450 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. versity for all our people; * * * and that many of God's dear children, out of their deep poverty are contributing freely, making sacrifices as they do. so" that the church may at length have such an institution." Deep-rooted faith kindled this enthusiasm and created a holy confidence competent for the struggle which was clearly foreseen. They welcome co-operation of friends "who have heretofore been friendly," but now are becoming "equally hopeful and enthusiastic with ourselves," as well as the aid of others indifferent or doubtful. 2. It is moreover to be noted that the founders were deeply impressed with the "great events" which were taking place in the world during the close of this first period. The preceding decades were crowded with stirring changes. From 1848 to 1870 ! What a whirl of things in Europe and America. The troubled current led through the "terrible year" ; the rebuke of Russian schemes by the Crimean war ; the far-reaching pact of Paris (1856) ; the Schleswig-Holstein affair significant of the final exclusion of Austria from the hegemony of Germany ; the humiliation of the Hapsburgs in the partial liberation of Italy by France, whose presumption led to her defeat at Sedan with the resulting unification of Italy, the exaltation of united Germany and the shattering of the Pope's temporal power—all culminating, together with the constitutional changes which consecrated America to freedom, just as our founders quietly opened the doors of the University in 1870. Here were the signs of new life among the peoples in the midst of the pulses of which we are yet living. They were beginning almost coincidently with the closing quarter of the great nineteenth century. They recognized the stress and meaning of their times and made them the basis of endeavor and appeal. They knew that "the universities had conquered at Sadowa and Sedan" and needed no prophet to assure them that the world was surging forward by education, that the sciences were blossoming with amazing splendor ; that ideas were going to rule the world more certainly than ever; that the need for such leaders as would not be "blind leaders of .the blind" was upon them, and that the opportunity was as brilliant as the need was urgent. They saw the meaning of all this—God bless their memory for it—as touching the interests of men's souls as well as toward things political and social and economic ; and they builded even Letter than they knew, for even they could only faintly forsee What these forty years in the world's pilgrimage would bring forth. 3. Nearer than some of these things to the rank and file of the churches came the great and happily helpful reunion of the two branches of the church of their fathers. Clearly recognized was the fact that even the delays to which the great undertaking had been subjected had fallen out in this matter rather to final success. Those who were leading knew that they were WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO - 451 moving in the line of denominational consolidation and development. Subsequent events have shown them to have been wise and far-sighted. If one branch of the Presbyterian church could succeed in passing the first difficulties and founding the University, a fortiori a united and then reinforced church can maintain and develop it. The history of this important movement cannot here be given, though that would be a pleasing task for the writer, who was present at the Newark Assembly in 1864, at the great nonofficial but heart-to-heart Philadelphia meeting of 1866, and who was pastor of the church (Pittsburgh) whence the Old School Assembly filed out to take the New School brethren in public procession to the church in which the reunion was made visibly manifest. That which concerns the University is that the' Ohio synods constituted by the reunion were "made legal successors of the synods formerly united in the control of the University." By terms of the act they became "entitled to the possession and enjoyment of all the rights and franchises, and liable to the performance of all the duties of the preceding synods" (Dr. Taylor). Trustees resigned. Successors immediately appointed. Resolution "accepting the trust" adopted. Thus the University passed under the control of the reunited church. While at the beginning the enterprise was confined to synods in connection with the Old School body, it was felt that the war had removed the chief difficulty in the way of reunion by obliterating the pro-slavery tendencies in the Old School church, and that experience had brought the New School churches into harmony with the other branch as to conducting all great missions of the section by agencies under its own care and control. Reunion was in the air in October, 1865, when the college project was effectively revived. There was good reason for the early extension of welcome (already noted) to any synods disposed to join in the enterprise. 4. The strong faith and high purpose of this period had their tests as well as their triumphs. Much encouragement was experienced when the cornerstone was laid with appropriate ceremonies and vigorous addresses by Doctor Marshall of Columbus and Doctor Baker of Zanesville. On this,• the first occasion admitting manifestations of popular interest, the demonstrations were quite satisfactory. Wayne county, perhaps anticipating as certain to come immediately what would take many years to realize, smiled benignantly on that thirtieth of June, 1868. That foundation and that cornerstone were characteristically massive and solid. One could wish fervently that the art of photography had been then sufficiently developed to have preserved for us the faces of that group of earnest, self-sacrificing, hopeful and far-seeing men who must have been at the centre of the multitude of that day. The trustees say, in the report of that year : "The effect of the demonstration was 452 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. most marked and the public, taking confidence that the enterprise was a reality and promised success, have taken constantly more and more interest in it.". The entrance of that incarnation of energy and executive talent, George P. Hays, into the fiscal secretaryship, took the public to the point of assurance "of starting not as a child to grow through long years of painful struggling, but like a full grown man in all the vigor of his strength and energy." Much was expected from the projected professorship to be contributed by the Sunday schools. "The prospect" was pronounced "most promising." But difficulties soon appeared. Adjustments were to be made among ecclesiastical bodies which were themselves changing their organization, and whose future boundaries were still uncertain having besides various local affinities with other colleges. One of the newly-constituted synods (Cleveland) declined a share in control and the resulting responsibilities though heartily commending the enterprise to the "sympathies, contributions and prayers" of the churches under its care. There was still hard work to be done in further arousing the half-awakened sections of the state. One of the agents (Dr. J. W. Scott, former president of Washington College) retired at the end of three months, convinced that the churches were not prepared to co-operate ha such an enterprise. Other and older denominational colleges were pressing on with new life. The State University at Columbus was making its mark, though founded so lately as 1862—as a result of the congressional grant for an Agricultural college. It began to be apparent in 1869 that the earlier endowment subscriptions were not being paid in with the promptness necessary to secure needed interests for opening the institution. A strong and touching appeal was made by the trustees : "Our people, by the unanimity and generosity with which they have subscribed, have won an enviable reputation among sister denominations and before the world." Pastors and elders and leading members were entreated to form a "strong public opinion" for a "performance" of what there had been such "readiness to will," and to "employ their influence both official and social to secure prompt payment." In the earlier part of 1869 "times became so hard and money so scarce," that the culminating point of the endowment (conditional) subscription was about to he deferred for a year. Finishing the central building free from debt seemed doubtful. All was pivoted "upon the promptness with which the subscriptions" would be paid, and yet prompt payment was uncertain. Naturally these were trying times but a "comfortable issue" was at last found. 