ods lies in the younger men rather than in the older men, many of whom have too long been familiar with objectionable practices without protesting against them. But the younger men are not going to achieve this result without a long and brave and even heroic struggle. Not a few of them will be won over to the enemy even on the field of battle by the heavy bribes offered to them. I trust no such deserter will go from your ranks. But, believe me, you will need all your courage and high resolve and firmness to crowd back the foe, stand fast by your colors and share in the glory of the victory, which we all hope awaits the righteous cause.

Again, you are appearing on the stage of action, when grave social problems are agitating the world as perhaps they have not agitated it since the breaking up of the feudal system. The sharpest conflicts just before you are those involving the relations of capital and labor. The old wage system is evidently undergoing a serious modification. The application of machinery to industrial processes, the control of large numbers of men in vast workshops by one man, the increase through facilities of communication of the power of combination among workmen, not of one trade only, but of several trades, the wide-spread conviction among laborers that they are not receiving their proper share of the products of industry are raising complicated social and economic problems which this generation must endeavor to solve. These problems you should endeavor to understand. You should be prepared to do your part in finding a solution of them, and in securing public acquiescence in a right solution of them. It may require courage for men holding the positions which you will be called to fill, not to become subservient either to those conservative men of wealth, who resist all change in our industrial arrangements, or to plausible theorists, who perceiving clearly the disabilities and grievances of some of the laboring classes under our present industrial system, and depicting them with burn

ing words which stir our sympathies, yet commend to us only desperate remedies which threaten the very framework of society. To stand for the rights of the toiling masses without being demagogical, and at the same time without obsequiousness to the rich to resist wild schemes, which, however honestly advocated, menace the best interests of the poor as well as of the rich, to help society through this transitional period in industrial life, requires wisdom and conscientiousness and courage from every educated man who does his full part in the work.

Closely allied to the transition, which we are passing through, in our industrial life, is the transition through which our government, as well as other governments, is passing, from narrower to wider functions. No observing man can fail to see that changes in industrial and in financial methods, the progress of scientific invention, and the increased facilities of intercommunication, not to speak of other influences, are laying upon governments, municipal, state, and national, new and important duties. A thousand things which fifty years ago, when the laisserfaire doctrines of economy and government so widely prevailed, no legislature or parliament would have thought of doing, are now constantly done by our state legislatures, our municipal corporations and by congress, almost without protest. What may be called the socialistic tendencyusing the word socialistic in a philosophic sense-has been and still is rapidly gaining ground in legislation and civil administration. I need only mention our laws regulating inter-state commerce, those fixing hours of labor, those compelling employers of laborers to provide for the bodily protection of the workmen, those providing certain kinds of labor to women and children, those aiming to restrain combinations and trusts, those giving municipalities the exclusive control of the supply of water and gas, as familiar illustrations of the present strong drift towards enlarging greatly the functions of government. I am not now discussing the question whether this tendency is wise or not.

I am only directing your attention to the fact that the tendency exists and is increasing in strength, and for the purpose of warning you that it is going to present to you, who are to take part in public affairs, many delicate and difficult questions. In acting on these great care and even great courage may be required. How far shall this drift be allowed to go? How far shall the individual be restrained in his industrial and commercial enterprise by the state? To what extent shall the paternal spirit be exercised by government in guiding and caring for the individual? A thousand new applications of these old questions bid fair to be pressed upon your attention, and under circumstances which may offer strong temptations to you to swerve from following your honest convictions. Opportunities will be afforded in abundance to many of you to show whether you are demagogues, watching only for winds of popular favor which shall waft you into office, or men, brave as well as thoughtful, daring to stand by the decisions which your judgment approves concerning the true functions of municipal, state, and national governments.

Equally pertinent illustrations might be drawn from the domains of ethical, philosophical and religious thought, concerning which there are in this age so many conflicting views, to show how you are to need both clear vision and the courage of your convictions, if you are to wield a positive and a beneficient influence. Doubtless every age is, in a true sense, transitional, bridging the space between the past and the future. But there seems good ground for saying that this age is, in a very em. phatic sense, modifying old views and customs in several important fields of thought and action, and to such a degree as to call for the best-trained minds, the most honest hearts, and the bravest servants of truth to secure to the next generation the blessings and to avert from them the disasters of an age of marked change. This is why I am appealing to you who may rise to leadership to cherish

the largest, noblest and most heroic spirit in life, to be sincere, to be true to your own consciences, to be faithful to God, under all the stress of temptations which may assail you.

But some of you, perhaps most of you, will say with becoming humility, that you are not looking to the posts of conspicuous leadership, but rather to the discharge of such modest duties as fall to the great mass, even of college bred men and women. Still, even if you are not called to positions of preeminent responsibility, you may well cherish the brave and heroic spirit which has been already commended. No harder test of exalted courage awaits the general at the head of his troops than is laid upon the lonely private on picket duty at night in the face of the foe. In bearing the anguish of years of sickness, in enduring reverses in business, in sustaining the heavy burdens of many an obscure life, the mens aequa in arduis may be as truly shown as on a battle. field, on which nations gaze with bated breath. History. has preserved to us the precious names of a few of the heroes of the race. But have you ever thought what a handful these are, compared with the great hosts of men and women, who had the stuff of martyrs in their souls, yet whose names are forever lost to us? In the olden time what a glorious company there was of them, who "were stoned, were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy,"—but whose names have never been found on pillar or parchment, and are written only. on the golden leaves of God's great book of remembrance in Heaven. I love to think how populous the world is with unrecognized heroes. All about us, nay, on these very benches are men as capable as Ridley or Latimer of going to the stake for the truth. What an inspiring revelation the civil war gave us of the heroism that, unknown to us, was slumbering in human hearts in every town and

village and farm-house. A wise providence may draw on the humblest of you to meet some great energency in life with the bravest and noblest spirit, of which the human soul is capable. Be ready for the call, assured that though men may not proclaim your fame, God forgets no worthy deed and no high purpose. Rejoice in the thought that He lays special honor on those whom he calls to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Does the philosophy of life which underlies our exhortations seem to be stern and exacting? Surely it is no more so than that which breathes through the teachings of our Lord and Master. If any one of you has no higher aim than to drift lazily down the stream of existence, perhaps you can so drift, but the question is whether such a voyage is worth making. I am sure that to-day loftier purposes inspire your hearts. Earnest and strenuous views of the significance and opportunities and responsi bilities of life are not unwelcome to you. The challenge which life flings down to to you do-day you are ready to accept with a dauntless spirit. Your brave hearts glow with the gaudia certaminis. The contest attracts you rather than repels you. Possibly the peril of some of you springs from undue confidence and untried courage. But I would not utter one syllable to abate that confidence or shake that courage. Press bravely forward. Cherish your noblest and most heroic purposes. If God sends you to the thickest of the fight for righteousness and truth, remember that He does it because He would bring your character to its highest development, and because the victory of righteousness and truth is the supreme end He has in view. Rejoice that He has pronounced His highest benediction on your life by calling you to be a coworker with Him in establishing His kingdom on earth.