and noble, so 
 kingly yet so childlike in innocent simplicity, majestic, yet 
 tender as a mother's love, imperious, yet ever pleading to come, never 
 commanding to go; a character builded upon pure and noble thought 
 and action, the outgrowth of God's lesson as he learned it from nature's 
 volume, ever spread open before him; a character such as his made an 
 indelible impression upon the lives of all with whom he came in contact. 
 He sipped God's love from the tiny flowers, saw his majesty in the 
 sturdy oak, his power in the tempest, his grandeur in the starry firma- 
 ment — a beautiful and divine purpose in all. The plane upon which he 
 dwelt was so high that, day by day, mingled with the discordant notes of 
 humanity, he heard the music of God's angels sound so beautiful as to 
 lead him ever to point higher and still higher. 
 
 "President Allen's life.so moulded, was consecrated to God and human- 
 ity, was consecrated, my friends, to you and to me. For more than half 
 a century he traveled life's great highway, with a bearing so kingly as to 
 compel our homage, strewing God's flowers by the wayside, and thus 
 winning our love; carrying the heaviest burdens, and thus challenging 
 our admiration. Indeed, an honest man, in God's own image, passed 
 along. 
 
 "Think you that such a life did not materially affect the public inter- 
 ests of a locality, of a State, of a nation ? Its outcroppings are seen on 
 every hand. In the schoolrooms throughout the land noble men and 
 women who were taught at his feet are day by day transmitting his 
 enthusiasm, his power, his soul, to the boys and girls of the common- 
 wealth. In business centers his students are contending, both by pre- 
 
 (171) 
 
72 
 
 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 cept and example, for better methods, for stricter honesty and closer 
 application. Those engaged in the professions realize a greater responsi- 
 bility to clients and patients for having heard his proclamation of duty. 
 In the legislative halls throughout the nation there are those who heard 
 his views as to the duty of the legislator, who were taught his Puritan 
 notions of honesty, and who are standing in this critical period of our 
 country's history as a bulwark against corruption in high places and 
 imbecility in the discharge of the duties of public trusts. In the pulpit 
 thousands of his devotees are pleading in Christ's name with weak, with 
 foolish humanity, to be stronger and wiser, and to come upon the higher 
 plane where he dwelt. In every avocation of life there are those who 
 are endeavoring to practice the precepts which he taught, endeavoring 
 to follow his example, and are thus helping a little to make life's path- 
 way more beautiful, man's abode upon earth more heavenlike. Thou- 
 sands, yes, tens of thousands, are under the influences of his noble 
 life to-day, and as the years go on they will multiply and still mul- 
 tiply, until the truths which he taught— God's truths — having been trans- 
 mitted from soul to soul, shall be known throughout the world. 
 
 " Dear friend and loved one, thou art not dead. Those attributes of 
 thy character, — love, truth, purity, — can never die. Sleep for an hour if 
 thou wilt. Rest, if thou must; but thy glorious work must go on for- 
 ever and forever. In our weakness now we shed a tear. If we were 
 strong we would leap for joy that a noble soul is now untrammeled, that 
 it may soar higher and higher, even to the house of God, and from thence 
 be a still more potent helper in working out God's divine purpose toward 
 man. Thy seeming death emphasizes, vitalizes, the influences of thy life. 
 Thy students, thy children, engaged in the more public activities of life, 
 will pause for at least a moment to shed a tear, but will consecrate them- 
 selves anew to higher and nobler things, to the emulation of thy example. 
 
 "Would that in this hour of sorrow I could pay the tribute of my 
 heart to my absent, not dead, benefactor. I cannot speak the words. 
 The thought of his many kindnesses, of his unselfish love for me, would 
 overwhelm even a stronger heart. Instead, let me pledge a lifelong 
 fidelity to Alfred University, the capstone of his life's work, the object of 
 his tenderest devotion." 
 
VIEWS OF PRESIDENT ALLEN S CHARACTER. 1 73 
 
 ON BEHALF OF MORAL REFORMS. 
 
 [From an address at the same service by Mr. P. A. Burdick.*] 
 
 " ' He rests with the immortals; his journey has been long; 
 For him no wail of sorrow, but a ptean full and strong, 
 So well and bravely has he done the work he found to do, 
 To justice, freedom, duty, God, and man forever true.' 
 
 "Of the many elements which combined to make Jonathan Allen a 
 great man, no element of character was more prominent than his advo- 
 cacy of ail moral reforms. God made him with the positive forces 
 necessary for this work. The talents given him were not hidden but 
 developed, and so they brought forth an hundred-fold. 
 
 "The sacrifices and denials made for the University he loved, and for 
 which he gave his life, strengthened in him the qualities essential to the 
 character of a reformer. He had the most positive convictions, and the 
 courage to follow them. He never stopped to consider results when a 
 great truth was to be vindicated or a great wrong to be overthrown. 
 His duty was to defend the truth, to condemn the w;'ong. Results he left 
 with God. He had the courage to think, to act, to tell harsh truths, to 
 dethrone splendid falsehoods, to follow the voice of God, even though it 
 led into the wilderness. God gave him to the world at a time when such 
 a character could have the greatest possible scope. The hidden moral 
 forces had long been gathering into form, and waited the coming of 
 resolute, fearless souls to become their champions. 
 
 "Foremost among the men who led the advance in all reform work 
 stood Jonathan Allen. At an early age the question of slavery claimed 
 his attention, and before he had reached his majority he became an 
 enthusiastic and aggressive advocate of the antislavery movement. 
 With his great love for the truth he became the champion of the most 
 radical antislavery principles, and cast his lot with Garrison, Phillips, and 
 Birney. This act cost him popularity with the masses, turned some 
 friendships into gall, but did not swerve him from his course. It was 
 weakness against strength, the oppressed against the oppressor. It was 
 justice against injustice. For him to have done else than defend such a 
 cause would have been bartering away his own individuality. No cry of 
 compromise or expediency was of avail. The slave pen, the auctionblock' 
 the lash, and the bloodhound, were formidable pleaders, and his answer 
 was, 'Here am I.' He lived to see and enjoy the victory, the black man 
 no longer a slave, but a free man. God spared him not only to behold 
 the dawning of the morning, but to look upon the golden sunset. 
 
 *Mr. Burdick, one of the foremost temperance evangelists in America, was 
 prostrated from overwork in Chicago, and died soon afterward at his home in Alfred, 
 in June, 1893. 
 
174 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 "Of all the moral reforms he upheld none was dearer to his heart than 
 the temperance movement. He became a total abstainer at the age of 
 thirteen, signing the pledge at a temperance meeting under the auspices 
 of the Washingtonians. In those days the use of liquor in the home was 
 almost universal, his home being no exception. He was laughed at and 
 jeered at by his companions, and was the recipient of many persecutions. 
 This only made him stronger in his convictions. He never changed in 
 his prdcepts; as he came in contact with young men who became the 
 victims of the drink curse, he learned to pity the victim and hate the 
 traffic. With his great love for humanity he again put on the whole 
 armor of God. 
 
 "The manliness of manhood, the virtue of womanhood, the sanctity of 
 home, our Christian civilization, was imperiled by this monster, the liquor 
 traffic. He had seen it change from a passive nuisance into an aggressive 
 evil. He saw it organized into a mighty power, defying law. controlling 
 courts of justice, and dictating the administration of government. True 
 to every principle which made his life noble, loyal to his convictions, which 
 made his life sublime, he again dared to be ahead of the times, and raised 
 his voice and cast his ballot against the great sin of the nation. His 
 sensitive nature was wounded, his heart grieved, at the unjust censure 
 from those who could not understand his motives, but he bore these 
 added burdens bravely, uncomplainingly, heroically. 
 
 "Jonathan Allen did not live for what the world could give him, but 
 for what he could give the world. And one of the sweetest thoughts in 
 this sad hour is that his own individuality of character has been molded 
 into the lives of thousands who have come under his special care and 
 influence.' There are men and women here to-day who are better men 
 and women, with higher aspirations, with broader lives, who have reached 
 nearer the throne of God, because they came close to his great heart. 
 
 " His faith and works, like streams that intermingle 
 In the same channel, ran. 
 The crystal clearness of an eye kept single 
 Shamed all the frauds of man. 
 
 "The very gentlest of all human natures 
 He joined to courage strong, 
 And love outreaching unto all God's creatures. 
 With sturdy hate of wrong. 
 
 "And now he rests; his greatness and his sweetness 
 No more shall seem at strife. 
 And death has moulded into calm completeness 
 The statue of his life." 
 
VIEWS OF PRESIDENT ALLEN S CHARACTER. 1 75 
 
 A COMPLETED LIFE WORK. 
 
 JUDGE M. N. HUBBARD. 
 
 ""Thou hast embarked; thou hast made the voyage; thou art come to the shore." — 
 Marcus Aureliiis Antoninus. 
 
 "Physically and mentally, men are of two kinds, copies and original 
 types. President Allen was an original type in both respects. He did 
 not look nor act like other men. Most men are so similar that the differ- 
 ence is not marked, and then they are frequently taken one for the other. 
 No one ever mistook President Allen for anybody else. He was over 
 six feet high, broad-shouldered, and massive. His face was an uncom- 
 mon one, and his large blue eyes had an unmistakable expression of 
 unusual sympathy and kindness. Every lineament was an earnest 
 entreaty to all in distress or who needed help to come to him. His head 
 indicated remarkable mental power, and his calm, dignified bearing stimu- 
 lated everyone to emulate him and to become like him. Modesty and 
 humility could not fail to be read by all from every expression of word, 
 or countenance, or act. There was not a trace of selfishness in all his 
 life. He was a great teacher, intent only on uplifting the young to a 
 higher plane of life, and on making mankind better in every way. He 
 took no thought of himself; his sole life work was to make Alfred Uni- 
 versity a great blessing to mankind by pointing to the higher and better 
 way of life through a higher education. 
 
 "Good actions are of three kinds: First, those which we do for our- 
 selves; second, those which we do for our kindred; and, third, those 
 which we do for others. President Allen devoted all his learning, all his 
 energy, all his gentle loving-kindness, to the good of others. It is easy 
 for all of us to be good to ourselves and to our children, but the number 
 of great men who devote themselves wholly to the good of others is 
 few and rare. 
 
 "President Allen was not a man of special gifts, but excelled in all 
 branches of learning. Whether he taught Greek, or Latin, or mathe- 
 matics, or metaphysics, or science, or rhetoric, or astronomy, or geology, 
 or logic, he impressed one that, like Lord Bacon, he had chosen all fields 
 of knowledge to be his province. His mental powers ranged the entire 
 gamut of intellectual greatness, and his voice modulated to every good 
 sentiment and emotion. 
 
 "He was not only deeply learned, but he was a born orator. He was 
 eloquent without being conscious of it, and without any effort or intention 
 to be so, and it was so because his whole soul was intent only to make 
 better his fellowmen, and lead them to the higher way. 
 
176 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 "While he generally spoke without notes, he seldom spoke extempo- 
 raneously, and never on a subject of importance. Thorough preparation 
 and analysis preceded all his public efforts, and he never fell below expec- 
 tation — although much was expected of him. 
 
 "But high above all the attainments of this marvelous man in every 
 kind of human knowledge, stand his moral attributes, his precepts and 
 example. 
 
 "Prince Guatama, the original Buddha, taught the kingdom of right- 
 eousness on earth by the noble eightfold path of right views, high aims, 
 kindly speech, upright conduct,a harmless livelihood, perseverance in well- 
 doing, intellectual activity, and earnest thought. Gautama's religion, 
 however, ended here. He prophesied nothing for the future except 
 eternal rest — the nirvana. He regarded man as a tiny part of a great 
 universal whole, and as impossible of a real individual existence as that 
 a drop of the ocean should become a sea by itself 
 
 "The human race, like the ocean, seems immortal, but the human race 
 differs from the ocean in that, at least for a time, individual existence is 
 a real fact, while the drops composing the ocean are practically always 
 blended. 
 
 "Christ came six thousand years later than Gautama, and gave us the 
 inspiring doctrine of the individual immortality of the soul in a future 
 kingdom of heaven, in addition to the kingdom of righteousness on earth 
 as taught by Gautama. And herein lies the difference in the religion of 
 the European and the Asiatic. Let the civilization and progress of the 
 two peoples settle the controversy, if any, between the two religions. 
 Certain it is that the hope of individual immortality in the kingdom of 
 heaven has been accompanied by an individual strife for individual supe- 
 riority and excellence here, which has created a jostling, bustling, omniv- 
 orous civilization, and which of itself suggests the doctrine of the 'sur- 
 vival of the fitte-st.' 
 
 "President Allen taught and exemplified in his daily life the kingdom 
 of heaven, as well as the kingdom of righteousness on earth. His mind 
 was too broad and catholic to be bound by any mere creed of any par- 
 ticular church, and it is doubtful if he ever said a single word in favor of 
 or against any particular non-essential tenet, dogma, or mere doctrine, 
 or form, or catechism, or discipline of any particular church. From all 
 sermons and from his daily walk and talk all that could be gathered was 
 that he was a broad-minded, tolerant Christian. He was the only man 
 the writer ever knew who overcame in himself both ignorance and selfish- 
 ness — the two chief causes of human sorrow — and he labored unceas- 
 
VIEWS OF PRESIDENT ALLEn's CHARACTER. IJ'J 
 
 ingly to help mankind to this desired goal. He devoted his life to make 
 Alfred University strong to this end. A simple instance illustrates: At 
 a commencement a few years before his death, his friends presented him 
 a few hundred dollars as a token of their appreciation of his love and 
 labor for the University he adorned so much. He was much surprised, 
 and, looking at the money in a dazed way, said, ' I never had as much 
 money as this at one time in all my life, and I do not know what to do 
 with it, unless I give it to the University.' Many similar instances might 
 be given. He devoted all his great learning, all his energy of soul and 
 body, all his life, to the founding of Alfred University, and all its alumni, 
 scattered all over this goodly land, bring garlands and reverence to the 
 tombs of President Kenyon and President Allen, who, by their courage, 
 wisdom, enthusiasm, executive ability — and without money — founded a 
 school where more than ten thousand in the past have drunk, and many 
 times ten thousand in the future may drink, deeply from the Pierian 
 spring. 
 
 "Will President Allen be long remembered here? For it must be con- 
 ceded by most of us that, hand in hand with our longing for an immortal 
 future, goes a like craving to leave an immortal remembrance that we 
 have not lived, even here, in vain. 
 
 "Born into the world without our knowledge, we leave it without our 
 consent. Nearly fifteen hundred millions have come and gone every 
 thirty-three years for thousands of years, and this will continue for all 
 time to come. The house of eternal fame on earth is very small, has 
 many windows, but few niches, and little space on its walls for the busts 
 and portraits of the great. 
 
 ''The founders of a new religion that takes deep and lasting root 
 among mankind will live as long as their religion lives. Christ and his 
 apostles and the prophets, Buddha and Mohammed, seem to be immortal. 
 The founder of a new nation (for the founding is always attributed to one 
 man), and the saviour of a nation in peril (like Washington and Lincoln), 
 seem immortal. But, judging the future by the past, the lives of nations 
 have an end. Each generation has its own statesmen and its own litera- 
 ture, and those whose memory survives, even among their own country- 
 men, fifty years after they are gone, are very few. Intellect and goodness 
 are alone immortal, and they live detached from mortal bodies, without 
 name, and their unseen power is only visible in the gradual rise of the 
 race from ignorance and selfishness to the higher plane of wisdom and 
 universal love. True human greatness is not heralded by the noise of 
 cannon or brass, nor is it perpetuated by marble or bronze. 
 
lyS LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 "A few great generals have appeared and written their names across 
 the sky of history. Nine-tenths of mankind now Hving can count all 
 the names of great men they can recall, on their fingers, and the other 
 one-tenth would exhaust themselves with a hundred or two names. This 
 sort of immortal remembrance is fleeting and vain. 
 
 "President Allen, during his fifty years as professor and teacher, came 
 into personal acquaintance with ten thousand young men and women of 
 more than ordinary intellect. He made as profound an impression upon 
 them as did Plato or Aristotle upon their pupils. These ten thousand 
 have gone into all the earth, and other tens of thousands follow, and all 
 bear the impress, to some extent, at least, of the intellect, the goodness 
 and greatness of this great teacher. And thus it is that his influence 
 goes on in an ever widening and never ending path, to bless, to cheer, to 
 purify, to elevate. His immortality is like himself while with us here — 
 modest, charitable, unselfish, sweet, all-pervading, and altogether blessed. 
 May we all of us live as he lived, teach as he taught, and die as he died, 
 is the wish of , One of His Pupils." 
 
OVER THE SOl'TH BRIDGE. 
 
GliAPTER XXIII 
 
 MEMORIES FROM OLD STUDENTS. 
 
 FROM COLONEL WESTON FLINT, LL.U., OF WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 I TRUST you will not think me negligent in delaying to express my 
 great personal loss in the death of President Allen. I know how 
 very little words can do to tell what the heart feels, and, more, how 
 empty words are to those upon whom a great grief has fallen, as it 
 has upon you. But I. must express my own sorrow; I feel as if some 
 great part of personal life were gone from my immediate grasp. It is 
 not gone, but the first feeling is one of loneliness. But then again I 
 think of what I have garnered up in the soul, what precious influences 
 for good have been with me all my life, and will be to the end, that came 
 from that noble heart, now stilled. 
 
 " To me President Allen resembled the grand philosophers of old. 
 He was a man who looked to the bottom of things, hence his hatred of 
 shams. He wanted what was noble in a man, and hence his pure 
 democracy of giving everyone, whatever his place in life, rich or poor, 
 his due reward. He saw through men. He was at times, as some of 
 us thought, a little severe, yet he was as tender as a woman. 
 
 " I do not think that the students who received so much from him all 
 these years appreciated the greatness of his character, but they will do 
 so as the }'ears go on. His toil of a lifetime in such a noble work leaves 
 its impress on humanity. It goes down the ages. The outward ex- 
 pression of the wealth of the soul that has fallen upon human hearts is 
 far more enduring than all else in this world. 
 
 "It was a disappointment that I could not be with you as the last 
 words were spoken in his honor; but the words that were spoken by 
 him are far more important to us all. I shall ever remember him as the 
 lofty ideal of a true man. 
 
 "There is so much of grandeur in a character like President Allen's 
 that, although I feel keenly the loss that has come to us in his death, 
 yet, more than all, I rejoice that such a priceless inheritance has been 
 left in his noble self-sacrifice of a life for the good of others." 
 
 (179) 
 
l8o LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 FROM DR. DANIEL LEWIS, PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK STATE MEDICAL 
 ASSOCIATION. 
 
 "Our lamented president of Alfred possessed so remarkable a combi- 
 nation of great and striking qualities that no brief paragraphs of mine 
 can adequately enumerate them. After I left college (where it was my 
 privilege to know him as intimately as any alumnus could), and com- 
 pared his personality with many men of wide-extended reputation, the 
 one feature which impressed me more than another in President Allen 
 was the transcendent nobility of his ideals of life. I believe that my 
 most abject failure in his estimation (and I remember many) was an effort 
 made to meet his views in an anniversary oration upon a theme he wished 
 me to treat. 
 
 "While it was a grand experience for Alfred students to be under his 
 tuition, yet I now see that his own powers were restricted in so limited 
 a sphere of action. If his field had been the great world of the metrop- 
 olis, for example, no man of the present generation could have achieved 
 a more brilliant or lasting reputation in his chosen field of scientific work 
 or upon the platform. 
 
 " His diversity of great talents were a marvel to me. He was a 
 master in natural history, a leader in philosophy and theology, an expert 
 in the classics, in rhetoric unapproachable, in the pulpit with few equals 
 in this or any other country. In his intercourse with boys he misun- 
 derstood them often, as they failed to appreciate him, but in maturer 
 years they became his warm advocates and most devoted adherents at 
 all times and everywhere. 
 
 "Alfred College can never find another President Allen, but, if his 
 influence still lives in the hearts of the alumni and friends, his successor 
 will be enabled by other aid to take up and advance the work which he 
 so nobly carried on, until the past history of the school shall become 
 only as the dawn of a bright and prosperous day." 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF ALFRED, BY JUDGE STEPHEN G. NYE. 
 
 "My first introduction to tlie school at Alfred was in 1854. It was 
 then known as 'Alfred Academy and Teachers' Seminary,' and, as its 
 name indicated, its province was the education of public school-teachers, 
 and the preparation of young men for college; but it was far more than 
 that. To me it was the opening of a new world. It seemed as if we 
 breathed the atmosphere of optimism. I went there intent on pursuing 
 academic studies for a year or two, and then intended to take up the 
 study of medicine; but the conception of a full college curriculum was 
 
MEMORIES FROM OLD STUDENTS. 151 
 
 something that even imagination was not permitted to entertain. Like 
 the great bulk of Alfred students, I earned the means for fu'ther edu- 
 cation by teaching and by labor, that brought monetary return. After 
 I had enlisted as a student, the most frequent question was, 'What col- 
 lege are you preparing for?' I found there a great army of young men 
 without purse or fortune, as confident of college honors as if they were 
 already attained. It seemed to me the sublimity of impudence; I grew 
 to believe it the sublimity of faith. I had not been a student there thirty 
 days until the current swept me along, and I was literally 'in the swim,' 
 and saw my college parchment just ahead as distinctly and certainly as 
 if it were already in my grasp. In due time it came. 
 
 '' I had never seen any institution before, I have 7iever seen one since ^ 
 where the sentiment that all things are possible to him who strives seemed 
 so completely to permeate and pervade and satttrate arid possess and ener- 
 gise student life as at Alfred. 
 
 "The social atmosphere was purely democratic. Sons of the rich 
 were there; but nothing in the student intercourse could indicate who 
 they were. In the winter of 1855 I left Alfred to replenish my purse by 
 teaching. The warmest welcome I received on my return in the spring 
 was from the son of a wealthy manufacturer of New York City, who 
 somehow seemed to think that I was enjoying advantages he did not 
 possess. Of course I looked at it in a different light. Such boyhood 
 ought to develop into noble and useful manhood, and it did. 
 
 "The influence, or atmosphere, or sentiment, or ambition, or what- 
 ever you may term it, that surrounded Alfred, which developed high 
 resolve and ardent effort, was, as I have said, peculiar to itself Its cause, 
 I think, was in its teachers. Professor Kenyon, the founder of the school, 
 was the principal, or president. Earnest, energetic, tireless, zealous for 
 the good of the students, with a mind fertile in expedients, a man whose 
 early life was along narrow lines, where ' low living and high thinking' 
 had built up a magnificent manhood, whose sympathies reached out with 
 stout words and strong arms to the young who trod the rugged paths 
 over which he had journeyed, he was the ideal teacher. His rare ability 
 in that character was in nothing more strongly shown than in the selec- 
 tion of his associate teachers. Professor Jonathan Allen was one of 
 these. He had completed his collegiate course at Oberlin, and we can 
 readily understand that, under the guidance and influence of the profound 
 Dr. Mahan, and the blunt, truthful, energetic, sham-hating, liberty-loving 
 President Finney, a mind tempered like Professor Allen's suffered no 
 detriment. When he returned to Alfred, in 1849, Piofessor Kenyon 
 made no mistake in selecting him as associate teacher. 
 
1 82 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 "When I first knew him I was a boy of twenty; he was a dozen 
 years older. Whether because of a taste for studies wherein he had 
 made deeper research, or whatever cause, to me he seemed head and 
 shoulders above his fellows. Tall, erect, of commanding presence, he 
 filled the Roman ideal, mens sana in cor pore sano. 
 
 "In the field of mental and moral science he was particularly at 
 home. In the class room, some of us, in a spirit of mischief, or, as we 
 termed it, 'to try his gait,' sometimes raised a discussion on lines opposed 
 to the books, and nothing pleased him more than the independent thought 
 that led outside of the text. If we could rou.se him to pace the floor, we 
 knew that the feast was cooking, and that it would soon be spread. 
 When the argument came, his favorite position was facing the class, the 
 index finger of his right hand breast high ; this seemed the conduit off 
 which rolled syllogism, logic, and illustration, his gaze apparently going 
 through and beyond us, as if thence he drew upon the depot of his 
 intellectual supplies. Even the advent of a new class for the succeeding 
 hour could hardly divert him from the line of thought until the argument 
 was complete. And back of all there seemed depths that we had never 
 sounded, and reserves of power never measured. As a Damascus blade, 
 when point and hilt have met, resumes position when freed, so beseemed 
 able to sustain any load, and to resume, fresh and vigorous, his native 
 posture when the burden was removed. 
 
 "Twenty-nine years after leaving Alfred I visited the school for the 
 first time, and then but for a single day. Of all the teachers that were 
 there in the old days, Dr. Allen and his wife alone remained. Others 
 had been promoted from the student ranks, and the doctor had been 
 president for many years of the great Institution grown upon the founda- 
 tion planted by Professor Kenyon so long ago. Changed he was, and 
 yet the same. Hair and beard had whitened, but mind, and soul, and 
 heart had grown broader, stronger, deeper, and so had the great Institu- 
 tion of which he was the head. It was plain that the old spirit pervaded 
 the student ranks. He still inspired them with the faith that all things 
 come to those who have faith to labor and to wait. Looking back over the 
 struggles of the early history of Alfred, the enduring labor and patience 
 of Professors Kenyon and Allen, the thousands in the generations of the 
 young who came under the energizing and inspiring influence of their 
 school, and their personal influence, and the Institution they have left us, 
 certain, it seems to me, that 
 
 " 'They builded better than they knew.' " 
 
MEMORIES FROM OLD STUDENTS. 1 83 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF ALFRED, FROM CHARLES A. CHAPIN. 
 
 " I first met Professor Allen as a teacher in Alfred University during 
 the spring term of 1859. He had charge of the rhetoric class at that 
 time. I recall the names of some members of that class, among them 
 Wallace W. Brown, Seymour Dexter, L. L. Bacon, and H. C. Randolph. 
 The class was large, being made up of a lively assortment of young men 
 and women ; in fact, it was spirited at times, and Professor Allen took 
 great pleasure in putting the members through their lessons and their 
 rhetorical exercises. Toward the end of the term we had a public review, 
 when a large number of the students were selected to deliver declama- 
 tions and orations. Mr. Wallace W. Brown was called upon first (we 
 used to call him Cicero), and acquitted himself in a splendid manner. 
 Professor Allen remarked, as he closed his speech, that Brown was a 
 natural born orator, and would some day make a congressman. This 
 remark, made in the professor's own inimitable manner, bothered us at 
 the time to tell whether it was praise or criticism, but was afterward 
 verified with honor to Mr. Brown and to his Alma Mater. I had also 
 been selected to deliver a declamation, or an oration of my own produc- 
 tion. I cho.se the latter, although I had then had very little experience 
 or training in composition writing. I did the best I could, but, as I closed, 
 the professor smiled meditatively, and remarked, ' Your eloquence is 
 superb, but your rhetoric is wretched.' 
 
 "Two years later, Brown, Dexter, Bacon, and myself, together with 
 eight or nine others, laid aside our studies, and, two days after Fort 
 Sumter was fired upon, started for Elmira to enlist in the volunteer 
 service in defense of the Union. I well remember that afternoon when 
 we first had the news that the stars and stripes had been fired upon by 
 rebel guns. The classes were speedily dismissed, and all the professors 
 and students gathered in front of the college building, where speeches 
 were made and the situation eloquently discussed. Here it was that I 
 remember Professor Allen so well. Standing on the steps of the Ladies' 
 Hall, he made a most eloquent and patriotic speech. His courageous 
 attitude and eloquent words fired the hearts of all before him. He told 
 the young men that the country looked to them for its defense, that they 
 must stand ready to go to battle at the first sound of the trumpet of war, 
 that they must not consider school, home, father, nor mother, but coun- 
 try first, and that support and encouragement and every assistance 
 possible would be rendered them by patriotic Allegany. 
 
 "After we returned from the war (having left behind us two of our 
 companions. Bacon and J. E. B. Maxon), Mr. Dexter and I, together with 
 
184 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 several others, took special instructions under Professor Allen in the 
 preparation of our commencement exercises. The professor was an 
 excellent teacher of elocution. I recollect that on several occasions he 
 took position on the hill east of the college, and sent us on the west hill, 
 more than half a mile distant, making us declaim in a manner that we 
 could be heard by him distinctly. All this training was enjoyable to the 
 class and was splendid exercise, but the people in the town below us 
 never did quite understand what all that shouting was about. The pro- 
 fessor had a powerful, clear voice, and it seemed no effort for him to make 
 himself plainly and distinctly heard at the distance of three-quarters of 
 a mile, on a still day. 
 
 A SCIENTIFIC OUTING. 
 
 " Professor Allen was as fond of the natural sciences as he was of homi- 
 letics, mental philosophy, and rhetoric, but geology and botany were his 
 favorites. He often took the classes out for special work in these branches. 
 One of these expeditions came to grief, much to his displeasure. A day 
 was set apart a week or so ahead for the advanced class in geology to go 
 on an exploring jaunt for the investigation of various formations and 
 fossils. .The party, by some preconcerted arrangement, was composed of 
 six young ladies and six gentlemen, and I have always stoutly maintained 
 that the young ladies made the arrangement and decided who should be of 
 the party to accompany the professor on this expedition. We were fully 
 equipped with hammers, baskets, and luncheon, and started out early, to 
 make a complete day of it. I can see the professor now as he led us 
 down into the gorge toward the 'Bridge,' among the bluffs and crags, 
 stalwart and grand as he was, while the mountains towered above, and 
 the pines stretched out their arms in welcome to our coming. It was a 
 scene of grandeur and beauty. It was natural that we should become 
 inspired there, but as we did so, somehow or other, all the admiration of 
 the grandeur and beauty about us seemed to be enjoyed particularly in 
 couples. The day grew hot; the march slackened; the party straggled 
 and became broken up, some suddenly becoming weary and hungry. Two 
 or three of the braver ones, however, kept within call of the professor, so 
 as to allay suspicion if possible. It was simply infatuating to watch 
 those young ladies try to break stones in the interest of science, and at 
 the .same time lavish their sweet smiles and flash their lovely eyes on 
 their escorts. Science was nowhere to us, and geology was as 'dead as 
 the ages' in the midst of such beauty and loveliness, and of this the pro- 
 fessor soon became convinced. At first he wore a disturbed and half 
 angry expression; then he became stern and dignified, as though he had 
 
MEMORIES FROM OLD STUDENTS. 1 0*5 
 
 been deceived; but the whole party were his warmest and truest friends, 
 and as he was compelled to yield to the inevitable, he did so gracefully. 
 Summoning us together, he addressed us about as follows : 'Young ladies 
 and gentlemen, this geological expedition was planned and arranged for 
 your scientific instruction and edification. There are many interesting 
 and instructive lessons to be learned here, but you have perverted the 
 whole program, and have done it deliberately and intentionally, and I see 
 that you are not at all interested in the research of these formations and 
 fossils. On the other hand, you seem to be utterly absorbed and intensely 
 interested in animated nature. This expedition is at an end. You were 
 excused for the day, but you will be expected to report as usual,' and 
 he departed. The professor had gone, and we were free from restraint, 
 and all this delightful and lovely scenery was ours to enjoy. It was, in 
 fact, an outing just such as we had longed to participate in. 
 
 "Dexter and I graduated in the class of '64, and bade good-by to 
 Alfred, to President Allen and his most estimable wife. 
 
 " In the little hamlet of Wirt Center, New York, one bright day 
 in May, 1868, President Allen united in marriage Miss Belle Wheeler 
 and Charles A. Chapin, and a month later Miss Ella Weaver and Sey- 
 mour Dexter were married. These four persons accompanied Professor 
 Allen on that geologizing expedition." 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF ALFRED, BY VANDELIA VARNUM. 
 THE TEACHER. 
 
 " It was the breadth of the man that made him preeminently a teacher. 
 So far as the technical book knowledge was concerned, the student might 
 or might not learn, just as he pleased. To be sure, if he were idle or 
 indifferent, his standing would be down, not only that of the class room, 
 but, what was of even more importance, the character standing, and occa- 
 sionally, too, a bolt from a cloudless sky would warn him that the ele- 
 ments were not unmindful of his negligence, 
 
 " But it was in that higher realm of grasping truth, of utilizing knowl" 
 edge, of inspiring life, that the teacher shone most brilliantly. To make 
 the scholar is one thing, to make the man, the woman, is another thing, 
 and it was here his ministration upon student life was most felt. No 
 one who had a grain of aspiring impulse could come in daily contact 
 with this broad life and not feel its uplifting power. ' Look up, look up,' 
 he would say; 'never down, never backward, but upward and forward.' 
 
 "If the current of young life did not move in just the choice line he 
 would have it, he knew that individuality was more than grafted knowl- 
 
1 86 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 edge, and the natural bent of the soul more than the polished imitation 
 of another life, and in his own rounded nature he sought to give it 
 stronger impetus after its way. 
 
 '" I have tried my best to make a scientist of you,' he said to a student 
 who was never born for that field, ' but ' — ' You couldn't do it, could you ? ' 
 ' Oh, no, I gave that up a long time ago ! ' ' But really, professor, you 
 don't want me to be always fussing and fooling around with bugs, and 
 bees, and sticks, and stones, and truck!' 'Truck! truck!' and his eye 
 glanced over the treasures of the beautiful Steinheim. 'Truck! that's 
 what any heathen would say;' and then he added, 'No, I wouldn't have 
 it any different. Some are made to grow wheat, some to grind it, some 
 to make the bread, and some to break it to humanity. The highest gift 
 is the last — to grasp truths that others have discovered and proven, and 
 feed the multitudes.' 
 
 TOO MUCH INTERESTED. 
 
 "One bitter cold morning in February the class in international law 
 found the fire in their room but recently built, and the temperature just 
 struggling up from zero. We hovered about the stove, the president 
 with the rest, when one of the students observed a smoke arising from 
 some quarter, and, after ascertaining the cause, broke in upon the lecture 
 with, ' President, your coat is too warm.' He gave the smoking phantom 
 a brush, with the remark, 'Never mind my coat,' and continued with the 
 lecture. 'But, president,' continued the student, not willing to be a 
 silent witness of such destruction, 'your coat is on fire.' 'Well, well, 
 well, you are greatly worried over my coat,' was the response. The class 
 burst into a laugh, and I think that was the first he had really known 
 what was taking place, so absorbed was he in the matter he was deliv- 
 ering. 
 
 SHORT ENOUGH SOMETIMES. 
 
 "Although President Allen was sometimes accused of using long, 
 belabored sentences in prepared addresses and articles for the press, yet 
 there were times, very vivid to some of us, when no such accusation 
 could be made. One of those times is indelibly engraven on my memory. 
 It was the first occasion when the ' unpermitted association ' rule of the 
 Institution was broken. A gentleman was in our room by invitation of 
 myself or my roommate, or both, or neither, it makes no difference now, 
 but at any rate he was there, and not only there, but he kept there. The 
 chapel bells rang out their slumber song, but he did not hear their call. 
 It sometimes happens that the conversation of students becomes so 
 weighty and engrossing that such minor matters pass unnoticed. 
 
 " Finally there was a step on the stairway. A sympathetic glance 
 
MEMORIES FROM OLD STUDENTS. 1 8/ 
 
 was exchanged by the roommates, but the guest did not take the hint. 
 Soon the door opened, and there, with a lantern in his hand, in a fire-red 
 dressing gown, and long white hair blown by the four winds, stood the 
 president. Such a picture I never saw. To me, with my heart crowding 
 my eyes out, he looked twice his natural size, and seemed to embody 
 the subdued wrath of a thunder cloud. My roommate, with more 
 courage than discretion, broke the silence by asking him in, and offering 
 him a seat. Not a word in response. Then, in tones like the breaking 
 
 of the cloud, came the words, ' Mr. , g-o home: It was a plain, short, 
 
 crisp, Anglo-Saxon sentence, and no mistaking its meaning. Mr. : 
 
 reached for his hat. By that time I had crowded my heart back far 
 enough to say, ' He was trying, professor, to convert us to the seventh 
 day.' 'U — h,' came the reply. Not another word was spoken, and, when 
 it was past, my roommate and I talked it over, and wondered how we 
 could meet the president the ne.xt morning. However, before we fell 
 asleep, we planned to go down early in the morning and confess. We 
 did so, and found him in his big chair, with broad arms extending on 
 either side, the thunder cloud all gone, and the welcome sunshine of a 
 new day gleaming on every side. We each appropriated an arm of the 
 chair, and it did not take long to ' make up.' I shall always believe it 
 was just a bit easier for him to forgive the girls than the boys. 
 
 CAME TO OUR HELP. 
 
 "At one time one of the ladies' societies invited the'AUeghanians' and 
 proposed to give a little extra feast in a 'breach of promise' case. It 
 was leap year, and the plaintiff, of course, was a young man who sought 
 to heal his lacerated heart through the court. Everything was arranged, 
 parts assigned and learned, judge, lawyers, witnesses, everything but the 
 jury; and while we proposed to have our own jurors, yet the first draw- 
 ing was made from among our guests. The dignified theologians, the 
 learned seniors, all were brought up and questioned minutely in regard 
 to parentage, age, early training, life work, and general qualifications, 
 and, strange to say, were invariably found wanting in some particular, 
 usually being dismissed for 'lack of ordinary intelligence.' The plaintiff, 
 not being able to defend himself, on account of sex, lost his case, and 
 was forever to be a 'scoundrel of the deepest dye.' It was an enjoyable 
 occasion all around, but the ' Alleghanians ' thought they could get a great 
 deal more fun out of it by carrying the suit up and having a public trial 
 in the chapel. The plain truth, so far as the ladies were concerned, was 
 this: We had had a good time; the jokes were mostly on the boys; our 
 meaner knowledge of law was exhausted, and we did not care to throw 
 
1 88 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. ■ 
 
 ourselves into their legal clutches in a public performance, nor did we 
 care to acknowledge our fear by refusing to go on; so two of us slipped 
 around to the president, told him of the situation before the request for 
 the use of the chapel could reach him, and, when it came, behold, it was 
 refused. A few knew how the refusal happened, and were satisfied, but 
 the boys thought he had spoiled a lot of fun. I think in all emergencies 
 he never failed to help out the girls." 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF ALFRED, BY MARY SETCHEL HAIGHT. 
 THE JULIA WARD HOWE CONTROVERSY. 
 
 "The conservative and radical elements of the school did not ahvays 
 harmonize, and in the spring of 1871 circumstances occurred which 
 arrayed these elements against each other in such a manner that the 
 feeling became bitter and personal on the question of woman's rights. 
 
 "At an informal session of the lyceums Mrs. Howe was proposed as 
 anniversary speaker, and accepted. The gentlemen, exasperated by 
 remarks made by President Allen in the meantime, on the subject of 
 Equal Rights, declared the action taken illegal, and that no woman should 
 lecture upon that stage. The ladies felt themselves pledged to Mrs. 
 Howe, and would not yield. A war of words followed. Faculty, trus- 
 tees, and townspeople entered the contest for or against. The feeling 
 became so ridiculously intense that one of the leaders of the opposition 
 said, ' If Mrs. Howe goes upon that stage, it will be over my dead body.' 
 President Allen's merriment, when told of this tragical declaration, can 
 only be appreciated by those who knew how keen was his sense of the 
 ridiculous. After various sessions and much discussion the majority 
 decided in favor of Mr. Bartlett, of Chicago. But the end was not yet. 
 A few young ladies felt that they had the right to secure the services of 
 Mrs. Howe, should they so decide. The chapel was engaged for an 
 evening previous to commencement week. Mrs. Howe was informed of 
 the controversy, and invited to lecture to a select few upon the same 
 terms she had given the societies. The invitation was accepted. On 
 June 9 four girls might have been seen in consultation upon one of the- 
 street corners of the town, each carrying in one hand a mysterious 
 bundle, in the other hammer and tacks. They separated. Shops and 
 stores were entered, cheese factories visited, board fences brought into 
 requisition, and soon the town, through its entire length and breadth, 
 was billed, and in so thorough a manner that he who ran might read 
 that Julia Ward Howe %vonld lecture at Alfred, on a subject of living 
 interest. This self-constituted committee of four thought it better to 
 
MEMORIES FROM OLD STUDENTS. 1 89 
 
 withhold the subject of her lecture. ' Living interest' was suggested by 
 President Allen, and hailed with delight, as it would enable the com- 
 mittee to keep the opposition on the anxious seat a few days longer. 
 The gentlemen had been assured we did not wish a lecture on Woman's 
 Rights; but during those years, to the average masculine mind, the 
 thought that a woman could lecture upon any other subject did not often 
 present itself Men are wiser now. 
 
 "The calm that followed the final decision of the societies was broken. 
 The discussion was resumed with renewed energy. One gentleman said, 
 as he stood watching the effect of the information contained in the bills: 
 ' Boys, own yourselves beaten. This is the most glorious flank move- 
 ment I have known since Grant fought the 'battle of the wilderness.' 
 One gentleman, who had intended to leave property to the Institution, 
 said he would not give one dollar if Julia Ward Howe were permitted 
 to lecture in the chapel. Others said the same, until thousands of dol- 
 lars were .staked upon the lecture. It would be interesting to know how 
 many cents on a dollar of this money ever found its way into the coffers 
 of the University. 
 
 "At first the committee were inclined to hold their position. The 
 chapel had been hired, from the proper authorities, for the evening, and 
 the lease could not be canceled without the consent of the committee. 
 They were at heart devoted to President Allen, and no action was taken 
 without his approval. Not wishing to do anything that might prove 
 detrimental to the future interests of the school, it was decided to take 
 the lecture to Hornellsville. The town was again billed. The political 
 phrase, 'A New Departure,' had just been born, and President Allen 
 suggested it as a good heading for new posters. This suggestion was 
 acted upon, and the posters were larger than before. The public were 
 informed that the lecture advertised to be held at the chapel in Alfred 
 would be given at Hornellsville. Reasons for the change would appear 
 in small bills. Great was the inquiry and manifold the questions con- 
 cerning these small bills, but they did not appear until the day of the 
 lecture, when they were found to contain a simple statement of the reason 
 for the new departure, notices of the press concerning Mrs. Howe's ability 
 as a lecturer and scholar, the ' Battle Hymn of the Republic,' with a 
 rehearsal of the circum.stances under which it was written, and closed 
 with this appeal to the public: 'The ladies who have the pleasure of 
 announcing this lecture respectfully invite the public who have read with 
 delight the productions of Mrs. Howe's pen, and all who would honor a 
 noble life, a beautiful and symmetrical womanly character, brilliant talents 
 
190 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 devoted to the good of humanity, and who beheve mfrcc speech, to enjoy 
 with them the pleasure of listening to Mrs. Howe at the lecture, as above 
 announced.' Saturday morning, July i, Mrs. Howe, as yet ignorant of 
 the change of program, was met by the committee at Hornellsville, and 
 that evening gave to a large and appreciative audience her lecture on 
 Culture. A large delegation from Alfred was present, the railroad officials 
 stopping trains in order to accommodate the party. During the day a 
 committee of gentlemen from Alfred waited upon Mrs. Howe, with a set 
 of lengthy resolutions, to the effect that they had no objections to her 
 upon personal grounds. This must have been a great comfort to Mrs. 
 Howe. Let us hope she still has these resolutions, to cheer and comfort 
 her declining years. 
 
 " The following day Mrs. Howe went to Alfred, where she made a short 
 visit. A reception was given by President and Mrs. Allen, to which 
 students and townspeople were invited. Her learning and culture 
 exacted the admiration of the old, while the hearts of the young were 
 captured by her quick sympathies and sweet, womanly ways. A pleasing 
 incident of the afternoon was the singing, at President Allen's request, of 
 the ' Battle Hymn of the Republic,' with Mrs. Howe at the piano. 
 
 "Thus ended what is known in the history of the school as the Julia 
 Ward Howe Controversy. The following July Mrs. Howe published an 
 account of it in the Old and Neiv under the title of 'A Midsummer Idyl.' 
 A few years later a member of the committee met Mrs. Howe in Boston. 
 She referred to the controversy, and then asked, 'And President Allen, is 
 he still at Alfred?' The remarks which followed showed that in her 
 short acquaintance she had recognized, under the quiet, dignified demeanor, 
 something of the man he was. President Allen possessed true greatness. 
 Only those who knew him best knew his worth, and they stood too near 
 to see his greatness." 
 
 Rev. E. M. Dunn says: — 
 
 "Among the pleasant things I remember of President Allen were his 
 readiness to counsel and talk freely with the students who came to con- 
 sult him; his admiration and study of nature; his love for and sympa- 
 thy with children ; the hope he inspired in young women as well as young 
 men that they might count for something in the world; his freedom from 
 ambition to be accounted great in the world; his modesty; his correct 
 literary tastes; his innocent humor." 
 
MEMORIES FROM OLD STUDENTS. I9I 
 
 Christie Skinner Kruson writes : — 
 
 "President Allen's great soul had every window open to the sunshine, 
 and in his many-sidedness he was able to catch the supreme effulgence of 
 the beautiful, the good, the wholesome, and the inspiring, and to speed 
 invigorating power in every hfe that came in contact with his. He had 
 so rare a faculty of inspiring his students with higher ambitions, and 
 more Christlike living, that to be with him was to absorb a grander ideal 
 and a broader charity for all mankind. 
 
 "One of President Allen's special delights was to arouse a love of 
 -nature in the minds of his students. He thoroughly believed that the 
 man or woman who loves the 'earth and the fullness thereof ' cannot have 
 a large space left for evil in his thoughts, and so he lost no opportunity of 
 inculcating in the lives of those about him an appreciation of nature's 
 beauties and immeasurable resources. All old students, if asked what 
 was the most profitable training they received when at Alfred, would 
 with one accord answer, *To follow the footsteps of the Master.' The 
 principles he implanted will be transmitted through untold generations, 
 and, as true as the sun's own work, there will go on from his life a blessed 
 influence through all time." 
 
 Susie M. Burdick says: — 
 
 "President Allen was a part of the atmosphere which I breathed. 
 From my earliest recollection he was president of Alfred University until 
 I left Alfred, and I cannot imagine the place without him. I realize that 
 I am indebted to him in more ways than it would be possible to tell. 
 Since I have lived in China I have come to thihk of some of his charac- 
 teristics more than ever before, for instance, his forbearance and patience 
 with students. How he would suffer long, still never lose his faith that 
 sometime, somehow, the delinquent would come to his better self! The 
 thought of this has often helped me much under very trying circum- 
 stances. 
 
 "Again, how he gave himself over and over again ! Dear Mary Bailey 
 once told me, with tears in her eyes, of the time when she and others of 
 the family were ill with typhoid fever; while nearly everyone else was 
 fearful and rather deserted them. President Allen came and cared for 
 them night and day. Many others could tell a similar story. I hold 
 him in loving remembrance now, and as the years bring added burdens 
 and experience, my. love and respect for him will doubtless increase." 
 
192 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 Judge and Mrs, Solon O. Thatcher write: — 
 " It is a long time since we studied mental philosophy together under 
 the genial and quickening presence of Professor Allen. During all the 
 following years we have talked of the wonderful influence he exercised 
 over his pupils, and the wide comprehension he had of the duties and 
 cares that would come upon them in their future lives. There is no 
 pursuit in life where the man can so completely transfuse himself into the 
 thoughts and character of others, as that of the teacher. It was Pro- 
 fessor Allen's happy lot to stamp his own sweet and pure life upon the 
 purposes and hopes of thousands of young men and women. Through 
 them his life will move on in ever-widening circles of beneficence and 
 usefulness. We are more than glad to bear our testimony to the nobil- 
 ity, the purity, the sweetness of his character as a teacher, a friend, and 
 a companion. He carried into Alfred University what Matthew Arnold 
 says Stanley bore to venerable Westminster Abbey: — 
 
 " ' Bright wits and instinct sure, 
 
 And goodness warm, and truth without alloy, 
 And temper sweet, and love of all things pure. 
 And joy in light, and power to spread the joy.' " 
 
 From Honorable W. W. Brown: — 
 
 "No death outside my own kindred has ever come to my heart with 
 such poignant sorrow. President Allen was my ideal and my inspira- 
 tion; I never achieved a success, or 'lost a battle,' but his image was 
 before me. As when in boyhood I was wont to say, ' How will it please? 
 and what will mother say ? ' so in my manhood Jonathan Allen, my 
 beloved teacher, was my never-failing mentor. By his catholic mind and 
 charitable heart I was always too generously judged. In him I had a 
 friend, constant and confiding, far beyond my deserving. Sometimes his 
 confidence in and love for me were embarrassing, for I felt that some day 
 he must know I was unworthy of such bestowal. 
 
 " From the hour he first greeted me as his pupil, I had higher aims 
 and better purposes in my heart. His life was in the highest and best 
 sense a success. His memory will be an unceasing benediction to all 
 who. came within the range of his imperial presence." 
 
 From Rev. A. Purdy: — 
 
 " When making my choice of elective studies the last term in order 
 to graduate, I chose another study instead of botany. Professor Allen 
 said, in his good-natured way, T would not give much for a man who did 
 
MEMORIES FROM OLD STUDENTS. 1 93 
 
 not love flowers and could not see in them the beautiful of the Creator.' 
 " I always enjoyed his classes, for the food he gave us outside the text- 
 books. The geological chart he made, compiling the materials from 
 forty-two different authors on botany and geology, I showed to Professor 
 Winchell, at Ann Arbor, who said, 'Professor Allen could immortalize 
 himself with that chart if he would give it to the world, for it is the most 
 complete of anything extant.' 
 
 " He gave me more of the true ideal of a man — a Christian gentle- 
 man — than any other one I ever knew, and that at the formative age of 
 my young manhood." 
 
 Professor George Scott writes:— 
 
 " President Allen was noted for, first, his splendid physique. He was 
 a prince among men. His appearance anywhere at once won him favor 
 and gave the impression of a man of eminence, 
 
 "Second, his intellectual strength. He was one of the strongest men 
 I have ever met. He never paraded his learning, yet, in polish, in grace, 
 in oratory, as a deep original thinker, he had few equals. 
 
 " Third, his fine soul qualities. An Elijah in moral courage, he was 
 a Moses in meekness. The most indigent or dullest student always met 
 with as gracious a reception, and received his best counsel, as heartily as 
 the richest, or the one most highly endowed with nature's gifts. He was 
 the impersonation of dignity without haughtiness. He ruled men by 
 love, and by inspiring in them a sense of self-respect. Never did a col- 
 lege president more completely fill his place than did Dr. Allen. 
 
 "But the moral quality in his nature that impressed itself most 
 strongly upon me was his spirit of self-sacrifice. His sermons on this 
 topic were inimitable. No man's preaching on this topic ever affected 
 me as did his. It was because his whole life was a sacrifice. He gave 
 himself for others. 
 
 "Through trials innumerable, through discouragements without num- 
 ber, when the outlook at Alfred was the darkest, when he might have 
 saved himself by accepting a lucrative position, for many such were 
 offered him, he stood firm to his sense of duty. He was ready to go 
 down with the ship, but never to desert her. And he triumphed. Stand- 
 ing on deck of the craft he had commanded so long, his ship repaired and 
 strengthened, gliding over the quiet waters with sails outspread, the 
 noble soul looked up and zuas not, for God had taken him. 
 
 " But he still lives, and will live as long as the thousands who have 
 
 13 
 
194 ^-^^^ O^'" ^'RESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 been his pupils and friends are permitted to cherish his memory. I never 
 expect to have another such a teacher, colaborer, adviser, and friend." 
 
 From Rev. L. C. Rogers: — 
 
 " Passing by the many shining virtues of his character, we may say 
 that the one potent factor of his Hfe was the sunHt diamond of excellence, 
 viz., his prevailing spirit of self-sacrifice. He lived for others' good. 
 He was self-forgetful; and from the point of view of our common lives, 
 he was self- forgetful almost to a fault. Like other men. President AUeri 
 had his faults, no doubt, but this characteristic could not be one of them. 
 A Christlike spirit of self-sacrifice was to him as the atmosphere he lived 
 in from day to day. He did not, however, seem conscious of this; he 
 simply delighted to do good. It was his happiness to look after and labor 
 for the well being of others. It filled his heart with heaven's sunshine. 
 He knew full well the secret of this higher, diviner life; he trod this royal 
 highway, trodden by few, but these the noblest of earth's sons and daugh- 
 ters, led by the chiefest of ten thousands, the immaculate Son of God. 
 President Allen loved all mankind. He was a lover of man as man, as a 
 creature of God, and entitled to consideration as such, regardless of all 
 adventitious circumstances, such as birth and fortune." 
 
S E: Fi Nl O ISJ s 
 
SERMONS 
 
 GOD IM ALL, ALL IM GOD. 
 
 [Baccalaureate sermon, preached before the graduating class of Alfred University, 
 June 19, 1892.*] 
 
 ACTS 17:28: "For in him we live, and move, and have our 
 being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are 
 ^^ also his offspring." 
 ^^ — Paul founded his doctrine of man's being, life, and 
 
 movement in God, on the all-comprehending doctrine that man is his 
 offspring, as also taught certain of the Greek poets, Arantus, Cleanthes, 
 and others. By this divine fatherhood, God is the originator of man 
 spiritually from his own nature, in his own miage, after his own likeness. 
 As the image and likeness of the earthly parent are reproduced in the 
 child, not so much in the physical as in the inner and more essential 
 nature, of which the outward or physical is but a faint expression, so the 
 image and likeness of God in man are not in his animal, but in his spir- 
 itual nature, and in the attributes of this nature. As like can beget like 
 and like only, whatever is the essential nature of God, the Father, such 
 must be the essential spirit nature of man, the child. This fatherhood 
 of God and this sonship of man is the core of human existence, deter- 
 mining the nature of this exi.stence, in the individual and in the race, and 
 its relations to God, as revealed in the Bible, in human consciousness, in 
 Providence, and in redemption. 
 
 This divine relationship has been recognized and taught in all times, 
 by the foremost men and the foremost peoples. The Hindu Vedas pray 
 "May the Father of men be merciful to us." Homer calls him "the 
 mo.st great and glorious Father." Hesiod, "the Father of gods, and 
 men." Plato taught the divine sonship of man. Horace styled him 
 
 *The revision of the manuscript of this sermon was the last work President Allen 
 ever did. It was brought to him at his request after he had become too ill to rise 
 from his chair. He said that it embodied his system of theology. 
 
 ( 199) 
 
200 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 "the Father and Guardian of the human race;" Seneca, "the glorious 
 Parent, preparing the good man for himself." Isaiah declared him 
 "the Everlasting Father." Malachi asks, "Have we not all one Father ?" 
 The Talmud taught that "men are the children of their Father who is in 
 heaven." Jesus based his mission and teaching on this divine relation- 
 ship, instructing all men to pray, " Our Father, which art in heaven." A 
 favorite and oft-repeated doctrine with Paul was that of God, the Father 
 of the Christ and of all men. 
 
 From this oneness of nature with God springs the ever-present con- 
 sciousness of his presence. Humanity in all stages of development is 
 more or less conscious of this perpetual and all-pervasive presence, as 
 the source of its being, and in which it lives and acts, and in which all 
 existences have their origin. 
 
 Wordsworth says: — 
 
 " I have felt 
 A presence that disturbs me with the joy 
 Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime 
 Of something far more deeply interfused, 
 Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 
 And the round ocean, and the living air, 
 And the blue sky, and in the mind of man, 
 A motion and a spirit that impels 
 All thinking things, all objects of all thought." 
 
 Another poet says: — 
 
 " No! such a God my worship may not win. 
 Who lets the world about his finger spin. 
 And whom I own for Father, God, Creator, 
 Holds nature in himself, himself in nature. 
 And, in his kindly arms embraced, the whole 
 Doth live and move by this pervading soul." 
 Man does not come to this God assurance by logical induction or 
 deduction. It is deeper, more pervasive and convincing, than all demon- 
 stration. Man, consciously conditioned as relative, finite, imperfect, and 
 dependent, spontaneously and intuitively coroUates himself to a Being, 
 apprehended as absolute, infinite, and perfect. This apprehension springs 
 clear, di.stinct, and positive, in the human consciousness, though the 
 nature and attributes of this being may be incomprehensible in their full- 
 ness and completeness. Although these intuitions cannot be ade- 
 quately expressed in the limiting terms of the finite, yet man never 
 thinks more positively, vigorously, and consistently than in these 
 intuitions. 
 
 The steepest, loftiest summit towards which the human reason moves 
 
SERMONS. 20 1 
 
 in these intuitions is that of personaHty, self-conscious, self-originant, and 
 spontaneous, self-determinant, and free. In this upward, lofty move- 
 ment, the reason demands and finds an absolute, infinite, and perfect per- 
 sonality. Man's spiritual nature, in its wants and aspirations, demands 
 and finds, through his faith faculty, as insight, or "vision," as Plato terms 
 it, a living God, as supreme Father, graciously and freely relating him- 
 self to his children in mutual communion and love. The personality of 
 man has its source in the personality of God, and is the ground of the 
 relationship between them. The more clearly the human personality is 
 developed, the more assured to man is the divine' personality. 
 
 What, then, is the common nature of this personality, whereby God 
 is able to reveal himself to man, man is able to apprehend God and to 
 hold communion with him? Christ answers, "God is a spirit," and seeks 
 those who can worship him in their spirit natures. Man, as partaker of this 
 divine spirit nature, possesses capacity for both right knowing and right 
 worship, capacity for both inter-communication and inter-communion- 
 If God possesses a nature or attributes other than man's, then man must 
 be other than his offspring, and man cannot know God, God cannot 
 reveal himself to man. By this oneness of nature a way is open for rev- 
 elation, communion, inspiration, and a divine indwelling and ingrowing. 
 
 Religion is the response of the human spirit to this consciousness of 
 God, inducing to the seeking of "the Lord, if haply they might feel after 
 him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us." All 
 religions thus seelc, though, it may be — 
 
 " Groping blindly in tlie darkness, 
 Touch God's right hand in tliat darkness, 
 And are lifted up and strengthened." 
 
 Religion thus involves a reciprocal relation. God is active towards 
 man. Man is responsively active towards God. Religion is thus not 
 only reciprocal relation but also reciprocal activity between God and 
 man. God seeks man, man in turn seeks God. This univer.sal religious 
 impulse, this universal feeling after God, is the prerequisite and neces- 
 sary condition for the coming of the kingdom of God. All ethnic reli- 
 gions are a prophecs' of, and a preparation for, this coming. 
 
 More comprehensive still, all nature is a prophecy of, and a prepara- 
 tion for, the same. It is a gradual self-manifestation of the "indwelling 
 God," up through all the lower stages to humanity. It is the outcome 
 of the same Being that breathes by his Spirit life into man. Thus, in the 
 spirit of man, God meets his own nature and image, and the realization 
 of a life and type that partake more fully of the divine. Creation 
 
202 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 sprang from chaos and grew to a cosmos, with man as its summit and 
 crown, with his Hfe in God. Even the would-be agnosticism of science 
 is compelled to grant that all force must spring from force, all power 
 from power, all life from life, all soul from soul, all spirit from spirit; 
 hence, there must be mind, personality, as the source of all. 
 
 But beyond and still higher than this the trend is still upward, from a 
 lower to a higher type in man, and from this higher type to the Christ. 
 All peoples have manifested this tendency in a longing for, and expect- 
 ancy of, someone in whose spirit the grace of a higher life, and the shin- 
 ing of a diviner nature, was embodied and manifested; someone great 
 and divine enough to realize the type of a Godlike man, to whom they 
 could render boundless admiration and heartfelt worship; someone to 
 open the way for a clearer knowledge of God and a closer walk and freer 
 communion with him; someone who should exemplify the divinity in 
 human nature, and the divine significancy in life. The coming of a God- 
 man has been the expectancy of human history. This has led to the 
 seizing with eager joy upon a man larger, grander, nobler than the com- 
 mon type, and lifting him to a hero, demi-god, son of God, and reverencing 
 him accordingly. It has been well said that every night since man left 
 the Garden of Eden he has been looking into the throbbing heavens for 
 the star of the East. 
 
 Add to this the common consciousness of sin, and the felt need of a 
 mediator whereby pardon and reconciliation, which have led humanity 
 to seek after one as a spiritual Healer and Restorer, one who could lift and 
 lead it up to its first estate. To this end have all altars been erected 
 and sacrifices burned. The world has never been without struggling, 
 praying, climbing, self-denying souls, finer types of humanity, in its twi- 
 light gi"oping after a Redeemer and a redemption. In the Christ this 
 spiritual twilight brightens into a radiant dawn, as he takes his place at 
 the head of humanity and leads up into the kingdom of heaven on earth. 
 In him is satisfied the demand for the incarnation of the divine in the 
 human. On the part of God, self-manifestation is an inherent tendency 
 of his being, as shown in creation, in the nature of man, in Christ, in the 
 procession of the Spirit — a perpetual outpouring of his fullness. On the 
 part of man there is a perpetual want — want of the world, on his animal 
 side, a want, a yearning for the divine, on his spiritual side. Each seeks 
 the other. The union is realized in Christ. The continuous indwelling 
 of the divine in the human is realized in the spirit. In the beginning 
 was the Word, the ever-present type of all that is noble, lofty, and holy 
 in human history, foreshadowing the incarnation. In Christ the Word 
 
SERMONS. 20 
 
 became flesh, with a larger bestowing of the divine life upon the world, 
 uplifting man into a fuller sharing of the indwelling God, to the expand- 
 ing and perfecting of humanity. A higher type is thus added by an ele- 
 vation into a higher spiritual kingdom, through a higher and diviner 
 man, filled with a larger measure of the indwelling God, insomuch that 
 God thus inspheres himself in humanity in the God-man, the Christ, the 
 Immanuel, in whom dwells the divine fullness, becoming thus more com- 
 pletely both son of man and son of God. 
 
 The Christ thus came for the spiritual renewal of the world, thus ful- 
 filHng the desire and hope of all peoples, carrying up the spiritual life of 
 the race to its fullness and completeness in God, the culmination and 
 crown intended from the beginning, and towards which the whole crea- 
 tion has ever moved, in which all history is fulfilled. This coming of the 
 Christ is the epoch in the continuous revelation to the end that through 
 him all things created by and for him might be spiritualized and glori- 
 fied, and in whom redeemed humanity is lifted to a higher plane of 
 development, living no longer for the world, but for the kingdom of 
 heaven on earth, inaugurated by Christ. 
 
 " Where the silver Jordan runneth from the Lake of Galilee, 
 A narrow kingdom lies between the mountains and the sea; 
 From the hillsides red with vineyards the gentle Syrian wind 
 Bore the only voice responsive to the sobbing of mankind, 
 To the cottage of the fisher, to the poor man's mean abode, 
 The desire of nations came, the Incarnate God." 
 
 For this redemption of man Christ became the God-man. The 
 atonement, lite rally at-one-ment, effected by Christ, was through joint 
 participation of both the divine and the human, the divine- human. 
 Together as one the divine and the human lived, suffered, died, rose from 
 the dead, ascended on high. Through the first Adam humanity fell from 
 its estate, through the second Adam it was again restored — potentiall}- 
 restored to all, actually restored to everyone accepting this redemption. 
 This divine-human Adam effected this restoration by the realization of a 
 perfect life in humanity, through a conflict with and a conquest over all 
 the forces alien to God and man, and by a complete fulfillment of all 
 righteousness, of love and mercy and forgiveness, and thus opening the 
 way for the abiding and indwelling of the divine Spirit in humanity. 
 
 This imparting of the Spirit met the felt need of the race, met the 
 universal aspiration for, and expectancy of, the inspirations of the 
 Almighty, which giveth understanding, illumination, strength, guidance, 
 a looking for inspired men as revealers of divine truth, and the divine 
 will as teachers and guides. All peoples believed that, from time to 
 
204 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 time, such men had appeared among them. Not only this, but all fine 
 spirits felt that they had e.xperience of the pressure, light, and power of 
 this Spirit. 
 
 To just this end did the Christ promise the Comforter that all who 
 desire might have the indwelling presence. As the atmosphere envelopes 
 the earth, as heat and light flood and warm and light it, as gravitation 
 pervades and attracts every atom, so the divine Spirit pervades, attracts, 
 warms, lights, and vivifies the spiritual world. Its influence is, at once, 
 universal and particular. It comprehends the whole. It concenters on 
 each one. It knocks at all doors. It enters every opened soul and 
 dwells therein. This is to continue till the natural life of man on earth 
 shall end, and, for the redeemed, perpetuated in divine joys and heavenly 
 glories. 
 
 Paul says, "By grace are ye saved through faith," — grace on the part 
 of God, faith on the part of man. The Spirit is everywhere and at all 
 times pressing man to open the door of his heart and accept this divine 
 grace. When man does this, then the life of grace begins in the new 
 birth, regeneration, re-ingenerated with the divine Ufe. This is the 
 re-vivification of the original spiritual nature of man — the nature and 
 image of God, in which he was created. The new birth, as Christ taught 
 Nicodemus, was a necessity, from the fact that that which is born of the 
 flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. It is a spirit- 
 ual, not a soulish life, that comes from God through Christ by the spirit, 
 and, through faith, received by man. This life of God in the soul is the 
 eternal, or spiritual, life, promised to all who shall accept Christ. It 
 unites anew the human with the divine, as the branches to the vine, as 
 Christ taught, insomuch that the partaker is no longer human, but 
 divine-human. 
 
 This divine life in the soul is, like all life, a growing principle. 
 Divine truth is the vital light, the vital food of the spirit. What sunlight 
 is to the vegetable world, what food is to the animal world, this truth is 
 to the spiritual world. The growth thereby produces the fruits of the 
 Spirit, — knowledge, temperance, patience, love, joy, long-suffering, gen- 
 tleness, goodness, faith, meekness, godliness, brotherly kindness, charity. 
 This living and growing energy of divine truth gives strength, beaut)-, 
 dignity, worthiness, and spiritual freedom, that lifts the possessor above 
 all the enslaving forces of the world. This freedom is above all earthly 
 liberties and privileges. With it all these are useless. Without it all 
 these are vain. With it comes the peaceful flow of life, with the absence 
 or conquest of every ignoble fear and worry, amid .po\erty, disease, suf- 
 fering, even in the very valley of the shadow of death. 
 
SERMONS. 205 
 
 Man thereby becomes a fit member of the spiritual society com- 
 posing the commonwealth of Christ, the kingdom of heaven. Citizen- 
 ship in this kingdom comes not through racial, national, or any other 
 earthly relationships, but may be attained to by every human being 
 through his birthright as a child of the common heavenly F"ather, pro- 
 vided there be added to this common birthright certain voluntary spir- 
 itual qualifications. Christ announces these qualifications in his inaugural 
 sermon on the mount. 
 
 Blessed are the poor in spirit, the mourner, the meek, the hungering 
 and thirsting after righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the 
 peace makers, the persecuted for righteousness' sake and for Christ's 
 sake. 
 
 These are the fit candidates for this society, fit subjects for this 
 kingdom, wherever found, coming from whatever race or nation. These 
 are to constitute the new and spiritual brotherhood, the new republic of 
 Christ, wherein all have equal rights, the rights of loyalty, devotion, self- 
 surrender, service, and sacrifice, whereby the royal law of Christ is ful- 
 filled in bearing one another's burdens. In this republic this law is not 
 to be enforced or regulated by a " thou shalt," or " shalt not," but fulfilled 
 by becoming a glad service through the inspirations of the Spirit, secur- 
 ing thereby willing devotement through love to God and man. 
 