5. It is also to be noted that the whole enterprise stood in the minds and hearts of our founders. as a most promising provision for the "defense and confirmation of the common evangelical faith." They felt that "false philoso- WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO - 453 phy" and "science falsely so called" were rapidly developing. They saw the danger of attack upon the very citadels of the "like-precious faith," and dreaded the approach of a secularized and de-christianized public education. For that reason the denominational college became to them a prime necessity. This appears in the first resolutions passed by the original trustees and finds frequent expression in the documents of this period, coming naturally to fullest declaration in the opening addresses of the next period. 6. It was equally in the thought of our founders that the denominational college should be the distinctively proper annex to the Christian home. "Our sons" appear as the basal plea. That plea was plead in thousands of homes and from hundreds of pulpits. It stirred many a heart to prayer and opened many a hand to give. In those days of family altars and the consecration of serious covenant vows, parents felt some anxiety concerning the spiritual environment into which their children were to be sent. They knew how much it meant for youth's plastic years and how much would be determined by that environment concerning the life-work to be undertaken by those in whom home affections and church expectations and state needs would meet. When this sentiment is as true and deep as Presbyterian doctrine and earlier practice would have it, there can be no wonder that the yearning of the home is for a college as nearly like the home conditions under which the new generation has been born and trained, prayed for and prayed with ; as can possibly be found or made. 7. Nor did the founders lack educational aspiration in the midst of their religious inspiration. They meant to do their best (and they did surprisingly well, all things considered) to found an institution which should set forward the higher education in a state already well proided with facilities for that purpose. it "must be," they said, of higher standing in organization and scholarship than some of the then existing neighboring colleges. They dared to hope for equality with leading Eastern institutions. As Western Reserve liked to be called "the Yale of the \Vest," so Wooster aspired to be called "the Princeton of the West." It was not another college they desired, but a superior college. They declared that they dared not claim a distinctively Christian and denominational 'character without putting forth every possible effort to attain this high rank. They were sincere in emphasizing both terms in the dedicatory motto Christo et Literis. When in 1869 they put forth more decided claims for half a million endowment, the trustees said, "No less sum will enable the board to pay such salaries as will enable them to command the best talent in the country in filling their professorships." They had elevated conception of the faculty they were to choose. They must be "such as would 454 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. send the students away vacation after vacation rehearsing the excellencies of their professors." They owed such instruction to the students and thus only could they gather, they said, "the best students." They owed such a faculty to the most sacred interests entrusted to a Christian college. The synod of Sandusky (1868) invited and urged its people "to exercise enlarged liberality in aid of this effort to secure a large and ample endowment so that the board of trustees may place in the institution a faculty composed of men endowed with the highest order of talent and the ripest scholarship." So then, it is plain that our founders were no strangers to the times in which they lived, to the compass and meaning of the higher education, to the consecrating touch of sacredness in their trust, to the immense and world-wide interests sure to be served and conserved by a well appointed Christian college. They realized that they were building along the line of the world's progress, as well as in harmony with the best traditions of their Presbyterian ancestors. They noted that all Christians in our noble state were willing with them, to accent every word of that inseparable trinity of the Ordinance of 1787, "Religion, morality and knowledge." Nobler motives never actuated any deed of collective wisdom than those which created the University of Wooster. Each motive illumines each of the others. Nothing is lacking and nothing is redundant. That undertaking is best which brings out the best in the men who undertake it. They hold the ideal and the ideal holds them. More fitting close to this first period's history cannot be made than to cite the closing words of Dr. John Robinson's review of it, uttered at the first inauguration (1870) : "Such is the genesis of the idea realized before us today in this University. With what intense earnestness this idea possessed the minds and hearts of many members of these synods, is manifested by the fact that action was taken by one or more of these synods every year (except 1850-51 and 1862-63) for the last twenty-three years. It is evident, moreover, from this sketch that God baffled our efforts and plans until the very best time for success had come. In these recent years, a higher conception of the kind of institution which the age demands has been formed ; the conviction of the need of such a University has become more deep and wide-spread ; reunion has given us greater strength and called us to mightier effort in this world's evangelization ; pecuniary means are more abundant and a larger spirit of liberality prevails. This is evidently God's time for this work. * * * The world, our own country, the church, struggling and rising, our own be loved Zion, the Father, Son and Spirit, look with interest, demand fidelity and energy, and ,expect success." WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO - 455 PERIOD OF EXPERIMENT. II. The second period may be designated as that of experiment. The long course of inception and preparation had done much, despite variations of progress, to make the conditions favorable. The idea had become familiar to the people as well as to their natural leaders—the pastors. The University had grown from a felt necessity to a partially realized achievement. General passive consent, however, was far from universal and self-sacrificing cooperation. The way was just open for a fair experiment. Faith was strong and success was promised. But many conditions must be met. A mere name, even though that of a venerable and enlightened Christian denomination, would not answer to conjure with. There must be a real college and one of high grade or—bitter disappointment. Yet the means were not on hand to execute the large plans or make good the confident promises of ardent advocates. The superstructure was yet to be erected though the foundations had been well and truly laid. The church's persistence was to be tested. The state area had not as yet been fully penetrated. Will the endowment notes he paid as they mature ? How can the expenses of the initial years be met ? Will the counsel to patronize given by the synods be ratified by the community in which so many deep-rooted attachments to neighboring and eastern institutions presented such positive claims ? Will the southern part of the state come so far—passing on the way old and tried opportunities? Can the high ideals of excellence, professed and promised, be made actual all at once ? Will the distinctly Christian and denominational character of the University detract from or aid its development ? Can another college adhering to the lines of the older classical curriculum (though not wholly neglecting the sciences, yet insufficiently equipped for modern methods of scientific instruction) succeed in the midst of the abounding and increasing enthusiasm for the natural sciences and the clamor for a practical education? (The Federal government's grants were going in this direction.) Can the denominational college be planted and flourish in view of the new development of the state universities? The situation was full of thorny interrogatories. despite the atmosphere laden with interest and hope. Well, certainly an answer would be found to all such questions if sturdy confidence in and outspoken announcement of their fundamental motives and meaning could avail. Whoever ponders the declarations with which this period of experiment was entered -upon will conclude its failure to have been impossible if grit and grace go for anything in this world. "We aim at more than this," the trustees say [that is more than a high rank among the colleges 456 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO of the land]. "It is a Christian college. It is a Presbyterian college. The first thought of its founders was born of the necessities of the church. * * * * Everything pertaining to it has been