cy/ I > /ar 11 |op s Otomgt 1789-1889- ommemoratton 'ne OF bp the Alumni Association. 38altimoret PRINTED BY WILLIAM K. BOYLE & SON. no E. Baltimore' Street. 1890. LI UNIVERSITY Or CALIFORNIA SANTA BA Comrnmwnratim AT the meeting of the Alumni Association, held in McDowell Hall on the afternoon of the 28th of June, 1888, . the matter of the celebration of the ONE HUN- DREDTH ANNIVERSARY of the opening of St. JOHN'S COL- LEGE, was considered, and without formal action being taken, it was placed in charge of the Executive Com- mittee, consisting of the following persons: J. SHAAFF STOCKETT, Ex-officio Chairman, HUGH NELSON, HENRY D. HARLAN, L. DORSEY GASSAWAY, DANIEL R. RANDALL, J. HARWOOD IGLEHART. In discharge of the duty thus assigned them, the Executive Committee prepared a memorial to the Board of Visitors and Governors of the College, asking their aid and co-operation ; and a scheme of celebration was formulated, and submitted to them through Principal Fell, all which, together with a communication from himself upon the same subject, were, at a quarterly meeting of the Board, held on the 2nd of January, 1889, referred to their Executive Committee. In pursuance of this action a joint meeting of the Executive Com- 1 mittee of the Visitors and Governors, and of the Execu- tive Committee of the Alumni Association, was held on the 14th of January. The members present on the part of the former were : FRANK. H. STOCKETT, NICHOLAS BREWER, JOHN WIRT RANDALL, WILLIAM G. RIDOUT. The members present on the part of the latter were : J. SHAAFF STOCKETT, HENRY D. HARLAN, DANIEL R. RANDALL. The joint meeting was presided over by Mr. Frank. H. Stockett, President of the Board of Visitors and Gover- nors. Mr. Daniel R. Randall was appointed Secretary. Principal Fell was present co-operating with the Com- mittees. After an interchange of views as to the time most suitable for holding the Celebration, Wednesday, the 26th of June was selected; and a sub-committee, composed of Principal Fell, Nicholas Brewer, Henry D. Harlan, and J. Shaaff Stockett, was appointed, with authority to prepare a Programme of Exercises for the Celebration, to be submitted at a subsequent meeting of the joint Committees. This meeting took place on the evening of the llth of February. The members present were Nicholas Brewer, L. Dorsey Gassaway, J. Harwood Iglehart, Daniel R. Randall, J. Wirt Randall, William G. Ridout, and J. ShaafF Stockett, together with Princi- pal Fell. In the absence of Mr. Frank. H. Stockett the meeting was presided over by Mr. J. Shaaff Stockett, President of the Alumni Association. Principal Fell, as Chairman of the sub-committee, presented a Programme, which, after some modification, was accepted; but the same was subsequently further modified. On motion of Mr. Gassaway, the following persons, to constitute the Committee on Invitations, were appointed by the Chair : THOMAS FELL, L. DORSEY GASSAWAY, HENRY D. HARLAN, J. WIRT RANDALL, WILLIAM G. REDOUT. The Executive Committee of the Alumni Association sent the following circular to every Alumnus whose ad- dress could be obtained: ANNAPOLIS, MD., APRIL 15th, 1889. DEAR SIR: Encouraged by the success of our efforts last year, as evidenced by the pleasant Ee-union and Banquet, we again address you in behalf of the Alumni Association of St. John's College. This being the Centennial year of our ALMA MATER, it has been determined to hold a Ke-union of the Alumni worthy of such an event in her history, and we earnestly request your active co- operation and assistance. A week has been set apart for the Celebration, during which time many notable persons will be present, especially on Wednesday, ALUMNI DAY, and Thursday, COMMENCEMENT DAY, June 26th and 27th. The Banquet will be held in McDowell Hall, Wednesday even- ing, at 8.30 o'clock, (Harris of Baltimore, Caterer.) Our aim, is, primarily, to secure a large attendance of the Alumni and former Students of the College on this occasion; secondly, to have as many as possible at the Banquet, and thirdly, to receive such pecuniary assistance from the Alumni as they may be willing to contribute toward the necessary expenses of the Celebration. Should you desire to participate in these Centennial exercises (which we strongly urge you to do,) please forward to L. D. Gass- away, Annapolis, Maryland, the sum of Three dollars ($3.00), which will entitle you to a Banquet ticket; and Two dollars ($2.00) in addition, if possible, to help to defray other expenses. Hoping that you may find it convenient to attend, and awaiting your prompt reply, Fraternally yours, &c. To this circular a general and generous response was made, so that what had been deemed a probability, be- came an assured fact. Invitations were sent out in the name of the Visitors and Governors of the College to many of the older and more prominent Institutions of Learning throughout the Country, to distinguished Educators, and to prominent citizens; and among the regrets received were numerous expressions of kind feelings for the College, and earnest wishes for its future success. ermon BY THE RIGHT EEVEREND WILLIAM PARET, D. D., LL. D., Bishop of Maryland, in St. Anne's Church. ON SUNDAY MORNING the 23d of June, Members of the Faculty of St. John's, Students, and the Graduating Class in academic cap and gown, marched in procession to St. Anne's Church. A very large congregation was present. "CHRIST, IN WHOM ARE HID ALL THE TREASURES OF WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE." Colossians ii, 3. Is this language intended to be literal ? Or is it figu- rative ? Our answer must depend upon the true mean- ing of the word "Treasure." It is commonly used to express the thought of great abundance of money, jewels, precious metals and the like. And Treasuries are the places where men store and guard things of this kind, which make up what the world commonly calls wealth. Now if this be the original and true meaning of the word, then we must be speaking figuratively when we use it of things like knowledge and wisdom which have no material being. But if a treasure, in the true meaning, be simply something valuable and precious, which from its real worth and power to help and bless, is to be prized and cherished and guarded, then its application to money and the like is only one of the specific uses of the word which has rightly a much wider range of meaning. All things of real value, all things which from their value ought to be prized and cherished, are treasures. Shall we say that treasure is the accumulation or abun- dance of wealth? Take the definition ; and remember as we do so, that wealth, in the derivation and careful meaning of the word, is that which can help to weal or welfare. Money and jewels and material property are wealth, only because they have power or give power to promote weal or welfare. When God by St. Paul bids every man seek not his own, but another's wealth, He does not mean another's money, but his happiness and welfare. It is then a true use of the word when we take it out of the contracted sense into which it has been suffered to fall. It means whatever can be, or be made, a possession, and gathered and guarded to promote real usefulness and welfare. The treasures of art are as truly treasures as those of gold and wisdom and knowl- edge; actual possessions more precious than rubies. They are positive realities which as truly as money in any form may be sought and gained by man, and held and increased to enlarge his powers and enrich his being. But we will not quarrel with the two uses of the word. Each helps to understand the other; and we wish to blend the meaning to-day. Let the perishing mate- rial treasure be an illustration to help us to