 Thus the freedom coming with this citizenship is not a lawless 
 freedom. The supreme behest regulating this freedom is service to God 
 and service to man. The supreme motive impelling to this service is 
 love to God and love to man. Such service thus motived becomes the 
 chief activity of each and every citizen of this kingdom. The mutual 
 service, each of all, and all of each, and all of God, through Christ, in the 
 Spirit, impelled by love, is not only right demanded by the supreme law 
 of this kingdom, but also a joy. 
 
 This is the refrain of the music heard by the watching shepherds on 
 the hills of Bethlehem from choiring angels, as they proclaimed peace 
 on earth and good will to men, and the triumphant strains heard by the 
 Revelator before the throne, saying, "Salvation to our God which sitteth 
 on the throne and unto the Lamb." 
 
 " Love, which is the sunlight of peace, 
 Age by age to increase. 
 Till anger and hatred are dead, 
 And war and want shall cease ; 
 Peace on earth and good will ; 
 Souls that are gentle and still 
 Hear the first music of this 
 Far-off, infinite bliss." 
 
2o6 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 The Christ says, " Behold, the kingdom of God is within you." 
 Paul says, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the 
 Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" This indwelling Spirit and kingdom 
 are not to be waited for as something in the future, but are here and now 
 to every true believer. The eternal life, the life of the Spirit in the soul, 
 that constitutes one a citizen and partaker of this kingdom, is not con- 
 ditioned on the here or the hereafter, on the limitations of time or place. 
 It transcends all these conditions and limitations. Beginning in the 
 individual, it goes out in service of all. 
 
 It is the divine image, constituting the ideal man in every man, that 
 calls for love and service. This love of the human, as such, is a natural 
 impulse. The Spirit elevates and refines this impulse into spiritual love 
 all-embracing. Philanthropy is the generic term, comprehending both 
 the spirit and the work of those indued with this love of humanity. True 
 philanthropy not only relieves want and suffering, but also seeks to pre- 
 vent them by improving human conditions. It still further seeks to lift 
 and build mankind into a state of spiritual health, growth, freedom, and 
 good will, and, guided by the spirit of mercy, it especially seeks the 
 fallen, degraded, the outcast — all lost sheep. The kingdom of heaven, 
 established by Christ, is governed by this love, seeking all good possible 
 to all. Although this ideal has not as yet been realized, we are instructed 
 to pray, "Thy kingdom come," wherein it shall be realized. 
 
 The ultimate end of all this is to make man godlike, by having 
 Christ through the Spirit dwelling within, till all come in unity of faith 
 and of knowledge unto a perfect man, "unto the measure of the stature 
 of the fullness of Christ," growing up into him in all things, who is the 
 head. This growing Godward through Christ by the Spirit is the mission 
 and end of life of all living. This is the high ideal set before all. That 
 which determined position in the scale of humanity is the energy of this 
 ideal, working within and upon us, by which we are freed, more and 
 more, from the dominion of all lower and selfish ends. 
 
 Thus the ideal man, as the ultimate outcome, is to be divine as well 
 as human, a divine human personality, by and with the indwelling Spirit. 
 A perfect divine human type in Christ is the ideal for man, and the 
 indwelling Spirit is to the end of perfecting the same in him. This ideal 
 thus vitalized acquires an attracting, inspiring power, by presenting a 
 divine end to be sought, with the hope of perpetually approaching it, 
 and, though never completely attained, it becomes a pillar of fire, leading 
 on to higher and .still higher attainments in spiritual grace, dignity, and 
 worth. A gradual elevation of the individual and of society is thus 
 
SERMONS. 207 
 
 effected. New and nobler practices spring up, and a more spiritual tone 
 and atmosphere prevail. 
 
 This perfection of being is the essential good, and is in harmony 
 with the nature of this being, with God, and with universal being, and is 
 to be sought for self and all being as the true good— true worth and 
 worthiness. Choosing this end is the beginning of true spiritual char- 
 acter. Love to God and man is the essence and germ of such choice, 
 hence of such character. In such choosing man determines all his 
 energies and possessions to the service of God and man, to the end of 
 universal perfection, and thus to universal good. This determining can 
 be realized only by living and doing according to the laws governing the 
 perfection of univeral being. Man is not an isolated individuality. He 
 cannot \vork out his best good regardless of the good of all dse. He 
 belongs to a universal system, with mutual interdependencies, intended 
 to work together to universal edification. Each one's worth in this 
 system is measured by his consecration to this universal edification. 
 
 This constitutes the only true ideal, as an end to be sought after in 
 all living. Christ represents this ideal for all, in the union of the divine- 
 human, in the spirit, grace, and perfectness of his life, in his love of 
 humanity, in his coming, not to be ministered unto but to minister, giving 
 his life to redeem and build humanity into a republic of righteousness 
 and good will. 
 
 This ideal thus abides with humanity through all its struggles, its 
 reverses, its successes, and its hopes, to the end of perfecting each aiid 
 all in grace, beauty, dignity, and worthiness. To this same end the min- 
 istry of the Spirit ever abides with men; to this end was the kingdom of 
 heaven established among men; to this end was Christ revealed as the 
 perfect type. 
 
 One accepting these divine aids ma)' have the Spirit as the light of 
 his soul and the inspiration of his thoughts and deeds. His life may 
 be the life of the Spirit, tremulous with the divine sensibility, and calm 
 in the peace of God. His purposes may be responsive to the divine pur- 
 poses. His character may be charactered in the divine, becoming thus 
 a personality worth)' of self-reverence and the reverence of all other per- 
 sonalities, made sacred by the indwelHng Spirit. 
 
 We are here to attain all these qualities of sellhood, character that 
 will enrich the hereafter through their perpetual growth. The mastery 
 of self and the attainment of true manhood are to be sought in this world, 
 Avhere temptation and sin are possible, and where suffering and sorrow, 
 as well as joy, abound; but these hav^e no significance if the end be noth- 
 
2o8 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN, 
 
 incrness. Only in the power of an endless life, perpetuated in a realm 
 moved and governed by influences in accord with -the divine will and 
 purpose, wherein spiritual growth and spiritual power perpetually 
 increase, have they significancy. This is the meaning of the universe in 
 its ultimate outcome and fruitage. This is the only end which satisfies 
 reason, science, revelation, faith, hope — all the yearnings and aspirations 
 of humanity. Only this is commensurate with the mighty processes of 
 creation, redemption, and the divine providences, unfolded in human 
 history. The image and nature of God in man was never born to die. 
 
 Thus everything has been and is working together to one great end, 
 the development of the most exalted spiritual qualities in man, begun 
 here, to be continued in the hereafter. As God is ever living, ever vivi- 
 fying, so his children are ever living, thereby giving reasonableness and 
 significancy to all that has been done for man. All these are means, not 
 an end. The end is a perpetual growth unto the perfect more and more, 
 growth Godward, otherwise all is meaningless. To one growing in god- 
 likeness all is significant and ennobled. 
 
 Responsive to all these there is an assured consciousness within 
 every soul as being in a state of confinement and thralldom. There is 
 likewise a mysterious longing as well as an indefinable assurance of a 
 day and state of light and largeness and freedom and blessedness. This 
 life, with its sense of incompleteness, is simply a state of preparation for 
 the complete. This is for what man was created and away from which 
 he cannot rest. The spirit turns to this as the needle to the pole. All 
 life tends in this direction. Heaven is home for all those children of the 
 heavenly Father who are prepared for it in earthly homes, the nurseries 
 of the heavenly. The beginning and end of life is home. The one is to 
 prepare for the other. The one is fleeting, the other is eternal, unchang- 
 ino-. The one does not meet all the soul's needs and longings, the 
 other does. The one, with its imperfection, is the foreshadowing with 
 glimpses and foretastes of the perfections of the other. " The expectation 
 of the creature," says Paul, "waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of 
 God." Relief and rest come to the spirit when it has entered into full 
 assurance of this. 
 
 " This chain of love, 
 Combining all below and all above, 
 
 For which bear to live, or dare to die. 
 Whence comest ? Whither do I go ? 
 A centered self which feels and is, 
 A cry between silences," 
 
 is thus answered and satisfied. 
 
SERMONS. 209 
 
 Young friends, we have thus outHned what God has made you— a 
 little lower than the angels — what he has done and is doing for you, and 
 the divine glories to which you are called. Account it the highest glory 
 of life to be worked for and won— this of being welcomed into the king- 
 dom of God, and into the affectionate confidence of all those for whom 
 life has high meaning and high issues, and of bemg recognized among 
 the subtle and beneficent forces of the world. In this companionship 
 and in this work all earnest effort is ever fruitful. More noble already 
 they who learn to think nobly of their work. Discipline and strength 
 come from endurance and patience. Defeat does not sour or dishearten, 
 nor success disturb the equipoise gained in life's experiences. In this 
 present actual in which you live, here or nowhere is your mission. 
 Work it out therefrom, and thus working you will have true life, true 
 freedom, true independency, true nobility. Your environments are the 
 stuff you are to shape your ideal life out of. What matters it whether 
 such stuff be of this or that sort, so the form and quality you give it be 
 
 heroic, divine ? 
 
 " Power to him who power exerts, 
 And, like thy shadow, follows thee." 
 Reinember you that strength, wisdom, and power bear with them 
 great responsibilities. Ability, character, influence, are trusts with which 
 to serve the world. Use them with integrity, courage, persistency, with- 
 out vanity or boasting. Thus there will spring an energy ever strong 
 to control evil, restrain passion, quick to direct action, shape careers, 
 mould character. So live as to raise and ennoble the idea of man, 
 combining such strength, beauty, and grace as to inspire in others self- 
 reverence, a.spiration, thereby awakening undreamed-of power abiding in 
 simple manhood, free and independent, and the sweet and sublime sereni- 
 ties of a self-forgetting love for others. 
 Then can be announced: — 
 
 "A man or woman coming, 
 Perhaps you are to be the one, 
 
 A great individual, fluid, chaste, affectionate, compassionate, 
 A life that shall be copious, earnest, spiritual, bold, 
 An old age that shall lightly and joyfully meet its translation." 
 A man apart from other men, embodying in himself much of the majesty 
 of earth, and reflecting in his life foreglooms of the glory of heaven, his 
 presence a perpetual benediction. 
 
 " He stands a man now, stately, strong, and wise. 
 One great aim, like a guiding star before, 
 Which tasks strength, wisdom, stateliness, to follow, 
 So shall he go on greatening to the end — 
 The man of men." 
 14 
 
2IO LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 PROFESSIOMAL OR LIFE-LABOR. 
 [Address to the graduating class of Alfred Academy, July i, 1857.] 
 
 Graduates: A parting word with you and our work is done. The 
 period has arrived in the lives of many, if not most of you, when you are 
 to pass from preparation to action. The days of exclusive study are now 
 ended. Henceforth comes the toil of active business life There is no 
 longer room for prospecting, for youthful dreaming of future activities. 
 Now and henceforward or never must you act — act out what has been 
 acquired in school life. 
 
 It is well if, standing thus on the dividing line between preparation 
 and action, you can look back upon your preparatory period as a period 
 bright with improved opportunities, rich with garnered treasures of knowl- 
 edge; then you can look to a future bright with the prospects of useful- 
 ness, rich with the rewards of success. If the past has been carefully 
 husbanded, as the seed time of life, the future will, doubtless, present to 
 the reapings of age an abundant harvest. He who has consecrated all to 
 God, resolving to make the most of the powers and privileges which have 
 been given him, and has improved the past accordingly, will enter upon 
 the future with the brightest promises of religion cheering him on, and at 
 the close of life lifting the veil that hides the spirit land and revealing the 
 joys of eternity. Industry, intelligence, and religion will ever be his com- 
 panions. Although the more formal period of preparation is past, yet 
 with such motives and f-esolves you will continue to improve — do and 
 learn — learn by doing. Submitting yourselves to the guidance of an 
 overruling Providence, you will ever strive to labor in harmony with 
 Deity, being ever guided by his laws and inspired by his Spirit. 
 
 Though such should be the motive power and guiding principle of 
 each of your lives, though you must all have a common center, and draw 
 your inspirations from a common source, yet in the details of your vari- 
 ous pursuits or professions there may and doubtless ought to be a wide 
 and varied range. It shall be our purpose, then, in the few remaining 
 words we speak to you, to consider some questions appertaining to your 
 professional calling or life labor. 
 
 My life work — what is it? Am I to vegetate like the vegetable — to 
 feed and grow like an animal — or to work, and think, and love, and live 
 like a man? Work, evidentl}^ is one of my high prerogatives. If so, 
 what kind shall it be? Shall it be good and great — great because good? 
 Was work-power given me without a work? — Evidently not. To what 
 particular work, then, shall my life-power be dedicated ? Hitherward and 
 
SERMONS. 211 
 
 thitherward I look, yet am unsatisfied. This sphere is too contracted — 
 that work too one-sided. One calhng is too superficial or frivolous — 
 another too material and groveling. Some are too objective, others too 
 subjective. Now the bad effects trouble me — the moralit)- of the pursuit, 
 at least its high spiritual tendency, is questionable. Again, the means are 
 too limited for the object sought. to be accomplished — the foundation too 
 small for the superstructure. Give me a work for which I am prepared — 
 adapted to my nature, and for which it longs — give a great work, a good 
 work, a genial and a soul-satisfying work, and I am content. Such are 
 the questionings and longings of every soul earnestly seeking its life- 
 labor. 
 
 The profession or pursuit of an individual is the footing, the place 
 whereon he stands and helps move the world. It forms the medium of 
 connection between the individual and the public. It gives the principal 
 means of support, and also a means by which he may work outward, 
 serving and blessing thereby humanity. No one is fully prepared to take 
 his position in society till he has a work, and a place where that work is 
 to be performed. Until then he will be vacillating, discontented, com- 
 plaining, fault-finding. A person without a trade or calling is pitiable 
 indeed. His life is objectless. His aimless endeavors are spasmodic. He 
 is tossed hither and thither, in the eddyings and surgings, in the winds 
 and tempests of life. Seldom, likewise, can one be a person of all trades. 
 The old adage, "Good at none," is as truthful as old. It is rare, indeed, 
 that one possesses that many-sidedness of mind, that many-sidedness of 
 power, which will enable him to work well and successfully at many or 
 diverse trades. It is seldom that even Yankee versatility or tact can win 
 riches or renown by driving many trades harnessed abreast. This tend- 
 ency is the prolific source of quacks and quackery. One calling well 
 filled, with occasional offshooting labors for its own improvement, or 
 reaching out into the common field of humanity, where everyone is 
 called to lend a helpmg hand, is generally all for which the time and tal- 
 ent of any individual are sufificient. Life is too short and powers too feeble 
 to warrant leisurely ranging among many or diverse pursuits. 
 
 Granting that religion is the all-pervading, life-giving principle of your 
 lives— granting that you are consecrated to the glory of God and the 
 highest well-being of humanity, yet the choice of a profession through 
 which this is to be accomplished is one of the most difficult and impera- 
 tive decisions of life. Important interests and consequences cluster 
 around such decisions — not only physical, but spiritual, not only to the 
 individual, but to society. This choice has to be made by the inexperi- 
 
2 12 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 enced youth, assisted, it may be, by the counsel and caution of friends; 
 yet with all the aids possible, the determination may be but the casting 
 of lots in respect to a dim uncertain fatality. 
 
 Adaptability is a consideration of primal importance in determining 
 what is your particular life labor. Variety amid uniformity is enstamped 
 upon everything. It is a leading law of nature. With a few simple 
 elements the Deity works out the world's wondrous variety of utility 
 and loveliness. It buds and waves in plant and tree, smiles and frowns 
 in sky and cloud, feels, moves, and palpitates in the animal. The uni- 
 formity of genus varies in species— species, in individuals. In the physi- 
 cal world things may be quite alike in the generals, quite unlike in the 
 particulars. 
 
 It is the mission of some to rush and thunder over the earth like the 
 storm cloud, of some to warm and inspire like a tropical sun — of others 
 to shed their influence like a gentle, refreshing rain — of others to distill 
 life and beauty like the dew of a midsummer night. Now and then, 
 one, like the palm, stands solitary and majestic in his far-off desert home, 
 reaching out his hand over wide wastes of sand to his brother palms. 
 
 A few, like the gracefully singing pine or the sturdy mountain oak, 
 are disciplined and cultured by a thousand storms. Some stand in the 
 melancholy dreaminess of the weeping willow; others thrill with the 
 sensitiveness of the trembling poplar. Some are meek violets, ever look- 
 ing confidingly towards heaven ; some are creeping, trailing vines, ever 
 clinging to something stronger for support ; others are delicate anemones, 
 ever shedding around themselves an ethereal loveliness; others are sweet 
 eglantines, ever whispering to the world of quiet home scenes and rural 
 happiness. No amount of culture can ever make the vine to stand in 
 majesty and strength, like the oak or palm. It must ever continue to 
 perform its humble office; so with each species; so with human spirits. 
 
 Again, every profession or pursuit which is for the good of society, 
 for the development and progress of humanity, is useful, is necessary, is 
 honorable; yet in respect to the inherent nobleness or dignity of pursuits, 
 there are very different degrees. 
 
 Those which tend to draw out and give culture to the higher pow- 
 er-s of man, to call into activity those high spiritual influences that 
 control and guide and elevate humanity, are the nobler pursuits of life. 
 They are to be coveted as the better gifts. Yet capability is the limit to 
 advancement. Better have reserved powers than to work beyond your 
 power. Many a lower station has been deprived of a good occupant, to 
 supply a poor one for a higher station. Be not so anxious about the 
 
SERMONS. 213 
 
 height of }'oui- spliere as that it ma\' be well and faithfully filled. Beg 
 not for place. Let place beg for you. Better to be asked to come up 
 higher than go down lower. An humble work well done is better than 
 a lofty one ill done. 
 
 Having wisely chosen your profession, you are, by it, to supply 
 your necessities, secure spiritual growth, and benefit others. A profession 
 thus chosen is to be your medium of labor. To it are to be devoted 
 your chief hours and efforts. In it you are to find most of your cares 
 and your struggles with life. Your failures or successes are here to have 
 their chief root. 
 
 In order that success may crown your professional labors, your pro- 
 fessional knowledge mu.st be accurate and extensive. Theory and prac- 
 tice must go hand in hand. You must be at home in your particular 
 calling; but your knowledge and labor should not, however, be confined 
 exclusively to it. Kindred or related pursuits will claim a share of your 
 time and attention. You must be continually reaching out to them for 
 information and assistance — out into the world at large, bringing its 
 advancement and improvement to bear upon your profession. Knowl- 
 edge, help, and encouragement must be drawn from everything around, 
 to perfect you in your chosen pursuit. Give also a portion of your time 
 and talents to general pursuits, to society, to the calls of country and 
 humanity, to the pleadings of benevolence, to the demands of religion — 
 or, rather, religion should permeate, control, direct the whole. Gain thus 
 new and high experiences, for ever)- noble experience will leave its eternal 
 impress. 
 
 But whatever may be your particular pursuit in life, there are certain 
 important responsibilities resting upon you as educated men and women 
 beyond the duties of those who have not enjoyed equal privileges with 
 yourselves. You are called emphatically as educated youth to be the 
 conservators and promulgators of liberty, learning, and religion. These 
 are the triple guards of the individual — the triple foundation of the State 
 — the elements of civilization. No State is secure without knowledge and 
 religion to uphold its liberties. The church is not safe without the 
 largest liberty of conscience and the clear light of knowledge to guide 
 its activities. All that is of moral and spiritual worth in civilization has 
 grown out of the free and harmonious blending of these three primal 
 elements. 
 
 The scholars relations to these great powers are most intimate and 
 important. To the ignorant these treasures of knowledge are closed. 
 He has not the high vantage ground of the scholar from which to labor. 
 
2 14 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 He may be inspired by high and holy motives, he may be desirous of 
 doing good, but he has not the ample field of the scholar for labor. He 
 cannot give a definite mould and lasting power to thought. To the 
 scholar the prospect is far different. The fields of knowledge are his. 
 The hope and inspirations of religion are as freely offered to him as to 
 the rest of humanity. 
 
 As scholars 3'ou are to be the bodyguard of learning. Education 
 depends upon you for support and progress. Thinking, manufacturing 
 thought is to be one of your leading objects in life. Thought, deep, 
 comprehensive, enduring thought, is to be wrought out by you. The 
 world brings materials to you to be wrought into thought. You are to 
 take these materials and apply the test for truth, and if it stands the trial, 
 the evolved thought is again passed over to the world, to be inwrought 
 into all the relations of society. No individual is fully prepared to give 
 definite mould and shape to thought for the future, save, perhaps, in the 
 region of fancy and fiction, until he has faithfully studied the great, the 
 leading thoughts of the past on the same subject. You are, however, to 
 make all past knowledge the basis, not the limit, of research and progress. 
 It is your duty to revise the thoughts of the past, adapting them to the 
 present, and adding such new ones as Providence and man have evolved. 
 It is one of your duties also to prepare thoughts for the future. It is 
 not essential that these thoughts be written or spoken. The}^ are often 
 better acted, revealed to the world through great deeds. Deeds fit for 
 history are nobler than the writing. Yes, it is the high, noble, earnest 
 endeavor that is greatly needed. 
 
 Be not grumblers or croakers, whining about the hardness of your 
 lot, or the injustice of man, complaining that hatred, strategies, treasons, 
 machinations, hollowness, treacheries, and all "ruinous discords," are 
 howling around you and hissing you on to the grave; but "put a cheerful 
 courage on," with a "heart ready for any fate." Be not drones in the 
 busy hive of humanity. 
 
 You are called upon by every consideration to labor with such pur- 
 poses and motives. Voices call to you from the lowly graves of the 
 fathers of this republic, imploring you as their children to preserve those 
 institutions for the founding of which they labored and suffered. The 
 blood of liberty's martyrs cries to you from many a battle field, beseech- 
 ing you not to prove recreant to the cause for which they fought, bled, 
 and died. You are called upon by the pa.st, present, and future — by all 
 the poor and oppressed — by all those struggling after light and liberty — 
 to lend a helping hand in delivering this land from intemperance, oppres- 
 
SERMONS. 215 
 
 sion, and all error and sin — in scattering the fog and mist hanging over 
 the minds of men — in raising bleeding virtue from the dust and enthron- 
 ing her in the hearts of men — in agitating the mighty ocean of mind, 
 which, by its convulsions, may be purified from the dark streams of vice 
 which have so long flowed into it. And when you drop from time into 
 eternity, may your fall start encircling, expanding waves, the impress of 
 which the remotest shores of time shall gladly receive. 
 
 You are to live and act with high resolves and for noble purposes, 
 regardless of opposition or discouraging prospects, resting in the full 
 
 assurance that — 
 
 "Truth crushed to earth shall rise again; 
 The eternal years of God are here." 
 
 Do nothing without high motives and a clear conscience. Spare not • 
 your lives for yourselves, but give your lives and services freely for the 
 good of others. Be aids to the defenseless, supporters to the lowly, 
 comforters to the sorrowing, liberators to the oppressed. Live guileless 
 before God and man. Be loyal to your country, bold for the right, true 
 to duty. Determine deliberately, resolutely, solemnly, and by divine 
 assistance, to make the very best of your time and talents. 
 
 Remember that in doing this you are achieving for yourselves, as 
 well as doing good to others. You are building up for yourselves char- 
 acters glorious and lasting — educating yourselves for eternity. Educa- 
 tion is the healthful growth, the harmonious perfecting, of the whole 
 being. Character is the subjective result, the embodiment of all the 
 activities and habitudes of our being — the fruit of a lifelong education 
 in the great school of the world. It is the great business of life, as it 
 terminates on one's self, to form character. Character is made out of, 
 is, the fruitage of life. All events, thoughts, sights, sounds, pains, pleas- 
 ures, toils, are taken into the' laboratory of our spiritual being and con- 
 verted into character. You are thus to weave for yourselves, out of the 
 warp and woof of life and labor, a robe which shall clothe your spirits 
 forever. Yes, something more than a garment; it is a kind of spiritual 
 body, furnished by the school of life, with spiritual nutriment and blood, 
 by which, if derived from the gross feedings of sin, the whole spiritual 
 being will become polluted and leprous. If from heavenly manna and 
 the wells of salvation, it will be pure and lifesome. Let the lines which 
 you are writing upon the unwritten pages of your spirits by the pen of 
 life be such as you will not blush to read through the endless ages of 
 eternity. • 
 
 Happy indeed are you if, with all your preparatory labors, you have 
 learned heavenly wisdom as well as earthly knowledge; if you have 
 
2l6 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 secured a hold on heaven by the golden chain of faith; if you have deter- 
 mined to do with your might whatever you find to do; if you have awak- 
 ened the inward power that looks confidently onward and upward to 
 perfection, glory, and immortality. If so. you will grasp each golden 
 moment as it flies, and exchange it for its equivalent in good done, 
 influence exerted, character established. You will make winds, waves, 
 storms and sunshine, sickness and health, joy and sorrow, adversity and 
 prosperity, friends and foes, labor and leisure, everything, produce the 
 "fruits of the Spirit, — love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, good- 
 ness, faith, meekness, temperance." Let industry, punctuality, and per- 
 severance be manifested in all of your undertakings. Let religion speak 
 forth in every action. Develop the self-searching power of the soul. 
 Keep awake the self-forming power. Restrain the undue development 
 of the passions. Cherish intercourse and communion with the wise and 
 good of all ages in their richest and choicest thoughts. Let the Bible 
 be your especial and constant light, guide, and companion. It matters 
 not so much about the lowliness of your lot as the spirit with which you 
 live and work in that sphere. The lowlier the lot the brighter may 
 appear the day-star of perfection. However humble your sphere or 
 calling, however limited your influence, whatex^er may be your career, 
 all along your pathway you will be laboring and waiting for the unfold- 
 ings of eternity to reveal the full fruits of your labors. 
 
 May you now go forth from these halls to your respective fields of 
 labor receiving the mantles of the great and good, as they ascend, one 
 by one, to their rewards on high, and so acquitting yourselves of }-our 
 several life tasks that when we all shall meet again at that great and last 
 examination day, the judgment, we, one and all, shall be found there 
 with diplomas whereon shall be written, in lines of living light: "Well 
 done, good and faithful pupils. Ye have been faithful in your earthl}- 
 and preparatory school, enter ye into your heavenly and eternal home 
 school." 
 
 That such may be your career and final destiny is the sincere and 
 earnest prayer of your teachers as they bid you a sorrowful farewell. 
 
SERMONS. 217 
 
 DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT. 
 
 [A sermon preached in the First Seventh-day Baptist Church at Alfred, N. Y., 
 April 22, 1865.] 
 "And a certain one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, 
 said to them: Ye know nothing; nor do ye consider, that it is expedient 
 ^or us, that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation perish 
 not. And this he spake not of himself; but being high priest that year, 
 he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation; and not for the 
 nation only, but that also he should gather into one the children of God 
 that were scattered abroad." John i i : 49-5 2 (Bible Union Version). 
 
 Caiaphas, like many another prophet, spoke language with a larger 
 and more pervasive import than he knew. John, as is agreed by leading 
 biblical scholars, takes up the high priest's words, modifies them, and 
 unfolds this larger and higher meaning. It seemed next to impossible 
 for the Jews, and very difficult for his immediate disciples, to compre- 
 hend that the Messiah of that nation was to be the world-Christ, and that 
 this Christ could be Saviour only through sacrifice, death. Humanity 
 could have no spiritual redemption save through the divine coming 
 down and uniting with the human. This divine-human must needs take 
 on all the limitations and liabilities of the human, being subjected to 
 temptation, want, and suffering. Only thus could the human be lifted 
 up, and made to live again; only thus could a way be opened for human- 
 ity to return to its allegiance to the divine and the prerogatives of its 
 original sonship. 
 
 I. A^^;* Salvation without Suffering— No Atonement zvithont Blood. — 
 The law of the divine beneficence is the law of all human benevolence. 
 It is universal and absolute. All love must, from its very nature, when 
 flowing out toward the weak, the ignorant, the sinful, become a sacrifice. 
 There is not, nor can there be, salvation without suffering, atonement 
 without the shedding of blood, whether this salvation be spiritual salva- 
 tion, or whether it be national, social, or physical salvation. Jesus 
 became thus, in his life of love and sacrificial death, the great ensample 
 and archetype of all human lives of love and labors of good will. All 
 benefactors, all leaders, all elevators of humanity, must be patterned 
 after the divine prototype. Humanity has never taken a step forward 
 but that step has dripped with blood. No truth affecting human char- 
 acter or human destiny has ever been reduced from the abstract to the 
 concrete without being baptized in blood. Every principle, coming as 
 an evanc^el from God to man, has been received with mocks and scourges. 
 
2l8 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 The divinest lives have ever been crowned with thorns — their brows ever 
 damp with their own blood. Socrates and the poisoned cup, Stephen 
 and stones, Paul and bonds and imprisonments, James and the block, 
 Peter and the cross, with the long and illustrious line of witnesses, con- 
 fessors, martyrs, are not only all typed in Calvary, but are likewise 
 themselves types of all consecrations of philanthropy, all the devote- 
 ments of patriotism, all the fidelities of friendship. 
 
 Liberty, civil and religious, is one of the most potent aspirations of 
 humanity, one of the ever-enduring forces of the human soul. The Roman 
 power was startled into insecurity by a few humble, unpretending Chris- 
 tian men, standing up here and there in the empire, with a conscience, 
 affirming that the State was made for man, not man for the State, and, 
 above and beyond all, believing in a spiritual God, whose idol could not 
 be set up in the Parthenon with those of the national gods, but who 
 must be worshiped in spirit and in truth, according to the behests of his 
 own Spirit, whose presence and power his worshipers ever bear about 
 with them. This allegiance to a higher law, this highest and most sacred 
 right of man to worship God according to the behests of one's own con- 
 science, has cost the Christian church, it is estimated, three hundred 
 million lives, and the principle is not yet fully established. Civil liberty, 
 the child of religious liberty, like its illustrious sire, has a gory history. 
 Like all other noble sentiments, in embodying itself in human' institu- 
 tions, it must pass through a Red Sea of blood, and wander long in the 
 desert fast by Horeb and Sinai, as preparations for its conquests and 
 possession of the thrones of the world. The cry of the people under the 
 burdens of caste and oppression has come down through the ages like 
 the perpetual wail of the. east wind. Liberty came to these western 
 shores amid tears and death. It was organized into institutions with toil 
 and blood. At length, in these last years, the bloodiest sacrifice of all 
 times has been laid, by the greatest and foremost republic the world has 
 known, upon the altar of freedom and free institutions, and at last, cul- 
 minating and climaxing all, each humblest member of the republic has 
 been offered a sacrifice in and through the representative and official 
 head, the nation's President, Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 II. Character of the Offering. — As in the divine-human offering for 
 sin we instinctively turn away from the betrayers and crucifiers to the 
 Betrayed and Crucified, and the blessed forces springing from the sacri- 
 fice, so now let us turn with deep detestation and horror from that sum 
 of all wrongs, slavery, which has for its last and ripest fruitage "the deep 
 damnation" of this high "taking off" — let us turn rather to the consid- 
 
SERMONS. 219 
 
 eration of the positive and noble theme of the offering, and the far- 
 reaching forces flowing therefrom. 
 
 I. It seems to be God's plan, when he desires to send a great bene- 
 factor to the world, to pass by all who have been volatilized by the frip- 
 peries of a fashionable etiquette, where the great end of life is in appear- 
 ances, — seeming rather than being, — by all who, through worldly pros- 
 perity, have been like certain coralline animals, converted into stone as 
 they grow. He passed by all such up, up to the common people, who 
 are comparatively unaddled by the fooleries of fashion, who are not ener- 
 vated by luxury, or hardened by worldly successes, up to the "plain 
 people," whose instincts and spontaneities are much more in harmony 
 with the divine, and the windows of whose souls open more directly 
 heavenward — from such God is wont to choose his especial evangels 
 to humanity. Jesus had a manger for his cradle, prototype of the 
 origin of those who come to greatly bless humanity. Elisha, the plow- 
 man, with the prophetic mantle flung upon his shoulders by Elijah, as 
 he passed by; Amos, from among the herdmen of Tekoa; the Galilean 
 fishermen, are the true types of prophets and apostles, and of all such as 
 have passed to the spiritual thrones of the world. True, Moses, the 
 Hebrew deliverer and lawgiver, was learned in all the wisdom of the 
 Egyptians, but he, the fiery and blood-shedding heir apparent to the 
 throne of Egypt, must be sent to take care of sheep forty years up in the 
 mountains, the divinest regions of the earth, and where all highest 
 inspirations are born and nurtured. Here by the base of Horeb his spir- 
 itual vision was clarified and illumed, his soul toned to sweetest humility 
 and meekness — full of the largest sympathy and gentleness — and 
 impressed with the solemn grandeur of his mission; then he descends to 
 deliver Israel, not with crown and sword, but as a simple shepherd, with 
 his shepherd's staff for his scepter. When the time had come for Prot- 
 estantism, its inauguration was taken from the mines, or, as Luther him- 
 .self states it: "I am a peasant's son; my father, my grandfather, and my 
 forefathers, were all genuine peasants. My parents were right poor. 
 My father was a poor miner, an ore digger, and my mother carried her 
 wood on her shoulders; and after this sort they supported us, their chil- 
 dren." The glorious day of modern missions was heralded in by a shoe- 
 maker, or, as explained by himself when some high official asked another 
 if "Gary had not been a shoemaker?" "No, sir," Gary answered, "only 
 a cobbler." So, when God was about to inaugurate the same missionary 
 scheme in this country, he passed by all ministering in co.stly churches, 
 with their "long-drawn aisles and fretted vaults," up to the three young 
 
2 20 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 men praying; by a haystack, and took them for his heralds. So, hke- 
 wise, the great and beneficent scheme of Sunday schools found its fore- 
 runner in another shoemaker, who, as the historian quaintly remarks, 
 "while he furnished soles for the parents, put souls into their children." 
 As in the missions of the gospel, so in the missions of liberty. God 
 chose the founders of the republic, as to its northern portion, from the 
 plain peasantry of England, while the southern portion was based upon 
 cavaliers, aristocrats gone to seed, adventurers, fortune hunters The 
 incompatible elements and forces ha\-e struggled till they have come to 
 blood. In this bloody struggle is a most significant fact — who has not 
 noted it? — that the most honored and evidently heaven-appointed lead- 
 ers of the common people, in their ox'erthrow of this aristocratic rebel- 
 lion, have been a rail splitter, a tanner, and a tailor, as if the common- 
 est and humblest industries had been anointed of God to become the 
 standard bearers of liberty and equality, and through battle and smoke 
 and blood to unfurl their ensigns before the eyes of all peoples, on the 
 topmost heights of human progress and human destiny. The foremost 
 one of these has fallen, just as he was gaining the heights; but the sacred 
 ensign was caught up by one next him, ere it touched the ground, and 
 he, a Joshua following a Moses, shall lead the people across Jordan dry 
 shod, and safely establish them in Canaan. Yes, it is full of deepest 
 significance that the great martyr emancipator should be chosen from 
 the high plane of the common people. 
 
 2. As a natural and legitimate outgrowth of his origin, the great 
 national offering was characterized, like most great benefactors of human- 
 ity, by his plain, simple, straightforward, manly honesty. Simple as 
 truth itself, no pretentious form and ceremony in others could seduce 
 him to act a hollow and unmeaning part. Utterly unassuming, all shows 
 passed him as the idle wind. He appeared and acted the pure, gentle, 
 kind-hearted, unostentatious man just as he was. I deem it one of the 
 peculiar privileges of my life that 1 had the honor of taking by the hand 
 the two great martyrs of liberty, John Brown and Abraham Lincoln. 
 Both had the same honest, hearty, manly grip and shake, but the eye, 
 how different ! One had the eye of an eagle — the other of a lamb. No 
 one can enter the presence of manly simplicity without feeling himself 
 ennobled by that presence. It was to this high, simple manliness that 
 the instincts of the people spontaneously responded, in which the)- so 
 implicitly trusted. 
 
 3. A correlative of this native simplicity was his broad, roundabout 
 conmion sense. He was the embodied common consciousness of the 
 
SERMONS. 22 1 
 
 Anicrican people. His was evidently not one of those far-visioned minds 
 that catch the first illuminings of new truths on the mountain tops of 
 human destiny, and flash them down on the uplooking people, or one of 
 those delicately attuned spirits that vibrate to the slightest touch of the 
 eternal and universal harmonies of law, and translate those harmonies into 
 language for the listening multitudes. He stood rather with the multi- 
 tudes and interpreted for them their understanding of the truths and laws 
 that had been announced to them, and utilized the abstract into living, 
 active forces. Hence it was that he could state a principle so as to be 
 apprehended by the common consciousness of the masses, apprehended so 
 clearly and forcibly that they were ready to act upon it. He probably 
 could do this more clearly and forcibly than any other living American, 
 however highly educated he might be. His letters and speeches have 
 already become models after which the young are taught to pattern 
 themselves. Hence it was, also, that he never was ahead of, or behind, 
 the convictions of the masses. Probably all of the great acts of his 
 administration were performed just at the time when the majority of the 
 American people were clearly and decidedly with him. If they had 
 been performed sooner, the majority would not have supported him; if 
 performed later, the masses would have outstripped him. His acts were 
 thus but the crystallized convictions of those he acted for. Thus it was 
 his administration ever rested securely upon the shoulders of majorities. 
 Many, very many of the more radical, progressive Republicans voted for 
 him at his first election, feeling that he was too conservative, was want- 
 ing in the manifold experiences of a long-practiced statesman. But there 
 evidently was a Providence in it. These very facts placing him, as they 
 did, but just ahead of the great masses, enabled him to control and lead 
 them up to higher planes of duty much more readily than could have 
 been done by a more radical and experienced man, against whom the 
 prejudices of the people would have been too strongly set to have been 
 easily swayed to the grave responsibilities of these solemn years, through 
 which the nation has been passing. He led or was led, guided or was 
 guided, confessing that events controlled him— which, to the weak or 
 frivolous, is waiting for and drifting with the tide of things; to the pru- 
 dent, is watchfulness of opportunities; to the religious, is the guidance 
 of Providence and the harmonizing of life to the prayer, "Thy will be 
 done." 
 
 Tennyson's lines for another apply with brimming fullness now:— 
 
222 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 ' ' Mourn for the man of amplest influence, 
 Yet clearest of ambitious crime, 
 Our greatest, yet with least pretense, 
 Rich in saving, common sense. 
 And as the greatest only are 
 In his simplicity sublime, 
 Such was he whom we deplore." 
 
 4. Abraham Lincoln, like most great historic characters, seemed to 
 feel upon himself the behests of a definite and great mission, in which 
 he was but an humble, an unworthy instrument. 
 
 "Souls destined to o'erleap the vulgar lot 
 And mould the world into the scheme of God, 
 Have a foreconsciousness of their high doom." 
 
 The perpetuity of the Union, the liberties of the people, not only of 
 this nation, but of the world, not onlj/ now, but "for all future time;" 
 "the lifting of artificial weights from all shonlders;" to demonstrate that 
 " no successful appeal can be made from ballots to bullets;" to "teach 
 men that what they cannot take by an election, neither can they take by 
 a war," were questions of which he seemed to have a presentiment, with 
 which he had a living and determinative connection. Not only this, but 
 the fiery trials through which they were passing would light all con- 
 nected with them "down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation." 
 His address to his friends and, neighbors at Springfield, as he started for 
 his work, has a spirit kindred to that of the prophets, as manifested in 
 the words read for our morning lesson, words uttered by him as he was 
 about to enter his mission. Listen to it: — 
 
 "My Friends: No one not in my position can appreciate the sadness 
 I feel at this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have 
 lived more than a quarter of a century; here my children were born; 
 and here one of them lies buried. I know not how soon I shall see you 
 again. A duty devolves upon me which is, perhaps, greater than that 
 which has devolved upon any other man since the days of Washington 
 He never would have succeeded except for the aid of Divine Providence, 
 upon which he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without 
 the same divine aid which sustained him, and on the same Almight)' 
 Being I place my reliance for support; and I hope that you, my friends, 
 will all pray that I may receive that divine assistance, without which I 
 cannot succeed, but with which success is certain. Again I bid you all 
 an affectionate fiirewell." 
 
 5. Consecration. — All beneficently great lives of history have conse- 
 crated lives, lives of devotement to some definite and all-absorbing work. 
 
SERMONS. 223 
 
 They have not only felt the behests, the inspiration, of a call, but have 
 responded to that call with a free and full giving up of self, laying all 
 upon the altar of that work. This faith in a mission, and consecration 
 to that mission, is the power that elevates the world. Knowledge is 
 power, but the aspirations enkindled by the inspirations of faith in a 
 vocation is a far greater power. That our martyr President was borne 
 on by the power of such a consecration is taught not only by his life, but 
 likewise by his works. Listen to his speech at Gettysburg: — 
 
 " Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this 
 continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the propo- 
 sition that all men are created equgl. Now we are engaged in a great 
 civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and 
 so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of that 
 war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting 
 place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It 
 is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger 
 sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this 
 ground. The brave men. living and dead, who struggled here have con- 
 -secrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will little 
 note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what 
 they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the 
 unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly 
 advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task 
 remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased 
 devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devo- 
 tion ; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in 
 vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and 
 that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall 
 not perish from the earth." 
 
 And if report be true, he there not only reconsecrated himself to 
 patriotism and liberty, but he then and there dedicated himself to God 
 and holiness, through Christ, without which all other devotion is flat 
 and groveling, and can never raise one above the murk and mists of a 
 worldly humanitarianism, for no fountain can rise higher than its source; 
 but with such a dedication one becomes a medium and agent for all 
 divine and heavenward lifting powers, whereby man may be lifted to 
 higher and nobler destinies. 
 
 6. " With Malice tozvard None, zvith Charity for All.'' — It was most 
 legitimate and befitting that the great liberator, like c?// benefactors, should 
 be crowned with that crown of glory, charity. A simplicity that was 
 
2 24 ^'^^^ ^^^ PRESIDENT ALLEN, 
 
 nobility, a purity lucent as light, an honesty that was incorruptibility, a 
 conservatism that was ever progressive yet never innovative, a true man- 
 hood that overtopped all rank and outshone all display, were all glorified 
 by a tenderness tliat was womanly, a magnanimity that could never be 
 betrayed into harshness or ungenerousness of word or deed, a forgiv- 
 ingness that had its spring in that great model world prayer, " Father, 
 forgive them, for they know not what they do." In this spirit was his 
 last official word to the world. How remarkable! To the frivolous and 
 shallow, a theme for jesting and ridicule; to the thoughtful and religious, 
 a theme for meditation and reverent thankfulness. The following, from 
 that inaugural, reads more like a chapter from some clear-visioned, 
 solemn-voiced Hebrew prophet of old time than like paragraphs from 
 modern political speeches or State papers : — 
 
 "Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each 
 invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any man 
 should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing his bread from the 
 sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. 
 The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been 
 answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. 'Woe unto the 
 world because of offenses, for it mu.st needs be that offenses come; but 
 woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.' If we shall suppose that 
 American slavery is one of these offenses, which in the providence of 
 God must needs come, but which, having continued through his ap- 
 pointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North 
 and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense 
 came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes 
 which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him ? Fondly do 
 we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may soon 
 pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled 
 by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be 
 sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid 
 with another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years 
 ago, so still it must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and 
 righteous altogether.' 
 
 "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the 
 right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work 
 we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have 
 borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphans, to do all which may 
 achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with 
 all nations." 
 
SERMONS. 225 
 
 Such are some of the most prominent points in the character of the 
 remarkable man now crowned with martyrdom for freedom. His whole 
 character, how touchingly .symbolized in his visit to Richmond, the last 
 journey of his life, when, in the glitter of victory, amid the shouts of the 
 nation, he entered the city, not clad in the robes of triumph, after the 
 manner of conquerors, but "that tall, awkward form, clad in plain citizen's 
 dress, that homely, kindly, fatherly face, looking its frank good will on 
 the mixed, strange, doubtful population, his only attendant his own little 
 son, clinging to his father's hand. Now all that is earthly of him is being 
 borne to the geographical center of the republic for its home and its 
 rest, along a thousand miles of a procession sable with mourning and 
 sobbing with grief A nation follows with bowed, uncovered head as 
 mourner. Liberty is pallbearer. Two oceans chant the requiem. All 
 peoples, looking and listening, through tears catch up the solemn refrain 
 and repeat it round the earth. 
 
 III. Fruitage. — The dust of martyrs has ever been a seed sure to 
 spring up and yield fruit, some thirty, some sixty, some an hundred-fold. 
 Jesus, when teaching his disciples the necessity of his death, announced 
 the first and controlling law of all growth : " Except a corn of wheat fall 
 into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth 
 much fruit." How heavily laden has been the fruiting through these 
 eighteen centuries of that divine corn that fell into the earth with his 
 death! The powers of evil have ever labored under the hallucination 
 that great principles die with their champions. Rather than this the 
 very life power of the champion at death seems to be transmitted into 
 the principles for which he dies. The Council of Constance thought by 
 burning Huss and Jerome at the stake, and scattering their ashes to the 
 winds, and ordering that the body of Wickliffe should be disinterred and 
 burnt to ashes, — by these acts it thought to check the spread of Bible 
 knowledge among the people. The primate of England superintended 
 the ceremony of burning the bones of the reformer, that had rested more 
 than forty years in the grave, and throwing their ashes into the river 
 Swift. The quaint old Fuller truly says, "The Swift conveyed his ashes 
 into the Avon, Avon into the Severn, Severn into the narrow seas, they 
 to the main ocean, and thus they are the emblem of his doctrine, which 
 now is dispersed the world over." Virginia paid with the most cheerful 
 alacrity half a million of dollars to make ready John Brown's body for 
 the burial; and though "John Brown's body hes mouldering in the 
 grave," still his soul — oh, how grandly! "is marching on" through all 
 these solemn years. And who of all the South has not seen it in "the 
 
2 26 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 watchfires of a hundred circling camps," and read its "fiery gospel writ 
 in burnished rows of steel," has not heard its jubilant choruses swelling 
 through the land, keeping time to the tramp of pale and dusky legions ? 
 The other day a little boy was seen kneeling on the pavement in Wash- 
 ington, and carefully wiping up spots of stain with bits of paper, and 
 carefully putting those pieces in his pocket. Being asked what it meant, 
 he replied that it was the blood of the President, and very precious. 
 Yes, how precious and how fruitful! Each ultimatest globule shall 
 fructify in richest fruitage, both for millions that now live and hunger 
 and for other millions yet unborn. 
 
 Its immediate fruitage, if we mistake not, is this: Mercy is slain, 
 justice made alive. A Moses, full of all gentleness and forgiveness, has 
 fallen; a Joshua, full of justice, leads on. What Sumter was for the 
 nation's patriotism and the preservation of the Union, such is the mar- 
 tyrdom of the President for national justice and the uplifting of the poor 
 degraded white man of the South, and the enfranchisement of the enslaved 
 black man. It was my lot to be one of that multitude, "shattered and 
 sundered," struggling back into Washington on the morning after the 
 first battle of Bull Run. Through that long, heart-sickening retreat the 
 sad, oft-repeated question was : " Wherefore this ? What means this ? 
 Where is the Providence in this?" No answer came till we stood on 
 the heights overlooking the capitol, and the city sitting in dejection at 
 its feet, and the dim clouds weeping over all. Then, like an arrow of 
 light, came the answer, "Every military defeat is a victory for freedom." 
 Whatever may be the intention of politicians, of people, or President, God 
 intends no lifting of the scourge of war, but will shake and shatter the 
 nation till the shackles fall from every slave. Thus now we of the North, 
 in our high Christian magnanimity, if you please, and noble generosity, 
 were eager to throw aside our war gear in the moment of victory, and 
 take to our forgiving embrace those who, for the sake of building a power 
 resting upon the necks of an abject race for its chief corner stone, had 
 rebelled against the authority of ballots, and, by attempting to make 
 allegiance a mockery, sap the life of the nation. We were willing to for- 
 give and forget all this, and seemingly were about to open up a way 
 whereby the leaders in rebellion might be leaders still, with power and 
 privilege to plot and domineer hereafter as heretofore, but God evidently 
 intends otherwise. He, whose justice is as absolute as his mercy is 
 infinite, is laying upon us the behest that we shall respect and revere 
 justice as we love mercy, and that peace, permanent and beneficent, 
 cannot come through the crowning of the one and the crucifying of the 
 
SERMONS. 227 
 
 Other. He, doubtless, will instruct us that he who appeals from the 
 ballot to the bullet can never again have the rights of the ballot. Citi- 
 zenship bartered thus recklessly for a mess of pottage cannot be had 
 again for the simple asking. Let us fervently pray that the cup may 
 pass from us without the further shedding of blood, even of the leaders 
 in rebellion ; but let us as fervently pray and earnestly labor that they 
 may never have the franchises of citizenship. Such is the divine will, if 
 we read His providences aright, concerning all the chiefs of rebellion. 
 
 Again, the martyrdom of the President has blotted out differences, 
 hushed bickerings, united, cemented us, as never before. The nation 
 has risen to its feet as one man, and, with uncovered head and uplifted 
 hand, solemnly swears that freedom and free institutions shall live. We 
 are a stronger, a more united nation to-day than ever before. We stand 
 before the nations of the earth consecrated to liberty in a higher and 
 more sacred sense than before. Every soldier that has died, every wound 
 received, every drop of blood, every tear shed, every pang suffered, has 
 ennobled, consecrated, made more sacred, the republic and its mission, 
 and now this last great official, thereby representative, sacrifice has lifted 
 us, one and all, to the plane of a common consecration. Henceforward 
 the mission of the republic becomes loftier than before, farther reaching, 
 more pervasive and controlling. This nation stands to-day, as never 
 before, in the front of human progress, opening up a way, gory with sac- 
 rifice, luminous with heroism, for all nations to follow. To borrow a 
 figure from a recent English speaker before a London audience, which 
 is said to have roused that audience as a tempest harping on a great 
 forest: "The American republic is the Christ among nations, and, though 
 it is being crucified during these four years, yet it shall speedily have a 
 resurrection; and when that resurrection comes, the veil of the temple of 
 English aristocracy, of European caste, shall be rent in twain." Yes, 
 the republic is an evangel among nations, and all that have died for it 
 have died, not only for their own nation, but all peoples; and that beau- 
 tiful stanza of a new poem, with a slight change, expresses the sublime 
 doctrine of our theme: — 
 
 " In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, 
 With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me. 
 As he died to make men holy, so they die to make men free." 
 
 If the attainment is in proportion to the sacrifice, the harvesting as 
 the seed sown, great to the world must be the help and gain of these 
 four years of blood, for never was there made a more plentiful sowing, 
 or a more costly sacrifice laid on the altar of Liberty. Guizot says, 
 
228 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 "Providence takes a step forward, and ages have rolled away;" but these 
 four years have been those ages for liberty and equality. Providence is 
 visibly controlling, guiding, leading on. Now, as never before, can all 
 peoples catch up the anthem of the seraphim in the vision of the prophet, 
 and cry one unto another, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the 
 whole earth is full of his glory." Yes, the earth is full of his glory, if 
 we but have clarified vision to behold. Sublimely does he manifest him- 
 self How solemn and grand it is to live in these times! How rich in 
 opportunity! How solemn in responsibility! Never were the workers 
 for humanity and for God placed on such vantage ground as now. 
 Then let us gather to ourselves all of these powers for good, and conse- 
 crate them all to the great work unfolding before us, resting in' the divine 
 assurance that all sacrifice for God and humanity shall spring into imme- 
 diate and abundant fruitage. 
 
 FAITH 
 
 [Baccalaureate sermon, delivered June 28, 1874.] 
 "Faith working by love." Gal. 5:6. 
 
 As is a man's philosophy, so will be his theology; as is his theology, 
 so will be the structure of his religion. It is the anatomy of religion, 
 but an anatomy dead till clothed upon by the power of a divinely living 
 faith. 
 
 I. The mechanical theory in philosophy has, down through the Chris- 
 tian ages, largely given type to many of the doctrines of theology. 
 According to this theory. Deity is the great Mechanician, the infinite 
 Artificer, who has constructed this goodly mechanism, the universe, 
 according to certain fixed laws, set the whole in motion, to run its course, 
 with just enough of occasional or special providences to keep it regulated. 
 He works from the outside down upon, and into, the universe. This 
 theory of divine operations has been carried into all departments of 
 thought, permeating our whole system of knowledge. It has especially 
 given a hard, dry, mechanical cast to dogmatic theology. The dynami- 
 cal or vital theory, suggested, though imperfectly, by Liebnitz, in his 
 Monadology, represents the genesis of the universe through internal 
 agency. Creation is not ex nihiio, that is, from both a subjective and an 
 objective void, but from the divine fullness of power objectized and local- 
 
SERMONS. 229 
 
 ized in space as matter, substance, thus being the free spontaneous energy 
 objectized, and, becoming an effect in time, furnishes the material for God 
 to fill out his archetypes and thus render his subjective ideals overt reali- 
 ties. This dynamical, in its higher forms, becomes the vital theory. 
 This vital or organic doctrine teaches that the universe is but the perpet- 
 ual and everywhere present unfolding of divine power, informing, ener- 
 gizing, and controlling. All natural phenomena are the direct expression 
 of the divine presence and will in power. The laws of the universe are 
 the uniform activity of the divine personal will, guided by reason, lighted 
 by ideas, regulated and directed by purpose. All natural agencies are 
 modes of the divine activities. This avoids the paradox of an active 
 universe and an inactive Deity, or of intense activity at one time and 
 quiescence forever after, as demanded by the mechanical theory, with its 
 Deity enthroned in the eternities, as a passive spectator of the gradual 
 running down of the universe. Instead of a dead, hard, j^ert mass of 
 matter choking up space, as Fichte expresses it, there rushes the eternal 
 stream of power, and life, and deed. The life of the universe is a per- 
 petual generation — life welling forth with perpetual efflux. The universe 
 thus is not an emanation rayed out from Deity, nor mechanism by an 
 artificer, but an outgrowth of objectized power, known as force, with 
 laws which are the uniform action of personal power. This avoids a 
 double providence — a general and a special or occasional providence 
 becoming at once universal and particular, everywhere and at all times 
 active, with the general uniformity of Deity's own unchangeableness, 
 and, at the same time, having all the limberness of life. It specializes all 
 providences, yet grounding them in general laws. Instead of dead, hard 
 matter and unyielding mechanisms, insensate forces, unconscious forms, 
 there is everywhere the living presence, the conscious spirit, the per- 
 vading God. 
 
 2. Hti?nanitr, the Child of God. — -The fatherhood of God, and the 
 childship of spirits, is a doctrine lying at the foundation of human exist- 
 ence, determining its nature and its mode of redemption. This divine 
 childship of souls constitutes a real and living relation and communion 
 with God, "the Father of Spirits." The image and likeness of man to 
 God rests in this kinship, in this spiritual sonship. As the image of the 
 earthly parent reproduced in his child is not so much in likeness of form 
 and feature as of the inner and more essential nature, of which the out- 
 ward is but a faint expression, so the image of God in man is not in 
 physical conformation, but in life and power, in essence and attributes. 
 God is a spirit. The essence of spirit is life, with the attributes of thought. 
 
230 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 sentiment, will. This is the essential of all his children. When God 
 breathed into man the breath of life, he imparted to him the essential 
 principle of his own nature. Man, the offspring of God, was created to 
 consciously live, move, and have his being in God. This offspring nature 
 of man declares it to be the mission of humanity to live out, in all of its 
 personalities, the divine life. All spiritual life and activity spring from 
 the connection of the divine with the human. Thus humanity is organ 
 for the divine. His wisdom is the outshining of the divine wisdom. 
 His growth in grace is the unfolding of the divine life. His love is the 
 overflow of the divine love shed abroad in his nature. "The inspiration 
 of the Almighty giveth understanding." Religion is the divine life in 
 the soul. This arises from the generic oneness of God and humanity. 
 This kinship gives connection and way for all divine revelations to illumine 
 the spirit, all divine inspirations to vivify and empower it. Humanity 
 lost this in sinning. The inflowing of the God life was interrupted, com- 
 munion through the faith faculty obscured, the G6d consciousness 
 depressed. The animal gained the ascendency.' Sin became the great 
 experimental reality. 
 
 3. Conscience. — According to the ultimate analysis of the term in its 
 etymological and religious sense, conscience is the "associate knowing 
 with God" faculty. This is the necessary consequence of the indwelling 
 of the divine in the human, accompanied by the approving or disapprov- 
 ing impulse. There is a constant inner-living intercourse of God with 
 man through this faculty. This gives a double result — faith assurance 
 proper, or God consciousness, and an ethical action, revealing and enforc- 
 ing ethical behests. This is known as conscience. It is the divine 
 testifying itself to and in the human, and the response of the soul to the 
 voice of divinity within. It is the light that lighteth every man. It is a 
 reflex moral, religious activity to the self-evidencing of divine holiness — 
 a reaction of the God-centered faculty — revealing not only the being of 
 God, but likewise his nature as the perfect and holy, awakening a behest 
 commanding holiness. This behest becomes the living law within the 
 heart, a perpetual witnessing of the divine holiness. The conscience is 
 thus the divine receptivity; hence it is not the expression of the soul 
 itself, but of God. It is not under the control of man, but ever comes 
 to him as^a power from above. The soul can be so educated as to make 
 its monitions more clear and definite, or its voice can be muffled and dis- 
 torted by sin and false training, the soul thus becoming dead to all the 
 higher inspirations of faith, hope, charity, its light obscured, as fogs and 
 mists obscure; but as the essential of light is not changed thereby, so 
 
SERMONS. 231 
 
 neither is conscience. It may be obscured or distorted, but cannot be 
 eradicated, but ever remaining as an excusing or an accusing power, with 
 the sense of the divine still Hngering "like the smoking wick of an expir- 
 ing candle." Strictly speaking, we do not have our consciences, but our 
 ' consciences have us. They possess us, not we them, like Socrates' good 
 demon. It is the holy of holies of the soul. 
 
 4. Conscience as Faith Faculty. — The faith organ of the soul is con- 
 science in its Godward activities, or in its capacity of receptivity of the 
 divine, becoming conscience proper in its responsive spontaneities to the 
 behests of the divine. As organ or faculty for this vital connection, and 
 the medium for the inflow of the eternal life, it is the faith faculty. It is 
 the spontaneous appetency of the soul for the divine, and gives the 
 inward experience by contact with spiritual, invisible, or supersensible 
 realities, as the instincts, appetites, and propensities are correlated to their 
 respective objects, and through perception give the experience of sensi- 
 ble things. It is the power, not by which we guess or suspect spiritual 
 realities, but by which we know them. Conscience as faith is the God- 
 knowing faculty. It is the faculty in and through which he reveals him- 
 self experimentally to the soul, as the absolute, perfect, and infinite, given 
 by movements, monitions, and at length as a clear consciousness. It is 
 the presentative power revealing God, as sense is of the world. Its 
 unsatisfied activity is a want, a longing, a divine hunger, an aspiration 
 after the infinite. Augustine's noted saying, " Thou hast made us for 
 Thyself, and we cannot rest till we rest in Thee," gives the origin and end 
 of faith. As the tree ever stands with its myriad leaf-palms lifted sky- 
 ward, as the flower ever looks with open eye sunward, so the soul through 
 faith, rising above, the ethical, stands looking and stretching Godward b}' 
 impulse, by insight, by aspiration. It is thus the primary bond between 
 God and the soul, and furnishing the deepest spring of the spiritual. 
 Though clouded by sin, it is still the Godward looking eye of the 
 soul. It is thus the summit faculty — the topmost blossom of the reason, 
 most sharply and widely separating man from the brute, and correlating 
 him to the divine. The blending of all the spiritual faculties in one 
 upward flame through conscience, is faith. 
 
 5. Its Action. — The faith sentiments of God, spirit, and immortality 
 are their own grounds of assurance. All that the logical and presenta- 
 tive faculties can do for it is to find confirmatory and illustrative exam- 
 ples. Primordial truths come with the force of a revelation to the faith 
 faculty. Faith comes as a light to the reason, love to the sensibility, 
 energy to the will. In modern Germanic philosophy this faith facult)- 
 
232 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 in its activity is called God consciousness. It is the power whereby the 
 spirit spontaneously apprehends a power above itself, which the reason 
 cognizes as absolute, perfect, and infinite. Faith consciously connects 
 itself, conditional and dependent, to its originator and upholder. Man 
 has this conscious assurance that he is thus related to an absolute, per- 
 fect, and infinite One. This conscious correlation of fatherhood and 
 childship thus revealed in the soul is one of the most intimate and assured 
 of all the spiritual spontaneities. In its gradual unfoldings, like con- 
 sciousness in general, it is, at first, an intimation, a suggestion, vague and 
 undefined at first, perhaps, but very genetic and fruitful, unfolding to full 
 faith assurance, thence clarifying by degrees into an idea of God, or 
 that he is, gradually unfolding into an ideal of his nature, or i<<Jiat he is 
 This God consciousness constitutes an original, universal, subjective 
 revelation of God to man, giving him a self or experimental testimony of 
 that Spirit in which his own spirit lives and acts. Through sin, man has 
 a depraved sense, a darkened understanding, and a dormant, beclouded 
 faith; yet it reveals the divine more or less clearly to every soul. In 
 proportion as man is freed from sin, and the faith faculty restored to its 
 normal action, and illumed by the divine light that shines into the hearts 
 of all men, is God revealed to and through our own spiritual experiences 
 in the revelation of his fatherhood and the soul's sonship. This God 
 sentiment is the organ for religion. In the pious consciousness God is 
 as immediate and certain as its own self, because all apprehensions of 
 self are truly realized in and through the apprehension of God. Faith 
 is thus an affair of the entire being, at first an intuitional sentiment, then 
 a thinking, then an acting, in a word, a life. Jacobi, the originator, or 
 the reviver, of this philosophy, not inaptly termed the faith philosophy, 
 rejected all logical proofs of Deity, and rested directly on this faith assur- 
 ance for his proof of Deity. "There lives in us," he says, "a Spirit com- 
 ing directly from God, and constitutes man's most intimate essence." 
 As this Spirit pervades man in his highest, deepest, and most personal 
 consciousness, so the Giver of this Spirit, God himself, is present to him 
 through the heart or sentiments, just as nature is present to him through 
 the external senses. No sensible object can so move the Spirit, or 
 so demonstrate itself to it as a true object, as do those absolute objects, 
 the true, good, beautiful, and sublime, which can be seen with the eye of 
 the mind; but these are the attributes of God, as color and hardness are 
 of bodies. We may hazard the assertion that we believe in God because 
 we see him with our spiritual vision. This direct seeing of God is the 
 jeweled crown of our race, the distinguishing mark- of huuianit}'. With 
 
SERMONS. 233 
 
 holy awe man thus gazes directly into the sphere of light, into the pres- 
 ence, yea, into the face of God, beaming with truth, beauty, sublimity, 
 holiness. Schelling makes man to have his being in God, continually 
 dwelling in him. The history of humanity is the unfolding, the revela- 
 tion, of this universe of God, in his on-going moral order and harmony. 
 On the completion of humanity, and only then, will the idea of God be 
 completely manifested. Schleiermacher finds God in the sentiment of 
 dependence in which man at once recognizes his own being as the 
 dependent, and the infinite being of God as the independent one. This 
 is the ground of religion. We come by this assurance through direct 
 consciousness, just as we com.e by the assurance of the outward world. 
 As the eye sees the world by means of light, the ear hears by means of 
 sound waves, so the faith faculty sees and hears God through the medium 
 of the Spirit that lightens, the Spirit that speaks with a voice of soft gen- 
 tleness to the soul. Hope is that branch of faith wherein expectancy is 
 awakened by the element of futurity attached to its assurances of good. 
 Fear is the element with the assurance of evil. 
 
 6. IV/iat Is Religion ? — Religion is the divine life in the soul, with 
 its inward, free, self-moving principle, wherein the divine indwells and- 
 operates in the human. This divine life was humanized in Christ. He 
 comes as the healer, the life-giver. Salvation is life, the saved, the liv- 
 ing. The Saviour is the life-giver. The life of Christ becomes a hidden 
 life in humanity, to reveal itself in all those who are united to him in the 
 vital union of regeneration. Christ became in humanity a life-giving 
 Spirit. The incarnation was not simply the occasion of the regenerating 
 power in humanity. It is this power itself This divine-human life is a 
 vital principle in the world. Christians are not simply messengers of 
 truth, examples of right living, but rather the bearers of a new and divine 
 life. " He is life in their life." Christopheri, Christ-bearers; Theopheri, 
 God-bearers, as they, in the early ages of the church, styled themselves. 
 The theanthropic life of Christ, passing over to his disciples, becomes life 
 in them. As the human nature of Adam passes over to his posterity, so 
 does the nature of Christ pass over to the regenerate. This divine life in 
 humanity is a power of holiness for all — a possibility of life — realized 
 only in those who by voluntary act place themselves in connection with 
 this life-power, thus becoming sharers of this divine-human life, partakers 
 of the divine nature. This divine or God life, unchangeable as God is, 
 perfect as he is perfect, consciously raising above worldly perturbations 
 by a living union with God, penetrating, spiritualizing, sanctifying, pro- 
 ducing the external righteousness of works from an internal righteous" 
 
234 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 ness of a divine-human life acting as a living law, becoming to the 
 individual a new creation, releasing its possessor from guilt, giving rec- 
 onciliation, harmony, and peace. Regeneration, or being born of God 
 through Christ by the Spirit, gives vital connection through the faith- 
 faculty, whereby the life of the divine Spirit lives, grows, and fructifies in 
 the human spirit, descending through spirit, soul, body, filling, governing, 
 exalting, sanctifying the whole person. In this salvation the restoration 
 is not wrought so much for us as in us. Human nature must be re-ingen- 
 erated with divine life in order for this healing and spiritual health — 
 reconnected with the divine, in order to be leavened with this new life. 
 This union is effected by the indwelling of the Spirit. Christ is received 
 when his Spirit is received. We have his life when we have his Spirit — 
 the Spirit of life. Religion is not simply a knowledge, a doctrine, an 
 objective faith or dogma, but a life. The union of each regenerate soul 
 with God through Christ is not simply moral, legal, or federal, but organic 
 and vital, partaking thus of Christ's righteousness not by imputation or 
 substitution, but rather by impartation, thence imputed, not instead of, 
 but for the soul's own righteousness, being its own through this vital 
 union. Whoever receives the impartation of this divine-human life by 
 the Spirit through faith is lifted into all of its prerogatives and blessings^ 
 freed from the pollutions of sin and the condemnations of guilt. This 
 impartation of the Christ-life by the Spirit and its reception through the 
 faith organ of the soul, is an impartation, at the same time, of his holiness. 
 This incorruptible seed in the soul transmutes the corruptible into the 
 incorruptible, the sinful into the holy, by a glorious and divine alchemy. 
 As the divine fire descended upon the sacrifice of Elijah and consumed sac- 
 rifice, wood, and water, transmuting them all. into fire, so acts the holy flame 
 upon the nature of man. Justification, therefore, is no arbitrary act account- 
 ing a sinful one as holy by an outside, commercial, or substitutional transac- 
 tion, but rather by an internal process of purification first. The divine life 
 in our souls justifies through indwelling righteousness, imparted before it 
 is imputed. The righteousness of Christ appropriated by the faith-organ 
 becomes a part of the inner life of the believer, a new and living principle. 
 The Holy Spirit is the common, vital principle, received thus into the 
 human, the Christian becoming thus organ for the Christ-life. Regener- 
 ation is the birth of this divine principle in the soul. Faith is the instru- 
 ment, the medium of operation. By it is restored the life lost by sin. 
 Holiness, thus entering the soul as a living principle, sanctifies, and thereby 
 justifies. Pardon results from the regenerating act. The regenerated 
 one is mat/c innocent, guiltless, rather than pronounced so. Pardon is 
 
SERMONS. 235 
 
 thus an efficient act rather than a declaratory act — through and by a liv- 
 ing, purifying process, rather than a declaratory judicial transaction ab 
 extra. Thus righteousness is not a commercial, judicial, declaratory act, 
 according to the mechanical, trading, or governmental theories of ration- 
 alizing Protestantism, nor an infused state according to Romanism, but a 
 living process, whereby death, decay, the impurities of sin, and conse- 
 quent guilt, are eliminated by holy or divine life-power. The Spirit comes 
 livingly into the soul in the new birth through the faith-faculty, and, by 
 direct internal illumination, enkindles in the soul new light, life, and 
 power. It is by the witnessing of the Spirit in our spiritual consciousness, 
 revealed as a present and living salvation from the power and guilt of sin. 
 This gives the "assurance of faith, the spirit of adoption, crying, 'Abba, 
 Father.' " 
 
 7. God-Consciousness as Christian Faith. — God-consciousness becomes 
 Christian or saving faith when man finds true life in communion with 
 God, through the Logos. Faith, when it is touched, vivified by the Spirit, 
 becomes illumed, and living, and loving. Grace is God's imparting 
 love; faith is man's accepting love. This union makes the recipient a 
 participant of the Divine -human, the Christ-life, in one word. Christian, 
 to be more and more transformed by this living principle thus entering 
 by the faith-faculty. The root of this divine life in the human is faith, of 
 which hope and love are the branches. Herein is satisfied the craving of 
 the soul for personal insight and assurance, a possession of the truth by 
 an immediate or experimental knowledge. Vital religion has a self-attest- 
 ing proof By faith we become partakers of the divine nature. It gives 
 a realizing sense of salvation as a living reality. Religion thus becomes 
 a vital and practical experience, not a theoretical and mechanical system. 
 Not dogmatic formula and assertion and logical syllogism, with their 
 lifelessness, is what the soul wants, but present, self-attesting proofs, a 
 vital relationship and communion of the soul with the divine. This is 
 religion, the Holy Spirit coming as a h'ving, loving power into the 
 soul, not a conviction of the understanding by evidence in the form of 
 historical testimony, not an external canon of inspiration, though never 
 so carefully constructed with the balance of probabilities, though they be 
 two or ten to one in favor of the present canon of Scripture. The ulti- 
 mate basis of religious certainty must be in divine communion and life, 
 for which we were created; the objective argument is simply introductory, 
 confirmatory, illustrative of this internal assurance. Religious certainty 
 is not the inferences of logic, or the credence of historic testimony, but 
 immediate, and living, an experimental assurance by a personal relation 
 
236 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 of the soul to God, not miracles without, and in the past, but a miracle 
 present and within. Religion is the conscious presence of the Spirit in 
 the soul, regenerating, justifying, sanctifying, and ultimately glorifying — 
 a present, living, and perpetual miracle. It is Christ living thus in the 
 very core and essence of self-consciousness. 
 
