The college gateway

Front matter

c

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

BOOKS BY PRESIDENT THWING ON COLLEGE SUBJECTS

Prefatory Note

In the year 1903, I published " A Liberal Education and a Liberal Faith," a volume of Baccalaureate addresses given from 1891 to that time. The present volume includes the addresses given between 1903 and 1918.

To the students with whom I have lived and worked and played these many years, and who first heard these addresses at their Commencement, I dedicate this new volume. Without, as well as within, college walls, may they find that their highest aspirations are, through daily experience, becoming solid convictions.

C. F. T.

Western Reserve University, Cleveland

Contents

PAGE

Prefatory Note v

I Trustees for Humanity 3

Chapter I

" We were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel." — 1 Thessalonians ii : 4.

THE word gospel may be interpreted in a way either narrow or broad. It may be made to refer to the good news of a special and signal revelation; it may be applied to the incarnation of Christ, to the words which Christ spoke, to the works which he did. The gospels represent the Gospel. This meaning is clear, definite, narrow. The word may also be used in a sense broad and no less clear. It may be made to refer to the whole cosmic process which moves from God manward, and from man Godward. It includes both the heart of the Eternal declaring itself in time, and the mind of Omniscience striving for human betterment. It stands for the truth of the creation — that it is good, and also for the promise that there shall be no night and no more sea, neither sorrow nor crying. It represents the fact of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and also embraces the manifestation of the lamb on Calvary. The Gospel as a force in this sense stands for love, for love as broad as man's need and as full as God's power. The Gospel is a realm as wide as humanity. The Gospel as grace is favor, forgiveness, help, limitless in time and space. The Gospel as doctrine is teaching to be interpreted, known, accepted by all. The Gospel on the human side is the soul's re-birth, the soul's growth, the soul's re-making, the soul's righteousness, the soul's optimism. The Gospel on the divine side is God's passion, God's leading and lifting, God's furtherance of human well-being. The Gospel is truth to be known, justice to be declared, right to be done, duty to be accepted, love to be given and received. Of such a gospel prophets have prophesied, poets sung, apostles preached, and for such a gospel have the glorious army of the martyrs died.

These two interpretations, the one narrow, the one broad, are yet not antagonistic. They supplement each other. The lamb that was [4]

slain on Calvary was slain from the foundation of the world. The Gospel preached by Christ and his apostles is the gospel of the good news of righteousness, of truth and of duty, declared by every prophet from the beginning until now. The beatitudes of the Fifth of Matthew are the expression of eternal principles of righteousness, of pity, of love and of purity. The whole Sermon on the Mount is a declaration of love and of justice, as eternal as time and as wide in application as human need. The forces for human betterment, embodied in and declared by the Christ, preached by apostles, embodied in holy writings, are the very same forces which are regnant in history and dominant in human affairs.

Of such a gospel, broad, high, profound, man is put in trust. Of such a gospel, broad, high, profound, the college graduate is put in trust in a special significance.

For the Gospel is a body of truth and of truths. These truths are the most profound; they concern the divine plan, purpose and method. They are as eternal as eternity, as broad as space, as complex as nature's forces. They bear relations to each other. Some of these truths are primary, some subordinate; some causes, some results. Some find their chief support in the Bible, and their secondary in the human reason; some find their chief support in the human reason, and their secondary in the Holy Scriptures. Some are axiomatic, and others represent long processes of reasoning. Some are inductive, and some deductive. The Gospel, therefore, is a body of reason and truth. As such, it is specially committed to the reasoning mind. I am not saying that the Gospel is not a gift, a message that the wayfaring man may understand and accept. But I am saying that the Gospel is, in certain relations, a philosophy, and that the Gospel as a philosophy is specially committed to the college graduate. For he is the man of reason. His is the mind, if any mind may be said to be broad, which is comprehensive. It brings together the widely distributed parts of knowledge and unites them into a consistent principle. His is the mind, if any mind can at all appreciate, which is able to assess each fact at a proper value, to put the subordinate as subordinate and the primary as primary. His is the mind, if any mind be at all able, which is able to see clearly, to reason logically, to infer correctly. His is the mind, if any mind be at all qualified, which is to detect the sophistical, to unravel the complex, to recognize its own limitations, to distinguish the essential from the arbitrary, to point out the way of truth.

