■-/u ^'^'£^ o CO mm. O LIBRARY University of California. U-.-^^^^^-^.^!^ GIFT OF Class OJT ADDRESSES ON THE OCCASION OF THE INAUGURATION WlLLIA/H G. BaLLANTINE AS PRESIDENT OF OBERLIN COLLEGE dULY 1,1891, Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/addressesonoccasOOoberrich ADDRESSES ON THE OCCASION OP THE INAUGURATION OF WILLIAM GAY BALLANTINE AS PRESIDENT or OBERLIN COLLEGE JULY 1, 1891 u _^^x^ -^^ \ CONTENTS PAGE PRESENTATION OF THE COLLEGE SEAL, Ex-Pres. James H. Fairchild, 5 INAUGURAL ADDRESS, President William G. Ballantine, .... 9 ADDRESS OF R. A. MILLIKAN. '91 20 ADDRESS OF REV. DAN F. BRADLEY, '82, 24 ADDRESS OF MRS. MARTHA C. KINCAID, '65, 26 ADDRESS OF REV. B. A. IMES, '81. . . . '. 29 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR H. C. KING, '79 33 ADDRESS OF AMZI LORENZO BARBER, '67, 40 ADDRESS OF HON. JOHN SHERMAN, . 45 1 591 42 OFTHE UNIVERSITY OF ^iLIFORN^bs PRESENTATION OF THE COLLEGE SEAL PRESIDENT JAMES H. FAIRCHILD My Brother, Wm. G. B ai^lantine : It is my pleasant duty, this morning, at the introduction of these exercises, by the authority of the Trustees of Oberlin College, to make the form- al announcement of your election to the presidency of the college, and to transfer to your keeping the appropriate sym- bols of authority and responsibility. The responsibilities of this position fall upon you by the unanimous action of the Trustees, and with the hearty approval of all who share in the college work. This unanimous and hearty choice is based upon the assurance that in yourself, the Christian scholar, and teacher, and man of affairs, we find embodied the essential qualities of the standard-bearer who shall lead us on to the ac- complishment of the work to which God in his providence calls us. To this work you were born and trained, and in it you have already passed a probation of many years. The college is to be congratulated that such a man was at call, in the hour of its need. We are permitted to reckon it among the many evidences of the gracious Providence which has shaped its history. I am permitted also to congratulate you, my brother, upon the work to which you are called, the op- portunity which opens to you. The field which lies before you speaks for itself ; no words of mine can heighten your ap- prehension of it. Yet you feel that it utterly transcends your estimate. You do not need to look forward to some future day for opportunities of service. Every day will bring its opportunities, and the only relief from the apprehension of a service inadequate to the occasion you will find in the divine promise, "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." I con- gratulate you upon such relief available to every anxious ser- vant of the Master. I congratulate you further upon the fact that you will find chosen helpers on every side, ready to co- operate with you in the great work. An efficient and earnest board of trustees will gather about you, men of wide experi- ence in their various callings, and of profound interest in the work of Christian education which the college represents, a large proportion of them educated here, and coming back, from time to time, with the interest with which children return to the home of their youth. The unanimous and hearty call extended to you by this board, the source of all authority in the college, is a pledge of earnest support in your administration of the trust committed to you. Their confi- dence and co-operation will not fail you. You will find yourself surrounded by an efficient and harmonious and self- denying faculty, untiring in their efforts to make our common work a full success They will not assume that you have been elected to bear all the responsibility, or that every duty which has not been specifically assigned devolves naturally upon you. They will accept with all cheerfulness and fidelity their share of the common burden, and will rally about you, not as critics but as helpers in the common administra- tion. This has been the attitude of the Oberlin faculty for the generation past; so it will be for the generation to come. I congratulate you farther upon the kindly regard and loyalty of the thousands of students who shall gather here during the coming years. Such earnest and loyal hearts have been the reliance and the support of those upon whom the burden has rested in the years that are past ; they will con- tinue to accept their share of responsibility for the good order and the good name of the college. If in some hour of youth- ful excitement any should prove forgetful — and children are sometimes forgetful, even under the roof that shelters them — you may still appeal to their sense of responsibility andrh^ner, and in the end they will not disappoint your confidence. In such a body of well-disposed and responsive young people the college has found its beauty and strength. The chief attractiveness of your position and your work will lie in the reasonableness and co-operation of this college community. I congratulate you too upon the support you will find in the larger community which surrounds the college. No educational institution was ever more favored in the consid- erateness and helpfulness of the community in the midst of which it was placed. No line of separation divides between the college and the town, but citizens and studen-ts and faculty work together in the interests of good order, and in the pro- motion of every good work. Upon this pattern the fathers built, and thus the colony and the college have grown, and thus they stand to-day. This pleasant relationship will lift from your shoulders many a burden, and relieve your heart of many an anxiety. Still other helpers will respond to your call, friends and benefactors of the college, from the east and the west, who have been blessed as stewards of the L^ord with more than ordi- nary means, and with most generous hearts. Such friends have arisen in every emergency, and it is by their provision that the college stands to-day with the buildings and other equip- ments in which our hearts rejoice. They will not fail you in the coming years. Under all these favoring conditions you enter upon your work, and on these conditions I am per- mitted to congratulate you. You will pardon a personal reflection . Twenty-five years ago I stood where you stand to-day, and received from the venerable Father Keep the symbols of the office upon which you now enter. The outlook then brought some misgiving and apprehension ; to-day brings to me quiet and rest and a cheerful retrospect. I congratulate you upon the expectation that when your thirty years of service are filled out, you will find the work upon which you now enter a good one to retire from. With these congratulations I transfer to you the seal and charter of the college, and we invoke upon you the bless- ing of God before whom our fathers walked. ' 'The Lord bless thee and keep thee ; the Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. " INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT WILLIAM G. BALLANTINE Mr. President, Brethren and Friends: To receive from yoii by the hands of him whom we all venerate for his wisdom, reverence for his virtues, and love for the greatness of his heart, this sacred trust, fills me with conflicting emo- tions, which you will not expect me to put into words. For more than half a century the tears, the prayers, the gifts and the labors of pious men and women have been freely given to build up here an institution for Christ and for His church. The future of that institution is to be largely affected by what we do to-day. A man can receive nothing except it be given him from above. I should not dare to accept this high responsibility, but that the manner in which you offer it convmces me that it is the will of God whose I am and whom I serve. But so believing, I do accept it with deepest joy as a privilege far beyond any ambition I ever cherished; and relying upon divine help, I pledge to you my utmost endeavors and the full devotion of my heart. You, on your part, by the solemn ceremonies of this hour, will be bound to bear with my weaknesses in charity, and to give to the college in the future, as in the past, that loyal and efficient support without which all my efforts will be in vain. May He, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy, 10 graciously smile upon our united labors, and use them for the upbuilding of his kingdom. THE AMERICAN COLLEGE In the educational vocabulary of America, the word "college" is the one word of magic for the popular imagina- tion. School, institute, academy, seminary and university are honored names, but the college has a charm all its own. It differs from the others, not in degree but in kind. To it attaches "the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome," It gathers into itself the most diverse elements, and yet in undeniable unity. The gravity of learning and the ebullience of fun, manhood's strength and boyhood's ardor, eloquence and nonsense, friendship, romance, patriot- ism, heroism and religion — of such stuff a college is made. And the college relation is permanent. To be a Harvard man, or a Yale marf, or an Oberlin man, is to have formed life-long connections in a fellowship of noble minds. The famous class of 1829 i^ Harvard College has been so for- tunate as to have in Oliver Wendell Holmes a poet interpreter, able every year to put into a new song the inexhaustible suggestions of a class reunion ; but those songs speak the common sentiments of the hundreds of classes in our hund- reds of colleges. It is simply what we all feel in meeting on the old campus to talk of — ** The shining days when life was new, And all was bright with morning dew, The lusty days of long ago, When you were Bill and I was