COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS AT Willamette University, iFhupgday, June 18, 1892. THE STUDENTS’ DEBT TO THE PAST\ AND DUTY TO THE FUTURE. BY BEV. W. P. GEOBOB, D. D. SALEM, OREGON: E. M. WAITE, STEAM PBINTEB AND BOOKBINDEB, 1892.ITHE STUDENTS' DEBT TO THE PAST AND DUTY TO THE FUTURE. BY REV. W. P, GEOBGE, D. J). Mr. President, Members of the Faculty and Board of Trustees, The Honorable Alumni, Gentlemen of the Graduating Class, . Ladies and Gentlemen : The keynote of my address shall be one of congratulation—1 congratulate you first on the possession of Willamette University, situated in one of the loveliest valleys of your fair young State, and because of your peaceful surroundings in this City of Peace, For the prosecution of your studies, it is necessary to retire away from the rush, clatter, whirl and turmoil of our large cities ana the din and clamor of our modern civilization in this iron age, where, to obtain the means of comfort, all comfort is often taken out of life. Said the Master to his disciples, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest awhile; for there were many coming and go* ing, and they had no leisure so much as to eat” Mark 6-31. That is a true description of much modern urban life. You are here retired for meditation and study not into “a desert place” for what once was desert and wilderness is now blossoming with roses. In this busy nineteenth century we may learn a lesson from Sakyi Mouna or Buddha as well as from our blessed Lord, St. Paul, and all great teachers, who had their seasons of retired,tranquil medita meditation tion previous to entering on their lives of activity. In the prepa preparation ration for your life work, it is necessary to have peaceful surround surroundings ings and these you have in Salem, City of Peace. I congratulate you also on belonging to a University, with ex experience. perience. Willamette is no young mushroom upstart, clamoring in noisy tones for recognition, but an institution that lacks but two years of its semi-centennial, and has been in every way co-eval with the growth of your State. It has demonstrated its right to be and live. It has history, traditions, memories and associations that link it with the past and whose moral force will help propel in it the future. Byron says: * * * * “ There is a power “ And magic in the ruined battlement, “ For which the pomp and grandeur of the present hour “ Must bide its time; and wait, till ages are its dower.”4 Bat the best of it is, your battlements are not in ruins,although they are in places somewhat dilapidated. God has however been leading you by the “pillar of fire” to larger schemes and under undertakings takings for the future, and if fire and water have somewhat damaged these halls, it is but a providential indication for the en enlargement largement of your borders; in which laudable, praiseworthy enter enterprise prise I wish you God speed. Under your present most efficient leadership, you have renewed your youth, and we are proud to chronicle that this institution, founded m the infancy of this northwest territory,and intertwined in all its history, has today all the pulsations of healthy, vigorous life, and steps forth to conquer—not new worlds to satisfy personal ambition—but the minds and souls of the young life of the nation as a consecrated offering to Christ. I congratulate you again on being located in the Capital of your tetate, to which places there now seems a general college movement At the General Conference we were staying in Omaha, Nebraska’s cny ot business; but to see Nebraska’s colleges and universities,we had to visit Lincoln, Nebraska’s capital. In my own state of Washington, our collegiate institute is at Olympia, the capital; and -Bishop Hurst asks for ten millions of dollars for the “American Uni University” versity” the chief argument for which is its location at Washing Washington, ton, 1). C.,where the student can have free access to the Smithsonian institute, the patent offices, museums and libraries of the Nation’s capital, and listen to the eloquence of the Nation’s senators and statesmen. Here you have similar advantages—free access to your five State institutions and the State law library of eighteen thou thousand sand volumes, and the best possible law faculty consisting of the greatest legal lights of Oregon. I think our exercises are rightly even now termed Commence Commencement ment exercises, although in the earliest days they were so called, because held at the beginning of the college year, but it seems to me there is another meaning, justly involved, in the present term and application. It might be thought that, as many of you have reached the goal of some year’s ambition, you have closed your educational career, and these instead of being commencement, are with you concluding, exercises of the course. The truth uninten unintentionally tionally hinted at, is