DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION
OF THE
VANDERBILT UNIY[RsITY.
, - I }   C.
NASHVILLE,
OCT.  3, 4, 1875.
lasjbxillt,   ir;rtn.:
PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH.
1875.
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TENNESSEE,
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FACULTIES OF THE TUNIVEERSITY.
LANDON C. GARLAND, LL.D., CHANOELLOR.
DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY, SCIENCE, AND LITERATURE.
L. C. GARLAND, LL.D., Professor of Physics and Astronomy.
NATHANIEL T. LUPTON, M.A., LL.D., Professor of Chemistry.
J. C. GRANBIERY, M.A., D.D., Acting Professor ofrMental and Moral Philosophy.
MILTON W. HUMPHREYS, M.A., Ph. D., Professor of Greek.
B. W. ARNOLD, M.A., Adjunct Professor of Latin.
EDWARD S. JOYNES, M.A., LL.D., Professor of Modern Languages and English.
ANDREW A. LIPSCOMRB, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Philosophy and Criticism.
JAMIES M. SAFFORD, M.A., M.D., Ph. D., Professor of Mineralogy, Botallny, and
Economical Geology.
ALEXANDER WINCHELL, LL.D., Professor of Zoology, and Historical and Dynamical Geology.
WM. LEROY BROUN, M.A., LL.D., Professor of Mathematics.
BIBLICAL DEPARTMENT.
T. O. SUIMIERS, D;D., Dean, Professor of Systemlatic Theology.
A. M. SHIPP, D.D., Professor of Exegetical Theology.
J. C. GRANBERY, D.D., Professor of Practical Theology.
R. M. MCINTOsH, Professor of Vocal Music.
LAW I)EPARTMENT.
THO.sIA H. MALONE, M,A., I)ean of the Faculty, Professor of Commercial Law
aund Insurance, Equity Law, Jlufisprudence of the Courts of the United States, and
Pleading and Practice in Civil Cases.
W. B. PRFESE, Secretary of the Faculty, Professor of the Law of Real Property,
Criminal Law and Procedure, Torts, and International and Constitutiolal Law.
E. BAXTER, Professor of the Law of Domestic Relations, Agency, Partnership,
Corporations, Evidence, Wills, and Executors.
MNIEDICAL DEPARTMENT.
THOMIAS MENEES, M.D., Dean of the Faculty, Professor of Obstetrics.
JAIES M. SAFFORD, M.D., Secretary of the Faculty, Professor of Chemistry.
PAUL F. EvE, M.D., Professor of Operative and Clinlical Surgery.
WILLIAM T. BRICGs, M.D., Professor of the Prinlciples and Practice of Surgery.
THOMAs L. MADDIN, M.D., Professor of the Institutes and Practice of Medicine.
WILLIAM L. NICHOL, M.D., Professor of the Diseases of Women and Children,
and of Clinical Medicine.
VAN S. LINDSLEY, M.D., Professor of Physiology.
THO.MAS A. ATCHISON, M.D., Professor of Materia Medica alnd Therapeutics.
THOMAS O. SUM.MT3ERS, JR., M.D., Professor of Anatomy and Histology.
JOHN IHI. CALLENDER, M.D., Professor of Psychological Medicine.
CHARLES S. BRIC-S, M.D., Demnonstrator of Anatoniv.
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CONTENTS.
Preface........................................................................
DEDICATION EXERCISES.
Sermon by Bishop DOGGETT:
SUBJECT'" The Dynamics of Christianity; or, Its System of
Mforal Forces ".........................................
V
Dedication Hymn........................................................ 
Sermon by Bishop WIGHTMAN:
SUBJECT-" Christ the Center and Bond of the Universe".... 
Dedication Ode............................................................
INAUGURATION EXERCISES.
Address by His Excellency Governor PORTER........
Address by the Rev. CHARLEs F. DEEMS, D.D.:
~SUBJECT —'"Relations of the University to Religion "..........
Address by the Rev. A. A. LIPSCOMB, D.D.:
SUBJECT-"]Relations of the UTniversity to Genera1 Educa                  tio "....................................................
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4.CONTENTS.
Bishop \IcTYEIRE'S Address to the Faculties........... 89
Chancellor GARLAND'S Response................................ 90
Inauguration Ode................................, 93
Resolutions of the Board of Trust and the Faculties. 95
Discourse by THOMAS 0. SUMMERS, D.D.:
SUBJECT-" Character and Design of the Biblical Department
of the UTniversity".................................... 97
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PREFACE.
HIS volume is meant to be the beginning of a series, to be issued
annually. Addresses on Commnencemnent and other special occasions, Baccalaureate Sermons, and such Scientific Discourses and Lectures
as may be delivered in the Course of Instruction, and be thought proper
for publication, will constitute the material for future volumes of the
VAXNDERBILT UNIVERSITY Series, of uniform edition with the present one.
It is proposed, in this way, to make a contribution to general literature
that shall possess permanent value. Unlike the justly celebrated Banipton Lectures, and other similar courses of lectures which generous
founders have provided for, the subjects of this and following volumes
will be found to be various-suited to the times in which they appear;
but like them, it is to be hoped, in this-the best thoughts of the best
minds on problems most worthy of public attention. A history of current
thought, and a defense of truth against present existing objections, will,
therefore, be a feature of these publications. The first volume will be
accepted as a fair specimen of this style.
The Alumni of the older institutions of learning cannot but regret that
productions similar to those herein and hereafter to be preserved-productions of orators and essayists of the first order, stimulated to their
highest effort by appreciative surroundings- have never been given to
the world. If published, they exist now only in fugitive pamphlets,
scarcely to be found, or are bound up with other miscellaneous works of
their authors, and not readily accessible.
The candid reader will require no apology for being presented, along
with graver matter, with the connecting incidents of the Dedication and
Inauguration Exercises which are peculiar to the beginning. And he
will also be pleased to have, as a part of this Preface, some account
of the foundation of the Institution of which this volume is a kind
of first-fruits.
The University owes its foundation to the munificence of Mlr. CORNELIUS VANDERBILT, a citizen of New York, who, on the 27th of Mlarch,
1873, made a donation of Five Hundred Thousand Dollars for this purpose, to which he afterward added more.
(5)
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PREFACE.
The acknowledged want of the means of a higher Christian education
than could be obtained within their bounds led several Annual Conferences, in the year 1871, to appoint delegates to a Convention, to "consider
the subject of a University such as would meet the wants of the (Church
and country." The Convention met in Memphis, January 24, 1872, and
was composed of delegates from Middle Tennessee, West Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas.
The Convention was in session four days, and adopted a plan for a University. Under the plan a Board of Trust was nominated and authorized
to obtain a Charter of Incorporation, under the title of "The Central
University of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South."
A liberal Charter was obtained that year, and the Board of Trust met
January 16, 1873, and completed its organization. By-laws were adopted,
and agents appointed to solicit funds. A University in fact, as well as in
name, had been determined on; in the words of the Convention, "An institution of learning of the highest order and upon the surest basis, where
the youth of the Church and the country may prosecute theological, literary, scientific, and professional studies to an extent as great, and in a
manner as thorough, as their wants demand."  The members of the Convention were not ignorant of the vastness of the undertaking, nor of the
magnitude of funds essential to success. Their judgment in the matter
was expressed in the form of a resolution declaring that One Million of
Dollars was necessary to perfect their plans and realize fully their aiins;
and so important was it, in their estimation, to avoid an abortive effort,
that they refused to authorize steps toward the selection of a site and
the opening of any department of the University until the public showed
itself to be in sympathy with the movement by a valid subscription of
Five Hundred Thousand Dollars.
Such, however, was the exhausted condition'of the South, and so slow
its recuperation under the disorganized state of its labor, trade, and governments, that the first efforts to raise funds showed the impossibility of
the enterprise. The yearning desire of our people seemed destined to
disappointment for this and following generations, and the well-laid
scheme was already-in the judgment of some of its warmest friends-a
failure.  At this crisis Mr. VANDERBILT  came to their help.  In his sympathy for a people struggling to revive their fortunes, and to secure for
their posterity the highest blessing of Christian civilization, he stepped
forward and, by his princely gift, gave form and substance to the plan.
The Board of Trust, in accepting the donation, as an expression of gratitude resolved to change,the name of the projected Institution to VANI)ERBILT UNIVERSITY; and on their petition the Charter was so amended.
Thus the VANDERBII,T, like the more successful institutions of learning
in our country-as Harvard, Amherst, Dartmouth, Cornell, Peabodyinherits the name of its founder.
The following important paper-the original proposition of Mr. VAN
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PREFACE.
DERBILT concerning the University-is here inserted as the fundamental
fact in its history:
NEW YORK, March 17, 1873.
To BISHOP H. N. McTYEFIRE, of Nashville:
I make the following offer, through you, to the corporation known as The Central
University of the Methodist Episcopal Clurech, South:
FIRST-I authorize you to procure suitable grounds, not less than from twenty to
fifty acres, properly located, for the erection of the following work.
SECOND-To erect thereon suitable buildings for thesuses of the University.
THIRD-You to procure plans and specifications for such buildings, and submit them
to me; and, when approved, the money for the foregoing objects to be furnished
by me as it is needed.
FOURTH-The sumI included in the foregoing items, together with the "Endowment
Fund" and the "Library Fund," shall not be less in the aggregate than Five
Hundred Thousand Dollars ($500,000); and these last two funds shall be fur    nished to the corporation so soon as the buildings for the University are com    pleted and ready to be used.
The foregoing being subject to the following conditions:
FIRsT-That you accept the Presidency of the Board of Trust, receiving therefor a
salary of Three Thousand Dollars per annum, and the use of a dwelling-house,
free of rent, on or near the University grounds.
SFCOND-Upon your death, or resignation, the Board of Trust shall elect a President.
THIRD-TO check hasty or injudicious appropriations or measures, the President
shall have authority, whenever he objects to any act of the Board, to signify
his objections, in writing, within ten days after its enactment; and no such act
is to be valid unless, upon reconsideration, it be passed by a three-fourths vote
of the Board.
FOURTH-The amount set apart by me as an "Endowment Fund" shall be forever
inviolable, and shall be kept safely invested, and the interest and revenue, only,
used in carrying on the University. The form of investment which I prefer,
and in which I reserve the privilege to give the money for the said Fund, is in
seven per cent. First Mortgage Bonds of the Xew York Central and Hudson
River Railroad Company, to be "registered" in the name of the corporation,
and to be transferable only upon a special vote of the Board of Trust.
FirFTH-The University is to be located in, or near, Nashville, Tennessee.
Respectfully submitted:
At  a called meeting of the Board of Trust, on March 26, 1873, the
above letter, containing Mr. VANDERBILT'S proposition, was duly presented,
and the following resolutions were adopted:
RESOLVED, That we accept with profound gratitude, this donation, with all the
terms and conditions specified in said proposition.
RESOLVED, That, as an expression of our appreciation of this liberality, we instruct
the Committee hereinafter mentioned to ask the Honorable Chancery Court to
change the name and style of our corporation from The Central University of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to THE VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY; and that
the Institution, thus endowed and chartered, shall be from henceforth known
and called by this name.
Mr. VANDERBILT afterward added to his original gift, without any mate
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C. VANDERBILT. 
PREFACE.
rial change of conditions. In a letter to Bishop McTYEIRE, dated New
York, March 24, 1874, he says:
Referring to your letter of the 17th inst., I beg to say that the plans you have
shown me, as therein stated, are approved.
As you express some doubt whether the " Endowment Fund" of Three Hundred
Thousand Dollars can be preserved, if these plans are fully carried out, and as you
consider such a Fund of vital importance to the success of the Institution, I have
decided to add One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($104,000) to the whole Fund.
An eligible site was selected in the West End of Nashville-a plat lying
in an oblong square, and containing seventy-four acres.  G(round was
broken for the main edifice of the University September 15, 1873, and the
corner-stone was laid April 28, 1874. By October, 1875, the various buildings and apparatus were in a condition of readiness for opening the University; and a Library of about six thousand volumes had been collected.
The main building contains Chapel, Library and Reading-room, Museum,
Laboratories, and Lecture-rooms, and Offices for Professors. In all its
arrangements it is ample and well ventilated, built according to the most
approved models, and suitably furnished, and warmed throughout  by
steam. On the grounds are eight professors' houses, recently constructed;
also, a commodious building, capable of accommodating thirty or forty
young men, appropriated to the use of a certain number of students in
the Divinity School.
These structures, together with Observatory, outhouses, and acconmmodations for the Janitor and other eaipoygs of the University, present, at
convenient distances from the principal building, a group of eleven brick
and an equal number of frame buildings.  The grounds have been well
inclosed and suitably improved with roads and walks, water and gas
pipes, and the planting of about one thousand trees.
While these expensive improvements were in progress a financial
panic fell upon the country: banks closed, and even Government works
were suspended; but Mr. VANDERBILT steadily furnished the funds, and
there was no delay, at any time, on that account.
The Professor of Chemistry, who formerly studied at Heidelberg with
Bunsen, returned to Germany, after his election, for the purpose of investigating the latest methods and instruments of scientific teaching, and to
purchase a complete outfit for his Department. The Chancellor inspected
the leading institutions of the country before making out the CutrriczZlun
of the University, and in April went abroad to procure, on personal inspection, the Physical and Astronomical Apparatus. The United States
revenue laws allowing such articles to be imported free of duty, by an
institution of learning for its own use, this arrangement was economical, in view of the large outlay for these purposes, and also secured the
latest improvements in scientific furniture.
The situation of Nashville could not fail to commend itself to the
comprehensive views and practical judgment of such a man as Sir. VAN
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PREFACE.
DERBILT when founding an Institution of Learning for Southern youth.
In the midst of a food-prodclucing country, it meets the first conditions
of good and cheap living. The climate is salubrious, equally free from
the rigor of Northern winters and the debilitating heat of lower latitudes. Central between East and West, its railroad system makes it
accessible to students from every part of the country, and especially
is it convenient to the teeming populations of the Valley of the Mississippi.
It is allowable, in this connection, to allude to the effect of this benefaction upon public sentiment. It was without precedent. A citizen of
the North, Mr. VANDERBILT could have found there ready acceptance of
his gift, and built up an institution rivaling those which abound in that
wealthier and more prosperous section of the country; but to the South
he looked, and extended to her people what they needed as much as
pecuniary aid-a token of good-will.  The act, timely and delicately as
munificently done, touched men's hearts. It had no conditions that
wounded the self-respect, or questioned the patriotism, of the recipients.
The effect was widely healing and reconciling, as against any sectional
animosities which the late unhappy years had tended to create. A distinguished statesman.remarked: "Commodore VANDERBILT has done more
for reconstruction than the Forty-second Congress." And when the lifesize portrait which adorns Central Depot in New York, as duplicated by
the skill of Flagg, the original artist, was unveiled in the Chapel at Nashville, thousands looked upon it then, and look on it still, as upon the face
of X FRIEND AND BENEFACTOR.
It happened unavoidably-when was it ever otherwise?-that the cost
of completng plans of such magnitude outran the most careful estimates.
No architect or builder can foresee all the items of expense that are developed as such a work progresses. So it was in this case; but the coinsiderate generosity of MIr. VANDERBILT was equal to the'occasion, as the
following letter shows, on his transmitting to the Board the Endowment
Fund ($300,000), being notified of their readiness to take charge of it:
No. 25 WEST FOURTH STREET, NEW YORK, December 2, 1875.
BISHOP H. N. MIcTYEIRE, President Vanderbilt University, ATasIville, Tenn.
MY DEA.R-SIR:-I have looked over, in a general way, the statement of expenditures made and to he made on account of the at first called "Central University of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South," which name was subsequently changed
to "VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY "-the compliment of which action, on the part of your
Board of Trust, I fully appreciate.
Your statements show that the expenditures already made, with the additional
ones necessary to be made to cover all the cost of grounds, buildings, books, and ap paratus, and all salaries and incidental expenses to the first day of December, 1875,
so that the Institution will, on that day, be entirely free from all debt and obli gations, amount to $392,831 46. Of this amount you have already drawn on me
for, and I have paid, $360,000. For the balance, $32,831 46, you may draw on me
whenever, and as fast as, the items, to the payment of which it is applicable, can
be paid off.
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PREFACE.
At this point I desire to say that I am fully satisfied as to the faithfulness and,
also, the judiciousness with which the expenditures have been made, and with the
clearness with which they have been classified and stated.
When I made my proposition, under date of March 17, 1873, to give not less
than $500,000 to the Institution, it was, as you will remember, expected that at least
$300,000 of that amount could be preserved as an "Endowment Fund," which was
to be kept "forever inviolate and safely invested, and the interest or revenue
thereof, only, used in carrying on the University."
Under the representations made ill your letter of March 17, 1874 (just one year
after my proposition was made), that the cost of completing the erections, and their
suitable appurtenances, would, under the plans that had so far been worked upon,
impair to some considerable extent the originally-intended amount of the "Endowmenit Fund," I agreed, in my letter to you dated March 24, 1874, to "add $100,000
to the whole fund "-making it $600,000-upon the condition that not over $300,000
(including what had already been paid) should be used for the grounds, buildings,
etc., and that at least $300,000 should be reserved as an "Endowment Fund," to be
kept inviolate, as provided in my original proposition.
When I saw you at Saratoga Springs, last summer, you stated that the completion of the work would impair the "Endowment  Fund," even as fixed in my
second offer; and I said that whatever obligations were incurred on account of the
work mnust be paid off, so that the Institution would be absolutely free from debt,
even although it required all the "Endowment Fund," my opinion being that no
real fund of that nature could exist so long as any indebtedness was outstanding
against the Institution.
When the amounts you have herein been authorized to draw for shall have been
paid, so that the Institution will be clear from all debt to the first day of December,
1875 —making, as hereinbefore stated, an aggregate of $392,831 46-it will leave
but a trifle over $200,000 for the "Endowment Fund," instead of $300,000, which
last, from the outset and all through the progress of the work, was considered a
matter of very great, if not of vital, necessity.
Upon a careful review ofall the circumstances, and consideration of the objects sought to be accomplished by the Institution, and feeling that its beneficial
operations should not be restricted, now that its material structures are so well
adapted to success, I have decided to make an additional contribution, sufficient to
bring the "Endowment Fund" up to the full amount of $300,000, as originally
contemplated-thus making an aggregate contribution of $692,831 46.
[Here follows a description of the sixty Bonds, of $5,000 each, sent as the invested Endowment, seven per cent., payable semi-annually.]
And now that I have fulfilled my undertakings in this matter, I beg, in closing
these statements, to say that to you, my dear sir, who have labored so actively and
so earnestly in carrying out the plans for the University-and have labored so efficiently, too, as its inauguration within thirty months shows-and who will, as the
President of the Board of Trust, have the chief responsibility in respect of the accomplishment of the educational purposes for which it was undertaken, I tender
my pe]rsonal expressions of extreme regard, trusting that the healthful growth of
the Institution may be as great as I know it is vour desire and determination  to
make it. And if it shall, through its influence, contribute, even in the smallest
degree, to strengthening the ties which should exist between all geographical sections of our common country, I shall feel that it has accomplished one of the
objects that led me to take an interest in it.
Very truly yours,            C. VANDERBILT.
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
rIE Dedication and Iniaugurationi Exercises of the VAN     DERBILT UNIVERSITY took place October 3, 4, 1875.
At ten o'clock on Sunday morning, October 3, the Chapel
of the University being filled, the Dedication exercises opened
with a voluntary by the Choir-followed by IHymn 77 (tune,
Lenox):
Young men  and  maidens, raise
Your tuneful voices high:
Old men and children, praise
The Lord of earth and sky:
Him Three in One, and One in Three,
Extol to all eternity.
The universal King
Let all the world proclaim;
Let every creature sing
His attributes and name!
Him Three in One, and One in Three,
Extol to all eternity.
In his great name alone
All excellences meet,
Who  sits upon  the throne,
Andcl shall forever sit:
Him Three in One, and One in Three,
Extol to all eternity.
Glory to God belongs:
Glory to God be given,
Above the noblest songs
Of all in earth and heaven:
Him  Three in One, and  One  in Three,
Extol to all eternity.
(11) 
rVANDERBILT UNIVERSITY.
Prayer was offered by Bishop McTYEIRE, and the Lessons
were read by Bishop DOGGETT.
Hymn 155 (tune, Coronation) was sung:
All hail the power of Jesus' name!
Let angels prostrate fall:
Bring forth the royal cdadenm,
And crown him Lord of all.
Ye chosen seed of Israel's race A remnant weak and smallHail him, who saves you by his grace,
And crown him Lord of all.
Ye Gentile sinners, ne'er forget
The wormwood and the gall:
Go, spread your trophies at his feet,
And crown him Lord of all.
Let every kindred, every tribe
On this terrestrial ball,
To him all majesty ascribe,
And crown him Lord of all.
O that, with yonder sacred throng,
We at his feet may fall!
We'11l join the everlasting song,
And crown him Lord of all.
Then followed the Sermon by Bishop )DOGGETT:
THE DYNAMIICS OF CHRISTIANITY; OR, ITS SYSTEM OF
MORAL FORCES.
"The powers of the world to come." Hieb. vi. 5.
In the economy of God, we stand in intimate relations to
two worlds at the same time: the world of sense and the
world of faith-the world temporal and the world spiritual
-the world present and "the world to come."
The object of Christianity is to a.ggrandize our natures,
to elevate us above the pressure of the world of sense, to
make us acquainted with the spiritual and eternal world,
and to bring us into contact and conformity with it.  It
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DED)ICATION AND INAUGURATION.
possesses a perfect capacity to accomplish this object. Our
text announces its capacity, in speaking of "the powers of
the world to come."