dedicated to Christ and His kingdom. In this day of rationalism and ritualism and vain philosophy, this clay in which so much of the cultivated intellect and so many of the great schools of the country are drifting away into infidelity and false religion, it is our purpose to plant here a firm bulwark for God's truth, and to lift high above all its towers the banner of the cross." Again they refer to "this day of wonderful events, of Christian progress and missionary enterprise," together with the "one hundred and fifty vacant pulpits of Ohio" as calling imperatively for just such an institution. "We would make it," they say, "not only a Christian college but a missionary college, a college of revival, a college within whose walls the converting, sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit shall reign and from whose doors there shall go forth streams of cultivated, regenerated, consecrated intellect to make glad the city of our God." They mention the joy of the reunion, and emphasize the definite relationship of the church and the college thus : "Our doors were not opened until all our interests, the entire control of the institution and every dollar of its property had been placed in the hand of the reunited synod." Existence is considered as secured, but whether the "high vantage ground which the wants of the church and the exigencies of the times demand shall be attained; whether we shall be able to build upon the soil of Ohio a Christian university that shall equal leading institutions and shall be an honor to the Christian liberality and the consecrated wealth of the Presbyterian church in this great state, depends largely upon the spirit in which the whole church shall now lay hold of the work." Information is to be laid before the synods. "In this way,” say the trustees, "the religious character of the University, its general direction and the safe investment of all its property is perpetually secured to the Presbyterian church—the disadvantages and dangers both of a close corporation and of state control on the one hand, and if minute and excessive ecclesiastical management on the other are effectively avoided." But the greatest document of this period containing the clearest explanation and most forcible indication of the Wooster ideas, meanings and motives is the inaugural address of Doctor Lord—the first president. It was delivered on the opening day. September the eleventh, 1870. He congratulates the assembled officers and friends upon the success thus far obtained : "For the difficulties of your design," he said, "were commensurate with its greatness. That design was no less than to build another strong bulwark against WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO - 457 the winds and tides which are blowing and drifting the men of this generation from truth and life to the shores of error and death ; to rear, on broad and deep foundations, another fitting temple of literature and science conceived of in their highest forms and widest reach, and ennobled and glorified- by the pervading presence and power of religion. But how formidable the attempt !" Comparing the situation of three short years before that day, he was amazed to see the building and to know of the pledged endowment "inadequate indeed, but revealing a profound interest in collegiate education that is to be broad and liberal but to be filled with Christian ideas and the Christian spirit, recognizing thus the prime fact that all truth, natural as well as revealed, has its source and end in God." Doctor Lord was hopeful that other departments would be added, constituting in time, a true University. He demanded a democratic freedom of accessibility to all men. The place for "all studies" should be the place of studies "for all men." "The essential test of citizenship in the conionwealth of science and letters should be character, mental and moral quality and attainments, not condition, race, color or sex." With advocacy of co-education and criticism of the proposed curriculum in favor of more modern languages, English literature and natural science. Keep the classics, but do not keep out the "moderns" (as commissioner Harris used to call them). He denies all fear of the cultivation- of the sciences in a Christian college. "All knowledge leads to truth and all truth leads to God." Pages of eloquent discussion of this theme follow. Proving that knowledge is theistic, Dr. Lord advances to claim the University for all essential truth properly called Christian. "But also," he adds, "the University has organic connection with the Christian church." This is not for a narrowly sectarian purpose, but that "the most direct and powerful influence of Christianity and its highest safeguards may be thrown around education in the future." Anticipating the results of the drift from the spiritual to the material, Doctor Lord says : "The danger is that, if the church has no institutions of its own, where its voice may be heard and its power felt, there may come a complete divorcement between education and religion, an issue from which the citizen and the state may well recoil in horror as from a supreme calamity." * * * "In the presence of so ,great a danger it were not wise to trust alone in individual Christian men or in small and close corporations to meet and avert it. Individuals and corporations may change. The limits of a single life have sometimes proved sufficient to revolutionize cherished opinions and effect the diversion of great and sacred interests. If there are any surer means or greater securities by which the aims and benefactions of enlightened liberality may be guarded, and by which, also, the alliance of education with religion 458 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. may be welded and made permanent, most certainly we ought to have them. Such means and securities, we believe, are found in the church. If they are not there, they do not exist. This university, therefore, has its distinctive character as a temple of learning in its direct and vital connection with the Temple of God." Dr. Lord would have brought into the University halls all the volumes "in which are embalmed the achievements of their learning and genius, who have added to the sum of human thought and knowledge." But he would place above them all the inspired word of God. This he would do, not to restrict inquiry nor fetter mind, but because we know that "the God of creation is also the God of revelation ; that the hand which laid the foundations of the earth and balanced and lighted the stars, is the same hand that traced the lines and pages of the Bible." * * * * "In this belief we have founded and today dedicate this University." * * * "It is our desire and will be our aim to make this University an ornament and power to the church, a pillar and bulwark to the state." The writer has been anew impressed with the rich content, the forcible diction, the elevated conceptions and cogent reasonings of this first inaugural. He wishes it might be republished from time to time and widely circulated among students and patrons as a clear and convincing statement and vindication of the "things most surely believed among us." The opening day reached its close in the strong address of the Hon. John Sherman. He outlined his own broad view of what a university should be, and hoped we might have one in Ohio. His special charge was to build in with the tendency of the age, which was severely practical, in order to make the institution really serviceable. The address was, in its pithy and pointed brevity, its wise counsel to concentration and in its assurance that every discovery in nature deepens and strengthens the profound reverence of the educated mind for the Almighty Ruler and Maker of us all, worthy of its author and of his distinguished career as a statesman. Impressively did he say: "Under modern lights the Christian faith shines higher and purer than before. The inscrutable mysteries of our being—its dependence only on Almighty power, its yearnings for the dim, invisible life to come, are the ties of human nature to religious faith. Let the mind be instructed and the preacher and the hearer alike be left free and as sure as the earth moves in its course the true religion will prevail." Such were the sentiments and convictions of Wooster's first day. The conditions favorable for this period of experiment were the fact of opening with a property (deducting the cost of the campaign) estimated at WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO - 459 four hundred thousand dollars ; a faculty of five professors "eminently qualified for their work," ecclesiastical relations settled, a medical department previously organized in Cleveland and now accepting the new charter without any fixed pecuniary responsibility resting upon the University ; a collegiate department organized and the