 8. Hotv Can We Knotv the Historical Christianity xvith Its Founder to 
 Be of God?—T\i\?, is the vital question. Questions of the canon, its extent 
 and inspiration, are secondary and dependent on this primal one. Must 
 we depend on historic testimony for all? Is salvation assured to us on 
 no higher grounds than historic testimony? Lessing says: "This, this is 
 the foul, broad ditch, over which I cannot get, often and earnestly as I 
 have attempted to leap. Can anyone help me over, let him do it; I 
 beseech him; I adjure him. He deserves from me a divine reward." 
 But Lessing was doomed to live and die without being helped over. So 
 have thousands of others. Help cannot come from human agencies. 
 The help must be that divine help which this historic Christianity was 
 instituted to reveal. The purity of the Hebrew and Greek texts, the 
 extent and limit of the canon, the authenticity and genuineness of the 
 books of this canon, depending, as they all do and must, in their ultimate 
 analysis or uninspired historic testimony and uninspired exegesis for the 
 meaning of the same, can never satisfy the highest want of the soul nor 
 meet the deepest doubt. This all-satisfying help, this ultimate test and 
 ground of assurance, comes, and comes alone, in the reality of the inward, 
 spiritual, individual soul-life of everyone born into the kingdom of God, 
 becoming biographical in each pious life, and historical in the common con- 
 sciousness and experience of the Christian church. Every true believer 
 has the conscious, experimental assurance that he has a new life-power 
 living in and through him. As when, from the outward presentation of 
 physical bread for the satisfying of physical hunger, we partake on the 
 testimony that it will meet our physical necessity, and are satisfied, not 
 only satisfied but find our physical life, health, and strength renewed, 
 invigorated, so when through historical and cotemporaneous testimony 
 we are induced to drink of the water of life and eat of the bread of life, 
 we find our spiritual life renewed, invigorated, and our spiritual nature 
 pervaded by a divine satisfaction. All who have partaken of this divine 
 bread have found their soul-hunger abundantly satisfied, just as assuredly 
 as physical bread satisfies physical hunger and gives strength. They who 
 have drunk of these living waters find that they slake soul-thirst and 
 transform the soul itself into a living fountain. All such knowledge is 
 immediate and e.xperimental. All external, logical, and historic testi- 
 
SERMONS. 237 
 
 mony becomes confirmatory. The Christ within the soul is the highest 
 and most assuring proof of the Christ without. The Spirit living and 
 operating in the soul is the highest proof of the Spirit given on the day 
 of Pentecost. "Christianity," says Coldrige, "finds me in the lowest 
 depth of my being, as no other system can. It meets there my direct 
 needs." Every external revelation of the divine will presupposes the 
 inner one in the conscience to respond to it, otherwise the outer cannot 
 be known and accepted as the divine. External or historic revelation is 
 necessary to supply the light of truth to feed the faith-life, as sunlight is 
 necessary to feed the plant life ; but there must be the internal or subjec- 
 tive life to receive, appropriate, and assimilate the outward or objective. 
 The soul is constitutionally the subject of divine indwelling and influence. 
 Christ, in his person in the incarnation, and by the sending of the Com- 
 forter after his departure, left not his children orphans, but has comeback 
 and made his abode with them. Without Christ and the indwelling Spirit 
 humanity is incomplete; but with this indwelling, man is restored to that 
 communion with, and participation in, the divine, for which he was orig- 
 inally created. Christ, standing without, knocks at the door of the faith- 
 faculty or conscience. We arise and let him in, and he abides with us— 
 within us. Christian piety or faith in its Christ-life is an inward certainty 
 of salvation, and the assurance of a personal Saviour in this redemption, 
 which, connecting itself with the historical Christ, gives the assured cer- 
 tainty of his divinity. His Spirit witnessing with our spirits gives the 
 assurance of his objective reality. There may be innumerable uncertain- 
 ties, historical and dialectical, but the ultimate fact of redemption rests 
 upon an assurance of life as immutable as any other science. The 
 supreme strength of religious faith is the indubitable experience of a spir- 
 itual life, satisfying all the religious needs of the soul. The sense of 
 forgiveness, reconciliation, the beatitudes of communion with God in this 
 new and holy life, with the joyful hopes of eternal life, have transformed 
 the lives of thousands, enabling them to die joyfully in the assurance of 
 its realities. It is not a theoretical, but an experimental salvation, whereby 
 the soul knows that it is 
 
 " Disburdened of its load, 
 And swells unutterably full 
 Of glory and of God." 
 
 IS a 
 
 9. Inspiration. — Inspiration, in its most typical or generic sense 
 perpetual divine inbreathing, through the faith faculty, giving spiritual 
 power, life, health, to the ever ingrowing spiritual life. In this generic 
 
238 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 sense, inspiration is the fountain of all religious life, an ever present energy 
 in all spiritual experience, the source of all spiritual knowledge and power. 
 This God-inbreathed life thus entering the soul, generating and ingrowing 
 through the whole spiritual being, quickens, vivifies the entire spiritual 
 nature, yet is limited and modified by the individual in which it lives; 
 hence its outgrowth and fruitage are neither entirely human, nor wholly 
 divine, but partake of the nature of both, being thus a divine-human. 
 This outgrowth also varies as vary the individuals. The more divine the 
 life the greater is the inflow of the Spirit, resulting in a more perfectly 
 divine human character. The great typical divine-human life of all was 
 Christ's — the most divine of all, the most human of all. All children of 
 God, "partakers of the divine nature," are patterned after this archetype. 
 The generic unfolding of this inspired or inbreathed life is in what are 
 termed the Christian graces, called by Paul the fruit of the Spirit, — "love, 
 joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, 
 temperance." This fruitage is not human entirely, not divine entirely, but 
 a divine-human. The seminal principle is divine, the nurture is human, 
 the fruitage is divine-human. Again, this fruitage varies as individuals 
 vary, so that in one the characteristic, highest, and best fruitage is love ; in 
 another, joy; in another, peace ; in others, long-suffering, gentleness, good- 
 ness, faith, meekness, temperance. The quality as well as the kind of fruit 
 differs in individuals of like spontaneities or temperaments, so that the 
 love, faith, or goodness of no two individuals are precisely alike. This is 
 the inspiration of life or character restoring the normal state of the soul, 
 purifying, exalting, illuming the life. We next, by adding something 
 new, ascend from graces to gifts. Graces convert truth or principles 
 already possessed objectively into life and character. Gifts add to the 
 truths already possessed, or make new or special application of known 
 truths for the use of others for their edification or improvement, perfect- 
 ing them in the graces. Inspiration of character or graces and of uses 
 or gifts are generically alike; otherwise it would need a new inspiration to 
 interpret one to the other. Inspiration of gifts, like those of character, 
 must be a union of the divine and human. It is still an inworkingof the 
 divine, hence a divine human outworking. That is, a scripture, God- 
 inspired, is not a dictation in a mechanical mode, to or through a passive 
 medium from without, but rather it is inbreathed into the very texture 
 and being of the recipient, thence expressed from the very essence of his 
 Spirit, thus empowered and illumed. The first result is diversity of gifts, 
 as Paul calls them, springing from the same empowering Spirit. To one, 
 wisdom; to another, miracle-working power; to another, prophecy; to 
 
SERMONS. 239 
 
 another, diversities of tongues; but all of the selfsame Spirit working 
 in and through them. By this same inspiration Abraham was led out 
 and became the father of the faithful; Moses, a leader and lawgiver; 
 Bezaleel, the cunning artificer; Joshua, the skillful chieftain ; Deborah, a 
 noble patriot and deliverer; David, the sweet singer; Solomon, the wise; 
 Isaiah, the sublime poet prophet; Elijah, the thunderbolt of destruc- 
 tion; John, the contemplative, semi-mystic apostle; Paul, the intense, 
 enthusiastic worker and sharp logician ; Luther, the reformer; Wesley, 
 the renovator; Howard and Nightingale, angels of mercy; Penn, the 
 apostle of peace. 
 
 There results, also, not only variety of operations in kind, but like- 
 wise in quality. That is, truths of the same kind, expressed by different 
 persons, will be shaded and tempered by their individualities, so that 
 Isaiah, Jeremiah, John, and Peter would all express the same truth with 
 different hues of coloring, like the pure white light penetrating a prism, 
 is unraveled and thrown out — not in abstract whiteness, but rainbow 
 hued. In these inspirations those individuals best adapted to secure the 
 results sought are used. If it be the nobler sentiments that are to be 
 awakened and illustrated, then the Spirit moves a soul full of all human 
 sympathies and sweetness. If if be pure truth that is to be revealed, then 
 a calm, clear-visioned nature speaks; if activities are to be aroused, then 
 a divinely energized soul of power arises. The teachings of Christ are 
 full of the truth of this living revelation and growth and power. This 
 divine life is a leaven, a seed, a growth. " I am the vine, ye are the 
 branches." These and many others teach the living connection between 
 God through Christ and his children, and its growing, fructifying power. 
 
 10. Faith as Life-Power. — Faith in these living processes satisfies 
 Paul's definition as the very substance, essence, living reality of things 
 hoped for, the evidencing, the internal manifesting of things unseen. 
 The trust element in faith is the full and free surrender by the will of the 
 whole being, to the faith object. When the emotional nature has been 
 favorably affected, when the faith assurances have awakened responsive 
 emotions of approval, and love has been enkindled, then the will thus 
 motived carries the whole being over in glad surrender, and reliance or 
 leaning upon and devotement to God. Piety is thus the embodiment of 
 faith in trustful love and glad, filial obedience, joyful service, lifting its 
 recipient from the moral to the religious. It is thus the fruitage of com- 
 munion of the divine with the human, filling the soul with divine life and 
 superhuman power. This faith-life diffuses itself down through all the 
 departments and avenues of our being, vivifying the conscience, sweeten- 
 
240 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 ing the affections, purifying the sentiments, illuming the reason, energiz- 
 ing the will, subduing the passions, and glorifying the body, thus attuning 
 all the lower forces of being harmoniously and symmetrically to the 
 highest, becoming thus at once the life of all spiritual graces, the basis 
 of all noble culture, the inspiration to all labor. It lifts above the merely 
 moral or legal state, wherein all virtue is outward, mechanical self-restraint 
 and punctiliousness, resulting, at best, in a tranquil, self-poised, self- 
 centered state, to that state wherein all is devoted, sacrificial, inspirational, 
 full of the elevations of self-forgetting love, and the supernatural energy 
 of a faith-life. 
 
 In this Christed life, or divine-human life, wherein Christ says, 
 "I in them, they in me," with his indwelling life working out in all the 
 thoughts, feelings, and willings, all selfism disappears, all mere moral- 
 ity or legal virtue disappears, being transmuted into a life centered in 
 the divine life, swayed by divine inspirations, wherein the outward pres- 
 ence of legality or temptation is no more felt, being superseded by the 
 higher and positive forces of this divine enthusiasm. Faith is the most 
 central uplifting power of the soul. Love is but faith working down into 
 the emotional and affectional forces of the soul, and touching thus upon 
 the springs of the will. It is a world-accepted maxim that knowledge is 
 power, but faith is a greater power. A faith moving, working by love 
 is the great power in the world's spiritual elevation and progress. What 
 indifference, listlessness, downright laziness pervades humanity for want 
 of faith in God and his eternal principles, in life with its eternal destinies 
 and limitless possibilities. Nothing is so chilling, so benumbing, as doubt, 
 skepticism. Better burn in the fires of fanaticism than freeze in the tor- 
 pers of unbelief In the old Persian religion the first and distinguishing 
 characteristic between angels and devils was the former had for their 
 formula "I believe," the latter, "Perhaps." Many a soul lying listless in 
 the dormancy of " perhaps," would, if touched by the inspirations of belief, 
 faith, spring to life and activity. As springs to work a sleeping world, 
 when the heralds of morning shout from the eastern hilltops the approach 
 of a new day, so would such souls touched by faith, leap to their work. 
 What light, day, is to the world, such is faith, enlightened by truth, to the 
 soul. As living faith dies, spiritual power dies, and there remains but the 
 cold, dreary sleep of doubt, disturbed, it may be, now and then, by fitful 
 dreams. 
 
 Faith is the seed from which grows all ideal living and right, 
 manly acting, wherein all faith assurances are lived out into realities. 
 It quickens and gives depth and elevation to all life's aims. The clear 
 
SERMONS. 241 
 
 and far-reaching sweep of its "solemn visions" lifts living above all time- 
 serving, and assumes the majestic proportions of eternal relationship. 
 No man can be entirely great without a clear-visioned faith. A living 
 faith is full of presence, poise, calmness^ self-surrender. It is creative, 
 affirmative, direct, attracting, centralizing, monopolizing. It gives bold- 
 ness, purpose, specific and lofty, glow, enthusiasm, solemnity, nobility. 
 It sees the ongoing providences, and follows their lead, making life easy 
 and strong. The strength of the divine providences becomes his strength. 
 The great faith spontaneities of humanity are the " inspirations of the 
 Almighty." A man resisting these spontaneities is mad, floating blindly, 
 listlessly upon them ; he is imbecile ; but, making way for them and leading 
 on with aspiration and endeavor, he becomes noble. The innate and 
 supreme aspiration of faith is oneness of life and aim with Deity. This 
 is attained only as the divine comes into the human, and lifts up the 
 human to the divine. A divine and living feith, which touches all the 
 springs of love, lifts the soul with winged hope, tends to give a life full 
 of all nobility, efficiency, self-forgetting and sweetest sympathy, a world- 
 reaching philantrophy, a life more sublime than Niagara or Alps, more 
 beautiful than the flowers of many springs, more lovely than sunrises or • 
 sunsets. It is the ladder whereby the angels of God are descending to 
 the human, and ascending from the human to the divine. Humanity 
 without faith is but one great troubled heart, trembling, palpitatmg, voic- 
 ing itself in sobs and wails, struggling against the inevitable — death. 
 
 The universe is shrouded in mists, and the blackness of darkness — no 
 light, no air— all oppressive, stifling, suffocating. The assurances of faith 
 rift the clouds; light and air and life break in, hope and joy sing in the 
 human soul. This substance of hope, this direct evidence of the unseen, 
 has been the source of all divine living in this world. It enabled the 
 fathers to obtain a good report; it was the excellency of Abel's sacrifice; 
 it translated Enoch ; it made Noah a successful sailor, and the father of 
 the new humanity; it made Abraham the father of the faithful, Moses the 
 liberator and lawgiver, and that long line of worthies who through faith 
 subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped 
 the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of 
 the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, 
 turned to flight the armies of the aliens, restored the dead to life. Others 
 were tortured, mocked, scourged, imprisoned, stoned, sawn asunder, were 
 tempted, were slain with the sword. Others wandered in deserts, in 
 mountains, lived in dens and caves, clothed in sheepskins and goatskins, 
 being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy, 
 
 16 
 
242 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 but obtained a good report with God and all good angels and men. Faith 
 gave heroism to the Christian martyrs, reformatory power to Luther, 
 nonconformity to Cromn^ell and his compeers, inspiration to Milton, genius 
 to Bunyan, organific method to Wesley, persuasive eloquence to Whit- 
 field, victory to Joan of Arc, guidance to Columbus, expatriation, a new 
 world, a new nation, and a new liberty to the Puritan Pilgrims. "Faith 
 working by love " inaugurated the modern missionary spirit, which is 
 radiating all the dark corners of the earth, as a divine light, is building 
 schools, proclaiming liberty, equalit}^ and brotherhood, establishing char- 
 ities and reformatories, removing ignorance, superstition, and wrong. It 
 is teaching man that he was not, in the language of the Roman poet, 
 simply "born to consume the crops," to live in the limited and paltry 
 circle of his daily wants and gains, appetite and gratification, but to live 
 above and beyond the little circle of self, out on the broad plains of 
 humanity, and to climb the mountains of God round about. 
 
 To you that are about to leave this Institution, having completed your 
 prescribed courses of study, permit me to say that your lives can never 
 be greater than your faith. Living faith in God, in religion, in all great 
 and sublime truths, is the only nourishing and invigorating principle to 
 great, sublime, divine living. Faith alone will permit the seraphim to 
 descend with live coals from the altar and touch your lips, your words, 
 your lives with a living, purifying fire, enabling your whole being to flame 
 with a divine radiancy. Your classics, your mathematics, your science, 
 your theology, which you have been so sedulously seeking through these 
 years, are as dead as Ezekiel's valley of dry bones till inbreathed with 
 life and power from on high. A life with a Stephen-like fullness of faith 
 and the Holy Ghost is the all-conquering life, with its triumphant death. 
 It opens the heavens; it sees the spirit-horsemen, God's forces, encamped 
 on all the hills of life; it sees God in all providences. Every morning is 
 radiant with his glory, every evening lovely with his love, every bush 
 aflame with his presence, every soul has the image and superscription of 
 the divine, making all -events, all circumstances of life, tend to a final tri- 
 umph. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." 
 It gives that "restful peace and sweet content" which the world can 
 neither give nor take, passing all understanding — even the peace of God. 
 "Wherefore let us also, having so great a cloud of witnesses encompass- 
 ing us, laying aside every weight and sin which doth naturally enwrap 
 us, run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto the 
 Author and Perfecter of our faith, even Jesus." Amen. 
 
SERMONS. 243 
 
 OBLIGATION IMPOSED BY CULTURE. 
 [Baccalaureate sermon before the graduating class of Alfred University, June, 1880.] 
 Romans 1:14, "I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barba- 
 rians; both to the wise, and to the unwise." 
 
 ''Noblesse oblige'' was the motto and rallying word of chivalric times, 
 for quickening the sense of obligation among the privileged classes, the 
 nobility in general, to the rest of mankind. It was surcharged with the 
 doctrine that great opportunities carried with them great responsibilities- 
 Wealth, position, culture, in short, power in any form, is weighted with 
 the debt of obligation. 
 
 Paul, I apprehend, had a "working theory," a living conviction of this 
 great principle, when he penned the above passage. Through the fore- 
 most schools, through the best.literatures, through travel and intercourse, 
 through all best opportunity, and. finally, through faith in Christ, Paul 
 had received the highest culture, secular and religious, of the age, and he 
 declares his readiness to give payment to the best of his ability, to preach 
 the gospel, "the power of God unto salvation." 
 
 This leads up to the theme chosen for this occasion. The obligation 
 imposed by culture is that of a working good will to mankind. More 
 definitely, culture is obligated to be, ever and everywhere, an evangelist, 
 the bearer of good news through good will to the world. 
 
 The behests of duty born of conscience, the divinest faculty of the 
 soul, become obligations when recognized as imposed by law. It is the 
 echo of that voice ot soft stillness heard by Elijah at Horeb, at the sound 
 of which every soul of right attitude stands with uncovered, bowed head 
 and unsandaled feet. It is the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, 
 to lead on the obedient, and from out which the Shekinah appears to the 
 clear-visioned soul. Being thus of divine origin, the behests of obliga- 
 tion are sacred, light-bearing, life-giving, lifting the otherwise dead, bar- 
 ren universe into a radiant sphere of spiritual realities and living ener- 
 gies. All study, and knowledge, and culture, and work, and suffering, 
 become luminous and significant. Obligation is thus, in its very nature, 
 ennobling, lifting the spirit to its feet, giving backbone and muscular 
 tension, making the gristle and sinew of character taut and strong, which 
 before was lax and flabby. It is the source of all invigorating activities, 
 the pole-star to all right living. It prevents life from becoming stale and 
 insipid, and gives it significancy and grandeur. The voice and aspect of 
 duty have nothing soft and caressing, but rather, like Milton's archangel, 
 it stands solemn, lofty, heroic, and stern-eyed and far-looking, and with 
 
244 
 
 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 voice trumpet-toned, lifting the listener to his feet, setting the blood 
 coursing with new vigor, and nerving the arm with heroic power. 
 
 Obligation fulfilled becomes the source of joys the most healthful and 
 dignified. No life guided by duty can be groveling, cloddish; but it is 
 thereby touched, uplifted, strengthened, and made sublime. All privilege 
 is noble just in the proportion that it is full of obedience and sacrifice of 
 purposeful, helpful work, by which the soul becomes transfigured with 
 a divine radiancy. Obligation regulates liberty, is its balance-wheel, 
 steadies *it for high deeds, gives meaning and dignity to action, glory to 
 achievement. It lifts life from aimless floating to aimful sailing, from 
 insipid vegetating to noble endeavor. The obligations imposed by cul- 
 ture are multiform, wide sweeping, and long enduring. 
 
 Youth, health, hope, faculty, culture, are the grand possessions with 
 which you, who are soon to graduate, begin life's work. This high pos- 
 session, however, comes at great cost, making you great debtors, with 
 correspondingly great obligations. Goethe said, "Each bon mot has cost 
 me a purse of gold; half a million of my own money, the fortune I inher- 
 ited, my salary, and the large income derived from my writings for fifty 
 years back, have been expended to instruct me in what I know." Gibbon, 
 for his great history, did not get within ten thousand dollars of what the 
 books required for its composition, co.st him. Milton, for his "Paradise 
 Lost," into which he had wrought the best of his multiform enriched life, 
 received only seventy-five dollars. An educated person is an expensive 
 being; but a truly noble one is worth the cost. We are debtors for all 
 we have and are to a wider circle of toil and sacrifice than we outwardly 
 come in contact with. We are inheritors of all the accumulations of all 
 the ages. They have all labored, and we have entered into their labors. 
 Their high thoughts, lofty ideals, noble living, great deeds, are our inher- 
 ited possessions. 
 
 A college is an abridged edition of the humanities, an epitomized 
 schedule of nature, a compend of all the best products of civilization, a 
 storehouse of all known truth, an armory of all best weapons for life's 
 warfare. The foundations of most of these have been laid in religion. 
 Their walls have gone up through the inspirations of high and unselfish 
 aims, every stone and brick and board and nail placed with prayer and 
 consecrated toil. Sacrificial living and dying are the cost of college 
 equipments. Every leading truth taught therein represents the highest 
 and best reaches of the world's most masterful minds — the princely gifts 
 of imperial intellects. 
 
 Jesus, with all the inspired, devout men of old, lived, suffered, died to 
 
SERMONS. 245 
 
 give a religion; all philosophers, with "high thinking and plain living," 
 have furnished the philosoph}'. All poets have lit up the mental heavens 
 with their poetic inspirations; all historians have recorded the ongoings 
 of Providence, governing the world; all mathematicians have labored to 
 set forth the abstract mathematical truths; all astronomers have revealed 
 the immensities and the glories of the special universe; all geologists are 
 revealing the mysteries of a time-world; all scientists of whatever depart- 
 ment are revealing the mysteries of God in nature; all inventors, reform- 
 ers, helping on civilization. These have all thought, and wrought, and 
 suffered", and died, and ye have entered into the rich fruitions of their 
 lives. Every truth of mathematics, literature, art, science, law, philosophy, 
 every principle of religion, every element of liberty and civilization, has 
 cost toil and sacrifice, and some of them untold sacrifice. These great 
 spirits have walked the way of tears and of blood, and the rich clustering 
 fruits of all this, you have been garnering during these long years of 
 training. Yourselves, your parents, your friends who have helped you 
 on, have added their contributions to augment the costliness of )-our 
 culture. 
 
 What is this culture that thus costs? — All perfect culture seeks and 
 gives life, health, growth, power, tastes, habits, skill, symmetry, propor- 
 tion, ennobling and perfecting its recipients. It is earnest, purposeful 
 aggressive — full of the streams of fresh, free thought. It is ingrown with 
 the sentiment of pure soul-worth, rising above all outward circumstances 
 and trappings, wherein being and doing transcend all getting and having, 
 these sentiments inwrought into all the fiber and texture of culture, 
 enlarging and elevating the self-forgetting and appreciative sympathies, 
 rather than simply sharpening the critical acumen. Noble culture, like 
 noble natures, is not born of carping criticism and envious captiousness. 
 It is open-eyed tow^ard beaut}^ and nobleness, but blind and irresponsive 
 to all that is contrariwise. The sheen of its nobility glorifies all \vithin its 
 luster. As the great musician must become more and more the imper- 
 sonated spirit of the violin, the harp, the piano, the organ — in short, of 
 all harmonies — so must the cultured become the impersonated spirit of 
 all literatures, sciences, arts, industries — all ennobling and civilizing proc- 
 esses. It is the high aim of all true culture to develop all the perfection 
 possible through a training which enlightens the intellect, restrains the 
 passions, elevates and purifies the affections, and empowers the will. It 
 enables one to enjoy not only the broader truths and experiences of life, 
 but with a quiet self-possession appreciate all the subtler influences. He 
 can discriminate between joy and joy, sorrow^ and sorrow, love and love. 
 
246 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 career and career, discoverin|j in all the events of life their beauty, their 
 pathos, their comedy, or their tragedy. Culture, expanding the merely 
 temporal and local of the neighborhood into the broader sweeps of all 
 times and places, and touched by all human interests and experiences, 
 getting thereby a sense of the more subtle and beautiful colors of which 
 life is capable, and realizing how fair a thing it may be, how rich in har- 
 monious coloring, beauty of form, many-sided freedom, self-forgetting 
 friendships, sacrificial loves, thus opening up to the dusty, everyday life 
 boundless gardens of the past, with their rich woods and waters and out- 
 looks on illimitable seas, open to us the undying deeds of history, with 
 all the keener and profounder passions in action, the exquisite groups of 
 figures with their splendid living, lifting life thereby into an exquisite and 
 noble reality, enabling us to appreciate, sympathize with, and absorb into 
 our own life, all the scenes, incidents, and teachings of everyday life. 
 Culture enables the soul to yield from every appulse from without, a 
 composite harmony, becoming a many-voiced orchestra, or an aeolean 
 harp, which the winds of life play upon, touching note after note into 
 delicate music. It is the mission of culture to remove the mark of sense, 
 the mists of error, and all dull-sightedness, until the spiritual world dawns 
 clear, and we are enabled to behold ourselves compassed about with 
 chariots and horses of fire, and all spiritual relationships and affinities 
 reveal themselves. A new truth starts responsive lights from multitu- 
 dinous other truths. 
 
 Again, "The light of a high ideal," as F'ichte well says, "is more 
 beautiful than the sun, and above all orders of stars." Culture should 
 not only make clear to the vision, freed from all cloud and murk of self- 
 ishness and materiality, this ideal, but likewise gives strength and cun- 
 ning of hand, and deftness of skill, to work out, in and upon the world, 
 this pattern "seen in the mount," without which one will only be an 
 idealistic dreamer. Good culture sets before a man a high ideal to aim 
 at, becoming a control and an inspiration to his life, and training all his 
 inward powers and outward instrumentalities to the end of realizing this 
 ideal, by overcoming all obstructions, surmounting all difficulties, and 
 enabling him to use all the utilities of life for this ideal realization. Ideals 
 beget aspirations. We are shaped and moulded ultimately not by rules 
 and precepts, but by the living, governing energy of our ideals, the light 
 of our lives, the inspiration of our doing, the strength of our endeavors. 
 They melt and fashion the metal of one's being, revealing themselves in 
 all he thinks and does — being thus the master thought, the mainspring 
 of life. These ideals have material or spiritual, selfish or unsefish, ends. 
 
SERMONS. 
 
 247 
 
 It is the aim of true culture to supplant all selfish and material ideals by 
 unselfish and spiritual ones. A reasoning being implies an idealizing one, 
 and, whatever the conditions of life, in order to save it from being sub- 
 merged by mere animality, it must have a pole-star, to prevent it from 
 becoming full 
 
 "Of sad dejection and dull, sick routine." 
 
 Life is not to be spent in vaporings or idle dreamings, nor yet absorbed 
 in pushing one's way in the world, maintaining the struggle for existence, 
 inclosed in the material, hemmed in by circumstance, crushed by impe- 
 rious necessity, but to battle up through them to the higher levels of 
 this ideal, divine life. Everyone should be in some sense a bread winner, 
 that is, should have technical or professional culture. A culture that 
 fails to set one squarely on his feet, and give him two strong arms and 
 two apt hands, fails in essential points; but man cannot live by bread 
 alone. Any culture stopping here has stopped short of all that which is 
 noblest and best. 
 
 " Tlie Immanitics " was the classical name given to all higher studies, 
 pointing to the broadening, humanizing influences of such, "awakening 
 a desire to use all culture for the good of humanity," as the child of God. 
 This is the noblest end of living. "Culture," in the language of Arnold, 
 seeks to give " increased sweetness, increased light, increased life, increased 
 sympathy." It must often, like virtue, be its own great and sufficient 
 reward, giving soul freedom, lifting above appearances, seemings, artifi- 
 cialisms, imitations, idolatries, to all divinest ideals. In the language of 
 the German poet, then, "Be true to the ideals of thy youth." 
 
 Again, humanity is an organic unity, and is destined to develop and 
 establish itself more and more as an organism through the conscious 
 mutual helpfulness of all its members, as a common bro'therhood, striven 
 for, in some degree, by all religions, most especially by the Christian. 
 Each individual has an additional significancy as a part of the whole 
 humanity, or brotherhood, while it is only through individuals that it 
 can receive the full development of its manifold powers. No one can 
 realize self-worth till he has realized the worth of humanity. Human 
 worth comprehends and gives significancy to personal worth. Personal 
 nobility is the outshoot from the common trunk of humanity. There is 
 everywhere in this humanity so much that is latent, such unfathomed 
 mysteries and possibilities of nobleness, commanding sympathy, respect, 
 effort. Culture has been, through the ages, slowly yet surely lifting man 
 to higjier civilizations. High religious virtue, empowered and guided 
 by high culture, is the lever by which this has been accomplished. 
 
248 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 Thus, all highest and truest culture springs from a religious root. 
 The best culture of any and all ages has been that which has led up to 
 God, and the best possessor and user of this was the best scholar and 
 man for his time, and the best student is he who strives with all his life 
 to attain these divinest possibilities. He who penetrates and is penetrated 
 by the divine plan and purpose, and is moved and motived and guided 
 by the same, is the one of highest attainments. To him the world 
 becomes radiant with new significancy. As all true life is in God, and 
 acts with and for him, so does all true culture. To this end all partakers 
 of this culture must labor, that this blessing, in its purest and best pos- 
 sible form, may be spread throughout humanity, not merely for its 
 utilitarian results, not for its technical knowledge and skill, not for the 
 professional success it may bring, but for its humanizing, elevating, and 
 inspiring effects. Culture is not simply to render an intelligent being 
 more intelligent, but rather, as Wilson and Arnold put it, "To make 
 reason and the kingdom of God prevail, within and around us," not 
 simply seeing things as they are in the light of science, but by seeking 
 to know the moral order of the divine ideas and purposes in the universe, 
 and conforming and helping. Right culture seeks the highest science, 
 art, literature, in order to make them tell on human life and conduct. It 
 seeks the proportionate and harmonious perfection of our entire per- 
 sonality, to the end of seeking the same in entire humanity. It is not 
 "a having and resting," but a perpetual growing and becoming, through 
 an ampler growth and more human expansiveness of each personality 
 for the sake of all. The peculiar wealth and glory and dignity of culture 
 are that no perfection arising through it can be isolated, purely personal, 
 but overflows on to all human nature. Any culture which does not lead 
 outward to others is dwarfed, deformed, and ignoble. True culture, 
 then, seeks the kingdom of God within and without. 
 
 Your school life has been receptive, full of routine and drill, chafing 
 restraints, enforced seclusion, and ungracious discipline. Upon these the 
 stir and noise of the world break with a crash and roar as of great waves 
 on a far-off shore, awakening dream and unrest. Whether the outlook 
 and forecast respecting future spheres be humble or exalted, you follow, 
 with pulse quick and high, the lead of hope, as, with radiant countenance, 
 she beckons forward with promise of happiness to all, and, perchance, 
 laurel-crowned brows ere the sunset of life. Not infrequently prepara- 
 tion becomes irksome; longings for life-work intensify. This preliminary 
 gathering of knowledge, discipline, clearness, and versatility is, however, 
 an essential condition for securing growth and power, to be, in turn, in 
 
SERMONS. 249 
 
 their future outworkings a potent influence for human uplifting. High 
 aims and solemn consecrations need to be embodied in steadfast pur- 
 poses, preparatory to going forth to the ampler and more complex and 
 richer culture of life. 
 
 As you now pass from anticipation to participation, from the acqui- 
 sition to the expression of power in use, these bright visions will become 
 very earnest realities. Success will require wisdom in aim, prudence 
 and vigor in action; otherwise, youthful dream and aspiration will end 
 in fog, longing in fitful and fruitless effort, and life in failure. Not a few 
 prepare for life with tlie illusion that success is within easy grasp. Dif- 
 ficulties soon dishearten them. Earnest effort soon yields to restless 
 discontent or stupid inactivity, the result, generally, of false views, ground- 
 less anticipations, insufficient preparation, or misdirected labor. On the 
 other hand, if life's activities are entered upon after careful and thorough 
 preparation, the consciousness of preparedness and adaptability to one's 
 calling and its responsibilities gives that lifesome vigor which assures 
 noble achievement. You that have made school life bright with 
 improved opportunities, rich with garnered wisdom, may look forward to 
 a life of true usefulness. If the fields of youth have been sown with the 
 good grain of true culture, then will the reapings of age be rich with the 
 golden grain of true glory. 
 
 You have been seeking through these years of training to get, not 
 that culture which is chiefly effective in small criticisms, with a keen 
 turn for fault-finding and bookish pedantry, but most ineffective in all 
 the great activities, but, rather, that culture which enkindles sympathy, 
 enthusiasm, and a purpose which works with an "intense and convinced 
 energy." Culture is coming, more and more, to mean that quickness, 
 depth, and force of the entire being, not to be obtained solely from 
 courses of study, nor modes in class-room drill, but rather from those 
 pervasive influences which go to make the present livmg tendencies of 
 civilization. 
 
 You now go to that life culture which is acquired by experience. In 
 experience, abstract and theoretical knowledge becomes ccHicrete reality, 
 and is the most satisfactory and permanent knowledge. It gives self- 
 poise, self-control, head wisdom, heart sympathy, hand skill. Ulysses, 
 that many-experienced and wise man, said: — 
 
 ''I am part all I have met." 
 To become thus wise in all sinless e.xperiences places one on high van- 
 tage ground, satisfying some of the noblest aspirations of the soul, wiiile 
 their memories awaken emotions tinged with the grolden haze of other 
 
250 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 years. Herein is tlie adv^antage of living rightly through the experiences 
 of a long life, over being early cut off from them. While the ever- 
 changing experiences from the outward world, with its scenes and modes 
 and events, may be sought after, yet life, to be rich and noble, need not 
 necessarily be greatly taught in these, if so be it knows the deep soul 
 experiences of abiding and clear-eyed faith, that cause all the spiritual 
 forces to mount Godward, with their sweet .spirit communings, quick- 
 ening into self-renunciation, solemn consecrations, and unselfish endeavor. 
 These are the topmost flowerings of humanity, and no culture can ignore 
 these fairest and highest blossomings. 
 
 As you go forth to your work, you need, like Milton, to feel that great 
 work can be achieved only " by devout prayer to the Eternal Spirit, who 
 can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sends out his seraphim 
 with the hallowed fire of his altar to touch and purify the lips of whom 
 he pleases." He believed that to this must be added, by one's self, study, 
 observation, reading, all seemly and generous arts and affairs. He who 
 would write poems "ought himself to be a true poem." This is a uni- 
 versal principle. Noble doing can only spring from noble living, and 
 doing that thus springs will command attention, respect, and a following. 
 Such have ever been the ideal heroes of humanity. 
 
 Be ever, then, light-seekers, light-bearers, light-givers. The poet 
 siys: — 
 
 " Light seeking light doeth light of light beguile." 
 
 Truth is — 
 
 . "The life of whate'er makes life worth living— 
 Seed-grain of high emprize, immortal food. 
 One heavenly thing whereof earth hath the giving." 
 
 Stand upon the mountain heights of progress, with watchful eye, to 
 catch the earliest dawn of any new truth about to break upon the world. 
 Ever listen with ear fine-attuned to catch the divine harmonies of any 
 great law about to pulsate out from the infinite harmonies of all law and 
 order. As soon as the new truth is seen, or law heard, repeat it to the 
 waiting world. 
 
 Be positives, not negatives, affirming, not denying. As scholars, with 
 your high privileges, and, thereby, large duties, you need to rise above 
 all negative carpings, and choose and work for what is positive, what is 
 affirmative, what is advancing. Truth and goodness live and thrive only 
 on these, not on denying, criticising, negating, not on snobbishness or 
 sniggerishness, not on exclusiveness respecting others, not by tearing 
 down others. The scholar should be open-eyed to all truths, and filled 
 with their light; he should flash new ideas along the pathway of human- 
 
SERMONS. 251 
 
 ity, thereby kindling new light, awakening nobler sentiments, and inspir- 
 ing to higher and broader activities. You are not to be simple passivi- 
 ties, complacently receptive, but rather be felt as a positive and controlling 
 power. Rather guide than be guided, lead than be led, in all great, benef- 
 icent and progressive movements. Freely investigate all underlying 
 principles, all overshadowing laws, governing all parties and sects and 
 institutions. Be friends and helpers of literature, art, science, law, gov- 
 ernment, industry, religion. The world ever tends to draw down, blunt, 
 adulterate, stultify; hence there needs to be a counteracting, lifting up, 
 purifying, by returning often to the fountains of culture, clarifying the 
 vision by the light of pure truth. 
 
 Sidney says: — 
 
 "The shallows murmur, but the deeps are dumb." 
 Seek the deep, clear, calm waters of eternal truth, far out from all the 
 murmuring shoals of fanaticism and error, and all shallow, narrow secta- 
 rian or party living. Disrobe your spirit of all cant, prejudice, and fetich 
 worship. Let life be clean, calm, wholesome. Then its free forces will 
 become manifest. Spirit freedom and independency must be secured at 
 any cost. This is the essence and core of all noble living. 
 
 "On the neck of youth," sa}-s an oriental proverb, "sparkles no gem 
 so gracious as enterprise.'" The essence of enterprise is earnestness. 
 This is always contagious, touching and lifting to their feet all coming 
 within its influence.. The masterful, conquering spirit is he whose hand 
 has the skill and power to execute what his brain plans, the ability to 
 make his ideals realities. Happy he whose pleasure is his work, whose 
 hand skillfully executes his plans. Fortunate are those who have given 
 to them great questions to solve, new truths to establish, noble principles 
 to inaugurate, enduring institutions to build. Such work develops very 
 rapidly the latent powers of the workers. If they are sound to the core, 
 made of fine, tough fiber, there will be noble and lofty characters unfolded 
 under the high and manifold influences, and, not infrequently, intense 
 activities of such a work. Every great enterprise must encounter dark- 
 ness and storm. Fortunate if.it have a pilot who can see the gathering 
 tempest before it breaks in its fury, and courage to face it. If unskillful 
 hands have placed the noble ship in a false position by ignorant maneu- 
 vering, where, seemingly, she must go down at the first shock, his is to 
 warn of the approaching danger, and, amid the painful suspense, grasp 
 firmly the helm, and, however destitute of helps, with but, perchance, a 
 single ray of hope, every energy absorbed in the resolve, the ship shall 
 be saved. Others may betake themselves to the lifeboats; he will share 
 
252 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 tlie ship's fate — sink or sail with her. With such a pilot, the vessel is very 
 sure to outride the storm, and moor in calm waters, with its magnificent 
 cargo. Such has been the salvation of many noble enterprises that bless 
 humanity, and call for thanksgiving. 
 The world needs — 
 
 "Strong, still men in this age of cant, 
 Who can work but cannot sham." 
 
 As the peasant painter, Millet, puts it, needs those that, free from all 
 "posing, unnaturalness, exaggerations. By always trying to put one's 
 self in some other one's place, and talk and act in 'character,' one loses 
 the just appreciation of his own personality. To be genuine and true to all 
 the high art and noble living, all theatrical must be shunned." To be able 
 to make all the trivials of life serve the expression of true greatness, this 
 is power. Plutarch well says, "It is not always in the most distinguished 
 achievements that men's natures may be best discerned ; but very often 
 an action of small note, a short saying, or a jest, shall distinguish a per- 
 son's real character more than the greatest sieges or the most important 
 battles." The world needs those whose culture has given them back to 
 themselves, awakened, strengthened, and made completely available and 
 noble in all these trivials. It needs men who transmute faith into life. It 
 needs spiritual Columbuses, adding new realms of truth and mental wealth. 
 It needs God-inspired men, sailing not by the shiftful winds of earth, but 
 by the steady trade winds of heaven. The soul, simply self-centered, 
 self-purposed, is like the earth obeying its geocentric forces, spinning on 
 its own axis, ever stationary, or wandering darkling out into space and 
 black night; while the God-centered soul is like the same earth, sun- 
 centered, sweeping, by its heliocentric attractions, its grand yearly c}xles 
 around its center of light, life, and beauty, and being borne on with the 
 sun in its own infinitely grander sweep. 
 Finally, as — 
 
 " We touch Christ, in life's throng and press, 
 
 The healing of his seamless dress 
 
 We feel, and are whole again." 
 
 So all lives should be healing, life-giving. It is only when soul speaks to 
 soul, eye to eye, smile to smile, tear to tear, that this power is fully man- 
 ifest. Then lives become the great helps to other lives. They are the 
 greatest of all human influences, awakening, as they do, sentiment, affec- 
 tion, action. They are the masterful forces in progress and civilization. 
 Humanity cries out for noble, inspirational lives, wherein all high and 
 holy principles are inwrought organically into character. It is famishing 
 
SERMONS. 253 
 
 for lives health)- and wholesome, lives struggli'ig- up, it may be, from 
 low beginnings to high stations and commanding influences, or living 
 nobly and grandly in obscurity, greath' good in all humble work-, becom- 
 ing lights shining down through the vista of the ages to guide halting 
 and stumbling feet. Many a noble life is lived through that process 
 whereby it is poured out, drop by drop, through long years of sacrificial 
 libation, in that grinding attrition by which it is worn away little by little, 
 no less surely, though less visibly, than if dying in a world-heralded mar- 
 tyrdom. This h what tries the patience and courage, determines the 
 quality of the metal, as in the refiner's fire. It takes more courage to 
 stand for th;e right through long years, regardless of opposition, obloquy, 
 and negl'ect, than to die in the heat and strife of battle. Humanity needs 
 the inspiration of lives that attract to nobleness, full of aspiration and 
 high endeavor, supported by the power of achievement; not lives that tell 
 only or mostly of outward circumstance, accidental "distinction, the pomp 
 and splendor of office and station, the outward polish of fashion, but 
 rs^ther those which unfold the inner workings of the spirit, the processes 
 of thought, sentiment, will. It needs lives that are lived upon the clear 
 heights of sincerity, open.-eyed, calm-browed, though the mists gather 
 and darken below, awakening in others the impulse to pattern after their 
 nobleness, and inducing them to marshal all their powers in subduing all 
 bad influences and converting all into triumphs. The world needs lives 
 rich in culture, attuned to sweetest sympathy, illumed by truths, with a 
 sincerity lucent as light, full of spiritual life and enkindling enthusiasm. 
 It needs such as have faith in great principles, and most especially in the 
 Author of these principles, with the high trust of a Noah, the faith of an 
 Abraham, the meek assurance of a Moses, the zeal of the prophet- 
 reformer Elijah, all those great spiritual heroes of old, whose faith lifted 
 them above the world, with all its low forces. How do such lives instruct 
 the world! No lives in court or palace or on thrones can equal those 
 who, out of want and suffering and persecution, have been, through the 
 ages, teaching and inspiring. Give lives thus patterned and empowered, 
 and great will be the achievements,— loyalty to truth, allegiance to law 
 secured, culture promoted, the evangelization of the world helped on, 
 civilization advanced. 
 
 Go, then, to your life-work, with good will as the inspiring motive, 
 "with charity for all, malice toward none." Continue through life seek- 
 ing truer, deeper, wider, higher tastes and sympathies. Follow the lead 
 of a conscience quickened by religion, enriched by truth. Continue to 
 seek that culture which lifts into religion, and that religion which broad- 
 
2 54 LIFE OF PRESIDKNT ALLEN. 
 
 ens into a many-sided cii'ture. Whether famed or fameless, recompensed 
 or recompenseless, aboundMig or wanting, go forward under the guidance 
 of the behests imposed by your privileges. And may the benedictions of 
 the All-Father ever encompass and protect you. Amen. 
 
 THANKSGIVyiNG SERMON. 
 [Delivered before the students, and others, of Alfred, November 24, 1881.] 
 
 Text. — "That both he that soweth, and he that reapeth, n?ay rejoice 
 together." John 4:36. 
 
 I. Origin of Tliaiiksgiving Service. — The Reformation, under Henry 
 the Eighth, had separated the English from the Romish Church, and 
 enfranchised the English crown. Elizabeth enfranchised the Angli-can 
 Church. The Puritans, claiming equality for the plebeian clergy, attemptt'd 
 to further reform the liturgy, ceremonials, and discipline of the church, 
 accepting therein no authority other than the "pure" word of God. The 
 Independents discarded all church hierarchy, and asserted the liberty of 
 every individual to discover for himself truth in the word of God. The 
 Separatists went further. " Seeing they could not have the word freely 
 preached, and the sacraments administered without idolatrous gear, they 
 concluded to break off from the public churches, and separate in private 
 houses." 
 
 A small company of these Separatists, composed of simple farmers 
 and tradespeople, residing in the north of England, on account of the 
 intolerable harrying and persecution which they had to endure, resolved 
 to flee from their native land. First seeking refuge in Holland, but see- 
 ing, among other dangers, that the morals of the rising generation were 
 likely to degenerate, if they remained here, they sought the guidance of 
 God to "discover some place unto them, though in America, as they 
 desired, not only to be a means to enlarge the dominions of the English 
 estate, but the church of Christ also, if the Lord had a people among the 
 natives whither he would bring them." They pondered, debated, fasted, 
 prayed, and, nerved by the consideration that, though "famine,- and 
 nakedness, and the want, in a manner, of all things, with sore sicknesses," 
 threatened them in such a venture, yet as "all great and honorable actions 
 were accompanied with great difficulties, and must be both enterprised 
 and overcome with answerable courage, and through the help of God, 
 by fortitude and patience, borne or overcome; yea, though they should 
 
SERMONS. 255 
 
 lose their lives in this action, yet they might have comfort in the same," 
 they resolved to seek a home in America. 
 
 Accordingly, "such of the youngest and strongest as freely offered 
 themselves," set sail, and, after a long, stormy, and perilous voyage, they 
 planted themselves and their principles on Plymouth Rock. "1 see 
 them," says Everett, "escaped from the perils of the sea, pursuing their 
 all but desperate undertaking, and landed, at last, after a five months' 
 passage, on the ice-bound rocks of Plymouth, weak and exhausted from 
 the voyage, poorly armed, scantily provisioned, without shelter, without 
 means, surrounded by hostile tribes. Shut now the volume of history, 
 and tell me, on any principle of human probability, what shall be the 
 fate of this handful of adventurers ? Tell me, man of military science, in 
 how many months were they all swept off b}- the thirty savage tribes 
 within the boundaries of New P^ngland? Tell me, politician, how long 
 did this shadow of a colony, on which your conventions and treaties had 
 not smiled, languish on the distant coast? Student of history, compare 
 for me the baffled projects, the deserted settlements, the abandoned 
 adventures, of other times, and find the parallel of this." 
 
 "Do you not think," asks Choate, "that whoso could, by adequate 
 description, bring before you that winter of the Pilgrims — its brief sun- 
 shine; the nights of storms slow waning; the damp and icy breath; felt to 
 the pillow of the dying; its destitutions; its contrasts with all their former 
 experience in life; its utter insulation and loneliness; its death beds and 
 burials; its memories; its hopes; the consultations of the prudent ; the 
 prayers of the pious; the occasional cheerful hymn, in which the heart 
 threw off its burden, and, asserting its unvanquished nature, went up to 
 the skies — do you not think that whoso would describe them, calmly 
 waiting in that defile, lonelier and darker than Thermopylae, for a morning 
 that might never dawn, or might show them, when it did, a mightier arm 
 than a Persian, raised in act to strike, — would he not sketch a scene 
 of more difficult and rare heroism; a scene, as Wordsworth has said, 
 'melanclioly, yea, dismal, yet consolatory and full of joy; a scene even 
 better fitted to succor, to exalt, to lead the forlorn hopes of all great 
 causes, till time shall be no more ? ' " 
 
 Before the first year was ended, fifty-one, just half of their number, 
 had perished, twenty-eight out of their forty-eight able-bodied men. At 
 the season of greatest distress there were but seven able to render 
 assistance, not sufficient to take care of the sick, scarce able to bury the 
 dead. "Warm and fair weather," they wrote, came at last, "and the birds 
 sang in the woods most pleasantly, and flowers of very sweet fragrance." 
 
256 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 As best they could, with spade and hoe, they sowed six acres with barley 
 and peas, and planted twenty acres of corn. The peas failed, but the 
 barley was " indifferent good," and "a good increase of Indian corn." 
 They, consequently, in November, 1 621, appointed a thanksgiving. The 
 governor sent out a party to hunt, "that so the)' might, after a special 
 manner, rejoice together after they had gathered the fruit of their labors." 
 For three days they entertained and feasted Massasoit and some ninety 
 of his people, who made a contribution of five deer to the thanksgiving 
 occasion. Such was the origin of this now national festival. 
 
 2. Its Significance. — What was the significancy of this thanksgiving 
 to them? What is it to us? To them did it signify simply gratitude for 
 the failure of the peas, the indifferent good yield of barley, and the fair 
 increase of corn? To us is it rejoicing over merely health, abundant 
 crops, and general prosperity? If so, both to them and to us its signifi- 
 cance is low and groveling. These material blessings are, indeed, a good, 
 but a good only as a means to a higher end. 
 
 Men, souls, should be the aim of all toil, all sowing, reaping, trad- 
 ing, building, gain-getting, teaching, preaching, legislating, governing. 
 Epictetus said: "You will confer the greatest benefit on your city, not by 
 raising the roofs, but by exalting the souls of your fellow-citizens; for it 
 is better that great souls should live in small habitations than that abject 
 slaves should burrow in great houses." 
 
 Our text suggests a rejoicing together in a higher species of sowing 
 and reaping than springs from any material grain. May not thanksgiv- 
 ings likewise be radiated, transfigured, and dignified by those high aims 
 to which peas and barley and corn are but means? All material labors, 
 gains, and interests are charactered by their ultimate uses. Aims con- 
 stitute the spiritual alchemy which transmutes all means into gold or 
 dross. Vigor, valor, nobleness, mental abilities, spiritual dignities, these 
 are the high, ultimate aims. 
 
 The turkeys, for instance, which are so soon to become the thank 
 offering of the more favored ones, will, in the mysterious alembic of life, 
 be transformed into living, human vigor, that, on the morrow, will be 
 translating Latin and French, Greek and German, solving mathematical 
 and metaphysical problems; will be singing and painting, rhetoricating 
 and debating; some will be farming, building, railroading, trading, specu- 
 lating; some others, poor fellows, will be lying, cheating, stealing, swear- 
 ing, and all that sort of thing. Thus the selfsame sacrificial turkey will 
 come to high or ba.se ends, just according as the human absorbing it is 
 motived by noble or ignoble aims. 
 
SERMONS. 257 
 
 Plymouth, Forefathers', or Pilgrim Rock, as another illustrative sym- 
 bol, that hard syenitic granite bowlder some six or eight feet in diameter, 
 itself a pilgrim, in the far-back, glacial period brought and deposited in 
 the shingle at the edge of the bay, and forming the stepping-stone of the 
 Pilgrim Fathers, as they passed from ship to shore, has, from this momen- 
 tary contact, been lifted from the common to the sacred. No other sim- 
 ple rock on this round world has connected with it such patriotic asso- 
 ciations as this. 
 
 At the dawning of the Revolution, the people, to quicken the enthu- 
 siasm for independence, attempted its removal to the town square, for the 
 purpose of erecting over it a liberty pole. In this attempt the rock split 
 asunder. This was quickly interpreted as an omen foretelling the separa- 
 tion of the colonies from the mother country. Leaving one portion, the 
 other part was drawn by twenty yoke of oxen to the town square. 
 Recently, an elaborate and costly monument has been erected over the 
 portion at the water's edge. 
 
 President Dwight, of Yale College, wrote in his day: "This rock has 
 become an object of veneration in the United States. I have seen bits of 
 it carefully preserved in several towns of the Union. Does not this 
 sufficiently show that all power and greatness is in the soul of man ? 
 Here is a stone which the feet of a few outcasts pressed for an instant, 
 and the stone becomes famous. It is treasured by a great nation. Its 
 very dust is shared as a relic. And what has become of the gateways of 
 a thousand palaces? Who cares for them?" 
 
 Visiting this rock once, I found other visitors picking up pebbles 
 along the shore, and, after laying them on the rock for a moment, taking 
 them thence to their homes as sacred relics. After much labor I obtained 
 a few small pieces, but in so doing left fragments of other rocks used in 
 the breaking. Next day, on my way to the funeral of Daniel Webster, 
 at Marshfield, I saw these fragments in the possession of individuals 
 attendant on the funeral, who were taking them home, to be handed down 
 to other generations as sacred things. 
 
 As Plymouth Rock is that symbol of the highest reaches of pilgrim 
 Puritanism ; as the Kaaba stone is symbol of Moslemism, in its devoutest 
 Mecca pilgrimages ; as the Yule log was symbol, in the old Norse wor- 
 ship, of the returning sunlight, with all its glory and beneficence; as 
 the Hebrew feasts were symbols of Hebrew theocracy; as the eucharist 
 and the cross are symbols of the sacrificial death of Jesus — so is, or 
 should be, Thanksgiving, symbol of .spiritual and political independency. 
 
 3. This Spiritual Independency the Gcrvi of Our Free Institutions.— 
 
 17 
 
250 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 It is the germ from which have sprung a free nation, a free church, a free 
 school, a free press, and a free ballot. When, on the 22d of November, 
 1620, the Mayflower landed the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock, it planted 
 the germ of all these and more. True, these Pilgrims were all unconscious 
 of this, were themselves narrow and persecuting. Bryant well says: — 
 
 " They little thought how pure a light. 
 
 With years, should gather round that day; 
 How love should keep their memories bright; 
 How wide a realm their s(3ns should sway! " 
 
 The impulse to their migration was purely spiritual, "to la)^ some good 
 foundation for religion." They declared themselves "agreed in nothing 
 further than in this general principle, that the reformation of the churgh 
 was to be endeavored according to the word of God. Let this reforma- 
 tion come in God's measures, and as he himself will shape it." This 
 simple purpose, nevertheless, made its inception more sublime, as its 
 progress has been grander than any of the colonizations of Phoenicia, 
 Greece, or Rome, grander than any of the mighty migrations that over- 
 ran the ancient world, grander than any other modern colonizations. 
 
 Carlyle bids us: " Look now to American Saxondom, and at that little 
 fact of the sailing of the Mayflozver. It was properly the beginning of 
 America. There were straggling settlers in America before; some mate- 
 rial as of a body was there, but the soul of it was this. These poor men, 
 driven out of their own country, and not able to live in Holland, deter- 
 mined on settling in the New World. Black, untamed forests are there, 
 and wild, savage creatures, but not so cruel as a star chamber hangman. 
 They clubbed their small means together, hired a ship, the little ship 
 Mayflozver, and made ready to set sail. Hah! These men, I think, 
 had a work. The weak thing, weaker than a child, becomes strong, if it 
 be a true thing. Puritanism was only despicable, laughable, then; but 
 nobody can manage to laugh at it now. It is one of the strongest things 
 under tlie sun at present." 
 
 John Robinson, their pastor at Lyden, considered the father of church 
 independency, in his farewell address to the Pilgrims, assumed a position 
 two hundred years in advance of his times, and struck the keynote to all 
 religious progress. "I am confident," he says, "that God hath more 
 truth yet to break forth out of his word. I cannot sufficiently bewail the 
 condition of the reformed churches, who have come to a period in reli- 
 gion, and will go no further than the instruments of their reformation. 
 The Lutherans cannot be driven to go beyond Luther; for whatever part 
 of God's will he hath further imparted by Calvin, they will rather die than 
 
SERMONS. 259 
 
 embrace it; and so also the Calvinists stick where Calvin left 'them— a 
 miser)' much to be lamented, for, though they were both shining lights in 
 their times, yet God hath not revealed his whole will to them. Remem- 
 ber your church covenant, whereby you engage with God and one another 
 to receive whatever light shall be made known to you from his written 
 word." 
 
 The Pilgrim Fathers originally had no political ambition or purpose; 
 yet before they had landed from the Mayfloivcr, necessity compelled them 
 to form themselves into a body politic, by adopting the following solemn, 
 voluntar)' compact, which was the germ of our independence and consti- 
 tutional freedom : — 
 
 " In the name of God, amen. We, whose names are underwritten, 
 . do, by these presents, solemnly and mutually, and in the presence 
 of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together, into 
 a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and further- 
 ance of the ends aforesaid; and, by virtue thereof, to constitute' and 
 frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, 
 from time to time, as shall be thought most convenient for the general 
 good of the colony. Unto which we promise all due submission and 
 
 obedience." 
 
 "There's a divinity within 
 That makes men great where'er they will it. 
 God works with all who dare to win.'' 
 
 4. Favoring Conditions for the Groivth of These Principles.— The Puri- 
 tans were Anglo-Saxons. When Gregory the Great saw, in the slave 
 market at Rome, the Anglo-Saxons which the Roman legions, had con- 
 quered, he exclaimed, " Not Angles, but angels," and resolved to go as a 
 missionary to these beautiful people. Being baffled in this, he afterwards 
 sent Augustine, with forty other missionaries, to England, to convert 
 these "angels" to Christianity. "The fair Saxon," says Emerson, "with 
 open front, and honest meaning, manly, domestic, affectionate, is not the 
 wood out of which cannibal, or inquisitor, or assassin is made, but he is 
 moulded for law, lawful trade, civility, marriage, the nurture of children, 
 for colleges, churches, charities, and colonies." The Purit&ns constituted 
 the anthology of this fine race, composed of flowers, plucked from the 
 topmost branches. 
 
 Deity, who hath determined the times and the bounds of the habita- 
 tion of all nations, appointed the Pilgrims a habitation preeminently 
 adapted to germinate and grow the essentials of all republican institutions. 
 Infertile, rock-ribbed, river-veined, sea-sculptured, storm-swept regions 
 have generally been the ones where the quickening powers of all the best 
 
26o LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 civilizations have had their birth. The great prophets, lawgivers, philoso- 
 phers, poets, orators, initiators, whose thoughts and deeds have led the 
 world, have generally had their spring in such lands as Palestine, Greece, 
 Scotland, Switzerland, Prussia, England, New England. 
 
 5. Other Sowers and Other Seed-Grain. — Whilst the nation has been 
 reaping the harvest from these Puritan seedings, multitudinous other sow- 
 ers have been broadcasting over the land. Millions of other peoples and 
 kindreds, seeking a home here, are mingling the strene of their blood with 
 that of the Pilgrims. Migrations, revolutions, institutions, customs, man- 
 ners, principles, doctrines, creeds, arts, sciences, literatures, religions, are 
 sowing here, with open and free hand, wheat-seed or tare- seed. All the 
 dead generations, all the dead nations, have left seed-grain for all the new 
 generations, for all the new nations. Each epoch of human history gath- 
 ers unto itself the fruitage of all the preceding, enriched and advanced 
 thereby. Each successive age is the harvest home of all its ancestral 
 ages. It is the mission of each age to produce better seed grain than the 
 old, for the future. All its discoveries, and inventions, and improve- 
 ments, all its culture and progress, are seedings cast into the fruitful soil 
 of the future, to spring up and fruit, some thirty, some sixty, some an 
 hundred-fold, to be perpetuated with ever-increasing fullness and variety. 
 Its influence upon itself is small compared with its influence upon the 
 future. Men with men are like the oaks of the forest, hurtling their 
 gnarled branches, without bending or swaying; but the upgrowing sap- 
 lings are easily swayed and fashioned. This swaying and fashioning is 
 the high privilege and solemn responsibility of the present to the future. 
 
 Greece, with its era of greatness barely covering a period of two hun- 
 dred years, and holding sway over an insignificant area of the earth's sur- 
 face, has, by its free spirits, .seeking individual perfections, with the free 
 play of all their faculties, according to aptitude and genius, and by the 
 culture of reason and taste, given to the world fruits as enduring as 
 humanity; an inspiration and guide to taste and art; the germ of all 
 philosophies, sciences, and literatures. We are to-day rejoicing in their 
 enriching and ennobling influences. 
 
 Rome, through tumult, and storm, and bloody tempests, bequeathed 
 to the world the genius of government and administrative sovereignty, 
 the worth of principles, formulated into laws, of organized order, the 
 majesty of law, reverence for authority, the nobleness of love of country 
 the sacrificial nature of patriotism. 
 
 The Asiatics, amid crushing despotisms, lifted the veil of infinitudes, 
 bowed reverently before their mysteries, and sowed the world with reli- 
 
SERMONS. 
 
 261 
 
 gion. The Hebrews, a branch of these, gave the world Monotheism, a 
 personal God, imposing his behests upon the consciences of men, the 
 worth and dignity of spirit, the independency of soul, to stand erect and 
 superior to all outward authority, and, through Christ, supreme love for 
 the Father of spirits, and good will to men. The early church fructified 
 humanity, with its devotions, faith, sacrifice, and saintliness. All these 
 the ages have taken up, preserved and perpetuated for us. We are receiv- 
 ing their fructifying influences. Are we — 
 
 " Competent to keep 
 Heights that they have been competent to win? " 
 
 " Not that our age excel 
 In pride of life the ages of our sires. 
 But that we think clear, feel deep, bear fruit well." 
 
 6. Harvest Home. — Students, in closing, permit me to speak a few 
 words especially to you. You are in the harvest-home period of life. 
 You are here to gather in the rich sheaves of knowledge, ripened in all 
 the fields of the past; to glean from all times, and climes, and sowings; 
 drink from all fountains; eat of all fruitings; and grow into all that is 
 beautiful, true, noble, and good. For this high end have all the great 
 and unselfish toilers of the past wrought. 
 
 Sixteen years after the landing of the Pilgrims, and six after the set- 
 tling of Boston, Harvard University was founded. "After God had car- 
 ried us safe to New England, and we had builded our houses, provided 
 necessaries for our livelihood, reared places for God's worship, and settled 
 the civil government, one of the next things we longed for, and looked 
 after, was to advance learning, and perpetuate it to posterity." To its 
 building everyone contributed, according to his means; money, goods, 
 sheep, cotton cloth, pewter flagons, dishes, spoons, a peck of corn, beads, 
 wampum. The old alchemists sought in vain for the elixir that would 
 change all things into gold. These men discovered that divine elixir 
 which converted their wampum and spoons and pewter flagons into 
 radiant shafts of light to stream down through the ages, lighting not only 
 their posterity, but all coming within their sweep. Winckelried gathered 
 into his bosom the sheaf of foreign spears to make way for the liberty of 
 Switzerland. Gather ye thus into your souls a sheaf of these shining 
 shafts, and transmit their glory augmented to your successofs. 
 
 November 11, 1647, the General Court of Massachusetts, to the end 
 "that learning might not be buried in the grave of the fathers," passed an 
 ordinance, inaugurating the first common school system which the world 
 had known— a system that is gradually yet surely spreading over the 
 
262 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 earth, and will as surely light all kindreds and peoples up to higher planes 
 of civilization. 
 
 Young friends, you have had your being, lived, and moved, in the 
 radiancy of that light which thus first dawned in Massachusetts. How 
 have you improved its privileges? This is the way boys went to school 
 in Shakespeare's time: — 
 
 "The whining schoolboy with his satchel, 
 And his shining face, creeping, like snail, 
 Unwilling, to school." 
 
 How many of you have gone, are going, that selfsame way to school ? 
 It is, nevertheless, an encouraging thought that not a few just such boys 
 have turned out to be Archimedean levers for moving the world. How 
 many of you will prove to be such levers? 
 
