THE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE. THE LIBRARY OF THE UUivroqTY 0 P IUIM0IS AN ADDRESS delivered at Wellesley College, BY Rev. NOAH PORTER, D.D., LL.D. | t % o TUTTLE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA CHAMPAIGN BOOKSTACKS THE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE; -- ^ Cl Iv0 0(;l< i v /f C? L AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT Wellesley College, Rev. NOAH PORTER, D.D., LL.D., HVTsiy Z2 r 7ti±, 1880, AT THE Laying of the Corner-Stone of Stone Hall. Boston: Frank Wood, Printer, 352 Washington St. 1880. 377 P?34 c Mrs. Stone’s Gift. By the decease of her husband, Mr. Daniel P. Stone, of Malden, Mass., Aug. 14, 1878, Mrs. Valeria G. Stone came into possession of an estate amounting to about two millions of dollars. Recognizing herself as the servant of Him to whom the silver and the gold belong, she began at once to inquire for the wisest modes of using, in the promotion of human good and the upbuilding of the Redeemer's cause, the large property which the affectionate confidence of her husband had committed to her disposal. -She called to her side a relative in whose judgment she confided, and asked his counsel and advice. In accordance with suggestions made she decided to devote a large part of her inheritance to the work of Christian education; and various colleges and seminaries in different parts of our land were selected as worthy recipients of her aid. Among these she was especially interested in Wellesley College, as an institution for the best training of her own sex, not merely in mental culture, but also in Christian character. Learning that the rapid growth of the College had made an additional building necessary for its largest success, she appropriated the sum of $100,000 for the construction and ’furnishing of such a building. 4 The work was soon begun, and by the latter part of May in the present year, was sufficiently advanced for the formal laying of the corner-stone. The public exercises at the laying of the corner-stone were held on the 27th of May, 1880, in the Chapel of Wellesley College. The services commenced with prayer, offered by Rev. P. A. Chadbourn'e, President of Williams College. Rev. Bradford K. Peirce, of Boston, read the Scripture lesson. The Bible used was a copy of the “ Vulgate,” dated in 1544, once owned and used by Philip Melancthon. This valuable memento of the great reformer, enriched by his autograph notes, had been lately presented to the College, to be used on this occasion. Rev. William H. Willcox, as the representative of Mrs. Stone,, then read the DEED OF GIFT FROM MRS. STONE. Whereas my late husband, Daniel Perkins Stone, of Malden, Mass., was pleased to express his affection and confidence in me by committing to my disposal the large fortune he had accumulated, it is my desire, as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, to devote a portion of this inheritance to the higher and distinctively Christian education of my own sex. I have therefore selected Wellesley College as a most worthy recipient, and set apart the sum of One Hundred Thousand Dollars for erecting and furnish¬ ing an additional building for the use of this institution. I desire that, in honor of my deceased husband, it shall bear the name of “ Stone Hall.”* What its special use at any particular time shall be the Trustees of the College may determine, as the needs of the institution shall seem to require; but whatever it may be, I wish the building to be always regarded and used as one that has been sacredly consecrated to the promotion of a truly Christian education and the development of Christian character and life. 5 It is my hope and prayer that the young ladies who in the coming years may. enjoy the benefits of “Stone Hall,” may learn, as the most im¬ portant of all lessons, to become noble Christian women, and devote their powers and their attainments to earnest lives of Christian usefulness. I have often and sadly observed the pitiable worthlessness, both to them¬ selves and others, of the lives of women when given up to selfish frivolity, or wasted in the pursuit of mere personal enjoyment. And often, too, have I noted, with admiration and gratitude to God, the saintly beauty and benefi¬ cent power of the lives of truly Christian women whose learning has been too genuine for skeptical conceit, and whose refinement has been too thor¬ ough for fastidious selfishness; but whose highest aim has been simply to do, faithfully and cheerfully, the work which God, in his providence, had assigned them, wherever and whatever it might be. Such are the women whom, for their own sake and the world’s, I most earnestly desire to aid in training,— women who will always regard a symmetrical Christian character as the most radiant crown of womanhood, and a life spent in humble imita¬ tion of Him who “came not to be ministered unto but to minister,” as the noblest of all aims. With this expression of my wish and prayer, and with the earnest hope that these views may always find active sympathy in those to whom the work of instruction in Wellesley College shall be intrusted, I hereby, with gratitude to God for the power and the opportunity, commit to the Trustees “Stone Hall,” erected and furnished, as a sacred trust, to be held and used by them for the purpose indicated — the Christian education of women for their more efficient service of the world and of God. VALERIA G. STONE. Signed and sealed in the } presence of Wm, H. Willcox. j 6 The following hymn, written for the occasion by Rev; S. F. Smith, author of “America,” was then sung by the Choir of the Eliot Church, of Newton: — FOUNDED ON CHRIST. Founded on Christ, — this placid lake, This glorious garniture of hills, Yearns a new offering to make To him, whose praise creation fills. Founded on Christ, — then strong and fair Turret and battlement shall rise; Kissed by the sweet, transparent air, And canopied by azure skies. Founded on Christ, — his love shall gild The advancing work with matchless grace, And learning’s willing hands shall build A 'temple sacred to his praise. As sunset clouds, in glory dressed, Gather to form night’s regal throne, And the red sun behind the west, Lights up the splendor all its own,— So in each deed our hands have wrought, Beams forth His glory, his, alone ; So be each work, and plan, and thought Founded on Christ, our corner-stone. Rev. Mark Hopkins, ex-president of Williams College, offered prayer; after which President Porter, of Yale College, who is also President of the Board of Trustees of Wellesley College, delivered the address. After the conclusion of President Porter's address the company repaired to the site of Stone Hall. Mr. Willcox placed a Bible in the corner-stone, and then laid it in due form. The public proceedings closed with prayer by President Chadbourne. ADDRESS. Wellesley College was founded avowedly as a Christian college. All its endowments and arrangements have been inspired and controlled by the definite purpose that the education imparted here should be emphatically Christian. While its plan proposed that in scientific knowledge and literary cultureit should be behind no other college of its kind, and that art should do its utmost to lend grace and beauty to science and letters, it also pro¬ vided that Christ should be supremely recognized as the example and inspi¬ ration of all human excellence — as the guide of the present,, and the hope of the future, life — as the Redeemer and Lord of each individual soul and of the human race. As it is now to be enlarged in its proportions, perhaps toward the ideal of a university, it is as distinctly understood that this ideal will remain as positively Christian as at first. It is no new thing in this country that colleges and universities should be founded upon this theory. All the older colleges were originally estab¬ lished in the interest of Christianity and the Church, the Church being conceived as providing for every interest and relation of human society. Most of our recent higher