NOBLE LECTURE YESTERDAY

The first of the Noble lectures was given last night in the Fogg Lecture Room by the Rev. Henry Churchill King, D.D., LL.D., President of Oberlin College, on "The Ethics of Jesus." The speaker in this lecture introduced his subject and laid emphasis on the fact that we must see the teaching of Jesus as a background to his ethical teaching.

A great deal of critical literature has been written about the teaching of Jesus, but one feels the hopelessness of enlarging on his teaching by commentaries. The study of the words of Jesus is the best way to understand his life and teachings. We must look at his work with an historical and psychological interest to help explain it. The student must study Jesus's teaching in its application to his own time if he is to understand it.

The limitation of our theme will exclude all narrative and religious teaching of the Gospels. The ethical teaching is inexplicably interwoven with the religious, and Jesus never separated the two, but for the sake of convenience an arbitrary division has been made. The great proportion of the teachings of Jesus are ethical with a religious background.

To clearly understand the purely ethical teachings of Jesus we must look at his teachings of Jesus we must look at his teachings as a whole. We cannot wholly ignore the spirit of his life as it influenced his teaching. We may perhaps best use Luke as the summary of the whole teaching which may be summed up as "good tidings authoritatively given; born of love; bursting the bonds of much previous religion; and calling for new righteousness of universal love in its votaries."

This survey serves to bring out the large proportion of his teaching which deals with the simplest principles of ethics. These could not possibly perish because of their irresistible vitality. Even the man who can get no religion out of the teaching of Jesus can yet find a priceless treasure in his ethical teachings.

The second of the Noble lectures will be given this evening at 8 o'clock in the Fogg Lecture Room by the Rev. H.C. King, who will speak on "The Ethical Teaching in Schmiedel's 'Foundation Pillar' Passages and in the 'Daubly Attested Sayings'; Criteria." The lecture is open to the public.