^ "■ V <. ^ ^* " V ^%^ ^IVV ■''' '1*^^ ^■^ r. \^ ';l;v . ,^|i1<^ _"^ \l \ ":fMA - \ Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031445152 Cornell University Library arV16734 The Oberlin jubilee 1833-1883 3 1924 031 445 152 olin,anx THE Oberlin Jubilee 1833 -- 1883 Edited by Prof. W.^'^G.^^BALLANTINE Oberlix, Ohio E. J. GOODRICH © cornelT^ 'UNJVERSITYi' LIBRARY -i* Copyrighted 1883, By E. J. GOODRICH. PREFACE. The Jubilee Celebration was heralded by an unofficial monthly publication called "Jubilee Notes," which found its way to every graduate, and a large number of the friends and former students of the Institution. The number for April contained the following announcement : 1833— OBERLIN SEMI-CENTENNIAL— 1883. June 29 to July 4. In accordance with the action of the Trustees in 1881, the Alumni in 1882, as well as of the Faculty, the civil authorities of Oberlin, and the several churches; the Semi-Centennial Celebra- tion of the village and College will be observed in 1883, beginining Friday evening, June 29th, and closing Wenesday evening, July 4th. Particular attention is called to the following: OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS. A CARD. The College sends its congratulatioins to all graduates and former students, to all donors, and to all old residents of Oberlin, and cordially invites them to share in the festivities of its Jubilee Celebration, June 2gth to July 4th, 1883. It is especially desired that the large number of former students not enrolled among the Alumni, should make this an occasion for 4 PREFACE. revisitinjf their College home. Wives and hnsbands are always included in our invitations. Judson Smith, For the Committee on Invitations. The Committee will endeavor to provide places of entertain- ment for guests of the Town and College, at reasonable charges or gratuitously. The number of visitors expected is so large that it will be necessary for all guests to communicate at once with Prof. A. A. Wright, stating definitely the time for which entertain-, ment is desired, and all other necessary particulars. A. A. Wright, For the Committee of Entertainment. These cards were followed by a summary of the programme given below, which was carried out without interruption or change, except that a few papers were postponed for lack of time. Th,e entire celebration passed auspiciously. Ample preparations had been made for the enter-r tainment of guests, and the students contributed their share by erecting a tabernacle in the park, capable of seating 3500 people. About 3000 guests were present for a longer or shorter time. The very clouds favored us, with- holding rain until the close of the last exercise. The following addresses constitute only a part of the Jubilee. The society and class re-unions, the morning prayer-meetings, the informal gather- ings and the handshakings and visits under the trees in the park will long be rem mbered. As a whole the Jubilee was a fitting crown for the work of Oberlin during the past half-century, and an earnest of yet greater things in the years to come. PREFACE. 5 PROGRAMME. fFrom the Semi-Centennial BuUetm.l Thursday, June 28. 2.00 P.M. — Second Church, Commencement — Conservatory of Music. Friday, Jdne 29. 3.00 P.M. — First Ckurck, Senior Preparatory Exhibition. 7.30 P.M. — First Church. Introductory Address by Prof. W. G. Ballantine. Address .before Theological Alumni, Prof. Wm. M. Barbour, '59, New Haven, Conn. Saturday, June 30, 8,00 A.M. — Sccmid Ckztrik, Lecture Room, Prayer Meeting. g.oo A,M, — First ChuncA. Commencement — Theological Department. President Hayes Will attend these exercises and will say a few words. 2.00 P.M. — First Chunk — Xeanieit of Theological Alttmni. Opening Address, Rev. M. W. Fairfield, '47, Muskegon, Mich, *'Lane Senjinary Rebels," Rev. H. Lyman, '36, Cortland, N. Y, "Early Days," Rev. Leonard S. Parker, '38, Berkley, Mass. ■' The Beginning," Rev. John M. Williams, '42, Chicago, 111. " The Middle Period," Pres. N. J. Morrison, '57, Springfield, Mo. "The Later Period," Rev. C. C. Creegan, '76, Syracuse, N. Y. Addresses from other Alumni. Sunday, July 1. 8.30 A.M. — Auditorium — Sabbath School Anniversary. Opening Exercises. "Early History," Rev. William Kincaid, Spencerport, N. Y. "Work of the Sabbath School Association," Rev. H. S. Bennett, Nashville, Tenn. "Superintendencyof J. M. Fitch," Prof. J. M. Ellis, Oberlin. O PREFACE. "Present Aspect of the Work," by the S. S. Superintendents. " Our Future," Rev. C. J. Ryder, Medina. 10.30 A.M. — Auditorium — Baccalaureate Sermon. "Providential Aspects of the Oberlin Enterprise," Pres. J. H. Fairchild. 2.00 P.M. — Auditorium. Experience and Conference Meeting, led by Pres. E. H. Fair- child, Berea, Ky. Communion Service. 7.30 P.M. — First Church — Missionary Service. "Oberlin and Missionary Work," Rev. M. E. Strieby, '41, Sec'y A. M. A., New York. "The Early Home Missionary," Rev. John Todd, '44, Tabor, la. "The Later Home Missionary," Rev. Leroy Warren, '61, Lans- ing, Mich. 7.30 P.M. — Second Church — Missionary Service. Ordination of Francis M. Price, '83, Missionary to China. Address by Rev. S. J. Humphrey, Chicago, 111. Monday, July 2. 8.00 A.M. — Second Church Lecture Room, Prayer Meeting. 9.00 A.M. — First Church. Commencement — Literary Course. 2.00 p.m. — First Church — Reunion of Alumnae. Address of Welcome, Mrs. A. A. F. Johnston, '56, Literarv. "Oberlin and the Education of Women," Mrs. Sarah C. Little, '59, Classical, Janesville, Wis. "The First Classes," Mrs. Douglass Putnam, '39, Literary, Harmar. Poem, Mrs. Emily Huntington Miller, '57, Literary, St. Paul, Minn. "What has Oberlin done for us?" Mrs. M. C. Kincaid, '65, Classical, Spencerport, N. Y. Address, Miss Mary Evans, Principal of Lake Erie Female Seminary, Painesville. Brief Addresses from other Alumnae. PREFACE. 7 3.30 P.M. — Second Church. Union Exhibition of Phi Kappa Pi, Phi Delta, and Alpha Zeta Societies. 4.00 P.M. — Society Reunions. L L. S., Council Hall Chapel. ./Elioian, Ladies' Hall Parlors. 5.30 P.M. — Society Reunions. Phi Kappa Pi, Second Church Parlors and Lecture Room. Phi Delta, First Church Chapel. Alpha Zeta, Society Room. Tuesday, July 3. 8.00 A.M. — Second Church lecture Room. Prayer Meeting. 9.00 A.M. — Auditorium, Commencement — Classical Course. 2.00 P.M. — Auditorium — Reunion of Alumni. Prof. J. M. Ellis presiding. Necrological Report by Register of the Alumni, Prof. A. A. Wright. First Decade, '33 to '43, Rev. H. L. Hammond, '38, Chicago, 111. Second Decade, '43 to '53, Rev. D. N. Boravvell, '52, Golden Prairie, Iowa. Third Decade, '53 to '63, Rev. J. L. Patton, '59, Greenville, Mich. Fourth Decade, '63 to '73, Rev. R. T. Cross, '67, Denver, Col. Fifth Decade, '73 to '83, Dr. Dudley P. Allen, '75, Cleveland. Poem, Charles C. Darwin, 68, Washington, D. C. Brief Addresses by other Alumni. 4.00 P.M. — Class Reunions. 7.30 P.M. — Second Church — Anti-Slavery Reunion. Opening Address by Prof. James Monroe. " Personal Experience," Rev. Amos Dresser, Franklin, Neb. " The Underground Railroad," Pres. E. H. Fairthild, Berea, Ky. " Oberlin-Wellington Rescuers," Hon. Ralph Plumb, Streator, 111. 8 PREFACE. "The War and Slavery," Gen. A. B. Nettleton, Minneapolis, Minn. . Gen. P. C. Hayes, Morris, 111. 7.30 P.M. — First Church. Grand Concert by the Musical Union — Oratorio of Elijah. Wednesday, July 4. 8.00 A.M. — Second Church, Lecture Roam. Prayer Meeting. g.oo A.M. — Auditorium — Jubilee Exercises. Address of Welcome, Pres. J. H. Fairchild, '38, Oberlin. Jubilee Address, Gen. J. D. Cox, '51, Cincinnati. "The Colony and the College," Rev. Wm. H. Ryder, '66, Ann Arbor, Mich. " Oberlin and Woman," Mrs Lucy Stone, '47, Classical, Boston, Mass. " Future Work of Oberlin," Prof. Judson Smith, '63, Theo., Oberlin. Address, Gov. Chas. Foster. 12.30 P.M. — Auditorium — Lunch. 2.00 P.M. — Afternoon Addresses. Prof. James Monroe presiding. "Oberlin Humor," Rev. E. S. Williams, '.65, Theo., Minneapo- lis, Minn. Poem, Rev. P. S. Boyd, '60, Amesbury, Mass. Brief Addresses by Alumni, Representatives of sister institu- tions, and invited guests. 4.00 P.M. — Class Reunions. 7.30 P.M. — First Church. Grand Concert by the Musical Union — Oratorio of Elijah, Chorus of 140. Soloists ; Soprano — Mme. Christine Dosert, New Yorlc ; alto — Miss Mary Phoenix, Chicago, 111. ; baritone — Mr. Max Henrich, New York ; tenor — Mr. Albert L. King, New York. INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. BY PROF. W. G. BALLANTINE. First Church, Friday Evening, June 29th. We begin to-night to celebrate the completion of the first fifty years of the life of Oberlin Village and College. Our first word is a word of welcome. For years we whose privilege it is to stay in the old home- stead have anticipated this happy reunion and have prepared for it as best we could. We wel- come all — fathers, brethren and friends. We welcome the survivors of the band whose sturdy arms felled here the giant beeches and oaks of the primeval forest, and built Christian homes where the bear had reared her cubs. We welcome old teachers who brought the choicest culture of New England and planted it among the stumps of the clearing. We welcome all the venerable men and women who shared in those early labors and privations and victories — whose prayers and tears, and devotion to truth and to humanity and to God, made Oberlin. We welcome the theologians of " Slab Hall," the "felons" of the Cleveland Jail, the soldiers of " Company C," and of all the loyal companies that followed. We welcome the missionaries of Jamaioa lO OBEKLIN JUBILEE. and of Africa, of our own Western Wilds and Southern States. And what shall I more say ? for time would fail me to enumerate all the Gideons and Baraks who through faith have subdued kingdoms and wrought righteousness. Welcome to the Friends of Oberlin whose coun- sels and prayers and gifts have sustained the work here, and who have blessed thousands unknown to you by fa-ce or name. Welcome to every citizen and student of early or of later years, to every friend of education, to every believer in the dignity and high calling of woman, to every believer in the brotherhood of man, to every laborer for political reform, to every foe of whiskey-drinking and drunkard-making. Welcome to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity ! Strangers may ask why the affections of so many thousands turn to this little spot with a strength so much beyond that which commonly springs from the memory of school-days Or even of an early home. Here is a love like that which the Jews of old felt for Jerusalem. The answer is simple. The name Oberlin means more than a school and more than a home. It stands for an effort to hasten the coming of the kingdom of Christ upon the earth. This spot was chosen that from it a most living and potent influence might go forth upon the nation, the church, the school, the family, the individual — the influence of the gospel of Christ. IN TROD UCTOR Y ADDRESS. 1 1 The foresight and breadth of view which charac- terized the founders, their practical wisdom and unselfish devotion, were remarkable. But their wisdom appears most conspicuously in this : that they made no single point of Christian life or work or belief fundamental. The purpose of this village and college was and is as wide as that of the gospel. Upon so broad a foundation alone could so grand, so complex, and so fruitful a result have arisen. Whatever has promised good to men Oberlin has been ready to do. Thus within her first two years she threw open her hospitality to the fleeing slaves at her doors; thus within the last two, she has reached round the globe to give the bread of life to thirty millions of the Antipodes. Oberlin was founded not on the pattern of any older place, but to meet the immediate wants of the church and of the world as they might appear. Hence a marvellous adaptability. It has appeared inexplicable to some that the supposed staunch fanatics of the underground rail- road should have founded a great school of clas- sical music. But such critics forget that it was the sweet psalmist and harper of Israel who slew the lion and the bear and smote the Philistine of Gath. Samson was not the man after God's own heart, but David. At this meeting of theological alumni we may congratulate ourselves, brethren, upon the simple, natural, free and yet stable, theological position, which this seminary holds. No investigator of truth here is harassed by the apprehension of pos- 12 OBERLIN JUBILEE. sible confessional or legal responsibilities. No painful days or nightsare spent here in fixing the precise lines of human creeds. The fathers as they pass away commit the work to those whom they believe faithful men, trusting that the Holy Spirit will guide the church when they are gone. And these men receive it in deep humility, and with a profound sense of their responsibility to the Great Head of the Church. No pledge of yesterday binds the Oberlin of to-day. Yet this freedom does not mean a readiness to doubt the doctrines upon which the church has stood for eighteen cen- turies. The most Baconian scientist feels sure that Plymouth Rock cannot be proved to be a sand heap. And so we, while free as air to accept any new light that may come, have no expectation of evidence to prove that the histories of the Old Testament are cunningly devised fables, or that it will be well with the wicked in the world to come. But highly as we must applaud the wisdom and modesty of the founders of this village and this institution, the chief praise belongs not to them. No human pow^er or prudence could have selected and brought together into the enterprise so large a number of men and women pre-eminent in natural endowments and in Christian graces. No human contrivance could have produced the har- monious co-working of so many events and circum- stances. In the sight of what has been accom- plished we must reverently uncover our heads and exclaim, " What hath God wrought!" We have INTRODUCTOKY ADDRESS. I 3 come together not to praise Oberlin, but to thank God. A shade of sadness must fall upon the brightness of all earthly reunions. Many of those whom we should most delight to see and to honor have passed to their rest. The blessed tradition of their piety remains with the place and meets the incom- ing students like a benediction. It will be good for us to recall their names and recount their virtues. But we are gathered not not only to look back- ward, but also to look forward. We have not gathered to close up anything. Nothing ends this year but a half century of time. The wantsi of the Mississippi valley are as great as they were fifty years ago, and the wants of the great new West have been added. Africa and Asia cry louder than ever, "Come over and help us." Political and social and educational and religious questions affecting the welfare of millions demand for their settlement Christian statesmanship and Christian science, and a scientific and statesmanlike Christi- anity. We invite you, dear friends, to talk over the present and future work of Oberlin. We believe it to be a work which no institution can do with- out the cordial and unflagging support of a vast, a united, a prayerful, and a liberal constituency. Once more, fathers and brethren, welcome. ADDRESS BEFORE THE THEOLOGI- CAL ALUMNL BV PROF. W. M. BARBOUR, '59, Yale Theolgical Seminary, Isaac Taylor introduces his valuable work on the " Natural History of Enthusiasm," as follows : " The belief that a bright era of renovation, and union, and extension, presently awaits the Chris- tian church, seems to be very generally entertained. The writer of this volume participates in the cheering hope ; and it has impelled him to under- take the difficult task of describing, under its various forms, that fictitious piety which hitherto has never failed to appear in times of unusual re- ligious excitement, and which may be anticipated as the probable attendant of a new development of the powers of Christianity." This was written in 1829, four years before the founding of Oberlin ; but in the midst of the fomenting beliefs that came over from " the hu- mane century," the eighteenth, and introduced the practical philanthropies which have thus far dis- tinguished the nineteenth. Coming as it does from the study of a literary recluse, in the mother islands, and out of a book which has done its part to temper and direct the " enthusiasms of reform" which followed its publication, it is here quoted as THE OBERLIN THEOLOGY. 15 indicating in its own prophecy, and career, the place and the power of the Oberlin colony. What this Christian scholar, and many like him, were brooding over, in both hope and fear, Oberlin be- gan to do — first giving voice to the people's long- ings, and then keeping in the conflicts bestirred, especially the religious conflicts with stationary Christianity — urging to action, and restraining from excess, those unto whom the cry of the time had come. That the cry was for life to things dead, and for liberty to things bound, the move- ments, which are now history, make abundantly clear. There was a breaking out on the right hand, and on the left. On this side of the Atlantic there was the desire for freedom to the slave, to the national soil from the possibility of slavery, to the victims of intemperance from their destr.oyer, to woman from hersocialand personal subjections, to the nations from their ignorance and idolatry ; and, also, in many souls, were longings for a freer gospel and a more abundant salvation. The other side of the Atlantic had its corresponding agita- tions : the West Indian emancipation scheme, the extension of the suffrage, the relief of the poor, and the removal of religious tests and disabilities. Earnest men, in all the churches, themselves newly quickened, w^ere insisting on the new birth as a conscious experience. Presbyteries were shaken with discussions on the functions and extent of the atonement, particularly as bearing on personal salvation. There were also keen discussions on the work of the Holy Spirit, and on the prospects 1 6 OBERLIN JUBILEE. of the heathen apart from the gospel. If not ex- actly after the same manner, in exactly the same direction, Christian thought and action were turned. And close upon this breaking up of leth- argy in religion, came the foreign missionary exodus, — the dates, methods, and successes of that great enterprise, show what new forms of labor Christ was bringing his people into, by this rising interest in practical Christianity. Out of this condition of thought and feeling, more especially as affecting good men on this Western Reserve, with others in New York and the central New England States, Oberlin had its beginning; and here we are, in the good provi- dence of God, to rejoice together, over the out- come of the past fifty years. Those of us who were here at the twentieth anniversary, and heard the original settlers tell of the first blows struck in the then unbroken forest, are more than surprised at the signs of prosperity possessing and encircling this comely town. Upon this there can be no de- lay to-night, nor can time be taken to speak upon the general success of the College. By the duty of the hour, we are limited to one theme, and to one aspect of one theme, namely, the " Oberlin Theology Historically Viewed." This, in brief, is the thesis assigned me, by mv former instructors ; and, as we have ever found it a privilege to obey them when their counsel was against ourselves, we see no way to refuse them, now that their counsel is against themselves. For certain are we, that their desired sketch of Ober- THE OBERLIN THEOLOGY. 1/ lin's influence on the theological thought of her time, had been better given, had a better scholar been called up to recite. Narrowing our view, then, to the matter in hand, let me first beg your attention to what may be called a natural history of the new movement in theology. The history of the need of change may be found in the fact that the Protestant mind was, in general, resting content with what had been gained at the Reformation ; for, after some doc- trinal discussions following the possession of the Bible by the people, certain results were embalmed in those Creeds and Confessions which have since been the standard of the Reformed faith. They are so still ; they stand in honor as such ; they de- serve to be respected by us all, as the recorded mark, of that new advance. By and by, as even reformed human nature works, the possession of a ■good thing lapsed into an equivalent to the exer- cise of its goodness. It was a great thing to possess intellectual light and liberty, — the exten- sion of them, by reason of use upon other themes than those recorded, was not urgent. Morever, the Divine Power manifested in those national convul- sions which lessened the influence of potentates, seemed to have" been the main idea of power in the religious thought of the time. The hand that dethroned the Sauls and set up the Davids, was the hand that was visible against the Guelphs and the Guises ; and the very same hand was the one that changed the hearts of men, and after the same manner. For whatever allowances are made in 1 8" OBERLIN JUBILEE. certain statements, the post-reformation theologies are full to overflowing with ideas of moral govern- ment, that substantially subordinate it to physical government. Gravely, Nebuchadnezzar has been quoted as more orthodox upon the Divine omnip- otence than those who held the freedom of the will : " None can stay His hand, or say unto Him, ' What doest thou ? ' " Further, human nature was again at work, in its old desire for some one to bear its responsibilities ; and now that the Pope was " no more" to the Protestant mind, it seemed glad to have a minis- terial teacher, a general Confession, or a church, to which it might look, as a resting-place for the inexplicable. It was worth something, as it is worth a great deal now, to many, to know that there is an answer, or the decision that there is no answer to new questions. The difference between the Catholic and the Protestant churches that ap- peal to a stated authority, seems to be this : " The one cannot err, and the other never does; the one is infallible, and the other always in the right." To this, adds Archbishop Whately, " It is de- clared that other churches than the Protestant have erred ; it is not denied that ours may err ; yet it is never admitted by those under the Reformed confessions, that their church has fallen into any error." The collisions with this wisdom of the past, which have inevitably followed any awakening of original and forceful minds, have a marked prophecy in Mr. Finney's account of his early THE OBERLIN THEOLOGY. I9 inquiries. " I found," says he, in the preface to his Theology, " the blessed truths of the gospel, to a great extent, hidden under a false philosophy ; there were few, if any, clear definitions of religious doctrines ; the assumptions lay under the standard theologies, that all government was physical as opposed to moral; that sin and holiness were attributes, rather than moral acts ; hence the doc- trine of a sinful nature, that is, as a nature ; a necessitated will, an inability to righteousness — consequently a physical regeneration was called for ; consequently to that a physical Divine influ- ence was necessary, and so on. Of course, minds of an originally Protestant order, found out, from the Bible itself, under the light of the Divine Spirit, that there was no agree- ment between some of these doctrinal statements and the Bible as it " commends itself to their own consciences in the sight of God." To those urged into the examination of God's truth, " in the sight of God," the usual cautions against "the pride of reason," are urged too late. The pride of un- reason it would then be, to stop short of an answer from God himself, if answer can be had, to the great questions "What is Sin ?" and " What is Sal- vation ?" And it was into this search, at no second hand instigation, that Mr. Finney and others around him, were pressed. And Oberlin gave them their opportunity to think, and to speak out what they thought. Disclaiming the fact, that in what is further said, 20 OBERLIN JUBILEE. we assume that the Oberlin Theology secured the absolute truth on all that it clarified and made a power ; and disclaiming also any assumption that the Oberlin thinkers were alone, or even had the priority of all other Christian scholars in their in- vestigations, we proceed to notice some of the more prominent doctrines they revised and im- proved, and to state briefly our views of their influence upon our religious life. As in New Haven and elsewhere, where the Edwardean possibility of an improvement in theology was admitted, the great theme here was moral government. Uppermost in their thoughts were " God " and " Law," especially the kind of law he ruled the free mind by, — fre- quent in their speech were " conscience " and " obedience," the kind and the amount of obedi- ence demanded, and the ability of every man to render it. While central and mediating among the discordant elements around him was the Christ, — the brightness of the Father's glory in upholding the law, yetthe sinner's only hope and encourage- ment to salvation. Roused, as we have said, by no second-hand power, the Oberlin brethren would take no second- hand answer to their inquiries upon the way to God, to Christ, to the new obedience. And here, in what Robert Southey calls " the timing of Providence" (so that one event shall come, that another may happen, or be cared for when it hap- pens), as in the invention of the printing-press to be ready for the Bible at the Reformation — we THE OBEKLIN THEOLOGY. 21 have pleasure in noticing what had immediately preceded this call to certain minds to come into closer contact with God in his rule of the world. Most invaluable in the new search was the Kan- tean division of the mental powers, just elaborated and ready for application, in the separation of the moral from the non-moral in conduct, and in the clear distinctions made possible between the de- sires and the will. Of great service, also, was Butler's thinking on the supremacy of the con- science ; the growth of the intuitional philosophy from Des Cartes to Hamilton, with its ceaseless appeal to consciousness as an unchallengeable wit- ness on all matters within its pale. Urged by personal and surrounding need, and aided by their opportunities, the leaders in the new movement pressed into the very heart of things. Perhaps one of the most important questions discussed here was " The Foundation of Moral Obligation." The answer to the last question on this theme having been controverted within Ober- lin itself, it created more local interest than any other of the discussions peculiar to the place. Of this fundamental question this can safely be said : that it is hard to find in either our theo- logical literatures, or lectureships, a more thorough grappling with this momentous theme, or a more successful vindication of the position here main- tained. Certainly President Finney and his coadju- tors came out of this fresh and exhaustive search for the final answer, with a conclusion, having (in our judgment) two features which give it a 22 OBERLIN JUBILEE. superiority over other answers. First, that their answer satisfied the reason in the very contents of the answer itself. Any answer that excites a mind to ask again, and then repHes in the repetition of its own words : " It is fit because it is fit," or " right because it is right," in the nature of the case cannot satisfy. But when the inquirer is told that he is morally bound to choose the good of being; or, more fully stated, that the intritisk nature and value of the highest well-being of God and of the universe, is the ultimate ground of his obligation to keep the moral law, he has nothing further to ask ; for, on turning to this answer from others that he might get, he cannot but allow that this is " fit," is " right," is " according to the will of God," will "promote his own spiritual efficiency," — what you will, substantially every other answer is here, along with an explanatory reason which is final. Secondly, this foundation is the one that accords best with the law as revealed, — " I am the Lord thy God, thou shall love" i.e., will the good of; and practically, it works into every detail of duty within the compass of the New Testament. Thus, the smallest duty, the giving of the cup of cold water, has the motive and the sanction of the greatest of all conceivable principles ; even as He said, " In doing it to the needy, ye do it unto Me." He is one in the mass of beings blest by the lowliest deed of the lowliest love. Tame is our best hymn on lowly duty, after this: "Who sweeps a room as for Thy law, Makes that and the action fine. " THE OBERLltf THEOLOGY. 23 Do anything on the one grand ground of love, and it is done to God and to all sentient being, — " well done," as Christ affirms. Another great Scriptural truth, a favorite with the Oberlin thinkers, and one of whose presenta- tion in an amended form, the church stood in need, is the Sovereignty of God. President Fin- ney's treatment of this grand theme, has always seenied to us one of the most attractive in his theology. It certainly is of no use now, and he saw that it was becoming useless then, to inculcate the doctrine of the Divine Sovereignty by the mere assertion of the right to do what one pleases to do, because of a supreme position. But there being little idea of sovereignty under the ancient despotisms, other than of a powerful and inflexible dominance, to be powerful and inflexible was argu- ment enough to exclude the thought of " equity," or the " rights of the subject," from the Divine Sovereignty as from every other sovereignty. Since, however, the ruling ideas of one age are found to have little force as ruling ideas in another, men's ideas of the Divine Sovereignty — itself as immutably true, and as justly valuable as ever — men's ideas of it are more enlightened, and their blessings by it are more abundant than before. Expositions of moral government, with its one grand obligation embracing sovereign and subject alike, aided greatly in dissipating the gloom and dread that hung around the sovereign's throne. For, distinguishing, as the Oberlin theology did, between supremacy and sovereignty, pointing out 24 CBERLIN JUBILEE. the vast difference between a benevolently benefi- cient will enthroned to do the best that can be done, and an imperial will pleasing itself, simply because it had the opportunity, men were easily taught to find a hope in sovereignty, when even " equity" would have brought despair. They saw that a decree for good to be done to the many who can be blest, might be passed by a holy will right- eously enthroned, when their own devices and desires might come to naught. Here the power of wisdom comes with the power of might, and the power of love with both. And so, "howe'er crowns and coronets be rent," men may be led to sing with a fervor born of their own blessings, "Before Jehovah's awful throne, Ye nations bow with sacred joy ! " and for reasons that the Psalmist knew not when he first chanted them, they may fill up his words with new emotions as they read, " I will extol thee. My God, O King, and I will bless thy name for ever and ever." Allied to this treatment of Sovereignty, and as illustrating the timeliness of these new clearances of standard truths, take the new presentation of the Divine Purposes. As taught by the Calvinists of the New Testament — if we may thus distinguish them from those whose Calvinism seemed rooted and grounded in the Old Testament — this doctrine, so important in a moral system, has been set in a most attractive light. And certainly, if the Divine Sovereignty and THE QBERLIN THEOLOGY. 25 Purposes are not shown to be desirable in the management of the world, they are not likely to serve the end for which they seemed revealed. Everywhere in the Bible they are introduced as the crowning thought, the capping climax to every other blessing in possession. Too often by a bad theological perspective, had they been turned against their declared ends, the glory of God and the fortitude of the soul. The method, therefore, of the new adjustment was not in any new textual exegesis, or even in any marked change of state- ment, but by the effects of the exposition of the new basis of government, wherein it was seen, that from the nature of the case, the making up of the Sovereign's mind — a well-remembered definition of purpose — must be upon how some greater good might be secured. How many confusions, worse confounded by efforts to be profound, do.es that simple definition set in order ? Why should not the Almighty, All-knowing Sovereign, have the priviiege of making up His mind as to how He shall act in a given case? The Divine Purposes come into contact with human life in their co-ordinate branches of Pi'edes- tination in History, and Election in Grace. Upon this latter doctrine, now ceasing to trouble the Christian mind as it once did, let it be said, that one of the best elaborations of it in both its practi- cal, and its speculative aspects, is to be found in a paper by Professor Cowles, in the Oberlin Evan- gelist. As a piece of theological exposition, to many 26 OBERLIN JUBILEE. minds that presentation seems unrivalled. For it so manages the discussion, as to grant to the most exacting exegete all that the Scripture reveals, and satisfies all but those who are not satisfied with their common life. The " sweet reasonable- ness" of this appeal to human experience as a justification of electing grace, adds no small charm to the lucidity and force with which a confessedly deep thing of God is commended to the inquirer. And, as touching Predestination in events, the course of things will soon and suddenly turn awry from their evident bent, if this doctrine, as here held and explained, is not seen to be one of the prominent exaltations of the wisdom and power of a creating God. To what are we com- ing, or in the thought of the day, into what are we to be developed? Have we a destination? If so, what ? Is it known? Can it be known ? Is there one mind, even, that embraces the end from the beginning? Unless a most conclusive evidence of unwisdom is furnished in the Maker's masterpiece, the human mind (by His construction of it to ask for reasons of things, and then deny them, or offer it what it will one day see to be unsatisfactory), the things that now are, are working from some point with a unity of purpose ; and, while serving many subordinate ends, are indicatively bent upon some further and greater end. Being a conscious factor and agent in this great and diversified development, the mind of man finds it a mosi satisfying work, to study and approve what is doing around it. In what other mind, it is com- THE OBERLIN THEOLOGY. 27 polled to ask, was all this mighty system of evolv- ing means and ends lying from the first, and by what intelligence is it guided ? This must be an- swered from without our own minds. Certainly we have lived to know that the answer is not in men's own minds ; for through all these ages, what we now see to be an evolving universe, has ex- isted while as yet mankind had no knowledge of it ; at one time not even an organ of knowledge to ply on it. As it now appears, spanning the world's life, from chaos to order, who kept it till we took knowledge of it ? Very well. How sure are those who are now so very certain that at last the mys- tery of the universe is solved, how sure are they that when the human mind comes into another and more exalted condition, that it may not be just as certain that evolution is obsolete, as it is now certain that "creation" is obsolete. This is a thought which must oppress with a tyranny of incertitude, every mind conscious of being in the sweep of a changing universe with- out any belief in a predestinating God. Strike out the foundation of a loving and faithful Creator, who is over all, and blessed forever in being so, and what shall the righteous do, in either science or religion? Place that foun- dation in the scientific man's belief, and the minutest details of his work, the slowest mo- tion and the most terrific explosion alike, to his scientific eye, are clarified, dignified, glorified. Under the overshadowing thought of a predesti- nating God, the man of science may light his lamp 28 OBERLIN JUBILEE. at the taper on the altar of the saint, and both saint and scientist stand together as they wait " the one far-off divine event to which the whole crea- tion moves," and the purposes of God are in their revealed fact, the " strength of the heart" to saint and scientist alike ; in their accomplished details, " the portion forever" to both alike. But I must speak on the most practical of all the improvements in doctrine as here effected. Omit what I must, I am not at liberty to omit the doc- trine of Regeneration. With it, logically and experimentally, stand connected Sanctification and Perseverance,. — both most ably discussed, and both yielding the richest of fruit in the religious life. But, of all the doctrines that seem to have suf- fered from inadequate exposition, this is the one. Let any one take down the stacks of theologies in any of the larger libraries, and passing writer after writer under his eye at where a definition may be expected, and he will become painfully con- vinced, that on this vital subject those seemingly in most need of instruction are the instructors them- selves. John Howe says, " in regeneration the spirit is renewed not only as cognitive but as active ;" and he goes on to explain that he means what almost all his compeers try to say they mean, that certain constitutive principles of the soul are changed. Dr. Candlish declares, in a less ambiguous phraseology, that not only must " I have a Divine Saviour, but the hand by which I take hold of him must be divine." THE OBERLIN THEOLOGY. 29 . John Pye Smith says, " in regeneration new and loly principles are inserted in the soul, in which he recipient is wholly passive." The Younger Edwards says his father's doctrine s, that " regeneration consists in the communica- ion of a new spiritual sense or taste." Samuel Hopkins, who raises our hopes of clear- less, says the change is " wholly in the heart, or vill ;" and then not keeping by that, he follows his jreat leader, by forsaking his own good statement, md substituting conflicting explanations of it. Dr. Griffin, who certainly gave the doctrine much ittention, quotes to disparage a notion of some, :hat in the change the Holy Spirit gives the soul ' a something more than light and less than holi- less." Previous to Mr. Finney's book, as the type of he newer thinking, the high-water mark in defi lition seems to have been reached by Dr. Geo. f'ayne, of Exeter, England — a model theologian or clearness and candor — who, in 1836, publishes hat " regeneration is not a physical change, but ;ntirely of a moral nature." And yet he cumbers lis otherwise excellent treatment by saying that ' all the faculties and principles of the soul must )e renewed." This is the main vice of even the food writers ; they hold to the moral nature of the ;hange, and then proceed to argue it on a physical )asis — the metaphors they never seem able to use is metaphors, but insist upon them implicitly as )hysical realities. These quotations show how just were the com- 30 OBERLIN JUBILEE. plaints of ingenuous minds that upon this, and kindred themes, clear ideas and intelligible state' ments were not within their reach. The fact is, on these theories the more a man thought, the worse for him. We confess, however, that any theory of regeneration we should suspect as shallow which treats as a commonplace the profundities neces- sarily connected with it. Yet we cannot but sympathize with the effort here made to show that the mysteries of the change, are not at the point of the soul's duty, to escape from the old life into the new. And it seems to be here that the new adjustments in psychology and philosophy had their most fruit- ful effects. Sin, found to be no attribute of either the physical or psychical constitution, — found not to be an attribute nor a nature at all ; but action, moral, voluntary, preferred, persistent action, in both will and deed, — and holiness the same, the reasonableness of a change by the truth as applied by the Holy Spirit was very readily seen. By the new thinkers it was not only seen but held to, and so enforced as to issue in such changes of character as met the boldest of the Scriptural demands for the " new heart, the new life, the new creature." And when the real thing is effected, he is a cap- tious critic indeed who maintains that it is not done well, unless done under the names given to certain means, instead of being done by the means themselves. It is perhaps in this doctrine, with its logical correlates, moral depravity and inability on one side, and sanctification and perseverance THE OBERLIN THEOLOGY. 3 1 on the other, that the comparative theologian will find the " backbone construction" of the Oberlin Theology. From it has radiated what has in- formed the instructed, as well as edified the unin- structed; what has shattered the hopes of many trusting to a religion of their constitutional feel- ings ; what has haunted the soul of the hypocrite and the fanatic ; what has put the philosophy of religious revival on as sound a basis as the philos- ophy of salvation itself; what has put the work of revival into intelligent forms, and has given earnest souls the power to prevail over the spirit of man, by the rational use of the supernatural power of the Spirit of God — that has above all other expositions of the soul's contact with its God, honored and used the truth of God, doing so not by way of a complimentary admission among other more potent and even miraculous means, but as the living power of the living God, unto the salvation of every one believing it in the mean- ing of it, as set forth in the gospel. And this is no unsupported assertion. Our most eminent theologians at Andover, New Haven, and the older schools of theology, as well as of those among the princes of philosophy in New Eng- land, and Old England, and elsewhere, have vol- unteered testimony on this point, that of all our text-books and references in doctrinal theology, no student of this particular subject can be put upon what will benefit him more in his future work, than upon a thorough mastery of this theme, with its kindred topics, as elaborated by the Ober- 32 OBERLIN JUBILEE. lin divines. Not that they have cleared it of all mystery, but they have put the doctrine into such a practical shape as makes the commendation of it a power in the preacher's hands. But all this is the merest commonplace to so many here who, as teachers or scholars, have taken part in the making of it ; still it is well perhaps to mention it to-night, as part of Oberlin's his- tory. Here something should be said of the place which gave our theologians their opportunity, and the methods by which they did their work. In these days we are familiar with the word " environment," and we are aware of its power. Change the ages and the nations of Pascal and Bunyan, and imagination fails to picture the change in the sort of religion, that each of those equally original and devout minds had pro- mulged. The surroundings, or rather, the lack of surroundings, as we look at it now, was greatly in favor of the theologians who came here as the colony was forming. The settlers on the ground, gathered as they were as an election of the elect, were men of a primitive faith and piety ; they were jealous of an alluring world ; they were pioneers of a purer life for the unbroken West. When the future theologians of Oberlin came here, they were in a manner coming to their own place, in the sense of getting a foothold on a suit- able spot for the work they had to do. What pre- possessions there were, were in their favor, and they had no traditions to honor, no history to THE OBERLIN THEOLOGY. 33 continue; they had both to make for themselves and their successors. The constituents of the old prophetic life were here in the plain living, the high thinking, the seclusion in which to meditate on the right and wrong in the world they had left, the deep moral earnestness of minds of more than ordinary dimen- sions, and the frequent opportunities of conference and proclamation by which they relieved their glowing souls. Speaking as they did, to a willing circle, be- tween them and the unwilling world, they were refreshed. Any suggestions of modification in their state- ments did not reach them "from without." Out- side criticisms of them and of their work were even more contemptuous than those made upon their brethren in New England, who, on Andover Hill were introducing German as an aid to the truth, and at New Haven were warring the same war against a theology which seemed to be hin- dering the gospel. Like the many who have fol- lowed Paul, they had to solace themselves with the " wide and effectual door" opening to them, and the " many adversaries." But further, the Oberlin theology had in its favor the impulse of its propounders' personal interest. What was wrought upon the forges of their brain touched the things that belong to the peace of souls, in contact with the high and holy God — things in which they themselves had to think for 34 OBERLIN JUBILEE. their eternal life. Here and then there were no barren speculations, no turning of a scripture out upon a desk to have its contents handled as if they were colors or chemicals, by new com- binations of which, the examiner was to get a name. Here the terms " God," " law," " sin," " holiness," were not treated like algebraic sym- bols in an equation. All themes were- burning themes, and they were not treated otherwise than as they bore upon the truth for its own sake, and for the welfare of souls. Hence, the searching of the soul itself for its own contents ; the measur- ing ot the extent to which it could help; the search of the oracles of God ; the praying not at God, but to God ; the probing of every wound ; the sift- ing of the minutest ingredient of the remedy, the deep solicitude for the signs of that remedy's power in the souls of men — all this was in the the- ological method of those early days ; and this it is that has made the Oberlin thinking palpitate to to this hour, with the warmth of an awakened heart. It may be said here that this thoroughness of method in order to reach the heart of things helps to account for the fact that without any parade of textual learning, the best results of the best learning, certamly the most fruitful results of expo- sition, came naturally into the possession of those who here were taught to preach. The one great canon of interpretation here has ever been, " What is the thought — what is it when divested of its pe- culiarities, if it has any peculiarities ?" Matthew THE OBERLIN THEOLOGY. 35 sa3rs, " sparrows are sold two for a farthing, and not one falls to the ground but by the Divine will." Luke says, "they are sold five for two farthings, and not one slips out of the Divine memory ;" both add, the God who cares for birds so cheap as that, " numbers the very hairs of your head." Some exegetes would spend more time in equalizing the price current of the oriental sparrow-market, than they would upon the grand thought of Divine care. And some theologians reason as if they would turn the inspiration of such divinely consoling thoughts upon the exact- ness or inexactness of the verbal shell of the state- ment, contending for harmony where harmony is of little account, and letting go the weightier mat- ters of the blessing conveyed. The straining out of the gnat, and the swallowing of the camel, it needs no saying, has ever been an effective quota- tion here. And for the reason that "Our Lord quoted it^namely, to maintain the highest fidelity to the highest things ; to tremble before the words of God that have trembling in them ; to let go with just the worth that is in them, the varying insignificances in the details of style. But it is time to give expression to some opinion of Oberlin's influence upon the religious thought and life of the past half century. If it is too much to say Oberlin's influence, let me change that to the ideas she has helped to spread. As might be expected, the connection alluded to between the close study of the mind's action under the truth and the spirit of God, had great 36 OBERLIN JUBILEfi. influence upon men's views of the validity of the human powers. There is a greater respect paid to reason in religion than there was fifty years ago. Not that the reason was here set up as an arbiter in things religious, but the reason was honored at every turn of an investigation, ap- pealed to for a judgment, and treated with respect when it uttered a yea or a nay upon a doctrine or a duty. Of late years the Bible has been honored as provided for the huma'n mind, not, as at one time, treated as if the human mind had been made for the Bible. We look at those who stood on pillars, swung on hooks, and held their limbs till the joints stiff- ened to death, as absurdly running counter to the Divine intention in fashioning the body. There is no denying that frequently it used to be thought a virtue to treat the mind in some such way in its action upon theological thought. It is as far be- hind the apprehensions of this day as the monastic posturings and torturings of the body are behind Our Protestant ideas of religion, that God made the- mind to have it insulted into silence and dis- tortion, to have it made religious by attitude and not by action. Upon the admission of the rational facilities to rational action upon the great ques' tion of religion, an instant change took place in the modes of presenting and receiving religious truth. To present truth to a mind, accompanied with a warning that the mind as there and then addressed is not able to apprehend it nor act upon it aright, is equivalent to approaching a mind in its THE OBERLIN THEOLOGY. 37 normal activit}'^ with statements that have no fitness in them to enhghten or direct it. You may as well withhold the truth as tie up the eye that looks at it.. Perhaps of all the half-century's religious changes, the most popular has been the change for the better in the preaching of the gospel. Ministers have been enabled to turn their preaching into what was once happily called "explanations of what they used to preach." As a specimen of the changes coming by the new mode of preaching, that is, by this transmuta- tion of a stationary theology into an active power, at the risk of " carrying coals to Newcastle" let me reproduce the first paragraph of the now cele- brated " Lectures on the Revivals of Religion," as about as good a specimen of the changed address of the pulpit as need be quoted. The text is from Habakkuk's prayer, " O Lord, revive thy work, in the midst of the years : in the midst of the years make known : in wrath remember mercy." Homiletically viewed, perhaps the preacher's text is likely, by the sound of it, to suggest another sort of a sermon, one to keep everything of a religious nature in the Lord's hands, as in sub- stance it calls religion " the Lord's work." But, after a brief notice of Habakkuk, the first propositi- tion is : Religion is the work of man, and then fol- lows this characteristic paragraph : " Religion is something for man to do. It con- sists in obeying God, with and from the' heart. It is man's duty. It is true, God induces him to do it. He influences him by his spirit because of his 38 OBERLIN JUBILEE. great wickedness and reluctance to obey. If it were not necessary for God to influence men — if nien were disposed to obey God, there would be no occasion for the prophet to pray, " O Lord, revive thy work.'' The ground of necessity for such a prayer is that men are wholly indisposed to obey ; and unless God interpose the influence of his spirit, not a man on earth will ever obey God." What a change thus comes over the view taken of that scripture by the average Protestant theo- logian of fifty years ago. Then, people were startled by the assertion, " Religion is the work of man," and conservative theological minds thought they had good reason to be startled lest their own inability to be religious should be taken from them. But, take the paragraph as a whole, here is deadness in sin, with a more terrible import than a deadness in an inability to do anything but sin ever conveyed. Here is a willingly living death, out of which God alone can induce a man to come. It is assumed here, as man himself assumes, not only that he can come out of it if he will, but as Dr. Taylor used to say, " He can if he wont;" and there he is, and knows he is. And now comes the grand magnification of sovereign grace, in the inducements presented to get the soul over to the new obedience, — a far grander achievement this, to win over an unwilling mind, than to raise from decrepitude a helpless imbecile. The logic of this movement in behalf of the THE OBERLIN THEOLOGY. 39 mind as approached with truth, led the brethren here to pursue it into the continued connection of the mind with the truth ; in other words, to urge the new emancipations into the sphere of Christian experience. They took more than one view of the extent of the atonement and of the work of the Spirit, while, with others, they were interested in the question, " For whom did Christ die," i.e., for a few men or for all men ? They be- came just as deeply interested in the question. For what does Christ live ? for a deliverance from a few sins, or from all sin. The depth of the world's ills as well as their breadth, came before their minds and agitated their hearts. Out with the gospel to all the units of the race they urged the church to go : in with it upon every sin of the soul, they maintained it was but just to Christ to send it. From the first of the inquiry on the possibility of a rational hope of freedom from sin Oberlin had no choice of positions. By all that she had come through, not hers was the inquiry, " With how little holiness can I keep in the Church Catholic?" but rather, " seeing that the soul is free to the saving truth, and that the Holy Spirit is within call, and that all fulness is in Christ, with how much of His power in me can I be blest in this life ? " What liberty she had gained was not to be used by her " for an occasion to the flesh," but to the spirit. If Christ had set before the soul the liberty of abstinence, it was hers to enter into it. 40 OBERUN JUBILEE. And now that a generation has come and gone, and the voice of the controversialist has ceased over this matter, there seems to be but one historic deliverance to make upon it, namely, that declining to be answerable for the aber- rations of eccentric minds, and the extrav- agances of the unbalanced, and the inferences drawn from the mistakes of the sincere, and the misconduct of the hypocritical, Oberlin has no reason to be ashamed of her position upon the possible, thoroughness of Christian living. All departments of life suffer degradation by the lowering of ideals, by infirmity of purpose, by lack of courage, by the quenching of hope. And, while it was on none of those considerations that she based her doctrine of santification, but upon the word of God, the atonement of Christ, the power and promise of the Spirit, — yet every one of those considerations, used with such power in other achievements, she had in hrer favor, in testi- fying to the purifying power of the gospel be- lieved. And, as a historical result, the influence of her testimony seems to be unquestionably in favor of the church's general advance against sin rather than in favor of her further yielding to it. But Oberlin has done more than reform and advance certain aspects of theology : she has been eminently useful in conserving what is vital in theology, and in restraining evils that have not ceased to threaten it. In fact, the reformer is the true conservative. For, conservatism is the pres- ervation of things in the meaning of the-m : ref- THE OBERLIN THEOLOGY. 4 1 ormation is the separation of wiiat lias become factitious in connection with them. If a man will never reform anything, soon, by letting the course of providence go along without him, he will become a radical. Let any one now-a-days start into action the theologies of the twelfth century, or even of the sixteenth century, and he will instantly bloom out into a modern heretic : his notions of atonement, grace, and redemption would be the greatest novelty of this so-called age of novelty. A bare enumera- tion of a few points conserved by the Oberlin theologians is all that is possible, — enough to show that they were not inconoclasts but pre- servers of the truth, not crusaders against any good order, but valiant against what hindered the order of the gospel. Take first their preservation of religious re- vivals from a humanitarian sentimentalism. View- ing them as they did, under grand conceptions of law, of God, of universal well-being, the human sensibilities were not appealed to as if the spiritual dynamic of revival was to be found in them. Hence the absence of all coaxing, Avheedling, weakly pathetic measures in the religious move- ments of the bye-gone years. " Good," as here explained, did not mean the pleasures of heaven, nor even a life of sweet content on the earth : " evil," as here explained, did not mean the woes of hell nor any other penalty of sin, and that only. Sin was not shown to be wrong because it was hideous, but hideous because it was wrong. Hence, under 42 OBERLIN JUBILEE. the truth so powerfully presented on the grounds that the soul, by its very make, must honor, the weakness of what is incidental to the individual, was always overruled for good to the whole. Again, the deep reverence in which the word of revelation has ever been held, has fended off the approaches of an injurious mysticism. To some, there has ever appeared a danger in allowing to the human powers a native ability to judge of this, and to decide upon that,, in the sphere of religion. And an opening of the flood-gates of enthusiasm and delusion has been foretold, if men are encouraged to accept and act upon their own decisions upon the revealed word. The firm hold here taken of the fact that if men are born of the Spirit, it is by the truth, the Spirit's means; that the truth is the testimony of Christ and to Christ; that he who is off from the truth of God on the plea of his own inward illumination, and that alone is following a false light, has been a perpetual safeguard against the alleged fanaticisms predicted by the wise in the wisdom of this world. And if we mistake not, the positions maintained here have anticipated objections, not so clearly in view at the founding of Oberlin as they are now. It is the reproach of the scientific mind that the theological mind does not seek what is true but what is already dogma. There is one evangelical system, yes more than one, which asks no more than what all science must have in order to a be- ginning, namely, an object of thought and a mind THE OBERLIN THEOLOGY. 43 to think with. Here is a theology whose postulates are the human mind and a book called the Bible, taken at first simply as phenomena. How does the mind work? What does the Bible say? What influence has the Bible on the mind? Test, try, compare, reason, read history, go through the processes of thought and feeling, put things into syllogistic forms if you will, sift and state after the scientific method, and the product is a the- ology as rational as it is reverent, as conclusively satisfying in its own sphere as any other depart- ment of truth capable of as thorough treatment in its own sphere. It has not been left to the Atheist to say with truth that no Christian thinkers seek the truth for its own sake, but for their doctrines, sake. Furthei, we deem Oberlin theology pre- servative against a loss to evangelical religion by the destructive analyses of texts and the overdone criticisms of words, by which it is supposed that doctrine must vanish with the vanishing of the tortured victims of the exegetical rack and stake. Granting that terms are made void and that words are shown to have lost certain former contents ; granting that much lexical and grammatical exact- ness has been heretical — new manipulations of words like the "absolute" and the " eternal," or changed metaphysical views of them, do not change the great principles of human thought that are as certain, as moral agency itself. There are such things as light and darkness, good and evil, bitter and sweet — not absolutely dependent on the terms that tell of them — they may be put one for 44 OBERLIN JUBILEE. another in the legerdemain of a rhetorical learning, but not without a " woe" coming to testify to the danger of the exchange. And we all know where Oberlin stands on this matter, and of what value is her " reasoned truth" in any attempt to make " the word of God of none effect." And another objection Oberlin seems to have anticipated, and to have helped a wholesome conservatism to meet — that coming out of the proposal to have a religion without law, and without divinity, and without any morality having sanctions ex- tending into the future life. Of the provision for such a proposal in the elaboration of a religion of law, law eternal in the very make of things, with sanctions as lasting as the law itself, no mat- ter in what world the subject of law may dwell ; of a redemption from sin begetting those emo- tions of soul without which any spiritual religion is vain — who, knowing anything of what was done here, does not see how absurd becomes the pro- posal to meet the deep wants of the soul by any kind of a culture that leaves out God and the moral law, as the powers under which the soul must move in order to its highest and best devotion. To conclude this sketch of what has come to the world from the theology of these past years in this place, let me say that the half has not been told, nor even hinted at. That were as impossible as to fill a historical paper with original concep- tions, or to speak of a plain and hard-working past in a decorative rhetoric. Enough may have been said, however, to recall where the lines of THE OBERLIN THEOLOGY. 