understand the more lasting and true. We speak then of man's gathering and accumulation of gold and property. The Bible gives the list of Solo- mon's possessions, and counts up his gold and silver and precious stones and ivory, exceeding all that are in the earth, for riches. And other Eastern Monarchs then and in later times laid up their enormous wealth until "the Treasures of Ind," "the riches of far Cathay," the "Oriental Magnificence, " became familiar words and thoughts for the poets and other writers. Like Pharaoh they had their Treasure Cities, where in many a strong and strongly guarded room, the gold and silver were piled in enormous quantities, with the precious stones "that could not be told nor numbered for multitude." Multiply that thought ten thousand fold, and try to imagine the combined treasures of all mankind, and of all ages. Think of China, and its thousands of years of gigantic riches; India, with its many Emperors, and Persia, and Babylon and Chaldea, and Solomon's abun- dance, and Egypt, and Rome, and Carthage, and Athens, and Corinth, and Ephesus, and later of Venice and Italy, and Holland, and England, and Florence, and Spain, all rich beyond reckoning. Add the almost fabulous stories of Mexico and Peru, and all that which proves them not so fabulous, the mines of California and Australia. What mind can imagine the wonder of the grand sum of such possessions, which the greed and ingenuity of man have gathered for him out of the things that were hidden in the rocks and sands of earth! The sum total of all such earthly treasures ! It is beyond our power of reckoning. Turn now to a larger measure still. . All this is but man's gathering during the little time he has lived on 8 earth, from the stores of such rich material upon the earth's surface. He has only touched the outer cover- ing. Only a few spots here and there have been opened as mines, and in these a few hundred feet at most would measure the depth to which such searching has gone, and there are left untouched the massive mountains and the solid bulk of the planet within. A million of million times more than all that man has reached, lies yet undis- covered. These are God's treasures, God's stores; in His treasure vaults; which He has not permitted man to touch. What unimaginable amounts of precious things lie stored in those thousands of miles of mystery beneath our feet; the glittering veins and masses which human eyes shall never see; the jewels; and the molten elements from which God poured them forth. Shall we take a thought wider still? This is but one of worlds innu- merable in the seemingly boundless universe. And the Spectroscope has told us that in those other worlds and suns, are stored the same metallic elements, the same material for precious things which we know here on earth. Man with his thousands of years of hungry toil- ing has but gathered a drop out of the boundless oceans of God's possessions. In God's hand are hid all these treasures. "The Gold and the Silver are mine" He has said; and even when man has laid his hand upon them, God, * as He has just now so awfully shown us, can re- claim in a moment, the souls of men, and the millions they had toiled to gather. Now just as really as men accumulate gold and silver, as really do they store up and increase wisdom and knowledge. Mind by mind, and soul by soul, each *The disaster at Johnstown, Pa. gathers and gains. And the combined wisdom of the in- dividuals, communicated by interchange of thought in speech and writing and books, becomes like our imagined sum total of material wealth, an immense accumulation; a gigantic treasure. Can you imagine it ? All the studies, all the learn- ing, all the wisdom, of all men, in all ages, from the very beginning, upon every subject which man's mind can touch ? Men used to think these later ages the only wise ones. But we are looking back now with growing wonder upon the proofs of amazing knowledge in the very earliest days; in pre-historic China and Persia, and India and Egypt. Not only the beauties of their philo- sophic thought, but their knowledge of nature, their mathematic, and astronomic, and mechanical researches and results. There are many things in which we have gone beyond them; yet the wisest builders and thinkers of these later days must in some things bow to the minds that planned and built the pyramids. And how men in our own day have added to those stores, explor- ing the hidden things of nature, the laws of power in every form, of light, of sight, of sound, of heat, of elec- tricity, of mechanical combination, of chemical action and analysis ; and how alike with gigantic strides, and with minutest microscopic study, and subtlest, and tire- less effort of thought, they each day add to the world's possession of wisdom and knowledge. I thought, Breth- ren, that I would help you to some conception of the vastness of these mental accumulations and possessions of mankind ; but it is impossible ; it appals me as I get nearer to it. The vastness of all material wealth sinks into insignificance compared with it. 10 How immense the mere number of its subjects with which the human learning has to deal ! Take some En- cyclopedia and run through its alphabet of the sciences, and branches of sciences and investigation, and so count up the mines and the veins from which this precious trea- sure is still being gathered. What men have learned and are learning about themselves, and their own bodies and beings ; some exploring the secrets of the human frame, and every limb and special organ having its own band of workers; some studying the laws and workings of the mind ; some pondering the problem of the con- nection with the body ; some studying man's soul and spiritual being ; some, the mystery of what life is and in what it consists ; some giving their life's work to the study of bodily disease ; some to mental disease ; and how out of these grow the larger studies of combined humanity ; the social, national, and economic relations of men, and their history. Think what scholars have done and are doing in studying the earth on which we live. Gathering some facts, and building larger theories as to its beginning, and the times and laws and methods of its growth; the elements that constitute it; the powers at work within it, and the laws by which they work ; think of the treasures of wisdom that have been gathered in the studies of animal life, and of vegetable life. Think of the achievements in chemistry, and electricity ; the wondrous wisdom of mechanical combinations and inven- tions ; of astronomy that studies not one world, but all the millions of them, and the ties that link them to- gether and would master the secrets of the Universe. The wisdom of mathematics, of language and its philo- sophy. Think of theology, and what, by Revelation, 11 natural and supernatural, man has learned, and is trying to learn concerning God, His being and nature and work- ing, and our own relation to Him as spiritual beings. Dear Friends, I cannot even hint to your thoughts the thousandth part of the grand subjects, and the divisions and sub-divisions of the labors and results of human knowledge and wisdom. How vast and many the mines, how countless the veins, how maniform the material from which the eager, tireless minds of men are bring- ing up to the open air of actual use the hidden truths. How large the aim, how minute the working, how grand the results by which this great store of knowledge grows. Think of the time, and there was such a time, when there were but ten men living upon earth, and their almost infantile ignorance of its properties and laws, and of the shining worlds around ; and then, taking but one item in the long