hoped-for addition of "Law Science." The building, unfinished, but massive and adapted in many regards to educational needs, was highly praised on all sides. Quotations might be made which would now seem extravagant and yet at that time there was perhaps no superior single building provided for any Ohio college. Its position and outlook were justly celebrated by contemporary journals. Apparatus and library were being rapidly provided. There were some indications of increase in the endowment. But reconstruction of the church boundaries (presbyteries and synods) seemed to distract attention to a certain degree. The disposition of the large memorial fund then being raised to signalize the reunion of the branches was held in suspense, and, so far as I am advised, never brought to the new enterprise any considerable sum. Yet the work went bravely forward. Admission standards were at once placed on the same grade with many Eastern col- leges and with all neighboring ones, and admission was wholly by examination. Of the new faculty, Doctors Lord, Stoddard and Kirkwood had already won wide and deserved reputations as scholars and professors. Special personal talent had been recognized in Professors Jeffers and Fullerton. The peculiar clearness and teaching power of the former has been recognized in every position he has since occupied, and the exquisite taste and refined personality of the other—together with his skill in writing and criticism—remain with those who mourn for the touch of his vanished hand as the beams of the dying sun linger long after the flaming disc has disappeared. The medical department was confidently announced and there were connected with it some of Cleveland's most distinguished physicians. Four classes were at once organized and a "Commencement" assured for the following June. The prevailing spirit was that of congratulation. To quote one expression : "It was four years' from nothing to a University which takes rank with the foremost institutions of the land." A remarkably full curriculum was offered, based, it is thought, upon that of Princeton. Classical studies were prominent of course, and intellectual and moral science, yet English and the natural sciences were not neglected. Doctor Stoddard gave special lectures on "Mind and Matter," which were of recognized apologetic value. Constitutional and international law were provided for, though later the latter was neglected. Differential calculus was a required study. Civil 460 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. engineering was hinted at. The scientific course, parallel in many things with the classical, provided for the modern languages. Special courses in history were promised, associated with other studies, but distinguished by outlines during the term and examinations at the close. Biblical instruction was to form a part of every course. Daily religious services were at once established upon which, as upon Sabbath chapel, the attendance of all was expected. The Bragg donation of five thousand dollars for the library began to be realized. Orders for apparatus from abroad were only somewhat delayed by the Franco-Prussian war and a confidential assurance was given that more would be provided as needed. Two literary societies were formed at once. The attendance for the first year reached sixty-one, two of whom were young women, and from the beginning the character of the students was fixed as that of men of character, with the very slightest infusion of rowdyism. The graduating class numbered six : Messrs. W. A. Irvin, H. L. Henderson, J. E. Kuhn, J. C. Miller, J. H. Packer, W. R. Taggart. All had taken the classical course. Three are yet living and in efficient service of church and state. During the second year a notable addition was made to the faculty in the person of Dr. D. A. Gregory as professor of mental and moral science. He took charge also of the English when Dr. Fullerton resigned at the close of this year. Mr. H. A. Rowland, afterwards famous in connection with Johns Hopkins University, was made instructor in natural science. The curriculum was changed by adjustments which were advantageous. Tuition was slightly reduced, and remission of it to candidates for the University, entrusted to the discretion of the executive committee and the faculty. Scholarships were still offered covering tuition perpetually for the modest sum of five hundred dollars, and four years for two hundred dollars. Doubtless the experience of such colleges as Washington and Jefferson and Hanover had proved a warning to our founders. I once asked, being then a member of the board of trustees, the treasurer of Washington and Jefferson how many students paid tuition. "Eight," was the reply. The rest were being taught oft the ruinous system of perpetual scholarships sold at twenty-five dollars. The same system compelled Hanover ultimately to grant free tuition while recouping itself in part by an increase of incidental fees. (I may be pardoned for injecting here the statement that during my father's presidency at Hanover the scholarship policy was discontinued.) During this second year there was an increase in the number of students. and there were eight graduates. WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO - 461 The third year was marked by the opening of the preparatory department. It was at first confined to a two years' course. The first superintendent was the Rev. J. A. I. Lowes, an approved and experienced teacher. More young women were enrolled and the attendance reached one hundred and seventy-four. The medical department reported an attendance of seventy-one, making a total of two hundred and forty-five. Preparatory seniors numbered seventeen and juniors eighteen. Elective courses were now opened after the sophomore year. The "Brainard" Missionary Society appears. Tuition was brought up again to $15 per term, and expenses for room, fuel, light and boarding need not exceed four dollars weekly, and might be lessened in various ways. A new and most competent instructor in modern languages was secured, the Rev. Mr. Lippert. A contemporary assures us that "classes were more thoroughly organized and the work better systematized." There were thirteen graduates, twelve of whom had pursued the classical course. President Lord resigned at the close of the year, partly because the demands of the work were growing beyond his physical strength and partly on account of his desire to prepare for publication the results of his former labors in the chair of theology at the Northwestern (now McCormick) Theological Seminary. Despite financial difficulties, partly solved by the recall into fiscal service of the Rev. L. K. Davis, so successful at the beginning; these experimental years were eminently successful. Dr. Lord was pre-eminent for personal affability as for mental resources. Organization made progress. The students met treatment at once courteous and firm. The doctrine of the University, founded on the duty of the church to care for the higher education of her own children by an institution so wholly under her own care and control as to admit of no question concerning its religious character and influence, had been successfully commended to the mind and heart of the great body of Ohio Presbyterians, and was already obtaining credit throughout the denomination. The future was secure ; however, much patience might be required for a slower pace of development than a first enthusiasm had expected. The able faculty had proven that men of first-class ability could he procured for this service of the church, as for other services, without offering any brilliant' pecuniary reward. A spirit of great confidence had been imparted to the whole inner circle of the founders and was penetrating wider areas. It was becoming clearly evident that this enterprise was neither "state" nor private in its origin, meaning and reliance, but represented the church awaking to a repeated call of one of the greatest needs of humanity 462 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. and of Christ's kingdom. Coeducation had been vindicated. Reputation had been established. Discipline of a specifically moral and religious type, founded not so much on "honor" as on conscience and justice, had been successfully introduced. Local and interdenominational interest had been shown to be not only possible but actual in connection with a church college. The careful inculcation of moral and religious principles had been proven to be thoroughly consistent with true liberty of opinion. All the main questions had been raised and answered. The period of experiment closed with well-ascertained results and therefore with high hopes. THE THIRD PERIOD. III. This we may term the period of establishment. What had been promised and begun must be performed and carried forward. The question of means was perplexing, for