In this age there is special need of interpreting the gospel as truth. In this age there is special need of receiving the gospel as a message addressed to the reason as well as to the heart, as a declaration made through the reason to the conscience and to the will. The gospel is, on one side, in peril of becoming what I may call a manual training. In this condition the impulse for service is in danger of becoming as irrational as it is enthusiastic and well-intentioned. The gospel of service is of course good, glorious. Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only. But if such a gospel of service have only heart, it is a gospel dissipating, disintegrating. It is like the steamer having boiler and engines, but rudderless; it is destructive to itself and to others. On the other side the gospel is in peril of again becoming a form of mysticism. In mysticism the will loses itself in the contemplation of the eternal and the infinite. Modern mysticism takes on the name known as Christian Science. Mysticism has its place, Christian Science has its place. It is a half-truth, or a quartertruth. But if mysticism be not founded on reason — and the peril is that mysticism will not be founded on reason — its place is small in the world of thought and reality. It becomes a cloud, which, even if filled by the glories of unseen suns, is only an object of aesthetic and ascetic delight, coming no one knows whence, leading no one knows whither. The body of truth and of truths which are presented in the gospel are neither primarily a workshop nor a cloudy palace. But they do represent a temple of worship, of revelation, and of reason. In such a temple the college graduate is the most fitting dweller.

The gospel, too. represents a person, as well as a truth. As such, therefore, the college graduate becomes a special trustee of it. The first chapter of Genesis and the first chapter of John's gospel bear the same revelation — " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. . . . And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.'' " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ... In him was life; and the life was the light of men." I care not what name is given to Him whom we call God. You may call him Jehovah, the Eternal, the First Cause, the Word, the Spirit. I am not preaching a sermon on the trinity.

But by whatever name He is called, He is behind all, in all, through all, a person.

For the presentation and representation of such a person, unworthy as the presentation may be, the worthy person is essential and necessary. Personality alone represents personality. What, therefore, let me ask, is the college for — but for the training of large personality? A personality in which are embodied at once the verities and the graces, the disciplines and the enrichments, the sanctities and the duties of life. Yet how defective is the result, how imperfect the realization of the ideal. At times, how low the ideal itself! But, above all other conditions, does not the college represent the most potent force and the richest condition for making character reasonable, moral, and strong? Does it not, above every other force, unite the contradictories, giving purity without Pharisaism, loftiness of aim without unreasoning ambition, compassion without softness, beauty free from self-consciousness, and the manhood which creates manliness and the womanhood which creates womanliness? Such a character, so disciplined and enriched, is the best qualified to interpret, to declare the Supreme Person of the universe to the world. Humanity, as it is seen and set forth by the college, is best fitted to express divinity to men.

In the administration of this trusteeship of the gospel by college people, the gospel is to be applied to several great conditions of our life in America.

One of these conditions to which the trusteeship of the gospel is to be applied is the subject known as labor and capital. This condition is most serious. Two elements necessary for the producing of results of primary value to the community are in constant or periodic antagonism. If they are not warring foes they are, on their very best terms, armed neutrals. Capital is inclined to estimate labor as more important than the laborer. Methods are of slight worth provided results are satisfactory. Capital at times seems to give ground for the judgment that nothing is so cheap as human hands, and no supply so certain, or so large, as human life.

On the other hand the laborer is inclined to be jealous of the capitalist. He feels that labor is not getting its full increment of the increasing forces of civilization. He feels himself often opposed, cajoled, played with, fooled. He easily becomes an anarchist. He sees law-breaking at the top, and he at the [101 bottom defies the law. Sullen, gloomy, revengeful, he often is. The Labor Union he uses as a mighty engine of democracy, both against the capitalist and his brother workman. He often uses it as a means of serving one through all, and also of serving many through one. The Union is at once a democracy and a monarchy, — a monarchical democracy and a democratic monarchy. It is the most important tool of modern industry and of modern life.

The first element in the adjustment of the rights and duties of capital and labor is the understanding of the rights and duties of both capital and labor. Each has rights, each has duties. Each is inclined to see and to insist upon its rights, and each is inclined to be blind to, or to shirk, its duties. Each side is, on the whole, narrow. Its narrowness arises from what it esteems its duty of selfpreservation. A board of directors declares, " We must protect this property, we are the trustees of our stockholders; we must earn dividends; if we do- not protect and earn, suffering results. " The statement is true. A labor union or council declares, " This work is worth more than is paid for it; if we fail to get proper pay, we shall strike! " Each

fill statement is true, the logic logical. The capitalist and laborer are both right, and both wrong, in many matters, in most strained conditions. But each is inclined to be personal in his interpretations, partisan in his conception of duties, narrow in his ideas of rights.