institutibns, with a few notable and well-known exceptions, have been founded in a similar spirit. In the older countries the same, till of late, has been emphatically true. Within a few years, however, both in the old countries and the new, another 8 theory has found many advocates, and been embodied in a few colleges and universities. This theory, which may be called the secular, as contrasted with the Christian, is briefly this : — “ Education of every grade, and preeminently of the highest, to be con¬ summate, must be free from all alliances with religion. It must forswear any allegiance to the Christian creed, and dispense with positive Christian influ¬ ences. While it may accept the fruits of Christian civilization, so far as Science and Letters, Art and Culture, Law and Morality have taken these into the general life, it will best do its appropriate work, and even best serve Christianity itself, if it leaves all positive Christian teaching and training to the household and the Church.” I propose at this time to explain and defend the old theory as contrasted with the new—the theory on which this College stands, and which it pro¬ poses to exemplify. I must assume, first of all, that Christianity is true as a history; that it is supernatural in its import; that it is of supreme importance to every individual man and the human race, and that to both, Christ, in his life, his death and his advancing kingdom, is to become more a manifested neces¬ sity and a conspicuous power, till what seems the brilliant romances of prophecy shall become the sober facts of history. The man who believes all this of Christianity and of Christ, w T ould seem to be* compelled to believe that in the progress of society towards this consummation, the appliances of education must inevitably be molded more completely and confessedly by the power of Him who shall subdue all things to himself. On the other hand, the reasoner who holds that the Christian history is largely fabulous or exaggerated, and that the supernatural in it is impossible, must conclude that the morning-star which ushered in its dawn must give way before the risen sun of science and culture. The man who half believes, or who even surmises, that positive Christianity cannot stand before modern science and modern criticism,, must conclude that Christianity ought to have little prominence in that education which will very soon permit it to have no place in scientific belief. All those who hold these views, either as misgivings or conclusions, are thoroughly consistent in 9 excluding Christianity from every college and university, or in providing for its gradual and decorous retreat with appropriate honors. It is, then, of prime importance that every one who discusses the question before us should, first of all, settle the question whether and in what sense he holds to the supremacy and permanence of Christianity. With those wbo deny or half believe that Christianity is supernatural and permanent, we can hold no argument, for they have already decided the question at issue. We can only address ourselves to those who believe in Christianity as permanent and divine, but yet honestly question whether, in the present condition of our higher schools of learning and of Christianity itself, it is either wise or practicable any longer to make these schools distinctively and earnestly Christian. I have spoken of my topic as a question, and the discussion of it as an argument, and, it may be, a criticism or a refutation of dissentient or opposing views. I do not, however, propose to make this discussion con¬ troversial, or even critical. I would rather seek to portray, in positive form, the ideal Christian college in its aims, and the conditions of their realization. Should this ideal portraiture bring out, by contrast, the defects and limitations of those institutions which approach nearest to this ideal, the portraiture may be none the less salutary and inspiring. I shall aim, however, to show, also, that this ideal ought to be made real. It is the glory of Christianity that it presents the noblest of ideals. It is none the less its glory that it inspires men with courage and self-sacrifice to turn these ideals into facts. I observe, i, That the ideal Christian college should continue and sup¬ plement the functions of the family and the Church. If the family and the Church should be Christian, the college, for similar reasons, should also be Christian. Christianity presupposes the family and the Church. It finds men with a home and a temple of some sort. It roots itself in the one, and expands itself within the other, purifying and elevating both. While it addresses man as an individual, it presupposes that he draws much of his life from his social relations. Society implies letters and laws and manners and morals; religion, that God is manifested through nature, and, perhaps, IO in history. Society and religion presuppose schools — which can do more than home or neighborhood in teaching language and history, science and art. The Church, in its way, is also a school, in which religious truth is defended, explained and applied to the duties of this life and the hopes of the next. Had there been no patriarchs, no lawgivers, no scribes, no schools of the prophets, no synagogues, there had been no Christ, no cross and no redemption. The college trains and teaches the young on a still higher scale than the family or the Church. If the elementary instruction of the lower should be positively Christian, why should not that of the higher? Look¬ ing at this question from a Christian standpoint we can give but one answer: the school of the highest grade should be emphatically and positively Christian. That it should be wisely Christian need not be suggested; that it should not undo by overdoing is self-evident; but that Christian aims should animate and control its life is equally manifest. That the realization of these aims involves peculiar difficulties we do not deny; that it may call for special sagacity is very likely; that it may provoke many conflicts about reason and faith, and right and wrong in conduct and char¬ acter, is not only probable, but certain. Similar difficulties occur in the family, the dame school and the Church; but that Christianity should found colleges, and seek to animate them with its fundamental faiths and its spirit, seems at first as natural and necessary as that it should seek to animate the family and the Church with its truth and its life. As we have already seen, the influence of the one is but a prolonga¬ tion of the influence of the others. To the college student and the scholar, the story of the Gospels that has been read in the home or heard at the church, must take its place as true or false in the long rolls of general history which every student must learn to accept or reject with some meas¬ ure of instructed judgment. The speculative conceptions of God, of duty and immortality, of government, law and religion, of the origination of the earth and the spirit of man, which the educated men must formally accept or reject, are necessarily theistic or atheistic. They must be consistent or inconsistent with the Christian creed. The practical principles, the theory of manners and of morals which the student more or less intelligently receives or rejects as the living springs of his own moral life, must be sharply Christian or non-Christian, or as many-shaded and as inconstant as the hues of the chameleon, which is colored by what it chances to feed on. We confess that we cannot understand the logic or the practical wisdom of those who admit the propriety and necessity of positive Christian influences in the home and seminary, but would omit or exclude them from the college. The reason which they give is that the pupil is no longer a child, and, therefore, should be treated as a man. It is true he is no longer a child, and, perhaps, not yet a youth; but neither in character nor in convictions has he become a man. Moreover, just at this period of life, of all others, he is doomed