it must be recognized that necessary expenditures had to be made before the needed funds had been paid in, while the income from student fees was inconsiderable. The Cleveland synod's refusal to share responsibility was not without its effect in a region somewhat unconvinced of the need of another institution appealing directly to Presbyterians, and already strongly drawn upon for patronage and support by two well-established institutions in their more immediate neighborhood. Other colleges in the state were continuing to report to the synods thus claiming, though with no thought of submitting to control, a certain recognition for commendation and consideration. There was, still, in the eastern and southeastern sections of the state, a considerable leaning toward Washington and Jefferson College and Marietta, and the old affection for Miami, which had been so largely sustained by members of our churches. Popular favor was still to be won in larger circles. Sufficient progress must be made, both in buildings and endowment, to show advancement sufficiently rapid to secure the larger donations. The third period fitted down upon the second accurately. There was to he no change of principle and none of practice except. such as should more closely conform to and illustrate principle. But that meant deepening the hold of the university idea upon the whole ecclesiastical connection from which the chief support of every kind must come. It meant the constant magnifying of the work committed to the University. It meant securing wider recognition and co-operation in homes and schools as well as in churches and synods. It meant making actual that which the period of experiment had made possible. WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO - 463 All this Doctor Taylor was prepared to undertake, for he well understood the situation. In this he found a source of strength, and it certainly was a test of his courage and faith. He met the situation as to Wooster's exclusive relation to Ohio Presbyterianism with skill and tact. Without exciting animosities, he was gradually able to instil the conviction that no other college could possibly bear the relation to the church in this state which that college bore, the being and life of which sprang from the heart and purpose of that church after many years of discussion and determined effort. He made it evident that the "care" of the church could not properly be claimed when its' "control" was rejected. This distinction made its way, and reports of other institutions finally ceased to be offered to the synods, though occasionally rendered until about 1885. But it may be noted that the habit of giving to institutions then considered as quasi-Presbyterian has continued until some hundreds of thousands of dollars have reached channels of educational usefulness outside of denominational relations. This only proves what the Presbyterians of Ohio might have done very early in the engagement, and may yet do if they come to have a "mind to the work." One could scarcely think out a man more exactly adapted to the situation he found than was Wooster's second president. His antecedents were of the best. He was born in Springfield, Ohio, in 1834. His remoter ancestors came from England in 1602, settling at Garrett's Hill, Monmouth county, New Jersey. He was a descendant of Dr. James Waddell of Virginia, and a cousin to Drs. J. W. and J. A. Alexander. After their father, he was baptized Archibald Alexander and, after his own father, Edward. His father, born in this state, was one of the original trustees, and in his honor the sophomore prizes were afterwards founded. President Taylor graduated from Princeton College in 1854 at the early age of nineteen. Three years later, having completed his theological studies in Princeton Seminary, he was licensed by the presbytery of Cincinnati in 1857. His first ministry was at Portland, Kentucky, then a suburb and now a ward of the city of Louisville. The writer's ministry began at the same time at Jeffersonville, Indiana, and a pleasant, though brief, acquaintance was formed across the river. Sent out from Dubuque, Iowa, six years his home after the two at Portland, the vigorous and witty sketches signed "Hawkeye" brought both usefulness and reputation. At the close of 1865 the Bridge Street church of Georgetown, District of Columbia, claimed him, and in 1869 he took charge of the Mount Auburn church (Cincinnati). His ministry there was much blessed for the four years which passed before Wooster 464 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. in 1873 called him thence. He had been a member of the boards of education and of church extension and of the board of directors of the Northwestern (now McCormick) Theological Seminary, and a member of the Reunion General Assembly, Pittsburg, 1869. His name appears in the list of Wooster's trustees with the opening year, 1870. His well-known literary qualifications, together with other qualities, and his intimate knowledge of the University's affairs, made him the logical successor of the first president. Doctor Lord indicated him as his own first choice, and that choice was unanimously and enthusiastically ratified by the board of trustees. Another has described him as "of medium size and kindly aspect, of fine talents and impressive address, of unusually genial temperament and well adapted to win the affection of students and to interest all whom he meets in the University, to the building up of which he has devoted himself with all his energies." Able, like Aaron, to "speak well," he was also able, like Moses, to legislate well. Familiar with what he was accustomed to call 'the spirit of youth," he gave it right of way whenever it kept the right way. Spiritually-minded and thoroughly loyal to the evangelical and evangelistic spirit, "a powerful work of grace," one writes, accompanied the first year and in it -a large proportion of the students were hopefully converted, some of whom have already turned their faces toward the ministry." At the second inauguration the principles on which the university had been founded and which it was now successfully reducing to practice, find most ample and persuasive utterance in the address of the retiring president, of the board's president, Dr. John Robinson, and of the incoming president. They provide a new platform, but one constructed entirely of the tried and proved material of the institution's brief but satisfactory experience down to October 7, 1873. Dr. Lord claims existence vindicated and foundation firmly laid. Faculty, curriculum, quality of instruction and government are held to have gained "the recognition and confidence of the intelligent public." He emphasizes three things which have "materially conduced to this success- : ( 1) organic connection of the University with the Christian church, (2) its open .door to all qualified students irrespective of sex, (3) the wide range and elevated character of its studies. Concerning the first of these, Doctor Lord maintained that it was "no new thing." Both in Europe and in the United States institutions of higher learning have been founded and sustained by influences distinctly Christian. This he abundantly proves by instances which need not be cited here. "They have all been begotten of Christian WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO - 465 faith. They have all been sacredly cherished by it." * * * "This University owes its existence to Christian men of large views and aims with reference to intellectual culture and attainments, but who at the same time have an intense belief in the necessity and supremacy of the moral and the spiritual ; who believe that no degree of mere knowledge in the individual or in society can guarantee truth and right and social order or public liberty, and that without Christianity states and nations, as surely as isolated men, will perish. They therefore brought the university into vital connection with the church. They made this connection not one of a general and undefined description, but of essential organism. * * * The intent was not that dogmatic forms should be visible and have sway here but that the true spiritual life of the church should touch and consecrate the intellectual life and power of the University. * * * And the immense value of this procedure cannot be overestimated. Every day adds to the certainty that in all our primary and public schools education will be wholly secular." Sure that this result must arrive, the retiring president argues that the necessity to which it will give rise will be "that homes shall be pervaded with Christianity and that Christian influences shall surround and fill our academies and colleges not connected with the state. Here they have full access and beneficent operation." Happily all that was then feared has not arrived in these thirty-seven years