< Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 76.djvu
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364
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
The college has not lost sight of the design of its founders that it should be a thoroughly Christian institution.

In a supplementary catalogue of the same college we learn that the instructing force

may assemble the students as freely for song and prayer as for athletic associations and class parties. There are no restrictions at this point, either directly or indirectly. The atmosphere is just as religious as the teachers and students choose to make it.

The reader will note that the "freedom" here referred to lies wholly in the teachers' privilege of increasing the already existing religious atmosphere, not in any possibility of curtailing it.

Each of the three following quotations is from a catalogue of a college of excellent standing. The first reads:

In accordance with the spirit of the founder, the college is undenominational, but distinctly Christian in its influence, discipline and instruction.

The second is similarly worded, as follows:

All instruction is given from the religious viewpoint with reverent recognition of and regard for the divine wisdom and power hedging us about and with which we have to do.

These statements do not leave us to infer that religious instruction is simply coordinate with other instruction, but make the claim that the teaching is a combination of the two. A reductio ad absurdum would lead to the query how Christian or religious mathematics differs from secular mathematics, or how such an interpretation of Horace's "Odes" or of the "Chanson de Roland" differs from the secular interpretation, and whether Christian bacteriology differs from catholic or Jewish bacteriology. A more moderate statement in this regard is exhibited in the third citation:

It is a Christian college, conducted in the belief that Christian faith is the source of the highest culture, and that, in the words of its founder, "All education should be for the glory of God"; and accordingly it uses the means which legitimately come within its province to foster a Christian life in those who are connected with it.

A rather naïve method of cooperation of college and church is shown in the following citation, again from a catalogue of a college of high standing:

The college is distinctly Christian, and recognizes Christian character as its highest attainment. It is unsectarian in its management. Inquiry is made of the students at entrance as to their denominational affiliation, and what churches in the city they desire to attend. Lists are sent to the pastors of these churches, who seek out the students and bring about them the influence of church homes.

Apparently this inquiry and resultant action is official on the part of the college. One is tempted to wonder what disposition is made of students who signify a desire to attend a church of some denomination not represented in the city in which this college is situated. Possibly

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