Morning journal and courier., 1886-06-28
PRES. PORTER's RACCALAUREATE

Delivered at Ratten Chapel Sunday y June 27th, 1SS6-Based Upon CoIos. sIans Chapter 2-3d-ssIn Whom are Hid All the Treasures of Wisdom and KnOXyledge's-Tke Power o1 ChrIstfanity-The Advantages o1 Christian Teaching-The Christian College vs- the SecuIar-,Fhe Address to the Graduating Class.
 Colossians 23: sIn whorl are hid all the treasures | of wisdom and knowledge"
 Yale college was founded avowedly as 6 | Christian college. All it's endowments and
 arrangements have been inspired and con- | trolled by the definite purpose that the edu- | cation imparted here should be emphaticaIly l Christian.
 | It is no strange thing in this country that colleges and universities should be founded 1 upon this theory. All the older colleges
 were originally established in the interest of | Christianity and the church, the church be- | ing conceived as providing for every interest
 and relation of human society. Most of our
 recent higher institutions, with few nota- | ble and well-known exceptions, have been | founded in a similar spirit.
 | In the ol5er countries the same till of late has been emphatically true. Within few years, however, both in the old countries and the new, another theory has found many ad-
 vocates and been embodied in few colleges
 and universities. This theory, which may be called the secular contrasted with the Christian, is briefly this:
 'Education of every grade, and preemi-
 nently of the highest, to be consummate, must be free from all alliance with religion. It must forswear any allegiance to the Chris.
 tian creed and dispense with positive Chris
 tian influences. While it may accept the friends of Christian civilization so far as sci ence and letters, art and culture, law and
 morality have taken these into the general life, it will best do it's appropriate work, and even best serve Christianity itself, if it leaves all positive Christian teaching and
 training to the household and the church." propose at this time to explain and de- fend the old theory contrasted with the new-the theory on which this college stands and which it proposes to exemplify. I must assume first of all that Christianity is true as history; that it is supernatural in it's import; that it is of supreme importance to every individual man and the human race, and that to both Christ, in his life, his death and his advancing kingdom, is to become more manifested necessity and conspicu- ous power till what seems the brilliant TO- mances of prophecy shall become the sober facts of history. The man who believes all this of Christianity and of Christ would seem to be compelled to believe that in the progress of society towards this consumma- tion the appliances of education must inevi- tably be moulded more completely and con- fessedly by the power of him who shall sub- due all things to himself.
 On the other hand, the reasonef who holds that the Christian is largely fabulous or ex aggerated, and the supernatural in it is inn possible must conclude that the morning star which ushered in it's dawn must give way before the rising sun of science and culture. The man who half believes, or who even surmises that positive Christianity can
 not stand before modern science and modern criticism, must conclude that Christianity ought to have little prominence in that edu
 IL. no place in scientific belief. All those who hold these views, either as misgivings or con clusions, are thoroughly consistent in exclu- ding Christianity from our college and in providing for it's gradual and decorous re- treat with appropriate honors.
 For these reasons it is of prime impor- tance that everyone who discusses the ques- tion before us should first of all settle the question whether and in what sense he holds to the supremacy and permanence of Chris tianity. With those who deny or half be- lieve that Christianity is supernatural and permanent we can hold no argument, for they have already decided the question at is- sue. We can only address ourselves to those who believe in Christianity as permanent and divine, but yet honestly question wheth- CT, in the present condition of our higher schools of learning and of Christianity it. self, it is either wise or practicable any lon ger to make these schools distinctively and ear estly Christian
 I have spoken of my topic as question and the discussion of it as an argument, and, it may be, criticism or refutation of dis sentient or opposing views. I do not, how ever, propose to make this discussion oontro- versial or even critical I would rather seek te portray in positive form the ideal Chris tian college in it's aims and the conditions of their realization. I shall aim however, to show also that this ideal ought to be made real. It is the glory of Christianity that it