aken for granted. That
assumption conditions his sermons in character of composition and
especially in delivery. The minister works on the assumption that the
college man will be interested and benefited by science, philosophy
and so forth, regardless of how it is presented. In the reaction
against excessive emotion he too often swings to the other extreme.

Again the college students in these universities have come from such a
variety of environments. It would be a safe estimate to say that in
all Negro colleges 90 per cent of the students are Baptist and
Methodists. The registrar's records from these 38 organizations show
the following: 983 Baptists; 790 Methodists; and 179 divided among the
other denominations. This gives the Baptist and Methodists 90.8 per
cent of the total enrollment in these 38 institutions. This means then
that 90.8 per cent of these students have had a Baptist-Methodist
environment for eighteen or twenty years. Well, what does that matter
so far as the estimate of the value of sermons delivered to them? It
means that, at least, it is not likely that the impression through
childhood, youth, and young manhood or womanhood will be easily offset
by the college religious environment in one, two, three or four years.
Ideals theoretical, of course, change remarkably, but inevitably some
elements of satisfaction afforded by the earlier environment will be
demanded in the college environment by the students. Then the
Baptist-Methodist environment among the Negroes is, if anything at
all, an enthusiastic environment. The sermon is one of the conspicuous
features. A student affected by such an environment does not
necessarily demand all of the crudities but he does not like the swing
to the other extreme.

It is the opinion of students and teachers that the Sunday School is
beneficial. From answers received it is calculated that 98 per cent of
all the college students believe in the Sunday School's beneficent
influence in student life. Several included in their remarks criticism
of the literature used. The same beneficent functioning was attested
to in behalf of the Young People's meetings, but the hammer falls
heavily on the mid-week prayer meeting, out of which very few see any
good come. One dubs "the prayer meeting, the driest, deadest event,
which takes place just at the time when it is most difficult to be
interested in such." Many other similar expressions concerning the
prayer meetings were made.