s from all ranks and conditions of
society, and holds open to them its great opportunities, and worthily
trains them to go forth into those professions and higher walks of
life where their generous character and refreshing influences may be
of larger service to the whole community. In the language of President
Thwing, it may be said that "it is to the people that the college and
university desire to give more than they receive from the people. It
is not unjust to say that the people are debtors. The community has
given to Yale, and to Princeton, and to Harvard, much, but Yale, and
Princeton, and Harvard have given to the community more. For the
college and the university are set to hold up the worth of things to
the mind, and these things are the worthiest. In an age democratic and
material, they are to represent the monarchy of the immaterial. In an
age of luxuriousness, they are to declare the words of Him, homeless
and pillowless, who said: 'A man's life consisteth not in the
abundance of things which he hath.' They stand for the continuity of
the best life, intellectual, ethical, religious, Christian. In the
realm of thought, they stand for the value of ideas; in the realm of
morals, for the value of ideals; in the realm of being, like the
church, for the value of character."

Next to the home, the college has been the ruling spirit in private
and public life. The colleges have rigorously upheld the principles of
piety, justice and sacred regard for truth as the best foundation of
social order. The true wealth and power of the nation are the great
and good men produced by the colleges whose example and influence have
been to promote intelligence and good order in society.

We look over our vast territory, with its multiplied resources and
growing population, and rejoice in our material possibilities and
social privileges. But what is better and grander than all these, is
the fact that more than 300 Christian colleges are scattered over our
land as beacon lights in our national life, building up Christian
character as the best legacy for present and future generations. Some
of the colleges are yet weak and struggling, but they glory in their
aspirations and prospects of future grandeur. The great fabric of our
national life is radiant with the golden threads of good influences
emanating from these centers of superior intelligence and instruction,
where time is given for careful thought and reflection on the great
p