I propose to discourse to-day, by the help of God, upon
what I may call the dynanmies of Christianity: in other
words, upon the moral forces which it. employs in order to
accomplish its object —the laws by which its grand econ      omy is regulated.  Let us, however, contemplate,
I. The wonderful dispensation of which the text speaks
the new order of things to which it refers-in the phrase,
"the world to come."
aF  ~    It is not, in any absolute or exclusive sense, the future
state which is spoken of, as commonly understood, and as ap      pa'rently indicated in the terms themselves.  We  have a
strictly parallel allusion in the fifth verse of the second
chapter of this Epistle, decisive of this interpretation, in
which the author says: "For unto the angels hath he not
put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak?"
It is manifest that he hald not been speaking directly or ex      clusively of the future state at all.
Of what, then, had he spoken?  and of what does he
speak in the language of the text? Unquestionably, of the
Christian dispensation-the kingdom of heaven-the world
of redemption, established by Christ in the midst of the
present world. This dispensation is a special, divine or      ganization, instituted for the purpose of introducing into
our world a system of restorative agencies, to reach and to
rectify our ruin.
We pause a moment to delineate, in some sort this ex      traordinary department of the divine administration-to set
forth sever~il of its distinctive features.
One of them is its intrinsic character.  In this respect
it is purely spiritual, as contradistinguished from every
form of temporal government. It is spiritual in its genius,
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1875.] 
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY.
in its subjects, and in its methods of operation.  S(aid
Jesus Christ, "My kingdom is not of this world."
It is distinguished by peculiar external exhibitions. It
embodies itself, of necessity, in such visible forms as are
expressly declarative of its existence and results-such as
evince its true and living realization amongst men.  So much
it assumes, and no more.
It is denoted by its comprehensive range.   It includes
within its appropriiate scope the present life, with all its interests;  the invisible world, with all its population; and
the future state, with all its issues.  What an empire,
therefore, is "the world to come" in its extent!
Its designation is remarkable.  Why is it described as
"the world to come?"  Evidently, in part, in respect to
prophecy, the fulfillment of which the author was showing
in its establishment.  Ile was writing, from the prophetic
point of view, to those who  held  and reverenced  the
prophecies.  It was the coming age cf the prophets the
comning kingdom  to which they -ill referred.  It is so called
in respect, also, to the settled expectation of the Jewish
nation previously to, and at the time of, writing.  However
mistaken they were as to the ch(aracter of the Messiah's
reign, the great national idea was the establishment of his
future kingdom in the world.   It was, in fact, "the world
to come" to them-the world which had actually begun to
the apostle-the transition period fiom the old to the new.
At the same time, it was literally and really "the world to
come" in respect to its development and perpetuitty, viewed
especially from its then incipient stage.  It was, truly, the
coming world-a world ever to come, and never to end.
"The world to come,  thus defined, is essentially and intensely present at all times.  It is all around us; we ale
in the midst of it; it interpenetrates the world of sense
and sin in which we live.
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
With(bd, it is rel  and permtanent.   Nothing' is so refil;
nothiing is so permanent.  All else is a, comparitive illusion.
In reference to it St. Paul says:  "We  look not'it the
things which are seen, but the thling,s which i,re not seen:
for the things which are seen are temporal; but the thirngs
which are not seen are eternal."   They adone:ibide.  The
visible world is the shadow of the invisible.  It is the curlsin  which  hangs  between  thie  spec'tL,tor and eternity.
Presently the curtain will rise;  the wondrous scene will
burst upon us, and we shall find ourselves in a contracted
theater, envtironed  with the  sta,rtling realities of an unclhangea'ble existence.   The visible world is the scaffoldthe temporary substructure-upon which we  now  stand.
The pending catastrophe shall dissolve it; but we shall survivle, and he transferred to the imperishable foundations of
"the world to come."
We  proceed now to consider more particularly what we
have taken occasion to denominate,
II. The  dynamics  of Christianity.   The  term  is not
chimerical: it is tthe literal rendering of av,i~/,~, the word
employed in the original text.  Christianity has  its  dyn.amics as well as natural science, and in (tdv(ance of it.
It signifies powers, forces, active agencies, energetic influences.
Christianity, as a system, is replete with moral forceswith active agencies-with which it effects its benign purposes.  It is not.t netgtive, inert organization, consisting
of a. faultless but impotent ideal of conceivable excellence.
It is infinitely potential.  It possesses the inherent c,apacity
of self-subsistence, of victorious aggression, and of indefinite
reproduction.
We speak habitually of the ltaws of nature-of the forces
by which its vast and varied machinery is regulated-of
the vital energies by which it performs its functions; and
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V1rANDERBILT UNIVERSITY.
we speak correctly, so far,s  )henomena,ire concerned.
These categories comprise our philosophy of nature.  The
apostle speaks with stronger warrant, and with better pro priety, of " the powers of the world to come "-the forces
which operate in the sphere of revaealed religion-those
higher laws which perva,de the realm of redeeming grace,
(and which constitute the sum of its exhaustless efficiency,
and of its irnperial grandeur.
It remains for us to inquire, briefly, what those forces are.
This inquiry plunges at once into the region of the super natural.  It cannot be avoided; it is a necessity find a joy.
The very phrase, "the world to come," indicates a, super natural order of things actively existing, and about to be
fully displayed.   The whole condition of things with which
Christianity brings us in contact is grandly supernatural.
If it is not supernatural, it is nothing-it is a myth and a
delusion.  Emasculate it of this quality, (and it collapses
like any other mythological bubble. But it is somnethinga very decided somnething-an irresistible and a mysterious
something.  It is a fect-a tremendous, a transforming feect
-in the world's history, an impracticable fact to its opponents; in a word, it is a supernatural fact.  It cannot be
emasculated, and it will not collapse; and we are as precisely conscious of its supernatural character as we are of
thie falcts of nature.   The whole hue and cry on this subject is a preposterous fillacy.  For myself, I will not surrend(ler my  consciousness, or  my  common sense, to its
exorbitant exactions.
Let us now attempt to define some of " the powers of
the world to come."  We commence by remarking that they
do not include those temporary  miraculous endowments
which distinguished the primitive movement of Christianity
-those charisms, or special gifts, which attested its introduction into the vwoild.  Though necessary, they were in
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[1875, 
DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
cidental;nd tra,nsient.  The " powers" here claimed are inherent in and inseparable from it, and, as the context assures
us, may be lasted, or experienced, as the disciplinary and
subsidiary process of our salvation.  They pertain to the
constitution of the kingdom of God; they comprise the
whole class of moral agencies which enable at man to work
out his own destiny-the entire volume of hallowed influences of which the Scriptures give us information. We
enumerate amongst them,
1. The Truth-power.   " The world to come" is the world
of truth.  It is replete with truth.  Truth is its fundamental element not only in the sense of the apprehended
reality of that world, but in the sense of the explicitly
formulated expression of the truth which pervades it.  That
truth is not an abstraction of the human intellect: it is the
reve-liled word of God, of which Jesus Christ, in appealing
to his Father, said, " Thy word is truth"-the pure, the
absolute, the eternal truth, in respect to finite intelligences.
It is the law of their natures-the universal standard of
morall excellence.   Nor is the truth, thus expressed, only
an infinitely perfect moral code: it possesses, likewise, the
quality of an infinitely energetic moral force, perpetually
working out its salutary results with imperial authority a(nd
efficiency.  It is "quick and powerful" in asserting its benignant prero,gative, not merely when first realized, but ever
afterward, intrenching itself in the understanding, revealing
itself in the consciousness, and unfolding itself in the chara,cter, of all who aire the subjects of it.  This, then, is one
of "the powers  of the world to come"- one  of those
sublime forces which, without intermission, perform their
functions in the realm of grace.
2. Another of these forces, and no less wonderful in its
effect is the Life-power-the power of imparting and sustaining life in'its original import. The kingdom of Christ
2
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1875.]
6
I 
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY.
is the empire of life,./s well is of truth.  I-e is its infinite
repository, and its unfaltholnable fountain.   " In himi w(as
life" fiom all eternity, and he is "the life" to a,ll eternity.
The world( of redemption was constituted that life, through
him, might be restored to'"the delad in t'espasses and( in
sins," and that they might be reunited to the living universe.
Fronm him it is ever flowing, and actively exerted by the
Holy Ghost upon,ill who  are in fellowship with him.  It
transforms and  elevates, purifies and glorifies, them.  It
works mightilry,,nd pulsates with vigorous strokes, in the
souls of believers.  It sends its vitalizing current, without,
cessation, throughout the world of redemption.   It is the
"well of water springing up into everlasting life;" it is the
pure riiver of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding
out of the throne of God and of the Laimb," rolling its
stream of blessing through iavenues of para,disilc-ld trees,
]a(len with fiuits whose taste is joy, andi luxuLi'int with
foliag,e whose touch is health.  This divine life circulates,
with spontaneous activity, in all the members of' that great
family of which Christ is the Ileid, "changing them into
the salime image, from glory to glory, even ais by the Spirit
of the Lord."   And, to complete its tra,nscendent object,
its resistless impulse will reach the domain of natural death,
and startle and evoke from its shades the slumbering bodies
of the saints, and invest them with the attributes of a, robust an(i gorgeous immortality.   " Then shall be brought to
pass the s,ying that is written, Death is swa,llowed up in
victory;" then will the scene of its desolation be reversed,
and the vision of life from the dead burst upon the new
heavens and the new earth.
See truth, love, and mercy in triumph descending,
And nature, all glowing, in Eden's first bloom;
On the cold cheek of death smiles and roses are blending,
And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb.
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
What a marvelous force is life in the natural world! How
productive, how multifarious, how irresistible!  How richly
it replenishes and embellishes the face of nature!  How
irrepressible, for example, is the outburst of vegetable life
when the earth presents her responsive bosom to the genial
rays of the vernal sun! Were repression possible, its recoil
would shatter the globe into atomns.  How much grander is
the Life-force in the kingdom of God, by which redeemed
humanity, in obedience to its laws, after "groaning and
travailing in pain together, will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of
God!"
3. One of' the powers of the world to come" is the
Light-force which it contains-'its capacity to enlar,e and
illuminate the horizon of the soul.  It is a world of light,
as well as of life, in correspondence with the order of God
in the physical creation: "For God, who comma,nded  the
light to shine out of darkness, hba,th shined in our hearts, to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the
faice of Jesus Christ."  Christ is the central Light-the Sun
of righteousness-in the kingdom of grace; and those who
obey him i"walkl not in darkness, but have the light of
life." The light of this kingd(om is the light of divine
knowledge-of a clear and vivid apprehension of the great
questions of "life and immortality'brought to light by the
gospel," compared to which all other questions are but
"v(nity and vexation of spirit."  This knowledge is not
speculation, but demonstraLtion added to demonstration in
an ever-ascending, scale of indefinite progression.   The
kingdom of Christ is the school of inspired knowledgethe august temple of infallible wisdom-in all that appertains to the moral perfection and eternal destiny of man.
The entrance into it is a passage "from darkness to light;"
and to continue in it is to "walk in the light, as Christ is
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in the light." What an unspeakable happiness, to enjoy
correct ideas of divine truth-to expand and expatiate with
its endless discoveries-to gaze, with unblenching eye, upon
its undiminished effulgence!
But divine illumination is more than a happiness: it is a
power.   Natural light not only reveals the forms of life by
which we are surrounded: it is necessary to their existence
and development.  So the light of "the world to come" is
one of its essential forces: it quickens and stimulates the
growth of Christian manhood, and adorns it with its'beauteous proportions.   Gentle a,s it is, it puts the moral machinery into motion; it starts and stirs the faculties of the
soul into a holy and healthy activity.  If ever the maxim
that "knowledge is power" was true, it is sublimely true
in the world of Christianity.
4. Again, to accomplish its purposes, it employs'the
Love-power.   Supreme love to God and universal love to
man is the cardinal impulse-the constraining motive-of
the gospel kingdom; it is the sovereign affection of the regenerated soul; it is the foundation of obedience, the sum
of morality, the compendiunm of the commandmnents.  It is
the climax of tll moral forces, the consummation of all precepts, and the harmony of all relations.  In loving God, we
adore his perfections, delight in his service, and promote his
glory; in loving man, we honor his nature, pity his miseries, and seek his happiness.  Love is, therefore, equally
the law of attraction and the law of action in "the world
to come."
5. Besides, it brings into constant requisition, as one of
its effective agencies, the poster of Hlope.  The influence
of hope upon human activity and endurance is an acknowledged force in the enterprises of life.  It sheds an alluring
luster on its pathway, and flickers even in its expiring moments.
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[1876.
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1)DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always to be, blest.
The kingdom  of God is the theater and the asylum of
hope: it is never delusive there.  In that sphere it is "as
an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the vail; whither the forerunner is for
us entered, even Jesus, made a high-priest forever, a,fter the
order of Melchisedec(."  The world of redemption is thronged
with objects of desire, and enriched with the rewards of
obedience.  Hlope rises to the contemplation and anticipation of them, and fires the soul with unquenchable ardor in
their pursuit.  It fortifies with patience and animates with
exertion all its faculties to obtain "the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus."
6. In this category of moral forces we assign a place to
the law of sanctified reciprocity.   The effect of it on the
character and condition of the Christian is a proof of its
intensity and its value.   It is "the bond  of perfectness"
which uniites into one vast brotherhood the whole Church
of the living God, identifying each with all, in the contest
for victory.   When one atpproaches the gate of the klingdom, he is solitary and desolate; he leaves the world of sin
and sinful men behind him; he needs new sympathies, new
affections, and new associations. Whenr he enters, Christianity brings him into instant contact and companionship
with "the general assembly and Church of the first-born,
which are written in heaven-with the spirits of just men
made perfect," and with all on earth who are making "their
calling and election sure."  Jie is surrounded with their
presence, supported by their fellowship, encourage(l by their
example, and assisted by their prayers. What a wealth of
advantage is comprised in the communion of saints!  What
a moral force resides in the collective strength of the household of faith!
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VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY.
7. The Christian system includes amongst its vital forces
a special arrangement to meet the-emergencies of the Chris tian life.  It does not precipitate us into the arena of duty
and of danger, and abandon us to the perils of the strife:
it subsidizes in our behalf the aid of divine grace, and the
interposition of divine providence. The life of faith is
a struggle exhausting ill its labor, and a. battle fearful in
its conflict.  God is not so much a spectator of our fortunes
as an omnipotent Friend in our distress working in us of
his good pleasure, and enabling us to work out our salvation.  He hastens to our relief.  His seasonable assistance
is one of the constitutional provisions of "the world to
come," in order to secure our ultimate success.  We  may,
therefore, "come  boldly unto  the throne of grace, that
we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of
need."
8. It subordinates to its benevolent purposes the angelic
power-the ministry of the unfallen angels. Throughout
their celestial gradations they are renderied subservient to
the welfare of the saints and perform official functions in
their behalf.  If we cannot define their functions we are
acquainted with their office and relations: "Are they not
all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who
shall be heirs of salvation?"  Every member of the imperial hierarchy, from the highest archangel to the lowest
functionary in their resplendent ranks, contributes the
measure of his capacity to promote the salvation of the
children of God.   Do they not fan our fevered brows with
ambrosial plumes?  Do they not whisper cheering words
in the hour of dismay? Do they not rush into the breach,
to protect and to rescue, in the moment of danger? Are
not our departing souls "carried by angels into Abraham's
bosom?"
9. Finally,'the world to come" is pervaded by the ex
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:5 DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
ecutive power of the divine administration.  It is a perfectlyorganized government, over which Jesus Christ himself presides. It - is plenipotentiary, self-subsistent, and self-sufficient.  It will take care of itself and of its subjects, and
will survive all obstacles.  It will redeem all its pledges,
-,nd will indemnify the losses sustained in its service by an
eternal weight of glory.
These, my  brethren, are some of "the powers of the
world to come, whereof we speak"-some of those moral
forces which enter into and augment the plenitude of resources which pertain to the kingdom of grace, and which
it employs to facilitate, and to secure for us, "an abundant
entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."
Our theme to-day is fertile in conclusions.
It defines the position of man in the scale of being.  He
is the paragon of the creation, the heir of two worlds, and
the connecting link between them.   HIow  magnificent  is
man, viewed in his relations to the visible and invisible universe! H1 ow he towers aloft, as he stands revealed in the
light of that manhood and monarchy with which God has
endowed him!
It shows the interest awakened in the heavenly places in
his behalf.  He is the focus of a thousand merciful contrivances; he is the object of an amazing system of a,gencies to rescue and to raise him to the plaLtform of a majestic
maturity and a glorified immortality; he is the center of
a circle radiant with divine benedictions and replete with
benevolent instrumentalities.
Our subject foreshadows the grade of moral culture which
awaits  his earnest concurrence.   What  transformations,
what,purity, what dignity, will crown his faithful exertions!
The chief of sinners may become the elect of God.   The
soiled mantle of earth may be exchanged for the clean and
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1875.] 
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY.
white linen of the saints, and he may walk the streets of
the New Jerusalem as a king and a priest unto God for ever.
It behooves him to place himself in contact with the
divine apparatus prepared for his benefit. He must invoke
its power, and adjust himself to its.salutary influence.  He
must arouse himself to the greatness of his destiny, and
assert his manhood in the achievement of it.
Our subject defines the responsibilities of those who are
engaged in the education of youth.   The cultivation of the
intellectual nature must recognize and respond to the cultivation of the moral nature.   We  have seen the divine
arrangements for the one: we must adopt corresponding
methods for the other.   The robustness and completeness
of the human character consist in their harmonious combination.   There must  be no antagonism  between  thenim;
otherwise, the result will be a distortion, and not a model.
Our subject indicates the legitimate career of this great
institution.   This is neither the time nor the place to eulogize its munificent benefactor: that commendation will be
deferred until to - morrow.   The  VANDERBILT  UNIVERSITY
arises under the auspices of Christianity-amidst the prayers and  blessings of the Church.  It must vindicate its
vocation by fidelity to its claims; it must link its fortunes
to the plastic "powers of the world to come."  The Church
must settle, in the seats of learning, the true correlation
between science and religion, and rescue Christianity firom
the charge of incompatibility with the higher culture of
humanity. A great vocation this-a grand problem to be
worked out!  Happily, we enjoy to-day the evidences of
this design.   Christian services  anticipate  the scholastic
inauguration;  Christian ideas  and Christian  faLith assert
their prerogatives in advance; and side by side with halls
of literature and science stands this beautiful Christian
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
temple, to offer a sanctuary and an asylum to Christian
truth.
Our theme evinces the inexhaustible grandeur of Christian thought.   Rapid as is the advancement of natural science, and brilliant as are the discoveries of human research,
the progress and development of Ghristianity transcend
them all; for, while the one unfolds the wonders of the
natural world, the other discloses the glories of'the world
to come," a,nd elicits the rapturous exclamation, "0  the
depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of
God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways
past findingc out!"
God grant that the benefits of a solid education in science
and literature, imparted in this institution, may be consecrated by the experience of a sound conversion, and by a
growth in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ! "Now unto him that is able to keep us from falling,
and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory
with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be
glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.
Amen."
After the Sermon was sung the following Dedication Hymn
(tune, Duke Street):
Father Almighty! hear our cry!
Sovereign of all on earth, on high:
Lord God of power and might, thou art
The strength and hope of every heartl
Eternal Wisdom! Light have we
Only as it beams forth from thee:
Let the refulgent rays divine
On our poor darkling spirits shinel
Fountain of Love! Without thy grace
Earth is a dreary, cheerless place:
Thy  all-comprising peace impart,
Spirit Divine, to every heartl
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1875.]
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VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY.
Great Three in One!  Now from above
Give power, give wisdom, and give love,
As thus we consecrate to Thee
With joy our University!
Lord, let thy work to us appear,
Thy glory to our children here;
Our work shall then established be
To us and our posterity.
Patrons and benefactors blessTo teachers, students, give success:
We pray in faith, assured thou wilt
Shine forth upon our Vanderbilt!
After Prayer by Bishop PAINE, the Doxology
Old Hundred:
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him, all creatures here below;
Praise him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
The Benediction was pronounced by Bishop DOGGETT.
IN the afternoon, at three o'clock, the congregation reaissembled, and after a voluntary by the Choir, Hymn 771 (tune,
Howard) was sung:
How shall the young secure their hearts,
And  guard their lives from sin?
Thy word the choicest rule imparts
To keep the conscience clean.
When once it enters to the mind,
It spreads such light abroad,
The meanest souls instruction find,
And raise their thoughts to God.
'T is like the sun, a heavenly light,
That guides us all the day;
And through the dangers of the night,
A lamp to lead our way.
23
11876.
was sung, in
I 
DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
Thy word is everlasting truth;
How pure is every page!
That holy book shall guide our youth,
And well support our age.
Prayer was offered by the Rev. CHARLES F. DEEMS, D.D.,
Pastor of the Church of the Strangers, New York.
The Lesson was read by Bishop WIGITMAN.
ilvmn 794-being a part of a Hymn written by Charles
Wesley for the Kingswood School, founded by John Wesley
iln 1748 —was sung in Creation, as follows:
Come, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
To whom we for our children cry;
The good desired and wanted most,
Out of thy richest grace supply!
The sacred discipline be given
To train and bring them up for heaven.
Unite the pair so long disjoined,
Knowledge and vital piety:
Learning and holiness combined,
And truth and love, let all men see,
In those whom up to thee we give,
Thine, wholly thine, to die and live!
