wealth and accentuated the hard, calculating business spirit; and
has seemed to place undue value upon the worth of material success
and the things of which it is made.

John Burroughs from his quiet vantage point of observation says--"The
present civilization arms us with the forces of earth, air and water,
while it weakens our hold upon the sources of personal power.

"It gives us great intellectual riches but it deadens our finer
spiritual faculties, our clear conception of the higher values of
life. Where there is no vision, no intuitive perception of the great
fundamental truths of the inner spiritual life, the best and the
highest must perish."

Before seeking to discover the hidden ethical motives and forces
that animate and elevate our national life, let us consider the
very real effect of the apparent predominance of the materialistic
upon our college students.

Our young people are exposed not only to the pressure of the
materialistic atmosphere which throbs and beats about us all,
but they must also meet the same force from a different and
very direct contact in their classrooms at college, and in the
universities.

Few of us realize the difficult adjustment of mental and spiritual
outlook young people of Christian training must face as they enter
college and university, or the shock to their Christian faith
received through the contact with rationalistic and materialistic
philosophy.