45 the first thinking ran, and what the theological spirit of the past sought to embody. Theo- logically, there are three prominent factors of an enhghtened Protestantism to which Oberlin stands as a witness, not by her teaching only, but by her historic life. First, to the progressive nature of Christian thought. Ending one semi-centennial of an honorable and honored career, an eminent American theologian gave it as one cause of thankfulness that he could not recall the origina- tion of any new ideas, while the teaching was tmder his direction. This is quoted for the sake of the grave assumption underlying it, namely, that the course of Protestant thinking has been run. By such a conception, the Reformation was the goal of theology. To other reverent thinkers it appears rather to be the starting post. Common- places upon progress and evolution I shall not detain you with. But, if we are workers together with God, in all reason we are not very busy if in His providence he indicates that He has gone on half a century ahead of former effort, and we are remaining at work half a century behmd Him. There is constant change by the percala- tions and innoculations of ideas, but there is also crisis, birth, growth, and even rending by convul- sion and explosion. Oberlin, in her own short life, knows of them all, and can pass the word down to others in all manner of change, " Fear not ; if God be for us, what can be against us ?" Another idea this place stands to present to the Church of Christ, namely, the true nature ot 46 OBERLIN JUBILEE. Christian unity. Historically, Oberlin's testi- mony is effective on this point. And that, too, by tiie way she has been treated. At one time she had hardly a name to live among evangelical thinkers ; her students were not considered sound enough in the faith to carry the gospel abroad ; she had but a partial share of the comity generally shown to other ecclesiastical communities ; but in all this difference of opinion, which was but tem- porary, she has never herself broken, nor has she ever had to complain of any serious violation of the unity of the spirit of Christian love. The manners of many were rude and insulting, the opinions, the judgments, the fears, the hopes of others were varied; but when the real root of the spiritual life* is reached, she has generally had her recognition as one in the body of Christ, and a member in particular. And this is said to teach patience with differing opinion, in order to the keeping of the unity of the spirit. Mercifully w^ere the congregational brotherhood kept from exscinding such men as Moses Stuart, N. W. Taylor, Charles G. Finney, Horace Bushnell, and others, who, " holding the head," yet ventured to differ from other portions of the body of Christ. And tor what, under God, were these men spared and counted in the Christian Church ? To pre- serve that church from the very evils they were blamed for introducing. Who to-day is not glad that Christian scholarship, and a believing reason- ing, and a widening view of Christ and his salvation, were led into the vision of the church by these THE OBERLIN THEOLOGY. 47 very men? And patience to see these things is just as necessary as are these things to be seen. Even Oberlin has had to have patience with her- self. We smile now at good Father Keep's cast- ing vote in order to the admission of the colored students. If Oberlin had then had her own doctrine on the foundation of moral obligation fully expounded, such a trembling in the balances of an Oberlin judgment had not been possible. There is a time when all carelessly think alike ; then there comes a time of difference ; then the issue is a union again on the truth. And that the union is a union in advance, we are here to testify. The missionary societies are here to ordain men for work once refused to them ; sundered churches on the dividing issues are one again ; Oberlin is honored in all the land, her students welcome in every school ; some of her reforms the nation has come up to, on others the general regret is that they are not secured. No church that we know of is going back to limited atonement, to human inability, to physical action on moral agents. In New England, Taylor men are in Tyler pulpits, and Tyler men in Taylor pulpits; nearer home Andover men are in Oberlin pulpits, and Oberlin men in Andover pulpits; and what congregation knows which is which? The third testimony of Oberlin to the churches is upon the power of devoted character in the redemption of the world. Here all her children arise to bless her, that if she taught them right- eousness, it was not that they might live in a 48 OBERLIN JUBILEE. luxury of sentimental righteousness, but that in lov.e they might serve the whole world, the de- spised portions of it in particular. As to Oberlin's dreaded " ethics of interest," let their fruits rectify her critics' mistakes — the Mississippi valley can speak, so can the missionary fields abroad, so can the black man at home and far away. But it is of Oberlin's witness to a great fact in her own history that this conclusion is spoken. This is the night for a tribute of honor to the devoted lives that imparted to all here those unseen but not unfelt convictions that should ever accompany all reasoning upon moral ideas. The Oberlin of the past can testify to the power of men who, like Charles James Fox, urged reasons that were all feeling, and showed feelings that were all reason ; men who, at one time, in the sweetness of a divine unction, would worship before God, like the child Samuel in his linen ephod, and at another time, like the same Samuel, grown toman's estate, " hew an Agag in pieces before the Lord." The four grand men, Finney, Cowles, Mahan, Morgan, who came here to lead in the theological instruction, have gone apart from us, but their im- press is still on this place and on this generation. " Were a star quenched on high For ages would its light Still travelling downward from the sky. Shine on our mortal sight. So when a great man dies, For years beyond our ken, The light he leaves behind him, lies Upon the paths of men." THE OBERLIN THEOLOGY. 49 These men had too much to say, and they had too much urgency in the saying of it, to be free from mistake. They were subjected to those social and ecclesiastical shocks which send men out to compare their views with universal truth, and they came back with more truth if with less social and ecclesiastical prestige ; they have to be numbered among the greatly daring and the strongly doing, who have advanced the world more than the distrustfully critical. They will live in the mem- ory of th^ church as men of thought and men of action, but more fully in its memory as men of God, who sought, like their divine Master, not only to instruct but to impart life. But one of the group, Dr. John Morgan, lives within the influence of this hour. It will be the supreme satisfaction of this jubilee if he shall be here to see the crown of a fifty years' success upon the head of his beloved Oberlin. As her sons call down the peace of God upon her, they ask it also upon him — -even a reflection of the peace that " mantled on the crowned brow that went through Gethsemane." ADDRESS OF EX-PRESIDENT R. B. HAYES, At the close of the Commencement Exercises of the Theological Department, Saturday, June 30. Mr, President : Professor Ellis announced last evening that the audience on this occasion might hear " a word " from President Hayes. I under- stood, of course, that the phrase " a word " was capable of large expansion. And yet I had a feel- ing of relief when Professor Wright, in presenting me to this audience, removed all limitation upon the observations I may submit to you. These Jubilee days belong peculiarly, and almost exclusively, to the sons and daughters of Oberlin. They can say with enthusiasm, and with warmest attachment and gratitude, whatever it is fitting to say in behalf of this college. Speaking for the outsiders, I may, I trust, without the least embar- rassment, ask you to listen for a moment to one who has not the good fortune to belong to the Oberlin family circle. I cannot undertake to consider in detail so large a topic as the work and the ideas of Oberlin. But to speak briefly one's mind about this college and the debt our whole country owes to it for what it has done during the last fifty years, needs little preparation. Among the distinctive and valuable ADDRESS OP EX-PRESIDENT HA YES. 5 I Oberlin ideas I will mention only a few. After the masterly and powerful address of Prof. Bar- bour, last evening, on the Theology of Oberlin — and in view of the satisfactory and creditable graduating speeches on the same general subject, by the young gentlemen who have so well enter- tained us this morning — I will touch only upon secular topics. One of the ideas of this college, especially im- portant in our times and in our country, is the demonstration it has given that sound scholarship and that training which leads to the best manhood and womanhood, can be had without large endow- ment or extravagant expenditure. Oberlin is not munificently endowed, but every dollar bestowed has been made to count at its full value. No where else has the money given or expended gone so far or yielded so large a return as here at Oberlin. Again, Oberlin has practically proved that young men and young women can be educated together by the same instructors, and in the same classes, up to the highest standard of collegiate learning, not merely without harm to habits and character, but with an added strength to those sentiments and virtues which are essential to the welfare of society and the happiness of the home. Oberlin is the pioneer college to teach that young people, white and colored, can be educated under the same roof, on terms of perfect equality, with no loss of self-respect or dignity, but with that increase of both which always follows a 52 OBERLIN JUBILEE. hearty acceptance of the teachings and example of the Divine Master. Oberlin has been something more and some- thing better than an institution of learning. It has been a school of patriotism, and a school which has stood steadfastly, in peace and in war, in the front rank of those who were fighting for the brotherhood of man. In every campaign, in every battle, and in every forward march of the great conflict with slavery, this college was always at the head of the column. Oberlin carried the flag in the time that tried men's souls ; now, in the hour of victory, let Oberlin wear the crown. I shall never forget the affecting scene when, for the first time, I and the young soldiers who were with me, met a number of Union soldiers, who had been wounded and made prisoners in one of the disastrous engagements in the early part of the war. The men we met were from Oberlin. They had been wounded and captured at Cross Lanes, in Virginia. We heard nothing from those men that was not worthy of Oberlin. They were pale and weak and suffering, but they uttered no word which their dearest friends at home — which Oberlin would hot be glad and proud to hear them speak. Their unshaken faith, in the midst of fearful disasters and discou- ragements, that the good cause would finally tri- umph, and their heroic willingness to die for it, were the fruit of their Oberlin life. God bless Oberlin ! RE-UNION OF THEOLOGICAL ALUMNL OPENING ADDRESS. BY REV. M. W. FAIRFIELD, '47, Muskegon, Mich. First Church, Saturday, June 30th, 2 p.m. Brethren of the Theological Alumni: We meet this day on a most interesting occa- sion. Just fifty years have elapsed since the found- ing — may I not say finding — of this school of the prophets, at once an incredibly long and short period. It has been the most noted fifty years in the world's history. A little more than fifty years ago a small lad heard, with scornful incredulity, from an older boy in the school, the statement that recently there had been invented in England a carriage that would go without horses; and he replied, with appropriate and undisguised disgust, " Harv., you can't fool me with that yarn ! " And yet to-day the railway threads in every direction all civilized countries on the globe ; and even the sleeping hills around about the Holy City are soon to be awakened from the slumber of the centuries by the shrill whistle of the locomotive. The progress along this line of railway is representa- tive of the advancement along every other line, material and intellectual and social, during these fifty years. 54 OBERLIN JUBILEE. One of the most influential agencies in advancing all valuable interests and effecting all great improve- ments in our own country, and indirectly in the wide world, during this half century, is this school and theological seminary. Their relation to the higher education of women, to the joint education of the sexes, to the dignity of labor, to the equality of men, to the overthrow of slavery, and, what is especially pertinent to recall at this hour and this reunion of our theological alumni, their relation to a sound and vitalized and vitalizing theology, has given to this school and seminary their honorable and potential place in the annals of the last fifty years. Forty years ago one of the sagacious students in this seminary, at a time when Oberlin theology was everywhere spoken against, said to Professol' Finney in one of those free conversations so much encouraged by that remarkable man, " In less than fifty years Oberlin will be the bulwark of a sound theology in the Congregational Churches of America!" The remark was received by the pro- fessor with one of those ringing and incredulous laughs, again and again repeated, which only Pro- fessor Finney could laugh! But what do we see within the lapse of forty years? A literal and recognized fulfillment of the bold prediction! If Saul was not then among the prophets, Michael surely was, and his presence here to-day gives special satisfaction to his younger brethren, who have not yet attained to the prophetic afflatus. RE-UNION OF THEOLOGICAL ALUMNL 55 There have been three elements in the theology of this seminarjr which have given to it its wide- reaching influence. First and foremost, it has always been intensely, not superstitiously or fetichly, but intensly biblical, thanks to the eminent biblical and general scholar- ship, unqualified fidelity, the noble enthusiasm, the devout love, and the remarkable felicity of inter- pretation of the One Book of that greatly beloved and honored instructor, Dr. John Morgan. It has ever been pre-eminently true of this Ober- lin theology that it has bowed reverently and un- questioningly to the clear teachings of the Sacred Scriptures. Whenever there has been found a thus saith the Lord, that has been the end of con- troversy and the inspiration to action. This supreme loyalty to the Word has been an element of supreme power. God grant that it may ever abide here ! Secondly, the theology of this seminary has been clear and incisive. Whatever criticism may be passed upon this theology, it cannot be said that it is mystical. That characteristic which Dr. Lyman Beecher, in his famous plea for the American Col- lege, said belonged to the knowledge even of some so-called educated people, as "knowing things pretty nearly almost," never belonged to the theology taught here. When one of its earlier students was being examined for installation over a Congregational church in old Berkshire, Mass., and it was desired by a dissenting small minority 56 OBERLIN JUBILEE. to defeat his installation, and for this purpose a former professor in East Windsor Seminary was summoned from a distance to be on the council, the answer to the many and searching and per- plexing questions put by the professor, while not altogether satisfactory to him as to their soundness, were such as to lead the learned doctor to say to the council- that " Whatever we may think about the positions which this young man takes, we must all concede that he thoroughly under- stands himself, and knows exactly what he believes, which is more than some of us can say of our- selves ! " This compliment was well deserved, and it belongs in like manner to the average Oberlin theological graduate. I am inclined to think that the reason Oberlin theologians throughout the country so generally sympathize with the retired Andover Abbott pro- fessor of theology, in his valiant defence of the old faith, may be found at this point — in his approximation to the Oberlin standard of clear- ness and incisiveness. Some years ago, so the story runs, when Professor Park was in Germany, he got into an animated discussion of agnosticism with a Prussian philosopher of the rationalistic school. The Prussian gave a definition. The pro- fessor desired a definition of the definition. When this was given, he still asked for a definition of the second definition, and the answer lacking incisive- ness, he pressed his Prussian friend for further and still further elucidation, till at last the sluggish RE-UNION. OF THEOLOGICAL ALUMNI. 5/ German became thoroughly aroused and disgusted, and, lifting up both hands, he exclaimed : " Main Gott, forgive Christopher Columbus for having discovered America! You Americans must know dings zactly! " Do I claim too much in claiming Dr. Park as an Oberlin man so far as he is clear in his notions, and an Andover man only so far as he gets con- fused! The third element contributing to the wide influence of the theology of this seminary is, that it has always been profoundly earnest and zvorking; and, I may add, workable. Mere theorizing and philosophizing have been unknown to this theology. It has phuosophized and theologized on a working basis. Hence, this theology has been a thing of heart and life, a matter valued in so far, and only in so far as it could be translated into redeemed souls and the Kingdom of God advanced in the earth. In its inmost nature 't has been evangelizing and missionary. Hence, it has been a theology of holy living and of revivals. Such elements cannot but make a theology influ- ential, and their dominance in the theology of this school has given it the grasp it holds to-day upon our American churches and people, and upon theologians and evangelical churches of the Con- gregational order over the sea. Possessing such elements, the theology of this seminary is not likely to be turned away from the narrow path, or to lose the spirit of genuine prog 58 OBERLIN JUBILEE. ress which has so eminently characterized it in the past. Daniel Webster, returning from the General Court of Massachusetts, of which he was a mem- ber, was called upon, according to the custom of the times, to 'give account, in a public meeting of his constituents, of his legislative votes. During the session he had voted for a " Road Bill " which was very distasteful to his constituents. In his speech before them he conveniently avoided making any reference to the unpopular bill. But as he was about closing his address, some one called out: "What about that Road Bill?" Mr. Webster did not hear the question ! But it was repeated all around the house, and evasion was impossible, and he began: "Gentlemen, I am in favor of — I am in favor of every — gentlemen, I am in favor of every — ." Just at this point Harrison Gray Otis, who was on the platform behind Web- ster, seeing his embarrassment, stepped up and whispered in his ear — "say, every road except the road to perdition." Webster resumed in loud tones : " Gentlemen, I was about to say, when my friend here interrupted me, that I was in favor of every road, except the road to perdition ! " In like manner the Oberlin Theological Seminary is in favor of every road except the road to per- dition/ Looking over the history of this seminary dur- ing these fifty years, it may not be presuming, it will be eminently fitting, for it to take to-day as a motto — at once in harmony with its past history RE-UNION OF THEOLOGICAL ALUMNI. 59 and meeting the exigencies of the present times, and as a reliable anchor for the future — the words of the Lord to his ancient prophets : " Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." "LANE SEMINARY REBELS." BY REV. H. LYMAN, '36, Cortland, N. Y. The phrase, " Rebels of Lane Seminary," is his- toric. There was no danger in the days of its origination, that it would convey a calumny; but the phrase survives while the events which en- vironed and explained it are forgotten. For this reason it is of some consequence that I should say that it applies in a way of metaphorical accomoda- tion only. There was neither rebellion nor the shadow of rebellion in the event to whi.ch it points. For proof, if proof be demanded, I certify the fact that the students who are designated as rebels, severally received at the hands of the faculty, cer- tificates of good standing as they went out. Perhaps it is expected — ^in any case I shall be al- lowed here to state the circumstances which to the view of the recusants indicated the prudence and demanded the step they took in severing the rela- tion by which they had been held to Lane Semi- nary. It is proper that in the outset I should say that the painful and exciting events attendant upon our "LANE SEMINARY REBELS." 6 1 exodus, did not infract the reverence and love which we bore to the reverend men, Beecher, Stowe and Morgan, of the faculty. We were at- tached to these teachers by bonds that have yielded to no gentle strain. Internally, there never was tension or friction to disturb the harmonious work' ing of the institution. This is probably the final rehearsal of events which, when current, were so prominent and exciting. The basal mischief was slavery. Slavery opened a crack which enlarged to a chasm. We were well advanced towards an entry to our professional work as teachers in Israel. Indeed we had for more than a year being prophesying by indulgence of kind auditors in the waste places about Cincin- nati. At least six of our class were heads of fam- ilies and some had given themselves to foreign missions. We deemed it important as a preliminary to our life task, that we should make ourselves acquainted with the moral wants and maladies of our times. To that end we had formed missionary committees and set in motion the agencies usual in theological seminaries. No domestic question of the era bas- seted out with such prominence as slavery. The American Anti-Slavery Society had just been formed. Lundy and Garrison, like bulls rampant, were fretting the Northern welkin with their roar. The Southern sea was agitated as though the four winds of heaven were surging upon it, while the " solid South" was whittling upon the ligaments that,, held Dixie to the Union. 62 OBERLIN JUBILEE. Just at this juncture the outgoing of our ethical inquiries brought us to this very theme — slavery. I suppose there was a general consent in the insti- tution that slavery was somehow wrong and to be got rid ot. There was not a readiness to pronounce it a sin. Colonization was the favorite expedient of a portion and immediate emancipation of an- other portion of our brotherhood. It was agreed to debate the matter, and so two questions were formulated, one under which to try the merits of one, and another relating to the other scheme. The debate was long and earnest. All the fire of the contest entered into the local discussion, but without its bitterness. Knowledge upon the sub- ject was short and crude. There was, however, a signal exception. A fellow-student, Theodore D. Weld, had studied the whole subject thoroughly, and when he came to speak he held the floor for eighteen hours. His speech was a thesaurus, giv- ing the origin, history, effects, both upon the des- pot and the victim, of slavery. When the debate ended, it was found that we were prepared to take decided ground. We were for immediate emanci- pation by a most decisive majority. Two societies were immediately formed. The colonization society was feeble from the outset. It had a brief day, but it neither attempted nor ac- complished much. Very different was the spirit of the abolition society. The duration of the two societies was precisely equal. The abolitionists entered upon their work as one that was to be done and finished. "LANE SEMINARY REBELS." 63 while the sun and moon endured, while the coloni- zationists contemplated a deeper eschatology. Good fruits of abolition began to appear. A student who was a slave-holder, and who had come to the seminary relying upon the hire of his slaves to carry him through his theological course, went home and emancipated his slaves and put himself to expense for their benefit. James G. Birney, a slaveholder and secretary of the Kentucky Colonization Society, whose con- science had been awakened, appeared at the semi- nary. The enlightened students took him in and ex- pounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. Every day brought its advance. A committee to find the address of men of in- fluence in all the land, went to work. Another com- mittee prepared a document which, without pad or buffer, set forth the doctrine of immediate emanci- pation. This was printed in great numbers. A committee of the whole folded and dinected this document, and sent it abroad to all the winds. Then came cyclones and thunderings, and an earthquake. Portents appeared and voices were heard. Tokens were abroad in the earth, and waterspouts in the heavens. About this time came vacation. The term closed happily. No disapprobation had been signified by the faculty, no token of discontent among the stu- dents. But the faculty having dispersed, the trus- tees came upon the stage. Yes, convened in Cin- cinnati, and took the seminary in hand. Then fol- lowed acts declarative and statutory, which en- 64 OBERLIN JUBILEE. tirely changed our relation to the institution. We were there under the tacit understanding that the rules would be reasonable, and their administration in the hands of fathers, who would administer them in a paternal fashion. We knew our teachers, we did not know the trustees, even when we met them. It was a breach of good faith to assume the gov- ernment over us. If the mayor, aldermen and common council of the city had extended jurisdic- tion over us, I do not see that more marked injus- tice would have menaced us. New laws were im- mediately enacted, some of which were annoying, and others menacing. I will give samples : 1. That societies, relating to slavery, that have recently been formed in the seminary, are abol- ished. 2. It shall not be lawful for the students to have public communication with one another, at table or elsewhere, without leave of the faculty. Now if any reason had existed for these rules, we should have submitted to them. They were annoying and inconvenient. They seemed to re- gard us as mischievous boys, who needed ad- ditional bringing up. We were held to the semi- nary in part by necessity, much more by affection. But another weight was added, which decided our action with an emphasis that precluded delib- eration. It was this : " The Executive Committee of the Trustees simll have power to dismiss any student, when they shall think it necessary so to do." "LANE SEMINARY REBELS." 65 In the letter of the law, we saw ruin to all our hope in life; in the commentary which immediately followed, we saw the confirmation of the worst, for no sooner had this enactment been made, than action under its provision was taken. A motion to dismiss William T. Allan was made and enter- tained, and was laid over to a subsequent meeting. They meant business. Who was William T. Allan ? He was a gentle- man, most agreeable to his peers and to the faculty, son of an Alabama slaveholder, most scrupulous in the observance of every rule of the seminary, with no spot upon him ; obnoxious only because he had been made president of our anti-slavery society. There was Allan, asleep in his dormitory two miles away, while proceedings fatal to his character and to all his aspirations, were proceed- ing in the office of a pork-house in the city, and only deferred by adjournment. None can deny that such mode of proceeding is exceedingly convenient. What waste of patience it would have saved in the Guiteau trial and in the Star Route trials. It requires no summons of par- ties or of witnesses — not eveii acquaintance with the victim. Do the executive committee of the trustees think it necessary so to do ? All turns upon that question. I believe we find among the moderns, no ex- ample of juridical proceedings so curt and facile. Yet a little historic knowledge will show among the more ancient courts abundant precedents. The great Herod— prudent man — saw dangers 66 OBERLIN JUBILEE. to the royal succession. He thought it necessary so to do, then down came his blow upon the inno- cents. Torquemada and his compeers in the Holy Office of the Inquisition, thought it necessary so to do, and sent men and women to torture and the flames. The Venetian Council of Ten ordered un- seen victims sent to the galleys, or to torture, " when they thought it necessary so to do." In the days of the Stuarts, the Lords of the Star Cham- ber did anything and everything " when they thought it necessary so to do." The Executive Committee of Lane, affecting more these ancient than any recent precedents, had got their machine all ready and bound their Isaac, when circum- stances intervened. Just as the blow was about being delivered, William. T. Allan, and those like him Exposed to danger, bolted the jurisdiction, for they thought it necessary so to do. " Down came the blow, but in the heath The erring blade found bloodless sheath. " We went out, not knowing whither we went. The Lord's hand was with us. Five miles from the seminary we found a deserted brick tavern, with many convenient rooms. Here we rallied. A gentleman of the vicinity offered us all neces- sary fuel, a gentleman far off, sent us a thousand dollars, and we set up a seminary of our own and became a law unto ourselves. George Whipple was competent in Hebrew, and William T. Allan in Greek. They were made professors in the inter- mediate state. It was desirable that we should "LANE SEMINARY HEBELS." 67 remain near to Cincinnati for a season^ as we were there teaching in evening schools for the colored people of that city. Gentlemen of the jury, our plea here closes. You will have the case in your hands and will ren- der a true verdict upon this question. Ought we (conventionally named Rebels of Lane Seminary) to have re-entered under the amended code ? If your interest in the fortunes of these "rebels" requires, it is due to you to relate briefly what be- fel them until they reached this refuge. The American Anti-Slavery Society proffered to a dozen of us commissions and employment in its service. We accepted their proposal. On our way to our lecturing field, we stopped at Putnam and assisted in the formation of the Ohio Anti- Slavery Society. Our outfit was scanty, and with a view to its re- plenishment, we moved our classmate Weld to open his ample stores, as common property, to the band. To this he generously assented, and we gathered at Cleveland, where, by the grace of Judge Sterling, his law office was made free to us for the purpose, and there was opened a school of abolition, where, copying documents, with hints, discussions and suggestions, we spent two weeks in earnest and most profitable drill. A chemical question arose, which related to tar and feathers and how to erase their stain. This practical question was disposed of in a single les- son. The names of those availing themselves of this course were: T. D. Weld, S. W. Streeter, Ed- 68 OBERLIN JUBILEE. ward Weld, H. B. Stanton, H. Lyman, James A. Thome, J. W. Alvord, M. R. Robinson, George Whipple and W. T.' Allan. A few months of exciting and dispiriting ex- perience followed, we became familiar with harsh words and the more solid missives,-^— stale eggs, brick-bats and tar. But in our despondency this was our cheer: Cal- houn, Wise and Toombs, in Congress, would ad- vance the monstrous assumptions of slavery, and then the devotees of the North, like Buchanan, Cass, Hendricks, and Atherton, would bow down and worship. We were humbled, feeling ourselves to be mere symptoms in the great fight ; but we were com- forted, and could laugh until sleep came on. Our next step brought us to Oberlin, where a kind hospitality awaited us, which no words can depict. Pending our exit from Lane we were admon- ished by good men, who prophesied that our regret would follow hard upon our action. Six trees of natural growth have escaped the axe and the fire, and stand upon this site to repre- sent the ancient forest of Oberlin. 1 make them typical of the six old men who remember both Lane and Oberlin, and have come up here to participate in this jubilee. The winds of fifty winters have blown upon us, and the sedative of half a cen- tury since the events of my narrative were cur- rent has ministered its influence. The ardor of youth has departed and the western verge of life "LANE SEMINARY REBELS." 69 looms in the near distance. Oblivion waits before our gate. Those who took the step, long ago, adhere to the decision then made. For myself, I cannot see how we could have done differently in consistency with public duty or self-respect. How could 1 have lifted my face here to-day, in the presence of juniors, who met the same issue and maintained a sterner debate upon the historic fields of Winchester, Cross Lanes, Fort Republic, Ringgold and Cedar Mountain, not to say Cleveland ? Then behold here what extravagances select men, under the influence of a popular craze, will enact, and what a straddle charity has to make to adjust herself to the apothegm, " Charity never faileth." EARLY DAYS. BY REV. LEONARD S. PARKER, '38, Berkley, Mass. Allow me an opening word of explanation — I bring no manuscript. When I came to Oberlin in the spring of 1835, I had an essay in my right hand and a very timid spirit in my breast. I was here taught to stand firmly on my feet, to have something to say, and to say it. I thought I should best honor my Alma Mater by carrying out that precept here and now. In the brief time I can properly take, I wish specially to emphasize three points in my experience here during the four first years of the Department of Theology. The first regards physical matters. Two weeks were spent in the journey from my New England home — I came this week in twenty-four hours. I found Cleveland a small place. Coming from thence to Elyria occupied a hard day, riding in a primi- tive stage over a corduroy road and walking through the deep mud-gulches, to the no small harm of my Eastern boots. From Elyria to Ober- lin a lumber wagon came once a week. Leaving mfy trunk to be brought out the next trip, I started for Oberlin. The tracks were many and devious. I lost my way, and not till late in the day did I reach this village. I well remember my united dinner and tea — a glass of lukewarm water, a few EARLY DAYS. 71 slices of stale bread, and a slice of fried salt pork in lieu of butter. I was early put in a central room in Slab Hall, supported on the right and left by my stalwart classmates from Lane Seminary. I have a very feeling remembrance of arising in the middle of stormy nights to move my bed to some spot out of the reach of the dripping rain. This tough usage at length brought on a brain attack, when my honored brother-in-law, Professor Dascomb, took me to his room, gave me the only bed he had, while he and his wife slept upon the floor. But we made as little as possible of these " light afflic- tions," as Paul would call them — I merely give them in passing as a part of our history. The second point I would make touches the in- tellectual life we found here. It was of the rarest, most stimulating kind. There was abundant ozone in the mental atmosphere. I had known thorough drill in study in the Boston Latin School, and in Dartmouth College ; but I here found forces in action that aroused and set ablaze all the powers of my mind. Our teachers were in their prime, and thoroughly enthusiastic in their chosen work. Having a four years' course in theology before me, I took the liberty to review in part my col- lege studies. I cannot forget the teachers or the subjects taught at that time. Under Professor Dascomb, I went over several of the natural sciences ; under Professor J. P. Cowles, I studied Butler and Isaiah ; under Professor John Morgan — that peerless expositor of Scripture, and model 72 OBERLIN JUBILEE. reader of hymns — I learned New Testament exe- gesis ; under President Mahan, I studied mental and moral philosophy, and heard lessons never to be forgotten touching " fundamental principles.'' From Charles G. Finney — with a Pauline character of iron logic and exceeding unction — I caught the grand truths of theology — the queen of the sciences. He must have been as good as dead who could live at such a time, in such a place, without the highest intellectual profit. But, to come to the third point of interest, on which I wish to dwell for a moment; the gem, the crown, the glory of those earthly days, was the spiritual influence here exerted and felt. What a multitude of men and women were here of one heart and of one mind ? What paternal feel- ing; what meetings tor prayer; what high days were the Sabbaths ; and what revivals, what searchings among the very best of men and wo- men ! 1 had come from the three days' meetings of New England, where sometimes gray-haired ministers were almost afraid to speak to the people, lest they should mar the work of God. But I had never seen before, I have never seen since, such mighty displays of the piercing power of the truth and Spirit of God as we then witnessed and felt. One or two illustrations must suffice: We were listening to lectures on the atonement'from our revered teacher in theology. As he led us into the depths of the grand theme, his whole being was so filled and fired by a sense of the exceeding greatness of the love of God therein displayed, EARLY DAYS. 73 that, our pencils and note-books forgotten, with wrapt attention and streaming eyes we drank in the gracious words that flowed from his lips. On another occasioa a scene occurred that made a living and abiding impression on the hearts of all present. The class in theology of '38 was about to leave the Institution. We met to hear one of the last lectures of the course. Our teacher, as usual, knelt with us in offering the opening prayer, but the burden on his soul for us, for Zion, for a lost world, could not be thrown off in a few common petitions. He stood in the gap and wrestled for the blessing. For a whole hour he led us up to God. We then arose and went in profound silence to our rooms. There was no lec- ture that day. We have forgotten a hundred ser- mons and addresses — but that prayer, never can we forget it ! Here is the biding of Oberlin's power. But did it all pay ? you are ready to ask. I put that question to myself when, on yesterday, I looked upon the resting-place of the mortal part of Charles G. Finney, and stood between the graves of my brother-in-law and sister. Professor and Mrs. Dascomb. The choice of Oberlin had cost me something. To do good and earn some needed money, one winter I acted as agent for the New York Anti-Slavery Society. The field assigned myself and a beloved classmate, Hiram Foote, was Trumbull County, Ohio. We began our work in the town of Mesopotamia. Horrid music, brickbats and rotten eggs assailed us. Thence we went forth single-handed, each taking 74 OBERLIN JUBILEE. a tier of towns. We gave at the right time leave to ask questions and bring objections. From elders and deacons, and doctors and lawyers — yea, all classes of persons, they were hurled at us. One Sunday, in the town of Johnson, the climax of oppo- sition was capped. I had spoken during the day on ordinary Christian topics ; in the evening I was to discuss the Bible view of slavery. In the midst of the lecture a large stone, aimed at my head, struck me between the shoulders, and thus saved my life. I carry those apostolic marks to-day. Early in my ministry I received a call to a city in my native East. I asked a father in the sacred office if he would preach the installation sermon. " Yes," said he, " if you bear the scorching examination^ and the council vote to settle you." The decision to install me was reached with difficulty. Not spoken but hidden heresy was feared. For months no one wished to exchange with the spotted young man. And when Mr. Finney aided me in a glorious revival there, not a brother in the ministry stood by me. Yet, at the close of well nigh fifty years of work in the ministry, I say, with all the empha- sis of experience, it paid to study theology at Oberlin. I could not thank my sainted sister, whose sweet, strong influence drew me hither, but I could and did send up to her in heaven a brother's deep, warm thanksgiving ; and had I a son or a grand- son to give to the ministry of the gospel, I wouM use my whole influence to have him prepare for that supreme service at Oberlin above all places in the country and the world ! THE BEGINNING. BY REV. JOHN M. WILLIAMS, '42, Chicago, 111. I CAME to Oberlin September, 1833, three months before the first class met there for its first recitation. I found but two on the ground who came as students — J. J. Warren and William Hoysington. The former has crossed the river, so you see before you, with a single exception, the oldest student of Oberlin. I was graduated from this college, with seven- teen other young men — half of whom have passed away — in 1839, forty -four years ago, and from the Theological Department, after a residence here of nine years, in 1842, forty-one years ago. I say this with hesitation, lest some one in this great assembly should be so illogical as to infer that I am an old man. This would be a non seqiiitur and a great mistake. I am not old ; I am young ; more than a thousand years younger than St. Paul, and he, you know, was born out of due time. I cannot perceive in myself any particular indications of decay as yet. I am, so far as ap- pears, capable of just as big blunders as forty-one years ago. 76 OBERLIN JUBILEE. But an half-century, I admit, is a long time. The child born the day I reached this place, is down in the afternoon of life now, and the snows are probably beginning to gather on his temples ; but with me it has passed like some rapid but not unpleasant dream. A song from some unseen singer has been singing in my ear all the way, and its notes, I think, have been growing richer, and its diapason broader, as the years have passed, and I think it will never cease singing. Would I live my live over again ? I hesitate to say yes, chiefly from fear that a second trial would prove a greater failure than the first. During these forty-one years, I have been a very infrequent visitor of Oberlin, not because I have lost my interest in this school. I have ever felt the deepest interest in it. I have rejoiced in its prosperity, and been proud of its triumphs. I have dreamed about it more frequently than about any other one thing. You would think me exag- gerating were I to tell you how often, in the mys- teries of sleep, I have been back here, treading these halls, recitation rooms, and mingling with the dear fellows whom I had learned to love long ago, and how uniformly I have seemed to myself to be delinquent in every duty, and unworthy a place among you. I have read everything I have seen in the papers about this school and its officers. I have kept myself pretty well informed, and maintained a kind of fatherly watch over it. I have read, too, very much of the literature which has emanated THE BEGINNING. 77 from this centre of thought. And here I wish to thank President Fairchild, whom I see before me, for his edition of " Finney's Theology." I had re- garded Finney's style as lacking in scholarly finish ; but this work, as it now appears, though I understand every word in it is from the pen of the author himself, strikes me as a model of our English tongue. There is nothing in our language more clear, terse, and classical. I regard it as the great theological work of the century. The man who has mastered it is a theological scholar. It is moulding the science of theology, and is destined to a greater and greater influence on the thinking of the world. The younger portion of my hearers can hardly conceive of the prejudice against this school at the time I left. It had many friends, but in the estima- tion of the great public, an Abolitionist, a " nigger,'' and an Oberlin man belonged to the same category. Its students were accounted heretics by the Ameri- can Home Missionary Society, the A. B. C, and the American Education Society, and many of the pulpits were closed against them. " I would go," said a clergyman (now a very warm friend of this school), " fifty miles and back to shut the doors of one of our churches against an Oberlin man." Rev. Dr. Lion, of Erie, Fa., said, in my hear- ing, before the Synod of Western Pennsylvania: " I have not had a conversion in my church in three years, but I have kept Oberlinism out of it." Yet, though my lot was cast in the dense prejudice of Hyper-Calvinistic Presbyterianism — 78 OBERLIN JUBILEE. I say it not boastingly — I have never shrunk, on any suitable occasion, from confessing myself an Oberlin man, in full sympathy with Oberlin theology and reform. I do not know that I have ever suffered to any extent from this prejudice. I have always had so much to do, I have not had time to even feel bad ; but I have felt, when 1 have heard Oberlin traduced, very much as young Oliver Twist did when the big boy told him his mother was a bad woman. Indeed Oberlin, during ray boyhood and early manhood, was my mother — the only one I had on earth — and I have loved her as such, and loved her other children, too, and the latchstring has always been on the outside when one of them chanced to come along. Fifty years ago T came from my home, under the shadow of the Green Mountains, eight hundred miles away, to this consecrated spot, hidden there in the centre of an almost interminable forest. I was first introduced into the family of Deacon Pease — a good man, whose countenance seemed a benediction — living in a small log-house, on the Southwest corner of what is now the College Square. I remember retiring at night in the loft of that shanty — fourteen of us in one bed. The next day was Sunday, and I remember attending public worship — about fifty present — -in the same shanty. Father Shipherd, as we then called the founder of this school, preached a good sermon, I presume ; but my attention was occupied taking the dimen- sions of the only other lad of my age present — William Hoysington — and debating the important THE BEGINNING. 79 question, whether I could lick him, or he me. As athletic contests were not then a part of the college curriculum, that question has never been settled, and we are both getting so far down the declivity of life, I apprehend it will have to take its place among the unsolved problems of this world, and perhaps, of the next, too. The next day I commenced boarding in the family of Father Shipherd, and working on Attic Hall, the only framed building in the place, at five cents an hour. How well I remember my hostess, Mother Shipherd — with her pale, patient, loving face, and I have a very vivid recollection of her excellent apple dumplings, too. That patient, self- sacrificing woman was the right hand of her hus- band in this great work, and is deserving of equal renown. We need a day of judgment to reveal what the early mothers of Oberlin did for this school. God bless them ! How well I remember that heroic band who spent the winter of 1833-4, in the seven-by-nine rooms of Attic Hall. I have often heard President Fairchild claim to be one of the early students of Oberlin. I wish to correct any such impression. He never attained unto this honor. Oberlin was born and baptized, the morning stars had sung together, and the sons of God had shouted for joy. It had been on its course, like a ship launched on the sea, for weeks and months before he ever saw Oberlin, or Oberlin him. Why, we were old set- tlers when he came. I say this in the interest of truth, not to injure the reputation of one who is so 80 OBERLIN JUBILEE. much a stranger here as our honored President. I do not charge him, you will observe, with inten- tional misrepresentation. It is an error of the head, not of the heart. I remember among that company Gerrish, and Adams, and Knight — known then by the more classic name of Nox — the irrepressible Mayo G. Smith, Middleton Reed, Miles St. John, and others, some of whom are alive and remain, others have fallen asleep. Dear fellows : we shall meet again, I trust, where death hath no sting. And the girls, too, occupying another part of the building, I remember well. There was one whose name I can hardly trust myself to speak — Mary Williams — so gentle, loving — one who gave in- dubitable evidence at three years of age of loving Christ — one who prayed with me and besought me to give my heart to Christ when we were little chil- dren — one who was never heard to speak an angry or harsh word in her life. Another beautiful girl, Mary Ann Adams, who occupied for years so responsible a place in this school. Both are gone. " Nor sink such stars in empty night." And there was another dear one ; I will call her " Melva," for over that name, she has, with her pen, probably done more to sweeten and purify our homes than any other lady who has gone out from Oberlin. God bless her ! I wonder if Oberlin has any such girls now. Many others I could mention whom I hope to meet when the day of life is fled. How well I remember Oberhn's first grave, dug for my room-mate — St. John. No one knew what that patient man suffered during that memorable THE BEGINNING. 8 1 winter. But Oberlin had kind hearts then, as now, and tenderly was the stranger cared for. I also remember well the " colonists" as we called the first settlers. I think I knew them all — Deacons Pease, and Turner, and Hosford, Pelton, Hopkins, the Ingersolls and Penfields, Crosby and James, and others — sturdy, consecrated men of New Eng. land stock. These remarks may seem trivial. They cer- tainly would be, had the events to which I have referred occurred yesterday. But distance lends enchantment to the view. Seen through the vista of fifty years, they are not trivial. Events magnify as we recede from them. These trifling things, the idle word of to-day, will by-and-by loom up in amazing significance. Fifty years ; but what years ! How eventful ! Fifty years ago there were fourteen millions of people in our country. Now there are four times that number. Fifty )'ears ago there was one short railroad connecting Troy and Schenectady ; now there are one hundred thousand miles, costing five thousand million dollars. Fifty years ago Oberlin was on the distant Western frontier. Chicago was a far-off, almost unheard-of military post among the Indians, and the Mississippi was the outmost boundary known to civilization on the West — the ne plus ultra. What a change ! What cities and empires have risen since ! Fifty years ago there were two and a half million slaves crouching beneath the lash of their tyrant masters, with almost no friend but God. Now they are 82 OBBRLIN JUBILEE. transformed into four million men and women, free as their mountain streams. But one of the mightiest achievements of the half century, is the planting and rearing up this colossal school. The work already accomplished, no arithmetic can compute. It was the first to open the higher fields of learning to woman, and make her the peer of her brother in college halls. Now, where is the school which has not followed, or is not about to follow, her example ? Fifty years ago the admission oi a colored stu- dent would have broken up almost any school in the land. Oberlin beheved " a man was a man for a' that," and opened her doors to men and women of every race and complexion, bringing upon her- self a storm of hisses and curses. But God was well pleased, and afforded the world a new illus- tration of the fact: "them that honor me I will honor." The accession from Lane Seminary made Oberlin the hot-bed of Abolitionism. From this fountain streams of anti-slavery influence began at once to flow. Pamphlets, papers, letters, lecturers and preachers, and school teachers, some five hun- dred each winter, went forth everywhere preach- ing the anti-slavery word. It was the influence emanating from this school that saved our country in its great hour of peril. There were thousands of other co-operating influences, but had that which went out from Oberlin been subtracted, there can hardly remain a doubt that freedom would have foundered in the storm. Indeed it is doubtful THE BEGINNING. 83 whether there would have been any storm. The nation probably would have meekly yielded to the dominion of the slave power, and the Western Hemisphere would have become a den of tyrants and slaves. As it was, we were scarce- ly saved. A work of immeasurable value, too, has been wrought in the field of theology. For forty years this ground was hallowed by the presence of the great preacher and thinker of the century. The system he wrought out and embodied in his great work, will be the theology of the Millennium, for it is the theology of reason, and of the Word of God. What I want to say, as I was asked to talk about " the beginning," is, all this was here in the beginning. All there is and has been hert is the legitimate fruitage of seed sown in the early infancy of this colony and school. All here has come of evolu- tion and development. In the principles brought here by Shipherd and Stewart and Deacon Pease were the promise and potency of every quality and form of life that has grown upon this soil. This is holy ground on which we tread. Every inch of its soil and particle of dust are hallowed by tears and prayer. The conduct of this school, at its inception, was committed to God, and accepted by Him ; hence its success and greatness. The highest possibilities to a school or a man are reached under the Divine directing. May this school continue in the future, as in the past, to follow the pillar of cloud and fire, and may the hand which shall write its history for the next 84 OBERLIN JUBILEE. great jubilee trace it in brighter lines, and tell of more wonderful achievements. Addresses were also made by Pres. N. J. Mor- rison, '57, Springfield, Mo., on " The Middle Pe- riod;" and by Rev. C. C. Creegan, '76, Syracuse, N. Y., on " The Later Period." BACCALAUREATE SERMON: PROVIDENTIAL ASPECTS OF THE OBERLIN ENTERPRISE. BY PRES. J. H. FAIRCHILD. Auditorium, Sunday, July 1st, 10:30 A.M. In all our planning and building two forces are at work, the human and the divine. We put our own strength and wisdom into every enterprise ; but, whether in success or failure, we are often brought to face the fact that a broader plan em- braces ours, and that a mightier hand is shaping the movement and determining the result. No house is ever built without a human plan and pur- pose and hand in the work ; but it is equally true that the house will never rise without the co-opera- tion of God's purpose and power. We find our- selves in the world, surrounded with abundant material for building, supplied by God's own hand, with every motive and encouragement to the work. We may arise and build if we will, and the " Father of Spirits " will further every honest endeavor. If we neglect the opportunity, that Father will never stretch the roof over us, however much He may pity our folly or our wretchedness. The law of all successful endeavor in our human life is faith- ful work on our part, and an overruling wisdom 86 OBERLIN JUBILEE. and goodness to shape our ends. The simplest of our undertakings involve too many contingencies and liabilities and consequences to afford any hope of success without this divine ordering. " A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord di- recteth his steps." Obedient and trustful souls have always found strength and refreshment in looking back over the path by which they have been led, to mark the tokens of his heavenly guid- ance ; and the devout student of history sees the same divine ordering in the more complex move- ments of the world, involving- the conscious and unconscious co-operation of many hearts and hands. It is becoming to us, our duty and our privilege, on this fiftieth anniversary of the planting of Ober- lin, to look back over the years, and mark the most obvious indications of God's overruling hand, guid- ing and shaping the work according to his own wisdom. Our poor efforts to interpret the ways of God often seem like presumption ; but to neglect to recognise His helping hand and note his deliver- ances is stupidity and ingratitude. Our limited interpretations of His ways must always be inade- quate. The providential movement which resulted in blessing to us may have a thousand other benefi- cent bearings beyond our range of vision ; but why should we fail to discern that " portion of His ways " which falls within our observation ? What, then, are the indications of a divine hand in the history of Oberlin ? First, the impulse to undertake the work was divinely given. This was the unquestioning con- BACCALAUREATE SERMON. 8/ viction of the men who began it, a conviction which followed them to the end. They waited on God in earnest and persistent prayer for an indica- tion of His will, and received their commission, and from that day on they were enabled to say, " The God of heaven He will prosper us, therefore we, His servants, will arise and build." They did not undertake the work in a careful calculation of all encouragements and difficulties — a wise balancing of reasons for and against. They sought divine guidance, and in assurance of this they found the solution of all the difficu'ties that could be urged against them. It is not necessary to maintain that the Lord always guides his servants by an inward conviction, having the force of a revelation to the soul. The ordinary and normal method of divine illumination is doubtless through the understanding, involving a conscious and clear apprehension of tlie reasons upon which the de- cision turns. But there are times when the reasons in favor of a given course, though actually exist- ing and known to God, lie absolutely beyond the reach of men, and the inward impulse impressed by the divine Spirit mi^st take the place of all other reasons. The project of founding a colony and large school in the forests of Northern Ohio fifty years ago, could not commend itself to ordi- nary human judgment. To one guided simply by his own judgment the scheme would have see-med to the last degree chimerical. Mr. Shipherd and Mr. Stewart had their reasons, reasons which seemed to satisfy themselves for the course which 88 OBERLIN JUBILEE. they were about to pursue. But these . reasons alone could never have given the settled and un- daunted purpose which animated them, so that for months they could stand alone and speak confi- dently of their enterprise, without the approval of a solitary human being out of their own home circle. When Mr. Shipherd started from Elyria on horseback, with three dollars in his pocket and the burden of a great work upon his heart, confidently expecting colonists and students and teachers to join him in his enterprise, and bring a community and a college into existence in the forest, in the space of a few months, it was not merely his own judgment and reason that sustained him. He be- lieved that the Lord had given him a charge, and that he was to go on his way doubting nothing. It is easy to say that Mr. Shipherd must have been a visionary man, and that a dream of his own possessed him ; but this will not explain the power he had with others, the ability to impress them with his own confidence and enthusiasm, so that sober and substantial men enlisted in the cause, supplying him with money, and granting land for the school, while colonists and students came on before him, cleared the land, erected their houses and put up the first college building ready for the opening of the school at the appointed time. It can scarcely be questioned that Mr. Shipherd was in a sense a visionary man, but the vision which came to him of this Oberlin work was like the visions which God gi\ -j to his prophets. It sent BACCALAUREATE SERMON. 89 hira out with a prophet's zeal and power, and gave him no rest until his mission was accomplished. It might even be admitted that a man of more sober and steady judgment, and more considerate sense of the difficulties of the undertaking, could scarcely have accepted and entered upon the task. It was with difficulty that the Lord could persuade Moses, after he was four-score years of age, and had had forty years for reflection, that he was the man to stand before Pharaoh, and to lead the people out of the bondage of Egypt. Forty years earlier he would have accepted the charge with far less hesitation. The man who was to lay the foundations at Oberlin must be one whom diffi- culties could not appal, one even who could not properl}'^ apprehend and measure difficulties, whose breadth of view was not sufficient to take in at once all the elements of the problem before him. Mr. Shipherd was fruitful in devisings, and these plans met his own requirements, and served as a basis for his work ; but, examined in the cool light of experience, they must have appeared inadequate. His first estimate of the money required as an outfit in the work, aside from what colonists and students would bring, was two thousand dollars. The buildings and apparatus and farm and shops were to be provided by the payment of one hun- dred and fifty dollars for each student at the out- set, thus securing a place and opportunity for one student for all future time. Then the charge of fifteen dollars a year to each pupil for tuition, a charge which he was to meet by his own labor, in 90 OBERLIN JUBILEE. addition to all his other expenses, would provide the salaries of all necessary instructors. It was a simple and beautiful scheme, but it would not bear a moment's thorough examination. That was Mr. Shipherd's plan and not the Lord's, and as the work moved on it disappeared from view. In all probability Gideon, called of God to deliver Israel from their enemies, when he had gathered his army had some well considered plan of the campaign upon which he was about to enter, but the various siftings by which his force was reduced to three hun- dred men must have greatly deranged his plans. Mr. Shipherd had the assurance that his commis- sion and marching orders were from the Lord, and this explains his confidence and his power. His plan, upon its own merits, could not have secured the co-operation of the men whom he gathered, but the intense conviction which was in his soul, the utter devotion of his life to the work, wrought mightily with others, and drew them into the enterprise. The Divine guidance which he sought and received was his wisdom and his power. He was a servant of God, called and anointed to this special work. Again, in its general and essential features, the plan of the enterprise as a Christian community and college, exhibits an adjustment and provision of forces far beyond the wisdom and foresight of the men to whom it was vouchsafed, and who received it as divinely given, " the pattern shown them in the mount." They had their explanation of the ar- rangement, and their reasons for it, of more or less BACCALAUREATE SERMON. 