however, an important one. You have by no means finished your education, but have just been qualified by collegiate courses for commencing it. Our process of learning will continue through eternity, for only One, the Almighty and un unconditioned, conditioned, is infinite and perfect in knowledge. We are but finite creatures, and yet capable of indefinite progress and un unlimited limited education. “Light is sown for the righteous and glad gladness ness for the upright in heart” and in the great hereafter the reap reaping ing time shall come. You have not been to school to learn all there is to know in the different branches of knowledge, but simply to learn how to learn them. In these preliminary, primary courses your teachers have endeavored to lay a sure foundation on which they trust you will be erecting a goodly fabric during all your future life. The object of education is not so much to learn useful things as to be-5 come able to learn and to use them; not utility, but development Is the aim of true education. . ... , As-ain vou were all blessed at birth with certain faculties and powers which would have laid dormant, had not your instructors endeavored by the most approved processes to draw out and de develop velop them. So your course of education has been to-discover in some measure to yourselves and to others what there is in you, and what part in life’s great drama you are best qualified to play. That vou make the best and most of yourselves, for yourselves, for society, and for God, you have received your preliminary training. In comparison with other animals, your youth and adolescence have been prolonged out of all proportion to the years of your natural life, but it has been that you might receive proper training for the immensely more important part you have to play. There is nothing in the universe that we know of, save Al Almighty mighty God, grander or more glorious than human life. It is human life and intelligence that give to the material universe its value. In the old ages, when “dragons wallowed in their slime the same stars revolved, and in their silent shining declared the glory of God, and the sunrises and sunsets with all natural phenomena, were probably as beautiful as now, but what are scenes of beauty without an eye, or sounds of harmony, the muse of the spheres” without an ear to appreciate and an intelligence to comprehend them? The world waited for man and, when he preceded them, the ciphers of the universe had value. As Tennyson sings it: “ For tho’ the Giant Ages heave the hill “ And break the shore, and evermore “ Make and break, and work their will; “ Tho’ world on world in myriad myriads roll “ Round us, each with different powers “ And other forms of life than ours, “ What know we greater than the soul ? And a greater than Tennyson has said—let us reiterate it with trumpet voice to this money-getting, mammon-worshiping age, “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? You who have the grandest of all missions before you, both in this world and the next, have been permitted to linger longer in life’s vestibule, that as you pass through its several chambers till vou reach the many mansions above, you may realize you are thoroughly equipped and prepared lor the journey, and, walking worthy of your vocation, may adorn your every profession and be crowned kings and rulers over “many cities’ in the great hereafter. Then again, I think you are especially privileged in commencing your life work in the closing years of the nineteenth century. Victor Hugo, in writingof Napoleon and Waterloo, said that the great man must disappper that the great century may come in. He was right. The great century could not brook the presence of a mere conquering warrior however great. The man of blood must yield to the man of brains. ■ , . . . This nineteenth century with all its wonderful achievements is6 now speeding to its elose ; but great work for God and humanity may be done before the twentieth century dawns upon us. Con Conversing versing in New York with an editorial friend, I remarked what great changes and improvements had transpired during our life lifetime. time. “Yes'' said he “but I would rather be beginning life now ” You are now in the golden period of the world’s history, and are what Tennyson aptly terms, “Heirs of all the ages.” All the accumulations of knowledge in the past are yours to begin with. All the discoveries in every walk of science have been made for you. Tor you the chemist has experimented in his laboratory and discovered the subtle relations and properties of mysterious matter. Jt 1 or you the intrepid voyager has braved danger in deep waters- danger in dark and dismal deserts; starvation in marshy swamps 1 and butchery from savage peoples. For you this earth has been mapped out into continent, isle and ocean, and its countries opened for your entrance. For you, to purchase for you freedom ot