Joe." Still the times force us to ask, Has the American college any basis in the constitution and needs of man, and in the facts of his environment, or is it an accidental, provincial and temporary product of the evolution of education in this country? Is there at the basis of it any single conception, upon which numbers of thinking people can permanently unite — a conception simple enough for harmonious embodi- 11 ment and fruitful enough for perpetual growth? Is there any way of determining what a college ought to have and ought to attempt, any standard open to inspection and veri- fication by which we may ascertain how far a college is accomplishing its function? These are serious questions. The American college is unique. In Germany, the most learned land, there are no colleges. There youths are kept in what we should call academies until they are overgrown boys, and then they are sent to the universities when they are still undeveloped men. Many of our young professors who have finished their educations in Germany come home largely in sympathy with this system. Between the pressure for a high standard for entrance to college, pressure for promiscuous election among studies in college, and pressure for shortening of years devoted to college, will anything be left of the old institution, and will not the education of the future be better reached through other agencies, leaving, the college, like the Grecian trireme, only a picturesque remi^ niscence ? We think not. We do not think that the university will displace the college. They have wholly distinct fields. They differ as the square and the circle. The college stands for liberal culture; the university stands for special learning. The college, while fitting men for the university and sending them to the university, will remain, paradoxical as it may sound to say it, supreme and ultimate — the alma maler of the man — the most interesting, the most influential, the most loved of all institutions. For in the conception of a liberal education which the college embodies, we find just that sim^ plicity, dignity, universality and fruitfulness which will insure respect, permanence, harmony and growth. The presence of the college in America and its absence in Germany are not accidental, but may be accounted for by the fundamental ideas of the two civilizations. . Antiquity fixed its eye upon the tribe or state, and sought nothing for the individual but a useful function. Germany still feels the influence of this. America, first of the nations, recognized 12 the dignity and value, the rights and responsibilities of the individual. Our ideal is not the citizen, but the man — a child of God, made in the image of God, admirable only when he can say, "O God, I think thy thoughts after thee!" And so we have placed first the institution which educates man as man. The human being enters the world most helpless of animals, but with infinite capacity for development. Left to himself, he remains a stupid savage; educated, he may become a Garfield or a Gladstone. Manifestly there is a place for an institution which, taking him while still in the plasticity of boyhood, shall during the years of transition to the fixity of manhood, call forth every one of his powers into right exercise upon its proper object before attention is con- centrated on the narrow field of a special occupation. And this institution is the college. An American college is the embodiment of the means to a liberal education. In the notion of a liberal education we find the standard of what is essential to a college. Incident- ally the college may offer a share in its advantages to many who are not seeking liberal culture, but all of its arrange- ments should be primarily for the ideal youth, the young Garfield or the young Gladstone who seeks spherical develop- ment. Everything that belongs to complete human char- acter must be embraced in a college, for the college monop- olizes the youth at his formative period, and what it fails to do will probably be forever left undone. If a single power is left undeveloped, cramped, atrophied, the man fails of perfect manhood. Whatever is revealed by an analysis of man's nature and environment, must be met by adequate provision in the college. No definition of a college less inclusive than this can be defended; no grander can be framed. The college must attempt all, or it forfeits the right to attempt anything. The practical value of our definition is at once apparent when we advance to details. Man has body and soul, consequently the college must provide for physical training. The gym- 13 nasium and athletic field are not mere attachments_to a college, but an integral part. Modern psychology dwells upon the intimate union of soul and body, and justifies the place which the Greeks, the inventors of civilization, gave to gymnastics. The tremendous enthusiasm for athletics which characterizes these recent years, beneath all its gambling and extravagancies, rests on profound convic- tions, and indicates a permanent advance of the American people. Our colleges have for generations held up the models of Greek eloquence, history and poetry for imitation; they are now beginning to set up the Greek statues, not merely for the aesthetic pleasure of contemplating them, but as ideals of real bodily attainmcxit by American youth. It is a right ambition in our boys not only to speak like Apollo, but to have also the form and presence of Apollo. The soul is the nobler part of man, and to its culture most of the time of education must be given. Of its three faculties — intellect, sensibility and will — each must receive equal care. The assumption that a college has only, or at least predominantly, to do with the intellect, though wide- spread, is wholly unfounded. Looking at the complexity of man and the complexity of his relations, no justification can be found for the claim that he should devote the four best years of youth to a one-sided development simply of the in- tellect. Art culture has not yet its proper recognition among us as an indispensable part of liberal culture. Since the day that the morning stars sang together, music has be^n an essential accompaniment of existence. To appreciate it de- mands far more than technical preparation; it demands a noble soul. Technical skill in art, when the pure emotions are untrained, can only be turned to the service of sensuality. It was the capital blunder of Puritanism to deny the rights of man's aesthetic nature, In a world of beauty — a world where every grain of sand is a crystal and every dewdrop a glittering jewel; a world of flowers and stars, of leaping cata- racts and snowy summits, where the gorgeousness of day perpetually alternates with the magnificence of night; a world 14 where the Madonna and the Christ-child are but types of womanly and infantine grace which every man worships in some living embodiments, — in this world Puritanism resolved to shut its eyes to the value of beauty. The descendants of the Puritans have not yet fully escaped from that blindness. The imperial part of man is his will. This is the citadel of his being. The education of the will — the complete sub- jugation of it to conscience — is therefore the supreme concern of the college. It is the most difficult part, but the most necessary part of the work. A college should be above all a place of piety; for conscience cannot grow refined in an at- mosphere of levity, but only in an atmosphere of prayer. All agree that a college must train the intellect, and some attempt little beyond. This part of the work is everywhere in the foreground. The other disciplines, whether more or less important, are grouped around this as a framework, and by it students are classified. Let us apply our definition of a liberal education in answer to the question. What studies should enter into the college course. A liberal education, we have seen, opens the view toward all thirty-two points of the compass. It renders the soul intelligent in respect to its whole environment. It must deal with the constitution and laws of matter and of mind, with the structure of the earth and of the stars, with the inorganic and the organic king- doms, with the nature of man and of God, with the individ- ual and society, with the past and the present, with language and literature, which are the vehicle of thought interchange. Attention, memory, judgment, and all the intellectual powers, must be trained to act in all these spheres, and such a beginning must be made in knowledge of essential facts and fundamental principles as shall enable the mind to deal with whatever materials for thought life may bring. Nothing must be omitted. Sphericity is the specific mark of a liberal education. It is a fallacy to assume that disci- pline in a few departments will qualify for thought in untried fields. It never will be possible to make a man so profound a theologian that he will be able to form an intelligent 15 judgment of Darwinism, or so skillful a comparative anato- mist that he will be a competent critic of the first chapter of Genesis. An unexpected light here falls upon the vexed question of elective studies. It may be wise for a college to allow wide liberty in the choice of studies, since a large per- centage of mankind must, for various reasons, accept an education somewhat less than liberal. But our ideal youth must be informed that he cannot omit athletics, or mathe- matics, or chemistry, or physics, or botany, or zoology, or geology, or astronomy, or languages, or rhetoric, or logic, or psychology, or social and political science, or history, or ethics, or theology, or music, or art. His range of electives must be within very narrow limits. If a single main subject is omitted, the sphere is incomplete and