9 1 significance — reasons satisfactory to themselves and to many others. But the great fact that Ober- lin was to receive and entertain and give effect to certain ideas and principles which would not be welcomed in any average community was wholly unknown to them. The Oberlin colony was made up of selected Christian families, pledged in a spe- cial covenant to lives of consecration to the service of God and mankind, especially to aggressive Chris- tian work, to spread the gospel through the New West of our own land, and all abroad. They came as they would have gone to any missionary work. Yet even this elect community received with great hesitation and reluctance the proposal to open the door to colored students, and to take a position of aggressive opposition to slavery. If the college had been planted in any settled community, with established ideas and social influence, in no way committed to a careful consideration of every question and predisposed to respond to every call of duty however forbidding, the proposal would have been rejected, and there would have been no Oberlin, whatever else might have occurred. The beautiful site on "the Point," at Elyria, was offered to Mr. Shipherd by Mr. Ely. A fine school might have been established there with beautiful sur- roundings, but it would not have been Oberlin, and could not have done the work to which Ober- lin had been called. The ideas which were to be wrought out here could not have been accepted there. Social influences were already organized there, as in every established community, and 92 OBERLIN JUBILEE. years would have been required to secure the results which were here accomplished in a few days. Vast consequences to Oberlin and to all its work turned upon that action, providentially secured by the union of the college and colony ; but all this was hidden from human eyes. Mr. Shipherd's reasons for the colony had more or less of force, and have been in a degree realized ; but ■ the reasons which he did not apprehend probably outweighed all the rest. The essential plan of the college with its various departments, preparatory, collegiate, and theologi- cal, with a female department, as it was called, in somewhat indeterminate relations to the whole, was a remarkable conception of its founders. This was the germ that was planted, and out of this the college in its complex constitution has grown. This general plan was essential to Oberlin : with- out it its work must have been far different and far less extended and influential. The opening of the higher education to women was in that germ, by no means fully comprehended by the founders, but ready to develop and take the form which the forces within and without should determine. This one feature of the plan must be introduced at the outset. To introduce it after the school had attained form and character, would have been dif- ficult if not impossible. That an institution can now introduce such a change, is the result of many years of trial of the system. Such a forecasting of the needs of the situation, so that the entire plan as presented in the first circulars^ is almost a BACCALAUREATE SERMON. 93 description of the college as it stands to-day, indi- cates a Divine ordering. The manual labor feature of the plan, so promi- nent in the beginning, and apparently so essential, in the judgment of the founders indispensable, soon lost its prominence, and gradually disappeared as a distinctive characteristic of the school. At first view this would seem an imperfection in the original plan, a sign of human weakness instead of Divine wisdom ; and such it doubtless was, so far as it was a human plan. But that one feature made Oberlin possible. Scarcely a score of the first five hundred students that came to Oberlin could have come but for the encouragement of the manual labor system, and but for this they could not have remained a term. It was the prospect of self-support that brought students from the east and west, from the north and south, and it was the possibility of self-support that enabled them to hold on their way and give the school at once a commanding position among the schools of the land. The promise and supply of labor on the part of the college soon failed, but the students had learned to make their way by teaching in the long vacation, and by opportunities for work found in the new settlement. In form the manual labor system was to a great extent a failure, but in sub- stance it was a great success, essential to the very existence of the college. It was necessary that the founders should heartily believe in the system and set it forth with enthusiastic confidence, as men of wider experience and clearer insight could not 94 OBEKLIN JUBILEE. have done ; and it is the Lord's prerogative to overrule such misapprehensions to the furtherance of his own purpose — a paradox which often appears in human affairs. No one who passed through the experiment at Oberlin would dare to recommend a similar experiment in the founding of a new school. Yet that experiment was just as essential to the existence of Oberlin as that Mr. Finney should have been sent here. Indeed, Mr. Finney could have had no place or work here unless the manual labor scheme had preceded him. The human plan "and purpose was overruled by the Divine, and God's wisdom wrought through man's want of wisdom. The location of Oberlin has been a matter of criti- cism throughout the fifty years, and only recently, as the place has grown to exhibit a beauty of its own, have men ceased to wonder that the founders could have planted a college and a town upon a site originally so inaccessible and forbidding. In the broader view it is not difficult to see that Oberhn was placed where it should have been. Within the parallels which bound the New Eng- land emigration, in the gateway of the growing West, with the vast valley of the Mississippi in full view, was manifestly the point where the forces which were to be concenti"ated at Oberlin could best be marshalled to the conflict. In those wider aspects of the situation there could have been no better place. As to the exact locality, the result must be accepted as a vindication. The desirable thing was to secure a community around the col- BACCALAUREATE SERMON. 95 lege in general sympathy with its educational work, and with little attraction for other interests which might bring undesirable influences. If the site had been more inviting, the sudden and rapid growth which took place would have attracted men with an eye to business, and an era of land speculation might have afflicted the college and the town. Other institutions and communities have suffered such calamities. If the place had been attractive to manufacturers, and large estab- lishments had sprung up with many workmen, the tone of society would have been changed, and saloons and similar nuisances would have multiplied upon us. The educational work would have been greatly marred. To a great extent the world has yielded the Oberlin tract to the uses for whiclrit was selected and consecrated, and for this we have reason to be grateful. The intractable soil and the impassable roads have had something to do in securing these privileges. They brought hardship and expense to the early colonists, and the end of these has not yet fully come ; but there is a moral discipline in outward conditions which must not be overlooked. It was a rugged hospitality with wl^ich the bleak New England coast received the Plymouth colony two centuries and a half ago. Georgia would have welcomed it with genial skies and a verdant landscape ; but New England was the place providentially appointed for the Ply- mouth colony, and the place for the Oberlin colony was indicated by similar providences. There was little of human wisdom involved in 96 OBERLIN JUBILEE. either selection, but Divine wisdom is justified in the outcome. Thus Oberlin was planted ; and at the close of two years after Mr. Shipherd left Elyria, the colony had grown to a little village, and the school embraced a hundred pupils, with the necessary teachers, and all was moving forward with energy and hopefulness. There were no visible means of sustaining the enterprise. The money that had been raised had all been expended in clearing the lands and the erection of buildings. The lands originally purchased had been disposed of, and no money could come from that source. But there were a hundred students to be fed and instructed, and many of them clothed, in return for their daily manual labor of four hours. each, labor which must go into buildings and improvements, without any return in means of support ; and to all human foresight this must be the condition for years. As men estimate prospects and probabilities, the career of Oberlin must be brief, and her students and teachers would be scattered as rapidly as they had been gathered. All seemed to hang upon Mr. Shipherd, and he was undaunted, and his courage was contagious. Oberlin was to rise, and the gates of hell should not prevail against it. Then came the unexpected enlargement and reen- forcement for which Oberlin had been obviously planned and previously arranged ; but which no human imagination had ever dreamed of. The students of Lane Seminary, forbidden to discuss slavery and other questions of interest, had with- BACCALAUREATE SERMON: 9/ drawn, and were planning variously for arrange- ments to complete their studies. Mr. Tappan, of New York, had opened a correspondence with them, with reference to the establishment of a school of theology under anti-slavery auspices. Mr. Finney had accomplished his ten years' cam- paign of evangelistic labor, and was taking a rest as pastor of the church in Chatham Street Theatre, waiting for the building of the Broadway Taber- nacle. As the result of his labors in the city other churches were springing up and calling for pas- tors. Our Professor Barrows took charge of one of these ; but there was a great want of pastors for these churches, in sympathy with the great revival movement, and trained in its theology and aggressive spirit. The Tappans, and other men in New York, who rallied to Mr. Finney's support, were urging him to organize a theological class and receive young men for this purpose. Indeed one of the rooms in the Broadway Tabernacle had been set apart as a theological lecture room. Here then were three independent movements which were now to be combined into one — the school at Oberlin already established with the capacity and impulse of growth and expansion; a class of vigorous young men at Cincinnati imbued with anti-slavery principles, and burning with anti-slavery zeal, looking more toward Mr. Mahan as a leader than to any other man ; and the hew religious movement in New York, which was at the same time an anti-slavery movement with an impulse in the direction of theological ■g& OBERLm JUBILEE. education. Of this movement Mr. Finney was the natural leader, with a strong support of enter- prising and prosperous young business men of the city, with ample resources and earnest purpose. These movements were each independent of the others so far as any human devising was concerned. The men engaged in one knew little or nothing of the others, yet each of them needed the others as its natural and necessary complement. Each of these would have failed essentially or come to naught without the reinforcement of the others. So far as human intervention was concerned, Mr. Shipherd's energy and faith were the forces through which the combination was effected, and he went forth to the work not knowing whither or why he went. Means must be found to sustain the work at Oberlin. This was the burden on his soul. He knew of no such means except in the East, and toward the East his face was turned. But the in- ward light that guided him led him to the East by Columbus and Cincinnati— a road that he had never travelled. He knew not a soul in either of those cities, and he followed the leading simply because he believed it was from God. At Cincinnati the Divine plan opened to him. He found the Lane Seminary students and President Mahan, and learned of the proposition of Mr. Tappan, of New York. That clew he followed up, and went to New York with Mr. Mahan as his associate. Here 'he enlisted Mr. Finney and the Tappans, with their associates in the work, and BACCALAUREATE SERMON. 99 returned, after an absence of a few weeks, to Oberlin with Mr. Mahan appointed and pledged to come as President of the College, Mr. Finney as Professor of Theology, and Professor Morgan for New Testament Literature and Exegesis. As a financial basis for their work, the Tappans and other merchants of New York.had organized a professor- ship association pledged to pay the annual interest of eight professorships, with the expressed inten- tion of paying, at length, the principal. Thus the forces, moral, personal and financial, essential to the establishment of the work here, were at once con- centrated, and thus the great ideas and movements which Oberlin was to represent and sustain were brought into connection with it. Oberlin would have been nothing without these ideas and forces, and the ideas needed such a centre of development and propagation. But how utterly above and almost independent of human devising was the plan by which these things were accomplished. Human agency wrought vigorously in each of these separate lines of action, but the Lord who builds the house prepared and gathered these materials from diverse sources, according to His own over-ruling wisdom. There is a philosophy of the world which would call this a mere fortu- nate coincidence, as it proposes to account for the orderly and adjusted universe by making it the result of blind unconscious forces, acting upon each other without any over-ruling thought or purpose. Reason and faith alike reject the prop- osition, in the one case as in the other. " The lOO OBERLIN JUBILEE. Lord's throne is in the heavens, and His kingdom ruleth over all." Superficial observers, through all the early years, imagined that the growth of Oberlin was due to some special wisdom in its organization and management ; and it has been no uncommon thing for owners of a few sections of prairie at the West to come to Oberlin with the semi-philanthropic proposition to give a section of their land, for the establishment of a school like Oberlin, provided some one here who knew the secret would go and take charge of the enterprise. Time would fail me to follow out the indications of a Divine supervision in the subsequent history and growth of Oberlin. A few of the more obvious and public facts must suffice. Some of ' these occurrences and facts seemed forbidding and most unfortunate at the time, but in the end they were seen to yield the peaceable fruits of righteous- ness. The financial failure at New York was one of the earliest and most startling of these experi- ences. The great enlargement of 1835, including both professors and students, with the forces and ideas which they embodied, was secured by the guaranty of funds to sustain the work. Without this prospective provision the men could not have come who were essential to the work. President Finney, in his autobiography, distinctly states that, apprehending the want of funds to put up build- ings and provide the things required, he had, be- fore deciding to come, privately laid the case before Arthur Tappan, and received his personal BACCALAUREATE SERMON. lOI assurance that his own income, then a hundred thousand a year, should be devoted to the work as far as needed. This was entirely distinct from the professorship fund, which had been openly and formally pledged. With these promises of sup- port the great accession of 1835 was secured. The men came, two college buildings were erected, and dwellings for President Mahan and Professor Finney ; but before a year had passed by, a commercial revulsion swept over the land, and the whole prospect of support from New York utterly disappeared. The professors, the students, the community and some buildings were here, b.ut without any visible means of support. The hearts of the instructors had become in- terested in the work. It was manifestly the work to which God had called them. They could not desert it. It had grown upon their hands beyond their most sanguine expectations. The question of material support became entirely subordinate. They came to see that " Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." The struggle for life upon which they entered, and which has continued through the fifty years, was not so much to find the means of living, as to get the means of doing well their work, and using wisely that which they obtained. The failure of the financial basis seemed calami- tous, almost fatal. Viewed from the standpoint of to-day, it is not difficult to believe that it was one of the essential conditions of the success of Oberlin, 102 OBERLIN JUBILEE. and that while the provision made at New York was wise, as a human provision, and necessary, it had served its purpose when the men had been gath- ered, and was then set aside as no longer required in the Divine plan. It has often appeared that the way to build a college that shall be a blessing to the community and the world, is not to launch it with an abundant supply of means, — that it is almost as unprofitable for a college to begin in this way as for a young man, without experience or character, to enter upon life with a fortune upon his shoulders provid- ed by his father. A successful college is a growth. It must find and make its work, and form its character, under the pressure of its natural environ- ment. An easy supply of all fancied wants, rather than its real wants, will very likely mar its growth. This would seem to be true as a general fact. It was especially true in the case of Oberlin. It must be remembered that Oberlin had its place and work in the new country. The Valley of the Mis- sissippi was its fore-ordained field. Its students were to be drawn largely from these new regions, and were to return to the new settlements for their life-work. They must be self-supporting students if they were to be students at all, and they must find at Oberlin, if they were to come here, a place where they could feel at home during their years of study. As it was, they found a school supplied with competent and earnest andinspiring teachers, and all essential appliances for their work. They found these instructors, and the entire communitv, BACCALAUREATE SERMON. I03 in the same struggle with themselves for d.aily bread. A bond of sympathy and fellow-feeling was established by the necessity of the case, the result of common conditions and a common life, rather than of a definite and conscious attempt to look after this self-supporting student, and lend him a helping hand. The young man who saw his president or professor go to the woods, for the afternoon, with his axe upon his shoulder, and knew that it was not simply to obtain needed exer- cise, but to meet an absolute want of his own household, would need no assurance of sympathy in his struggles to obtain an education. A revela- tion from heaven could not have increased his con- fidence. At the same time he could not be edu- cated away from sympathy with the people, with whom he was to live and labor. Thus Oberlin students, as they went forth, were ready for hard work and hard places, not simply because they had the missionary spirit, and were ready for all re- quired sacrifice, but because in natural conditions and general sympathy they belonged to the people with whom they had cast their lot. Their educa- tion had fitted them to help those that needed help, and had raised no partition wall to cut them off from their sympathies. It is of little use to speculate upon the probable consequences if the promised abundance has been realized. The professors would have been gener- ously sustained, and would have built houses in advance of the general condition of the community. The college buildings and grounds would have I04 OBERLIN JUBILEE. taken on forms of comeliness and beauty such as the taste of the men who provided the means sug- gested, and Oberlin would have stood a result of Eastern taste in the new country, inviting the poor people to come in and enjoy the privileges so generously bestowed ; and they would not have come. It could not be the place or the home for them. Another misfortune which befell Oberlin in the early years, and which needs to be viewed from its providential side, was the almost universal opposition and antagonism, not unmingled with con- tempt, w^hich it encountered. The repugnance to Oberlin was complex and varied, social, political, ecclesiastical, theological and educational, uniting the good and the bad, the intelligent and the ignorant in a common reprobation. They all seemed to themselves to have abundant reason for their dislike, while to those enlisted in the work it all seemed an unfounded prejudice which had its natural occasions, but no sufficient reason. Those engaged in the enterprise, teachers, students and colonists, understood each other and enjoyed each other's confidence. The seclusion of the forests in a measure sheltered them from the manifestation of general dislike, and they were too busy with their own work to be greatly disturbed. But at the best it was uncomfortable, and in special cases depressing, and we may congratulate ourselves to- day that there is not enough of it remaining to mar our jubilee. In reviewing those years of reproach, it is a BACCALAUREATE SERMON. lOg satisfaction to recall tiie fact that no essential harm came from it all. The number of students steadily increased until it equalled that of any school in the land. A student often encountered opposition in coming, but he came with a more earnest purpose and invited his friends to join him. Some that were faint-hearted were doubtless restrained, but the confidence and courage of those that came was our strength. Again, when those students were ready to go out, there was work for them, not often prominent positions, but always posts of usefulness which, faithfully occupied, grew at length into places of honor. They were received as teachers and preachers in country places, not often in the larger towns, and it is doubtful whether their in- fluence was lessened or their work hindered. The ideas and principles which it was the mis- sion of Oberlin to disseminate, attracted even more attention because of the opposition, and secured a wider curiency. An Oberlin speaker, on any plat- form, was heard with curiosity at least, because he was supposed to have some new or strange thing to say. The Oberlin Evangelist, which under other circumstances could not have existed, obtained a circulation of five thousand copies, and for more than twenty years, spread far and wide Oberlin principles and doctrines. In every neighborhood there were a few that saw that the prevailing sentiment was unjust and slanderous, and their convictions became as intense and pronounced as those of the opposition. Thus throughout the land, friends of Oberlin sprang up, and through I06 OBERLIN JUBILEE. all the years of obloquy they stood its support and strength. It was not merely their genuine and hearty sympathy with the principles of Oberlin that rallied them to its support. They felt called upon to sustain and defend an enterprise which was so maligned. They took it on their hearts until it became a part of their life, and they brought up their children to follow in their foot- steps. No institution ever had more devoted friends, and their fidelity was in part due to the hostility against which it was a protest. A similar result was experienced at home. The pressure from without, of opposition and scorn, cemented and consolidated the bonds at home ; and those who stood together during those years as fellow-students or instructors, or members of the community, still meet each other with a warmer grasp of the hand in memory of those days of re- proach. It has occasionally called forth a criti- cism that in every gathering of the churches east or west, a time is sure to be found for the Oberlin men and women to gather by themselves for a social reunion. It is an instinct developed in the days of old which has not yet spent its force. Another result of the wide-spread disfavor to- ward Oberlin was the opportunity thus secured of working out without restraint the ideas and doc- trines which in a germinal form had been planted here. These ideas and doctrines found little hos- pitable entertainment in the country at large. The shadow of the Westminster Confession rested upon all the Puritan churches. Under this sign Ly- BACCALAUREATE SERMON. IO7 man Beecher and Albert Barnes had fought their battles. The new school theology which had spread in a superficial way through the land, in connection with the great revivals, had come to be regarded with suspicion even by its friends, be- cause it was feared that it logically led to Oberlin- ism ; and the New School Presbyterian Church, east and west, hastened to vindicate its orthodoxy by disclaiming all responsibility for Oberlin doc- trine. The Congregational churches, always a little apprehensive that they should seem less or- thodox than their Presbyterian neighbors, stood aloof with averted countenance. There were years when the only organized fellowship of the churches in which Oberlin had any share was in the little Lorain County Association of which Oberlin was the centre. This association licensed the students of the Senior class in the seminary, and when they had completed their course, proceeded to ordain them in classes, year after year, because there was little prospect that they would be welcomed by associations, councils, or Presbyteries in the field where they were to find their work. Thus no ec- clesiastical body in the land had any responsibility in regard to the views held in Oberlin, and Ober- lin was left to follow without restraint the light and the truth. The heresy hunter could make havoc of Oberlin ideas and doctrines, but Oberlin men were beyond his reach. Under these conditions, With little apprehension from ecclesiastical bodies, but with full loyalty to the Scriptures and to the Great Master, the Oberlin views were elaborated. I08 OBERLIN JUBILEE. In general, such isolation or independence would not be necessary or wholesome. There are excep- tional conditions in which it is favorable to the de- velopment and progress of the truth. The studies in doctrine and in religious experience were better pursued hei^e without the pressure of outward supervision and restraint. The same could be said of the social and educational problems, to the solu- tion of which Oberlin was to make its contribution. The form which the educational problem took at Oberlin was to have much to do in determming the form of a score or even a hundred colleges in the West which were to be established within the century. A predominant New England influence, such as must have operated at Oberlin but for this separation and temporary alienation, would have forestalled, or greatly restrained, the development of the new educational ideas. It was in part these experiments in education which produced the dis- trust, and an anxiety to allay the distrust' would have seriously interfered with the experiments. But from the human side of the situation all this antagonism and distrust and reproach seemed an unmitigated evil. The success of the Oberlin en- terprise seemed to depend upon the confidence and favor of the general community, and no set of men could have had a more settled conviction of this than the early founders. They did what they could to allay the rising storm, but the matter was soon placed beyond their reach. The only hope left was "by patient continuance m well doing," to vindicate in the end their integrity. It is too BACCALAUREATE SERMON. IO9 much to claim that their action was always wise, and that nothing was ever done which tended to produce or confirm the distrust. They were hu- man, and had their share of human imperfection ; but Divine wisdom prevailed over all and made both the wrath and the weakness of men to praise Him. It is pleasant while we review these experiences to remember that they lie buried far back in the track of the fifty years, and that the only occasion we have for recalling them is to signalize the good- ness and faithfulness of God, who has led us through the wilderness and brought us out into a pleasant land. The restraining grace of God was manifest in the further fact that through all these experiences the people of Oberlin were kept in general from bitterness and fanaticism. To human observation the circumstances were naturally adapted to beget this tendency. The concentration here of religious forces tending to the intenser forms of religious experience, stimulated by the most powerful preaching, re-enforced by numerous prayer meet- ings in which the greatest freedom of utterance prevailed, and where occasionally remarkable manifestations of feeling were exhibited, would seem to afford afield in which the intense religious feeling should take on the form of censoriousness or bitterness, or should break away from the regu- lar forms of manifestation in a wild chaos of im- agination and delusion. Many of the early anti- slavery men, in their earnest reprobation of the I lO OBERLIN JUBILEE. backwardness and stupidity of the churches, fell into this snare of censoriousness, and, finally, of re- jection of Christianity. The fanaticism of unbelief could not have befallen Oberlin, but the fanaticism of denunciation and repudiation of the churches was not so improbable ; and it would have been equally disastrous. The Apostles of " Comeouter- ism" in all its forms, ecclesiastical and political, and of the "Second Adventism" of 1843, a more amiable but not less mischievous fanaticism, came again arid again, confidently expecting to rally the Oberlin people to their standard, but v\rithout any satisfactory result. In the isolation of Oberlin from any general ec- clesiastical fellowship, there was a danger more pressing than any of these— the temptation to start a new denomination — an Oberlin sect. The pres- sure from without in this direction was very strong. The churches in many quarters were cut- ting off those of their own numbers who read the Oberlin Evangelist and had any sympathy with Oberlin doctrine. Ecclesiastical bodies were guarding their pulpits against the intrusion of Oberlin ministers. Young men applying to these bodies for an introduction to the work of the ministry were rejected simply because they were from Oberlin. The reasons given were, " You do not belong to our denomination. We could recog- nize you as Christian ministers, but in your own denomination, not in ours. You must go where you belong." But an Oberlin man belonged no- where, but to the general church militant, while BA CCA LA UREA 7'E SERMON. 1 1 I pressing on to join the cliurch triumphant. It re- quired great clearness of vision and earnestness of purpose and faith in the future, on the part of the leading men at Oberlin, to avoid the folly of slip- ping into a new sect, and this grace was the gift of God to his servants. The radicalisms of Ober- lin, whatever they were, did not become " hobbies." They came in as questions of doctrine or duty, to be thoroughly and impartially considered, and if sustained, to be accorded their proper place in the Christian thought and life. Oberlin was popularly supposed to be very peculiar, but it never adopted any special peculiarity unless it be a peculiarity to follow the injunction of the apostle : " Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good," and to " work for the good of being in general." But the hours of the day would be exhausted in the attempt to pass over, even in brief review, the indications of God's restraining and guiding hand in the work of the fifty years. The history of Oberlin can be explained only in accordance with the common faith of the saints of all generations : " The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them." We have received from the fathers a heritage rich in the memories of patient, and prayerful, and self- denying labor, and infinitely richer in the tokens of Providential care and favor with which the great Master Builder guided and sustained and crowned their endeavors. It is a sacred trust which we receive from them, and we can sustain the responsibilities which it brings only by carry- 1 1 2 OBERLIN JUBILEE. ing forward the work in the same self-denying spirit in which they laid the foundations, and the same waiting upon God for guidancein the work to which he has called us. The building of the Lord is never completed until the redemption of the world is complete. New exigencies must con- tinually recur, new ideas must be accepted, and those who are to continue the work must meet the new demand?, and walk ■ according to the light vouchsafed to them. Thus only can we be worthy successors of the fathers who wrought so well ; and the divine Presence which led them through the wilderness, a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, shall go before the children, leading them into the land of promise, and abiding forever in the temple which they shall build to His name. My Young Friends of the Graduating Classes : This brief review of the story of your Alma Mater brings with it the lesson of the hour for you. It sets forth the true idea of faithful work, in every department of life. Not many of you probably will be called to establish colleges or communities, although this very work has been appointed to many of those who have gone forth from this school during the fifty years. But some service to God and to mankind will fall to the lot of every one of you. Whether that work may seem to you conspicuous or obscure, do it with all fidelity. It is faithfulness that counts in the avaiL able moral forces of the world. The faithful soul works with God, and the house which the Lord BACCALAUREATE SESMON: II3 builds will not finally disappoint the human builder. Those who lay the foundations may not, with mor- tal vision, see the capstone brought in with rejoic- ing, but earnest, faithful work will not fail of its results and its reward. Do with your might what your hand finds to do, and trust the Master to work it into His great plan. Your feeble effort may seem like the sowing of " a handful of corn in the mountain top, but the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon." Weakness even, as men count weakness, under God's hand, becomes strength and power. " He hath chosen the weak things ol the world to confound the might}'." Be not over anxious for the favor of men. Your first concern will be that your ways please the Lord. If men approve, it is well. Their favor is pleasant and often helpful, but it is not essential. " When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him." The vindication may be long delayed — possibly de- ferred to that coming day when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed. What we call popularity is sometirnes a hindrance rather than a help in any great or beneficent work. In every case it is a hindrance if it be purchased by the least surrender of truth or duty. The idea of securing an influ- ence by holding back the expression of important truth, with the idea that this accumulated influence can at length be brought to bear in support of that truth, is an illusion and a snare. The influence which is purchased thus, must be nursed in the same way, and hence can never be used in the 1 14 OBERLJN JUBILEE. good cause. Do not undertake to preserve your influence by standing aloof from any righteous cause. The influence thus preserved is not worth the keeping. It is not influence in any proper sense of the word. It is a surrender of influence for the sake of ease or popularity. The idol of the people, the man whom they will pet and applaud, is not in a condition to be their teacher or leader. Popularity is a different thing from influence. The Saviour did not regard himself as having acquired great influence when the people were ready to take him by force and make him a king. He with- drew himself until, in a more quiet season, he could bring his spiritual and saving power to bear upon them. Do not measure )'Our influence by the following or the shouting which attends you, but by your power to draw men in the way of truth and righteousness. Nor is it essential to the prosperity of any good work you may undertake, that you should be able to enlist in the cause, those who seem to be lead- ers in society, or who stand in the high places of the world. Great and beneficent movements among men rarely begin in this way. The billow which breaks in mighty power upon the shore, is not moved by the foam that rides upon its crest. The origin of the movement is deeper or more remote. Nor will you need to attain high posi- tion yourselves in order to work effectively for human well-being. " The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until the whole was lea- BACCALAUKEATE SERMON. 11$ vened." Your place of power and influence is the point where you stand ; it may be out of sight, where the foundations are laid, but the building cannot rise without the foundation ; and the Mas- ter Builder is as much interested in the footing stone which you may help to lay, as in the pinna- cle that attracts the gaze of men. The resources at your command may seem wholly inadequate; but you are working with God, in whom all fulness dwells, and the treasures of the earth are in His keeping. Where the work and the workers are, there the means will at length be found. Go forth, my young friends, with earnest, trust- ful hearts, and you shall not toil in vain, or spend your strength for naught. Others may harvest the seed you scatter, but the sheaves shall at length be brought in by your hands or those of others. Few of the fathers who put their lives into the Oberlin work at the beginning are here to share in the jubilee. It matters little ; the work is of more consequence than the rejoicing. But the rejoicing shall be sure when at length the Lord shall gather His workers from the east and the west, from the north and the south, from every line of earthly duty and labor, to sit down with the faithful of all ages in His kingdom. In that glad reunion may you all have your place and part. Amen, MISSIONARY SERVICE. First Church, Sunday, July ist, 7.30 p.m. OBERLIN AND MISSIONARY WORK. BY REV. M. E. STRIEBY, '4I, Sec'y A. M. A., New York. Oberlin can never forget the debt it owes to the great revivals which preceded it. In those heights of Lebanon, its materials were prepared ; the colonists, the professors, the students, and the patrons. Nor can Oberlin ever forget its debt to Charles G. Finney, for the work he wrought in those revivals before Oberlin was; a work for Oberlin onl};- surpassed by what he did for it as professor and president of the institution. The genuineness of those revivals is seen in the charac- ter of the converts who, for two generations, constituted largely the bone and sinew of the churches. The breadth of those revivals is shown in the impulse they gave to education, reform, and missions. The impulse to education has one monument at least — Oberlin itself. The impulse to reform was mainly directed against slavery. Oberlin was with that impulse at the beginning OBERLIN AND MISSIONARY WORK. 117 and in the end. The impulse to missions reached Oberlin. This facet of the Oberlin diamond it is given to me to polish and present. Would that the task had fallen to more skilful hands. The anti-slavery zeal gave direction largely to the missionary efforts of Oberlin students ; they sought the most needy and neglected — the refu- gees in Canada, the newly-emancipated slaves in Jamaica, the neglected Indians of our western border, and the degraded inhabitants of malarial Africa. Several local societies had been formed to reach these people; but, in 1846, they were united in the American Missionary Association. Oberlin and the Association were as essential to each other as the two halves of a pair of scissors. Oberlin was training fishermen — fishers of men — but they had no boats, nets, nor supphes, and the great missionary organizations of the day were largely unwilling to commission the Oberlin here- tics and abolitionists. On the other hand, the Association had boats, nets and supplies, but it could not obtain elsewhere than in Oberlin men who were in sympathy with it and the slave. The union between Oberlin and the Association in mission-work was attained by the appointment of Prof. Geo. Whipple, a Lane Seminary and Ober- lin student, as secretary of the new missionary organization, a man whose integrity, ability, and conscientious devotion to his work w^ll ever reflect the highest credit on both Oberlin afnd the Asso- ciation. Before entering upon the more distinctively mis- 1 1 8 OBERLIN JUBILEE. sionary labors of the Oberlin students, let me refer briefly to a few that were less prominent and per- manent. Rev. John S. Griffin and other students sought to benefit the Indians on the Pacific Coast at an early day. The refugees who fled to Canada enjoyed the faithful labors of several students, prominent among whom was Rev. Hiram Wil- son, who, if he somewhat resembled Moses in the matter of eloquence, was like him also in faithful- ness and consecration to the uplifting of the lowly. Dr. Bradley was not an Oberlin student, but he was an ecclesiastical martyr to his sympathy with Oberlin views. He chose his accomplished wife from among the Oberlin graduates, and sent back his son to Oberlin to graduate and return to Siam, and these three have stood before kings in preach- ing the gospel. WEST INDIA MISSIONS. When the clock struck twelve on the night of July 31, 1834, the hand on the dial-plate of time marked an era of progress ; for at that hour 800,000 slaves were emancipated in the British West India Islands. That event was a bugle-note of victory to the heroic men in Great Britain, who, in and out of Parliament, had toiled so earnestly for its accomplishment ; it was a bugle-note of ch-eer to those in America who struggled to accom- plish the greater task of the emancipation of the millions of slaves in this country. But there soon came misrepresentations and detractions. The OBERLIN AND MISSIONARY WORK. 1*19 Islands were reported to be ruined. To ascertain the facts, Rev. Jas. A. Thome, the gallant young Kentuckian, a student of Lane and Oberlin, was sent thither with Mr. Kimball, in 1836. Their book, " Emancipation in the West Indies," deserves a place in every anti-slavery library. I can give only one of the facts they ascertained. It relates to the hour of emancipation. As that hour drew near, the few whites on the Island were filled with alarm. Some of the vessels in the harbor at Kingston stood out from port for fear of being involved in the impending ruin. But how was the night spent by the blacks ? They spent the first part of it in songs and prayer, and when the midnight hour approached the minister sug- gested that they receive the boon of freedom in silence and on their knees. Instantly the audience knelt down, and only an occasional sob broke the silence. When the hour of midnight rung out on the air, there followed another moment's silence, and then the people sprang to their feet, and with tears of gratitude and shouts of alleluia, greeted each other and poured forth their praises unto God. Not a hair from the head of any man fell by the emancipation of the West India slaves. The first Oberlin missionary to Jamaica was the thoughtful and pious David S. Ingraham, who went out in 1837, and formed the plan of a self- supporting mission. He died ere long ; but in 1839, J. O. Beardslee, Amos Dresser, Ralph Tyler, C. S. Renshaw, and Geo. L. Hovey — Oberlin stu- dents — took up his work in the West Indies 120 OBERLIN JUBILEE. These brethren were greeted most remarkably on their arrival at Kingston. They had been seated in the house scarcely an hour when they heard that four men from the mountains were inquiring for them. On being introduced, their first ques- tion was, "Are you the missionaries?" They said further: "Ever since God gave us freedom, we have been praying Him to send us a mis- sionary, and we tried to get ready for him. We went to the bush and brought timber and thatch, and built us a church. We sent to Kingston to see if a missionary had come, but though disap- pointed then, we met every Sunday and prayed God to send the missionary, for we said, ' What good is it to have our freedom, if we cannot learn about God who gave it to us ? ' Now, we have come again ; and just before we came to the city we went again into the bush and prayed God not to dis- appoint us this time, and now we have found you !" It was a joyful meeting — the symbol of God's hand. The people were liberal according to their means ; but soon the change came that enforced their poverty, and the plan of a self-sup- porting mission was abandoned. The mission- aries, though they toiled under meagre support, were followed by others from Oberlin — Wolcott, Thonipson, Olds — but space would fail to give the names of the rest that swelled the number of the Oberlin students in the Jamaica mission to nearly forty.- It is customary to depreciate the results of the Jamaica Mission ; but it was no failure. The chil- OBERLIN -AND MISSIONARY WORK. 121 dren were gathered into schools, and the people into churches. Industries were promoted, espec- ially by the industrial school at Providence, under the auspices of Mr. Wolcott, and all these efforts aided to save Jamaica from ruin. There were difficulties ; and these must be looked at as hin- drances to the work of the brethren and as lessons to America. (i.) The Apprenticeship system, which prevailed from 1834 to 1840, was lost time. The people had really neither slavery nor liberty, and were discouraged. The plan adopted in this country was bolder ; at two grand leaps the slave arose to freedom and the use of the ballot. This plan will be wiser if the people are pre- pared adequately for their new position. (2.) In- adequate provision for education was a fatal mistake. Twenty million pounds sterling were given by the British Government to the masters, but almost nothing was done for the education of the ex-slaves. The British Government has seen its mistake, and in the last few years has endeavored adequately to remedy it. America needs to heed this lesson as one of the most important that West India emancipation can teach it. We must edu- cate our freedmen. (3.) The smallness of the white population left in the Islands was a great draw- back. The blacks need the presence and stimulus of the whites. When left in masses alone, they deteriorate into indolence, ignorance and supersti- tion. It is difficult to get at the exact number of white people left in the Islands after emancipa- tion — probably they did not count more than 122 OBERLIN JUBILEE. three per cent of the population. In America the figures are all the other way. The blacks probably constitute but about thirty-four per cent in the Southern States. But the experience in Jamaica shows the folly of the plan once advo- cated in this country, of massing the blacks in certain territories, in entire separation from the whites. It shows, also, the great evil still existing — a caste prejudice which denies the black man free access to the trades, crafts, schools and profes- sions, side by side with the whites. The blacks are here to stay and to grow, and they must, as was said of old to one of a proscribed race, " dwell in the presence of all his brethren." They intend to stay. A colored orator in one of the annual meet- ings of the American Missionary Association gave voice to this purpose, and amid laughter and applause, closed his remarks by quoting the words of Ruth : " Whither thou goest, I will go ; , thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God ; where thou diest, I will die, and there will I be buried." AFRICAN MISSIONS. The story of the Mendi Mission opens like a romance of the sea. That "long, low, rakish schooner" that was seen in the waters of Long Island Sound, making strange movements, boarded by a revenue officer, revealed a singular body of passengers. They were mostly blacks. Two Spaniards were in chains, and claimed to be the owners of the blacks, who, it seems, had been OBERLIN AND MISSIONARY WORK. I23 moved by a very American and Anglo-Saxon idea, which is also scriptural, that if they could be free, they would " use it rather." Now, it always happens that when people determine to be free, somebody gets hurt, and the effort of these blacks was no exception. They were brought into the port of New London, arraigned in the courts on the charge of murder. Slavery lifted up its voice, and demanded that they should be executed or consigned to slavery. Some good and true men, warm friends of Oberlin and of the anti-slavery cause — among whom were Tappan, Leavitt, and Jocelyn — demanded that the blacks should have a fair hearing. They raised the funds, and pushed the suit into the U. S. Court ; employed able legal counsel — among others Roger S. Baldwin and the " old man eloquent," John Quincy Adams — and, after a protracted struggle, the prisoners were declared free ! The decision was received with intense interest, and spread rapidly over the coun- try. Pres. Fairchild says it reached Oberlin from Washington in nine days ! It was decided to return these people to their native land in West Africa, and to send missionaries with them. Before starting with the missionaries and the freed prisoners, let us take a glance at Africa and the reasons for sending a mission thither. That won- derful land, the reproach to civilization and Chris- tianity, with its burning deserts, its rich soil, its deep jungles, its great rivers, its broad lakes, contains the most degraded people on the face of the earth. Slavery is its great curse, for 124 OB E RUN JUBILEE. that necessitates wars for the capture of slaves, and war hinders the cultivation of the soil and all industries, and holds the people in uncertainty, ignorance and superstition. No nation on earth was more guilty in stimulating those wars for the capture of slaves than America, and it is no won- der, therefore, that anti- slavery Oberlin should furnish the missionaries to go with these redeemed captives. Raymond and Steele were the first. Steele was compelled to succumb to the climate, and returned, but Raymond remained to do a great and good work. Soon Thompson, Tefft, Arnold, Brooks and others, fifteen in all, went from Oberlin. Eight of this number died there. They had three battles to fight. The first was with the climate. This was so deadly that a missionary stood forth to preach, and soon sunk down ; an- other stood on his grave soon to follow, reminding us of a fact in Scottish history given by Walter Scott, where, in a battle between two fierce High- la'nd clans, the foster-father of one of the chiefs, a young man, placed one of his own seven sons in front, and when he fell in defence of his chief, the old man's voice rung out, "One more for Hector," and when he fell the call resounded again, and when the last was slain, the old man himself stood in the deadly breach. Thus Oberlin, not with the stentorian voice of the old Highlander, but in tear- ful sympathy, and yet with unflinching consecra- tion, said, as each of her children fell, " One more for Christ and benigl ;ed Africa," until the eight died on the spot, and the rest returned home to O BERLIN AND MISSIONARY WORK. 12 5 drag out their days in impaired health. The next battle was with war. This raged round the mis- sion from the outset, but Bro. Raymond was the advocate of peace, and the mission-house was the city of refuge for the fugitives from either con- tending army. It was reserved for Bro. Thomp- son to end the war. He was chosen umpire by the contending chiefs ; and, after repeated and wearying excursions, and ten interviews or coun- cils with both parties, he at length succeeded. Then came the joy which peace brings. Warriors met and fell on each other's necks. Chiefs, who were for years enemies, now shook hands and embraced each other with the affection of long- separated friends ; sisters, wives, and daughters, long captives, fell into each other's arms, weeping for joy. A chiefs daughter was seen running to embrace her father's feet, a wife hastened to wel- come her husband and children, and entire towns were filled with cries of gladness. Geo. Thomp- son ! one of the beatitudes is thine : " Blessed are the peacemakers." The last battle was with sin and degradation, and these were met by schools and churches and industries, uplifting the igno- rant, converting souls, and sending peace and prosperit}' abroad, the joyous results of which are yet to be gathered for the glory of God and the redemption of Africa. The wails of the slave- ship as she bore the victims to America were heai'd by the waves of the Atlantic. The return of Afric's children to the land of their fathers, bear- ing the gospel of Christ, will make those waves 126 OBERLIN JUBILEE. resound with the song of thanksgiving and the voice of consecrated prayer. THE INDIANS. The actual Indian of Northern Minnesota, in 1843, was not the Indian of Cooper's novels, and the way to reach him at that time was not by the rail and palace car, as that region can novir be visited. Pres. Fairchild says: "There is proba- bly no mission-field to-day on the face of the earth more difficult to reach than this was at that time." The mission was undertaken under a local society, and transferred to the American Mission- ary Association in 1846. I find at that date the names of Oberlin men as missionaries : Bardwell, Barnard, Lewis, Adams, Spencer, Wright. Others followed, bringing the array of Oberlin students in this mission to the number of David's mighty n>sn — thirty. The hardships of travel encountered by these missionaries can hardly be exaggerated. After leaving the bounds of civilization, they had to traverse from 600 to 800 miles of a region totally uninhabited by white people. After a short visit at home, Mr. Wright returned to the mission, taking his young wife with him — their wedding tour. It was a journey of over a month, made in a canoe. They were both compelled to walk at intervals twenty-two miles in the swamps along the side of the stream, until they reached Mr. Bar- nard's station. These walks were varied by sick- ness ; Mr. Wright sometimes had chills every day, OBERLIN AND MISSIONARY WORK. \2J but at Mr. Barnard's station he recovered. There remained yet twenty miles of their journey, and this was undertaken on foot, but soon a storm brought five inches of snow. Mr. Wright says: " My wife was very lame, and what woman would not be after walking twenty long miles through mire and water, over high hills and through gullies, in snow from four to five inches deep." The good man actually seemed to think that some apology was needed for his wife's becoming lame! Mr. Bar- nard reports a journey in one oi the hottest days of the hottest summer, with the mosquitoes so thick that his little child's hair was matted, and her ears full of blood from the stings. I have heard Mr. Bardwell tell of the mosquitoes being so thick that if a club were thrown into the air, its wake could be seen among them. I have heard him tell of the night when a party of the mission- aries on their journey could find no coiich amid the pouring rain, except the branches of the trees, and no hope of a fire except from three or four old- fashioned friction matches ; of the anxiety when one and another of these were drawn through the sand-paper and went out ; of the prayerful suspense when the last was drawn through, and of the gratitude when it ignited. A fire was made and precious lives were saved. But not only were there exposure and danger in the journeyings, but there were toil and self^ denial in the work. The missionaries were com- pelled to fell the timber, clear the land, build their houses, cultivate the soil for themselves and aid in 128 OBEJRLIN JUBILEE. doing the same thing afterwards for the Indians, But all this they did, and saw not only the indus- trious habits of the Indians begun, but the schools opened for the children, and the church formed, in which so substantial a work was done that Mr. Wright even now finds the happy results in the pious lives and triumphant deaths of aged Indians, the converts of those days. The change wrought can t)e indicated in a sentence : When the mission- aries went there, the Indians cultivated almost no land, and their only domestic animals were dogs. They maintained a precarious existence by hunt- ing and fishing and the gathering of wild rice, with starvation as no uncommon experience. In a few years these Indians raised their own supplies ot corn and potatoes, with some to sell to procure other necessaries ; they began to build houses for themselves ; had the benefit of a saw-mill and a grist-mill, with the blessings of a church and boarding-schools. The mission was abandoned in 1859. The rea- sons were the wars between the Ojibwas and the Sioux, the wunderings of the people, making school and home-life precarious, and their growing indifference to progress. This last was occasioned by the incoming of the white man's civilization. This is like the turning of a river into a new channel over dry ground, covered with brush and stones. Its first sweep is that of turbid water rushing over old barriers — wholly foul and dan- gerous. But by and by the waters become clear, the channels fixed, and verdure and fruitfulncss OB E RUN AND MISSIONARY WORK. 1 29 adorn their courses. The mission among the Ojibwas met this flood in its first rush, and yielded, waiting not for the coming of the better day. A few words should here be said on the present and future Indian problem of America. Anew im- pulse has been given to Indian civilization since Gen. Grant's peace policy was inaugurated. More has been accomplished in that time than in any pre- vious period ef equal length since the landing of the Pilgrims. The schools at Hampton and Car- lisle are accomplishing a great work, and others like them should be established among the Indians themselves. The feeling pervades the nation that it is a shame to continue to make war on this handful of people. We have treated them as if they were wasps to be crushed in our hands. We have found that the stings we received were worse than the injury we inflicted. We must make them men like ourselves in intelligence and virtue, and then we shall respect them, because they are enti- tled to respect. THE FREEDMEN. The work in the South was not confined to Oberlin. The culmination of the anti-slavery struggle was in the storm-cloud of war, with the battle of the warrior, with confused noise and garments rolled in blood. At the first lifting of this cloud there began the gathering of the rain- bow, bringing light and knowledge to the slave. I30 OBERLIN JUBILEE. On the face of the retreating tempest the rainbow spread, and when the storm had passed, the rain- bow spanned the sky, a promise not only of in- struction to the blacks, but an assurance that no more should civil war rage in our country. Ober- lin had her share both in the storm and in the rainbow. Others will tell of the feats of arms of her sons. Let me tell of their work for peace. Her worthiest sons and daughters went forth for this: Hiram Eddy, G. W. Andrews, E. M. Cra- vath, E. H. Fairchild and others being the leaders. In nearly all the institutions of the American Mis- sionary Association in the South they are found, and are in large measure the elements of strength and power. But these events are recent and familiar. I ask your attention to what remains yet to be done : We must complete the work of emancipation. We com- plained of slavery that it fettered the body and the soul. The emancipation of 1863 struck the fetters from the body only. We must emancipate from ignorance. With all that has been done to this end, there were 200,000 more illiterate voters in 1880 than in 1870. Redoubled efforts are essen- tial here. We must give spiritual emancipation. With all that has been done in this regard, the work of two generations will yet be needed to bring the blacks of the South up to the level of the lowest home missionary work in the West. But our attention is turned now to the "poor whites." k is said that they deserve of us as much as the blacks do. I deny it. The white OBERLIN AND MISSIONARY WORK. I3I boy in the South has nothing but himself to hinder his progress. He has open before him ail the avenues of advancement; he has entrance to all the common schools and colleges ; he has access to all the trades and professions. The black boy, on the other hand, has on him the weight of 200 years of slavery; he has but limited access to educational advantages ; the trades and professions are largely shut against him, and his color and past condition crush him beneath the weight of caste prejudice. The colored boy has, therefore, a greater claim on our sympathy and help than the white boy. We must emancipate these people from color prejudic". Slavery was a cancer. It was not cured by emolients. The knife, or rather the sword, had lo be used ; but caste prejudice, its tap-root, is still left — a prejudice that, in the vast nations of heatheu lands — in India, in China, in Japan — is the great hindrance of the gospel. We must conquer this in America for the world, as we conquered slavery. The new movement in the South for Congrega- tionalisn is important. An agreement has been reached between the two Congregational societies working in the South. There is no question as to the purpose of the officers of these societies to carry out this agreement honorably. The great danger is that in the progress of events the real issue will be overlooked, and color prejudice be permitted to rule. Should such a result follow I should feel called upon to denounce it, and all the 132 OBERLIN JUBILEE. more if it should occur under the auspices of the society I represent. Principle is more than any ism or society. I would rather have in the South ten churches and schools that were unequivocal in their attitude against caste prejudice than a thou- sand churches that evaded or overlooked the issue. The state, the pulpit, and the press have done something for the elevation of the colored people. But each must surpass any former achievements, if the work of placing these blacks fittingly in their new position is accomplished. But there is some- thing to be done that no laws, and no preaching, and no theories, can accomplish. The victory is in the elevation of the colored man himself. It is not enough to point to a degraded man, and say that he is a man, and that Christ died for him. We must make that man to be no longer degraded, and to need no longer our sympathy or pity. We must make him our equal in property, intelli- gence and character, and then he will take his place among his fellow-men, not by sufferance, but by right. This is the work yet to be done ; and with all the zeal of the anti-slavery era of 1833, I call out here in Oberlin, demanding that what was then begun shall not be lost sight of until it be accomplished. This nation must complete the work of emancipation. MISSIONS UNDER THE A. B. C. F. M. Probably this topic does not fall in the survey assigned to me. But I cannot forbear expressing OBERLI.V AND MISSIONARY WORK. I33 my great gratification thatOberlin and the Ameri- can Board can and do now co-operate. The time was when Oberlin confined its benefactions to the American Missionary Association, and when the American Board declined the services of OberUn students. But a double victory has been won — over the Board and over Oberlin ; over the Board because it comes to Oberlin for missionaries', and over Oberlin because, forgetting the past, it sends its students forth imder the auspices of the Board. In conclusion : May Oberlin's deep sympathy for the poor and degraded never cease ! May the missionary spirit in her grow and expand until her children shall be multiplied in every dark corner of our own land and in all the benighted portions of the whole earth ! Oberlin was broad from the outset in her plans. She sought to benefit all sexes and races. Her range of academic studies has needed no essential additions, but only enlargement in the progress of the fifty years. Her theological views have been untrammeled, and her pupils have been taught the freest spirit of inquiry. But she has clung to Christ as the foundation and coping stone, and has neither defaced nor suffered to decay any part of the goodly structure of Divine truth. Long may she live to benefit the world and promote the glory of God among men ! THE EARLY HOME MISSIONARY. BY REV. JOHN TODD, '44, Tabor, la. I NEVER had an appointment under the A.H. M. S. After Oberlin, against the protest of many of her early students, and by the casting vote of Father Keep, chairman of the Board of Trustees, opened , her doors to colored students, she was ever recog- nized as the champion of the colored race and advocate of abolition. The A. H. M. Society was not sufficiently decided and outspoken on the ques- \ tion of slavery to receive the patronage and co- operation of Oberhn men. They worked through the A. M. Association. When in 1848 Deacon Josiah B. Hall and I accom- panied George B. Gaston and S. H. Adams with their families to southwestern Iowa, to select a loca- tion and begin a settlement, we passed by steamboat down the Ohio and up the Missouri river. No rail- roads then existed west of Cincinnati. Travelling by steamer day after day became often very monoto- nous and the hours dragged heavily. One day, while on the Ohio river, I saw in the hand of a passenger a copy of Fuller Wayland on Slavery. At an interval when he was not using it, I asked permission to read it. Instead of promptly acced- ing to my request, he entered upon a course of THE EARLY HOME MISSIONARY. 