Then came the Sermon~by Bishop WIGIITMAN, as follows:
CHRIST THE CENTER AND BOND OF TiE UNIVERSE.
"By Him  all things consist."   Col. i. 17.
The context fixes, beyond doubt, the meaning of the
word "Him" in the text: it is, and can be, none other than
the Lord Jesus Christ.
"Consist" is a word transferred from the Latin to our
tongue, from the Greek equivalent of which we derive the
word system; the idea in both being that of a "standing together"-a mutual dependence, one part upon another, each
for all-the whole scheme pervaded by a controlling idea
giving law to the arrangement. The conception of the text
seems to be that Christ is the great center of unity and bond
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1875.] 
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY.
of connection between the grand departments of universal
being; or, as Bengel long since expressed it, "all things in
him have come together into one system."  As Mediator,
God manifested in the flesh, he is the nexus between the
mighty objective whole and the unseen, infinite, eternal
Father. 
This system embraces Nature-the whole region of necessitated things, controlled by cause and effect-the realm of
the conditioned.
It embraces, also, Humanity, as in part supernatural, because a spiritual, immaterial essence-the soul-is united
to a material organism-the body.   This is the sphere of
the rational, ethical, immortal.
It comprehends, also, the realm of purely spiritual intelligences, of which revelation gives us distinct intimations
in angel and archangel, principalities dominions, and powers.
This is the scope of the ctll t/tins in the text.
This universal whole, in the verse preceding the text, is
affirmed, distinctly and peremptorily, to have been created
by the Son, who is the image, the visible manifestation, of
Deity.   Since he is Creator, so this universal whole  has
in him  subsistence, consistence.  Hence his own sublime
affirmation, "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the
last."
Look at Christ in the sphere of nature.
As the Son of God, he created this planet that it might
be part of his vast scheme of order, might be the fit platform for the training of man, of mind, for a glorious future
immortal destiny. For man's use, not he for its, were
formed its soils and ores, its coal-fields and forests; for him
are its atmosphere, its light, its waters; for him its laws
were established, its wheels roll. All its arrangements are
but means, never ends. It is, and ever must be, unintelligent: showing forth the glory of God, but never compre
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
hending its own purpose; eternally thing, never personQ; to
be used by intelligent mind, itself forevter unconscious.
Into this world came the Son of God, taking upon him
the condition of man-' -born of a woman, born under the
law, that he might redeem" the fallen race.  His object was,
by coming down into humanity, to lit humanity to God.
It has been nobly said that "it is the especial glory of our
race that it should have furnished that point of contact at
which God has united himself not to man only, but also
through man to his own universe, to the universe of matter
and of mind."
Ile is in the sphere of cause and effect in nature; but is
it wonderful that at his birth a great company of angels
sanrg, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace,
good-will toward men?"  Is it wonderful that at pleasure he
controls the wheel-work of nature, creating food for thousands, turning water into wine, walking the foam-crested
waves of the sea, healing diseases by a touch, saying to
stormy winds, "Be still," and by the mandates of his will
plucking the prey fi'om the grasp of death?  Well mlight
nature, so to speak, have come and f(dlen at his feet, and
confessed himt its absolute Lord and MIster!
Behold himn in the sphere of the human sutpernatral!
The true man, according to St. P.-ul, is the inner man.  The
spirit belongs not to the region of nature's cause and effect;
it is not subject to nature's fixed necessitations: it nmoves
in the sphere of spontaneity, and is autonomic and freethe will capable of originatiny action —above necessity, by
reason of the power of self-determination vested in it.
Its law is not the (lawv of cause and effect in nature, but
the "moral law"-that moral law within which, with the
starry heavens above, are the two things which IKant, the
gre:test of German philosophers, said overwhelmed him
with astonishment and awe.   This spiritual essence, as free
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1875.] 
VA AND)ERBILT UNIVERSITY.
and ethical, is capable of knowing the right and doing it;
yet it feels a strange proclivity to the wrong.  Fallen from
original rectitude, depraved man acknowledges, nevertheless, the imperatives of duty.  Conscience is his dread
prerogative.  HIe may be that terribly magnificent thing,
a sinner; hence the strange discord(s within him, partly
angel, partly demon, with capacities wonderfully lofty, with
tastes as wonderfully sordid-a lost Pleiad, broken loose
from  the heavenly attractions.   Under  sin, manifestly;
listen to the groan which now and then breaks from his
agonized spirit: "O wretched man that I am! who shall
deliver me?"
Into this region Christ comes as a Deliverer. Hiis vicarious, sacrificial death has solved the problem how God can
be just and justify the ungodly.   EvTen as he unites in his
own person the manhood anrid the Godhead  he is mighty to
suffer, and "mighty to save."  "When we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son."  In
Christ's redemptive-work behold the great, stupendous considercih'on of reconciliation!  The love of the Father to the
Son, who thus bore the malediction due to the sinner, is an
ineffable, unfathomable love; it goes into all the provisions
of redemption, into all the plan of s,(dvation.  Redemption
once  iccomplished, there needs, indeed there can be, no
other altar, no other blood, no other priest-none, none-to
come between the sinner and his Saviour.  The way is open
to the holiest by the blood of Christ.
kNow, beyond cavil, this is supernatural work for the element in humanity which is above nature's fixed necessitations.  It is God that justifieth, not man  working  out
some such result by self-development.  And so is the gracious work wrought i man.   To them who receive Christ,
who believe on his name, "he gives power to become the
sons of God."  This power renews the soul; this power
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
brings the affections into harmonic play with the dictates of
conscience; the result of its operation is being "born of
God." And thus adoption comes with justification. But
all this is supernatural work.   Christ is the binding, unifying principle.  Without him, there  is no redemption, no
pardon, no sanctification, no final glorification. Abiding in
him by constant faith, we have real and constant fellowship
with the Father.   The central point of the supreme desire
and aimn of an immortal spirit is reached in this union with
God, and all perturbations cease.
But )nan needs reconciliation with 1himself  In Christ he
finds this.
His reason and his faith are reconciled in Christ.  As
God-man, Christ is the union of the absolute with the relative.  He  is the living realization of the loftiest of the
reason's ideals; he is the supreme manifestation of love to
the sentiment of the heart.  He that leaves the principles
of the doctrine of Christ, and goes on to perfection, reaches
that shining summit at which to adopt the noble expression
of Dr. Arnold, "faith is reason leaning on the bosom of
God." 
The sense    oe ofbligltion and the freedom of love are reconciled.   There is law; but the soul, pardoned, renewed, and
bathed in the light, aind warmth of the love of Christ, cries,
0 how love I thy law: it is myT meditation all the day!"
Not that Christ has obeyed for him, and made virtue a
thing of proxy.: the obedience is real,, but loving, cordial,
constant, because Christ's gospel has become a "law of liberty."  Let the sense of responsibility be deep and urgent,
but take with it the word of Christ, applicable to all occasions of duty all emergencies, all suffering:  IMy grace is
sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness."  Over and beyond all natural force of will-(XLll the
strength which comes fiom a bracing self-discip)line —we find
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in Christ the "enabling principle" of obedience, and then
we "can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth
us.
Praier and efort are harmonized.  In the last analysis
prayer is the expression of absolute dependence on God for
every  thing; it is the abandonment of all self-assertion,
all self-trust.  But if you wish to find the fountain-head of
all the noblest achievements for the good of humanity-of
the unnumbered activities by which Christendom has been
beautified and blest —of the time, labor, self-sacrifice, that
have been freely given for the maintenance and propagation
of truth, go to the closet where the pleaiding, beseeching
prayer, made potent with God through the advocacy of the
crucified, ascended, and glorified Son, asks for help in the
time of need.  Ay, the banners which wave in triumph
over all battle-fields are banners which have been laid in
humble devotement on the altar of an incarnate God.
Thus, too, the loftiness of hope and the lowliness of humility coexist in the heart which has enthroned Christ, the
man of sorrows, the Lord of glory.
How  beautifully might the great truth of the text be
shown by referring you to the harmony and true relation,
the one to the other, of a life in the flesh, and a life by the
faith of the Son of God!
How  forcibly might it be shown  that all competent,
worthy, and noble conceptions of edtuctation must find, as
the complement of what is secular and merely intellectua],
the distinct recognition of Chiist's influence-his teachings,
his grace-as the "bright, consummatte flower," the crown
and glory of the whole educationil process!
But I have not time to carry your thoughts much farther
along the line of illustration-so fruitful, so boundless, so
joy-inspiring-suggested by the thesis of the text. I mnust
not attempt to show how Christ, as the great connecting
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
force, bind(s mn-n to man.   Certainly, I have no capac,(ity of
thought or expression, no wing of inspiration, to lift you
to the starry  altitudes of my theme, in any attempt to
show you how this Christ of yours will bind the most ext,lted intelligences of the wide and populous universe to
God —to man, God's human, redeemed, immortal offspring.
It is enough  to repeat the glowing words of St. Paul:
"That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he
might  gather together in one  all things in Christ, both
which are in heaven and which are on earth."  "To  the
intent that now unto the principalities and powers in he(venly places might be known  by the Church the manifold
wisdom  of God, according to the eternal purpose  which
he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord."   Cherubim and
seraphim stand unsand.-led and uncovered in the presence
of the glorious manifestations of the interior nature a-nd
essence of Deity, of the boundless wisdom  and the love
unfathomable displayed in the whole redemptive s(,heme:
an immeasura,ble store of truth and life,: illustrated in all
the past, never to be exhausted in all the future.
To the young men whlo are present, ready to matriculate
in this new seat of learning, who stand as the representatives of the great company of young men who, in the succession of generations, shall fill these ample halls, and be
trained by the most eminent lmasters and instructors of the
times in all learning, philosophy, aind science, and go out
to fill positions in society full of responsibility as well as
honor-to you, allow me, before I sit down, a parting word.
It is this word of wa~r,ning: Never to substitute culture
for personal godliness.   This is ain error-niay I venture
to say tIhe error, the fattal error-to which you will be most
exposed on the intellectual  side.   No  mere knowledge,
even theological  knowledge can safely be put in the place
of a personal regenerattion brought into the spirit by the
3
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full, entire, iunquestioning, irrevoca.be commitment of the
soul to Jesus Christ as a Saviour.  Knowle(ldge will point
out the path to this Saviour; a penitent faiith, which  has
abandoned sin and broken with the world, walks in this
path, and at the feet of the Son of God makes the actual,
all-important surrender.   This  process never  has been,
never can be, superseded by mere education, since human
nature has in itself no recuperative, self-reconstructive energies to be drawn out by culture.   Our religion is the religion of salvation; and God's plan, which has settled the
matter for all time, connects repentance toward  God and
faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ with salvation, as necessa,ry conditions.
I know how strong are sometimes the excitements of the
imagination; how liable we are to substitute these excitements in the place of a genuine faith in the Son of God.
A refined taste may be quick to discern the sentiment of
the beautiful in nature and art, in the breezy morn a.nd the
dewy eve, in mountain, and sky-glassing lake, and foamning
water-fall —the sentiment of the sublime in- the n-zure sky
and rolling thunder, in'the storm-swept sea, and under the
midnight stars.  It may linger along the haunts and drink
at the fountain of the Muses-may be thrilled with the
melting harmonies which swell through some grand old
temple, or stand awed in the presence of smoking incense,
white or scarlet robed processions, and priestly genuflections., Mealnwhile, the conscience may never have weighed
the imperatives which link' the soul inextricably to a future
retribution, the heart never have felt the bitterness of sin,
the will never have accepted God's method of salvation,
the spirit's free activities never have been turned to Christ
as the only way to God.
But, with this word of warning, let me utter, also, the
parting word of high, confident assurance, that Christ will
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
bind into blessed agreement, bring into joyous accord, blend
in beauteous symmetry, all that is truly valuable in the
culture of intellect, in the play of sentiment and taste, all
that is noble in secular learning, in philosophy and science,
with all tha.t is divine in a supernatural salvation, all that
is deepest and loftiest in the knowledge and love of God.
"By Him all things consist."   "Put ye on the Lord Jesus,
and make no provision for the flesh."   Make a sincere surrender, an irrevocable commitment, to Him.   Then, with an
abiding consciousness that these  are your own and real
states of the mind, with " the peace of God, which passeth
all understanding," keeping heart and mind, susceptibility
and intellect, you will have the gates of the will guarded
by sleepless sentinels.  Infidel sophistry, false philosophy,
the sneer and banter of a proud and daring scientism, the
fury of an audacious criticism, denying the possibility of
the supernatura(l, materializing the soul, grinding it to
powder under the ponderous wheels of natural law, along
with the body in death, and proclaiming annihilation as the
goal of all aspiration-forces such as these, aided by the
witchery of sensual pleasure, the waving plume, the painted
cheek, the blazing diamond, the more lustrous eye of
beauty leading youth into the gats-lit halls of revelry-all
these, and whatever else a state of triatl for the unseen and
eternal may allow or present, as ant-igonistic, and therefore
as tests, to the faith of the Christian, you will be able to
withstand, Christ being "in you the hope of glory." Or,
if adversity befall, if health fail, if darkness come down,
and great winds blow, and the vessel be tossed on at sea of
tempests, over the troubled waves  your  faith shall see
Him who of old, amid storm and darkness, said, "It is I,
be not afraid!"
And, in fine, for all the possibilities, hazards, and hopes
of the dread, sublime  "(all-hail hereafter," Christ  maui
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fested in the flesh, put to death under Pontius Pilate, risen
firom a sealed and gurd(led grave, ascended, invested with
the "power of an endless life," behold the foundation of
al hope that grasps the Infinite; see the tie between earth
and heaven, between man and the eternal God.
May this great doctrine of Christ form the foundationprinciple of every sermon and lecture which shall hereafter
be delivered within these grand, echoing, and now consecrate(]d, walls!  To HIim, the substance and supreme end of
all preaching, of all culture, in all ages of time, to Him,
"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday  to-(day, and fo'ever," be
glory and dominion everlasting!' For thou only art the
Lord; thou only, 0 Christ, with the Holy Ghost, art most
high in the glory of God the Father."
Ode (tune, Albion, or America) was sung,
The Dedicationllows:
as follows:
Father Omnipotent,
Our offering we present,
And trust thou wilt
Deign to accept what we,
With a glad heart and free,
Gratefully offer thee Our Vanderbilt!
Incarnate Word Divine,
We offer thee this shrine,
And trust thou wilt,
Great Sun of righteousness,
Beam forth with special grace,
And consecrate  and  bless
Our Vanderbilt!
Creator Spirit, come,
And consecrate this dome!
We  trust thou wilt!
Descend from heaven above,
Like the symbolic dove,
And hover o'er, in love,
Our Vanderbilt!
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All-glorious One in Three,
This shrine we offer thee,
And know thou wilt,
For thy own  mercy's sake,
In condescension take
The offering which  we make Our Vanderbilt I
Prayer was offered by Dr. J. B. McFERRIN, followed by the
Doxology:
To the great One and Three
Eternal praises be
Hlence-evermore!
Hiis sovereign majesty
May we in glory see,
And  to eternity
Love and adore.
Bishop WIGHTMAN closed the service
Benediction.
ON Monday morning, October 4, at ten o'clock, under
the escort of the Chief Marshal of the Day, His Excellency
Governor PORTER, with the Bishops, Board of Trust, and
Faculties, followed by the students, went in procession from
the Chancellor's office to the Chapel.
After Music by the Band, a voluntary by the Choir, and
Prayer by Bishop MCTYEIRE, a splendid full-length portrait
of Commodore VANDERBILT was unveiled, amid great applause.
The Governor was introduced by Bishop MCTYEIRE, and
His Excellency made a brief and pertinent Address, as follows:
Gentlemen of the Faculty, and Trustees of Vanderbilt University:
No event of its kind has awakened more of popular
sympathy in the South, and especially in Tennessee, than
the opening of this University. At the laying of the corner
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stone of this magnificent building, my predecessor was here,
and gave voice to the sentiments of his constituents; and I
am here to-day to repeat the expression of satisfaction,
common to the people of Tennessee, at the location of a
great University at the capital of their State, and to extend to you, dignitaries of the Churh.-trustees, professors,
and students-a cordial welcome to Tennessee; and I wish
I could add a welcome to hinm who has given his name to
the University, and whose munificence has given it life.
His name must forever stand preeminent for its claim to a
grateful recollection. His benevolence is superior to sections
and to parties, and his liberality illustrates that character
of men, common to our country, who raise trade and comnmerce above a mere selfish pursuit of individual gain.
The State offers to you no exclusive privileges, but it
generously relieves your property from the ordinary burdens, and will afford to it the full protection of its laws.
The Constitution of the State provides that "it shall be
the duty of the General Assembly, in all future periods of
this Government, to cherish literature and science."  This
provision in the fundamental law of the land is the warrant
of the people of Tennessee that this institution shall have
their protection and support.
Gentlemen, the mission of this University is above mere
commonplace.   It must be more than a place where academical instruction is imp-trted; it must be more than a
school for the training of candidates for "' the three learned
professions."  Steam and electricity are driving us forward
at a tremendous pace, and, to meet the demands of the
hour, you who are charged with the administration of this
great trust, must, as I believe you will, make it a universal
school, in which are taught all branches of learning: a
st?udil)n generale el Universitas studii generalis, where architeclits, chemists, engineers, farmers, and miners, can be ed
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
ucated, and where original inquiries and investigations are
stimulated.  The duty,assigned to me is simply to welcome
you, Churchmen and school-men. I repeat my greeting,
and bid you Godspeed.
After Music by the Band, the Rev. CHARLEs F. DEEMs,
D.D., delivered the following Address.
RELATIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY TO RELIGION.
Your Excellency, Mr. President of the Board of Trust, M)r. Chancellor,
Gentlemen of the Faculties, Ladies and Gentlemen:
God, the Father of lights and of spirits, knows how profoundly  I feel the responsibility of making the Opening
Address of the VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY —an institution dear
to me for many reasons, an institution which  I hope will
endure  forever.   Trusting in the God  of nature  and of
grace, and resting on your friendly interpretation of all I
shall say, I go forward.
Looking up, as in prayer, he said:
'" Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my
heart be acceptable in thy sight, 0 Lord, my strength and
my Redeemer."
It has been thought fit that a minister of religion should
make the first utterances at the opening of a school which
professes to intend to teach what is known, and to stimulate
research, in every department of intellectual investigation.
If, for a moment, any man could suppose that it would be
proper to assign the initial speech to a teacher of religion as
indicating that religion should take haughty and undue precedence of science, the thought would be most infelicitous.
The present speaker would not assume any such position.
It would misrepresent his convictions of the truth and his
sense of the proprieties of the occasion.
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VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY.
This recent cry of the "Conflict of Religion andcl Science"
is fallacious, and mischievous to the interests of both science
and religion; and would be most mournful if we did not
believe that., in the very nature of things, it must be ephem eral.  Its genesis is to be traced to the wea,k foolishness of
some professors of religion, and to tbe weak wickedness of
some professors of science. No man of powerful a,nd he(althy
mind, who is devout, ever has the slightest,pprehension
that any advancement of science can shake the foundations
of that faith which is necessary to salva.tion.   No man of
powerful and healthy mind, engaged in observing, recording, and classifying fiacts, L,nd in searching (aLmong them) for
those identities and differences which point to principles and
indicate laws, ever feels that he suffers any embarrassment
or limitations in his studies by the niost reverent love he
can havte for God as his Father, or the most tender sympathy
he can have for man as his brother, or that hatred for sin
which produces penitence, or that constant leaning of his
heart on God which produces spiritual-mindedness, or that
hope of a st:ite of imrnmortal holiness which has been the
ideal of humanity in all iages.
All this dust about "the conflict" has been flung up by
men  of insufficient f,ith, who  doubted  the basis of their
faith; or by men of insufficient science, who have mistaken
theology or the Church for religion; or by unreasonable atnd
wicked men, who have sought to pervert the teachings of
science so a,s to silence the voice of conscience in themselves,
or put God out of their thoughts, so that a sense of his
eternal recognition of the eternal difference between right
and wrong might not overawe their spirits in the indulgence
of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of
life. It may be profitable to discriminate these; and if badges
and flags have become mixed in this fray, it nmay be well to
readjust our ensigns, so that foes shall strike at only foes.
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
It is, first of all, necessary to settle distinctly what science is, as well as what it is not; and, also, what religion
is, as well as what it is not.
We can all afford to agree upon the definition rendered
by the only man who has been found in twenty-two centuries to add any thing important to the imperial science of
logic. Sir William iHamilton defines science as "a complement of cognitions, having in point of form the character
of logical perfection, and in point of matter the character
of real truth."  Under the focal hlieat of at definition like
this, much that claims to be science will be consumed.   It
is the fashion to intimate, if not to assert, that it is much
more easy to become scientific than to become religious;
that in one case a man is dealing with the real, in the other
with the ideal; in the one case with the comprehensible, in
the other with the incomprehensible; in the one case with
that which is certain and exact, and in the other case with
that which at best is only probable and indefinite.
There can be no doubt, among thoughtful men, of the
great value of both science and religion. A thinker who
is worth listening to is always misunderstood if it be supposed that he means to disparage either. An attempt to
determine the limits of religion is no disparagement thereof,
because all the most religious men who are accustomed to
think are engaged in striving to settle those limits, in order
that they may have advantaige of the whole territory of religion on the one hand, and on the other may not take that
as belonging to religion which belongs to something else.