catalogue, think how in the long ages, fact was added to fact, and observation to observation, and step by step man's wisdom greiv, till now he mea- sures carefully the unimaginable distances, which sepa- rate planets and suns, and marks out their paths, and counts their speed to the minutest fraction of a second, and weighs each separate bulk, and turns the spectro- scope upon the star that floats billions of miles away ; and tells us what are the metals and minerals and gases that compose it. So, every branch of science has grown. Gather them all together and these are the treasures of knowledge and wisdom which man has gathered. The grand libraries of the world are treasure cities, where in countless manuscripts and printed books such gathered wealth is stored. The Halls of learning, like this venerable College, and the great universities are 12 workshops, where it is fashioned into fresh forms and combinations, the mints which turn the solid ingots into current coin. And from mind to mind, from brain to brain, it passes in exchange and use. And faster than the gold and silver flowing in from our far West, and from Australia, the tide of increasing knowledge pours in every day. Among all the wonders of the human race, its achievements in accumulated wisdom and knowledge, are by far the most amazing. And yet, dear friends, this too, is but the scratching of the surface. Like the miles upon miles of the solid unsearched earth beneath us ; like the gathered bulk of the countless, mysterious worlds of far-reaching space, is the measureless wealth of truth and truths as yet un- reached, undreamed of, by human intellect. One of the greatest of living searchers and gatherers, perhaps the leader of the world in natural science, has expressed under another figure what I am trying to speak ; he writes, that with all that man has learned, and with all that ages and human study may yet accom- plish, we stand upon the shore of a boundless ocean of truth unknown and hid in mystery, across which the mere human mind may never hope to pass. Alas! that the littleness of human knowledge and capacity which he thus declares, has not made him more reverent and humble in thinking and speaking of the things which may be possible to power and intellect divine ! For all these things still hidden from man, are, like gold and silver yet buried in the deep heart of the earth, actually existent in the sight and knowledge of God. Before man found the gold, it was there ; and all that he has failed to find, is as real as what his eyes have seen. Before man found it, God made it, gathered the elements of its being, watched its growth, fixed the laws of its distribution, and knew where every grain of it was hidden. Before man discovers what he calls a new truth, that truth was in existence, was a fact, and was clear to that infinite and divine intellect, from which nothing is hid. Age had passed upon age, before the mind of man conceived what has been called the law of gravity ; but through all those ages, the force or law of which we thus speak was unceasingly measuring the places and movements of all worlds, and of every atom in each. Ages upon ages passed before man dreamed of the won- ders that in our own day have flashed into human know- ledge and use in the mysteries of electric force, but all these, and the still unimaginable things which may be hereafter discovered, were as real from the beginning as they are to-day. Though man should yet live on earth for years unending, and his work in gathering wis- dom's yet hidden treasures, should go on with ever-ac- celerated swiftness beyond the present marvellous rate, he will, at his wisest, still be blundering and guessing at the very threshold of what has forever been grasped by One Intellect absolutely. Well may St. Paul cry out "Oh, the depth of the wis- dom and knowledge of God." Man's mightiest achieve- ments are but the surface scratching. "In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge . " If I have at all succeeded in my effort to show the real meaning of the words of my text, may I have your patience for a very few words concerning its use. And first one or two things which I can merely sug- gest, for your thought. They are far too large for our 14 full study now. Had it been written that "In God are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge " it would have seemed but natural and right that to the Infinite Deity, the infinite and absolute mastership and posses- sion of all intellect and intellectual power should belong. When then the word is not "God" but "Christ," "Christ in whom are .hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," that simple sentence becomes one of the grandest and most absolute declarations that Christ is God. It did not intend to assert Christ's divinity. That was not a point in the thought at the time. But all the more powerfully, because of its unintend- edness, it does declare His divinity. St. Paul knew that great truth. His mind had no room for question about it, and so with the full force of unhesitating accept- ance, he simply asserts as belonging to Christ, the abso- lute infiniteness of knowledge which can belong to none but God. But that Christ was also a man ; and we think of the Child Jesus ; the village carpenter at Nazareth ; the gentle, patient man, who from the humble earthly home went forth to teach men, to bless them, to bear their misunderstandings, their contempt, their hatred, their cruelties. And grand as that life seemed to me before it seems far grander now, as I remember that "in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and know- ledge." Marvellous His words seemed before. Simple, direct, unpretending, unboastful, but with a power and possession of truth, in which all the ages have found no room for error. I remember how He said when speaking of the things of Heaven, "We speak that we do know." And in Him alone of all who ever walked the earth, was there never a thought or word that could conflict 15 with St. Peter's loving Confession : "Thou knowest all things." But how amazing in its tenderness is the con- descension that brought that absoluteness of infinite knowledge thus into the simple every day conversations and relations of human life. How wondrous the love, thus to bring down that infinite intellect, to walk for awhile in the narrow ways of man's scanty comprehen- sion ! These, Brethren, are my suggestions. And now for my last. The infiniteness of intellectual possibilities ; the in- finiteness of the facts and relations and workings of the mind ; the reality of these treasures of wisdom and know- ledge, are a proof of the mighty intellect that called them into being. If the order and power of the material world compel the thought of an infinite power, the order and wonderful beauties of a world of intellect, compel the confession of an infinite understanding. It is a wonder to me that any man could be an atheist who studies the human body, or the nature of material things. But a hundred fold more wonderful that any man can be a student of the mind and its workings, and its combina- tions and powers and possessions, and deny the being of a God. Sad indeed, and ruinous, is the pride of intellect which sometimes takes that direction. Thank God, that the annals of human learning show almost all of its great names in the past, among the believers in God and Christ. Thank God that among the wondrous scholars of our own memory, and of this present time, with very few exceptions, the noblest and best have not weakened the vigor, nor fettered the freedom of their thought, but rather ennobled it and given it grander range by in- 16 spiring it with a reverent belief in God and love for Christ and His