1 35 questioning, apparently to draw me out. In my zeal, confidence and daring, so long fostered at Oberlin, I scorned to hide my principles, and a warm debate ensued. Without attempting to trace the points made in the discussion, the posi- tion was at length taken that the slaves of the South had more cause and a better right to rise in insurrection and forcibly assert their freedom than had our revolutionary sires to throw off the yoke of Great Britain. In the meantime, the passengers had gathered around us in the cabin, looking on and attentively listening to the disputants. The excitement soon extended to all on the boat, the crowd rushed to the cabin, and the cry was raised, " Damn the abolitionist ! kill him ! shoot him ! " A slaveholder from Louisiana, who had his body- servant with him, exclaimed, " I wish I had him ; I would swap him off for a dog, and then shoot the dog." About this time the friends of the parties interposed and separated them, and order and quiet was restored. Each had taken the other for a lawyer, and learned afterwards that both were ministers. The odious abolitionist had so gained the favor of the colored servants that no one on that boat, from that time onward, was served so faithfully and generously with the best which the table afforded. On the same boat was a home mis- sionary (Rev. Mr. Bennett) on his way from a New England seminary to preach to a slave-holding church in Missouri. While himself opposed to slavery, he admitted that he could not preach his sentiments on that subject. 136 OBERLIN JUBILEE. After visiting southwestern Iowa in search of a lo- cation for a settlement, Deacon Hall and I returned to Ohio on horseback. Eighteen months later I removed my family to that place — landed from a Missouri river boat on the first of July, 1850. During the interval four or five families of kindred spirit had organized a church and temperance society, established a Sunday-school and weekly prayer-meeting, and built a school-house and started a school. My first public service was to address the Sunday-school on the 4th of July in the unfinished boiler-room of a steam saw-mill that had not yet arrived. The music on that occasion was provided and led by Mrs. Elvira Gaston Piatt, who is known to some here as one of Oberlin's earliest pupils, now the matron of the Indian school at Carlisle, Pa. Soon the missionary's family was domiciled in a cozy log cabin, with shingled roof and punchon floor. Thus aristocratically housed, the next step was to form a circuit and comnience his itinerancy. To the good people of Oberlin he was indebted for means to secure a horse to the extent of sixty or seventy dollars. From eighteen miles north of Council Bluffs southward into Missouri, a territory of 100 miles by 40, was traversed monthly and ser- vices held at eight or ten points, in school-houses where there were any, and in private houses where there were none, until heavy rains, a submerged bottom and unbridged streams in the summer of 1851 rendered it impracticable. That was a good year for mosquitoes, and the Missouri bottom THE EARLY HOME MISSIONARY. 1 37 afforded excellent facilities for their propagation, which were well improved. At least two clerical witnesses now on the field can testify that on favor- able occasions they rode towards evening in clouds that perceptibly dimmed the light of the sun. At our weekly prayer-meeting, as we sang " O watch and fight and pray,'' we prayed some, fought most vigorously and watched but little, for they needed not to be watched for, as they were always on hand. But those times are past. Like buffaloes and wolves, they disappear before advancing civil- ization. The " squatters " in the neighborhood where we first located were largely from West Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri. Much of the Southern pro-slavery spirit existed among them. A family of negroes, who had by rigid economy and industry succeeded in purchasing their freedom, came into the vicinity. After a time the county officers, ac- cording to the existing laws of Iowa, demanded of this family bonds, pledging that they would not become a charge to the county — otherwise they were warned to leave. Their abolition friends readily became their bondsmen, and they remained. The children were invited to attend the Sabbath- school and also the day school. This gave great offence, and one night our school-house was burned. Without church or place to hold meet- ings. Deacon Hall opened his house for religious services soon after, by the aid of Rev. William Simpson, a M. E. itinerant, who had located in Council Bluffs, an earnest Christian, who consented 138 OBERLIN JUBILEE. to co-operate in the work, with the distinct un- derstanding that he should be permitted to say " amen" as often and as loud as he wanted to. The Lord blessed us in that meeting. Of the con, verts, one of them laid down his life in his coun- try's service, another has for years been a teacher in our public schools, and still another is one of our deacons, and all have honored the Christian life. To get ahead of our Methodist friends in the occupancy of new fields, is a feat worthy of men- tion, and yet there was no Methodist itinerant in Western Iowa when I located there. The first bell, too, that ever sounded out the call to Chris- tian worship in Western Iowa still rings in the steeple of Tabor College chapel. The overflow of the Missouri bottom in 1851 warned us to take higher ground, which we did by going to Tabor. Western Iowa settled slowly until the railroad reached us fifteen years ago. Since then we are much nearer our Eastern friends. Then we were two weeks distant — now but twenty-four or thirty hours. With the incoming tide of emigration came more laborers, who shared the field with those first on the ground, and so curtailed the parish bounds. No Christian missionary can be indifferent to the modern reforms, while their need is everywhere so apparent. The U. G. R. R. was the first railroad in Western Iowa, and the only one that ever had a station in Tabor. The first passengers that took the train at Tabor were the domestics of a Mormon elder, who camped there on his way to Utah. All was peaceful and quiet 7'HE EARLY HOME MISSIONARY. 1 39 in the evening, and in the morning the servants were missing. We were assured, however, that they all reached their destination in the Queen's dominion. In one case the conductor was arrested, and the train delayed, but the passengers always reached their destination. When Nebraska and Kansas were opened for settlement in 1854 a call was issued for a county convention of such as were opposed to the extension of slavery into the Terri- tories. Few Christian people attended except those from Tabor and Civil Bend, as the first place of settlement was in derision called by the "roughs." So unpopular was abolition that few aspirants to popular favor dared to openly appear as advocates of slavery restriction. The Court House was re- fused in which to hold our Convention. Most of the board of school directors denied us the use of the school-house ; but one more really noble than the rest took the responsibility and gave us the key. There we were followed by many of the baser sort with clubs and brickbats, with which they assailed the house, but had not courage enough to really attack the abolitionists, because, as I always thought, of the presence of ladies. Tabor was the refuge of John Brown and General Lane — the storehouse of arms, clothing, ammuni- tion of the Free State men in time of the Kansas troubles. It was the nearest point to Kansas, where the people were so fully in sympathy with them. The parson had two hundred Sharp's rifles stored over winter in his cellar, a brass six-pounder in his barn, besides boxes of clothing, muskets. 14° OBERLIN JUBILEE. sabres, etc. The public square was their parade- ground. Two hundred infantry at one time occu- pied and drilled there, and at another fifty cavalry. The men that were captured with John Brown at Harper's Ferry were with him years before at Tabor. We regularly observed the monthly con- cert of prayer for the enslaved until deliverance came. God answered our prayer sooner than we had dared to hope, and our hearts were filled with praise. Thirty years ago merchants kept a whiskey bar- rel in their back room with the head knocked out and a dipper always at hand for the accommoda- tion of customers, and few, indeed, were those who refused to drink. > A County Temperance Society was organized, and held regular quarterly meet- ings for about twenty years. Free whiskey disap- peared long since — teetotalers . are numerous, and our county voted for the Prohibitory amendment by several hundreds majority. The class of early settlers that follow the moving frontier, like foam on the crest of the tide of emigration, have long since floated by us, and given place to a more sub- stantial class of citizens. The gospel has reached and rescued some ; but many, I fear, have gone to other points to escape gospel restraints. Churches have grown up among us, and emigration has covered our fertile prairies with villages and farm- houses. Revivals have added from time to time to their numbers and strength. Efficient and earnest men have come to gather in the vintage. Council Bluft's association was organized in 1854 with two THE EARLY HOME MISSIONARY. I4I churches and three ministers. It now numbers thirty-six churches, twenty ministers and twelve or fifteen hundred members. The Church of Tabor has been favored with frequent revivals, and has grown from eight members in 1852 to about three hundred now. Oberlin has given us many noble helpers in the good work of spreading the gospel — ^Deacons Gaston, Cumings, Hall and others who caught the inspiration here, besides many just as noble women, whose hearts and hands have been consecrated to the service of God. In imitation of the Pilgrim policy, we have planted the school close by the church. Tabor College and Public School are already casting their illuminating rays far into the surrounding darkness. Without at all disparaging the wholesome influence of godly pa- rents, I may truly say that whatever of aid I have been able to render to the cause of the Master, I owe, under God, to Oberlin. RE-UNION OF ALUMNiE, First Church, Monday, July 2d, 2 p.m. ADDRESS OF WELCOME. BY MRS. A. A. F. JOHNSTON. '56, Literary. Daughters of Oberlin, you do not need a for- mal welcome — you have already found not only our latch-string out, but our front door wide open to receive you. It is not the college, it is not the faculty, it is not the citizens that individually wel- come you; it is all these together; it is Oberlin herself that has called you home. For months there have been glad notes of preparation, until at last every leaf in our shady walks has qiaivered with the words, They are coming ; and now that you are here there is a sweet content in all our hearts. As we have made ready for you, we have thought of most of those whom you would miss. Do you know that often when I see (>ur students assembled, 1 fall to pitying them, because they will never hear him preach whose eloquence to us that heard him has made all other eloquence seem tame. They will never tremble beneath his convincing logic, nor listen spell-bound to his flights of imagination. They will never hear him toll the bell of eternity, nor see him cast a great ship helplessly upon the rocks. Do you remember when he defined humility for ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 143 US ? I do not recall his text, but his theme was humility. He had told us what it was not, and then he attempted to tell us what it was. He said : " Humility is " — and then followed his definition ; but in the midst he stopped, looked disappointed, arid said, "no, that is not it," and he began again. The second time he stopped, thrust out his hand as if grasping the definition, and threw it behind him. The third effort was not satisfactory. He looked up into the great gallery and then down upon the pews. " Brethren," he said, " I cannot put it into words, but this is it " — and he kneeled down, clasped his hands in a supplicating manner, half raised his eyes to heaven, and let them fall. In this position he remained for a moment amid a most profound silence ; then slowly rising to his feet, he went on with his discourse. The strangest thing about it was, we never thought it strange. As a student, sitting in these galleries, he often seemed to me like Jupiter hurling his thunder- bolts ; but as I knew him in the later years of his life, ripened by age and mellowed into perfection, I always thought of him as the beloved disciple. But you assembled to-day will miss most the sil- ver hair, the sweet face, the kindly greeting of one at whose feet so many of us sat to learn wisdom. Mrs. Dascomb resigned her position as Principal of the Ladies' Department in '70, but she did not retire to the quiet of her home. Indeed, it seemed to some of us that she then entered upon the most active part of her life. She was made President of our Ladies' Board of Managers in the college. 144 BERLIN JUBILEE. and until her last illness was always present at its meetings. She was President of our Foreign Mis- sionary Society, and we never needed a delegate to the State or national meetings that we did not first think of her. She was President of our Tem- perance Society, and in the long struggle which we have had, I doubt if there' has been any one whom the would-be saloonists so dreaded to meet. It made them realize how mean they were when they found themselves obliged to systematically oppose so good, so sweet, and so motherly a woman. It must have been with some degree of confidence that she passed the pearly gate ; for surely she could say, " I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith." There are others whose familiar faces you will miss ; but the Oberlin work goes on. It does not depend upon any man or any woman— upon any men or any women.- We often hear Oberlin praised, because she, of all colleges, first opened her doors to women ; but if she had not done so some other college would. It was the logic of events that brought it — the progress of a Christian civilization. The higher education of women was foreshadowed eighteen centuries ago. If sin came into the world by the way of Eve, it is a comfort to know that salvation came by the way of Mary. When she became the Mother of Christ was started a train of events that had in them all things that were for woman's highest good ; and in the " all things " was included her highest mental development. ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 145 Before 1833 women had been fed, sometimes bountifully it is true, with the crumbs that fell from the rich mans table ; it is to the honor of Oberlin that she was found worthy to open wide the portals of the temple of knowledge and invite women to the banqueting board. But I was asked to welcome you, you see. 1 cannot come to it be- cause there are so many things 1 want to talk about; besides, if the truth must be told, I do not know how. I was never present at a semi-centen- nial before. 1 began with the latch-string, I think I will end with a homely saying which I used to hear in my childhood ; for my home was on the frontier, in the great woods of Ohio. To me there was the hospi- tality of the wide hearth, and the warmth of the roaring chimney in the words — " Our folks are real glad to see you." OBERLIN AND THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN. BY MRS. SARAH C. LITTLE, '5g, Janesville, Wis. When, in 1833, the foundations of Oberlin Col- lege were laid " according to the pattern shown in the mount," there was no school west of the Hud- son, and but few east of it, in which young women could attain an education better than that afforded by the common schools. Both Church and State had long recognized the need of scholastic training for young men, and numerous colleges had been founded for them ; but that young ladies either needed or desired any other than ornamental ac- complishment was a comparatively new idea. In New England, Joseph Emerson had taken the " high Christian ground " that woman was in- tended to be " neither the slave nor the pet, but the companion of man ; " and that, as she was to be the principal educator of the race, she should be prepared to do this work well. Miss Grant, and her younger associate Miss Lyon, had appreciated the need of a higher culture for women, and especially of a better training for teachers, and were beginning to urge this need upon public attention. The thought of Mount OBERLIN AND THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 147 Holyoke had been conceived, but the work of establishing the seminary upon its firm foundation was not completed until several years later. It was reserved for Oberlin, in the heart of the forest, almost at the western limit of civil- ization, to be the pioneer in this work, and to first provide young women with an opportunity to acquire a wide and deep culture. The first cir- cular issued respecting the new enterprise, de- clared its " grand object " to be the " diffusion of useful science, sound morality and pure religion among the growing multitudes of the Mississippi Valley," and named, as means to this end, " primar- ily, the thorough education of ministers and pious school-teachers ; secondly, the elevation of wo- men ; and thirdly, the education of the common people with the higher classes in such a manner as suits the nature of republican institutions." It was also stated that the young ladies would receive in- struction in the useful branches taught in the best seminaries for women, and that the higher classes would enjoy the privilege of the professorships in the Teachers', Collegiate, and Theological Depart- partments. In what is apparently a memorandum of the first address given to the young ladies by Mrs. Alice W. Cowles, who was appointed Principal of the Ladies' Department in 1836, this passage occurs : " Our elder sisters were taught that a woman's education was completed if she could guide the house and wield the shuttle with dex- terity: Those parents who wished to see their 14^ OBERLIN JUBILEE. daughters accomplished ladies, would send them to a boarding-school for one or two terms, where they would embroider a flower-basket, paint a coat-of-arms, and return home with their education finished. Happily for us, a different state of things exists at the present time. It is admitted that the fields of knowledge lie open to women, and those who wish may enter and enrich their minds. If we look at the different stations a woman is de- signed to fill, we shall see that a very high degree of mental improvement and all the various graces of the heart are indispensable to that complete- ness of character so beautifully delineated in Proverbs." It would seem, therefore, that this innovation was proposed, not because it was thought that any radical change in the nature and responsibilities of women was expected or wished, but because a truer appreciation of the noble and dignified na- ture of their responsibilities and duties recognized the need of disciplined and well-furnished minds and hearts. That the new school met a felt want is evident. We have been told that the young women of that day as " they cheerfully denied themselves luxuries and made other efforts to aid their brothers in acquiring a liberal education, could not always refrain from sighing and saying to themselves, as did Mary Lyon, " Oh ! there is no college for girls to go to ! " But now that a door was opened for them, their readiness to enter it was certified by the presence at the opening of the school of a BERLIN AND THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 1 49 goodly percentage of young women, earnest, serious, intent upon making the most of the powers with which they had been endowed. The story told by Mrs. Martha Haskins Pierce in the May " Jubilee Notes," of her brother's hastening to her with the tidings of this new opening for acquiring an education, of her father's reluctant consent that she should go with her brother, of her eagerness that was not checked by those who told her of the " giants in the land," of her courage and endurance as she met the hardships of the way, wading the mud in her brother's boots, could be duplicated by many another brave-hearted woman. New as was the thought of a higher education for women, the idea that it was either best or safe to educate them in the same schools with young men, was newer still. It was regarded as a " hazardous experiment " — hazardous to both the men and the women. In the earlier documents so little is said in reference to the considerations which led to opening the doors of the college wide enough for a sister to enter by her brother's side, that we are led to infer that, recognizing the fact that God had given the girl a mind worthy of cul- ture, and had laid upon her the obligation of using it in His service, it was confidently expected that He would give His aid in laying the right plans, and carrying them to a successful issue. Doubtless the knowledge of the large interests at stake served to induce caution, but unaided human foresight would not have been always so wise. Certainly no other theory than that of a guid- 1 50 OBERLIN JUBILEE. ing Providence can account for the safe and fruitful results of this " hazardous experiment." While young women have, from the beginning, recited, in the same classes with young men, it seems not to have been anticipated that they "Would desire a full college course ; but when the desire was expressed their wish was cheerfully granted. In 1 841, three ladies were graduated from the full classical course, being the first ladies in the world to receive a literary degree from any college. Two of them, Mrs. Caroline Rudd Allen, wife of Prof. George N. Allen, and Mrs. Mary Hosford Fisher, wife of Rev. Caleb E. Fisher, after busy lives of usefulness and honor, are, I suppose, in Oberlin to-day, having outlived their husbands, but happy in the strong health and high culture of their children, and the growing promise of their grandchildren, who have in no wise deteriorated from the parent stock. For reasons inscrutable to the young women pursuing the classical course in the " middle period," it had not yet been deemed proper to allow them to read their own essays on any public occasions, the rule applying to Monthly Rhetori- cals as well as to Commencement exercises. We were told that " consistency was a jewel," and that it was "inconsistent ", for young ladies to read their essays on the same day that the young men delivered their orations, and when the exercise was presided over by a man. But, oh ! how very juvenile the average girl's essay sounded when read in his best style by Professor Monroe ! Class OBERLIN AND THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 151 after class petitionefl for what they thought to be a proper privilege, and were denied. There seemed to be a haunting fear that the young women who preferred to read their own essays were in danger of bringing " reproach" upon them- selves or the college. But at last, after denying the request of a quiet, modest, conservative Quaker girl, the only lady of her class (Mrs. Mary Raley Cravath, of '58), who manifested as earnest a wish for the coveted privilege as the most "strong- minded" of all, permission was given, and during the following year the young women responded to their own names at the Monthly Rhetoricals, and, in 1859, the five who graduated from the classical course read their own essays. This is not the place, nor the time, to discuss the subject of co-education ; but, perhaps, it is proper to consider very briefly how well the result of fifty years' experience here has justified the hopes of its friends, or the forebodings of its enemies. Have young women proved intellectually cap- able for the work assigned them ? President Fair- child has said, " Where there has been the same preparatory training, we find no difference in ability to maintain themselves in the recitation- room." The eminent fitness for their work of Miss Eugenia Morgan, Professor of Mental Science and Moral Philosophy in Wellesley College; Miss Helen Shafer, Professor of Mathematics in the same college ; Miss Ruth Hoppin, of Smith Col- lege, and scores of others to-day occupying re- sponsible positions in our higher institutions of I S 2 OBERLIN JUBILEE. learning, abundantly eorrcfborates this state- ment. Have they been physically able to endure close study? Statistics, and the amount of work per- formed in many a family, school and community by Oberlin women, disprove thoroughly the prev- alent notion that, although they may live through and graduate, girls who attempt a college course are in serious danger of permanent invalidism. You may see with us to-day many representatives of the early classes, who, after bringing up large families and enduring pioneer hardships, still maintain, as they near " three-score years and ten," full vigor of mind and body. Are the young women rendered unfit or unwil- ling to assume the precious responsibilities of home ? The number of names of ladies that are followed by another name in significant italics in the Semi- centennial Register shows that the education ac- quired here has not been of the sort to weaken their confidence in the Divine declaration that " it is not good for man to be alone," nor to remove from their minds the "benevolent intention" to regard the " good of man," not to unfit them to be helps- meet for man. And if some have chosen, or have been providentially called to bear life's burdens alone, have they not, as a rule, proved capable, efficient servants of God and their fellow-men? Have either the young men or the young women deteriorated in character ? Again the answer is an emphatic "no." And why should they? We sow oats and wheat side by side, in soil ploughed and har- OBERLIN AND THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 153 rowed alike, watered by the same rain and warmed by the same sun, trusting confidently in the ability of the seed and growing plants to appropriate just the nourishment that is best suited to the develop- ment of each, with never a fear that the wheat may endeavor to imitate the oats, or that the oats may emulate the wheat and strive to form compact heads of bearded grain instead of its own graceful panicles. Eastern people have not yet laid aside all anxiety as to this system ; but in the west, while there are a few separate schools, the accepted con- clusion is that it is safe to trust in a large degree to the native instincts of propriety ; hence we have not only colleges on essentially the Obej"lin plan by the score all through the West, but also State universities and normal schools in which there is much less supervision of the habits of either young men or young women, and individuals are left to follow, in the main, their own choice as to social life. Unquestionably th'is lack of supervision en- tails serious loss on the formation of character, and sometimes interferes with the best attainments in scholarship ; but no one anticipates or finds such dire evils resulting as were formerly believed in- separable from co-education, however conducted. Oberlin has been blessed in a wonderful degree in those who earliest and longest have been charged with this duty of supervising the young women. First, Mrs. Dascomb gave this work one year in the prime of her early womanhood. Then came Mrs. Cov/les, for whom, after a few years, 1 54 OBERLIN JUBILEE. the burden became too heavy, and who has for forty years looked upon the fruitage of that early planting from the standpoint of the heavenly heights. Of the characteristics which fitted her for the work one connected with the college at that time, writes to me as follows : " Besides her experience in Connecticut district schools, she had been at Wethersfield under that pioneer, Joseph Emerson, but, more than all, she was fitted for her new and untried post by her remarkable calmness, wisdom, suavity, and purity. By the presence of these eminent and indispensable qualities she might be fairly regarded as well fitted for her post ; but this is not all. There was what I might call a negative* fitness ; there was nothing that hindered. She did not obtrude herself, she did not seek to build up her own consequence, she was not fitful, she was not passionate, she was not neglectful of any. She had the qxialities that fitted her, and was free from the qualities that would have unfitted her for her work. She would commonly have been said to have excelled in administrativeness ; but I have chosen to explain how well the epithet ap- plies to her, and I think my own judgment must correspond with that of the early members of the faculty and with that of the Oberlin community." Mrs. Dascomb must have been known and her influence — at least that of her beneficent presence — felt in some degree by every young woman here from the beginning, until her death four years ago, a period of -forty -five years. A rare and true woman, who could, after the age OBERLIN AND THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 155 of forty, keep her sympathies with young people warm and active; who could, until sixt}', keep pace with the advancement of a college of such marvellous growth as Oberlin has had, enlarging her ideas with its enlargement, who could be firm without harshness, prompt without haste, cautious without timidity, conservative in a good sense of the word, while acting constantly on ideas con- sidered as dangerously radical by the prevailing opinion, and with all her strength of character maintaining the grace and sweetness of the highest type of a lady. Such was Mrs. Dascomb, and such the personal influence under which the ideals of the young women of this college for nearly half a century were moulded into strength and womanly beauty and grace. Recalling, as we all can, the sweet calm peace that uniformly rested upon her face, can we not read there the secret of it all ? She had " com- mitted her way unto the Lord, and trusted also in Him, that He should bring it to pass." While Oberlin has not labored alone, she has had a large share in producing the great changes which the last fifty years have wrought in public opinion respecting the capacities of women and the nature and amount of the best education for them. She has been not only the pioneer, but constantly a powerful agent, increasing her in- fluence as the years have multiplied the number who have felt the impulse of her principles and example. Woman are now recognized as intellectual and 1 56 OBERLIN JUBILEE. moral factors in society, and their aid is confidently sought in carrying on the benevolent work of the world. No serious obstacle stands in the way of their entering any field of usefulness for which they are qualified. As temperance workers, as foreign missionaries, as laborers among the "de- spised races" in our own land, as physicians in reformatory institutions, on State Boards of Char- ities, and in all grades of educational work, from the Kindergarten to the University, women are found, faithfully doing work for the Master. In their Boards of Foreign Missions they have shown such capacity, zeal, and endurance, that our other societies desire to utilize the immense reserve force that still remains unused among the women of the churches, and they will not be disappointed. The record of Oberlin's first half-century is closed, and we have in our hands the history of those years, written by the only adequate pen. The fair white page of the future is before us — what shall there be written? The coming years will soon bring a necessity for enlarged accommo- dations for the young women. The new society building will provide for their immediate wants. But certainly by the time Tappan Hall has been replaced, an enlargement of the present one, or a new ladies' hall, will be an imperative necessity. Before that time the Conservatory of Music, which has been such a refining and educating force for both the young women and the young men, will have been established in its new building, and, let us hope, have a permanent endowment. O BERLIN AND THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 157 With that spirit of fairness and truth which has always characterized her, Oberlin has reserved her academic degrees for those who have earned them by completing that course of study which is co- ordinate with those of other colleges of high grade. With her greatly increased numbers and larger facilities she probably must soon add new courses of study which shall give ampler freedom to indi- vidual taste and ability ; and new degrees which shall accurately measure the quality and quantity of the work will then be required. Oberlin was long counted peculiar — yes, and she was "peculiar," and in this was her glory and her power. She was " peculiar " in her anti- slavery opinions, "peculiar" in her temperance principles, " peculiar "' in her theology and phi- losophy, "peculiar" in giving young women an equal chance with their brothers. She is no longer very peculiar in any of these ways, not be- cause she has changed, but so much of the best thought of the world has come into sympathy with her way of thinking and doing as to remove much of the singularity. But there are still ethical problems in the working out of the fundamental principle of her philosophy, "the greatest good of the greatest number," which, if faithfully and bravely solved, will still render her liable to the epithet " peculiar." Let Oberlin be still and for ever known as the school where the " common people may be educated with the high classes in such a manner as suits the nature of Republican institutions;" where the 1 5 8 OBERLIN JUBILEE. spirit of caste, so utterly foreign from the spirit of Christ, shall not dare to manifest itself; where neither young men nor young women shall be valued by the size of their balance at the bank, or the beauty or cost of their raiment ; where both the necessary and voluntary expenses of college life shall be kept within such limits as shall enable the " common people," the sturdy yeomanry of the land, the bone and sinew of the nation, to avail themselves of its advantages ; where simple living for God shall be taught by precept and example ; and where the ambition for fine scholarship and high culture shall be awakened, not by the desire to excel one's classmates, but rather by the worth- ier motive, to be qualified for fulfilling life's highest duties. As a family of children might count themselves richer in inheriting from their parents a genius for work and a passion for self-sacrificing and generous giving and doing for the "good of being," than if millions had been bequeathed to them, so the Oberlin children may count themselves rich in that they have inherited the spirit of faithful ser- vice and sacrifice that inspired the Oberlin fathers. May they continue to make good use of their inheritance, and living lives " hid with Christ in God," be filled with the power of godliness. RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY OBERLIN DAYS. BY MRS. DOUGLASS PUTNAM, '39, LIT.; Harraar, Ohio. Forbidden by husband and physician to take active part in these interesting exercises, I can only sandwich a few recollections of my early days here between the well-prepared offerings of the occasion. I came to Oberlin from Massachusetts in 1833, arriving in November, a few weeks before the opening of the school. I was fifteen years old, and came at the invitation of my much loved and honored Uncle and Aunt Stewart, whom I had not seen since their return from their mission work among the Choctaws. 1 landed in Cleveland late one evening, where my escorts left me, and took stage for Elyria long before light next morning. It was a cold, dark, and cheerless morning, and every seat inside the stage was filled by men — not a single woman's face or voice there. I took th^ vacant place made for me between two men whose faces I could not see, and rode in silence, but with a trembling heart, heartily wishing I had never left my mother, till we were requested by the driver to dismount, as we had reached a steep and dangerous place, and must l6o BERLIN JUBILEE. walk quite a distance. When we reached the little inn where we were to resume our seats, I found the gentlemen with whom I had been seated (and who had kindly helped me over the difficult walk in the darkness) to be Oberlin men — one Mr. O. D. Hibbard, the other George L. Hovey. They had been into Cleveland on some business for Mr. Stewart or Mr. Shipherd. My heart and spirits at once revived, and Oberlin ceased to be a myth. Arriving at Elyria, I took a lumber wagon next morn- ing for Oberlin. It took us from soon after break- fast till tea-time to reach Oberlin, eight miles. Our way through the woods was around stumps, fallen trees, and through mud holes so deep, and so much swamp, that it seemed as if we must go under the mud and water, and disappear from sight. I found Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, Mr. and Mrs. Pease, and some others whose names do not occur to me, occupying the only framed house in Oberlin, called afterwards, I think. Colonial Hall. There were a few students there, gathered from the East by Mr. Shipherd ; among them the two with whom I had travelled from Cleveland, the latter of whom is among us to-day after many years of foreign work. Only the outside doors to this building were completed, and much remained to be done before the school opened or its inmates made very comfortable. Quilts and blankets served as doors between apartments. We all slept for a little while in the rooms designed for the sitting-room and Mrs. Stewart's bedroom. Blankets and quilts were spread on the floors, the ladies all retired. RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY OBERLIN DAYS. l6l improvised curtains were put up, light extinguished, and the rest took their hard and humble beds, to vacate them before the dawn. When we got into our regular rooms we felt as if we were in palatial quarters, though we had so little room, with two beds in each room, that we had to turn our bed- steads up against the wall in the day-time, and we wrote all our first letters home sitting on the floor, with paper and ink on a chair. Postage to New England in those days was twenty-five cents, and was estimated according to the number of sheets of paper and not by weight. We used the mammoth sheets, and entered every item of novelty, and all the passing occurrences of each day, and the various items of our new experiences. If some of those old letters could be resurrected, no doubt many items of the history of those daj's would prove of interest, and revive recollections that have passed from the memories of the few survivors of those earliest student days. In the basement of this first Hall Mr. and Mrs. Shipherd were living then, and, with only two rooms and several little children, had I think some board- ers, who sat at their table at least. We had eaten our frugal meals in the little sitting-room, our first business in the morning being to clear it up and air it, after its night's use. When we got into our regu- lar dining-room it seemed as if the room was un- limited. We who had no cares, and were full of the enthusiasm of youth, found novelty and amuse- ment in these new phases of life, and our very plain fare was spiced with all manner of funny and in- 1 62 OBERLIN J UBILEE. teresting things. We also learned some valuable lessons for future life from these experiences. I am sure that / have always been better able to " make things do," and to get along with inconveni- encies, and adapt myself to all sorts of circumstances for that early experience. Soon after getting into our new dining-room we commenced reciting each a passage of Scripture at our meals. After a while this became a medium for conveying private hints and giving sharp hits. As an example : there was seated at the table with our teacher, Mr. Waldo, a gentleman of more ad- vanced culture than the students there. I think he acted as assistant teacher for a while. Mr. Waldo, by the way, was an earnest advocate of classical study, and took a warm part in the discussions on that subject that came up early in the history of Oberlin. Mr. Waldo frequently conversed with this gentleman in some foreign language, much to the annoyance of others at table who could not understand them. After one of these conversa- tions, a young lady near them repeated, with some spice of manner, " He thatspeaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself, but he that prophesieth edifies others." The gentlemen turned at once and asked if they were hinted at, when a student quickly replied, " He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." The water at Oberlin at that time was far from palatable. Strongly impregnated with sulphur, its attractiveness was not increased by the pewter tumblers from which we drank. E. H. Fairchild (now President of Berea College) was RECOLLECTIONS OF EARL Y OBERLIN DA YS. 163 my vis-h-vis at table, and one day, seeing, I pre- sume, my look of disgust as I put my tumbler to my lips, repeated with great gravity, holding up his own tumbler and eying it attentively, " He that drinketh oitkis water shall thirst again." We had good English in conversation for our table talk after the first incident, but the bad water con- tinued to the end. This practice had its evils, and was discontinued. The first sermon that I heard preached in our new schoolroom (which was the room over the dining- room, and served as chapel also) was by Mr. Scovil or Mr. Waldo — I do not recollect which. The text was from Isa. liv. 2 : " Spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes." I might speak of those teachers of early times. They left a lasting impress upon our minds. We have never forgotten them or their teachings. I was here when Mrs. Dascomb arrived. All that has been said in her honor I can mostly fully en- dorse. She was a power upon the habits and characters of those young girls. When she was sick at one time, we girls came near to quarrels as to which of us should sit by her and wait on her while Dr. Dascomb attended to his duties. Later, Mrs. Cowles had a most decided and happy influ- ence over us all. When Messrs. Mahan and Finney arrived we were awakened, stimulated, and in- structed on subjects far beyond what Occupies the minds of the girls of the present day. To some of us, the question as to what is a " great fundamental i>rinciple" even at this late day, brings back Mr. 1 64 OBERLIN JUBILEE. Finney's earnest voice and eagle eye. To us in our isolated little world these men seemed like "the gods come down to us." I can truly testify that, however much we lacked in our studies the systematic drill of later years, and however desul- tory our habits of study, the influences of those days upon character were beyond computation in their value. If I for one have ever been able to turn aside from my own cares and burthens, and gladly take up those of others ; if I have ever been able to regard " the highest good of the greatest number," or to think and act benevolently for others in little things — I owe it largely to the teach- ings and examples of the noble men and women who, in Oberlin's earlier days, never let us know that they had any interests of their own, aside from doing the best they were capable of for others and for the work they had undertaken. Mrs. Stewart, Shipherd, Dascomb, Cowles, and the true and noble women of the Colony, who were both influence and example to us, and from whom we all received so much of motherly kindness, — Mrs. Pease, Hamil- ton, Turner, Ingersoll, and others, — they all left their impressions on us, and helped to educate us. Intellectually, we of those earlier times might have been better drilled and equipped women had we studied elsewhere than at Oberlin, but we doubt- less gained more than a compensation in matters of lasting value to character and destiny. Most of that first class of girls, then in the first opening of womanhood, went out to meet bravely the cares and work of life, and rested long since RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY OBERLIN DAYS. 165 from its toils and cares, and to-day look down upon these scenes from the heavenly heights. They all " sleep in Jesus." Doubtless they, as well as the few of us who remain, will ever bless God for Oberlin,-and Oberlin influences. MIDWAY. By Mrs. Emily Huntington Miller, '57, Lit., St. Paul, Minn. White angel of the folded wing And eyes of twilight ray, Unclasp for me the book that holds The songs of yesterday. Unseal thy smiling lips, that keep Their secrets all untold ; Breathe for my longing heart the spell That bids the past unfold. Once more for me, in tender tones, The dear old tales repeat; And fill the silence of my heart With memory's music sweet. Lift but thine hand, and all the skies Put on their morning glow; Along untrodden ways once more The happy pilgrims go. O hearts that feared no altar's flame Or costly sacrifice. But read the solemn scroll of fate With love's anointed eyes ! — For you the grand heroic past Her glorious records read, And set her cloud of witnesses, A shining host, o'erhead. For you the air was stirred with wings, And thrilled with songs divine ; MIDWAY. 167 Hope showed the kingdoms of the earth, And whispered, " All are thine." There was no crown too proud to wear, No height too great to win ; No palace fair whose gates of pearl Ye might^jKJt enter in. To-day, while memory lifts the veil That hides the vanished years. The sunny picture shows but dim Behind a mist of tears. I see, from all your parted ways, Your weary feet return ; Along the old familiar fields Again your camp-fires burn. Old watchwords echo on the air, Old songs are sung once more. Old comrades clasp a greeting hand And tell the tales of yore. Graybeards forget their frosty rime; Pale cheeks have caught the glow They wore in youth's sweet blossom time — The rose of long ago. And when to some familiar name No answering voice replies, Ye do but say, "We see them not; Dim are our mortal eyes." From the valley at your feet. Where the rose of youth was sweet. Ye have climbed a little way. Nearer to the upper day. Not too far for heart to hold. Backward lies the morning's gold ; Not too far for faith to know Lies the country where ye go. 1 68 OBERLIN JUBILEE. Waiting, for a little space, In a quiet resting-place, Count your treasures lost and won Ere again ye journey on. These are lost, the comrades true, Passing on beyond our view ; Bravest, sweetest souls of all Answer not to any call. Near at hand or far away, None, who love them best, can say ; For the fondest human speech To their silence cannot reach. Souls whose tender trusting grace Saw the Father face to face, Smiling went, without alarms, To the clasping of his arms. Souls that questioned earth and air For the love that, everywhere, Spite of unbelieving doubt, All their being shut about. As a child that wakes in fear From a dreain of danger near. Sudden, in the empty space, Sees the tender mother's face; So, from darkness here below. They have waked to see and know. Not for them our tears be shed: Drink in silence — To the dead. Lost the rainbow, arching o'er All the sunny skies before. And the cloudy castles fair Busy fancy built in air : Yet from loftier heights we hear Bugle echoes, swelling clear ; MIDWAY. 1C9 Closer to the gates of light Pours the lark her full delight. Sometimes, on a tranquil in-om. Through the purple -distance borne, Sounds from home with -deeper thrill All the solemn sileace fill. Breezes from some purer day Sweep the shrouding mists away ; Far beyond the mountain side Glorious vistas -open wide ; Crystal splendors, breaking through Wondrous deeps of cloudless blue. Tranced with bliss, we see the land, Fair and bright, and close at hand. Sometimes, dropping down the way, Closer shut the shadows gray. Hiding from our weary sight Valley green and gleaming height. Groping blindly, not a voice Through the darkness calls, Rejoice ! Yet in darkness as in sun Clings the hand that leads us on. This 's gained — that, day by day. As the blossoms fall aivay. Clearer in the summer's glow Hangs the ripening fruit below, . Eager hope hath grown at length Into faith's immortal strength. Faith, with steadfast courage blent Wrought a fulness of content. More and more we learn to see, In life's change and mystery, God's great purpose, working still Good from every seeming ill ; 17° OBERLIN JUBILEE. So at last our lives may stand Moulded by the Master's hand: Only clay, but precious still, Through the glorious worker's skilL Tempered by the furnace heat Till for heavenly uses meet. Only clay, they yet may bear God's great name imprinted there. WHAT OBERLIN HAS DONE FOR US. BY MRS. M. C. KINCAID, '6$, Spencerport, N. Y. Dear sisters of the Alumnae, how gladly we come together to-day, sisters all, though to some the gray hairs have come, to others the heat and burden of the day, and to our young sisters, now for the first time of our number, the hopes of a joyous, happy womanhood ! We come gladly to greet each other round the knees of our dear Alma Mater; and, like children gathered for the thanksgiving feast in the old homestead, we too will talk of our good Mother and why we love her so. Mothers are loved sometimes simply because they are the mothers. Because they love us we love them, and with it all we say, with a little pity- ing sigh, " Poor mother, how we used to worry her ! She scarcely knew how to manage us. She let us have our own way far too much in the old times. She was foolishly indulgent to us, alas !" But our Oberlin Mother has been a wise one. She did know how to manage us, and if we worried her sometimes, while she was forbearing she was firm, and she trained us well. I have a secret ; I have been finding it out all these years since '65 : All children do not love their mothers as we do ours. It came to me 172 OB E RUN JUBILEE. first as a surprise. In my innocency I sup- posed that to have graduated at a school was to love it like one's self ; but it is not always so. Some look back to.their college with great respect. It gave them drill and intellectual stimulus, but that was all. Others say, " What fun we used to have !" and recount the nonsense and the frolics and the pranks, and laugh at their teachers and ridicule their weaknesses. Others, as years have taught them a better way, speak of the Alma Mater as anything but nourishing and kindly. " The school did me harm : it were better that I had not gone." 'QvA. our Mother \iZ.s done more than they all. She has performed well her part toward fitting us for life — the real actual life of the day. I sometimes think my own personal experiences (which are in order to-day perhaps) help me to know Oberlin better than some of her children. My parents were among the earliest students, when to be of it was to suffer with it. What we suffer for, we love. So, though born on the prairies of the West, I was really born and nourished here. Whatever Oberlin loved I was taught to love, and what she thought a sin I thought a sin. Her pur- poses and plans became mine, and she was ever the Mecca of my childhood. So when in '60 my hopes were realized and I came, it was both to the old and the new of Oberlin. The teachers, who were my father's teachers also, were still here, and gave me kindly greeting for his sake. To have known President Finney and Professors Cowles and Morgan and Dascomb, was the privilege of a life- WHAT OBEKLIN HAS DONE FOR US. 173 time ; and to have as teachers those who, many of them, are still here, could only be second to it. Coming back seven years ago as pastor's wife, and knowing Oberlin as it is to-day, has helped me to gather up old experiences and impressions, and to know that we love our Mother -because we have good reason; that her influence upon education, and especially upon woman's education, has been unique and all pervasive; that she has done for her daughters what no other school in the land could do for hers. Her greatest gift to us has been that legacy of Christian consecration, left by those who, fifty years ago, gave themselves " first to the Lord and then to the work." That consecration, lived out in the lives of the teachers, and in the lives of students, who, class after class, have brought or caught the spirit, and in the prayer and labor and sympathy of the citizens, that earnest devotion, which was here at first, is here still. These young people as they come are still watched and loved, and pra}'ed into the kingdom. And though they do not all know it, their lives will show it to the world, and they themselves will understand it as they grow older. And then, I think, Oberlin has done a great work for woman in the co-education of the sexes. This plan of study is often spoken of as of great benefit to the young men — that it refines and elevates them ; but it has been no less a gain to the young women. It brings them together with- out artificiality^n natural relations. At home we have brothers and sisters, in our common 174 OBERLIN JUBILEE. schools boys and girls, and in society men and women. Under the restraint which our Christian college gives the influence is wholesome and suc- cessful. But we are often asked, with a shrug of the shoulders, " Does not this bringing together of so many young people culminate in a great many marriages?" Marriage is not the state most dreaded by parents usually for their children, but somehow they feel they ought to wait until they are in society. Perhaps / am prejudiced, but I have certainly failed to see how society acquaint- ances can be more reliable than those formed in class recitations, where so many are brought into competition. Where will thoroughness and trust and manhood and womanhood, or the lack of these, be more patent than during years of work side by side? The actual result of this arrange- ment is that fewer matches are made than we would expect, while the sickly sentimentality of the girl has its best antidote in the every-day com- panionship of boys much like her own brothers at home. Romance may lose something of its charm, but genuine attachment and happy homes gain more. The higher education which Oberlin has offered from the first to woman has had great influence over the whole land. It has been like leaven work- ing in the minds of our educators, until now many schools have taken her as their model, and have learned to fear less and less that women should get too much of discipline. The world generally is coming to feel that her life, though more fVB-AT OBERLIN HAS DONE FOR US. 175 secluded than man's, gives full scope for all her best developed powers. What one of our State Home Missionary sec- retaries writes — " When I want a man for a hard place and hard work I go to Oberlin for him, and I find him " — is true also of our sisters. I have dur- ing the past week been looking over our Triennial, and, knowing many of the Alumnae, can but see that they have not been lacking in their willingness to quietly take the hard work, fitting themselves often by its faithful doing far better, but seldom bemoaning their narrow spheres. The atmosphere of Oberlin has led to true womanly development. No mannish tendency to woman's rights has here found congenial soil. Our women have seldom be- wailed their lack of opportunity, but, seeing the great harvest, have only nerved themselves by prayer for the w^ork that needed to be done. No theory obtains here that our graduates need to search to find their spheres. Some schools foster the idea that women must have a career, seek a mission, do something in the gaze of the world. An eastern graduate, in telling me of her class, spoke of one as a physician, one as artist, one a public singer, one an elocutionist, and another a lecturer, and sadly of her own life as wasted be- cause it had been spent at duty's call in a shady corner, ministering to aged parents, and, forsooth, brightening and purifying all the little village where she lived. It was her work, she said, and she did it, but she spoke despondingly of her luck and of the others' success. Little of this despon- 1 76 BE RUN J UBILEE. dency has come to our women. With few exceptions they have felt that the work to which they were called was the best work, and rejoiced in it. But while there has been among us little restless seeking after new work, there has been great readi- ness to enter enthusiastically into all the educa- tional and philanthropic movements of the day; to lend a hand, or, when need be, to guide in the formation of new activities for the world's good. In woman's missionary and temperance organiza- tions, in the charities of our cities, and, more than in any other place, perhaps, as teachers, have pur sisters taken prominent part. How can we meas- ure the influence of the vast number who, season after season, during the forty winter vacations, gave themselves to our common school? How can we value aright the devoted labor of our graduates, in the south ? Where else could the American Missionary Association have found its faithful helpers ? How else could the great educational problem of our land be so nearly solved ? It has been great matter of pride that the schools of the east and the west, born of the new impulse for woman's higher education, have found here many of their professors, and that our Alumnae have been ready to take their places as instructors in the languages, mathematics, and belles lettres, places which otherwise would have been hard to fill. But it is to the Christian homes which our sisters have made that our hearts turn with special WHAT OBERUN HAS DONE FOR US. 177 thanksgiving and pride — homes which have been centres of all blessed healing influences, and which, but for Oberlin, would have lost much of their sweetness and their power. The civilization and Christianization of the world is to these homes greatly the debtor, and in them, blessed of God, many of us rejoice to work and wait. LAKE ERIE SEMINARY TO OBERLIN COLLEGE. BY MISS MARY EVANS, Painesville, Ohio. It gives me great pleasure to bring you greeting and God-speed to-day, dear Oberlin neighbors and friends. It will not harm you to be told many times and in various ways how good you are, for we who congratulate, are sure that it will only incite you to greater earnestness to make Oberlin's good, great name still better and that it will glorify Him to Whom is all the praise. And it is always good and pleasant for neighbors to congratulate neighbors. We live in each other's welfare, and if one member rejoice all the mem- bers rejoice with it. As this is not a promiscuous public gathering, I may be indulged in a personal reminiscence of my first visit to Oberlin soon after I came to Ohio. I was fresh from Mount Holyoke Seminary, and in that absorbing and secluded life the name of Oberlin was not as familiar as it should have been, and was indefinitely mingled in our minds with slavery, pro and con, with co-education and other much-discussed subjects. Perhaps my early train- ing in a more Southern latitude and in a very old LAKE ERIE SEMINARY GREETING. 1 79 Old School church had more to do with a little distrust, not to say prejudice, in regard to this pe- culiar college. I came to spend a week with my good friends, Professor and Mrs. Mead, when they, too, were learning Oberlin. That week chanced to be just before President Fairchild's departure for Europe, and there were dinners and teas and evenings to bid him good-bye, and thus an unusual opportunity for making acquaintances. The first impression, (and it has deepened with successive visits) was, how simple and free and natural, how these good people love one another, how kind and cordial to " the stranger within their gates," how earnest in every good work. The Oberlin atmos- phere was invigorating, and it began to invigorate very early in the morning. I have not forgotten the click of the gate long before the gray dawn and the scurry of manly feet along the board walk on the way to breakfast at Ladies' Hall. The two principals, Mrs. Dascomb and Mrs. Johnston, were like old friends at once, and gave me a warm wel- come to work in Ohio. How often the placid face of that dear saint, whom we all miss to-day, has been to me an inspiration to Love, Hope and Pa- tience, these three, that, according to Coleridge, " upbear the little world below of education," and, most of all to Patience, the mute sister, who, " when Love and Hope give way, nothing loth, and both supporting, does the work of both." Of course, I heard Mr. Finney preach and smiled at his quaintness and was melted by his prevailing eloquence. Later, I saw him agam, and I have l80 OBERLIN JUBILEE. among other memories, a last word of his that came " like that benediction which follows after prayer," Since that first visit the neighborly bonds have been growing stronger. Your Professor, who, with the glow of a great enthusiasm, lights up for you the pages of the past, comes to us each year with the- best results of his research, and becomes into our household, and goes on picnics with us, and laughs and chats like the merriest of us, for all of which we hold him in high esteem. We do not intend that Professor Wright shall trace the glacial moraine further, without coming to tell us about it. Have we not been geologizing with him till we have learned to recognize till when we see it, and kettle-holes, and all the rest ? Your sweet singers have come to sing to us, and when Professor Rice has that Conservatory building in shape and rests a little from his great labor, are we not to have yearly good talks and good times, that have long been promised ? Ah, what it is to have good neighbors, and know them, and feel the support of their sympathy. Sometimes people say, and we must confess that in hours of despondency we have even said it to ourselves, " Oberlin is so big, and you are so little : what can you expect to do 't Look at 1493 students on one side and 143 on the other. Your little boat is sure to be swamped, and that is what your ups and downs are coming to." But better counsel prevails, and (to change the figure) it seems to us like this : we all lift together, and, in moral uplift, LAKE ERIE SEMINARY GREETING. l8l bigness is not everything, and often we can least afford to spare that force for higher education which seems least powerful. If all this region, if all the land is to be raised to a higher conception of the dignity and power of education, there is a place for all, and Oberlin, great and kind — (not con- descending) but kind and true as great — will never hinder our work. We neighbors not only share a common work but a history with many points of resemblance. In 1833, when your heroic fathers and mothers were laying your foundations broad and deep, a plain woman of the people, coming up from the hearthstone, where, to pay for her education, " she winged the potatoes " and did it most thoroughly too, to stand among the foremost women teachers of New England ; this plain woman was musing, and the fire was burning, and she wrote " I have been thinking for a great while about those young ladies who find it necessary to make such an effort for their education as I made when I was obtain- ing mine. I have looked out from my quiet scene of labor on the wide world, and my heart has longed to see many enjoying these privileges who can not for want of means," and later, when the Seminary was taking shape, how truthfully she could say, " Had I a thousand lives I could sacri- fice them all in hardship and suffering for its sake." The best heritage of Mt. Holyoke schools is the work of Mary Lyon, as your best heritage, Ober- lin of to-day, is the faith and prayers of those who builded, not for themselves, but for God and hu- 1 82 OBERLIN JUBILEE. manity. Our founders did not dress in becoming raiment, they even made a virtue of plainness, they were not so careful as to graces of speech and manner as were some ; our early Oberlin and Mt. Holyoke did not, outwardly, " blossom as the lily," but they " struck forth their roots like Leb- anon." Some of these foundation principles have always been misunderstood, and are attacked to-day, but the danger is not from without. If we can be kept from the subtle influences that pervade even our atmosphere and enter our school life, from " decay of conscience," from " pride, vainglory and hy- pocrisy," there will be great cause of praise to Him who alone can keep us. Labor is honorable. Head and heart and hand shall work together. Money does not make the man. " The life is more than meat and the body than raiment." It is more blessed to give than to receive, to minister than to be ministered unto. In society we are members, one of another, in Christ ; there is neither Jew nor Greek, circumcision nor uncircumcision, bond nor free. The best parts of our history are but the carrying out into life of these everlasting truths. Side by side on many a mission field, West and South, and over the seas, graduates of Oberlin and Mt. Holyoke are hastening, " the coming of of the glory of the Lord :" but at home, or abroad, wherever they are, wherever they shall be, we can wish nothing better for these graduates than to follow fearlessly in the steps of those grand men and women of fifty years ago, who were LAKE ERIE SEMINARY GREETING. 