conscience, confessors of faith have in the past suffered loss of wealth and friends, and home, and some of them to gain you liberty of thought, have shed their heart’s best blood. Heirs of the ages! All the toils, all the sufferings, all the self denials of the past have been for you, and the achievements of the ages are yours today. In the period of this world’s youth, men and women of the past have but prepared the way for the coming man of the present and the future. For you Moses legislated, David sang. Isaiah prophesied, Daniel dreamed and the olden prophets thundered forth the eternal principles of righteousness lor you the Apostles founded Christianity and St. Paul took his heroic missionary journeys. For you the fathers wrought, the martyrs bled and the Lord Jesus Christ lived, died and rose again. For you Shakspere wrote his plays and John Milton his poems, for you Friar Bacon solved scientific secrets and labored at night by crucible and tire, and Francis Bacon discovered and applied his inductive philosophy. For you, four centuries ago, Columbus voyaged and opened up America, and for you a century ago Captains Cook and Vancouver sailed up this coast and discovered Oregon and Puget Sound. For you, George Washing Washington—father ton—father of his country—lived his spotless life, fought the Kevolutionary battles and made his country free. For you the monk, Martin Luther, “shook the world” and battled for the sur- premacy of conscience. In one of his most eloquent passages fhomas Carlyle describes and moralizes over what he calls the most memorable event of modern history : a * ^iet of Worms, Luther’s appearance there on the 17th of Apnl 15—1, may be considered as the greatest scene in modern European history; the point, indeed, from which the whole sub- sequent history of civilization takes its rise. After multiplied negotiations, disputations, it had come to this. The young Emperor Charles Fifth, with all the Princes of Germany, Papal nuncios, dignitaries, spiritual and temporal, are assembled there: Luther is to appear and answer for himself, whether he will" recant or not. The world’s pomp and power sit there on this hand: on that, stands up for God ? s truth, one man, the miner7 Hans Luther’s son, a poor German monk but stronger than them all. He stood solitary, friendless, but on God’s truth; they with their tiaras, triple hats, with their treasuries and harmonies, thunders spiritual and temporal were standing on the devil’s lie and were not so strong. Friends had reminded him of Huss, ad advised vised him not to go; he would not be advised. A large company of friends rode out to meet him, with still more earnest warnings; he answered, “Were there as many Devils in Worms as there are roof-tiles, I would on.” The people, on the morrow, as he went to the hall of the Diet, crowded the windows and housetops, some of them calling out to him, in solemn words, not to recant: “Who “Whosoever soever denieth me before men!” they cried to him,—as in a kind of solemn petition and adjuration. Was it not in reality our petition too, the petition of the whole world, lying in dark bond bondage age of soul, paralyzed under a black spectral nightmare and triple-hatted Chimera, calling itself Father in God, and what not: “Free us; it rests with thee; desert us not!” “ Luther did not desert us. His speech, of two hours, dis distinguished tinguished itself by its respectful, wise and honest tone; sub submissive missive to whatsover could lawfully claim submission, not sub submissive missive to any more than that. His writings, he said, were partly his own, partly derived from the Word of God. As to what was his own, human infirmity entered into it; unguarded anger, blindness, many things doubtless which it were a blessing for him could he abolish altogether. But as to what stood on sound truth and the Word of God, he could not recant it. How could he? “Confute me.” he concluded, “by proofs of scripture, or else by plain just arguments: I cannot recant otherwise. For it is neither safe nor prudent to do aught against conscience. Here stand I; I can do no other: God help me!”—It is, as we say, the greatest moment in the modern history of men. English Puritan- » ism, England and its parliaments, Americas, and vast work these two centuries; French Revolution, Europe and its work every everywhere where at present: the germ of it all lay there: had Luther in that moment done other, it had all been otherwise! The European world was asking him: Am I to sink ever lower into falsehood, stagnant putrescence, loathsome accursed death; or, with what whatever ever paroxysm, to cast the falsehoods out of me, and be cured and live.” To come nearer home. For you in 1834, Jason Lee from Canada, and his nephew Daniel Lee, finding spiritual desitution in this far off territory, where Astoria was almost the only white settlement, and the inhabitants were intermarrying with the In