Repository: UIHistories Project: Convocation - 1930 [PAGE 12]

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titled to ask him for his cred< ntials it he wi ;h< s the world to listen to him, But there is no obli ation on j m to listen to him. It is not a suppression of in edom of speech to tell

certain so-called philosophers of today that we do not careto hear their doctrines destructive of accepted moral relationships between the sexes, of the family ti< of the subversion of our ideas of marriage, etc., put out under the name oi liberalism. We have a right to tell them that they may hire halls or stand on the street corners and preach their doctrines but that they may not preach them in our houses or on our grounds. That refusal is not suppression of free speech. It is a refusal to admit their right to impose themselves upon us. Do not be too reaely to accept the "new" as final and to make inferences from it about matters with which it has no connection. We have made that mistake in our generation in our efforts to apply the methods of the physical sciences in our education, in literature, history, economics, sociology. Remember that what is new may not be important, or even true, and much that is true and important is not new. Do not get excited over the appearanee of prophets with new doctrines. Every generation produces some men and women of unusual quality, even of greatness of mind, clearness of perception, capable of blazing new paths of progress for mankind. They are often accompanied, lik< a n a r m y , by many camp followers. Do not think that the noisy group who accompany them in cap and bells and tambourine are the real messengers of the new day, although they usually get the greater popular attention'. What of the future of religion! What will your generation believe? He would be a rash man who would prophesy. The most important task of your generation here will be the readjustment of spiritual ideas to new knowledge. "Who can really tell us whether the ultimate moving spirit of human life resulted from the (lowing to gether, the integrating, of such instincts as sex. pugnacit) hunting, and the like, or whether, on the other hand, some strong pull towards something ne\ r clearly compl bended

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