wisdom and love. The "Agnostic" claims indeed to be freed from fetters, because he casts off religion. But in reality, he is bind- ing fetters on himself, by thus limiting to things of ma- terial sense, or of which his own imperfect intellect may be the test and measure, the powers of mind and soul which God means to reach out to things invisible and eternal. God has opened two worlds to human thought. The Agnostic repudiates one of them, and dwarfs his being in so doing. Oh, scholars, learners, seekers for wisdom and know- ledge, whether in the path of special investigations, the finding and bringing up of truths yet unknown ; or those who, as in this College, labor in learning and teaching, and storing up and using the wisdom already gained, let the grand lesson of our text teach us the scholar's true humility ; to recognize not in word only, but in deepest conscience, man's narrow range and abounding error; to remember that however he may err, or how little he may reach, there is such a thing as truth infalli- ble, and that the Lordship of that belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God that from this institution in the hundred years of its work for which we now rejoice, it has sent, forth its bands of scholars, trained not to be doubters, but believers, by the power of an education in which Christian faith and reverence and docility were felt to be not hindrances and frailties, but stepping stones to grander reach of mind and soul! We know not what for- tunes yet await the labors here. But God grant that whatever course they take, St. John's College may be 17 true to its name, as a place of Christian learning; a bulwark against that narrow and hardening school of Science which will own no science save in material things. There are wonders undiscovered on earth and planets and suns, which make of man's grandest accom- plishments only puny child's play. There are wonders in spiritual being and intelligent life beyond the range of this human race, grander orders of life and thought; and almost infinite are the truths concerning us, that are as much unknown as the spaces which lie beyond the outermost recognized star. But there is an eye that looks all through those far far regions of space unex- plored, and an intellect to which every truth or relation or possibility of the Universe is clear as the noon-day, and that is " Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." On SUNDAY EVENING, the 23d of June, the REVEREND VAUGHAN S. COLLINS, A. M. in Salem Methodist Episco- pal Church, delivered a Sermon before the Young Men's Christian Association of St. John's College, in the pres- ence of a large audience, including Members of the Faculty and many Students. BY THE REVEREND VAUGHAN S. COLLINS, A. M., Pastor of Scott Methodist Episcopal Church, Wilming- ton, Delaware. BEHOLD, THE FEAR OF THE LORD, THAT is WISDOM; AND TO DEPART FROM EVIL IS UNDERSTANDING. Job XXviii. 28. The work of the Young Men's Christian Association in College is my theme. There is a demand in our day as never before in the his- tory of the world for education ; but this to be most effec- tive must develope man in his three-fold nature. It is a matter of daily experience that a man may be developed or educated on one side of his nature and not on another. He may be developed physically until his body becomes the nicest of machines; but that may be all, he knows nothing else, is fitted for nothing else. How often we hear the remark "He is a fine mechanic; but he is good for nothing else." That means the man has been well educated physically his eye and hand have been very thoroughly trained; yet, in intellect he may be a babe, and in morals a demon. So, too, we find men educated intellectually. Their heads are full of scientific and literary lore. They 20 "understand all mysteries and all knowledge. " Yet, all that intellect is carted around in a little, weazened, half dead body; and their moral nature is as little developed as their physical. They are hook-worms, nothing more. They can tell you the date of the battle of Arbela or the fall of Babylon, but not the date when the gas bill is due. They can tell you all about the history of the Pyramids, or the formation of the Macedonian phalanx, or the Eleusinian mysteries; but not mysteries of making a livelihood, or of buying beef and vegetables. These are intellectual men intellect gone to seed. Then you will find men educated spiritually, or religiously, but undeveloped along the other two sides of their nature. These are right at home on religious matters. They can read prayers like a priest, or sing, or give good advice, and love God and men most sincerely; and if they should die would go straight home to heaven; yet they may be very poor mechanics, miserable merchants, failures in business matters. In physique and mind they may be very much dwarfed and distorted. It is evident such education makes one-sided men; for the education is one-sided. It is also apparent that the ideal man has all three of these diverse natures of his developed or educated to their highest capabilities. The ideal education is that which tends to develope this ideal man. It should be the aim of all our col- leges to afford opportunities for this complex or com- posite education. L. PHYSICAL EDUCATION. Any system that loses sight of the fact that man is primarily and essentially, an animal is built upon a false 21 foundation. We are animals animal bodies, animal appetites, animal propensions, animal functions; and we will have these as long as we are in the body. However much the intellectual man may scorn this so-called "lower part" of his being; and the religious enthusiast may rant about the "prison house of clay;" and seek by fasting and penance self-imposed, to macerate and maim the body, that the spiritual nature may shine forth more clearly through the rents made in the earthly casket; the fact still remains that we are animals, and as such have animal wants. The animal life begins before the intellectual and spiritual life awake. So education should primarily be physical education. From earliest childhood the laws of health should be taught, and their demands made imperative. Let the child understand that they can never be the model man or woman unless they have the model body for the model mind and model spirit to dwell in. Let them be taught that lily fingers and wasp waists are never to be purchased at the price of soft muscles and cramped viscera. It is a sign of better days when our colleges are awaking to this subject of athletics all over the land, and encouraging the students, and in some even compelling the students to take part. A college is not worthy of the name that does not provide apparatus and instruction to develope its students to the highest degree of physical perfection consistent with health. Let the student be constantly impressed with the fact that he who goes forth from the college with a diseased, or half developed body, no matter how full his head may be, will have a terrible struggle to keep up with his brother of more brawn, if, perhaps, with a few less Greek roots in his head. 22 The body, however, is not the chief thing to receive attention in college; it is only one of the co-ordinates of importance. The college is not organized for the pur- pose of turning out champion base-ballists or oars-men, or developing professional pugilists or pedestrians. The student whose highest ambition is to be the best athlete in the school, or to win the captaincy of the ball team or boating crew, has a very low ideal as to what the college may be to him. The most prominent feature of our colleges usually is ,11. MENTAL TRAINING. This I would call higher education, not