 In 1700 ten clergymen met to consult in reference to founding a col- 
 lege in Connecticut, and closed by laying each a few volumes on the table, 
 saying, "I give these books for the founding of a college in this colon)'." 
 These were the fitting germs of Yale College, which has grown in propor- 
 tions and in power one liundred and eighty years, and is ju.st in its youth- 
 ful vigor. Indeed, college germs seem to have an immortal vigor, both 
 of growth and of reproductiveness, in them. Man)^ other colleges have 
 been the outgrowth of Yale. Her influence has reached far and wide. 
 Each one of you has doubtless received growth and vigor from her. 
 Pythagoras, on discovering a new theorem in geometry, sacrificed a heca- 
 tomb of oxen as a thank offering to the gods for granting to him such 
 high privilege and honor. Show your thankfulness for privileges far sur- 
 passing those of Pythagoras, not by burnt offerings, but b\- helping to 
 promote learning in future years, when all such interests will be in }-our 
 keeping. 
 
 When the world was young, men like Enoch, Noah, Nimrod, Abra- 
 ham, Ishmael, Moses, stood out, individual, columnar, and grand, and we 
 see their giant forms shadowy against the darkening sky of the past, and 
 feel their influence sweeping around us; but now, owing to the leveling- 
 up influence of education and the equalizing of power b}' liberty, men 
 perpetuate their influence and power best b}' combination, by organiza- 
 tion, by founding and building up institutions that shall grow more and 
 more vigorous, as the centuries go by. Preeminent among such institu- 
 tions are colleges; preeminent also are they for their wide-sweeping and 
 uplifting influences. 
 
 A vine which had climbed to the top of a cedar in a single season, 
 e.xultingly exclaimed, "What, O cedar, after a hundred years no taller 
 
SERMONS. 263 
 
 than I after a sinole summer!" "True," replied the cedar, "but after you 
 shall have been dead a thousand years, I shall still be standing and grow- 
 ing." Men are to institutions what vines are to cedars. Transmute, 
 then, young friends, your life power into institutions that shall grow and 
 bear fruit through the millenniums. 
 
 To this end gather into your souls during this harvest period all 
 ennobling, life-giving, fructifying forces possible. Make the most and 
 best of yourselves, to the end that you may broadcast the world, in your 
 future sowings, with the best possible seed. 
 
 Rules and tutors alone cannot educate. All true education must have 
 a subjective spring. As the organific life-power of the seed appropriates 
 the helpful conditions of earth, air, water, heat, light, into growth and 
 fruitage, so may you, by personal vigor, gather soul-growth from every 
 rule of restraint or guidance, help of teacher, problem of mathematics, 
 lesson of language, truth of science, from all social, converse, all rub of 
 experience, success, failure, joy, sorrow. God, in his divine husbandry, 
 has sown the fields of the universe thick with grain of inexpressible vari- 
 ety and richness, from which his children can glean full handed. With 
 open-eyed search you will find rich gleanings of truth, beauty, and love. 
 Their sheen illumines every pebble, rock, fossil; every lichen, moss, and 
 fern; every plant, shrub, and tree; every flower that blooms and seed that 
 ripens ; the glory and gladness of dawn ; the silence and sadness of twi- 
 light; the day of Ossianic fog and mist, as well as the day of brightness; 
 the sparkle of winter frosts as well as the fervors of summer heats; the 
 promise of spring and the fruitions of autumn. To your native centers 
 fast gather into your beings all the flowing forces of past progress, 
 remoulding them into better, higher future progress. In the great elec- 
 tric lamp of the world be carbon points, transmuting its spiritual currents 
 into flame, to shine down the vistas of the future. 
 
264 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 REVy, MATHAN UARS HULL, D. D. 
 
 Text. — " I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I 
 have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of right- 
 eousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; 
 and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." 
 2 Tim. 4:7, 8. 
 
 This church, called on to-day for the first time in its history to bury 
 a pastor, we, its members, meet in a new, most touching, and most test-, 
 ing service. For over thirty-five years he who now lies peaceful before 
 us has been not only our pastor, but likewise personal friend, and brother, 
 and father, all in one. He has gone out and in before us as our under- 
 shepherd, leading us by the still waters of peace and prosperity. He 
 has in times of affliction, oh, how often, been the divinely-appointed 
 means of restoring our souls with heavenly consolations, ever leading in 
 the paths of righteousness, and how many, as they walked through the 
 valley and shadow of death, has he enabled to fear no evil, by helping 
 them to firmly grasp the divine rod and staff that comforteth and sup- 
 porteth, and to look to the heavenly hills, whence cometh help! We all 
 had learned to repose in him as a tower of strength, as a wise counselor, 
 a safe guide, a friend ever to be relied on. We have seen, lo, these many 
 years, not only the members of this church, but a great cloud of wit- 
 nesses, as well, in all the regions round about, how bravely, how valiantly, 
 how sacrificially, and how well he has fought the good fight to the very 
 end, and our tears of sorrow are illumed by the joyful assurance that to 
 him has been given the crown of righteousness! 
 
 What is thus to you all an epochal day in your lives becomes to me 
 personally the most trying one in my experience save the one, perhaps, 
 when I was called to perform a like service for the late President Kenyon. 
 Taken at once into his confidence when he became pastor of this church, 
 he has ever been to me an elder brother. Coming to me in all times of 
 joy, consulting freely on textual interpretation and doctrinal points, 
 rejoicing together over many a new book of value, thus closely bound 
 together in all the joys and sorrows and labors of life, when he made 
 known this, his last wish, it seemed impossible to fulfill it; but remember- 
 ing that, having performed the like service for the companion of his youth, 
 and having officiated at that fortunate and blessed marriage altar whereby 
 he was united to her who now here weeps a widow, and remembering 
 that it was the last service I could perform for him, I tremblingly replied, 
 " I will try;" and now I beseech your sympathies and your prayers. 
 
SERMONS. 265 
 
 On thus consenting, I inquired if he had any memoranda of his life 
 and labors that might be used. He repHed, "Not a scrap." His aim 
 through life had been to go forward in whatever duty came to him, 
 uncaring for his name in the future. 
 
 I have gathered from other sources the following brief data: He was 
 born October 18, 1808, in the town of Berlin, Rensselaer County; 1814, 
 moved with his parents to this town; 1829 became a member of this church, 
 in the twenty-first year of his age; November, 1830, preached his first 
 sermon; I have not been able to learn the time of his ordination; July 7, 
 1830, was married to Miss Phalla Vincent, of Almond; 1833-1846, he 
 was pastor of the Clarence church, Erie County, thirteen years; May i, 
 1846, he became pastor of this church; 1848- 1 862, president of the trust- 
 ees of Alfred Academy and University, thenceforward vice president; 
 1858-1877, president of the Education Society; 1868, appointed professor 
 of pastoral theology in the Theological Department of Alfred University; 
 1872, appointed editor of the Sabbath Recorder, entering upon the duties 
 of the appointment in June; September 9, 1872, he was married to Mrs. 
 Lura A. Hartshorn; May, 1881, preached his last sermon; at midday, 
 September 5, departed this life. 
 
 Such is the meager outline of a great life. Let us, as best we may in 
 these brief moments, consider some of the more salient points and char- 
 acteristics of this life, and draw lessons of inspiration and guidance there- 
 from, for no teaching is so potent as great and noble living. 
 
 Our pastor, as if by a wise provision, was endowed with a physical 
 constitution eminently fitted for the arduous labors which, under Provi- 
 dence, it was his mission in life to perform. He was a born athlete. 
 Standing six feet in height, symmetrically and strongly built in every 
 limb and fiber, with face of Grecian type and sculpturing, if he had lived 
 in the days of Paul, he could have easily become a winner in those 
 athletic exercises, or endured the hardnesses of the Roman legions, whose 
 tread shook the world, from both of which the apostle was wont to draw 
 such frequent illustrations and ensamples, our text among the number, 
 for the Christian athlete and soldier. . . . Work was his joy, his life. 
 He said to mc a few days ago: " It seems to me I have done the work of 
 three to five men all these years. I have carried to the uttermost pound 
 of my strength of the world's burdens. I have not knowingly shirked a 
 single ounce. I have not known for these many years what it is to be 
 rested of the weariness that overwork brings." It was this unremitted 
 overstrain that shortened his days, lengthened as they were, for with his 
 physique there was no natural reason why he might not have lived on 
 yet several 3^ears. 
 
266 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 Our pastor was likewise a mental athlete, strong,- agile, ever alert, 
 quick to see, grasp, appropriate, and express a new truth, a prime gift for 
 the preacher, in the requirements enumerated by Paul, and which our 
 pastor gave early proof of as a common-school teacher, bringing, accord- 
 ing to the testimony of his pupils, order out of chaos, and lighting up 
 the whole school with a new and great enthusiasm for learning. As a 
 dialectician he was adroit, supple, ingenious, quick to parry, prompt to 
 attack, watchful of opportunity, being thus well fitted to become, as he 
 did, not only a sleepless watchman on the walls of Zion, but likewise 
 the chosen champion of the denominational faith and practice. 
 
 With a will, indomitable, masterful, self-reliant, giving power to stand 
 squarely on both feet, and the ambidexter use of all his faculties, he was 
 fitted to become a dominant power among men, a leader among leaders, 
 a prince in Israel, whose regnancy had the express approval of nature's 
 divine signature and seal.' 
 
 Added to these attributes of strength and power, he possessed what 
 is seldom in strong natures, — a most delicate sensibility, an emotional 
 nature, sensitively alive to loveliness in nature or life. To "the inquiring 
 love of truth," as Dr. Arnold expresses it, "there went along a divine 
 love of beauty and goodness," and gave him "that considerate sympathy 
 and refined courtesy which invest with a peculiar attractiveness a few 
 superior natures." Shrinking with all the high, chaste delicacy and sen- 
 sitiveness of a woman from the coarse, the low, he was attracted lovingly 
 to the beautiful and good everywhere. Witness his lively appreciation 
 of the beauties of nature, as expressed in the sculptured hills and valleys 
 of this region; witness his sympathy with all gentle, sweet, noble living; 
 witness his intense love of innocent, artless childhood; witness his tender, 
 loving treatment and care of animals; witness the simple neatness and 
 order of his apparel, his model home, with all its surroundings and 
 appointments; witness the delicate amenities he carried into all the rela- 
 tions and activities of life. In short, he was a refined Christian gentle- 
 man, of the old school, if you please, a school fast disappearing in this 
 age of rush and sharp, incisive activity. 
 
 Thus endowed and panoplied by nature, when lifted by the divine 
 life to a higher plane of living and thinking, and especially when the call 
 to preach came, he gave himself utterly to the work. It was to him, 
 from the very first and contmually, not a profession merely, but a di\ ine 
 enthusiasm and joy, — his life. From the start, and always, he had the 
 same assurance of his divine call that Christ had respecting his teachings, 
 — "the common people heard him gladly." Commencing his niinistr\- in 
 
SERMONS. 26/ 
 
 an age when people believed more implicitly than now in a special divine 
 call to preach, it was no unusual thing to hear those who had listened to 
 him remarking, "Well, I guess there can be no question about Jiis being 
 a called preacher." "Not a bit of it," was the quick response. The 
 approving seal of a common Christian consciousness was from the first 
 set upon his ministry. 
 
 At the time of his entering upon this work it was the common prac- 
 tice of preachers through this region to divide their time and labor 
 between the ministry and some industrial pursuit. He said that he 
 resolved at once to live by the gospel alone. Whether with bread or 
 without it, whether he lived or perished, he would give himself entirely 
 to the preaching of the word. He accordingly set himself at once to 
 the carrying out of Paul's injunction to Timothy: " Preach the word; be 
 instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long- 
 suffering and doctrine." "Do the work of an evangelist; make full proof 
 of thy ministry." 
 
 Springing, as he expressed it, from among the stumps and log heaps 
 directly into the pulpit, without any preliminary training, with but a 
 limited common-school education, his first and perpetual aim was, in 
 connection with his ministerial labors, to seek culture, to seek it from all 
 sources, in conversation, in. intercourse with men, in travel, in books — 
 wherever obtainable. Being one of those natures that readily and easily 
 take on the polish of society, the transforming influence became quickly 
 marked. My first remembrance of him is of his appearance in the pulpit 
 when he first began to preach. Clad in coarse homemade garments, 
 with coat off, with action angular, sharp, intense, as if chopping his daily 
 four cords of wood, with voice keyed on the high, monotonous pitch 
 popular in those days, with his mobile and expressive countenance radiant 
 with enthusiasm and streaming with perspiration, he carried the audience 
 literally by storm, moving, swa\"ing it as he listed. After an absence of 
 a few years he returned, and I could scarcely realize that it was the same 
 man. The polish, the ease, the grace captivated, held me enthralled. 
 The transformation from the rude, uncultured youth to the model gen- 
 tleman was complete, and seemed to me nothing less than miraculous. 
 
 The mode and course of his theological studies were quite different 
 from those laid down in the schools, nevertheless, very effective, and with 
 many fine results. He made the Bible, and especially the New Testa- 
 ment portion, the initial point and the pervasive element in this study. 
 Using the house of worship at Clarence for his study, he retired to it 
 whenever opportunity permitted, and there memorized verse after verse. 
 
268 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 chapter after chapter, book after book, of tlie Bible, rehearsing them 
 aloud, interspersing the exercise with song and prayer. He said this 
 meetinghouse became to him a very Bethel, wherein some of the most 
 blissful moments of his life were passed, frequently losing all note of time 
 or place, so rapt became he in the entrancing study. As a result, the 
 leading portions of the Bible became so a part of his mental being that 
 seldom or never was he at a loss for a quotation, making it instantly, and 
 without the necessity of turning to the passage, giving, not only verses 
 but whole chapters, without the least apparent hesitancy. Often have I 
 had occasion to note this facility, not only in the pulpit, but in discussions 
 in his library, when, on any Bible thought or passage coming up, he 
 could immediately give chapter and verse and context. This facility 
 had, doubtless, somewhat waned in his later years. 
 
 In addition to this direct Bible study he used all the side light attain- 
 able for its elucidation. He prosecuted the study of Greek sufficiently 
 to read the New Testament in the original. He gathered about him all 
 the best commentaries, works on theology, and, so far as his means 
 would allow, all the leading books and publications of the day likely in 
 any way to help him in his work. He unremittingly strove to keep pace 
 with the age, well abreast of the thoughts and investigations that were 
 shaping human progress, and to this end sought every book that would 
 h-elp on. His library is rich in works of this kind, being one of the best 
 libraries for a minister we know. He did not, however, confine himself 
 to books in seeking aids in his work. He mingled with men with this 
 object in view. In his earlier years he was wont to visit courts of justice 
 to study human nature as related to crime and justice, and especially to 
 witness the effect of argument and appeal of lawyers upon juries. 
 
 On assuming the pastorate of this church his labors became manifold 
 and arduous. In addition to the care of this large church, spread over 
 a wide region, he soon established outh'ing preaching stations in various 
 directions. This practice he has kept up through most of these years. 
 For many years he was the regular and favorite preacher to the students. 
 From the first he took great interest in them, and they in him. One of 
 the severest taxes upon his time and strength was the number and range 
 of the funeral services he was called upon to perform. Being a favorite 
 preacher of such sermons throughout a wide region, he was sometimes 
 called upon to preach three such sermons in a day, frequently two, often 
 having to travel far in this mission. The bright side to this picture was 
 that he was called equally wide and far to officiate at the marriage altar. 
 
 Coming here without an\' children of his own, he at once took to his 
 
SERMONS. 269 
 
 heart all the children of his flock, adopting them as his own. Being the 
 ■very embodiment of Christian courtesy and sympathy to all, his tender- 
 ness and love of children was very touching. Like a true and Roving 
 shepherd, he carried these lambs of his flock very close to his great and 
 loving heart. He watched over and prayed for them with unremitting 
 solicitude, rejoiced in their welldoing, followed them, and wept over 
 them in their waywardness, often more anxiously than their own parents. 
 Many a sleepless and tearful night has he thus spent. Thus has grown 
 up a generation that had learned to love him as a father. The active 
 members of the church when he became its pastor he has mostly buried. 
 He has baptized most of the present active membership. 
 
 As a reformer, his labors were likewise manifold. In the early days 
 of temperance and antislavery — those days that tried men — he was an 
 acknowledged leader, and frequent were the calls upon him for lec- 
 turing and other labors in these fields. His eloquent and stirring appeals 
 in behalf of temperance and liberty had much to do in shaping public 
 sentiment and moving to action. 
 
 He has been identified with all of the denominational enterprises — 
 the missionary, the tract, the publishing, the educational — from their 
 earliest inception to the present. Holding in them official positions 
 almost continuously, they have received his earnest support, anxious 
 solicitude, giving freely of time, labor, and means for the advancement 
 of their interests. 
 
 As editor of the Sabbath Recorder for the last nine years, both his 
 labors and the circle of his influence have been greatly augmented. His 
 pen has been a constant and effecti\-e defender and promulgator of the 
 denominational faith and practice. The Sabbath, in special, has received 
 his untiring attention. His discussions connected therewith have been 
 marked by great candor, great courtesy, and great ability. His gracious 
 words of counsel, of admonition, and of comfort, on various points of 
 experimental religion, have touched responsive chords in many a soul. 
 
 The text reads, "And not to me only, but unto all them also that love 
 his appearing." This was the great object for which Paul had made his 
 good fight. It was not simply or chiefly for his own personal salvation 
 and crown of righteousness, but for that of others, he had sacrificially 
 lived and fought. Such also was the good fight made by our pastor. 
 His warfare was a sacrificial one. His life was a libation, poured freely, 
 even joyfully for others. That others may be crowned with the crown of 
 righteousness was the one great end of all his labors. As a good under 
 shepherd, his life was motived and inspired by the Great Shepherd, ready 
 to lay down his life for the good of the sheep. 
 
2/0 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 "I have kept the faith." This was the great motive power. Knowl- 
 edge is power, but faith is a greater power. It Hfts above all earthly 
 influences and forces, above all fitful gust or sweeping storm, to the calm 
 regions where sweep with an even, perpetual flow the balmy breezes of 
 God. His was a living faith in Christ as his personal Saviour, and in God 
 as his reconciled Father. This living faith was the motive, the power, 
 not of the earth, earthy, but of heaven, and supernatural — a living, divine 
 energy, a vital force shaping his daily life as well as his public ministra- 
 tions. The word of God was the wellspring of life, whence he drank 
 perpetual drafts. It gave rule and guidance to his faith. He loved with 
 an undivided 'heart its teachings, its commands, its doctrines. Whatever 
 his infirmities, none saw them more clearly, lamented them more sin- 
 cerely, or prayed over them more earnestly, than himself. And he " grew 
 in grace and the further knowledge of the truth" to the very end. His 
 life grew more winning, beneficent, and tender in its personal expression, 
 more rich, instructive, and gracious in its public ministrations, to the end. 
 The halo of a serene and benignant old age crowned him. He had 
 become, indeed, a father in Israel, whose words, by voice and pen, were 
 reverently waited for. 
 
 Yes, he has fought a good fight — good because fought, not for self- 
 seeking or worldly, but for unselfish and divine, ends; good because 
 fought, not with carnal, but with spiritual weapons; good because fought, 
 not for earthly, but for heavenly, righteous crowns. But this good fight, 
 thus bravely, unselfishly, righteously fought, is all at an end now, and the 
 good soldier, " ready to be offered," has been called up higher, to an 
 exceeding great reward. The long pastorate has been closed, not by 
 action of pastor or people, but by the Great Shepherd, who has bidden 
 his faithful 4.mder shepherd to higher and diviner fields of usefulness and 
 blessedness. 
 
 In passing he has let fall his armor of God, his spiritual weapons, — 
 the mantle of charity, the helmet'of salvation, the red cross shield, the 
 breastplate of righteousness, the girdle of truth, the sword of the Spirit, 
 the sandals of the gospel of peace. Gather ye up these, reverently, 
 lovingly, one by one, and panoply therewith him whom you may choose 
 as his successor, praying that a double portion of his spirit may be both 
 upon him and upon us all. And now may the benedictions of the All- 
 compassionate Father descend and rest evermore upon the widowed one, 
 upon all stricken relatives, upon this church and people, and upon all 
 whom this bereavement shall reach. Amen. 
 
SERMONS. 271 
 
 PRESIDENT dAMES ABRAM GARFIELD. 
 
 [A sermon delivered at the church, before the citizens and students of Alfred, 
 Monday, September 26, 1881, in accordance with the proclamations of the 
 President and of the Governor. ] 
 
 Text. — " It is expedient for us, that one should die for the people, and 
 that the whole nation perish not." John 1 1 : 50. 
 
 When called upon some sixteen years and five months ago to give a 
 like sermon to the memory of the martyr President Lincoln, I could find 
 no text so fitting as this text, and now, after beating about among all the 
 Bible boughs for fruitage suitable for this occasion, none falls to my hand 
 so fit as this same text, and I am therefore constrained to use it for our 
 second martyr President. It seems, indeed, most appropriate that our 
 two Presidents, united in their lives by a common service of country, 
 struck down by not unlike bad forces, undivided in their deaths, a two- 
 fold offering for the nation's salvation, should be commemorated with 
 unison of service. Lincoln poured his blood, a libation to human liberty, 
 an atonement for human slavery; Garfield poured his blood, a libation to 
 political purity, an atonement for political corruption. . . . 
 
 No salvation can come without suffering, no atonement without blood. 
 This law is universal and unalterable. Humanity could have no spiritual 
 redemption save as the Divine became flesh, taking all the limitations, 
 liabilities, temptations, and sufferings of the human, and ultimately death. 
 Only thus could the human be lifted out of sin, regenerated, and be made 
 to live again. Jesus could be Saviour only by his blood-shedding. All 
 love in its beneficence must be a sacrifice. All salvation, whether spirit- 
 ual, national, social, or physical, is effected through suffering and dying. 
 Jesus becomes thus in his life of love and sacrificial death the type and 
 ensample of all lives of love, labors of good will, and sacrificial service 
 for human weal. All benefactors, all leaders, all elevators of humanity 
 must pattern themselves after their divine prototype. Humanity has 
 never taken a step forward and upward without that step dripping with 
 blood. Every truth coming from God to man has been received with 
 mocks and scoffs, and its evangels baptized in blood. The divinest lives 
 have ever been crowned with thorns, their brows ever damp and dripping 
 with blood. Jesus and the cross, Socrates and the poisoned cup, Stephen 
 and stones, Paul and bonds and imprisonment, James and the block, 
 Savonarola and the scaftbld, Galileo and the dungeon, Joan of Arc and 
 the fagot, Puritans and persecution, Lincoln and Garfield and the bullet, 
 are all types of the devotements of religion, the consecrations of philan- 
 
272 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 thropy, the offerings of patriotism, the fidehties to truth. The illustrious 
 lives of witnesses, confessors, martyrs, have ever found Cah^ary their 
 type. The world's worthies, of whom itself has ever been unworthy, 
 have had for their lot, as Paul puts it, to be mocked, and scourged, and 
 stoned, and sawn asunder, slain with the sword, to wander about clad in 
 sheepskins and goatskins, in deserts and mountains, being destitute, 
 afflicted, tormented. Religious liberty, one of the most potent mfluences, 
 the highest aspiration of the human soul, has been attained at the sacri- 
 fice, it is estimated, of three hundred million lives. Civil liberty, the child 
 of religious liberty, has had, like its illustrious sire, a gory history. Like 
 all other noble sentiments having for their end the uplifting of humanity, 
 it has had to pass through a Red Sea of blood, and wander long in the 
 desert, preparatory to its conquest of the promised land, and its possession 
 of the thrones of the world. The cry of the people under oppression 
 has come down through the ages as the perpetual wail of an east wind. 
 Indeed, the world's sacrificial altar fires have ever been reeky with the 
 blood and smoke of its multitudinous victims, darkening the heavens, 
 and beating up before the mercy seat with perpetual gloom and sadness. 
 And now this new offering, in the language of Garfield himself, respect- 
 ing Lincoln, has for the moment withdrawn the thin veil which separates 
 us from the eternities, and the whisperings of the ever compassionate 
 Father to his children, comforting them in their sorrows, can be clearly 
 heard. 
 
 These lives thus sacrificially offered have left the richest legacy 
 humanity knows. Lives are the great helps to other lives. They awaken 
 sentiment, affection, action. Great lives are the masterful forces in prog- 
 ress and civilization. Humanity cries out passionately for noble, inspi- 
 rational lives, wherein all high and holy principles and forces are inwrought 
 into character. It is famishing for lives clean, healthy, and wholesome. 
 It needs the inspiration of lives that attract to nobleness, full of aspiration 
 and high endeavor, supported by achievement. It calls for lives lived 
 upon the clear heights of sincerity, open-eyed, calm-browed, awakening 
 in others the impulse to seek a like nobleness, and inducing them to 
 marshal all their powers in subduing all bad influences and converting all 
 evil as well as all good into triumphs. The world needs lives illumined 
 by truth, attuned to sweetest sympathy, full of spiritual vigor, rich in 
 culture; lives that have faith in great principles, and live according to 
 this faith. The legacy of just such lives the world has in this innumer- 
 able throng who have lived and died sacrificially. Incalculably great is 
 their power for instructing, inspiring, guiding us, if we can but have our 
 spiritual vision open and our spiritual hearing attuned to receive. 
 
SERMONS. 2/3 
 
 The life, achievement, and character of our martyr President is pre- 
 eminently one of those specially fitted for just such service. His life, 
 almost flawless, stands a model, great, noble, symmetrical, harmonious. 
 What Apollo Belvidere is among Greek sculpture, he is among states- 
 men. His is a life all can study with profit, especially all youth who 
 aspire to excellency in character or greatness in achievement. 
 
 Let us then note and ponder some of the more salient points of his 
 life. 
 
 Notice the following rungs of the ladder by which he has climbed: 
 Born in poverty and in the wilderness; left fatherless before two years of 
 age; thence, till eighteen, living, growing, and working as poor boys 
 must, turning his hand to whatever he could find to do on the little farm, 
 and, in addition, wood chopper, carpentering, canal boat boy; awakened 
 to an intellectual life at eighteen, he became an academic student, working 
 his way by his trade and common-school teaching; born into the spiritual 
 life at nineteen, he soon after resolved to obtain a collegiate education, 
 becoming an assistant academic teacher and a preacher; twenty-three, a 
 collegian, junior class; twenty-five, a college graduate and a professor of 
 ancient languages and literature; twenty-six, married, and an academic 
 principal, a teacher, lecturer, political speaker, law student, and preacher; 
 twenty-nine, in addition to the above, State senator; thirty-one, entered 
 the army as colonel, and, in consequence of heroic daring in his first bat- 
 tle, promoted by the War Department to the rank of brigadier general; 
 thirty -two, for meritorious services in the second important battle in which 
 he was engaged, promoted to the rank of major general; thirty-three to 
 forty-eight, member of the lower House of Congress ; forty-eight, elected 
 a senator and President of the United States ; forty-nine, March 4, became 
 President, resigning his seat in both branches of Congress to clear the 
 way; September 19, received a martyr's crown. 
 
 Let us note next some of the forces and conditions both within and 
 around him that were operative in this wonderfully versatile, onward 
 marching, and ever ascending career. 
 
 I. TJic Mother.— Uxs first and best gift was his "little mother," as he 
 was wont affectionately to call her. She was of the heroic order. What- 
 ever noble and heroic appears in his struggles and triumphs, to me the 
 same appears supremely more so in the mother. The mother was the 
 root and nourisher of all that was bravest and best in the son. Yes, noble 
 mothers are among the divinest gifts of God, and, young men and women, 
 be devoutly thankful to him for such — you that have them. Gathering 
 the robes of her widowhood and sorrow about her, and her children in 
 
 18 
 
2 74 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 her arms, she said, " I will try to be brave for your sweet sakes" — a resolu- 
 tion she kept heroically through all the years wherein they required her 
 aid. The last words of her husband had been: "I am going to leave you, 
 Eliza. I have planted four saplings in the woods, and I must leave ^hem 
 to your care." Faithfully and well did she fulfill the trust. With a small, 
 poor farm, incumbered with debt, in a dense forest only partially broken 
 by clearings, she assumed her task. In addition to her household cares, 
 she went to the fields with the boys, chopping, building fences, planting, 
 hoeing, harvesting, leading in all the rugged work of the farm. As a 
 necessary result, comparative prosperity followed. James became her 
 special care and burden. Restless, desiring an adventurous life of sailor 
 or soldier, caring comparatively little for books, she bent all her energies 
 to curb and change these proclivities, and lead them up to religion and 
 learning. " Remember your God, and study books," was the request, 
 earnestly pressed upon him, the earnest prayer for him. To this end 
 she sent him early to school, his elder sister carrying him back and forth 
 on her back, through the mud and snow. At school he met with the 
 fate common to poor, defenseless boys, owing to the universal depravity 
 of boy nature. The stronger boys began at once to abuse and knock 
 him about. His fiery soul flames at the insult, and, regardless of size, he 
 thrashes everyone presuming to abuse him. He is soon recognized as 
 the "fighting boy" that is well to let alone. When sufficiently grown, 
 his restless spirit, in spite of his mother's entreaties, led him to the lake, 
 to ship as a sailor, from which he was driven by abuse, then to the canal, 
 where he was a good fighter as well as worker, from which he was driven 
 home by the ague. As he approached the house, he saw through the open 
 window his mother kneeling, with the open Bible before her, and heard 
 her praying: "Oh, turn unto me, and have mercy upon me! Give thy 
 strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thy handmaid." He real- 
 ized that his course was crushing her, and, with arm about her neck, he 
 gave assurance of nobler aims, which, during the long ague sickness that 
 followed, through the instrumentality of the mother, assisted by the 
 teacher in the district, ripened into a genuine intellectual awakening. 
 Henceforward all went well. No wonder, then, that the son should ever 
 after manifest such filial devotion, and give such gentle and glad service 
 to the "little mother." 
 
 2. The Wife. — Equally fortunate was he in his wife. A woman of 
 perfect self-poise, unswerving rectitude, gentle, patient, unobtrusive, intel- 
 lectual, keen, cultured, conscientiously devoted to everything good, she 
 has ever moved on in the tranquil tenor of her unobtrusive way, in a life 
 
SERMONS. 275 
 
 of complete devotion to dut}', never forgetting the demands of her posi- 
 tion. He once said: " I have been wonderfully blessed in the discretion of 
 my wife. She is one of the coolest and best-balanced women I ever saw. 
 She is unstampedable." She was a woman eminently fitted to a man of 
 Garfield's nature, and much of his success in life may well be attributed 
 to his fortunate marriage. His wife has grown with his growth, and has 
 been, during all these years, the appreciative and helpful companion in 
 his studies, a strong support, wise counselor, and genuine aid, in all his 
 purposes and efforts. 
 
 3. Poverty. — Garfield said: "Poverty is uncomfortable, as lean testify; 
 but nine times out often the best thing that can happen to a young man 
 is to be tossed overboard, and compelled to sink or swim for himself" 
 "It is generally the poor and obscure little fellow, who has to scratch for 
 every inch, that will run ahead and come to the front." These compul- 
 sions of poverty, stimulating his vigorous natural forces, gave that tact 
 and pluck, that grip and push, which assured success in whatever he put 
 hand to. While it compacted and toughened all forceful attributes, it, at 
 the same time, broadened his sympathies, made gentler and tenderer and 
 more beneficent all his relations and influences. It seems to ever be 
 God's plan, when he desires to send a great benefactor or conspicuous 
 example of manhood to the world, to pass by all who have been volatil- 
 ized by the frippery of fashion, enervated by the luxury of riches, up to 
 the poor, plain, common people, whose instincts and spontaneities are 
 much nearer in harmony with the Divine, and the windows of whose souls 
 open more directly heavenward. His especial evangels to humanity have 
 been taken largely from the poor: Jesus from the manger and the stone 
 mason's trade, Moses from the bullrushes, David from among the sheep, 
 Elijah from among the cattle, Elisha from the plow, the apostles from 
 their nets, Socrates from statuary cutting, Luther from among the ore 
 diggers, Stephenson from the coal mines, Gary from the shoemaker's 
 bench, Lincoln from the flatboat, Garfield from the towpath. 
 
 4. Masterful Personal Powers. — These exterior helps were responded 
 to by masterful personal attributes. Standing six feet two, weight some 
 two hundred and twenty, large-headed, broad-shouldered, full-chested, 
 strongly knit, suggesting in his completeness a modern Samson, with an 
 indomitable will, with intellect of broad sweep and grasp, nature set her 
 impress upon him as a masterful and achieving one. From the very start 
 in his upward career he verified his credentials. Beginning his second 
 term of school with a sixpence in his pocket, he cast that into the first 
 contribution box that was presented, and, by living on from thirty-one to 
 
276 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 fifty cents worth of food a week, and by sawing, planing, driving nails, 
 doing whatever turned up, he was enabled at the end of the term to 
 return home with three dollars in his pocket. When he had fully deter- 
 mined to seek a college education, he excluded all extraneous matters, 
 read nothing but what was helpful in his studies, and, by concentrating 
 all his energies on the business in hand, he was enabled to complete in 
 three years six of the eight years required for the preparatory and collegi- 
 ate courses, and at the same time, by sweeping halls and rooms, building 
 fires, ringing bells, teaching, and carpentering, was enabled not only to 
 pay his way, but to start for college with three hundred dollars of his own 
 earnmg in his pocket. 
 
 It is one of his sayings that "a pound of pluck is worth a ton of 
 luck." He finely illustrated it in his first campaign in the war. Before 
 he had ever seen a gun fired in action, he was placed in command of a 
 detachment of untried soldiers, and ordered to drive back a larger force 
 of the enemy, under the command of one of the ablest officers of that 
 region. This he successfully accomplished. A new danger then threat- 
 ened his little force. The floods came down, making the river unnaviga- 
 ble, and starvation stared them in the face. In this emergency, after try- 
 ing in vain to induce the captain of the quartermaster's steamer to ascend 
 the river to the relief of his men, he ordered the captain and crew on 
 board, and, stationing an army officer on deck to see that they did their 
 duty, he took the wheel himself, and, struggling against the current some ' 
 forty-eight hours, only eight of which he was absent from the wheel, he 
 reached and relieved his men. A like exhibition of pluck occurred on 
 his second nomination to Congress. He strongly sympathized with the 
 radical movement under the lead of Wade against the President's policy 
 respecting some of the seceding States. The nominating convention 
 sympathized with the President, and the feeling against Garfield was very 
 pronounced. When called upon by the convention to explain his course, 
 he went upon the platform, everyone expecting something in the nature 
 of an apology; but he boldly approved the radical manifesto of the radi- 
 cals, defended his course, and said that he had nothing to retract, and 
 could not change his honest convictions for the sake of a seat in Con- 
 gress. He had great respect, he said, for the opinions of his constituents, 
 but a greater regard for his own. If he could serve as an independent 
 representative, acting on his own judgment and conscience, he would be 
 glad to do so; but if not, he did not want their nomination. He would 
 prefer to be an independent private citizen. Probably no man ever talked 
 in such a style, before or since, to a body of men holding his political 
 
SERMONS. 277 
 
 fate in their hands. Leaving the platform, he strode away. Scarcely had 
 he disappeared when one of the youngest delegates sprang to his feet, 
 saying: "The man who has courage to face a convention like that deserves 
 a nomination. I move that General Garfield be nominated by acclama- 
 tion." The motion was carried with a shout. 
 
 He was 'born with a nature chivalric and daring. One of his first 
 recorded requests is: "Mother, read to me about that great soldier. 
 When I get to be a man, I am going to be a soldier, and whip people, as 
 Napoleon did." This spirit gave him his longing to be a sailor, and com- 
 mand a ship. A little over a year ago he said: "At times this old feeling 
 comes back to me. The sight of a ship fills me with a strong fascina- 
 tion." "I tell you," he exclaimed, with flashing eye, "I would rather 
 now command a fleet in a great naval battle than do anything else on 
 this earth." It was this spirit that pounded his little playfellows at 
 school into good behavior, that conquered a peace on the towpath and 
 canal boat; that thrashed a rebellious school into perfect submission; 
 that made him, for the short time he served, one of the most daring and 
 successful generals of the war. It was this chivalric spirit that gave him 
 the finest, though bloodless, victory that came to him in the war. When 
 on his way from the army to Congress, he attempted to go aboard a 
 Kentucky steamer with his negro body servant, but w^as met by the 
 sheriff with a strong force, who, armed with the authority of the State 
 law, attempted to seize the negro as a slave. At this Garfield sprang 
 between, and, shaking his fist in their faces, rushed them off the boat. 
 The sheriff, from the shore, ordered the captain not to move the boat 
 with negroes aboard. Garfield notified the captain that he would 
 pilot the boat, and the soldiers run the engine, and relieve him of all 
 responsibility. 
 
 He carried the same masterful power mto Congress. Continuing the 
 same untiring and thorough study manifested while a student and 
 teacher, he mastered every subject which he was called upon to consider. 
 He began, at once, a long and assiduous investigation of the leading sub- 
 jects of legislation, ransacking the congressional library for works that 
 threw light on the experience of other countries, or gave the ideas of the 
 thinkers and statesmen of all nations on these subjects. For his hours of 
 recreation, he would gather about him all the rare editions of some 
 favorite author, classical or other, and leisurely examine their variations 
 and critical points. This wide and thorough investigation gave his 
 views great weight, and he soon rose to a commanding influence in 
 Congress. . . . 
 
2/8 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 5. The Fruitage. — The outcome and fruitage of such Hving and doing 
 was a man of rare and versatile attainments and power. A commanding 
 and handsome person, with winning ways, sympathetic impulses, and mag- 
 netic influence, unique in varied and brilliant qualities, he -was a masterful 
 man. Wherever he came he conquered. In many and varied depart- 
 ments of thought and action, his right royal gifts and culture became 
 recognized and distinguished. 
 
 Next to John Ouincy Adams, he was the most scholarly man that 
 has come to the presidency. He excelled in the patient accumulation and 
 striking generalization of facts. He roamed in every field of intellectual 
 activity, delighted in poetry, enjoyed philosophic thought and investiga- 
 tion, felt a keen interest in scientific truth and research, gleaned eagerly 
 through the fields of politics and history, and illumined them all by his 
 glowing originality. The records of the congressional library show that, 
 excepting Charles Sumner, he used more books than any other congress- 
 man. Indeed, it came to be understood, when a rare book was drawn 
 from the library, if Sumner did not have it, Garfield did. 
 
 As a speaker, he had no peer in the present realm of statesmanship. 
 Lofty ideas and vigorous logic permeated his matchless eloquence, whose 
 chaste beauty and tender grace became the unstudied manner of his 
 speech. Whether in the pulpit, on the stump, in the lecture room, or in 
 the halls of Congress, his polished diction charmed, his lucid argument 
 convinced, the pictorial splendors of his imagination entranced, and the 
 fused thought and feeling of his eloquence captivated and carried his 
 hearers wherever he \villed to lead. 
 
 As a statesman, his aims were always noble and lofty, ever serving 
 his country with conspicuous ability and with unselfish ends. He has 
 striven to make the public service clean and honorable. He has 
 sought to ennoble and dignify the republic, by making the government 
 one of statesmen and patriots, not of demagogues and place-men. He 
 never owned nor help run a political machine. His ability, knowledge, 
 mastery of public questions, generosity of nature, honesty of purpose, 
 devotion to the welfare of the republic, have done the work. He lived 
 and spoke and wrought for freedom, and honor, and faith, and lo\'e. 
 
 Garfield as scholar, teacher, preacher, soldier, statesman, was unique 
 in the combination of those qualities which go to make a career that 
 appeals to all that is noblest and best in our manhood. To all who 
 admire energy and pluck, who appreciate great abilities and respect dis- 
 tinguished services, his career is a joy and an inspiration. . . . 
 
 Both Lincoln and Garfield sprang from humble parentage. Lincoln's 
 
SERMONS. 279 
 
 had the hereditary unthrift and want of push characteristic of the South- 
 ern poor; Garfield's had the hereditary pluck and push characteristic of 
 the New England Puritans. Lincoln was pressed more tightly by the 
 iron grip of poverty, with fewer openings for escape, or the ingress of 
 opportunity. To Lincoln the schools of Southern Illinois, few and poor, 
 presented but scanty means for education, and six months of schooling 
 in such was his all. To Garfield common schools and academies, 
 planted thick by the New England element, over the Western Reserve 
 of Ohio, presented ampler opportunities, wooing him with all their cap- 
 tivating enticements to the high privileges of learning. Lincoln had for 
 his chiefest means of culture the Bible and Shakespeare — fortunately for 
 him and for all, the two supreme books in all the world's literatures. 
 For the rest, his great teachers were the silent forest, the prairie, the 
 river, the sweet heavens, and calm stars. Garfield pressed all the gates 
 of knowledge, "on golden hinges turning," wide open before him, with 
 freest ranges and amplest privileges, in the world's manifold literatures. 
 Religion shone with but a feeble and indifferent light along the pathway 
 of Lincoln's childhood and youth. It beat with intense fervors around 
 Garfield's cradle, home, and school life. Lincoln excelled in native 
 greatness; Garfield, in acquired power. Genius, bending over their cra- 
 dles, touched the lips of each with her sacred fire. Lincoln had a plain 
 simple, roundabout common sense, and in the apprehension of a great 
 principle and the clear, apt, forcible statement of the same in its com- 
 pleteness, so as to be at once apprehended and forever impressed on the 
 common consciousness of the people, he had no peer; but, like Hamlet, 
 his thought was served by a will tardy of action, never moving ahead of 
 the common convictions of the people, often lagging behind their 
 demands. Garfield fused thought, feeling, and action. His will waited 
 promptly on his intellect. He believed action to be greater than thought, 
 and lived out his convictions. Lincoln, though sparkling with wit, 
 humor, and jest, like the sunlit waves of the sea, had, in the solemn 
 depths below, the infinite sadness of the same sea, with the same break 
 and undertow and moan on the gray, cold stones of the world. With 
 the blood of the enthralled race coursing his veins, the pulsing of his 
 soul beat rhythmic with the wail of their woes ; and he walked the earth, 
 going up to his high sacrificial altar for their redemption, in the gloom 
 of its forecasting shadow. Garfield, jubilant as the leaping rills of the 
 homes of his ancestors, walked the earth bravely, joyfully, in the vigor of 
 a strong manhood; yet he, likewise, went up to the same sacrificial altar, 
 with like foreshadowings. 
 
28o LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 "Souls destined to o'erleap the vulgar lot, 
 And mould the world unto the scheme of God, 
 Have a foreconsciousness of their high doom." 
 
 Thus, with a quickness of succession that would have startled into 
 insecurity an}' throne of the world, this nation has been called to 
 
 " Mourn for the men of amplest influence. 
 Yet clearest of ambitious crime, 
 Our greatest, yet with least pretense. 
 Rich in saving common sense, 
 And as the greatest only are 
 In their simplicity sublime — 
 Such were they whom we deplore." 
 
 Gathered thus under the shadow of this second great national sacri- 
 fice and sorrow, while the sisterhood of States stands weeping, as he is 
 being laid to his peaceful rest, and the civdlized world waits with uncov^ered 
 head, what is the lesson and the behest to us? He who so recently 
 ascended to supreme power in the land, under apparently the most favor- 
 ing conditions and the most brilliant auspices ever attending such acces- 
 sion, was no sooner seated in his place of power than the clouds of evil 
 omen gather black, the mutterings of evil storm-spirits, full of all trea- 
 sons, strategies, and spoil-lusts, grow thick, loud, and furious, and, hurl- 
 ing a bolt, smite the unsuspecting victim, lifting him from his seat of 
 power to the cross of sacrificial suffering, and, for eighty days, hanging 
 there, teaching the nation, yea, the world, lessons never so taught before. 
 During these days the people have stood with uncovered head and 
 unsandaled feet, in unavailing sorrow, or bowed reverently in suppliant 
 agony. Political fever heats have been cooled, passions subdued, ani- 
 mosities forgotten, and, like the Hebrew people, we have dwelt fast by 
 Horeb and Sinai, waiting, listening, for the will of God. Thus chastened 
 and toned shall we now pass on and up to the promised land of political 
 purity and freedom, up to the Mount of Beatitudes, where await blessings 
 manifold for the politically regenerate? or must we wander forty years in 
 the desert of incompetency and vacillation, till a generation of incompe- 
 tents are dead, and a masterful one arises? or, still worse, shall we go 
 immediately back and down to our former Egyptian bondage, for the 
 sake of its political flesh pots and garlics? May God grant us the faith 
 and courage to go forward and up, and graciously lead us by his pillar of 
 cloud by day and of fire by night. 
 
 To this end our first and imperative duty is to devoutly pray that 
 to our new leader there may come, if they have not already come, higher 
 life and nobler purposes. A man full of native impulses, fine and noble, 
 
SERMONS. 281 
 
 }'et who has, hitherto, been a most abject satrap to poHtical despots; a 
 most servile slave to machine taskmasters; a most nimble runner and 
 most shameless dancer before the machine's triumphal marches; a most 
 faithful devotee and most willing organ grinder at political wassail and 
 orgy. He has already given happy omens of a better and nobler 
 future. Heaven grant him grace and courage to continue and improve 
 in welldoing. 
 
 Not to leaders alone is necessity for change of life and purpose. 
 Political juggernautism is the great and crying evil in the politics of the 
 day. The shadow of its overtowering machine darkens the land. It is 
 crushing all political manhood out of its devotees, who blindly, frantically, 
 throw themselves beneath its massive iron wheels. Their blood spurts 
 over the land. We all see its bloody, ponderous wheels go round, the 
 noisome wind from which blows in all our faces. It was in his attempt 
 to stay its onward progress that our martyr President sacrificed his 
 life. As Hamilcar, at the sacred altar, swore his son Hannibal to eternal 
 enmity to Rome, so, young men, laying your hands upon your coun- 
 try's altar, thus dripping with this sacrificial blood, swear eternal enmity 
 to this great enemy of our country's weal. And, having taken this oath, 
 may you as faithfully fulfill its obligations as did Hannibal. The welfare 
 and glory of your country is to soon come to your keeping. See that it 
 suffer no harm but only good in this keeping. You will need all the 
 strength and courage of a Hercules to clean its Augean stables of their 
 political corruption. 
 
 " By this last act of madness they slew one of the noblest and gen- 
 tlest. In taking that life they have left the iron hand of the people to 
 fall upon them. Love is in front of the throne of God, but justice and 
 judgment, with inexorable tread, follow behind, and when law is slighted 
 and mercy despised, then comes justice with her hoodwinked eyes, and 
 with the sword and scales. From every gaping wound of our dead 
 chief let the voice go up to the people, to see to it that our house is 
 swept and garnished." These words spoke Garfield on the death of 
 Lincoln — words completely applicable to him. May the nation so 
 heed his warning voice, so consecrate and use his life-sacrifice, that the 
 on-coming ages may be enabled to say of both Lincoln and Garfield: — 
 
 " In the beauty of the lilies Christ was borne across the sea 
 With a glory in his boson that transfigures you and me; 
 As he died to make men holy, so they died to make men free." 
 
282 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 BETHEL THEORY OF THE UNIUERSE. 
 [Baccalaurate sermon, delivered June 11, 1882.] 
 "Bethel — house of God." Gen. 29:19. 
 
 Bethel — hou.se of God — with angels ascending and descending, and 
 God standing above, was found by Jacob, as he went out into the wide 
 world, to begin life for himself As, from his Southern home, he journeyed 
 northward, up the steeps and along the heights of that splendid land of 
 promise, its grandeurs gleamed with ennobling influences, awaking devout 
 in.spirations. Add to this the uncertainties, the apprehensions, the hopes, 
 of the new life before him, and it is not surprising that when at eventide 
 he rested his head upon the stone pillow, his soul was subdued to that 
 receptive mood, fit for divine communings and revelations. . . . 
 
 Youth is preeminently the bethel season of life. The soul is then 
 keenly alive and responsive to all ennobling and divine influences, ready 
 to be motived and guided by them, to the extrusion of all that is ignoble 
 and sordid. It is thus not only pertinent but important that every youth 
 should interpret aright the dignity of his being, the divine significance of 
 life and its environments. Indeed, the vital question at this period is, 
 What do we find the universe and ourselves? The true worth of living 
 and doing depends greatly upon the answer given to this question. 
 
 Humanity has given, in general terms, three answers: — 
 
 1. AbctJielistic. — Atheism gives answer. No bethels in the wide uni- 
 verse, because no God in the wide universe. At the best, the universe is 
 but the result of an unknown and unknowable power, working, as blind 
 force, without purpose, to a resistless, unmeaning end. In such a universe 
 there can be no divine personality to hold communion with man, and, by 
 his presence, make sacred either persons, places, or seasons. Man is an 
 orphan, without kith or kin in the wide, cold, barren voids. No spiritual 
 relationships respond to his longings, and give sympathy and aid. Not 
 a few there be who, practically, have faith in nothing higher than the 
 smoke of one's chimney top. whose interests sweep no wider than the 
 lines bounding one's real estate, whose chief pursuit is self-happiness. 
 
 2. Scnii-bethclistic. — Bethels, occasional and special, are granted by 
 this theory. God, as the infinite mechanician, constructed the universe 
 in a little period of intense activity, and, setting it, machine-like, in motion, 
 and retiring into the supreme heavens, left it to run its time, applying, 
 now and then, just enough of occasional or special providence to keep it 
 regulated and in order. In such a universe only those places are 
 
SERMONS. 283 
 
 bethels wherein some special providence or miraculous interposition has 
 been manifested; and only such seasons as are specially set apart to 
 commemorate these events, are bethel seasons. Practically, such a con- 
 ception of the universe tends to produce in its recipients a like spiritual 
 condition. The main sweep of life will be mechanical and dry and hard, 
 with occasional seasons of uplifting, when all will seem swung just beneath 
 the eternal throne, and to run in shining grooves. 
 
 3. BetJielistic. — The bethellstic doctrine apprehends the universe as the 
 living temple of God — everywhere and perpetually filled, energized, and 
 controlled by his presence and power. He is the arch-reality. All phe- 
 nomena are the direct expression of this indwelling, living reality. All 
 the ongoings in nature are di\'ine operations. The laws of the universe 
 are the uniform activities of the unchanging divine personal will, lighted 
 by his perfect reason, guided by purpose. All natural agencies are thus 
 modes of the divine activities. This avoids the paradox of an active 
 universe and an inactive Deity, or of intense activity at one time and 
 quiescence forever after. The life of the universe is a perpetual genera- 
 tion, life welling forth with perpetual efflux from the infinite source of all 
 life. Matter is the objectized divine power, known as force, held in per- 
 petual stableness by this ever-present and unvarying power. Instead of 
 hard, dead matter and unyielding, insensate, mechanical forces and lifeless 
 forms, choking up the infinite spaces, there is everywhere present the 
 conscious spirit, and there flows the eternal stream of life, power, and 
 deed, of the all-pervading Deit}-. The universe is, at all points and times, 
 a bethel, glowing and glorified with divine splendors. Our mathematics, 
 physics, zoologies, psychologies, and theologies, are all efforts to inter- 
 pret and explain the divine thoughts, plans, purposes, and activities. . . 
 
 4. Bethclistic Providence. — Divine providence is at once universal and 
 particular, e\'erywhere and alwaj-s active, with the general uniformitx' of 
 God's own unvariableness, and with the diversity and adaptability of per- 
 sonal will. All providence is thus special, yet grounded in universal 
 laws. Gravitation, light, heat, electricity, are primal, natural modes of 
 divine providence. Sunrise and sunset, winter and summer, spring and 
 autumn, calm and storm, flood and drought, are all phases of the perpetual 
 presence and activity of God. He is equally near and equally active in 
 all places and in all seasons. Thus there is no blind fate, no remorseless 
 necessity, but one all-pervasive, beneficent keeper and guardian of all, 
 the shepherd of all beings. Instead of the insensate forces of an uncon- 
 scious and unknown and unknowable power, the universe is transfigured 
 by a living, conscious .spirit, a personal God, a beneficent Father, mani- 
 
284 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 Testing himself in beginningless, endless efflux of life, as a beneficent forth- 
 putting of power, ever working for the ends of perfection in all created 
 being. When the spiritual eye-power becomes clear and strong, then, 
 like the young man for whom Elisha prayed, we see all the mountains of 
 life full of horses and chariots of fire, messengers of God to work his will, 
 in all nature and history. 
 
 Man is no orphaned child in a dead, cold, barren universe, with no 
 responsives to his great soul needs, but a child enfolded in the arms of 
 all-compassionate fatherhood and motherhood, ready to assuage all sor- 
 rows, wipe away all tears, soothe all pains, and lift up and strengthen. 
 Wherever we stay, he is our sun and our shade; his smile is in the 
 morning's dawn and in the evening's glow. He leads the way wherever 
 we roam by land or sea. For such, miracles are no exceptional occur- 
 rences, but everyday realities. All times and events are full of them. 
 The divine power and guiding providence and self-verification are mani- 
 fested in all. Such assurance lifts from the regions of spiritual night, 
 with its clouds and shadows of doubt, from the gray dawn of philosophic 
 truth, to the noontide splendors of living faith. All systems of belief, all 
 forms and ceremonies are but the outward expression of the universal 
 aspiration for this indwelling life. All progress, all Christian civilization 
 draws its life from this divine fountain. 
 
 5. BetJielistic Lives. — If such be the universe, in its nature and rela- 
 tions, and in its providential ongoings, much more must it be with man, 
 the child of God. Every soul was created expressly to be the "temple 
 of the living God," as Paul teaches. As the offspring of God, man was 
 created to consciously "live, move, and have his being" in God. 
 Humanity is the highest earthly organ of the divine life and manifesta- 
 tion — created for a constant in-living and intercourse of the divine with 
 the human. Human wisdom is the outshining of the divine wisdom. 
 "The inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding." He is illumed, 
 vivified, and empowered by divine wisdom and revelations. His love is 
 the overflow of the divine love, shed abroad in his nature. His growth 
 in grace is the unfolding of the supernatural life." . . . 
 
 When the illumined eye of the spirit is enabled to apprehend the 
 universe as filled and lighted by the divine Presence, the whole takes 
 on a new significancy and sacredness. Nothing is any longer common 
 or unclean. All is sacred. One no longer has to pass beyond the veil 
 into the holy of holies, in this tabernacle of God, to find him. He is 
 without, in the court of the Gentiles, as well. He does not have to set 
 apart special times and seasons that haply he may find him, for he finds 
 
SERMONS. 255 
 
 him in every day and in every place, by land and sea, in the dusty high- 
 ways and in business marts of life, as well as in closet, or cloister, or 
 church service. Every bush becomes aflame with divine glory^ and the 
 soul, Moses-like, stands with unsandaled feet listening for its divine mis- 
 sion. It will hear in all the voices, and in all the silences, a "sound of 
 soft stillness," and, Elijah- like, stand with covered face, listening to the 
 divine teachings. Such a soul will rise above all wild passion and nar- 
 row, noisy fanaticism, which, like the prophets of Baal, seek God with 
 crying aloud, shouting, gesticulating, cutting, slashing, leaping upon the 
 altars, and all that, as if God were talking, or journeying, or, perchance, 
 sleeping. With reverent mien and hushed voice, in truthful assurance of 
 the divine Presence and power to bless with all heavenly benedictions, it 
 will seek and find. 
 
 As the spirit rises above the mist, and murk, and storm of the low, 
 and narrow, and passionate, into the clear, serene presence of the Divine, 
 it finds gentleness, peace, and sweet restfulness, unperturbed by worldly 
 turmoil, unswayed by prejudice and passion; the frivolous, the vain, the 
 unworthy, the fanatical, will beat and surge beneath unheeded. The 
 deepest, highest, divinest experiences of such a one will be unutterable 
 by the noise of speech, as were those of Paul on being caught up to the 
 third heaven. Every divinely living person becomes voiceless in pro- 
 portion to the sacredness of his experiences. Such cannot be talked. 
 When Moses returned from that forty days' communion with God on 
 the heights of Sinai, his face so radiant with the eternal glory that the 
 people could not steadfastly behold him, he veiled it, and, though the 
 outward law, amid lightning and thunder, was graven on tables of stone, 
 no talk was ever made of this indwelling and outshining glory. 
 
 6. Bcthelistic Inpiejice.—lt is by just this outshining glory that the 
 divinest experiences of life are revealed. It will shine out from all true 
 lives, through all the hindrances of ignorance, of uncongenial tempera- 
 ment, unfavorable circumstances, and reveal, by tone, and bearing, and 
 word, and purpose, and action, its essential nature. Satan, so the legend 
 runs, on a time besought God to give into his keeping Saint Benedict, 
 "the learnedly ignorant and wisely unlearned," that he might test him 
 after the manner of Job. The request was granted, and, taking him to 
 his dominions, Satan thought to corrupt him to its ways; but the silent, 
 unconscious influence of his saintly character was such that the fallen 
 spirits were irresistibly drawn to him, and began to pattern after him. 
 Satan, alarmed for the safety of his realm, besought his immediate 
 removal, lest the influence of his gentleness and heavenly grace should 
 depopulate hell. 
 
286 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 This legend aptly illustrates the unconscious influence of a God- 
 entempled character. . . . 
 
 This gracious power comes not to those who seek as observers, who 
 seek something to tell, and to talk about, but rather to lowly, simple, 
 pure, open-souled, sincere ones, who are content to "know and be 
 unknown" in all divine knowledges and experiences. These are the 
 "pure in heart," who see God, and God reveals himself to the world 
 through them. In and through such we find higher and diviner degrees 
 of greatness than worldly wisdom and culture and experience can give. 
 This influence discards all worldly trappings and circumstance. This 
 ineffable union of God with man by his indwelling Spirit, is that divine- 
 human life which Christ came to reingenerate humanity with, and wher- 
 ever found touches with new life and spiritual beauty, and gives infallible 
 assurance that God walks the earth again in the person of his child. As 
 lole said she knew Hercules to be a god, because " he conquered, whether 
 he .stood, or walked, or sat, or whatever thing he did," so these highest 
 and divinest types conquer, not through much speaking in public gather- 
 ings and on the corners of the streets, or in the market place, but silently, 
 yet speaking eloquently, irresistibly, whether standing, or sitting, or 
 walking, in all commonest deeds. It is given only when we ha\'e entered 
 the closet of our being, as Jesus tells us, and shut tight the door against 
 all outside influences. Then does the hearing and answering God reward 
 us openly by the outshining "in soft stillness" of his life in our lives. 
 Whenever and to whomsoever the divine One is thus revealed, there 
 appears the mount of transfiguration, with all celestial beings and influ- 
 ences bright and shining. 
 
 Such a one carries the fragrance and glories of heaven wherever he 
 goes. Such lives unconsciously touch the springs of life in others, and are 
 thus ever propagating themselves by the great and pervasive law of silent 
 influence. Such influence comes like the dew of heaven, softly, imper- 
 ceptibly, yet cooling the feverish, reviving the drooping. It carries heal- 
 ing on its wings. It is noiseless as gravity, and as ever active. Like 
 light from a luminous center, it streams out upon all within its sweep. 
 Its possessors are indeed "the light of the world." They are the lights 
 set on a hill that cannot be hid. As in the material world, so in the 
 spiritual, where the light is most radiant, the shadows fall the deepest, 
 and those in the gloom of these shadows can best realize the ble.ssings of 
 the beneficent light, while the lights themselves may be all unconscious 
 of this benignity. 
 
 7. Betliciistic Workers. — As in unconscious influence, so in voluntary 
 
SERMONS. 287 
 
 work, the highest and divinest is the most quiet, without any loud report 
 of itself. As we rise in the scale of activities through all realms, the 
 working powers ever decrease in noise and tumult as they increase in 
 ■energy and efficiency. The serene activities are those which tell for the 
 higher good. God works in infinite quietness, yet in infinite power, save 
 when his power is disturbed or opposed by the imperfect or the wicked. 
 The noisy and the turbulent are the baneful. Truth, right, beauty, good- 
 ness, in their essential normal activites, are peaceful and beneficent. 
 Thus it is with human activity. The gentle, serene activities are those 
 which ever make for good. The bustling, the noisy, money-getting, war, 
 politics, spnng from the lower and coarser wants and propensities, while 
 culture, refinement, religion, come, as do light and life, in still streams, 
 and like them tell for all that is cleanest, fairest, and best. These are 
 embosomed in undying beauties. These grow as the trees grow. . . . 
 
 8. Bctlidistic Peace. — Lives ensphered, motived, and missioned of 
 God become partakers of his own peace. "Peace, be still," comes as a 
 command to all the lower, tumultuous passions, comes as a benediction 
 to the spirits lighted by the Sun of Righteousness, as they fulfill their 
 appointed mission. As a bell ringing out clear and distinct, through fog 
 and mist, is the voice of such to the cloud-enveloped world. Such lives 
 are no longer nettled and stung, rasped and bittered. Without this 
 inliving and ensphering peace of God, even our reforms, our benevolences, 
 our religious enterprises are liable to degenerate into anxieties, rivalries, 
 and worries, full of ponderous machinery, whose thud and clatter drown 
 all of the sweeter, gentler, diviner influences. . . . We need to learn 
 that to plant, and nurture, and grow truth is the surest way to root out 
 error. This is the divine method. Plant, water, and hoe, and God will 
 supply the sun, and dew, and rain, and give the increase. If you wish 
 your fire to burn brightly, be not continually poking and punching it. 
 Learn to "labor and to wait." Rise above the damps and fogs, out of 
 the clays and clogs of earth, into the dry, clear air, pure light, and calm 
 breezes, that reign in the spiritual realm, where all is "eternal, beautiful, 
 serene, sublime." 
 
 9. Betlielistic Joy. — To this peace there is added the positive, the 
 higher element, divine joy. When the soul is entirely entempled of God, 
 and working on the plane of his purpose, and with the inspirations of 
 his Spirit, divine ardors then fill all its sails, imparting joy, which the 
 world can neither give nor take, transcending all worldly happiness as 
 the spiritual transcends the animal. A spirit thus attuned becomes an 
 instrument through which all heavenly harmonies play. . . . This is the 
 
288 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 peace, joy,wKich Christ bequeathed to his followers, and which the Divine 
 Comforter when it comes shall make complete. It was for this joy that 
 he "endured the cross, despising the shame." It was this same joy that 
 lifted the apostles above burdens, toils, persecutions, all manner of 
 temptations. It has enabled all like minded, motived, and empowered, to 
 work their work with a steady, strong hand and joyous heart. However 
 care-encumbered and work-weary, however heavily life's burdens may 
 press, this joy perpetually refreshes and invigorates. Though called to 
 walk the world's hot lava beds, walk with blistering feet, or to struggle 
 on benumbed by the world's fogs and damps, yet this divine joy will 
 triumph over all. It lifts above all despondencies, glooms, disappoint- 
 ments, sicknesses, forsakings, losses, lifts into the sweet peace of the 
 divine airs and the joyous radiance of the divine light. It enables the 
 willing and the receptive spirit to mount as on eagle wing, to run without 
 fainting, to work without wearying. 
 
 Young friends, as you are soon to pass from these halls of learning, 
 you find yourselves just entering the vestibule of your life-work. The 
 realization of your hopes, the fulfillment of your mission is yet seen 
 only dimly in the distance. The first pages only of your life's history 
 have as yet been written. Your heavenly Father made your lives to be 
 sublime, even divine. They are full of opportunites, splendid possibilities, 
 which once let slip can never be recalled. The undaunting assurance of 
 something better than anything yet attained is a great and determining 
 force in all effort. Add to this the experimental assurance that you are 
 agencies of a living, present, guiding divinity, and you become empow- 
 ered from on high to work your work. Let your lives be filled and 
 motived of God, and they will move on unfalteringly, trustfully, bravely. 
 As no soul is utterly desolate as long as there is one being in whom it 
 can trust, so no soul whose trust is in God can be without consolation, 
 yea, peace, joy, ever filled with the divine ardors. Talent, wit, learning, 
 genius, sentiment, sympathy, love, will all be ennobled, glorified. 
 
 In after years as you recall your school friends, you will find some 
 passing their lives in affluence and ease, some struggling and harried with 
 penury and sickness, some whose morning sun promised a resplendent 
 noon, hidden by the clouds of inglorious inactivity, some given to clean- 
 handed honor and self-forgetting heroisms, while a few, standing on the 
 high places of the earth, on the headlands of progress, are beckoning 
 their fellows to follow. . . . 
 
 Remember that the richest and worthiest legacy you can bequeath to 
 the world is a noble character. No character is great save as it embodies 
 
SERMONS. 289 
 
 and realizes great principles. These principles must, however, be ener- 
 gized by the Divine Presence and power in order to give them vitality^ 
 growth, and fruitage. One thus endued has something better and greater 
 than talents, wealth, learning, or position, something that enables him to 
 walk the world open-eyed, calm-browed, serene-souled, and departing to 
 leave a legacy more enduring than stiver or gold, marble or granite, 
 something that shall grow in evergreen beauty, and bear fruit for the 
 healing of humanity. 
 
 As my last word to you, permit me to give expression to the prayer 
 and the hope that, as you go forth into the wide world, you may find it 
 everywhere and at all times a bethel, with angels ascending and descend- 
 ing all along life's pathway. May you ever be entempled of God, and 
 your lives, your influence be continuous manifestations of his living pres- 
 ence — full of infinite peace and joy — joy that shall be a constant foretaste 
 of that awaiting you when you shall be gathered home to heaven, where 
 the river of life runs clear and perpetual, where the tree of life is ever 
 in bloom and in fruit, where there is no night, nor need of lamp or sun, 
 for the Lord God shall give you light, and you shall reign forever and 
 ever. Amen. 
 
 THE SHEKINAH. 
 
 [Baccalaureate sermon before the graduating class of Alfred University, July i, 1883.] 
 The Shekinah was the appellation given in the Targum and by the 
 later Hebrews and the early Christians to the Divine Presence, revealed 
 in visible glory, majesty, and power, inclusive, in its larger sense, of those 
 manifold manifestations expressed in symbols of light, fire, flame, and 
 cloud, oftentimes with attendant evangels of God, bearing messages, com- 
 missions, protection, and guidance to men. The term originated as a 
 periphrasis for God, considered as dwelling with his people, to avoid 
 ascribing to him corporeity. 
 
 The Shekinah, in this inclusive sense, becomes symbol of divine and 
 angelic agencies, which have been ever with and about man, coming and 
 dwelling and going on these spiritual messages. Its cherubim, with 
 flaming sword, have guarded the Edens of innocence, its voice of gentle 
 stillness imparted inspirations, its burning bush given commission, its 
 pillar of cloud and of fire guarded and guided, its cloud of glory enfolded 
 the Sinais of law and the mounts of transfiguration, filled tabernacles and 
 temples and overshadowed the mercy seats, its fires lighted altars of sac- 
 
 19 
 
290 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 rifice and devotion, its chariots and horses appeared on the heights, 
 casting the sheen of their glory over the vales of life, its evangels pro- 
 claimed peace and glad tidings, its cloven tongues of flame preached in 
 manifold tongues, its heavenly splendors made glorious the mounts of 
 ascension. 
 