1 83 afraid of nothing so much as that " they might not know all their duty, or might fail to do it." But this is an hour for looking forward as well as backward, seeing unto what all these congra- tulations and reminiscences tend. Women with women, heart to heart, there must be something to say to each other in behalf of young woman- hood coming on so swiftly into our place. Others will speak at this time of woman in the great world. These who have labored long' to right her wrongs, will be eloquent in asking for her a larger place in that great world's affairs. Shall we not hear, too, some burning words from Oberlin's heart on fire for temperance, " for God and home and native land." And is there not something to say, women so favored of God in our past and present, in behalf of others in far other circum- stances? Surely, while we honor in this Jubilee those brave men who sealed in death their loyalty to principles taught here, and while we greet the living returned in safety from the well-fought field, we shall not forget Oberlin women who fol- lowed in the train of war to heal and teach, and since then have held a hundred " posts of vantage " in a longer conflict with ignorance and prejudice and sin, nor those other women who have gone "over gloomy hills of darkness " to carry light to other lands. Will not some mother in Israel rise here, and while our hearts are warm and tender, bid us consider what thank-offering we shall bring in Christ's name for His little, weak ones, our sis- ters in this land and in all the world. Oberlin for 1 84 OBERUN JUBILEE. woman's rights in the widest sense ; Oberlin for temperance ; Oberlin for woman's work for woman. Each watchword finds response in true hearts to- day. I come as a neighbor teacher. Women will be teachers; girls will be taught these fifty years coming as in the fifty years past. How nobly Oberlin has made provision for young women from the begining is matter of history, and with almost eight hundred of them enrolled in your catalogue ot the past year, we your neighbors, may well come to you to« learn what is best for young women everywhere. There will not be time for formal discussion, but there may be inter- vals in the great feast when mothers and teachers may take counsel together and get new courage for their work. We shall learn, we trust, what manner ot education this higher education for women shall be. As I wrote these words and looked up to the Scripture roll above my desk, I read, " Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." Yes, this first and this always, as it has been at Oberlin. When hearts are bowed with a sense of their sin and their need of a Savior ; when life looks real and earnest, and there is hearty consecration to God and love for the world for which Christ died ; then the right beginning is made, and other foundation for educa- tion can no man,, no woman, lay with any hope of success. A vital question for us, as women, relates to the LAKE ERIE SEMINARY GREETING. 185 physical basis of education. Magazine articles are setting forth the advantages of the higher educa- tion for health's sake ; but as yet it is a case of the " survival of the fittest," and they are few. Many more might be completing full collegiate courses, if they could have run the race less heavily weighted. Oberlin has always protested against burdens too heavy to be borne. Cannot she do, as well as say, something to lift the heavy, dragging skirts that weight the students of to-day? If young girls were clothed from feet to head accord- ing to the laws of health, their ability to get an education and to make good use of it would be increased tenfold. What do you say to setting down among the requirements for admission, suit- able dress, first, healthfully made, and then suitable for girl students in material and style ? We should need all the moral support which each and every school for women could give. What an outcry would be made against sumptuary laws, attempt- ing to regulate the use ot velvets and diamonds ! How ridiculous to read, along with " Seven Ora- tions of Cicero," or " Three Books of the Ana- basis," " Candidates cannot enter unless their skirts are supported from their shoulders, their power of respiration comes up to a certain standard, and the girth of their waist be thus and so." We preach no dress reform of the severe order : rather let us have dress that has grace and sentiment, and, above all, fitness — fitness for times and seasons, not only seasons of the year, but the seasons of our changing age, so that we shall not all be dressed 1 86 OBERLIN JUBILEE. on the same monotonous level of so much trim- ming around the skirt and just such a toop to the drapery, the same style for sixteen and sixty. When we think of the time, strength and money wasted because women do not know what to wear ; and when we think what a gracious, refining influ- ence dress may be, are we not almost ready to ask for a professorship, or at least a lectureship, of clothes, not less of manners? It does make a dif- ference how we do things, and many a lesson is needed when young people are getting ready for life. All helps to refinement, all things beautiful in sound and color and form may be used. They must not be abused. The time has come for Oberlin to blossom. True, there is need of cau- tion. Better have Slab Hall and none of the amenities than lose uprightness and downright- ness of character. No curved line of beauty can compensate for this. But we cannot believe that the fair proportions of these new buildings, that anything beautiful and graceful will spoil Oberlin so long as she has daily the dew of the presence of the Lord to cause her to grow both in beauty and strength. As for the intellectual in education, we are in a transition state which calls for special wisdom. Long ago Oberlin decided that women might learn the alphabet, and the Greek alphabet, too, if they would. It was to Oberlin that such women as Almeda Booth, General Garfield's counsellor and friend, came for what they could not get else- where. It is only reaping what you have been LAKE ERIE SEMINARY GREETING. 1 87 sowing that you have so many young women in the classical course of study, and it is largely due to your influence that in so many places college courses and degrees are free to women as men. It is a fair, open field now, and the honors of suc- cess are for all. But how much is best for young women? How shall they spend time and strength when both seem so small and the field of knowl- edge grows larger every year ? A woman's train- ing must be a more complex matter than a man's, for the special preparation for her woman's work cannot wait till college days are done. All along the course, by the side of her Greek and mathe- matics, she must be learning and doing a thousand little things which belong to women, not to men. So she needs more time, and in order to secure the time, there must be wise planning when she is but a wee thing, and faithful oversight all along the line. If you say she need not be ambitious to ac- quire so much, I must answer that my sympathies are on the side of the girls who aim high and want the best that is to be had. And if it were not for wasted time and strength coming from indefinite- ness of plan in earlier years, and from insufficient and overlapping courses of study, which do not prepare for college, there need be no great diffi- culty in compassing all that is included in the most liberal courses of study. Can we not do something as teachers to set girls in the way of systematic preparation, so that they may come fresh and vigorous to this higher work ? There is another queston. What is woman's 1 88 OBERLIN JUBILEE. place as teacher in these days ? A very large place, say those who know. The teaching in our public schools is mainly in the hands of women. The silver-tongued Dr. Storrs, an orator indeed, said at the fiftieth commencement of Abbott Academy (that school for women, older even than Oberlin), " The work of education becomes not woman's occupation merely, but her profession even." And here again, Oberlin has recognized and acted upon the truth. She has been a wise, cherishing mother beyond most colleges. Her Ladies' Board com- mands, my admiration and respect more than almost anything else in her system of education. We, at Lake Erie Seminary, are proud to think that one of our own graduates has so long been a member of it. How wise to provide for the over- sight of girls by mothers as well as teachers, and what a support to the little group of lady-teachers with their charge of almost eight hundred, and how admirably the balance is thus preserved in the interest of all that is womanly. And, as if this were not enough, the homes of Oberlin have sup- plemented this work, " town and gown," not at sword's point, but at one. Fathers and mothers, as well as professors and tutors, and boards of management! The school thus equipped must prosper. None the less, I confidently expect, as I hope, to to see the day, when Oberlin will call more women to her board of instruction. I do not wish to see a woman in a professor's chair as a matter of chiv- alrous concession, but only as she is best fitted for LAKE ERIE SEMINAR Y GREETING. 1 89 the place, and because the place wants her. There are departments which a woman of years and ex- perience might fill as ably as a man, and some of us cannot help smiling when we see young men scarcely out of their boyhood, selected and hur- ried off to Germany for a year or two of study to prepare them for some professorship of language or literature. Of course, this is a private judg- ment from the standpoint of a female seminary, a place at once conservative and radical, conserva- tive because of its separation from the outside world, and always in danger of narrowness of vision, but also radical, because having done work which calls for no small amount of executive force and intellectual power, and having done it, perhaps, for a score of years, women teachers cannot clearly see why women may not stand beside men in the work of instruction anywhere. There are two sides, there are many sides to this question. We are bound together in one body of our womanhood, and we do not complain, we glory in it rather, that women will always find their best, their truest work at home, and that they are not as a class open to calls to a profes- sor's chair. Nor is it matter of regret that any woman, the most absorbed and devoted, may hear and heed another kind of call, and Tennyson's Princess become reality. We take account of this measure of uncertainty in what women may do, but we also remember that there are those who are set apart by a great sorrow or by some con- straining circumstance to special usefulness in the 190 OBERLIN JUBILEE. work of education. Such women will not beg for places in which to work, nor should their fitness for any place be measured by the fact that they are women. Sad would be the day if women, not Christian, consecrated women, but fond of power, with vain ambitions, should clamor for places of high trust, and by wrong use of womanly influence get them only to disgrace the name of woman. Such a pos- sibility presents itself to many minds, and danger lies this way. Without balanced Christian charac- ters, without modesty and humility as well as self- respect and self-control no woman can be fit (can any man be fit ?) far a professor's, a teacher's post of honor and responsibility. Therefore, neighbors and friends, our highest duty to-day is to preserve the ideal which has been presented at Oberlin, which should be the standard everywhere. Character, character, is more than culture. It is the ripe fruit of Christian culture. Are we growing ambitious for degrees? That may be a noble ambition, but let young wo- men remember that the A.M. which adorns their names should have also this meaning: Mistress of the Arts of home-making and heart-keeping, finest arts of all. Do not despise the culture which may not be as high, intellectually, as yours of these later years. It may be more broad and deep. The narrowest people in the world are those whose intellects are cultivated at the expense of their hearts. When Professor Ellis asked me, weeks ago, to LAKE ERIE SEMINARY GREETING. I91 say a few words in this Alumnse meeting, how could I know into what a few words might grow ? Words! words! how many spoken and to be spoken in these Jubilee days ! How can one have ventured to add unto them? Would not silence have been better, sitting as our Quaker sisters sit, to let the still, small voice speak ? But even they arise to take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. We will do likewise. We reverence your honored names, we rejoice with you in your fifty years of struggle and victory, and your grand outlook into the future. Words cannot tell what we think of you and hope for you. But we join our voices with your great chorus to sing " Hallelujah," not unto Oberlin, but unto the Lord be the praise, as unto Him we lift up our prayers that you may be delivered from all things that defile, and that you may go forward as many years as are in the wise and loving purpose of Him whose years have no end. RE-UNION OF ALUMNI. Auditorium, July 3D, 2 p.m. THE FIRST DECADE. BY REV. H. L. HAMMOND, '38, Chicago, 111. The first decade was the heroic age of conflict. I. With nature. The proposal was to found here an educational institution. But the ground was occupied with whole regiments of nature's soldiers; tall, stalwart, compactly set, that knew not how to retreat, but did know how to hold the fort, with feet set deep in the most tenacious of soils. In this first conflict "a man was famous according as he lifted up axes against the thick trees." But though hewn down by the battle-axe, the stumps held the ground all the same ; and what grubbing, what wrestling with roots, what dodging of mud- holes, what devices to fill mud-holes, what toil, what sweat of the face was needed to open these lands for the sun to come in, for building material to come in, for the world to come in and find the secluded spot ! The faith, the persever- ance, the patience that fought through this battle are above praise. No wonder that some were not equal to it — that we hear of one who had brought his family all the way from Vermont, but halted half way from Elyria, and went back to New Eng- land. Some one has alluded to the variety ot tracks between Elyria and he^e, but if he had asked which he had better take the answer might THE FIRST DECADE. IQj well have been : " Take any of them, and before you are half way there you will wish you had taken some other." In 1836, after three years of the decade had passed, a visiting editor reported that " recency and incompletion" were the "charac- teristics of Oberlin." 2. There was a conflict with bad men, men who hated religion, hated temperance, hated the colored man, hated the Abolitionists. Happily this contest was less perilous personally because of the loca- tion. A drunken mob, if one had started for the place, would have been sober before wading hither. The earth would have helped this woman in the wilderness by opening its many mouths and swallowing up the rabble flood sent after her by Satan. I am not now speaking of a fanciful peril. Had Oberlin been near Cincinnati or Phil- adelphia or New York, its buildings would have been torn down by the minions of the slave-holding oligarchy as fast as erected. The same lawless power that threw press after press of Lovejoy's paper into the Mississippi would have thrown down these walls one after another if they had been within reach. 3. There was also a conflict with good men still harder to wage. Men who thought another college in Northern Ohio needless and antagonistic to existing colleges, who distrusted the plans and principles of Oberlin and doubted our leaders ; men who had the ear of the public, who controlled most of the religious papers and most of the wealth of the country. They made it hard for 194 OBERLIN JUBILEE. this college to get recognition, hard to get means ; they drove its friends out of the country to the mother-land for standing and funds. They with- held aid from our students while preparing to preach, and pulpits from them, when prepared. They cast odium on the very name of our Alma Mater, and branded all who had been connected with her in any way. Some who had never seen the place were actually excluded from churches under the vague charge of " Oberlinism." I asked, in one case, of a Presbyterian elder " what wrong they had done?" The reply was, "We didn't quite know what to charge them with, and so we said ' Oberlinism.' " This experience, unfortunately, was not confined to the first decade, and I will dwell on it no longer, lest I trespass on the ground of succeeding speakers ; I will only add, the hardest of all our battles was this with good men, and it is the greatest wonder of the century that they did not strangle Oberlin in its cradle. " If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men (bad and good) rose up against us, then they had swallowed us up quick." The first decade was one of experiment. I. In the matter of diet. How little a student could live on and do" his work ; whether he needed meat, or milk, or butter, or tea or coffee ; whether his appetite was any index of the kind or amount of food best for him, or that " he should rise from the table as hungry as when he sat down ;" how many " condiments," he should use. Some simple souls THE FIRST DECADE. I95 had to ask — "Condiment? what dish is that?" From what has appeared at Oberlin tables in later years I infer that good food is now thought as useful to students as to other people, and that un- perverted- appetites direct as to the quantity needed and are not to be despised. 2. Experiment in manual labor. It was then claimed that regular labor for a few hours of the day would be a help, not a hindrance, to study, and would also be a great pecuniary benefit to the student. So we tried that experiment, under great disadvantages, it must be confessed. The transition was very stern and violent here from the metaphysical to the physical, from Greek roots to oak roots, from chopping logic to chopping cord-wood, from logarithms to log-rolling. Yet probably the results would have been about the same anywhere. A man cannot long give his best energies to two different kinds of business, and when both kinds demand the best as conditions of success, one or the other must soon suffer, or this servant of two hard masters must suffer. Change of work will for a time be a kind of relaxation, but only for a time. 3. Oberlin experimented on a new course of study. It was thought that the Hebrew might take the place of some of the classics, and that inspired seers might discipline the mind and heart better than pagan poets. The displacement of the Hebrew from the college course belongs to a later period, and perhaps the older alumni engaged elsewhere are not as good judges of the wisdom 196 OBERim JUBILEE. of the change as those who have here made the educational problem their life-study. Yet for one I hope that admiration of the Latin and the desire to be like other colleges will never crowd out good old-fashioned English, even on com- mencement day : at least that the two languages will never get so mixed as they were in the mouth of a pedantic college president further west, who called for " more musica." 4. Co-education was another experiment, and I am happy to add, proved such a success that it remains to this day. It was not absolutely new here ; it had been found in alt public schools for children, some academies and some Methodist denominational institutions, but probably no col- lege attempted it before this. I will allude to one of its perils in those early years. Indecent anonymous letters to the young ladies gave evidence of the presence here of a villain, for the treatment of whom Oberlin received the severest criticism and condemnation. A determined effort was made to hold its theology responsible for the extra-judicial means used to detect and suppress the scoundrel. As I was not here at the time, I may be allowed to say a word in behalf of my Alma Mater, which, so far as I know, has never been publicly said. Men in an emergency sometimes act better than they can explain or defend themselves for afterwards. Andrew Jackson always beHeved that he did right in suspending the City Government in New Orleans, but it is said he never knew how to THE FIRST DECADE. I97 defend himself till Stephen A. Douglass explained it to his satisfaction. Oberlin at the time humbled itself before the public and pleaded guilty. While I admired its meekness, I demurred to its plea. It was not guilty, or if it was in some sense, the celebrated verdict, " Not guilty ; but mustn't do so again," should have been exactly reversed, " Guilty ; but must do so again every time." That offender struck at the very life of this great in- stitution. Unless he could be detected and punished and such deeds prevented, all the lady pupils must leave Oberlin never to return, and no others come ! Parents could not send their daughters here, brothers could not bring their sisters here for education. But no law on the statute book of Ohio could reach the culprit. It was a plain case where a community should fall back on its reserved rights, and for self-preserva- tion become a law unto itself. There are times when men should follow the dictates of their own sense of justice and obey human law passively by suffering its penalties when they come. Strategy for the detection of the masked villain and muscle for his punishment were then in order: the study of the statute book could wait awhile. To rob the shipwrecked sailor of his boat and leave him only the sinking wreck or a single plank in mid-ocean is a robbery which means murder also, and may be resisted to the taking of life. Hanging for horse-stealing on the frontier seems horrible to an Eastern compiunity. But to take away the horse of the frontiersman and leave him 198 OBERLIN JUBILEE. on a boundless waste or in the dense forest is more than stealing — is murder. Hence the deed must then be made at least an extra hazardous business. So indecency here was more than in- decency ; it was high treason. The miscreant who then struck at the vitals of this institution ; who would have prevented the education here of thousands of young women ; and would have marred the whole plan and prosperity of this com- munity ; he and his friends should have been pro- foundly grateful to that leniency which spared his worthless life, which first prayed over and then only horsewhipped him, rather than hung him to the highest tree in the forest. All sorts of theorists and fanatics came to Oberlin in those early days, attracted by her repu- tation for proving all things, but many of them turned sadly away when they learned that she would " hold fast" only " that which was good." Perfectionists, when they heard of the zeal here for higher Christian attainments, came to tell us we might easily be perfect by rising above the moral law as a rule of duty, but they found here a conception of law so high there was no rising above it, so broad there was no escaping it, and they went elsewhere for proselytes. Millerites, when they knew how eager we were to renovate the world, thought we would readily unite with them in burning it up by 1843. But Henry Cowles — blessed his memory and blessed be his commentaries ! — went into such a thorough study of prophesy as to detect the shallow impos- THE FIRST DECADE. I99 ture, and such an exposition of prophesy as to confound, not Millerism only, but all other Judaistic interpretations of the old prophets that look to a literal rather than a spiritual kingdom of God. Phrenologists came with their busts and charts, mapping out the human brain and locating " the thirty-five faculties." But President Mahan de- clined to teach us mental geography from their maps. The creed question came up in 1836. Prof. Finney, with characteristic indignation against some formulas of doctrine that had hindered revivals and stumbled inquirers, said: "I have sometimes thought that I would have only tAvo articles in a creed : First, that the Bible is the only rule of faith ; and the second, that every other creed under heaven is an abomination in the sight of God. But, brother," he added with that good common sense also characteristic of the man, " I have observed that churches without creeds have not generally turned out well." And he prepared one for the first church, at once evan- gelical and liberal, which excluded no Christian, and has without change been satisfactory for forty-seven years. Yet should it ever come to stand in the way of growth in grace or of earnest hopeful work for souls, Finney would be the first to call for a revision. Dr. Chalmers once asked a New School Ameri- can, " What is this New School Doctrine I hear so much about from America?" " It is an effort so 200 OBERLIN JUBILEE. to state the doctrin,es of the gospel that when it is preached to the sinner he shall have no excuse for not immediately leaving his sins and accepting salvation." " A most desirable object !" exclaimed the good old Scotchman. And is not this the test for any new statements of theology now ? If they are needed to save souls, if they are eminently successful in converting men from sin, they will worthily challenge the atten- tion of all Christendom. If not helpful in this direction, the presumption is they are of doubtful value. The medical question also came up in those years. Big pills, little pills, no pills at all, cold water, hot water, and magnetism all had their advocates. Even disease was defended as right action, not wrong ; as nature shutting down the gate for repairs and pleading not to be interfered with till the job was done, when she would her- self hoist the gate and resume operations. How these medical questions were settled I don't quite remember; perhaps the president's history tells. Extempore preaching was a favorite reform in that decade. We all expected to adopt it through life. How easy it seemed to preach extempore as we listened to Morgan and Mahan and Finney ! As easy as it was "for the Indian to see the white man mow !" But many of us found to onr surprise that our scythes were not hung right, they would not cut so smoothly when we sought to turn so nice a swath ourselves. The reform did not suit us all. Many of us have to write, not as I heard a THE FIRST DMGADE. 20I gentlemaij say in Chicago last week, that he might know afterward what he had said, " but that we may know when we rise what we are going to say." The spelling reform came too late for that decade. Oberlin did nothing for it then. I hope some of my successors will tell of worthy zeal against the drones of vowels and consonants in our printed pages, that parade themselves before the weary eyes, but never utter a sound ! I may be disappointed in this hope, for not long since I sent a letter to the president, written in the economical, sensible, short spelling way, assuming that he would, be delighed with and would imitate the beautiful model ; but I received a very courte- ous, fraternal reply, postscripted with : " Excuse my spelling; I have not time to spell short." I have been asked about the humorous things and the college pranks of those times. My recol- lection is that humorous things were scarce then. The atmosphere was not congenial ; the business of life was thought too serious ; our responsibilities too overwhelming for trifling. Others may hav.e different impressions, but if there was then much here that was funny, " you can't prove it by me." I did indeed hear that one of the professors was accused of lightness because, after a dry season, when the vegetables had grown very small, he asked at the table for "an adult potato." Perhaps the most ludicrous thing was one that was intended to be very serious — a labored argu- ment by a sophomore to prove that it is wrong for a Christian ever to laugh. 202 OBERLIN JUBILEE. There were times here doubtless when the mirth- fulness of youth was too much repressed. When the inquiries by the little boy of his mother might have suggested some valuable lessons to parents : " Mama, sball I go to heaven when I die ?" " I hope so, my dear." " Who will be there, mama?" " Good children, my boy." " Will all the children there be good ?" " Yes, my son." " But, mama, if I am very good, then, all the week, don't you think when Saturday comes they will let me have just one little devil to play with ?" The good people here filled the hours too full of work and left too little time for play. But is not the drift of many colleges to-day too strong in the opposite direction? The old English Reader on which some of us were brought up, had a select sentence of l;his sort, rather stilted, for children : " Amusement sometimes becomes the business instead of the relaxation of young persons ; it is then highly pernicious." I should be a poor witness about " innocent college pranks," because, first, I am not sure of their innocence ; second, I don't remember any ; and third, if 1 did I should think them better con- signed to oblivion than published. Why students should not obey law as well as other young men ; why they should not be kind, gentlemanl}?, and fraternal in all their dealings with other students ; why it should ever be thought that cunning, or smart, or cute to haze their fellows, to steal melons, to prowl about hen-roosts, to play tricks THE FIRS2' DECADE. 203 on loving-, self-denying teachers, I never could understand ! Older colleges have these things as a heritage from darker ages : why not allow them a monopoly of such exploits ? We can't compete with Princeton, or Unron, or Yale, or Harvard, or Dartmouth in the record of " hazings," " bully- fights," " rushes," rebellious and disgraceful broils. Why should we try ? If there has been an3-thing of the kind here let us hasten to bury it out of sight, that it come not to the notice of posterity. The first decade was one of intense spiritual earnestness. It would be easy to trace this institu- tion itself back to the Finney revivals of 1825-32, which inagurated a new kind of preaching, called for a new type of ministers, and suggested new schools for training them. A beginning was made in the " Oneida Institute," founded by Rev. (j. W. Gale, Mr. Finney's old pastor, at Whitesboro, N. Y., which tried manual labor and espoused abolition before Oberlin, which welcomed colored students without a contest, which discarded meat and tea and coffee ; from which Oberlin received twenty-five or thirty students, either directly or via Lane Seminary ; whose students gave to Lane Seminary its anti-slaver)'^ character, whose great leader, Theodore D. Wild, converted these col- onists and students to abolition, and from which, in many respects, Oberlin was an evolution. It was therefore eminently fit that Finney should be called to mold the spiritual character of Oberlin. That he did mold it, and was the great historical man of the early times, none can doubt. 204 OBERLIN JUBILEE. His position was at first in the theological depart- ment, but by his preaching he gave to all the students their theology. They maj' have gone elsewhere to study theology, but the principles Finney had so deeply implanted could not be dis- placed. And his practical discourses who could forget? When he so vividly describes the symp- toms of any moral disease, and looked into you with his great searching e3es, you were almost certain you had that disease, whether it were luke- warmness or pride or even hypocrisy. There were indeed some sensitive and over con- scientious souls who were not so much benefited b}' Mr. Finney's preaching ; nor was he alwaj's most useful when he thought himself so. In his autobiography he speaks of an address made in the chapel in 1836, on the distinction between "desire and design or purpose;" and tells how useful it was in sweeping away false hopes, so that nearly all the students rose to confess that they had never been Christians. I well remember that scene, and have no doubt that a large proportion of those students were mistaken in their hasty judgments against themselves. Yet vulnerable as he was in some respects, I have not the heart to criticise the noble man. Others did that enough and much more than enough. " The archers shot at him and hated him, but his bow abode in strength, and his hands were made strong by the mighty God of Jacob." Oh ! for more of such men. This age needs them ; all ages need them. THE FIRST DECADE. 205 I must not forget to speak of our other teaehers in that decade : of President Mahan who guided our metaphysical studies, and who never shrank from the discussion of any subject through diffidence of his own abiUty to master it ; of John Morgan, whom everybody loved, able to hear any recitation in any department except perhaps that of Prof. Dascomb in anatomy; of Henry Cowles, who knew so well how to give us the results of great learning without parading the processes, and his brilliant brother, John P. Cowles, here only in the earlier years, whose darkened old age awakens our keenest sympathy ; of James A. Thome, the genial professor of rhetoric and belles-lettres ; of George Whipple, bette-r known as the able secre- tary of the American Missionary Association ; of T. B. Hudson, with his wonderful vocabulary, who so enlarged our knowledge of dictionary English ; of the lady principals and teachers, Mrs. Dascomb, Mrs. Cowles, Miss Adams and others, all kept here and at their faithful labors, not by their meagre salaries, but by conscience, by the love of Christ and the love of souls — worthy coadjutors all. We went forth with their blessing, graduating under the old tent spread on this very, spot. " Aye, call it holy ground." I have been this morning to see the historic elm. It is not large — very small indeed in com- parison with the historic trees of Harvard and Yale; but it has not a wound or a scar on its trunk, or a dead branch on its top ; it is sound, healthy and well proportioned. On the whole, I 206 CBERLIN JUBILEE. am glad that the fathers bowed in their consecrat- ing prayer under so young a tree, that has so much of its hfe still in the future. It is symbolical, 1 trust, of the life of Oberhn. The fifty years which have seen the fathers all pass away have left the elm in the beauty of its youth. It promises to flourish when fifty more and other fathers shall have passed awaj' ; yea, a hundred more. And may I humbly suggest to the citizens here that you preserve it with a more sacred care that it may long be green and flourish. Please ! re- move that sidewalk which lies on its roots. Please ! take away that hitching fence and let the horses tramp on less sacred ground. Please! take out that big screw from one side and that insulator from the other, and as fast as needed, remove other trees from around it, that this may have room to spread ! In pleading thus for the elm I mean to plead for what it symbolizes. Put nothing in this institu- tion, allow nothing around it that shall mar its symmetry or hinder its growth. Keep it in all its departments true to the grand original idea of educating the young for Christ, and the God of our fathers will make its life like the life of a tree. THE THIRD DECADE. BY REV. J. L. PATTON, '59, Greenville, Mich. In a late issue of a certain Oberlin publica- tion — "Jubilee Notes," No. 4 — some good man writes : " I stood around the cradle of Oberlin in its infancy." When I came here, although my capabilities in that direction were, perhaps, equal to those of any man on the ground, that feat was no longer practicable. I had to stand around somewhere on one side of it. The cradle and everything in it had been growing for twenty years, and it took even older men than I was to " stand around " it. And it was a curious looking place for a cradle, as it first appeared to me. 1 reached the " Hotel Plumb" an hour after a midnight early in March, 1853. The night was dark and rainy, with the now well-known adjuncts of place and season. I rode from the depot in a hack, holding on to my- self and my new trunk — a miscellaneous sort of a ride. In the morning I felt much as must that man of modern fable who crossed the stream and broke the bridge down behind him. It was cheaper to stay than to try to get back to the depot, so I be- gan to adjust myself to my nine years' stay by looking out of the window for the College. 208 OBERLIN JUBILEE. It was just such a morning as men hang them- selves in. The ground was covered with snow, where it was not covered with water. The clouds were black and cold, and the wind was piping. Tappan Hall Square — it had not then grown to the dignity of " College Campus " — lay picturesque and dismal. It had but recently been farmed ; thrown up in broad ridges, like an old Virginia tobacco field, which were now white with snow, the long, black pools of water lying between. The whole was surrounded by a crooked rail fence of various height, with an incipient osage hedge just inside of it. Tappan Hall was the only building that in any sense looked like a college, and I have not yet lost the feeling stirred up by that first look at it — I should like to see it razed before we go away from here. Altogether the outlook, that morning, was desolate in the ex- treme. The place, too, was full to bursting with stu- dents. The scholarship system had just raised the number of them from five hundred to a thou- sand, and there was no room anywhere — in reci- tation rooms, at breakfast table, on the side-walks, — and I found room to sleep only when a good housewife took pity on me and put me, for the time, in her spare bed. And all faces were strange to me. Oberlin had not at that time much constituency in the parts I came from — the Little Miami Valley — and it was some six weeks before I caught sight of a face that I had seen elsewhere. It was in a high gingham THE THIRD DECADE. ZOg bonnet; and to this day I've not been sorry that I came to Oberlin. A few days after I came here, the whole people turned out to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of, I think, the arrival of the first family upon the colony ground. Then began my first real acquaint- ance with Oberlin. The meeting was held in the first church, recitations were suspended, and every- body was there. Peter P. Pease told his story, and Mrs. Pease told hers. The whole matter, of wondrous interest, was then talked over. The peo- ple, both of colony and college, thanked God for Oberlin, and prayed, and the new men on the ground began to have some idea of what they had come into. The third decade of Oberlin was a time of great events, and itspecuHar features were marked. The tide of events in the nation, in the educational and missionary world was rising, and the day of small things, for Oberlin, was past. No mention need be made here of the religious features of the time; they have from the first been constant, and we well know so, also, of the moral and political fea- tures of the Institution, together with her force in the nation as an educational centre. It is conceded that in those stirring times which changed the fea- tures of the nation, Oberlin carried a high hand. No single religious and educational institution in the land, or political organization, so molded and pushed forward the public opinion that forced the great changes of '60 to '65, as did Oberlin. She was enabled to thns stand before all others 2 lO OBERLIN JUBILEE. by a peculiar feature, which culminated, perhaps, in the third decade, and has now well nigh dis- appeared. That was the golden age of winter- school teachers. The men and women of that day here were themselves a peculiar feature. They were not sent to college ; they came of their own motion. They were more mature, not to say older, than college students usually are — than they are here now. They were young men and women who had tried the battle with the world for them- selves — had seen the need and use of mental training, and neither needing nor wishing any to help them, they came here, rolled up their sleeves, and went to work to hammer their own way through four, six, nine years of study well put down. They were self-reliant, independent, of good fibre, and afraid of no honest work. Arti- sans, mechanics, gardeners, teachers, enough to man all the useful industries. In the class of '59, for example, of the forty-eight who entered three- iifths of us paid our own way from first to last. We were all voters when we entered, except one man and the eight ladies. Of course I don't know whether they were old enough to vote or not, but they all knew enough. Out of this class of mature men and women went forth a regiment of school-teachers every winter. They went near and far — in the State and into neighboring States, pushing even south of " Mason and Dixon's line." Professor Peck, who some way kept tally, reported that about five hun. dred schools were furnished with teachers from THE l^HIRD DJECADE. 211 Oberlin in one winter. They taught school and " boarded round." And they went as propagandists, every one of them, into their schools and into the homes of the people ; whatever was peculiar to Oberlin took root wherever they went. Sunday-schools, prayer- meetings, and churches sprang up in the districts where they taught, and if record could now be made, it would doubtless appear that the Union armies found there good recruiting grounds whence to fill up the decimated ranks, when the time for the deliverance of the slave had fully come. The close of the third decade saw the anti- slavery struggle made national, and the slave-mon- gers' war of rebellion well begun. In this, as in the conflict of ideas and moral opinions that brought in the sword, Oberlin played a part of which her children need never be ashamed. The spirit of self-sacrifice rose with the time, and there was no call for soldiers that was not responded to here. The question was amusingly asked, " Where is Oberlin now ? She brought this trouble on the land ; what will she do in it ?" The seven or eight hundred who from first to last went from classes here into the Union army, gave abundant answer. They Jieed no mention here to-day. Only this jubilee would not be well kept without mention of them When the war was over, the Union saved, and the slave free, an unexpected question arose, not among Oberlin men, indeed, but abroad in the land, by those, perhaps, whose wish was father to the 212 OBERLIN JUBILEE. thought, " What will become of Oberlin now ? The slaves are free ; there are colleges enough without her: she has nothing more to do?" But it soon appeared that the part Oberlin had taken in letting the oppressed go free had only been in- cidental to her life and work. The old " Oberlin covenant " begins, " Lamenting the degeneracy of the Church, and the deplorable condition of our perishing world." The Church of Christ is, in- deed, not degenerate, but the condition of the world is still deplorable, though the slaves are free; and the work begun here when that covenant was made is not done : Oberlin is here to stay. But the place is not the college, nor yet are money and good buildings with endowments a college. The main thing for Oberlin now is that the line of men who laid foundations here be per- petuated. Shortly before he laid down his work I heard Professor Finney say to his class, " You are young men ; we are old. We have taken the world as far as we can take it ; you must take it on from where we leave it, and God expects you to do better by it than we have done." If there are such men here in unbroken succession — men of the mind and heart and spirit to follow Mahan and Finney, Feck and Allen and Cowles, Morgan and Dascomb, and the Fairchilds, and others like them, then this will still be Oberlin College through the coining decade. It provokes a quiet laugh, if nothing worse, in an Oberlin man of the third decade to have it said to him, as he does, " From Oberlin, eh ? How THE THIRD DECADE. 21 3 Obeilin has changed!" when he knows that the world is simply coming to Oberlin. It would not be true to say there has been no change here. There has been. But it is the change that comes of steady, wholesome growth. There has been no " new departure " here. The only thing at all like it occurred when the first Christian family pitched tent under the elm tree yonder. Oberlin is not afraid of " new departures." She keeps her eyes wide open for all such as may be called for by the " new light to break forth " from both God's word and his works continually ; and this removes both occasion and opportunity for them (Synod of Mich, and Olivet College). Oberlin College is not hitched to the last end of any old. confession of faith. Oberlin Theo. Sem. cannot be bound, not even for sake of great en- dowment, to stop a hundred years with any doc- trinal formula the present generation can make. If Oberlin takes the world on from where the men who have gone before left it, she will be ahead of all " new departures." They come only where men have been stopping awhile. When they start up again, it is necessarily somewhat at random, at which some laugh, and others are afraid. There is no danger. They will find themselves after awhile. But the spirit of truth is continually lead- ing men more and more into all truth, and it is better, everyway, to follow him without stopping. And this will we do, are doing. We come back here after ten, twenty, thirty years, and closest scrutiny gives us no occasion to open the way for 214 OBERLIN JUBILEE. the tart rejoinder of the preacher, " Say not thou, what is the cause that the former days were better than these ? for thou dost not inquire wisely con- cerning this." We have found here what we left, with what more the world has called for. We see here a Cliristian Conservatory of Music, a Chris- tian College, and a Christian Theological Semi- nary : a Natural Sisterhood : a college of men among men. We go back to our work cheerful in the faith that it will continue to stand here, untram- melled save by the wants of men and the call of God. THE FOURTH DECADE. BY REV. R. T. CROSS, '6"], Denver, Col. I THINK I can say that I come from the oldest part of our country. One of our little towns out in the Rocky Mountains, is this week celebrating the three hundred and thirty-third aniversary of its settlement by Europeans. Although I do not live in Santa Fe and am not authorized to do so, yet I venture to bring to this young college in this young town the congratulations of the younger college in that older town. I ought to know something about the Fourth Decade, for during nearly four years of it I was a student in the college department, and during the last five years I was back in the Preparatory de- partment, while I kept one eye all the time on the Theological department, and the other on the Ladies' department — though I never belonged to either. The Fourth Decade — to begin with less im- portant matters — witnessed many changes in the college buildings. Colonial Hall and the old Ladies' Hall disappeared, or were moved and metamorphosed into dwelling-houses. I hold in my hand a relic that I have preserved for years, and wish now to put into the Museum of Antiqui- ties which is being formed. It is the handle of the 2l6 OBERLIN JUBILEE. door bell of the old Ladies' Hall. Many ot you, as well as myself, have pulled it with a trembling hand and palpitating heart as you contemplated the possibility of being ushered into that old recep- tion-room, to find the young lady you wanted visiting with a handsomer young man. French Hall and Society Hall were built in 1867 and 1868. The new Ladies' Hall was finished and occupied in 1865. Council Hall was mainly built in 1873. During this decade also the soldier's monument was erected, the Town Hall, the Hotel, the Second Church, and the Pubhc School building. The students of the fourth decade did not help clear the ground on which Oberlin stands, but one day in the summer of 1864, recitations were sus- pended and the students turned out in force to help clear the ground where, for decades and centuries to come, Oberlin was to lay away the remains of her precious dead. At noon the ladies brought out refreshnients and we spent the afternoon most pleasantly, little thinking that some of us would bury our dead in the very ground over which we so Hghtly trod that day. The fourth decade witnessed many changes in the college faculty. Professors Mead, Perry, Rider, Shurtleff, Barrows, Smith, Steele and Rice, Mrs. Johnston and others were added, and Prof. J. H. Fairchild was promoted to the Presidency. A crowd of us college boys serenaded him after his election, and I fear we trod down some (f the flowers in his front yard. Professors Penfield, Allen, Steele, Peck, Principal Fairchild, Mrs. Das- THE FOURTH DECADE. 2\y comb and Pres. Finney retired from the Faculty. The latter also resigned the the pastorate of the First Church, which he had held for thirty-seven years. The venerable forms of Mr. Hill and Mr. Wyett disappeared from the treasurer's office. Professors Perry and Peck died, the latter in Hayti, where he had gone as United States Minister. During this decade there were several destruc- tive fires in Oberlin, at some of which I have a lively remembrance of doing some hard work. After much discussion Alpha Zeta society was organizad. Ten years ago this month my brother, who had come from Iowa to visit me in a severe sickness, came into my room one day and told me that he had been talking with an old Oberlin student who told him confidentially — it was a sort of secret then — that he had been experimenting and had dis- covered a way by which musical notes could be sent over the telegraph wire. That was the begin- ning of the telephone, the discovery of which is one of the great events of this century, an event whose nerve-center Oberlin was permitted to touch, and which in its turn has touched Oberlin in one of its most vital nerve-centers, as the college treasurer could doubtless testify. Oberlin's historic Sunday-school, which num- bered seven or eight hundred, was harmoniously divided, a division regretted by many at the time, but justified by the results. It was not divided, however, until, after the death in 1867 of J. M. 2l8 OBERLIN JUBILEE. Fitch, who had superintended it for twenty-four years. In 1869 the Theological department came so near dying, that the propriety of giving it up and uniting with the Chicago Seminary was seriously discussed. But its friends would not let it die. With the coming of Prof. Mead that same year, and, mainly through his efforts, the building of Council Hall, it entered on a new career of pros- perity and usefulness. The fourth decade was a period of revivals, and of continued revival interest, perhaps not pre-emi- nently so, but as much so as any of the^decades. They were the last of the remarkably sustained revivals under the preaching of Prof. Finney, who had set his heart on seeing another wave of salva- tion sweep over the school and town before he died. The most remarkable revival was in the winter of 1866 and 1867, when a great work was done among the business men of Oberlin. At one time there were about fifty prayer meetings a week in the place. At times hundreds of inquirers would fill all the body seats of the First Church. Those who were present will not soon forget that scene in the First Church on the second Sunday of March, 1867, when one hundred and eight persons united with the church, the largest number that ever united with it at one time. In July, 1852, 105 had united at one time. During four years of the fourth decade it was my privilege to lead the Young People's Prayer Meeting. The opportunity to rise THE FOURTH DECADE. 219 for prayers was given at almost every meeting each year, and never but once, I think, without a response. During this decade Oberlin sent out a large number of her choicest sons and daughters to labor among the freedmen. What those mission- aries did for the blacks and endured from the whites of the South would make one of the most interesting chapters in Oberlin's history. It was true missionary work. They had had the best preparation for it, and living or dead, their works do follow them. But the most important features of the fourth decade I have reserved to the last. At the begin- ing of the decade, and again near the close, events occurred, one of national, and the other of denomi- national interest, and which made it a triumphant decade for Oberlin. The first event was the abo- lition of slavery, for which she had toiled and taught, and prayed, and for which some of her noblest sons had laid down their lives. At the very beginning of the decade came Lincoln's emancipation proclamation, but the war continued twenty eight months longer. Classmates and tablemates talked daily of bloody battles, of defeats and victories, of who had enlisted, who was wounded, and who had died. Still more brave men laid themselves on the altar. In 1864 the hundred days company of students went to Washington, where some of them died in the hos- pital or on the skirmish field. Then came the end, and the soldiers came home, among them the 220 OBERLIN JUBILEE. shattered remnants of glorious Company C. Who that was present can forget the rejoicing of April 14th? Who can forget the illuminations of that night, or the great bonfire in Tappan Square, around which four thousand people were gathered. And who can forget the awful shock of the next morning when news came of Lincoln's assassina- tion ; all day it rained ; recitations were suspended. All day we walked the streets aimlessly, scarcely recognizing our friends when we met them. All day long the college bell tolled. Through blood and tears the victory came, but it came to stay. By constitutional amendment the slave was made forever free on American soil, and given the rights of a citizen, and Oberlin, who had paid her full shall share of the price of victor}^, rejoiced, not boastfully, but with humble, heartfelt, tearful thanksgiving to God. She had been among the earliest on the field. She had never quailed or taken a backward step. She had had the rare " instinct tliat can tell That God is on the field When He is most invisible." And as she was victorious in this matter of applied Christianity, this battle for human rights, so before the decade closed she was victorious in the theo- logical warfare, that she had been waging, or that others had been waging against her. The Chris- tian world saw that a Christianity so practical, a practice so Christ-like, could not be far wrong in theory, and that though they might not accept all her theories, they could recognize them as being THE FOURTH DECADE. 221 within the pale of orthodoxy, and as not so awfully dangerotis after all. The climax of her theological victory, came when the National Coun- cil, representing the Congregational Churches of United States, east and west, old school and new school, held its first regular meeting at Oberlin, in November, 1871, and laid with impressive, yet simple ceremonies the corner-stone of Council Hall. There had been a melting of prejudices before ; prejudice existed after that time. It yet lingers in dark corners and in dark hearts. But when that whole council rose to their feet to honor Pres. Finney, a man who years before had been refused the privilege of sitting as corresponding member in a joint convention of Presbyterians and Congregationalists, and when the moderator of that council, who is now in heaven, uttered those memorable words: " We stand upon the grave of buried prejudice" Oberlin rejoiced, for she felt that she had bravely, and without bitterness on her part, fought and fairly won another great victory, all the greater because her enemies were made her friends. And so, victorious in her contest for human rights, important phases of which were found in her efforts to secure the joint education of the sexes and the races, and victorious in her contest for a better and more reasonable statement of the truths of Theology, she closed her forty years of trials and temptations and conflicts, and lor her fourth decade I think I may fairly claim the desig- nation, Oberlin Triumphant. THE FIFTH DECADE. BY DR. DUDLEY P. ALLEN, '75) Cleveland, Ohio. It is with no slight degree of hesitation that I venture to speak a word before you to-day on behalf of the graduates from Oberlin during the last ten years. For this I am ill fitted both by na- tural endowment, and also by profession. For the fulfilment of such a task one naturally turns to the ministerial or legal professions, finding here men who are accustomed to, and I suspect, fond of public-speaking. In the medical profession, how- ever, are men who, like soldiers, are mighty not in words, but in deeds ; men who do not preach but practice. Since, however, members of the medical profession have been so rare among the graduates of Oberlin, I suppose it has been considered proper to display one during this great jubilee as a curiosity. It is not to be expected that as much can be said of the achievements of the graduates during the last ten years as of those who have been longer separated from college walls. In quiet times, such as those among which we have lived, there has been no great opportunity for the accomplishment of that which, should gain us extended reputation. The first ten years of a man's life are devoted not so much to the perform- THE FIFTH DECADE. 223 ance of great achievements as to preparations for the duties of later life, and the formation of char- acter; and if it can be shown that the recent graduates and present students of Oberlin have been as thorough in their preparation for their life- work and are possessed of as noble purposes as the students who have preceded them, you may be well satisfied that the good work of Oberlin is con- tinuing, and will continue. I shall not detain you long with what I have to say, since it is not fitting that those who are youngest should occupy much of your time. But if we say little you must not think it is because our affection for our Alma Mater is not as strong as that of those who have preceded us. Affection is not measured by the quantity of words spoken. I remember once, while living in a hospital, being roused at night, and finding in the accident-room a man whose skull had been terribly crushed while working on one of our large ocean steamships. The surgeon attempted to do what he could to save the poor man's life, when a fellow-workman, a stout man, pushing the nurses and assistants aside, said: "Why make the man suffer further? Let him die in peace !" The man was silenced, the operation was performed, and the patient was car- ried to the ward, where for days he laid insensible. At length consciousness returned, and I used to visit him dail}', finding him alone in his little room. One morning I found him not alone. With him was his beautiful young wife, whom he had left in Ireland shortl)' after their marriage, and had come 224 OBERLIN JUBILEE. to America to earn money enough to bring her over to him, and on his breast was their first-born child, whom he* had never seen before. As they sat there, looking into each other's eyes, they never spoke a word ; and every, morning, as I lound the young wife there on her visit, I never heard them speak. Do you suppose it was because they had no love for one another that they were not telling it, and so, if we who have most recently become attached to Oberlin say less than those who have loved her longer, you must not think it is because our attachment is less strong. Since the war has ended, slavery been abolished, and the great questions which seemed fitted to divide our union have been settled, those things which have attracted our attention have been less intense, though of as vital importance to our country. The question of temperance, which is growing into such vast importance, has, during the few years past, met no uncertain support in Oberlin, aud the sentiment nurtured among the students here may be as pregnant of good to our country as any principle which has received, the advocacy of Oberlin hitherto. By this sentiment I do not mean that radical untenable ground that the use of alcohol is intrinsically wicked, but that better, that more efficient sentiment held by the best minds in Oberlin, that its use is productive of more evils than benefits. We would ground the work for temperance upon that foundation-stone of Oberlin, " benevolence," and thus advocate the cause of temperance, believing that since the use THE FIFTH DECADE. 