the education defec- tive. Individual taste can claim little regard when generic symmetry is sought. College training, with this vast array of subjects, differs from university training in that it nowhere aims to be ex- haustive; but seeks only so much of detail as may be neces- sary to the mastery of fundamental principles. Yet it can- not afford to be superficial. The work of a college must be as genuine as that of a university. It must have the same flavor of modesty and reality. While necessarily it must aim to impart information regarding what is known, and thus cannot escape being somewhat didactic, it must, above all things, inculcate the methods and spirit of original search for truth. The true college professor does not assume omni- science, but as an older investigator simply explains, illus- trates and justifies the processes of discovery, and exhibits the present state of knowledge in his field. Fruitful origi- nal work will be expected from under-graduates, throughout their course, under any right system. The objection is obvious that what we are saying amounts to a claim that universal knowledge is necessary to a liberal education, and that the brevity of life and the vast- ness of art have been overlooked. But a fundamental know- ledge in most of these departments is already gained by 16 many. Although new branches of science are constantly born, and the buried past of Assyria, Egypt and Greece is rising from the dust, and thus both the cradle and the grave are being robbed to furnish new electives, our improvments in methods of education outstrip in growth the empire of knowledge, just as our railroads enable President Harrison to-day to traverse the Union of forty-four states with a speed and comfort that Washington and Jefferson never realized within the meager area of the original thirteen. Man is a social animal. Before creation was complete, the principle was asserted that it is not good that man should be alone. Society consists of men and women. It never can be lifted above its conceptions of the normal relations of men and women. In Africa woman is man's slave; in Turkey she is his plaything; in America she is, theoretically at least, his companion. "The woman's cause is man's; they rise or sink Together dwarfed or godlike, bond or free." Only together can — *' He gain in sweetness and in moral height, Nor lose the wrestling thews Ihat throw the world; She mental breadth, nor fail in childward care. Nor lose the childlike in the larger mind; Till at last she set herself to man, Like perfect music unto noble words." A liberal education will therefore be co-education. Who can believe that it is the final achievement of educational science to gather young men to room in great barrack-like dormitories and to feed by themselves in vast halls, however splendid in architecture, and to study the universe apart from those who are to be their companions in dealing with the problems of the universe? A barrack life will have a bar- rack-room flavor. A world of one sex is as bad as a world of one color — a dull, wearisome, unwholesome, monstrous world; a world in whose morbid atmosphere rank growths spring up like weeds. How to understand and appreciate and treat the other sex, is too large a part of life to be omit- ted from the golden four years of college. A liberal education must be the education of a freeman. 17 It must emphasize the rights and still more the duties of each man as a citizen. A trained habit of intelligent inter- est in national affairs, in the workings of government in co- temporary politics and in all matters of public concern, even down to the council and constables of the college town, is essential. A sense of personal responsibility must be evoked. The old notion that students were more than others free from obligations to law and in possession of a special fran- chise for disorder, noise and petty depredations, was treason to the very purpose of their schooling. Nothing is so illib- eral as lawbreaking. Sin is always slavery. Contempt for the established rules of society is barbarism. The wickedly absurd doctrine of college honor which teaches that a student owes his first duty, not to the institu- tion whose bounty he enjoys, not to the instructors, also, who, with parental affection, labor for his success, not to the friendly community around him, but to some scapegrace whose irregularities frustrate hope and blot the fair fame of the college, and that this duty is rather to conceal than to correct wrong, has no place in a liberal education. Education will be no preparation for real life unless young men from their hearts begin to practice in college the same principles which rule good citizens outside. In training for civic duty in a free republic the old- fashioned debating society, closely modelled upon Congress and our state legislatures, is an invaluable contrivance now too generally fallen into neglect. Secret societies of course must be excluded from our ideal college, for secrecy has no legitimate place in wholesome civil life. Good works need no concealment ; evil practices should not be allowed to enjoy its shield. Nature, which everywhere presents unity and variety, has made no exception of the human race. We say "the human race^^^ but also with equal propriety "the races of men. " Where prejudice struggles for provincial sameness, our Creator has provided for cosmopolitan diversity. Not many have been so liberalized by their education that they cordially 18 fraternize with all the world, and can say with the grand Roman: ^^Honio sum: humaiii nihil a me alienum piitoy Race prejudice is soul narrowness. It belittles the world and the Maker of the world. Education should lift one up to that high plane upon which the noblest of every race meet in mutual recognition, and rejoice in the variety of types as an enrichment of civilization. The liberality of world-wide sympathy will be best secured in a cosmopolitan institution, where men and women of many lands and races meet in sufficient numbers to require the practical exercise of this high magnanimity. Freedom entered this world first in the person of Jesus Christ. Unless the Son makes us free, we are the bond slaves of Satan. There can be no liberal education of one who in heart is slave. An Edgar A. Poe may be exquisitely sensitive to the music of verse, delicately skillful in word painting, but selfish, shameless, drunken, he was not liber- ally educated. In God we live and move and have our being. To study the universe without knowing him who is immanent in it, to study man without knowing the one perfect man, to read history without the divine key to the philosophy of history, is to waste effort. The college of liberal arts must be saturated with religion. 'J'he student's conversion should stand first in the solicitude of his teachers. For how shall he who loves darkness rather than light seek 'truth ? The proposition to leave religion out of a liberal educa- tion is more monstrous than would be the proposition to leave out natural science. It is assumed by many nowadays that a great school or a great teacher should have no avowed con- victions. All sides should be presented with equal candor and equal indifference, and the student left to choose. But this is to educate the student to regard indifference as mature and wise. The object of education is to train in practical life, which includes always investigation, decision and action. A learned man without courage in confession, decision in action, and enthusiasm in defence of truth is utterly unfit for a teacher of youth, for he misrepresents the very purpose of 19 education. He is not educated who does not have it wrought into him that always the knowledge of truth, or even the pre- ponderance of evidence, brings immediate obligation to decide and to act. In this fair college town of Oberlin we have a preparatory- school, a college, and in theology, music, and at last in philosophy, genuine university work. Bach of these great departments is essential in our educational scheme, and each is regarded with pardonable pride. All see the importance of cherishing both the academy and the university. But the college is the center. It is here that the Oberlin man and the Oberlin woman pai^ excellence are disciplined for life. Our survey of what a college should be, based upon an exhaustive analysis of man's nature and environment, leads to the gratifying recognition of the fact that partly the wisdom of our predecessors, but much more largely the extraordinary favors of divine Providence, have supplied already here in remarkable degree every essential condition of liberal educa- tion. With religious reverence we receive this precious trust, not to revolutionize it, but assiduously to labor that every part'of the grand work may be brought nearer to perfection. Our ideal is a sublime one, but for that very reason it enlists the services of all our energies. It is the hope of Oberlin College to send forth each year a band of young men and women in physical strength and beauty, initiated into every department of thought, familiar with the laws and history of matter and of mind, acquainted with the greatest men and the best literature of all time, trained in the pursuit and love of truth, in sympathy with the whole human race, socially genial, politically free, morally sensitive, courageously firm in duty, alive to beauty, responsive to music, loyal to God, — in a word, liberally educated. In this purpose the col- lege finds the justification of its existence and the law of its growth. ADDRESS OF R. A. MILLIKAN REPRESENTATIVE OF THE STUDENTS To-day, on such an occasion as has not been seen for two and a half decades, such an occasion as, please God, may not be seen for two and a half more, my