Under the new system, presenting various courses, and especially
courses in various sciences, appealing to different tastes and
aims, the great majority of students are interested, and
consequently indolence and dissipation have steadily diminished.
Moreover, in the majority of American institutions of learning
down to the middle of the century, the main reliance for the
religious culture of students was in the perfunctory
presentation of sectarian theology, and the occasional stirring
up of what were called "revivals," which, after a period of
unhealthy stimulus, inevitably left the main body of students in
a state of religious and moral reaction and collapse. This
method is now discredited, and in the more important American
universities it has become impossible. Religious truth, to
secure the attention of the modern race of students in the
better American institutions, is presented, not by "sensation
preachers," but by thoughtful, sober-minded scholars. Less and
less avail sectarian arguments; more and more impressive becomes
the presentation of fundamental religious truths.
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