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About Yale Alumni Magazine | View Entire Issue (April 12, 1899)
Von ¥ Lift. ‘No. 29. NEW HAVEN, CONN., WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 1899. ~ Price Ten Cents. GEORGE ADAM SMITH AT YALE. Verbatim Report of his Sunday Night Talk to Students. Prof. George Adam Smith of Glas- gow, who is delivering the Lyman Beecher lectures at the Divinity School, preached the sermon at Battell Chapel, Sunday, April 9, and also spoke in Dwight Hall in the evening before a very large audience of University men. Many were turned away because of lack of room. At the evening service, Prof. Smith after being introduced by Prof. George P. Fisher, spoke as follows: The Address, Six weeks ago I had the pleasure of addressing the students of my own Uni- versity (of Edinburgh), gathered for a Sunday evening in one of the college halls in a assembly like to this assem- bly, and, though they passed no vote or message that I should bring to you, [ know that in coming among you at this time, as they knew I should come, I am followed by their prayers for the students of America and especially of this University, for them and you and all youth of the great race into the heri- tage of which God Almighty has called us, and also called into the knowledge of his Son Jesus Christ and the blessing and the peace and the power which have come to mankind. And you can under- stand, therefore, that as I stand before you to-night it is with a pretty full heart, thinking of the young men on my own side of the ocean, whose hearts and faces are set towards the service of Christ. In coming over here I find the same willingness to talk about religion, and to hear explained and discussed the great truths of our common Chris- tianity. Now I understand that I have but twenty or twenty-five minutes in PROFESSOR GEORGE ADAM SMITH. which to speak, and I have taken to- night a large subject—the subject of Prayer. And so without further preface I will begin what I have to say. DR. JOHNSON’S ANSWER. Dr. Samuel Johnson was once asked (by Boswell, I think), what was the great argument for prayer. And _ his reply in#iately was, “Sir, there is no argument for prayer.” By which he meant that no man was ever yet argued into belief in prayer or into the practice of prayer. But what argument cannot do, what Dr. Johnson refused to at- tempt to do by argument, he gave by example. There are no prayers in all the English languages more touching than the prayers of that hero of lit- erature, no man whose spirit was more prayerful, or who was more convinced of the efficacy of prayer. A philoso- pher may be unable to argue any of us into a belief in: prayer, but the’sight of a great philosopher on his knees is sufficient to drag the most obdurate of us down on his knees beside him. Now the high places of our history— that history which is the common heri- tage of both of our nations,—are full of examples of this kind. Leave aside all priests and clergy- men, and take the statesmen and phil- osophers, men of literature, men of the world in its best sense, military officers, governors and other of that class, and you find among them men of the most practical spirit and of the greatest suc- cess and brilliancy, who confess that they owe the strength and the triumph of their lives to the habit of prayer. But to-night I am to turn with you to the most powerful example of all. It was when the disciples saw Jesus praying that they were moved to ask him. how to pray.. Example worked even in that case. Now it seems to me that there are three points in which Christ is our example in prayer. Upon the first and third of the three I have only time to speak a few words. On the second, with your leave, I shall linger a little longer. THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD. Now the first of these points is that Christ based all prayer on the father- hood of God. The Gospels contain a number of the prayers of Jesus Christ, and not one of them, if I remember aright, fails to address God as Father. Christ never opened his lips to pray without using that name. When he gave us the model prayer, he bade us begin it always with the words “Our Father.” In the Epistle to the Romans, Paul calls the spirit of intercession the same which teaches ts to pray, say- ing, “Abba, Father.” Christ, then, based all prayer on the Fatherhood of God. If we have the faith in our heart that God is our Father, if we have given ourselves to him as true sons, then we have all the instinct and argument for prayer that we require. We have been accustomed to hear arguments against prayers,—and sometimes they arise without our having heard from others, such as “What is the use of praying?” “Does not God know already?” “Should we try to change His will?’