in contradis- tinction from the education of the lower grade schools, as is usual; but in contrast with the physical, which is the positive, or primary education. The multitudinous helps afforded by the college for mental developement might be grouped under three heads : the mingling with professors, as superiors in learning, with students as equals, and the opportunity of reading good books under the wise guidance of master minds. The youth often comes to college with very exalted ideas of his mental attainments. Father and mother have told him so often how smart he is ; obliging neighbors have so frequently pointed him out as the brightest young man in the neighborhood; and finally the village school master has acknowledged that he can teach no more the boy has learned all he knows and more too; these combined so inflate the young man that by the time his clothes are packed for college he finds his hat three sizes too small for his head. He knoivs it 23 all. But when he reaches college, a wise looking doctor of science, or doctor of philosophy, or doctor of divinity, or doctor of laws, or doctor of some real or imaginary something when this wise looking doctor, with his gold glasses, and shiny bald head, and fierce mustache or shaggy beard, takes that youth into a gloomy, dingy room, (that has not been aired all summer,) hands him a catalogue, points out his own name, and motions him to be seated. The youth reads, "J. Solomon Wiseman, A. B., A. M., Ph. D., D. D., LL. D., L. H. D., S. T. D., A. R. S. S., Professor of Ancient and Modern Lan- guages, Lecturer Royal to the University Antique. " He begins to look from the professor to the catalogue, and from the catalogue to the professor; and every time he looks he sees more to wonder and admire. He now finds his head much too small for his hat. What he thought he knew before coming to college he now finds rapidly oozing from his boot-soles or evaporating from his brain. Presently, when he can speak, he faintly asks, pointing to the many titled name in the catalogue, "Is that you?" The professor coldly replies, "Est, Quid rogas ? " The poor youth's heart fails, perspiration breaks out all over him, and he gasps to think he is in the presence of such surpassing wisdom. That first interview is generally sufficient to knock the self-conceit out of the newcomer; but if he should have a relapse, the sophomores have an infallible remedy they will be only too happy to apply. Exaggeration aside, this contact with learned men is a vast help to a young man seeking truth and mental ripeness. These professors have passed through the 24 same troubles of mind, of perplexing doubt, of mental darkness and uncertainty, in which the student so often finds himself; and to have a learned, level headed friend to whom you may go at any time to have doubts removed, and find guidance in one's search for truth, is a boon of inestimable value. Were I speaking to professors instead of to students, I would say, every professor, to fill his position properly, must be a Christian ; and a professor, who is approachable in the class room only, is a poor substitute for a teacher. The sooner he seeks elsewhere for a situation the better for college and students. The contact with students is also wonderfully stim- ulating and helpful. It is difficult, if not impossible, to get community of interest anywhere to such an extent as among students of the same college. Young men of the most active period of life, living together, studying the same books, eating at the same table, sharing the same labors, the same sports, day after day, week after week, for three or four years no wonder college boys always have been and always will be clannish. In college, as no where else on earth, a young man is most accurately measured as to what he really is. In the world it de- pends to quite a degree as to how much money your father has, or who your grand-father was, whether you will have friends or not. No matter what you do, before the world will applaud it will stop to ask, "Who is that fellow?" Not so with college boys. No matter who your father is, if you are a dunce they will not be long in telling you so. No matter how many sweet, pet names your mother may call you, if you are a coward and a sneak, the boys do not hesitate to brand you by 25 * the true name. College boys are the truest democrats they believe in every boy having a fair chance. They are also the truest aristocrats they believe in letting the best man have first place. You can not pass a counterfeit on college boys. They hate shams; but no matter from what humble surroundings a new man may come, if he proves himself a good, true, honest man the college boys will rally round and stand by him. I some- times think it is worth the time and cost of a course at college to get one's proper rating. Then comes the benefit of books. Our college libra- ries are Wisdom's banquet rooms, spread with all the dainties the Goddess can provide, with doors wide open to all students, and over the entrance the word "WEL- COME !" What treasures of priceless worth are stored upon those shelves ! What jewels rare, of mind and heart, lie hidden within those coverings of skin and cloth ! Student, you are greatly wronging' yourself if you fail to work this mine of mental wealth. The library is the great improvement of the modern over the univer- sity of the middle ages. Then if a student would learn he must go to the living teacher. Books were more costly than a journey to the place where the lecturer taught. Hungering for light and knowledge, without books to satisfy the craving, I am not surprised that thirty thousand students from all parts of Europe flocked to Paris to learn of Abelard; and ten thousand were study- ing law one year at Bologna. Suppose then you educate the physique of the young man to its highest possible development until every muscle, sinew, bone and nerve is in most perfect con- 26 dition of power and sensibility. Then suppose you have at the same time trained his mind, until by means of professors, students, and books he is cultured to the highest possible degree filled with the love of the past and the science and men of to-day. What then ? Have you benefited the young man ? No, you have cursed him if you stop there. Physical and mental culture a curse? Yes, a curse if you stop there. I know grim old Carlyle says, that if the devil should ask him the way to the school house, he would point him the way; for he would be less a devil by learning geography and philosophy. I say such talk is nonsense. To educate the devil would be to make him a still worse devil, a devil of increased power for evil, unless his nature be changed. Let me illustrate. A youth of eighteen years is noticed to be uncommonly strong. He can lift more, can carry more than any man in the shops. He is taken from the shops and physically educated until he is called an Adonis, a model of physical perfection, his eye like that of an eagle, his hand as quick as the kitten and strong as the tiger. But your training has transformed an honest shop- boy into a champion prize-fighter, who now starts out to prove he can whip any man in the world; and so fond of fighting is he, that if he can find no one else to fight, he goes home to beat his wife until she is compelled to leave him. Has not your physical education cursed that young man? Take another case. Here is a man who is a marvel in iron work. His especial delight is in making fine tools. He can temper a chisel that will cut anything that needs cutting, or a drill that will bore into the hardest chilled 27 steel like wood. He is justly proud of his skill, gets good wages, and is content. That man gets a little men- tal education. As