22$ of alcohol endangers so many interests and wrecks so many destinies, for all to abrogate its use is but benevolent. There is one other cause that has received much attention during the ten years just past, and that is the cause of foreign missions. Hitherto the efforts of Oberlin have been directed especially toward the elevation of the colored race in our own country, in the West Indies and in Africa. Our laborers have also followed the camp-fires of our advancing civilization in the home missionary fields. While these causes still are, and must con- tinue, as full of interest to the students of Oberlin as ever, more interest and activity has been awak- ened in the foreign missionary field. Workers have gone to South America, to Africa, to Asia, and the islands of the sea, but that which has taken more firm hold upon the heart of Oberhn is that little band, weak in numbers, strong in faitb, which has set foot upon the shores of China, seeking, if possible, to turn that great nation from heathenism to righteousness. The cause is a vast one, com- mensurate with our strongest faith. To further it every energy will be taxed to its utmost ; but should it succeed, it will do more to perpetuate the name of Oberlin than any labors which have preceded it. Co-education, freedom, union, may have existed so long that the struggles which gave them birth may have fallen into comparative ob- livion when the missionary enterprises, inaugur- ated in Oberlin, may be bearing their richest harvest. England may have become, as when 226 OBERLIN JUBILEE'. Augustine lound her, " a single naked fisherman, washing his nets in the river of the ten thousand masts," the vast towers of the Brooklyn bridge may be disturbed only by the waves rippling at their crumbling base, when in the Orient the name of Oberlin shall be loved and honored as we honor it to-day, and her ancient site sought out as is now the birth-place of Saul of Tarsus, that first great foreign missionary. Could Elijah stand again on Carmel, as in the days of old, he would bid his servant go up and look not towards the western but towards the eastern sea, and there he might discern a cloud not bigger than a man's hand, which we hope may in- crease until it fills the whole heavens, and the knowledge of Jehovah, which began on the plains of Asia, shall have traversed the globe, and found again its early home. Then shall be remembered not those " morning drum-beats which encircle the whole earth daily with one continuous and un- broken strain of the marshal airs of England," but rather that other, that noble strain sweeter than marshal notes, grander than drum-beats, dear to every heart in Oberlin — " Must Jesus bear the cross alone, And all the world go free ? No, there's a cross for every one, And there's a cross for me." I must not detain you longer. If the things of which I have spoken are in their youth rather than in their maturity, they are like those for whom THE FIFTH DECADE. 227 they have been spoken ; but they are, nevertheless, worthy of our consideration and our aid. As Ruth, returning to Judea, said to Naomi, " Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God," so as we come back with you here to-day, we would have you know that the students of Oberlin are still actuated by as strong principle as of old, and if there are any here to-day who are still to become graduates of Oberlin, we would all bid you to hold fast to that principle of obligation to God and man which is foremost in our faith, cherishing the truths that are being taught you by those beloved teachers whose hairs are fast becoming silvered with the reflected glories of their coming transfig- uration, for it ought not to displease us that we are " called amidst the tumult and dazzle of this busy life to listen for the few voices and watch for the few lamps that God has toned and lighted to charm and to guide us, that we may not learn their sweetness by their silence nor their light by their decay." ANTI-SLAVERY REUNION. Second Church, July 3D, 7.30 p.m. ADDRESS OF GEN. P. C. HAYES. In discussing the relation to the anti-slavery cause of the infantry who served in the grand Union army during the late civil war, I shall not draw any distinction between the infantry branch of that army and the two other branches — the cav- alry and the artillery. These three branches con- atituted but one army — the grandest, the noblest, the most heroic, the most patriotic and the most un- selfish army that this world ever saw — and it would be unjust to them and unpardonable in me were I to endeavoi" in any respect to exalt one branch over another. Each branch did its duty faithfully, earnestly and heroicalljr, and no one is deserving of any higher praise than the others. Hence, what I shall say will have reference to the entire Union soldiery, who fought to put down the rebellion and to save the nation's life. In endeavoring to ascertain the relation of the Union soldiery to the anti-slavery cause, it will be necessary to consider for a momont the training which that soldiery had received as private citizens in their homes throughout the North for some years prior to the war. The men who made up the Union army were generally men who read, who thought, and who were careful observers of what ANTI-SLAVERY REUNION. 229 went on around them. For years many of them had read anti-slavery documents. For years they had watched the aggressive tendency and the in- tolerent spirit of the slave aristocracy of the South. Many of them had seen that aristocracy lay hold of Texas and wage war with Mexico for the sole pur- pose of extending slavery. They had seen them, after they had entered into that solemn compact known as the Missouri Compromise, tear that com- pact to tatters and trample it under their unhal- lowed feet, simply because the}' wanted more ter- ritory wherein to plant their pet institution, and thus increase their political power. They had seen them set at naught the National Constitution, pass the Fugitive Slave Law, and had not only beheld the proud Southerner, under the protection of that law, bring his slaves with impunity into the free States of the North ; but they themselves had been compelled, like dogs, to hunt down the poor fugi- tive from bondage and return him to his master. They had read of the cold-blooded murder of Love- joy, of the inhuman, murderous and damnable efforts of the slave-power to force slavery upon the people of Kansas, of the barbarous treatment of Anthony Burns, of the shameful hanging of old John Brown, and of the cruel and heartless impris- onment of those noble men of Oberiin who had the courage to defy the slave-power, and, in the- very face of the Fugitive Slave Law, rescue a fellow- being from the clutches of that power, and give him his freedom. They had from their earliest youth participated in the annual celebrations of our 230 OBERLIN JUBILEE. national holiday, the Fourth of July, had drank in the eloquent words of patriotic and liberty-loving men, and had heard that grand document, our Declaration of Independence, read so often that they had learned by heart these sublime senti- ments : " We hold these truths to be self-evident : that all men are created equal," and that " govern- ments derive all their just powers from the con- sent of the governed." Besides all this, and above all this, many of these men had knelt as little chil- dren at the family altar, and had listened to earnest prayers, sent up to Heaven from pure hearts, asking that the slave might be set at liberty, and that our land might become in fact as well as in profession a land of freedom. Being thus educated, they had come to love free- dom and hate slavery. With such training they were prepared, when the time came, to strike hands with the old-line Abolitionists, who had labored in the anti-slavery cause for years, and to help Ihem carry on their work to a successful issue. Perhaps very few or them thought when they entered the army that slavery was to be abolished before they were mustered out ; yet they knew that slavery was the cause of the war — that the slave-power had inaugurated the war, and that this power must be crushed, whether slavery was abolished or not, be- fore the war could end. Hence it was that, when Abraham Lincoln had been elected President and the Southern people had inaugurated rebellion by firing upon the nation's flag, these men rose in their might and their manhood, declaring that the rebel- ANTI-SLAVERY REUNION. 23 1 lion must be put down, whatever might be the cost or sacrifice. Many of us who are here present remember that grand uprising. As we sit here to-day we can re- call the stirring scenes which transpired all over the North twenty-three years ago. We can recall the excitement which was caused when the news was flashed along the line that Fort Sumter had been fired upon. We can remember how eagerly, yet thoughtfully, we read President Lincoln's proclamation, calling for 75,000 volunteers; how quickly that proclamation aroused the whole North to a realization of the fact that the Union could oaly be preserved at the point of the bayonet, and how readily, once realizing this fact, our hitherto peaceful and industrious people began to enroll themselves as soldiers of the Republic, bringing to the altar of their common country that most precious of all gifts, their own heart's blood. An army of 75,000 men sprung into being as if by magic, and was quickly hurried to the field of conflict. But treason was not to be crushed by an army of such insignificant numbers. More men were needed, and so the call went forth for 500,000 addi- tional volunteers. This number was received with- out delay. Our old men, our young men, and our middle-aged men rose in their might, determined to defeat and drive back the mighty hosts of trea- son which threatened to destroy the constitution, crush liberty, and to take the life of the nation it- self. In the face of this threatened danger old party lines gave way. The people, without regard 232 OBERUN JUBILEE. to political faith, rallied to the defence of the old flag. The great liberty-loving North looked upon treason as a crime, and were resolved to put it down. The ruling sentiment was that the Union could and should be preserved, and in obedience to this sentiment the 500,000 additional volunteers were soon on their way to the front. But even this number was not enough. The re- bellion continued to gain strength every day. As the war went on the South grew more and more determined to succeed in their effort to destroy the government, and in order to carry out this deter- mination every able-bodied man in their borders was forced into the army. The consequence was that the Union cause demanded more men and ad- ditional sacrifices. Mr. Lincoln's call again rang through the land : Send me 300,000 more volun- teers. This call,Jike the preceding, was heard and obeyed. The patriotic men of the North had not yet faltered, and they did not falter now. With alacrity and enthusiasm they hastened in each State to fill their quotas, and soon the requisite 300,000 volunteers, with brave hearts and deter- mined wills, started for the front, shouting with one united voice : " We are coming. Father Abra- ham, 300,000 more." And thus the great North kept on, filling up- the ranks of the army as fast as they were thinned by disease and death, until at last treason went down, and the Union was saved. Then it was that we stopped to count the cost of the terrible struggle. Then it was that we found that between the 15th ANTI-SLAVERY REUNION. 233 of April, 1861, and the isth of May, 1865, no less than 2,688,523 men had been enrolled for service in the armies of the Union. And it was this vast army which not only saved the nation's life, but which wiped out slavery at the point of the bayo- net, and atoned for that great national sin by the blood of 340,000 of its number, who went down to soldiers' graves during that mighty struggle. These men had learned to love freedom as they enjoyed it at the North, where there was no such thing as slavery, and where they had free schools, free speech, and a free press. They had learned to hate slavery as it exhibited itself at the South in all its hideous and brutal deformity. In fact, they were anti-slavery men before they became soldiers. I do not mean by this that they had openly de- clared themselves as anti-slavery men or espoused the anti-slavery cause. But had the simple ques- tion, separate and alone, Jivested of every other consideration, been submitted to them whether they would prefer that this country should be dedicated forever to freedom or to slavery, nine out of every ten of them would have declared for freedom and against slavery. With a natural love for freedom, and an educated dislike of slavery, these men entered the army, and God directed their efforts and took good care that every blow they struck should weaken the institution of slavery. This army was emphatically God's army, and He used it to carry out His purposes. God had deter- mined to wipe out slavery in this country by hu- man agency. Long before the war he had raised 234 BERLIN JUBILEE. up a body of fearless, patriotic and liberty-loving men in the North who, in spite of hate, of persecu- tion and of personal violence, had gone bravely forward and done noble service in the anti-slavery cause, and when the proper time came he raised up the grand Union army to take up that cause and carry it forward to success. The Union sol- diery only completed what the old-line Abolition- ists had begun, but completed it in a way that neither the soldiery nor the Abolitionists ex- pected. Thus it is that, when we consider the cause for which it fought and the results accomplished, as well as the character of the men who composed it, our army towers pre-eminent above any army that ever trod this earth. Other armies have been strong and patriotic and brave, but none ever con- tained such a large proportion of intelligent, noble, true, patriotic and heroic men as ours. Other armies have won great and important victories, but none ever won such great and important vic- tories as ours. The great armies of the world have made war to tear down and to destroy ; our army made war to preserve, build up and perfect. Other armies have made war to enslave ; ours to make free. Other armies have made war for conquest, for plunder and for self-aggrandizement ; ours for humanity the world over. We admire Abraham Lincoln because he proved himself one of the noblest men that this world has ever seen. His Emancipation Proclamation was the grandest document ever issued by the execu- ANTI-SLAVERY REUNION. 235 tive of any nation ; but it was the Union soldiery who prepared the way for that Proclamation, and it was the Union soldiery who enforced that Procla- mation after it was issued. It was the Union sol- diery who made it possible for Abraham Lincoln to strike the fetters from the limbs of the three millions of slaves in this country, and to proclaim liberty to every man, woman and child in the land. It was the Union soldiery who not' only saved the nation's life, but who gave to the nation's flag a broader and nobler meaning. When that flag was lowered at Sumter, it represented the doctrine of the old European kings, which the slave-ocracy of the South sought to enforce in this country — that the few are made to rule and the many to serve. But when, after the war was over, our soldiers brought that flag proudly and triumphantly home, baptized with the blood of their fallen comrades, it was the flag of American citizenship, without re- gard to race or color, of equality before the law, of free men and women everywhere throughout the land. But in all this glorious work our soldiers were only carrying forward what had been so nobly be- gun by those who labored so earnestly and faith- fully in the anti-slavery cause before the war. Had it not been for these devoted workers, who did so much to enlighten the public conscience, our sol- diers would not have been what they were; and had it not been for the soldiers the anti-slavery cause would not have triumphed when it did. In fact, the Abolitionists and the soldiers were labor- 23© OBERLIN JUBILEE. ers in the same glorious cause, and were used by God as His instruments in ridding this land of the curse of slavery. Each did his work well ; each labored, not for himself, but for others, and in recognition of the grand work which they accom- plished, let the Abolitionist and the soldier pass hand in hand down the ages, equally honored by a grateful people, as patriots, as heroes, and as lovers of their race. NARRATIVE OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. BY REV. AMOS DRESSER. On the first day of July, 1835, I left Cincinnati for the purpose of selling the " Cottage Bible," in order, from the profits of the sale, to raise funds sufficient to enable me to complete my education. The largest portion of my books was sent to Nash- ville by water. I took several copies of the Bible with me, be- sides a considerable number of the little work, entitled " Six Months in a Convent." In packing them into my barouche, a number of pamphlets and papers of different descriptions were used to prevent from injury by rubbing, intending to dis- tribute them as suitable opportunities should pre- sent. Among them were old religious newspapers, and anti-slavery publications, numbers of the Mis- sionary Herald, temperance almanacs, etc. At Danville, Kentucky, where a State anti-slavery society had been organized some months before, and where the subject of emancipation seemed to be discussed without restraint, besides selling a ANTI-SLAVERY REUNION. 237 arge number of my books, I parted with a large share of my anti-slavery publications. In travel- ng through the State, I distributed most of my temperance almanacs and other books above men- tioned, including a few tracts on anti-slavery, ^iven to those who were willing to receive them. 1 gave none of these to any person of color, bond or free, nor had I any intention of doing so. Near Gallatin, in Sumner County, Tennessee, I sold a copy of Rankin's Letters on Slavery. I arrived at Nashville on Saturday, the i8th of July, and took lodgings at the Nashville inn. The young man who accompanied me, in bringing into the house ray books from the box of the barouche, omitted the anti-slavery tracts and other pamph- lets. Their being overlooked did not occupy the attention of either of us, and on Monday morning the barouche was taken to the shop of Mr. Stout to be repaired. In the course of the day, Mr. Stout remarked to his workmen, as he afterward informed me, that as I came from Cincinnati, per- haps I was an Abolitionist. On this one of them commenced rummaging my carriage. In the box he found, among other pamphlets, a February number of the Anti-Slavery Record, with a cut representing a drove of slaves chained, the two foremost having violins on wliich they were play- ing, the American flag waving in the centre, while the slave-driver with his whip was urging on the rear. This added considerably to the general sxcitement, which I afterwards learned was pre- vailing in relation to slavery, and in a short time 238 OBERLIN JUBILEE. it was noised about that I had been " circulating incendiary periodicals among the free colored people, trying to incite the slaves to insurrection." So soon as the report came to my knowledge, I went to Mr. Stout and explained how the pamph- lets had been left in the barouche. I then took into my custody the rest of them, and locked them up in my trunk. Mr. Stout, on this occasion, told me the scene represented in the cut was one of frequent occurrence ; that it was accurate in all parts, and that he had witnessed it again and again. Mr. Stout was himself a slaveholder, though, as he said, opposed to slavery in principle — a member if not an elder in a Presbyterian Church, and one of the committee of vigilance which after- wards sat in judgment upon me. The excitement continued to increase, and it was soon added to to the report that I had been posting up handbills about the city, inviting an insurrection of the slaves. Knowing all the charges to be false, feel- ing unconscious of any evil intentions, and there- fore fearless of danger, I continued to sell my Bibles in and around the city till Saturday, the i8th of the month, when I was preparing to leave town to attend a camp meeting, held some eight miles distant. A Mr. Estell, formerly an auctioneer and vender of slaves at public outcry, in Alabama, met me at the door, and demanded "those aboli- tion documents" I had in my possession. I replied that he should have them, and proceeded to get them for him. When he made the demand, he was under the influence of very highly excited ANTI- SLA VER Y RE UNION. 239 feeling, his whole frame indicating agitation even to trembling. On presenting the pamphlets, I requested him to read before he condemned them. This seemed to greatly increase his rage. I then proceeded -to the camp ground, where about two hours after my arrival I was taken in charge by Mr. Raughton, the principal city officer. [ take pleasure here in stating of Mr. Raughton, that, allowing his conduct to be strictly official, he exhibited to me throughout the whole of this melancholy affair the kindest and most delicate deportment. I immediately accompanied him to town, where, on arriving at my boarding-house, I found the mayor, Mr. John P. Erwin, waiting for us. He remarked he was afraid I had got myself into difficulty, and wished me to appear before the committee of vigilance. To this I re- plied that it would give me pleasure to do so, as I wished it understood just what I had done, and what I had not done. He then asked if I had any witnesses I wished to have called. My reply was, I knew not what need I had of witnesses, till Thad heard the charge brought against me ; that I sup- posed it would be necessary to prove me guilty of some misdemeanor, and not that it should be re- quired of me to prove that I had broken no law. To his demand, if I was ready for trial, I answered, I wished it to take place immediately, as I was anxious to return to the camp ground. We re- paired to the court room, which was at once crowded full to overflowing. The roll of the committee (sixty in number) was called, and the 240 OBERLIN JUBILEE. names of absentees proclaimed. The meeting being called to order the Mayor stated that he had caused me to be arrested and brought before the committee, in consequence of the excitement produced by periodicals known to have been in my possession, and that he had also taken into his charge my trunk, which he had delayed opening until my return. The trunk was then produced before the committee, and a motion made and carried that I should be interrogated as to its con- tents before opening it. On being interrogated accordingly, I replied, as the trunk was before them, I preferred they should make the examina- tion for themselves. It was then resolved (the whole house voting) that my trunk should be examined. The officer first laid before the com- mittee a pile of clothing, which was examined very closely, then followed my books, among which was found one copy of the " Oasis," one of Ran- kin's Letters on Slavery, and one of " Bourne's Picture of Slavery in the United States." These, I informed the committee, I had put in my trunk for my own perusal, as I wished to compare what had been written with the results of my own observations while in the slave States, and that no individual had seen them beside myself. A care- ful inspection was made of the books. Then were presented my business and private letters, which were read with eagerness and much interest. Extracts were read aloud. Among them was one from a letter received from a very aged and vene- rable lady, running thus : " Preached a stream of AN^I-SLAVERY REUNION. 2\\ abolition two hundred and fifty miles long," in travelling from Cincinnati to Cleveland. Great importance was attached to this. Another spoke of the inconsistency of celebrating the Fourth of July while so many among us were literally in bond- age. Another, from a letter of Mr. Ensign (a gen- tleman well known to entertain no very favorable sentiments for Abolition), which, after urging me to diligence in the sale of my Bibles (obtained from him) jestingly concluded : " Now, don't spend more than half your time among the niggers." This was cheered by the crowd. The last was from a friend of mine, who remarked on visiting his friends at the East Abolition had been the princi- pal topic of conversation that day, and he had preached on slavery at night. Great stress was laid on these extracts, and I was questioned very minutely as to the authors of the letters. They labored much to prove I was sent out by some society, and that I was under the guise of a reli- gious mission, performing the odious office of an insurrectionary agent. My journal was next brought in review ; but, as it had been kept partly in short hand and in pencil mark, the memoranda short and hastily written, it served them little purpose. It was laid down again by the Mayor who had attempted to read it aloud, with the remark, " It cannot be read, but it is evidently very hostile to slavery." A witness was called forward by whom it was proved that an anti-slavery periodical of some kind had been left by some individual on the 242 OBERLIN JUBILEE. counter of the Nashville inn ; that it was left with a copy of the Cottage Bible, at the time I arrived there. On being questioned by me, it turned out to be a copy of the Emancipator, used as an en, velope or wrapper to the Bible. Other witnesses were called, but this is the substance of all they proved against me. It was conceded without hesitation on my part that I had sold a copy of Rankin's Letters in Sum- ner County, and that I had read to Mr. Cayce, at his request, the number of the Anti-Slavery Record before mentioned, which he said contained nothing that any candid man, and especially any Christian could gainsay. The chairman of the committee asked me if I remembered the places where I had circulated anti-slavery tracts ; thus by the form of the question, as well as by his manner, making the impression that I had circulated them somewhere, and that the fact of my having done so was known to the committee. To this I replied that what I did I did openly, that I had not distributed any anti-slavery publications whatever iu Tennessee, except the one mentioned, and that, if any had been found under circumstances calculated to throw suspicion on me, it was a device of my ene- mies. On being interrogated on my former con- nection with Lane Seminary, I informed the com- mittee that I had been a member of that institu- tion, as well as the Anti-Slavery Society, formed there more than a year before, and that I had voluntarily withdrawn, and had received an hon- orable dismission from the same. ANTI-SLAVERY REUNION. 243 A handbill was next produced, and I was asked if I had ever seen it before. After having ex- amined, I replied I never had. I was then asked with a stronger emphasis, if I was sure I had never seen a copy of it. I again replied I was sure I never had. I was asked a third time, with a provoking and still stronger emphasis, if I was positively sure I had never seen anything of the kind. I again took it into my hand, and after ex- amining it more minutely, again replied I was posi- tively sure I had never seen anything of the kind. The trial continued from between 4 and 5 o'clock P.M. until 10 o'clock, when I was called upon for my defence. The perplexity I must have felt in making it may well be imagined when it is re- collected that I was charged not with transgress- ing any law of the state or ordinance of the city, but with conduct to which, if the law had attached the penalty of crime, its forms were totally disre- garded, and this, too, before an array of persons banded together in contravention of law, and from whose mandate of execution there was no appeal. However, I took the opportunity thus offered to fully declare my sentiments on the sub- ject of slavery. While I told them I believed slavehblding to be inconsistent with the Gospel, and a constant transgression of God's law, I yet said in bringing about emancipation, the interests of the master were to be consulted as well as those of the slave, and that the whole scheme of emancipation contemplated this result ; that the slave should be put in possession of rights which 2■4^■ OBERLrN JUBILEE. ■^_ we have declared to be inalienable from him a's a man ; that he should be considered as an immortal fellow-being, entrusted by his master with the custody of his own happiness, and accountable to him for the exercise of his power ; that he should be treated as our neighbor and our brother. In leference to my demeanor towards the slave, that in the few instances in which I had casually conversed with them," I had recommended quiet- ness, patience, submission ; teaching them to re- turn good for evil, and discountenancing every scheme of emancipation which did not, during its process, look for its success in the good conduct of the slaves while they remain such, and to the influence of argument and pursuasion addressed to the understanding and conscience of the slave- holder, exhorting them to obey God in doing justice and showing mercy to their fellow-man. After my remarks were ended the crowd were requested to withdraw, while the committee de- liberated the case. In company with a friend or two I was directed to a private room near at hand, to await the decision. Up to this period during the whole proceedings my mind was composed, my spirits calm and unruffled ; nor did I entertain the most distant apprehension that there would be so flagrant a violation of my rights as an American citizen, and so deliberate an attempt to dishonor me as a man. In this confidence I was strengthened by a con- sideration of all the circumstances of the case. What I had done I had done openly. There was AN TI- SLA VER Y RE UNION. 24 5 no law forbidding what I had done. I had con- tracted no guilt that the law considered such — my intentions had been those of kindness to all — I had no secret feelings of guilt, arraigning me before the bar of my conscience, for any mean or clandes- tine motive. In addition to this, too, among my triers, there was a great portion of the respect- ability of Nashville — nearly half of the whole population, professors of Christianity, the reputed stay bf the church, supporters of the cause of be- nevolence in the form of Tracts and Missionary societies and Sabbath-schools, several members and most of the elders of the Presbyterian church, and from whose hands but a few days before I had re- ceived the emblems of the broken body and shed blood of our blessed Savior. My expectations, however, were soon shaken by Mr. Braughton's saying, on entering the room where I was, that he feared it would go hard with me — that, while some of the committee were in favor of thirty-nine, others were for inflicting one hundred and two hundred lashes, while others still thought me worthy of death. I repeat, that till this moment my mind had been unruffled. But, when it was announced that my life was demanded, for an instant my whole frame was agitated, but when I considered all the oppression that was done under the sun, and be- held the tears of the oppressed, and saw they had no comforter, and on the side of their oppressor was power, but they had no comforter, and espe. cially when I remembered that my precious Sayior 246 OBERLIN JUBILEE. liad laid down his life for me, it seemed a privilege, if demanded, to lay down my life for the brethren. Committing my cause to Him who judgeth right- eously, I again had perfect peace, and with patience and composure waited the issue. My suspense was at length terminated on being summoned to hear the decision; it was prefaced by a few remarks of this kind by the chairman, " That they had acted with great caution and de- liberation, and, however unsatisfactory their de- cision might be to me, they had acted conscien- tiously, with a full recognition of their duty to God : " — they had found me guilty, first, of being a member of an anti-slavery society of Ohio; second, of having in my possession periodicals published by the American Anti-Slavery Society ; and third, they believed I had circulated these periodicals, and advocated in the community the principles they inculcated." He then pro- nounced that I was condemned to receive twenty lashes upon my bare back, and ordered to leave the place in twenty-four hours. (This was not an hour previous to the commencement of the Sab- bath). The doors were thrown open and the crowd ad- mitted. To them it was again remarked, that the committee had been actuated by conscientious motives ; and to those who thought the punish- ment too severe, they would only say, they had done what they, after mature deliberation, thought to be right ; and to those who thought it too light, they must say, that in coming to their decision the ANTI-SLAVERY RE UNION: 247 committee had not so much regarded the number of stripes, .as the disgrace and infamy of being publicly whipped. The sentence being again re- peated, it was received with great applause, ac- companied with stamping of feet and clapping of hands. The chairman called for the sentiments of the spectators in reference to their approbation of the decision of the committee, desiring all who were satisfied with it, and would pledge themselves that 1 should receive no injury after the execution of the sentence, to signify it in the usual way. There was no dissenting voice. The chairman then expressed, in terms border- ing on the extravagant, his high gratification at the sense of propriety that had been manifest in the conduct of the meetings, and that so much con- fidence was placed in the committee. The crowd was now ordered to proceed to the public square, and form a ring. I had been assured that my trunk with all its contents, as they were taken out, would be re- turned to me. But while the crowd were leaving the house Mr. Hunt, the editor of the Banner, and, as I am informed, an emigrant from New England, where he was born, set himself to work to secure in his own hands my journal, sketch-book, busi- ness and private letters, etc. By no one concerned in the whole proceedings, was there so much exasperated feeling shown as by Mr. H. It was now displayed in the cold death-like countenance, the agitated frame, the 24S OBERLIN JUBILEE. hurried, furious air with which he seized the papers and tied them up in a handkerchief, clinch- ing them in his hands, and at the same time eye- ing me with an intense yet vacant gaze, bespeak- ing not only rage, but a consciousness of doing wrong. Of my papers I have heard nothing since Mr. H. took them in his custody. (I was told by Mr. , of Boston, Mass., who accompanied Mr. Hunt to the Southern States, that on their first sight of slavery Mr. H. was so shocked by the crudities and barbarities which his eye's saw and his ears heard, that he again and again repeated that he must return to New Eng- land. He could not live and witness such shock- ing aboriiinations. " Vice is a monster of so hideous mien, That to be hated needs but to be seen ; But seen too oft, familiar with her face. We first endure, then pity, then embrace." I entered the ring that had been formed ; the .chairman (accompanied by the committee) again called for an expression of sentiment in relation to the sentence passed upon me ; again the vote was unanimous in approbation of it, and again did he .express his gratification at the good order by .which the whole proceeding had been charaterized. While some of the company had been engaged in stripping me of my garments, a motion was made and seconded that I be exonerated altogether from the punishment. This brought many and furious imprecations on the mover's head, and created a ANTI- SLA VER Y RE UNION. 24X) commotion which was appeased only by the sound of the instrument of torture and disgrace upon my naked body. I knelt to receive, the punishment, which was in- flicted by Mr. Braughton, the city officer, with a heavy cow skin. It was now the same hour of the night in which "Paul and Silas, prayed and sang praises to God," and I felt that the foundation walls (of slavery) where shaken, the Sabbath — emblem of the rest that remaineth to the people of God — ^was just commencing. Nearly one-half of the committee who condemned me were mem- bers of the different churches in Nashville. Two of them were preachers (one of them a Methodist, the other a Disciple), and a large number of them were members of the Presbyterian church, with iwhom I sat at the communion table about three weeks before, seven of them elders in that church, from whose hands I had received the bread and the cup in rememberance of the sufferings of Christ ; and one of these elders now stood by and held my clothes while I was scourged. These cir- cumstances, together with the calm serenity of the midnight hour, and the thought of meeting that immense crowd at the bar of God, gave feelings better imagined than described. To give vent to those feelings I attempted to raise my voice to heaven in prayer. The death-like silence that pre- vailed for a moment was suddenly broken with loud exclamations, " G — d d — n him, stop his pray- ing !" I was raised to my feet by Mr. Braughton and conducted by him to my lodgings, where it 250 OBERLIN fUBILEE. was thougnt safe for me to remain but for a few moments. And though most of my friends were at the camp grounds, I was introduced into a f-amily of entire strangers, from whom I received a warm re- ception, and the most kind and tender treatment. They will ever be remembered with grateful emotions. On the ensuing morning, owing to the great ex- citement that was still prevailing, I found it neces- sary to leave the place in disguise, with only what clothing I had about my person, leaving unsold property to the amount of three hundred dollars, and sacrificing at least two hundred dollars on my barouche and horses, which I was obliged to sell. Of my effects in Nashville I have heard nothing since my return, though I have often written to my friends concerning them. HOW JOHN PRICE WAS RESCUED. BY REV. RICHARD WINSOR, '6"]. How John Price was rescued at Wellington has for years been a wonder ; but it has often afforded me great pleasure in a distant land to relate the incidents of that hour to many an interested list- ener. On the day in which he was kidnapped, hearing a commotion in the square, I made the remark to a friend, " I must see what the matter is." In a moment I was on the spot, and found that John Price, a boy who had been in my little Sab- bath-school, was kidnapped. All was commotion ; old men and young were ready to start to the rescue. Two men, whom I knew, were just seating them- selves in a buggy. I said, " I go with you," and hold ing three rifles in my hand, we drove through the crowd of students and citizens who had assembled in the square, and taking off my hat, I said, " I am going to rescue John Price." Immediately shout on shout and cheer on cheer went up from the assembly, and on we went. Some had already set out, taking what weapons they could find, and all hurrying toward Wellington ; but our buggy passed everything. That nine miles between Ober- lin and Wellington was made in quicker time than,v 252 OBERLIN JUBILEE. the same distance was ever made by me before by horse and buggy. It was Mrs. Ryder's horse, and she had said, "If necessary, spare not the life of my beast, but rescue the boy." It was the purpose of the Kentucky kidnappers to reach Wellington to take the five o'clock train that afternoon to go South, in which event we, no doubt, should have lost our prize. We reached Wellington, and found the kidnap- pers, with the boy, in the garret of the hotel. An .immense crowd was fast gathering, and hundreds of pro-slavery men, willing to show their loyalty -to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, had gathered at fthe hotel to protect. the man-stealers. Wishing to enter the hotel, we procured the ser- vices of the constable, so as to do it legally, and then Mr. Scrimgeour, our tutor, Mr. Watson and ;myself, led by the constable, proceeded to enter the .hotel ; but as I had a rifle in my hand, I was not at first permitted to enter, while the former two were. I told the crowd of men keeping the door that I must and would go in, as I had authority to do it, whereupon they said, " No arms can be admitted"; but I said, "Well then, take the rifle, if you choose. ,1 must go." They took the weapon, which they bent over a brick wall. I went into the house and up into the garret, or attic, where the boy was. Troops had been telegraphed for to Cleveland, and the aim of the pro-slavery crowd was to detain us . and prevent the few anti-slavery men from getting the boy away before the troops came. But the HOW JOHN PRICE WAS RESCUED. 253 five o'clock train came in ; no troops were there. Watson, Scrimgeour, and the constable left the garret. The two Kentuckians, with drawn pistols, the boy and myself, were left alone, and the door fastened by a rope inside, held by the two men. I found that now some of our students had reached the garret and stood outside the door. I took John Price over to the other end of the room. The two kidnappers presented their pistols, and dared me to touch that boy ; but I said I thought I should, and then took him aside and asked him whether he wished to go back home to Oberlin. He said he did. The sun was just setting, and in the light of the rays that fell upon the floor of a closet, I wrote on a slip of paper a line to let the students outside know our position within. I put that note up the sleeve of my coat and went to the door that was held fast and tight by the kidnap- pers. There was a stone pipe-hole in the wall, and taking a chair near by, I stood upon it, and hear- ing the voice of Lincoln outside, I said, " Lincoln, give me your hand," and out from my coat-sleeve dropped the note into Lincoln's hand (Lincoln tells me he still has that slip of paper). Immediately .the door, by a sudden jerk, came open wide enough to permit the students to thrust in the muzzles of their guns, which kept the door from being closed on their fingers, and then with a united pull the door came wide open. But the two great Ken- tuckians rushed into the doorway, quite filling the space between the door-posts, and a warm contest in words ensued. 254 OBERLIN JUBILEE. At this juncture, I took the boy, putting his arms around my waist and telling him to keep his head close to my back between my shoulders. I stood beside his captors, and pushing my head and shoulders little by little forward, as if listening to the warm debate, keeping the boy at my back, I gave a sudden lurch, passed out with my prize, went through that crowd down the long flight of stairs into a buggy that was in waiting for me, and was off before they knew I had gone. The boy was taken care of overnight, and soon passed on to far-away friends. At Oberlin noble hearts were anxiously waiting to learn the result of the hour. " Sim Bushnell" was able to go to one side of the town while I went to the other to relate the glad news that John Price was rescued — the Lord had given suc- cess. After this, followed the imprisonment of many of our good people. While within these prison walls for the eighty-five days, men's hearts were moved, as was my own, when I stood a youth and saw Burns conveyed between a double line of armed soldiers through the city of Boston back to slavery. Every house-top in the line of march, every window, every door-step, was filled with eager spectators, thousands thronged the olden city as oft they were not wont to do. Then to my young heart State Street became a Roman altar, the sacrifice on which was brightly burning, when from our midst at Oberlin a vouth was stolen. HOW JOHN PRICE WAS RESCUED. 2$$ Into that prison, during our stay, there poured a stream of living souls ; old man and maiden, mother and son, patriot and sfatesman, sat in our midst in that upper room, and tears rolled down the cheeks of many a sire as we related the story of the day. From the far West, from the distant North, from Canada, from the East, and even from the South, came thousands to hear and to see for themselves, to sympathize and to become strong in their pur poses, more fervent than ever, more resolute to rise up and stand against the great curse of Amer- ican civilization. One could not see these thousands of noble men and women visiting us in that prison and notice the deep sadness in which they hung their heads for very shame for America's name without perceiving that hearts were moved in this nation as nothing heretofore had ever moved them, and that patriots were being made ready for the war that was so soon to follow. Nothing in the history of the country so pre- pared it to apprehend and to do away with the evil, slavery, as the influence that went forth from that prison to leaven the whole people, and which so prepared them for the great conflict that was to do away for ever with what was called " the right of man in man." JUBILEE EXERCISES. Wednesday, July 4th. ADDRESS OF WELCOME, BY PRESIDENT FAIRCHILD. Mr. President and Friends: The first im- pression that strikes us as we gather upon this jubilee occasion is one of sadness. " The Fathers — where are they ?" The stately forms that occu- pied the Oberlin platform in the early years do not stand before us. The voices, whose tones of wisdom and authority still linger in our ears, we do not hear. It seems an impertinence that any other forms should rise in our presence, or any other voices ask our attention. But the fathers are not here . to welcome us, as we gather back, after fifty years, to the family heritage. They have rested from their labors — most of them al- ready gathered, in the heavenly jubilee, rejoicing in the Mast&r's welcome, " Well done,. good and faithful servants." The fathers have left us, but Oberlin, which is, in a sense, the mother of us all, remains in her early maturity of fifty years, and she o.pens wide her arms with a welcome and a blessing for us all. She asks all her children, of the earlier and the later years, to make themselves at home once more, and talk over with each other, in her presence, the family history, and their own varied experiences, as they have been scattered abroad in the world. ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 257 Let US look around for a moment upon each ther and see who of the Oberlin family have athered here to-day. All, from the oldest to the oungest, were invited. All would have been lad to come ; but who are here ? Of the score of men and women who fifty years go to-day were sheltered under the trees of the )berlin forest but a scanty representation remains. )f the men whose stalwart arms were laying the )rests low, Philip James is the only survivor, and e is so occupied in laying foundations on the istant prairies of Nebraska that he cannot be with s, but sends us his greeting. Three of the women who were numbered with lat group are found in our family circle to-day— Irs. Stewart, who, with her husband, was fifty ears ago keeping the Oberlin gate at Elyria ; Mrs. lamilton and Mrs. Bartholomew, and, in addition, daughter of the earliest family, Mrs. Amanda 'ease Williams and son, Mr. Frederick H. Pease, 'robably three or four others are present who 3ok up their abode on the Oberlin grounds in 833- Of the teachers who came the first year, only Irs. George Clark, then Miss Eliza Branch, who ad charge of the primary department of the :hool, appears among us. Mr. John F. Scovill, 'ho was at the head of the school the first winter, nd Rev. S. H. Waldo, who took the position of rincipal in the spring of 1834, send us their greet- ig, and the assurance that they are with us in spirit. Ir. and Mrs. Branch are in their distant home in 258 OBERLIN JUBILEE. Kansas, and Dr. and Mrs. Dascomb have left us for the heavenly home. Of the teachers who came in with the enlarge- ment of 1835, Professor Morgan only is here to join in the Oberlin welcome, and to receive our greet- ing. President Mahan, from his distant and abund- ant work in London, sends his salutations. The other two, whose names we recall with reverent love, President Finney and Professor Cowles, we shall meet again only in the final reunion. One who was called to be of this group of 1835, and who responded to the call after thirty-six years, Profes- sor Barrows, still walks with us, and gives us the blessing of his benignant countenance and cheerful, heavenly spirit. Of the group first called in to reinforce these early teachers, trained to the work in the school, Geo. W. Whipple, T. B. Hudson, James A. Thome, George N. Allen, William Cochran, and Mary Ann Adams, all have finished their earthly work. Two only survive, N. W. Hodge, who is with us to-day, after many j'ears' absence, and he who now stands before you, the only representative of those who should have been the venerable members of the working faculty to-day. Of those who suc- ceeded these, and who constitute the present faculty, upon whom falls the burden and heat of the day in college-work, it is not necessary to speak particularly. They are here to speak for themselves, and to sustain the welcome -which Oberlin gives to her returning sons and daughters. Of the trustees of the college there is present ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 259 he only survivor of the nine men whose names irere in the original charter as corporators, Jabez .. Burrell; and others of later years who have tood by the good ship in many a storm, and have lelped to bring her into the calmer waters of this iter day. Many, with the original founders, ave gone to their reward, and need no earthly irelcome. If Mr. Shiphcrd were amongst us to- lay he would be only 8i years of age, not older han some who still remain ; and Mr. Stewart would le eighty-five. It would have been a satisfaction 0-day if they could have been spared to take the entral position in the Oberlin gathering; but Mrs. (tewart stands alone from the original four, ^hose who are called to lay foundations are rarely idulged with the privilege of seeing whereunto heir work shall grow. Students are come back to us to-day, represent- tives, probably, of all the classes that have gone jrth from the different departments during the fty years — some, after a short sepai-ation from iieir college-home, having made a brief experi- lent of life in the outer world ; others, after long ears of absence, which have dimmed their vision nd whitened their heads, bowing somewhatunder le burdens they have borne. They come from 11 the paths of earthly duty and service in which ley have been walking, some of which have led ver the high places of the earth, in the sight of len ; others through obscure regions, unobserved f men, but under the eye of God, with the light of is aoDroval resting- uDon them. All these the 26o OBERriN JUBILEE. Oberlin mother receives to-day with equal favor, because they have done her equal service and equal honor. Those who went out without the letters of maternal commendation, called in advance of the appointed time to their work, did not go without the mother's blessing, nor have they wrought without her approval. They, too, shall find a warm welcome in the family circle to-day ; and those whom all these have brought into the family, adopted children, bound to our common house- hold by the bonds of love, these shall be made at home. It is the large-hearted habit in the Oberlin home to spread the table for all those who have cast in their lot with us. And from how many different and distant parts these scattered Oberlin children return ! — from the east and the west, from the north and the south, from the most distant regions of our own land, and from foreign shores, from the Indies, east and west, from the coasts of Africa, and from the remotest Pa- cific islands. Some have made almost half the cir- cuit of the earth in coming to this home-gathering. May this homeward-looking continue till the full century is rounded out, and onward with the gen- erations. Oberlin is strong in the faithful, steadfast love of her children. It is a richer portion than millions of endowment. We welcome, too, to-day, many citizens of other days, whom the demands of business have drawn to other homes, in older towns, or in the newer west. They have cast in their lot with other com- munities, building up society wherever their lines ADDRESS OF WELCOME. '-261 ive fallen. They will receive a cordial greeting om their former feltow-citizens, and will revive e memories of other days. Our neighbors, too, from the surrounding re- on, who looked on with some misgiving when rangers intruded upon the quiet of the forest ty years ago, to establish a colony and a college, ith radical ideas and tendencies, — these have ■adually recovered from their surprise and un- rtainty, and have accorded to Oberlin a right to re according to her own ideas ; and we now wel- >me them to our jubilee festivities. The patrons and donors and friends, whose hearty infidence and words of assurance and generous fts have been the strength of the college through [ the fifty years, have a hearty welcome. Many these have fallen by the way. Some who stood ' Oberlin when such friendship brought suspicion d reproach to themselves, are here to-day, re- icing with us that the conflict is over, and that spicion and reproach have passed away. There is a welcome, too, for any, if there be ch an one, who might have been ranked with the emies of Oberlin. There were good men who cupied this position, and thought they were ling God service. There was a good old Scotch ■esby terian minister in the neighborhood of Erie, L., who once said in a discussion on the floor of ; Presbytery, " I hate Oberlin almost as much as late slavery, and you all know that I hate slavery I hate the devil." Even that good old hater, if wprp Viprp tn-Hnv ■would rfineive a wplrnmp • '262 OBERLIN JUBILEE. •and he would, doubtless, be able to accept the welcome. It was misunderstanding, not often malice, that blinded the eyes even of good men. We will not mark even " the graves of these buried prejudices," and the verdure of nature shall soon hide them from all eyes. We welcome to-day the representatives of other institutions of learning, who bring us their greet- ings and congratulations. A few of these have an older history, and passed their jubilee long ago. We gratefully accept their recognition. Most of them are younger members of the sisterhood, look- ing forward for growth and enlargement. May all their hopes and aspirations be realized, and their day of rejoicing come before the fifty years are past. To all who have responded to the invitation to the feast, Oberlin gives her cordial welcome ; and to all her children, who hold it in their hearts to come, but were not permitted, she sends her assur- ance of continued confidence, and her benediction. For those who have passed beyond our call, whose names are starred on the family register — noble men and women, who lived to serve God and their generation — ^there are tender memories and rever- ent words. Their graves may be found on every shore, and in every clime, where they have fallen in the conflict of life; and how many of their graves lie along the line of the great battle be- tween freedom and slavery, a sacrifice to the country and to God ! You who return to Oberlin after an absence of ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 263 iny years, find many changes, some of which are sasant, and others painful. The improvement of e town, the dwellings and the lawns, of the col- je buildings and grounds, cannot be otherwise an pleasant, even though the town, by reason ot ese, has taken on an unfamiliar look. The growth the trees along the streets and in the park gives surprise, but no unpleasant sensation. Some of )u planted, with your own hands, the largest of ese elms, then slender saplings which you gath- ed from the forest— an illustration of the growth the humblest of our good deeds. These things )u expected, and they please you. But when )u look for the old buildings, the familiar rooms here you lived, or in which you recited, and do it find them, you feel a pang, and wonder why e old has been so ruthlessly torn away. You do it object to the new, but why not preserve the d? This is a feeling rather than a thought, lie old laboratory was sacred w-ith the memories forty-five years. Why must it be laid low ithin two or three months of this anticipated bilee ? The question of preserving it to this day, erely for these associations and memories, was rnestly considered ; but an important and needed iprovement would be seriously delayed, and we e obliged to ask you to accept, in place of me- ories, the hope and prospect of a new and better lilding, which at the next jubilee shall be even :her in its memories and associations than the d laboratory could be to-day. We cannot carry nnr ruins info the new rnllep'e life, and thus the 264 OBERLIN JUBILEE. old must yield its room to the new. It is doubtful whether Tappan Hall, in its present dilapidation, can afford any satisfaction to those who once found it a pleasant home. It was the purpose of those in charge of the matter to have it in a measure pre- sentable for the present occasion, but not to expend money on repairs. If this purpose has not been realized, the failure must be pardoned in view of the multitude of things which have required atten- tion. But you are more anxious about the inside of the college than the outside. Is the work as satis- factory in all essential features as in former times? Are the young men and women as earnest and true, and thorough-going as in the days of old ? and do they go out in the same spirit and purpose of aggressive usefulness ? The first impression you get of the students of to-day is that they are very young. But you will remember, too, that we were all very young thirty or forty or fifty years ago. The class that grad- uated forty-five years ago averaged but a fraction of a year more in age, at their graduation, than the class that graduated yesterday, and this is a fair exhibition of the facts in the case: young folks look younger to us than they did when we were young. Then, you find the students, in their recreation, on the ball-ground and in the gymnasium, instead of the corn-field and the work-shop ; and you have a misgiving as to their disposition or capacity to do anything helpful or useful. The students of ^ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 265 former days could build Cincinnati Hall, or spread the " Big Tent," as occasion required. The stu- dent of the present, working a day each in relays of classes, under the direction of a student of the Theological department, without any outside help, built for us this " Tabernacle." Some of you, taking your meals at the Ladies' Hall, have ob- served a number of young men acting as waiters, and you recalled the fact, with a sense of the de- generacy of the times, that when you were here the )'^oung women would rise from the table, as occasion required, and bring on a new supply. If you had inquired who these young men are with white aprons, that serve you with such a self- respectful attention, you would have learned that they are members of the advanced college classes, and that several of them graduated yesterday. The students of to-day are your children in the flesh and in the spirit, with the same loyalty to the College, and the same loyalty to the Master. They are ready for the work that needs to be done in this land and in other lands. They are following your footprints far across the "Valley of the Mississippi," into the great " New West" beyond. We thank you for the perennial interest that has brought you to this jubilee. In that abid- ing interest those who are carrying forward the work find their earthly hope and reward. GENERAL COX'S ADDRESS. THE INFLUENCE OF OBERLIN COLLEGE ON PUBLIC AFFAIRS DURING THE HALF-CENTURY OF ITS LIFE. I AM assigned, in the order of exercises, to the delivery of the "Jubilee Address," and it would be a pleasant thing to spend my time in earnest con- gratulations on the fiftieth anniversary of the Col- lege we so greatly love. It Avould be easy, too, on a " Fourth of July" morning to catch the spirit of national rejoicing now resounding throughout the land, and to give rein to the emotions we feel, associating the jubilee of our Alma Mater with the birthday of freedom. But those who have had charge of the programme have wisely indicated the nature of my task, and like a dutiful son, I shall obey. My topic is the influence of Oberlin College on public affairs during the half-century of its life. All colleges have their influence on public affairs, but it is usually an indirect one. Education is without party spirit or partisanship. We are commonly content to trust for its reformator}' power to the general effect of discussion and investigation. But the student is abreast of the progress of the world in knowledge and in mental training, and we feel no doubt he will soon aspire to something GENERAL COX'S ADDRESS. 267 higher and greater. He will be ambitious for his kind as well as for himself ; his own growth will give him broader views and wider sympathies, and thus it will happen, as it has happened, that the most effective support and advocacy of true pro- gress will come from those who have been liberally educated. Not that there is no conservative ele- ment in education ; for we well know that there is — a conservatism that may become bigotry, and that may be the champion of inveterate prejudice and the foe to change. But it is usually from the younger class of edu- cated men, full of the enthusiasm of conscious growth and of the relish for new ideas, that young reforms recruit their ablest soldiers. As human affairs move with great but slow pulsations, a never- ending flow of ebb and tide, the generation of young scholars which comes upon the stage when a new movement is gathering force will naturally be the master-spirits of their time. It is not, however, in this general sense that I propose to treat the connection of Oberlin with the history of the past fifty years. This institution of learning shared with its sister colleges this good work ; but it had also a specific character of its own. It was the organized representation of defi- nite ideas of reform when these ideas were essen- tial ones in a movement which culminated in a great public convulsion, and changed the funda- mental laws as well as the institutions of the coun- try. We are not to inquire what this or that grad- uate of Oberlin did ; but what was the effect upon 268 OBERLIN JUBILEE. the country of the principles openly and systemat- ically taught here ? How was the founding of such a school regarded ? What was its relation to the questions which then agitated the public mind ? and what did the college do toward solving them ? The subject as I view it takes almost the shape of a chapter in the constitutional history of the country, and tempts us to what may prove, I hope, an instructive and not uninteresting analysis of some of the causes which have co-operated to bring about great governmental changes. The great question of -the day was the shameful inconsistency, the grievous wrong, of basing a dem- ocratic republic upon human slavery. Beginning with a very general admission of the indefensible character of the institution, those who profited or thought they profited by it, hastened to defend it. Whilst we were asking the civilized world to ac- knowledge our right to self-government, it was necessary to apologize for negro slavery and to promise that it should be short-lived ; but we passed rapidly from that phase of the question to the Southern demand for its extension, and the bold avowal of the purpose to make it perpetual. Looked at with reference to the history of the national controversy, Oberlin was born at the be- giiming of a new and important epoch. Andrew Jackson- was at the summit of his power, had just been elected President for a second term, and was the autocrat of the great Democratic party. Both he and the party were committed to the pro-slavery GENERAL COX'S ADDRESS. 