to pass through that fermenting and transition period in which he must form for himself his practical convictions and his theoret¬ ical judgments in the light of independent thought. It may be that less can be done in a formal way for either at this time than at any other. It may be, and doubtless is, true, that officious and ill-timed intermeddling will do, more harm than good; and yet, for all that, there is no time or condition of life in which wise Christian influences are more needed or are more effective than when the spontaneous impulses of childhood and youth are confirmed or rejected by distinct acts of intelligent volition — the judgments of the growing man. The moment the youth enters a college, he finds himself in a new atmosphere. Even if the pupil lodges and eats at his own home, the public opinion of the college will yet penetrate into his chamber with its pervasive and stimulating atmosphere. This is trebly true if his own home is exchanged for a home within the college, charged, as this always is, with the electric force orf young and buoyant life. It may be that often the teacher is impotent to use any direct moral or religious influence. We know very well that he may often overdo, by ill-timed zeal and injudicious obtrusiveness, and that, in contrast with misdirected speech, silence is indeed golden. But we know, as well, that if the teacher’s own character is elevated and refined by Christian earnestness, a single word or sentiment that breaks this golden silence will go further to confirm the tf oNWtRStrj w 12 halting faith or to rekindle the smouldering fervor than a sermon from any preacher or a homily from any exhorter ; or, unhappily, a contemptuous word or sarcastic utterance may rend the feeble fabric of a failing faith, and poison the heart with distrust or scorn of what is noble and good. The teacher who is worthy of the name can reach the inner life of his pupil by what he says and does, as no other person can. He can strengthen and renew the springs of that life% sometimes, by a look or a word, just as it , takes that second adjustment which shall be final. This is not all. During his college and university life the pupil must, at least, begin the critical revisal of his religious and philosophical creed in the light of all that science and history and philosophy and criticism can say in their latest discoveries and reports. To the searching brightness of these blazing lights the pupil must bring all that he has hitherto received without question. Into this fusing crucible he must cast all his traditionary faiths, to receive them back as they shall leap forth in purer metal and brighter luster, or to reject them as worthless dross or base alloy. He cannot hold back these faiths from this fiery trial, though rooted in the convic¬ tions of his father and hallowed by the love and prayers of his mother, and made sacred by the aspirations and vows of his youth. He ought not to desire to do so. It is better that they should be reviewed and revised by the light of his maturing judgment. To withdraw them from this light would dwarf his intellect and en/eeble his convictions. It would open a widening and deepening chasm between his practical and intellectual life. It would dishonor Truth, which will not submit to be divided. This process of adjustment must and ought to go on. While it is proceeding, the college or university becomes, of necessity, the church, and the teachers and asso¬ ciates are, for the time being, priests and oracles; for it is in the light of what these attest and prove that the old creed is reaffirmed or questioned or renounced. And what if this church has no religion and the priests have no consecration? What, again, if they are thoroughly and unaffectedly Christian ? In these times of crisis — and they are always present — a word or look from the living teacher; a chance remark in the one direction or the other; an earnest and candid spirit, or a scoffing and dogmatic doubt, 13 or the combined impression of his intellectual temper and personal spirit,— have, in thousands of instances, been fraught with bane or blessing to his confiding pupils. Of many, in this crisis of their spiritual history, it might be said that so far as human counsel and help can come at all in this critical and transition period, they must come through those intellectual activities which are the absorbing and controlling element of the student’s life. 2. Christianity needs the college, to improve its own spiritual quality and enlarge its attractiveness and power. For this reason the Christian college is an essential appendage to the Church, and, therefore, ought to be emphati¬ cally Christian. It is now more generally conceded than formerly, that education and culture are essential to furnish armor for the defense of the Church and weapons for its advancement. It is not so clearly recognized as it ought to be that both are required for the development of its own varied and highest perfections. While it is granted by all that a certain measure of each is required for the existence and growth of the kingdom of God, it is at the same time feared by many that too much of either will bring hindrance, rather than help, to the strength and beauty of the Chris¬ tian character. We hold the contrary. Knowledge does, indeed, bring its temptations as truly as ignorance. Culture may hinder Christlikeness as certainly as squalor; but knowledge and culture, in their highest perfec¬ tion, are needed for the complete manifestation of what Christianity can do for man. We say nothing, here, of the moral and spiritual conditions of the Christian life; we concede and contend that these are indispensable; that it is only the docile child, whether he be a peasant or a philosopher, who can enter — much more, w T ho is the greatest — in the kingdom of heaven. But we also know that the import of the kingdom of heaven, in its inner spirit and its external manifestations, can only be comprehended in its full significance by the most enlarged and best-instructed mind, or appreciated by the most refined # and cultured soul. This ideal will never be perfectly understood and exemplified until the results of science and culture shall have been applied to all the forms of individual morals and manners, and in all those agencies which Christian ethics and social 14 science shall mature and put in force. To such a consummation the Christian college is as necessary as Christian preaching; the university as the Sunday School; the conscientious culture of science, literature and art as the prayer-meeting and the Bible-reader. It will not be till every thought is subjected to the obedience of Christ, that the tabernacle of God shall, indeed, be with men. The author of the work entitled “ Modern Christianity a Civilized Heathenism,” betrays, by its title, his own narrow and squalid conceptions of the kingdom of God. The book is as vulgar and narrow as its title is unchristian, and never could have been conceived or respected except in a low condition of Christian enlightenment. How sorely our practical Christianity needs to be elevated above such narrow and vulgar, not to say squalid, conceptions of many of its advocates and representatives, one hardly need suggest. We are forced to confess that with all that is noble and Christlike in its spirit, much remains that is hateful in its manners and its morals. See the Church forgetting that it should be militant only against its foes, and behaving itself so often like a termagant in the houses of its friends! Think of the sectarianism which is its scandal and shame, of which almost every village, from the oldest to the newest, gives visible tokens in its rival houses of worship, that also betoken the hateful jealousies of their adherents! Think, also, of its hard and scholastic statements of doctrine; of its narrow judgments of character; of its scrimping parsimony in some directions and criminal luxury in others; of the tenacity with which it adheres to old errors, and the credulity with which it runs after