 The bale-fires of evil, on the other hand, have gleamed lurid from all 
 the fen-lands of error, from off all the passion-driven seas of wrong. The 
 mission of their devotees is negative and destructive. Without supplying 
 their places with better principles or nobler institutions for the resting of 
 faith or clustering of sympathy, they deny or doubt all the innate and 
 firmest beliefs in God and great principles, demolish sacred and cherished 
 institutions. Carpings, threatenings, rash innovations, noisy fanaticisms, 
 wild ultraisms characterize their pseudo-systems. Scylla and Charybdis 
 threaten their course, with no safe seas beyond. The sirocco's deadly 
 breath sweeps before them. Smouldering ruins, blackened and charred 
 by the fires of strife and war, mark their track. 
 
 Man, left to himself, wanders amid doubt, temptation and darkness. 
 He feels the latent energies of his being awakening and becoming restless 
 and active. The world, with the wand of its enchantment, touches all 
 his senses. Vague yearnings and aimless seeking control him. Wild 
 dreams beget fitful activities. He attains and is unsatisfied, enjoys and 
 is ungratified. His wayward impulses lead to multitudinous schemes. 
 Land and sea are traversed in search of something to meet the cravings 
 of the spirit; yet, when the utmost that the world can give, is obtained, 
 all turns to bitterness — to apples of Sodom. He is left still poor and 
 craving, while the waves of time, with their ceaseless ebb and flow, wash 
 the sands of life from under his feet. The soul, tempest-tossed, like a 
 ship in a night of storm, with its compass unbo.xed, its rudder gone, its 
 lights extinguished, drifting, amid shriek of wind and howl of waves, hard 
 upon destruction, must have help to reach a haven of safety. 
 
 Merely human aid is not sufficient. Man soon outgrows his self- 
 constructed systems of help. He needs and seeks something which, 
 rising above simply the pleasure of fancy, the gratification of the taste 
 for beauty, or enlightenment to the reason, shall lead the spirit up in per- 
 petual aspiration and endeavor. Scientific, literary, aesthetic, and philo- 
 sophic culture have sought in vain to meet this high and imperative 
 need of man. In addition have come the ethenic religions of the world. 
 These, while possessing many ennobling elements, have been lacking in 
 those living energies that give perpetual progress; hence, when peoples, 
 like those grand old nations — Chaldea, Egypt, India, Persia — came up to 
 
SERMONS. 291 
 
 the limit of the progressive forces of theirs, thenceforward immobihty and 
 decay set in. Such is the result in all systems and religions not of God, 
 and guarded and guided by his Shekinab. 
 
 The Shekinah comes to man's needs, with its protection and help ; to 
 his faculty for spiritual commerce and supernatural beholding, with its 
 illuminations and revelations; to his aspirations, with its inspirations; to 
 his endeav^ors, with its guidance. To each one, not hiding himself away, 
 as God walks in the garden of the soul, but yielding reverent trust and 
 glad obedience, it becomes a pillar of cloud and of fire, giving assurance 
 that, whatever befalls, it will be his front and rear guard, and that its 
 angels shall uphold and strengthen. With the Psalmist he can sa}': 
 "The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer," "my buckler," 
 and "my high tower." "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. 
 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the 
 still waters." 
 
 The Shekinah, in the night watches of adversity, becomes a pillar of 
 fire, lighting up the gloom and blackness, wherein we should otherwise 
 grope and fall. It stands a wall of darkness before all foes. Its light 
 discloses heights and depths of the divine compassion, unseen in the day- 
 light of prosperity. As the night, with its stars, reveals an infinitude of 
 worlds, undreamed of by day, so the Shekinah that lights the night 
 encampments of adversity and suffering, reveals infinitudes of divine 
 mercy, unperceived in the sunshine of prosperity. When the world for- 
 sakes, foes press, friends prove false, slander and falsehood pursue, povert}' 
 and want annoy, sickness lays low, pain tortures, death removes the light 
 of life, and the eyes become dim with weeping, and the voice full of tears, 
 then the Shekinah light of divine love and mercy shines down upon the 
 soul, with its before unmanifested healing and peace-giving consolations. 
 In all life's fiery furnace the form of the Fourth is ever walking with the 
 trustful to deliver. The confidence of the Psalmist becomes his, and he 
 can sing: "Yea, though I walk through the valley and shadow of death, 
 I will fear no evil; for thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." 
 
 The Shekinah is not simply a guarding but likewise a guiding provi- 
 dence. Its guide of the Hebrew people is typical of the divine dealings 
 with all peoples and all individuals. Following its command to go for- 
 ward, they were led from servitude up to Sinai and the law, up to nation- 
 ality and freedom, up to the gospel dispensation, opening the way to 
 modern Christian civilization. All human history, under the guidance 
 of the Shekinah, is ever working out the divine purpose. Paul, in his 
 declaration that nations were created and located to the end of seeking 
 God, teaches this doctrine. 
 
292 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 Thus, Shekinah led, humanity has ever been multiplying, replenishing, 
 conquering. Its progress, Hebrew like, has not been one uninterrupted 
 progress. Its victories have not been without their defeats. Its battles 
 have often wavered and failed, but to be renewed till victory be won. It 
 oftentimes has returned upon its track. Oftentimes, with parched lips, 
 footsore steps, fevered brow, and fainting heart, it has trailed its weary 
 way across th"e arid wastes of far-reaching deserts, and up Sinaitic heights, 
 through hot and pestilential climes, through frigid zones, with their night 
 and cold. Humanity, though wandering, wavering, halting, fainting, has 
 made progress. Centuries may have rolled away while taking this for- 
 ward step, while gaining a new height, yet the step has been taken, the 
 height gained. In its progress it has lifted its hand in labor, and islands 
 and continents have been peopled; cities, nations, empires have arisen. 
 It has given its brain to thought, and new truths, sciences, arts, and 
 industries have appeared. The resultant is civilization. In this pre- 
 visional planning and providential care and guidance of God, peoples, 
 nations, families, with all their achievements in civilization, are agencies 
 with which he is working for the highest good of the individual, — per- 
 sonal perfection. . . 
 
 The Shekinah, to a spirit waiting, longing, Elijah-like, in a voice of 
 soft stillness speaks with a divine behest, calling to life's mission. On 
 the Horebs of life, in the higher moods of the spirit, when it stands with 
 uncovered head and unsandaled feet, the Shekinah call is heard from 
 every flaming bush of opportunity. It is befitting that, not in the fire 
 and whirlwind and storm of appetite, ambition, and passion, but in such 
 calm and receptive moments, the high commission should come. This 
 call and commission come not alone to the great world leaders, teachers, 
 legislators, prophets, apostles, reformers, but as well to the humblest 
 livers and doers, in all conditions and pursuits in life. 
 
 Each individual has a personal call and commission, and, in order to 
 make it the most effective possible, this call is to a definite life-work- 
 This is a divine archetypal biography, which, if lived out, will lead nearer 
 and more near to the divinely perfect forevermore. Here lies the line of 
 march toward this land of promise. The special polarities of each indi- 
 vidual are attracted, as the needle to the loadstone, to this line, awaken- 
 ing aspirations, enkindling longings, determining endeavors. These 
 become so many censers upon which the divine fire is to be lighted. 
 Strong, many-handed workers in the versatile utilities and multitudinous 
 enterprise; sincere truth and law seekers and doers of right and justice; 
 steady-eyed, clear-visioned, cool-iicaded, sure-footed leaders and guides; 
 
SERMONS. 2'93 
 
 lives delicate, fragrant, melodious, harmonious; joyous lives, which are 
 a ceaseless benediction, full of all gentle amenities; gracious lives, rich in 
 long-suffering, compassion, and charity; lives of faith, trustful, serene, 
 who dwell in a perpetual Sabbath of the soul — to all these the Shekinah 
 gives commission to help human endeavor; to lift ignorance and wrong, 
 as day lifts the veil of night; to lead through swamp, over desert, up 
 mountain, in human progress ; to teach beauty, as do the delicacy of the 
 violet, the fragrance of the rose, the melody of the aeolian harp, the 
 grandeur of the cedars of Lebanon, or the oaks of Bashan; to reconcile 
 discords, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, carry healing and health to 
 the wounded in spirit, administering oil and balm; to give the rest and 
 peace and joy of religious trust. 
 
 The Shekinah, in calling to and preparing for these respective mis- 
 sions, meets man with all his varying degrees of capacity, and at all points 
 of progress, walks carefulU' with the feeble in mental grasp or low in 
 culture, thence through all ranges of capacity and stages of culture and 
 progress, satisfies all spiritual needs, leads up to higher planes, and opens 
 wider, ever ascending, and diviner prospects. It touches every field of 
 learning, and invigorates every noble enterpri.se. It innovates, not by 
 simply tearing down, but lays deeper and broader foundations, and uprears 
 nobler structures, not by destroying or petrifying, but rather it gives life, 
 growth, progress. Its reformatory processes are, indeed, sometimes very 
 fiery furnaces, but thereby smelting the pure ore from the dross. Its 
 light, pure, bright, penetrating, wards off mildew and rust, and awakens 
 earnest seeking, before which parties, sects, and creeds, with their lob- 
 sided, partial, and stereotyped opinions, forms, and formulas, must give 
 way. ... 
 
 The Shekinah, in doing this, leads from the animal to the spiritual, 
 from the human to the divine. As the progress of humanity is from 
 savagism up through barbarism to the highest forms of civilization, so is 
 the progress of each individual ever from the lower to the higher. As 
 Israel went from bondage up through the dispensation of legality to 
 usher in the dispensation of grace, so each soul is led from the bondage 
 of sin up past Sinai, with its thunders of "thou shalt and thou shalt not;" 
 up to the Mount of Beatitudes, with its blessings of mercy; up to the 
 mount of transfiguration, with its divine illuminations and heavenly vis- 
 ions; finally up the mount of ascension to heaven and God and Christ 
 and the spirits of just men made perfect. Thitherward it is the end and 
 aim of life to climb. Though the acclivities are steep and rugged; though, 
 on either hand, the declivities are threatening; though appetite and ease 
 
294 lifp: of president allen. 
 
 and emolument and ambition tempt to halt or turn; thoui^h garments be 
 worn and ragged, feet and hands bleeding, tongue parched and swollen, 
 forehead dripping with sweat, eyes wet with tears, yet the Shekinah 
 is ever visible on the serene heights, and help and consolation shall come. 
 Hunger shall be satisfied with divine manna, thirst slaked with waters 
 from the smitten rock, feet shod with sandals that wax not old. bodies 
 clad with vestures that fade nor fail not. As the devotees at Rome 
 climbed on their knees and in prayer the stairs up which Jesus went to 
 his trial before Pilate and adown which he returned the Great Con- 
 demned, for the world's acquittal, so each Shekinah-legl soul must climb 
 the stairs of life, prayerfully, tearfully, yet which, like Jacob's ladder, lead 
 heavenward, with angels ascending and descending, and God standing 
 above to approve and bless. 
 
 The Shekinah, in leading the Hebrews, led them in the line of the 
 divine movements, and thereby they became the forerunners of the high- 
 est forms of human progress, gave law and religion to the world, and as 
 the outcome, modern civilization, with all its splendid achievements. Blot 
 out the Hebrews from the world and the highest results of civilization 
 will be blotted out. .So each nation and individual who follow the lead 
 of the Shekinah have the full assurance that they are marching the same 
 way that God is marching, and that they will be colaborers with him in 
 the furtherance of his ends. All toil, all sacrifice, all minutest forms of 
 work, on this line, will not be in vain. Each laborer, however humble 
 his lot, has the assurance that he is working with and for God. All 
 law, all providence are his aids and abettors, and God himself will 
 see that the results are not lost, but work together for good. Such assur- 
 ance gives confidence and courage amid trial and difificulty, hope amid 
 darkness and disappointment. The light of the divine approval shines 
 through all, and makes all luminous and joyous. 
 
 The Shekinah-ensphered and guided worker receives a present and 
 glorious reward in his subjective culture and growth. Its indwelling 
 light and life are not merely a reforming, but an informing, transforming 
 power, configuring more and more into the divine image, as the years go 
 by, shining in the countenance, irradiating the eye, modulating the voice, 
 and ennobling the whole bearing and deportment. It removes all stale- 
 ness and barrenness from life, making it fresh, filling and flooding the soul 
 with divine rest, perpetual joy, and unwearying vigor. . . . 
 
 The Shekinah-enfolding, interpenetrating, and transforming life, and 
 all of its relations and activities, will enable one to convert its longings 
 into a divine offering, holy and acceptable. As the Shekinah fires 
 
SERMONS. 295 
 
 descended upon the sacrificial altar of Elijah at Carmel, and converted 
 altar, water, dust, into pure sacrificial fire and flame, so too in this state of 
 attainment, all life, with its activities and conditions, will be converted into 
 pure spiritual flame, smokeless and drossless. 
 
 These Shekinah-endued spirits became pillars of cloud and of fire to 
 the world. We walk among men with uncovered head, recognizing in 
 each the divine image, though in ruins, yet grander in its ruins than Per- 
 sepolis, Karnak, or Parthenon. When the divine image has been restored 
 and made glorious by the indwelling Shekinah, then this sad respect is 
 changed to glad reverence. In ancient and medieval times the halo seen, 
 as a natural phenomenon, encircling the human shadow upon the dewy 
 grass, was supposed to betoken saintliness. Hence, the old painters were 
 wont to surround Christ, the apostles, and eminent saints with a like 
 aureola, as emblem of the divine glory. Such a halo is, by the eyes of 
 the Spirit, seen encircling every saintly soul as it radiates the divine 
 glory in all its living and doing. . . . Life may be a failure, as the . 
 world counts failure and success, yet it may be blessed with all the beati- 
 tudes which Christ pronounced upon the citizens of his kingdom. As the 
 dove descended upon Jesus at his baptism, so the Shekinah descends upon 
 the regenerate, dwelling and outshining from life and deed. The divine 
 glory manifested at the transfiguration of Jesus was a type of which all 
 saintly lives become a faint expression. To each beholder such lives 
 become transcendently more beautiful and glorious than the beauty and 
 glory of landscape, or of the morning and evening and the changing 
 seasons, or the beauty of the artistic devices of human skill. They 
 outrival the grandeur and sublimity of cataract or mountain — all material 
 things. 
 
 Young friends, you who now, having completed the prescribed course 
 of college study, stand on the threshold, ready to go out to life's work, 
 in your respective missions, have higher privileges, more varied and rich 
 opportunities, a more advanced position, than any who have gone before. 
 The long and weary way already trodden, the rugged heights already 
 gained, the achievements already won, are all in your favor. . . . 
 
 The great work of evangelizing, enlightening, and civilizing the world 
 is yet in its youth. Humanity is just awakening from its slumbers. The 
 world's work is in its early hours. The mists of ignorance are beginning 
 to leave the morning sky. The song birds of promise are chanting their 
 matin hymns. In this morning light the fields of labor stretch wide and 
 inviting. The workers will find vast and fertile fields still untouched by 
 the plowshare of culture, still unreclaimed from barbarism. There are 
 
296 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 greater conquests yet to be made in the domain of thought than ever was 
 made by a Caesar or an Alexander in the domain of empire. The achieve- 
 ments in these manifold fields will be greatly more abundant in times 
 future than they have been in times past. Coming laborers will work 
 from higher vantage ground than past laborers. Education will have 
 more efficient agents, more ample means for diffusing its blessing.s — better 
 schools, larger funds, abler instructors, increased number of youth— than 
 hitherto. Science and art and invention and discovery are to make sur- 
 passingly greater conquests. The treasures and forces of nature are to 
 become more and more the servants of man. Reforms will battle more 
 effectually the mas.sive and adamantine strongholds of error and wrong. 
 Philanthropy will relieve more completely human want and woe. Reli- 
 gion will fill the earth with its evangels of peace and good will, bearing 
 glad tidings. 
 
 Go you then forth into these glorious fields of labor and of promise, 
 with an utter surrender of your personal aims of life and its ongoings to 
 the good guidance of the Shekinah of God. The perfection of your life- 
 work will not consist in simple execution, not in sharpness of eye, dex- 
 terity of hand, but in exaltation of aim and fervor of spirit, born of the 
 indwellihg Shekinah, whereby the dray carts of unfaith become changed 
 into the chariots of fire of a living faith, and all your life and life's work 
 transfigured. May the Shekinah guard and guide you up the Horeb of 
 life's divine call and commission; up the Sinai of life's divine behest and 
 obligation ; up the mount of life's divine beatitudes of mercy and forgiv- 
 ing grace; up the Hermon of life's divine transfiguration; and, finally, 
 when life's marches and battles are ended and its conquests won, up the 
 Olivet of life's divine ascension to thrones of power and glory, eternal in 
 the heavens. Amen. 
 
SERMONS. 297 
 
 THE MINISTRY OF BEAUTY. 
 
 [Baccalaureate sermon, preached before the graduathig class of Alfred University, 
 June 22, 1884.] 
 Ps. 90: 17: " Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us." 
 The Hebrew seer and Psalmist, while comparatively unmindful of the 
 beauty of the material world, beheld wondrous beauty and glory in the 
 Lord, in his goodness, holiness, majesty, and power, in Zion, the "per- 
 fection of beauty," in the services of the sanctuary, in the feet upon the 
 mountains that bring good tidings of peace, in the meek, beautified with 
 salvation — in all modes and manifestations of spiritual beauty. 
 
 JV/ia^, Then, Is Beauty?— \n the efforts that have been made, through 
 the ages, to find its nature, principles, and laws, manifold are the ques- 
 tions that have arisen, puzzled, and divided philosophers. Is it, as held 
 by Plato, the first to attempt its solution, a species of the good, and a 
 branch of ethics? Is it grounded in unity and variety? Is its origin to 
 be found in order and regularity, symmetry and proportion ? Is it in the 
 sentiment springing from association? Is it in truth and genuineness? 
 Is it in fitness and functional use? Is it in the manifestation of the spirit- 
 ual through the physical? Is it the revelation of ideal perfections in and 
 through the finite? These are some of the questions that have graveled 
 and divided the students of beauty. 
 
 Beauty, as we conceive it, is an expression of the perfect. This man- 
 ifestation, when apprehended by man, awakens aesthetic sentiments. 
 God is perfect. His ideals, laws, activities are all perfect. The manifes- 
 tations of these perfections, through finite symbols, constitute beauty. 
 These perpetually pervade the universe. Their grace configures all' 
 forms. Their glory is the sheen of all light and color. Their harmony 
 is the music trembling round the world. The train of their holiness 
 sweeps through the temple of the universe. 
 
 All beauty has a divine and a human side. This, again, is both sub- 
 iective and objective— ideal and real. Ideal beauty can find expression 
 only in and through realities. Real beauty is thus the manifestation of 
 embodied ideal beauty. The divine ideals partake of the divine perfec- 
 tions; human ideals partake of human imperfections. Realities, whether 
 the product of divine or human power, partake of the imperfect; the 
 former, from the finite limitations imposed upon creation, as well as from 
 the intractableness of the materials and opposing influences; the latter, 
 from the superadded imperfections both of man's ideals and of his activ- 
 ities. Hence, all realities are of imperfect beauty. Ideal beauty is, not 
 
298 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 what is expressed in the real, but what would be, if the ideal could be 
 perfectly embodied. Thus beauty has a threefold manifestation — the 
 divine ideals, the perfect, human ideals, the imperfect, and the real, in 
 which these are imperfectly embodied. This embodied, imperfect beauty 
 has, however, always and everywhere, the splendor of the perfect illumin- 
 ing it. Perfect beauty is the unobtained, lying beyond the attained, 
 which the seeker is ever approaching, but never attaining. . . . 
 
 No scene in nature, no work of art, no music, oratory, or poetry, no 
 deed, life, or character, is so perfect but the imagination, touched and 
 kindled by the actual, sees the still more perfect. Thus nothing is 
 truly beautiful that does not kindle the imagination, awakening the ideal, 
 in which shines the light of the perfect. All nature has this trend 
 towards the higher and perfect. In this upward tendency the more 
 complex, differentiated, and individualized each object becomes, the more 
 spiritual is the expression. From atom, fluid, crystal, vegetal, animal, to 
 spirit, there is an upward gradiant and a higher type of beauty. The 
 highest earthly type is in man, because in him is expressed the most 
 life, personality, spirituality. The same holds in all activities and arts. 
 They increase in beauty as they increase in the capacity of expressing 
 high spiritual sentiments, and those are the highest which reveal most 
 spirit. This is eminently true in respect to that highest of all life-work, 
 that art of arts, character making. Of all beautiful products, that of a 
 beautiful character stands preeminent. As all lower forms of physical 
 beauty center and culminate in man physical, so do all spiritual truths, 
 laws, and influences, and activities culminate and crown in character. 
 
 Again, in this ascending scale, beauty is in proportion to the expres- 
 sion, not in individual peculiarities, but of the characteristics of the spe- 
 cies or type. In proportion as an individual embodies and expresses in 
 himself the archetypal plan of the species, does he rise in the scale of 
 beauty. Beauty and science thus have a common root. When the ideal 
 type is complete in the individual, perfect beauty is attained. Thus was 
 Shakespeare one of the most intellectually aesthetic of men, expressing, 
 as he did, in his many-powered intellect not simply the mental forces of 
 an individual, or age, or race, but of all men in all ages and races. Thus 
 was Pericles the most gracefully beautiful of men. He represented not 
 merely Grecian grace, but human grace at its best. Jesus, the most 
 beautiful character of time, embodied in himself not simply the moral 
 beauty of the Hebrew character, but the typical, spiritual beauty of 
 humanity in all races and times Hence it is that, both in art and in life, 
 the completest beauty is attained not by being simply servile pre- 
 
SERMONS. 299 
 
 Raphaelistic copyists of an individual scene, or person, or character, 
 but by selecting and combining the perfections of many, rejecting the 
 imperfections. 
 
 The outcome of these principles, laws, and tendencies, is an ascent 
 from the particular, accidental, and individual, to the generic, typical, and 
 universal; from the lower to the higher; from the indefinite to the defi- 
 nite; from the physical to the spiritual; from the real to the ideal; from 
 the imperfect tQ the perfect. In this realm is attained the "beauty of 
 holiness," the "perfection of beauty." Here beauty, holiness, perfection, 
 are, at root, synonymous terms. They are simply different ways of look- 
 ing at, and different modes of explaining, the same essential spiritual 
 excellency. As the rainbow unravels the three primary colors, with their 
 secondary modifications, of a beam of pure white light, so these three 
 give the essential elements, with their modifications, of complete spiritual 
 worthiness. The perfect is the complete; the holy is the whole; the 
 healthy, free of all impurities. The beautiful is both completeness of 
 being, and its healthy, symmetrical, and harmonius activity. It has been 
 a mooted question which is the ultimate end of all spiritul seeking and 
 endeavor, the ultimate good of existence — the beautiful, the holy, or perfect. 
 That is to say, should spiritual perfection be sought to the end of getting 
 the "beauty of holiness," or holiness be sought to the end of getting the 
 "perfection of beauty," or should beauty be sought to the end of getting 
 the holiness of perfection ? The importance of this query fades away 
 when we come to apprehend them as but different manifestations of the 
 same essential attribute. Then trinity becomes unity; when life is guided 
 by the behests of law, then holiness gives light to the vision. When 
 viewed in its ideal unity, proportion, symmetry, and harmony, then beauty 
 fills the sight; when the ultimate attainment is considered, then perfection 
 becomes the "light of life." In short, no character can be ideally beau- 
 tiful without the holiness of perfection, nor holy without the "perfection 
 of beauty," nor perfect without the "beauty of holiness." 
 
 Be Ye, Therefore, Perfeet hi the Beauty of Holiness. — This is the high 
 behest resting upon all spirits. This behest is heard in the calm, high 
 court of conscience, in many voiced nature, in all noble lives, in all the 
 divine perfections. 
 
 To aid in the attainment of this perfection, all things are to the intent 
 of ministries, workers together for good, to man. Utilities, truths, laws, 
 joys, sorrows, beauty, religion, throng about him, standing as ministering 
 agencies, appointed to his service. In this ministry the lower is the 
 servant of the higher. Even the earth -bounded and life-limited utilities. 
 
300 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 food and drink, clothing and shelter, toil and rest, gain and loss, health 
 and sickness, want and wealth, when rightly accepted, appropriated, and 
 used, yield experience, insight, patience, wisdom, ampler power, higher 
 character — thus spiritual beauty. Above these utilities there ever spans 
 the ideal life, to which all things light and lead the way. Fortunate the 
 one who, awakening to life's realities, stands revealed to himself, over- 
 spanned and encircled b}'- the ideal life of home, amid gentle domesticities 
 and amenities, surrounded by purity, peace, industry, honesty, intelligence, 
 and religion, wherein are harmoniously grouped and blended innocent 
 infancy, ardent and aspiring youth, earnest manhood, silvery and patient 
 age — all lighted and led by high ideals, responsive to the awakening 
 spirit, tremulous with joy, singing as the birds sing, blooming in beauty 
 as do the flowers. The best and the highest culture does not come from 
 books and schools. The amount of soulhood is not determined by 
 abstract knowledge, but is received and imparted as the flowers impart 
 odor, the sun light, all nature beauty, — unconsciously. 
 
 Seekest thou the highest and the best? The sky and flowers and 
 trees and birds can teach thee. Ah! many a man can better be spared 
 from the earth than such teachers; when the former die, a great burden 
 is lifted from the shoulders of the world; but when a noble tree is slain 
 or a flower bed robbed, mourners may well walk the streets, for great 
 though silent teachers have fallen. 
 
 In this ministry each form and mood is severally adapted to the 
 varying ages, moods, and stages of culture of the recipient of the service. 
 In the earlier years of life, before introspection begins, or the higher 
 teachings of the spiritual world are comprehended, the soul is open- 
 eyed, receptive, and responsive to all that is beautiful in nature. This 
 is one of the noblest and highest impulses of early life, and one that all 
 nature tends to foster and nurture. Then every tree and flower, every 
 sweep of meadow and woodland, every stretch of river and plain, every 
 tuneful brook and waterfall, every expanse of ocean and sky, every day 
 and night of glory or of gloom and storm, every glad morning and quiet 
 evening, throughout the varying seasons — all give culture and beauty 
 to the receptive spirit. 
 
 As years increase and life becomes care-encumbered, the outward 
 world is apt to appear barren of all but the utilities; but a soul true to 
 itself and the divinity within, rises into the higher plane of these min- 
 istries. 
 
 The lower types of beauty are preparatory and prophetic of the 
 higher, and they become helpful insomuch as they suggest and lead up 
 
SERMONS. 301 
 
 to the higher. The artist catches these suggestions and seeks to retain, 
 embody, and express the higher beauty in painting, by color ; in plastics, 
 by form; in music, by sound; ifi poetry, by word; in life, by character; 
 while the divine artist uses all these, and more, for the embodiment and 
 expression of his perfections. All nature is formful, voiceful, and lifeful, 
 with the teachings of the divine Artist, omnipresent, as he is omnipresent, 
 revealing to man lessons of highest moment. They are all apostles, 
 speaking to man in diverse tongues of the divine glories. Their speech 
 is caught up and repeated by the artist. It flames out in the soul of 
 man. All forms of physical beauty find their prototype in the soul of 
 man. He is so constituted as to spontaneously love and appropriate 
 beauty in whatever form manifested. This love is not only a fine but a 
 sacred principle of human nature. It comes as a divine ministry to this 
 characteristic of man. Its service is to the end of perfecting character. 
 Its living presence, surpassing the most ideal forms ever composed by 
 man- from earth's materials, waits upon our steps, a vision to his "faculty 
 divine." Its "eternal chimes" 
 
 "Hush in still communion that transcends 
 The imperfect offices of prayer and praise, 
 The whole mind a thanksgiving," 
 
 wherein low thoughts, low desires, have no place, for the minutest things 
 are lighted with the light of infinite perfections. 
 
 "The primal duties shine aloft like stars; 
 The charities that soothe and heal and bless 
 Are scattered at the feet of such like flowers." 
 
 Above these, new truths, great arts, sublime living, religious verities, 
 touch the spirit, as live coals from off the divine altar. When the divine 
 beatitudes kindle and shine in the higher life, then "be ye perfect" 
 becomes both a behest and an inspiration. All realities then become 
 ladders by which to climb to the perfect. In this climbing the lower 
 forces die out, and the higher become more and more established. 
 
 "Persons," says Hawthorne, "who can only be ornamental, who can 
 give the world nothing but flowers, should die young." Not a few sons 
 and daughters of the land, though they toil not, neither do they spin, 
 yet even Solomon in all his glory was -not arrayed like one of these, for 
 their fathers and mothers care for them — they, too, should die young. 
 All ornamenters, merely for ornament's sake, are deformities, and should 
 die young. 
 
 On the other hand, all who, as they grow old in years, and objects 
 lose their freshness, and they their delicacy of perception, take on the 
 
302 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 higher and more spiritual beauty, by learning, as Thoreau says, to "fish 
 in the skies, whose bottom is pebbly with stars," — such can never grow 
 old, but, freighted with the divinest treasures, they break the sea of life 
 into fadeless beauty as they sail, thrilling, enthralling, and inspiring all 
 beholders. 
 
 Reverent and unfaltering faith, and the truthful and calm assurance 
 springing therefrom, is the first essential element in such living. The 
 calm vigor of a high purpose, the restful quietude of duty fulfilled and 
 victory won, amid toil and tempest, are full of divinest beauty. A great 
 and beautiful soul is he who, in calm, serene self-poise, can keep, amid 
 the noise and bustle of the world, the clear insight of solitude, following 
 the straight and high way, in humble resignation and patience, that leads 
 the trustful soul to the presence of the living God. . . . 
 
 Such faith leads to the unselfish living born of love and devotement. 
 Many there be who consider themselves umpires of taste, who prate of 
 elegant art and aesthetic tastes, yet, instead of beautiful souls and lives 
 with deeds like fair pictures, are selfish and low, and blur everything 
 lovely and noble with which they come in contact. Many, like the pop- 
 lars of Lombardy, selfishly hug all their boughs about themselves, fit 
 only as a background to all fair scenery, or, like those of Normandy, 
 trimmed by the hand of utility of all beauty for firewood, only a top tuft 
 of deformity left. Life, like art, to be beautiful must needs, while stand- 
 ing centered and poised in the strength of the noble reverence of faith, 
 have the moral energy of unselfish purposes, and the divine glory of 
 sacrificial living. 
 
 A beautiful soul has beautiful affinities. While the ugly assimilate 
 what is ugly and evil from all conditions of life, the beautiful, from the 
 same, get beautiful results, the fragrance and sweetness of celestial flowers. 
 
 As graciousness and tender forgiveness is the crowning beauty of 
 the Lord, the crowning glory of his perfections, so are they of the human. 
 When Jesus said, "Be ye, therefore, perfect, even as your Father which 
 is in heaven is perfect," it was to be perfect in the perfection of his uncon- 
 ditioned graciousness and love, that made the sun to rise on the evil as 
 well as on the good, and sent rain on the just and unjust alike — a per- 
 fection that would lead to the love of enemies, the blessing of them that 
 curse, the doing of good to them that hate, and praying for them that 
 despitefully persecute. This is the crowning beauty of perfection and 
 the crowning perfection of beauty. When this is attained, it vitalizes the 
 whole being, becoming formative of life, architectonic of character, mould- 
 ing circumstances, shaping actions after the divine type. True, such 
 
SERMONS. 303 
 
 may not partake of the so-called "high art," which, appealing chiefly to 
 the pure intellect, is often cold, snowy, glittering, doubtless classical and 
 critical, perchance fastidious, maybe supercilious, despising the common 
 as unclean, but they partake of that simple and gentle grace which 
 attracts the great tidal waves, springing spontaneously from the common 
 joys, sorrows, and aspirations of humanity, and which light up the 
 heavens with the glow of a spiritual morning. 
 
 "Home, Sweet Home," not by its "high art." but by the tender 
 pathos of its sweet domesticity, led the world to stand, .sympathetically, 
 reverently, with uncovered head, while the ashes of the author are lifted 
 from their African resting place and borne across the ocean to their 
 American home, prepared by the hand of friendship. 
 
 John Brown, stooping on his way to the gallows to kiss the negro 
 child, made the kinship of all men to shine with new tenderness and 
 grace. 
 
 That Roman wife who, resolving to share the fate of her husband, 
 condemned to die by his own hand, and, seeing him falter at the fatal 
 moment, took the dagger from his trembling hand, and, thrusting it into 
 her own heart, returned it, dripping with her life blood, saying, " It does 
 not hurt," made the world both lovelier and grander with the heroism 
 of womanly devotion. 
 
 The widow's mite, by its feeble clink against the heavy coins in the 
 treasury, started a melody which, trembling down the ages, has swelled 
 into a magnificent anthem of thank offerings. 
 
 Mary, breaking the alabaster box, and anointing the body of Jesus 
 to the burying, spoiled, in the eyes of utility, the box and wasted the 
 ointment, costly and precious, but she filled not only the room, but the 
 world, with the sacred perfume of love. 
 
 Jesus, saying to the woman, "Neither do I condemn thee," gave 
 highest proof of his divinity, and touched the unforgivingness of human 
 nature with the tenderness and compassion of the all-merciful Father; 
 and when, on the cross, he prayed, "Father, forgive them," he set stream- 
 ing from that cross the glory of the all-forgiving Father, to light the 
 darkness of the world forevermore. 
 
 Sprinkled over the earth are a multitude of spirits whom the beauty 
 of the Lord perpetually overshadows, making radiant their being, and 
 whose lives make the world purer, sweeter, more wholesome, and giving 
 to other lives a higher, more beautiful, and diviner significance. They 
 may not be cedars of Lebanon or oaks of Bashan, crowning the heights 
 of humanity, only simple violets or clover blossoms, making sweet and 
 
304 LIFE OF PRFSIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 beautiful the highways and byways and lanes of life. It may not be 
 given them to poise or sail on steady wing, like condor or albatross, in 
 the high serene heavens, or soar sunward as the eagle, or sing skyward 
 as the lark, but they may be song sparrows or robins, furnishing music 
 and joy in multitudes of homes. If, as Keats sings 
 
 "A thing of beauty is a joy forever," 
 much more is a soul of beauty, however humble, both a joy and an inspi- 
 ration forever. 
 
 The favorites of heaven are seldom the favorites of fortune. The 
 costly monuments of our cemeteries are not so much reminders of noble 
 lives as of money. Those of the most beautiful lives may be laid away 
 in the potter's field, devoted to the stranger and the poor, with stoneless, 
 nameless graves, or graves whose inscription is 
 
 " Written with little skill of song craft, 
 Homely phrases, but each letter 
 Full of hope, and yet of heart-break, 
 Full of all the tender pathos 
 Of the here and the hereafter." 
 
 Many a life is spent like the low-lying stratus clouds, in the dull 
 everyday utilities, perhaps even full of fog and mist and sad Ossianic 
 poetry, but gradually rise a6d sit, in the evening of life, in cloud-enthroned 
 grandeur, patriarchs of the heavenly horizon, crowned with divine glories 
 of the "afterglow," as the fever heats of life flash, and the darkening 
 folds of the coming night of death gather about them. 
 
 All that is fair and beautiful, all that is fine and gracious, in our civ- 
 ilization, in which we rejoice; all that is chivalric, courteous, unselfish, 
 refined, and gentle; all the sweet and graceful amenities, elevated and 
 noble sentiments; all the religious aspirations, benevolent and sacrificial 
 doing, have sprung from and are the flowers and fruits of sublime faiths, 
 patient and lowly labors, heroic sacrifices, and the blood and ashes of 
 those who, amid the shock and strife, amid the toil and sweat of every- 
 day life, have wrought for us, and whose fallen mantles of beauty and of 
 glory are to be gathered up and worn by the toilers for the future. 
 
 Young friends, you who during these years, in these secluded, quiet, 
 and beautiful retreats, consecrated to culture, have been gathering strength 
 of intellect, beauty of life, grace of character, are soon to go forth to the 
 more active participation in this civilization. Gather up these fallen 
 mantles, and wear them worthily. Be true to your youthful ideals. 
 Youth, and especially student youth, has an ideal tendency. Heed it. 
 Cultivate it. Be true to it. Some poet has said: — 
 
SERMONS. 305 
 
 " I remember, when I think, 
 That my youth was half divine." 
 
 This high ideal tendency and aspiration is the crown of glory to 
 youth. Plato, I think it was, wished he were the heavens, that he might 
 look down upon his youthful students with a thousand admiring and 
 approving eyes. Every true teacher has, I apprehend, a similar fueling. 
 As the artist seeks ideal beauty in the realm of material things, seek 
 ye it in the realm of the spiritual, and express it in your lives and char- 
 acters. This is the more transcendent, as spirit is more transcendent than 
 matter. While all purposeless, inactive lives are inherently ugly, all 
 girded loins, burning lamps, and earnest endeavor, however humble, are 
 beautiful. When the clouds of life gather, as they will, "hang them," 
 as one has finely said, "about you with their silver linings outward, that 
 the world may see the true beauty that even sorrow can work out." 
 
 I have attempted to show that the highest quality of perfection, 
 either divine or human, is love, beneficence, self-forgetting ministry. All 
 perfection in quality ever aspires to perfection in quantity. As the young 
 pine, though perfect in kind, climbs skyward, till it attains the full measure 
 of grace and majesty of the mature tree, so let your spirits grow towards 
 absolute perfection, or the "beauty of holiness," which, though never 
 reaching you, will be ever approaching. All the realities of life and of 
 eternity will furnish the ladder wherewith to climb. And as the " River 
 of Time" bears you onward — 
 
 "And the width of the waters, the hush 
 
 Of the gray expanse where you float, 
 
 Freshening its current and spotted with foam 
 
 As it draws to the ocean, may strike 
 
 Peace to the soul as it floats on its breast 
 
 As the pale waste widens around. 
 
 As the banks fade dimmer away, 
 
 As the stars come out, and the night wind 
 
 Brings up the stream 
 
 Murmurs and scents of the infinite sea," 
 
 may the "beauty of the Lord our God" be upon you, and lighten this 
 infinite sea with "the glory of God, which doth lighten" the eternal and 
 beautiful city, the New Jerusalem. Amen. 
 
306 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 THE MINISTRY OF dOY AND SORROW. 
 
 [Baccalaureate sermon, delivered before the graduating class of Alfred University, 
 June 21, 1885.] 
 
 "Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despis- 
 ing the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God." Heb. 12:2. 
 
 "God covers himself with hght, as with a garment," says the Psalm- 
 ist, and it has been taught that this light is but "luminous shadows" to 
 the ineffable glory of the Godhead, becoming less luminous and more 
 shadowy as it streams outward and downward into the lower and 
 grosser forms of the universe. The supernal joys that thrill beatified 
 spirits are but the luminous shadows of the perfection of holiness, shad- 
 owing down through all the lower ranges of happiness and of sadness, 
 till they are lost in the'darkness and gloom of sorrow. Wherever are the 
 perfections of holiness, there attend, as ministries, the luminous shadows 
 of joy; wherever are imperfections and sin, there attend the darkening 
 shadows of sorrow. The music of these joys is ever beating out from 
 the divine perfections and flooding the universe; the moan of these sor- 
 rows is ever ascending from the realms of imperfection and sin, and beat- 
 ing in sad waves around the throne of compassion and love. 
 
 Joy and sorrow spring from the sensibility, or the emotional and affec- 
 tional capacity of spiritual natures. If spirits were pure intelligences, 
 then a perpetual calm would reign in them. They would reflect the 
 light of truth, unruffled by emotion, unstormed by passion. The sensi- 
 bilities give capacity for pleasure and pain, hope and fear, love and hate, 
 joy and sorrow. These are the correlate lights and shades of life. The 
 pleasures of appetite, the happiness from favoring fortunes, the delights 
 of society, the felicity of virtuous living, the blessedness of benevolence, 
 the joy of religion, the bliss of heaven, — all have their counterparts in 
 pain, misery, grief, sorrow, and woe. They reciprocally give significancy 
 each to the other. No picture can have body and character without 
 shades as well as lights. It takes not only the sunlight, but the rain 
 also, and the blackness of the storm-cloud, to give the beauty and the 
 glory of the rainbow. So, by the reciprocal action of these correlates 
 upon the soul, is it ennobled and charactered. 
 
 Pleasure, innate and pervasive, pertains to the very sense of being. 
 All normal activities are a delight. In the perfection of being and action, 
 every faculty sings in health, strength, and the freedom of spontaneous 
 activity, yet through all life there trembles a minor strain of sadness, or 
 a lower one of sorrow. Each flower, with its cup of odorous incense, as 
 
SERMONS. 307 
 
 it glows and burns its heart away, is charactered with sadness as well as 
 gladness. Sad images have pitched their tents, black as those of Kedar, 
 over all the plains of night, beneath the sad-eyed stars and the pallor of 
 the moon, crowding out into the dun of ev^ening and the gray of morning. 
 The seasons, even in their most leafy and flowery and brightest hours, 
 have the tinge and tone of sadness. To the many-voiced winds and 
 waters, man has given melancholy epithets, indicative of the responsive 
 sadness which these voices awaken in his soul. The great poets rise in 
 grandeur as they seek to interpret and express this sadness which they 
 hear voicing itself in the universe. 
 
 Personal life begins and ends in tears. When the soul, beating out 
 from oblivion into self-consciousness, all jubilant with young life, lighted 
 and lifted with hope, meets the stern realities, — disappointment, suffer- 
 ing, and death, — prostrating itself in the agony of despair, it cries out, 
 "Why have I learned this? Nevermore can I be happy." And on, 
 through long years, with the growing consciousness of these dread reali- 
 ties, the soul beats about in its cage of mortality, like some bird newly 
 caught from the joyful fields of air, striving to find some door ajar, some 
 window lifted, through which it may glide stealthily away. It is sad to 
 see a young spirit slip the leash of infancy, and spring up into childhood 
 and youth, and witness its consternation in the presence of death's unerr- 
 ing archers, stalking everywhere, and shooting their thick-flying arrows, 
 from which there is no escape. To not a few life shuts down upon them 
 with a cold, dark, suffocating pressure, full of despair, from which there 
 is no release save in the great and final consummation.' To others days 
 come and go, years slip by, youth, with its wistful longings, romantic 
 dreams, and magnificent outlooks, hardens into the juiceless utilities of 
 mature years, and in the twilight of age the murmurs of the infinite and 
 eternal sea awaken 
 
 "A feeling of sadness and longing. 
 That is not akin to pain, 
 And resembles sorrow only 
 As the mist resembles the rain." 
 
 In the regions of the soul there bloom flowers more lovely than those 
 of any springtime; there well waters more sparkling than those from 
 any earthly fountain. There are, likewise, climes more frigid than 
 Labrador, deserts more arid than Sahara, ruins grander than the Parthe- 
 non. Human history is lighted with joy. It is, also, full of wail, beat- 
 ing, like soughing winds, up to the mercy seat. The voice of man is full 
 of tears, even while his face is lighted with smiles. Every chalice is 
 mixed with both wine and gall. The heats of hell flame from the same 
 
308 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 forces in the human heart that Hght into the glory of heaven. Brighter 
 the day of joy, darker will be the night of sorrow, when the sad moon 
 and the sadder stars die out, and groping darkness shuts down. The 
 deepest pathos of life is not in its strife and battle, not in its fiery fur- 
 naces, not in storm, when great waves dash and sweep, but when it sobs 
 itself to rest, and the waves of trouble sigh along the shore. Nothing 
 short of the infinite pity is sufficient for the infinite pathos of life. Only 
 the divine compassion and love can bestow the heavenly beatitudes 
 upon all that are poor in spirit, all that mourn, all the meek, all that 
 hunger and thirst after righteousness, and cause all the reviled and perse- 
 cuted to rejoice and be exceeding glad. It is this compassion that com- 
 missions the twin angels of joy and sorrow to walk the earth, hand in 
 hand, and, smiling through their tears, to mix the cup of life with honey 
 and with wormwood, sDber the overjoyous, console and gladden the 
 bowed down and broken-hearted. 
 
 Joy and sorrow, in their true nature, are spiritual affections, subjec- 
 tive rather than objective, springing, not from outward conditions and 
 happenings, but, rather, from an internal set and disposition of the spirit. 
 Joy, in this higher sense, is the fruit of the Spirit, the fire of faith, the 
 light of love, the music of high spiritual activities. Wherever there is 
 truth, and beauty, and love, and reverence, and renunciation, and sacrifice, 
 there is joy. Where there is a want of these, there is sorrow. 
 
 A feeble painter deals daintily with the lights and shades of his picture, 
 but a master puts them in with strong, bold touches, especially when he 
 wishes to portray great scenes or masterful characters. Thus^ likewise, 
 when God desires to give the world a great life and character, he deals the 
 lights and shades of joy and sorrow with a free hand. Every great soul 
 has its Gethsemanes and its Calvaries, as well as its mounts of beatitudes 
 and transfiguration. The common life is pale and bloodless; but joy 
 and sorrow give fuller and deeper experiences and a more sacred mean- 
 ing to life. The soul upon which the barrenness of life has wrought its 
 influence is apt to become irritable and peevish, losing all composure 
 and dignity of spirit; but he who suffers patiently and calmly, smiling 
 through his tears, touches the tenderest and most responsive chords of 
 human sympathy. When the garden of life becomes a desert, with no 
 blossoms of hope, no song birds of requited love and sacrifice, even then 
 the soul that silently, patiently, bears its unvoiced sorrows unto the end, 
 when life has only woes, shall God's comfort know. This humble gen- 
 tleness is divine greatness, therefore let patience have her perfect work. 
 Then will the soul which before had no hope, no aspiration, no endeavor^ 
 
SERMONS. 309 
 
 be lifted by the divine Comforter into a realm of joyful living and doing. 
 . . Power is measured, not alone by what we bravely do, but, very 
 especially, by what we patiently endure. To be cool and quiet when 
 provocation comes, and the natural impulses burn with a fierce heat, to 
 be serene amid trouble and disappointment, — these are the tests of true 
 greatness and spiritual power. The disciplines of poverty, losses, dan- 
 gers, sickness, trials, temptations, bereavements, treacheries, desertions, 
 ridicules, persecutions, when rightly received, appropriated, and used, are 
 all purifying, refining agencies. The sweetest joys are drawn from the 
 bitterness of life, from suffering and sorrow overcome. We most prize 
 those spirits who can bear misfortune with an equable mind, whose forti- 
 tude shines through and disperses the clouds of sorrow. . . . 
 
 In order that joy and sorrow may perform their true offices as minis- 
 tries to spiritual perfection, there must be some end to be sought worthy 
 to engage, control, and guide all the activities of life. Otherwise, man is 
 like a becalmed ship, with useless rudder, and compass, and sail, drifting 
 at the mercy of wave and tide; but with right aim and sufficient motive 
 he becomes self-propelled and self-guided. 
 
 What can be such an aim, giving such a motive? Is it seeking to 
 make prevail civil rights and political sovereignty; the will and law of 
 God which makes for righteousness; the universal truth, fitness, and 
 beauty of things; the highest univ^ersal happiness either here or hereafter, 
 or both here and hereafter; the right reciprocal sympathy of all beings; 
 or obeying the sense of oughtness, awakened by the intuitive apprehen- 
 sion of right and wrong? Are any or all of these and kindred theories 
 of philosophers and theologians the true and ultimate end? 
 
 Is not the ultimate and supreme end rather that which is inclusive of 
 all these as means and ministries? Can the end of human endeavor be 
 other than that which God and all divine agencies are seeking ? God so 
 loved the world that he gave his Son for its redemption from sin and 
 restoration to holiness. This was the joy set before Christ in his mission, 
 and this joy was so great as to enable him to endure the cross, despising 
 the shame. Christ's mission, therefore, was not primarily to make men 
 happy, now or hereafter, but to make them holy, of which joy is the 
 " luminous shadow." To this same end all divine agencies and ministries 
 are working. The apostle further on tells us that all chastening is to 
 this same end, — of making the Christed ones partakers of the divine 
 holiness. 
 
 Can the ultimate aim of man be other than this ? Anything different 
 or lower is insufficient to meet all the conditions for making both jo}' 
 
3IO 
 
 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 and sorrow perpetual ministries for good. All lower aims, late or soon, 
 pall upon the unsatisfied spirit, leaving it aching and restless. When, 
 however, one has set for himself as the highest and all-comprehending 
 purpose of life to make the beauty of holiness prevail more and more, 
 both in himself and in all others, to make the beauty of perfection pre- 
 vail more and more in all the works of God, then he becomes a colaborer 
 with God and all divine agencies. He then has an aim sufficiently 
 exalted, pervasive, and enduringly motived to awaken the loftiest aspira- 
 tions, enkindle the noblest enthusiasms, quicken and sustain the most 
 sacrificial endeavors. It will enable him to use all talent, all opportunity, 
 all pains and pleasures, endure all crosses, despising the shames — make 
 everything, in short, work together as ministries for good. 
 
 Thus living and acting in unison with God, and for the same end as 
 that for which all of his ministers and ministries of grace are working, 
 will give deific living. Such spirits walk the loftiest planes of life, soli- 
 tary and alone it may be, compassed about and pressed with clouds that 
 flash and pour, yet through the joy that is set before them in this divine 
 aim they become in all life's conflicts more than conquerors. 
 
 Where the supreme aim is, there also will be the supreme love, faith, 
 and hope, carrying in their train supreme joys and sorrows. If making 
 holiness prevail be this aim, then will this supreme love go out conse- 
 cratedly, sacrificially, joyfully to the same end. The forgiving and wait- 
 ing God, waiting and seeking to be gracious, sent his Son to manifest 
 this gracious love by a self-abnegating, sacrificial life and death. This is 
 the greatest power in heaven and on earth — the most fruitful of bless- 
 ings and blessedness. The sublimest joy known springs from such love 
 suffering unselfishly for another, from that love which does not feel or 
 act for self, but takes to itself gladly another's sorrow, suffers in another's 
 stead, that not simply gives love for love, but gives love for indifference, 
 hate. Sacrificial living and dying are the ultimate test of the genuine- 
 ness of love. Great sorrow springs from the same source. 
 
 The Man of Sorrows, despised and rejected of men, bore our griefs, 
 carried our sorrows, was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our 
 iniquities, afflicted, oppressed, chastised for our healing and peace, pour- 
 ing out his soul unto death, in bearing our sins. He was made perfect 
 through obedience and suffering, becoming the Author of eternal salva- 
 tion unto all who obey him, and shall bring many sons unto glory. 
 This is his joy as, seated at the right hand of God, and bending down 
 and overleaning the drooping spirit in each saddest, keenest lesson of 
 life, he lifts up and consoles. His throne is a throne of patience and 
 all-sufferincr love. 
 
SERMONS. 311 
 
 When one, partaking of the spirit of the Man of Sorrows, has pressed 
 with pain of heart and weary toil of bruised feet through the long, dark 
 way of grief upward to the light, and has prevailed; when he has been 
 subdued and softened in the silences and mysterious shadows of great 
 sorrows, and made full of deep and broad sympathies ; when he has been 
 chastened and refined into deep tenderness, and solemn consecrations, 
 and all-embracing compassions — then is he prepared to touch the barren- 
 ness of common lives with accordant sympathies and impulses, that shall 
 lead to glad service, by patiently standing and waiting, or by going to all 
 beneficent and sacrificial work. 
 
 Sympathy is love responsive to another's condition, joying with the 
 rejoicing, sorrowing with the sorrowing. Whatever joy or sorrow throbs 
 in another's heart throbs in its own. Blessed, indeed, is the sympathiz- 
 ing friend who inspires, but more blessed is the friend who consoles. In 
 order to become the consoling friend, one must needs to have been himself 
 consoled, and thus be enabled to give tender and responsive sympathies. 
 Whoever has passed through the fiery furnace of affliction and persecu- 
 tion, guided and consoled by the presence of the Fourth, is thus prepared 
 to counsel and console others as they pass. As the darkness of night 
 reveals astronomic grandnessand starry glories, undreamed of in thelight 
 of day, so he who has had his spiritual vision rendered clairvoyant in 
 nights of doubt and trial, is thereby enabled to make known to others 
 the glories revealed by faith and hope, undreamed of in the light of com- 
 mon things and common experiences. 
 
 In the beautiful vernacular dialect in which Christ and his disciples 
 and the common people spoke, Saviour meant the life giver, the healer, 
 giving both physical and spiritual life and health. So, likewise, all who 
 have been made partakers of this saving life and health, and have been 
 purified and strengthened thereby, become co-healers and helpers with 
 Christ. The High Priest of humanity, touched with feeling for its 
 infirmities, comes to the humble and contrite, and dwells in the broken in 
 spirit, bringing strength to weaknesses and wants, consolations to all 
 frets and troubles of life. This infinite goodness .springs from infinite 
 love. This is the healing and helpful power of goodness — remedial to 
 all afflictions of the spirit. The power and might of God trod the earth 
 in the person of his Son; so did the gentleness of God. Son of God and 
 Son of man, he was at once the mightiest, most heroic, and the gentlest, 
 glorified by all heavenly power, yet touched by all human infirmities. 
 Gentleness is power moved by love, toned by tenderness. The great and 
 most heroic — most empowered with manly vigor — when touched and 
 
312 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 toned by sympathy, are ever the gentlest amid suffering and sorrow. 
 Such administer oil and balm with the most deftly gentle hand. Thus 
 do all Christed souls, empowered with his power, and coming up from 
 the baptism of Christly sorrow, thereby made gentle with his gentleness, 
 sympathetic with his sympathy, go forth spontaneously as healers and 
 helpers. The helpful, healing power of love, sympathy, and gentleness, 
 though very quiet, is yet a very effective power in the world. All great 
 forces are silent in their operations. No one hears the tramp of gravita- 
 tion, or the dews fall, or the grass and the trees grow. The silent cur- 
 rents of electricity that ceaselessly flow through and around the world 
 are infinitely more potent than its flash in the lightning or crash in the 
 thunderbolt. So the silent, unconscious, yet healing and helpmg influ- 
 ences that perpetually stream out from lives charactered in goodness, are 
 transcendentally more potent than all forceful efforts put forth to the 
 same end. . . 
 
 The legitimate though supplemental outflow of these silent agencies 
 is a set and voluntary effort, both individual and associated, for the good 
 of others; hence the various agencies of benevolence as aids to the bet- 
 tering of man's condition both here and hereafter. The best evangels, 
 teachers, preachers, pastors, missionaries, organizers, and conductors in 
 these voluntary efforts are they who are deeply experienced and richly 
 charactered in these passive and submissive virtues and in the spiritual 
 graces springing from them. In the future high reaches of religious 
 culture and Christian civilization, when the gentleness of God and the 
 patience of Jesus come more and more to prevail among men, then will 
 these higher Christian graces have greater significance and wider sway. 
 
 Woman, being more richly endowed and more especially given to the 
 culture of these graces than man, will then come to her full inheritance, 
 dominion, and influence. Man, being of a coarser and more rugged 
 spiritual fiber, can never lead up the heights of these finer and diviner 
 graces. Where man falters and fails, woman must take up and lead on 
 to regions where reign the saintly graces of love, sympathy, gentleness, 
 tenderness, and all-consoling and all-healing helpfulness. 
 
 Young friends, you are soon to go forth into the world, with its 
 mingled faiths and doubts, hopes and fears, loves and hates, joys and sor- 
 rows. Some of you have consecrated your lives to the sacred work of 
 proclaiming glad tidings of peace and goodwill to men — one being of the 
 sisterhood of those who were last at the cross and first at the sepulcher, 
 and first to publish the joyful tidings of a risen Saviour. It becomes her 
 with especial ajipropriateness, what becomes you all, to inaugurate your 
 
SERMONS. 313 
 
 respective life missions with blessings. Go not as negative, misanthropic, 
 destructive- forces, but as positive, philanthropic, up-building forces. Go 
 consoling, healing, strengthening, persuading, organizing, establishing. 
 Be helpers in making prevail whatever is true, and beautiful, and good. 
 Seek to awaken high aims, and to inspire to noble living. Let generous, 
 forgiving, life-giving sentiments and sympathies beat out into all interests 
 affecting the well-being of man, sweetening all the fountains of life. Let 
 your lives be examples of self-forgetting, sacrificial living, and, if need be, 
 of sacrificial dying. 
 
 As life advances and age comes on, and the heat, and drive, and strife, 
 with their sharp pangs of griefs and noisy exultations of life, are over, its 
 pathway, if it has been beautifully lived, becomes fringed with the ripest 
 fruits of peace and resignation. Life's unfathomed ocean of mystery, 
 sadness, and unrest, with its days of gray fog and dull, heavy clouds, 
 shrouding all its headlands, and shutting out all broad and elevated views, 
 are transformed and glorified by clearer lights and softer airs. Life's 
 sun has no longer a scorching fierceness, but its days, mild and calm, 
 glide gently by. The bright clouds of life's morning enfold the brow 
 with their thin, silvery mists. Memories, floating lightly as thistledown 
 through the mental atmosphere, strained of all harsh and discordant 
 notes, pulse in subdued minor strains upon the soul, and all things con- 
 spire, through their message of tenderness and love, to ripen the fairer 
 and diviner graces of the spirit. The feet that have climbed toilsomely 
 towards eternity find stones in their pathway transformed to shining 
 stairs, and the entangling weeds bloom in celestial beauty and fragrance. 
 Bitter fountains are rendered sweet, and the crumbs of common fare are 
 changed to heavenly manna. Earthly affinities are reduced to gossamer 
 threads, holding lighdy to earth, and the low desire of living for living's 
 sake dies out, and the love of life and the fear of death become trans- 
 formed with hope of life eternal. The New Jerusalem is no longer a far- 
 away and strange city, with no acquaintance there, but its foundations 
 rest on all the hills of life, and its walls blend with the spiritual horizon. 
 The murmur of the river of living waters fills the ear, while foretastes of 
 the tree of life refresh the spirit, and foregleams of heavenly glories 
 light the tired traveler heavenward, where there shall be no more death, 
 neither sorrow nor pain, for the former things have passed away, and all 
 become new. . . . 
 
314 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 THE IDEAL GOLLEGE-A LIGHT. 
 
 [Baccalaureate sermon, June 27, 1886.] 
 
 " Let there be light." Gen. i : 3. 
 
 Within this quiet valley, shut in by these circling hills, seated on their 
 rock}' thrones, as perpetual guards against the noise and strife of the 
 driving world, we gather to inaugurate the golden anniversary of our 
 Alma Mater, who has cherished us, in successive generations, as for the 
 last fifty years we have gathered around her hearthstone. Her good 
 genius presides over the occasion, and, by the aid of memory and associa- 
 tion, lifts the trivial and the common into dignity and importance, casting 
 over all a glory otherwise unseen, thus awakening teeming emotions and 
 stirring inspirations. It is an epoch at which we instinctively pause, and 
 reverently brush away the gathering dust and growing moss from the 
 fast-fading records of other days, that we may read and interpret their 
 teachings. . . . 
 
 Year by year for the last fifty years we have gone from here, gone in 
 youth, filled with the romantic thoughts of the untried future opening 
 before us. Time has passed. Many and stirring events have transpired. 
 The leaves and blossoms of youth have given place to the fruits of mature 
 and active life, and we are reaping the harvests of seed sown here. Some 
 of us return, sobered by age, ripened by experience, saddened and sub- 
 dued by trial and sorrow. Our ranks are thinning, the members falling, 
 one by one, like the leaves of the forest, each to his resting place, while 
 our Alma Mater stands like the trees of this forest, renewing and enlarg- 
 ing her life year by year, with ever-increasing growth, strength, and 
 beauty. All to what end? 
 
 '■'Let there be light" was deemed the most suitable legend for the offi- 
 cial seal of this University, as expressive of its aim and high mission. 
 The increase of light, the especial mission of the ideal college, seems a 
 most fitting theme for inaugurating these jubilee exercises. 
 
 Deity, in speaking -light into existence, created the fittest emblem of 
 himself, who is light, and dwelling in light unapproachable. As Deity 
 fills all space and permeates all matter with this light ether, and trans- 
 mutes it into heat, light, electricity, and gravitation, by it scatters dark- 
 ness, and gathers and globes atoms into worlds, refreshes the barren earth 
 with showers, covers it with beauty, and peoples it with life, thus trans- 
 forming chaos into cosmos, so does the light of divine wisdom permeate 
 and fill all, scatter mental darkness, build truth into systems of order,, 
 harmony, and beauty. . . .- 
 
SER?>IONS. 315 
 
 As the eye is the organ for gathering in physical hght, for bodily uses, 
 so the reason is the organ for gathering in the light of truth, for mental 
 uses. The spirit's need of light is far higher and more imperative than 
 the body's need. The soul sits, Memnon-like, with silent, eastward gaze, 
 waiting for the dawn of truth to awaken its dormant melodies into songs 
 of joyous activity. The mind, in such need, on receiving the intuitive 
 truths flashing upon it with the self-attesting powers of sunlight, per- 
 ceives the divine plan running through and shaping all into organic unity, 
 and philosophy is born. ... 
 
 The college is one of the highest of the institutional inventions, from 
 which have descended all lower educational institutions. As the sun 
 gathers and intensifies light, for lighting its dependent, planetary worlds, 
 so the special function of the college is to ingather and intensify the light 
 of truth, for lighting all other institutions and enterprises. Truth, like 
 the world of life, is one organic, symmetrical whole, connecting back to a 
 common source, Deity; so a college should be a center, representing 
 truth in its organic unity and completeness, and thus sending it out in 
 ever-widening circles of light and influences. 
 
 To this end the college must ever stand high above all those influ- 
 ences of the world that militate against the truth; above the sway of 
 great names around which lesser lights revolve, not always from the 
 attractions of pure truth, but because of size and brilliancy, or, like the 
 lamplight, dazzling the mental miller out of the darkness, to flutter and 
 singe and die in its blaze; stand above the fogs and mists of narrow par- 
 tisanships and passions of popular prejudice, that lead the unthinking 
 multitude blindly to approve, or as blindly to condemn. . . . 
 
 The ideal college produces growth. As the sunlight is, by the subtile 
 alchemy of life, converted into growth, in the vegetable kingdom, every 
 plant after its species, and this life growth is transformed, in the animal 
 kingdom, into higher modes and kinds, so the college is to furnish the 
 light of truth, to the end of being converted into mind growth. Each 
 individual being a receptive and transmuting agency of this light, a col- 
 lege becomes a center for gathering it for the benefit of many. This con- 
 centration and increase, together with the reciprocally stimulating and 
 invigorating influence of mind upon mind, and its pervading spirit, greatly 
 enhances the power of a college. This power operates in youth, the 
 period, if ever, of high ideals. . . . The college, therefore, should 
 not foster the absorptive capacities of the mind, -by cramming it with 
 piles of "learned lumber," nor spiritless, mechanical, perfunctory routine, 
 nor muscle at the expense of brain, nor h\'percritical refinements at the 
 
3l6 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 expense of manhood, but foster, rather, spontaneity, freshness, freedom, 
 originaUty, and independent thought and investigation, comprehensive 
 views, a respect for ideas, a scholarly enthusiasm, responsive to the teach- 
 ings of the most gifted minds in all ages, an ethical worthiness and spir- 
 itual dignity, and a reverent theistic temper, based on a calture that 
 organizes and develops all into character. As the single airs in music 
 are woven by the skilled musician into strains that touch the deepest 
 chords of the heart, so should the college weave the simple elements of 
 knowledge into systems of culture that shall touch all the springs of 
 action, awaken all the powers of the mind, and thus become a source of 
 ever fresh, free, and invigorating thought and inspiration, begetting higher 
 aspirations, leading to better purposes, nobler endeavors, and greater 
 achievements. If these manifold good influences have their legitimate 
 effect, all the latent energies of the higher nature will be vitalized, new 
 powers unfolded, clearer insight, finer tastes, deeper and wider sympathies 
 cultured, and a growth secured, beautiful and strong. 
 
 Again, a college should seek, as its highest end, to give a culture 
 whose growth is Godward. As to all others, so to the student and the 
 college the most important subject is religion. What the eye is to the 
 body, religion is to learning. As the body is ennobled by the spirit, so 
 is learning by religion. To carefully train the lower faculties, while the 
 higher lie neglected and dormant, to give intellectual strength without, 
 at the same time, securing spirit-life and spirit-growth, is to fail in the 
 highest and best culture, making life ignoble and learning a blind Samson, 
 grinding at the mills of the Philistines. Mental activities grow normally 
 upward into moral atmospheres and spiritual lights. . . . 
 
 The college student is, consciously or unconsciously, passing a most 
 critical as well as a most important period of his life. He is surrounded 
 by pervading influences so subtile yet so potent that the most silent and 
 secret may .start forces as unending as the spirit itself He is both 
 receiving and exerting these influences, greater and more lasting than in 
 any after years or in any other spheres. He is also deciding questions 
 that can never be redecided, determining courses of action that can never 
 be redetermined. The college youth is presumed, from his very pursuits, 
 to have become awakened to a consciousness of his powers, possibilities, 
 and responsibilities, and to aspirations and purposes that lift above the 
 plane of appetite and animal living, into the realm of spiritual worth and 
 manly endeavor. The measure of this consciousness is the measure of 
 his conscious manhood. . . . 
 
 Again, an ideal college should be a source of progress and civiliza- 
 
SERMONS. 
 
 317 
 
 tion. As cephalization, or head dominion, determines the grade of 
 species, in the ascending scale of the animal kingdom, so the college, 
 representing the highest mental life, determines the head dominion of a 
 people. As fast as man becomes disenthralled, and begins to think, 
 believe, and act, individual life begins to aggregate, combine into public 
 life, and thought organize into institutional thought. In the college this 
 is segregated, combined, intensified, and perpetuated. The college thus 
 becomes a brain center, whence ramify the mental nerves, diffusing 
 thought through the social, public, and institutional life. It attracts, as a 
 general rule, the best minds from all classes, those who are to fill places 
 of trust, influence, and power, and it should send them forth bearing the 
 light of highest progress and most advanced civilization. . . . 
 
 Without the desire for the acquisition and use of truth, both old and 
 new, no progress can be made, but immobility or decay sets in. Parties 
 and sects, with their platforms and creeds, have accepted and appi'o- 
 priated certain truths, or half-truths, mingled, it may be, more or less, 
 with error, with which they are satisfied, hence they become stereotyped, 
 fossilized. Seldom are individuals, parties, or sects, progressive beyond 
 their youthful days; seldom are they good for more than one leading 
 truth. When they have blossomed and fruited once, and years increase, 
 their seeking and their progress cease, and fossilization or a vegetative 
 decay sets in, thus becoming fine scientific illustrations of arrested devel- 
 opment. " Let the dead bury their dead." The world has no farther 
 use for them. Cumberers of the highway of progress are they. 
 
 The ideal college must be so constituted and conducted as to admit 
 new truths and their utilization, or, however perfect at first, it too will 
 in time become incrusted with routine, followed by petrifaction or decay. 
 If it shall say, "The old is good enough; let us not seek for a better, le.st 
 a worse befall," the spirit of progress will ever reply, "The old may have 
 been good once, but it is no longer entirely good — a better has come." 
 
 As the earth has been built up layer upon layer, the older serving as 
 foundations for the newer and higher, so the college should rest upon 
 old truths as permanent substrata for the new. It should be the embodi- 
 ment of all truth, both, old and new, and of the achievements of all 
 progress, and send these forth to be wrought into still better methods, 
 systems, and institutions. If Pythagoras, the heathen, on the discovery 
 of a new theorem in geometry, offered a hundred oxen as a thank offer- 
 ing to the gods for granting him so great a favor, should not a Christian 
 college offer equal thanks for new truths? 
 