since passed. There is still, for an awakening sense of our place and privilege as a Christian nation, a "fighting chance." That awakened sense can and will defeat secularism ! The Bible is by no means driven from the large majority of the schools of America. But there is reason enough to cause anxiety and to summon the forces of truth and righteousness to the maintenance of the true theory of our national institutions. [ See Story's comment on Amendment I to the Federal Constitution and the decision of the Supreme Court by Justice Brewer in 1892.] Meanwhile, for the danger's sake as well as for other weighty reasons, the penetration of our homes and our colleges with a profoundly Christian spirit is imperative. Doctor Lord's address closed with a peculiarly winning and solemn parting word to the students. He attributes all satisfaction in the restrospect of his life to having "spent it all, however imperfectly, in the service and for the glory of the Son of God. In the light in which I now see and with the feelings which control me, had I a thousand lives to spend nothing could tempt me to any other service. * * * Oh, may all the students of this University live and die for Jesus. Farewell." Again we listen, on the same occasion, to the noble counsels given the (30) 466 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. new president by that veteran in the university's service of honor, Dr. John Robinson : "We all feel intense interest in your call to the presidency of this university, around which cluster the affections and hopes, and upon which concentrate the prayers of so many of God's people. It is yet in adolescence. You are to bring it to manhood. It struggles with difficulties growing out of a want of full endowment, intensified by the commercial derangement and depression of the times. It is hoped you will relieve this condition." "This institution is designed as an exponent of the manner in which Presbyterian Christians would do the work of education. They would furnish the most complete culture, covering the whole field with deepest investigation, clearest analysis, most extended knowledge and, added to all, the elements of the science of salvation." They would "teach all that may be taught of earthly science and mingle with this the rules of a stern morality and the directions and motives of a hearty consecration to God." It is to be the instrument of the church not only for preparing a ministry but to train •men for "every profession and position of influence whose pc). wer may help to promote righteousness and salvation in the earth—to bless humanity and glorify God." Then Doctor Robinson's charge dwells impressively upon the serious position toward the students the president will occupy in respect to their age, their absence from home, the new lives and conditions of thought into which they would enter. Then his position would be similarly grave as toward the world at large in view of awakening mind and its incidental dangers. The church "needs to be felt" against all that confuses thought and destroys morals. "The church looks to you and this University for the influences and the men to do this work." Then followed the pledge and the delivery of the keys. When we reach the inaugural address we discover no failure to realize the solemnity of the obligations assumed, nor any difference of conception concerning the fundamental principles. Specially responding to the genetic idea of the University, Doctor Taylor takes the office "as a minister." "If liberal education may not be combined rightfully with religious instruction, what place have we here ?" Three answers to the question as to this combination are given. The first is from "state institutions or independent corporations which have fallen under no denominational control and wherein no direct religious influence is brought to bear upon students, or, if at all, in the most formal method.- The second answer conies from "institutions under general religious influence but not directly connected with any branch of the church and under no ecclesiastical control." The third answer comes WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO - 467 from "institutions belonging to and managed by some branch of the church. This position we occupy." Then the inaugural proceeds to sustain this position. For the sake of the state it is important. Quoting from Washington's "Farewell Address" and the great "Ordinance of 1787," and emphasizing the authority of Story and Webster that Christianity has been inherited through the English common law as an integral portion of the law of our land, he is led to affirm : "We need offer no excuse for the defense of education as already bound up with religion in its application to American youth." "In proportion as free men are educated they must needs be more religious." They endanger us who "attempt the unnatural divorce of education from religion." The land fares ill when its men are "trained through non-religion to irreligion." He quotes Huxley and Cousin, as well as Cicero and Quintilian, to show that such a divorce should be counted as "inconceivable for any nominally Christian people." "From the irreligious college you bring the youth home without religion in his heart and with irreligion in his head." This introduces the second argument, that drawn from the student himself. If education be defined in terms of the intellect alone, you "obscure the moral nature" and that means disaster. "What we want from our universities is not minds so much as men." This argument finds its logical successor in the appeal to symmetry of development. Neglecting or lessening the moral sensibilities dwarfs the man. Then follows the argument based on the need of the church for such institutions. The laity, in the midst of current unbelief and plied everywhere with the facilities of infidelity, need Christian education. Neglect this and many young men are "lost to the church." "Religious stability" in every congregation demands that our youth be "taught by those who fear God and keep his commandments, and under the shadow of her own healthful institutions." The need of more numerous and yet better educated ministers presses for the Christian college the more the church is learning to press out into the masses of the non-Christian world. Our theological seminaries are half empty for want of more and more pronounced Christian colleges." Then the incoming executive reaches the special Wooster feature of a "peculiar relation to the church." "The property of this University and its endowments belong absolutely to the Presbyterian church of this state—to its highest ecclesiastical body. Is there anything inconsistent or perilous in this fact ? Rather ought not the church to glory in it and seek to make her own institution in every respect worthy of her piety, her power and her resources ? The best method of ecclesiastical control, whether direct or in- 468 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. direct, has been the subject of much dispute and variable practice. The discussion need not be reopened. Our plan is established and seems to be working well. Let us have the opportunity and the means to put it thoroughly to the test, since it has proved valuable in other quarters. If the church is to have control of colleges at all, it must be either by the hand of a single denomination or by the united hands of more than one. We rejoice heartily in all manifestations of the spirit of Christian unity. * * * But our way is no less directly toward real unity and the blessing of the whole church of God because, like our own pulpits, it is under our own immediate direction. The authority of ex-President Woolsey on this point may be deemed decisive : 'There is no practical difficulty,' he says, 'arising from the fact that colleges are in some degree under the control of the denominations. * * * Here I may be allowed to state what I have myself observed, that in a long acquaintance with officers of colleges controlled by various religious sects, I have discovered no spirit of proselytism, and no important disagreements in regard to the meaning and essence of our common Christianity. They may cling and possibly with fondness to their own modes of church government, to the distinctive points of doctrine which come down to them from their fathers, but they do not differ as to the realities of sin and forgiveness, nor as to the qualities essential to the perfect life.' Our work is thus recognized by us, not as educating youth for the sake of making Presbyterians, but as educating through the efficiency of our own methods the young for the sake of the whole church of Jesus Christ, of which we are but a single element. It is not sectarian any more than it is secular." * * * Then the incoming executive defines the Wooster "mode of alliance of education and Christianity." It is to be