the last sensationalism ! And all this while how heedless is it of the pure and spiritual example of the patient Christ, who can only say, “ Ye know not of what spirit ye are/” Meanwhile, the plaintive cry of distress now and then rises into the shriek of alarm — “ When the Son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth ? ” And, worst of all, in high places and low, in the lanes and avenues of the cities, in the streets and lurking-places of the villages, glaring frauds and brutal crime suggest the question, “ Has conscience , too, with faith in God, left the soul of man? ” Do you ask, What might Christian culture do for our individual and 15 public morals and economies, were it rightly enforced in our colleges, and spread from them through our social life ? We reply, first, It should give us correct and worthy conceptions of Christianity as an historic phenom¬ enon. It should so effectually arouse the historic sense and quicken the historic imagination, that among all the heroes of the earth Christ should be visibly transfigured, high and lifted up ; and not only Moses and Elias should be there with the well-known three, but Gautama and Plato and Marcus Aurelius should also bow, with wonder and worship, and say, “It is good for us to be here." This historic Christ, being seen in his true place and correct proportions, would be worshiped as the supernatural Christ, for the reason that the philosophy to which Christian culture and science would train, would recognize a personal and living God as a speculative necessity ; and such a theism would find no contradiction between his im¬ manent direction of those laws of nature which he conserves, and those manifestations of his presence which flash forth when he breaks the circuit and makes himself felt in creation or miracle, or in the gentler methods of that providence which answers trust and prayer. Such a theory of history and of God would find it easy to accept the historic Christ, when seen in the light of his finished work, to be none other than God manifest in the flesh. Such a manifestation would necessarily suppose some need which it was designed to meet, and some import which meets it fully. Such a statement of import and need involves a creed which will be more or less sharp according to the capacity of men to dis¬ tinguish and define; and more or less varied and flexible according to the changes of philosophy and language. In this way an enlightened Christianity would be doctrinal, because it is a rational Christianity, and must connect its Christian truths with those underlying principles with which human specu¬ lation has always concerned itself. But it would not be rationalistic in the offensive sense of the term, because it is too enlightened not to recognize the limits of human logic and the authority of testimony and faith, especially when personality and the supernatural are concerned. It would not and could not be dogmatic, however, in the scholastic sense, for it could not fail to remember that the chief value of doctrine is to reveal and emphasize i6 the personal Christ, and that abstract formulae take feeble hold of the feelings and the life. But all the studies of the enlightened scholar would enforce the one truth that Christianity is a great practical power, and that in this lies its chief interest in the past and for the future. In the light of this absorbing and overwhelming relation he finds little interest in it as a subject of curious and critical detail, or of metaphysical hair-splitting and fiery controversy. He cares for it most of all, because it is destined for use, and inquires how its energies may be largely increased and its capacities may be most successfully applied. Hence, an intelligent and instructed Christianity must be evangelistic and missionary in its spirit. It cannot but go out into the highways and hedges; it must devise missions of all sorts to the poor and neglected at home — to the idolatrous and superstitious across the seas. There prevails at present a strong tendency to believe that success in evangelistic work is reserved for men of limited reading and ordinary associations, because their hearts and minds are supposed to be nearer to those of the people. Facts by no means justify this conclusion. Christian history testifies most abundantly that evangelistic and missionary zeal have been kindled and renewed nowhere so constantly as in Chris¬ tian colleges, and that men trained in the universities have found a most efficient preparation in classical and scientific study for using plain speech and popular illustrations with the greatest effect among both pagan and Christian heathens. The annals of English and American colleges abound with the names of men —some of their brightest — who have been thus distinguished. Many a thoughtful scholar, while studying the history of the Church and meditating on the needs of men, has heard the ques¬ tion addressed to himself, “ Whom shall / send) and who will go for us?” and has responded, with trembling yet confident voice, “ Here am I; send me An instructed Christianity cannot but be practical; and a practical Christianity must be evangelistic and missionary in its spirit. An instructed Christianity must also be catholic and unsectarian. The Christian college, almost of necessity, trains its pupils to enlarged and liberal views of things non-essential, and to a catholic appreciation of 17 things that are common. Narrowness of views tends to the exaggeration of things that are less important, and the over-valuation of limited interests. As the student follows the great movements of the hosts of God’s chosen in the past, their minor subdivisions are lost sight of in the movements of the mass ; their variously colored banners seem to blend into one cloud of prismatic light; wdiile the separate watchword of each division swells into one harmonious war-cry of courage and victory. Under the enlightened judgment which a liberal training fosters, an uncatholic spirit is impossible. It does not suffice to assert that some colleges which have called themselves Christian have been the last hiding-places of bigotry and the inveterate nurseries of • sectarianism. Such institutions are not usually eminently Christian, or eminent for liberal science or culture. For the future application of Christianity to public and private economics — that department which must soon be occupied, and ought to be directed by the Christian Church — we must look to the higher schools of learning for the improvement of the aims and quality of our Christian activity. These schools should be the first to call the attention of the community to its duties and opportunities in every sphere of political and social life. An atheistic sociology may go before us with its narrower vision and its emphatic affirmations of those conclusions which experience has established, but it will do scant justice to the higher elements in human nature, and can recognize no beneficent Providence. Consequently its theories must be untrustworthy if not erroneous. In motives to action and hope it cannot compare with the system which believes in a future king¬ dom of God that shall be built up under the guidance of an Almighty power, and shall be neither more nor less than a human society transformed, by means of social agencies, into a tabernacle in which God shall, indeed, dwell with men and wipe away all tears from all eyes. 3. On the other hand, the college should be Christian in order to elevate and improve the quality of our science and culture. We have seen that Christianity owes much to both. We proceed to show that they owe much to Christianity. Christianity, i. e ., Christian education, enlarges and elevates science, while it inspires and refines culture. We are so accustomed to talk of science and culture as separate agencies, that we forget that they only represent the theories and convictions, the aspirations and imaginative power of living man. We insensibly conceive of them as natural agents or cosmic forces acting under impersonal