Now, if Sir William Hamilton's definition is to be taken,
we shall perceive that he represents science in its quality,
in its quantity, and in its form.   Cognition of something is
necessary for science.  Then, (1) the knowleldge of things
known must be true; (2) that knowledge must be full, and
(3) it must be accurate; it must be in such form as to be
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VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY.
most readily and successfully used by the logical understanding for purposes of thought.
This sets aside very much that has been called science,
and, as it seems, perhaps nearly all that which has been the
material used by those who have raised the most smoke
over this "conflict" question.
'Guesses at truth" are valuable only as the pecking at
a plastered wall, to find where a wooden beam runs, is useful; but.' guess is not knowledge.  A working hypothesis
would not be to be despised, although the student of science
might feel quite sure in advance that when he had learned
the truth in this department he would throw the hypothesis
away. A working hypothesis, like a scaffold, is useful;
but a sc,affold is not a wall.  Art is not science.  Art deals
with the appearances, science with the realities, of things.
Art deals with the external, science with the internal, of a
thing; art with the phenomenon, science with the nounenon.
It must be the "ireal truth" which we know, and know
truly.
Weak men on both sides have done much harm-the weak
religionists by assumihg, and the weak scientists by claiming, for guesses,ilaid hypotheses the high character and full
value of real truth.  The guesses of both have collided in
the air, and a real battle seemed impending; but it was
only "guesses" which exploded-bubbles, not bombs; and
it is never to be forgotten that a professor of religion has
just as much right to guess as a professor of science, and
the latter no more right than the former, although he may
have more skill.
No man can abandon a real truth without degradation to
his intellectual and moral nature; but Galileo, Kepler, and
Newton, in their studies from time to time, employed and
discarded theory after theory, until they reached that which
was capable of demonstration.  It was only that which took
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its place as science. In the case of Kepler, it is known
what great labor he spent in attempting to represent the
orbit of Mars by combinations of uniform circular motion.
His working hypothesis was the old doctrine of epicyclic
curves.   But his great labor was not fruitless, as has been
carelessly asserted.   The theory was false, and therefore
not a part of real science; but, working on it, he discovered
that the orbit of Mars is an ellipse, and this led himn to the
first of his three great laws of planetary motion, and enabled him almost immediately to discover the second.  Here
was a great intellect employing as a working hypothesis a
theory which has alwayvs been false, and now is demonstrably false.  It was not science.
Now if, while scientific men are employing working hypotheses merely as such, men representing religion fly at
them as if they were holding those hypotheses as science,
or if men representing science do set forth these hypotheses
as if thev were real knowledge of truth, and proceed to
defend them as such, then much harm is done in all directions.
In the first instance, the religious man shows an impatience which is irreligious.   "He that' believeth doth not
make haste."  It is unfair to criticise any man while he is
doing. Let him do what he will do; then criticise the deed.
The artist has laid one pigment on his palette, and he is
criticised before it is known what others he intends to mix
with it, to procure what shade, to produce what effect. Wait
until all the paint is on the canvas, and the artist has
washed his brushes and drawn the curtain from his picture;
then criticise the picture.
This impatient and weak criticism on the part of religious men is injurious to scientific progress, as well as to the
progress of religion. For the latter, it makes the reputation
of unfairness; for the former, it does one of two bad things:
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it obstructs free discussion among students of science, or
pushes them into a foolish defiance of religion. Men must
co-work with those of their own sphere of intellectual labors.   They must publish guesses, conjectures, hypotheses,
theories.  Whatever comes into any mind must be examined
by many minds. It may be truer it may be false; there
must be no prejudgment. Now if, because our scientific
men are discussing a new view, our religious men fly among
them and disturb them by crying'"heresy," "infidelity,"
'atheism," those students must  take  time to repel the
charges, and thus their work be hurt. If let alone, they
may soon abandon their fatlse theory.  Certainly, if a proposition in science be false, the students of science are the
men likeliest to detect the falsehood, however unlikely they
may be to discover the truth that is in religion.  Nothing
more quickly destroys an error than to attempt to establish
it scientifically.
The premature cries of the religious against the scientific
have also the effect of keeping a scientific error longer alive.
Through sheer obstinacy, the assailed will often hold a bad
position, which, if not attacked, had been long ago abandoned.
And we must have noticed that nature seems quite as able
to make scientific men obstinate as grace to do this same
work for the saints.
No man should be charged with being an atheist who
does not, in distinct terms, announce himself to be such;
and in that case the world will believe him to be too pitiful
a person to be worth assailing with hard words. But as
you may drive a man away from you by representing him
as your enemy, so a scientific man may be driven from the
Christian faith, if convinced that the Christian faith stands
in the way of free investigation and free discussion; or,
he may hold on to the fiaith because he has brains enough
to see that one may be most highly scientific and most
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
humbly devout at the same time; but by persecution he
may be compelled to withdraw from open communion with
"those who profess and call themselves Christians."  Then
both parties lose-what neither can well afford to lose-the
respect and help which each could give the other. When
the son of a religious teacher turns to, the works of a man
whom he has heard that father denounce, and finds in any
one page of those books more high religious thought than
in a hundred of his father's commonplace discourses, a sad
state of feeling is produced, and many mistakes are likely
to follow.
Sir William Hamilton's definition of science has for yenus
"4 a complement of cognitions," and for dierentia "logical
perfection of form," and " real truth of matter."  The definition is a demand for a certain fullness. We can only conjecture, in the case of any particular science, how much
knowledge such a man as Sir William Hamilton would regard as a'"complement." But students of science do well
to remind themselves that it is impossible to exceed, and
very difficult to succeed, and the easiest thing imaginable
to fall short. In other words, we have never been able to
collect more material of knowledge than the plan of any
temple of science could work in, and really did not demand
for the completion of the structure, and that very few temples of science have been finished, even in the outline,
while all the plain of thought is covered with ruins of
buildings begun by thinkers, but unfinished for want of
more knowledge. Even where there has been gathered a
sufficient amount of knowledge to be wrought by the logical understanding into the form of a science, so that such
a mind as Hamilton's would admit it as a science-i. e., a
sufficient complement of cognitions of truths put in logical
form-another age of labor, in other departments, would so
shrink this science that, in order to hold its rank, it would
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have to work in the matter of more  knowledge, an(d, to
preserve its symmetry, be compelled to reiiadjust its architectural outlines.  In other words, what is science to one
age may not be science to its successor, because that successor may perceive that, although its matter had the character of real truth, and its form the character of logical
perfection, as far as it wvent, nevertheless there were not
enough cognitions not enough, just because in the later
age it wa(s possible to obtain additional cognitions, which
could not have been obtatined earlier.
And, in point of fact, ha(s not this been the history of
each of the acknowledged sciences?  And can any significance be assigned to Sir Williaml Hamilton's definition
without talking the word "complement" to mean atll the cognitions possible -alt thle ie?  Now, unless It one time men
have more cognitions of any subject than at another time,
one of two things must be true: either (1) no new phenomenat will appear in that department, or (2) no a,bler
observer will arise.  But the history of the human mind in
the past renders both suppositions highly improbable. If
no new phenomena appear we shatll have observers abler
than have existed, because, although it were granted that
no firesh accessions of intellectual power came to the race,
each new generation of observers would  have  increased
ability, because each would have the aid of the instruments
and methods of all predecessors. When we go back to consider the immense labor performed by Kepler in his investigations which led to his brilliant discoveries, we feel that
if his nerves had given way under his labors, and domestic
troubles, and financial cares, or his industry had been just a
little-less tenacious, he would have failed in the prodigious
calculations which led him to his brilliant discoveries, and
gave science such a great propulsion.  Just five years after
the publication of Kepler's'"New Astronomy" the Laird of
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
Merchiison published, in Scotland, his "Liroci Lo(a(ith2zorum Canonis Descriptio."  If Kepler had only had Napier's
logarithrms!  But succeeding students have enjoyed  this
wonderful instrumental aid, and done great mental work
with less (draught on their vital.energies.
The very facts, then, which make us proud of modern
science should make scientific men very humble.  It will
be noticed that the most arrogant cultivators of science are
those who are most ready to assail such ieligious men as
are rigid, and hold that nothing can be added to or taken
away firom theology;  and such scientific men make this
assault on the assumption that physical sciences are fixed,
certain, and exact.  How ridiculous they make themselves,
at review of the history of any science for the lIast fifty
years would show.   Is there atny department of physical
science in which a text-book used a quarter of a century
ago would now be put into the hands of any student?  The
fact is that any man, who is careful of his reputation, h(as
some trepidation in issuing a volume on science, lest the
(day his publishers announce his book the morning papers
announce, also, a discovery which knocks the bottom out
of all his arguments.   This shows  the great intellectual
a,ctivity of the age-a matter to rejoice in, but it should
also promote humility, and repress  egotism in all wellordered minds. There is, probably, no one thing known in
its properties and accidents, in its relations to (all abstract
truths and concrete existence.   No  one thing is exactly
and thoroughly known by any man, or by all men.   Mr.
Herbert Spencer well says: "Much of what we call science
is not exact, and some of it, as  physiology, can never
become exact."  (Recent Discussions, p. 158.)  He might
have made the remark with greater width, and no, less
truth, since every day accumulates proof that that departmnent of our knowledge  which we call the exact sciences
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holds an increasingly small proportion to the whole domain
of science.
There is one important truth which seems often ignored,
and which should frequently be brought to our attentionviz.: that the propositions which embody our science are
statements not of absolute truths but of probabilities.
Probabilities differ. There is that which is merely probable, and that which is more probable, and that which is
still much more -probable, and that which is so probable
that our faculties cannot distinguish between this probability and absolute certainty; and so we act on it as if it
were certain.  But it is still only a' probaLbility," and not
a'~certainty."  It seems as though it would forever be impossible for us to determine how near a probability can
approach at certainty without becoming identical with that
certainty.
Is not all life a discipline of determining probabilities? It
would seem that God intends that generally the certainties
shall be known only to himself.  Ile has probably shown
us a very few certainties, more for the purpose of furnishing
the idea than for any practical purpose, as absolute certa.inty
is necessary for him, while probabilities are sufficient for us.
All science is purely a classification of probabilities.
We do not know that the same result will follow the same
act in its several repetitions, but believe that it will; and we
believe it so firmly that if a professor had performed a successful experiment before a class in chemistry, he would not
hesitate to repeat the experiment after a lapse of a quarter
of a century.  Scientific men are not infidels.  Of no men
may it be more truly said that they "walk by faith."
They do not creep, they march. Their tread is on made
ground, on probabilities; but they believe they shall be
supported, and according to their faith so is it done unto
them.
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And  no men better know than truly scientific men that
this probability can never become certainty.   In the wildest dreams of f,anaticism-and  there are fanatics in the
laboratory, as there are in the sanctuary of God and in the
temple of nmamtmon-it has never been believed that there
shall come a, man who shall know ll things that are,  ll
things that have been, all things that shall be, and all things
that can be, in their properties, their attributes, tand their
relations.  Until such a man shall arise, science must always
be concerned with the cognition of that which is the real
truth as to probabilities, or with probable cognitions of th:at
which is not only real truth, but absolute truth.  A scientific writer, then, when he states that any proposition has
been'"proved," or any thing "shown,  means that it has
been proved probable to some minds, or shown to someperh(ips to all —intelligent persons as probable.  If he have
sense and mo(desty, he can mean no more, although he does
not cumber his pages or his speech with the constant repetition of that which is to be presumed, even as a Christian
in making his appointments does not always say, Deo volente,
because it is understood that a Christian is a man always
seeking to do wha-t he thinks to be the will of God, in submission to the providence of God.
A scientific man ridicules the idea of any religious man
claiming to be "orthodox."  It must be a,dmitted  to be
ridiculous, just as ridiculous as the claim of a scientific man
to (Ibsolute certainty and unchangeableness for science. The
more truly religious a man is, the more humble he is; the
more he sees the deep things of God, the more he sees the
shallow things of himself.  Hie claims  nothing positively.
He certainly does not make that most arrogant of all claims,
the claim to the prerogative of infinite intelligence.  There
can exist only one Being in the universe who is positively
and absolutely orthodox, and that is God. In religion, as
4
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in science, we walk by faith-that is, we believe in the
probabilities sufficiently to act upon them.
So f-ir from any conflict being between science and religion, their bases are the same, their modes are similar, and
their ends are identical-viz.: what all life seems to be,
that is, a discipline of faith.
It is not proper to despise knowledge, however gained:
whether from the exercise of the logical understanding, or
firom consciousness, or from faith; and- these are the three
sources of our knowledge. That which has been most uindervalued is the chief of the three —that is, faith.
We  believe before we acquire the habit of studying and
analyzing our consciousnesses. We  believe before we learn
how to conduct the processes of our logical understanding.
We  can hlatve much knowledge by our faith without notice of our consciousness, and without exertion of our
reasoning faculties; but we can have no knowledge without
fiaith. We can learn nothing from our examination of any
consciousness without faith in some principle of observation,
comparison, and memory. We can acquire no knowledge
by our logical understanding without faith in the laws of
mental operations.
This last statement, if true, places all science on the
same basis with religion.  Although so fatmiliar to many
minds we may take time to show that it is true.
For proof let us go to a science which is supposed to
demonstrate all its propositions, and examine a student in
geometry. We will not call him out on the immortal 47:I
of Euclid. We can learn all we need firom a bright boy
who has been studying Euclid a week.  The following may
represent our colloquy:
"Q. Do you know how many right angles may be made
by one straight line upon one side of another straight line?
"A. Yes; two, and only two.  Innumerable angles may
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be made by two straight lines so mneetilng, but the sum of
all the possible angles will be two right angles.
"Q. You say you know that.  Hlow do you know that
you know it?
'"A. Because I can prove it. A man knows every propl)osition which he can demonstrate.
"Q. Please prove it to me."
The student draws the well-known diagrams. If he follows Euclid, he begins with an argument like this:
"A. There are obviously two angles made when a straight
line stands on another straight line.
"Q. My eyes show me that.
"A. Well, then, those angles are either two right angles
or, together, are equal to two right angles. And I prove
that in this way: If the two angles made by the lines be
equal, each is a right angle according to the definition of a
right angle, which may be stated thus: A right angle is one
of the two angles made by a straight line on one side of
another straight line when both angles are equal. If each
is a right angle, and there are only two, because they have
taken all the space on that side of the line, it is proved that
two right angles are made by two lines in the relation supposed, and only two."
But if each be not a right angle, our young friend poceeds, by the well-known demonstration of Euclid, to show
that the sum of the two angles is equal to two right angles;
and when he has finished and reached the Q. E. D., he and
his examiners know that this proposition is true, because he
has proved it. But when we examine his argument we find
that he, has made three unproved assumptions-namely, (1)
that a thing cannot at the same time be and not be; (2) that
if equals be added to equals the wholes are equal; and (3)
that things which are equal to the same are equal to one
another.  It so happens that each of these propositions
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which he has assumed to be true is, if true, much more important than the proposition which he has proved.  Let us
point out these three assumptions to our bright student,
and then resume our catechism.
"Q. Could you possibly prove this proposition in geometry if any one of those three assumed propositions were not
granted?
"A. No.
Q. Then, if we deny these assumptions, can you prove
them?
"A. No; but can you deny them?
"No, we cannot deny them, and cannot prove them; but
we believe them, and, therefore, have   granted them to you
for argument and know your proposition of the two right
angles to be true, because you have proved it."
Now, here is the proposition which Euclid selected as
the simplest of all demonstrable theorems of geomnetry, in
the demonstration of which the logical understanding of a
student cannot take the first step without the <lid of faith.
From the student let us go to the master. We go to such
a teacher as Euclid, and in the beginning he requires us to
believe three propositions, without which there can be no
geometry, but which have never been proved, and, in the
nature of things, it wvould seemn never could be provednamely, that space is infinite in extent, that space is infinitely divisible, and that space is infinitely continuous.
And we believe them, and use that fatith as knowledge, and
no more distrust it than we do the results of our logical
understandings, and are obliged to admit that geometry lays
its broad foundations on our faith.
Now, geometry is the science which treats of forms in
their relations in space.  The value of such a, science for
intellectual culture and practical life must be indescribably
important, as might be shown in a million of instances. No
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form can exist without boundaries, no boundaries without
lines, no line without points. The beginning of geometric
knowledge, then, lies in knowing what a "point" is, the existence of forms depending, it is said, upon the motion of
points.  The first utterance of geometry, therefore, must
be a definition of a point.  And here it is: "A point is that
which has no parts, or which has no ma(gnitude."  At the
threshold of this science we meet with a mystery.   "A
point is "-then, it has existence-" is" what? In fileact, in
form, in substance, it is nothing.   A  logical definition requires that the #enus and dffereniia shall be given.   What
is the genus of a "point?" Position, of course. Its dfferenia( is plainly seen.  It is distinguished  from every
thing else in this, that every thing else is soi)eetkin# som))ezuvere, and a point is nol/zing somewhere; every thing HAS
some characteristic, a point has none.  A point is visible or
invisible.  Is it visible? Then, we ca'n see that which is without parts or magnitude.  What is it we see when we do not
see any part, do not see any magnitude?  Is it substantial
or ideal?  If substantial, how do we detect its substantial
existence?  If ideal, how can an idea have motion, and by
simple motion become a substantial existence? Are we not
reduced to this?  Ideals produce substantials, or invisible
substantials, upon motion, produce visible substantiails; or
that which is necessary to mLtter-namely, form-owes its
existence to that which is neither substantial nor ideal-to
nothing, in fi,et.  The entire and sublime science of geometry, at one time the only instrument of culture among the
Greeks, and so esteemed by Plato that he is said to have
written over his (door, "Let no one enter here who does not
know geometry," in all its conceptions, propositions, and
demonstrations, rests upon the conception of that which hi,s
no parts, no magnitude.   The old saw of the school-men
was, "Ex nilito nihil fit."  If each visible solid owes its
-4
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form to superficies, and each superficies its form to lines, and
each line its form to a point-and a point has no form, because it has no parts-then, who shall stone the man that
cries out, "-Ex nikio geomnetria ft?"
But lay the first three definitions of geometry side by
side: 1. "A point is that which has no parts, or which has
no magnitude."  2.'"A  line is length without breadth."
3. " The extremities of a line are points."  Study these,
and you will probably get the following results: That
which has no parts produces all the parts of that which
occupies space without occupying space, and which, although it occupies no space, has extremities, to the existence of which it owes its own existence; and those
extremities determine the existence of that which has
parts made up of multiplications of its extremities which
have no parts.  Now, you nmust know at least that much,
or else stay out of Plato's house.
This useful science, without which men could not measure their little plantations, or construct their little roads on
earth, much less traverse and triangulate the ample fields
of the skies, lays for its necessary foundation thirty-five
definitions, three postulates, and twelve axioms, the last
being propositions which no nman has ever proved; and these
fifty sentences contain as much that is incomprehensible,
as much that must be granted without being proved, as
much that must be believed, although it cannot be proved,
as can be found in all the theological and religious writings
from those of John Scotus Erigina down to those of Richard Watson, of England, or Charles Hodge, of Princeton.
Does any man charge that this is a mere logical juggle?
Then, he shall be called upon to point out wherein it differs
fiom the methods of those who strive to show that there is
a real conflict between real science and real religion.  If
any man shall charge me with being an infidel as touching
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geometry, and try to turn me out of the church of science,
I shall become hotly indignant, because I know that Euclid
did not believe more in geometry than I do, and I believe
as much in the teachings of geometry as I do in the teachings of theology, regarding them both, as Aristotle did, as
mere human sciences, ranking theology with psychology,
geology, and botany. And, being by profession a theologian, I certainly believe in theology.
And this brings us back to what was stated in the beginning, as one of the causes of this cry of "conflict."   It is
the confounding of theology with religion. Theology is not
religion any more than psychology is human life, or zoology
is animal life, or botany is vegetable life.  Theology is a
human science; religion is a real life.  Theology is objective;  religion is subjective.   Theology  is the  scientific
classification of what is known of God; religion is a loving
obedience to God's commandments.  Every religious man
must have some theology, but it does not follow that every
theologian must have some religion.  We  never knew  a
religious man without some kind of a theology, nor can we
conceive such a case. But we do know some theologians
who have little religion, and some that seem to have none.
There may be a conflict between theology and some other
sciences, and religious men may deplore that conflict, or may
not, according to their measure of fiLith.  There are those
whose faith is so large and strong that they do not deplore
such a conflict, because they know that if, for instance  a
conflict should come between geology and theology, and geology should be beaten, it will be so much the better for
religion; and if geology should beat theology, still so much
the better for religion: according to the spirit of the old
Arabic adage, If the pitcher fall on the stone, so mnuch the
worse for the pitcher; and if thke stone fall on the pitcher, so
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uzvch the worse for thle piclier.  Geologists, psychologists,
and theologists, must all ultimately promote the cause of re ligion, because they must confirm one atnother's truths, and
explode one another's errors; and a religious man is a man
whose soul longs for the truth, who loves truth because he
loves God, who knows if the soul be sanctified( it must  be
sanctified by the truth, even as the mind must be enlarged
and strengthened by the truth.  Ile knows  and feels that
it would be as irreligious in him to reject any truth found in
nature as it would be for another to reject any truth found
in the Bible.
