Dr. Tucker Speaking . . .

ROLLINS CHAPEL (On the Occasion of Its Re-occupancy)

THE service in Rollins Chapel stands distinctly for two things. First, for the single idea of religious worship, with its inherent incentives and inspirations toward the daily duty. Rollins Chapel has never been a place for anything other than worship. It has never been a place for lectures or concerts or for those assemblies and uses not infrequently associated with houses of religious worship. The old connection between the New England meeting house and the town meeting was in its day natural and honorable. There are still communities in which the traditions of the earlier days may well be preserved. But an academic chapel should, in my judgment, always be kept to its one high and separate office. For this reason I have rigorously excluded ordinary college notices or ordinary college talks. I think that you will bear me witness that I have not been in the habit of introducing matters of college discipline, or of college activities into this place. I have felt that our environment here should leave but one impression upon our minds, that of reverence, aspiration, and hope, associated with duty. To this end, Rollins Chapel has been and is conducive in every part. We have missed something of the tone of chapel service in Webster Hall. The reverent attitude and spirit of the students while there has been in all respects all that could be desired. But we have felt, I think, the divided associations of the place, and are, therefore, glad to return, or to take our place in Rollins Chapel.

Second, the service in Rollins Chapel stands for freedom and unity of religious faith. It is an academic, not an ecclesiastical religious service. I do not recall ever having invited any person outside a member of the faculty to occupy this place in my absence. However much I should have wished to show my personal respect for the representatives of various religious communions,, who have been from time to time with us, I have wished to emphasize the fact beyond all controversy, that here is a place where all men who have religious aspirations in any form may unite in religious service, while at the same time honoring in clear and unmistakable terms the faith of the founders of the College.

The Sunday service in Rollins Chapel has been held at an hour when there could be no conflict with the services of the churches of the town. Students have been urged to attend these various services according to their religious training or religious preferences. Loyalty to one's church connection, wherever it exists, has been constantly inculcated—more constantly illustrated,

I ought to say, by students in the Catholic communion than by those in other communions—but in this service which brings the entire College together there has been a sensitive regard to the rights of varying religious opinions and of religious faiths. It is, of course, too much to expect that the miracle of Pentacost should be repeated and that as we come together day by day, or Sunday by Sunday, we should all hear the truth or worship "every man in his own language wherein he was born." That is not necessary. What is necessary is that we should recognize those fundamental obligations and incentives of religion in which we are all substantially agreed. It is fairly to be assumed that all those who see fit to identify themselves with institutions having the traditions and purposes of New England colleges, do so with a becoming respect for the traditions and purposes in which religious faith holds a vital place.

Rollins Chapel announces to all students who enter Dartmouth College that the foundations of the College were laid in Christian faith, and that its walls have been built from generation to generation in abiding loyalty to the God of our fathers. In the language of the Honorable Edward Ashton Rollins, the donor of the chapel, at the laying of the cornerstone, "It is the Chapel of which we lay the cornerstone today, because we believe that the Chapel is the cornerstone of the College, and the College is one of the cornerstones of the State. Dartmouth College with no Chapel, and no religious worship or instruction, would mean ultimately the cities and villages of our state without churches, and our civilization a delusion and a mockery."

To the extent to which we lose faith in college men as the subject of right influence and impression, we lose the chief element of influence or impression. To the extent to which we can reasonably increase our faith in college men as the subjects of right influence and impression, we thereby do much to realize the end of our faith.

I have thought it worth while—the inconsistencies and contradictions and disappointments of college life are sometimes so depressing—to put in evidence the history of Rollins Chapel, simply from the side of physical environment, as an aid to our faith in the responsiveness of the average college man to the best things which can be provided for him. Nor do I hesitate to say to you as college men that I believe and confidently expect that the enlargement and the enhancement of the value of Rollins Chapel will have its fit result in the larger and truer sense which we may have from day to day of the things of the spirit.