269 view of the Constitution, and had no toleration for the handful of unpopular fanatics who were prob, ing the conscience of thinking men in the Northern States, and rousing them to an unwilling sense of the responsibility of the whole people for the sin of slavery. But face to face with Jackson, and his rival in the leadership of the party, was Calhoun, the apostle of the extreme Southern doctrine of the right of nullification. A subtler intellect than Jackson's, an equally daring leader, a truer repre- sentative of the Confederate theory of the Constitu- tion as opposed to the national view, and therefore a better representative of the South, Calhoun was conscious of being the only consistent and logical expounder of Jefferson's Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798, and made no hesitation in ex- pressing the scorn he felt for the unionism of Jackson. All the Southern men who meant to make the perpetuity of slavery and its extension the con- dition of the perpetuity of the Union (and they were all the most active and courageous politicians there) knew in their hearts that Calhoun was their proper mouthpiece ; but many of them still nursed a belief that they would be able to control the machinery of the government and secure their ob- ject without so sharp a collision with the feelings of national patriotism which were strong in both sections of the country. Then, again, Calhoun made the mistake a doc- trinaire is prone to, of testing his nullification in a controversy upon a question of mere economics, 270 ^ OBERLIN JUBILEE. instead of saving it for the slavery struggle, which alone could rouse the passions enough to make revolution tolerable, even to his followers. He may even have thought that he elevated his doctrine to a general principle when he applied it to revenue laws which discriminated against the interests of South Carolina ; but the event proved how grave a mistake it is for a political leader to stake success upon the willingness of men to overturn a govern- ment for the sake of logical consistency, when the practical questions at issue have but a common- place and rather colorless interest for them. The noteworthy result of this contest was not so much the defeat of Calhoun upon the tariff question and his diminished importance in his own party, as the committal of Northern Democrats to a broader view of the constitution — a committal that was to bear priceless fruit when the real tug of war should come. To meet his arguments there was nothing for it but to accept the logical weapons which Webster forged for them, and, distasteful as it might be, to range themselves under his intellect- ual leadership- when he proclaimed the United States a nation whose constitution was promulgated by its whole people as an organic law, which only a successful rebellion could abrogate. The Web- sterian arguments had vigorous life added to them by Jackson's, "The Union, it must and shall be preserved," and a keen observer might have got some foresight of the enthusiasm for the flag which was to sweep the country, when madness, trying to maintain a wrong which had already lived cen- GENERAL COX'S ADDRESS. 27 1 turies beyond its time, broke into open war upon the government. The Unionism of that da}^ however, was quite consistent with a very general dislike of Abolition- ism. Indeed, one of the strongest arguments used to quiet the Southern revolutionists was the ex- pectation that abandonment of the doctrines of nul- lification and secession would enable Northern con- servatives in church and state to squelch the anti- slavery agitation. It was natural that the- most earnest debate should be in the Northern church. Here, there was no use denying that slavery was a gross inconsistency with Republican government, and that it was a terrible hindrance to progress in everything which modern civilization prizes. But was the institution necessarily sinful, and should it be a matter of conscience to agitate the question of its restriction or abolition by national legislation ? It is amusing to think with what warm zeal ser- mons were preached on the one side from the apostolic exhortation, " Art thou called being a ser- vant ? Care not for it," and upon the other from the remainder of the text, " but if thou mayst be made free, use it rather." The guilty " conscience which makes cowards of us all," exaggerated in the South the danger of an insurrection, and the apprehension of its perils and horrors gave a pas- sionate intensity to a controversy which would have been bitter enough at best. It was in the midst of this fierce revival of an agitation that was not to be quieted or ended but in the extinction of slavery at the end of fearful civil 272 OBERLIN JUBILEE. war, that Oberlin was founded. Its founders meant that it should be a Christian school of learning, and they purposely established it in a wilderness that it might give its own character to the community which should grow up about it, and retain its indi- viduality and power instead of taking color and being controlled by the influences of some larger and stronger society, in which it might have been placed. It was not only to be a Christian school, but a school for the poor. The farmers' sons aad daughters of the sparsely-settled West needed education which they themselves could somehow pay for; and no plan seemed so likely to bring it home to them as to open a manual-labor school on a tract of wild land still unreclaimed, amidst the more eligible farming towns of the Western Re- serve. The work was to be a self-sacrificing work on the part of the teachers, who were to be pastors of the flock as well as instructors in human learn- ing, and I have always thought it a happy inspira- tion which made them name their new settlement after the devoted pastor in the little parish in the Vosges, who had taught the world a lesson in the art of elevating a community by a wonderful mingling of learning and humility, faith and works, precept and laborious example. If we had known nothing of those first founders but by their work, we should still be sure that they were men of deepest earnestness, of unfaltering courage. Put such a band of workers in the wild woods, where they reproduced many of the char- acteristics of the first pilgrim settlement of New GENERAL COX'S ADDRESS. ^71 England, and where they were surrounded by many of the things which made at once the pil- grims' trials and their strength, and it was pretty sure that they would make their mark upon the world's moral history " The hour and the man" conspire to bring about great events, and here in the little clearing in the flat woodlands of Lorain, with hardly a passable road out in any direction, was a society and a school in just such relations to the time and the great problems which agitated it, as to furnish one of God's opportunities. Hardly had the colonists weathered their first winter and begun to look about them for Provi- dential indications of the next duty, when the ripening era precipitated new questions upon them. The now famous Lane Seminary rebels came, asking, " Is there no place where students of theology may be free to denounce with un- sparing zeal, the great wrong of our time — slav- ery ?" The answer was, " Here, if no other will offer." Whipple, Thome, Streeter and Clark, and their companions, felled the trees, and made their own log hall on the edge of the clearing. The infant college was embarrassed by finding on its hands a theological seminary where it had reck- oned only upon junior preparatory students ; but the event attracted the eyes of the country and of the world. Cowles, Mahan, Morgan and Finney hastened to join Dascomb and Shipherd, who were already here, and Oberlin became at once Oberlin. It was a little place, but a power greater than any Archimedes had at command was looking for a 274 OBERUN JUBILEE. nov (TT<£ for a lever outside the world, and here it found it; behold how little room was needed for a fulcrum for great moral forces! Nor was it in America alone that the common conscience of intelligent people had been laboring with the problem of duty to the slave. The work of Wilberforce, Macaulay, and other English abo- litionists had just triumphed in the West India emancipation, and they gave to the anti-slavery men of this country both the aid of their system- atic methods of agitation and the heartiest encou- ragement by voice and by money. The philanthropists of Great Britain . were, therefore, watching American progress in free- dom, with great interest ; and their own experi- ence in dealing with the sophisms of interested planters, and with their advocates in the legisla- ture and in the pulpit, gave them a lively appre- ciation of the peculiar phase the struggle now took on. The contest was a world's contest, setting both hemispheres on fire, and nothing was done in a corner. The petty village or stream where the forces met in battle might have been never so insignificant till then, but afterward the world would never forget its Waterloo, its Borodi- no, its Gravelotte, its Bunker Hill. Here, too, will strangers come on pilgrimages, and trying to realize the picture of the primitive settlement in the wilderness fifty years ago, will wonder at the Providential disposition which made it a famous battle-field in the War with human slavery. The historian Von Hoist only expresses the GENERAL COX'S ADDRESS. 275 common opinion of students all over the world, in making the relation of our national government to slavery the only constitutional question, worthy of the name, which has arisen in the United States since our independence was acknowledged. National authority and States rights would not have been heard of but for this. The features of our Constitution, which were the pretext for the theory of a confederacy terminable by any of the States at will, would never have been in it but for the slave-power and interest. Avowedly or covertly this has been the real centre of political action, and from the time of which we are speak- ing, the controlling force in the organization and action of political parties. In fighting out the great debate two theatres of operation had to be occupied, though it is hard to define very closely their confines. The fields of politics and of morals, the State and the Church, were equally shaken with the shock of colliding forces. Excitement rose high ; it may not be too strong a word to say it raged in both. Yet political parties (I mean the great and powerful ones) pretended to ignore the only burning question of the day, and ecclesiasti- cal organizations resolved that it ought not to be debated. But it would be debated. Debating whether it should be debated turned, out to be the quintessence of the agitation, involving, in spite of you, all the probing, and the most exciting treatment of the whole subject. It was in the air, and you might as well try to ignore the influence of a contagious epidemic as to ignore this. The 276 OBMRLIM JUBILEE. " thing was of God," in short, and the most trifling events were big with results. A majority of a board of trustees in Cincinnati thought they would help to allay the popular excitement by forbidding the Lane Seminary stu- dents to discuss the slavery question. Some of the professors are said to have had the sagacity to see that this was unwise, but they were overruled. The young men were, a number of them, southern men, whose awakened consciences made the ques- tion an all-absorbing practical one to them, involv- ing such commanding issues of personal duty that each, with irrepressible emotion, was crying out : " Woe is me if I miss the truth in this matter." And so the seminary rebellion came, and " Cincin- nati Hall " was built of logs and slabs in the woods across the green yonder, and the noble men who had gathered as teachers and taught, backed by the Tappans of New York, by Stewart, by Chapin of Providence, by Sears of Boston, and by other men of earnest religious character ajid strong anti- slavery principles, raised the insignificant little school in the wilderness to the position of a power in a great national struggle, from this time forth well known on both sides of the Atlantic. In referring to the action of the trustees and faculty of Lane Seminary, I am under no embar- rassment from the presence of our greatly re- spected guest from that institution (Professor Eells). He and his colleagues are of one heart and mind with us in regard to the great contest for freedom, and are as sincerely in sympathy with GENERAL COX'S ADDRESS. 2"]) the principles which Obedin advocated as the great English statesmen of the present day are with the principles of human rights, which led to our fathers' Declaration of Independence. If Gladstone and John Bright were here to-day, so far from objecting to the rejoicing of the nation over the establishment of its separate life, they would show that they understand, better perhaps than we, the error of those English statesmen of 1776, which caused the separation from the mother country, and might even teach us lessons in the principles of free representative government, for which our fathers fought. As little shall I fear dissent from a Lane Seminary professor of to-day, when I refer to the error of its Board, in 1835, as one of the means providentially used to further the work of emancipation, and to give Oberlin greatly increased prominence and influence in the great reform. Of course, the part Oberlin was to take was in great measure confined to the moral and educa- tional phases of the conflict, and in these we must find the chief significance and importance of its work. Not that it held aloof from political action, for it heartily supported every movement which promised to put the legislation and administration of the country in better accord with the principles of liberty. It has ever had in public life men who may be called its special representatives, like Professors Peck and Monroe, who carried into national affairs the convictions and purposes which specially 278 OBERLIN JUBILEE. marked this community, and as its local repre- sentatives gave voice to them in an authentic and official manner, which has been recognized by the country. But this was incidental to the specific work of the school, which was to educate the in- telligence and the conscience of the people till legislation and governmental action in behalf of freedom should be the necessary response of legis- lator and ruler to an imperative popular demand. The founders of the college clearly saw that to make their influence strong and durable, there must be no doubt or question about their own consistency in principle or practice. As they had firmly seized and tenaciously held the principle of the equality of all men before the law, so they accepted without hesitation the corollary that they must refuse the benefits of the higher education to no one by reason of prejudice against his race. The public adoption of this rule signalized the enlargement of tbe college faculty in 1835. They did not mean to be met by the ancient taunt, " Thou that sayest ' Thou shalt not steal,' dost thou steal." They preferred to be met by the storm of misrepresentation and obloquy which they knew would follow. It was Luther's decision over again. " Here I stand, naught else can I do ; God help me!" It does not appear that they were arrogant in setting a rule for all others, in all cir- cumstances. They only said, " For us who mean to be quite free from all embarrassments in our struggle for human rights against the great sin of oppression, it will not do to shut our doors against GENERAL COX'S ADDRESS. 2/0 any poor youth who may come seeking the treas- ures of knowledge." Social questions they dis- tinctly left to the domain of personal predilection and tastes, sure that true education in mind and heart would not be likely to lead in any wrong way. The storm came. T'hey were charged with teaching and advocating amalgamation. It was but a step to add the imputation of immorality and all vileness. They were to be tabooed, shunned ; they might be glad if they were not mobbed! How almost ludicrous it seems to those of us who can remember any part of that early period, to contrast these bugbears of a wide- spread opinion with the common-sense, the pure lives, the prudent deportment, the precautions against license not only but even against indis- cretion, which marked, and, let us be thankful, has always continued to mark the collegiate rule of the Faculty and the managing boards. Again, it was proved that in moral agitation a calm and wise consistency is a condition of really great influence. The truth gradually dispelled the slanders and misapprehensions, and the institution like an immovable body in the moral universe, began to 'be felt among the larger bodies, and to modify their courses long before they were aware of it. Still another test of the wisdom and of the reli- gious principle of the Faculty was to follow before the position of the College could be said to be fully established. Recognized as radical in its anti- 28o OBERLIN JUBILEE. slavery earnestness, it had now to meet the criti- cism of the extreme wing of the reform movement, consisting of men who, finding the church slow to adopt the view that slavery was in itself a sin, had themselves rushed to the conclusion that the church was the great bulwark of the wrong, and must be battered down to reach it. In this phase of the debate, as in the preceding ones, the Ober- lin men kept their balance, and showed that they had a broader view of the horizon and a stronger grasp of the subject than their critics. Because they agreed with the extremists in regard to the intrinsic wrong of the slave system, they were not ready to deny all goodness to those who apolo- gized for it. Because the church at first summons did not join the advance guard of the reformers, they would not "curse God and die." They held, as theologians, that all sin was unnecessary, but they never tried to limit the church to those who attained impeccable perfection. They were con- tent to fellowship those whose dominant purposes were right, and who honestly struggled as they themselves did, to get the mastery of temptation, and to make their lapses from grace less frequent. They therefore did not respond to the cry " come out from among them," when it was used as an exhortation to treat the Christian church as a failure, and to denounce it as apostate from all truth. They had and were daily having rough experience of bigoted denunciation of themselves, and were hard pressed to it to find their Master's spirit in the way in which they were treated by / GENERAL COX'S ADDRESS. 28 1 those who assumed to be their more orthodox brethren ; but they made allowance for human infirmity, and regarded the time as one calling for bold preaching of the truth as they saw it, and for plain dealing with the brethren whom they thought unjust and misguided ; but it was not a time for schism, or for denial that there was a true church upon the earth. There was no " trim- ming" in this ; they were simply more philosophi- cal in their analysis of right and duty, and more logical in this than their opponents on either hand. They drew their conclusions from a wider survey of all the facts, and were thereby secured from eccentric courses. Looking back on all this we are sometimes inclined to speak of it as a singular mingling of radicalism and conservatism ; but it is justice to say that the apparent conservatism was the result of real radicalism, for they fearlessly applied their principles, and were at once logical and sagacious. They made a proper composition of all the forces which were working for good, and the result was nearly a straight line ; whereas it would have been easy to have been driven in queer zig-zags if they had yielded now to this and now to that impulse. They said they were led by a higher wisdom, but they also acknowledged the practical duty of sparing no pains to understand the strange problem the country was laboring with, and to use their heads as well as their hearts. Hence it came that when the struggle was over, and church and state were rejoicing in the new era, when our country's constitution came into 282 OBERLIN JUBILEE. fullest harmony with the rights of man, they had no need to orient themselves anew. They simply thanked God that the end was reached, which their faith had never let them despair of, and for which they had labored with patient and intelligent zeal. It was nearly forty years since they had entered the wilderness, and every morning had found them ready to strike their tents and move at the head of the people, when the pillar of cloud went forward. Such, as I look at it, w-ere the general relations of Oberlin to the greatest problem in public affairs which our country has known, or is likely to know ; but the story is only half told. It is not enough to recall the circumstances which gave importance to the attitude of the school in the eyes of the world, and to picture to ourselves the principles and the characteristics of the men who were its founders. We must also look at the methods they used ; the mental and personal dis cipline they enforced; the spirit of the several departments of education ; how these came in con- tact with the world to influence it, and the extent and kind of influence they exerted. No one at all acquainted with the history of education will deny that the influence of Oberlin continued to increase for man)' years ; that down to the outbreak of the great rebellion, it not onl}' maintained the prestige of its early days, but was a steadily growing power. No ^clat at the origin of such a school will account for this ; the noise made about it in 1835 would have proved a mere windy notoriety, as evanescent as that of the latest discovered candi- GENERAL COX'S ADDRESS. 283 date for the Presidency, if there had not been the capacity and the will for solid, patient work behind it, and an inflexible purpose to make the proper work of the college none the less efficient because of its zeal for reform. As it was the advent of a theological class which was the striking event in its earliest history, the theological department was naturally uppermost in the mind of Mr. Finney and his associates when they resolved to come here. They were deeply moved with a desire to prepare young men to preach the gospel, by teaching them to view its great truths in accordance with what was known as the " new school philosophy," based upon the doctrine of the freedom of the will and of man's personal moral responsibility as deduced from it. They had seen the tremendous effect upon the consciences and the conduct of men of being able to say, you are commanded to obey the Divine law, and are responsible for disobedience, because when your weaknesses and your powers are both fully reckoned, the assistance divinely offered makes your obedience possible. They believed that the clear, logical teaching of a view of the moral government of the universe based upon this, in their opinion, vital truth, would give a fresh and wholesome energy to all preaching and teaching. It increased the power of all legitimate appeals to conscience, and broke down many barriers in the way of vigorous progress, which they, in pithy Scripture phrase, called " refuges of lies." It is quite outside my province to discuss their theo- 284 OBERLIN JUBILEE. logical opinions — that has already been admirably done ; but, unless I should thus refer to what seems to me its characteristic feature, I think I should miss a controlling element in the history of the College, which it would not be far wrong to call the masterpiece of all its action. Their un- compromising devotion to reforms of all sorts, so far as they thought them true reforms, was really based on this principle — fighting with might and main against all wrong. Slavery only happened to be the demon wrong at that moment in the way, and at it they went, like Christian in " Pilgrim's Progress," never doubting that though sore be- stead, they should at last be given the victory. It was a great thing for a young college to have such a class of theological students as those that first came to Oberlin. That they were men of no common character was shown by the way they came and what moved them to come. They were, besides, scholars of no small cultivation, and some of them of culture and grasp that would have made them distinguished anywhere. The young preparatory students looked up to them with a respect second only to what they felt for the Faculty. They were men who had already been tested as by fire, and were visible examples of what true education should make a man and of the way it should fit him to meet the questions of life. With such a class of elder students, the institution took on at once a deep earnestness of purpose that was its most distinctive mark. Here was no place for a dawdler; education was only the school of a GENERAL COX'S ADDRESS. 285 soldier, proving the weapons with which he was soon to fight for life, and for truth worth more than life. When actual civil war came at last, men stood amazed at the intense depth of emotion with which the whole country went into the struggle ; but in fact the uncalculating devotion of i86i was here in 1835, the same appreciation of the despe- rate character of the contest, the same conviction that life would not be worth living if we were beaten in it, the same certainty of belifef that the cause was God's, and the issue the triumph or the wreck of all the aspirations of the human race. The young man or young woman who came here was either poor and seeking the means of an edu- cation cheaply, or was drawn hither by half- formed sympathy on his own or his parents' part with the spirit of the place. In either case if there was the stuff to build on, the first year was enough to insure catching the zeal that was endemic. The theological classes spent their vacations in preaching or anti-slavery lecturing, and whether preaching or lecturing the absorbing topic of the time was rarely absent from their thoughts or speech. The undergraduate classes in college were also men of more maturity than the average of such students in other colleges. They were nearly all poor, and many of them quite dependent upon their own exertions for support, and this class of students had to wait for advanced educa- tion till they could save the means to pay for it, or reach an age when they could make teaching in the common schools furnish the wherewithal to 286 V OBERLIN JUBILEE. keep the wolf from the door in their alternate terms of study. The college terms were arranged to suit such students, who were a large majority of the whole, and the long vacation was, as we all know, placed in the winter for this reason. From the preparatory classes upward, and in both the cpllegiate and ladies' departments, all the hun- dreds of earnest young people who thronged here were already active workers in life. Each of them had his scores of younger minds upon whom for some months in the year he was impressing his own zeal for knowledge, not only, but his own in- tense earnestness in the great public questions of reform. Every debating society formed in a coun- try hamlet was a platform from which the politics of the country took shape, and where the men were formed and instructed who became delegates to nominating conventions and created the public sentiment which soon began to find its echo in Congress. It mattered little whether a represent- ative was a Whig or Democrat, it soon became apparent that there was a considerable number of districts in the Northwest where no man's re- election was safe if he defied or disappointed the rapidly-growing anti-slavery sentiment of his con- stituents. It would be hard to overestimate the part in this work which was taken by Oberlin stu- dents. Remember that they numbered by hundreds at an early day, and soon exceeded a thousand. Each autumn they swarmed from the college halls, and were not only to be found in the white school- houses dotted thick over Northern Ohio, but they GENERAL COX'S ADDRESS. 287 scattered westward and eastward, and even south- ward, and a beneficent swarm, always appreciated as successful and earnest teachers, sometimes also hated and cursed as the supposed emissaries of a radical propaganda, but whether loved or hated, always pushing, debating, inquiring and agitating. This was not altogether because they meant to agitate, or fully understood the sort of influence they were exerting. It was better than that. They were young, intelligent men and women who were enthused by new views of life and human progress and with the naivete of children they talked about what interested them. It bubbled from their hps as naturally as their breath, and they could not re- frain from it. They saw with prophetic instinct " the good time coming," and preached it most effectively by the constant exhibition of their faith in its advent. The number of students who took degrees in the ordinary college course was not large compared with other schools. By far the greater number came for a year or two, to supple- ment their common-school education and prepare for common-school teaching, from which they went back to the farm and the shop, and to all the com- mon avocations of life. The school-mistresses became the wives of the most intelligent and active men in the little growing communities of the West, and often did more than their husbands to mould the opinions of their neighbors through the subtle influence of earnest conscientiousness and intelli- gence, exerted quietly but persistently from day to day, and from year to year. 288 OBEKLIN JUBILEE. Our " Decoration Day" orators often dilate with just sentiment upon the work of the private soldiers in the late war, and show how vain must have been leadership of whatever ability if there had not been the supreme, patient hardihood, and courage of the men in the ranks. In a similar way, at this Oberlin Jubilee, and especially when dwelling, as I am doing, upon the relations of the college to the great public question of our generation, we should remember the Oberlin students whose names are not in your triennial catalogue, who did not fall out by the way for lack of zeal or intelligence, but whom hard necessity forbade to do more than tast-e the " Pierian Spring." Many did what they came to do. They got their year or two of study, their new views of the nature of education and the uses of mental discipline, and they returned more or less regretfully to their appointed work, undecor- ated with degrees, content to remain in the ranks, yet proud to be reckoned private members of the Oberlin legion. For them the " little knowledge" did not prove " a dangerous thing." It made them better citizens, better yeomen, better artisans, and as for Alma Mater, they never forgot her, and often rivalled in their love those longest cherished in her bosom. I think we may fairly say that Oberlin is peculiar among all the learned institutions of the land, in having so large a constituency of tempor- ary students, inoculated with her spirit, though not having her diploma ; the bone and sinew of the country wherever they are, active and influential in their modest spheres, and always ready to GENERAL COX'S ADDSESS. 28g second the efforts and sustain the work of her more authoritative representatives whenever they appear. Like the private soldiers of whom I have spoken, they never forget that they " have served." Are they directors of a country school district? They want an Oberlin man to teach among them. Is a new college starting in the neighborhood ? They look to Oberlin for its professors. There is something more than pride or prejudice in this. The school represents to their minds the trench- ant, active purpose to advance all true reforms and to war with all real abuses. Their sympathy with its spirit quickens the friendliness which is the outgrowth of old association, and makes it rather a co-operation in a common purpose than a form of mere sentiment. Their numbers have been so great that, throughout the West and Northwest it would be hard to find a community which did not acknowledge their influence! The great tide of immigration from all the eastern and middle States runs by the very door of Oberlin, and her students, among the most active and enterprising of those that committed themselves to the current, have explored every byway and highway of all the new routes that advancing civilization opened. Nay, they were often the foremost among the pioneers who preceded all civilization. They were mission- aries among the Ojibways, whilst Iowa and Min- nesota were yet a wilderness. They were with John Brown at Lawrence and Ossawattome when the outposts of freedom were first established. Naturalists love to trace the spread of the flora 290 OBERLIN JUBILEE. and fauna of a country to all the leeward regions which the steady blowing winds or the great ocean currents can reach. Nothing more strongly impresses the imagination than to see a delicate, feathery sea- weed, a tiny polyp, a microscopic speck of animal jelly or of vegetable life, making voyages of countless leagues to colonize new shores and carry teeming life to coasts and reefs rising from the depths of ocean. But here in North- ern Ohio are the st-raits in a great moral gulf stream. Between Lake Erie and the Ohio, from Pittsburgh to Chicago has been compressed a human tide fed by the overflow not only of the New England and Middle States, but by that of all Europe pressing forward in a peaceful caravan, making such irruptions that Attila and the Huns seem insignificant in comparison. Onward it surged, sending off a lateral stream to people the peninsulam amoenam of Michigan. With sure in- stinct it gave a wide berth to the place where slavery had fastened, but broadened out into a great fan when it turned the southern extremity of Lake Michigan, sweeping on until it had occupied the whole land from Manitoba to the Arkansas River, and broke over the ridges of the Rocky Mountains in streams that reached the Pacific coast. Like its physical prototype, in the Atlantic ocean, which after shooting through the Florida straits with the rush and speed of a mighty river, widens its warm current till, with mollifying in- fluence, it makes habitable twenty degrees of latitude in western Europe, so this human tide has GENERAL COX'S ADDRESS. 29I for half a century swept by, and in the very swiftest of the current has stood this school of learning propagating the seeds of peculiar thought, its spe- cial idea of progress, of reform, of right — its zeal making a tropical rapidity of growth — and sending them broadcast to take root in all that noble re- gion beyond, doing more (it is hardly extravagant to say it) than any other single human influence to give permanent character and purpose to the great northwest. But it was this growth of the western region that settled the great constitutional question of national freedom. By the legislation of 18 19 Mis-- souri had been placed as a slave state across the Ohio to dam up the southwestern flow of free men and free institutions. For a time it had this effect, and like a Cuba in the ocean stream, pushed the current northward ; but reaching the desert and the mountains the flood poured again southward around the obstacles, and by 1856 the slave power had learned that every state north of Texas would have a free constitution. " Squatter sovereignty" was tried as a forlorn hope of gaining by organized immigration what the free northwest, holding now the balance of power, would not allow to be de- voted to slavery by anticipating legislation. Or- ganized immigration was, if anything was, the stronghold of the north, and Kansas was settled as if by magic. Defeated by the march of true hu- man progress, but failing still to see that the hand of the Omnipotent was against them, the southern leaders determined to destroy the national govern- 292 OBERLIN JUBILEE. ment under which slavery was doomed, still hoping that this same western region would rather yield the doctrine of constitutional slavery than lose its natural outlet by the Mississippi to the gulf. But the answer came that the Northwest would neither yield the one nor lose the other, and casting the strength of young Hercules into the balance, se- cured the accomplishment of God's will that America should be free. What can be clearer than that in this chapter of our country's history, the influence of Oberlin as a college was a factor of great and permanent im- portance ? It would be rash to assign to any one influence a decisive and pre-eminent power, for all the circumstances of the time and the march of intellect and progress in the whole race combined to remove from the earth an institution that be- longed to the dark ages ; but I unhesitatingly assert that there is hardly a township west of the Alleghanies and north of the central line of Ohio, in which the influence of Obedin men and Oberlin opinions cannot be specifically identified and traced. It was the propaganda of a school of thought and action having distinct characteristics, and as easily recognizable in its work as was that of Garrison and the American anti-slavery society in their methods and work. r Whilst I regard the great Northwest as the pe- culiar field, which Oberlin was providentially set to cultivate, I do not mean to ignore what it did in other directions. For Mr. Finney, and the older members of the Faculty, early associations and the GENERAL COX'S ADDRESS. 293 call of devoted friends made the East more often their field of special labor. If the West was the theatre for the exertion of its greatest direct polit- ical influence, the college had to conquer in the East its recognition as an orthodox school ot Christian theology, and a sound exponent of the right relations of the church to true reform. It had also to establish its claim to be a school oi thorough methods in intellectual discipline, and ol good standing in the brotherhood of letters and ot science. There was a noticeable willingness on the part of presbyteries and consociations to treat it, for a good many years, as a half Moravian com- munity of enthusiasts, whose doctrines were ex- travagant, whose morality was doubtful, and whose system of education dealt more in stimulants to zeal than in solid food for the brain. It is by no means least among the claims to honor which rightly belong to the first Faculty of the college, that in the best and truest sense they made " dili- gence in business" accompany their " fervency of spirit." If they did not, according to the ancient adage, make "good works" synonymous with "good prayers," they certainly insisted that the two should go together. There was a moment, near the beginning, when the absorbing desire to make all education directly and immediately effi- cient for the religious and moral work in hand, made men among them question the value of some branches of " profane" learning; but this produced hardly a perceptible deflection in the orbit, and the common judgment of the scholars of all ages was ;294 OBERLIN JUBILEE. made the permanent criterion as to the elements of a liberal education. My personal connection with the institution began in 1846, when most of the chairs in the Col- lege proper were filled by the earlier graduates, and with these as teachers my first acquaintance was naturally made. Looking back upon them with the knowledge of men I have since gained, I do not know where to find a corps of professors more earnest in their work, more apt to stimulate true scholarly zeal in the pupil, more thorough in their instruction, more intolerant of shams and surface knowledge. Whipple, Thome, Hudson, Monroe, and Fairchild (our president), were all here then, and I claim no more than the due of all of them when I say that if the comprehensive learning, the perfect lucidity of mental vision, the ever-reliable self-poise and calm judgment of him who is now the honored head of the college is a solid ground for confidence in its direction and freedom from mere vagary in its system of education, we were no less conscious then that the Faculty as a whole understood its task, and could guarantee to every diligent student an equipment for his after-work of which he need not be ashamed in the presence of the graduates of the older colleges of the land. And when we turn to the seniors in the Faculty who could stimulate to original thought and fruit- ful labor in mental and moral philosophy if not Finney and Mahan?. Where was broader grasp and sounder learning in exegesis than Morgan's? Where more accurate or acuter criticism than GENERAL COX'S ADDRESS. 295 Cpwies' ? Where clearer exposition in science and neater finish in experiment and demonstration than Dascomb's ? The older men were in their strong- est prime, the younger in the first full energy and vigor of manhood. All meant that the college should not be lacking in the performance of its duty in the reforms of the day ; but they also meant to build the hopes of permanent usefulness upon doing its distinctive college work quite as well as any other. I think it necessary to refer to this because I am deeply convinced that the continued and growing influence of the college in the public affairs of which I am speaking could not have been secured except by convincing educated men at the East, in and out of the church, that it was no mushroom in education, and no crazy schis'matic in theology, but was building in both departments upon solid learning, upon sound interpretation, and upon logi- cally consistent philosophy. And what shall I say of the influence of the col- lege in the South ? It was certainly known there, so well known that for a time there was no little personal risk to the travelling student who made known his connection with the school. Yet num- bers of the undergraduates were impelled by a laudable curiosity, or by the hope of better salaries than usual, to explore the country where slavery was at home, and to see with their own eyes the working of the system they were enhsted to over- throw. The scarcity of teachers made a certain demand for their services, and in many places they 29^ OBERLIN JUBILEE. could get employment on condition that they should commit no overt acts of hostility to the " institution"while in its midst. Occasionally they were driven out, but personal violence, like the lynching of Amos Dresser and the imprisonment of George Thompson, was not common, for the wiser men of the South had a shrewd suspicion that the blood of the martyrs would prove the seed of the church, and as in the later Ku-Klux times, deprecated acts of outrage which damaged their cause in the eyes of the Avorld. The spice of danger seems to have had its charm ; for I know that in my own college daj^s, teaching in the South was reckoned among the feasible ways of turning the winter vacation to account, and one of the brightest men of my own class was permanently lost to our view after engaging to teach in North- ern Mississippi. It is safe to say, therefore, that Oberlin wa3 widely known at the South by other means than the notoriety of being a principal station on the " underground railroad," and that there, as else- where, a steadfast testimony to the truth could not be continued without bearing fruit. The angry exasperation which was shown was often evidence of uneasy consciences, though we can never know exactly how far the education of the people had progressed. Many things tend to show that there was a good deal of serious thinking. In the last year of the war a Southern woman of great intel- ligence and character, of a family which had given leading public men to the country, said to me, " I GENERAL COX'S ADDRESS. 297 am convinced that what the South is now suffering is the curse of God for the s-in of slavery." The confession was not born of the lessons of the war alone, but revealed vistas of older struggles with the terrible problem. When the war itself came it was a matter of course that Oberlin should be worthily repre- sented in the culminating phase of the contest she had so long had a part in. The noble company of young men who went from the classes to the field, of whom so many names are cut upon the tablets of the monument which stands upon the ground where Cincinnati Hall was built bj those who here first enlisted for good and all, for life and death, in the war with a giant wrong, were living wit- nesses, and being dead, spekk plainly the truth that Oberlin did not shrink from the most fearful cost when it was necessary to maintain principle and right. But I will not dwell upon this as any peculiar part of Oberlin's connection with great events, for by this time the education of the country had so far progressed that the same spirit was all but universal. Oberlin was no longer sin- gular, and this was the best evidence how well her work had been done. East and West our colleges have nearly all their list of students who graduated in the field, and took another and nobler degree than that for which they had entered. The country had come up to the standard of right which thirty years before had been met with denunciation and scorn as wildest radicalism, and in the closing controversies of the great debate 298 OBERLIN JUBILEE. Oberlin was even thought by many to be strangely conservative. But hers was not the enthusiasm of a new proselyte. It was the settled judgment of an old leader wlio had explored the question from the beginning, and could afford in the hour of vic- tory to counsel moderation and magnanimity. An important lesson to be learned from the history of which I have made so imperfect a sketch, is that side by side with the public and official organization of a great movement is a quieter but no less needful work of advocacy of truth and in- struction in its principles. I have had nothing to say of Congressional debates and framing of party platforms, of Wilmot provisos and Dred Scott de- cisions. Yet I am sincerely convinced that these, great as is the figure which they properly make in the political history of the time, are secondary to the importance of that self-sacrificing preaching of unpopular truth which precedes all public and party action. This is the " first step that costs" — costs popularity and honor, wealth and the good opinion of mankind, to him who takes it — which, if he perish in taking it, makes him " a blessed martyr" in the after opinion of a better informed age and country. It is not in every lifetime that such convulsions come as those which we here remember and recall. Looking forward fifty years it seems to us now that the second half-century of the college life will be tame indeed compared with the tremendous events of the first. Yet I think we shall all agree that whether in troubled or in quiet times, the GENERAL COX'S ADDRESS. 299 work of an institution of learning worthy the name can never be insignificant, and that the surest way, the only way, to do its duty to its generation, is to spare no effort to base its instruction upon an un- compromising devotion to truth ; truth in religion, in science, in philosophy, and in the principles which must underlie all politics and public action. If this produces no controversy, and all goes on in halcyon days of peace and sunshine, well ; but if some powerfully supported error finds profit in opposing the truth, the spirit which animated the Oberlin men of 1835 will make those who have it the necessary champions of the right, and on a greater or smaller field will repeat the history of this half century, closing with the same moral at last, that the noblest use for college or for man is to be a sturdy and intelligent advocate of truth and the apostle of genuine progress for our race. We must not forget, however, that the founders of this school cherished no ambition to make it distinctively great or reputable. They meant only to do well the work which came to hand, and that seemed to be to court poverty and ill-repute rather than fame and wealth. Their uncalculating simplicity of purpose and their renunciation of all the ordinary forms of success were the essential conditions of the triumph they finally witnessed, for thus only could they be the fit instruments of the Divine will. They could not have planned it so if they had tried ; but they did not try, they only brought to their task conscience and honest, 300 OBERUN JUBILEE. fearless, intelligent work, knowing with completest assurance the truth so well elaborated in the bac- calaureate last Sunday, that " except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it" THE COLONY AND THE COLLEGE. BY REV. WM. H. RYDER, '66. There is no characteristic of Oberlin life and Oberlin teaching which has been more faithfully cultivated and more steadfastly inculcated than the spirit of entire frankness and truthfulness. Since Mr. Shipherd and Mr. Stewart began to confer with one another upon this great enterprise to which they had laid their hands until this fiftieth anniversary, every resident and every student and every professor has encouraged all who have come under his influence to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. No supe- riority in age or attainment, in learning or in character, has freed the wisest and the oldest from the plain and simple criticism of the youngest and the simplest. Carrying out this spirit, following the instruc- tion which I received in the school, I am com- pelled to begin by revealing a fault in one of my most esteemed instructors, I have no doubt that Professor Ellis, like all the great men who have been connected with this school, believes in " The Simplicity of Moral Action," and teaches the doc- trine ; and yet I have found in some of his acts dunng these last few weeks some measure of com- plexity, which I must explain to you. In a commu- 302 OBERLIN JUBILEE. nication received from him some weeks since, I was asked if I would speak upon the subject which now stands opposite my name ; and this letter inti- mated that the whole broad field would be open to me. I have since learned, however, that under Professor Ellis' potent influence. President Fair- child was at that very time writing a book of nearly four hundred pages upon my subject. You have all read that book. I come here to find my thunder stolen, my occupation gone ! " For what can the man do that cometh after the king? Even that which hath been already done." I have thought that I might in part escape this embarrassment by a free interpretation of my sub- ject, confining my thought to the colony and village as distinct from the College. But I have met in that effort with even a more serious embar- rassment; for there never was a colony, there never has been a village, here distinct from the College. If a man were called to speak upon the town of Cambridge and of its relations with Har- vard College, upon the town of New Haven and the connection which it holds with Yale College, upon the city of Ann Arbor and the conriection between that and Michigan University, he would have a theme at once. In such case the town has a life distinct from that of the school and preced- ing it. If there has been no conflict between town and gown, there has been a plain line of demarka- tion, so that one could say, " There is the town, and there is the college." But this has never been true here. When, on the 19th of April, 1833, THE COLONY AND THE COLLEGE. 303 Dracon Pease unyoked his oxen under yonder elm the college had come. Nothing else ever has come in all these years. No man ever came here except because the college was here. What else has attracted men ? Have they come to build docks on the banks of Plum Creek? Have they come to invest capital in the development and use of the water-power »f this classic stream ? Has commerce attempted to make this a place for dis- tributing supplies over the country ? Have men come here to retire from business and breathe this cool, salubrious air, and gaze upon the magnificent scenery? No. Every man has come because the college was here, and has come to take part in the college work. Why, even those who have come to plant what you call here " drug stores" have come for that very reason ; and it is possible that it is the classic influence of the college which has given them here this euphonious name. We have often marked parallels between the founders of Oberlin and the Pilgrim Fathers. They were men of the same devotion, men of the same underlying principles, the same simplicity and humility and courage and devoted self-de- nial. In minuter matters we might find paral- lels. Each of them had its covenant, and each found it necessary soon to put that covenant in the background. The Pilgrim Fathers came through sea and flood ; the fathers of Oberlin came through water and mire. We might ask, with the poet, of these Oberlin fathers: "What sought they thus afar? Bright 304 OBERUN JUBILEE. jewels of the mine ? The wealth of seas, the spoil of war?" But we could not answer as the poet answers concerning the Pilgrim Fathers. They did not come here to find "a faith's pure'shrine." They had that already. Mr. Shipherd was the beloved pastor of a useful church, and left it with the regret of his people. He ^ad the same freedom in Elyria which he had in these forests. Deacon Pease could worship with as much freedom in Brownhelm as he could under yonder classic elm. They came simply to found a college, and as a community to minister to its interests. The college was Oberlin, and Oberlin was the college. Deacon Pease and Deacon Turner, with handsaw and jackplane, were as important to the college as Dr. Dascomb with his retort and blow- pipe. Deacon Hamilton and Deacon Crosby and Deacon Wheat, with axe and plow, were as essen- tial to the school as Professor Waldo and Pro- fessor Hudson, delving among Greek roots and teaching the young ideas how to shoot. A log chain was as important to the college as the chain of logic ; and the " sincere milk and strong meat of the word" would never have done good if there had not been other meat and other milk furnished those who gathered here. Deacon Burrill, with his meat wagon traversing these streets, and the men who pastured and milked the cows upon this campus, were serving the college just as faithfully as those who preached in the churches and taught in the class-rooms. Mr. Stewart's and Brewster THE COLONY AND THE COLLEGE. 305 Petlon's boarding-houses filled their place in col- lege work. These good men, the colonists, were part and parcel of the school. Their hearts and hands were in it. Their names do not all appear in our Triennial Catalogue, but their life flowed in here. They made the school what it is. It could not have been without them. It could never have been what it is to-day if they had not been what they were — devout, heroic, self-denying, consci- entious men and women. They were not all learned men. None of them, perhaps, were geni- uses as the world reckons genius. But they were faithful to their calling, able to appreciate sound learning and conserve it. These pioneers have been followed in regular apostolic succession — there has never been a break in that succession — by men and women of the same spirit and the same purpose. The glorious company of farmers and mechanics and tradesmen ; the blessed succession of boarding-house keepers, men and women. Their boarders rise up and call them blessed ! I do not say that their steaks were always tender and juicy. They fed "men of full age," and gave them sometimes the " strong meat." Their tea may sometimes have been too white and their milk too blue. They may not have dis- covered how to set a table as we expect to find it at a summer watering-place, at fifty cents a week. But they made Oberlin College a possibility. They made Oberlin College the great success which it has been. I think Mr. Stewart succeeded in his effort to discover the least that a man can 306 OBERLIN JUBILEE. eat and continue to live and work and study. But he did not discover the way by which men can study without eating anything. He had no ambi- tion in that direction. There never was a spark of that asceticism which despises the body. They said in their covenant that they would eat plain food, but it was to be wholesome food. They were to dress simply, but they were to dress com- fortably. They were to live in plain houses, but not in dirty houses. Their self-control — you may call it asceticism if you please — was not from con- tempt of the body ; it was from respect for it as the temple of the Holy Ghost. If any erred in the extreme of sacrificing bodily wants, it was from a mistake in the use of means ; it was not from a false idea of the unworthiness of the flesh, or its dis- harmony with spiritual demands. " The sound mind in the sound body" was their motto. It is remarkable that in those days, when belief in the duty of fasting was universal, there was no extreme in this respect. The daughter of Deacon Pease informs me that upon the door of the first cabin that was built in the shade of that historic elm, these words were written : " Present your bodies a living sacrifice." Not a dead, but a living sacrifice — that was the principle. Mr. Finney used to rebuke his congregation sometimes for eating too much dinner. I have heard him on a hot summer afternoon, his eagle eye dimmed with tears and his trumpet voice choked with sobs, exhort in this way: "Oh, THE COLONY AND THE COLLEGE. 307 brethren, how can I preach the gospel to you, how can the Holy Spirit work in your hearts when you come here at half-past 2 o'clock, and nod over your pudding and milk?" It is easy to see how that eye would have flashed in stern indignation, and that voice thundered in reproof, if, from as- cetic notions, the people had gathered there with- out eating any dinner. With this necessity recognized and accepted, we must acknowledge the work of the colonists and villagers as only a part of the work of the college. They all belonged to the school. They were all pupils in the school. The class rooms, we are told, were crowded with residents in those early days. The interest in philosophy and theology pervaded the whole colony. The colonists were members of the literary societies. They were all taught in the churches, not only because the pro- fessors preached, but because they preached phi- losophy and theology. There were no weak exhortations without foundation in these churches. Mature men grew wise under that kind of teach- ing. President Mahan, Professor Finney, and Professor Morgan did not discourse to a company of callow youths and thoughtless boys and girls. They spoke to men and women of New England training, of sinewy mind, wrestling with what was then the new theology. They " Reasoned high Of providence, forelcnowledge, will and fate — Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute.'' They were all teachers, too — Deacon Pease, 3o8 obeHlin jubilee. Deacon Burrill, and all the rest of the deacons, (They were all deacons, I believe.) They were not, to be sure, enrolled as professors, but, after all, they were teachers in the school. God has cast my lot in these later days in the shadow of another great school in this boundless West — a school of marvelous growth and almost unlimited influence. Some of us who are interested in that school, recognizing this power, feel that there ought to be a new professorship endowed by Christian churches in that university. Its in- cumbent might be called, for short, the Professor of Religion in Michigan University. That is, his province should be to lecture upori the fundamen- tal truths of religion — to give instructions in the languages, literature, history and principles of criticism of the Christian Scriptures ; a man of superior power, the ackifowledged peer of any other man in the university. Ideas grow fast in the fertile soil of Michigan, and we may have such a man there soon. President Fairchild says in his book upon my subject, that sinners began to come here very early. But the colonists without exception, and the great mass of those who have followed them even to this day, have been professors of religion. By that I do not mean that they professed to be religious simply, but that they taught religion — that they came here for that purpose. They have not drawn any salary ; they have never asked that their names might be enrolled in the catalogues, but they have been prosecuting that work here. THE COLONY AND THE COLLEGE. 