But there is no necessary conflict between even theology
and any other science.   Theology habs to deal with problems into which the element of the infinite enters.  It will
therefore have concepts some two of which will be irreconcila,ble, but not therefore contrad(lictory.  For instance, to
say that God is ";an infinite person" is to state the agreement
of two concepts which the human mind is supposed never
to have reconciled, and never to be able to reconcile.   But
they are not contradictory.  If one should say that there
is in the universe a circular triangle, we should deny it, not
because the concept of a triangle is irreconcilab/e with the
concept of a circle, as consistent in the same figure, which
is quite true, but because they are contfraicftor.  What is
irreconcilable to you may be reconcilable to another mind,
because "irreconcilable" indicates the relation of the concept to the individual intellect; but what is contradictory
to the feeblest is contradictory to the mightiest mind, because Ccontradictory" represents  the relation of the concepts to one another.
In the definition of a person there is nothing to exclude
infinity, and in the definition of infinite there is nothing to
exclude personality.   There is no more exclusion between
C person" and " infinite" than between  line" and  "iinfin
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
ite;" and yet we talk of infinite lines, knowing the irreconcilability of the ideas, but never regarding them  as contradictory.
Writers of great ability sometimes fall into this indiscrimination.   For instance, a writer whom I greatly admire,
Dr. Hlill, former  President  of Itar-,ard  College, in one
paragraph (in "The Uses of Mathesis") seems twice to employ "contradictory" in an illogical sense, even when  ie
is presenting an illustration which goes to show most clearly
that in other sciences, as well as in theology, there are
propositions which we cannot refuse to accept, because they
are not contradictory, although they are irreconcilable; in
other words, that there are irreconcilable concepts which
are not contradictory for we always reject one or the other
of two contradictory concepts or propositions.
That is so striking an illustration of the mystery of the
infinite that I will reproduce it.  On  a plane imagine:t
fixed line, pointing north and south.  Intersect this at an
angle of ninety degrees by another line, pointing east and
west.   Let this latter rotate at the point of intersection,
and at the beginning be a foot long. At each approach of
the rotating line toward the stationary line let the former
double its length.   Let each approach be made by bisecting the angle. At the first movement the angle would be
forty-fivte degrees and the line two feet in length; at the
second, the angle twenty-two and one-half degrees and the
line four feet; at the third, the angle eleven and one-fourth
degrees and the line eight feet; at the fourth, the angle five
and five-eighths degrees and the line sixteen feet; at the
fifth, the angle two and thirteen-sixteenths degrees and the
line thirty-two feet, and so on. Now, as this bisecting of
the angle can go on indefinitely before the rotating line can
touch the stationary line at all its points, it follows that before such contact the rotating line wilr have a length which
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cannot be stated in figures, and which defies all human computation. It can be mathematically demonstrated that a
line so rotating, and increasing its length in the inverse ratio
of its angle with the meridian, will have its end always receding from the meridian and approaching a line parallel to
the meridian at a distance of 1.5708. We can show that the
rotating line can cross the stationary line by making it do so
as on a watch-dial, and yet we can demonstrate that if it be
extended indefinitely it can never touch the stationary line,
nor come at the end even as near as eighteen inches to it.
Here are two of the simplest human conceptions, between
which we know that there is no contradiction, rendered absolutely irreconcilable to the human intellect by the introduction of the infinite. There is no religion here. And
yet there is no mystery in either theology or religion more
mysterious than the mystery of the infinite, which we may
encounter whenever we attempt to set our watches to the
right time if they have run more than an hour wrong.
Another error has been the occasion of this cry of'"conflict." It is the confounding of "the Church" with "'religion." This confusion has led many an honest soul astray,
and is the fallacy wherewith shrewd sophists hatve been fable
to overthrow the faith of the ignorant. If the Churchand, in all my treatment of this topic, I must be understood
as using "the Church" not as signifying'"the holy Church
universal," but simply in the sense in which antagonistic
scientists employ it-if the Church and religion be the same,
the whole argument must be given up, and it must be admnitted that there is a conflict between religion and science,
and that religion is in the wrong. Churchmen are guilty
of helping to strengthen, if indeed they are not responsible
for creating, this error.  It has at length been presented
plumply to the world in the book of Professor John William
Draper, entitled a "History of the Conflict between Re
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ligion and Science." The title assumes that there is such
a conflict. See how it will read with synonyms substituted:
"History of the Conflict between Loviny Obedience to God's
Word and Intelligent Study of God's Works." Does Dr.
Draper believe there is such a conflict? It is not to be
supposed that he does. How, then, did he come to give his
book such a title? From a confusion of terms, as will be
observed by the perusal of three successive sentences in his
preface:'4 The  )9apacy represents the ideas and aspirations
of two-thirds of the population of Europe.   It insists on a
political supremacy,.....   loudly declaring that it
will accept no reconciliation with modern civilization. The
antagonism we thus witness between religion and science,"
etc.  Now, if'the papacy" and "religion" be synonymous
terms, representing  equivalent ideas, Dr.  DIraper's book
shows that all good men should do what they can to extirpate religion from the world; but if they are not-and
they are not-then the book is founded on a most hurtful
fillacy, and must be widely mischievous.   Their share of the
responsibility for the harm done must fall to Churchmen.
No, these are not synonymous terms. "The Church"-is
not religion, and religion is not'"the Church."  There may
be a Church and no religion; there may be religion and no
Church, as there may be an aqueduct without water, and
there be water without an aqueduct. God makes water,
and men make aqueducts.  Water was before aqueducts,
and religion before Churches.   God makes religion, and
men make Churches. There are irreligious men in every
Church, and there are very religious men in no Church.
Any visible, organized Church is a mere human institution.
It is useful for the purpose of propagating religion so long
as it confines itself to that function and abstains from all
other things.  The moment it transcends that limit, it is an
injurious institution.  In either case it is merely human,
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and we wrong both religion and the Church when we claim
for the latter that it is not a human institution.   The
Church of England is as much a human institution as the
Royal Society; and the same may be said of the Church
of Rome and the Royal Florentine Academy. A Church
is as much an authority in matters of religion as a society
is in matters of science, and no more.   "The Church" has
often been opposed to science, and so it has to religion; but
"the society" has often been opposed to religion, and so it
has to science.  "The Church,' both before find since the
days of Christ, has stood in opposition to the Bible, the
text-book of Jewish and Christian religionists, quite as
often as it has to science.   But  "the society," or "the
academy," has stood in opposition to science quite as often
as it has to religion.  Sometimes the sin of one has been
laid upon the other, and sometimes the property of one has
been scheduled as the assets of the other. It is lime to protest, in the interests of the truth of God, and in the n:tme
of the God of truth, that religion no longer be saddled with
all the faults of the Churchmen, all the follies of the scientists, and all the crimes of the politicians.  It was not religion which brought Galileo to his humniliating retraction,
about which we hear so much declamation; it was "the
Church."
But why should writers of the history of science so frequently conceal the fact that "the Church" was instigated
thereunto not by religious people, but scientific mnien-by
Galileo's collcaborateurs?  It was the jealousy of the scientists which made use of the bigotry of the Churchmen to
degrade a rival in science.  They began their attacks not
on the ground that religion was in danger, but on such scientific grounds as these, stated by a professor in the University of Padua-namely, that as there were only seven
metals, and seven days in the week, and seven apertures in
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man's head, there could be only seven planets!  And that
was some time before these gentlemen of science had instigated the sarcastic Dominican monk to attempt to preach
Galileo down under the text, Viri G(lilwei, guid states adspicientes in coelum?
In like manner, politicians have used "the Church" to
overthrow their rivals.  "The Church" is the engine which
has been turned against freedom, against science, against
religion.  It would be as logical and as fair to lay all "the
Church's" outrages against human rights and intellectual
advancement at the door of religion as it would be to lay
all its outrages against religion at the door of science and
government, because "the Church" has seldom slaughtered
a holy martyr to the truth without employing some forms
of both law and logic.
Science exists for the sake of religion, and because of
religion.  If there had been no love for God in the human
race, there had been no study of the physical universe.
The visible cosmos is God's love-letter to man, and religion
seeks to probe every corner of the sheet on which such love is
written, to examine every phrase, and study every connection. A few upstarts of the present day, not the real men
and masters of science, ignore the fact that almost every
man who has made any great original contribution to science,
since the revival of letters was a very religious man; but
their weak wickedness must not be charged to science any
more than the wicked weakness of ecclesiastics to religion.
Copernicus (born 1473), who revolutionized astronomy,
was one of the purest Christians who ever lived-a simple,
laborious minister of religion: walking beneficently among
the poor by day, and living among the stars by night; and
yet one writer of our day has dared to say, in what he takes
to be the interest of science, that Copernicus was''aware
that his doctrines were totally opposed to revealed truth."
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Was any thing worse ever perpetrated by theologian, or
even ecclesiastic? Could any man believe in any doctrine
which he knew was opposed to any truth, especially if he
believed that God had revealed that truth? It were impossible, especially with a man having the splendid intellect
and the pure heart of Copernicus, who died believing in his
"De Orbiu  Coelestiunm Revouttlionibus," and also in the Bible.
And this is the inscription which that humble Christian ordered for his tomb:  "YTon paren Paulo yeniam reguiro, gratiaan Petri neque posco; sed qua)n in Cei'ucis ligno dederis
cla,troni, sedulus Oro."
Tycho Brahe (born 1546), who, although he did not
produce a system which won acceptance, did, nevertheless,
lay the foundation for practical astronomy, and build the
stairs on which Kepler mounted to his grand discoveries,
was a most religious man.   He introduces into one of his
scientific works ("Astronozmie Instauratio Mechanica," p. A)
this sentence: "'No  man  can be made  happy, and enjoy
immortal life, but through the merits of Christ, the Redeemer, the Son of God, and by the study of his doctrines,
and imitation of his example."
John Kepler (born 1571) was a man in whose life the
only conflict between science and religion seemed to be as
to which should yield the most assistance to the other.
He wrought as under Luther's mnotto,'" Orasse est studisse."
He prayed before he worked, and shouted afterward.  The
more he bowed his soul in prayer, the higher his intellect
rose in its discoveries; and as those discoveries thickened
on his head, it bowed in humbler adoration.   And so that
single man was able to do more for science than all the
irreligious scientists of the last three centuries have
accomplished, while he bore an appalling load of suffering
with a patience that was sublime, and, dying, left this
epitaph for his tomb-stone: "In Chrislo pie obiit."
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Of Sir Isaac Newton's, and Michael F:uraday's, and Sir
William Hamilton's, and Sir James Y. Simpson's religious
life, not to mention the whole cloud of witnesses, we need
not tell what is known to all men. But the history of
science shows  that not the  most  gifted, not  the most
learned, not the most industrious, gain the loftiest vision,
but that only the pure in heart see God.  And  all true
science is a new sight of God.
Herbert Spencer says: " Science may be called an extension of the perceptions by means of reasoning."   (Recent
Discussions, p. 60.) And we may add, Religion may be
called an extension of the perceptions by means of faith.
And having so said, have we not paraphrased Paul?  "Faith
is confidence in things hoped for, conviction of things not
seen." (Heb. xi. 1.) Science has the finite for its domain,
religion the infinite; science deals with the things seen,
and religion with the things not seen. When Dr. Hutton,.
of Edinburgh, announced, in the last century,'"In the
economy of the world I can find no traces of a beginning,
no prospect of an end," it is said that scientific men were
startled and religious mend were shocked. Why should they
be?  The creation of the universe and its end are not
questions of science, and can be known only as revealed to
faith.  And so Paul says: " Through faith we apprehend
intellectually that the worlds have been framed by the
word of God, so that that which is seen may have sprung
from that which is not seen." (Hieb. xi. 3.)
But we must close.
While preparing this Address it has been my almost
daily custom to pass the massive Masonic Temple recently
erected in the city of New York. Before its portals stand
two stately columns, known to the brethren of the Masonic
Order as Jachin and Boaz. On each rests a globe. In
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VANI)ERBILT UNIVERSITY.
going to my study in the morning I pass first the column
which supports the celestial globe, and as I return to my
home in the evening I pass first the column which supports
the terrestrial globe.  One day it came to me that here
there stood, in solid symmetry and solemn resemblance, the
symbols of these twins of God, who did not struggle in the
infinite womb as Is,ac's sons contended before they were
born, and whose children should not fight on the fields of
the finite as the descendants of Jacob and Esau have contended for inheritances which are corruptible and which
pass away.
The most sacred thing in the "Sanctum Sanlorure" of the
ancient Hebrew tabernacle and temple was the Ark of the
Covenant, the Law, God's testimony to his sense of right,
the solitary autograph in human letters of the Eternal,
written on stone, inscribed by the very fingers of the Lord
God Almighty. Over the Ark which held the Law, God
ordered that a Mercy-seat should be placed.  " His tender
mercies are over all his works," and so his Mercy-seat
covered his Testimony.  When Adam and Eve had been
driven forth, the cherubimn had stood at Eden's gate, while
a flaming sword turned every way. They were placed
there as guardians to keep the way of the tree of life. In
the tabernacle the cherubim reappear, but comle without
the sword, stretching forth their wings on high, covering
the Mercy-seat with their wings, and gazing down on the
awful nmystery of Love overlapping Law, and Law upholding Love.
Behold, I have a vision of the cherubim.
The Ark is carried into the temple not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens.  The cherubim are instinct with
life to the outermost tip of each mighty pinion.   The very
glory of God descends to make his everlasting throne upon
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. DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
the everlasting Mercy-seat, which covers the everlasting
Seat of Law. Before the infinite majesty of that Glory
the cherubim arise, and stand in fiont of God; and, as they
arise, the sounds of their quivering wings are heard to the
outer court of all the temple of the universe, as the voice
of the Almighty God when he speakqth.
See how they stand, so vast and so superb!
The One who has the place by the right hand of the
Omnipotent lifts up himself, and all the glory of all the
suns is on his brow, and each great wing is like an unmeasured mnilky-way, ashimmer with the mystic splendor
of all stars.
The One who has the place nearest the infinite heart of
Immiortal Love lifts up himself.  His brow is fairer than
the light of that morning when all the sons of God shouted
for joy. IHis eyes are lovelier than the sapphired tent that
pavilions the eternal throne.  His  lips are  ravishingly
sweet with the best beauty that comes from the kisses of
the Lord. His wings are pinions whose plumes of whiteness shed thoughts of purity down on angelic minds, and
whose immense sweep fans all the love-flames glowing in
seraphic hearts.
Twain they stand, and twain they turn, until hierarchic
circles kindle into raipture at the sight.  Even God delights
himself in their surpassing glory, and( smiles upon them
until their vast hearts can 11no longer hold their divinest joy.
Twain they sing.  The cherub of the snow-white wings
and palpitating heart breaks heaven's ecstatic silence with
the chant., 4Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts!"
The cherub of the starry wings and throbbing brain gives
antiphone, "'ieaven and earth are full of the majesty of
thy glory."
The heavens can keep silence no more, but seraphim and
cherubim, angels and archangels, shout, shout up at the
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VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY.
throne of Love and Law, "Glory be to thee, 0 Lord Most
High!" and, from the fi, rthest reach of thought and fee].iig,
a-ll the company of heaven fill the temple of God with the
multitudinous and musical thunder of the united a,nd overwhelming,'"Anmen, and Amen!"
And the King, eternal,l immortal, invisible, the only wise
God our Saviour, wraps those interlocked cherubim in his
loving arms, and thrills the helavens with his royal edict,
"What God hbathi joined together let not man put asunder."
Those cherubim sublime  are science a,nd religion.  As
they had no struggle with each other when God gave them
birth, as they had no conflict guarding the Ark of Law and
Love, nis they shall have no discord when lea,ding the choii's
of eternity, so they have no conflict now.   At the opening
of this great University, heaven and earth unite in saying,
"If aLny man in these halls shall ever teach that there is
real conflict between real science -and real religion, let that
mn(,n be Anath/ema -lairanct/la."
Pausing a moment at thie close of his Address, Dr. DEEMS
turned to Governior POITER, and said:
YOUR EXCELLENCY:-Our friend, whose name this Institution bears, has communicated with you by letter, expressing
his appreciation of your Excellency's courtesy in giving the
emphasis of your official solicitation to the consideration
extended him by the municipal authorities of Nashville, in
the expression of their desire to make him the city's guest
duiing these festive dlays of the inauguration of the University.
lie did me the honor to request me to bring to your Excellency his respectful salutations, and to assure you that
good and sufficient reasons exist for his absence, whi(h is
due to no la,ck of interest in this great Comtionwea,lth of
Tennessee, nor in this good city of Nashville, nor in this
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1DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
young University, for which he has done what he has (lone
trusting tiha,t it will promote the general interests of learning, and of this whole nation, without regard to sect or
section.  [Applause.]
I have taken this occasion to make to you, publicly, a
communication which might have been rendered in private
had fitting opportunity occurred.
Since I came to my place in this Cha-pel, sir, a telegram
has been handed me, which I shall take the liberty of reading to the whole audience.
The speaker then took from the desk an envelope, which he
opened, and read the following telegram:
NEW YORK, Oct. 4.-To Dr. CHARLES F. DEEMS: Peace and good-will to
all men.                                          C. VAN'DERBILT.
This evoked hearty and proloniged applause from the audi
ence.
Gazing a few moments on the portrait of Commodlore VANDERBILT, which hung on the wall to his left, Dr. DEEMS, with
great tenderness of feeling, quoted the passage of Holy Scripture (Acts x. 31):   "
CORNELITTS, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance
in the sight of God.
The eyes of the audience having been turned to the Commodore's portrait, this remrhark of Dr. DEEMS kindled a degree
of enthusiasm that found vent in an emphatic outburst of
approval.  The scene was one of a highly impressive and
even dramatic force.
After more Music, the Rev. A. A. LIPSCOMB, D.D., late
Chancellor of the University of Georgia, delivered the following Address:
RELATIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY TO GENERAL EDUCATION.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN — Great ideas, like great men, are
capable of unlimited growth.  This is the inborn sign of
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their prerogative, this the outward seal of their sovereignty,
that they are full of instructive life; so that one may describe them as Milton his angels-" vital in every part."
Whether you take them in their sterner logic, or in their
gentler sentiment, they expand  withl steady aim toward
those ideals in which they are consuimmated.'"Be ye tlherefore perfect," is God's command to every grand truth; and
the edict is sure of obedience. Like John the Baptist, they
may go into the wilderness, but as the "locusts and wild
honey" nourished his strength and courage, so they find
even in dreary solitudes the means of constant nurture.
Whatever the eaigle feeds on turns to eagle; and so, too,
no matter what may be the nutriment of great ideas, they
are certain to rise into loftier proportions and reach forth
into broader compass.   Nay, more:  the very souls into
which they enter, conscious of a supreme power to vitalize
every thing they embrace, breathe into them a new vigor;
and thus from within no less than from without these truths
press forward to their destiny.  For in this falith we must
abide, that every fitct involving the well-being of our race
has somewhere in its keeping the blessed Christ of humanity;
and only give it time an(l opportunity, and the Infinite Presence will make itself known.
But "time and( opportunity" are not always words of the
same meaning.  It pleases God at certain seasons to accelerate the movements of human society, to enhance rapidly
the development of great ideas, and compress ages into a
day.  The electricity may gather slowly, but the lightning
flashes quickly.  So, then, we must take account of impulse as well as of uniform law, remembering that Jehovah
"maketh the clouds his chariol," and "wal/eth upon the wings
of the wind." Between the Hebrew of the Judges and the liebrew of the monarchy only a small space lay, and yet what
a moral reach of intervening years!  From the Greece of
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
Hlierodotus, who stood in the transfiguring glories of her
Marathon and Platoeoe, to the Greece of Thucydides, in the
sunset of her Periclean age-only three-fourths of a century-what mighty periods and marvelous transitions interpose! Rome, too, was many Romes from the career of
the Gracchi to the fall of Antony and Cleopatra. Nearer
home, from Elizabeth to Cromwell, what an England
sprang into power by means of domestic parties and foreign
policy!  Still nearer, if you look at that phase of American
civilization which began with George Washington and ended
with Robert E. Lee, howv significant the series of amazements!  To prevent men's mninds from hardening under the
monotony of law, it sometimes happens that Providence
imparts a sudden momentum to moral and spiritual agencies;
and thus we learn to wonder while we adore, and acquire,
at the same time, a rational distrust of those mechanical
sequences which, to a careless eye, seem to govern the
social world.
Our d.y and our continent afford many typical illustrations of the force of great truths-of  their  prodigious
vitality, of their steady expansion, and, moreover, of those
quickening vivifications to which allusion has been made.
The new world we inhabit under the skies of the West has
lost most of its aborigines, and many of its close forests,
and much of the old look of the landscapes; yet it is a
newer world than when Plymouth Rock and Jamestown
first received their immortal names.  Recent astronomy has
vastly enlarged our conception of the universe, but what
shall we say of the widening out in all directions of the
sphere of modern life?  How the ancient Methuselah felt
-patriarch of patriarchs, nine centuries gathered moment
by moment into his hea,rt-how he felt in that early Asia,
none can imagine; but if our great-grandfathers could return to this land, we can easily conceive what changes
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VANDEnBILT UNIVERSITY.
would most fascinate their eyes. Franklin and Bowditch;
the old minister Maury, who sketched for the boy Jefferson, three generations ago, the wai,ter-courses beyond the
Rocky Mountains; Lewis and Clarke; later still, Fulton
and Whitney-these men would see the magnitude of physical transformations that have gone on, partly by regular
growth and partly by violent convulsion, since they left the
earth. Nothing, however, would touch them so deeply as
the progress of mind by means of education, and especially
that aspect of education in which we gain a clear comprehension of the providential law under which man is ordained
to recover the lost sovereignty over nature.  This is, indeed, the foremost wonder of the times, since all other
wonders are but its offspring.
