for catholicity of spirit but for a practical devotion to the service of mankind." I like that note; I like that combination; that rounds up all the supreme things of man's life.

My wish for Union Seminary and for its members now and their successive generations is that on the one hand they may retain the intellectual freedom which they have and have so conspicuously shown, retain it as it is retained by scientists and philosophers, but on the other hand that they combine with it as they have already combined in the past the devotion which characterizes the martyr and the saint. It is absolutely essential that these two things be combined in the life of individuals and institutions if their work is to be made permanent, as the great danger of all living institutions and of all living movements is in the lack of earnestness. We cannot have listened to the address of Dr. Brown without feeling that thus far this institution has happily escaped that danger.

The one thing needful is that men shall become better. This however is an individual concern. Consequently it is through the reform and improvement of indivduals that the religion of Christ is to make its way in the world. Not only is the progress of the Christian religion effected by individuals, but the essential work of that religion is in the mind and soul of the individual. Of course this is not to disparage philanthropic enterprises for improving the sanitation, the housing, or other environmental conditions of the poor. And indeed we must recognize that until the primal physical necessities are reasonably satisfied it is almost useless to try to improve the moral and intellectual conditions of the individuals who compose the mass. Furthermore, it may be asserted that it is the duty of all Christians to make the environment and external conditions of the poor more favorable than they are today. But when all this is said and when all allowance is made for other qualifying conditions, the fundamental fact remains that the Founder of the Christian religion appealed to the heart and conscience of the individual man. And any interpretation of the Christian religion which ignores this allessential function gives us the body without the soul of that religion.

VI

THE ADDRESSES AT THE ALUMNI

MEETING

1 The Seminary's New Era, by the Reverend President Francis Brown, D.D., LL.D.

2 The Claim of the Kingdom upon the Seminary, by the Reverend Henry H. Stebbins, D.D.

3 Our Gospel, by the Reverend William P. Merrill, D.D. ·

4 The Christian Missionary and his Message in the Twentieth Century, by the Reverend President Howard S. Bliss, D.D.

I.

The Seminary's New Era

By the Reverend President Francis Brown, D.D., LL.D. Mr. President and Members of the Alumni Association:

You will all agree with me that a new era it is. We are introduced to a new period in the Seminary's life. It is not the first step in the introduction that we are taking to-day. If the Seminary had faltered when the attack came twenty years ago there could have been no new era. If free and reverent scholarship had been discouraged there would have been none. If that extreme of ecclesiastical domination against which our founders spoke had been permitted twenty years ago, there would have been none. If there had been no enfranchisement by new terms of subscription the new era would have halted and lagged. The great things were done by the insight and courage of the men just back of us, men whom we know, men of whom some are alive still. The new era was born in steadfast bravery and spiritual vision. This site, and these buildings are splendid, and their worth is doubled by the fact that they are due, primarily, to those who already had expressed their vision in noble testimony, and fought the fight with courage. But these buildings launch us upon a new era not because they are more significant than the intellectual and spiritual forces which have been working, but because they give these forces a new opportunity. The essential forcés are primary. The new equipment gives them free course. Because of both, it is, indeed, a new era that we are facing. And what do we see?

1. We see a great horizon. It is hard to set limits to it. I pity the man, who, in such a case, does not reach out, strongly, into the unknown. It is an era for the imagination. Great pictures of the future take shape. Plans almost form themselves without straining of the mind. The possibilities are bewildering. But we are not looking with flickering, feeble gaze. We see what may be as a sculptor sees his statue in the block, and as the architect sees the cathedral be