Of the 20,000 pupils of Oberlin about 1,000 have been colored, and of 2,000 graduates there have been 60 colored.

The new men who came to Oberlin in 1835, upon the adoption of the principle of the coeducation of the races, were already known throughout the country and their names immediately gave to Oberlin the reputation of standing for a distinct and novel idea.

The most prominent of these was Rev. Charles G. Finney, who, by his evangelistic work and by his pastorate at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, had shown himself to be a pioneer in what was at that time known as the new school theology. The original founders of Oberlin were themselves earnest disciples of this new religious movement, but it required the reputation of one who had already made these principles an aggres sive force, in order to bring the colony and the college prominently before the religious and educational world. The central idea of this new movement was personal responsibility and immediate duty. The fact that the Oberlin colony had betaken itself to the woods and secluded itself from the world, was not owing to an aversion to active Christian propagandism and a desire of purely personal exaltation. Indeed, the object of the colonists was the reverse of this. They intended to spread their ideas abroad, and in calling Mr. Finney to the chair of theology the trustees made provision that he should have liberty to be absent 4 or 5 months each year, in order to continue his evangelistic work.

Mr. Finney was a man of intense energy and missionary zeal. More than anyone else has he given character to the life of Oberlin. He had not enjoyed a collegiate education and never made any preten sion to scholastic attainments. He had, originally, however, been a student and practitioner of law and had acquired the power of rigid and systematic thinking. His mind was strikingly independent and original, and in the field of systematic theology as well as in that of religious revival his influence has been marked both in the United States and in England. His sermons and writings were published at different times, and an English edition of his Systematic Theology appeared in 1851. His autobiography was published after his death, which occur: ed in 1875. He had been elected president of the college in 1851 and resigned the position in 1865, though continuing his instruction in pastoral theology.

The first president of Oberlin College was Rev. Asa Mahan. He was a graduate of Hamilton College and of Andover Theological Seminary. An aggressive and uncompromising advocate of his advanced views, he gave to Oberlin a character of boldness which, probably, disappeared to a considerable extent after the time of his resignation, in 1850. He published works on intellectual and moral philosophy, on logic, theology, and spiritualism.

The scholastic side of the additions to the Oberlin movement in 1835 is represented by Rev. John Morgan, a graduate of Williams College in 1826, who occupied the chair of literature and New Testament exegesis,

Rev. Henry Cowles and his brother, Rev. John P. Cowles, both graduates of Yale College, came to the chairs, respectively, of languages and Old Testament literature.

COEDUCATION OF THE SEXES.

Oberlin was the first college to admit young women to the enjoy ment of all its facilities on the same terms with young men. The priuciple of coeducation, which has since been a source of contention in several American colleges, came into Oberlin as a natural and unquestioned part of the movement. It hardly received any discussion whatever. The Oberlin Collegiate Institute was modeled after the New England academy where boys and girls were educated together, and when it grew into a college, still retaining its preparatory department, coeducation was accepted as a matter of course. Besides, the colonists had moved upon the ground, bringing their families for the purpose of education, and it was natural that they should provide the same opportunities for their girls as for their boys. At first, however, the idea of joint education was not entertained. It was intended to have a "female department," coördinate with the preparatory, academic, collegiate, and theological departments a kind of "woman's annex." But the idea was not realized, for the "females" were admitted into all the other departments. Yet, while ladies were permitted to take any course open to gentlemen, there was also provided a "ladies' course," which required only one year's preparation, while the "classical course" required three years. This course was transformed in 1875 into the "literary course," and opened to gentlemen; but up to the present time only three or four young men have been graduated from it. No degree is granted on the completion of this course. It is not regarded as strictly a college course, but as a sort of ladies' seminary carried alongside of the college proper. Large numbers of the young ladies, however, pursue the regular collegiate course with the young men.

The government of the young ladies in their relations to the college and to the young men is looked to with considerable care. There is a principal of the ladies' department, assisted by a "ladies' board of managers," composed principally of the wives of the professors. This board has equal authority with the college faculty and has the exclusive government of the young ladies. No appeal is taken from its decisions to the faculty. No young woman appears before the general faculty in any matter of discipline, nor is any such case of discipline ever announced before the students as a body. The regulations for young ladies give them less freedom than is allowed to the young men, but in this the college follows the custom of the world at large.1 The propor

1 An excellent description of the practice of coeducation at Oberlin, as compared with that in other mixed schools, is found in the article "Coeducation at Oberlin," by President James H. Fairchild, in the Bibliotheca Sacra, July, 1889.