In this condition the chief purpose, the only method to be pursued is the making of both the laborer and the capitalist larger men. The method to be pursued is the method of education; it is the method of altruism. It is the method of putting oneself in the other man's place. It is the method of altruism, the method of helping the other man to get into one's own place. We shall reach no permanent method of settlement of the labor question until we have helped all men into a thinking broader, larger, into a feeling more vital, into a sympathy more tender and appreciative.

For securing such a result the college graduate stands as a most helpful force. What does education mean unless it means breadth? What does education mean unless it means a mighty sense of appreciation? For what are the favorite emblems on the shields of our colleges? Are they not a rising sun, a lighted [12]

lamp? What are the favorite words embossed on these shields? Are they not "Veritas," " Lux " ? Light for all, light for each; breadth for all, breadth for each! Prejudice, partiality, partisanship are not to be suffered.

It is not for me, now and here, to set forth the special methods by which you shall show your breadth. Of course you are not to stand before the world and say, " I am broad-minded; I am called to settle the disputes of labor and capital! " You are not to be a strikebreaker or a boycott-adjuster. You are to go about your business. But in going about your business you will have ample opportunity for using your largeness. The by-products of your breadth may be worth more than its direct results. You are, above all people of the community, to have that largeness of mind, that bigness of heart, which will do more than all else to settle immediate, present and local difficulties. You are to give to all men that same largeness and bigness which, when they have become a part of humanity, will render labor difficulties impossible.

To a second question in our American life

are you college people to apply the trusteeship

of the gospel. The labor question touches all

parts of the land, all orders of society. The

[ 13 1 second question to which I refer is immediately a problem of the South. It is the question of the civil, social, industrial condition of the colored race. This government is a republic. It is a republic based upon equality of personal rights. I suppose that no one denies that in certain states laws are passed which do result in the denial of civil rights. I suppose also it is recognized that the industrial field for the colored man is, on the whole, becoming more confined. I suppose in many parts the feeling is in favor of a restriction of the social privileges of the colored race. The whole condition is unique in the history of the world. A race, as a race, inferior in power, of ten millions, domiciled in a republic of sixty other millions, — it is a problem of tremendous proportions, complex in historic relations and elements, fraught with endless, some would say frightful, responsibilities. But such a problem is a problem, first of all, for the reason. First of all it is a problem to be analyzed, each element drawn out fully, each element related to every other element. The problem is first to be stated in terms of the reason; it is to be discussed in terms of the reason; it is to be solved in terms of the reason. One of the most forbidding elements in , the whole problem is [14 1 that some people are found who are either unable or unwilling to state, or to discuss, or to treat, or to try to solve, the problem in terms of the reason. Therefore, because this question is a question for the reason, it is a question making a special appeal to college folk. Its historic relations, its racial condition, its civil and civic elements, its industrial and social affiliations, form a question which summons the largest knowledge, the profoundest reflection, the keenest insight, and the most accurate discrimination.

Of course, in the solution of this problem the heart of love has its place, and the conscience of justice has also its place. If the heart of love or the conscience of justice fail to secure their rights in its solution, then the problem becomes yet more difficult, difficult as it is. But if this force cannot be relied upon for the solution, the greater is the duty placed upon the reason for the proper interpretation and declaration of the question. The proper interpretation and declaration of any great human problem is the best method for arousing the conscience to righteousness and the heart to its duty of love. In such a movement, therefore, primarily a movement of and through the reason for the betterment of a [IS]

race, the college man and woman of the welltrained reason must have a great and significant part. You are put into a trusteeship of the gospel for the benefit of men and of any race of men.

A third problem of our time to which should be applied the trusteeship of the gospel bycollege folk, is the general problem of the giving to civilization increasing depth and larger relationships. For we sadly know that our horizons of vision are not broad, nor our wells of strength and of refreshment deep. Too keenly we know that the walls of the temple of our civilization are pretty thin. Every mob breaking down doors of jails, shooting, burning wretches who still are human, proves how thin is the crust which divides subterranean fires from our homes and our lives. Soldiers of some civilized nations put into China become ravenous beasts. John Morley, writing of the social and personal evils attending the discussion of the Irish Bill of 1868, says, " It was a painful demonstration how thin, after all, is our social veneer even when most highly polished." I sometimes fear that forces now active may fling themselves on the community and again overthrow civilization, as it was overthrown in southern Europe [16 1 fifteen hundred years ago. Neither this nation, nor any other of the advancing peoples of the world, has any patent right to a constant progress or to a lasting existence.