feeble voice mast first speak the ringing welcome of seventeen hundred students to their new president. And I am proud to represent the students. For five years I have been a student, and although we received our degrees yesterday, I am glad to appear to-day as still a student. It is true, and the students realize the fact, that upon them de- pends, in a very large degree, the prosperity of their institu- tution. The enthusiasm, or lack of it, which they show, the reports, favorable or unfavorable, which they scatter broad- cast over every state and every territory in the Union, are the one great advertising agency, the one great potent power to bless or blight. But whether I take my place to-day as a student or an alumnus, or as a kind of connecting link between the two — a sort of pollywog which has got his legs but hasn't lost his tail, and is somewhat loath to part with what has meant so much to him — I know that I have been long enough with the students to feel as the students feel; and I know that any words which I may utter of hope for, or attachment to, or confidence in their college and their president, will be but a feeble echo of the hope and confidence and love which the great body of students cherish. Two years ago, when that grand old man, who was nearer 21 and dearer to the student heart than it seemed that any other could be, tendered his resignation of office, there were none who heard it with deeper sorrow than did we students; and during the year and a half which intervened between that time and the choice of a new executive, there were none who waited with deeper solicitude or watched with keener interest to catch the first glimpse of him whom God had provided to be the leader of Oberlin's onward march, than did we stu- dents. And when He who sees not as man sees, said, in His Providence, I have not chosen this one or that, but pointed out as the David who was to be the leader of this chosen col- lege, a man from our own faculty, a man whom every student in the institution knew as a profound scholar, a brilliant writer, a practical, able and tried executive, and above all a Christian gentleman, it was we — not the trustees, not the alumni, not the faculty — who raised ringing, heartfelt cheers for William Gay Ballantine, president of the new Oberlin. This was not simply because we had confidence in the wisdom and judgment of those who made the selection — the trustees and faculty — but because we knew and trusted in the man. And those thunders of applause, such as the old chapel never heard, which broke from the lips of fifteen hundred students on the first evening when President Ballantine took his seat in his new capacity, shall be a perpetual guarantee to him of the enthusiastic support of the great body of students in his every effort to further the interests of the college and to widen its sphereof usefulness. The hopes and the expectations ot the students for their college are indeed great. We believe that as an institution we stand upon the threshold of a new era; that the new ad- ministration has possibilities before it which its predecessors never saw ; and in the name of all the students I congratulate you. President Ballantine, upon the greatness of opportunity and of responsibility which the Almighty Ruler has put upon the man who is to lead Oberlin College across the boundary of the twentieth century. But I am not here simply to con- gratulate you. I am here to assure you that the students are 22 eager to co-operate with you, eager to follow you as Napo- leon's soldiers followed him, because they believe in you as a man qualified by your education, your abilities and by your Christian faith to lead in the great changes which are taking place, and which we believe are to continue to take place in our chosen institution. We have rejoiced as we have watched with intense interest the changes of the last five years. We have rejoiced at the broadening of the courses of study, at the increased requirements of candidates for degrees, at the growth of the scientific department, at the infusion of new and vigorous blood from other institutions; and now as young men we rejoice that a young man, with the best years and best energies of life before him, is called to direct these changes. We have no idle regrets to offer because Oberlin is changing. We live in different times and under other cir- cumstances than did those true men, the Oberlin pioneers, and the men who took upon their shoulders the burdens they laid down. We would imitate them in all that made them great, in their sincerity; but we cannot, if we would, imitate them in all their ways and methods. The methods of the past are not the methods of the present: "New occasions teach new duties, Time makes ancient good uncouih; He must upward still and onward, Who would keep abreast of truth." If we, in the different days we live in and the different paths we follow are but as earnest, as sincere men as they were, if our actions square as well with our convictions as theirs did, we shall be their worthy imitators, and as worthy as are they of the honor and the reverence of the generations which follow after. Under the new administration we look for a still further enlargement of endowment, broadening of the courses of study, increase of attendance and for university facilities; but with all this change which we rejoice in, we hope and pray and believe that the time will never come when Oberlin shall fail to teach that character, Christian character, is the prime requisite for usefulness in life and the prime end of education. - TIE 23 And so, President Bailantine, as their privileged representa- tive, I extend to you the enthusiastic welcome of seventeen, hundred student hearts to this honor and to this responsibility. We shall pray continually that God may bless you in your great work; that he may bless the faculty, who are to stay your hands; that he may provide true, noble men to fill the chairs which are continually being added, and when such great- souled men as he who resigns this year, he who has made himself loved by every student in the institution, and who, along with the political sciences, has taught us more of pure and true benevolence than books can ever teach, — when such men take their shoulders from the wheel, we pray that He may provide as true, as noble and as able men to fill their vacant chairs. And may your whole administration be pros- pered with the prosperity which is of Him — not of the world. And as this great institution whose helmsman you are hence- forth to be starts out again upon its beneficent voyage, the great chorus of student voices rings out after it: " Sail on. nor fear to breast the sea, Our hearts, our hopes are all with thee; Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears. Our faith, triumphant o'er our fears, Are all with thee, are all with thee." ADDRESS OF REV. DAN F. BRADLEY REPRESENTATIVE OF THE COLLEGE ALUMNI * My only justification for speaking, at this time and under these circumstances, is that I have learned here in Oberlin to obey orders whenever these men command. And yet what alumus would not be glad to stand here, and speak his gratitude and his love for alma mater? It is with a profound sense of gratitude that we return to Oberlin, and note the pro- gress made here in the years that have passed since we went forth. We note progress everywhere; in the campus, and in the buildings. It is a better glee club, and a better musical union than we used to have. This college yell, developed in its bilateral and radial symmetry, existed in rudimentary form only, in our day ; and the Commencement Annual of crude make-up has become a beautiful volume. There is progress everywhere, not to say anything of base-ball, which might involve me in the sphere of apologetics. The alumnus is impressed with the fact that there are four great schools here: a school of music that has no superior in the land; a school of divinity, where graduates stand equal to any; a preparatory school inferior to none; and the college, center and chief of all. In all these departments there has been vast progress, and the alumnus is grateful that this progress has come so naturally; that the changes of administration have come without revolution, and, above all, the mantle of Elijah has fallen upon Elisha, and yet the fiery chariots have not come. May they long be delayed. There is a significance here that is reassuring. The old Oberlin still lives and will live, and 25 the inaugural address we have heard assures us that the -eld is to be perpetuated in the new. Some man has said that he would rather be President of Oberlin College than President of the United States. Surely he who is to occupy the seat of Fairchild, Finney and Mahan may well be proud of the honor. I congratulate you, sir, that this is to be your privilege. May God bless you, and bless Oberlin College. * Hon. T. B Burton, representative of the College Alumni, was pre- vented by sickness from appearing, and Mr. Bradley's remarks were extempore. ADDRESS OF MRS. MARTHA C. KINCAID REPRESENTATIVE OF THE COLLEGE ALUMNyt. Dear Friends : After seven years of absence I come back to Oberlin to-day with thankfulness and pleasure. In the changes which have come through your new and beauti- ful buildings, I rejoice. Seeing is believing. I find myself feeling much as the queen of Sheba did at the court of king Solomon. ' 'And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land. Howbeit, I believed not the words until I came, and mineeyes had seen : and behold the half was not told me." It is because I believe in Oberlin that I rejoice to speak to-day for the twelve hundred women who have gone out as alumnae from this place. Dear Oberlin, we are your loyal, loving