ory to Dr. Hale in his own church and said: "I am here
because of that orange-covered _Chautauquan_ which I found lying under
the bench in that old cabin."

It is possible, nay, it is certain, that the Chautauqua Circle, by being
not a church society, but a secular organization permeated by the
Christian spirit, has exercised an influence all the stronger to promote
an intelligent, broad-minded Christianity.

[Illustration: South Ravine, Near Children's Playground]

[Illustration: Muscallonge]

[Illustration: Bathhouse and Jacob Bolin Gymnasium]

Everyone active in Chautauqua work through a series of years could
narrate many stories like the above, and doubtless some more
remarkable; but I have given only a few out of many that could be
recalled out of an experience with the C. L. S. C. through more than
forty years. As I have looked upon the representatives of the graduating
class in the Hall of Philosophy, I have often wished that I might know
some of the life-stories of those who, often through difficulties
unknown, have carried the course through to completion.

An eminent minister wrote to me recently as follows:

At a place where I became pastor I found two
sisters who were living in dark seclusion,
brooding in melancholia as the effect of a great
sorrow. They attended church, but took no part in
our work, and none at all in society. I did my
best to comfort those young women and bring them
out of their monasticism. But it was all in vain.
Their broken spirits revolted from a religion of
happiness. A few years after my pastorate was
ended there, and I was preaching elsewhere, I
visited the town and was surprised to find both
those women among the most active women in the
church, happy, gifted, and universally esteemed.
What had wrought the change? They chanced to hear
of the Chautauqua Reading Course and sent for the
books and magazines. They pursued the course,
graduated, and visited Chautauqua. It awakened
their entire being and brought them into a new
world. They were literally born anew. I have
witnessed wonderful changes in people, but never
any that was more thorough, real, and permanent
than in those young women.

Let us name also some of the leading events of the Assembly of 188