his mind expands he begins to think beyond the four walls of his shop. He gets to think that his skill would be better paid in breaking safes than in making them. He becomes a bank burglar. Ask him as he lies in prison to day, if his mental education was not a curse to him. It is the same in more purely mental culture. What do I care if a man knows all there is to be known, and can pour out his knowledge in silver streams of polished eloquence, glittering with jewels of wit and adorned with the beauties of rhetoric what care I for all these if from his mouth there comes the false instead of the true? What difference if he knows all about the Phrenicians and Assyrians, if he will not pay his debts ? Suppose you determine to build a locomotive that shall surpass in speed and power anything yet built. You cast the drive wheels twenty feet high. You build the boiler a hundred feet long, and strong enough to bear a thousand pounds to the square inch. Everything else is on the same gigantic scale. You have calculated that engine will pull twenty loaded passenger cars one hundred and fifty miles an hour. It is all finished. You bring a skilled engineer to give his opinion. He looks at the lofty smoke-stack and immense boiler with a smile of satisfaction. Examines the mammoth steam chests and cylinders and pistons with increasing delight. His face glows with honest pride as he thinks he is to mount the engineer's perch and handle that mighty throttle. He looks at the drive wheels and a cloud comes over his 28 face. He peers into the cab and the cloud deepens. "What is the matter?" you ask. "Well, sir, your engine is very pretty, but it is good for nothing. It is big enough, and pretty enough, and powerful enough to do all you expect it to do; but it has neither flanges on the drive wheels, reverse bar, nor brakes. Without flanges you can not keep it on the track; and without reverse bar and brakes you could never stop the thing if once it got to going. I would not ride on it a half mile if you would give it to me." This is what you have done with a man if you stop his education with his body and mind; you have built a beautiful machine of tremendously increased power; but an unmanageable, uncertain thing that you can not depend upon keeping the track. An engine that will jump the track is only more dangerous at every increase of power you give it; and so it is with man. A fearful thing it is to see a locomotive leap from the rails and dash down an embankment dragging behind it cars loaded with human beings. Infinitely worse is it to see a bright, vigorous man off the track, dashing down- ward toward the bottomless pit, dragging behind him a host of friends who regarded him as a model. It is a fine thing to increase the calibre of your guns and the weight of ball they will carry; but is it so fine if the heavier artillery is to be turned against you ? Do you not value a rifle ball fired for you, more than a hundred ton cannon ball fired against you ? Increase the calibre and power as much as you will, but be sure the gun will shoot for us. Here is a lawyer of masterly intellect, and wonderful eloquence. What a power he might be for justice and 29 the right! But he bends every energy of his great mind to defeat justice and shield crime. Would it not be bet- ter if, like Samson, his locks were shorn? Here is a physician of wondrous skill. How much he might do to alleviate suifering! He, however, stoops to use all his skill in the aid of secret vice. Would it not have been manifold better if he had never learned the use of medi- cine? Here is a preacher, who uses all his powers of analytical skill to overthrow the very doctrines he had vowed to sustain. He was polished that he might shine among the giants of the Lord; but all his powers of elo- quent denunciation he ranges against those he was pledged to assist; and fights against the only light that tends to drive the darkness from this dark world. Were it not better had he never received this higher training ? Something then is needed to keep the man on the track something that shall guide him in the right path. What is that something ? It is the highest form of edu- cation, it is III. SOUL EDUCATION; KELIGION, if you please. The Master said: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness ; and all. these things shall be added unto you." The text declares: "Behold, the fear of the Lord that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." This is the highest form of education, it is the essen- tial part of education. This grade of culture, and this only, will fit a man for greatest happiness for himself; and this means, making him most serviceable to others. It matters not so much what a man is physically or men- 30 tally; but the all-important question is, what is he spir- itually ? Education to be complete must develope char- acter, and the right kind of character. The model is sketched by divine inspiration in 2 Peter, i. 5-Y: "Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kind- ness; and to brotherly kindness charity." Here is your model man. He believes in God as the very foundation stone of his whole character. He not only has living faith in God, but he has virtue, true man- liness. He is a manly man, honest, brave and true. Not this only, for he has knowledge a cultured mind stored with learning of men and wisdom of God. He is also temperate in eating, in drinking, in his words, in his acts; temperate, not rash. In him we find the charming grace of patience; not brusque, nor peevish, nor cross; but able to bear the ills of life with quiet, cheerful spirit, without showing teeth and claws. He is also one who takes God for his life example he seeks godliness, god- like-ness. He endeavors to think the thoughts of God, to do the acts of God, to live the life his God would live. Yet, while thus communing with the great Jehovah, he never forgets that about him are the weak and sinful. It is easy to love a being of infinite tenderness and goodwill like our God; but it takes a deal of grace to love poor, erring, sinning men all about us. This model man is equal to the task. He shows kindness to his brethren, whether of family, church or society. His kindness flows from a heart warm with love for his brethren. Nor is it all. A man may love those of his own blood, or those 31 with whom he daily mingles; and yet be far from loving those who are not congenial in tastes, doctrines or man- ners. This model man is able to take this last step in the ascending scale, and reaches the higher plane of cha- rity, love for all men. He can reach up to those above him in wealth and rank without feeling envy, and reach down to the lowest in life or rank without feeling pride. Here we have the type of manhood to which we should all aspire. Now, what part of the college curriculum is especially adapted to develope that kind of man ? Shall it be re- ferred to the classical department ? It is not there espe- cially taught. To the mathematical? The professor will tell you he is paid to teach mathematics, not creeds and religion. Will the department of natural science furnish the kind of spiritual education needed to develope such a man? No; their's is the realm of matter, not spirit. Do you say the churches are to furnish such edu- cation ? The churches can do little unless the college be a denominational one. If it be a denominational col- lege of course the church of that denomination will see to the spiritual instruction of the students; but if it be a state institution or a non-sectarian college the case is different. Having no church establishment in this coun- try, a state or non-sectarian college is virtually beyond the reach of all the churches, as such. A