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Vox Vol. VI JUNE, 1933 • No.3
UNITED COLLEGES
WINNIPEG, MAN.
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Number ENumher TELEPHONE 23 351
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PERMANENT EXECUTIVE
Class '33
G. MERVYN C. SPRUNG, .
President
PROF. O. T. ANDERSON,
Hon. President
BROCKWELL C. KING,
Valedictorian
LILLIAN RENNIE,
Vice-President
LILLIAN STEPHENS LILJ..IAN STEPHENS,
Secretary S eCTeta7'1J
Vol. VI VOX v ox
JUNE, Editorial Staff
1932-33
No.3
Honorary Editor ' ~----------PROF. G. B. KING, M.A:, B.D., PH.D.
Editor-in-Chief ------------- WILLIAM G. ONIONS, '33 Editor-in-Chiet ':J-'':..:... Associate Editors ---- BROCKWELL C. KING, '34 (Hons.) LILIAN M. RENNIE, '33 (Hons.) Associate J; '.':/ LILIAN M. RENNIE, '33 (Hons.)
Alumni Editor- ~..,.~..,.-.------c..---_-MR. A. D. LONGMAN, B.A., '24
Religious Editor :.:._' --:::..- G. DUNCAN WILKIE, Theo., '33.
Exchanges and Reviews 2:..~ THOMAS A. PAYNE, Theo., '34
Literary Editor ~ !'-~ -----.-THOMAS SAUNDERS, '35
Athletic Editors -:..:...~_~ { GILBERT D. Box, '33
, _ r, - MARGARET G. MCKIM, '34
Bulletin Board Editors --"-__:...-c { WILLIAM BUCHANAN, '34 (Hons.)
'," CONSTANCE OFFEN, '33
Business Manager -- .RAY M. LOREE, '33
Ass't Business Manager DAVID R. BEWS, '34
CLASS REPRESENTATIVES
Theology-THOMAS A. PAYNE
'33 COLIN E. JACK '35 TON QUONG
'34 DAVID R. BEWS '36 ELIZABETH BINGEMAN
Grade XII-CLIFFORD ROBSON
Matrics-JAMES CARBERRY
CON-TENTS
Editorial.
Valedictories.
Baccalaureate Sermon.
A Vision of the Future.
Doctors of Divinity.
Graduation Inset:
Address to the Theological
Graduates.
Marching On.
Buried Alive.
This Intelligettt Generation.
The Theological Race.
In Our Backwoods.
Student Activities.
About Nothing in Particular.
Came the Dawn.
Alumni Alumnaeque
Clear Thinking and. the
Depression. -
4 vox
EDITORIAL
Forward United
liT is usual to say it, and the phrase is hackneyed beyond
redemption, but nevertheless this year it happens to be
true--we have passed through an epoch-making year. The
institutions known by the unimaginative name of the
United Colleges have reached another significant milestone in their
history.. lt would be tedious to review the events of the past yearthey
are still vividly in our minds-we can only regret that more
vision was not brought to the task of reconstruction. We had hoped
for a Federated University in Manitoba after the model of Toronto,
but we are put off with a reconstituted Board of Governors. However,
in spite of this, it may not be too much to hope for closer
co-operation between State University and affiliated colleges in
the future and a clearer recognition of the place of the latter within
the system.
It seems likely that next year the affiliated colleges will be .
alone in the city-the Provincial Government will have abandoned
its protege to the amenities of rural life. (One is almost tempted to
wonder if the Legislature could not do its work better away from
the distractions of city life--say the National Park at Clear Lake).
That being the case we shall have to shoulder more of the responsibility
that devolves upon a University for the cultural life of the
community. In this regard it is gratifying to know that the task of
providing adequate library facilities is being seriously taken up by
the college authorities.
There is a very real danger that the financial stringency may
. lead to a lowering of standards in the University. Against any
such attempt the affiliated colleges must stand firm. As they were
the pioneers in higher education in this city so must they ever be in
the vanguard showing the way to higher conceptions of a University
and worthier educational standards. It should be clearly understood
that this is the function of the small college; the college is not
an excrescence, an unnecessary complication of the University system;
it stands for a higher conception of education than any mass
production State institution ever can.