daughters. We love you, not simply with the old child love, because you are our mother, but because, with our older eyes, we still see in you that which we can respect and follow. With all these added charms which age has brought, we do not want our mother to change too much. We are glad to-day she has this pretty gown of grass and foliage, and these beautiful buildings — the pearls sent by loving hands — but we want her to be the same brave mother still. In all the shifting, puzzling questions of our modern life we trust Oberlin to speak, as of old, with no uncertain sound. Is it right ? Will God be honored ? Will it be for the good of all ? We trust her as of old, to take her stand on the impreg- nable rock of the Holy Scriptures. We trust her to Teach the word of God. Not what it is not, but what it is, and what it says. Positive truths, surface truths. We are ' 'children groping in the night, children crying for the light. " Nothing but this word let down from above will help us. Oh Oberlin, honor the word, and give as of old its message to the world ! We trust more than all else that the young people coming here may find the same old atmosphere of consecration and devotion. God first, not in word only but in fact, in the hearts of this people. They will need of Oberlin nothing so much as this to emphasize the Christian training they have already received, or to lift them above the clouds of doubt or worldliness which have encircled them. We trust Oberlin may never build too many dormitories, to make it other than a home for its students; that the time may never come when the students, the college and the town are less one in heart, and work, and aim, than now. We trust Oberlin will never change its old time care of its girls and boys. We would not have Oberlin grow more lynx-eyed, and hedge in the students with exact, circum- stantial and irritating rules. We trust, however, that Oberlin will keep to its old ways, and remember that law is useful, that we never grow too old to be under restraint, or to have our time, our habits or our life guarded with the loving "Thou shalt not." We trust Oberlin' s faculty still to fit its courses of study for drawing out, not for cramming; for making culture the stepping stone, not the aim; and above all for training its students for active useful service in the world. After all, however, we the alumnae feel that Oberlin is Oberlin, has been Oberlin, and will be Oberlin, not because of its theories and aims simply, but because of its men. Because it has had President Mahan, President Finney, Pres- ident Fairchild, and will have President Ballantine. The first of these I knew only through my father but; mother and he were engaged in the president's front parlor, so my 28 sources of information are not so remote after all. Who could have been better fitted than President Mahan, by his clear, keen reasonings, to gather about the young college in the woods the early students — young men of age, experience, thought and consecration? May Oberlin never lose the stamp left by these, its earliest men. God sent us President Finney, a man of the century. How much we then admired him. How much we now love him. Panoplied by the Holy Spirit, swaying the multitudes by his logic, bringing thousands to the Saviour; punctilious in his dress, a gentleman in his bearing, beautifully ripening in his old age before our eyes, and dying among us, his grave is with us unto this day. Thank God for President Finney. Days of upheaval and unrest which always follow a great civil war, were coming on. We needed a clear head, a balanced judgment and a wise heart, and President Fairchild was here. Dear President Fairchild, we the alumni, the sons and daughters of Oberlin, love you. You have steadied us, guided us, helped us in these years. Your words are in our hearts, your face looks down from our walls, and your spirit, we trust, will more and more dominate our lives. If in the faintest manner our lives may influence others, as yours has influenced ours, we are content. When word came through the morning papers, to our various homes, that you. President Ballantine, were chosen our leader, our hearts said, surely God is still in the counsels of his people. We trust you and welcome you, as a comrade beloved. We are ready to trust even our beloved Oberlin in your hands, sure that, as in you lies, you will keep it, the Oberlin of our love. That while it grows and expands, it will still be true to its early aims, and will still be Oberlin, not Harvard, or Columbia, or Cornell, or Yale, or Smith, or Wellesley, or Vassar, but simply Oberlin. ADDRESS OF REV. B. A. IMES REPRESENTATIVE OF THE THEOLOGICAL ALUMNI When "Cincinnati Hall" was reared up like a tabernacle in the wilderness, it was remarkable for two things — the commonness of its architecture, and the uncommonness of its inhabitants — that first class in the Oberlin Theological Semi- nary. I need not dwell upon the reason for their coming hither. A peculiar spell was upon their minds. Indeed the times were calling for men, such as Paul exhorts Timothy to seek out — "The things which thou hast heard and learned of me, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. ' ' Again he says, * 'hold fast the form of sound words." Bringing the two ideas together, we have for our theme — "Faithful Men and Sound Words." The call and choice of the first President of Oberlin Col- lege was no doubt guided and inspired by the same spirit that had aroused the consciences, and poured light into the souls of the Lane Seminary students. To do her best for such pupils, the names of Asa Mahan and John Morgan must grace the roll of Oberlin's leading instructors; the former ?s Presi- dent. The evangelist Finney must become Professor of Theology, the action of the trustees, in reference to him, having been decided, against many misgivings, in favor of a high moral principle, and in the fear of God, rather than of man. Oberlin in that crisis was unconsciously laying deep and well a foundation which is ever the open secret of her power for good. A child attempted — not in vain — a giant's task. 30 There is something wonderful in that eargerness of rea- soning — that devoutness of praying, whereby the teacher and the student sought out the deep and most vital things of the word of God "That which the Holy Ghost teacheth, com- paring spiritual things with spiritual." We need not pity them now, that speaking and acting out their strong con- victions they brought down scorn and even malice upon their devoted heads. We rather call them faithful men. They were deeply moved to utter sound words. Their only fault — we should rather say their great virtue — was the earnest effort to bring the truth of God fully and faithfully to the consciences of men. As to doctrine, such men are not afraid of creeds, nor yet, having clearer light, a revision of creeds. With them a re- statement of truth would not "pass over to recantation of the essential of faith. In the end, the highest test of any doctrine must be its fruits, when it has had full opportunity for ap- plication to human life and conduct. Judging them also by the outcome of their lives and teachings, how, in the later years, we have with great praises endorsed even the most radical words and deeds of the fathers. With a less uncom- promising spirit, could they have been the strong men they were? Making their differences — their strong personalities — the subject of united prayer, what a blending it was of the radical and the conservative ! On the whole, the churches in general had but feeble influence over the great moral questions of the times. The Nation itself was writhing in the deadly grasp of the slave power ; and when we think of these things, how can we ex- aggerate the high and solemn mission of Oberlin at the first ? Is the case different to-day ? Some great questions have been settled. But is the duty, the mission of the present less serious and urgent ? It seems to me that the conflict is only more subtle in its nature, and rises to more spiritual light. The "principalities and powers," "the spiritual wickedness in high places," are certainly none the less bold and per- sistent. 31 ^ Look at the masses of organized labor, led mainly by atheistic men ! Look at avarice and low ambition, threaten- ing to block the wheels of all reform movements, and religion itself in imminent danger of being emasculated — paralyzed by a general assault upon belief in the supernatural. It would seem that the popular man is one who sneers at all positive religious belief. Surely it is a time for the putting forth of sound words. The chief instructor in a col- lege never had a higher task, nor greater opportunity. His e^^ery utterance goes abroard. The public press is many- tongued, and myriad-winged. Amid all this the anxious question with us out in the wide field is not what is to be the theme of the next new novel which shall meddle with theology. We care not so much what turn the higher criticism may take, but how shall the best culture of mind be brought to the service of Christ, and the Holy Oracles still more clearly be made to appear as com- ing indeed from God. Let new light break forth ! There can be no true light but that which is by the Holy Spirit, and from Him who lighteth every man that cometli into the world. In this faith the foundations here were well laid, and to- day the place whereon we stand is holy ground. No flame of fire in a bush has been seen, but the Divine voice has verily been heard in the heart. Oberlin theology has been the dominating influence, giving unceasing energy and zest to all other working forces here. Indeed, this whole community has been the Theological Seminary. What could have been more impressive than the eager inquiry