Indians, dians, sent to New York for Christian Methodist missionaries. For you in 1839,this band of missionaries, numbering with their families fifty-two souls, celebrated on board their ship which had sailed around Cape Horn, the centenary of Wesleyan Metho Methodism, dism, by taking up a collection of six hundred dollars to found a Christian school in the new land to which they were hasten hastening. ing. Think of that! One hundred years before John Wesley in England had founded the Wesleyan Methodist society, (to all intents and purposes a church) and every English Wesleyan class8 ticket the world over now contains the inscription: “Wesleyan Methodist Society Founded 1739.” And a hundred years after afterward ward Father Parrish and his coadjutors sailing up this northwest coast, set apart from their comparative poverty six hundred dol dollars lars as a nucleus of endowment for Willamette university, in cele celebration bration of the centennial. Then afterward, on landing here, they took up another collection of four thousand dollars for the same purpose, giving from their slender means, three, five, six and eight hundred dollars apiece. They laid broad and deep the foundations of this university, for you to build thereon a goodly superstructure. Men and women of the Northwest! I conjure you, by the mem memories ories of the past and the associations of the present; by the perils, privations and self-denying sacrifices of the fathers, never let this institution wane, but carry it forward in the years to come as one of the most precious possessions of your state and country! Then for you, the present generation as well as the past is toil toiling ing still. Sidney Smith, the witty canon of St. Pauls, is credited with saying that “The world must be circumnavigated before the poorest washerwoman can have her breakfast” and it is literally true. The peoples of the whole earth are unconscionsly serving you today ; for you the miner delves in yonder mines of earth, and the farmer clears the forest, hews the lumber, sows the seed and reaps the golden grain ; for you the artisan toils at his handicraft, and the blacksmith blows the ruddy forge ; to feed, clothe, house and give you comforts, and luxuries, the many sons of labor toil in their different departments ; for you the hardy mariner plows the deep, ships sail over every sea, and steam cars traverse the continents; For you the yellow skinned Chinamen and swarthy Japanese are toiling under Eastern suns, and the earth is engirdled by the band of commerce ; for you the student burns his midnight lamp, and the inventor and chemist solve nature’s secrets in their laboratories ; for you the preacher, author, poet, and philosopher sweat their brains through many a weary vigil. . Thirteen hundred millions of people linked by bands invisible, are laboring today, each for the other’s benefit. And how about yourselves? They are serving you. Will you serve them? In one sense you cannot avoid doing so; for, as I have shown, we are by divine enactment, “every one members one of another.” But for ourselves, all depends on the spirit with which we go out into this busy world. You may go out saying “The world owes me a living, and I will live a selfish life therein, and make all these millions labor for my personal interest.” That is what I would call the centripetal idea, everything made to tend and work to the advantage of number one. Or you may have the centrifugal idea and say “This is my generation, I will serve them to the best of my ability, and benefit them by doing them every possible good in every possible way. I am here to make the world the better for my presence and by the grace and help of God.I will do it in the way he leads me, leaving reward to him.” The material results of both lives may be the same, but the prompting motives9 in their influence on personal character are wide asunder as the poles. The centripetal life is low mean, dwarfing, selfish. The centrifugal life is broad, liberal, world-embracing, Christlike. I commend to you David’s example who “served his generation by the will of God” and lives in the world’s thought to bless and benefit it now. I commend to you the greater example of the Master who “came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many” and who, “though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor that we through his poverty might be rich.” Our fathers labored that we might “enter in”—not to the re results sults of their labor merely, but “into the labors” themselves to gloriously complete what they have so well begun. “Where prophets’ word, and martyrs’ blood And prayers of saints were sown, You to their labors entering in, Must reap where they have strown.” Elijah goes to heaven in the fiery chariot, and the mantle falls fluttering therefrom, not to be treasured up as a sacred relic, but to smite the Jordan, divide the waters, and in the hands of Elisha