SECULAR SPIRIT

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 115, 11 November 1935, Page 10

SECULAR SPIRIT

UNIVERSITY COLLEGES

CHRISTIAN CONVICTIONS

"ACIDS'OP MODERNITY"

"We as a Church must get right J 'down to this business of evangelising j. in a very definite way the 5000 univcr- j sity students of New Zealand," staled ( the Rev. Dr. J. D. Salmond toda>' when 'C speaking to the Knox College report j at the General Assembly of the Prcsby- j < terian Church. £ Knox College, said Dr. Salmond, was , a great asset to the Church, but the t college was only touching a fraction ! of the students of the University of j Otago and a fraction of the students ; of New Zealand. If any institution ( was going to make an impact on the 1 life of the community there were two < groups which that institution must : touch in a very vital way—the student ' group and the industrial workers. The ( university colleges in New Zealand ] were permeated to a large extent by . the secular spirit. A speaker the other i day had pointed out how necessary it was that students should be introduced ■ to many points of view and that they should be open-minded, to knowledge. Dr. Salmond said he agreed with that up to a point, but the students, as well as being introduced to points of view, must be led to definite Christian convictions. They must be led to respond j to the unconditional demands of the j Christian faith. The very foundations | of-Christian faith were being chal-1 lenged. As Walter Lippmann had I said, the acids of modernity had cor-1 roded the ,very foundations of our I life, and students today were in a I very different position from those who were students 30 and 40 years ago. . v A CHRISTIAN WITNESS. "I do believe that at the present time there is a very definite call for a Christian witness in our university centres," ■ said Dr Salmond. "That can be done only through living persons ■ who know the modern position and are sensitive .to the currents, of thought of the day. I want to suggest to 'this Assembly that there is a great need for something in the nature of part-time chaplaincies in our university centres. This, I think, may bo brought about by authorising the youth committee to place £.100 on its budget, by asking the Dunedin Presbytery to finance the scheme, and by discovering someone who will provide the money for a number of years or provide an endowment fund." Dr. E. Merrington said he thought Dr. Salmond had touched upon a very real current problem in his comments on j the increasing secularisation of student thought and life. One had only to consider the attitude some university teachers took towards Christian religion and the decline in attendance in places of public worship to realise that.