52 
Proceedings of the Inauguration 
No closer historical parallel, in the first place, can probably 
be found to the scientific spirit and method than in Jesus’ per- 
sistent demand for inner integrity; for he, too, demands of men 
that they should see straight, report exactly, and give an abso- 
lutely honest reaction upon the situation in which they find them- 
selves. The historic spirit demands the ability to put oneself at 
the point of view of the other man, of the other race, of the 
other time and clime, and to see things through his eyes, from 
his point of view. But this, like the scientific spirit, requires 
a moral quality — the quality demanded also in any true appli- 
cation of the golden rule. The philosophic mind demands that 
one should see life steadily and see it whole ; should grasp some- 
thing of its real significance. And no time has needed more 
this interpretative mind than our own complex, transitional and 
revolutionary age. Here, too, philosophy has an interpretative 
task very much like that of religion itself. How close esthetic 
appreciation lies to the sense of moral and religious values, may 
be seen in the way in which mankind has always instinctively 
associated truth and goodness and beauty, and in the further fact 
that the great method in all these spheres of value is the same 
method of staying persistently in the presence of the best, with 
honest response. 
It is still more clear that the social consciousness that has 
so characterized our age and constituted its highest glory, is in 
the closest sense akin to the Christian spirit. I do not believe 
we are sending men out into a modern age prepared for the 
modern life who have not partaken of this spirit. Now and then 
a university club has shown that they have had no relation with 
this peculiar mark of our time. Wherever this happens, it seems 
to me that we fail to send them out prepared intelligently in their 
own hearts. For the insistence of the Christian spirit on the 
essential likeness of men, on their inevitable and indispensable 
mutual influence, and on the sense of priceless value and invi- 
olable sacredness of the individual person — all this is only a 
modern translation of Jesus’ central faith that every man is a 
child of God. 
And most of all, of course, the Christian College believes in 
the fundamental nature of religion ; that men must finally ask 
ultimate questions; that there can be no permanent meaning 