309 That heres)% as false to ^ound learning as it is to true religion, that education consists simply in the mastery of a certain modicum of knowledge, and of a certain dexterity of thinking and speak- ing, had never cast its shadow over the minds of these colonists. They believed that education per- tained to the whole man, and that it pertained especially to the heart and soul and character — that an educated man was a complete man. They never believed in building an arch and leaving out the keystone. With that conception of religion, each man felt it his duty to illustrate religion, to teach its principles. They did not organize an army in which all were to be captains, quite, but they did organize a school, a town — a village school — a college town, in which all were to be students and all professors. That is the ideal of Oberlin. That is the mission of Oberlin. If Oberlin is true to that conception of the founders, to that vision seen in the mount, then Oberlin has a future as well as a past. Not a more glorious future, perhaps; that may not be possible. The glory of the Apostles will never be outshone in the history of the Chris- tian Church. There never will be more illus- trious citizens of this land than those who laid its foundations on Plymouth Rock ; there never will be more glorious men in Oberlin than John Shipherd, Philo Stewart, Peter Pease, Asa Ma- han, Charles Finney, and John Morgan. But if Oberlin will be true to its past it shall have a future worthy of the past. Its borders will be 3 10 OBERLIN JUBILEE. enlarged, its streets and its homes will grow more beautiful, its public buildings more numerous and spacious and elegant, its faculties will be larger, their learning broader, and more profound, and increasing troops of young men and maidens will gather here to 'sit under the instructions, and imbibe the spirit of the place. The light of truth shall shine from this place, and the joy of salvation shall flow to the ends of the earth. Not only will the wise men of the earth look here for increase of wisdom, but better still the poor, the ignorant, the tempted of our whole land, and of every land, will continire to turn their eyes here for light and hope and salvation. And now, my good friends, my former neigh- bors and townsmen — for I speak to you and in your behalf to-day — I think that I have proved my proposition, not only that my subject was taken from me, but that no subject was ever given me ; that a theme which seems to imply that there was ever a colony or a town here as distinct from a college — that there were ever colonists or citi- zens who were neither students nor teachers in the college — is an empty and unmeaning phrase. This has been true for fifty years. It depends on you to say whether it shall be true in the future, or whether there shall be two Oberlins of diverging or conflicting interests. Recognize your duty and magnify your office, and the God of the fathers will be your God, and the glorious past will prove to be but the early dawning of a brighter and more blessed future. OBERLIN AND WOMAN. BY MRS. LUCY STONE, '47, Boston, Mass. Oberlin is proud of her founders, of their poverty, of their faith, of their perseverance. Their story will be told as long as one stone of all they builded remains upon another. Oberlin is proud of her -theology, of her free thought, of her classical acquirements, of her anti-slavery record, of her temperance record, of her plain living and high thinking ; but her highest glory in history, the crowning achievement of her founders, will be that Oberlin was the pioneer in establishing the co-education of men and women. The time was opportune. William Lloyd Garrison and the brave band of Abolitionists he led had startled and aroused the nation by their demand for the freedom of the slaves. The idea of equal rights was in the air. The wail of the slave, his clanking fetters, his utter need, appealed to everybody for help. Women heard it. In obedience to His com- mand who said, " Remember those in bonds as bound with them," Sarah and Angelina Grimke and Abby Kelly, three Quaker women, went out to speak for the slave. Such a thing had never been heard of. An earthquake shock could hardly have startled the community more. Some of the Abolitionists forgot the slave in their efforts to silence the women. The Anti-Slavery Society rent 312 OBERIJN JUBILEE. itself in twain over the subject. The church was moved to its very foundation in opposition. The "pastoral letter" of the Congregational ministers " of Massachuetts warned the world of the wide- spread and permanent injury that threatened the female character." The press, many-tongued, sur- passed itself in reproaches upon these women who had so far departed from their sphere as to speak in public. But with anointed lips and a consecra- tion which put even Ijfe itself at stake, these peer- less women pursued the even tenor of their wa3% saying only to their opponents, " Woe is me if I preach not this gospel of freedom to the slave." Over all came the soothing melody of Whittier, — "Where woman's heart is bleeding Shall woman's voice be hushed ?" About this time, too, an increasing interest in foreign missions began to be felt. There was an earnest call for missionaries, for educated young men to send to far-distant fields. Societies to educate poor but earnest young men sprang up all over the North. Little sewing-circles were formed, where rich and poor women met to sew, either for a fair to raise money or for garments to be given directly to the young men whom the education societies aided. " Help educate young men ! Help educate young men for ministers and for missionaries !" was the constant appeal made to women. Was it a wonder that as young wo- men drew the needle they also drew the conclu- sion that if education was so necessary for men OBERLIN AND WOMAN. 313 who were to go to the heathen, it must be valuable for women who were to stay at home ? About this time, too, Miss Mary Lyon began a movement to establish Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. The men who were to go as mission- aries must have educated wives. It was tacitly understood and openly expressed that Mount Holyoke Seminary was to meet this demand. But whatever the reason, the idea was born that wo- men could and should be educated. It lifted a mountain-load from women. It shattered the idea that they were incapable of education, and would be less womanly, less everything desirable, if they had it. About the same time, far away at the West, the little hamlet of Oberlin appeared. Its light gleamed up in the horizon, and over all the dis- tance, clear as a bell, sounded the procJamation of Father Shipherd ; and this was it: " The grand objects of the Oberlin Institute are: to give the most useful education at the least expense of health, time and money, to extend the benefit of such education to both sexes and to all classes of the community as far as its means will allow. . . . The prominent objects of this seminary are the thorough qualification of Chris- tian teachers, both for the pulpit and the schools, and the elevation of female character by bringing zvithin the reach of the misjudged and neglected sex all the instructive privileges which have hitherto unreasonably distinguished the leading sex from theirs." 3 \4 OBERLIN JUBILEE. These were the words of Father Shipherd, which, if not heard in form, were heard in fact as wide as the world. " Get but the truth once uttered, and 'tis like A star new-born that drops into its place, And which, once circling in its placid round, Not all the tumult of the earth can shake." Like a new-born star were these brave words of Father Shipherd's. They are to shine on, all down the ages. How like a benediction they came to wo- men, who had found the doors of knowledge closed against them ! As hungry herds look from their parched and barren fields to green pastures and living streams, so began women to look to Ober- lin. Those who had sewed and spent time, strength, and money to help educate young men, dropped the needle and that toil, and said, " Let these men with broader shoulders and stronger arms earn their own education, while we use our scantier opportunities to educate ourselves." Poor women and the daughters of well-to-do men had to earn their own way to and through college. Even their own fathers did not know it was wise and safe to educate women. Good fathers, with pathetic earnestness, still clinging to the old way, said to their daughters, " Your mother can read and write and reckon all the accounts she will ever be called to settle. This was good enough for her, and it is enough for you." They quoted, — " If a woman would know anything, let her ask her husband at home." But they did not provide OBERLIN AND WOMAN. 3I5 for the situation when she had no husband, or if she had one when he could not tell her. The women of fifty years ago had no choice. There were no educational societies to help young women. They must help themselves. Men came to Oberlin for various reasons; women because they had nowhere else to go. But the women who came, like the men who came, had to bend themselves to toil, but under different circum- stances. It was good for them. As the little tree on the mountain-side, beaten by the wind and grappled by the storm, roots itself and is all the more of a tree for its fierce encounter, so these young women gathered strength by the storms of opposition and the obstacles that beset their way. True, it cut to the core when the man who taught school no more and no better received $30 a month for his teaching, while his sister received only $4 for hers. Did they weakly surrender when that pittance came to hand ; give up the con- test for themselves, and go back to sew to help to educate young men ? Oh no ; not one of them. They stopped only to enter their indignant pro- test, and then bent to double toil for half pay. What need to despond or to despair ? Oberlin was at the West. There was our star of hope. There our Mecca. It opened wide its doors to women and to negroes on the same terms with white men. So without bating a jot of heart or hope, we accepted, to conquer it, every obstacle that lay between us and this golden gate. How 3 1 6 OBERLIN J UBILEE. thankful we were ! with what abounding hope we came ! with what courage we took up the task of earning our way through college ! It is true, some of us worked for three cents an hour and boarded ourselves. Some took in washing at 37^ cents per dozen. One, whose rich father would give her no money, but provided her with ample store of clothes, sold the silk that was for dresses and used the money to clothe her mind. But downright work was honored in Oberlin, and it was shared by everybody. Future governors of the State, members of Congress, generals of arm- ies, were part of the working brigade of Oberlin. Gen. Cox, with paper cap on his head, with apron and sleeves rolled up, made the crackers which on Sunday mornings, with crust coffee, made the breakfast. Rev. Antoinette L. Brown Blackwell washed the dishes and I swept the parlor. But toil and privation were counted as small dust in the balance in comparison with the treasures of knowledge which had been opened to us here. But Oberlin had not quite measured the mean- ing, nor was it quite ready for the full application, of Father Shipherd's words that " the neglected and misjudged sex should have all the instructive privileges which have unreasonably distinguished the leading sex from theirs." Custom, which held women to silence in public places, sat with the Faculty and with the Ladies' Board, and shook its minatory finger at the daring girls who wanted the discipline of rhetorical exercises and discus- OBERLIN AND WOMAN. 317 sions, and to read their own essays at Commence- ment. But time has altered all this and settled it right. Neither had Oberlin dreamed that women would ever want to study theology. In 1847 Antoinette Brown and Lettice Smith entered the theological department, but Oberlin still reserves to some future day the honor it will yet claim and receive of being the first to admit women as regular students in its theological department in direct preparation for the gospel ministry. The Oberlin catalogue has never yet honored itself by putting in the names of these women as theological students. They should be there now, before the good time comes when the world will have learned that the ministry of women will win and hold men to goodness, and is as necessary to do it as the ministry of men which has filled the churches with women. And what is the result of this example of Ober- lin ot fifty years of co-education ? It is true Dr. Dix still holds his straw up against Niagara. Har- vard keeps its hand on its door-knob; but the " annex" is there, and all around behold more than half the colleges of the land wide open to women. Boston University, Cornell, the State Universities of Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, Kansas, Nebraska, with all their departments, are open to women, as are other colleges almost innumerable. Colleges for women alone, Vassar, Wellesly, and Smith, have been opened. Some of them send to Ober- lin for women to act as professors. The London 3l8 OBERLIN JUBTLEE. University and those of Cambridge and Oxford in England give their examinations to women. Even India, breaking its triple bondage of women, sends to us her daughters to study medicine, while a young East India woman endeavors to impart to her government and to her countrywomen an idea of the need of education of women. In ten thousand homes all round us are educated mothers who bring to the grave duty of rearing sons and daughters well stored and well discip- lined minds, and here is the centre of our national safety. The State summons woman to deal with some of its most difficult problems. The feminine thought, the feminine judgment and view are be- ing called for and added to the masculine thought, judgment, and view, in the great questions which involve human interests and which need the wis- dom of all for the good of all. Oberlin dropped its pebble in the great ocean, and the widening wave- lets have touched every shore. But "New occasions teach new duties ; Time makes ancient good uncouth, They must upward still, and onward, Who would keep abreast of truth." The work for women is not done. I should be no true daughter of Oberlin, still less should I be true to myself, if here to-day I failed to ask this younger Oberlin to take another and the next step in the great movement for the political equality of women. "Our fathers to their graves have gone-. Their fight is fought, their battle won. OBERLIN AND WOMAN. 319 But sterner trials wait the race That rises in their honored place — A moral warfare with the crime And folly of an evil time." That crime and that folly are the withholding from women the opportunity of giving consent to the laws they are required to obey. It was for this principle that our fathers contended in the war of the Revolution. They sought to wrench from George III. their right to govern themselves, the right not to be taxed and governed without their consent, as women are to-day. At that time they held up, radiant with God's own sunlight. His great self-evident truth that governments de- rive their just powers from the consent of the governed — the consent of the governed women not less than the consent of the governed men. To withhold a right is as much a crime as to withhold a purse — far more, for you may find your purse or replenish it ; but he who keeps back my right keeps back that which not enriches him but wrongs me, and wrongs whoever has the right withheld. Oberlin is proud that it reached down its hand to help the slaves to their liberty. Oberlin. is proud that it reached out its hand to the " mis- judged and neglected sex," and said, " The leaves of the tree of knowledge are for you as for us." Another deed waits for Oberlin to add to its crown of honor, and that is, to affirm the principle of the consent of the governed in its application to women. As I sat here I looked up to your 320 OBERLIN JUBILEE. torn and tattered flag. It marks the battle-fields where your soldiers carried it for freedom. But I remember that other flags with their stars and bars are floating on our hilltops everywhere, and they float over twenty millions of women who are taxed without representation and governed with- out their consent. When the war was ended and the Government asked in its reconstruction, "What shall we do with the negroes?" the answer was, " These men have fought our battle and carried our flag. Now let them have the ballot." And they got it. And then it asked, " What shall be done with the rebels?" and with one voice the people said, " Let them have amnesty and universal suffrage. And they got it. And then it was asked, " What shall we do with Jefferson Davis — the man who had been the greatest traitor to his country?" And the nation, looking over all its borders to find the worst punishment it could in- flict upon him, did not put him in prison for life, did not set him to hard labor, did not load him with chains that should clank in human ears, but it took away his right to vote. It made him the political peer of every woman in the land. When the women who had in camp and on the field nursed the soldiers, who had turned night into day to raise supplies for the Sanitary Commission and to help the brave boys in blue — when these women went to Washington and asked, " In the recon- struction of the Government, what will you do with us?" the Government left us all the peers of Jefferson Davis. OBERLIN AND WOMAN. 32 1 Now it is to save women from this wrong and shame that Oberlin should take its next step. So to-day, standing here and seeing what Oberlin has done for women, pardon me for appealing, as one of twenty millons who may be taxed, and fined, and imprisoned, and hung, and have never a word to say about it, as one whom the law touches at every point, reaching its hand into my cradle and deciding all about my baby, what shall be its rela- tion to me and mine to it, that touches the dollar I earn, the deed I have to sign, the property I own, and plunges me into the weal or woe of the great Commonwealth of States, and leaves me no voice about it — in behalf of twenty millions of women, on this good day I stand here in Oberlin begging pardon for going beyond the limit of my subject to say, O men who have been so wise, so kind, and so just to women, take one step more and help lift us from peerage with Jefferson Davis. THE FUTURE WORK OF OBERLIN. BY PRO-FESSOR JUDSON SMITH. The review of the first fifty years of our college life is now complete. What Oberlin was meant to be, and what Oberlin has achieved, we all under- stand as never before, and our gratitude and loyalty have gained new life and depth from this survey. But we are here to make history as well as to record it. We have gathered to review the past, and also to shape the future. It cannot be inappropriate or idle for us briefly to look at the problems of the coming years. The height to which these fifty years, with all their rich expe- riences have brought us, this happy place where we stand together to-day, affords a favorable point from which to cast our eyes onward and discern, as we may, what Oberlin has yet to do, and what is our part in the achievement of that destiny. I. And, in the first place, it must be plain to us all that the history of Oberlin has reached no true conclusion. We are in the midst of plans, of meas- ures begun but not yet complete, of academic life in full current and with countless leagues to tra- verse ere it has run its proper course. Observe the facts which sustain this view: I. The department of theology is fully manned, THE FUTURE WORK OF OBERLIN. 323 gathers classes of good numbers, of excellent pro- mise, of real enthusiasm in their studies, and finds the demand for its graduates more active and wide-spread each year.* It is too healthy a stock, in too generous fruitage, with too broad a need for its products for any one to dream that its work is done. If this school of theology was needed in the first days of its life, the need is tenfold greater now. The seminary enjoys the confidence of the Christian public throughout the land, the hearty support of its own denomination, the growing favor of those who value sound learning, conjoined with sound doctrine. All the great missionary boards look hither for recruits to their fields, and the more they secure the more they desire to secure. During the last fifteen years we have been educating men in this seminary for important pastorates in our own and neighboring States, and for many important posts in teaching ; for Tennes- nessee and Alabama, and Washington and Texas, for Oregon, Dakota, Colorado and Utah ; for India, China, Japan, South Africa, Western Africa, and Micronesia. And every year the calls to all these fields are growing in number and urgency. If we were educating three times as many men in the seminary, we should not yet overtake the de- mand. The failure of this seminary, or its defec- tion from evangelical doctrine, would come like a * Six professors fill its chairs of instruction; it enrols forty students, and graduates from ten to twelve each year. Among the seven Cong. Theo. Seminaries of the country, it stands third in point of numbers graduated yearly. 324 OBERLIN JUBILEE. heavy calamity upon all the most aggressive agen- cies of the Christian Church. Here, then, is the compact description of a great mission for this seminary in coming years, which may well task the utmost powers of its Faculty and awaken the liveliest hopes and anticipations among all its friends. The plan which the founder so wisely sketched stretches out before us to-day, the unful- filled part so vast that we seem as 3^et to have ac- complished nothing, in the comparison. 2. The department of philosophy and the arts shows equal vigor and growth and promise. It stands at the dawn of a nobler day than any that has shone upon it in the past. It has always en- joyed the services of an able faculty ; but it is better manned than ever before. It has always exacted a high grade of scholarship ; but its stand- ards were never so high as now. Its classes are large and steadily increasing.* Every element of vigorous and successful life is here. Able and scholarly teachers ; large, carefully-graded, hard- working and enthusiastic classes ; increased facil- ities that keep step with the real improvements of the age; the confidence and steadily growing patronage of a large and wealthy constituency. These are the obvious features of the case, and they make out a mission for the college as broad and rich and enduring as culture itself and all liberal studies. The college enjoys a high and acknowledged em- * It enrolls about 200 in the four college classes, and 150 in the literary classes. Twelve professors teach in its classes. THE FUTURE WORK OF OBERLIN. 325 inence in this State and in the Central States,- and there is scarcely a limit to the service she can render to the cause of higher education through- out the West and Southwest. There is no obstacle, no prejudice, no barrier to the amplest service to education and literature and science we can desire to render, save what we make ourselves. 3. The preparatory school is in a most flourish- ing condition, and gives most excellent promise for the future. Its best work has only just begun. It is needed more, and it can do more to-day, than at any previous date in its history. It never en- joyed the services of so full a corps of permanent instructors, and the effects of wise administration are apparent at many points.* The men trained here generally outstrip the men who come to college from other fitting schools; and the high standard for admission to the college, and the high scholarship gained in the college course, are possi- ble chiefly because of the superior work our pre- paratory school is doing. The teachers of this school are trained to a proven capacity for supe- rior work, and are a growing source from which our own Faculty and the Faculties of other col- leges are reinforced. At the present time we fit as many pupils for college as any other training- school in the land ; and it is but the truth to say that they are fitted in a style worthy of Williston and Andover and Exeter. * The classical fitting-school enrolled 306 students last year, and graduated 50. Its instruction is given by the principal and 10 tutors. 326 OBERLIN JUBILEE. 4. The school of music is prosperous also, and here our mission spreads before us broad and fair. Students gather in greater numbers every year ; teachers of superior training and ability give in- struction ; the favorable attention of the musical world is turned toward us ; gifts of generous amount are coming to place this school on a foundation of permanence and strength. And to an unexpected degree this school is affording to us new sources of influence,' and a widening field of service to culture and religion.* This, then, is the situation which greets us in a rapid survey of each department of the college. Everywhere we find the proofs of life, of growth, of multiplying needs, of enlarging results, of higher aims, of broader plans. No man is thinking how all this academic work may be brought to a natural conclusion and make a decent end ; but all are con- sidering how it may be extended and enriched to meet the opportunities of the hour. Oberlin is not waiting for students, or hunting for work ; she is Constantly striving to keep step with her oppor- tunities, to provide herself with adequate equip- ment for the work that presses upon her. The agitating question in her councils is not how to justify her right to exist, or to show that she has a place to fill ; but how she may worthily instruct the multitudes that seek her halls, how she may * The enrollment in the school of music last year was 461, The instruction is given by the director and a corps of permanent teachers, numbering 11 the present year. , THE FUTURE WORK OF OBERLIN. 327 most successfully fulfil the grand trust which God is committing to her hands. II. There is another phase of the subject to consider, another class of questions we may fairly raise. Are not all the objects which Oberlin was planted to promote now fully secured? Is there left any distinctive mission for her to accomplish ? She has wrought a good work, and wrought it bravely and well ; what more remains ? The true answer must be found by observing what Oberlin was meant to be, and by studying the results that have been gained. I grant that the past is glorious, beyond our feeble praise. The trump that stirred men's hearts, and gathered from far and near elect souls to plant in this wilderness of the West a Christian College for the needs of the nation, rang out clear and thrilling notes, and the nation has heard and learned the strain. It was the music of the best life of the times, and of the ages, to which the College set its march. But to the in- structed ear a trumpet-sound is in the air to-day ; blown from the same instrument, lifting up the same theme ; and our hearts are loudly beating to keep step to the glorious strain, and let our Alma Mater still follow the highest things and seek the noblest ends. I. It is sometimes said, "Oberlin was meant to be an anti-slavery school, a manual labor school, a temperance school." But we all know better than this. Oberlin was not planted here to make labor honorable, to break the fetters of the slave, to beat down the strongholds of intemperance. She has 328 OBERLIN JUBILEE. dealt well-directed, heavy blows against the evils of her times ; she has fearlessly incurred reproach and odium, and evil-speaking, in order to open hospitable doors to all who sought her aid ; but she seeks a grander end than the destruction of any single evil. If there had been no slavery in the land, she would have been planted, and she would have taken root, just as she has done. Oberlin's work, as a Christian college planted in the West at the beginning of the second third of this century, has brought her face to face with slavery and intemperance, and similar evils exist- ent in the nation; and she has borne her part, amid the strife of the times, with as sure an instinct of righteousness, with as clear discernment of the true office of manly culture in an age like this, as it was given her to command. And in every clearing of the road to success, in every victory of liberty and right, she has rejoiced, as in the removal of obstacles and the enhancement of helps in the work of Christian education, to which alone she has been dedicated from the first. Her real work was never dependent upon such external conditions, and it has gone forward steadily from the first, but slightly touched by these public agitations, and the downfall of slavery so far from ending her mission has made it possible for her to achieve her proper work in fuller measure and in higher degrees. Oberlin College was founded to promote culture, science and art, to raise up Christian scholars for all the growing needs of the great West and the THE FUTURE WORK OF OBERLIN. 329 wide world. The end to be gained was the same as that which Harvard College, and Yale, and Dartmouth, and Bowdoin, and Williams, and Am- herst, were meant to aid ; the same essentially as the great universities of Europe were built to promote. I simply state a historical fact ; the modern world owes its great schools and academic found- ations to the Christian Church. Whatever of good is in them, whatever of priceless value flows cut of them to society and civilization, all this is due to the faith which has created the needs to which they administer so grandly, and which has also created them to minister to those needs. Oberlin College thus comes of a noble stock, and boasts a venerable lineage. She stands among the schools which the Church has planted in every land she has visited, in every people she has won to faith and civilized life. Oxford and Cambridge have flourished for more than six centuries, and England needs them still. Leipsic boasts four centuries of prosperous life, and her fruitage is more precious with every year. Harvard's two centuries and a half have not exhausted her treasures, but have rendered her equal, at length, to the proper work of a great school of the liberal arts. As long as Christianity needs propagandists and preachers, as long as man needs culture to train him for the perfect life, as long as ignorance and sin becloud man's mind and debase his heart, so long will the mission of the Christian college endure. And as long as Oberlin is faithful to the grand purpose of her founders, and yearly sends forth increasing 3 30 BERLIN J UBILEE. numbers of soundly-educated men and women de- voted to the spread of knowledge and righteousness in the earth, so long will Oberlin's mission endure and her work still be needed in the earth. If any one can tell how long Harvard College will be needed, or what Amherst has still to do, we can tell how long Oberlin's work will flourish, v/hat work still remains for us to do. 2. But let us descend to particulars. There is a distinct call for Oberlin to heighten her standards of scholarship and to increase her facilities for education. Her own traditions, and her relations to other colleges, emphasize this demand. There is no occasion for criticism or shame in view of the standards which are now maintained. They are much higher than they were twenty years ago; they are abreast of those in the most advanced schools in the interior ; and they are gradually rising. But no one of the teachers here is alto- gether contented with the work actually done in our classes, or deems our standards all that they ought to be. We ought to do better work than we are now doing in every department, better work than we can do with the facilities now at hand. The work of instruction is not sufficiently distributed. Each professor teaches a greater number of subjects or more hours than he can successfully carry. The corps of instruction needs judicious enlargement. The library is pitiably in- adequate to our wants, and has no certain income for enlargement. And the range and quality of the scholarship we can secure are affected directly THE FUTURE WORK OF O BERLIN. 33 I and disastrously by this want. Better recitation- rooms, more suitably heated and ventilated, are a present imperative necessity. And all these things are necessities, because Oberlin has such a vast and central work committed to her. She sets the patterns in many colleges. She fixes standards of scholarship over a wide domain. She is educating the teachers for many schools. This grand office has already come to her, and she must address herself intelligently and energetically to the task she has in hand. To speak thus of the position of leadership which Oberlin holds is not making an idle boast, but simply recognizing obvious facts. But to speak of these things is also to sketch the mission of Oberlin in the most inspiring terms. She has the power to confer a wide and lasting benefit on all the educational forces of the great West and South- west, and the possession of this power lays her under the most imperative obligation to use it to the highest possible degree. For the sake of scores of colleges and hundreds of academies throughout a domain as vast as the old Roman world, Oberlin is called upon to do the very best work in making scholars that can be done anywhere in the land or in the world. This is a matter not to think of twice, not to linger upon, or question, as though it had some savor of ambition or secular pride, but to resolve upon with energy, to choose with solemn joy, to execute as a high trust from the Lord Almighty. We shall be as much lacking in duty if we draw back or act timidly here, as the 332 OBERUN JUBILEE. founder himself would have been if he had yielded to the first rebuffs of fortune and had abandoned his work ere it were well begun. 3. Another fact in the case confirms the view we are urging. Oberlin stands in the midst of many colleges which are able and eager to compete with her, in most just rivalry for the palm of excellent in work. She can maintain her present rank, and advance it only by making the scholarship which she requires and secures of the ver}' highest order. She must constantly prove her purpose and power to give a broad, deep, and rich culture, to take an honorable and leading place in all scholarly work, or it will soon be found easy to dispense with her services altogether. The colleges that give the best training, that are served by the ablest teachers, and turn out the best scholars, are the colleges of the future. There is no escape from this law. We ought not to desire to escape from its sweep. There is nothing else which can be substituted for thorough scholarship in the work and arrange- ments of a college. Good religious conditions, indispensable as they may be, will never compen- sate for poor scholastic training. Piety, however priceless, is no just equivalent for scholarship. General capacity, sound sense, good judgment, however useful, are not culture or learning, and cannot be accepted as proper substitutes for them. The college studies, rightly pursued, will doubt- less yield all these in good degree ; but they must yield something more — sound, accurate, finished THE FUTURE WORK OF OBERLIN. 333 scholarship, competent to the highest tasks ot the age, or they have failed in their principal aim. And Oberlin stands under these conditions just as completely as any other college in the land : and in the future, even more than in the past, she must stand or fall by the scholarship of her alumni. The breadth and permanence of her Christian in- fluence, the supreme interest at stake, are depend- ent on this condition. If she would render the greatest possible service to the growth of Christ's kingdom in this and other lands, her graduates must be known to be competent for the most responsible posts, must bear with them public con- fidence and respect as scholars, as well as Christian men. If they are deficient here, the opportunities of largest service will certainly pass to other hands. The time has fully come, if indeed it did not come fifty years ago, when Oberlin's first and foremost title to honor and support must be the thorough- ness and richness ot the scholarship she maintains and inculcates. I do not mean to disparage her religious char- acter; I am incapable of such undervaluation. But as one supremely interested in the Christian character of the culture we give, I still insist that our strength and usefulness in the future must depend on the high scholarship we require and secure. This is the only way in which we can make the Christian quality of our education re- spectable and commanding, as it ought to be. We must show that genuine piety is no hindrance, but a positive help, to high scholarship : that the one 334 OBERLIN- JUBILEE. true way to the highest culture is the equal and symmetrical development of sound character and sound learning, the growth of manhood and intel- lect at the same time, under the same conditions. The truth lies with our theory and practice in this thing, absolutely, unquestionably. The right of the case is on our side without a doubt, and it is one principal thing we have to do to demonstrate this truth ; to force it upon men's attention and convictions by the grand success of our work in Christian education. We must not yield an inch of advantage, not one least note of superiority, to the secular training of the times, lest a false and in- jurious inference be drawn from our interest in the Christian element of our work. Our scholars must be able to stand side by side with the scholars of the secular schools, their peers in every point and bearing of scholarship, and with all the advantages derived from the religious training we give as just so much clear, unquestioned gain. I am disposed to say that we ought to aim at a broader and better proportioned culture, and I think we must prepare ourselves to secure it. But at least we must not fall one hair's-breath behind the very best work which any school attains. This has been the aim of the college from the first. I am urging no "new departure" here; the inspiring traditions of fifty years of successful life that fall on us to-day, point us this way. Oberlin's great mission still bears us on, and requires her to give her sons and daughters the amplest equip- ment for the work of Christian men and women THE FUTURE WORK OF OBERLIN. 335 in the coming centuries which can be furnished in America or in the world. The breadth and vast- ness and enduring power of the service she can thus render to education and religion, to the Church and to civilization, are enough to fill our thoughts with a deathless purpose, and our hearts with solemn awe. Let us record here to-day the sacred vow, that as far as in us lies, by patient toil, by sagacious plan, by generous gift, by unfaltering enthusiasm, by whole-souled consecration, under the rich blessing of Almighty God, all this grand mission shall be fulfilled, all this glorious harvest shall be gathered in. III. The distinctive and pronounced Christian spirit, which has presided over the founding and growth of the college, must be perpetuated and made even more persuasive and controlling. This has been our strength and glory in past years ; it is the heavenly sign by which we are still to con- quer and advance. Our distinctive character has been formed by reason of the active religious life that has been fostered, which has permeated all the college life and teaching as a vital atmosphere and molding power. The experience of fifty years confirms the wisdom of the founders and fathers, and not one of us all. Trustees, Faculty, Alumni, Friends, would wish to see one backward step in this purpose of making education here Christian in name and Christian to the core. There should be no mistake on this point. The college was not established in order to convert its students to the Christian life. It was built, and is maintained, to 33^ OBERLIN JUBILEE. educate men and women in the liberal arts for all the life and labor which belong to educated minds. Its first, its great, its unchanging aim is culture ; that is, perfect manhood, the highest competency for all life's duties. And, as a primary and neces- sary condition to that end, Christian influences and teaching are constantly sought and applied. Just because we are to seek the highest culture, we must keep the religious tone active, healthy and controlling. We do not gather students here sim- ply to make them Christians, but we make them Christians in order to make them better scholars, in order to heighten the quality and enlarge the volume of their manhood and of their intellectual force. And this is not a needless or unworthy aim that we pursue. It lies in the line of the advancing civilization of our age, along the very track which .the best life of man on earth is to pursue in the coming years. Christianity is gathering a deeper hold and a wider sway among men with every circling year; all facts proclaim it. The world is to be more thoroughly Christian in spirit and in aim fifty years hence than it is now ; no reasonable mind can question this. And the men and women who are to do the great work of the world in this coming century not only must be possessed of the richest culture, they must also be permeated to the very heart with Christian truth, set on fire with the enthusiasms of the gospel, as leaders in the grand march of Christian civilization around the globe. A wise forecast of the jears demonstrates the THE FUTURE WORK OF OBERLIN. 337 wisdom, the imperative necessity, of Oberlin's maintaining her primitive traditions, and implant- ing in every student's mind the knowledge of God, in every heart the fixed purpose of loyalty to Jesus Christ. More than at the beginning, because her influence sweeps a wider field, it is incumbent on her to set before her pupils the commanding ideals of the Christian life and service, to fire their hearts with enthusiastic devotion to Christ and His king- dom of grace, and to sublime and refine all intel- lectual toil and gain with the spirit of unselfish devotion and Christian love. If anything is plain to us, as we cast our eyes along the coming years, it is the wisdom of holding fast our Christian tra- ditions and of increasing their power. IV. An interesting question may be raised as to the lines of future growth in the College. There is no occasion to modify the general plan on which the College was founded. Too much praise can scarcely be given to the remarkable foresight of the founder and the equally remarkable courage of the fathers. Fifty years ago, first and alone among the colleges of the land, Oberlin threw her doors wide open to all comers, irrespective of sex or color, and maintained that generous stand through howling storm and frowning night. The morning has dawned, and. the storm is laid ; and hundreds of colleges now, catching the noble in- spiration, welcome all who come. Oberlin will still reach hospitable, helping hands to every one who seeks her aid ; and she will cultivate in her halls, as o| old, the spirit of universal brotherhood^ 338 OBERLIN JUBILEE. the love of liberty, a sacred animosity toward every social prejudice and prescriptive wrongs, towards every force that bars the way to culture and success for any human soul. Brothers and sisters will still sit together in her classes and wear her honors ; men of all nations and hues will find an equal welcome and honorable recognition. In these things she takes no backward step, nor ■regrets one syllable or deed of all her history. The historic position of the College in these things is to be sacredly maintained, as a prejcious inherit- ance from past years, as a welcome inspiration for all the years to come. But there are changes that do not touch the es- sential character of the College, which we may well expect to come, and in which we all shall rejoice. Every graduate of past years marks some such change as he comes back to these jubilee greet- ings. And many others are sure to follow. They are the signs of growth, not of deterioration or decay. As resources accumulate, as the needs of »ur constituency grow in number and variety, the work. of the College will enlarge, new departments of instruction will be added, and the educational work kept even with the times and with our op- portunities. There are not wanting, even now, sure indications of such growth in several direct- ions, signs that a greater institution is developing in the midst of what we see, which will- challenge new enterprise, which will yield far more abundant fruit, and which may require a broader name. And one chief duty that rests on those who are THE FUTURE WORK OF O BERLIN. 339 to shape the future here must be to mark these signs, wisely to provide for this grander work, and strongly to carry forward these goodly begin- nings, in the spirit of the fathers, to the glorious result to which God leads us on. In the hush of sacred memories and thrilling hopes which fill this hour, how many voices reach our hearts, from all the past, from coming days, from the heavenly heights, and all of them speak of duty, of faithfulness, and the kingdom of God. Ere we part, let us lift our hands and record our vows before each other and high heaven, in the name and for the glory of God, to fight^«r fight, to run our course, to keep the faith, as bravely and well as they whose names and deeds we tell to- da}' with words of honor and thoughts of love. " Lead, kindly light. Lead Thou us on !" GOVERNOR FOSTER'S ADDRESS. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I have no complaint such as Professor Ryder has made. No topic was given me. And it was hinted to me that brevity was a quality that ought to be observed on this occasion. I do not know that I have had an example of this kind [laughter], for it strikes me that fifteen minutes in Oberlin are equal to half an hour in any other place that I have ever been in. [Laughter.] But all that has been said ought to have been said, and it has been well said. I am here to occupy your time but a few mo- ments. It seems to me that in this year of jubilee, this fiftieth anniversary of your existence, the talk- ing should be done by Oberlin people. But I am glad to be here, to be able to look into your joyous faces on this gladsome occasion, and to mingle my voice with yours in congratulations over the great accomplishments of the past. Fifty years may be but a brief period in the great flight of time ; but, measured by any stan- dard of ours, the fifty years of the existence of Oberlin are the most eventful fifty years in the history of our race. In these fifty years freedom has been established in all our country. Fifty years ago slavery was entrenched in the Execu- GOVERNOR FOSTER'S ADDRESS. 341 tive Department of our Government, in its legisla- tive halls, in its judiciary, aye, in the southern por- tion of it the divinity of this institution was to that section satisfactorily established from the pulpit. To-day, thank God, every man in this country, be he white or black, is the equal before the law of every other man. In the accomplishment of this work the influence of Oberlin cannot be overesti- mated. Fifty years ago, in this great Commonwealth of ours, this grand State of Ohio, this State at the head of whose government it is to me a source of infi- nite pride to be — this State where, perhaps, the grandest civilization now exists that the world ever saw, there stood upon your statute books what were known as the " Black Laws." The colored man had no right even to testify in court against a white man. These laws have been wiped out, and the influence of Oberlin in accomplishing this result has been beyond estimate. Oberlin has made amazing progress. Thirty or forty years ago, in the minds of many, I might say of most of our people, Oberlin was a subject of reproach. I remember well the first time that I passed through the village upon the railroad, por. sibly thirty years ago. As we neared the village, one of two gentlemen sitting in the seat in front of me, said : " In this place, if a white man behaves himself, he is as good as a nigger." [Laughter.] " Oh," said the other one, " this is nigger heaven, is it?" Another one said, "Here is where they stamp upon the fugitive slave law — refuse to obey 342 OBERLIN JUBILEE. a law of their country." Here was not only a station of the "underground railroad," but one of the principal headquarters. Friends of Oberlin, you have been forgiven for all this. The world holds no grudge against you for it. If you did sympathize with John Brown, the world has forgiven you for it. To-day it is not the habit of gentlemen, when responding to the toast, " Ohio," to say very much in boast of our educational institutions. We think of Yale ; we think of Harvard ; we think of Princeton, and we are disposed not to boast upon that subject. But the time has come when gentle- men speaking upon this theme can boast, in view of the grand success of this institution, of the edu- cational institutions of the State of Ohio. [Ap- plause.] Go where we will to-day; go into any convention, go into the public halls, go to your legislative assemblies, go to your judiciary, go to your executive departments, go to the military, go to the pulpit, go to the forum, go anywhere where character, learning and talent are demanded, and you will find graduates of Oberlin. I wish to be entirely accurate. Speaking of con- ventions, perhaps I ought to make an exception. There are very few Oberlinites at a Democratic convention. [Laughter.] It would be difficult, my friends, to estimate the influence of Oberlin upon the politics of this coun. try in the past. She has been aggressively right upon all of the great questions that have agitated the country since her existence. She is aggres- GOVERNOR FOSTER'S ADDRESS. 343 sively right now upon questions that agitate the public mind ; and I doubt not that in all the future she will be aggressively right upon the questions that may arise. But, after all, friends of this insti- tution, the crowning glory of Oberlin is, as has been better said by others, that she has demon- strated the practicability of the coeducation of the sexes, and has established the fact that a white man and a black man may be educated together with- out loss of dignity to either. [Applause.] God bless Oberlin for her great accomplish- ments in the past! And if the alumni and the friends of this institution will do what our friend who last spoke has asked you to do, fill up this endowment — and I have a right to speak here, for I have contributed my little mite recently in this direction [applause]— then her influence will grow, and her future will be more glorious than her past. You ought not to hesitate an hour or a moment to give Oberlin to-day all she asks. She will con- tinue to ask. Oberlin will continue to want, t care not how much money you give her. It only enlarges and widens the field, and she will still want more. But she needs what she asks to-day, and I trust that on this Fourth of July, this fiftieth anniversary of her existence, at the end of half a century of glorious achievement, the friends here may furnish what is now so especially needed ; and if this is done, I have no doubt that the future of Oberlin will be as glorious and as illustrious as has been her past. [Applause.] 344 OBERLIN JUBILEE. WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, JULY 4TH. Hon. James Monroe presided in the afternoon, and the exercises were opened with the singing of two verses of the hymn, " Must Jesus bear the cross alone ?" by the audience. Prayer was then offered by Rev. Josiah Strong, of Hudson, secre- tary of the Ohio Home Missionary Society. FOR THE ALUMNI REUNION, O. C. By Plinv Steele Boyd. I. From off the mountain- tops of thought, From spme sweet vale or other. We gather, as good children ought. To toast our Alma Mother. To greet her very youngest sons, And hear their valedictories; And join in heart the older ones To <;elebrate her victories. We gather round our mother's knee. And turn o'er memory's pages; We count our scars with solemn glee. We bless the coming ages. We'll not forget the good old times. That paved the way for better; Our debt of gratitude and rhymes We'd pay, to every letter. FOR THE ALUMNI REUNION, 0. C. 34$ II. O glorious were the days of old When we went forth from college, To "fight the devil," all so bold, And advertise our knowledge. How confident, how brave and gay Then rode we out to battle; As innocent almost as they Who shake an infant's rattle. Armed cap-a-pie, all well-equipped, Our armor all celestial; We thought we never could be whipped By any foe terrestrial. We thought the things we didn't know Were hardly worth the knowing; The genius that we couldn't show Would never find a showing! It never did! ' But let that pass; Pray let me not anticipate; Let Clio speak: her truthful glass Your gravest fears will dissipate. A score of witnesses here rise To voice her inspirations; We look into each other's eyes, And find our confirmations. Each looks into his heart and reads The plain unvarnished story; His plans, his triumphs, or his needs, His thirst for fame or glory. Each brings his budget full of news. And joins in the procession. My own I bring, with news and views To this unique confession. 346 OBERLIN JUBILEE. III. I used to keep a Viringfed steed, Perhaps you well remember; He wasn't famous, much, for speed; He wasn't made of timber. He wasn't just a common "boss," My thoroughbred Pegasian! He wasn't, say, a kind of cross, Though frisky on occasion, I turned him out to grass one Spring, Tied to an ox-high daisy; He broke away and sprained a wing, And came home lame and crazy. I do not use him any more; He isn't worth a copper. The heights Parnassian to explore, I cannot tell a whopper. 'Tis sad — tis very sad indeed. But truth for all humanity — The Psalmist put it in his creed — Of horse-flesh, all is vanity! IV. I used to keep a comely Muse, Perhaps you know her history! The story ? Well, I can't refuse; This is no place for mystery. She always had a trace of — well. We'll call it eccentricity. No mortal could the reason tell; I needn't tell explicitly. FOR THE ALUMNI REUNION, 0. C. 347 One morn she woke up with the blues And wouldn't sing a particle; And, horrid Muse! she changed her views About the foremost article. Bilious, you think, and therefore sad; She lost the true perspective. Conceived the world as wholly bad. Then raked it with invective! She was the Muse of nimble feet, For any music ready; With lips, and voice, and temper sweet, Glad, frolicsome, but steady. She is a sober Muse and grim. Sedate, a trifle prosy; She will not even sing a hymn. Nor smile upon a posy. She hardly ventures on a smile, When all around are jolly; A flash of wit is not her style. She can't endure such folly. Her tongue is long, and at the world Is very fond of storming; Her javelins all round are hurled. She's mighty at reforming! Her worst of faults appearing, when A great convention holding, She gets the good together, then She gives them such a scolding! Her aid I surely must refuse Forevermore hereafter. Until she learns again to use The gifts of song and laughter. 348 OBERLIN JUBILEE. I have another in her place, Gay as a rose or fuchsia; With mother's heart and angel-face, I call her Aunt Jerusha. She thinks the world is growing wise, She feels the Lord is in it; That He, who rules the earth and skies, Did wisely to begin it. 1 hold to Aunt Jerusha's creed, That love divine and sweetness, Are better than the sharpest screed To cure earth's incompleteness. That evil is o'ercome with good, That like the little leaven That leavens all the lump, we should Our world lift up to Heaven. That as the sun smiles on the earth And calls forth life and beauty, Each mother's son shall prove his worth By doing cheerful duty. From off the mountain -tops of thought, Or some old burnt-out crater, We gather as good children Ought, To toast our Alma Mater. From every clime, from every coast. From regions near and utter. We bring her hither tons of toast All spread, both sides, with butter. Long may she hold her beauty rare. Grow old and \vrinkled never; For aye her crown of wisdom wear. Long may she live forever! FOR THE ALUMNI REUNION, 0. C. 349 Following the poem, brief addresses were made by the following alumni, guests and representatives of sister institutions: Tutor Hodge, class of '38; Rev. Robert West, of the Advance ; Professor Mor- ley, of Western Reserve University ; Rev. Dr. Fisk, of Chicago Congregational Theological Seminary ; Rev. Dr. James Eells, of Lane Theological Semin- ary, Cincinnati ; Rev. Dr. Barbour, of Yale Theo- logical Seminary ; Prof. S. J. Buck, of Grinnell College ; Rev. Dr. Simeon Gilbert, of the Congre- gationalist; Rev. Arthur M. Thome, of Kentucky ; President E. H. Merrell, D.D., of Ripon College, Wisconsin ; President Brooks, of Tabor College, Iowa. Professor Monroe presented a large number of letters of regret from distinguished individuals and college and seminary Faculties. Among others, were letters from John G. Whittier the poet, Theodore D. Weld, President Mark Hopkins, Rev. S. H. Waldo, President Asa Mahan, Mr. J. F. Scovill, Fred Douglass, Whitelaw Reid, Senators Sherman and Pendleton, Judge Foraker, and the Faculties of Marietta College, Colorado College, Adrian College, and Bangor and Andover Theo- logical Seminaries. The letter from the Quaker poet, which was in his own handwriting, was read. The following is a copy of it : Dahveks, 20, 6 mo., iSSj. Prof. Wm. Goodell Frost, Oberlin 0. My Dear Sir: I regret to be obliged to say that I have not been able to comply with the request to prepare a poem for the Oberlin semi-centennial celebration. I delayed a definite answer hoping 350 OBERLIN JUBILEE. that I could give a. favorable one, but my state of health has made writing so difficult that I have not dared undertake what, under other circumstances, would have been a labor of love. I am not insensible to the great and peculiar interest of tlie oc- casion. I fully recognize the debt which Freedom, Temperance, Christian Manhood and womanhood owe to the noble institution faithful when others were faithless in the dark days of Slavery and Disunion. God bless and prosper it! I am very truly thy friend, John G. Whittier. LETTER FROM MR. THEODORE D. WELD. Hyde Park, Mass., June 26, 1883. Dear Friends: My heartiest thanks! You invite me to Ober- lin's half-century jubilee. A grand jubilee to me it would be, could I be there. Vet, though bodily fast tied here, I shall still hear your jubilee trump as it rings out the old half-century, and in the same key rings in the new. Before Oberlin was, I well knew its founders, and the sacred pur- pose to live for others that fired their souls. That purpose founded Oberlin, and baptized it with the Spirit of Him who washed his disciples' feet. When it was hardly two years old, not yet quite out of its forest bivouac, I was there awhile. Teachers, pupils, and villagers, in all perhaps three hundred, were hand, heart and soul Abolitionists and teetotalers to a man (I need not say to a woman.) The thrill of that great heart-beat that I felt through Oberlin then has pulsated far and wide through millions since. It swung wide open its doors, and with heartiest welcome beck- oned into its halls, irrespective of sex or color. Blessings on Oberlin! that so long ago broke the path and led the way for feeble feet to follow, and through those long years, which tried men's souls, steered first and alone through night and storm. May the Oberlin of the future wear worthily the mantle of its memorable past. FOR THE ALUMNI REUNION, 0. C. 351 All honor to the first and bravest educational pioneer out of the darkness into light. I am, dear friends, with kind salutations, Gratefully yours, Theodore D. Weld. To Messrs. Smith, Frost, and MAncH, and Mrs. Johnston, Committee for the Oberlin Semi-Centennial. After the singing of the Doxology, the benedic- tion was pronounced by the venerable Professor John Morgan. COMMEMORATIVE HYMN. Sung by the audience in tlie Auditorium, July 4. Tune — Missionary Chant, REV. SAMUEL WOLCOTT, D.D. Where knelt with faith on virgin sod The men who vowed this site to God, For fifty years the passing days Have echoed sacred songs of praise. The pathless forest disappeared, Primeval solitude was cheered By fervor of devotion rare, By halls of science and of prayer. Here knowledge spread its choicest store. To bond and free threw wide its door; Aglow with learning's hallowed flame, Our sons and daughters hither came. Heroic teachers here were seen. Of earnest thought and saintly mien. With one* who had the prophet's dower, And as a prince with God had power. The zeal of consecration spread. Its power was on the nation shed, It nerved the brave for freedom's fight. It poured on pagan darkness light. O God! our past is all thine own. Its gains we lay before thy throne; And loyal still to truth and right. For future conflicts gird with might. * President Finney. THE CLASS OF '47. [At a reunion of the class o£ 1847, at Oberlin, O., on Tuesday afternoon, July 3, 1883, the following poem was read by Rev. Antoinette L. Brown Blackwell. Fourteen out of thirty-eight class graduates were present.] Fifty years crown Alma Mater, Ringing out her Jubilee; Can the years since we were scattered Count up three and thirty-three ? Thought o'erleaps the flying cycles, Memory lightens back the way; If in mind all time abideth, I declare 'twas yesterday! There we are! fresh youths and maidens, Wilful these, and manly those; Teachers, wise, with best intentions Often treading on our toes. Ducklings of the brooding mother. Scrambling here and venturing there, Nature in us younger, stronger, Than maternal, coddling care. Yesterday! The youths and maidens Now transformed to College dons. Lawyers, preachers, grandmas, teachers. Editors, and all the "ons"? Credit oft is too precocious! Only young folks here are classed, Storing up in their traditions Youth perpetual in the past. Snows adrift above our foreheads! Pearly blooms wreathe every brow; Quaintly furrowed! Yes, with thinking, Not with time or care, I trow; 354 OBERLIN JUBILEE. Life is brimming yet with promise: Summers, full-leaved, elbow spring! True ; but autumns, fruitage-weighted, Far off coming, slowly wing. Some of us have won promotion. On to kindlier, sunnier climes; All, no doubt, have borne our crosses; Yet peal out the ringing chimes; Jubilate! jubilate! Alma Mater, plucky, brave, Holds high festival; her classes, Young or old, their pennons wave. Granted we are getting older — Zest of life ebbs not a bit; Matron faces brightly greet us. Those are sages, we'll admit; There's no doubt, the cranky leaven Women hid in loyal meal, Raised the class of '47 Higher than the common weal INDEX. Allen, Dr. Dudley P., Address, 222 Antislavery Reunion, 228 Beginning, Rev. Jolin M. Wil- liams, 75 Baccalaureate Sermon, Pres. Jas. H. Fairchild, 85 Ballantine, Prof. W. G., Intro- ductory Address, 9 Barbour, Prof. W. M. , Address, 14 Blackwell, Rev. Antoinette Brown, Poem, 352 Boyd, Rev. Pliny Steele, Poem, 344 Conservatory Commencement, 5 Colony and College, Rev. Wm. H. Ryder, 301 "Class of '47," Poem, 352 Commemorative Hymn, Rev. Samuel Wolcott, 351 Cox, Gen. J. D., Address, 266 Cross, Re V. R. T. , " Fourth De- cade," 215 Dresser, Rev. Amos, Personal Experience in the South, 236 Decades, First, Rev. H. L. Hammond, 192 Third, Rev. J. L. Patton, 207 Fourth, Rev. R. T. Cross, 215 Decades, Fifth, Dr. Dudley P. Allen, 222 Early Days, Mrs. Douglass Putnam, 159 Early Days, Rev. Leonard S. Parker, 70 Evans, Miss Mary, Greeting from Lake Erie Seminary, 178 Fairchild, Pres. Jas. H., Bacca- laureate, 85 Address of Welcome, ■ 256 Fairfield, Rev. M. W., Address, 53 Foster. Gov. Chas., Address, 340 Future of Oberlin, Prof. Judson Smith, 322 Hammond, Rev H. L., "First Decade," 192 Hayes, Ex. Pres. R. B., Ad- dress, 50 Hayes, Gen. P. C, Oberlin and the War, 228 Home Missionary, The Early, Rev. John Todd, 134 Introductory Address, Prof. W. G. Ballantine, 9 Invitation, 3 Johnston, Mrs. A. A. F., Wel- come to Alumnae, 142 Jubilee Day, 256 Kincaid, Mrs. M. C, "What Oberlin has done for us," 171 356 INDEX. Lake Erie Seminary Greeting, 178 Lane Seminary Rebels, Rev. H. L. Lyman, 60 Little, Mrs. Sarah Ceroles, " Education of Women, 146 Lyman, Rev. H. L., Lane Semi- nary Rebels, 60 Midway, Poem, Mrs. Emily Huntington Miller, 166 Missionary Ordination, 6 Missionary Work of Oberlin, Rev. M. E. Strieby, 116 Patton, Rev. J. L., "Third De- cade," 207 Parker, Rev. Leonard S., " Early Days," 70 Price, John, Rescue of, Rev. Rich. Winsor, 251 Programme, 5-8 Public Affairs, Influence of Oberlin in. Gen. Cox, 266 Putnam, Mrs. Douglass, " Ear- ly Days," 159 Reunion, Theological Alumni, 53 Alumni, 192 Alumnae, 142 Classes and Societies, 7 Ryder, Rev. Wm. H., Colony and College, 301 Smith, Prof. Judson, Future of Oberlin, 322 Sirieby, Rev. M. E., " Mission- ary Work of Oberlin," 116 Stone, Mrs. Lucy, Oberlin and Woman, 311 Tabernacle, 4 Theology of Oberlin, Prof. W. M. Barbour, 14 Todd, Rev. John, The Early Home Missionary, 134 War, Oberlin and, Gen. P. C. Hayes, 228 Welcome.Address by Pres. Jas. H. Fairchild, 256 Welcome to Alumnae, Mrs. A. A. F. Johnston, 142 Weld, Theo. D., Letter, 550 What Oberlin has done for Us , Mrs. M. C. Kincaid, 171 Williams, Rev. John M., The Beginning. 75 Whitlier, John Greenleaf, Let- ter, 349 Winsor, Rev. Rich., How John Price was Rescued, 251 Wolcott, Rev. Samuel, Com- memorative Hymn, 351 Woman, Oberlin and, Mrs. Lucy Stone, 311 Women, Oberlin and the Educa- tion of, Mrs. S. C. Little, 146