Welsh Journals

recent years to help the Church towards a truer under- standing of its faith than the Student Christian Movement. It is a romantic bit of Church history if^onlyfcthere were skill and scope to set it forth. The Student Christian Movement began its operations in Great Britain in 1892, working through Christian Unions in twenty Universities and Colleges. To-day there are 144 Christian Unions, and there is a membership of 5,800 students, whereas before the War the membership had reached 10,000. The object in view is to win the student world for the Kingdom of God by presenting a type of Christianity that shall be both intelligent and enthusiastic. The local unit is the Christian Union which arranges meetings for worship and study. Small groups of both sexes are got together into study-circles where, in an atmosphere of friendliness and frankness hardly to be equalled elsewhere, the message of the Bible is studied under the guidance of its most competent modem inter- preters, or some aspect, of the social problem at home or of the missionary problem abroad are discussed as a preparation for intelligent churchmanship and citizenship in after years. In the summer a conference is held under the most delightful and inspiring conditions. It is but rarely that one meets anybody so enthusiastic as a man or woman who is fresh from a Swanwick Students' Conference. These students who belong to every branch of the Church meet in the most intimate camaraderie, but without any surrender of loyalty to their own convictions. There is understanding without compromise. Gaiety and piety go hand in hand as is meet and right, and dons of great reputa- tion are not the least hilarious. Nobody cherishes the illusion that a long face is the token of a deep faith. It is the youth of the world worshipping its God with gladness of heart, and using as its sacraments the beauty of nature, the sacred fire of friendship, and the adventurous quest of truth as well as praise and prayer. A word may be added here about the international development of the Student Christian Movement. In 1895, the World's Student Christian Federation was founded. To-day it is the most powerful student organization of the world" with its 189,000 members scattered through five continents. Conferences are arranged every two years in different parts of the world, and it is interesting to think of Tokyo, Oxford and Con- stantinople as having been meeting places in succession. It is a campaign of youth for the Kingdom of God, and to counterbalance the manifest disadvantages of youth, it has its still more manifest advantages. It is free from tradition and conventionality to a degree that is not true of any other religious organization. This vitalizing power of youth with its fresh vision, its unspent ardour, and its fine daring is a thing to thank God for, and the Churches may well do so on February 23rd. Let us try to set down briefly some of the great services of the Student Christian Movement to the Church of Christ (1) It began with a zeal for Missions, and it has given to the Church many of its best and most enlightened foreign missionaries for every department of that great work abroad It set a new standard of equipment and efficiency both-for Missionaries and for^Missionary literature. (2) Then again it set a new standard for Bible study in our churches It gave the Church such text-books as those by Dr. Fosdick onlthelManhood of the Master and the Meaning of Prayer, and the still more remarkable and arresting work by Dr. T. R. Glover on the Jesus of History. (3) It has given the Church a new method of study, together with a new emphasis on the importance of study for the culture of the religious life. Those who follow Christ in our Colleges have no need to walk in darkness, and it is becoming increasingly truer of those who seek to follow Him in our Churches. A small group engaged in patient, continuous and systematic study of some subject, with a prepared text-book, and with ample opportunity for discussion, are likely to get much more profit and more enduring conviction than those who go to a meeting to sit passively listening to a discourse that has to suffer no challenge. (4) The Student Movement is international since 1895, and it has kept up its character in this respect during the stress of War. In Germany, Student Movement members befriended interned prisoners, and did what was possible to alleviate their hardships. It is a token of what may yet be when we realize the world-wide nature of Christ's Kingdom. (5) It has learnt increasingly to recognise the place of nationalism. There is now a Scotch, an Irish, and a Welsh department of the British Movement. The effort is being made among Christian students to understand how the characteristically Christian motives are to be applied to the tasks that are set for us by the genius of our race, and the need of our time. Important developments are to be expected in the Welsh section, We have talked much about nationalism in Wales, but we have done precious little to define it for any practical purpose. Perhaps our student-class can help us here. (6) The Student Movement, being a movement among the young, looks forward rather than backward. It looks away from the old controversies to the new tasks. It regards discipleship, not as the jealous guardianship of a dead deposit of creed and dogma handed down from the past, but as a glorious crusade to set up the Kingdom of God on earth. Though perfectly loyal to the Church it sees that the Kingdom is something infinitely greater and more inspiring than the broken and divided churches of our day can ever be. It is not content with small enterprises, nor with the jog-trot kind of progress that older Christians are apt to regard rather complacently. It wants a radical change of our social order and of our human relationships. It wants Christ to be enthroned soon rather than late. If the Church would only attempt stupendous tasks and summon youth to her help, she would not lack for response. What the Student Movement says to the Christian Church is toujours Vaudace. And it is not urging what it has not already practised. May it flourish greatly, and with the God-given fire of youth may it go on sounding the advance for the greatest of all crusades.