of President Mahan and his co-laborers after the holiest life, and the richest possibilities of Christian experi- ence as their daily ideal ? His successor put intense empha- sis upon the power of prayer, and the personal agency of the Holy Spirit. Still later the call for a "Revival of Righteous- ness," as essential to the maintenance of all that is vital and valuable in religion, was not less timely and significant. A noted skeptic says: " The churches of to-day speak, for 32 the most part, in an apologetic tone. They apologize and explain away what a former generation asserted dogmat- ically. The age is one of material splendor and intellectual achievement, but of spiritual emptiness. The people are easy-going. They wish to enjoy even religion with a kind of sensuous enjoyment, whereas for conviction of truth we must struggle, and the conflict must go on, and the moral indolence of the present day be suppressed. ' ' If these be the sentiments of an agnostic, what is then the fitting utterance of the teacher of Holy Writ, one whose im- press is to mould the men who shall come through college, and in time attempt the work of Gospel ministry ? We are here, Mr. President, to express the highest hopes that the choice of a new standard-bearer has been Divinely controlled, and that the seed hitherto sown shall in the future bring forth a still more abundan t and gracious fruitage. We expect that true progress will be made without dig- ging up or removing the old and well proved landmarks — those principles and doctrines which are always vital to faith, and which if once true are true forever. It is a privilege to be here to-day, to express our gratitude for the sympathy and the help which we, as students, received in former years. May the blessing of God rest upon those who, growing old in service, are here to-day. Moses presented to the people his own successor ; and we may enter into sym- pathy with his own feelings when he said, *'L<et the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congre- gation who shall go in and out before them. ' ' And may it be ours to say, as we give our confidence and sympathy to the new President, as he shall enter into the duties and trials of his high office, ' ' The spirit of Elijah doth rest upon Blisha. ' ' ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR H. C. KING REPRESENTATIVE OF THE FACULTY It is made my great pleasure to-day, Mr. President, on behalf of your colleagues of the Faculty, to bring you a word of congratulation, of well-wishing and of allegiance. I congratulate you, sir, that you have been called to the head of a growing college; that for you there is open to-day the fountain of perpetual youth. You are not brought into a graveyard to look about on tombstones, with their inscrip- tion — "Think on dying," but you are brought into connec- tion with a college so ' ' rammed with life, ' ' to use a phrase of lyowell's, so crowded with youthful vigor, that its vitality is contagious, and you cannot grow old. You are not called to be the crown of a fossil, however beautiful, but the head of a living organism, albeit at times its growth may seem too rapid for its garments, and its arms project too far through its sleeves. I congratulate you, sir, that you are called to the presi- dency of a college that stands for something. The " Oberlin idea" may be very intangible, very difficult to formulate, but still less, after your address to-day, shall we think it with- out content. I congratulate you that you are to stand at the head of an institution which has definite ideals, aims and principles of its own, which is not striving to be a second anything else, but stands for something. I congratulate you that you are placed to-day at the head of a college in which you believe; in whose aims and work and God-given mission you profoundly believe. No diviner 34 privilege is granted to any man than to spend his life in a work, to which, unreservedly and with joy, he may give every throb of heart and every pulse of brain. And this divinest privilege is granted to-day to you. I congratulate you from my heart. And I congratulate you, Mr. President, that you are called to the head of a democratic college — a college that stands, not only against the aristocracy of color, the aristocracy of sex, the aristocracy of wealth, the aristocracy of cliques, and the aristocracy of mere intellectual brilliancy, but a college in which the faculty are open to the students, and, what is perhaps more remarkable, the students open to the faculty; a college in which the trustees, even, are not dictators, seeking to checkmate the faculty, but hold that curious idea of their office that leads them definitely to record their intention not to interfere in internal management, and who in time, and thought, and labor are co-workers with the faculty for the promotion of the college they love. I con- gratulate you, sir, that in consequence of their democratic policy, the faculty themselves had a part in your election — for in this very fact you have an assurance of allegiance stronger than any that to-day can formally be given you. And I congratulate you, unfeignedly, that because of this same democratic policy you yourself are called to be, not dictator but president. It will happen that you can act less arbitrarily; but the wise man seeks not arbitrariness but wisdom. It may easily happen at times that affairs will be less smoothly running — a republic often shows more disturb- ance than an absolute monarchy — but the disturbances will be those of healthful life. This policy, Mr. President, like the blessed state of matrimony, will enable you to divide your burdens and multiply your successes; for it makes it possible for you to lay under glad tribute the best powers of every man in your faculty; and every man, sure that he will be allowed to count for all that there is in him, becomes bound to the college by ties that it will take a very strong call to break. 35 I congratulate you that you are called to the head of a col- lege in which you are free to stand practically where all educators stand theoretically^br character; that you are free to use all the means that shall tend most certainly to that one end — character. And I congratulate you, moreover, that standing thus both theoretically and practically for character, you are free not to ignore the experience of the past, not to suppose that the Christian centuries have taught us nothing, but upon the clear scientific basis of long re- peated and varied experiment, to plant character, not apolo- getically, but confessedly, avowedly, aggressively, unhesitat- ingly, on a religious and a Christian foundation. And I congratulate you, further, that while free thus to stand aggressively for the great verities — for character, for Christy for the church — you are yet utterly untrammeled by church' lines and creeds. You sign no formula, you will never nee(^ to consult any catechism to discover the fitness of any candi- date. You follow men large enough to believe more in the working of the Eternal Spirit through the ages and in every age, than in the theological omniscience of any man or body of men in any age. You have one charge only, only one apos- tolic succession to secure: " The same commit thou to faithful men. ' ' The test will be a closer one than that of any creed^ and it will be living, growing. I am able thus to congratulate you, Mr. President, that you have been called to the head of a college whose greatest glory is the character of its students and alumni ; concerning; whose alumni the world itself is disappointed if it do not find them working in their every community for the building up of the kingdom of God among men. Great is your heritage. . And speaking now, not for the faculty but of them, I may be allowed for a moment to congratiilate you that others have seen in your faculty men so different in temperament, in training and in measures, that if uniqueness be, according to lyOtze, the condition of immortality, they are quite certain of immortality, at least in part; a faculty different enough, seem- ingly, to insure that the college wagon shall not run in ruts. 36 — that is itself not so much a wagon as a road-scraper, seem- ing to allow no possibility of ruts. I congratulate you on the promise of a clear road. I congratulate you that the faculty care less for consistency — that ' ' bug-bear of little minds" — than for progress; and yet, that differing as they may and do often as to means, you may know their agree- ment as to the great aims, and that there is made possible, therefore, a harmony that is the more real because not a mechanical uniformity. Upon a genuine harmony of think- ing and differing men, you are to be congratulated ; from a uniformity that comes from the domination of two or three, may you be delivered. And if, perchance, some ungracious friend should whisper in your ear, Mr. President, that according to the old adage — young men for war, old men for counsel — you are likely to have more war than counsel on your hands, I may only suggest, sir, that you are not an old man yourself, and that, moreover, these young men are every year growing older, and that some of them, perhaps, are ^pretty old for their age, and that in any case, it happens with college instructors as with many other spirited animals, that if you get what you want, you must " catch them young." It is certainly fitting, Mr. President, that I should con- gratulate you, after your inaugural address to-day, that you stand for a college so broadly representative of the greatest and widest interests. But most of all, Mr. President, I con- gratulate you that you have been called to the head of a college in whose history the providence of God is plainly to be seen, and