will of the world's people. The world sentiment ennobles and brings splendid dignity to our own day, the precious present, in which alone you and I have to find our terrestrial blessings. Save during the sacred lifetime which began when Cæsar Augustus was emperor and ended under Tiberius Caesar, and during the life of the aged Apostle which closed, it is said, on Patmos, the world has not seen a new force on earth, a new enginery potent for righteousness, equal to that just arisen before our eyes. It is the true world spirit-sometime to be the all-powerful world spirit-operative, day by day, from one end of the earth to the other, rapid as the forces of steam and electricity or the subtler molecular energies of the latest science. It contains within its intellectual and ethical influence the thought, the feeling, the will of the peoples of the entire earth, and the whole work of its social and political institutions. No longer is the action delayed through years and centuries, or confined to limited areas of civilization. For you and me it is peremptory, daily in its assertive dominion, and not bounded until it reaches Arctic or Antarctic regions, where human population ceases to be important.

To what use, to what purpose, is to be put this world sentiment, so instant, so peremptory, so practical in its sway of kingdoms and republics? Is it only to make the faculties of wealth more productive and the enginery of bloodshed more dreadful? Is it to help the demagogue, either in imperial purple or in the black coat of an American or English statesman, promote the jealousies and hatred of nations or races? Or is it to be a use of justice and of mercy, a fit use of moral power? The response, gentlemen of Tulane University, is, in large part, with men engaged in your work, and the response, therefore, is not doubtful. What you have been taught, that you will teach. Your thought, your speech, your labors, all the fine fruits of your education, and those of all who inspire and direct this world spirit, will summon it to the promotion of peace and of the mutually helpful arts of friendship between nations and peoples. For this end has the Almighty created the power of the public opinion of the world; for this end has He given it, before your eyes and mine, a wonderful growth, such as none of our forefathers saw; for this has He made it to kindle our hope and sustain our faith,

RELIGIOUS EXERCISES IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

The following tables, giving the status of religious exercises in the public schools of cities of 4,000 inhabitants and over, are reprinted from the Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1896–97 (pp. 2189-2191). It is not probable that conditions in this regard have materially altered since the date of that Report.

TABLE 1.—Statistics relating to religious exercises in the public schools of 531 cities of 8,000 population and over in 1896.

Table 2.—Statistics relating to religious exercises in the public schools of 277 cities of over 4,000 but less than 8,000 population in 1896.

TABLE 3.-Combined statistics relating to religious exercises in the public schools of 808 cities of more than 4,000 population in 1896.

(Tables 17 and 18 combined.)