— and so forth. All such arguments are dissipated and mean absolutely nothing for the man who believes with all his heart, that God is his Father and he God’s child. Just as natural as it was for us when boys to go to our father or mother with stories of our pains or distresses, or troubles, or as years went on with stories of our aims and aspirations, so natural is it for us to go to God our Father in the same fashion. Of course, you need to have the belief. You need to know that God is your Father. You need to have your heart set in the direction of God’s will and the desire to do that will from day to day. Once you have got that faith, once you are earnestly seeking to live up to it, you have got the rock which stands unmoved, when any argument is brought either by hon- est or by dishonest men, against the efficacy of prayer. PRAYER THE REAL BATTLEFIELD. Now when we grasp that Christ meant by prayer the fatherward attitude of the heart, we can understand what [Continued on 253d page.] SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY W. M. Sanders. O. A. Day. _ W. Walker, Bus. Mgr. EDITORS. H. L. Davis, Chair. W. W. Knight. H. 8S. Canby. H. Morrison. THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY. New Editors and Changes—The Grad- uates Must Help. On Monday night the following men from 1900 S. were elected editors of the Scientific Monthly for the coming year: George Nellis Crouse, of Syracuse, New York; Richard Hays Hawkins, of Swissvale, Pennsylvania; W. Hastings Swenarton, of Montclair, New Jersey; John Foster Symes, of Denver, Colo- rado; and Cornelius Delano Wood, Jr., of Brooklyn, New York. There have been a few changes made in the policy of the Scientific Monthly during the past year. In the first place the ’99 board felt that seven men were not needed to manage the magazine, and that five would be a better number. In this way the honor of an election can be greatly increased and the work can be carried on fully as well, if each editor does his full duty. Last June the Faculty kindly set aside a room in South Sheffield Hall for the use of the Monthly and this is now the office. During the first four years of the magazine’s existence, meetings were held in the rooms of the editors, so that there was no place to keep the records, the exchanges or the files of back copies. The books sent in for review were then appropriated by the editors, by whom they were reviewed. Now these books are kept in the office and thus the nucleus of a library of Scien- tific works has been formed. This year a gold medal will be given for the best article upon some scientific subject written by an undergraduate of the Scientific School. The gift of this medal is made possible through the kindness of Professor Chittenden, by whom it is given, through the Senior board of the Monthly. It is hoped that by the offer of this medal the under- graduates of Sheff. will be encouraged to write upon science and that the renewed activity and interest in the Scientific Monthly may be greatly in- creased. The Yale Scientific Monthly has the undisputed claim of being the best col- lege scientific magazine in the United States. .We.-have tried to live up to the standard set by the preceding boards and to improve on that standard when- ever possible, but there is one thing that | makes the work hard, and that is our limited field for subscriptions in the College. The Academic papers can canvass the entire University, whereas we thave only Sheff. We must therefore depend, to a great extent, upon the graduates, and for the good of Sheff. the graduates should lend what aid they can to the school’s only publication, and assist the editors wih their subscrip- tions. There is no money in it for the editors now and many matters cannot be accomplished owing to the lack of ready funds. What we do is to accom- plish as much as possible with what we have, and aim to come out even, at the close of the year. We therefore ask the hearty co-operation of the alumni for the new board, that they may accom-, plish much during the next year. Howarp L&E DAVIS. SM 6 The Two Crews. An important change in the Univer- sity boat last week was the substitution of F. G. Brown, Captain of the winning Freshman Crew last year, for J..W. Cross at No. 5. Both are big men, so the change does not mean that the boat will be lighter, but Brown’s possibili- ties are considered somewhat greater than those of Cross. Dr. Gallaudet has been assisted in his coaching by Alfred Cowles, ’86, who has been here about a week. He is expected later, to remain a longer period. Richard Armstrong, ’95 S. will help in the coaching this week. So far the Crew has done only fair work, but the weather has been so bad that the four-mile course has only been tried a few times and then under adverse conditions. The Freshmen are now in permanent charge of J. D. Ireland, 1900S. The Crew rows as follows: Stroke, Phipps, 7 Low; 6, Hooker; 5, Blagden; 4, Kunzig; 3, Swan; 2, Warmoth; bow, Troxell. ; |
