AN UNSECTARIAN PULPIT- 1871-1904 405 



secure a beautiful organ for the university chapel. 1 In 

 my addresses to students I urged them to attend for 

 various goodjreasons, and, if for none of these, because a 

 man is but poorly educated who does not keep himself 

 abreast of the religious thought of his country. Curious 

 was it to see Japanese students, some of them Buddhists, 

 very conscientious in their attendance, their eyes steadily 

 fixed upon the preacher. 



My selections for the preachership during the years of 

 my presidency were made with great care. So far as pos- 

 sible, I kept out all " sensational preaching/' I had no 

 wish to make the chapel a place for amusement or for 

 ground and lofty tumbling by clerical performers, and the 

 result was that its ennobling influence was steadily main- 

 tained. 



Some other pulpits in the university town were not so 

 well guarded. A revivalist, having been admitted to one 

 of them, attempted to make a sensation in various ways ; 

 and one evening laid great stress on the declaration that 

 she was herself a brand plucked from the burning, and 

 that her parents were undoubtedly lost. A few minutes 

 afterward, one of the Cornell students present, thinking, 

 doubtless, that his time would be better employed upon his 

 studies, arose and walked down the aisle to the door. At 

 this the preacher called out, " There goes a young man 

 straight down to hell/' Thereupon the student turned 

 instantly toward the preacher and asked quietly, "Have 

 you any message to send to your father and mother?" 



Our list of university preachers, both from our own and 

 other countries, as I look back upon it, is wonderful to me. 

 Becoming acquainted with them, I have learned to love 

 very many men whom I previously distrusted, and have 

 come to see more and more the force of the saying, ' ' The 

 man I don't like is the man I don't know." Many of 

 their arguments have not appealed to me, but some 

 from which I have entirely dissented, have suggested 

 trains of profitable thought ; in fact, no services have ever 



i Sunday, June 13, 1875. 