In the enriching and deepening of the forces of modern civilization, two questions arise for special notice. One question is the decline of the respect paid to the formal government and to the chosen members of it, and the corresponding increase to the informal associations of society. The law-making body of the nation, of the state, of the town, stands for less than it did a generation ago. Congress, Legislature and City Council receive less respect today than they received in the days of Garfield, of Sherman, of Sumner and of Dawes. The laws and statutes are less observed, and are more thoroughly regarded as not worthy of observance. The respect paid to the executive and judicial part of the Commonwealth may not have suffered serious decrease, but the respect paid to the law-making body has vastly diminished. Man has become more, the state less; the people have waxed, the nation waned. But with this decline has occurred an increase in the force of the associations of men which are not politi- [17 1 cal or governmental. The advancing forces are industrial, financial, commercial. The Stock Exchange is a more powerful force than the Senate Chamber. The Board of Directors of certain corporations have become more influential than the President's Cabinet. The captains of industry are more commanding leaders than Governors of Commonwealths. Some would say that the captains of industry are the governors of Commonwealths, and some would say that at times those most interested in the Stock Exchange do sit in the seats of Congress. The influence of certain men over the destiny of this nation, who have no office and no desire for office, approaches in power, some might say exceeds in power, the influence of the President for the United States. I have sometimes thought that a great corporation is well named the UNITED STATES Steel Corporation. Such a figure is not to be interpreted too closely, but my simple contention is that the respect paid to the formal government and governors has weakened, and the respect paid to the informal government and governors has strengthened.

A second change is passing over the community. Human interest is passing from theology to sociology. Its center is no longer [ 18 1 divinity, but humanity. The process is the reverse of the Ptolemaic and Copernican transfer. We find our center, not in an outside world, but in man. We celebrate Christmas, God becoming man — the incarnation, rather than Easter, man becoming the divine. The incarnation of God in man is more important than the spiritualizing of man in God. The great poems are no longer attempts to justify the ways of God to man, but they do attempt to justify the ways of man to man. We build few cathedrals for worship, we build auditoriums for instruction, social and college settlements, Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations, Lend-a-Hand Clubs, Endeavor Societies, Leagues for Social Service, these and many other forms of altruism embody the present tendency. The divine element in religion is minimized, the human magnified. I am neither opposing nor approving such a movement, I am only trying to interpret it. The change is one of the most significant and fundamental of all the changes of our generation.

These two movements, the movement away

from the formal government to the informal,

from the divine element in religion to the

human, are illustrations of that great movement of human society which one of the greatest of social philosophers has described as a movement from status to contract. The formal government and religion represent the status into which one is born, a condition approaching in permanence the forces of nature. We are passing over into the life in which forces are to be arranged and covenants to be made. Life in government and in religion has become mobile. Every day alters conditions, every day offers new duties, every hour reveals new truth and new work. Each new condition leads to new arrangements of the social order and organism, and all new arrangements lead to new conditions.

In such changing circumstances and forms the college graduate has laid upon himself peculiar duties. For the graduate has an intellectual sense of relationships, he sees and he foresees. He is to be at once just and generous, large-minded and large-hearted, considerate and enthusiastic. He is to adjust and to readjust, in the changing conditions of his universe, the stabilities and the standards of the formal government, and to represent the vital and energetic forces of life. He is to seek to show that law lies at the base of every state, political, civil, social and industrial.

He is not to forget that all social movements relate themselves to Him in whom we live and move and have our being. He is to have cognizance of the great tides of human affairs, and also to take note of the individual waves which rise, break, fall. He is to seek to make social progress religious, religious interpretations human, humane, humanistic. He is, by his greatness and fineness, to make civilization great and fine.