perform its ancient miracles, so that the onlookers can say not merely the mantle, but “the spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha.” ’Tis weary watching wave on wave, And yet the tide heaves onward; We build, like corals grave on grave, But pave a pathway sunward. We’re beaten back in many a fray, Yet newer strength we borrow, And, where the vanguard rests today, The rear shall camp tomorrow. • Though hearts brood o’er the past, our eyes With smiling futures glisten, For lolour day bursts up the skies, Lean out your souls and listen! The world is rolling heaven’s way And ripening in her sorrow, Take heart! who bears the cross today Shall wear the crown tomorrow. I want to fix another thought on your minds, in view of the fu future ture which is before this Republic. I see in the coming population of America, that some will be statesmen, some college professors, some preachers of the truth, some teachers in our schools, some lawyers, some physicians, some inventors and discoverers, some merchants, some yeomen, some only hewers of wood and drawers of water. Some will command, some will obey. Who will be in the van of this vast host? Who will fill the learned professions? Who will be the rulers, and directors, who the servants and follow followers? ers? Who will be the hewers of wood and drawers of water? Let the lessons of history give the answer. The thought is this: In the struggles of humanity, to intellect,10 rio-htlv used and to religious character, the victories of the past youth of the generations. Because Athens ruled Greece mtel- world ci>na uered Greece, and the earlier empire was merged into ^db^SbuTaportionofthelaterone ^ A ^^Zy7v"yl Kar»w*rl hv Roman energy and hardihood, hart cieii ns " ci J j „ where tovicto”, and Roman legions had subjugated the whole of p rpi le victorious eagle perched on the Acropolis, and eve cultured Athens was rule! by* the sturdy Roman, K i dler white SP T e he d EKES Tn!°tt d rVtS broughthunder 'their classic sway the rulers of the Roman empire, »»<* ■;« ■»«; Efeto^SSSffiSZEKaKI thp nprfpot energy and elegance of expression, which when we reflect that from hence have sprung, directly or imh- hence’wer^the'^aLT^TOmpflshments a^tfle brilliant fancy of Hip wit of Butler* the supreme and universal excellence of fe sneaT-e‘ AU the triumphs of truth and genius over speaie. -0.1. i every age, have been the triumphs P?^er, mevery country ai'few ®reat minds have made a stand of Athens. Wherever a iew ieat Qf uberty an d reason, the immortal influence of Athens. * * 11118 18 ule g11 Athens to man. Her freedom and her power have for more than twenty centuries been annihilated; her people have degenerated into timid slaves; her language into a barbarous jargon; her temples have been given up to the successive depredations ot Romans, Turks, and Scotchmen; but her intellectual empire is imperishable. And When those who have rivalled her greatness shall have shared her fate; when civilization and knowledge shall have fixed their abode in distant continents; when the sceptre shall have passed away from England; when, perhaps, travellers from distant regions shall invain labour to decipher on some moul mouldering dering pedestal the name of our proudest chief—shall hear savage hymns chanted to some mis-shapen idol over the ruined dome ot our proudest temple, and shall see a single naked fisherman wash his nets in the river of the ten thousand masts—her influence and her glory Will still survive, fresh in eternal youth, exempt from mutability and decay, immortal as the intellectual principle from which they derived their origin, and over which they exercise their control.” _ v , . . „ Then take the history of Rome. When she became extremelj civilized, and, as often follows, immoral, effeminate and corrupt, she yielded herself an easy prey to the all-conquering Goth, Hail and Vandal. The northern barbarians swooped down on ancient Rome and conquered her. For some centuries Upon the fields ot Europe the Roman aud the Teuton struggled for the mastery. The Teutonxuled, ’tis true, with the rod of power, but the astuter Roman, with his sceptre of Wisdom, subjugated the ruder rulers entirely to his sway. _ , In the conquest of Great Britain the Norman William owed his victory, not merely to the prowess of his chivalric knights but to the moral force and enthusiasm excited by the Roman Pontitt s having blessed his banners, and to the moral and mental in influence fluence Wielded by the Latin educated shavelings, who were the power behind the throne. Later on, Henry II gave orders to four knights who proceeded to Canterbury Cathedral and slew the turbulent Archbisop, Thomas A. Beckett, upon the steps of his sacred shrine, but Henry did his penance afterwards, and was well whipped With knotted cords by those same Latin priests whose order he had thus, but in bare justice and self-defense, invaded. In Canterbury today you