Morning journal and courier., 1892-05-12

charge of the Y. M. O. A. at Yale and during that time many improvements have been made, the membership has been and the association has risen to be most when MT. Barnes took oh arge was 450; now it is about 800. About $500 was the yearly contribution for this work; to- day it is more than $2, 900. Re ligious activity has greatly increased the university. Dwight hall ia the nucleus of an influence for good that reaches out into the dark places in this city not only, but also into Europe and Asia.
 The average attendance at the class prayer meetings has been very large this year and is as follows:
 GLASS PRAYER MEETINGS.
 9s and '92 s. average attendance. e..............23 94 and '93 8. average attendance. :63 '95 and '94 s. average attendance. .......... .189
 One of the progressive steps taken by the association is the issue of a quarterly, ''The Association Record" The leading l article in the paper is review of the reli- | gious life at Harvard by William Lyon l Phelps of Harvard. The writer has assur- ed1y grasped the attitude of Yale toward | religion. The paper is extremely interest l ing and written in a pellucid and forcible style and is in the main as follows:
 RELIGIOUS LIFE AT HARVARD.
 It is unquestionably true that in many sections of the country Harvard university is regarded with suspicion and distrust. Orthodoxy has . keen nose, and usually the attempts of the Harvard Y. M. O. A., the college preachers and the board of overseers to convince the country at large that the university at Cambridge is a strong center of religious life, are received by the watchful defenders of orthodoxy with skeptical smile.
 Not long since an important position in a western college became vacant. To gentleman who urged the claims of liar l yard graduate for this professorship the president asked: "Is he the regulation l Harvard man? If he is we don't want | him. We want 8 man who will take \ active interest in our religious work" 1 Many similar cases show that this feeling
 especially in the smaller colleges of the
 west and south. Now from the orthodox standpoint, this
 suspicion is well founded. Calvanism at l Harvard is becoming a dead letter; and 1 outspoken adherence to cardinal doctrines | of the orthodox faith-such as the fall of
 man, the atonement, justification by faith,
 the plenary inspiration of the Bible-is l certainly not at all common. When the
 orthodox pastor asks his parishioner,
 "What! are you going to send your son to
 Harvard" and looks upon the young man
 as already lost, his instinct in the matter, | whether commendable or not, is correct l The chances are more than even that the
 young man will be lost to the orthodox
 camp.
 THE INFLUENCES ARE NOT ANTI CHRISTIAN.
 There is not saying that there is no re-
 ligious life at Harvard. If by religious
 life we mean evangelical Christianity, there
 might be some shadow of truth in the
 statement. The influences at Harvard are
 distinctly against the old faiths. But the
 influences are not anti Christian. Chris
 tianity Is 8 large thing, and has widely
 different aspects in different places. The
 Christianity at Harvard is different thing
 from the Christianity at Oberlin, and ex-
 presses itself in different ways.
 It does not express itself strongly as an
 organized coherent form. To Yale man,
 familiar with the large, influential Y. M.
 c. A. in his alma mater, with it's perma-
 nent home in Dwight hall, with its mem
 bers prominent in all the best phases of
 college life, with it's numerous and
 crowded meetings, and with it's az
 gressive and organized committe work, the Harvard Y. M. o. A. seems at first to ] be pitifully weak. It's meetings are held , in 8 small room in the scientific school, 6 room not big enough to hold Yale class
 prayer meeting; it's members constitute g
 very small fraction of the university stu
 dents; and this fraction contains very few | -l.xs E. -S
 at Harvard, as at Yale, to belong to the Y. M. O. A. There are no Staggs ano , Corbins among it's members; no class dea
 cons standing high in the social, literary
 and athletic circles of the college. Anc
 the Y. M. c. A. at Harvard represents
 evangelical Christianity.
 8 The St. Paurs society," organized in 186l I-draws it's members from the studentl who have Episcopalian affiliations corresponds somewhat to tho Yale Berke ] ley association. This society has a room } in one of the college dormitories, 8 room , that seems to be sufficient to accommodat, it's members. It holds meetings every ] other week, which are usually conducted by clergymen.
 WITHOUT DoGMATIC PREFERENCES. { The Harvard Religious union-organizet , in 1S9O-brings together a few 'earnes . men in active fellowship without dogmati' . preferences" This is a society that I dt
 not think could exist at Yale, and which
 am positive could not exist at Oberlin. Al P though small in numbers, it's room in Sevel
 hall is about the size of Dwight hall semi circular committee room-it very we'll rep l resents certain prominent aspect of liar
 yard life. No positive religious belief ii E | necessary for membership. Indeed it may v Id S sk~ . whose tendencies are atheistic. It is ad dressed at various times by professors anc 1 clergymen representing all shades of reli gious belief. Perfect frankness character 7 izes it's discussions. Although the talk
 and conversations are usually on religious > subjects, the society stands as working |. force largely for ethical and social aims. O THE CHAPEL SERVICES TRULY RELIGIOUS
 The Harvard chapel services occur every weekday at S:45 a. m., and on Sunday 7 at 7:30 p m. These services are, as it ii 7 well known, voluntary. Despite the ad vertisements issued by Harvard we'll
 wishers and jealous officers and students l the morning chapel services are slimly at
 tended. Comparatively few men go-very few professors-and the attendance ii :; largely confined to the same body of men - l One gets to know the familiar faces. The
 exercises are conducted by the best pulpit o talent attainable. The board of preachers D for 199192 consists of one Presbyterian
 one Congregationalist, one Episcopalian, l. and two Unitarians. Two of these fiyt ! represent evangelical Christianity, al
 though third believes in the divinity ,, of Christ. They are all sincere anc D D earnest in their work. Each preach CT, during his term of service, ha, @ certain hours of each day reserved during . which he occupies a room on the college tt yard, where he may be visited by the stu |, dents. The number of visitors depend t largely on the preacher. Lyman Abbott tt time is pretty well taken up.
 T. LAUGHING AND WHISPERING UNKNOWN. d Although the morning service is sliml, $ attended, it is distinctly religious service d and is in this respect great contrast t. :, morning prayers at Yale. Laughing P whispering and studying are unknown F. The students seem to realize where the are. The Sunday evening service is con n ducted by preachers of various denomins Q tions. They are usually men of ability n and some of the best sermons preached Ii Io | Na~ Enc1and are heard in Annletnn chanal