To the Members of the Classes about to Graduate:

Into your hands I put great commissions. I summon you to serious duties. You are to live in the most critical of centuries, among the most formative of peoples. In great movements you are to share, in great undertakings you are to have a part. The conditions are to demand your strongest might, your largest endeavor, your keenest wisdom, your most persistent patience, your finest enthusiasms. But my confidence in you is also large. Obligations never exceed abilities. If you do all that you are able to do, the result is well. That you will do all that you are able to do, I believe. Go forth, then, to [211 transmute learning into wisdom, strength into efficiency, power into service. Go forth, then,

" To be forever an influence, A memory, a goal, a high example, A thought of honor in some noble heart, Part of thy country's treasure and renown, — And oft give courage unto souls that strive."

Chapter II

"If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." — Matthew xix : 17.

THESE words form one of the most comprehensive of Christ's remarks. The sentence represents the constitution of man. If you would live, observe the Commandments. The ten? Yes, the ten. What are the Commandments of which the keeping will give life? What is the comprehensive interpretation of the Ten Commandments ?

The first commandment refers to what I may call idealism. Idealism is a god-likeness which is supreme, of which no image can be graven. Idealism is conscientiousness touched by imagination. I refer to those intellectual ideas and to those ethical principles which are supreme and fundamental. I mean the belief in, and the living for, what the outer eye sees not, what the outer ear hears not, but the belief in, and the living for, what the inner eye, [25]

the inner ear, do perceive and appreciate. I have in mind the intimations of the eternal, of the immortal, which Wordsworth sets forth in the great Ode. Conscientiousness may be slow, painful, plodding. Imaginativeness may be airy, visionary, unattainable. But idealism as a working commandment unites slow, painful, plodding conscientiousness with airy, visionary, and unattainable imaginativeness. It lifts conscientiousness into a moral force, — swift, noble, and inspiring. Conscience restrains, regulates, articulates the imagination. The imagination gives to the conscience wings, and conscience gives to the imagination feet. The man of idealism is a man of ideals, but he is more. He lives in a certain atmosphere; he holds a certain attitude; he occupies a certain angle of vision; he is moved by certain higher purposes. But he has a range of purposes which are joined together by great tablelands of common sense. He has a reverence for tradition, for tradition represents idealism seen from the side of achievement. The idealism of tomorrow becomes the history of yesterday. Sincerity clothes this man of idealism as with a garment, for he cannot live a lie in himself. Simple is he, for he sees great things and sees them in great relations. In noble self-control [26]

he lives, for he is a part of the universe which is subject to law. Resignation and aggressiveness are in him united. He is a patriot, for his country is dear, but he is also human. He loves men more than he loves man. He is an optimist; he knows he is in God's world and that all must be well. He is not a man of ambition, for ambition is self-centered. He is a man of aspiration, for aspiration points toward the goal. He is a man free, for he believes in himself. He is a man tolerant, for he believes in other men. Justice, love for the beautiful, temperance, loyalty, are in him, for he believes in God and in all that God has made. In him are united not a few contradictories, — initiative and self-restraint, laboriousness and restfulness, concentration and versatility, co-operation and individualism, considerateness and self-respect, liberty and law, gravity and gayety, intensity and breadth, grasp on essentials and faithfulness to details, the cardinal virtues and the cardinal graces. All these are in him joined.

You are going forth into a world vastly material and materialistic. The lights of the street will be nearer to you than the stars. To make a living will at times seem to you more important than to make a life. Career may [27 1 be a goal more attractive than character. The present may seem longer than the ever coming and never coming future. The market may tend to transmute you into merchandise. Gross and sordid purposes will flaunt themselves before you. Trivial and perilous schemes will attract. Queen Victoria said to an archbishop: "As I get older I cannot understand the world; I cannot comprehend its littlenesses." But these littlenesses will at times seem to you not little. You are, however, to see them in the light of great principles. In the comparison of eternal and infinite truths, you are to be what John Morley says Gladstone was: " Immersed in active responsibility for momentous secular things, he never lost the breath of what was to him a diviner aether. Habitually he strove for the lofty uplands where political and moral ideas meet. He struck all who came into contact with him by a goodness and elevation that matched the activity and power of his mind. His political career might seem doubtful, but there was no doubt about the man."

Emerson asks, in the essay on The Transcendentalism "Where are the old Idealists?" Where are they who represented genius, virtue, the invisible and heavenly world? Some have [28 1 gone, but others are here. They have not been taken in early ripeness to the gods. High purposes are still held. The unseen is still seen. The temporal still has relations with the eternal. Our frivolity and base examples shall not dim the lustre of the shining of the stars. Vulgarity shall be ashamed in the presence of dignity, and low aims shall bury themselves beneath the sod of forgetfulness.