non-sectarian college should be one in which all the denominations patronizing it should have systematic spiritual services and instruction in regular succession, alternating with each other. Such services should be free from all denom- inational bias and peculiarities ; and the instruction should 32 be free from all denominational cant. But unless such regular work is systematically carried on, in which all the denominations share equally and honorably, what then ? Then no denomination is at liberty to enter the college precincts with its own sectarian way. The Methodists have no more right to hold a service that is purely Meth- odistic than the Koman Catholics have to celebrate the Mass. The Presbyterians have no more right to preach Calvinism, nor the Baptists to have an immersion service in college, than the Protestant Episcopalians would have to teach apostolic succession, or to coach candidates for confirmation. The churches then, as such, have no author- ity to enter the college precincts even upon their holy mission. To allow all denominations to enter and teach their peculiar views would cause endless confusion. To allow any one to enter upon such a mission is not only denominational discourtesy, but it is not fair play. De- nominational lines must cease at the entrance to the campus. Inside all must be individual Christians only. Then how shall this part of one's education, the high- est, the most important part, be taught ? By the Young Men's Christian Association of the college. This is their special work ; and if not done by them it will not be done at all. The young men who join this organization are Christians of all the denominations in the college. Here they stand upon the same platform, irrespective of churchly ties. It is their duty to hold up this Bible standard of manhood by every means in their power teaching it by word and living example. To do this most effectually they must seek to arouse an interest in the study of the Bible, and faith in its teachings. 33 It seems a strange anomaly that in this so-called Chris- tian land so few of the colleges have any place in their curriculum for the study of this book of books, the Bible. If the history of our country teaches us anything it is that the Bible is the rock on which our civil and religious institutions are founded. Our fathers believed in the Bible, claimed the God of the Bible as their God; appealed to Him in hours of darkness for help, and in their brighter hours praised Him for the help afforded. Besides, the very name of the book shows its importance. In all lan- guages and by all peoples it is called "the Bible," "The Book." Christian and infidel, pagan, saint, and sinner all call it "the Book;" thus testifying that it is "the Book" of prime importance. Yet, it is a sad fact, that many of our college students are graduated who have less know- ledge of the Bible than almost any book in polite litera- ture. They have spent a year in studying the manners and customs of the Romans, and another year on those of the Greeks; but they have never spent an hour in study- ing the history of that people who were chosen of God to keep alive true knowledge of Him. Caesar and Seneca, Pericles and Socrates they know; but they know not Noah and Abraham, Jacob and Elijah. They are taught to appreciate the beauties and musical rhythm of Homer and Sophocles; but not a word said of those grand lyrics of David, the glowing imagery of Isaiah, or the weird gran- deur of the Apocalypse. The laws of Draco and Lycur- gus must be mastered; while the laws of Moses are not discussed in English, much less translated from the origi- nal. They must wade through the slums of Rome with Juvenal, and be familiar with Scott and Shakspeare and 3 34 Dryden, or they can not get their diploma; but they may never have heard of the New Jerusalem and its glories, nor of Paul, nor of Stephen, nor of Jesus of Nazareth, and yet they are allowed to lead their class. The consequence is that many young men who come to college Christians, or at least believers in God and the Bible, during their four years course hear them so seldom mentioned, and then, perhaps, only to be criticized for imaginary mis- takes, that they come to regard the Bible as only good to supply mothers with nursery stories; but for full grown men it is behind the times. All this because he has not been trained in Bibl lore as he has in scientific and classical lore. In science, art, and history he has been developed from the boy to the man; but in the Bible he remains the same ignorant child; arid as these learned men about them seem to care little or nothing about these things, the student learns to regard the Bible and religion in much the same light as the Arabian Nights and the hobgoblin stories of childhood. What would a learned Hindoo think, coming from his land where their holy books form such an important part of the curriculum in their schools what would he think when he found our holy book was not taught at all nor recognized as any part of the course of study necessary to a Christian education ? What would a cul- tured Arab think, who had been compelled to pore over the Koran so long before he was regarded as educated; what would he think on visiting scores of our principal colleges, to find tfrat in Christian education Christ and His word formed no part ? Is it not a shame on us as Christians that these things are so ? 35 Here, then, is a great work for the Young Men's Chris- tian Association of every college in the land; to do all they can to have the Bible systematically taught in their colleges, just as other branches of learning are taught. Petition the faculty and trustees to provide means that you may be taught, yea, thoroughly taught the heavenly wisdom of this most wonderful book. I am glad to note the wide-spread interest exhibited by some of our colleges along this line of study. May God hasten the day when the Bible shall have a foremost place in every curriculum! Do you ask why I am so much in earnest about this ? Because the Bible is "THE BOOK" in fact, as well as in name. There are three questions that are of most vital importance to every human being: Whence am I ? What am I ? Whither am I going ? To these three questions the Bible, and the Bible only, furnishes a reasonable answer. I. THE BIBLE GIVES us THE ONLY REASONABLE ORIGIN OF MAN. No doubt some of you may think I am now treading on dangerous ground. I want to be understood as say- ing that the origin of man as given in Genesis stands on a more secure footing to-day, than it has ever stood. There has been quite a stir in both- theological and scientific circles about the first three chapters of Genesis. Within the present century there has been some pretty loud brag- ging as to the havoc scientific knowledge was about to make with our Bible account of creation. Many learned theologians seemed to lose heart, and hastened to meet the so-called new scientists to arrange terms of capitu- 36 lation, lest the Bible should come off defeated. What is the result? The battle has been fought, the smoke is lifting, the debris is being cleared away, and we find that there is no contradiction between science and revelation ; they are parts of one whole. The newest revelations of science only strengthen the bulwarks of our Zion, and lead to a clearer knowledge of what the Bible really does teach. There are two explanations or accounts of creation, and only two, that receive any special attention by the thinking men of to-day, the materialistic and the biblical. Both of these are evolution theories. An outline of the two may aid you in seeing just how the matter stands. There are many various shades of doctrines among the materialistic evolutionists; in