Among the growths, then, of the century, we are warranted in putting a marked emphasis on the enlargement of
the idea of education.  You are the witnesses how wondrously it has developed.   Look at the range of subjects
taught, and you feel the force of a remark made to me by
a learned friend, a graduate of fifty years since, that the
science of chemistry now covers more ground than all the
sciences covered together when he was a student in college.
Look at the co-relations of the arts and sciences-their mutuality of action and interaction, their potent interchanges of
impulse and influence, and their singular convergence in the
same predestined ends! Look at the aid that philosophy has
rendered to history and criticism, and the invaluable service
that mental physiology has afforded to metaphysics! Classify
your schools-the conmmon, the academic, the industrial, the
scientific-those for arts and those for professions, and follow them out in the work they do and the way they do it,
and learn something of the area of modern education.  Turn
your eye to Bell and Lancaster, to Pestalozzi, to John
Pounds, the poor shoemaker, with his ragged boys, to the
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
genius of Seguin, in his "Idiot School," and then to the universities that send forth Pitt and Burke,  Macaulay and
Gladstone, ready-made, to enter on a national arena and
biing instant help to their country.   Passing from this survey, consider more carefully the introduction of a clearer
tnd( broader philosophy into the art of instruction-the inmprovement in modes and methods, the enlarged scope of
relations between teachers and students, and the increased
proportion of educated minds under these recent systems
of education-and this growth will be still more obvious.
Can you not discern these "si ns of thIe  tihies?"   The extremes of utilitarianism and esthetics, of monarchy  and
democracy, of Church and State, have  met here in the
unanimity of generous enthusiasm.
Bear in mind, then that it is not merely, or even mainly,
in the extension of art and science we are to study the
growth of education.   The sentiment itself is quite different from the materials on which it works, and the products
it creates.  As a, sentiment, education had at first at narrow
range.  Its advantages, such as they were, belonged to a
few.  Castes and classes afterward shared its patrimony.
In part by its own inherent force, in part because of political
and social revolutions, its domain has enlarged.  Whether
we go bick to the invention of printing, or to the rise of
Methodism, or to the effects of the French Revolution, one
thing is clear, that the idea of education has been outreaching its former limitations, and finding'firesh woods and
pastures new."  To-day its stronghold is the education of
the community, the nation, the race. And it shows its divine power in this, that it was once and so long "a little
leaven;" for had it not been so "little," it could never have
permeated the bulky whole.  Nor should we forget that the
perfection of education, viewed as a sentiment, cannot be
reached until we share its benefits with others.  One of the
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VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY.
many points at which true culture blends with true religion
is in fulfilling the words,'"It is maore blessed to give tlian to receive;" while it is equally certain that the grandest thoughts
lose their inspiration a.d fall back dead upon the heart unless we impart them to the world. A student of  a,stronomy
has much to learn beyond the boundary which Sir Isaac
Newton touched. The pupil Faraday outstripped, by many
brilliant leagues of space, his great teacher, Sir Humphrey
Davy.  But when we congratulate ourselves on the advance
of knowledge, let us remember, too, as a ground of devout
thanksgiving, that the recipients of the blessings of education embrace all orders and gradations of society.  I consider no festival of scholars complete without the presence
of this joy. And on a day like this, vwhen we celebrate
the advent of a new university, let it give a richei melody
to our anthems of praise, that the idiot boy is now emancipated front the tyrannic bondage of the body;  that the
little children exchange their mothers' arms for the tender
companionships of the kindergarten; that industrial schools
extend a helping hand to the sons and daughters of the
unhappy poor; and that all classes of people, firom the
humblest to the highest, are strengthened, cheered, ennobled, by those varied agencies of beneficence which modern
education includes.
Looking at the historic development of education, we see
that the few have given intellectual guidance and impulse to
the many; or, in other words, the universities have been the
fountain-hea,ds whence h(ave issued the streams of knowledge.
For a long period the ancient universities of Oxford, Ca.mbridge, Paris, Salnmanca, and Bologna,, were the only centers
of instruction in Europe.   These antedated by centuries
the great school systems which are now  acting on the
masses.  But for Oxford and( Cambridge, Christ's Hospital,
and Rugby, and Winchester, would not have been known.
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
About the year 1800 Humboldt presented to the King of
Prussia the scheme of the Royal University of Berlin, and
out of that have come the gymnasia which have done so
much for that kingdom. Had not Tlarvard and Yale been
early founded in the colonization of this country, the common schools of New England could not hbLve sprung so soon
into existence.   To this rule there seen to be no valid exceptions. Mountains supply fertility to valleys; rivers that
measure continents have sources lofty and remote; clouds
may gather over this or that section of the globe, but they
owe their waters to the immense oceans; and just so the
higher universities have sent down their fertilizing power
into every department of learning.  This has not been an
accident. It is one of the oldest and grandest of those
laws by which the Eternal Wisdom has assured the world
of its sovereign presence.  Sometimes one man, at other
times several men-single stars or constellations of splendor in the firmament-the few leading the many; so has it
ever been as far back as we can penetrate.  Out of Abraham, the elect HIebrew nation; out of Moses, all legislators;
out of Homer, the culture of Greece; out of Julius Cesar,
Augustus and the Empire. And how strikingly the Lord
Jesus exemplified this divine method!  Twelve men were
ta,ught and trained to spread Christianity throughout the
world.  In these chosen apostles, each fitted for his special
task, Samaria, Syria, Asia Minor, Italy, lay imbedded for
future development.
But a general statement is not enough.   If we descend
to particulars, we find that the best text-books in all departments of instruction, the progress made in the science of
teaching whereby such an advance has been effected in the
methods of acquisition and creation, the growing dignity
of the teacher's office, have all proceeded from that kind of
thought, and those modes of research  and preeminently
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VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY.
firom that philosophy of mind, which it is the function of
the univerisity to foster.  More than this, the university
devotes itself to those abstruse  investigations, common
alike to mind and matter, which are essential as the foundca tions of practical knowledge.  A  world without  abstr(at
truths, without the profundity of logic, without the subtle
ai nalyses of metaphysics, without the rules andformzulce of
rigid science, could not be the world of either student or
scholar; nor, indeed, could it be, in any significant sense,
the world of political economy, or govATernment, or trade
and commerce.   On the one hand, then, the simple match
that lights your  fire; the cooking-stove which educates
your servant in a thoughtfulness and skill impossible in an
open fire-place;  higher f(ar in the scale, chloroform and
other anesthetic agents, that conquer pain in the hidingplaces of the nerves; and yet, again, those applications of
mechanics which have made the earth so much worthier a
habitation and a home for man —none of these things, in
their varying degrees of utility and beneficence, could ever
have been known except for that higher science which has
its seat of authority ahnd its scope of original action in the
university.
On the other hand, take those books that are libraries
in themselves.  Call over such works as Butler's "Analogy,"
P.,ley's " Evidences," Blackstone's " Commentaries," Milton's "Paradise Lost," Adam Smith's "Political Economy,"
Brid(gewater's "Treatises," Ranke's "History," and htumboldt's "Cosmos," and show me how these could have been
possible but for that maturity of intellect and vastness of
erudition which  the university encourages  and sustains.
When, therefore, you think of the relations of the university to general education, recall the names of the Herschels,
of Cuvier and Owen, of Dugald Stewart and Sir William
Hlamilton, of Black and Liebig, of Carpenter and Miller,
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DEDICATION AND) INAUGURATION.
of Neander and Chalmers, and in the light of their labors
estimate the worth of this rarer culture.  The standards
of intellectual excellence which these men set themselves
to attain were not self-originated, nor, indeed, can we affirm
that their efforts were altogether self-directed.  All unawares to themselves, and in entire accord with their personality, the spirit of university-culture shaped their minds
and pursuits, and insensibly made them what they were in
science and literature. Think, too, of Luther, and the
indebtedness of the Reformation to the university. And
think, likewise, of Wesley, and bless the providence that,
amid its other signs of grace, ordained the birth-place of
Methodismi beneath the overshadowing centuries of Oxford
University.
Having thus noticed the relations of the university to
general education, I pause a moment to say that the attitude of the university is one of deep interest. Unquestionably, it is a formative force, a supreme force, in the
world of mind.   The  more truthful its ideal, the higher
will be that ideal. Men cannot outgrow its guidance and
help. Men will be educated and ennobled just in the proportion that they reverence its spirit.
By virtue, therefore, of its position and accredited
claims, the university has an authority peculiar to itself.
Among us this authority rests on grounds intellectual and
moral, and exerts itself in an influence subtle and pervasivae. Without the appliances of secular power, it has a
certain sovereignty which acts on public opinion, and
still more on public sentiment. Although it cannot be
measured by a palpable standard, it is none the less operative and controlling.  Its very quality, so silent and unobtrusive, determines its commanding force; and for this
reason its responsibilities, both as to the limits of its sphere
and the duties within that sphere, are momentous.   Only
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VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY.
in the realization of its solemn trust, only in the profound
feeling that it is a providential agency, called and commissioned for a great work, can the university find the sustenance of its strength and activity.  It must be free from
that worldliness which tremulously consults the tastes of a
fugitive hour, panders to inconsiderate caprices, and bribes
patronage into its support.  Its creed cannot be taken from
the exchange, nor its code from the street.   The moment it
undertakes to do its business after the nmanner of trade and
commerce, its heart dies.  It must  be independent;  it
must stand above noisy clamor and passionate criticism;
it must call no man master; but in the spirit of noblest
manliness-calm, self-poised, and bravely earnest-it must
obey the law of its vocation.
Standing, then, in this attitude, the university is bound,
in duty, to recognize every department of true thought,
every branch of genuine knowledge, every mode of thorough culture, and, moreover, to give each and all its sympathy, its support, its furtherance.  It owes this to itself,
to its historic antecedents, to the cause of education.   Narrowness, overloaded bias, chronic prejudices, are f,tal to its
aims. One-sided universities make one-sided men, and onesided men are never honest students nor reliable scholars.
A true university has no pets, no hobbies. Holding itself
sternly aloof from the partisanships which writhe the age
into all sorts of distortions, it must be "doweled with the
scorn of scorn and hate of hate," giad press closely to its
heart this truth, that Pharisaism is as deadly in science
and art as in religion; its deadliness lying in this, that it is
dogmatic exclusive, denunciatory.  The fault in all our
thinking is want of breadth. A bird may sing in its confining cage, a lion be a lion behind his imprisoning bars,
but a man shut up in pettiness and conceits is a fractional
creature.  What is best in the university is the catholicity
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of its views.  Far more than its scope of technical inquiry,
or its contributions to the world's stock of knowledge, is
that majestic vigor of mind which has no taint of selfishness, which lives on disinterested service as its daily bread
from heaven, which "looks before and after," and which,
noat conten. to go
Round the daily scene
Of  sad subjection  and of sick routine,
is ever striving to widen the reach of its horizon, and ever
longing to see its zenith rise to a height more distant and
more effulgent.
The infinite wisdom and power of Christianity cannot be
embodied at present in any one Church.   There are, consequently, mnany Churches, each sharing in that glory which
is ineff,tble.  The compass of humanity is too big to be
limited in one nationality, and hence the variety of nations.
Just so, education is a vast idea,, needing many forms to
give it shape and accommodate  its substance.  Chief of
these is the university.  Because of this superiority. its
excellence mainly dwells in its broad and generous sentiment.   Not otherwise can it be in coalescence with civilization and Christianity. Against what is local and( sectional,
against what is spasmodic and romantic, against every thing
even tinged with self-idolatry, it must resolutely set itself,
and take its stand on whatever is lollge-mind(ed and enduiring.
It will never flatter the present at the expense of the past;
still less will it be mean enough to think God that it is
"not as otler men are."   Fraternity with all schools and
colleges; sympathy with the proper work of the press, the
bar, the medical profession, and the pulpit; heartiness of
accord with the mechanic, the agriculturist, the navigator,
the engineer, the manufacturer, and the merchant-these
are the attestations of its office.  Actuated, yea, inspired,
by this sentiment, it will make itself felt in mines, and
DEDICATION AND INA-UG-URATION.
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VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY.
foundries, and workshops, in the cottiages of the poor, and
the mansions of the rich.  For imrnmedi,,ite results, it will
walk abreast with the age; for yet grander results, it will
transcend the age.  But, in its diversified -activity, it will
keep paramount a, simple unity of purpose; nor will it ever
forget that its electness of minisfa'tion consists in  bind ing together as one "wvl(ttsoever thinis are trute, i,halsoever
things (ere honest, whalsoever (llii)gs are y'tts, wtliasoever thlifys
are pure, whatsoever thinqs are lovely, wlhatsoever, thiys ((are of
good report."
Too much stress can scarcely be l.aid on the point now
under consideration.   As we ascend in the scale of education, we approach nearer to the moral and spiritual nature
of man.   At every step of proigress manhood is more and
more a vital issue.  Culture is not religion; no matter how
complete  and  beautiful, it is culture, and  nothing else.
Nevertheless, as it advances, it increases its capacity to
assimilate with Christian virtue and be absorbed in its in(ompara'bly higher excellence.   Now, in this respect, the
university can accomplish much for le'arning and piety by
the spirit animating its efforts.  If selfishness of intellect
is here engendered, if a cold and carping  cr'iticism is encouralged, if the disguises and deceits of bigotry alre allowed,
the effect is inevitably hurtful to both education and religion.  Is it nothing to display an open-handed hospitality to
all truth?  Is it nothing to mediate between anta.gonistic
elements, to reconcile hostile forces, to draw men together
in the unity of a scholarly temper, and in the bonds of intellectual brotherliness?  Is it nothing to promote humility
of judgment?  Is it not, indeed, a great thing to feel that
somewhat of the mind of St. Paul may be ours, when, in
the consciousness of his manifold gifts, he declared that he
was a debtor to all manlkind?
Indirectly, then, as well as directly, the university may
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[1875. 
1DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
stimulate men to the practice of that' c/ztrit#" which, in
the realm of learning no less than in the realm of Christia,nity, is the "5-reatlest."  It can helpl) men to be brethren.
In our day, wh'Lt humilia,ting conflicts between men of letters are going on!  No one supposes that these struggles
of opinion can be arrested; but the bitterness of the strife
might be ended, for a debate need not be a duel.   Right
here the university has an open door of usefulness; for it
is not what this or that branch of knowledge is in itself, nor
what the professions or in(dustrial interests are in themselves, but what they (Ire united as auxiliaries to the growth
of society and to the completeness of imanhood, that (lecides
their ultimate vT.ilue.  By appreciating this inter-rel(-Ltionship of all intellectual Lctivities, and blending them in fellowship, the university may assume the leadership of mind.
To combine, as far,is practicable, the working brain, and
the working heart, and the working hand, of this disjointed
world is one of the worthiest of achievements.  It is mediation, annd therefore godlike.   The human heart has been
sadly dissevered fi'om intellect, so that our truest organ of
vision has been well-nigli lost; but this spirit restores it to
its rightful place in the university.   Men cannot love the
truth and not love humanity.  If this genial sympathy rule
the university, one of the effects will be the education of
well-bred intellects.  Such minds are always rare.  A thoroughly well-bred intellect is the perfection of good-breeding;
and the university ought to make sure, at least, of this admirable product. An intellectual bully is the extreme of
scholarly degradation; but is this odious sight uncommon in
our time?  Delicate refinement in unison with sturdy vigor,
tenderness lending its grace to heroism, noble magnanimity
side by side with unswerving integrity, truthfulness  compact like a rock, and beauty garlanding the bare massiveness
-these are the authentic seals of university work.   In pro
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moting this unity of culture, the university (arrays itself
against:,ll sectionalism; it encoura,ges internaLtionaLlity, and
widens one's country beyond its shores. Nor is this the
sum of its blessings. By teaching men how much they have
in common, by awa.kening in them the sense of harmony in
all the varieties of knowledge, by)honoring every kind of
educated mind, by inclosing with its emblematic girdle every
interest of cultivated society, it fac,ilitates our progress toward that holy unity which is so touchingly symbolized in
the words,   i ne fld cl ((nd one shlepl)erd."
Of late years the disposition to extend  the sphere of
education has been intensely active.  It is a marked and an
energetic impulse; and though, like all impulses, it has been
at times fitful aend wayward, yet it is a movement in the
right direction. WVithout doubt, it has vitalized the pursuits
of knowledge by the introduction of more generous sympathies and a freer range of activity.  It has added new
territories to the old domain; and while the mountain summits are no loftier the t(able-land ha,s been raised hi,gher.
Of course, there have been hot discussions and sharp dissensions.  Classical schlolars, m(athema,tici,tns, scientists, metaphysicialns, the advocates of modern langua,tges, have joined
in the strife —regiments of the same alrn)y confionting one
another; but the conflict can be only temporary.   It is a
question, at last, of mere relattivity and nletho(lic adjustinent.   The instincts of cultivated intellect may be trusted
to settle this debate; for if any thing in this world may be
relied on to regulate itself by the principles of sound philosophy, it is education.
Let us take an illustrative example.  If we'1ppro,ach the
human mind from the material world, we gain aiccess through
the avenues of the senses to its awaiting ficulties; and on
this ground mathematics and physical science have the argument on their side.  On the other hand, if we start from
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
the opposite point and advance to the more spiritual instincts
and sensibilities, classical language has the force of logic in
its favor.  It is a thing of method, no more.   It is initial,
and not final; preparatory, and not ultimate.   The occult
forces, which are latent in each individual, are subsequently
evoked, and these determine the kind and extent of future
development. So far, then, as one's personality is concerned,
these invaluable modes of cultivating the mind  are mainly
tentative, their virtue lying in this fact, that they tend to
give a student the consciousness of his capacity, and test
his power  to turn  that capacity  into practical ability.
Aside from this, whether you take the intellect as operating
through the senses or the sensibilities, it is most wisely
trained by respecting its reciprocal action" in these two distinct forms of thought. Unlike as they seem, they draw
nearer together as they adTvance toward the goal of completed culture. - Pascal was all the better in his c Thoughts"
and "Provincial Letters" for his achievements in science,
and Chalmers was the sublimer in his "Astronomical Discourses" for his knowledge of mathematics. One may attend Newton in his pathway to the Infinite, or Milton as he
soars in his "singing robes" to heights untouched before,
but in each case vastness of conception and grandeur of
sentiment exalt the spirit.
Viewing the subject of education in one light, we have a
single ideal; looking at it under other aspects, it has several ideals.  If we  accept the former, the  mind, in its
structure, in its self-contained powers, in its philosophy of
growth, is the predominant thought; if the latter, the man
in all his relations is the object of contemplation. Now,
what appears best from one of these stand-points may not
appear best from the other. The intellect and the man are
not always on the same level. They touch different spheres;
they often inhabit unlike worlds. Taste works one way
C
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and power another.  Capa city has certain characteristics,
and positive ability very dissimilar features.   At times we
see a great manhood by the partial forfeiture of intellectual
development, and then again we see intellect draining off
the vital resources of manhood; so that we cannot uniformly correlate the mind and the man.  If this be true, it
should teach us caution, lest we overestimate the absolute
benefits of specific methods of education to the exclusion
of all other instrumentalities.  Tintil we get a comprehensive knowle(dge of the human mind, we must have conflicting ideals of education. Meanwhile, it is wisdom to be ias
liberal'   as possible, and to show the utmost cordiality in
welcoming all lno(les and means of culture.   The waters of
the ocean rise into graceful clouds, float in vapory wreaths,
bend in the rainbow, lie in long, level lines over the setting
sun, moisten the lower air, and descend in nightly dews, and
so make firmament and atmosphere a sea of blessing; while
yet the same ocean, undiminished in fullness and unabated
in majesty, bears the products of commerce around the
globe.
When, therefore, w'e try to measure the final force of
education, the scholar is lost in the  man.   Modes  and
methods disappear, as food and air vanish out of the blood.
What remains is what has been assimilated: bone and muscle, heat in the lungs, light in the eye-these are results.
Of this, then, we may rest assured(l, that only noble men can
do noble work; and to have this nobility, we must give
truth an ample sphere-such a one as embraces every elemient of freedom and every constituent of magnanimity.
Faith in men as they are must precede faith in men as they
may become, and this faith is the soul of education. Ra,ise
your platform a few inches, and where are your multitudinous distinctions? Whether the flash of the lightning and
the roll of the thunder are above or below you is a matter
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of altitude. If you shut up utility within the pitiful inclosure of earthly greed and gain, you put it beyond the
pale of philosophy. So, too, when you confine beauty in
the circle of esthetics, you destroy half its charms.   Far
wiser were the Greeks. Winckelmmann says that "the best
workman in the most humble craft night succeed in rendering his name immortal; and we are told that the Greeks
were accustomed  to pray the gods that their  memories
might never die."  You may ask of utility, " Wiy was this
waste made?" with the same sort of pretext that you ask it
of beauty, and in each case the question comes from the heart
of Judas.  Utility may be spiritual, as well as worldly; so
may beauty.   Each is capable of visibility and invisibility.
Both may do God's work; and this is the stamp of their
excellence; for the skill and toil that prepared the alabaster
box of ointment have their place and reward in God's kingdom, as well as the tenderness of Mary when she made it
an offering to her Lord.
