Report of the opening speech delivered at the twenty-seventh annual meeting of the Association for Higher Education on Reformed Principles, held in Utrecht on July 4, 1907. According to the report, Kuyper began his speech by sharing his personal memories of the Vrije Universiteit and by reviewing its official history. He then gave a disquisition about the significance of the Vrije Universiteit, recalling not only its struggle against materialism, criticism, and intellectualism, but also the resistance the institution had encountered. Kuyper concluded his speech by looking to the future, prophesying that though the achievement of the university’s ideal would take some time, it would nevertheless come about. As far as finances were concerned, Kuyper noted that the Vrije Universiteit continued to rely on donations from the 80,000 Dutch Reformed families. In a way that captured the expectant mood of his audience, Kuyper then uttered the traditional wish for the growth and prosperity of “our university.”

This was the final meeting of the association to be chaired by Kuyper. Since he had turned seventy and was no longer an active professor, he was granted emeritus status at his own request, effective January 1, 1908.