The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-10-10
0berlin.

-. Council Hall, named in honor Of the first
session Of the Congregational Convention, was
formally opened on Saturday, oth instant, at the
close Of anniversary week at Oberlin. The new
hail is intended for the theological department,
and viii suffice for its accommodation when it
shall have become as large as any theological
seminary in the whole country. Ii has been
completed inside the contracts, and is yet 50 sub
stantial and handsome in appearance, that Prof.
Mead in his historical discourse felt called upon
to remind his hearers that it cost no more TO
arrange brick and mortar 10 a comedy pile than in
an unsightly heap. We find the following par
ticulars Of the interesting occasion in the last
AdrGace
DR.. Post of ST. Louis delivered the dedication
address, and President Finney offered, with the
old-time intensity = supplication, the dedicatory
prayer. But the interest of this most interesting
day of the week eliminated in the "reminiscences
Of the early days Of the theological seminary, to
which the audience filling the large church
listened with fearful, laughing attention. Presi-
dent FInney, in spite OF impaired strength, still
at eighty-four almost as straight as an arrow,
told how be came to 0berlin, authorized by
Arthur Tappan TO draw on him for any part or
all Of his annual income of nearly Sl00, 600 for
the support of this new school of the prophets
a pledge p~aralyzed by the quick following financial
convulsions of 1887. The first living creature he
met on his arrival at Oberlin was an old bear,
surveying the college clearing from what is now
the central business corner Of the village. Rev.
george clark recalled the uaV when The occupants
Of Cincinnati (alIas Slab) Hall were out Of meat.
Having carried the case to God in prayer, he
started out the back door with 4 rifle, and had
scarcely left it when he saw a deer in the bush
1.-The Lord has sent it, he thought. Bet TO
make sure of ii l Will shoot from a rest" of
went the deer while he was accommodating his
works TO his faith. But he followed and brought
him down, and kneeling by the carcass gave God
thanks. Those were days when PRAYER was the
vital breath of every proceeding, and when the
apple yender, setting his basket in the college
hall in the morning, labelled with the price,
would return at night to get his money and such
of his stock as had not sold ITSELF Rev. DR.. f.
B.. Fairfield told how he walked $50 miles through
the woods from home to the seminary at the
beginning of the term, and then walked back
again at its close, to persuade his parents to send
the rest of the children. Mrs. Shepherd, the
worthy helpmeet of the founder of Oberlin, was
present to live over these old times, and standing
in the pew to receive the applause of the great
audience. DR.. Peabody of Harvard, called out
for a few words, confessed himself profoundly
touched with these recollections, t~estifying also
that no other man had done his mind and heart
such service as President Finney did years ago, in
a course of lectures to which he listened when a
young man and a theological student at Cam
bridge. DR.. Peabody's presence and participa-
ton in the exercises of the week, bringing in
heartiest fashion old Harvard greeting to Ober-
lin, was a noteworthy feature of this commence
A~Ae NNSoiS AHo AheSoNNA. a Oh
anity and science delighted all, as did his earnest
evangelical sermon, delivered in the pulpit of the
first church on Sunday morning. OF President
Fairchild's baccalaureate and of all the other
public exercises, We have no space to speak at
length.
The attendance of students the past year-over
1900 has been larger than in any previous year
of Oberlin's history. And that history of forty
years, IN which hazing, and feuds between 3 town
and gown" have always been unknown, and in
which offences calling for expulsion have scarcely
averaged one a year among several hundred stu
dents, we humbly submit, proves the case for
co-education. Nevertheless it is to be said that
the friends of the system at Oberlin look with
apprehension on such experiments at co-education
as are making, for instance, at Ann Arbor where
young misses away from home, and boarding,
perhaps, in clubs composed of both sexes, are
placed under no college rules or regulations what
ever, save a requirement to attend recitation.
Quite strong also seems to be the conviction at
Oberlin that, because young men and women
bring to their school training such differences in
nature, and follow it with such differences in life
work, there should be some difference in their
course of study.-M. Y. EU- ngelst, August 20.