to acquire these qualities; the lack is no excuse for unfaithfulness.

A call to the gospel ministry once recognized and accepted will be ever regarded by the Christian young man who receives it, not as a painful defeat of hope, but a surpassing manifestation of divine grace, beyond all that could have been hoped. "Unto me," said St. Paul, in adoring and gratitude,-" unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that I shall preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ."

It is no small privilege to be a successor of the Apostles and prophets, to be selected as the special channel of God's blessing to our fellow men—to stand in a community with no other occupation than to be the centre of holy influence, to practice the divine alchemy of transmuting souls from baseness into the pure gold of heaven, to have in possession the grand secret of peace and joy, to pour the oil and wine of heavenly consolation into hearts quivering with anguish for which the world has no solace. The banker may guard men's money, the lawyer may protect their property, the physician may ease their pain and prolong their lives; but the preacher of the gospel persuades them to lay up treasures in bags that wax not old, to find a home in the city that hath the foundations, to secure the peace which the world cannot give, and an eternal inheritance in that land where there is no death, and the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick.

Every motive of philanthropy urges us to carry the gospel to those who have not yet been blessed by it. Every motive of honor and of gratitude reinforce the call. We are not our own, but are bought with the precious blood of Christ. His wish should be our law.

I may say in conclusion, every motive of holy aspiration and sanctified personal ambition calls to the preaching of the gospel. There will come a day when all earthly glory shall fade, but they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever. In the hearts of

those rescued from perdition by their efforts, they shall eternally hold a place next to that of the divine Savior. In the estimation of the angels, the victors in these spiritual conquests will ever appear the most illustrious of men. No earthly achievement can compare, in their view, with that of having saved a soul from death. In. the bright throng which shall encircle in heaven the throne of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, who can doubt that those shall stand inmost who shall have been most identified with him, in spirit and work here below. For they shall be best prepared to enter into the joy of their Lord.

ADDRESS BEFORE THE LITERARY SOCIETIES.

CULTURE AND GOVERNMENT IN AMERICA.

BY REV. WM. G. ANDREWS, D. D.

MR. PRESIDENT, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE LITERARY SOCIETIES:-I once heard a graduate of Harvard say that at a Cambridge commencement the theme uppermost is culture, and at New Haven the theme uppermost is Yale. His filial sympathy with Cambridge went far to show that he could at any rate understand the filial enthusiasm of New Haven. Such enthusiasm is both intelligible and honorable, for it rests largely on a consciousness of the ties which alma mater knits between living men; it is one form of the sentiment of brotherhood. And as I look back to commencement day at Marietta thirty years. ago, hardly anything then uttered comes to my memory so promptly as a few words which expressed that sentiment. They were addressed to the President of the college, then taking the office which he now lays down, in acknowledgment of his kindness to a former member of the graduating class whom he brought to his own house when fatally ill, and who died under his roof. And nothing more strongly inclined me to undertake the task to which you have called me, than the hope of once more listening to the voice and grasping the hand of the classmate who spoke those words.* That it was his office to

*Hon. John F. Follett, LL. D., alumni orator, and valedictorian of the class of 1855.

speak them proved him to have made the best use of the training which is here furnished to the mind; that he did speak them, and thrill us by speaking them, showed how the discipline of comradeship educates the heart. And it educates the conscience too; the great obligation of mutual helpfulness is more promptly confessed when feeling is enlisted on the side of duty. The conditions of college life, in fact, provide for a threefold action of culture, extending to the whole of manhood. Another of my contemporaries has lately told us, on the cover of the Alumni Memorial,* how Marietta claims a place for her sons in the fields of letters and of arms, of the fine arts, and the useful arts, and of the great art of government. In the last they must all serve, for democracy makes every citizen a member of the governing body. Accordingly, on the scroll which helps us to interpret the device, we read not only Vivat Academia, but Vivat Respublica; Long live the college, Long live the commonwealth. These are kindred aspirations; college and commonwealth appeal in like ways to scholar and patriot, and the discipline of the small society should prepare men to serve, and in this country to govern, the great. And so, guided by sentiment and art, I reach a theme which I am sure needs as much as any to be studied under the "dry light" of science, namely, Culture and Government in America.

In speaking of culture it is natural to consult the Apostle of Culture, Mr. Matthew Arnold, and as Mr. Arnold has written also about government and about America, he ought to throw light on our subject as a whole. Opening his well known book entitled "Culture and Anarchy," we soon find him giving it as the true aim of culture, "to make reason and the will of God prevail." This is an apostolic sentiment, and is honestly credited to a bishop. We are told, farther, that culture is the

*Designed by E. F. Andrews, Washington, D. C., class of 1853.

"pursuit of our total perfection," harmoniously "developing all sides of our humanity," as also the pursuit of "a general perfection, developing all part of our society." It has not only a scientific, but also a "moral, social and beneficent character." Mr. Arnold therefore clearly ascribes to it that threefold action of which I have spoken, and does not restrict it to the region of pure intelligence. He himself detects in it a strong resemblance to religion, while the author of "Ecce Homo," Professor Seeley, thinks it a pity not to call it religion. Like religion, too, culture aims at "an inward condition of the mind and spirit," and the Christian religion, by aiming at universal perfection, it seeks the conversion of the world.

But Mr. Arnold attaches great importance to the intellectual side of culture, because men who mean to do the right thing very often do the wrong thing through the lack of light, or knowledge. The passion for doing, which he calls Hebraism in honor of our Hebrew teachers of righteousness, from Moses to St. Paul, must have its complement in a passion for knowing, which is a large part of what he calls Hellenism, from the Greeks who excelled here. He therefore especially commends to us, as the method of culture, the getting to know, somehow, the best thought of the world about the things which chiefly concern us. Hellenism, moreover, embraces not only "light" but "sweetness;" with its ardor for truth, or for "seeing things as they are," is inseparably connected its joy in beauty and harmony.

But Mr. Herbert Spencer, who burns our dry light for us, complains of Mr. Arnold for not observing "that the first use of knowledge is the right ordering of all actions." The complaint is so unjust as to show that Mr. Spencer's hand is a little unsteady, but it creates the presumption that Mr. Arnold's fragrant lamp does not burn quite clear. The discovery at the outset that our guides are not infallible is fortunate, for culture, we are told, "will not let us rivet our faith upon any one man." And Mr. Arnold's