see the stone steps worn by the knees of countless pilgrims who have knelt before that same shrine, in commemoration of Henry’s pennance. Later, exhausted and driven to desperation by the papal interdict, on the 15th ot May, 1213 King John at Dover, in the presence of the bishops and nobles of the realm, kneeled before Pandulph the pope’s legate, placed his crown in his hands and took the oath of fealty to the Pope, for ever surrendering into the hands of Pope Innocent and his successors, the kingdom of England and lordship of Ireland,to hold them henceforth only as fiefs of the Holy See and paying for them a yearly tribute. . Magna Charta, obtained later from the same monarch is errone erroneously ously credited to the barons of Runnymede, but Stephen Langton, the educated Arch bishop of Canterbury, was the author and cham-12 moil of the famous document and the prime mover of the agitation which won it. John afterwards repudiated the Runnymede charter, because its signature was obtained from him under duress, and these same barons afterwards proved traitorous to their country. The credit of this charter and of a succeeding one obtained from Henrv III, which Hallam calls the true palladium ot British liberty, must be ascribed to Stephen Langton, the churchman,and not tifthe Norman aristocracy. In Germany as in Bn gland, the like conflict was seen and culminated m that famous scene at Canossa, when the Emperor Henry IV , the representative of the Caesars, clad in'a penitent’s shirt, shivered m the snow for three days and nights, praying for admission to the presence of Pope Hildebrand or Gregory VII, who had excommunicated and de dethroned throned him, and liberated his subjects from their oath of allegi- an iTwas only when Christiaii culture had progressed from the in inside side to the outside of the church, and when monks and learned men like John Wycliffe, John Huss and Martin Luther turned reformers that the power and yoke ot Rome were broken. Intellect and true religious culture won, and always in the end will win m th I sa^reUgious culture, for that is the highest culture possible is the oiily one today worthy of the name. The triumphs of the Roman culture were really the triumphs of Christianity. She incorporated into herself much that was good in heathendom, and with Greek and Roman, her sublime philosophy confounded every opponent in the fair conflict of reason with reason Rome is now remembered, not by her material or philosophical!triumphs, iaut by her propagation of the Christianity brought thithei bj per perhaps haps St. Peter, and certainly by St. Paul. No culture, no system of education can be complete without the culture of the heart and soul. It is a fact that no great discovery in science has been made bv any skeptic or unbeliever. The first scientists, the first jurists, the first physicians of the world are Christian men. Gladstone in England, Bismarck and Frederick the Noble in Germany, and all men who have permanently moulded empires, bow in allegiance to the King of Kings. Modern skepticism, sad and pessimistic, attempting under the specious guise of liberalism to rob man of all he holds most dear—his Father in Heaven and his hopes of im immortality—can mortality—can never satisfy the human heart or furnish inspi inspiration ration for noble human effort. . „ . .. You have had hitherto the inestimable blessings of a Christian training, which in their fulness are only found today niriie d.ffer- ent denominational colleges and universities of the land. lor a merely secular education, the state university, backed by the taxed resources of the people, offers many advantages; but, °wmg to religious differences, its training must, at the best, be impeifect and neglectful of the highest interests of mankind. To educate the intellect and neglect the spiritual nature of man, is to neglect the most precious portion of our multiform nature, the crowning glory of our manhood and womanhood. It is in denominational colleges, that we hear of sweeping13 revivals of religion,and it is from our denominational colleges that the ranks of the Christian ministry and of Christian laborers generally are recruited. We believe that we are responsible and must contend earnestly for“the faith”—a definite thing—“once de delivered livered to the saints” and you have been under the care of pastors and teachers, zealous for this faith and the truth as it is in Jesus. The greatest work they and you have had in hand is the develop development ment and building of godly Christian character, which only of all possessions, you can take into the next world;you must leave all else behind you. Character and only character—what you are—will be with you there. Believe me, the great problems of the soul, the whence of its origin, the what of its purpose, and the whither of its destiny, will ever confront you in your path of life; like Banquo’s ghost, they will not down. The