As we leave the halls of our Alma Mater, therefore, we turn and
salute her. Forward United!
vox
What Will You Do?
5
tilINE out of ten graduates-or thereabouts-will say, "I
don't know!" We publish elsewhere an article by the Col/
lege President, reviewing in optimistic vein the progress
made in the last fifty years. It is an inspiring story-on
paper. In fact, it has not worked out. Our latent resources are running
to waste, not because we do not need them, but because we
are in bondage to an outgrown system of distribution that we lack
the courage to abandon.
The number of students who will graduate this year, for whom
society has no use, is a measure of the futility of going on as we
have been doing. With us the problem is new, but it has been developing
in other countries for years, and there is no reason to think
that it is temporary here. In some quarters fears are expressed
that faced with this situation students will become radical; that is
not our fear; we fear that students will accept the present situation,
determine to make the best of a bad job, and wait, Micawberlike,
for something to turn up.
We need to be radical at this time; radical in the true sense of
the word. A patch-up job will but aggravate our difficulties and
lead to new ones. Students should be able to face facts squarely
and should insist that others do so, refusing to be put off with stupid
prejudices of a generation ago, superficial diagnoses and useless
remedies. Let's be radical!
Personal Points
T was with keen regret that we noted the absence of one of
our most popular professors from the College during the
last two months of term. Dr. G. B. King, Honorary Editor
of Vox, is loved by all who know him, and in the name of
the students of United Colleges we wish to express our sorrow at
his serious illness and our hope that next year will find him back at
college in renewed health and strength. Since he has been at
United, Dr. King has served as Honorary Editor of Vox, and has
proved an invaluable aid. .Next year he returns to become Honorary
President of another standing committee "and Professor A. R.
M. Lower will succeed him on the Vox staff. We wish to congratulate
Dr. Lower on his recent award from the Social Science
Research Council and are sure that he will be a real asset to the Vox
staff. For ourself it remains only to add that we appreciate tremendously
the privilege accorded us of editing this magazine during
the past year; we resign the office with regret, but know it will be
safe in the capable hands of Tommy Saunders, our successor.
The Vox staff of '32-'33 says, "Thank You," and offers its best
wishes to the incoming executive.
•
6 vox
Vox congratulates the winners of the following> awards:
Wesley College Awards IIr.!ilry Qtullrgr Governor-General's Medal Helen B.Moffett, B.A.
THIRD YEAR
Sir John C. Eaton Scholarship Margaret G. McKim
SECOND YEAR
J. H. Ashdown Scholarship ~ ~ Donald C. McGavin
Hart A. Massey Scholarship .Freda Civkin
D. K. Elliot Scholarship Florence E. McKim
FIRST YEAR
Principal J. W. Sparling Scholarship c Gertrude I. Parsons Gertrude r. Prof. A. Stewart Scholarship ~ .Frances E. Weekes
H. W. Hutchinson Scholarship . .Elizabeth F. Morrison
Dr. E. Loftus Scholarship Arthur V. Neil
GRADE XII
Sir James Aikins Scholarship _ Frank Stokes
R. J. Whitla Scholarship ~-------Audrey Farndale
GRADE XI
Rev. George Young Scholarship John A. Macfarlane
GRADE X
E. R. Wood Scholarship M. S. Stanton
Logie Butchart Memorial Bursaries
Miss M. Nancy W. Syme Miss Isabel C. Brown
Miss Edna Wood Miss Florence M. Hanford
I.O.D.E. Bursaries:
Miss Caroline Laird Frank D. Pickersgill
Manitoba College Awards :tIuuitubu Q!ullrgr FINAL YEAR
Robert Carswell Scholarship in Greek and
Governor-General's Medal Stanley H. Knowles, B.A.
Robert Anderson Scholarship . Wm. M. Hughes, B.A.
