The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-09-26
DR., FEW breaches
OPENING sermon
New President of Trinity College
Makes First Public Address
to Students.
Especial % The Times plspa tch.1

Especial to The TimesDispatch.
Durham, N. c.. September 25.-To-
night in the Craven Memorial Hall
President Few preached the usual
opening sermon to the Trinity College
community. This was DR.. Few's first
public address TO the students, and he
was heard by large and apprcciatiVe
audience. Under the direction OF MI.
Cheek, assisted by a large number OF
the best voices in Durham, music helped
to make the occasion impressive.
Having as his subject "rhe College
and the Symmetrical Life" President
Few began by saying that religion and
education, though by no means iden-
teal, must be joined hand in hand in
order to produce a purely symmetrical
life. DIR. Few said in part:
This passing from one extreme to
another in human history. this spiritual
ebb and flow, OF which the growth of
Christianity itself shows abundant
| illustrations. seems to be an essential
part OF our human nature. 1t has been
hard for the generations of mankind
and for all except rare individuals, In
every age and country. to comprehend
a religion of all life.
This tendency toward lopsided de-
velopment, inherent in human nature
Itself. has doubtless been accentuated
in the English race (and to less de-
! gree the same Is true of all Western
| Europe) by the fact that 1t has derived
Its literary and art culture from one
source and its religion from another.
Its literary and art ideals come from
! heather antiquity and Its religion from
the Hebrews. 1t has been hard to unite
in one perfect whole these two elements
| of a civilization whose culture comes
from one source and whose religion
comes from another. The result has
been austerity and barrenness. along
| with moral intensity, on the one hand,
and beauty and fulness Of life, without
a moral meaning, on the other hand
| Puritans and Cavaliers, and in neither
class Is found the highest or fullest
kind OF life And only rarely have the
4 wisest men. through fuller compre-
hension OF the meaning Of life. been
able to lift themselves high above the
limitations and littleness of the Puri-
tans creed. and the luxury, the moral
abandon and the expense Of spirit in
the waste of shame Of the Cavaliers
life.
This power to combine full and
beautiful living with moral energy and
enthusiasm for the great causes of men
has been hard lesson for the race &c
learn. For its own complete develop
ment and for the promotion of is
great WOO of completely redeeminl
humanity, the church must join hands
with education. and these two might,
] agencies for human redemption mus
work together toward the same grea
4 end.
! 1T is all the more necessary for re
! 1igion and education to work together
, because, just as 1t has been difficult fo
our race to develop harmonious civ
ilization whose culture comes from on
! source and whose religion comes from
5 another. so in education also there Is
G corresponding dualism. Education !!
t Western civilizations arose out o
Christian origins; the school Is organ
n lically development from the monas
- terry, But at the Renaissance paga
literature and pagan ideals became tn
subject matter of education, and tn
: merging Of these two elements int
: one harmonious whole was beyond tn
e power of synthesis of the earlier age!
: and is still beyond the synthetic powe
0 of American civilization. And so
g has come to pass that here in Christia
{. America we have the all too commo
spectacle of a great big pagan univer
sity with little Christian annex. I
the shape Of a Young Mems Christia
n Association: and here in a land wher
q courcheS are perhaps more active an
II stronger than elsewhere in Ehrister
n dom we have built up vast systei
of public education, which Is the onl
: system OF education that has ever /
the history Of the world been complete
a ~ divorced from all moral or religion
: intentions. In this situation beyon
question lies one of the gravest peril
to American civilization. In place c
,e this situation we need religion of a
.e life and an education that seeks
= develop all the faculties of men.
This inheritance of our cultur
ideals from one source and our religio
d from another and this Christian origi
6, and pagan subject matter of education
have reinforced in our civilization tt
inherent tendency of human nature t.
n, wards lopsided development. This e.
t. plains. think. that strange dualisr
#. that ctlick rise and fall, that turb
ah11 and flow which rharaCtariza Yves