THE CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.

The first annual dinner of the Christian Association was held in the Assembly Room of the Union at 6.30 last night. After the dinner, Edward Sturgis '90 introduced E.C. Carter '00, general secretary of the association, who briefly sketched the history of the organization since its founding in 1802 and described the religious work which it carries on now at Brooks House in Cambridge and in Boston. Rt. Rev. William Lawrence '71, Bishop of Massachusetts, spoke on Phillips Brooks--and especially of his uncompromising love for the truth of his belief in the binding obligation of truth on a man's life as well as his thought, and finally of his conviction that all search for moral truth would end sooner or later in alliegance to Jesus of Nazareth.

Henry B. Wright, Yale '98, speaking for "The Yale Association," dwelt upon the unity of Harvard and Yale in all their religious aims. President Eliot spoke on "The Function of Religion in College"; he defined religion as primarily love for man and for God; and set forth the unity of ideals and interests, that under all differences of creed and condition, exists among men. W.T. Reid '01, replying to the toast "Athletics," spoke of Christianity as the best impulse in athletics and in life, because it infuses that united spirit and that inspiration which means success. Col. N.P. Hallowell '61 spoke delightfully on "The Old Days."

Mr. Evert J. Wendell replied to the toast "Social Service" by telling of the part Harvard men are bearing and ought to bear in social work, and by explaining the only way in which men should go into it: that is, with the spirit of equality and brotherhood. G.E. Huggins '01, the incoming general secretary of the association, spoke on "The Undergraduates," and Major Higginson on "The Graduates." O.G. Frantz '03, the new president of the Christian Association, made the last speech of the evening. With directness and force, he outlined the hopes and plans for the coming year, and especially the one preeminent aim of the association--that it may be so broad as to unite in straight-forward religious life and work all earnest Harvard men, and that creed and form, while not considered lightly, may yet be subordinate to unity in fundamental moral, ethical and religious purposes.

The dinner was an evidence that the Christian Association aims to be as broad as the social life of Harvard. The men who replied to the toasts were of varied religious beliefs, and their expressed opinions covered a broad field of ethical and religious thought. Yet the many-sided views of President Eliot, of Major Higginson, of Col. Hallowell, of Bishop Lawrence and the other men who spoke, coincided in the one fundamental principle, emphasized by Frautz as the chief aim of the association, that religion, if it is religion, means an earnest and purposeful life and active and definite social service--and that such religion lays claim to the allegiance of every man.