 God has led humanity up the steeps of progress to lofty heights and 
 
3l8 MFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 wide outlooks, and when the foot has become firm, the head steady, and 
 the eye accustomed to the new and strong hght, he has led them up to 
 diviner prospects. Ages may have passed, generations perished, before 
 the new height was gained. In this climbing God has commissioned 
 great spirits as light bearers to lead the way for groping, stumbling 
 humanity. He has also appointed colleges to stand upon the heights to 
 light the ascent. He has sent them as forerunners of reform, leaders of 
 progress, harbingers of advancing civilization. 
 
 The discovery, introduction, and establishment of a great truth as a 
 living, governing principle in the world, requires time, toil, and sacrifice. 
 The old error is frequently inwrought into systems and institutions 
 which have received the sanction of generations and are upheld by popu- 
 lar prejudice, supported by wealth and power, and guarded by custom. 
 Truth comes unheralded by pomp, unwelcomed by worldly greatness. 
 It is far oftener cradled in a manger and heralded by only the lowly. 
 Broad has ever been the way needed to accommodate the followers of 
 error, while narrow has been the way required by the sincere followers 
 of truth. The old and the new, conservatism and progress, have ever 
 been at war. The fires of their strife have glowed adown the ages. 
 Truth, through these conflicts, as great smelting furnaces, has been 
 slowly refined from the dross of error, and inwrought into the systems 
 and institutions of humanity. Everything great and valuable, in modern 
 civilization, bears the impress of toil, sacrifice, and suffering. 
 
 The college should be a great smelting furnace for the refinement of 
 truth from error, for the world's uses. More than this, it should be first 
 in discovering the truths and laws that give progress. As the pines on 
 the hilltops stand crowned with the glory of the early morning, while 
 the valleys still sit in the shadows, so the ideal college should stand on 
 the heights of progress, on the world's spiritual pinnacles, where the 
 mist and murk of ignorance never rise, where the storms of passion never 
 sweep, circled with the halo and illumined with the glory of dawning 
 truth, ere it has lifted the shadows from the valley lands of everyday 
 life and common thought. ... 
 
 Blessed is the college that both knows and does the truth. A 
 heathen has said, " Do right though the heavens fall." Do right, and 
 the heavens will not fall, for they are underpropped and upheld by truth 
 and righteousness. Therefore, the college should ever be a leader in 
 accepting and following the behests of truth and right, in whatever form 
 they may come, at whatever cost of popularity, in the full assurance that 
 to stand alone with God, to follow in his footsteps and work in the line 
 
SERMONS. 319 
 
 he is working, is to be with the majority and ultimately to prevail, though 
 all the world at present oppose. . . . 
 
 All the business pursuits and activities whereby men and women win 
 bread, will, through the light of culture, take on nobler and more ideal 
 aims, so that, amid the toil and care and friction of life, the fog of inde- 
 cision, the drizzle of worry, tending to blunt the finer sensibilities, cool 
 enthusiasm, clip the wings of aspiration, and dim the light of life, the 
 worker shall be able to possess such masterful moods as to fling off these 
 bad influences and work in the light of these ideal aims. 
 
 The college sends, also, its students out into all the professions and 
 positions of authority, commanding sway and grave responsibility, where 
 both the light of culture and of character is of imperative importance. 
 They go as physicians, teachers, preachers, makers and executors of law, 
 ministers of justice, light bearers to peoples sitting in darkness. Through 
 these agencies the world should become healthier, stronger, better, more 
 radiant, allegiant to the eternaJ principles of right and justice, imbued 
 more and more with peace, good will, and reverent worship. 
 
 The nation needs to be pervaded by higher and more ideal principles. 
 If ideas are the ultimate sovereigns of the world, their sovereignty should 
 especially hold sway in a republic, where convictions and laws spring 
 from the people. Guided and controlled by violent partisans, reckless 
 leaders, devoid of discipline, culture, ideas, or principle, this republic 
 must, late or soon, be wrecked, as other nations have been. Here eleva- 
 tion must begin at the sources of power, the people. The stream can 
 rise no higher than these fountains. The highest fountains are the 
 youth. To the end, therefore, that they may be prepared for the respon- 
 sibilities of citizenship, and become promoters of the public weal, and 
 conservators of the republic, through enlightened and commanding 
 statesmanship, the college should send them forth imbued with principles 
 that shall purify and elevate politics, enthrone conscience, making its 
 behests higher and more authoritative than the mandates of leaders, the 
 whips of party, or the scourges of machine persecution, making inviolable 
 personal worthiness and spiritual independence the sources of all dignity 
 of manhood and of civil liberty. 
 
 Again, the church depends upon the college as an ally to aid her in 
 becoming more and more a positive and constructive power among the 
 negative and destructive powers of the world. . . . 
 
 The ideal college stands the center and summit of the highest and 
 best in human thought and achievement, a testimony to the worth and 
 dignity of man, and the importance of culture for the sake of manhood, 
 
320 
 
 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 irrespective of outward conditions, a teacher of the broader and finer 
 humanities, with their ideal and elevating influences in the home, society, 
 State, and church. Amid the grind of toil, the whir and rush of busi- 
 ness, and all the petty strifes and ambitions of the world, the college bell 
 calls the youth up to the serene heights, where the possibilities of ideal 
 living and doing loom distinct along the horizon, and all things conspire 
 to give motive and inspiration to the thoughtful and the earnest, in pre- 
 paring for the coming work of life, . . . 
 
 This Institution, growing, during a half hundred years, from a private 
 school, through the academic period, up to its present stature, has ever 
 sought to be both a receiver and a dispenser of light; sought to be a 
 leader in the great reforms of the age, to be in the van of human progress; 
 sought to make, not simply scholars, but scholars charactered in Chris- 
 tian manhood and womanhood, prepared for brave living and good work 
 in the world. Though often, with flickering light, groping, slipping, in 
 the rough, obscure, and untried paths, though often falling short, in 
 many ways, of the high ideal we have sketched, yet she is prepared 
 for a healthier, stronger growth, better work, with happier results, in the 
 fifty years to come, so that those who shall gather to celebrate her cen- 
 tennial birthday will have more abundant reasons for rejoicing than we. 
 
 Young friends, you who are about to bear out into the world what- 
 ever of light you may have here received, will need to go with minds 
 ready to receive ever-broadening ranges of thought, clearer visions of 
 truth. Gather to yourselves all light possible fro^m the culture and civ- 
 ilization of the past. Let it inspire you to the seeking of new truths that 
 shall unfold into multitudinous forms of progress. As is the quality of 
 individual culture, so will be the character of the resulting civilization. 
 Culture not for the sake of doing, but simply for the sake of being, is 
 refined selfishness. When, forgetting self, it goes out, starting influences 
 that shall affect for good all streams of thought and action, then it is 
 noblest and best. Get to yourselves a spirit of reverence, gentleness, and 
 sacrificial doing, a courage of your convictions, which, above the cow- 
 ardice of wrongdoing, cannot be swayed from right doing. Be not con- 
 tent to simply glide on the current of public opinion, but, regardless of 
 popular favor, defend and promote truth and right, fearless of conse- 
 quences. . . . Truth seeks for its disciples those who, leaving behind 
 the idols of the multitude, and regardless of pleasure or profit, follow, in 
 glad obedience, her lead. An utterly honest seeker and fearless doer of 
 truth is the noblest work of God. When such an one puts in an appear- 
 ance, it is the duty of all to make way and room, and with uncovered 
 
SERMONS. 321 
 
 head and uiisandaled feet receive reverently his teachings. His advent 
 is to be reckoned an epoch in human history, a new starting-point in 
 human progress. The world is in perishing need of such as receive the 
 behests of truth as higher than happiness, more sacred than life, and, 
 though held and treated as fanatics, innovators, heretics, by their own 
 age, future ages will rise up as one man to do them honor. 
 
 Go forth, then, and, guided by lofty aims, ever labor to uphold, 
 .strengthen, and advance all noble interests. Cultivate a love of manly 
 excellence and moral greatness. When to these are added influences 
 and motives springing from divine sources, the highest powers of the 
 mind will be awakened, its chords vibrate in unison with all spiritual 
 laws, and a steady purpose will be given to life, controlling and guiding 
 amid all activities. . . . Through long and dark and bloody ages, 
 when might and wrong have occupied the thrones of the world, the light 
 of truth has been gaining sway. God, through august tragedies, has 
 been leading humanity ever onward and upward. Go as colaborers 
 with him, in enlightening, educating, and evangelizing the world. 
 
 THE PEOPLE'S DEBT TO COLLEGES. 
 
 [An address delivered before the New England Association of Alfred Students, 
 August 24, 1886.] 
 Ladies and gentlemen, members of the New England Association of 
 Alfred Students, in the address of one year ago, which I did not deliver, 
 the theme was "Alfred's Debt to New England." The converse of this 
 might be " New England's Debt to Alfred," if it were not too small a ful- 
 crum for good leverage, and, furthermore, Alfred can never repay her 
 great debt to New England. 
 
 Let us, therefore, consider the broader and more comprehensive 
 theme, "The People's Debt to Colleges." In this consideration I shall 
 use the term college in its most generic sense, based upon both its ety- 
 mological signification and its historic use, as inclusive of all higher insti- 
 tutions of learning or collective bodies incorporated for the purposes of 
 study and instruction. 
 
 Education is a great, overshadowing, and imperative need of man. 
 Coming into the world with fewer instincts and powers for self-preserva- 
 tion, and with capacities more nearly a blank, than any other member of 
 the animal kingdom, without education, man is the most helpless of all 
 animals. It is only as his faculties are slowly, carefully, laboriously 
 
322 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 unfolded, under the tutelage of parents and all the educative influences 
 and forces which spring from civilized society, crowned, systematized, 
 utilized, by educational institutions specially devoted to this object, does 
 man come to his rightful sovereignty in the world. Colleges have thus 
 sprung from the highest needs of man, as an intellectual, social, moral, 
 and religious being. 
 
 Among the chiefest originators of these institutional agencies for the 
 education of man up to this sovereignty, have been the great discoverers, 
 inventors, organizers, founders of systems of religion and philosophy. 
 These, appearing from time to time, have been the great world teachers, 
 whose teachings have awakened and enlightened the human mind, 
 shaped individual, social, and national destinies, determined and advanced 
 civilizations. 
 
 All future ages, becoming their willing pupils, have organized the 
 light, influences, forces, and instrumentalities generated by them into 
 schools for perpetuating and spreading these blessings, through all time, 
 to all men. 
 
 Moses, with the great Sinaitic wilderness for a schoolroom, had the 
 children of Israel forty years under his tutelage. The homes, and the 
 schools of the law and the prophets, continuing what was thus begun, 
 made the Hebrew nation one of the best educated people, as a whole, 
 the world has known. At the destruction of Jerusalem their learning 
 was sown broadcast, furnishing physicians, philosophers, and educators 
 to many peoples. This learned preeminence has, in a good degree, con- 
 tinued to the present. 
 
 The schools of Chaldea, Egypt, Persia, especially the latter, deter- 
 mined their civilization. Zoroaster, with the Zend Avesta and the 
 Magian system of education founded thereon, gave to the Persian nation 
 leadership in ancient civilization, and the Parsee of the present stands 
 foremost in Hindu culture. 
 
 The teacher Kon, or Confucius, inaugurated a system that led to a 
 State education and a government resting on intellect and organized cul- 
 ture, intellectual merit, determined by competitive examinations, being the 
 only passport to office, which has become the ideal aspiration of all civil- 
 service reformers, and the dismay of all machine politicians, and the goal 
 sought by all civilized nations. It has given the Chinese a government 
 and a civilization that have remained in stable equilibrium, without prog- 
 ress or retrogression, for more than two thousand years, over one-third 
 of the human race. In it may be seen the prototype of what other 
 nations will be when old, if the routines, e.Kaminations, markings, and 
 
SERMONS. 323 
 
 placings, which they are so coilsomely, so patiently, so bHndly, and with 
 such a steady, dull grind, patterning after her, shall bear their legitimate 
 fruits. 
 
 The Vedic system of the Hindus, and its antagonist, Buddhism, with 
 their numerous schools of philosophy, their immense literatures, full of 
 degenerate puerilities, are the outcome of great teachers, who, at the time, 
 taught the best they knew. 
 
 The great schoolmasters of Greece and Rome, Thales, Pythagoras, 
 Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, Quintilian, and many another, confront- 
 ing and grappling with the problems that confront philosophers of to-day, 
 gathered about them circles of disciples — incipient universities— eager 
 to listen to their solutions of the deep and solemn mysteries of the uni- 
 verse, and whose teachings have profoundly influenced the subsequent 
 ages. 
 
 Alexander the Great did a greater and nobler deed than conquering 
 the world when he gave Aristotle a million of dollars and the service of 
 a thousand or more men, to enable him to prosecute his studies. This 
 started forces that led to the founding of the Museum at Alexandria — 
 type of all modern universities — with its four faculties, of literature, mathe- 
 matics, astronomy, and medicine; with its library of 700,000 volumes, its 
 botanical gardens, its zoological collections; with its learned teachers, 
 gathered from many nations, and its dozen thousand or more students. 
 It thus became a focus of intense intellectual activity. Here gathered the 
 Septuagint translators of the Hebrew Scriptures, and the first professors 
 of Christian theology. From it radiated the highest learning the world 
 then knew, the influences of which are still felt. 
 
 The Atheneum, founded by Hadrian, on the Capitoline Hill in Rome, 
 became the university of the Latin race and the mother of all imperial 
 schools throughout the Roman Empire. 
 
 The Mohammedans overran and subjugated the world no more rapidly 
 or completely by the sword than they did by learning. Availing them- 
 selves of Jews and Nestorians for teachers and counselors, they became 
 distinguished as the patrons of learning and the founders of schools _ 
 holding that Paradise is as much for him v/ho rightly uses the pen as for 
 him who falls in battle, and that the ink from the pe;i of the teacher is of 
 equal value with the blood of the martyr. Schools arose in the track of 
 their armies, until nearly the whole Mediterranean region, as well as the 
 more Eastern regions, was luminous with their light. Great gramma- 
 rians, philosophers, physicians, mathematicians, and astronomers arose. 
 In their schools was first instituted the system of academic honors or 
 
324 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 titles signifying tliat the possessor was competent to teach, which has 
 continued down to the present. While the rest of the world was fast 
 sinking into the night of the Dark Ages, Moslem learning cast a radiance 
 over the gloom. 
 
 But the Rabbi of rabbis, the great Teacher of the great world-teachers, 
 was Jesus of Nazareth. Recognized as a rabbi, though discarding, on 
 the one hand, the traditions that made void the higher law through rev- 
 erence for the letter regardless of the spirit, which gave rise to the Tal- 
 mud and the Pharisee, discarding, on the other hand, the esoteric inter- 
 pretation of the law, which culminated in the Kabala and the Mystic, he 
 differed widely in his teachings from all other rabbis. He taught face 
 to face with nature, man, and God. He gave object lessons from the lily, 
 the mustard seed, the fig tree, the sparrow, the foxes, the leaven of bread, 
 the sower and his seed, and the golden grain of the harvest, the coin of 
 the realm, and from all common human avocations, finding in all deepest 
 spiritual meanings. His teachings reached both head and heart, and bore 
 fruit abundantly. He not only brought a new life into humanity, but 
 intellect was likewise awakened wherever this life came. 
 
 This awakening influence upon mind led early to the establishment of 
 schools for the instruction of youth and proselytes in the duties of religion 
 and Christian manners, also other schools for giving religious teachers a 
 systematic knowledge of Christian doctrines. To these schools flocked 
 learned pagans, as well as young men desirous of being instructed in the 
 doctrines of Christianity, to the end of becoming teachers in the church. 
 Thus, for three or four hundred years, these schools were the centers of 
 learning and the nurseries of piety. Indeed, many churches were virtu- 
 ally schools, in which the bishops trained with special care, as if they 
 were their own children, those who, in turn, were to become spiritual 
 guides and religious teachers. In every diocese there was at least one 
 cathedral school, designed to instruct, not only catechumens, but to carry 
 forward the education of those who aspired to the sacred office. Thus 
 did the early Christians, inspired by the vitalizing, invigorating, and lib- 
 eralizing power of the gospel, prepare their children, amid poverty and 
 persecution, to become worthy and efficient Christian men. 
 
 The Dark Ages gradually drew on. Decay and death seized upon 
 the pagan institutions, though under the patronage of kings and emper- 
 ors, with ample endowments, costly libraries, and all the educational 
 facilities of the times. Though rare privileges and advantages were con- 
 ferred upon their teachers, the teaching gradually degenerated into a 
 tame, lifeless system of effeminate forms, fancies, and dull routines.. 
 
SERMONS. 325 
 
 Pagan civilization, unfit to be engrafted with the Christian civilization, 
 went down amid the overwhelming incursions of the Northern barbarians. 
 Pagan schools perished in the general shipwreck. Not so with the Chris- 
 tian; but, as if rising from a baptism of fire and blood, they struggled to 
 overcome disadvantages and adversaries. In them was still much life, 
 thought, and activity. Christian literature abounded more and more in 
 the production of great statesmen, philosophers, and divines. The cathe- 
 dral schools were gradually formed into organizations, as monasteries, 
 with a school attached for the instruction of youth. These became the 
 germs from which sprang the modern college. In them religion found a 
 covert from the storms of the times, and the learned and the pious a safe 
 retreat for study, meditation, prayer, discussion, and teaching. These 
 institutions rapidly increased, till they spread like a network over all 
 Europe. But at the nadir of the Dark Ages sacred learning disappeared 
 even from them, giving place to legends, puerile sermonizing, and scho- 
 lastic teachings. 
 
 At length the light began to dawn, the scene to brighten, and an 
 upward movement commenced. The dawn of this light was earlier in 
 the British Isles than on the Continent. Schools and learning prospered 
 better, especially in Ireland, and were transplanted thence to the island 
 of lona, whence they spread, through the labors of Columbia and his dis- 
 ciples, wide and far. Bede caught up the light and bore it on. Alcuin, 
 educated in the institutions thus lighted, became the great leader and 
 champion of learning of his times. Charlemagne, unable to write, being 
 compelled to sign with the hilt of his sword those treaties which he 
 enforced with its point, invited Alcuin to France, made him his confidant, 
 counselor, and teacher.and established a school in his own palace, becoming 
 a most enthusiastic student, and though, like most great men, making but 
 an indifferent penman, he became able to speak Latin and Greek. Thus 
 were laid the foundations of the university of Paris, leading to the estab- 
 lishment of the Germanic universities, and to the intellectual supremacy 
 of the Northern nations of Europe over the Southern. Alfred the Great, 
 amid the multitudinous cares of his kingdom, labored assiduously to 
 advance the cause of education among his people, organizing forces that 
 led to the upbuilding of the great English universities, and perpetuated 
 learning and religion down to Wickliffe, "the bright morning star" 
 of the Reformation. The German and other universities followed and 
 nurtured the Reformation. Erfurt and Wittenburg gave the world a 
 Luther, Heidelberg, and Tubingen, a Melanchthon, Berne and Basel, a 
 Zwingli. The college founded at Oxford, to counteract the influence of 
 
326 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 Wickliffe, nurtured the Wesleys and Methodism. Sir Walter Mildmay, 
 after founding Emanuel College, Cambridge, in 1585, coming up to the 
 court of Queen Elizabeth, she said to him, "Sir Walter, I hear you have 
 erected a Puritan foundation." He replied, "I have set an acorn, which, 
 when it becomes an oak, God alone knows what will be the fruit thereof" 
 Emanual College proved to be the nursery of Puritanism, and the source 
 from which emanated much of the learning, intellectual vigor, and reli- 
 gious power of the early New England colonies, the stream of whose 
 influence has been manifested in the Christian enlightenment and progress 
 which has characterized the entire history of New England, and has given 
 origin, not only to her own colleges, but also to most of those of the 
 other Northern States. 
 
 From this same influence sprang a still greater boon, if possible, to 
 the world, — the common, or public free school. The college did not 
 spring from the common school but it sprang from the college. It never 
 rains up, but always down. So education has rained down from the great 
 world teachers, through the medium of the college, spreading out in these 
 modern times into the common school. First the college, then the pri- 
 vate school or academy to fit bo3's for college, then schools and semina- 
 ries to fit girls, not for college, but to be helpmeets for collegians, and, 
 lastly, the school common to all. To New England belongs the immortal 
 honor of inaugurating these schools, both in Massachusetts and Connec- 
 ticut, within a decade after the founding of Harvard. 
 
 Emanuel College, thus planted as an acorn, has been the type of most 
 colleges founded on a religious basis, for the end of advancing both learn- 
 ing and religion. Almost uniformly these have sprung from acorns 
 planted in faith and hope, not simply for the present, but for future gen- 
 erations. Oxford began in the teachings of a few poor monks; Cam- 
 bridge took its start in a barn; Harvard commenced with three students, 
 when Boston, as yet, was only a straggling village of a score or so of 
 small houses; Yale, in the gift of a few books from the libraries of neigh- 
 boring clergymen; Princeton, in a log house, known as "Log College;" 
 Brown, with one student; Dartmouth, from an Indian mission 'school; 
 Oberlin, in the primeval forest; Wabash, in a prayer meeting on the 
 snow in the forest; Milton, in a little gravel building, erected through the 
 enterprise and public spirit of a single individual; Alfred, in a small 
 upper room. Most of these had for long }'ears a slow and struggling 
 growth. "A hundred \'ears old, and no taller," said the fabled gourd to 
 the venerable palm, to whose top it had climbed in a single summer. 
 "Every summer of my life," replied the palm, "a gourd has climbed up 
 
SERMONS. 327 
 
 around me, as proud as thou art, and, as short lived as thou wilt be." 
 Thus with colleges; they grow as trees grow, as nations, as languages 
 grow, from small beginnings and simple forms," gathering slowly, through 
 the centuries, strength, beauty, complexness of means and instrumental- 
 ities, and the power of diffusing the light of learning and all those forces 
 that give progress and civilization. Even those institutions that, in mod- 
 ern times, have been manufactured by the power of great wealth, with 
 large physical proportions at the start, require, nevertheless, time to get 
 the atmosphere, tone, spirit, and character given by culture. 
 
 Thus we have passed in review before you some of the great torch 
 bearers of truth, their lights obscured, in varying degrees, by the smoke 
 of error, up to the clear light of the great Light-bearer and World- 
 teacher, Jesus, the Christ, who have led humanity in its slow and toil- 
 some progress from the darkness and bondage of savagism towards the 
 promised land of the light and liberty of civilization. Humanity, organ- 
 izing the results of their teachings into schools, has been helped on more 
 and more, as the ages have gone by. Modern universities and colleges, 
 some half a thousand or more, have thus arisen, one by one, on the men- 
 tal night of the world, changing it by slow degrees into the dawning and 
 early light of a continually brightening day. Every State, every great 
 city, in Europe, is enriched and ennobled by them. They are scattered 
 broadcast throughout the American republic. They have gone wher- 
 ever civilization has gone. Popes, kings, princes, States, denominations, 
 individuals, have founded them or contributed to their support. 
 
 Colleges are thus the topmost blossoms and fruitage of civilization. 
 As is civilization so are colleges; conversely, as are colleges, so is civili- 
 zation. They interpenetrate and interplay upon each other. They are 
 coordinates. All great and permanent advancement in modern civiliza- 
 tion has been dependent upon great teachers and seats of learning, and 
 such conditions will obtain more and more. It was the saying of the 
 Chinese teacher, Mencius, that "a sage instructs a hundred generations." 
 Colleges gather the wisdom of the sages of all ages for the enlarged 
 instruction of all men. Thus, notwithstanding their imperfections in 
 manifold directions, they enable us to enter into the labors, become the 
 inheritors, of all the achievements of the human mind, live in the glory of 
 the world's accumulated knowledge and experience. They crown and 
 bind and give unity, strength, character, and efficiency to all other insti- 
 tutions and instrumentalities for the education of man and the progress 
 of civilization. They bring to their aid all historic memorials, — imple- 
 ments, coins, tombs, temples, statues, inscriptions, parchments, traditions; 
 
328 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 all superstitions, religions, customs; all evil and good, individual, social, 
 political, religious ; all language, literature, art, science, libraries, muse- 
 ums. They, likewise, become intellectual observatories, for discovering 
 the lights of new truths, as they rise upon the mental firmament, labora- 
 tories for observation and experiment upon all the phenomena, forces, and 
 laws of the universe. They perpetuate the highest standards of excel- 
 lence of all the past, enabling us to share the best and noblest the race 
 has produced on all matters of greatest import, enlarge the domain of 
 knowledge, multiply the instrumentalities for its acquisition, organize and 
 diffuse these, through the agencies of trained intellect, for the benefit of 
 every man. 
 
 In doing this the colleges have ready at hand, in addition to living 
 instructors, manifold other aids. As the editor, when his brain becomes 
 like a squeezed lemon, with all the juice of thought pressed out by the 
 exactions of his avocation, calls to his aid his skilled scissors, which, like 
 a wizard's wand, cause his paper to gleam with the best and brightest 
 thoughts of a hundred brains, to the delight and instruction of thousands 
 of readers, so a college, however spongy, vacuous, and vapid the brains 
 of its teachers from long over-squeezing and over-pumping; can summon 
 to its assistance all the great spirits of both the past' and present, with 
 their productions, to help in teaching and inspiring. 
 
 The ancient languages, among the highest achievements of human 
 intelligence, were perfected and freighted with the richest literatures and 
 sent down through twenty to thirty centuries, and, although unchanged 
 themselves, they have created or transformed, enriched and ennobled, all 
 modern languages and literatures, and have been the great teachers of the 
 humanities to man. The master-minds among the ancients,— their great 
 poets, orators, statesmen, historians, — who used these languages as a 
 medium for communicating and preserving their thoughts, have occupied 
 honored chairs in all seats of learning adown the ages, awakening, invig- 
 orating, and refining intellectual life and activity. 
 
 Mathematics, a science dealing with abstract numbers and forms of 
 pure reason, would seem, at first blush, to have little relation to the mate- 
 rial and industrial ongoings of the world; )^et mathematics has a vital 
 play in all the arts and sciences— every human industry feeling and 
 acknowledging its sway. Euclid, the fl\ther and professor of mathemat- 
 ics in that famous school at Alexandria, taught a science as perfect in 
 kind, and as direct, unerring, stimulating, and strengthening to the stu- 
 dent twenty-two hundred years ago as now. He has continued to 
 occupy the chair of mathematics, in the persons of its teachers, to the 
 
SERMONS. 329 
 
 present, sharpening, invigorating the minds of all through this rich pos- 
 session and wonderful educator. 
 
 Ptolemy, professor of geography and astronomy in the same great 
 school, who held almost supreme sway in these sciences for over a thou- 
 sand years, has lived in the lives of all geographers and astronomers, as 
 well as the teachers and students of these sciences, since, enlarging the 
 knowledge of the earth and heavens, and helping on navigation, com- 
 merce, and all dependent pursuits. Though a little antiquated in his 
 mappings of the earth and in his astronomical theories, he is still young 
 in spirit and enthusiastic as ever in his helpfulness. Hippocrates, the 
 father of medicine, who has been, in the persons of his successors, minis- 
 tering to sickness and suffering for twenty-two centuries, and teaching in 
 all schools of medicine, is still an aid to all that teach, or learn, or prac- 
 tice the beneficent art of healing. Aristotle not only taught in his day, 
 but has since been teaching, and is still ready to aid wherever natural 
 science, logic, or philosophy is taught, or wherever scientific investigators 
 are laboring. 
 
 Philosophy, the highest fruitage of the human reason, the product of 
 the loftiest minds that have appeared in the annals of time, has, from the 
 dawn of the four great inquiries, Whence? How? Why? Whereto? been, 
 next to religion, the great educator of man. Its great exponents, Socrates> 
 Plato, and their coadjutors, are still living in spirit and teaching in the 
 realm of philosophy, guiding and inspiring in the realm of morals. 
 
 Science, the youngest in this gifted and beneficent train of educators 
 of the race, is but just advancing to her seat of authority, to her throne 
 of power; but she comes with the vigor and enthusiasm of youth, bear- 
 ing in her hand the scepter of man's sovereignty over nature, attended 
 by a splendid retinue of observers, experimenters, investigators, truth- 
 seekers, in all the realms of nature. Their teachings are full of life, stir, 
 impulse, giving a many-eyed insight into nature, a many-handed grip 
 upon her utilities. 
 
 Religion, the supremest gift and blessing to man, not only gave being 
 to colleges, but has ever been their greatest light and highest inspiration. 
 Moses and the prophets, Christ and the apostles, have occupied honored 
 chairs in all seats of learning, born of the spirit of their teachings, and 
 exerted supreme influence in the education, guidance, and control of all 
 that have gathered about these seats, till these latter days, wherein some 
 State schools, and others, have shut the schoolhouse door in their faces, 
 with notification that all are welcome there except the best, and that all 
 things are taught there except religion, the most important. 
 
330 
 
 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 All these great themes are continuously present as aids and forces in 
 colleges. All the great of the earth are perpetually present in spirit, as 
 presiding and controlling powers, to teach, to inspire, to guide, full of 
 helpfulness to both teacher and student, and whose influences beat out 
 thence in ever-widening circles upon the world. 
 
 Thus from colleges have flowed constantly enlarging streams of 
 knowledge, culture, progress, and civilization. Their influences have 
 been for ages, and are still, silently yet effectively, exerted in homes, 
 churches, market-places, legislative halls, seats of justice — in all human 
 interests and enterprises. College-trained men have been running to and 
 fro in the earth that knowledge may be increased. By these trained 
 men the gospel has been carried to all peoples in their native tongues, 
 the Bible translated into most of the languages of the earth, the best 
 thoughts preserved in the writings of man in all ages and languages, 
 transferred into all modern languages. Homer, Socrates, Plato, Herod- 
 otus, Thucidides, Euripides, Eschylus, Sophocles, Demosthenes, Virgil, 
 Cicero — all the great historians, philosophers, poets, orators — teach and 
 speak and sing again to man, each one hearing them in the tongue in 
 which he was born. Moses and David and Isaiah and Ezekiel, and evan- 
 gelists and apostles, and even Jesus, cross the thresholds of all homes, 
 sit by the hearthstone, and talk with every home circle in its own home 
 language. 
 
 Again, colleges keep the common intelligence of civilized communi- 
 ties up to the discovering, inventing and organizing pitch; industries put 
 and keep the body in trim as a working machine, with hands pliable and 
 dexterous, fingers nimble and deft, for applying these discoveries and 
 inventions in the multitudinous utilities of modern enterprise. The 
 advent of these great improvements that are revolutionizing the world 
 had to wait till colleges had prepared the way, by the gradual and silent 
 diffusion of the light of knowledge, making it sufficiently light to see 
 to work. Man cannot work to any better purpose in mental than in 
 physical darkness. 
 
 Man made no progress in his rapidity of land travel from the time he 
 tamed the first camel and horse on the plains of Central Asia till steam 
 came, at the bidding of science, as a willing servant, to his aid. Man 
 made no advance in the rapidity of recording his thought and multiply- 
 ing this record from the time of the first invention of the pen till trained 
 intellect brough the printing press to his aid. He did not get beyond 
 sending his thoughts faster than he could go himself till the lightnings, 
 li.stening to the call of intellect and science, came as his willing and 
 
SERMONS. 331 
 
 nimble mail-carrier. Alchemy improved but little, and contributed less 
 to human weal, through long ages, but when the universities of Europe, 
 with their trained observers and experimenters, with their cooperative 
 systems of labor and mutual helpfulness, entered the field, then the 
 science of chemistry grew with rapidity. Half a century ago Liebig set 
 up, at the little University of Giessen, the first educational laboratory, 
 with experimental instruction in chemistry, that became the prototype 
 after which the laboratories now found in all higher institutions of learn- 
 ing have been constructed and conducted. Thus chemistry has become 
 a great educational force, and, entering into manifold productive indus- 
 tries, has brought incalculable blessings to man. 
 
 All these advances ha%'e come through the discovering and utilizing, 
 by scientific processes, the hidden law^s and forces of nature. She yields 
 her secrets only to an intelligent questioning, becoming more and more 
 an open secret as man climbs the scale of intelligence. The more 
 knowledge he carries ia his brain and skill in his hand, the more he 
 employs scientific insight and methods, the more readily does she 
 respond and willingly become his ally and servant. The higher educa- 
 tion of modern times gathers, with continually increasing interest and 
 success, light from the great zodiac of sciences that begirts human prog- 
 ress, and uses it for the advancement of the productive industries, thus 
 making every material thing conduce to both educational and industrial 
 ends. Every language, literature, science, or philosophy learned by 
 man, adds a new eye to his seeing power, a new hand to his working 
 power. 
 
 It is not necessary to stand within the direct rays of the sun to get 
 the benefits of the day. Its diffused light lights where the sun is not 
 seen. So the diffused light of college culture lights all. Every investi- 
 gator, discoverer, inventor, organizer, writer, whose achievements are 
 helping on human progress, whether college-bred or not, is surrounded 
 by an invisible companionship of scholars, who touch mental elbows with 
 him. He labors in an intellectual atmosphere, surcharged with culture. 
 As the keeper of the station on the top of Mt. Washington once said to 
 us that, sitting in his stone hut during the thunderstorms which fre- 
 quently envelop the mountain, he could, by simply reaching out his 
 hands, grasp them full of thunderbolts, hurtling thick about him, so 
 these men are so thickly surrounded by ideas, flying in the atmosphere 
 of culture, that they have only to reach out to grasp their hands full of 
 ideas. Their achievements were impossible without the ideas perpetually 
 beating out from college classrooms, lecture halls, libraries, and museums. 
 
332 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 Many discoveries and inventions, it is true, seem to come by accident, but 
 such accidents never happen except in lands lighted by colleges. As 
 well a Shakespeare, a Burns, a Bunyan, a Watt, a Stevenson, a Faraday, 
 a Franklin, a Rumford, a Spencer, an Edison, as a Chaucer, a De Cartes, a 
 Bacon, a Newton, a Milton, a Leibnitz, a Liebig, a Hugo, a Tennyson, a 
 Browning, a Lowell, a Longfellow — all alike have been dependent upon 
 the college as the ultimate source of light. Let there be the discovery 
 of a great principle in mathematics, literature, science, art, law, morality, 
 theology — immediately does it spread to all seats of learning, and is by 
 them used to the end of enlightenment, growth, culture of mind, and 
 thence distributed broadcast, not an ephemeral news, but as leaven, to 
 leaven gradually but surely the whole body of mind. Thus they become 
 a constant incentive to the seeking of new truth, and, as the region of the 
 unknown is infinitely greater than the known, as but a few pebbles have 
 been gathered along the shores of its untraversed and mysterious ocean, 
 ample is the opportunity for future navigators and explorers. 
 
 Again, where colleges are best and most abundant, there culture and 
 civilization are best; wherever they have longest existed and been most 
 effective, other things being equal, there man's external conditions have 
 become most ameliorated, enlarged, improved; his intellect has been 
 most distinguished by energy, brilliancy, and power; his spiritual nature 
 most quickened, refined, and elevated; domestic virtue, business honor, 
 obedience to law, enlarged benevolence, missionary enterprise, and prac- 
 tical religion have most abounded. 
 
 These ends they secure by cultivating, in the first instance, the virtues 
 that lead up to them in the student; and, in the second, by fostering, 
 through these, the same in the community at large. Every man of cul- 
 ture, in proportion as he is trained in mental activities, ready in varied 
 knowledge, with powers under control, strong, alert, many ways accom- 
 plished, does he become a delight, an inspiration, and an influence to all. 
 Though we not infrequently smile aloud at the pedantic claims and 
 supercilious airs of some college fledgling, more noted, perhaps, for his 
 ingenuity in avoiding both work and restraint, and in devising ways and 
 means for spending money he never earned, than in getting culture, yet 
 we all feel the subtile influence of a person of true culture. Such an one 
 in a community infects all with the contagion of culture. Two churches 
 located in juxtaposition, with a ministry, one pious, earnest, learned, 
 refined, the other pious, earnest, but unlearned, unrefined, this continu- 
 ing for a few generations, and they will become as unlike as their pastors. 
 Two towns, one settled by educated, the other by uneducated pioneers. 
 
SERMONS. 333 
 
 and they will have impressed upon them like characteristics, that will 
 remain for centuries, almost as definitely defined as the town lines. Our 
 country, especially the older portions, abounds in illustrative examples. 
 Heredity is a law of the mental and the social, as of the physical world. 
 We get culture by heredity, by absorption, by assimilation. Society is a 
 cooperative school, where all are both teachers and pupils. But, without 
 the e\'er-present light from the altar fires of colleges, where the sacred 
 flames of culture are perpetually guarded that they die not, this busy, 
 care-encumbered world would soon lose sight of the ideal excellence of 
 learning, amid the darkness that would gather soon, fast and faster. 
 These altar fires warm and enthuse all coming within their influence. 
 
 One's mental life and health depend largely upon the degree to 
 which the intellectual atmosphere surrounding him is oxygenated with 
 culture. The college has for its object the ozonizing of this atmosphere 
 with learning to the best condition possible. Without the ever-present 
 influence of high culture, the harmonious development of the whole 
 being is prone, in the hot pursuits and collisions of life, to become a 
 secondary consideration. Each one's calling, absorbing all the energies, 
 is constantly drawing all his powers into specialties; but, like a rubber 
 string, the more it is thus drawn out, the weaker it becomes. When a 
 person gets to thinking and talking only oyster, or clam, or dog, or 
 horse, or store, or mill, or machinery, or cheese, or newspaper, or school, 
 or politics, he is fast degenerating into a machine or hack politician, 
 printing press, mill, dog, oyster, and at last, as the fabled oysters created 
 for a thousand years by Saturn, into sea foam. 
 
 College culture is a means for removing lobsidedness, incompleteness, 
 clannishness, pro\-incialism, low impulses, though it often sadly fails in 
 doing so. It tends to vitalize and bring into organic union all specialties, 
 steady and shape all abnormal tendencies, and give symmetrical growth 
 to all faculties. 
 
 Plato said, "A boy in his natural state is the most vicious of all wild 
 beasts." Another affirms, "A boy is better unborn than untaught." 
 Still another, "A boy is something that we cannot live with or without." 
 This last aphorism applies to girls as well. It is a very slow, difficult, 
 and expensive process to convert the average natural boy into a com- 
 plete man — a man 
 
 " Whose tongue is framed to music, 
 Whose hand is armed with skill. 
 Whose face is the mould of beauty, 
 And his heart the throne of will." 
 
334 LIFE OP^ PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 " He must be musical, 
 Tremulous, impressional, 
 Alive to the gentle influence 
 Of landscape and of sky, 
 And tender to the Spirit's touch ; 
 But to his native center fast, 
 Shall into future fuse the past, 
 And the world's flowing fates 
 In his own mould recast." 
 
 "Can rules or tutors educate 
 This demigod whom we await? " 
 
 Hardly; but how to work the average boy and girl, not up to, but 
 towards, this high ideal, this is the question, this the problem that all 
 teachers in all ages have been striving to solve. Not by leaving them, 
 like unpruned trees, to grow up according to their own sweet wills, not 
 by leaving them to sports and plays, and the innumerable contrivances 
 which such are up to, for spending both time and money, regardless ot 
 consequences, can this great end be attained. Nor does the public school 
 give a good finish. It dismisses them in just that inchoate condition, 
 that incipient stage in the development of mind, tastes, habits, and char- 
 acter, in which, if they are left for their future education simply to skim 
 the cream from the pans set forth by the periodicals of the day, or to 
 browse about in a haphazard way among the literatures and sciences, 
 they may turn out a sermon, or they may turn out a song, or they may 
 turn out neither the one nor the other, as to all genuine culture. To 
 approach anywhere near the desired end, other long years of very steady, 
 serious work are needed. 
 
 President Kenyon used to say that, if he should be remembered, he 
 desired the remembrance to be simply of his being good at drill, and in 
 securing mental concentration. Yes, it is drill and mental concentration, 
 self-imposed, even a dead grind, with as much of motive and inspiration 
 as you please thrown in, that is needed. Right and good culture is 
 attained only by the hardest work, — by work incessant and long con- 
 tinued, even unto monotony and weariness, and by curbing, with strong, 
 steady hand, all shiftless, wayward impulses and undesirable propensities, 
 and by spurring up, often and hard, all irresolute and lagging proclivities. 
 
 Colleges have for their aim to aid in this high enterprise, aiding stu- 
 dents, first of all, to make men and women of themselves, being assured 
 that, if they fail in this, they will fail in everything else. To this end 
 they should be a genuine republic of letters, wherein all seekers of culture 
 are eligible to citizenship, irrespective of sex, race, class, or any other 
 
SERMONS. 335 
 
 external condition or consideration, but where hi<^h aims, earnestness, 
 industry, enterprise, and moral worth receive their true guerdon. 
 
 Colleges in securing these, in order to produce the happiest results, 
 need, like churches, to be sown broadcast among the people, and sus- 
 tained by their sympathies and by their liberalities, thereby cultivating 
 the spirit of benevolence, enterprise, and progress, and lifting the whole 
 community into a higher plane of thinking, planning, and doing. Every 
 college bell is a genuine missionary, awakening all within its sound to 
 new intellectual life and activity. They foster other than material aims, 
 and light up all the region with a " light not seen on sea or land" by the 
 natural eye, and do a good inestimable, beyond what would accrue if 
 only some of the well-to-do and the rich went to some distant great 
 school. This is especially important in a republic, where the degree and 
 quality of its liberty and progress depend upon the degree and quality 
 of the common intelligence. This diffusion of colleges among the people 
 necessitates many that are comparatively poor and rural. It is true that 
 at the metropolitan gatherings of the alumni of the great schools, in their 
 after-supper speeches, made amid a superabundance of wines and cigars, 
 we hear much belauding of the great schools, and, not infrequently, 
 much belittling of "fresh water," "one-horse" colleges, as they are 
 termed. While the importance and even necessity of great institutions, 
 with immense resources and manifold appliances, is freely, gladly granted, 
 yet the highest type of schools does not necessarily depend upon such 
 costly equipments. The best culture comes from the unconscious tuition 
 given by the tone and spirit permeating the school, productive not simply 
 of scholarly adepts, but productive of a purposeful training that leads 
 each to make the best possible of himself in all respects, thereby getting 
 the best possible preparation to meet the struggles for existence and to 
 win success. 
 
 Professor Huxley well says: "Our great schools are fast becoming 
 schools of manners for the rich, of sports for the athletic, hotbeds of 
 hypercritical refinement, most destructive to originality, whose students 
 do a little learning and much boating. Not a few of our most expen- 
 sively educated youth regard athletic sports as the one conceivable mode 
 of enjoying, of spending, leisure." A mother of a recent graduate from 
 one of our leading ball and boating universities, said to me that her son 
 was so zealously engaged in developing muscle while in college that he 
 forgot to study, but since graduation he was seriously contemplating 
 taking up that long-neglected occupation, and, in fact, had made some 
 little headway already in the matter. A father recently said of his son, 
 
336 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 now in a similar institution, he knew not whether he should receive back 
 a man, or a golden calf, as he was spending money enough on him to 
 make a good-sized animal of that kind, and he heard from his son no 
 talk about his studies, but all about his games. 
 
 Saying nothing of the drunkenness and the rowdyism, if the money 
 that changes hands in these games, by the various processes best known 
 to sporting men, having added thereto the money worse than squandered 
 in promoting good fellowship and good cheer in the secret fraternities, 
 with their frivolous secrets, puerile rites, and clannish proclivities, which 
 infest as a dry rot some of these institutions, could be distributed among 
 the poorer institutions for the benefit of needy students, it would light up 
 the intellectual skies with a new glory. It would come to a class the 
 great body of whom are students indeed, who do not make of college 
 life simply a "right jolly good time," but a time for earnest, careful prep- 
 aration for future usefulness, and to whom study is a sacramental act, 
 seeking therein both ennoblement and equipment for leadership in the 
 world's work. The grandest thing in student life, as everywhere else, is 
 right manly living and doing, seeking to carve out for themselves noble 
 destinies, thereby awakening in their associates all that is worthiest. 
 With such no time or power is suffered to run to waste. All low and 
 frivolous impulses are subjected to the behests of high aims. 
 
 College authorities, as a whole, disapprove of much of these bad 
 elements, seeking, rather, to promote "plain living and high thinking;" 
 but they find themselves largely powerless to check these growing evils. 
 Every institution, great or small, can, however, furnish abundant exam- 
 ples of failure. There are sent to these college mills all sorts of grain, 
 good, shriveled, sprouted, musty, decaying, cockle, chess, darnel; and woe 
 to these mills if they do not return to their patrons at least triple X 
 roller-process flour for the same. 
 
 The smaller colleges are, nevertheless, fortunate in having a less ratio 
 of this kind of grists sent to them than the larger. While the law of 
 selection for the latter is largely money, for the former the great struggle 
 for existence and survival of the fittest comes in, resulting in making 
 the ratio of such students as rely on their own energies to win their way 
 much greater in the small rural colleges, and giving to them a higher 
 tone and atmosphere of purposeful living and studying. The Faculties of 
 some of the larger schools are glad to get a good sprinkling of such as 
 make up the great body in the rural schools, as leaven for their large 
 unmotived masses, as salt to season and savor the play elements. 
 
 As a natural, logical consequence, the same principles and laws obtain 
 
SERMONS. 337 
 
 in life's work and fierce conflicts, as in the preparation. As the majority 
 of the preachers of the gospel come, not from the large and wealthy 
 churches, but from the smaller and poor, so likewise the ratio of minis- 
 ters, missionaries, heralds of reform, is much greater from the graduates 
 of the smaller than from the large and wealthy colleges. The same 
 holds true in all the rugged, self-forgetting, self-sacrificing pursuits of life. 
 The great majority of the graduates from these rural colleges go forth 
 with all their equipments gathered in hand for achievement. Thus def- 
 initely purposed, they carry a wonderful earnestness and vigor into life. 
 They forge ahead wherever brawn, and nerve, and self-reliance, and energy, 
 and sacrifice are required. . . 
 
 A leading lawyer of New York City recently informed me that among 
 the numerous students, from time to time, in the office of his firm, those 
 from the smaller rural colleges set about their law studies as if they 
 meant business. They stuck to the law, and the law stuck to them, 
 while those from the big schools didn't stick to the law, nor did the law 
 stick to them. . . . Those of you who were at the recent alumni 
 dinner at Alfred, doubtless recollect the post-prandial speech of one of 
 your number, who has risen to distinguished eminence in his profession 
 in the city of New York, in which he stated that, when he first went to 
 the city, he regretted that he was not a graduate of some noted, popular 
 college; but after years of observation and of association with graduates 
 from most colleges of this and other countries, and finding that the ratio 
 of Alfred students coming to the front in the various callings and pur- 
 suits was greater than from any other college, he had long since not only 
 ceased to regret, but had come to be proud and to rejoice that he was an 
 Alfred graduate. To the same effect was the remark of another, on a 
 different occasion, that, on seeing how those who left Alfred for other 
 schools got on in the world, in comparison with those who remained, he 
 had nothing to regret that he remained. 
 
 Newly sheep-skinned collegians are not infrequently afflicted with the 
 weakness of being vain of the fineness of the wool of these skins, or of 
 the distinguished names appended thereto ; but they soon learn to their 
 dismay that the world cares not a whistle for these things; nor, as to 
 that matter, about the fineness of their own wool; nor whether the bluest 
 of blue blood courses their veins or not; nor about the distinguished 
 names that may or may not be found in their ancestral line; nor about 
 the aristocratic airs assumed by sappy young brains of both genders, 
 sometimes even by older brains, begotten of codfish, petroleum, shoddy, 
 stocks, or what not; but that it sets great store by one who, fighting. 
 
338 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 unaided, his way up through all his preparation for life, has learned to 
 stand squarely on his feet, strike straight from the shoulder; or, being 
 down, is on his feet again before the world or himself knows of his fall; 
 and, instead of cowardly conservatism, or hesitantly waiting for something 
 to turn up, or for fair weather and smooth seas to come, has acquired that 
 unyielding, all-enduring fortitude in adversity, that dauntless, all-daring, 
 heroic spirit so essential for leadership, or the accomplishment of any 
 
 great work. 
 
 "A ruddy drop of manly blood 
 The surging seas outweighs." 
 
 We heard a prisoner in the late war say to his fellow-prisoners 
 that the next time he went to war, he was going in a buggy. It would 
 enable him to keep at a safe distance from bullets and chances of capture, 
 and secure nice attentions as he drove up to hotels o' nights. It is too 
 much the aspiration of students to so prepare themselves as to be 
 enabled to go forth in buggies, with gloved and caned hands, to the bat- 
 tles of life, at safe distances from ball and saber strokes. The character 
 of the preparatory training determines largely the efficiency and success 
 with which the duties of after life will be performed. Right and effective 
 culture secures power as well as finish, leads to aspiration, consecration, 
 and earnest, purposeful work. 
 
 In these recent times, to meet the wants of such as do not have, or 
 do not desire, the benefits of ordinary college culture, universities, 
 so called, have been placed on wheels, and, with their Lilliputian distrib- 
 uting carts, peddle from door to door, like the milkman, knowledge by 
 the quart or pint, to suit customers; or, if preferred, the}- furnish it in 
 wholesale quantities at wholesale prices in quick time, amid great 
 throngs, at pleasant summer resorts. 
 
 This is all good in its way, meets needs that could not otherwise be 
 so well met, awakens appetite, cultivates a taste for something more and 
 better, and redeems much time that would otherwise run to waste, or 
 worse. But this is not culture in the highest and best sense. To get 
 this one must needs be withdrawn from the noise and cares of the world 
 into mental atmospheres, with steady, long-continued drill, amid the 
 inspirations of other minds engaged in the same pursuits. In order to 
 furnish these conditions the college is essential. 
 
 The motive inspiring and guiding in the founding, supporting, and 
 conducting these sources of human enlightenment and progress, has never 
 been the acquisition of wealth or power or personal fame, but a sincere 
 desire to better the world's condition. They have had and still have 
 many a hero, prophet, and martyr, in the pursuit and the defense of truth. 
 
SERMONS. 339 
 
 whose pen or voice has moved bis age, whose lead has guided the peo- 
 ple to higher planes, whose influence has shaped the ages, widening and 
 ennobling human destiny. These rqen have been undeviated by love of 
 ease, dread of labor, desire of wealth, greatness of difficulties, fear of 
 consequences, but have responded to the voice of conscience, the claims 
 of duty, the responsibilities of station, with an unselfish devotion. They 
 have been animated by the conviction that the discover}- or dissemina- 
 tion of truth, the advancement of knowledge in any direction, or the 
 enlightenment of mind, contributes to the advancement and welfare of 
 all; that a consecrated life is the first and highest duty; that self-devotion 
 outranks mere scholarship; that faith lighted by knowledge, good will, 
 bearing fruit in good deeds, is the aim and end of college culture. 
 
 Such being the manifold indebtedness of the world to teachers and 
 institutions of learning, it follows not only as a legitimate but necessary 
 corollary that, in proportion as the world recognizes this indebtedness 
 and responds to its claims by aiding these institutions, will it aid and 
 benefit itself Money given in this aid is best saved, treasured, and mul- 
 tiplied, some thirty, some sixty, some an hundred-fold. Wealth con- 
 fided to such public trusts is safe as far as anything human can be safe. 
 Here neither private extravagance can squander, nor personal necessity 
 exhaust it, nor will it perish with the life that gathered it. Here, uncon- 
 sumed itself, it will perpetually feed, not the material nature of man, that 
 so soon passes away, but the hunger of the unperishing mind, continu- 
 ing thus to do good for untold years after the donor himself has passed 
 on. The names of such benefactors have ever been held in special honor, 
 their memories cherished with special affection and gratitude. 
 
 John Harvard, an alumnus of that "acorn," Emanuel College, dying 
 young and comparatively unknown, bequeathed one-half of his property, 
 some ^4,000, and his library, to the founding of a college, that was in 
 gratitude named after him. Who knows or cares what became of the 
 other half? But this half started streams of influences which have per- 
 meated the land, kindled a light which has shone over the continent, and 
 after nearly two and a half centuries there is no name which that institution 
 cherishes with more gratitude, or is seeking to honor more highly, than 
 the name of John Harvard. 
 
 The true glory of man is not the glory that blazes about him as he 
 lives, but that glory which, enduring after he has himself passed out of 
 sight, is seen and acknowledged by benefited and grateful after genera- 
 tions. Such is the glory of those of whom in those long after ages — 
 when, perhaps, it cannot be said with certainty that their blood flows in 
 
340 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 the veins of any living person — it can be said that their bounty helps 
 with undiminished supply innumerable multitudes. Such is specially 
 and emphatically true of all who aid in building and supporting colleges. 
 
 Alfred has just celebrated its first semicentennial. When it gathers 
 in the prime of maturing strength to celebrate its thousandth anniversary, 
 what names think you will be called up with the most grateful remem- 
 brance? The starred names of its catalogues will then doubtless repre- 
 sent many whose standing in the community, when and where they lived, 
 whose fortunes and public services placed them, in the estimation of their 
 day, high in rank and influence; butthetenderest and most grateful mem- 
 ories will gather about those who, in far-off past years, gave of their lives 
 and their fortunes to its founding and support, starting thus a perennial 
 stream, which, watering all its roots and fructifying and fruiting through 
 all those years, will then be just as nourishing and fruit-producing as at 
 the beginning. It is to the merit of those who lead in such enterprises 
 that they lay foundations on which others of kindred temper coming 
 after may build, and awaken a spirit which may lead to services more 
 important even than their own. 
 
 Alfred, starting as a little taper set in .an upper window, becoming 
 soon a candle, lighting in its small way the path of many an earnest 
 pilgrim to its shrine of knowledge, thence developed gradually into a 
 candelabrum, many lighted. As it has been the solicitude and care- 
 encumbered effort of its founders and supporters, so let it continue to be 
 ours to keep these lights trimmed and supplied with oil and brightly 
 burning, as untiringly and as religiously as were those sacred lamps in 
 the golden candlestick of the temple at Jerusalem. We need have no 
 fear that the time will come when our Alma Mater, whose memory and 
 interests we have this evening gathered to cherish, will be .less an object 
 of affection and care to our children's children to her thousandth birth- 
 day and onward, than she is this evening to us. Let us therefore con- 
 tinue to multiply and brighten her lights, in the full assurance that, when 
 we have done what we can, coming generations will take up and augment 
 the good work. As none of us will pass this way again, after once hav- 
 ing taken our departure from the earth, it behooves us one and all to 
 make the best and most enduring use of life, for blessing, not only our 
 own age, but likewise all future ages. 
 
SERMONS. 341 
 
 PERSONALITY. 
 
 [Baccalaureate sermon, delivered June 26, 18S7, before the graduating class of Alfred 
 University.] 
 
 "I Am." Ex. 3 : 14. 
 
 Jehovah, in announcing himself to Moses, from out the burning bush, 
 used, as the source of his name, the highest language symbol possible to 
 be formulated, expressive of personality. "I Am," incapable of being 
 defined by any higher or simpler term, is the ultimate affirmation of 
 being as person. Jehovah, therefore, in announcing that he was the I 
 Am, declared the essential characteristic of his being to be personality. 
 
 I. The Essential Nature and Matiife stations of Personality. — Life 
 is the essence of spirit. Livingness, energy, or essential activity, 
 is its manifestation. Self-consciousness is the primary attribute of per- 
 sonality. When a finite being stands revealed to himself in. the clear, 
 self-seeing, and spontaneous assurance,"! am I," he has his conscious 
 birth into the kingdom of personalities. As, by sense-consciousness, 
 man is connected with the world physical, so, by self-consciousness, he is 
 connected with the world spiritual. He is thereby not only separated 
 from the world and its forces, but he likewise emerges from animal or 
 brute consciousness, wherein "I," or personality, has no place. Thus he 
 is raised out of the material world, lifted above his animal nature, and his 
 manhood as person inaugurated. 
 
 This self-seeing spirit life manifests itself as reason, sensibility, and 
 will. This self-conscious life, as reason, apprehends realities, truth, 
 beauty, goodness, illuminates with ideas, transfigures with ideals, beholds 
 the supersensible, the unchangeable, the absolute. As sensibility, it is 
 the fountain of the spiritual. sentiments, love, sympathy, compassion, pity, 
 admiration, reverence, adoration. As will, it is power of self-originant, 
 self-determined activity. 
 
 Personality, therefore, as self-conscious knowing, is the source of wis- 
 dom ; as self-conscious feeling, is the source of ethical and theistic senti- 
 ments; as self-conscious willing, is self-originant cause. In the light of 
 reason, under the spring of motive, born of the sensibility, with freedom 
 of will in the choice of ends, it starts new streams of activity. 
 
 Deity is perfect person, unconditioned and absolute power, self- 
 originant, self-directive, and infinite cause. Man, in these, is relative, 
 finite, conditioned, dependent, and imperfect; yet in his conscious self- 
 hood he has assurance of personal identity with its unity and continuity 
 
342 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 <:)f activit}-,amid all changes of physical forces and phenomena, and assur- 
 ance of the accountability and immortality of this personality. These 
 are all essential attributes of personality. Subtract either one, and the 
 residuum is something less than person. 
 
 2. Absolute Personality as Creator. — Deity, in his transcendent per- 
 sonality, is absolv'ed from all relations and conditions save as self-imposed 
 in a finite creation. He originates in his reason all truths and ideals. 
 These truths become laws for directing his will, whereby these ideals are 
 embodied and filled out in the objective realities, by his all-pervading 
 energy. His indwelling presence and power are thus omnipresent, 
 omnipotent, persistent, and unchangeable, amid all the manifoldness of 
 its manifestations. It gives order, uniformity, diversity, and beauty to 
 universal nature. This divine efficiency, as force, planted out in space, 
 becomes substance, held in stable equilibrium, whereby all points in this 
 substance are balanced by action and reaction; it becomes matter, with 
 its manifoldness of phenomena, holding its attributes in a firm impenetra- 
 bility against all other like matter, yet permeable by higher forces. The 
 divine life-efficiency, in the ascending scale of creation, using each lower 
 form as a matrix for a higher, lends out and individualizes innumerable 
 centers of delegated life, which, in the ascent, becomes more and more 
 individualized, with the self-centering unity of organic impulse and inher- 
 ence, impenetrable by other like life unities, and capable of utilizing the 
 lower forces. These grow more and more complex, specialized, pliable, 
 full of office and function, through vegetal and animal, till, at the highest 
 extreme, they emerge in the human, of which they are the prophecy and 
 the endeavor. The human is lifted infinitely higher, by being imbued 
 with .spirit or personality, separate from the divine personality, but not 
 from the divine imminence. All nature is the direct outcome and 
 expression of divine wisdom and power, in a perpetual generation of 
 energy, welling up in a ceaseless stream of force and life and act, contin- 
 uously unfolding into realities, its laws being but the uniform activities of 
 the divine will, lighted by ideas, guided by purpose. The uni\-erse is an 
 organism, used as a pliable instrumentality by the ever-present and ever- 
 working God, conscious where it is unconscious, seeing where it is blind, 
 imparting life in universal being, begetting it, in the everlivingness of his 
 own Spirit, in all finite spirits. Subtract any of the essentials of person- 
 ality from Deity, and the residuum gives a soulless universe as the 
 "residuary legatee," and Deity becomes the semi-vital demiurge of the 
 ancients, or the unconscious somewhat, as the unknown and unknowable 
 power of the moderns, whose laws bind him down like chains of adamant, 
 
SERMONS. 343 
 
 a formless impersonation of physical force, that lies imprisoned and 
 crushed under the universe. 
 
 3. Whence Has Man His Personality ^ — The personality of God, the 
 Father, gives personality to man, his child. The Fatherhood of God 
 and the childship of man constitute the very essence of human existence, 
 determining the nature of this existence, tlie character of its ongoing in 
 the individual and in the race, and the plan and character of human 
 redemption through Christ. Whatever is the nature of God, such must 
 be that of the human spirit, being after his nature and in his likeness. 
 As the likeness of the earthly parent is reproduced in the child, not so 
 much in form and feature as in the inner and more essential nature, of 
 which the outward is but a manifestation, so the likeness of God in man 
 is in his spiritual essence and its attributes, in his personality. It is this 
 oneness of nature that gives ability for inter-communication and com- 
 munion, whereby God is able to reveal himself to man, and man is able 
 to apprehend and love God. Man, thus, instead of "son of matter," is 
 "son of God," with 
 
 "This main miracle, that thou art thou. 
 With power on thine"own act, and on the world." 
 
 4. TJic Human Soul. — Man, however, is not pure spirit, but ensouled, 
 incarnated spirit. Soul is the vital, organic connection between spirit and 
 body in this embodiment. It is the organ for the spirit, as the body is the 
 organ for it. Justin Martyr well calls the body the house of the soul, 
 and the soul the house of the spirit. Paul represents the quick and 
 powerful word of God as piercing and dividing between soul and body, 
 as a living organism is divided. Spirit is born of spirit, flesh of flesh. 
 Soul is the union of the two in a neutral third. Spirit is the inbreathing 
 of the divine into this soulish or animal nature. Spirit is personal, soul 
 impersonal. Mind is the manifestation of ensouled thence of embodied 
 spirit. Without the indwelling spirit, soul would not be human, but brute. 
 
 On his spiritual side man is partaker of the divine nature; on his soul- 
 ish side he is, as Wickliffe puts it, "beastlie." Developing inward and 
 upward, man is spiritual; developing downward and outward, through 
 the bodily organism, he is animal. Man is thus made a little lower than 
 the angels, clothed upon and underpropped by a nature little above the 
 brute. Man, in common with the vegetable, possesses somatic or bodily 
 life; in common with the animal, he possesses soulish or animal life, 
 forming a matrix for implanting the life of the spirit. God is the father 
 of spirits, not of souls or bodies. These are but the organs or living 
 
344 
 
 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 instrumentalities for the spirit's worldward activities. This lifts the 
 soulish bodily organism from the plane of simple animal up into an 
 organism for the embodiment of spirit, even a temple for the divine 
 Spirit. "What? know ye not," inquires Paul, "that your body is the 
 temple of the Holy Gho.st, which is in you, which ye have from God?" 
 This temple thus transcends all temples made by man, however costly in 
 material, magnificently planned, or skillfully constructed, — a temple with 
 its holy of holies for the indwelling of the divine. 
 
 5. The Human Organ for the Divine. — Humanity, thus, through its 
 divine kinship, is the organ for divine indwelling, and for revelations to 
 illume the spirit, inspirations to enkindle and empower, imperatives 
 imposing oughtness, and motives for accomplishing the highest end of 
 being. Conscience, " the associate-knowing- with-God" faculty, is capacity 
 for receiving assurance that God is, and through which the human gives 
 response to the divine, being thus the medium of a living intercourse 
 between God and man. Conscience thus acting is faith-faculty or God- 
 consciousness. As, through the sense-consciousness, man sees the 
 world and himself in it, so through conscience there comes to the spir- 
 itual minded the assurance that the supreme power to which the human 
 spirit is con'elated and dependent, is God, the living Father. This faith 
 assurance becomes a constantly renewed spiritual experience, the source 
 of all spiritual light, knowledge, power, and deed. 
 
 While faith gives assurance that God is, the reason apprehends 
 what he is. It sees him as absolute in his self-existence, infinite in his 
 nature, perfect in the attributes of personality, standing out from nothing- 
 ness by his own inherent energy, spontaneous, free, the source of all, 
 supreme over all. This intuitive apprehension of God, who, though 
 incomprehensible in the fullness of his infinitudes, becomes thereby the 
 most positive and consistent apprehension of which the human mind is 
 capable, lying clear and distinct in the consciousness, satisfying at once 
 the demands of faith, of reason, and of the religious sentiments. Faith, 
 reason, and religious experience blend in the assurance that God not only 
 is, but that he is also a living, condescending, forgiving, consoling, and 
 helping Father. 
 
 Conscience has a twofold function. It gives not only faith assurance, 
 but likewise announces imperatives, enforcing the behests of law, and 
 awakening the consciousness of obligation. In its Godward affinities it 
 is receptivity of divine life and light, or faith proper; in its responsive- 
 ness to imperatives, enforcing law, it is conscience proper. As such, it is 
 the voice of God in the spirit, announcing and enforcing the imperatives 
 
SERMONS. 345 
 
 of universal and absolute law, whose harmonies as they sweep and swell 
 through the universe become mandates which all lower nature must obey, 
 and which all personalities ought to obey. 
 
 6. TJic Ultimate End of Human Action. — Personality has, in addition 
 to the attributes already enumerated, power of self-directive activity, 
 capability of choosing an end under an imperative and imposing law for 
 controlling this activity in securing this end. Man thus becomes, in this 
 free disposing, self-regnant over his activities, subject only to this impera- 
 tive. The most important question in ethics is, "What is the ultimate 
 end in view of which this imperative imposes obligation?" There may 
 be intermediate ends, but there must also be an ultimate one, to which 
 these are means. This must be the same for all men, with a like impera- 
 tive, obligation, and umpire for all, giving, thereby, unity in the ethical 
 nature of humanity, the same universal law of duty, and a uniform stand- 
 ard of character. From this unity spring the convictions of mutual duty 
 and accountability of each to all, and of all to each, and all to God, the 
 Father of all. 
 
 7. The Supreme Good. — An end involves some kind of good to be 
 attained, and the ultimate end involves the supreme good. A good may 
 be to the end of gratifying some instinct, appetite, or propensity; hence 
 there may be as many objective goods as there are desires to gratify. But 
 these goods may be so correlated to conscious personality as to conduce 
 to subjective good, and thus be means to this good. 
 
 The Hedonistic theory makes the greatest happiness of being the 
 supreme good, and thus develops right from happiness, thereby making 
 right simply a thing of expediency, of trade and barter in utilities to 
 gratify a craving of the sentient nature. That end is most worthy which 
 will give the greatest happiness, either in quantity, quality, intensity, or 
 durability, that the highest rule of right which guides to this, and that 
 the best motive which furnishes the strongest spring to action, leading to 
 it. Ignoring the imperative to do right regardless of the consequent 
 happiness or misery, it makes right the expedient, and the useful becomes 
 the guide; and, the motive being selfish, the action fails to give happiness, 
 because it fails in virtue. The rectitude theory either confounds laws and 
 ends, or else ignores ends, saying, "Do right because it is right, and that 
 is the end of it." 
 
 The theory of perfection of personality holds that the highest imper- 
 ative demands, the highest motive prompts, and the highest reason sees 
 the perfection of all personalities to be the essential and supreme good. 
 God is the absolutely perfect personality, and the universe was created 
 
346 LIKE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 for the express purpose of imaging his infinite perfections in finite per- 
 sonaUties, who, with their limitations and imperfections, are to the end of 
 perpetually growing more and more into these divine perfections. Among 
 the excellencies which this theory possesses above the others, is that of 
 having the purpose, the tendency of the act, the ideal end, and the result- 
 ing good, all coincide and realized. This is the supreme good, which cre- 
 ation and its ongoing, which all lower forms of good, all influences and 
 instrumentalities, were expressly designed to aid. All working for this 
 good is in harmony with the plans and purposes of God, and is, there- 
 fore, right working. Happiness, though not in itself an entity, will follow 
 as a result, will accompany as a shadow, its substance; and, as God is 
 blessed in his perfections, so man's blessedness will increase as he 
 advances in perfectness. 
 
