-

to omit a knowledge of the volume which the world has well called the Book, BIBLE the book in which, says the great rationalist Ewald, "is contained the wisdom of the whole world," and in which, says a greater than he, is contained "the wisdom that is not of this world." That volume protrudes itself always more inevitably upon the world's attention. The tests of its truth and power come not alone from the stones of Nineveh, Babylon, and Persia, and from Egyptian tombs that break the silence of ages in its behalf, and from the monasteries of the East that yield up their long-lost manuscripts, but from its mighty present control over millions of contemporary lives and hearts, and its potent hand now laid upon the nations. In view of its signal historic influences and its unparalleled relation to the world's literature and life, no training is complete and no education liberal that omits the knowledge of such a book. Mere scholars, no less. than devout Christians, are compelled to write their lives of Jesus, and the whole world must meet that question : "What think ye of Christ?" On this basis, if no higher, its study legitimately enters the school, and especially the college. It needs no defense; not here. To exclude it would be as if we should study astronomy and leave out the sun. It marked the largeness of heart of the founders and guardians of Dartmouth College that from the first that study has never been omitted. It belongs here, both as part of a truly liberal education, and by the charter which founded the institution for making known

"the gospel and spreading the knowledge of the great Redeemer."

III. Genuine largeness of heart must also include breadth of sympathy. Here enters the most human element of character. This is the force that sweetly. constrains the man out of his isolation and alienation. The sympathetic spirit ensures a true understanding and a wise adaptation. There must be a hospitality of mind as well as of heart. Without it there can be no successful philanthropist or benefactor.

A grave error is the idolatry of mere intellect. Mind without the sympathetic element, mind clear, hard, keen, cold, is rather a spectacle than a power. It is as the glitter of an iceberg to the glow of the sun. The strongest reasoner must be a sympathetic reasoner. Had Jonathan Edwards resolved himself, as Bayne puts it, into a thinking apparatus, he would never have taken such hold on the religious thought of America. But the man who could study out alike the habits of the gossamer spider and the language of the Algonquins, who could interest himself as completely in the piety of a child of six or of a Stockbridge Indian as in Princeton College or the History of Redemption, the man some of whose sermons were no less full of "logic set on fire" than his private meditations were of poetic and Christian rapture, such a man had a power of heart greater than of intellect. So it always has been and will be. The broader the sympathies, the larger the man. He humbly imitates then "the dear God who

loveth us, who made and loveth all." "I think," said the genial Lyman Beecher in his old age, as he stood before a vase of flowers, "I think that God loves beautiful things."

As it has always been the men in love with nature who have won her secrets from her, so it is the sympathetic spirit, like Solomon entering into that mother's heart, that penetrates into the minds of men, the workings of life, and the meaning of events. A subtle instinct then detects the clew. The novelist has sometimes narrated better than the annalist or historian; Shakespeare's Cæsar may be truer than Plutarch's. A certain painter said he could not draw a child except as he watched his play and entered into his heart. Choate scanned the face of his jurymen, and Erskine of his audience, till each felt sure of his hold. Schliemann became Greek in heart and speech before he found Ilium. Seetzen explored Lebanon and the Dead Sea region in the costume and company of the Turk; Palmer, Arabia, holding long and friendly conferences with Bedouin sheikhs; and Robertson and Smith recovered the geography of Palestine by their perfect familiarity with the native character and speech. The fine sympathies play along the nerves, where the cold intellect cuts the cord and inspects the dead organ.

While this breadth of sympathy multiplies the points. of contact, it magnifies the range of influence. The magnetic power is chiefly sympathetic power. The great apostle tells that "knowledge puffeth up, but love

edifieth," or buildeth up. The one, alone, puffs up the man, the other builds up his fellows. The potent influences have never gone only from mind to mind, but from heart to heart. Personal ascendency is largely the fruit of an outflowing personality. Men have moved other men when strong bonds unite them. The genial spirit of Scott underlies all his popular romances. Dickens' interest in the oppressed and forlorn lays deep hold on men and women, through all his caricatures.

Most men have

In practical life there are but occasional instances of men who have stood aloof, and yet have swayed the minds of men. The reserved and stately form of Washington stands out almost alone. drawn others by the heartstrings. Even Cromwell was not only bound to his associates by a common religious fervor, but had his jovial hours with his friends; and while deliberating over the "kingship," refreshed himself and them with amusing games. William "the Silent" was not a silent man, but genial and eloquent. Lyman Beecher was as full of humor as of Puritan power. Webster was bound by his friendships, high and low, as by hooks of steel; and in his last days his stout oxen were brought near his window that he might look lovingly once more on their honest faces and strong frames. It is refreshing to think of Chief Justice Marshall down on the ground, measuring with a straw the distance of his quoits. It was Bishop Patteson's affectionate nature that carried him so long in safety among the savages and cannibals of

Melanesia; and more than once did his sunny smile. and cheery look arrest the arrow that lay on the string. Chalmers, in his day the great spiritual power of Scotland, was alive to all human sensibilities and alliances. That princely preacher might have been seen "diving into the noisome alleys and feeling his way up the dark winding stairs of Glasgow"; and his elder could find him playing at bowls with his children, who knew him in all the jovialness of domestic life. It was the overflowing heart of Luther which, almost as much as his grand intellect, fitted him for his noble work. Calvin with all his intellect and piety could not have led the movement. The most signal instance of that multiform sympathetic power is found in the life of him who became "all things to all men, that he might by all means save some," unless we reverently add One who Himself "took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses," being made "in all things like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God."

IV. The crowning element in largeness of heart is elevation of purpose. The light of the body is the eye, and the light of the soul is its governing aim in life. If that light be darkness, how great is that darkness! There have been men of keenest intellect, like Burr, whose life was a curse. There may be a learning as vainglorious as that of Crichton, as useless as that of Mezzofanti, as arrogant and repulsive as that of the Scaligers. There have been men of lively sympathies, of magnetic influence, whose magnetism has been that