The Free lance. (State College, Pa.) 1887-1904, October 01, 1888, Image 6

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    a morality among outside students who are
asked to join, and also among members, which
is far less than radical christianity. While we
must encourage all efforts to abandon a life of
recreancy for one of respectability, yet we dare
not rob the faith of Christ of everything else
than respectability,—it is a power, a life.
2. Let the members of the association tarry
with one accord together until they be endued
with power. If they don't believe in power,
it is a certain proof that they don't believe in
their own christian experience, and an honest
heart will be a good soil for the spirit of God
to work upon in them.
3. Notwithstanding the foregoing require
ments which Will insure us an evangelical work,
we must have the active operation of all our
common sense methods heretofore employed.
Let christianity go out in a helping hand, and
a genial fellowship on the campus. We ex
hort the V. M. C. A. to clothe itself in its own
proper strong and shining armor, but withal
not to forget the tactics which insure effective
battle.
R ASE -BALL season has gone and foot
-1.1 ball season is here. The record of the
ball team might have been better, though we
had difficulties with which to contend. If
there were any faults c,onnected with the base
ball management, they were laziness and a de
pendence upon a past record. Now the fact
is that we could name other colleges that
expect to defeat our foot-ball team. They are
planning for it ; they are practicing for it;
they are confident, and look forward to the
game only as an opportunity for their tri
umph. Whether they could have defeated
us last season or not is a question which
concerns the past. We know what our eleven
can be brought to do, for they have shown
us; but we also know what remains to be
done this fall. Success lies before us, but we
cannot afford to neglect vigorous practicing.
THE FREE LANCE.
THE lack of a gymnasium now stares us
in the face. We do not seize the oppor
tunity to carp, now that our former gymnasium
has necessarily been destroyed for the sake of
desirable improvement, but we hope that some
provision will be made for indoor exercise
within a few weeks. Many of our students have
found recourse to the gymnasium almost a
necessity for the health and ability to prosecute
their studies successfully. Others, a large class,
find they can sleep better and study better
when they spend a few minutes daily in recrea
tion, though they do not find regular exercise
absolutely essential. It is also very much de
sired that our athletes, base-ball candidates,
etc., have some place where systematic train
ing may be continued through the winter, in
order to insure success next season.
Moreover, the expending of surplus animal
spirits in the gymnasium, would forestall much
noisy conduct which may be otherwise ex
pected in the dormitories. We can easily
see that it will not be possible to provide a
regularly equipped gynasium this season, but
the fact that there is no prospect of any out
let•at all is to be regretted. We hope that be
fore long we shall have a permanent gymnasium
which will correspond with the rest of our
facilities.
MR. MOODY'S words to college students
at Northfield, ought to be heard in every
college hall of the land. And for two reasons :
1. They are words of power; 2. They are
spoken by a man of power.
Mr. Moody's speech is direct for the sake of
what he says. It embodies truth able in it
self to work conviction, and left sufficiently un
trammeled by his presentation of it to do its
work. His message from the Gospel to col
lege students is so simple that 'it may not be
resolved into a thousand probabilities of doubt,
it is the simple truth as intuitively interpreted
by the normal christian, yet it is truth so great
and important that Mr. Moody loses himself