effective "through the faith, testimony and examples of teachers who love the Lord Jesus and who desire to lead every student, both by direct and indirect personal influence, to the same loving Savior; and through the pursuit of secular studies from the position and under the constant light of religion. More and more we desire to introduce the study of the Scriptures and of the evidences of Christianity and to choose for text-books those in which the spirit of Christianity is positive and prominent." With these will be joined the daily and Sabbath worship; and a government "founded upon the quiet recognition of conscience in every student. * * * Thus we desire to create and maintain among the whole body of our students a devout and firm Christian spirit which shall exert its vigorous and positive power upon every one brought within our circle." WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO - 469 The administration so well begun continued prosperously. The catalogue of 1873-4 bears evidence of the literary taste of the new president and is adorned with a fine portrait. A decided gain in attendance was realized. Doctor Taylor took the biblical chair. J. 0. Notestein appears as instructor in Latin. No professor of English has been found, but Doctor Gregory continues to teach that important subject with remarkable analytic and suggestive power. His "outlines" are cherished still by those who came under his instruction. Adolph Schmitz. an accomplished teacher, subsequently an author, takes the chair of *modern languages. The seniors numbered thirty, one. Among them our fellow-citizens, Attorney Metz, Mayor Freeman and Judge Taggart. Juniors are thirty-seven. Sophomores are fifty-five and freshmen are forty-seven. The preparatory department enrolls fifty-three ; the medical department eighty-seven. The grand total reaches three hundred and ten. The annual schedule is published. Three courses now run in parallel lines, the classical, the philosophical and the scientific. The Westminster church is established. The location and advantages are more fully set forth and the "congenial and cultivated society of the city" is noted. Some emphasis is laid upon the lectures in hygiene and anatomy, delivered by Dr. Leander Firestone. There are twenty-eight graduates, and among them the first young woman to complete the course, Miss Emily Noyes, now a missionary in China. At the close of the collegiate year Doctor Stoddard conducts a party of young men on an expedition to the Rocky Mountains, taking twenty members of the junior class. The fifth year, 1874-5, witnesses a slight decrease of collegiates, attributable to pecuniary stress and some advanced entrance requirements, but there is an increase in the preparatory department. Mr. J. S. Notestein appears as adjunct professor of Latin, and Mr. James Wallace as principal of the preparatory department. The sixth year, 1875-6, brings increased attendance. Junior contest in oratory for prize, offered by the class of 1875, takes its place. Dr. James Black is added to the faculty as professor of Greek, and Mr James Wallace is made adjunct for the same language. The seventh year, 1876-7, shows steady increase. The senior class numbers thirty-five, of whom thirty-one graduate. Miss Ella Alexander (Mrs. Boole), afterwards so well known as speaker and organizer for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and secretary for our Women's Home Mission Board, takes the junior prize. Through self-denying efforts, with lectures and collections by the faculty, the observatory is built and the telescope installed. Dr. T. K. Davis begins his work as librarian. Prosperity continues in the eighth year, 1877-8. There are three hun- 470 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. dred and twenty-two students in all and thirty-one graduates, but Professor Gregory, the forceful teacher and author, is called away to be president of Lake Forest College. With the ninth year, 1878-9, success is yet more pronounced. There are three hundred and fifty-three students and thirty-one graduates. Professor Schmitz retires and Mr. R. C. Dalzell returns to modern languages. Strong religious influences are manifest and a gracious revival is experienced. Testimony is given to the manly character of the student-body. In the ninth year, 1879-80, new work in oratory is introduced under Instructor Sharpe, and Prof. W. O. Scott is added to the faculty. The teaching body is made more complete with Leotsakos, from the Athens University, as instructor in Greek and Latin, and Joseph Collins, honor man of 1879, as instructor in mathematics. The medical department has one hundred and six students. The summer term is instituted, mainly for those who wish to make up collegiate work in arrears. Expenses are represented as extremely reasonable. Boarding as low as $1.90 per week may be found, and unfurnished rooms from twenty-five to fifty cents. For $2.50 we are assured "one may live in comparative munificence" ( ?). The elective study plan, permitting no variation before junior year, is found satisfactory. The first term of the tenth year, 1880-81, is pronounced "one of the best and the most successful in faithful study and good order." Progress is quiet and steady and prospects were never more full of promise for extended prosperity and usefulness. Thus we go forward through the next years, finding evidences of continued success. In the last year of this period, 1882-3, these evidences were abundant. The gymnasium building is added and the commencement exercises are held therein, for it is also an auditorium. Field day is established and physical culture is expected to obtain more recognition. The catalogue enrolls 500 students in all departments. The department of music, under care of the distinguished teacher and writer, Karl Merz, is established. With his admirable instruction and entertaining lectures, the department becomes at once a great culture force in the university's life. The three hundred and fifteen graduates number half as many at our thirteenth year as "some other colleges have graduated in fifty years." The classical course has been especially well maintained. The triennial catalogue, '8o-83, shows a total attendance from the opening of one thousand five hundred and ten students. In the collegiate department there have been five hundred and ninety-nine. Of these four hundred and seventy-seven have been men and one hundred and twenty-two women. The preparatory department has enrolled nine hundred and eleven. Of these six hundred and ninety- WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO - 471 four were men, two hundred and seventeen women. Students were present from more than twenty states. Ten other states than Ohio were represented by one hundred students, forty of them being from Pennsylvania. Four-fifths of Ohio's counties were represented. Of the three hundred and fifteen graduates, two hundred and seventy-five were men, women forty. Among them ministers and theological students numbered one hundred and fifteen, attorneys and law students sixty-seven, physicians and medical students seventeen, teachers thirty-eight. The preparatory department had given efficient service in furnishing two-thirds of those who entered the collegiate courses. The standard of scholarship had been so well maintained that students were "admitted to corresponding classes in the larger and more influential colleges of the East." The only regret concerning this period is awakened by the financial difficulties with which it had to contend. The situation at the inauguration of Doctor Taylor, as noted in Doctor Robinson's address, was bravely met. Overdrawn funds were made good. Two professorships were contributed, one by Mr. Ephraim Quinby, Jr., and the other by Mr. J. H. Kauke. The president not only gave himself but a generous subscription of $5,000 beside. Dr. T. K. Davis' agency was successful. Nevertheless, the general financial depression made the collection of many of the smaller endowment notes impossible. There can be little doubt that the difficulties in the triple (or quadruple) official responsibility for the pulpit of Westminster church, professorial work, internal management and external representation of the institution among the churches, together with maintaining the indispensably constant pressure for patronage and funds, led finally to Doctor Taylor's resignation at the close of ten years of most effective and essential service. The board of trustees earnestly attempted to dissuade him from retiring. But in vain. No review can be made of this period without ascribing, after due honor to its able faculty and devoted trustees, very much of its satisfactory issue to the strong convictions, and winning personality and literary talent and wise methods of the university's second president. He believed heartily in the fundamental