of whose mission, and message, and future you may, therefore, feel assured. This blessing and this trust you share with all your fellow workers. And I congratulate you, finally, that it is yours to be the fourth in the line of Mahan, and Finney, and Fairchild; and thus I may pass to our first wish for you. If in Hegelian for- mula I may make Finney the thesis, and Fairchild the antithesis, may it be yours to be the synthesis, Finney, the fearless fighter, the zealous, single-eyed, the religious prophet and seer — representing the Prophets of the old Covenant. Fairchild, the thoughtful, the 37 philosophic, the symmetrical — standing for the normal, for the wholesome, for benevolence, for the revival of righteous- ness, for life — representing the Wisdom of the Old Covenant; may it be yours to unite Mahan, the I^aw, Finney, the Prophets, and Fairchild, the Wisdom of the Old Covenant, and make the transition to the New. May it be yours to preside over a college, every one of whose students and faculty is absolutely loyal to the truth, and in earnest to seek it, and for this very reason is impatient of trifling and quibbling and indifference, and lack of convic- tion, and has become capable of mighty convictions, of mighty surrenders, of mighty endeavors; a college whose religion is not aesthetic nor ascetic, but the life that is life indeed, and which therefore, recognizes, not vaguely, that man has three natures, but recognizes the three fully in their God-given relations and mutual dependence, and that believes that what God has thus joined together man puts asunder at his own great loss and peril ; and that, remember- ing that the body is foundation and condition and medium, meets its every student with the challenge of Rabbi Ben Ezra: Thy body at its best. How far can that protect thy soul on its lone way? And in the attainment of these high ends, already clearly indicated by you, I may pledge to you our knightly oath of allegiance, department by department. I pledge you a department of mathematics, keen as the edge of sarcasm, and as unerring as love; that in its inner sanctuary of the purely mathematical, allows the sacrilegious tread of no despairing empiricivSm that does not know whether parallel lines may not meet in another world; but that, because it may here claim absoluteness, in humble modesty crosses itself and confesses that in the realm of life — the realm always of the only probable — it may not dictate. I pledge you a department of natural science that shall observe, record, experiment, generalize, classify, and draw inductions with the painstaking exactness of the great biogra- pher of earth worms; but that shall not forget that man is 38 not a mere registering and classifying animal; that remem- bers that underneath all science there must lie a metaphysics quite other than the shallow empiricism of the unthinking mind ; that knows that human nature is a part of nature, and that the ideal has its claims, and will not suffer the atrophy of the best in man; that recognizes that science has its seven riddles, insolvable by science, and its three great gulfs im- passable by science. I pledge you a departmentof history that shall be impar- tial, accurate, painstaking in research and induction, and careful in the limitation of its conclusions; but that will not mock a unity seeking mind with mere bundles of labelled facts, without unity, without interpretation, without thought, without evolving plan, without end; that, with Bunsen, sees God in history, and, with Augustine and Edwards, recog- nizes an end great enough to justify the cost of centuries. I pledge you a department of political science that shall not be more skeptical and pessimistic tham Hume, or the founder of ' ' dismal science ' ' himself; that will not assume selfishness as its one guiding star; but, willing to blink no hardest fact, still believes in the possibility of the application of the ethics of Christ to every social problem, and with patient, assiduous study and toil, seeks to evoke personal de- votion to this test of the twentieth century. I pledge you departments of language and literature that shall maintain, in the face of a sense-following, pleasure-lov- ing and utilitarian demand, the justification by thought of the minute study of thought's own instrument and embodi- ment, and the eternal fitness of the study of the eternally beautiful. I pledge you departments of music and art that justify themselves in their response to God-given instincts, and are not merely technical, but educational, because conscious of their own aims, appeals and principles, and are handmaids to all the ideal in man, because anticipating and sharing with religion, philosophy and love, the concrete embodying of the ideal in the real. And I pledge you a department of philosophy, clear that 39 it wants only the truth, and therefore fearless and^"opHn-- minded ; that bases itself on facts of science and psychology, and proceeds from them in firm belief in its own laws; that welcomes the investigation of every phenomenon of the knee- jerk, but believes with Wundt, that mind is more than any physiology can show; that knows, with Tyndall, that if we could follow every motion of every molecule of the brain, there would still remain a chasm between the physical and the psychical " intellectually impassable ;" that with Lotze, finds the mechanical no less mysterious than the spiritual, and believes that it knows mind even better than matter; that believes, with Simon, that that which paralyzes thought cannot be true for thought; that will not crucify to a narrow system a wider life; that, while trusting reason unhesitatingly, on the same grounds in all reason recognizes the legitimacy of the whole nature, believing that no single, logical princi- ple may formulate personality, and that a philosophy or theory of life which dries the fountains of emotion, paralyzes thought and withers will at its inception, has no claim to urge at the bar of reason. May it be yours, then, Mr. President, to preside over a college whose members, while grappling the deepest problems of thought "apply Christian principles in an earnest spirit to current evils;" where the largest force is personality; where men count more than things, albeit they are very costly things; where the aim is not the turning out of finished products, but the sending forth of growing men and women, less loyal to their teachers than to the spirit they have seen imperfectly shown in them. And in this high service, Mr. President, my friend and my brother, it is my great pleasure to give you my hand in pledge of the allegiance of all your colleagues in the Faculty, — and there are few ties more close than those which bind the members of this Faculty. Each one of us would be your Jonathan, strengthening your hand in God ; and to this high service, into which we are divinely called, may Almighty God, whose you are and whom you serve, whose we are and whom we serve, make us able. ADDRESS OF AMZI LORENZO BARBER. REPRESENTATIVE OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES. Mr. President: I deem myself happy to speak on this memorable occasion in behalf of the Board of Trustees, al- though I accepted the part with reluctance because others deserved the honor and would have rendered better service. When, twenty-four years ago, I stood upon this platform to receive my diploma, the office of a Trustee of Oberlin College appeared to my boyish fancy as a very high and exalted one; ranking almost with that of a United States Senator. The Trustees of that early time were very wise and powerful men, of large physical and mental stature. ' ' They were giants in those days." Time has in a measure rectified the vision and given a truer perspective; but I am sure that some halo will ever attach to the forms in which memory weaves the faces of those who then sat in dignified array on this very platform. Alas! but few of them are living, and only two of the sur- vivors are now members of the Board. Of these two, one was elected in 1845, ^^^ ^^^ rendered 46 years of continuous service. He is now absent in Europe. The other, elected in 1866, today delivered the Charter and Seal of the College to his successor in the office of the Presidency. God grant that his last days may be his best days, and that his life may long be spared to be for us at once a pattern and a benediction. The Trustees of today are modest men, and it will be neither fitting nor necessary to speak of their virtues. And yet I cannot refrain from referring to one who is also in Europe, although his heart is with us today, and of whom I 41 think we will all agree it is not inappropriate to say that by his munificent gifts to the College and by his faithful personal attention to its affairs, he deserves to be distinguished at once as the Model Trustee and the Model Alumnus, Responsibility begets conservatism, and so it is quite safe to say that the Trustees of Oberlin College will be conserva- tive. This, put into plainer English, means that the Trustees will make safe and profitable investments of the funds of the College; they will adhere to the customs and traditions of the past, and allow of changes only when they are clearly wise and best; they will act as a balance wheel to keep all parts of the complicated machinery of the College Department in steady and uniform motion for obtaining the highest ef- ficiency and best results. Last, and by no means least, when recommendations come from the Faculty asking for additional instructors and appliances, you maybe sure the Trustees will act discreetly, and unanimously refer the matter to a com- mittee for further consideration. What will come of it there- after, I will not now undertake to say. I fear that too often the matter may be put into some convenient pigeon-hole. But the Trustees will do more than this; they will act ag- gressively. They will, both individually and as a body, do all in their power to promote the interests of the College and to provide needed funds for the purpose. But, is it fair to expect the Trustees (and now I speak for the rest and not for myself) to "work for nothing and board themselves;" to pay their own traveling expenses, amounting in some cases to $50.00 or 1 1 00. 