Bishop Brent's Address.

Bishop Brent's address at the University meeting last night was a consideration of the Philippine question from the point of view of an American Christian. The speaker, who has been consecrated Missionary Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the Philippine Islands, has never visited the Islands, and so spoke not of the concrete difficulties of his task, but of the general problem to be faced by the nation. The nation, he said, is now in a state of depression over the task before it, a natural reaction from the excitable enthusiasm of a year or two ago. When these two stages are past, the country will be ready to do its best work for the improvement of the Islands. His conception of the duty of the nation is a high one, for the motives of the Administration have hitherto been prompted by generosity and in many ways are not paralleled in history. It is our duty, he said, whenever the motives of the government can be considered good or bad, to impute the best motives we can, as the best form of patriotism. He then spoke of the applause given, and given rightly, to the rich philanthropists who have given millions for the cause of education. He said that praise also belonged to the many men like Governor Taft and Jacob Riis, with thousands more of less prominence, who were giving more than money, throwing their whole lives into the solution of the problems of the nation, such as our duty to the Philippines. This ought to prove to us an inspiration for patriotism like theirs.

Next he spoke of the duty of the American Church in the Islands. The natives are a people with Oriental ideas, who cannot be expected to accept at once our Christianity with its distinctly western spirit. The Christian missionaries must be able to get hold of the spirit of the people. The next duty of the Church in the Philippines is to the American population. There are, exclusive of the Army and Navy, about seven or eight thousand Americans in Manila alone, and from them the natives get their ideas of our country. No official promises or reports can have any such effect over the natives, as will the actions of the Americans they see before them. To the American Church in the Philippines belongs the task of giving a good representation of our people to the natives.