theory of the institution, making this clearly evident so lately as in his address (as president of the board of trustees) at the inauguration of the fourth president. He commended the university from every point of view to its own immediate constituency and to the general public. Its character and meaning were established during the ten years of his devoted service along the exact lines of its periods of inception, preparation and experiment. It would be the most grateful tribute 472 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. we could pay to quote here striking passages from the inaugural address and the baccalaureate sermons of this period. They are fully abreast of anything which has ever been said at Wooster and of all it has been the privilege of the writer to read of similar literature issuing from more pretentious sources. There was a specially affectionate seriousness in the farewell address to the class of 1883, and penetrating wisdom and full knowledge of the whole situation in what may be termed his valedictory to the board of trustees which stands written out in full upon its records. It may be added here that Doctor Taylor's interest in the university continued long after his retirement from the executive chair. He taught in one and another of its subjects, became dean of its post-graduate department ( founded during his administration), gave it the larger part of his valuable library, and was the president of its board for many years (1895-19o2). As pastor and editor, his usefulness to the church continued also to the closing days of life. Wooster will keep his memory green always. Many testimonials to the confidence and affectionate respect entertained for Doctor Taylor by the board of trustees stand recorded in the minutes. We find one, passed after his death, which occurred at Columbus on the 23d of April, 1903, closes by quoting the expression of two of his editorial friends, as follows : "Doctor Taylor was a man of great versatility of talent and wide range of thought, efficient and capable in all the positions in which he was placed." Another says, "He was a distinguished preacher, a sympathetic pastor, a charming writer, a skilled executive, a forceful leader and a delightful Christian gentleman. Versatile, accomplished, witty and genial, he was a welcome comrade and a valued friend." PERIOD IV. THAT OF MAINTENANCE. In July, 1883, the trustees called to the vacancy created by the regretted resignation of Doctor Taylor, Sylvester F. Scovel, then pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Pittsburgh. He was the son of Sylvester Scovel, D.D., a pioneer-missionary who had come from the East in 1829, taking in charge a rural district near Cincinnati, in which, within seven years, he planted or nourished (or both) five churches. Thence he had been called to the superintendence of domestic missions for the Old School Presbyterian church over a large portion of four central states. For convenience, headquarters of the mission were fixed at Louisville, Kentucky, whither he removed in 1836. Finding slavery intolerable, his family were made residents of New Albany, Indiana, while the agency was continued until 1846, at which time he accepted the presidency of Hanover College, Indiana. He may be said to have WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO - 473 saved the life of this valuable institution, but his iron constitution, slightly impaired by severe labors, yielded when the scourge of cholera came in 1849 ( July 4th). The son, Sylvester F. (born in Harrison, Ohio, December 29, 1835), graduated in 1853. The family removed the same year to New Albany. Four years in the theological seminary there brought him to licensure in April, 1857, and at Jeffersonville, Indiana, he was ordained as pastor in October of the same year. From January, 1861, to January, 1866, he was pastor at Springfield, Ohio, and from the latter date until October, 1883, of the First church at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He had no special preparation for the work committed to him at Wooster, except a close connection with four educational institutions as a member of the board of trustees (or directors). He wonders now, in the twenty-seventh year of his connection with the university, how he obtained courage to undertake the task and accounts for his acceptance by some enthusiasm for learning, a deep interest in young people and the natural presumption of unimpaired health, to which must be added a considerable share of happy ignorance of just what the situation and its conditions would require. The third inauguration in the university's history took place on the 24th of October (1883) in presence of the synod of Ohio—the body resulting from the union of all synods of the state in 1882. The fundamental principles upon which the institution had been founded came most appropriately to expression on the occasion. Dr. John DeWitt (then professor at Lane Theological Seminary and now at Princeton) made an address as representative of the synod, the fine rhetoric of which, and still more its condensed but massive argument, would warrant much fuller republication than can be given in the following extracts. "In speaking in behalf of the synod of Ohio," he said, "I desire to say something in justification of the intimate relation which this ecclesiastical body sustains to the academic body whose chief executive officer we have assembled to inaugurate. The synod of Ohio, an organized portion of the church which Christ has founded, is the proprietor and guardian, and is ultimately the governor of this university. "We have here an example of a relation common enough in the history of the Christian church—organized Christianity inspiring, directing and qualifying the instruction intended to promote the higher learning. Here the liberal arts and the physical sciences submit themselves to the guidance of religion and here religion appears both as the inspiration and the ultimate requla curriculi, intended to secure to the students a humane and liberal training. 474 - WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. "I state the relation between the two bodies, represented on this interesting occasion and united in fulfilling this great trust, in the boldest language I can select. For it is just this relation of religion to education in which religion inspires and governs education that, so far as time will permit, I desire to justify." Then the orator proceeded to show the demand for such justification. The effort to secularize education was never stronger. And among some most interested in "enlarging the bounds of human knowledge," prevails a disposition to dethrone religion. Yet we know that if religion appears, "it must be given the regnant place. This is due to the nature of religion. It was only when skepticism had prepared the way for a lifeless and powerless syncretism that the gods of the provinces stood peacefully in the Pantheon at the capital [Rome]. To say of religion that it may have a place which is not supreme is to say that it may have no place. * * * It is a question of principle, and therefore of vital importance—whether in the educational system religion is or is not to be regarded as constitutive, architectonic and dominant." The so-called conflict of religion and science is then mentioned as making still plainer the demand for the strongest vindication of the right relation between religion and education. The synod's spokesman then proceeded to a selected line of proof that "Revealed religion when set free, as Christianity, to exert its legitimate influence on the world, at once and in the most powerful and unique manner began to assimilate the elements of human knowledge, and disclosed its harmony with intellectual activity and its appetency for human learning. Moreover, it stimulated in the highest degree the human mind to increase and systematize its knowledge, and has thus revealed itself, historically, to be the most powerful incentive to the search for truth and unity, and the chief factor in the intellectual training of the race." After the necessary seclusion of Israel while the world was making progress in knowledge of nature and the arts, came New Testament Christianity with just this distinguishing feature—"assimilation and subjection and employment of human knowledge." The Greek tongue was used, introducing its dialectic philosophy and analysis. This was held to be a unique fact and was regarded "as the intimation of God himself, in the pages of inspiration, that human learning belongs to religion." Then this most competent authority asserted as "one of the most impressive and instructive facts" in all church history that "from the apologists onward, in the schools of Antioch and of Alexandria, in Carthage and Hippo, in the old Rome on the. Tiber and in the new Rome on the Bosphorus through the