friends, as a part of an afternoon's visit to the University; yet no one who has had the privilege of speaking to this great assemblage can have failed to feel the serious-minded sympathy which marks these short half-hours, or can recall them without new confidence in the fundamental impulses of youth. I bring together, therefore, a few of these Vesper addresses, partly in the hope that they may be useful - as the "Mornings in the College Chapel" seems to have been in homes and schools where very short sermons are sometimes read; and partly in the hope that those who have worshipped with us from year to year may like to recall their afternoons in the College Chapel. vi Afternoons in the College Chapel I THE TIDES OF THE SPIRIT Come ye yourselves apart. . . and rest awhile. there were many coming and going. — Mark vi. 31. For NE of the most impressive sermons of modern times is that of Dr. Martineau on what he calls "The Tides of the Spirit." It is addressed to people as they come to church from week to week, occasionally, intermittently, often apologetically, as if their lives ought not to be so varied in interest, but should be uninterruptedly in the mood of prayer. The sermon lays down the principle that this change of attention from work to worship, from gay to grave, is not to be apologized for, as though it were a sign of weakness, but is in line with the whole method of the higher life of the universe. Everywhere, says this great preacher, in the lower life there is a steady, even movement of things, but everywhere the higher life is tidal, undulatory, in need of variation, developed through change. Day and night, sleeping and waking, work and rest, smiles and tears, companionship and solitude, business and worship, all contribute to the ebb and flow of activity and receptivity through which the spirit of man gets its growth and power. Occasionalism and intermittency, says Dr. Martineau, are not the shame of religion, but its glory. They represent the natural move ment of the tides of the spirit. I have read this passage from the Gospel of Marka fragmentary sketch of one day of the life of Jesus - because it is an extraordinary illustration of this truth of the tidal life of man. Jesus has sent out his busy messengers and has been absorbed in his own active ministry, and then one morning, as they return, he says to them: "Let us come apart into a desert place and rest awhile," as though he and they must feel the need of withdrawal and the call from society to solitude. Then, in the desert place to |