How wisely, how beautifully the Lord Jesus reconciled
these seeming contrarieties! You may view him as coming
to man on the two sides of his nature, the spiritual and the
material. Each of these his hand touched; against each
of them his holy heart throbbed.   Our twofold life and its
strange interblendings were ever under his thoughtful eye;
nor did he for an instant overlook the needs of the one or
of the other.  Man, in the serene light of his omniscience,
was the fallen im iage of God  and the fallen image of the
universe. Inasmuch as the two are closely and vitally interlaced, and are in union for the sake of a union higher
than we now understand, he gave to each its rightful place
and just consideration.   To restore him to moral law, that
he might know, and love, and serve God as his Father; to
restore himn to physical law, that he might possess and enjoy the material universe as his home and empire, he taught,
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VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY.
labored, healed, suffered, died.  Draw(ing near to man in
that large section of his nature which language represents,
and of which it is the only interpreter, you can easily see
why St. John should designa.te him as the "Word."   Nor
can language ever need an advocate while that first chapter
of the fourth Gospel stands in the forefront of Christian evidences.  Apart from its immediate and divine purpose, it is
an unanswerable argumnent in behalf of the profound study
of language, whether regarded as a means of outward communication or as an introversive instrument to quicken and
call forth the deepest intuitions of our moral bein,g.
Turn to another aspect of the Redeemer's life.  The
"Word" was also the Worker, and in the same breath he
spoke of " words" and "works" as though they were one.
One indeed they were in him, but to us they belong to different realms.  To show his infinite love for man, as dwelling on the earth, subjected to sorrow, and tortured by evils,
and preyed on by demons, he wrought miracles to bless,
and cheer, and save; out of his living heart flowed those
streams of beneficence that watered his native land, as out
of his dying heart there afterward issued the blood of a
world's redemption. Not for the sake of their evidential
force only, nor for the sole benefit of those immediately
interested, did he multiply bread, and heal the sick, and
walk the waters of the Galilean sea.. Beyond their instant
purpose they had a far-reaching intent, and in this end
they expressed their highest import; for he designed to
teach that these wonders contained seminal influences
which, in other climes and under fairer skies, should germinate  a hundred-fold.   Miracles were  they  then, and
their moral might and glory are prolonged even yet.
Wherever art and science call to their aid the supreme
agencies of natural law, and employ them in a ministration
of Christian sympathy and helpfulness, there the divine
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
Spirit in these miracles is repeated; there the ancient
mn(jesty of goodness comes  back again unalienated; and
there the eye softens into the same sweet stillness, and the
ie(ldy hand imitates its holy Exemplar.
Believe it, friends, believe it: the Son of God is yet in
our midst.   In his house on this earth are C many mcatsions"
(and they are luminous with his presence.   See all around
you scientific agriculture lessening toil and cheapeniug food;
see machinery increasing production; see the auxiliaries to
industry; see the progress of the medical art in soothing
pain, checking epidemics, and rescuing men from the arms
of death; and see the mnyriatd ships that sail in the resplendent wake of those footsteps that trod the waves of
the La,ke of Gennesaret.'"- will not leave you co,fortless;"
atnd here is one of the manifold fulfillments.  Here, too, is
the harmony between those studies and pursuits which
consult the wants of the inward  and outwvard man; and
here, finally, is the highest of proofs that education and
culture must be many-sided to do Christ's work in Christ's
world.
It must be confessed, however, that we have made small
progress in attaining  this ideal.  Unfortunately  for the
advancement of our race, the mass of mnen-even our advanced thinkers-are as faitally bent on rejecting Christ in
providence as in the Cross of Calvary.   " Wllat have we to
do wi1th Iee, thou Jesus of Nazareh?" is the oft-uttered cry
of the spirit possessing the carnal mind.  Sometimes, in
the blind homage paid to material law, then in the fierce
struggles of worldly competition, now in the frigid conclusions of logic, and then in the outbursts of frantic passion,
this rebellious exclamation repeats its profane unbelief.
Alluding to certain evils connected with "Progress," Froude
speaks of'a public confession of despair of human nature;"
nor indeed can we see how any other conclusion than "de
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spa,ir" can be reached when Christ, as the Head of humanity, is disowned.  Man, Is the child of Providence, never
appeared to such advantage as now. But, amid this growing splendor, the question forces itself on us, "/What manner of man is tIkis, thcat even the winds and th/e sea obey him z?"
"The winds and the sea" do truly "obey him;" nay, all
things are beginning to bow down under his lordly rule.
Find man where you will, he is girded with power.  In the
magnificent laboratory of the universe he unlooses new and
pro(ligious forces to do his proud behests.  Backed by inventions and discoveries, he has boundless scope for every
sort of intelligent energy, so that he has well-nigh correlated himself with the globe he occupies.   But, after all,
what is he? Look for your answer in the gross worldliness
everywhere a,bounding; in the fearful decay of obedience to
authority, of loyalty to love, of fidelity in marriage, of
trustworthiness in business, of reverence for God.  If you
had the making of a man to suit these times-to fight his
way to the high places of ambitious success, and win the
renown of earthly triumph-you would give him wondrous
activity of intellect, its powers compacted in an animal
brain, every sense and every nerve disciplined to serve a
despotic will. This should be his outfit: the cunning of
the fox, the stealthiness of the snake, the eye of the eagle,
the spring of the tiger, the strength of the lion; and these
the weapons of his organized fatality.
'      }W/at man}ner of nman i s this "-this representative man
of the saddest aspects of the nineteenth century?  Study
him, probe him, and then say whether art and science are
not creating mind and muscle they cannot control; whether
government is not liberating a force too audacious and. too
reckless for it to hold in check; whether the very successes
of modern civilization are not arousing appetites and lusts
which are too brutal for the puny  arm of its restraint.
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IDEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
Fitly and most worthily were the words'" Whact m,tnner of
man is this?" spoken of Jesus Christ. But this ideal Man
-tell us of what virgin's heart he has been born; in what
manger cradled; in what lowly toil reaied; in what Nazareth silently nurtured.  Wh;,t sacramental Jordan baptized
himn?  What wilderness brought hiq f~ace to face with the
tempter?  With what woe and wretchedness, sorrow:ind
shame, sin and guilt, has he been in long and weary conflict,
bearing burdens not his own, and quickening and inspiring
the hopeless spirit of humanity? Where aire his Tabor,
and Olivet, and Calvary?
But let no man despair-the modern S:tmson may commit
suicide, but he can never throw down the fabric of Christian civilization. It is humiliating to behold the decay of
sentiment, to see honor losing even its ancient prestige, and
to witness the growth of a debasing materialism in the very
heart of our most s:i,cred interests.  Notwithstanding all
these painful spectacles, the adva,nced portions of the race
have built themselves upon high vantage-ground, and never
can they surrender the massive work of bitter centuries.
Happily enough, the dangers from outside barbarism are
extinct. The womb of the old Gothic forests is childless,
and the breast of the Danube gives no nurture.   The evils
of the age are (mong ourselves, plain and patent; and, as
they are internal and simply domestic, they can be met and
mnanaged.  Despite of adverse signs, Christianity has been
too long in the world, and too severely tested, to be permanently injured by any assault. It has taken hold of the
instincts of the race; it has ascended from reasoning into
reason itself; and though it may now be approaching another epoch of trial, it can be but an epoch in the eternity
of its grandeur.
Is not this an hour of inspiriting hope to your hearts? On
yesterday, amid the sanctities of the Sabbath, we dedicated
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VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY.
this temple of learning to God.   To-d-ay, under fairest auspices, we inaugurate its work among men. Among the
many witnesses to the presence anrid power of Christian civilization, the VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY this morning takes its
place and begins its career.  Whether it has "'five talents,"
or less, committed to its keeping, none of us can know.  The
supreme thing is to acknowledge God in what we have, and
put our stewardship to diligent uses. As yet the institution has no history; but yesterday and  to-day ought to
be prophecies; nor could it write better annals than to fulfill
these prefigurations.   The last years of this century are
hastening to make themnselvaes memorable in endowing institutions of learning.  A  new era has commenced in this
order of beneficence; yet, among the instances of thoughtful bounty, not one has been better timed, nor more considerate of urgent need, nor more gratefully appreciated, nor
likely to issue in larger good, than the munificence which
has established this University.
If one follows the River Rhone fromnt the Mediterranean
to Lyons, from Lyons up the valley, and thence through
the district of the Juraesto the rocky gorge of the mountainchain where the turbid stream forces its passage, and still
on to the junction of the Arne, and farther yet till he sees
it rush in proud swiftness through the Lake of Geneva,, and
on again to the western side of Mount St. Gothard, among
the Swiss Alps, he reaches at last the Valley of the Rhone.
There the glaciers lift themselves to the sky; and even on
those summits, where winter chills the heavens, huge masses
of snow are piled up, sublimity crowning sublimity, and
splendor overflashing splendor.  Far down underneath those
compacted blocks of ice, the River Rhone glides from the
solitude of its source, and g:athers from frost and snow the
impulse of its resistless waters.  Like that river, the course
of great events has often started in desolate pl.ices; like
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it, the stream of civilization has taken its rise, at times,
among dreary mountains and remote fastnesses, and flowed
long and far before its current blessed the world.   Not so
with the fountain which this day gushes forth in our midst;
its waters are full of warmth and fertility, and they roll onward to the swell of their own glad(nes.  And  nag it ever
be, Ias the river which St. John saw in the vision of Patmos,
clear ais crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of
(Ie Lamb!"
After another performance by the Band, the Installation of
the Faculties took place.
Bishop McTYEIRE, as President of the Board of Trust, addressed the Faculties, all the members of which stood during
his Address, at the close of which he delivered over the keys
of the University to L. C. GARLAND, LL.D., Chancellor of the
University. The Bishop spoke as follows:
BISHOP McTYEIRE'S ADDRESS TO THE FACULTIES.
It is with great satisfaction we approach this hour of
installation of the Faculties of the University, which,
though it be important, will be brief.  IHis Excellency, the
Governor, closely outlined the scope of our University.
The two speakers who followed him declared the spirit in
which we propose to carry on the University.  It remains
now for 11us to formally invest those chosen as instructors,
teachers, professors.  Thus far all is dust-convenient and
elegant forms of dust it may be.  Now is to be breathed
into it the breath of life, that the Universityl may become a
living soul.  It is to these scientific and literary gentlemen
we look to give character to the University.  For two years
we have been building, piling one stone and one story upon
another.  Paripassu we have been gathering our Faculties.
The Board has been censured by some for delay. The first
professor was elected two years ago-the last one, two
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VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY.
weeks ago. All that time the eyes of the Trustees have
been going through the land to find men suitable for intrusting this work to.  They felt that they could not afford to
make a mistake in this matter.   The time will come when
the fact that any man is connected with the Faculty of the
VANDERBILT will give assurance of, his ability. Then the
institution will make the reputation of its professors; but
now the professors must make the reputation of the institution. Our four Faculties are now complete. They are
before you, and I proceed now, by the authority and in the
name of the Board of Trust, to install them.
Here the Bishop turned to his right, and addressed the
gentlemen, who rose and stood:
MR. CIIANCELLOR AND GENTLEMEN OF THE FACULTIES:-We
congratulate ourselves that we have been able to procure
your services.   I will say of VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY as the
King of Macedon said when his son, Alexander, was born,
writing to Aristotle: "We count ourselves happy, for that
a son has been born to us at a time when  you may be his
instructor."  We thinlk it providential and fortunate for this
University, which has sprung out of a benefaction which
we accept m,nd acknowl]edge with gratitude, that it has come
to us in the South when we may enjoy the benefits of your
-acknowledged ability as instructors and governors of youth.
This high responsibility the Board of Trustees would now
devolve upon you, in full confidence of your ability and of
your fidelity; and, in token of this, I now commit to you
the keys of the University.
Chancellor GARLAND responded as follows:
CIHANCELLOR GARLAND'S RESPONSE TO BISHIOP McTYEIRE.
PR,ESIDENT McTYEIRE: —This is a day which many of us
now present have hoped for, and prayed for, and labored
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
for-a day on which we should see inaugurated, under the
patronage of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, an
institution where, in its halls and academic groves, we
might see Learning and Religion walk hand in hand, the one
shedding its enlightening, and the other its benign, influences over the length and breadth of thq land; and where our
sons might receive the largest intellectual culture without
detriment to their moral habits and religious sympathies;
and where full provision should be made for professional as
well as academic studies, so that in no part of their training should our sons pass from under the fostering care of
the Church.
You know, sir, on that cold and dismal winter day of
January, 1872, in the basement of the Second - street
Church in Memphis, where you and I, and others, were
assembled in convention for devising the ways and means
of establishing such an institution, how gloomy was the
prospect of success.  How hopeless did it appear to make
an appeal to a down-trodden and impoverished people for
the sum of five hundred thousand dollars, which was declared to be the least sum necessary for the incipiency of
the measure, and how absolutely chimerical to expect from
the same source the million of dollars requisite to crown it
with success!  But, sir, there was in our midst one spirit
which did not quail, one breast which hope did not forsake;
and if there be any man whose portrait deserves to hang
on these walls by the side of that which has just been unveiled, it is that of the wise, the prudent, the brave, the
gentle, and the now sainted, A. L. P. Green. Without him,
we should have postponed, probably to an indefinite period,
the matter in hand; but he encouraged us by undertaking,
with the assistance of an agent within the bounds of each
patronizing Conference, to raise the minimum sum referred
to.  If mortal man could have succeeded in this business,
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VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY.
he would so have done; but the result proved how utterly
hopeless was the task-how inadequate our resources for
such an enterprise. Yet, God's favor was upon the work.
lIe was devising means, of which we knew not, for its
accomplishment; and, when all other resources failed, He
put it into the heart of our noblespatron, whose name the
institution bears, to come to our relief, and to do for our
afflicted people what they were not able to do for themselves.  But for his timely aid, none of us present on that
wintry day would have lived to see what our eyes this day
behold.
Were our munificent benefactor present, I would tell him
how by this act he has implanted himself in the affections
of more than a million of grateful people, and how from
their hearts go up daily supplications that the blessings of
God may rest upon him-that he may be preserved in
health and happiness long to live, that his last days may
be his brightest and his best, and that when he shall be
called to pay that last debt which we all owe to nature, he
may, through the infinite merit of Christ, be admitted to
an inheritance incorruptible, and that fadeth not away, in
heaven.  But, sir, this magnificent donation lays peculiar
responsibilities upon a variety of persons-responsibilities
upon you, the Board of Trust, of which it is not proper
that I should speak; responsibilities upon the community
in the midst of which this institution is located, of which I
shall not speak now, as you have expressed the wish that
I should do so more at large on some other occasion; responsibilities upon these young men who have come to
enjoy the first fruits of this liberality, and of which I shall
have many opportunities of speaking in the future; and,
lastly, responsibilities upon the several Faculties of this
University, which you have just now in form imposed, by
the delivery to them of the usual symbols of authority. So
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
late, however, is the'hour, and so wearied are the audience,
that I will speak no farther of these responsibilities than to
say that we are all fully aware of the difficulty and delicacy
of the task imposed upon us. But, with your forbearance
toward our infirmities, with the sympathy and good-will of
the public, and, above all, with the aid of Almighty God,
without whose blessing nothing great or good can be
accomplished, we enter upon our duties hopefully and
cheerfully, promising fidelity to the trusts committed to us,
and pledging our best exertions to make this University all
that its founder and friends desire it to be.
After the Installation, a part of the following Inauguration
Ode, composed for the occasion by the Rev. A. A. LIPSCOMB,
D.D., was sung by the Choir, in Old Hundred:
INAUGURATION ODE.
I.
Beneath the temple's stately height,
Midst pomp of gold-midst pearls of light,
While priestly chant with incense blends,
The crown of empire lowly bends;
The toil that awed the list'ning air
Now vocal breathes with praise and prayer,
And flames ne'er seen in sun or sky
Their splendors flash on Israel's eye.
II.
The heavenward Alps, sublime and lone,
Echo but faint the thunder's tone;
The mighty sea but rolls to shore
The dying cadence of its roar;
But priests and people blessings share
Far richer than their monarch's prayer;
Though myriad hearts in one may yearn,
Answers more full from God return.
III.
Hath not this house been reared by Thee?
Thy thought, thy grace, naught else we see;
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VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY.
Thy hand did seal its corner-stone,
Long waiting till thy favor shone:
Take now thine own, and evermore
Enrich it from thy bounty's store;
Each hour shed light upon our way,
Each step advance tow'rd perfect day.
IV.
0 Earth, thou footstool of the Throne,
This glory thine-thine all alone;
Thy throb in air, thy throb in sea,
Our pulses ask this day of thee,
That in the thrill of gladdened heart
Our praise of thine may be a part,
While, rolling far, thy anthems tell
What raptures high within us swell.
v.
Not like the stones which Jesus taught
Should prophets be, with judgments fraught,
If scornful men should doom his name
With curse of silence born of shame:
Nay, every rock within these walls
Shall answer back when Jesus calls,
Each marble block a tablet be
Of laws proclaimed, 0 Lord, by thee.
VI.
Hlere arts and sciences shall meet,
Bright, festal hours, their coming greet;
Hlere Faith shall stand, archangel fair,
Hier diadem of grandeur wear;
Hlere Truth, a pilgrim wandering far,
Shall tranquil rest'neath Hope's fixed star;
And Beauty touch with sandaled feet
The turf with Sharon's fragrance sweet.
VII.
We bless thee to thy toiling hours
Mid fertile fields and fruitful showers;
We bless thee to the love that hastes
To barren sands and arid wastes:
Go-noblest types of manhood rear,
Each brother-man to man more dear;
Go-fill thy measure of renown,
Then wreathe around the cross thy crown.
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1DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
VIII.
0 Alma Mater of the years
Beyond  our day of toil and  tears;
0  Alma  lIater of a race
Whose future glows with largest grace,
Gird on  the old heroic might,
Battle forever for the right,
And dare to do and dare to %be
Whate'er is great, mnajestic, free!
At the conclusion of the Ode, this dispatch from Commodore VANDERBILT was read:
NEW YORK, Oct. 4.-To Bishop HI. N. IMcTYEIRE: We send greeting to
you all.  May your institution be ever blessed by the great Governor of
all things.                                              C. VANDERBILT.
The dispatch was received by the audience with great enth usiasnm.
The Benediction was pronounced by Bishop DOGGETT.
RESOLUTIONS OF THE BOARD OF TRUST AND THE
FACULTIES.
AT a meeting of the Trustees and Facilties, held immediately after the Inauguration exercises, Bishop McTYEIRE
presided, and the Rev. ROBERT A. YOUNG, D.D., acted as Secretary.
On motion of the Rev. C. D. OLIVER, D.D., seconded by T.
A. ATCHISON, M.D., it was resolved that the entire proceedings
of Sunday and Monday be published in book-form, embracing
the Sermons of Bishops DOGGETT and WIGlITMAN, the Addresses of Drs. DEEMS and LIPSCOMB, the Speeches of Bishop
MoTYEIRE and Dr. GARLAND, the original Odes, etc.
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On motion of E. S. JOYNES, LL.D., a Committee of Publication was ordered to be appointed.
On motion of Dr. JOYNES, the thanks of the Trustees and
Faculties were tendered to the Chief Marshal and his staff,
and to the Organist and Choir.
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CHARACTER AND DESIGN OF THE BIBLICAL
DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY.
BY  TIHOMAS  O. SUIMMERS,  D.D.,
Profe3ssor of Systematic Theology.
THE character and design of the Biblical Department of the
University were set forth in a Discourse delivered in the Chapel
of the University on Sunday afternoon, October 17, 1875, as
follows:
"Search the Scriptures." John v. 39.
In entering upon the duties which lie before us, we find
it necessary to vindicate the high rank to which we have
assigned the science which is to engage our attention.
It has become quite common to put Theology in contrast
with Science, confining the latter to natural phenomena  arranged in systematic order. But there is no good reason
for this. Theology is as much a science as Biology, or any
other logia which engages the philosophic mind.
Our great lexicographer defines Theology, "The science
of God and divine things-the science which teaches the
existence, character, and attributes of God, his laws and
government, the doctrines we are to believe, and the duties
we are to practice."
This is the general view of Theology. But this science
is divided into Natural Theology and Revealed Theology.
Natural Theology teaches what may be known of God by
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the light of nature.  Revealed Theology teaches us what we
may know of God by the Holy Scriptures.
The term is used in both a general and a specific sense.
In the general sense, it embraces -ill that we comprehend
in divinity, or religion-whether natural or revealed.
In the specific sense, it is one depatrtment of the great science of religion, which conmprehends Theology in the proper
sense, which treats of the being  i,nd perfections of God;
Christology, whi(ch. trea,ts of the person and work of Christ;
Pneunmatology, which treats of the person and work of the
Holy Spirit; Anthropology,which tren,ts of the nature, origin, duty, and destiny of man; lIt'ma,rtiolo(gy, which treats
of sin;  Soteriology, which  treats of salvation;  Eschatology, which tre:ats of the four last things, Dea,th, Judgment,
Hleaven: and Hell; not to note numerous subdivisions, such
as Cosmology, Angelology, Demonology, etc., which treat
respectively of the World, Angels, Demons, etc.
It is obvious that there can be no sharply-defined logical
division of the Science of Divinity into departmrnents which
will mutually exclude each other.  Any attempt at this
would be puerile and -ain.
From the importance of the subjects comprehended in
Theology, it is clear that this is the Science of Sciences.
It subordinates,ill other sciences to itself.  Like Emnerson's
"Representative Man," it subsidizes.1] besides.  Even the
Atheist, who ransacks creation to prove that there is no
God, is made to yield his quota, to the Theologian, who has
the true philosopher's stone, with whose touch he turns all
the baser metals to gold.
Mr. Locke, therefore, is justified in his eulogy of this
sublime science.' Theology," he says, "is a science incomparably above all the rest.  It is the comprehension of
all other knowledge directed to its true end-that noble
study which is every man's duty, and every one that can
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be called a rational creature is capable of.  This is that science which would truly enlarge men's minds were it studied,
or permitted to be studied, everywhere, and with that freedoni and love of truth and charity which it teaches."
