Brookings weekly register. (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1898-1903, 1901-03-28
TRUE MANHOOD.
An Address Delivered In College Chapel
March 18th, 1901, by Il. O.
ChilcOtt.

4
| Chilc0tt.
L have been listening to addresses
from this rostrum for about eight
years. These addresses have been de.
livered by people from various walks
OF life and many Of them have con.
tained valuable advice and words OF
encouragement. Many Of the various
Christian denominations, both Cath.
| olic aud Protestant, have been repre-
sented at one time or another, and,
while not always so intended, they
have appealed with special force to
certain classes rather than to the
whole student body. But there is one
class that has always, so far as / am
aware, been neglected, and 1t is to
that class that l shall more psrticu-
larly address my remarks today.
refer to those young men and women
who do not belong to any church or
other religious organization. l want
to extend to you the hand of good
fellowship; / want to assure you that
l sympathize with you and earnestly
hope that / may be able to give you
some words of help and encourage
ment that will aid you to meet the
many trials and annoyances with
which know you constantly have to
contend.
Our president, in his Introductory
remarks, made the statement that
only small minority Of people would
agree with the peculiar views about
to be expressed by the speaker. l
think careful investigation of the
facts would show that this statement
would not apply to this audience. As
you know, when you were classified
you were requested to fill out blanks
expressing your preference for some
church IL you had any such prefer.
ence. / find from an examination Of
these cards that eighteen per cent Of
the students expressed preference
for the Lutheran church, fifteen pei
cent for the Methodist, twelve pei
cent for the Presbyterian, eight pei
cent for the Baptist, four per cent fol
the Catholic and two per cent miscel
laneous, making in all fifty-nine pei
cent, leaving, OF course, forty-one pei
cent Of the student body with no pref
erence whatever for any religious de-
nomination. Now 1t is certain that Q
considerable number of the fifty-nine
per cent that expressed preference
for some particular denomination
were not themselves members of that
or any other denomination, so / think
that we can safely say that the ma
jority Of this audience is composed OF
the class to whom l have referred,
that is, to those who are not mem bers
OF any church or other religious de-
nomination.
/ shall assume that every person In
this audience, who is not member OF
some religious organization, has been
prevented from becoming such by
conscientious scruples, or failure to
become convinced that their moral
welfare would be enhanced by such an
alliance. I believe that 10 this fair
assumption; for certainly every one OF
you has had many opportunities to
join such organizations. You have
all been solicited to do SC. A thou
sand motives, some of them worthy,
more of them unworthy, have promp.
ted you to such course, but you have
so far stood firm and have not yielded.
Now, the only power on earth strong
enough to have withstood these com
binations of influences are conscience,
judgment, reason-the only safe
guides to human conduct. / want to
congratulate you upon having been
guided by them thus far and to urge
upon you the necessity Of continuing
to shape your course by them. But dc
not flatter yourselves that by having
resisted this one temptation you have
escaped or in anywise reduced your
responsibility to yourself and to 30
ciety. The man or woman who has
the moral courage and independence
to stand up for what is true and noble
and right in private and public life
without alliance with any organiza
tion, has greater responsibilities Al
well as greater opportunities for good
than the members of any religious or
ganization. II 10 your duty to dem
onstrate to the world by your owr
lives that true manhood and true
womanhood are not the special pre-
negatives of the followers of any sys
tenn of religion. Now, do not misun'
derstand me, do not think for one
moment that / wish to convey the
idea that no one who follows his con
science and reason will become q
member OF religious organizations; fal
from it; there are many just as honest
and conscientious people on the inside