Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1913-07-03
BAD FOR PESsIMIsT
Not True That Great Body OF
Country's Students Are Turn
ing From Religion.


Pessimists are usually out OF the
game. People at work are the ones
who are sure something will come Of
1t. Foreign missionaries are the ones
who believe in. foreign peoples. Work.
ers among immigrants find 1t hard to
be patient with men who sneer at
the ''wopsp and "dagos." and others.
Armchair critics can dismiss foreign
missions with two sentences and a
sniff-may even dispense with the sem
fences, though the sniff is necessary.
People who are at 1t are sure 1t can
be done, and sure also that 1t is be-
ing done
Here is a young man spending his
whole life In Christian work In col
leges. He sees student life from the
inside. He has been in several state
universities. In one of them there
was meeting OF 5000 students. and
300 started out to follow Christ. In
another were held four meetings, aver
aging thousand each. This young
man writes, There is no question In
my mind OF decided improvement in
the moral and religious life of Amer
lean students" Improvement? What
does he mean? Does he not know
that students are losing their faith
and their morals and their character?
Does he not realize that faculties are
in league with the forces of evil?
Or is 1t possible that our friends who
have been saying so have the disad-
vantage OF not knowing anything
about it? Is 1t possible that they are
thinking Of few instances. and have
missed the real current? At any rate,
this man who is at the task seems
much encouraged about 1t.
One Source Of Weakness.
or course, one must take into ac-
count the story of Phillips Brooks,
who would not agree that church at
tendance was falling of because
everywhere he went he found such
large congregations. This man whom
we have quoted is the kind OF man to
whom students would make response.
That In itself is a suggestive fact,
however. Perhaps the weakness Of
the religious situation in our schools
Is that we have not frankly handled
1t. Probably II we had paid no more
heed to the biological elements in our
educational institutions than we have
to the religious, we would be the
laughing-stock OF Europe. We get in
our colleges just about what we go
after, and when the educational lead
ers are ready to give heed to the
religious phases of universities and
colleges they will find the students
ready. II they take the matter light
| ly, the students will do so.
There are great many good men
who cannot teach chemistry with any
inspiration. A chemical department Of
a college under the guidance of one
of those men is lost before it begins.
The religious department. its Bible
study, its Christian training, is lost
also II 1t falls into the hands OF a
man with no inspiration, and without
the power of leadership. There is
nothing occult or mysterious about it.
We can have keen, strong religious
life In our colleges and universities
just as soon as we want 1t. More and
more we are wanting it, and wherever
we want it intelligently we are find
ing men like this one to whom the
students respond.
Meanwhile 1t is people who are
at anything big who are sure Of II
and rejoice in 1.-THE Comment,