 8. lV/i_y Is Perfection the Supreme Good? — Personality, embodying all 
 there is of intrinsic worth, essential excellency, and transcendent dignity, 
 is eminently worthy of this supreme good. God, as perfect personality, 
 has infinite worth, absolute excellency, and supreme dignity. Finite 
 spirits, as partakers of his nature, have like, though relative, limited, and 
 imperfect qualities. These are the seal of man's divine sonship and the 
 crowning glory of his being, with nothing finite beyond or above, all else 
 being lower and of less worth. Personality, possessing thus the worth 
 of all worths, the dignity of all dignities, seeking holiness or spiritual 
 perfection, thereby making the excellency of the divine character to pre- 
 vail more and more in his children, is the work of supreme worthiness. 
 
 9. The Supreme Imperative. — "Be ye, therefore, perfect, even as your 
 Father which is in heaven is perfect" — this is the supreme imperative. 
 Be a complete person, in godlikeness, and seek a like completeness for 
 all, because of the infinite worthiness of the worth and dignity of this 
 heavenly Father, and of men, his children. This Shekinah of worthiness, 
 shining in the holy of holies of each personality, imposes this supreme 
 imperative of holiness or spiritual perfectness on all, as the supreme good. 
 This imperative is subjective, simple, immutable, universal, legislating for, 
 obliging, judging, rewarding alike, all personalities. It is grounded in, 
 and springs from, the consciousness of worth, giving worthiness above 
 all pleasure or pain; worthiness, not of use as means to something else, 
 but for which all things else become means. This imperative is ultimate 
 law to conscience; the authoritative determiner of how activity in freedom 
 should be, from whose approval or disapproval there is no appeal. It 
 likewise awakens motive for resisting and overcoming all opposing and 
 baffling influences, and making all wants, utilities, and lower good amen- 
 
SERMONS. 347 
 
 able to its behests. Obedience to its mandates exalts the spirit more and 
 more into the divine perfections, thereby securing spiritual complacency 
 or blessedness, and the divine approval, with that of all like motived 
 spirits. The imperative to act worthy of the spirit's worth is law to all, 
 and holds all responsible to likewise act worthy of the worthiness of all, 
 to the end of the holiness and consequent blessedness of all. This gives 
 an ethical system, every way complete and inclusive of all duties under 
 its universal and reciprocal law; do that and that only which is due to 
 self and all other personalities, without infringement upon the freedom of 
 others in their compliance with the same law. By obedience to this law 
 each sustains his own and contributes to universal personal worthiness. 
 All things else were created with the design of working together for the 
 good of spirit, and to be in perpetual allegiance to its sovereignty, and 
 controlled and guided by and for it. 
 
 The conscious assurance of this supreme worth of spirit not only 
 imposes imperative, but also awakens love of this excellency, thereby 
 furnishing a spring, not simply to mutual obligation, but also to mutual 
 good will. This universal benevolence inspires each to seek, not merely 
 the happiness of each and all, but the completeness, wholeness, holiness 
 of each and all. All the good approve and love all the good for their 
 worthiness' sake. This reciprocal approval and good will are the source 
 of all spiritual fellowship, and spring to mutual helpfulness in uplifting, 
 enlightening, strengthening, leading, upbuilding each and all. 
 
 Responsive to this imperative and to this good will, there is a divinely 
 implanted aspiration in every normally conditioned individual, for perfect- 
 ing his being, to become a complete person, and to aid others to become 
 the same. The imagination, awakened by this aspiration, forms ideals of 
 what personality generically should be when perfected, and from this 
 generic ideal shapes specific ideals for individual personalities. This 
 gives motives for earnest endeavor to attain for himself, and aid others in 
 attaining, this ideal good, by the highest activity of all powers in their 
 right and harmonious relations according to the highest laws and end of 
 being. This will give singleness of purpose, decision, vigor, steadfastness 
 in self-control, self-denial, self-direction, self-culture, in the upbuilding of 
 a complete character, proportional, symmetrical, harmonious. To this 
 end each will take to himself as helps, making them a part of his being, 
 truth, law, beauty, the spiritual content and formative influences of nature. 
 As God is the perfect embodiment of all which is man's highest good, 
 these ideal purposes and efforts gather and blend in an upward aspira- 
 tion, and endeavor to progressively approach these divine perfections, — 
 
348 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 in an upward flame of devotion and worship. The entire being is conse- 
 crated in free and glad surrender to the joyous doing of his will, thereby 
 putting himself in harmony with the purposes of divine love. 
 
 10. Religion, or the Christ-life in Humanity. — Humanity is the special 
 organ of the divine life. Christ, in his incarnation, re-ingenerated this 
 humanity, lost through sin, with this life. He came as the Life Giver, the 
 Healer. He becomes thus the new life of humanity generically, to 
 become specifically the new life to each one accepting him. " I in them ; 
 the\' in me," and thus "he that hath the Son hath life" — the eternal or 
 divine life, in contradistinction to the perishable world-life. This divine 
 human life becomes the life of every regenerate or twice-born person — 
 born of God through Christ, by the Spirit, and through the inspiration 
 of the Spirit, this life is ever growing, ever fructifying. It quickens the 
 conscience, illumines the reason, empowers the will, sweetens the affec- 
 tions, purifies the sentiments, subdues the passions, and ennobles the 
 body. It thus attunes all the powers harmoniously and symmetrically. 
 It is the source of all spiritual graces, the inspiration to all labor. It 
 lifts above temptation. Instead of the outward restraints of mere legality, 
 wherein all virtue is meclTanical and punctilious, resulting, at best, in self- 
 poised tranquillit}^, it produces a life where all selfism disappears, and the 
 checks of law are no more felt, being superseded by the higher and more 
 positive power of love, wherein all is devoted, sacrificial, inspirational. 
 This inspirational life has a twofold manifestation — in the graces of char- 
 acter — love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meek- 
 ness, temperance, modified by varying individualites, and in the develop- 
 ment of powers, giving diversities of gifts — to one wisdom, to others 
 knowledge, healing, prophesying, discerning of spirits, or gift of tongues 
 — all by the same spirit. Thus inspired, enlightened, motived, beauti- 
 fied, perfected, made holy, life becomes full of the efficiency of faith 
 working by love, noble, sublime. 
 
 II. The Respect and Reverence Due to Personality. — The name 
 Jehovah, representing Deity as the I Am, was considered by the Hebrews 
 too sacred to be spoken or heard, save as the speaker and the hearer had 
 been purified by divine wisdom. It was pronounced by the high priest 
 but once a year, on the day of atonement, when he entered the holy of 
 holies. What was its true pronunciation is a matter of conjecture. 
 This sacredness of the divine name is a symbol of the meffable sacred- 
 ness of the divine personality, before whom all finite personalities bow in 
 silent adoration. So, likewise, there is in every child of God a person- 
 ality too sacred to be approc-^ched, save as Moses approached the burning 
 
SERMONS. 349 
 
 bush, with unsandaled feet, bowed head, and reverent attitude. Person- 
 ahty is a holy of hoHes, to be entered only by the divine Spirit. It is said 
 that the Moslem picks up every bit of paper blown in his way by the 
 wind, to see if the name of Allah be written thereon, lest he should 
 unwittingly trample on the sacred name. The name and image of God 
 are impressed on every spirit, though it be deformed and in ruins, and it 
 behooves us to walk carefully and reverently in the presence of such. 
 Spirit spontaneously respects spirit, admires manifestations that awaken 
 approbation, venerates wisdom and virtue, reverences noble and exalted 
 character, which dispose to the devotement of spirit to spirit in goodly 
 offices of mutual service. The dignity and majesty of infinite power, 
 wisdom, and goodness, induce to devotion, consecration, in the unreserved 
 surrender of will and life in filial love, becoming thus truepiety. 
 
 Not only in human nature but in all nature do we see "a presence 
 divine," that touches the spirit with reverent admiration. Linnaeus, it is 
 said, knelt before a bank of golden gorse and thanked God for revealing, 
 through these flowers, so much of his own beauty to him. Wherever 
 beauty shines, there is seen the sheen of the divine perfections; wherever 
 truth lights, there is seen the light of the divine wisdom ; wherever law 
 marshals order out of chaos, there is seen the glory of the divine will ; 
 wherever providence comes as a benediction, there is seen the divine 
 goodness, and call for reverent thanksgiving. 
 
 But all material beauties, grandeurs, sublimities, all the glories of 
 human art, sink into insignificance before the majesty of spirit, in the 
 presence of the worthiness of its worth, in the claims of its excellency, in 
 the behests of its dignity. Rising into the presence of the absolute and 
 perfect personality, these become so transcendent and ineffable that all 
 finite personalities must ever adoringly cry, " Holy, holy, holy, Lord 
 God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." 
 
 Young friends, to you who are about to go forth to the work of life, 
 
 "The hills of manhood wear a noble face, 
 While seen from far; 
 The mist of light, from which they take their grace. 
 Hides what they are. 
 
 "The dark and weary path those cliffs between 
 Thou canst not know, 
 And how it leads to regions never green. 
 Dead fields of snow." 
 
 Yet in all this climbing, 
 
 "Around the man who seeks a noble end, 
 Both angels and Divinity attend." 
 
350 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 Your daily spiritual life will depend upon the daily spiritual food, the 
 daily spiritual atmosphere, and the daily spiritual light shining round 
 about you. The more healthy, invigorating, luminous these are, if 
 properly appropriated and used, the more perfect will be your life and 
 growth. From the realm of truth, get wisdom; from the realm of beauty, 
 get ideal grace of spirit; from the realm of religion, through Christ, get 
 holiness. Remember that all getting and doing are but means for growth 
 in perfectness. In proportion to the steadfastness of purpose with which 
 you hold to this, and bear up against all inducement and danger, beat 
 down all opposing and hindering obstacles and influences, subjecting all 
 to this one end, using all temptations, trials, evils, as disciplmes, all 
 opportunity, advantage, privilege, as helps, in this proportion will living 
 and doing become noble and worthy. In proportion as your lives become 
 earnest without excitement, zealous without passion, calm even to the 
 sadness, ever characterizing great missioned spirits, in the light of a high 
 purpose, will they bear the impress of dignity and sublimity. In propor- 
 tion as your activities go out in self-abnegating devotion and helpfulness 
 to others, touching their lives with upward impulses, liberating, sweeten- 
 ing, upbuilding, will your lives be beneficent and a blessing. In propor- 
 tion, as in all these, your characters are patterned after the great Exemplar 
 of the divine character, Christ Jesus, will they take on the "beauty of 
 holiness." 
 
 GHRISTOLOGY. 
 
 A correct Christology demands that the person of Christ shall 
 embody: — 
 
 1. True and essential deity. 
 
 2. True and essential humanity. 
 
 3. These two natures united in one person. 
 
 The earlier orthodoxy also demanded that there should be no mixture 
 of these natures. The Council of Chalcedon, in its endeavor to recon- 
 cile the opposed schools of Alexandria and Antioch, regarded the divine 
 and the human as two incommensurable and mutually exclusive entities. 
 Regarding them as different in kind, it held that there could be no unity 
 or union save in juxtaposition. 
 
 Accepting, however, the doctrine that God is a spirit and man his 
 child, of the same nature, thus akin to Deity, related in essence, God's 
 own ideal image of himself, the archetype after which the human was 
 created, was actualized in the divine-human, the God-man, and the poten- 
 
SERMONS. 351 
 
 tial ideal became real in the person of Christ. He was the human tran- 
 SLibstantiation of the divine, as the human spirit is consubstantial with 
 God, the Father of spirits. Luke (3 : 38), in tracing the genealogy of 
 Christ, makes him not only the Son of God, through the direct agency 
 of the Holy Spirit, but through Adam also, who was himself the "son of 
 God;" so that Christ in his twofold nature was God begotten. Human- 
 ity, in its original and pure nature, is the embodiment of the divine 
 nature, as Peter declares, "partakers of the divine nature." The Logos, 
 the Word, was the type of humanity, the spiritual Adam, the heavenly 
 prototype. Christ is the archetype of man, the divine ideal of humanity 
 becoming historic. The incarnation was, thus, the completion of 
 humanity. 
 
 "Jesus was all God and all man" — the type of all true and perfect 
 manhood. He was not a man, but the man — humanity. Christ was not 
 united to a man, but became man, since the union of the divine and 
 human is but the union of a homogeneous. essence — one and the same 
 spiritual essence, which is both divine and huinan. Christ is the God- 
 man, not by the union of two beings, or personalities, in the same person, 
 but the one being or person is both divine or human, Son of God and Son 
 of man. He is not two natures united, yet retaining their separate iden- 
 tity and functions; nor yet is he a fusion of two diverse natures, an inter- 
 mediate or compound nature. The divine and human natures being 
 homogeneous become identical in a person who is both divine and 
 human in all his attributes. He became human without losing the 
 divine. He did not possess a divine spirit and a human spirit respec- 
 tively distinct in consciousness, thought, sentiment, and volition, but 
 rather two natures in one person, not by union, conjunction, or commin- 
 gling, but by a unity in identity, for wherever there is personality there 
 is identity. God and man are one in Christ, because Christ is the com- 
 mon image and essence of the divine and human. As Luther says: 
 "God not merely has flesh or humanity, but becomes and is man. With 
 a mutual yearning, each becomes the other, that is, Christ appears to 
 humanity, divine, and to Deity, human, but nothing else but the God — 
 manhood." Irenaeus says, "Christ became what we are that we might 
 become what he is." 
 
 Incarnation wWioiit a Fall. — Christ being the type of humanity and 
 the source of its spiritual life and holiness, is it an incredible or an 
 unscripturJil doctrine that humanity was created for the indwelling of the 
 divine, even an incarnation without the fall of man? The universal spon- 
 taneity of humanity ever reaches after an incarnation, as the necessary 
 
352 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 complement and consummation of itself. Its ideal could be realized in 
 no other way. The human was doubtless to be filled, completed by an 
 incarnation, the archetype thus passing from the ideal to the real, irre- 
 spective of the fall. Christ might none the less have manifested himself 
 as the head of humanity. The incarnation was not merely an arbitrary 
 historical event dependent upon sin, but rather an ideal one, independent 
 of sin. His humanity was not a robe to be put on, on account of sin, in 
 which to suffer for humanity, and then to be put aside in the glorified 
 state, but rather a human nature assumed forever, and glorified as an 
 attribute of his own nature, springing from the prearranged process for 
 the outgoing of the divine — not as a result, a compensatory development 
 from the counterchecks of sin. Was it the incarnation that was ushered 
 in by sin? Was it not rather the suffering, the sacrifice which was occa- 
 sioned by sin? If incarnation was by occasion of sin, can we not sing, 
 in the language of the old Latin hymn, "O happy crime, the merit is to 
 thee of giving us the redemption"? 
 
 The human race, in its sinless, normal condition, demanded a head- 
 ship. The incarnation, the summit point of connection between the 
 divine and the human, gave this headship, and thereby raised the race 
 from natural development to spiritual freedom and perfection. The high- 
 est ideal of humanity is that of the divine-human, which could be realized 
 only in God's counterpart, the archetypal being Christ. The divine and 
 the human are forever blended in the Logos, revealed and realized in the 
 incarnation. Thus the gulf which separates the Infinite and the finite is 
 bridged — a necessary condition for the indwelling of the Spirit. 
 
 Humanity is not a simple granulated mass, like a heap of sand, but 
 an organism, the members of whiqh supplemented each other in a living 
 head — the eternal Logos. It is admitted generally that this Logos is the 
 spiritual headship of the race. If so was it not necessary that this spir- 
 itual headship should become manifested in time, become historic, thereby 
 giving a bodily unity to this headship, through the incarnation whereby 
 Christ became Immanuel? 
 
SERMO!,S. 353 
 
 GOD, THE SUPREME FATHER-MAN, HIS CHILD, 
 
 All sciences, all philosophies, lead up to theology. As is one's phi- 
 losophy, so will be his theology. This is abundantly verified in the two 
 great opposing theories respecting the knowledge of God, which we have 
 followed down the ages. 
 
 The Aristotelian, sensational, experimental school, has generally either 
 denied to the mind a separate faculty of reason, or failed to clearly recog- 
 nize its functions, deriving all knowledge through sense-perceptions; hence 
 the mind is unable to transcend the notional, under the limitations of the 
 relative. In this philosophy, ideas of the absolute, the infinite, and per- 
 fect, have no place. 
 
 The Platonic, intuitional, idealistic school recognize in the mind a 
 separate faculty, the reason giving cognizance of the absolute, infinite, 
 and perfect, and all necessary universal principles and truths. Starting 
 with the doctrine that the personality of man is grounded in and origi- 
 nates from the personality of God, this personality, manifesting itself as 
 reason, is precedent for all postulates of God as absolute, infinite, and 
 perfect. 
 
 This doctrine that the reason is the organ for knowing the absolute is 
 grounded in the more fundamental doctrine that man, as to his spiritual 
 nature, is the offspring of God. By the divine Fatherhood is meant that 
 he is the originator of man from his own nature and in his own likeness 
 — in Bible language, in his image and after his likeness, and the continual 
 living in and by his life. 
 
 The Fatherhood of God and the childship of man is a doctrine lying 
 at the core of human existence, as revealed both in the Bible and in human 
 consciousness, determining the nature of that existence, and its ongoing 
 in the individual, in the race, and in redemption. 
 
 The likeness of man to God springs from this kinship. As the like- 
 ness of the earthly parent is reproduced in his child, not so much in form 
 and features as in the inner and more essential essence and nature, of 
 which the outward is but a faint expression, so the nature and image of 
 God in man is not in physical conformation, but in essence, and the attri- 
 butes of this essence. As like can beget like and like only, whatever is 
 the essential nature of God, the Father, such must be the essential nature 
 of man, the child. 
 
 This doctrine has been held, in all times, by the foremost men and by 
 the foremost peoples. The Vedas pray, " May the Father of men be 
 favorable to us." Homer calls him "the most great and glorious Father;" 
 
 23 
 
354 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 Hesiod, "the Father of gods and men;'^ Horace, "Father and Guardian 
 of the human race;" Seneca, "the glorious Parent preparing the good 
 man for himself ; " the Talmud, "men, children of their Father, who is in 
 heaven;" Plato, "the soul, the offspring of God." 
 
 Jesus based his mission and his gospel on this great t»'uth. Paul, in 
 declaring the " unknown God " of the Athenians to them, predicated the 
 ground of this knowledge, in the declaration of certain of their poets, 
 "We are also his offspring." 
 
 It is this oneness of nature that gives ability for intercommunion, 
 whereby God can reveal himself to man, and whereby man can apprehe\nd 
 God, and receive illumination, inspiration, and life. If God possesses a 
 nature or attributes other than man's, then man must be something othef 
 than his offspring, and man cannot know him; God cannot reveal himself 
 to man. There can be no intercommunication. 
 
 What, then, is this common nature of God and of man, his child, 
 whereby, on the one hand, God is able to reveal himself to man, and, on 
 the other, man is enabled to apprehend God? Christ enunciated this 
 essential nature when he declared, " God is Spirit," and that all true 
 knowledge and worship must spring from spirit in and through the truth. 
 Man, as a partaker of the divine nature, possesses capacity both for right 
 worship and for right knowing the object of worship. In the former it is 
 .spirit acting as faith-faculty; in the latter it is spirit acting as reason- 
 faculty. 
 
 Reason is faculty of mind as spirit, offspring of God, giving insight — 
 "vision," Plato calls it — for apprehending its supreme Father, perfect, 
 infinite, and absolute, with all necessary and universal principles and 
 truths; understanding is faculty of mind as soul, embodied spirit, for 
 giving sense-perceptions, notions, judgments of relations, likeness, and 
 difference. 
 
 Man's reason thus demands an Absolute and Infinite God; man's 
 religious nature demands a living God as supreme Father. Are these 
 demands satisfied? Does man know God, as the absolute Being, as 
 infinite Power, as living Person, as supreme Father? 
 
 God, as being absolute, is unconditionally absolved from all relations 
 imposed by outward conditions, subject only to relations self-imposed 
 and springing from self-activity. God, as Power infinite, is unconditionally 
 unlimited, unrestricted by any outward, finite powers, subject only to 
 self-imposed restrictions, in the limitations of a finite creation. God, as 
 supreme and perfect per.son, is independent of all dependent and imper- 
 fect personalities, save such mutual interdependencies and reciprocities as 
 are graciously granted. 
 
SERMONS. 355 
 
 Man, consciously conditioned as relative, finite, dependent, and 
 imperfect, intuitively correlates himself to God, apprehended as the abso- 
 lute, infinite, and perfect Person, as supreme Father, thus freely relating 
 himself to his children. This apprehension lies clear, distinct, and posi- 
 tive in the human consciousness, satisfying at once the spirit as expressed 
 in reason and faith. The properties of the divine nature, consciously 
 assured by faith, intuitively apprehended by the reason, are yet incom- 
 prehensible, in their fullness and completeness, by the understanding. 
 Instead of this intuitive apprehension of God, representing contradictories 
 or counter imbecilities of the human mind, it is the most positive and con- 
 sistent energy of which the mind is capable. While these intuitive affir- 
 mations of the reason cannot be expressed in the limiting, relative terms 
 of the understanding, yet man never thinks so positively, vigorously, and 
 consistently as in these intuitive apprehensions of God. 
 
 God is thus revealed to the human spirit, through reason, absolute in 
 his self-existence, infinite in his nature, perfect in his attributes, supreme 
 over all his creatures. 
 
 GO-WORKERS WITH GOD. 
 
 "We are laborers together with God." i Cor. 3:9. 
 God, the absolute Being, the infinite Creator, and the perfect Person, 
 reveals in all his works power, and plan, and purpose. 
 
 1. Poiver. — God is essential life, power, a free, self-originant spon- 
 taneity—omnipotent, omnipresent, eternal — from whose fullness and sus- 
 taining, informing, and organific power has sprung universal nature, in 
 its manifoldness of essence, substance, matter, life, worlds. This life- 
 power lives in all existence, extends through all extent. All power, 
 force, movement are born of this divine, living energy, filling all, and 
 living in and through all. Man, the child of God, the supreme Father, 
 is endowed with a like nature of everduring life energy, a like self-originant 
 cause, capable of starting new streams of influences and effects. Infinite 
 life-power is the primal expression of all divine manifestations. Finite 
 life-power is the primal expression of all human manifestations. 
 
 2. Plan. — Life-energy, whether infinite or finite, presupposes, demands 
 plan. Without it the product of power is chaos. Deity does not work 
 blindly, chaotically, but according to an archetypal plan. His ideals 
 fashion and direct his power, becoming the law of his doing. The uni- 
 verse is their objective expression and realization. In this realization 
 
356 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 the physical universe must develop according to this implanted plan. In 
 their growth, the oak must grow oak; pine, pine; maple, maple; apple, 
 apple; figs, figs; each fi-uiting fi'uit after its kind. Spirits, in their high 
 prerogative of free will, self-originant cause, are lifted from the realm of 
 necessity to that of freedom, from things to persons, where the must gives 
 way to the sway of the ought. Upon them is imposed the behest to live, 
 and grow, and act, and bear fruit, according to the divine plan, doing 
 which they become voluntary co-workers with God. 
 
 3. Purpose. — The very idea of plan implies purpose, or an end in view 
 of which the plan is a forecast. Otherwise everything planned would 
 become a play, ending in the thing played. Plans demand aims, and 
 aims plans. There must be an ultimate aim and a clear prevision and 
 forecasting in respect thereto, in all wise and worthy action. 
 
 What is the ultimate aim or final purpose in view of which Deity 
 works both in creation and in providence? — Evidently the highest good 
 of universal being. This highest good, in the ultimate analysis, is, doubt- 
 less, the highest perfection of such being. Deity,, the perfect Person, 
 seeks to realize his own perfections in universal finite personalities. This 
 capability of growing into the divine perfections constitutes the intrinsic 
 excellency of finite personality. Simple created being, though a good, 
 cannot be the highest good. This is attained as the result of free activity. 
 Hence, the ultimate aim of all action is the attaining such perfection, 
 both subjectively and objectively, in universal being, by developing and 
 perfecting intrinsic excellency according to the highest ideal of that 
 being. Seeking such perfection becomes, then, the highest law of rea- 
 son, the highest inspirations of love, and the highest behests of con- 
 science. This perfection is threefold; of the reason, in wisdom; of the 
 will, in righteousness; of the sensibility, in blessedness — through their 
 harmonious blending, personal perfection, or "the beauty of holiness." 
 The powers of spirit which give capability of perfection in this threefold 
 form, constitute its threefold excellency. The perfection of all lower 
 forms of existences are ministries, helps, inspirations, for the perfection 
 of spirit as person. 
 
 4. Human Agency. — The highest good being thus attained, and all 
 spiritual behests satisfied in seeking the perfection of universal being, and 
 the ultimate end of creation and of the ongoings of providence being to 
 this same end, and the laws springing from this high ideal purpose and 
 guiding to its consummation being the behests imposed upon humanity, 
 this same end should be the aim and high endeavor of every human 
 being. As Deity seeks to suppress all evil possible, culture all good 
 
SERMONS. , 2>S7 
 
 possible, consistent with human freedom, and subjecting evil to good, by 
 restraining, overruling, guiding, inspiring, so man, his co-worker, should 
 seek to develop and perfect all latent possibilities, assimilating them more 
 and more to the divine Original, all because of the intrinsic excellency of 
 these divine perfections. This divine purpose becomes the highest law 
 of human purposes, activities, and progress. Humanity, in its on-flowing 
 life, should be the unfolding and realization of the divine plans and 
 purposes. 
 
 5. The Mode. — The mode of working for the ends of perfectness is 
 by growth, development. Creation started from chaos and is leisurely 
 advancing on the lines of a progressive, growing development towards 
 perfection. Embodied life has grown in complexness of structure and 
 diversity of function and manifoldness of action, in the upward scale of 
 being, through life atomic, li.Os crystalline, life vegetal, life animal, to soul- 
 life, and ultimately to its highest earthly consummation, spirit-life in man. 
 He is its microcosm, capable of indefinite progress, thereby giving sig- 
 nificancy and glory to the whole. 
 
 This living process being essentially germinant, growing, multiplying, 
 a simple segregation, like sand particles driven together by waves and 
 trodden down by storm's heavy foot; the exterior compacting of hard 
 particles, rock-like; the on-flowing, ever-increasing volume of a river, a 
 drop from which, though dropped never so carefully up in the hill coun- 
 try, whence rivers spring, cannot gush forth a perennial fountain and run 
 a river; nor yet an edifice framed together of dead parts by an outside 
 artificer, and when completed nothing awaits but immobility and decay — 
 none of these are fittest emblems of this living growth. Atom and 
 crystal are lifesome and prophetic of higher life-forms. The germ, the 
 spore, the seed, with enfolded germinal, organic, and reproductive life 
 power, will, on the supply of proper conditions, spring up, fragile at first, 
 subject to be eaten away by smallest insect, trodden down by foot of 
 beast. Give time and genial conditions of growth, let earth and air 
 nourish, let dews distill, let rains descend, let sunlight shine, and the life- 
 energy takes and converts all into growth. Lichens and mosses and 
 ferns spread greenness over barren rock and through dismal swamp, till 
 the whole smiles in the new dawn of beauty. Grass spreads over plains, 
 climbs the hills, descends into the valleys, and rejoices all cattle. The 
 wheat kernel multiplies and supplies bread for all men. The acorn sprouts 
 and grows through winds and storms, first a thing of beauty, then of 
 strength and grandeur, multiplying as the ages tread slowly by, becoming 
 a crown of slorv to all hills, a strength to all navies, a shelter to all homes. 
 
358 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 a warmth to all firesides. Not only vegetals, but animals, men, the race, 
 the universe, follow the same law of progress by growth. At first embry- 
 onic, delicate, fragile, but under the guidance of benignant providences, by 
 slow processes, gathering strength, beauty, manifoldness of function and 
 use. 
 
 As God works toward the ends of perfection by leisurely develop- 
 ments, so must man work. Every soul is created to grow into the 
 divine ideal and fill out the divine purpose by growing deeper, broader, 
 higher, many-sided, many-powered, with depth of thought, largeness of 
 sympathy, devotedness of purpose. We cannot make ourselves what we 
 please, but we can grow into what God intends us to be — beautiful and 
 full of divine purpose. Everyone needs thus to unfold in harmony with 
 himself and his surroundings. 
 
 Again, in this growth or progressive development, descent, outcome, 
 fruitage, is a universal law. The inheritors of the present are ever enter- 
 ing into the labors of the past. The present, in becoming the past, leaves 
 a legacy of achievement and influence and tendency for the future, to be 
 taken and appropriated by that future, as it becomes the present, and to 
 be augmented, improved, and passed on. Each age and each individual 
 of that age enters into the labors of all. All sow; all reap. Each sows 
 for all ; each reaps for all. What the ages have been makes us what we 
 are. This is true of individuals, communities, organizations, institutions, 
 nations. From all toil, sacrifice, suffering for human weal, there spring, 
 with its perpetual growth, principles of human greatness, human progress 
 and civilization. Out of the ashes of the dead past springs the living pres- 
 ent. Past progress becomes the source of greater future progress. The 
 lives of the great souls of all ages flow into all receptive souls that come 
 after thus continuing to live and work through the ages in ever-increas- 
 ing efficiency. Great living can never die. Abraham and Moses and 
 John and Paul and Luther and Wickliffe, all great workers and livers, 
 though great; and effective in their ages, are greater, more effective, more 
 manifold workers in this age. The stream of their influence has deep- 
 ened, and broadened, and clarified. It is flowing into and ennobling all 
 the finer and more perfect types of progress and civilization. 
 
 6. Growth Becoming Institutional. — In order for individual growth, and 
 culture, and effort to become civilization or race culture and progress, 
 they must be embodied in organizations and institutions. Individuals 
 can, by thought, and word, and deed, start influences and tendencies that 
 shall flow onward; but in order to render these enduring, growing, fruit- 
 bearing, they must be embodied in systems, organizations, institutions. 
 
SERMONS. 359 
 
 A single individual is as a plant springing up, maturing, and dying in a 
 single summer. Institutions are as trees growing through the years and 
 the ages, gathering, as the years go by, strength, beauty, and value. 
 Man is the dewdrop disappearing in the morning sun; institutions, springs, 
 flowing perennially, swelling into great rivers, becoming perpetual minis- 
 tries to man. Institutions, being embodied principles, tendencies, indus- 
 tries, are essential to human progress and civilization. 
 
 The history of mankind teaches that those individuals who have 
 lifted humanity to higher planes of civilization have been those who not 
 only discovered and invented, but who likewise organized their discov- 
 eries and inventions into new institutions, thus embodying and perpetuat- 
 ing the fruitage of progress, to become the seeds of higher civilizations. 
 As the result of these manifold forces, modern society has become 
 wonderfully complex in its dependencies, and mutually helpful in all its 
 operations. As Professor Stanley well says, while the word "mankind" 
 never passed the lips of Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle, they seeing only 
 individuals, tribes, barbarians, and hostile nations, we see mankind many 
 ways severed, but bearing one image of God, and moving to one destiny. 
 As in the heavenly bodies, where the ancient astronomic observer saw 
 only separate spheres in the sky, modern astronomy sees a single system, 
 balanced in itself and harmonized by one centralizing attraction. 
 
 In this humanity, thus balanced and harmonized by one centralizing 
 attraction, moving to a common destiny, it is not physical power that is to 
 bear sway in the future as it has done in the past, but mind, free, edu- 
 cated mind, controlling and directing, not only the elemental forces of 
 nature in their varied applications, but mental and spiritual forces as well. 
 The strongest, the best, the noblest living can be lived only in and through 
 these varied and complex organic human relations, wherein it is the glory 
 of heroic and sacrificial soulsto waive personal ends, sacrifice convenience, 
 to enrich the commonweal, giving the high communion of souls, the 
 lofty converse of spirits for educating and perfecting humanity. 
 
 7. Effective Co-workers.— 1:0 become effective co-laborers in this 
 divine work for universal perfectness, one's work must joint into the 
 divine plan, and move on with the divine purpose, as expressed in the 
 march of Providence shaping human progress. Such an one must tread 
 to the rhythm of this movement; then will his life become significant, 
 and crowned with true and permanent success. A child once desired to 
 become a painter, that he might help God paint the sunset skies. It 
 is the mission of all to help reveal, each to the other, the divine glory 
 with which the universe is aflame, and thus become co-artists with God. 
 
•76o LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 Moving against the divine purposes, human effort is as water spilled 
 upon the ground ; moving with that "stream of tendency by which all 
 things fulfill the law of their being," that is, moving with the powers and 
 purposes of God, each one becomes an host; against them, but as dust 
 beneath the flaming wheels of his chariot. As, in the physical world, 
 bodies moving against the all-pervasive law of gravitation have to be 
 toilsomely lifted as dead weights, but when loosed from the grapple of 
 the lift, how noiselessly, yet with ever-increasing celerity, they rush earth- 
 ward! All the subtile attractive influences of gravity stir and thrill all 
 their minutest atoms, giving them ever-increasing velocity and momen- 
 tum. All individuals, organizations, institutions, moving against absolute 
 laws, are dead weights; but moving with them, what ever-accelerating 
 energy and increasing power do they display! Emerson says, " Hitch 
 your wagon to a star, and all the forces of the universe will become its 
 steeds." Lives thus hitched to those great principles upon which human 
 progress depends, will find themselves moving easily and grandly. Such 
 can never be mere flood-wood, drifting sluggishly into eddies and stag- 
 nant pools, or rotting among the effete things of the past, nor dead- 
 heading at the expense of progress, nor wafted along by popular breezes, 
 but rather riding lifesomely upon the crested, combing waves of human 
 advancement, sailing on the advanced tide, well ahead of the world's 
 great flotilla. Such do not ride in an}- worn-out vehicle, though it has 
 run a hundred years, wanting a day ; but rather, Elijah-like, go up into 
 the chariots of God, as they flash along the highways of Providence, up 
 the steep acclivities of progress, far above the graves of the dead past. 
 Such, though reviled and persecuted in their own age, have gone up to 
 the world's spiritual thrones. 
 
 8. Specialties.— Effective labor, as related to humanity, is indicated 
 through the common human spontaneities. To every youth comes the 
 absorbing and not infrequently greatly perplexing question, My life- 
 work, what shall it be ? That sphere is too contracted, this too one- 
 sided. One calling is too frivolous, another too groveling, another of 
 doubtful utility, or with bad tendencies. Perchance, the means are insuf- 
 ficient to the ends, the foundation too feeble for the superstructure. Give 
 a work congenial, adapted, noble, satisfying, and joyfully will he work. 
 To everyone honestly and earnestly seeking to know his particular and 
 definite life-work, there come such longings, questionings, prospectings. 
 Without a place and a work one is pitiable indeed. Discontented, vascil- 
 lating, nerveless, or spasmodic in effort, till some definite and assured 
 call lifts him to his feet, then he becomes purposeful, energetic, therefore 
 
SERMONS. 361 
 
 successful and happy. Henceforth he has a standing place, self-support, 
 self-respect, soul-growth, social value, public service. 
 
 Thus, the choice of the particular line of this labor becomes one of 
 the most difficult yet imperative decisions of life. Important interests 
 and consequences cluster around such decisions, not only physical, but 
 spiritual, not only to the individual, but to society. This choice must 
 be made, too, in youth, with its inexperience assisted, it may be, by the 
 counsel and caution of friends; yet, with all aids possible, the choice may 
 be but as the uncertain casting of lots respecting unforeseen events. 
 Life is too short and powers too feeble to warrant leisurely and object- 
 lessly ranging among many or diverse pursuits. Seldom, likewise, does 
 a person possess that many-sided faculty and tact which will enable him 
 to become an adept in diverse pursuits, and a successful driver of several 
 trades harnessed either tandem or abreast. This tendency is the prolific 
 source of quacks and quackery. One calling well filled, girdled by those 
 labors imposed upon all by common human interests, is generally all- 
 sufficient. 
 
 9. Aptitude. — One's special mission is to be ascertained, not by spin- 
 ning it spider-like out of the brain, but by searching diligently for the 
 divine call, not only in the still, small-voiced sense of duty, but as expressed 
 in bent, taste, aptitude, as well. Adaptability, liking, are considerations 
 of prime importance in determining one's calling. As in physical nature. 
 Deity, with a few simple elements, has wrought the world's wondrous 
 variety of utility and of beauty, so with an underlying uniformity and 
 lilceness in humanity newness and variety are revealed in the peculiarities 
 and tendencies of each individual. One, sun-like, illumes and vivifies; 
 another, tempest-like, sweeps and thunders over the earth; others, dew- 
 like, distill refreshing influences. A few stand, palm-like, "solitary and 
 grand, shedding beauty over vast wastes; other few, graceful elms, sing- 
 ing pines, majestic oaks, grow grand by heat and cold and storm; others, 
 still, with the litheness of the willow, sensitiveness of the poplar, meek- 
 ness of the violet, delicate loveliness of the anemone, the ethereal sweet- 
 ness of the eglantine, or clinging vine-like. As each several plant diver- 
 sity has its office in the economy of nature, so each several individual 
 diversity has its office in human progress and civilization. 
 
 Callings have a like diversity. Possessing generic unity, they diverge 
 into species and varieties, with individual peculiarities, so that each may 
 find among the group of allied pursuits to which his bent tends some 
 one adapted to him. One finding thus his work can work it better than 
 any other. 
 
362 • LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 Every calling promotive of the general weal is both useful and hon- 
 orable; yet, in respect to intrinsic nobleness, they differ as stars differ in 
 glory. Those pursuits which, while keeping in check the lower forces, 
 develop and nurture those higher powers that make to the elevation of 
 humanity, have the greater dignity. They are to be coveted as the better 
 gifts, provided aptitude and capability warrant. Many a lowly station has 
 been deprived of a good occupant to furnish a poor one for a higher. 
 Better be asked to come up than to go down. The lowliness of the lot 
 matters less than the spirit with which it is filled and the virtues nur- 
 tured by thus living. To conform ourselves gracefully and cheerfully 
 to the sphere in which Providence has placed us, and give ourselves 
 earnestly to its work, doing faithfully and well the present duty, however 
 humble, is both useful and noble, and this may open to other and, per- 
 haps, better spheres. If we do thus the one thing which the passionate 
 energy of our whole being calls us to do, and do it in harmony with 
 the organic laws and guiding tendencies of the universe, we work rightly. 
 This is true living. 
 
 10. Preparatory Culture of Aptitudes. — In order that success may 
 crown effort, the knowledge of one's calling must be both accurate and 
 extended, both theoretical and practical. While one should knozv some- 
 thing about many things, he should knozv everything possible about one 
 things his work. All kindred pursuits and knowledge, indeed, all culture, 
 may be laid under contribution. The basis of all wise activity is a knowl- 
 edge that enables one to know himself, the world, and the God of both, 
 and that enables one to use himself and the world, according to the 
 divine plan implanted therein. To this end he must first have that 
 knowledge which lies in the line of his aptitudes. If his aptitudes lead 
 him to work with and upon men, the knowledge of man, historically, 
 through all avenues of civilization, is an imsurpassed source of light 
 and stimulus. The historic study of the capabilities and performances 
 of the human spirit are lessons of capital importance. When such knowl- 
 edge is assimilated in mental growth, it becomes vital and formative. It 
 feeds, vitalizes, and strengthens one's own activity. The knowledge of 
 the world is likewise vital and invigorating, especially to those working 
 with and upon its forces. Religion gives the vital knowledge of God. 
 Everyone is born with aptitudes for receiving vital knowledge through 
 one or more of these sources, by studying man, nature, God. The great 
 and complete spirits who have equal aptitudes for all are rare. It is the 
 business, in education, to discover and develop these aptitudes. All 
 means of knowledge are correlated, and have equal worth and dignity 
 
SERMONS. • 363 
 
 in their appropriate spheres, and should be united, but held in subjection 
 to aptitudes. In proportion as a human spirit sweeps this broad circle, 
 in that same proportion will it have life and growth and vigor, and be 
 manifoldly enriched in all directions. No part of this circle is common 
 or unclean, yet its sweep is so vast, and human faculties so limited, that 
 it can be comprehended and becQme formative only in its general and 
 fundamental principles; and the chief attention must be given to a single 
 aptitude, or group of aptitudes, in order for an individual to get the best 
 culture for use. To get the best for each, the aptitudes of each must be 
 found and nurtured, while broadened, enriched, and strengthened through 
 the awakening and strengthening of the non-aptitudes. The aptitudes 
 of each individual point, like the magnetic needle to the pole, to some 
 kind of knowledge. Let this polarity be found, strengthened, and used. 
 In this way, and this only, can each become the most efficient co-worker 
 with God, the author and designer of these aptitudes, and implanted in 
 each expressly as being the best agency possible in carr3nng out the 
 divine purposes. All are most easily vitalized and enthused by those 
 studies lying in the line of these divinely implanted aptitudes. As the 
 correlation and transmutation of force give chemical affinity, heat, light, 
 magnetism, electricity, all from the same fluent force, operating in mani- 
 fold and diverse phenomena, so in spiritual life its phenomena appear 
 either as head power, the light of truth, rejoicing in the philosophies; or 
 as heart power, the heat of feeling, emotion, blessed in superabounding 
 love; or as hand power, jubilant in works, in all utilities. The object of 
 education is to aid nature in perfecting and expressing these individ- 
 ualisms, not to destroy them. The office of culture is to cooperate with 
 Deity in perfecting a manifoldly endowed humanity in its richest diver- 
 sity. Neither culture nor labor should produce what is scientifically 
 known as arrested development, by dwarfing the aptitudes, in educating 
 and working away from them. These should be strengthened and the 
 non-aptitudes brought into harmonious but subordinate relations. 
 
• 64 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 IDEAL YOUTHFUL GROWING. 
 
 [Baccalaureate sermon before the graduating class of Alfred University, June 26, 
 1890.] 
 "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God 
 and man." Luke 2:52. 
 
 "And the child Samuel grew on, and was in favor both with the Lord, 
 and also with men." i Sam. 2:26. 
 
 Generally it is the wish and aim of parents to have their children rise 
 higher in the scale of life than has been attained by themselves. They 
 seek to have them more achieving and successful on whatever line they 
 themselves have considered most desirable and have sought to excel. 
 This may be, perchance, to become richer, more influential, more famous, 
 better cultured, more devout and consecrated, every way better and 
 nobler. Even the exceptions prove the rule, for the bad seldom desire 
 their children to be bad. The pessimist, the doubter, the shiftless, the 
 sluggard, the drunkard — all manner of evil thinkers and evil doers — 
 seldom desire to have themselves reproduced and perpetuated in their 
 children, but prefer, rather, to have them become optimists, finding good 
 instead of evil, sustained by the light and warmth of faith instead of 
 benumbed by the fog and chill of doubt, filled with enthusiasm instead 
 of indifference, good thoughts, feelings, and purposes instead of evil 
 ones, pluck and enterprise instead of sluggishness and indolence. Thus 
 parents largely desire and hope to see their better selves, or better than 
 themselves, perpetuated in their descendants. 
 
 To this end most parents are willing to live and work and sacrifice 
 for their children's good. The more unselfish they are, and the higher 
 their ideal, the greater will be their willingness to sacrifice. Thus it 
 comes to pass that children, not from their own impulsion, but that of 
 their parents, are started on an upward way. At great expense and sac- 
 rifice the nurture and culture of home, church, and school are provided. 
 In all this the child is at first a comparatively passive recipient. The 
 primary longing and aspiration that impel spring not from within but 
 from without. 
 
 A time of awakening comes, however, late or soon in the life of every 
 thoughtful and earnest young mind. In this awakening new desires and 
 aspirations arise for something better. As the spring sun stirs plant life 
 into new activity and growth, so the light of this something better begets 
 effort and growth. Such become enthused with an impulse for self- 
 development. They depend no longer upon outward propelling forces, 
 
SERMONS. 365 
 
 but are impelled by inherent energies, leading to the voluntary and 
 earnest seeking to become continually more and more perfected in all 
 that goes to the making of a noble personality. Such realize a new 
 dignity in living that intensifies and multiplies the powers and activities 
 of all their faculties. They glow with a flame that ever rises brighter 
 and higher. Everything true, beautiful, and good awakens admiration, 
 investigation, thought, thereby producing growth culture. 
 
 To the end of growing in perfectness is life given. The divine life- 
 energy descending upon the world gives life in an ascending series up to 
 life spiritual. In common with the plant, man possesses bodily life; in 
 common with the animal, he possesses soulish or animal life; in common 
 with God, he possesses spiritual life. Each of these ascending grades 
 has its own type, forces, laws, and environments, in view of which it was 
 created, and in harmony with which it acts and grows and is sustained. 
 Each of the higher, while coalescing with these below, yet superinduces 
 upon them its own higher principles and laws, to which they become 
 subject and act as servants. 
 
 Again, as man's physical nature is environed by the physical world, 
 and draws its support and growth therefrom; as his mental nature is 
 environed in truth and law, and gets light, strength, and growth there- 
 from, so his spiritual nature is environed in God, in whom he lives, moves, 
 and acts. Thus man, whose being is in God, finds himself in the world, 
 living and growing and acting amid earthly environments. 
 
 The young in the human, as in all other forms of life, instinctively 
 seek to get into harmony with these varying environments, and thus 
 secure health and activity, whereby they grow spontaneously and nat- 
 urally, as grow the lilies of the valley, the pines of the hills. This tends 
 to wholeness or completeness of the entire being. Thus young Samuel 
 "grew on, and was in favor both with the Lord, and also with men." 
 Thus the youthful Jesus "increased in wisdom and stature, and favor 
 with God and man." 
 
 That the young thus grow it is essential that they conform to the 
 laws leading to completeness of being, the end to be sought in the culti- 
 vation of each and every department and power. This completeness 
 requires the proportional subordination of the lower attributes and fac- 
 ulties to the higher in the degree of their respective importance. The 
 physical must be subordinated to the mental, and both to the spiritual. 
 Otherwise, the animal may, as it not infrequently does, overshadow and 
 submerge both of the higher, or the intellect ruin both body and soul. 
 Seek a sound, strong, vigorous body, for a sound, strong, vigorous mind, 
 
366 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 to the end that both may be apt, supple, and helpful servants to the 
 behests of spiritual excellency, doing readily and efficiently its biddings. 
 Completeness, likewise, demands an even and harmonious balance of 
 all coordinate powers and susceptibilities, preventing thereby all one- 
 sidedness and distortion, and promoting an all-sided growth, as of a tree 
 growing in wide open spaces, with air and sun and storm beating in 
 upon all sides. To this end each power and susceptibility requires to 
 be so incited, guided, and restrained in that proportion, symmetry, and 
 harmony as shall tend to the highest perfection of all. 
 
 Open, receptiv-e, passive natures, without power of self-assertion or 
 resistance, are colored and imbued, overcome and absorbed, by strong 
 influences and decided characters, instead of being properly developed 
 by them. Such need to cultivate indivaduality, self-assertion, self-control, 
 self-guidance. Those having special aptitudes have therein special weak- 
 nesses also. The aptitude for business begets, if unchecked, an absorbing 
 love of gain to the ignoring of all the higher claims of the spirit. The 
 scientific proclivities tend, Samson-like, to grind blindly at the Philistine 
 mill of matter and phenomena, ignoring the spiritual light that shine.9 
 above and around. The aesthetic tendency inclines to turn self-indulgently 
 from the rugged paths of duty and self-denial, and voluptuously bask in 
 the limpid light of literature and art. The fine and great spirits, with 
 intuitive vision, clear, serene, far-reaching, and strong, are not prone to 
 become enthralled by these lower forces of special bents, as are second- 
 rate ones. 
 
 In order to check and overcome this tendency of a bias to result in 
 an abnormal and deformed development, it is essential to live and work 
 in the light of liigh ideals. The ideal forming power is at once one of 
 the most mysterious and the most distinctive endowment of man, yet it 
 does not necessarily subserve high ends. It is the faculty by which man 
 is led to sink himself below the brute, or to climb perpetually to higher 
 planes of being. There is ever the sense of incompleteness and the con- 
 sciousness of higher possibilities and of more exalted attainments hov- 
 ering over the earnest one. "Well done" has ever the refrain, "Not well 
 enough done." There is always a better just beyond the realized good. 
 It is after these unattained ideals that the world's unrest strives. Striving 
 for these gives growth, progress. This is the leading, impelling force in 
 the elevation of humanity. It quickens and intensifies the influence of 
 the world's masterful minds. The perception by them of what might be 
 is the prophecy and promise of what will be. The desire to transform a 
 defective attainment into a better is the inspiration impelling all true 
 
SERMONS. 367 
 
 reformers and reforms. Unsatisfied with what now is and witli a fore- 
 sight of the possible, they put their hands to the work of actuahzing this 
 ideal, thus securing the achievements of the race and the advancement 
 of civilization. Without the unrest and ferment produced by this power, 
 man would be unprogressive. It bears the ensign of progress before all 
 generations of men. Both the proof and the measure of the divinity of 
 aim, alike for the individual and for humanity, is in this character of the 
 impelling and guiding ideals. 
 
 Mere industry, integrity, and honesty of purpose are not enough. 
 Ideals must be sought after which to pattern, and thus convert their 
 inner and higher spirit and power into life and action. The earnest 
 seeker after the high and noble will avail himself of all the helps possible 
 in the perfecting of his ideal and of himself. Great personalities present 
 patterns which the young spontaneously adopt as models. If such a 
 personality is genuinely noblest and best, it is reverenced, loved, and 
 there is thenceforth ever present to the mind's eye a reality and a rule, 
 strong to restrain, to mould, and to direct. The coming of a doctrine, 
 the stress of a dogmatism, of a creed, are, in comparison, as chaff 
 
 Such ideals are the inspirers of hope, heroic attempt, and tireless 
 effort, ever importuning to increased exertion along the line of limitless 
 activity. But as the pattern is approached, imperfections are discovered, 
 and others are sought. It is only in the sad life without laughter, lived 
 nearly two thousand years ago, growing in favor with God and man as 
 the years went by, that the ideal is found which fills with reverence and 
 softens with tenderness and becomes a perpetual imperative, "Be ye 
 perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect." His alone is the adequate 
 and unfailing model. 
 
 In seeking such an ideal doing becomes habit. Habit grows into a 
 second nature, called character. Character is that nature which each 
 one builds up for himself out of the activities of life from his environ- 
 ments and opportunities. This character is moulded more and more 
 into the likeness and image of the ideal. This is finely illustrated in the 
 legend of the " Great Stone Face," chiseled by nature in lofty, calm, and 
 benignant aspect upon the mountain's brow. A deliverer, so the legend 
 ran, was to arise who was to bear the lineaments and possess the char- 
 acter thus expressed. A boy of the valley made a constant and reverent 
 study of that face. As the years went by he became gradually and 
 insensibly moulded into its likeness and character, till at length the 
 people perceived the resemblance, and also found in him the promised 
 deliverer. 
 
368 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 Great and rare characters are formed through life experiences, their 
 individuahty strengthened and ennobled in the light of great ideals, to 
 become, in turn, invigorating and elevating influences to others. They 
 touch the quick and suggest possibilities undreamed of before. 
 "The heights by great men reached and kept 
 Were not attained by sudden flight, 
 But they, while their companions slept, 
 Were toihng upward in the night." 
 
 The essential prerequisite for such getting of character is hungering 
 and thirsting for those things that satisfy the higher nature. The nutri- 
 ment that feeds this nature must be sought, taken up, and assimilated 
 into life, thereby broadening, deepening, and enriching it. Fact must be 
 converted into faculty, insight into wisdom, thought clothed with the 
 thews of power, illumination transformed into life. Personal power thus 
 invigorated and guided to the ends of perfection is continually augmented 
 by all right activities. With mind clear, heart clean, will strong, the 
 whole being fed from the fountain of life, the entire scope and impetus 
 to developing character is enlarged. Its sinewy vigor becomes a virile 
 spiritual power, forming and reforming, refining, elevating through 
 tenacity and persistency of effort, with definiteness and steadfastness of 
 aim, unwearied by toil, undiscouraged by obstacles, dwelling in 
 " Regions mild, of calm, serene air, 
 Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot 
 Which men call earth." 
 This growth should not be exogenous, by outside layers and accre- 
 tions, but endogenous, by inside development, working from the center 
 of being outward by a living energy and process, affecting, moulding, 
 refining, and ennobling the whole being, making pliable and supple all 
 the faculties. It begets grace in attitude, a right noble bearing and 
 movement, a calm, open, frank brow, clear, steady, honest, trustful eye, 
 gentleness and mellowness of voice, refining away all harshness and loud- 
 ness without meaning, giving instead subdued strength and richness, 
 with attracting and captivating power through the kindly and gracious 
 sentiments revealed. It begets a right manly dignity that shines out 
 from the entire personality. This results, not from outside attrition and 
 polish and formality, but from an inward impulse. 
 
 This growth requires time. A manufactured article can be turned 
 out complete in all its parts at the start, but everything the result of 
 growth demands time for its perfection, and the greater, the more durable 
 and valuable the resultant, the longer the time required. This is a law 
 of the spiritual as well as of the physical world. 
 
SERMONS. 369 
 
 But above all of these, and more important, is the divine side of 
 human relations, and the results springing therefrom. The continually 
 indwelling presence and life of God, ever renewing a divine-human life, 
 is as necessary for spiritual life and health and growth as light, air, and 
 food for bodily well being. This enables one to live and to act spir- 
 itually. It is in vain to aspire to be self-sufficient, to stand, walk, and 
 act alone. We truly live only when the indwelling life and power of 
 God awaken all the spiritual faculties into tuneful activity. 
 
 Faith, as open and clear vision, or God-consciousness, seeing and 
 experiencing him as "all and in all," with undoubting assurance, enables 
 man to apprehend him as the beginning of all beginning, the life of all 
 life, the will of all will, the thought of all thought, the love of all love, 
 the conscience of all conscience, nearer and more to each soul than that 
 soul is to itself All spiritual life being directly from God, it must be 
 perpetually supplied from its source. The faith faculty is organ, and 
 faith the prerequisite condition for the inflow of this divine life. 
 
 This faith assurance awakens reverence for God, as the supreme 
 excellency, reverence for spiritual self-excellency, and for all other spir- 
 itual excellencies, reverent obedience to divine authority and law, reverent 
 service to others as his children, allegiance to all that is noblest and best. 
 To thus reverence, obey, and serve are the "altar stairs" that lead upward 
 to God. 
 
 Faith, as trust and self-surrender, stands with open, empty hands 
 and heart in ready and prayerful receptivity for the divine life and light, 
 as flowers stand with open petals to receive the inflowing sunlight and 
 convert it into growth. " Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," 
 is both a prayer and a disposition, the very source of all true and right 
 living and doing. When self ends give way and are absorbed in divine 
 ends, then, and only then, will life take on its large and high significance. 
 The one essential of true life and growth is not to devise and plan for 
 self, but to accept the divine purpose and plan, and to work with them 
 and with the forces that are moving the world, to accept and do the 
 present duty as presented by present opportunity. The allotted process 
 of growth demands that one, like clay in the hands of the divine Potter, 
 become responsive to every touch of the divine hand, welcoming the 
 pressure, even when felt in pain, having faith in the divine ends in view. 
 It is the high privilege as well as duty to live and act under the guidance 
 of God. A life thus led on, under the nurture and guidance of God, will 
 become a complete and beautiful whole. This assurance gives support 
 amid trials, inspiration to endeavor, dignity to life's lowliest conditions. 
 
 24 
 
370 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 When, in the late war, a clergyman said to President Lincoln, "We 
 will pray that the Lord will be on our side," he replied, " No, no; rather 
 pray that we may be on the Lord's side." This embodies the entire and 
 highest principles of both praying and doing, indeed, the whole philosophy 
 of living. Thus will life be truly, nobly, beautifully, divinely lived. Then 
 will spring up steadfastness of soul in clinging, in the trustfulness of faith, 
 in spite of difficulties and darkness, to the assurance that God leads, 
 giving resolution to stand or fall by whatever is seen to be for God and 
 for which he is working. Then will the spiritual process grow in strength 
 and completeness. "Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect," 
 begins to be realized in climbing 
 
 "The world's great altar stairs, 
 Which slope through darkness up to God." 
 
 This gives an ultimate standard of worth, an ideal of growth in char- 
 acter. The perfection of the excellency of personality is the highest 
 object of pursuit which all highest living implies, and towards which all 
 right spiritual growth tends. Reverence awakens aspiration for com- 
 pleteness in God, not as having attained, but striving to attain, thus com- 
 bining the lowliest humility with effort for the highest, with a faith 
 bordering on vision, culminating in a life serene and radiant, the imper- 
 sonation of the Christ life. 
 
 " Here shalt thou find rest, 
 O weary one! Herfe thou may'st cease thy quest. 
 Give thyself up. He leads where thou shalt go." 
 
 In reverencing God we reverence humanity through him. In loving 
 him we love his children. Man is served in serving God. Consecration, 
 or the self-devotement and dedication of one's entire being in a complete 
 self-surrender to God and his service, is inclusive of the same to man. 
 As the heavenly Father causes his rain and sunshine to fall alike on all, 
 cares for the lilies and the sparrows, and numbers the hairs of the heads 
 of his children, so to be devoutly conscious of this awakens a desire to 
 return love, gratitude, and service for love and care, to be in union with 
 him and in union with his work, to lose one's self and selfishness in this 
 all-embracing beneficence. Thus coming into accord with tiie divine 
 purposes, we become co-workers with God in the realization of these 
 purposes. Godward reverence, love, and consecration as the primal 
 fountain, has thus an outward flow upon our fellow-men, companions in 
 the blessings of this sonship. All separateness, strangeness, and antag- 
 onizing distinctions disappear in an all-embracing fellowship and harmony, 
 and a oneness of life and aim spring up. This is grounded in the con- 
 
SERMONS. 
 
 Z7^ 
 
 scioLis assurance that God is Father and all men are brethren. These 
 divine and human relationships constitute at once an ideal good and an 
 ideal obligation, that of mutual aid in the development of personal char- 
 acters, and through them of society. The ultimate standard of worth is 
 personal worth. Spiritual progress springs from the perfecting of this 
 worth. This can be completely realized only through the aids furnished 
 by society. Society supplies conditions for the development of the high- 
 est personal character — not in the gratification of the social impulses for 
 enjoyment and pleasure, but in meeting reciprocal obligations, and per- 
 forming the services imposed by mutual good will. It is only in*the 
 intercourse of man with man, each under the guidance and inspiration of 
 these high ideals, that the vital source of all human good is found, and 
 each really lives to the ends of both individual completeness and the 
 completeness of all. This is the parent of all progress and civilization. 
 
 The ideal man is he who accepts and lives out these great principles. 
 His prayer is, "Thy will be done in me and through me," himself work- 
 ing freely and joyfully to this end. His doing becomes thereby both a 
 continual prayer and a continual thank offering. Thus he finds his high- 
 est fruition in faith, in reverence, in humility, in aspiration for the absorp- 
 tion of his will in the divine will. Herein he finds in Christ the embodied 
 ideal of all he seeks. Christ presents to him the human side of God, the 
 divine side of humanity, not alien or differing in kind. The union in him 
 of the divine-human is typical, is the ideal embodiment and expression of 
 the best possibilities, the incarnated divine-human life in its highest form. 
 This union makes one a joint heir with him both of character and of 
 inheritance — inheritance because of character — a divine-human charac- 
 ter, whose fruitage is "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, good- 
 ness, faith, meekness, temperance." Without this indwelling presence 
 and life of the divine no strong and earnest girding of the will, no stren- 
 uous effort, will avail in a high and ideal spiritual life. 
 
 All epochs in which this high faith and living prevail are elevating, 
 brilliant, and fruitfiil in growth, for both the present and future. All 
 epochs in which doubt or unbelief maintain a sad triumph, vanish with- 
 out leaving anything good or great. They that lift the world, first in 
 faith, 
 
 " Its sharp, rocky heights to catch far morning 
 Above all the nights of this world, must climb." 
 
 Young friends, there is an indescribable attraction about youth when 
 in reverence and hope it gathers and concentrates its vigor for the mas- 
 tery of life. The budding of young and untried gifts, the manifestation 
 
3/2 
 
 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 of high graces, the kindling of divine fires, the joy and aspiration awak- 
 ened in the presence of high ideals, give promise and assurance that pres- 
 ent attainments will mature into those still larger and higher. This is 
 especially true when these ideals are comprehensive enough to include 
 the whole range of an endless existence, with its ever-growing possibili- 
 ties. Through your preparatory training you have been getting to 
 yourselves character, acquiring power. Now as you enter the arena of 
 your life-work, efficiency and purpose are especially demanded. 
 
 No thoughtful person can stand fronting life's opening vistas and see 
 the world's future rising before him without a sense of the greatness and 
 the seriousness of life springing up within him. May this awaken you 
 to an abiding earnestness and enthusiasm for noble and effective living. 
 This will go far in shaping the nature of your influence upon both the 
 present and the future; for you will have much to do with forming the 
 character of society and of institutions that will tell upon other genera- 
 tions. Amid toils and distracting cares never lose sight of this high 
 purpose of life, nor faith in man's sublime destiny. 
 
 Opportunity stands holding wide the door for some of you to go forth 
 to your place in the world's work ; to others she will present only the 
 key with which to unlock and open the door for yourselves — perchance, 
 with an effort requiring all your strength and skill; but for all the places 
 will be held only through your own energy, uprightness, industry, and 
 untiring perseverance. The crowning fortune is to be born with a bent. 
 If thus fortunately endowed, be what God intended you for, and life will 
 be a joy and a success. Be anything else, and it will be a fret and a 
 failure. What the child dreams the youth endeavors and the man 
 achieves. One is not simply to be good, but good for something. In 
 seeking your work, see to it that you are called to it by your aptitudes, 
 by all that is best and bravest in you, and by the divine providences that 
 are shaping the ends of your lives. See to it, also, that it is something 
 that the world needs, something that shall give worthy and fruitful 
 results, results that shall ultimately win the approval of the world's best. 
 Life should not be a haphazard affair, but with a definite and assigned 
 mission, and work which shall have a true significance and glory in its 
 accomplishment. Get to yourselves ideas and definite opinions, clean and 
 clear cut, reenforced by large, sound, good, all-round common sense, free 
 from fine fancies and wild vagaries, the whole utilized by practical skill. 
 A character thus strengthened and toughened in all of its thews' and sin- 
 ews is prepared to lead the average world. Coming thus to the estate 
 of your life-work, well considered, well chosen, and definite, give both 
 
SERMONS. TfJT) 
 
 hands to it. Rejoice in it. Bend all your energies to it with invincible 
 determination and resistless energy till achievement is assured. With- 
 out this, neither opportunity nor talent will avail. Be assiduous, abste- 
 mious, frugal without stinginess, indifferent to ease or pleasure. Do 
 your work wisely, solidly, thoroughly. Let not show nor sham have 
 place or part therein. Never be maddened or mastered by difficulty or 
 opposition. Let rather vehemence become clear insight, calm wisdom. 
 
 Knowledge should be not only a means of livelihood but a means of 
 manhood as well. Be something as well as know something. Get to 
 yourselves, not only a strong and well-balanced mind, but likewise a 
 sound and well-rounded character. All things are to the intent of work- 
 ing together for your highest good by developing your entire nature. 
 To secure this end, you must needs bend and mould these conditions and 
 relations into aids for becoming constantly more and more proficient in 
 intelligence, in reasonableness and largeness of view, in refinement and 
 dignity, in beneficence, with increasing facility in serving others, in grace 
 and the charm and attracting persuasiveness which spring from the con- 
 stant endeavor after perfectness. This endeavor will promote a harmo- 
 nious and symmetrical growth, and perfect all sides of your nature. 
 Cold and cloud and storm are as needful to this end as sunshine and dew 
 and gentle showers. Everything gives divine results when rightly 
 received and used. 
 
 While using these instrumentalities for your own upbuildiiig, you 
 will likewise be using them for the upbuilding of humanity. In doing 
 so better spend your energy in seeking to build up your own ideals, 
 and in making your own convictions prevail, than in undermining and 
 tearing down those of others. Act and react upon the world to your 
 utmost power, but only to the end of enlightening, reforming, improving. 
 This may beget opposition and collision. Christ, though increasing in 
 favor with God and man through his preparatory years, yet when he 
 entered upon his great mission, came into such sharp collision with man 
 that the rebound sent him to Calvary and the cross. In his footsteps 
 must walk all who greatly lift and bless their fellows. Ridicule, abuse, 
 misrepresentation, and ostracism have taken the place of the cross, the 
 manacle, and the fagot, yet inspired by the same spirit. Though subject 
 to these things while living, after ages hold their names in grateful 
 remembrance. It has been well said that those whom the present can- 
 nonades, the future will canonize. All true work is undying, ever grow- 
 ing, multiplying, and fruiting. There is, therefore, no occasion for faint- 
 heartedness or discouragement. Though the work be humble and 
 
374 
 
 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 commonplace, yet, if greatly done, it may be the means of producing 
 superb characters and inspiring lofty sentiments. If one works under 
 manifold adversities, or amid opposition, persecution, or neglect, yet if 
 the work be done in the spirit of consecration to the highest well-being 
 of man, the future, if not the present, will recognize and bless the worker. 
 
 "At the inmost core of thy being is a burning fire. 
 From thine own altar-flame kindled in the hour when souls aspire. 
 That which thou wouldst be, thou must be; that which thou shalt be, thou art. 
 Thine is the crag path chosen. On the crest shalt thou rest thy feet." 
 
 It is both a duty and a privilege thus to live and work as in the pres- 
 ence and under the guidance of God. It lifts above the mists and vapors 
 of the common evironments of everyday life cares into the clear, calm 
 light and air of the spiritual world ever round about us, and in which it 
 is the privilege of each consciously and constantly to dwell. Dwelling 
 thus in the light whose source is in the Life Eternal, your lives will not 
 be as the sough and wail of the east wind, nor as the moan of waves 
 breaking on the silent shores of eternity; but, rather, as the spirit voice 
 of the JEolian harp, or as the music of the great cathedral organ, with its 
 many pipes and stops and banks of keys. 
 
 Men may come and men may go, individual lives floating like leaves 
 upon the stream of time till lost in the great ocean of eternity, but "the 
 river of the water of life," "preceding out of the throne of God and of the 
 Lamb," shall flow on forever, full and more full, purifying and life giving. 
 Be ye partakers of this water of life. Be ye completely charactered in 
 the perfections of Him who continually increased "in favor with God and 
 
 man ; " for, 
 
 " Be the day weary, or be the day long, 
 At length it ringeth to evening song." 
 
SERMONS. 375 
 
 DIWIME GUIDANCE AND HELP. 
 
 [Baccalaureate sermon delivered before the graduating class of Alfred University, 
 June 21, 1891.] 
 
 "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." i Sam. 7:12. 
 
 At the semicentennial commencement, five years ago, the theme of 
 discourse was "The College, a Light;" two years ago it was "The Col- 
 lege Community — Its Work." On this, the fifty-fifth anniversary, let us 
 consider in what way the Lord has guided us, and by what ineans he has 
 lielped us in meeting and fulfilling the demands of our high calling. To 
 this end, let us, as a family circle, gather around the cheerful hearthstone, 
 beneath the protecting roof-tree of our Alma Mater, draw the curtains, 
 shutting out the glare, drive, and noise of the great world, and look back 
 through the years and recall, as best we inay, the ways in which we have 
 been guided and helped by divine agencies. 
 
