River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1924-12-11
The College Youth
And His Religion
BY J. P. jacobson

the present time are turning out
generation Of aetheists and agnostics
and that a young man who exposes
himself to course of training in one
of these modern institutions has lit
tie chance of maintaining any sort of
a religious balance, / wonder If this
is true. Whatever the facts may
be, am beginning to develop a con-
viction that the source of this much
heralded lack of interest in spiritual
things on the part of university
students is not entirely conferred in
the university itself. 1t should as
likely as not be referred to pre-uni-
versity training, particularly that
part that presumably is furnished by
the church and the home.
Eight out Of every ten boys 1--WE
are told by statiscians) leave The
Church School at about the same
time that they are graduated from
high school After this the church
no longer is vital factor in their
lives. Obviously this state of affairs
does not exist without reason. Men
are sometimes heard to boast about
the fact that they fused to go to
Sunday school, but that now they
have outgrown such childish things.
Apparently they are quite satisfied
with themselves and are convinced
that their Judgment is above re-
proach. Why is this? Does the
church have nothing in its program
that is of vital concern to human
ity? Or, has that program become
so cluttered with quantity of non
essentials that the fundamentals
have been completely submerged?
The boy who has reached the age
where he begins to think for HIM
self is always problem. He has an
uncanny ability to distinguish real
ity from sham without a background
of experience to properly weigh mis-
snap judgments. Thus it is no
wonder that he begins to question
the authority of the church as well
as Of everything else. He may see
so much in the activities of the
chur h that does not ring true that
to him the entire religious program
Of he church may be utterly dis
counted. This decision frequeEtly
may be FASTENED by the attitude Of
the boys father who somehow be-
cause of a similar previous exper-
fence and lack Of later adjustment
does not have the faculty of making
spiritual values clear to him. Some
one has said that the supreme trag-
edy Of our modern life is the feet
that a generation of young people
are growing up among u who are
not learning how to worship "just
because we do not know how 10 make
spiritual values real to them"
What is the suggested remedy?
Nothing very startling. am afraid.
We simply must get back to funda-
mentals. We must, as never before
bring ourselves to face the realty of
Christ and recognize in Him the So
luton of our problems. To bring
This about, it may be necessary to
look around a bit. If the parents in
the home and the teachers in the
church school are failing to make the
spirit Of Jesus Christ a reality in the
lives OF our young people, we may
need to look elsewhere for guidance
and help.
The young peoples conferences
that are now being conducted each
year by the Sunday School associa-
tons, the Y. M. and Y. w. C. A., as
well as by many churches, are begin
ming to manifest their power. At
these conferences appear the ex-
perts in work with young people.
Addresses are given, and discussion
groups are led by men who know the
problems and psychology of the hui
man material at hand. An atmos-
phere is created that somehow en-
ables the boy to size up himself and
his relationships to life in true pro-
portions.
Five boys from River Falls were
in attendance at the Older Boys
Conference held under the auspices
of the State Y. M. G. A. at Eau
Claire last week. 1t was great
experience for them. They were
privileged to hear such men as HI.
w. Gibson who is nationally known
for his work with boys and is at
present the State Boys Work secre-
tary of The Massachusetts Y. M. c.
a.; DR.. T. W. Graham of Oberlin
Theological Seminary, and G. " lib
bard who is the general secretary of
the University of Wisconsin " M. G.
A. Then there was E. G. Wolcott of
Kansas City, Mo. He spoke at three
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