only consistent answers ever given are found in the Christian scriptures, which will impart to you your highest knowledge aud completest education. The greatest thinkers of today affirm, and the verdict of history confirms the truth, that the surest way to clarify the intellect,is to purify the heart. The Bible valorously proposes to cleanse this moral sanctuary of man’s nature, this spring of man’s whole life. Follow out its teachings. Trust in the divine man there revealed. Make him your model and your pattern. Like him, “go about doing good,” and the preliminary education you have received, with its means of acquiring knowledge, will be in your hands an all-potent influence for good. “Knowledge (alone) puffeth up; charity or love buildeth up.” Let this love to God and man be yours, and your after life shall be both beautiful and blessed, a benefit to yourselves and others. The world needs, sorely needs, the influence and labor of good, pure, true and holy men and women; and it is yours, remembering and using the legacy of the past, inspired by the example of those gone before, with full faith in the moral and spiritual regeneration of the human race, and the ultimate triumph of truth; it is yours to labor to leave this world the better for your presence here. The knights of olden chivalry received their commission to re redress dress all wrongs, to champion the cause of the innocent and weak, to draw swords only on behalf of truth and righteousness, while in Jlieir search for the Holy Grail, only the pure, unsullied knight should discover the long lost treasure. To you and me, in these later ages,the consecration to our knighthood in a holier chivalry, is for a like noble purpose. On every side of you are wrongs to redress, are the causes of the innocent and weak to champion, are the pnneijfleH of truth and righteousness to enforce, while the same lesson holds good today, as in the knightly search for the Holy Grail. “The pure in heart shall see God.” “The meek shall inherit the earth.” Even the old myths, are as true today, and as full of meaning as when first uttered. There are still evil hydras for the modern Hercules to strangle and Augean stables for him to purify. Ormuzd still contends with Ahriman, aud light is struggling14 with darkness,while Great hearts are still needed to lead weak and weary prilgims to the Celestial City. You have, today, won your first academical honors. Go forward everyone of you, in the paths of truth aud purity, and earn your better, brighter spurs in a nobler conflict than the days of earlier knighthood ever knew. “ Oh, who would not a champion be “ In this the lordlier chivalry! “ Uprouse ye now, brave brother band, “ With honest heart and working hand! “ We are but few, toil-tried and true, “ But hearts beat high to dare and do. “ Oh, there be those that ache to see “ The day dawn of our victory! “ Eyes full of heart-break with us plead, “ And watchers weep and martyrs bleed, “ Work, brothers, work, work hand and brain, “ We’ll win the golden age again. “ And love’s millenial morn shall rise “ In happy hearts and blessed eyes. *■ We will, we will, brave champions be “ In this the lordlier chivalry!”WILLAMETTE UNIVERSITY Young fAer)S glp^isbmp ^ssooiahiop, smmsmmmm igs=~ss~sss~7s wm&mm or the B'S«Xr pW^H^Sr™”"^' SHfS^^SSSS men as assistants. *“ e fl Jf 0 g „assigned. The theme was, ^£r«fc”«?offiw^ tta JSSy, that lath o~« by Mr. G The 1 sood which has been done cannot be estimated, and we are contains strong energetic men.OUR COLLEGE Woman s Association, This was organized on November 10,1891, by Mrs. Rev. Edward Thompson, organizer of the Y. W. C. A., with a charter member membership ship of twenty-three, which list has gradually been increasing. Although not starting under such auspicious circumstances as the Y. M. C. A., it has accomplished great good. Weekly prayer and devotional meetings have been held every Monday, at 3:00 P. m. Daily Bible study has been carried on and encouraged among its members; personal work with the uncon unconverted; verted; visitation of the sick, and general development of spiritual character, has by well organized effort, been carried forward to a great degree of effectiveness. The officers are : President, Miss Fannie Uren; Vice President, Miss Edith Field; Secretary, Miss Rilla McCulloch; Corresponding . Secretary, Miss Cora Winters; Treasurer, Miss Mane Rockwell. A regular praise and devotional meeting has been held by the joint Associations on Sunday afternoons, at 3:00, led by members of each Association alternately. This meeting was well attended, and these times of rejoicing will not be soon forgotten by those earnest Christian students who there received new strength foj the week’s work, and there made new vows for the future; or those who there were persuaded to lead a new life. God has surely revealed his arm and shown his strength to the students of Willamette this year.