 Samuel could say, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us," from the 
 assurance that hitherto he had been obedient to His will, and from child- 
 hood followed His guidance. When one can say, "Thy will be done in 
 and by me," and, like Samuel, can say, "Speak; for thy servant heareth," 
 then, and not till then, is he prepared to be helped of the Lord. God 
 does not do man's work; but he assists the willing and obedient, both 
 from within and from without — from within, by promptings and illumi- 
 nation; from without, by opening the doors of opportunity and by the 
 supply of means. "A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord direct- 
 eth his steps." When He purposes to lead man to fine issues, however 
 small, it is by ways of His, not man's devising. Man is made to realize 
 that it is not his own wish, or wisdom, or strength, but a higher purpose, 
 a broader plan, and a stronger hand, than his own, that are shaping the 
 movements and determining the results. All highest things are reached 
 through this guidance and help. This divine intention respecting each is 
 what each one is privileged to do and become. Failing in this, he fails in 
 all that is best for him; but thus led and helped and nurtured of God, his 
 life becomes complete and divinely beautiful, sacred and significant. 
 What dignity does this give to life, what support in trials, what inspi- 
 rations to excellence — always under his guidance, always with his help, 
 leading on to the best possible achievement! 
 
 This directing is frequently, indeed generally, quite different from 
 what human planning would have arranged. It has not been through 
 pleasant ways and rich domains that man has been led to his highest and 
 best estate. Many of the foremost peoples who have led on and shaped 
 
3/0 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 civ^ilizations, have not chosen their own environments; but, as the apostle 
 declares, God "hath determined the times before appointed and the 
 bounds of their habitation." Most of the men and women who have been 
 potent factors in shaping the destinies of their fellows, who have been the 
 originators, organizers, and promoters of all that is best for human weal, 
 have had their home breeding amid conditions unpropitious, as human 
 thinking goes have "dipped their morsels in the vinegar and gall of life," 
 and of morsels thus dipped have eaten daily. The same is true of fami- 
 lies, communities, and institutions. It is only as the great results achieved 
 have cast their light backward, that all these conditions are seen to have 
 been for the best, and to have been shaped by a superintending provi- 
 dence. Also, the perplexities, the bafiflings, the trials, crosses, disappoint- 
 ments, losses, though heavy to be borne at the time, are seen, in the light 
 of these fine results, to be providential blessings. It is only through toil 
 and suffering and sacrifice, only amid opposition and conflict, that the 
 best comes to man, that all human progress has been made. 
 
 Seneca says, " Men venerate the fountains whence important streams 
 take their rise." In this spirit and in the light of the principles stated, 
 let us look back to the sources whence this Institution sprang, note the 
 inspiring principles, the formative influences shaping it, and the provi- 
 dences guiding and helping it. Probably no one entering, seventy years 
 ago,- this shut-in valley, — a sort of eagle's nest in the mountains, — sur- 
 rounded by hills still clothed with the primeval forest, and far removed 
 from the great stream of migration and the centers of trade, with only the 
 vague echoes of the hum of the busy world reaching it, would, at a first 
 glance, have thought it a fit place for a seat of learning. But now, in view 
 of what is, one can see things and conditions not a few, not only fit, but 
 fittest, for such a seat. Its elevated position — its hilltops twenty-two 
 hundred feet above sea level — its pure mountain airs, and all climatic 
 conditions, are conducive to health, vigor, and alertness, both physical 
 and mental, possessing, thus, those attributes which have contributed his- 
 torically to free, brave, vigorous growth and culture. It is found, also, 
 to be a most fit place for practical, scientific training, a wonderfully rich 
 and varied museum of nature's own collecting, ranging through geology, 
 paleontology, botany, and zoology. In the picturesque character of its 
 scenery it furnishes a great variety of material for the art student. The 
 aesthetic sentiments are constantly appealed to and nurtured, and it sup- 
 plies constant inducements to the study of the beautiful in nature. Its 
 shut-in character, excluding, to a large extent, the outward world, with 
 its temptations, is favorable to culture. 
 
SERMONS. 377 
 
 With these natural endowments fitting it for a seat of learning, it was 
 ready to be utilized to that end by man. For pioneer settlers there came, 
 not only here, but into all this region, a people with a strain both of blood 
 and mind from the best racial stock the world knows. "Blood tells" is 
 an old and approved adage. But mind tells more persistently and effect- 
 ively than blood. Mentality, constituting the spiritual organism, per- 
 petuates its characteristics more certainly and unvaryingly than physical 
 conformation. Ethics or racial mentality is one of the primary forces in 
 civilization. 
 
 These pioneers brought mental characteristics of solidity, endurance, 
 pluck, force, daring, ingenuity, adaptiveness, versatility, agile self-recovery 
 of footing, a taste and aptitude for work, and a distaste for idleness, 
 pleasure, and sham. They brought all these qualities into exercise in this 
 then rugged wilderness region, to get grip and win bread, as they hewed 
 down the forests, subdued the stubborn soil, and built rude homes. 
 
 Better still, they brought a taste and aptitude for Christian homes, 
 churches, and schools. They built, side by side, amid stumps, brush 
 and log heaps, beneath the shades of the great forest, the home, the 
 church, and the school. The Lord has promised to honor those that 
 honor and serve him in their lives. 
 
 From their taste for learning, the common school, under the inspira- 
 tion of able and enterprising teachers, had, from the start, a vigorous 
 growth. This produced mental unrest and a desire for broader and 
 higher culture. The spirit of progress, like leaven, pervaded the com- 
 munity. The young, cherishing a desire for learning, were ready and 
 waiting for the opening door of opportunity. Thus it came to pass that 
 in scarcely more than a score of years after the forests, with their deer, 
 wolves, and bears, began to disappear from the region, the enterprise of 
 higher education was inaugurated. This enterprise did not, as frequently 
 is the case, originate from without, but from within the community; nor 
 was a hothouse method in the form of a large gift of money applied, as 
 is quite customary of late years; but it sprang from native seed, planted 
 and nurtured through long years. The energy was internal and healthy. 
 What were the conditions of things here at that time?— The village 
 contained only some thirteen buildings of various kinds and uses, which 
 were mostly small, one storied, unpainted, and unfinished. The farms 
 round about were but partially cleared and mostly unpaid for. The 
 church was a mile away, to which the people, clothed in "homespun," 
 went in lumber wagons in summer and in sleighs in winter, to listen to 
 an unsalaried, self-taught, and largely self-supporting ministry. The post 
 
378 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 ofifice was two miles away, to which the mail, consisting of a few letters 
 with an unpaid twenty-five-cent postage, and a small assortment of weekly 
 papers, was brought once a week on horseback. 
 
 The mode of getting here from the outside world was described by 
 Professors Irish and Kenyon. The former wrote: "Railroads were 
 then unknown west of Utica, and a passage from Schenectady to Alfred 
 had the vicissitudes of a wide range of locomotion — a night ride on an 
 engine facing a snowstorm to Utica, a trip on a canal boat amid ice 
 blockades and delays to Geneva, a ride in a lumber wagon to Almond, 
 thence afoot in snow, slush, mud, and fog to Alfred." Professor Kenyon 
 wrote: "From Schenectady to Utica by rail, thence to Syracuse by stage 
 —eighteen hours, often stuck in the mud, breaking down twice; thence 
 to Geneva by rail; thence to Bath by stage; from Bath to Alfred afoot, 
 traveling over hill and down dale, through mud and snow, seeing for the 
 first half of the distance nothing but wilderness and log houses." 
 
 "As to the place, I like it much. It is rather hilly; no more so, how- 
 ever, than to afford an agreeable variety. On the whole, it is a very 
 pleasant country, fully answering my expectations. As to the people, I 
 discover nothing of ostentation or show. Their dress is plain and neat, 
 but not extravagant, their manners simple and unaffected, free and cor- 
 dial. I consider them far superior to those who make such great preten- 
 sions to superior excellency. I am also much pleased with the students. 
 There are many that may be considered excellent scholars in the branches 
 they have pursued. I have been led to entertain an exalted opinion of 
 them. In short, I am much pleased with the place and the people. 
 Whether I shall continue to be thus satisfied, I pretend not to predict." 
 
 Such was the condition of the country and the people at the inception 
 of the Institution. Springing from such causes, amid such environments, 
 it did not start into being to satisfy the wishes of any particular class, call- 
 ing, profession, or pursuit, but to meet a felt want, voicing itself, irrespec- 
 tive of calling, class, race, color, or sex. When the germinal school 
 opened, on the 5th of December, 1836, in a sma:ll upper room of a private 
 dwelling, it swung wide its doors to all, from those advanced in years and 
 scholarships down through the various grades to the boy of thirteen 
 years, who neither knew the multiplication table nor could write his own 
 name. The school was founded and all studies arranged to meet the 
 common wants of all classes. Its scope has enlarged as the demands and 
 the ability to meet them have increased; yet all the growth that has come 
 to it was in the germ at the beginning. All has come of development 
 from within. Nothing has been patched on from without. It was founded 
 
SERMONS. 379 
 
 by earnest, common-sense men, to meet the cry of their children for the 
 common bread of knowledge, and it has continued in order to satisfy this 
 hunger of humanity. 
 
 When Moses set up the tabernacle in the wilderness, the people of 
 Israel "came, both men and women, as many as the Spirit of the Lord 
 made willing-hearted, and brought whatever they had to spare, as the 
 Lord's offering to the work." In this spirit and by similar means have 
 been founded not a few colleges, Alfred among the number. It had its 
 foundations laid by means of small contributions, not always of money, 
 but of "whatever they had to spare," for the people were poor. Tlie 
 students, more often then than now, paid in work or material from the 
 farm. For instance, the boy who could not write his name, paid his 
 first tuition of ^3.00 by furnishing four cords of four-foot wood — green 
 beech — which the principal, on his part, worked up for the stove. To 
 aid in seating the schoolroom, each student brought a chair. This In- 
 stitution's chief mission has been to the poor. This fact has given type, 
 tone, and destiny to it. Herein has it been approved and blessed and 
 helped of God. 
 
 It has been well said that every college bell in a new region is a 
 genuine missionary to the people of that region, awakening all within its 
 sound to new and higher intellectual life and activity, inducing improve- 
 ment, culture, progress. Such a missionary was the small but silvery- 
 toned bell on the little one-story building, the first erected. Responsive 
 to this call, came eager young men and women from all the surround- 
 ing region. To accommodate this constantly-increasing ingathering, 
 the few and small houses were insufficient; but their owners threw 
 open their doors, and gave up every available space to the incomers, 
 and when the houses were full to overflowing, rooms in wood sheds 
 and even barns were fitted up and occupied. Many sought rooms out- 
 side of the village, while young men whose homes were within four or 
 five miles quite generally came and went daily. Though the accommo- 
 dations were meager, memory does not recall any instance of complain- 
 ing of rooms, board, or any other limiting conditions. 
 
 All, teachers and students, caught the inspirations of the dawning 
 hght of the new day, and jubilantly worked therein w'ith Spartan hardi- 
 hood and manly bravery and good will. The dayspring of this new 
 light rising upon the youth of this region, hitherto living comparatively 
 barren, commonplace lives, with no broad and bright outlook, filled them 
 with an enthusiasm not easily understood by those who have lived con- 
 stantly in the light of schools. To the students of those days the school 
 
^8o LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 and all of its appointments, though formative, incomplete, and limited, 
 had the freshness and vigor of their own youth. It met and satisfied 
 their felt needs for a higher culture, at the same time opening to them a 
 larger and richer realm of life, giving glimpses of higher possibilities of 
 attainments and usefulness, thus awakening unbounded enthusiasm, and 
 nerving to earnest endeavor. These new opportunities for culture were 
 gladly accepted and eagerly improved, the many inconveniences and 
 privations incident to the new and incomplete state of things being 
 cheerfully accepted. 
 
 It is not the size of a school, but the spirit, that is of chief value, 
 and the spirit here in those early days was most admirable. Those 
 attending only for a short time caught the spirit pervading the air, and, 
 though the amount of book knowledge may have been small, yet they 
 went forth to the work of life with a new force impelling them. Of 
 course there was then, as ever, more or less dross thrown off in the 
 process. The lazy sometimes drifted in, the evil sometimes crept in, or 
 shouldered themselves in; but the climate was not congenial, and their 
 stay was usually short. 
 
 The enthusiasm of the school was supplemented and augmented by 
 that of the citizens. They took almost as much interest in the work as 
 the students themselves. They were frequent visitors, especially pn such 
 great occasions as rhetoricals and examinations. Written examinations 
 had not then become the vogue, were, indeed, unknown, as was also 
 marking, grading, and placing. The aim was to make, not simply stu- 
 dents, but men and women who could think accurately and speak and 
 act promptly on their feet, with clear, level heads and dexterous hands. 
 These examinations, consequently, created great interest, and were lis- 
 tened to by crowded houses, composed not only of students, but also of 
 citizens of this and adjoining towns. At such times every now and then 
 one, with the vigor and alertness of a trained athlete, parrying the thrusts 
 of quick questionings, meeting attacks from all points, conquering every 
 difficulty on the instant, rushed on to the goal with the endurance and 
 dash of an ancient Greek runner, amid the enthusiasm, if not the plaudits, 
 of a goodly cloud of witnesses. 
 
 The anniversary, held at first in the chapel, on that becoming too 
 small moved to the church, a mile away, and on overflowing that tak- 
 ing to the grove, was the great event of the year, there not being so 
 many great events yearly as now. The people in all the region round 
 about then took much more lively interest than since it has become one 
 oft-repeated tale. They poured in by the thousand, by all modes of con- 
 
SERMONS. 381 
 
 veyance, from the ox team down. The exercises lasted all day, with a 
 brief intermission for lunch, often sixty or seventy students participating 
 — the boys speaking and the girls reading. 
 
 A literary society, at first called the Alfred Debating Society, taking 
 later the name of the Franklin Lyceum, the parent of the present literary 
 societies, was organized the first term of the school. It awakened an 
 interest akin to that of the other exercises. Not only students, but citi- 
 zens, including the middle-aged and elderly men, enrolled themseUes as 
 members, coming from two to four miles to participate or listen. 
 
 We have dwelt thus long on the bygone, long-dead days, and on the 
 spirit of the workers and of the school of those days, that we might 
 catch a glimpse of the formative influences which went to the shaping of 
 the Institution and determining its mission. While it is a great privilege 
 to be a member of an institution which has a history whose atmosphere 
 is suffused with inspiring memories, in whose halls are abiding presences, 
 whose influence is ever for good, yet it is a greater privilege to be a 
 member of an institution which is just inaugurating these influences, 
 where everything has a morning freshness and joy, the inspirations 
 awakened by the originations and imitations, the vigor of youth and 
 hope, the stir and rush of a new enterprise. It was amid these influences 
 that teachers and students lived and wrought during these early years. 
 They all felt that they were helping inaugurate a noble enterprise, work- 
 ing in the bright dawning of a glorious day. The teachers eagerly 
 sought the most approved methods of instruction and of study. The 
 students readily accepted all change looking to this end, rendering 
 hearty approval to all efforts for the improvement of scholarship, man- 
 ners, or morals. Even the morning lectures at the chapel were accepted 
 as good to both teacher and student, — to the former, as leading them 
 outside of their routine work and the ruts that such work tends to run 
 in; to the latter, in presenting them with motive and purpose, not got 
 from text-books or classroom drill, leading them to realize, in some 
 degree, at least, that right manly men and right womanly women, noble 
 charactered, are of far greater import than simply scholarly adepts. 
 
 Alfred University had its origin in a response to the cry of the people 
 for more light. It has grown up naturally as the trees grow, from the 
 common soil of the common wants of the people. " Give us more light," 
 is the ever-increasing cry of humanity. Christian philanthropy is increas- 
 ingly responding to this cry. Formerly the college was for a class, or 
 classes, not for the masses. Now it is becoming more and more planned 
 and equipped to meet the wants of the masses. All the recent move- 
 
3o2 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 ments in education, the public school enlargements, University extension 
 plans, Chautauqua plans, all have this end in view. Alfred from the first 
 has kept it in view. It has ever attempted to voice the longings of the 
 people, and to meet and shape and satisfy these longings, believing them 
 to be the manifestations of divine purposes respecting man. Its training 
 and culture have ever been for use rather than ornament or pleasure. 
 It has ever sought to make its students self-reliant, independent, afraid 
 of no honest work. 
 
 It has gone farther. Having the love of God and man as the great 
 and impelling motive for its existence and its work, it has sought from 
 the beginning to make prevail more and more among men the divine 
 love and rule, as manifested in Christ and his kingdom. Imbued with 
 this spirit, it has been from the start deeply religious, earnestly, even 
 radically, reformatory. It imbued its students more or less with the 
 same spirit, preparing them to go forth as e\'angels, reformers, leaders in 
 all the enterprises having for their end the bettering of human conditions 
 or doing away with evil and wrong that blind and bind men. 
 
 In meeting these all-pervasive human needs the first demand was 
 for the recognition of the needs and the consequent rights of woman. 
 From the year 505 a. d., when a great council of divines gravely debated 
 the question whether woman ought to be called a human being; to the 
 time when she was reluctantly permitted to eat at the same table with 
 man; to the time when she was grudgingl}^ allowed to learn the alphabet, 
 the same as man; to the present, when, amid no little opposition, she has 
 been admitted to all, or nearly all, of the more progressive colleges of 
 the land — though many of the older ones, founded on the monastic plan, 
 hold to their celibate condition with a tenacity which is " more pathetic 
 than wise" — has this struggle been going on. From the start, woman 
 has had here equal rights and privileges with man. At its founding no 
 woman in all the land, if in any land, held a collegiate or professional 
 degree. None were regularly licensed physicians, law}'ers, or ordained 
 ministers of the gospel. Now there are thousands bearing such degrees, 
 and thousands more in training for them — hundreds of women in 
 the professions, and hundreds more preparing to enter them. In all 
 this, Providence has manifestly been guiding and helping woman, and 
 will help on to still broader and higher equalities; and woman, we doubt 
 not, will in the future, as in the past, amply vindicate her right to these. 
 In all this Alfred has ever sought to follow the lead of Providence and 
 do what it could to fulfill the divine intent. 
 
 In the development of this equalit)% some modifications have taken 
 
S'ERMONS. 2^8 T, 
 
 place, as the years have gone by. In illustration, in the early times 
 the studies of ladies and gentlemen were more diverse than now. But 
 few of the ladies studied the higher mathematics and very seldom 
 the ancient languages. On the other hand, gentlemen very seldom 
 studied the modern languages and never the fine arts. The ladies never 
 thought of speaking on public occasions. They are not permitted to do 
 so even now in some of the so-called most radical institutions. For the 
 first decade the ladies had no literary society for mutual mental drill and 
 for improvement in speaking. As the years have increased, all studies 
 and exercises have become more and more alike. In this the ladies 
 have held more than an even hand. In a coinparison extending over 
 many years, and including all branches of study, it has been found that 
 their average standing is two per cent higher than that of the gentlemen. 
 In the matter of speaking on public occasions, it is quite generally con- 
 ceded that the ladies, as a whole, are more eloquent, if such a thing be 
 possible, than the gentlemen. The gentlemen may display the more 
 oratory, speaking from the head; but the ladies express the more elo- 
 quence, speaking from the heart — the source of all true eloquence. 
 
 Again, the apostle Paul tells us that, though God hath made of one 
 blood all nations, yet he hath determined their times and the bounds of 
 their habitation, to the end that they should seek after and find him. 
 Nations thus placed have a divinely-appointed diversity in fulfilling their 
 missions, corresponding to their diverse habitats and environments. 
 This applies with equal force to communities, families, individuals, and 
 institutions. The diverse missions of colleges are determined by their 
 condition, constituency, and ends to be sought in meeting the demands 
 of these. As in the natural world the environments of climate and soil 
 determine the kind and quality of the vegetation of a region, so the loca- 
 tion and environment of a college largely determine its mission. While 
 agreeing in fundamentals, institutions neither can nor should be precisely 
 alike in details. Seats of learning, to have their happiest influence, need 
 to be sown broadcast arrlong the people, and to be sustained by their 
 sympathies and their liberalities. 
 
 Alfred, from the very nature of its origin, location, environments, and 
 constituency, belongs to the latter class, and it is devoutly believed that 
 in this the Lord has had the guidance, and is helping it on in the way he 
 is moving in human advancement. Formerly the divorce of learning from 
 life was the rule; now there is a constantly increasing demand for learning 
 to give significance to life. The scholar must not be a pedant but a power. 
 He is more and more estimated by the skill with which he brings his 
 
382 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 ments in education, the public school enlargements, University extension 
 plans, Chautauqua plans, all have this end in view. Alfred from the first 
 has kept it in view. It has ever attempted to voice the longings of the 
 people, and to meet and shape and satisfy these longings, believing them 
 to be the manifestations of divine purposes respecting man. Its training 
 and culture have ever been for use rather than ornament or pleasure. 
 It has ever sought to make its students self-reliant, independent, afraid 
 of no honest work. 
 
 It has gone farther. Having the love of God and man as the great 
 and impelling motive for its existence and its work, it has sought from 
 the beginning to make prevail more and more among men the divine 
 love and rule, as manifested in Christ and his kingdom. Imbued with 
 this spirit, it has been from the start deeply religious, earnestly, even 
 radically, reformatory. It imbued its students more or less with the 
 same spirit, preparing them to go forth as evangels, reformers, leaders in 
 all the enterprises having for their end the bettering of human conditions 
 or doing away with evil and wrong that blind and bind men. 
 
 In meeting these all-pervasive human needs the first demand was 
 for the recognition of the needs and the consequent rights of woman. 
 From the year 505 a. d., when a great council of divines gravely debated 
 the question whether woman ought to be called a human being; to the 
 time when she was reluctantly permitted to eat at the same table with 
 man; to the time when she was grudgingly allowed to learn the alphabet, 
 the same as man; to the present, when, amid no little opposition, she has 
 been admitted to all, or nearly all, of the more progressive colleges of 
 the land — though many of the older ones, founded on the monastic plan, 
 hol'd to their celibate condition with a tenacity which is " more pathetic 
 than wise" — has this struggle been going on. From the start, woman 
 has had here equal rights and privileges with man. At its founding no 
 woman in all the land, if in any land, held a collegiate or professional 
 degree. None were regularly licensed physicians, lawyers, or ordained 
 ministers of the gospel. Now there are thousands bearing such degrees, 
 and thousands more in training for them — hundreds of women in 
 the professions, and hundreds more preparing to enter them. In all 
 this, Providence has manifestly been guiding and helping woman, and 
 will help on to still broader and higher equalities; and woman, we doubt 
 not, will in the future, as in the past, amply vindicate her right to these. 
 In all this Alfred has ever sought to follow the lead of Providence and 
 do what it could to fulfill the divine intent. 
 
 In the development of this equality, some modifications have taken 
 
SERMONS. 383 
 
 place, as the years have gone by. In illustration, in the early times 
 the studies of ladies and gentlemen were more diverse than now. But 
 (ew of the ladies studied the higher mathematics and very seldom 
 the ancient languages. On the other hand, gentlemen very seldom 
 studied the modern languages and never the fine arts. The ladies never 
 thought of speaking on public occasions. They are not permitted to do 
 so even now in some of the so-called most radical institutions. For the 
 first decade the ladies had no literary society for mutual mental drill and 
 for improvement in speaking. As the years have increased, all studies 
 and exercises have become more and more alike. In this the ladies 
 have held more than an even hand. In a comparison extending over 
 many years, and including all branches of study, it has been found that 
 their average standing is two per cent higher than that of the gentlemen. 
 In the matter of speaking on public occasions, it is quite generally con- 
 ceded that the ladies, as a whole, are more eloquent, if such a thing be 
 possible, than the gentlemen. The gentlemen may display the more 
 oratory, speaking from the head; but the ladies express the more elo- 
 quence, speaking from the heart — the source of all true eloquence. 
 
 Again, the apostle Paul tells us that, though God hath made of one 
 blood all nations, yet he hath determined their times and the bounds of 
 their habitation, to the end that they should seek after and find him. 
 Nations thus placed have a divinely-appointed diversity in fulfilling their 
 missions, corresponding to their diverse habitats and environments. 
 This applies with equal force to communities, families, individuals, and 
 institutions. The diverse missions of colleges are determined by their 
 condition, constituency, and ends to be sought in meeting the demands 
 of these. As in the natural world the environments of climate and soil 
 determine the kind and quality of the vegetation of a region, so the loca- 
 tion and environment of a college largely determine its mission. While 
 agreeing in fundamentals, institutions neither can nor should be precisely 
 alike in details. Seats of learning, to have their happiest influence, need 
 to be sown broadcast arriong the people, and to be sustained b}' their 
 sympathies and their liberalities. 
 
 Alfred, from the very nature of its origin, location, environments, and 
 constituency, belongs to the latter class, and it is devoutly believed that 
 in this the Lord has had the guidance, and is helping it on in the way he 
 is moving in human advancement. Formerly the divorce of learning from 
 life was the rule; now there is a constantly increasing demand for learning 
 to give significance to life. The scholar must not be a pedant but a power. 
 He is more and more estimated by the skill with which he brings his 
 
384 LIFE OF TRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 learning to bear upon the busy world, puts himself in touch and sympa- 
 thy with its moving forces, transmuting learning into influence. That 
 learning is best which best fits for life and life's manifold problems. A 
 man may be a bookworm, a scientist, a linguist, a logician, a mental 
 gymnast generally, without being a man of culture in a large and true 
 sense, with ability to appreciate, appropriate, and use the best of all the 
 ages, bringing it to bear upon the on-moving stream of influences. To 
 this end he must not be a grave in which to bury learning, but a fruitful 
 soil, in which learning shall spring up into a hundred-fold beneficent 
 harvest. Such an education does the divine Providence call for, and such 
 has Alfred been seeking to give. 
 
 Another essential and pervasive principle determining all develop- 
 ment, progress, has from the beginning operated in this Institution, deter- 
 mining its peculiar character. It is operating more and more in most 
 institutions of learning. Herbert Spencer formulated it as the progress 
 from uniformity to definite diversity. The apostle Paul long before rec- 
 ognized it in the spiritual world. He tells us there is a diversity of gifts, 
 but all from the selfsame Spirit. This is a universal law, applying alike 
 to the physical and the spiritual realms. Creation advances from the 
 lower to the higher through the differentiation of species and of parts, 
 leading to complexness and perfectness of wholes, and to diversity and 
 definiteness of uses, resulting in development and progress. This law 
 applies to man, his institutions and industries. As civilization advances, 
 the diversity in institutions, customs, and industries — in all things that 
 go to effecting this civilization — increases. 
 
 This law applies to educational institutions and processes with special 
 emphasis. In former times, with their fewer callings and simpler indus- 
 tries, with less diverse and exacting demands, institutions of learning 
 could have a correspondingly simple and uniform course of study and 
 methods; but advancing civilization, with its ever-increasing diversity 
 and complexness, demands institutions that shall train both men and 
 women not only for the learned professions, but for all these diverse and 
 exacting pursuits. Such institutions must adapt themselves to the needs 
 of their constituency. Diversity amid uniformity is therefore increas- 
 ingly demanded. This diversity should spring from and thereby be 
 adapted to the environments and the results sought to be attained. 
 Strong, healthy germinal principles, high type, and favoring environ- 
 ments will produce noble outgrowth and diverse fruitage under the nur- 
 turing care of a protecting Providence. 
 
 But lying back of all this there is a more primary question still. 
 
SERMONS. 385 
 
 Shall education wait upon and follow bent, aptitude, or, like Procrustes, 
 put all on the same bedstead and make them fit by chopping them off, if 
 too long, by stretching them out, if too short? Waiving the question of 
 what would be an ideal education if there were no individual bents and no 
 work lay beyond, the very present insisting question is, in the presence of 
 the rapidly multiplying and diverse studies, with a correspondingly rapid 
 increase in diverse industries and pursuits, and the diverse individual 
 aptitudes that have given birth to these, what is the education demanded ? 
 An overruling and guiding Providence is answering that. God is guid- 
 ing even goading man on in these multiform and diverse ways, and it is in 
 vain, even if so disposed, to kick against the goads. This demands that, 
 while holding fast to these essentials in all education corresponding to 
 the essential elements and powers of human nature, the superadded 
 differentiations shall be sufficient to meet the requirements of the diver- 
 gencies of this same human nature and of modern progress. 
 
 From the very founding of this institution its class of students has 
 notably differentiated it from many others. These have been largely 
 from the working classes. They come here to better fit themselves, not 
 chiefly for the learned professions, nor to fit themselves simply to live 
 and enjoy themselves without work, but for going out into the varied and 
 multitudinous pursuits of the present complex civilization. These, 
 through their varied needs, demanded a wide and varied range ot studies. 
 Thus the problem from the beginning has been how best to prepare 
 intelligent, noble, masterful workers — a most difficult task surely. In 
 most institutions at that time the method of Procrustes was largely fol- 
 lowed. They all had essentially one and the same unvarying course of 
 study, and but few outside the candidates for the learned professions 
 entered them. Only two degrees, with perhaps an exception or two, 
 exclusive of honorary ones, were conferred, A. B. and A. M. The latter 
 was not conferred for studies pursued in college. 
 
 But within this time the circle of knowledge has become so enlarged 
 in its sweep, by the rapid increase of new sciences, new literatures, new 
 industries, creating complexity and diversity, demanding diversity of 
 culture, that it is no longer possible to include even the rudiments of 
 these demands within the compass of a single course, and most colleges 
 have been compelled to institute either electives leading to the same 
 degree, or different courses leading to different degrees. Harvard, for 
 instance, has two hundred and fifteen varying courses leading to the degree 
 of A. B., and many other institutions have similar though not as great a 
 variety. At present, exclusive of honorary degrees, there are between 
 
 25 
 
386 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 thirty and forty, probably nearer forty than thirty, different degrees con- 
 ferred by the various educational institutions entitled to confer degrees, 
 representing differing courses of study. 
 
 When Alfred first found it necessary to formulate a course of study 
 in addition to the traditional one, only a single college could be found 
 with a course to serve as a pattern after which to work. When it 
 became entitled to confer degrees, it made diligent search for a distinctive 
 and appropriate degree for ladies, but, finding none, it was obliged to 
 originate one, that of Laureate of Arts; but after employing it twenty- 
 four years, it was discontinued at the instance of the ladies themselves, 
 other colleges in the meantime having largely adopted the same degree 
 for both ladies and gentlemen. This institution was one of the first, if 
 not the first, to establish a distinctive course leading to the degree of Ph. 
 B. Now there are scores of colleges with such courses. The various 
 courses leading to new degrees, in most institutions adopting them, 
 ranged at first from one-half to two-thirds, in the amount of study and 
 the time required, as the requirements for the regular classical degree; 
 but in most institutions they have been gradually increased. In this 
 respect, this institution has kept in the front ranks till all courses have 
 equal requirements, while not a few institutions have not yet this equality 
 of requirements. 
 
 Another most important question agitating the college world at the 
 present is respecting the time students should be kept in school. Curi- 
 ously, the advocates for shortening the time are found chiefly not in the 
 smaller but in the larger schools. If the time is decreased, the income 
 from tuition will be decreased. This will affect the smaller much more 
 seriously than the larger and stronger schools. They must either have 
 the four years' tuition or have their endowments increased. While the 
 European scholar completes both his collegiate and professional studies 
 at the average age of twenty-two years, twenty-one in France, the 
 American scholar completes his at the average of twenty-five or six 
 years. As the president of Michigan University said in a recent address, 
 the American student by the time he gets ready for work is old enough 
 to be not only a father but a grandfather. As a result of this increasing 
 length and cost of this education, the young men are more and more 
 passing by the college on their way to their professions. The proportion 
 of the college educated in the professions is decreasing year by year. 
 President Hall, of Clark University, in a recent article states that from 
 direct investigation he found that of the students in our schools of theol- 
 ogy, only twenty-three per cent were college graduates; in the law 
 
SERMONS. 387 
 
 schools, only ei<;hteen per cent, and in those of medicine, only eight per 
 cent. This is a bad and an alarming state of things for all parties con- 
 cerned, — bad for the preacher and bad for his hearers, bad for the lawyer 
 and bad for his clients, bad for the physician and very bad for his patients. 
 
 How is all this to be remedied? Certainly not by insisting on the 
 time element as the one of chief importance, not by arranging courses 
 and time to suit those of average ability, or below, and then compelling 
 all, both the quick paced and the slow paced, to keep the same step, and 
 that not of the quick, but of the slow, not by trying to pacify and quiet 
 the quick by administering vitiating and corrupting opiates in the form 
 of honors, prizes, and all that, thereby substituting for pure love of 
 learning for learning's sake, petty rivalries and selfish ambitions, degrad- 
 ing alike to genuine scholarship and to true manhood. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson long ago found and applied the true remedy. In 
 founding the University of Virginia he was inspired by the same spirit 
 of freedom as when he penned the Declaration of Independence, freedom 
 of choice in studies and freedom of mo\'ement in working out those 
 choices. The time element was ignored. Quality and thoroughness, 
 not time, he made the only standard. A young man with brains and 
 pluck can, and often has, if well prepared on entering, completed the 
 course in two years, while the illy prepared, the slow paced, or dull, 
 require four, five, and even six years to complete the same. The bright 
 and enterprising are not checked in their pace and made to travel the 
 same gait as the slow by either compulsion or by the bait of prizes and 
 honors. The principles and inducements for getting on and up that con- 
 trol are the same as in the world's broader arena. The wisdom of the 
 system has been amply vindicated from Jefferson down to the present. 
 No institution in America has, in proportion to its members, sent out so 
 many men who have held commanding positions in the nation, with such 
 controlling influences, as the University of Virginia. Most of the south- 
 ern and southwestern institutions are patterned more or less after it, and 
 all others must, soon or late, through compulsion, if not otherwise, fol- 
 low closely or afar off. The proposed new University of Chicago is to be 
 organized on essentially the same plan. President Harper says that a 
 student will be permitted to graduate whenever he can pass the requisite 
 examinations. 
 
 This Institution has, from the start, pursued essentially the same 
 course. The nature of its patronage demanded it. Most of its students 
 have been those who were not only preparing to be bread winners in the 
 future, but who, to a greater or less degree, have been compelled to be 
 
388 
 
 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALL.EN. 
 
 such all through their preparation. Thus their studies have been more 
 or less interrupted, and they were thereby unable to pursue an unhin- 
 dered or continuous course; yet such, appreciating both their oppor- 
 tunities and the value of time, have generally been earnest and successful 
 workers, making up for these drawbacks by greater industry and enter- 
 prise, not only making up, but forging ahead. 
 
 In the German universities students are allowed three to five years to 
 complete their studies, but comparatively few outside of those preparing for 
 professional or official positions study for degrees, constituting only twenty 
 to twenty-five per cent of the whole number. It is estimatad by the uni- 
 versity authorities that not more than thirty-three per cent of those in 
 attendance are real workers. In the great English universities, though 
 the nominal time is four years, few remain more than three. The real 
 workers are estimated at about twenty-five per cent of the whole number. 
 In this country it is asserted that idleness and play increase in proportion 
 to the number and wealth of those in attendance; while in the smaller 
 institutions, patronized largely by those of limited means, the proportion 
 of hard workers is much greater. 
 
 A student without money and who has his way to win in the world, 
 if he has brains and pluck, needs but little coercing or regulating or aid- 
 ing, by either the punishments or rewards usually applied. He is more 
 susceptible to honor than to honors, to the noble inspiration of a useful 
 life that stands before him, beckoning him on. Permit such an one to 
 select studies congenial to his tastes, those suiting his inborn bent, and 
 which he sees will best fit him for that sphere in life to which his apti- 
 tudes point, and he will spontaneously become earnest, quick paced, and 
 alert, with enthusiasm at whice heat — just the state for taking on true 
 culture readily and rapidly. Distasteful or abhorrent tasks, resulting in 
 dawdling, listless, half-hearted endeavors, lifeless routine work, never so 
 long continued, producing only smoldering fires and dull heat at best, 
 never bring true culture. As iron can be welded only at white heat, so 
 only souls aglow with enthusiasm are in a fit condition for best culture. 
 As forests simply sway and moan in wintry winds and wintry sunlight, 
 waiting to be thrilled into new life and growth by the ardent heats of 
 summer, so the mind remains dormant till stirred by the fervors enkin- 
 dled by worthy purposes and congenial work. Enthusiasm sets all the 
 powers in motion, fires the soul with the love of knowledge, awakens 
 spiritual life and high purpose. 
 
 A college residence should have an elevating and refining influence 
 on life and character, enabling one to get a stalwart and many-sided man- 
 
SERMONS. 389 
 
 liness, thus evolving all that is noblest and best. The object of all true 
 culture is to enlarge and invigorate, through a knowledge of the lofty 
 thoughts and actions of men of all times, and through a knowledge of 
 the universe and of the Creator thereof, and thereby awaken both a men- 
 tal and moral earnestness. Colleges should be for the outpouring of 
 strong, courageous lives into all that come under their influence, to the 
 end of awaking all their latent powers under leaders of insight and faith, 
 who seek to produce fruitful lives, create admiration for all that is whole- 
 some and best, give courage to conquer all difficulties, and induce defi- 
 nite aims and the heeding of calls to the service of humanity. A highly 
 effective school, like a highly effective individual, everywhere and every- 
 when, is surcharged with its personality and the force springing from its 
 aims. The work which it has undertaken inspires all having to do 
 therewith, vitalizing the energies of all. It is not simply a machine 
 accomplishing a given task, but adds the more effective force of free work- 
 impelled by enthusiasm. Enthusiasm for the work in hand attracts and 
 generates enthusiasm in others, thus continually augmenting its power. 
 One soul on fire kindles others. Such work, not with a part, but with 
 their whole being and entire strength. The important thing in the 
 schoolroom is not the recitation, but the pervading spiritual atmosphere, 
 the incentive, the inspiration to enlightenment, issuing in uses. This is 
 the important thing. This is what gives lasting results. This is its own 
 great reward. Is a school working for cleverness or for character? This 
 is the significant question. Effort for right noble growth, more than pre- 
 cise routine with figured results, enlisting all the powers of the student, 
 should be the aim; not selfishness, or fear, or emulation, or ambition to 
 shine. The endeavors of the spirit that lead to ideal growth and conse- 
 crated living are above all other undertakings to which the mind of man 
 can bend itself, and should be forever uppermost. Such are ever seeking 
 to climb into higher and perpetually broadening regions of truth and 
 beauty, rising like mountain peaks round about, misty and dim in their 
 infinitudes, and gathering an ever-increasing humility in the presence of 
 these infinitudes in comparison with the little already attained. As is the 
 quality of the bloom and the fragrance of ripened fruit, so is the quality 
 of character ripened under such endeavor. This gives the noblest 
 rewards. The highest dignity springs from the inner approval of efforts 
 to grow in wisdom and spiritual power. 
 
 "So will the shine 
 Of soul that strikes on soul make fair and fine 
 This earthly tenement. Thou shalt extol 
 The inner that the outer lovelier seem." 
 
190 
 
 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 With such a great work before him, the teacher should come to his 
 profession in the spirit of consecration, not as to a mere hvelihood or 
 handicraft. Such cannot stand with their faces turned to the past, copy- 
 ing and repeating the dead past, but standing and acting in the Hving 
 present, with their faces to the future, seeking to see the way God is 
 going and leading humanity, and striving to understand the demand of 
 the times, and of God in reference to the future. He needs, if he is to 
 meet the living demands of his position, to be more than a dictionary, or 
 a characterless and impersonal promulgator of facts, a peddler of data. 
 He needs to bring his students into living relations to present civilization 
 and progress. He should not only have knowledge to enlighten, but, 
 likewise, a noble and winning personal inspiration, be a former and 
 reformer of character. He should be able to set the expanding faculties 
 of youth into healthy activity by careful and sympathetic guidance, lead- 
 ing to the love of all that is most wholesome and best, to all that is true 
 and beautiful and good, and stimulate to an earnest endeavor for their 
 acquisition. He should use planned courses and prescribed rules of 
 procedure, not to cramp and stifle individuality, but to broaden and 
 strengthen it, securing thereby a development that is symmetrical, pro- 
 portional, and harmonious. The world is full of men and women whose 
 narrow and ruling passion is money, or fashion, or notoriety, by whom 
 all the most valuable and sacred possibilities of life are despised or neg- 
 lected, and life itself becomes barren and worthless, both to the possessor 
 and to the world. To counteract this, the interests and purposes of life 
 need to be broadened and elevated to a standpoint where the successes 
 or failures of earthly striving shall be seen as simply the accidental and 
 unimportant, wherein the real self is unaffected, and above which one 
 may stand, free, serene, and sublime. In doing it the teacher needs the 
 true up-gush of the soul, fresh and buoyant, the outright flash of spon- 
 taneous fervor, simplicity, clearness, strength, directness, force, effective- 
 ness, which, like sacred tongues of flame, shall kindle what is best in 
 each. Whoever fulfills this high calling is faithful to one of the most 
 important and sacred trusts coming to man. 
 
 Such has ever been the high aim of this Institution, however far short 
 it may have fallen in the realization. Though often halting, stumbling, 
 groping, yet it has ever striven towards this ideal. Everything here is 
 the result of toil and sacrifice, consecrated with prayer to God and 
 humanity. These buildings had their very foundations laid and conse- 
 crated in prayer; their walls rose through toil and sacrifice. They stand 
 not as a bane, but as a benediction. Its founders and upbuilders lived 
 
SERMONS. 391 
 
 and worked in the inspirations springing from a faith that they were 
 working under divine guidance and with divine help, and we have entered 
 into their labors. They set a light amid these mountain heights to 
 lighten us and all others that shall gather here. Though we live in the 
 present, the past lives and shines in and through us. 
 
 " Heaven does with us as we with torches do, 
 Not light them for themselves ; for if our virtues 
 Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike 
 As we had them not. Spirits are not finely touched 
 But for fine issues." 
 
 Torches lighted at this light are not lighted for themselves alone, 
 but to be borne forth for the lighting of the world. 
 
 Let us, then, carefully and reverently feed this sacred flame, as the 
 high priest fed the golden candlestick in the temple at Jerusalem, with 
 finest oil, that it go not out by night nor by day, as long as man shall 
 need light from its light. 
 
392 
 
 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 THE TRUE EDUCATION 
 
 [Preached at the First Alfred Church, Sabbath morning, November 5, 1892, by 
 the Rev. Dr. T. R. Williams,* and requested for publication.] 
 
 "Buy the truth, and sell it not; al.so wisdom, and instruction, and 
 understanding." Prov. 23:23. 
 
 I have been asked to speak briefly of President Allen's life-work in 
 its relation to the church and the denomination. To do this it will be 
 proper first to give some conception of his ideal of a Christian education. 
 That ideal is indirectly expressed by the words of counsel which he so 
 frequently repeated in one way or another: "Buy the truth, and sell it 
 not." It will serve our purpose now and here to bring together some 
 of his own terse, graphic, and forceful words on this subject, which moved 
 his heart and life in never-to-be-forgotten eloquence. 
 
 First, on the value of knowledge, and how wealth may be transmuted 
 into life: — 
 
 "Home growth, self-culture, mentally, spiritually, religiously, is our 
 great work. Learning, like the gospel, knocks as kindly at the door of 
 the log house as of the mansion. Ministry, service, sacrifice, is the mis- 
 sion of life. Christianity is founded on sacrifice. The cross is not only 
 the light of our hopes, but also the pattern after which life is to be 
 moulded. We are the stewards of divine bounties. Justice is cold. 
 Domestic love and friendship are often partial or selfish. Philanthropy, 
 the love of man as man, is unselfish, impartial, generous, and obeys the 
 broader and higher impulses. Everything that ministers to want, that 
 brings comfort and cheer, whatever secures justice and peace or adds to 
 culture, science, art, religion, goes to the service of life's great end. One 
 may accumulate property at the behests of charity for the relief of the 
 penniless, homeless, friendless, orphaned, widowed, the hungry, the 
 naked, sick — all this is benevolence; but higher is that benevolence 
 which gives enlightenment and culture to the ignorant, reclaims the 
 erring, sends the gospel to the destitute, builds churches, forms schools. 
 Benevolence, kindness, liberality, win the heart-thrones of the world. 
 
 *Dr. Thomas R. Williams, a professor at Alfred in the early days, and afterward 
 for many years at the head of the Theological Department, was always a sympathetic 
 friend of Mr. Allen, and with him ever stood ready to sacrifice all personal interests 
 for the good of the Institution. His last sermon, "The True Education," was made 
 up of extracts from Mr. Allen's written works on that subject. Before bringing for- 
 ward the next one of the series. Dr. Williams, too, was called to lay down life's bur- 
 dens and enter into the " rest that remaineth for the people of God." 
 
SERMONS. 
 
 393 
 
 Charity makes the bleak, selfish world warm and bright, the sweet abode 
 of tenderness and joy. Practical philanthropy is one of the divinest sum- 
 mits of human attainment, lifting the world itself into sunnier regions, 
 where the light is more brilliant, the earth fairer, the air sweet as the 
 breath of heaven. Angels, even God himself, unites with man in min- 
 istries of love. Glorious will be the time, radiant the earth, when each 
 shall be the friend and aid of his fellow, each shall seek the good of all. 
 Earnest laborer in the world's great field, scatter peace and joy till thine 
 own rest comes. 
 
 ''Money Transformed into Cnlturc.—AW labor, all money, that does 
 not rise above the physical, and is not transformed immediately, or 
 mediately, into life, growth, power, is dead dross. 
 
 "The angel of beauty plants flowers, shrubbery, trees, hard by the 
 door of home or school, to shake down beauty upon all passers-b}', all 
 over the fields to gladden the hearts of beholders, all along the walls 
 and fences to hide their deformity, all along by the pleasant water courses 
 to laugh when the brook sings, all around houses and barns to cover 
 their ugliness, singing in the sunshine, laughing in the storm, to console 
 in the hour of sadness, to distill beauty on daily toil, to help educate 
 childhood, awakening a love for purity and peace, for the beautiful, the 
 noble, and the good. 
 
 "An ideal school is a home, not indeed for supplying meats and drinks 
 for the bodies that perish, but a spirit home, where hungering and thirst- 
 ing souls are satisfied, where dormant energies are aroused, stimulated, 
 inspired to noble action, where spiritual growth, strength, harmony, 
 beauty, are the results. An ideal school, like home, is one shut out from 
 the bustle and strife of life, amid rural quietudes, where all its surround- 
 ings are pure, simple, temperate, gentle, congenial, honest, industrious, 
 intelligent, religious,— a community wherein joyous childhood, ardent 
 youth, earnest manhood, silver-locked age, all are inspired by common 
 purpose, upheld by honest, rugged toil, lit up by sincere affection, its 
 quiet hours filled with gladsome pursuits. In future years, scenes and 
 words and deeds, like some old trail through the wood overgrown with 
 bush and wild flowers, are revealed in their dim outlines, bringing back 
 the early lessons of the heart, when apt and noble teachers, though hum- 
 ble, instructed in lessons rude it may be yet the very reminders of which 
 are sacred relics. To memory every such year appears as a continuous 
 summer without a gloom, every night a moonlit and star-eyed one, every 
 cloud rainbow-wreathed. The innocence of childhood bursting into the 
 enthusiasm of youth, is susceptible, impressible, palpitating with gladness. 
 
;94 
 
 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 breathing joy as the rose breathes sweetness, jubilant as are the birds in 
 a morning of spring, thrilled with delight by a token of affection, enrap- 
 tured by every revelation of beauty, ready to be nurtured under the 
 watchcare of gentleness and piety. To such education does not consist 
 in what is learned from books. Fields, woods, streams, light, darkness, 
 storm and sunshine, sky and clouds, all voices, are lessons joyfully 
 received, all instructing to the eager soul. The same is true of life scenes, 
 association, and influences. The lifeful laugh, kind words welling up 
 from the soul, story of hero, saint, or sage, all heart experiences enwrapped 
 with sentiment, all dreams of the future, all worth, are teachers, cherished, 
 loved by the young, touching as they do the inmost chords of the soul. 
 All life becomes a school, thickly crowded with teachers, pointing the 
 way or speaking to the listening ear of the earnest learners, to whom the 
 culture of each to-day is to so live that each to-morrow shall be a truer, 
 nobler, more perfect life. 
 
 "Aspiration ever looks to the beckoning of a higher life, with over- 
 flowing eye, flushed cheek, quivering lip; and in older years as we climb 
 the hills of life and look out from the summit of the last experience, other 
 hills of aspiration are seen, their heads hid in the blue of the distant and 
 the unknown. Still dreaming of the beyond and the untried, we long to 
 go out with the clouds that float in the horizon, to these and grander 
 experiences. As we climb the heights of a truer, nobler life, diviner 
 prospects unfold before the ever-enlarging vision, and willing footsteps 
 lead on to the unattained. Not what we are, but what we are going to 
 be — the splendid possibilities— is what leads on. The mind's lawful 
 inheritance is constant development toward perfection, and how nobly 
 beautiful is that youth who, compelled by the soul's longing for culture, 
 consecrates himself, with all life and power, to knowledge, virtue, perfec- 
 tion, resolving earnestly to attain his high ideal ! The purpose to become 
 educated nerves to patient, persistent endeavor, lifts to a higher plane of 
 living. The chiefest desire of the soul is to get knowledge, to do good, 
 to love and glorify God. Youth needs a culture that awakens noble 
 emotions, nerves the will to high purposes, and thrills the inmost spirit 
 with religious aspirations, causing it to shake its dusty robes and live an 
 earnest, self-denying, devout life. In order to do this there must be a 
 hungering and thirsting after knowledge, enabling one to conquer suc- 
 cess. The young need a culture that shall likewise awaken that enthu- 
 siasm and inspiration that will break away from the spider webs of rou- 
 tine and the hoUowness of formality, and go with unfaltering assurance 
 and unselfish consecration to the work of life. 
 
SERMONS. 395 
 
 " Culture transmuted into life is the mainspring, the acting force, the 
 controlling influence in custom, law, society, government. Lives strug- 
 gling upon small beginnings to high stations and commanding influences, 
 or living nobly and grandly in obscure life, greatly good in an humble 
 work, become spiritual lights shining down through the world's vistas as 
 ever-burning lamps to guide human feet. Humanity needs the inspira- 
 tion of lives that attract to virtue and goodness, to pure and noble 
 experiences — not lives that tell only or mostly of outward circumstances, 
 accidental distinctions, the pomp and splendor of office and station, the 
 outward finish and polish of fashion and show — these are not the lives 
 demanded by humanity, but rather lives that unfold the inner workings 
 of minds, the processes of thought, the influences of emotions and sen- 
 timents, the force of holy and lofty aims. Such lives transmit to us of 
 their own powers, enkindling in our own natures aspirations after like 
 excellencies. They awaken impulses to pattern after their virtues, their 
 nobleness and devotion to truth and goodness, softening, expanding the 
 heart with benevolence, starting desires for progress, touching chords 
 that vibrate to the harmonies of universal brotherhood. 
 
 "All education of the young should strive to awaken aspirations for 
 living lives devoted to seeking truth. The influence of such a life upon 
 other natures is 
 
 ' Like that wild harp whose magic tone 
 Is wakened by the wind alone.' 
 
 "They thrill responsive to its slightest touch. It is only when the 
 soul speaks to soul, eye to eye, smile to smile, tear to tear, that this 
 power comes in its fullness." 
 
 We have thus far repeated a few paragraphs from our departed Pres- 
 ident Allen, relati\-e to the transcendent value of education in general. 
 We will hear him speak of the church as a world educator: — 
 
 "The church is the great supernatural and spiritually organized life- 
 power of humanity, the embodiment of the religious life of humanity. 
 Its principles permeate all relations and conditions of life. It is the mis- 
 sion of the church, with the Bible for her charter and light, to infuse and 
 develop the religion of Christ in the world — to awaken and develop the 
 religious principle, in all philosophies, all arts, all sciences, all politics, all 
 activities, — to give thus a Christian civilization to the world. 
 
 "The worth of the spirit is incomparably greater than treasures of the 
 world. Spiritual beauty outrivals all the beauty of landscape, of morning 
 and evening, of changing seasons and star-eyed night. The grandeur of 
 soul surpasses the grandeur of mountain and cataract and ocean. The 
 
396 LIFE OF TRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 sublimity of divine revealings of spiritual truths transcends the teachings 
 of rock or star. All of this worth and beauty and grandeur and sub- 
 limity cluster around the church. 
 
 "Viewed in this light, religious education is important, essential, the 
 business of life. The religious is the most central, the highest principle 
 of our being. It gives nobility and power to all of the other faculties. 
 It must guide and control and inspire all perfect education. Thus the 
 relation existing between religion and learning is most intimate and 
 important. Religious sentiment unenlightened is blind, superstitious, 
 bigoted; knowledge, without the religious element, is a servile slave, 
 working as readily in the ranks of sin as of holiness. Education, without 
 being deeply religious, is education unto death; there is no neutral 
 ground. Life or death will ever be mingled in the fountain from which 
 our spirits drink. The great central light in this culture is the Bible. 
 The religious basis is the only true foundation on which to build institu- 
 tions of learning, and their chief corner-stone is the Bible. It is the duty 
 of the church to rear systems and institutions of learning on such a basis. 
 Man soon outgrows the systems which he has constructed for himself. 
 He is ever longing for something beyond his present grasp. Worldly 
 possessions turn to bitterness, and the spirit looks away to the infinite 
 and eternal for satisfaction. 
 
 "The religion of the Bible comes forward to renovate the world. It 
 commences with the individual, growing from the heart outward. It 
 works humbly and carefully with the feeble in intellect, and is found suf- 
 ficient to tax the spirits of mightiest grasp. 
 
 " Modern civilization is a development, an outgrowth of Christianity. 
 Christianity touches upon every field of science and every subject of 
 learning. The very idea of giving the Bible to man to read is the key 
 that unlocks all knowledge and produces schools and learning. The 
 school becomes thus at once an offspring of the church and one of her 
 most efficient agents in the civilization of man. Each reformatory move- 
 ment is a great smelting furnace, purifying truth from dross, after which 
 it is inwrought into the great systems of practical truth. Truth is pure, 
 bright, penetrating. It purifies, enlightens, elevates. It gi\es progress. 
 
 "The divine life -power of the gospel has given a new and more pro- 
 gressive spirit to the world. More light seems to be the spontaneous cry 
 of millions just awakening to a consciousness of their destiny. There is 
 an earnestness, a universality, in the longing and striving after a better 
 condition, never before experienced. 
 
 "The church comes a ])ositive and constructive power. Christ went 
 
SERMONS. 397 
 
 about doing good, healing, strengthening, persuading, building up, estab- 
 lishing righteousness, and organizing a kingdom not of this world. The 
 heralds of the cross have ever gone forth with the implements of build- 
 ing; they have made encroachments upon the citadel of darkness, leveling 
 to the ground many of its strongest towers, but only as they were pre- 
 pared to usher in the kingdom of light. 
 
 " Man is wandering amid doubts and darkness. The waves of eternity 
 are ever washing the sands of time from under his feet. He wants some- 
 thing real, something positive, to which he can cling with the assurance 
 of support and safety. This is found in its richness and fullness in the 
 religion of Jesus. There are greater conquests yet to be made in the 
 domain of thought than were ever made by Alexander or Napoleon in 
 the domain of empire. In gaining these conquests and preserving their 
 supremacy the times future are to achieve more than the times past, how- 
 ever brilliant those achievements. Education will have more efficient 
 agents, more ample means for diffusing her blessings. Reform will battle 
 more effectually the massive and adamantine forms of error. 
 
 "The church with her schools will have to stand in the high places of 
 the earth as well as in the low. It must teach not only by ' Greenland's 
 icy mountains' and 'India's coral strands,' but also on Mars' Hill, in 
 academic groves, and college halls. Chairs of learning must be conse- 
 crated to her service; the pen of the writer, the eloquence of the speaker, 
 must be baptized from on high. The farmer, the merchant, the mechanic, 
 the day laborer, need a Christianized education that they may reason 
 understandingly of temperance, righteousness, liberty, and a judgment to 
 come. Above all, and as a crown and glory to all, deep and ardent piety, 
 a rich religious culture, is needed. The young and buoyant need religion 
 to lift above all low impulses, and fire with lofty aims, to kindle a burning 
 zeal for the good of humanity, to impart a moral courage that cannot be 
 frowned down, a spirit not content to move in the smooth, gentle current 
 of public favor, but an aggressive spirit, that will leap the bounds of pub- 
 lic opinion and take a bold stand for truth and right, and maintain that 
 stand fearless of consequences— not only maintain but build up, advance, 
 all noble interests and institutions. Such are the laborers needed, and 
 such their training." 
 
 Again, speaking of the importance of education for the ministry, 
 President Allen says: — 
 
 "The ministry, with its high privileges and large duties, needs to rise 
 above all mere specialties, all mere party or sect training, and, linking 
 itself with all events and peoples, full of all human sympathies and divine 
 
398 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 sentiments, thus to flash new thoughts and truths along the pathway of 
 humanity, awakening nobler sentiments, and inspiring to higher and holier 
 action. It should be felt as a positive and controlling power in the world's 
 progress and destiny. It should rather guide than be guided, lead than 
 be led, in all great progressive and beneficent movements. It should 
 show that it feels the pulsations of the great heart of humanity. In 
 short, it must be the friend and support of religion, as it unfolds in litera- 
 ture, science, art, education, industry, law, politics, government, as they 
 reach down in their influence to the humblest member of the great human 
 brotherhood. 
 
 "As a people it is especially our mission to do all within our power to 
 prepare such men, such teachers. Herein is a great and exalted work- 
 We of to-day sometimes think if it were only ours to have lived in those 
 times when property and life were the forfeitures for discipleship of Jesus, 
 we too would have joyfully given the spoiling of our goods, the offering 
 of our lives; but how do we comport ourselves when called upon to sac- 
 rifice — not to violence and wrong, but for the sake of a positive good, for 
 the upbuilding of truth and religion? Blessed that age or people which 
 has given it some great truth to establish, some great question to solve. 
 Such a work develops very rapidly the latent powers of the workers. 
 Piety, knowledge, wealth, have scope for their most industrious applica- 
 tion here — no place for lights under a bushel, for talents buried in the 
 earth. A people working under the inspiration of such a mission are an 
 irresistible power for good. Let us then give ourselves to the culture of 
 spiritual nobility — deep, earnest piety, truth-loving, self-sacrificing sin- 
 cerity, a world-subduing faith. One of the noblest uses of wealth is the 
 transmuting it into spiritual growth. All needing heirs to inherit worthily 
 their property can adopt the children of the denomination, and provide 
 for their spiritual growth through all coming ages. No monument to the 
 memory of son or daughter could equal such a monument. Those who 
 have power through wealth — for wealth when rightly applied is power 
 — can exert untold power here, can open to the needy perennial fountains 
 of good. Permit us, then, in conclusion, to appeal to all such to give 
 freely, nobly, to this great work." 
 
I^IST^ OF" 
 
 SUBJECTS 2r PAPERS WRITTEN ^1 PRESIDENT ALLEN 
 
 PUBLISHED IN "SABBATH RECORDER," 
 
 The Awakening July 27, 1.S54 
 
 Washington August 10, 1S54 
 
 Mount Vernon September 14, 1854 
 
 Educational November 16, 1854 
 
 Autumn November 23, 1854 
 
 Progress in General December 14, 1854 
 
 The Training for the Times December 28, 1854 
 
 The Church; Her Relations and Responsibilities January 11. 1855 
 
 Receiving Christ February i. 1855 
 
 The Church and the School February 15, 1855 
 
 The Church and the School. Historic March i, 1855 
 
 The Church and the School, Historic March, 1855 
 
 The Church and the School March, 1855 
 
 European Colleges and Universities March 29, 1855 
 
 American Colleges April 26, 1855 
 
 Humanity May 24, 1855 
 
 Education — Disciplinary August 2, 1855 
 
 College Location August 23, 1855 
 
 Truth and Error December 13, 1855 
 
 Education — Physical January 3, 1856 
 
 The Scholar and Society January 31, 1856 
 
 The Scholar and Society February 21, 1856 
 
 Education — Denominational March 20, 1856 
 
 Spiritual Dignity April 17, 1856 
 
 Are We Able? May 8, 1856 
 
 Laborers Needed May 22, 1856 
 
 Church and School June 5, 1856 
 
 Education — Religious June 12, 1856 
 
 Girard College for Orphans July 17, 1856 
 
 Muzzle Not the Ox September 11, 1856 
 
 Annual Meeting New York State Agricultural Society February 26. 1S57 
 
 Culture of Spiritual Greatness March 5, 1S57 
 
 :'(. ( 401 I 
 
402 ' LIFE OF PRESIDKNT ALLEN. 
 
 Our Charitable Institutions March 17, 1857 
 
 Alfred University April 12, 1857 
 
 The Tribune vs. Colleges May 7, 1857 
 
 Reply to S. S. G. and Verdant January 26, i860 
 
 Spirit Not Matter March i. i860 
 
 Matter and Materialism April 5, i860 
 
 Materialism— Historic April 12, i860 
 
 Sadduceeism April 26, i860 
 
 Class Immortality May 10, i860 
 
 The Life-Power of the Gospel August 16. 1S60 
 
 God as Creator April 25, 1861 
 
 Nature of Creation May 9, 1861 
 
 Prescience and Predestination May 30, 1861 
 
 Notes by the Way— Washington and Bull Rim August 29, 1861 
 
 Humanity February 6, 1861 
 
 The President's Levee July 3. 1S62 
 
 Civilization July i7, 1862 
 
 Republican Liberty July 24, 1862 
 
 Experiences September 3. 1863 
 
 The Church, Its Nature and Mission January 7, 1864 
 
 The Church, Its Nature and Mission January 14, 1864 
 
 The Church, Its Nature and Mission January 21, 1864 
 
 The Church, Its Nature and Mission January 28, 1864 
 
 The Church, Its Nature and Mission February 4, 1864 
 
 Theological Culture February 2, 1865 
 
 Theological Culture February 9, 1865 
 
 Spiritualism and Materialism February 9, 1S65 
 
 Death of President Kenyon May 18, 1S65 
 
 Communion July 27, 1865 
 
 Communion August 3. 1S65 
 
 Educational Society's Report October 19. 1865 
 
 Subjects of papers published in Alfred Student : — 
 
 The Noachian Deluge February, 1874 
 
 The Noachian Deluge March, 1874 
 
 The Noachian Deluge April, 1874 
 
 State Supervision of Schools May, 1874 
 
 Caroline B. Maxson Stillman June, 1874 
 
 Advise to Literary Aspirants June, 1874 
 
 Forcythe Wilson July, 1874 
 
 Theological Department July, 1874 
 
 Learning and Religion October, 1874 
 
 Effective Culture October, 1874 
 
 State Aid to Institutions November, 1874 
 
 Culture and Civilization November, 1874 
 
 College Secret Societies December, 1874 
 
 Death of Hon. Gerrit Smith January, 1875 
 
 Life's Mission January, 1875 
 
 Colleges, Few or Many February, 1S75 
 
 Callings— Preparation March, 1875 
 
PAPERS WRITTEN 15V PRESIDENT ALLI'-N 
 
 403 
 
 Life's Experiences. 
 
 National Prosperity. 
 Melissa B. Kenyon.. 
 
 The Franklin Lyceum 
 
 Power 
 
 Ornamentation 
 
 Divine Providence in Human Progress. 
 
 .January, 
 .January, 
 
 Civilization. 
 
 Our Smaller Colleges. 
 
 1875 
 1875 
 1875 
 1S76 
 1876 
 
 [S76 
 1876 
 1876 
 1876 
 1876 
 
 1876 
 1876 
 1876 
 1877 
 1877 
 1877 
 
 May, 1875 
 
 , . . . May, 1875 
 
 Cypriote Antiquities _ > ^^^^ 
 
 Fragments October 187^ 
 
 TheAi„,ofSUKlen.Ufe ZZZ^S^.Z 
 
 Kenyon Memorial Hall 
 
 -' , ^ , November, 
 
 Parent and Teacher December, 
 
 Truth Seeking • December, 
 
 Fiat Lux „ , 
 
 . r ITT February. 
 
 Education for Women March 
 
 Aims and Ideas :;;;::;;:;;;March! 1876 
 
 S^t^"'t>°" ZZrZZ" April, 
 
 May, 
 
 , , , . . May, 
 
 Successful Living ^^^ 
 
 June, 
 
 ^....''^".....'... July. 1^76 
 
 '" ' July, 1876 
 
 .,. j^, , November, 
 
 Mixed Schools. December, 
 
 Liberty and Publicity December, 
 
 Lives; Their Influence 
 
 Elizabeth Barrett Browning 
 
 Power, Place, Purpose ::::::::::::::'::::::::::: February 
 
 February, 1877 
 
 March, 1877 
 
 Giving and Receiving ^p^.^^ ^^___ 
 
 S"ff^^s^ ;;; Apni, 1877 
 
 Biography ••••• ;• ^ g 
 
 The Earth the Schoolhouse of Humanity JJJ^y- ^ /^ 
 
 Mind and Race ;:";;:;;;;:zzzz.z.'.june; 1877 
 
 " July, 1877 
 
 God in All, or Pantheism ZZZctoS ^877 
 
 Educating the Will , „ 
 
 ^ *,. ,T 1 T-.^ii November, 187/ 
 
 Mrs. Caroline Healy Dall T.„nc>rv iS7S 
 
 college, of .heS.a..^ - ZZZ'^Z^. Z 
 
 Culture, General and Specific ^^^^^ ^^^^ 
 
 Success...^... "■■■■■;^'l..May' 1878 
 
 Margaret Fuller 
 
 Homeric Characters 
 
 Love One Another 
 
 The Study of History 
 
 Culture and Reform .... December, 1878 
 
 College Rowdyism February, 1879 
 
 Manners.....^....^ ^Z.^Z^ May, 1879 
 
 Painting m Words 
 
 Report.s a.s .secretary of Educational Society, a.s published in Confer- 
 ence Minutes: — 
 History and Organization— First Annual Report ^' 5 
 
 Origin of the Modern College. 
 Pessimism and Optimism 
 
 June, 187S 
 
 July, 1878 
 
 ...October, 1878 
 .November, 1878 
 
404 
 
 LIFE OF PRESIDENT ALLEN. 
 
 Obtaining Charter, and Appointment of Wm. C. Kenyon as President of the 
 
 University— Second Annual Report i^57 
 
 In Memory of Mrs. Ellen Goodrich Ford; Burning of South Hall; History of 
 
 Learning and Religion— Third Annual Report 1858 
 
 Importance of a Theological Department— Fourth Annual Report 1859 
 
 Denominational Positions— Fifth Annual Report i860 
 
 Civilization, Its Chief Institutions and Power— Seventh Annual Report 1862 
 
 The Church, Its Nature and Mission— Eighth Annual Report 1863 
 
 Theological Culture— Ninth Annual Report 1864 
 
 Home and Parent— Tenth Annual Report 1865 
 
 Wealth Transmuted into Life— Eleventh Annual Report 1866 
 
 Life and Labors of President Wm. C. Kenyon— Twelfth Annual Report 1867 
 
 Denominational Education— Fifteenth Annual Report 1S70 
 
 Our Mission, What Is It?— Sixteenth Annual Report 1871 
 
ii^i^ssiigi!: 
 
YD OOQ^S 
 
 W25520 
 
 
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