The discourses contained in the present volume were, with one exception, delivered while the author was President of Dartmouth College. His Inaugural Oration and the Baccalaureate Sermons of fifteen years deal chiefly with topics of permanent interest. They are published, with only minor corrections, just as they were heard by the respective classes, except so far as they were abridged in the delivery. The topics and modes of discussion and illustration, it is scarcely necessary to say, were adopted with special regard to the occasion and the audience.

From his other public discourses of the same period the author has selected three, partly by request and partly by reason of the prominence of the occasions. To these he has added one other, the sermon before the American Board, delivered under the shadow of Yale College, and discussing a theme of sufficient magnitude to complete the series of Anniversary Discourses.

S. C. B. HANOVER, N. H., June, 1894

1

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER

PAGE

7

38

60

79

102

117

141

1. THE CHIEF ELEMENTS OF A MANLY CULTURE. In-

augural Oration, June 27, 1877

II. RESPONSIBILITY FOR RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES. Bacca-

laureate Sermon, June 23, 1878. ..

III. High MORAL ALLIANCES. Baccalaureate Sermon,

June 22, 1879 .

IV. PROVE AND HOLD FAST. Baccalaureate Sermon,

June 20, 1880.

V. AN ATTRACTIVE PIETY. Baccalaureate Sermon, June

· 26, 1881 ..

VI. CHARACTERISTICS AND DUTIES OF THE TIMES. Bac.

calaureate Sermon, June 25, 1882 .

VII. A POSITIVE FAITH. Baccalaureate Sermon, June 24,

1883 ..

VIII. LARGENESS OF HEART. Baccalaureate Sermon, June

22, 1884

IX. HUMAN WICKEDNESS OVERRULED. Baccalaureate Ser-

mon, June 21, 1885 .

X. CHRISTIANITY IN THE COLLEGE. Baccalaureate Ser-

mon, June 20, 1886 .

XI. CHRISTIANITY IN THE COMMONWEALTH. Baccalaure-

ate Sermon, June 26, 1887

XII. THE GUARANTIES OF A NOBLE LIFE. Baccalaureate

Sermon, June 24, 1888 .

XIII. THE PATH OF THE JUSt. Baccalaureate Sermon,

June 23, 1889

XIV. THE VALUE OF CHARACTER. Baccalaureate Sermon,

CHAPTER

PAGE

361

XVI. CHRISTIAN COURAGE. Baccalaureate Sermon, June 26,

1892 .

XVII. DANIEL WEBSTER. An Oration at the Unveiling of

the Statue of Daniel Webster, Concord, N. H., June

17, 1886.

385

.

412

XVIII. THE BATTLE OF BENNINGTON. An Oration at the

Centennial Celebration of the Battle of Bennington,

August 16, 1877 .

XIX. Old NEWBURY. An Oration at the Two Hundred and

Fiftieth Anniversary of the Settlement of Newbury,

Massachusetts, June 10, 1885 ·

XX. The Divine FORCES OF THE Gospel. A Sermon before

the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign

Missions, at New Haven, Conn., October 1, 1872 . .

446

480