Religion and the State School
By Will H. Spicer
Shall Students Be Forced to Attend Religious Services in a State University?
AT the Pennsylvania university recently, following a successful revival conducted by "Billy" Sunday, a movement was set on foot by the students to make chapel attendance compulsory. This is said to be an age of reviving interest in religion. Apparently there is danger that the old errors which have retarded the spread of Christianity in the past, will be revived as much as any of the old truths. The enlightened believer must look askance at the spirit called Christian which seeks to secure the benefits of religion to others by compelling them to attend church. DIFFERENT PRINCIPLES APPLY
No one can object to religious regulations in a private college, where, if they are distasteful, the student can easily go to another school. Different principles apply where membership is voluntary than where it is determined by the rights of birth, as in the country as a whole. When state funds furnish part of the support of the school or university, its status changes. According to the principles of our government, the state can not support religion directly, but only protect the citizen in its exercise. Religious opportunities can be supplied to the students by those who believe them necessary, but the state funds must be devoted to the promotion of those attainments in learning that are beneficial from a civil standpoint. And no benefits given by the state should be conditioned on the acceptance of religious privileges or responsibilities. THE CHURCH SHOULD PROVIDE RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION
It is the duty of the church to provide religious instruction; and history has demonstrated that if it fails, the government can not take its place. A movement to arouse the churches, in university towns especially, to their responsibility in this matter, has been started, and has great possibilities for good in it if not perverted. In a survey of the subject, presented in the Biblical World for June, Richard C. Hughes, D. D., says: "There is no mission, at home or abroad, of more importance in the bringing in of the kingdom of God, than the one given to the church that is unselfishly and vigorously ministering each year to a great company of students who are soon to scatter to the ends of the earth, and carry the inspiration and spirit of its message into enlightened social service." And, be it added, carry the message itself. The gospel of Christ must ever be the central theme for the Christian church. The truth of the gospel is what the world needs to know. Social service will be one of the ways in which faith demonstrates itself. There is a large humanitarian basis for it which both Christian and secular educators should make the most of. Yet in Christianity alone is found the pearl of great price, which has inspired more sacrifice and labor for the good of mankind than any other thing presented to the vision of the race. To keep that pearl unsullied is the duty of the church. If the truth of the gospel were something that could be proved, like a problem in mathematics, there would be no objection to having it taught by authority of the civil power, seeing that it would be of benefit from that standpoint. But this is not so. The gospel deals with things spiritual, which must be accepted by faith. Even things that can be proved mathematically can be doubted by some people who desire to doubt them; and this is much more true of Christianity. Hence any effort to enforce belief or study of one side of a question must seem to the unbeliever like a confession of the inadequacy of the evidence. To keep the truth pure, it must be kept free. Like all other truth, Christianity has been and ever will be strongest when belief in it is allowed to rest on the evidence of its sources and of its consequences in the life of man. If the gospel is from heaven, it is true; but if it is from any earthly authority, it is false. The inspired Word, and the Word-inspired church, are the only channels through which its light can shine clearly. Civil support can only obscure its divine origin. To succeed in her mission, the church must realize that success depends entirely on the help of God.