TODAY'S SERVICE AT APPLETON CHAPEL.

The celebration of the Lord's Supper at Appleton Chapel this morning is an event of epoch-making importance in the history of the University. A review of the development and growth of the religious spirit which has made this service possible is both interesting and instructive.

Up to the year 1886 attendance at Chapel was compulsory. Exercises were held in Holden, Harvard, and University Halls in turn, until the building of the present chapel in 1858. 1886 marked the end of the regular College church, which was supplanted by the present system of a Board of Preachers. Required attendance was abolished; and likewise the former communion services, which have not, we understand, been held since. At first, this new non-sectarian arrangement was maintained with difficulty. Gradually, however, it has become firmly established, and more and more the religious life is centering around the Chapel. Meanwhile the religious spirit has broadened and deepened. Attendance at Chapel has increased until at least a fifteenth of those who might justly be expected to support the service, are attending daily. Voluntary social service work attracts more men than any other single outside activity in the University. Recently the Freshmen asked for and obtained a special gathering for their class in the Chapel. And now, on the petition of over two hundred students, communion service is again to be held. It would indeed seem true, as President Fitch says, that "religion here is far more real than apparent; meagre, perhaps, but frank and genuine."

Today's service will be simple and inclusive. Those who are to act as deacons are honored and respected members of the Faculty. We trust that this first public and official celebration of the Lord's Supper here in over a quarter of a century may prove once and for all that Harvard is unjustly and untruthfully called irreligious.