I have been called to address you now.

Others are here who have

long been identified with the history of this college, and who honor this occasion by their presence, who could speak to you with far greater impressiveness and eloquence.

THE COLLEGE AND THE REGENTS.

And yet, providentially, I have been so placed, in such relations, that I am enabled to convey to you congratulations much more significant than any merely personal words can express. The Regents of the University of the State of New York, who have the supervision of the colleges and academies of the State, have always cherished sentiments of peculiar esteem and regard for Hamilton College. Permit me, Mr. President, as a member of the board, to express to you and your associates, our heartiest congratulations and good wishes. The college received its charter from the Board of Regents nearly seventy years ago. In age you are the third college in the State. The distinguished statesman after whom your college is named, and who was one of its early patrons, was the author of the statute which organized the Board of Regents. Five members of the board are graduates of this college. Its efficient secretary and assistant secretary, for many years, are among your most honored graduates. The learning and influence of your officers of instruction and government, have often been recognized in the convocations that have been held in Albany under the auspices of the board. No educational papers there have been read of greater interest and value than those contributed from this college. And no college in New York has been more loyal to the educational interests of our own commonwealth, than has the college which bears the name of the great political genius of the State and the Union, Alexander Hamilton.

We have no doubt that the traditions of the college in this regard will be perpetuated by yourself. It is the earnest desire and present purpose of the Board of Regents to make their influence increasingly felt in the higher education of New York, and to stimulate in every legitimate way the collegiate as well as the academical education of the State, so that the sons of New York need no longer neglect their own, so that the sons of New York need no longer cross the borders of their own commonwealth, to gain what they conceive to be the highest educational advantages.

With these plans, we believe, that you, sir, and your associates will sympathize. And in this belief the Regents of the University of New York congratulate themselves, as well as you to-day.

HAMILTON, AUBURN SEMINARY AND THE CHURCH.

And you will not be surprised, sir, that as a Professor in Auburn Theological Seminary, I bring you the fraternal greetings of its authorities, and of all our theological seminaries. You are an alumnus of Auburn Theological Seminary, and the first alumnus of that institution who has been elected president of this college. We feel ourselves honored by your election to this influential position. The natural union of the seminary and the college is thus, we believe, recognized and emphasized. For the two are essentially one. We have a similiar history; we have largely the same friends; we have a common constituency, a common patronage and a similar purpose. Less than a hundred miles apart, railways and telegraphs and telephones are rapidly enabling us to live within hearing, if not in sight, of each other.

Of the 1,230 ministers who have pursued their studies in Auburn Theological Seminary, 277 were graduates or undergraduates of Hamilton College-a number large enough to indicate that we are very closely related and reciprocally interested in each other's prosperity. We would not be divorced, and you will not divorce us. Of the 1,230 ministers who have pursued their professional studies in Auburn Seminary, 999 have been college-bred men. We believe in college-bred ministers, and so do you; and therefore we can not fail to be greatly interested in each other's work.

We bid you and your associates, Mr. President, Godspeed in all your efforts to add to the resources of this college, and to perpetuate and increase the thoroughness and breadth of its scholarship. No talents can be too great, no learning can be too profound, no culture can be too thorough to consecrate to Christ and His church.

And let me, in the name of the Christian ministers and churches of the State, welcome you to this position into which God has called you. This is a college founded by a Christian missionary, for the advancement of "the kingdom of the blessed Redeemer "the "light" of the gospel has illuminated its halls-the "truth of the gospel has been taught by its instructors. Of its 2,200

graduates, 625 have been Christian ministers. May it ever be a Christian college. Palsied be the tongue that, in yonder chairs of instruction, shall ever deny the truth as it is in Jesus!

The Christian people of this State, sir, welcome you to your high place, as a representative Christian minister. For they are thus assured that the truth here taught will be expressed in words that have no uncertain sound.

And more than this: Most of us are thoroughly convinced that a Christian college must look largely for its support and patronage to some particular Christian denomination, to which it stands in a kind of representative relation. We believe "it is a strong guaranty of the permanence and success of a college to be entrenched in the affections and sympathies of a Christian people, who feel a special responsibility as to its fortunes, and a special joy and pride in its fame and influence." Sectarian peculiarities should not be offensively obtruded; a narrow, proselyting spirit should be condemned; conscientious convictions should not be rudely assailed in the public and official instructions given; and yet the influence of the college in this direction should not be indefinite and negative, but pronounced and positive. The religious tone of the institution should be clearly defined, so that patrons may know the kind of influence that in this respect will surround their sons; so that donors may be sure their gifts will not be diverted. In that most intelligent commonwealth on our eastern border, large sums that have been given in the past to "Christ and the church," are in danger to-day of being transferred to the agnostics. By pursuing a policy of uncertainty or indifference in this direction, a college gains nothing, and loses much.

Do not misunderstand me; a college will not depend, for its prosperity, exclusively upon the religious sympathy of its patrons and friends. By no means. A college will also depend largely for its prosperity upon its location, upon its scholarship, upon its reputation for good learning and thorough instruction, upon its libraries and other appliances for education, upon the good will of its alumni, upon the sympathy and affection that will gather round it in the progress of years.

And yet, prominent among these sources of prosperity, perhaps leading them all, are those conscientious convictions that bind to

it patrons and friends with hooks of steel.

For a Christian college to disregard altogether this source of life and power, is suicide!

Because we believe that you, sir, sympathize with these views, the Presbyterian ministers and churches of this State greet you to-day. You believe as we do, that the relation between the Presbyterian Church and this college is reciprocal, and should be close and permanent. The church needs the college, and the college needs the church.

Both propositions are true-one is as true as the other. Why not have a Nassau Hall? Why not have a Princeton College in New York, as well as in New Jersey? Your location is similar. The organization of the University of the State, under the supervision of the Regents, pre-supposes that each of the colleges shall represent some phase of religious opinion. Why not concentrate here the same abundant wealth and learning and culture that have made the College of New Jersey increasingly renowned all over the earth? Why not gather here a similar reservoir of Christian influence, that shall fertilize the world?

THE COLLEGE AND THE ALUMNI.

But, Mr. President, as one of the graduates of this college, I am also permitted to represent the alumni, and greet you with cordiality as our leader.

As graduates of Hamilton College, we, sir, consider ourselves to be a very respectable body. More than two thousand two hundred men have marched in our ranks, and to-day our little army among the living is seventeen hundred strong. Some of us have stood before kings. Many of us, we think, have been useful to the State as executive officers and law-makers. Some of us upon the bench, we believe, have faithfully administered justice and enforced the laws. We know that others of our number have become deservedly trusted financiers; and others still have wielded a wide influence in the marts of trade. Many have healed the sick, and many more, in this land or in foreign countries, have cared for the souls of men.

On the roll of our army are the names of many scholars and teachers, and some distinguished authors. We have certainly made our voices heard from the pulpit and from the platform, at the bar and in the senate.