laws. The very current use of such phrases as the time-spirit, the laws of progress, evolution and devel¬ opment, tends to deepen this impression. The necessary filiation of all scientific thinking which is occasioned by the limitations of the activity of a single individual and a single age, together with the. unchanging nature of the laws under which men classify and reason, confirm these ways of thinking. The new theories of materialistic and metaphysical develop¬ ment which sink the individual soul into an aggregate of material particles, and sublimate God into a metaphysical formula, carry with them the conclusion that science and culture have a self-moving force which is independent of personal activity or emotion, and, of course, is unaffected by religious belief or inspiration. The actual history of science and culture is a refutation of these conceptions. Both are the workmanship of living men, the joint products of their individual freedom, and of the education and opportunities of the men who went before and who lived with them. The result is, truth and beauty as reflected in the individual minds, and accepted by the consenting and approving generations, of individual souls. But what the individual soul shall be is determined very largely by its religious creed and aspirations. A few examples may suffice to show what we mean, and to confirm its truth. The speculative thinking of modern times is represented by such names as Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibnitz, Hume, Rousseau, Reid, Adam Smith, Kant, Schelling, Hamilton, Hegel, Comte, Mill and Spencer. Modern physics is represented by Newton, Brewster, Young, Davy, Faraday, Tyndall, Helmholtz, Herschell, Kirchhoff, and a multitude more. Modern culture, by a still greater host; such as Cowper, Byron, Words¬ worth, Coleridge, Goethe, Schiller, Tennyson, Macaulay, Carlyle, Emerson and Matthew Arnold. In speculative philosophy — which would seem to be most withdrawn from personal influences — nothing is more obvious than that the personal faith of each leader of thought has been a potent factor 19 in determining the range of the philosophical relations which he recognized, and the relative place which he assigned them in his system. The mys¬ tical skepticism of Kant; the semi-Christian pantheism of Schleermacher; the decorous conformity of Locke; the keen pyrrhonism of Hume, and the confident and imposing agnosticism of Spencer, — reveal quite as much of the individual personality of each of these men as of any plastic energy in their environment. Of the physics of modern times we may say, truly, that they have been formed very largely by the per¬ vading influence of that monotheism — that Christian doctrine of a living and personal God which Christianity has made-the faith of Europe. We might show, also, that aside from logic and mathematics, — which were the gifts of ancient thought, — our modern metaphysics and physics, our physiology and psychology, our ethics and politics, our jurisprudence and our social science, are the products of the Christian faith and of Chris¬ tian ideas. When we turn to literature, we need only ask the question, Where were our Dante and Milton, our Spenser and Shakespeare, our Scott and Coleridge, our Goethe and Schiller, our Tennyson and George Eliot, had there been no personal faith in the story of the supernatural Christ, and no kindling and unexhausted pathos in his life and death ? More than this is true: we fearlessly assert that in every Christian nation in connection with every great advance in science and letters in modern life, and generally preceding it, there has been an awakening of religious faith and a revival of spiritual fervor, and that every such excite¬ ment has given the nation and generation a new and a more ardent intel¬ lectual life. We know, from our own observation and in our own time, that the moment when Christian truth takes a strong hold of any gifted soul, it invariably gives to what men call genius, unwonted energy of imagination and emotional power. Not unfrequently it works like inspiration in a soul reputed narrow and dull, it so increases the range and strength of its thinking, and kindles such new aspirations! Let but the breath of God at any time move a college of gifted youth to the beginnings or the renewal of the Christian life,— especially if the community had been aban¬ doned to atheistic death or epicurean frivolity or selfish culture, — and it will 20 reveal an intellectual energy that was before unthought of. We do not say that Christianity can of itself create or inspire genius, though, in some cases, it has almost seemed to do this; but we do say that, other things being equal, it has enormous resources of creative energy, and that for quickening power nothing can take its place. We assert, also, that the atheistic tendencies of modern science, and the frivolous but decorous temper of our modern culture, would effectually dry into barrenness and comparative impotence the youth of any college in which they should rule, were it not for the counteracting influence of the healthier faith of the community without. This leads us to observe: — 4. That a vigorous Christianity is required in our colleges and univer¬ sities to counteract and overcome the tendencies which are active in the science and culture of our time. These tendencies are the natural outgrowth of science and culture when pursued for selfish ends, and uncon¬ trolled by the higher aims of religion and love to man. Science stimulates and rewards the love of power. It tasks individual effort, and rewards it with the pleasure of interpreting nature’s secrets, of understanding her laws and imitating or sympathizing with her skill. So long as science recognizes these powers and laws as the thoughts and actings of God, so long does she open the gateway to worship and faith. So long as her devotee is trained to the docility of a little child, it is almost the same whether he knocks at the door of the hall of science or the door of the kingdom of heaven. But so soon as the investigator begins to imagine himself to be the Creator, the interpretations of the scientist are mistaken for the plan which was devised and the agent which executes. So soon as the order and unfolding of the plan sets aside both thinker and actor, then emerges the scientific Titanism of our day, which dethrones the living God in the name of that which enforces his right to be honored supremely by science, as the self-existent thinker and self-moving force of that philosophy or that faith in which all science stands. Modern culture exalts to the highest place that which was designed to be the attractive servitor of duty and self-sacrifice. Culture in art and manners, in speech and letters, has, in the progress of comfort, wealth and 21 ease, become to many the chief aim of existence and the final standard of worth. So soon as it usurps this highest place with an individual, a clique, or a community, it becomes a religion — a religion that is false and idola¬ trous while it excludes the living God and disdains the self-sacrificing and man-loving Christ ; a religion which tests and measures the aims of life, the movements of society and all individual and social achievements by fastidious and limited standards that satisfy neither the nobler capacities of man nor the severer judgment of God. It can be no secret to the observer of our times that these antichris- tian tendencies are no idle fancies, but potent and formidable facts. It is equally clear that the arena which is most favorable for their successful manifestation would be a college or university, could it be cleared of all religious and ethical restraints. On such a field would present themselves, in the fairest forms, the most insidious temptations that can assail the noblest minds,— the love of knowledge combined with and disguised as the love of power,— ennobled by the aspirations of duty, and dignified by the associations of competition with splendid and able rivals. Here, too, culture would display her