fact it is difficult to find two who agree; but in the main their theory may be sketched thus: They start with a universe of matter; for matter with them is eternal. This universe of homogeneous, chaotic matter somehow, during the lapse of ages, manages to resolve itself into the various forms of solid, liquid, and gaseous. Ages pass, and this dead matter learns how to transform itself into living matter, or protoplasm. This protoplasm, or bioplasm (both are used interchange- ably), which is only the simplest form of a vegetable cell, somehow, after untold ages transforms itself into vari- ous grades of vegetable life. Another era of ages passes, and it determines it will change itself into an animal; and so it does. Beginning with the protozoans, it gets more and more ambitious until it changes itself into a radiate, then an articulate, then into a vertebrate; and 3T then, after running the whole gamut of the vertebrates, finally becomes man, the king of creation. So begin- ning with dead matter, a universe of it, these wise men can build us the entire universe, even up to man. On what is the whole theory founded ? On the imagination of its authors! The very facts of science, of which they so fondly boast, are all against them. No scientific in- vestigator has ever been found who says he has discovered how dead matter becomes living substance. After years of anxious watching and most careful observation over large portions of the earth's surface, no one has ever found where one species of animal ever changed itself into another species. Even Haekel, the noted German says, " Spontaneous generation is a thing that never yet has been demonstrated; but it must be accepted, or we shall have to adopt a miracle to bring about the neces- sary transformation." Precisely; and that is just what the Christian scientist does. Compare this hypothetical account of creation with the Bible account. Instead of starting with the uni- verse of dead matter it starts with an omnipotent, omnis- cient being who is called God. He is a free, voluntary agent distinct from His work. By His inherent power He fashions the heavens and the earth according to His will. His creation is marked by three distinct periods. He first creates matter. When that is created He pro- ceeds to fashion it; dividing the heavens from the earth, the sea from the land, and causes flowers and grass and trees to grow. The second great creation is when He makes living animals a new creation here separate and distinct from anything yet made. This word "create" 38 shows that God in "creating" animals put something new in the universe; something not in matter, not even in organized matter, for plants were organized. Then for the third time that word "bara," " create, " comes in, in reference to the creation of man. "God created (bara) man in His own image; in His own image created (bara) He them; male and female created (bara) He them." Here is an account of creation which is not only vouched for the inspiration of God as Christians believe; which has the support of tradition of that peculiar people, the Jews; which agrees in the main with the accounts of the most primitive peoples, as "the Chaldeans, the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, the Persians, the Indians, the Chinese, the Karens, the Greeks, the Eomans, the Celts, the Scandinavians, the Finlanders, the Peruvians, the Aztecs, the Algonquins, &c. ;" and besides all this cumulative traditionary testimony, is confirmed by most persistent scientific research. The same order of succes- sion given in Genesis is the order of succession given by geology. Here is progression, here is evolution. Not the blind evolution of dead matter; but evolution with a sentient evolver, who knows He wants to do, and does it. When He desired 'the " wastiness and emptiness" of chaos to be filled with matter He calls it into being. When He wants that disordered matter to assume shape He speaks, and it is done. When he wants that inor- ganic matter to organize into vegetable life He organizes it. When He wants animals to move on land, and fishes to swim the sea, and birds to fly in the air, He speaks and they "swarm with swarms." When at last every- thing was all ready for him for whom He has prepared it, 39 He fashions man's body of the earth, and breathes into his nostrils the breath of lives, and man becomes a living soul. The one system makes man a child of the clod, noth- ing more; the other says," "He is not only child of the clod, but also the child of God. The one system ascribes to every grain of sand, every drop of water, every mote in the atmosphere, all the eternity, wisdom and power that we ascribe to God. Verily, they have "Lords many, and Gods many." Now which seems to you the more reasonable origin of man: that of a few men calling themselves scientists, yet who on their own admission have failed to find a single scientific fact on which to base their theory; who grant all this power and wisdom to dead matter, and bow down and worship matter as their creator; or, that of the Bible, which has not only the tra- ditional and intrinsic truth of its own inspired record, but the cosmogonies of other nations, and all the obser- vations of science to confirm the truth of its statements? Which will you claim for your ancestry: the ape for your father, the tadpole for your grandfather, and the clod of the earth for your creator; or, will you claim the God- made Adam for your father, Jesus of Nazareth for your brother, and the God of heaven for your creator? Give me the divine record, with its ennobling, exalting inspi- rations, arising from our divine parentage. The Bible should claim our thought because t II. IT, ONLY, TELLS US WHAT WE NOW ARE. The Psalmist but voiced the soul of humanity, of hea- then, infidel, pagan and Christian when he asked, "What 40 is man?" There is no book in the world but the Bible that can answer that question. Read science, and you find man is an animal. Read of industry and art, and you conclude man is a working animal. Read philology, and man is a talking animal. Read history, and man is a fighting animal. Read philosophy, and man is a think- ing animal. Read poetry and romance, and man is a lov- ing animal. Read theology, and man is a worshipping animal. So you may travel the entire circle of human learning and you find man an animal. That is as far as human wisdom unaided has gone or can go. But what you have thus found by ranging the entire field of litera- ture you could have read in this one book, the Bible. More than that: the Bible alone tells of that part, or nature of man, which is not animal. I know I am of the earth, earthy; but I am conscious of inner aspirations that are not earthy. Whence these longings for higher and better and holier living? Whence this craving for more light, more wisdom? Yet how is it that in the same man there are low, base desires and appetites? How is it that to-day man is pursuing the noble, the lofty, the pure, the good, striving to fashion himself according to the divine pattern ; and to-morrow, that same man is just as vigorously en- gaged in things that debase, debauch, and destroy? Yea, how is it that at the same moment in the same breast there is found a desire to do the right and true, and a counter desire to do the wrong and base? The Bible explains this. Man was created in the image of his maker; which consisted of "righteousness and true holiness." So while man was an animal in body and soul, in spirit (irvsup* ) he was like his God. This divine 41 element or nature was designed to rule the man; and it did rule until man sinned. When Adam sinned he lost this image of God. His *-vtI|A, or spiritual nature lost its grip on the