LAKE GENEVA CONFERENCE.
Four Hundred and Twenty Students Gather From One Hundred and Fifty Institutions.
BY W. C. PAYNE.
The greatness, variety and character of the work of the Y. M.C.A. win increasing respect for the men who are back of it and the motives that actuate them. Their training schools for workers are an essential part of the movement. Among these schools by no means the least important are the student conferences, six of which were held last year. In these conferences four hundred and fifty-nine different institutions were represented, with an attendance of seventeen hundred and ten men.
The purpose of these training schools is to fit men for Christian leadership in the colleges and universities of North America, and to point the way to decision for Christian work in the great home and foreign fields.
The scope of the work includes preparation for advancing Bible Study which is the heart of the growing effectiveness of the Student Young Men's Christian Association; there is also compre-
nature has done her best to make herself fair for man and has succeeded. Besides, it is near enough to be easily accessible, yet sufficiently remote to escape the disturbing influences of ordinary business and social occupations. As the shadows lengthen across the water one takes boat across the quiet lake and in hall an hour lands to find himself greeted cordially and immediately made at home. He is here to spend ten days with nature in her simple varied moods and to seek from God a fuller fellowship in knowledge and in life. The air rests and inspires. The intellectual and spiritual atmosphere, like that of the woods and waters, calls forth the best that is in man. Here youth and years mingle. A common purpose blesses all and prepares for the largest fruitage in these days of tarrying and for the truest use fulness in the coming service to which each student is pledged.
One quickly finds that every
Yerkes Observatory
hended training of Mission study leaders and Personal workers.
The effort is made to put Christ's Spirit upon the men; to furnish them with a knowledge of His will and to speed them in special service. Of these half dozen conferences that known as the Geneva conference is one of the most notable and is particularly important to the student body of Kansas University because it is one of the institutions there yearly represented by one or more men.
Last June on the shores of Luke Geneva, Wisconsin, this College Summer School of the Great Middle West convened. One hundred and fifty colleges and universities furnished four hum-
dried and twenty-three students from twelve different states. These students were picked men chosen because of their qualifications and their interest in the promotion of Christian work and most of them were leaders in their various schools.
Recreation.
Lake Geneva is a spot where
convenience is provided for this rational enjoyment and growth.
There are regular hours of retiring and rising. The time and work are so arranged that there are no conflicts, no waste of energy, no aimlessness. Every thing is so planned as to converge upon fitness and usefulness Quietly in the early morning here and there among the white tents, or along the wood-paths winding by the lapping waters or in the deeper recesses of the forest is seen the silent student. God is about him. The Book is open before him. He hears God speak to him as he reads. He talks with God. It is the Morning Watch.
The bell calls to the breaking of fast and as they gather they "know not that their faces shine" At eight o'clock the various Missionary conferences and the normal Mission study class meet for an hour. At nine the study of the Bible and me theodis of personal work occupy the students Some are preparing to teach the Life of Christ; another group, the Acts and Epistles; a third the great character of the Old Testament; another the teaching Jesus. At ten the problems and methods of Association work are discussed and at eleven the vital themes of the Gospel are forcefully handled.
The afternoons are given up to recreation and athletics. Base ball, track, tennis and water
sports afford variety suited to all. Row boats free of charge are for those who wish to use them. The athletic contests between colleges and states, wherein picked men from home teams struggle for the mastery, leave nothing to be desired.
For an hour after supper the delegations and states rally their forces, consider their peculiar problems, discover the progress each man is making and
WORLD WIDE MOVEMENT
Twenty Four Countries Represented in a Christian Organization With a Membership of Seventy-Five Thousand Students and Professors.
I have attended many great assemblages but in none have all things done more for men. The larger vision gained in a few short hours; the purer lives resulting from the soul struggles; the strength of purpose; the
It is conceded that the most remarkable religious movement of modern times is the general upraising of the young people, which has shown itself in the formation of a large number of
BY KATE HANSEN.
prepare to use more carefully the shortening time. In a way the great gathering of the day is the Life-Work meeting on the Lake front. As the sun goes down they assemble among the trees canopied by the thickening shadows and wait the message of the world's needs. Some man who has come close to the world and felt the bitterness of sin and I seen it in its terrible forms in others, paints the picture. Of him it might be said as of a greater one, "Every word that he speaks has been fiercely furnaced in the blast of a soul that has struggled in earnest." In these evening hours souls see God and the world in need and their own duty as never before, and are born anew.
The Camp Grounds.
young people's Christian organizations. Among several of these which have become world-wide, probably the one of the greatest strategic importance is the World's Christian Student Federation.
Founded in 1895, by representatives of the Christian student movements chiefly Young Men's Christian Associations of five countries, it has grown so rapidly that it now has affiliated with eleven national or international movements, representing twenty-four countries, and having a membership of over 75.000 students and professors. Its representative character may be inferred from the fact that an American, an Englishman, a Swede and a Japanese work together as its general officers. Two members from enab federated movement constitute its executive committee. Young men's and young women's associations have equal rights in the Federation, although the young
The Delegations
broader career-all coming from the persuasion light brings. There is not one dull hour. For the men who go, the Geneva conference means much. It is an education. The time and expense are slight in comparison with the good gotten.
Such men become the association at home and the entire University is the richer. No man should plan his summer without taking into account the Geneva conference and its relation to himself and his University.
men's associations are in the majority, partly because several countries do not yet admit women into full standing in their colleges. Neither race nor denomination is considered in its membership, for its only require ment is that all members be in harmony with the purpose of the organization; - "To unite students' Christian movements throughout the world; to collect information regarding the religious condition of the students of all lands; and to promote the following
lines of activity—to lead students to become disciples of Jesus Christ as an only Savior and as God, to deepen the spiritual life of students, and to enlist students in the work of extending the kingdom of Christ throughout the whole world."
This last object is being attained chiefly by means of the Student Volunteer Movement, whose watchword is "The evangelization of the world in this generation," and whose basis of membership is the signing of the declaration:—"It is my purpose, if God permits, to become a foreign missionary." In mission lands it is enrolling students for work among their own people. In this country, through its seven traveling secretaries and its organic connection with the college associations, its influence is extending each year. Students who do not become volunteers are being brought to feel their equal responsibility as leaders in the work at home. By systematic campaign work, it is greatly promoting missionary intelligence and giving, among the young people's societies of the churches.
Beside enrolling volunteers, the movement aids in their training by information and by its large number of courses in mission study. The mission Boards testify that it has enabled them to raise their standards of qualification. Over two thousand of its members have already sailed under about fifty different Boards, yet the number of qualified candidates is still insufficient to meet the pressing needs of most boards. Taken as a whole the Volunteer movement is a very strong appeal, to the generosity of the churches and to the devotion of the Christian students.
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