fascinations,— confessed to be divine, if anything human can be,— lifting man above sensual and sordid gratifications, and needing neither justification nor palliation with the heart which can be touched by beauty or grace, whether in form or motion, in sound or color, or in the harmony of all. Culture in letters and speech and art also allies itself to science, and both exact leisure and freedom from sordid cares, while they promise to engross and satisfy the heart and the life. Where else can there be needed so much a diviner power than either, as in this very home of science and culture? Who can be, or bring, that power if it be not the ' Christ who has been honored by so many generations of Christian scholars, as they not only stand full high advanced, as inferior to none in science and letters, but are lustrous with that peculiar grace which is known as Christian — an epithet which suggests more than it defines? Truth compels us to add, in conclusion (5), that Christianity must control the college in order to exclude its antagonist, or rival, in the form of some false religion. In the present state of speculation, a university so far as it 22 is not positively Christian, tends toward atheism or agnosticism. One or two generations ago a college might more consistently and safely than now, dispense with religious truth and influence by simply leaving alone all questions of faith. If this were possible in other days, it is impossible now. The sciences of nature, from the molecular physics which discusses the mysterious semina remra up to those fascinating departments of nat¬ ural history which seem at first to appeal only to wonder and delight, are no longer content to leave theology alone. They must now discuss questions and proffer theories which force their disciples to ask the great questions of theism, and to answer them by yes or no. History and criticism challenge the student at every turn to think and say whether histor¬ ical and supernatural Christianity- is any longer to be accepted by the reader who is abreast with the time-spirit. Ethics, politics and social science suppose a decisive position to be taken one side or the other in respect to both theism and Christianity: even elementary treatises on these subjects teach a positive faith or as positive a denial. Each of these faitbs has its cultus — the cultus of humane and reverent sympathy with the great mass of men in Christendom who, after some sort, have trusted and hoped in the living God; or the cultus of the polished Pharisee, who plants himself at the corners of the streets and gazes at the church-going crowd, as he looks, if he does not speak the prayer, “ O Lord! I thank thee that I am not as other men are.” We repeat, that atheism and agnosticism are religious creeds as truly as are theism and dogmatic Christianity. Either can be taught directly or indirectly: directly, by formal and open inculcation, which, in either case, may defeat itself; or indirectly by gentle or sarcastic insinuation. The one or the other can be unconsciously taught in subtile ways of impression, even by an instructor who may honestly strive to withhold the slightest suggestion of his faith or his feelings. Each of these faiths, in the germ or ripened fruit, has a larger or smaller representation among pupils or teachers in every considerable college in this land. Holding, as we do, that positive Christianity is intellectually more philosophical, and morally more attractive, than either atheism or agnosticism, we willingly accept the 23 alternative to teach the better of these religions as earnestly and as legiti¬ mately as we may. As we have thus far conceived of the Christian college in the ideal, let us for a moment imagine one that had become thoroughly unchristian or antichristian, and follow out the inner and outer life of such an isolated and self-contained community of pupils, especially when separated from their homes. Such a college would have no place of common worship. The place where a chapel once stood has become vacant, or, if the edifice remains, over its portal is written, “To us there is no God, the Father of spirits; and no Christ by whom we know him ; ” or, perhaps, there is emblazoned the inscription that describes the object to which the so-called piety of science offers its dazed and complacent worship, “To the Unknown and the UnknowableV Nor prayer nor anthem are ever heard within these inclosures that are consecrated, with an anchorite’s rigor, to the severe aus¬ terities of a narrow intellectual insight, and of a culture to whom no sin is mortal except it offend against decorum. In the studies of such an institu¬ tion the fundamental unities which science presupposes must all be passed over, lest, forsooth, they should raise questions concerning God, and require answers that savor of positive religion. The philosophic range of such an institution must be narrow, whether it forbids us to speculate about God, or whether it dogmatizes that only women and priests accept a God who thinks and cares for men. Whether theism or agnosticism is the prevalent creed that is secretly cherished, each is held on narrow grounds; for theo¬ logical declarations are not tolerated except in the form of imaginative flights that are admired for their suggestive imagery, or of orphic utterances that fit well to music. Psychology would naturally sink into physiology, because spirit, as usually conceived, would make God rational and even necessary, and would also provide for responsibility and immortality. Moreover, spirit has of late been pronounced by all scientific men whose opinions are worth considering, to be but a function of matter; and ethics, politics and social science are now best explained as the successive growths of that omnipresent and all-producing mechanism which, under the name of development, has not yet been branded with the title of a theological theory. 24 To appeal in defense or enforcement of any truth concerning God or immortality to ^the hopes and desires, to the aspirations and longings of the heart, or to the guilt and fears of the conscience, is to commit the sin of sentimentalism which the intellectual tone of this house of spiritual death will never pardon. Thank God! there is no such college in this land, because the people in this land do not desire such for their children. Even in those insti¬ tutions upon which State necessity imposes narrow restrictions, or in which a secular theory strives to be logical, the Christian convictions of the people require that in some form or other there shall be a more or less positive recognition of God and duty and immortality — both the teach¬ ing of these verities as solid and trustworthy on scientific grounds, and the practical response to them in services of Christian worship. We are well aware that all our arguments and representations will be confronted with this comprehensive reply: “The ideal which you describe and defend cannot be made real. However desirable it may be to com¬ bine in the same society an ardent zeal for science and culture with fervent religious activities and aspirations, these elements are incompatible, or, at least, they cannot be provided for in the theory and practice of a numerous and richly-provided college or university such as our modern life impera¬ tively demands. Your ideal, and the reasons which impel to its realization, are against the tendencies of modern thought. The drift of modern prac¬ tice, as founded on modern experience and determined by the more complicated character of modern life, tends to narrow the sphere of Christian influences in the formal teaching and public arrangements of our leading colleges, and to make their internal spirit more positively secular and simply intellectual.” That this tendency is inevitable, and that the drift cannot be resisted, is argued from the following reasons: — i. The spirit of the age requires that our investigations should be un¬ biased and untrammeled by any traditional creeds. Whenever Christian doctrines or religious interests