When we say that Theology teaches the being.and perfections of God, we do not affirm that natural religion, apart
firom divine revelation, demonstrates the existence and attributes of a Supreme Being.  This subject will in future
engage our serious attention.
Our business is primintrily with revealed relig,ion-collaterally only with natur(dl religion. Revealed religion is positive,
authoritative, demonstlrative; and lHlagenbach has well observed, "It can never be the object of a positive religion to
prove the existence of God, inasmuch as it always presupposes the knowledge that there is a God."
There is nothing so peculiar in our condition, living in an
age long posterior to the nmiraculous inauguration of the
Christian religion, which makes our case essentially different from that of the Apostles and Fathers of the Church.
They assumed, and we also assume, as a fundamental fict,
the being of God.  As  Ht.genbach says, "'Christianity stood
on the basis of the 01(Ol Testament idea of God-now purified( and ca'rried beyond the limits of national interests —as
a personal God, who, ais the Creator of heavTen and earth,
rules over the human race; who had given the law, sent
the prophets, and manifested himself most perfectly, and in
the fullness of his personal presence in his Son Jesus Christ.
Consequently, the believing Christian needed as little as his
Jewish contemporary a proof of the being of God.   But
in the farther development of the Christian system, it became necessary, on the one hand, that Christians should
defend themselves (apolog,etically) (gainst the charge of
Atheism  which was frequently brought against them; on
the other hand, they had to demonstrate to the heathen
I.    *
~ * * e
* *::'.
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~*'  
*
*~
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(polemically) that their pagan worship was false, and con sequently in its very f()undation was a denial of the living
God  (Atheism).  When, therefore, the  writings of  the
Fathers contain any thing like a proof of the existence of
God, it is either the spontaneous expression of religious
feeling in a rhetorical and hymnological form or it is intimately connected with other definitions about the nature of
God, with the doctrine of his unity, or with the doctrine
concerning the creation and government of the world.  But
the Fathers of this period generally recurred to the innate
knowledge of God-testiynonitmtm ani)zev, );yo,;r),,,o,,,artlz
which (as they thought) could be traced even in the heathen, aind on the purity of which  the knowledge of God
depends."
That is to say, they held that the pure in heart can see
God.   "God is seen," says Theophilus, "by those who can
see him, when they open the eyes of their soul. All men
have eyes, but the eyes of some are blinded, that they cannot see the light of the sun.  Thus it is with thee, O man!
The eves of thy soul are darkened by sin, even by thy
sinful actions.  Like a bright mirror, man must have a pure
soul.  If there be any rust on the mirror man cannot see
the reflection of his countenance in it; likewise, if there be
sin in man, he cannot see God."
This is as much as to say that, apart from divine tuition,
no man can acquire the knowledge of God, because all men
are born in sin.  This is what the primitive Fathers meant
by "the innate knowledge of God."
"With this," as HIagenbach says, "they connected, but in
a popular rather than in a strictly scientific form, what is
commonly called, The Physico-theological, or teleological,
proof, inferring the existence of a Creator from the works
of Creation. More artificial proofs, such as the cosmological
and the ontological, were unknown in this period. Even
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
the more profound thinkers of the Alexandrian school
frankly acknowledged the impossibility of a strict proof of
the existence of God, and the necessity of a revelation on
God's part."
This is not the place for a discussion of the necessity of
divine revelation. On this point we-could furnish abundant
testimony from the ancients as well as the moderns-heathen
philosophers as well as Christian divines-and the. foremost
laymen as well.  Thus Lord Bacon, in his "Prayer, or
Psalm"-a production unsurpassed in sublimity by any
thing uninspired-uses this language: "Thy creatures have
been my books, but thy Scriptures much more.  I have
sought thee in the courts, fields, and gardens; but I have
found thee in thy temples."
Miilton, who  was a theologian, though not a preacher,
says: "True religion is the true worship and service of God,
learned and believed from the word of God only.   No man
or angel can know how God would be worshiped and served
unless God reveal it: he hath declared and taught us in the
Holy Scriptures by inspired ministers, and in the Gospel by
his own Son and his Apostles, with strictest command to
reject all other traditions or additions whatsoever."
Macaulay, in his review of Ranke's "History of the
Popes," says: "Natural religion is not a progressive science.
All divine truth is, according to the doctrine of the Protestant Churches, revealed in certain books; nor can all the
discourses of all the philosophers in the world add a single
verse to any of these books.  It is plain, therefore, that in
divinity there cannot be a progress analogous to that which
is constantly taking place in pharmacy, geology, and navigation. A Christian of the fifth century with a Bible is
neither better nor worse situated than a Christian of the
nineteenth century with a Bible, candor and natural acuteness being supposed equal.  It matters not at all that the
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compass, printing, steam, gas, vacLcination, and a thousand
other discoveries and inventions, which were unknown in
the fifth century, are familiar to the nineteenth. None of
these discoveries and inventions has the smallest bearing
on the question whether man is justified by faith alone, or
whether the invocation of saints is as orthodox practice."
Thus the necessity of a written revelation is affirmed in
opposition to the proud assumptions of infidels of every
class; and its 8stfciene,y in opposition to the boasted dognma
of " development," whether  as held  by  Romanist or by
Rationalist.   The Apostle Jude found it needful to exhort
the Christians of his day that they'" should earnestly contend for the faLith once delivered unto the sa,ints."  It was
'delivered," as a divine revelation, and "once," that is,
once for all.  Woe to Popes or Councils that, add one jot or
one tittle to this perfect system of truth! woe to Neologists
who diminish aught from it!  Ilear the voice of prophetic
antiquity:  "To  the law and to the testimony: if they
speak not according to this word, it is because there is no
light in them."   (IsaI,. viii. 20.)   lear  the voice of the
MaIster, as it echoes down the Christian ages:  Search the
Scriptures."  This is the platform on which we stand.  The
Charter of the VANDERBILT UNIvERsITY recognizes a, Biblical
Departmrent in this institution.  The Bible, therefore, is to
be outr great text-book.  -We  are to  teach nothing not
contained in it-at least, nothing that is contrary to itnothing that may not be directly or indirectly proved by it.
But what a task is thus exacted of us!  Biblical science
is theology with a witness!  It embraces all its departments.
Here is a book which we  call the Bible-{he- Book, by
eminence.  We label it,, "TiE WORKS oF GOD."  But thous(ands deny it this preeminence.  They say it is a cunningly
-no, not even  th(,Lt-a stupidly  devised fable-as contemptible as the Tailmud or the Koran-inferioi to the Rig
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.\,
Veda or the Zend-Avesta-and no more divine than the
Book of Mormon. Hence the necessity of Apologetics and
Criticism, comnpreheniiding the Evidences of Christianity and
Ecclesiastical History. We must prove the divine origin
of our religion.  We can do this.  By God's grace, we will
do this-so that every student leaving these halls may saly:
Should all the forms that men devise
Assault my faith with treacherous art,
I'd call them vanity and lies,
And  bind the gospel to my heart.
But this book was written in Hlebrew, Chaldee, and IIellenistic Greek. If we would know what it contains, and
especially if we are set to teach it to others, we  must
either depend upon scholars who are acquainted with those
langua,ges for the interpretation of the sacred oracles, or
we must learn the languages in which they are written, and
interpret them ourselves.   Now, every one knows that it is
not necess.Lry, in order to comprehend the plan of salvation,
or even to teach it to others. that we should understand
the sacred tongues, because, with all its defects our incoinmpa,r;tble English version of the Scriptures, with  Commentaries, and other helps, will enable us to,i,cquire the knowledge of revealed truth, and to become able ministers of the
New  Test'Lment.  But in every age it is necessary that
some should be learned in the original tongues and it cannot be denied that it is a great advTantage to every minister
to be able to consult the sacred text in the very words
which were written by the inspiration of God. It is
superfluous to argue a point which all will admit-none
muore readily than those who deplore their lack of ithis
ability.  Hence the necessity of Hermneneutics and Exegetics-a knowledge of the principles of interpretation an(i
their special application.
But as Theology is a science, it is necessary that the
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leading truths contained in the Bible-scattered up  and
down through its sixty-six books-should be arranged in
regular order, so that their harmony, and consistency, and
relative importance, may be seen, and the effect of the
whole may be realized. There can be no "Analogy of
Faith" without this. Hence the Uecessity of Systematic
Divinity.
But it is not enough that those who a-re called to the
sacred office should understand the word of God, and be
able to systematize its teachings; they must know how to
impart the knowledge of the truth to others.  Thus  the
Apostle to Timothy: "Thou therefore, my son, be strong
in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that
thou hast heard of me among  many witnesses, the same
commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach
others also."  It is a great thing in a preacher to be able
to "speak justly, readily, clearly"-a,s, with epigrammatic
point, Mr. Wesley expresses it.  To this end, there are few
who do not need instruction, so that they may avoid any
thing awkwa'rd or affected in voice and gesture, as well as
any improprieties in the matter of their discourses.- Hence
the necessity of Homiletics.
But men may preach like angels, yet their ministry be
comparatively fruitless, because of their want of skill, or
tact, or zeal, in the work which belongs to their office out
of the pulpit. What a work is that! What a world of
wisdom does it require for its due performance! And how
many ministers are there that can preach passable sermons,
and yet are mere children among their parishioners!  They
bungle in performing the various offices of their ministry.
They know not how to act when called either "to the
house of mourning" or "to the house of feasting."  Of
such it is firequently said, When they are in the pulpit they
never ought to go out of it, and when they are out of it
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DEDICATION AND INAUGURATION.
they never ought to go into it.  They were never properly
taught their duty. If they had been duly instructed before they entered on their ministry-the responsibilities of
the sacred office being properly impressed upon them, with
a divine unction qualifying them for the same-they might
have proved an honor a-nd a blessing, instead of a shame
and a curse, to the Church.  Hlence the importance of
Pastoral Theology.  There can be no controversy about
the necessity of all these studies.  The  only question
which can arise concerns the time and manner in which
they should be pursued.  In regard to this there is a difference of opinion.
Some think that if a man is called to the work of the
ministry, he should enter upon it at once, and study all the
subjects we have named in connection with his pastoral
work.  This may be best for some men.   We are not disposed to take issue on the subject.  Let those who are of
this mind enter upon the work in the name of their Divine
FEmployer, and study to show themselves approved unto
God, workmen that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the word of truth.  Many of our most acceptable and most
successful ministers have pursued this course. We have
no controversy on this point.
But there are others who think that they can learn better with a teacher than without one-better without the
responsibilities and interruptions of the pastoral care than
with them-better where they have books and other faicilities for study than in places where they have them not.
For su(eh men we wish to furnish the privileges and advantages which they need.
There is abundance of precedent for this.
Under the Theocracy there were the C; Schools of the
Prophets," where  the " sons of the  prophets"-that is,
their disciples-were instructed in sacred lore.  They were
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thus qualified to become instructors of the people.   God
did not, indeed, confine himself to men thus scholastically
trained for those whom he employed in the sacred officeas Amos, for example, s was no  prophet, neither waIs he a
prophet's son;"  "but," says he,  "I was an herdman, and -L
gatherer of sycamore fruit; and the Lord  took  me  Las I
followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel." It is safe to say that God
never will confine himself to any particular guild, or order
of men, when he sends forth laborers into his harvest.
But it is not unreasonable to suppose that those who have
been trained to husbandry will know better than others
how to wield the sickle and guide the plow.
The apostles, indeed, were not learned in Rabbinical lore
-which is what is meant when it is said "that they were
unlearned and ignorant men;" * but then they had enjoyed
two or three years' daily communion with their Masterhad heard "the gracious words" of eternal life from his
own lips-and finally had them all reproduced with inftllible certainty in their ninds by the plenary inspiration of
the Holy Spirit.  ITo'v small are  all our acquirements,
though we may have sat at the feet of Gamaliel, compared
with their divine endowments!  The last and greatest of
the apostles had been thoroughly drilled in Rabbinical
learning-and perhaps in Grecian, too-but what was all
this compared with the plenary inspiration vouchsafed to
him by the Hioly Ghost?
Their successors in the sacred ministry, who had not
their supernatural qualifications, prepared themselves for
their important work by a careful study of the word of
God. In the early Church men were trained for the min
"*"07t > vi9:,pot [/,yoy#,arol e tart Kal't('t&)at. Wiclif: "That thei werein vnlet.
tridl and lewid men."  Tyndale: "That they were vnlerned men and laye
people." Cranmer: "That they were vnlerned and laye men."
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istry in ecclesiastical seminaries, which were multiplied in
all parts of the Christian world.
During  the  Mid(dle Ages  mionastic institutions  were
founded for this purpose —as, for example, Iona, Bangor,
Oxford, Camrniidge, in the British Isles, and so on the continent of Europe, aind also in the Ea,si.
During the Dalrk Ages muany of these institutions degenerated into hot-beds of superstition, and even immorality,
and not a- few became extinct.   But at the Reformation "I
fresh impulse was given to the cause of clerical education,
and the Reformers put forth strenuous efforts to supply the
Churches with (" godly learned miniistry."  The Puni ta,ns
were  very zealous in this matter-not only in the mothercountry, hut also in America; and many are the monuments
of their enlightened zeal.
Mistal(es, indeed, were made  by all the Churches, the
principal of which was this: in many instances leariing, or
a show of learning, was considered all-sufficient, and men
who were never converted nor called to the ministry were
sent forth from theological schools,s pastors of the flock
of Christ, thus creating a prejudice,Ig,tinst "the schools
of the prophets."   Thle Methodists, who will not tolerate a
mere man-ma,de ministry, naturally shared largely in this
prejudice.   The Wesleys and their clericatl associates, of
course, did not, as they h;Ld been trained for the ministry
in one of the most renowned universities of the world;  yet
they infinitely preferred what was stigmatized as an ignorant ministry to mitered infidels and cassocked libertines,
not a few of whom  cursed the Church in their daLy.  But
they wanted "learning and holiness comtbined" in those who
ministered in holy things. Hence John Wesley early inquired what could be done for the training of the preachers.
Year after year the question was asked in their Conferences,
and the answer was the same: Nothing yet; when the Lord
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shall send us men with means to enable us to found a seminaiy for preachers, then we will have one, but not before.
Wesley had a great horror of debt; and, besides, he did
not wish to proceed in so grave an enterprise till the path
of duty was made "straight and plain before his fitce." He
did not want the camp to move while the cloud rested upon
the ark!  Earnestly did he desire to see this work undertaken before he finished his course; but, like Moses, he
came to the borders of the promised land, but was not allowed to come into its possession. How would he have
rejoiced if Providence had raised up for him  a THOMAS
FARMER or a CORNELIUS VANDERBILT!
But what was not granted to Moses was vouchsafed to
Joshua. Dr. Bunting and Mr. Watson, on whom Wesley's
mantle fell, matured the plan, and Providence raised up
men with the means to execute it; and first Richmond was
purchased and endowed, and then another, and still a third
institution, to which "the sons of the prophets" have been
sent, and hundreds upon hundreds have been taught the
way of the Lord more perfectly in their halls than it was
ever taught before since the days of the apostles.
At first prejudice, deep-rooted opposition, was encountered; but the wisdom and prudence which marked all their
movements, and the manifest blessing of Heaven which
rested upon all their operations, vindicated the policy
adopted; and now if there be any prejudice, any opposition, in England, to the Theological Institution, it never
comes to the surface.
Even the Primitive Methodists, who were supposed to be
specially averse to progress in this direction, have their
seminary for ministers, adapted to their peculiar character
and wants, with the practical good sense which marks their
Connection, and from which we may profitably take some
lessons.
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The Northern Methlodist Church encountered still stronger
antagonism; but the movement was not to be suppressed. We
watched with interest the fierce contest, with no misgiving,
however, as to the result. The men who led in the movement were no fanatics, no ultraists.  They did not wish to
force their views upon their brethren Rho could not see the
matter in the same light with themselves; nor did they attempt to make a scholastic training a sine qua non for the
ministry.  But they were resolved that all young men who
were called to the sacred office, and who wanted a better
preparation for it, and could profit by the instruction which
such institutions afford, should not go without it, or be
forced to seek it from others not "'of our faith and order."
Nothing succeeds like success!   They  have succeeded.
We  have yet to learn that those who have gone forth from
their halls of instruction into the pastoral work are at a discount among their brethren-that the Bishops find it more
difficult to get places for them than for others-that they
,ire less efficient in the great work of saviing souls. On the
contra-ry, they are at a premium, as everybody knows.  Indeed, this itself has been brought as an objection to the
movement, that educated men are sought after by the people and by the appointing power in preference to those who
are not educated.  iine illce lackirymc.  But we can forgive
this wrong!
We have sufficiently indicated the character of the Biblical Department of the VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY. Its design is, as Adam Clarke said it was his in writing his "Commnentary," to give a better understanding of the sacred
Scriptures than young ministers can acquire without some
man to guide them.   My honored colleagues, who will have
to bear the burden and heat of the day, will instruct you,
my young brethren, in all that you need to know in Her
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meneutical  and  Exegetical  Science-in  Jiomiletical  and
Pastoral Theology-and if I can rend(ler you any aid in
Systematic Divinity, as far as may be compatible with
other duties, (nud as my limited acquirements will allow, I
shall do it, in the name of God, with all my heart and soul;
and I can assure you it will be a labor of love.
I shall endeavor to assist you inll your study Of the great
standards of our faith-the Bible-" first, middle, and without end," like its Divine Author.   Then, for the better
study of the sacred volume, we shall endeavor to master
those great monuments of Christian antiquity, the Three
Creeds-the Apostles', the Niceno-Constantinopolitan, and
that misc('alled the Athanasian-all of which we cordially
indorse, excepting the interpolated clause in the first, of
the descent into hlell, which may be interpreted in an innocent sense, but which is sometimes perverted to a sinister
use, and which is therefore eliminated from our recension
of that symbol; and the d,amnatory clauses in the Athanasian, which are so foreign fi'onl the genius of the gospel.  The Filio-ue in the  Niceno-Const(mntinopolitan we
admit, though we cannot justify its interpolation by the
Latins.
But these three great Creeds-especially the so-called
Apostles' Creed, the Creed of our b(,ptism, the Creed of
Christendom-we consider invaluable monuments of orthodox Christian antiquity, and shall use them accordingly.
Of equal importance, in its place, is the Catechism of the
Church-of course, I -llude to what is known as the "Second Wesleyan C(,tec(hism."  This is one of our recognized
standards, and well does it deserve this distinction.  It was
digested from the Catechisms of the Churches of England
and Scotland and Wesley's "Instructions," by  that ripe
theologian, Richard Watson, hy appointmenert of the British
Conference, and  has received  the  sanction of  universal
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Methodism. WVhat al blessing it would be if every minister
knew by heart this good form of sound words!
But, is seems meet and proper, we shall make our Confession the grand( text of this Department.  Our Twentyfive Articles-at least, twenty-four of them-were prepared
for the Methodist Episcopal Churelk in America by John
WVesley himself.  Hle judiciously a.bridged them from  the
Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England.  Though
we do not expect the laity (much as it may be desired) to
stludy and formally subscribe this Confession, yet we do expect the ministry to do so.  And no one can minister at a
Methodist altar in any part of the world who does not profess to believe these Articles.
But it is necessary, in order to a rational belief, that
there should be an understanding of them.  To this end,
we must inquire into their origin-what gavre birth to particular articles and special clauses —the nmeanling of the terms
employed, the Scripture proofs of the positions  assumned,
the objections of adv7ersaries and how they are to be mnet,
incd the pracetical uses of the doctrines advanced.  No sane
man can deny the reasonableness of all this.
All that we ha,ve said on this subject is in the spirit of
tha(t exquisitely be:utifiul and highly suggestive passage'in
John Wesley's Preface to his Sermons: "I  havare thought
I am a creature of a day,  passing through life its an arrow
through the stir.  I am a spirit come from God, just hovering over the great gulf; till a few moments  hence, I am no
more seen! I drop into an unchangeable eternity!  I want
to know one thing, the way to heaven: how to land safe
on that happy shore.  God  himself has condescended  to
teach the way; for this very end he came firom heaven.  IIe
hath written it down in a book!  O give me thait book! At
ainy price give me the book of God!  I have it: here is
knowledge enoug,h for me.   Let me  be ho?O tUi7?us l'bri.
III
187-5.]
I 
VANDERBILT UJNIVERSITY.
Here, then, I am, far from the busy ways of men.   I sit
down alone: only God is here. In his presence I open, I
read, this book; for this end, to find the way to heaven. Is
there a doubt concerning the meaning of what I read?
Does any thing appear dark or intricate? I lift up my
heart to the Father of lights..  Lord, is it not thy word,
'If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God?'  Thou
'givest liberally and upbraidest not.'  Thou hast said,'If
any be willing to do thy will, he shall know.' I am willing
to do; let me know thy will. I then search after, and consider parallel passages of Scripture,'comparing spiritual
things with spiritual.'  I meditate thereon, with all the attention and earnestness of which my mind is capable.   If
any doubt still remains, I consult those who are experienced
in the things of God; and then the writings whereby, being dead, they yet speak. And what I thus learn, that I
teach."
Blessed Lord, who hast caused all Holy Scriptures to
be written for our learning, grant that we  may in such
wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest
them, that by patience' and comfort of thy holy word, we
may embrace and ever hold faist the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus
Christ. Amen."
112
[1875.
_ _      ci