00 for every session attended; to give their time, and then, in addition to all this, to provide the funds for the uses of the College as well ? I ask these questions not in any spirit of complaint (for there is not the slightest occasion) but to set out clearly what the function of the Trustees is, and to remind ourselves that, after all is said, Oberlin College is not the College of the Trustees; it is not the College of the Faculty-; it is not merely the College of Undergraduates. In its fullest and largest sense it is and must always be the College of the Alumni 42 and of all who receive instruction within its doors. Primarily from its Alumni and students, and indirectly through them, must every College receive its principal gifts and bequests. Omitting the present year, Oberlin has graduated 2,537, of whom 2,160 are still living. The number of students registered in the last catalogue exceeds 1,700, of whom there were 1,300 in actual attendance at one time. The number in the College proper is between 400 and 500, and has in- creased in 10 years by more than 130 per cent. The Faculty has kept pace, and now numbers over 70 against 47 but 5 years ago, the regular Professors having increased from 18 to 26. The College now offers 109 courses in all, of a term each (most of which are 4 or 5 hour courses) of classical college work, in 17 departments of study. The student has 4,713 hours (not counting labratory work) of elective work from which to elect 1,098. The elective courses have increased from 7 to 90 since 1883. These are striking figures, and show how wonderful has been the growth during the past few years. Turning to the financial condition and requirements of the institution, we find that the general endowment is less than half a million, besides trust funds for scholarships and special uses amounting to about $200,000.00. For the year 1890, the total receipts from all sources except the Conserva- tory of Music were nearly $82,000.00 and the total expendi- tures were about $81,000.00. The receipts from the Con- servatory were $35,000.00 and the expenditures about $29,000.00. These figures may seem large to those who have given little or no thought to the requirements of modern institu- tions. Harvard, Yale and Cornell have each many millions of endowment, and some of them receive in single years gifts and bequests amounting to more than double the entire gen- eral endowment of Oberlin. Yale alone, in 1890, received over $1,000,000, one-half of which, however, came from the Feyerweather estate. In a recent article Prof King has stated that Oberlin "could today wisely place $1,000,000 without making a single needless expenditure. ' ' Now, if Feyerweather 43 had given $500,000 to Oberlin for the endowment fund, the Trustees would have been compelled to invest it, and at 5 per cent per annum it would produce only $25,000 yearly. This sum divided by 2,000, the number of living Oberlin Alumni, is only $12.50. In other words, if the Oberlin Alumni should each send to Oberlin a sum equal only to the tuition of a single term, the College would at once realize as much as it could obtain from a year's income on $500,000. The potency of a multitude of small sums is well understood by financiers. Last year Yale graduates residing in New York began a movement to secure regular contributions yearly by Yale Alumni. The scheme has proven highly suc- cessful; so that President Dwight, in his last Annual Report, devotes more space in commendation of it than he gives to the half million received from Feyerweather's estate. The founders of Oberlin College adopted the Oberlin Covenant, the first principle of which read as follows: "We will hold and manage our estates personally, but pledge as perfect a community of interest as though we held a com- munity of property." This pledge on the part of later generations at least, has been honored more in the breach than in the observance; but surely the Alumni of Oberlin will not permit the Alumni of Yale to surpass them in loyalty to and in remembrance of their Alma Mater. In 1780 the population of the United States was 3,000,000; during the first quarter of a century it doubled and became 6,000,000; during the second quarter it doubled again and became 12,000,000; during the third quarter it doubled again and became 25,000,000, and during the fourth quarter it doubled the 25,000,000 and became 50,000,000. We are now galloping through the fifth quarter, and the po- pulation at the end of it will fall not far short of 100,000,000. That is to say, the fifth single period of 25 years will witness as large a growth as the previous 100 years had done. Nor is this all. The population of Great Britain is over 30,000,000. Its area is only 100,000 square miles, or about 44 300 to the square mile. Our own area is over 3,000,000 square miles, not including Alaska. If our country ever becomes as thickly populated as Great Britain, we will have over 900,000,000. To live in such a country and in such an age is a grand thing. But to us all it brings corresponding responsibilities; to none more than to Oberlin College and to its Alumni. The quarter of a century during which your beloved pre- decessor presided over this institution has witnessed wonder- ful things in the growth of our Alma Mater, and of this country and the world at large. But these are trivial and small compared with that which, God willing, shall take place during the coming years of your administration. That you will prove equal to all its responsibilities is the belief alike of the Faculty which unanimously nominated you and of the Trustees who have elected you to fill the Chair made sacred by the grand men who have preceded you: Mahan, Finney, Fairchild. May God bless you! May God bless Oberlin College! ADDRESS OF HON. JOHN SHERMAN. I accepted with pleasure the invitation to attend the com- mencement exercises of Oberlin College, for I knew that I should hear some things worth hearing. I came to hear, not to speak, and warn you that what I shall say will be with- out preparation. It is not my first visit to this place. I saw Oberlin in my younger days and have seen it many times since, but it is growing so fast that I can hardly find my landmarks. I had heard of Oberlin before I saw it, as many of its early friends and founders lived in Mansfield, and two of them. Father Keep and Mr. Walker, preached to me the doctrines and humanitarian ideas of Oberlin. I have always been interested in the sturdy principles taught here ; the love of liberty, human rights, without distinction of color or caste, and especially the love of the Union in critical times, and the wide and deep influence in forming the character of a multitude of young men who have had the good fortune to be educated here. I have no doubt caught something of this influence by contact with the men who laid the foundation of the College. The principal idea I wish to impress upon the young men before me is, that while the education and moral teachings of to-day are the same that have been taught in the past, and will be to future generations, yet each age and generation will have its peculiar and changing life and duties. The ge- neration to which I belonged was called on to meet a great crisis, involving the existence of Republican institutions. Its struggle with slavery and the civil war that followed will 46 always be regarded as an epoch fully equal in importance to the revolutionary period. The results — the abolition of slavery and the preservation of the Union, and especially the demonstration of the strength of our form of government — constitute an inheritance to the present and future genera- tions as valuable as Independence and a written form of government bequeathed to us by our Revolutionary Fathers. It will be conceded that the men of my time have filled the full measure of their duty, with fearful sacrifice of life and property. The members of this graduating class and their compeers will not, I trust, be called upon to perform such a task; but you will be expected to develop the resources and to extend the influence of a great country, already among the most powerful nations of the world. Your field of duty will be to combat and subdue and util- ize the forces of nature ; to substitute metal for wood, to de- velop and employ electricity, petroleum and natural gas and machinery as substitutes for manual labor. For this duty you have superior advantages of education, and the benefit of the wonderful discoveries of the past thirty years. You have been taught the highest lessons of life: reverence for God, love of country, and the same charity for others that you hope for yourself. If you will do in your day and gene- ration for your country and mankind as much as has been done by the generation now passing away, you will transmit to your successors a Republic doubled in population, with re- sources the human mind cannot now conceive, and an ex- ample and light for all the nations of the world. 14 DAY USE i RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recalL ^"^gy'epw/ip JAN 6 1963 ...... 80ct'658|k SE? 2 4 1365 IN STACKS SEr24l9BS REC'D JAN 19 -66 -.^PM LOAN DEPT. LD21A-50m-3,'63 (CT0<)7sI0)476B General Library University of California Berkeley YC fe53 / :« ■■^4^^ '^^'"^^■JV^i ^^m. W^iN