are prominently considered, investigation cannot be absolutely free. The fancied tendency of a theory or conclusion must always limit the freedom of thought and disturb the coolness of the 25 judgment. Science can only thrive when one passion is supreme, and that passion is devotion to the truth. Religious traditions and prejudices, whether amiable or virulent, are inconsistent with or hostile to this devotion. It is for this reason that science thrusts them aside, and even drives them out from the arena on which thought achieves its conquests. To which we reply: The love of truth is then acknowledged to be the supreme duty. Science, then, appeals to the conscience for help, and conscience is a religion of itself, or supposes a religion which enforces its behests. To the supremacy of duty, many interests and desires are opposed. The Christian faith is properly defined as the loving belief of Christian truth, because it is true. Moreover, similar passions hinder the acceptance of scientific and Christian truth—as the love of tradition, the pride of opinion, a received watchword, a name, a party or a school. The great Leader of the Christian Church declared : “To this end was I born, a?id to this end came I forth, that T might bear witness to the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice T In theory, then, there is no conflict between the two impulses. Lord Bacon had the insight and the magnanimity to declare that a man must become as docile as a child if he would enter either the kingdom of science or the kingdom of heaven. We do not affirm that all Christian scientists and Christian universities are wholly faithful to this spirit in their search after either religious or scientific truth. We are quite confident that all scientists are not. But this we do affirm, that a Christian college is neither very enlightened nor very Christian which does not found its teachings on evidence; which does not give reasons for its opinions; which does not challenge the opponents of its scientific or religious creed to open combat on grounds of reason; and which does not confer upon its students the duty fearlessly to search for truth of every sort in the fear and love of God. Those who speak so contempt¬ uously of theologians as the necessary and natural antagonists of free inquiry and scientific progress, and argue that Christian earnestness in a college or university must necessarily hinder freedom of thought, do great dishonor to the multitudes of Christian believers, among the dead and the living, whose scientific researches have been of the freest and the ablest, 26 and for the reason that they have been conducted in a conscientious spirit under the eye of the living God. Prominent among men of this sort was the late Dr. Alexander Duff, who was as distinguished for missionary zeal as he was for the use he made of Christian institutions of learning for the propagation of Christianity in India. The splendid success which attended the Christian seminary which he opened at Calcutta, as contrasted with the secular schools of the government, in respect to educational and religious results, is an instructive example of the educational power which Chris* tianity possesses, and of which our American pagans might well take heed. I refer to him here as a fearless lover of truth of all sorts, and quote the words of the eminent lawyer and publicist, Sir Henry Maine : “ Next I was struck — and here we have the point of contact between Dr. Duff’s religious and educational life — by his perfect faith in the harmony of truth. I am not aware that he ever desired the university to refuse instruction in any subject of knowledge because he considered it dangerous. When men of feeble minds or weaker faith would have shrunk from encouraging the study of this or that classical language because it enshrined the archives of some antique superstition, or would have refused to stimulate proficiency in this or that walk of physical science because its conclusions were supposed to lead to irreligious consequences, Dr. Duff, believing his own creed to be true, believed, also, that he had the great characteristic of truth — that characteristic which nothing else except truth possesses— that it can be reconciled with every thing else which is also true .”—The Life of Alexander Duffy D.D., LL.D., II. Vol.yp. 393, Chap. 24. The sectarian spirit in theology and religion we know is sometimes fearfully narrowing, and most hostile to true enlightenment and progress. The same is true of the sectarian spirit in science, which blinds the mind to both facts and arguments when they make against a favorite theory or school. The feuds and jealousies of science extend to both principles and men; they control universities as truly as individuals. For this reason motives higher than the purely intellectual are not only useful, but often greatly needed, even in schools of pure science. So far as Christian motives are concerned, we assert with confidence that of any score or hundred 27 seekers after scientific truth, those who are devoutly theistic or Christian in their faith are, by far, the most likely to be fearless and open-minded in receiving and asserting whatever is new, provided it be true. For a Chris¬ tian believer to insinuate the opposite, is to confess the narrowness of his own conceptions of Christianity, or to libel the liberality of those of his neighbor. 2. It may still be urged, that in the present divided state of Christendom a college which is positively Christian must, in fact, be controlled by some religious denomination, and this must necessarily narrow and belittle its intellectual and emotional life. We reply, a college need not be admin¬ istered in the interests of any religious sect, even if it be controlled by it. We have contended at length that science and culture tend to liberalize sectarian narrowness. We know that Christian philosophy, history and literature are all eminently catholic and liberal. No class of men so profoundly regret the divisions of Christendom as do Christian scholars; and, we add, their liberality is often in proportion to their fervor. While a college may be, and sometimes is, a nursery of petty prejudices and a hiding-place for sectarian bigotry, it is untrue to all the lessons of Chris¬ tian thoughtfulness if it fails to honor its own genius, and will sooner or later outgrow its narrowness. 3. It may still further be urged, that a Christian college must limit itself in the selection of instructors to men of positive Christian belief, and may thus deprive itself of the ablest instruction. We reply, no positive inferences of this sort can be drawn from the nature or duties of a Christian college. The details of administration are always controlled by wise discretion. A seeker after God, if he has not found rest in faith, may be even more devout and believing in his influence than a fiery dogmatist or an uncom¬ promising polemic. And yet, it may be true that a teacher who is careless of misleading confiding youth, and who is fertile in suggestions of unbelief, may, for this reason and this only, be disqualified from being a safe and useful instructor in any. college, whether Christian or secular. Personal characteristics very properly enter very largely into the estimate of the requisites in an ennobling and successful instructor; and among personal 28 qualities, those which we call Christian are esteemed the most ennobling, except by those who are ashamed of the Christian name. Last of all, it may be urged that a Christian college may become the nursery of pietistic sentimentalism or fanatical fervor. This is true; but there are other sentimentalisms than those which are inspired by Christian truth and the Christian history; and there are other fanaticisms than such as flame in the Christian Church. The best security against all excesses of this sort is to be found in that soundness of mind which earnest Chris¬ tian devotion is fitted to inspire, when instructed by solid learning and enlightened by science; when refined by imaginative