As is usual at the first service of the year, Appleton Chapel was crowded last night before the exercises were opened and when the choir sang, nearly every seat was occupied. The service was conducted by Professor Lyon, Professor Peabody, Dr. Leighton Parks and Professor Everett After scripture reading and a prayer by Professor Lyon, the chief address of the occasion was delivered by Professor Peabody.

The theme of his remarks was "Liberty and Law." In the minds of most people liberty means evasion of law. The ordinary young man, for instance, passes through a period when he refuses to believe that law is reasonable, and acting on this belief he throws off law. But his freedom from law does not bring him liberty necessarily; it may leave him worse bound than ever. A state of anarchy would make every man a wolf, yet every man would be free under that system. Evasion of law, then, is not liberty.

True liberty is the enlargement of life. To obey law is to gain liberty, for anarchy or "no law" rule brings the worst sort of servility. All the forces which make enlargement of life possible, education, physical training, religion, are roads to liberty. From this we may form a definition of liberty. Liberty is the transfer of allegiance from lower to higher things. The young man again, who gives up law in his search for liberty, who moves in a world of irresponsibility, whose life becomes irregular and disorderly, never finds liberty till he attaches himself to some higher interest which swallows up all his smaller ones. He may find this higher interest through some teacher or some friend or in his own experience, but find it he must before he finds liberty.

Religion with its simple command from God "give me thy soul" invariably gives liberty. The religious man ceases to worry about little trouble - his whole nature feels centred in one great interest and there is no room for worry. Professor Peabody then made an appeal to the students to begin before the cares of the year really come, to take an interest in religious matters and in the exercises of the chapel.

Dr. Parks then spoke of the responsibilities and privileges of man from the fact of their being sons of God, and applied his remarks to college life in particular.

Professor Everett spoke of the part which our Chapel plays in the life here. It binds all the departments together and unifies our whole system.

During the evening the choir sang "Hosanna in the highest," Stainer; "Be merciful onto me," Sydenham; and "Arise O Jerusalem," King. Soloist, Mr. Heinrich Myne of St. Pauls, Boston.