DEDICATION EXERCISES HELD

The dedication exercises of the new building of the Andover Theological Seminary were held in the chapel of the building yesterday afternoon. Eighteen delegates from various universities and sixteen from other theological seminaries were guests if the trustees and took part in the exercises.

The introductory address was given by Rev. George Harris, D.D., LL.D., h '99, President of Amherst College, and President of the Board of Trustees of the Seminary. He described the founding of the Seminary at Andover in 1808, the reason for this location being the fact that Andover Academy was already there. As the years advanced, however the seminary lost some of its prestige because of its situation in a small town. The trustees, therefore, deemed it advisable to bring the Seminary to Cambridge within easy reach of the advantages of a large University.

President Harris said that in spite of the change in location, the Seminary still retained its ancient traditions and its high purpose of sending out its pupils imbued with the spirit of a Christian life and service to their fellow men. He commented on the excellence of the building and the fact that it was very well adapted to the needs of the Seminary, and then formally delivered it to the Faculty.

Rev. A. P. Fitch, D.D. '00, President of the Seminary, accepted the building for the Faculty, and then delivered the address of the afternoon, his subject being "The Seminary and the University." The Seminary during its hundred years residence in Andover had been identified with the sectarian interests of the Congregational church, but now effort must be made to identify it with the learning if Harvard University, the alliance to be academic and not ecclesiastical. He said that for this reason the Faculty should be composed of scholars and not sectarian ministers. He pointed out that the new idea of the teaching of theology is to teach it as an exact science. Although it is not an exact science, it should be so judged and should not be bound down by conformity to church creeds.

He expressed the hope that the Seminary Faculty would co-operate heartily with the Faculty of the Harvard divinity School, and spoke of the great advantages which would be derived by the Seminary students from courses which they might take in the Harvard School.

Rev. G. a. Gordon, D.D. '81, of the Old South Church, Boston, delivered the dedicatory prayer.

A dinner was held in the Fiske Museum at 6 o'clock for the trustees and their guests, and at 7.30 o'clock, Dr. Davison, the University chorister gave an organ recital in the Chapel. This was followed by a general reception in the Farrar Room, at which the following spoke informally: Dean Fenn, A.M., D.D., for the University; Rev. w. D. Hyde, D.D., LL.D., '79. President of Bowdoin College, for the Andover alumni; rev. Francis Brown. A.M., D.D., h.'09, President of the Union Theological Seminary, for the seminaries; and President Eliot for the New England colleges.