literature and made graceful by consummate art. We conclude as we began — that a Christian college, to be worthy of its name, must be the home of enlarged knowledge and varied culture. It must abound in all the appliances of research and instruction. Its libraries and collections must be rich to affluence. Its corps of instruct¬ ors must be well trained, and enthusiastic in the work of teaching. For all this, money is needed, and it should be gathered into great centers — not wasted in scanty fountains, nor subdivided into insignificant rills. Into such a temple of science the Christian spirit should enter as the Shekinah of old, and purify and consecrate all to itself. In such a college the piety would inspire the science, and the culture would elevate and refine the piety, and the two would lift each the other upward toward God, and speed each other outward and onward in errands of blessing to man. Whether a Christian college shall surpass one that is purely or chiefly secular in its scientific training and literary culture, must be tested by time; but in order that the test should be fair the advantages must be equal. The endowments, the appliances, the libraries, the museums, and all else that wealth can furnish, must be similar in attractiveness and solidity. The friends of each must give to each an enthusiastic and unwavering support. We do not contend that religious zeal can be a substitute for scientific ardor; but we do urge that it may, and will, furnish the highest inspiration when directed to scientific studies. We are not so simple as to hold that 29 the culture of the religious feelings is an equivalent for the training of the imagination; but we do contend that the imagination, when fired by Chris¬ tian faith and fervor, has reached its loftiest achievements. In a word, we believe that the Christian faith is the perfection of the human reason as truly as a necessity to the human heart, and, therefore, the essential to the highest forms of human culture. We conclude that no institution of higher education can attain the highest ideal excellence, in which the Christian faith is not exalted as supreme; in which its truth is not asserted with a constant fidelity, defended with unremitting ardor, and enforced with a fervent and devoted zeal; in which Christ is not honored as the inspirer of man’s best affections, the model of man’s highest excellence, and the master of all human duties. Let two institutions be placed side by side, with equal advantages in other particulars; let the one be positively Christian and the other consistently secular,— and the Christian will surpass the secular in the contributions which it will make to science and culture, and in the men which it will train for the service of their kind. If our ideal holds good for colleges in general, it emphatically applies to colleges for women. The indications are abundant and decisive that the spheres for woman’s activity have already been multiplied and enlarged, and that in order to fill them, her education in science and letters and art should be made more varied and thorough. It will be agreed by most, if not all of us who are here present, that in order to fill these spheres of more public usefulness, she will not be called to part with a single one of those graces, each of which, in its place, and all united, make up that bond of per¬ fectness which we call true womanhood. No man who is competent to judge, will care to question, or venture to deny, that in every branch of science, letters and art, woman is able to achieve eminent success, and to gather rich enjoyment; nor that in very many positions of administration they will equal men, nor that in others they will surpass them. We may not forget that in practical conviction, sagacious discrimination and responsive sensibility, they are superior to men, and by these very endowments are nearer to that worshiping trust which becomes religious faith so soon as the will comes 30 under the law of duty, and the soul is consecrated as the dwelling-place of God. But these special endowments of the sex expose them, perhaps the more, to unreasoning fanaticism and tenacious bigotry for any cause which they ardently espouse, be it religious, social or speculative. Hence, in their school and college education, with all else which gives refinement and culture to womanly tastes, they need the well-rooted habit of solid and discriminating judgment. Whatever the sphere of our educated women is to be, whether in the household, in society, in science, letters or art, or in more responsible public stations, the quality of their education will tell more conspicuously upon their influence. Shall this education be Christian? and shall women, as heretofore, be found generally in the ranks of faith ? It is not certain that either will be true. We know that not a few in England, and some in our own country, have become conspicuous before the public for the open abandon¬ ment of a Christian, and even a theistic belief, and for the able and ardent rejection of those principles on which the hope of immortality, the sacred¬ ness of the family and the solidity of society have been supposed to rest. We have all shuddered to read of those fanatical women who, in the days of the Commune, were busy in distributing among the dwellings of Paris the agent of destruction, and in kindling it with their own hands, and who justified their madness by the speculative teachings which they had learned from the doctrinaires of their school. Ought we to be offended any the less at those female expositors of the new agnosticism and ethics, who in our English homes play with fires even more destructive, whether for their own speculative delectation, or in the spirit of fanatical propa- gandism ? Has a gifted woman no power for mingled evil and good when, like George Eliot, she writes under the mingled influence of the gospel of hope and the gospel of despair ? — much of the pathos of whose tales is the effect of the blended lights and shades of her earlier faith and later specu¬ lations, in the boldest of which there lingers the plaintive Christian under¬ tone which still resounds in her heart? If anything is generally agreed upon in respect to the higher education of women, it is that their colleges should be Christian homes. 3i The passing traveler, as he is borne quickly by this spot and catches sight of the gables and spires of this stately edifice, is told that it is a female college; and, perhaps, if it be according to the temper of its in¬ formant, he is informed that it is somewhat too religious. But what if he were told, and it were true, that it was atheistic or antichristian; that it worshiped no god, and decorously, but scientifically, denied the name which all Christians hallow with the tenderest and most elevated associations ! We believe that this will never be said of Wellesley College. We trust it will never be true of any college in this land, but that each, in its way, and all with united energy, will honor Him before whom every knee shall bow and whom every tongue shall confess. We bring our congratulations this day to these our friends, the found¬ ers of this institution, to whose munificent gifts, followed by their never- ceasing thoughtfulness and prayers, this institution owes its existence, its prosperity and its promise. Rather do we unite with them in ascribing our thanks to Him from whom all just thoughts and good counsels do proceed, that he has enabled and inclined them to achieve this work of wise and sagacious benevolence. We congratulate its new benefactor, also, the founder of Stone Hall, who, after distributing so generously of her wealth for the promotion of higher Christian education, is permitted, this day, to crown these varied gifts by providing for an edifice that shall tell so effectually upon the Christian education of many of her own sex, who, we trust, will be ministers of Christian truth and Christian letters and Christian arts, and of Christ himself, in our country and throughout the whole earth. ' ■ I