University Religious Meeting.

Mr. Robert E. Speer spoke in Phillips Brooks House yesterday evening on the value of Jesus Christ. There are two great things, he said, which Christ can do for us. In the first place He can show us what is right. Many believe that their consciences will tell them what is right. But conscience is a defective standard, for it allows men to differ most widely. A man's decisions on the rectitude of his actions must be made according to his moral judgment, and that judgment can be profoundly affected by Jesus Christ. It can be powerfully moulded for good by the standards of life which He set up. It can be yet more powerfully affected by the atmosphere which He created. In certain companionships, questionable thoughts become impossible. In the atmosphere of Jesus Christ much of our lives with which we are now contented seems worse than despicable, and we gain new visions of what is noble and lasting.

The second great power of Jesus is His power of helping us to do what is right. He not only shows us what we should do, He powerfully helps us to do it. And the man of the highest aspirations and truest endeavor cannot but feel every day the need of a power, greater than himself, to help him to be what he desires to be. Christ not only helps us in our own development, He helps us to be of service to others. We are too apt to be satisfied with polite unselfishness instead of the great, robust sacrifice which marks the true man. Christ gives us this power of sacrifice and inspires us with power to live great, clean, rich lives.

Professor Nicholas Murray Butler has been elected president of Columbia University to succeed President Seth Low. Professor Butler graduated from Columbia in 1882, and has held several chairs in that university.