The Jenkens Lesson

As he so often told the story of the founding, the following passage became known as the "Jenkens Lesson." Brother Jenkens was sitting at his desk one evening, studying a passage of Greek for the next day, and he fell asleep and dreamed.

"I dreamed that I saw a great black cloud over this University," he said, "and I saw lightning, and heard the reverberations of thunder. I saw nations at war, I saw homes destroyed; I saw ten hundred thousand monuments to the newly dead soldiers of the earth. And I asked the Recording Angel, who stood by my side, what such a scene meant in the University of God. And he answered me quietly, saying,' Men have failed to understand the simple teachings of the Prince of the earth.'

"I woke, and bowed my head and when I slept the Angel returned and he showed me a world in which the cloud had broken. I saw children, neatly clad, wending their way to school. I saw workmen singing for joy at their work. I saw the churches filled, institutions of learning crowded, and the nations of the earth were at peace, every nation with its brother nation.

"And I asked the Angel of God what had brought about this change in the old universe. And he pointed me to a passage of Scripture, in Matthew 22:37 to 40- 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like unto it, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.'

"Thus the name of Sigma Phi Epsilon was born in the philosophy of love- the only foundation on which the world can have peace. This is the principle on which our Fraternity was founded."