Mary Perine Tait Scholarship _. .Sam. J. B. Parsons, B.A.
Robert Carswell Scholarship for Hebrew .Hartley J. Harland, B.A.
SECOND YF~l\R
Nisbet Memorial Scholarship David Conly, B.A.
Ruth R. Winchester Scholarship W. Wesley Harland, B.A.
W. A. Matheson Scholarship for Religious Education__Frank McLean
FIRST YEAR
J. Ralph King Scholarship Geo. F. Dyker, B.A.
John Black Scholarship ---------- W. H. Shaver James Watt Scholarship ., John BlackScholarship . W. H. Shaver
PRIZES IN ORAL ENGLISH
FIRST YEAR
Book Prize -'_----------------------------------Geo. F. Dyker, B.A.
SECOND YEAR
Thomas Nixon Prize T. A. Payne
Campbell Memorial Prize .: --------,------------------F. McLean
. THIRD YEAR Special Prize . . Joseph Wiznuk
Crowe Memorial Prize Hartley J. Harland, B.A.
SENIOR DEACONESS' YEAR
S Special Prizes ------- Miss Edith McCulloch and Miss Laura Sharpe p
e
cial Prizes vox
University of Manitoba Awards llluiurfnity Sir James Aikins Scholarship in English
Third Year . Margaret H. Bartlett Margaret Second Year . Freda Civkin
Isbister Scholarships
Seru.or Honors D'rvr.sr.on-i-Second Year Colin E{. CJaoclikn EBroJacckkwell C. King ------------ roc we . mg
•. . { John A. Buchanan
Senior Division-First Year cL.,...l.:.!-'_· Margaret G. McKim
{
Donald C. McGavin
Junion Division-Second Year . Florence E. McKim
Jessie Ostaff
Junior Division-First Year Gertrude I. Parsons Frances E. Weekes . _. . ances . ee es
Student Body Awards Executive Certificates and Pins
Gilbert D. Box Hartley J. Harland
Gwen J. Lane Philip J. Stark
G. Mervyn C. Sprung W. Wesley Harland
Athletic Certificates
Cleve C. Gerry G. Mervyn C. Sprung W. Mack. Shaw
Pennants (Second Championship)
Jack Walley Genevieve ;Johns
W. Mack. Shaw Thomas Saunders
Aubrey Cunningham Martyn Best
Gordon Gilbart
7
iic. Crest ('32-'33
Joe Benson-H.
James Coulson-H.
Aubrey Cunningham-H.
Willet Farley-H.
Championships) -Senior
Genevieve Johns-T.
J. Edward Musgrove--H.
Robert Rutherford-H.
Martyn Best-B.
Watson Elliot-B.
Gordon Fryer-B.
Desmond O'Brien-B.
Leighton Robinson-B.
Junior
William Sangster-c-T.
Thomas Saunders-B.
William WeekeS--:-B.
Donald Young-B
8 vox
Marching On
PRESIDENT J. H. RIDDELL
HIS title does not appear
to find a fitting
place in our present eco~~~
nomic situation. Many
people fail to recognize the
s I i g h te s t evidence of any
"marching on." They express
the conviction that the. only
movement now is a backward
one, and they wish to turn the
hands of the clock back for
many decades to represent the
retrograde condition into which
economic affairs have slumped;
but a very casual review of the
happenings in society in the last
quarter of a century will surely
lead us to question the accuracy
of any strictures such as those
in the movements. of our time.
If men would only rise up, stand
on their feet, look around and
examine honestly what has recently
taken place around us,
they will soon be convinced that
events have been moving forward
with u n pre c e den ted
strides. "Marching on" is a term
usually applied to the movement
of a mass of men stepping in
unison. Here I wish to apply it
to the achievements in the
world around us which are moving
not only onward, but onward
in steps that have a gigan-tic
sweep. .
Before pro c e e din g to set
forth some definite facts to
which the term "marching on"
might be fittingly applied, I
would like to pause for a minute
to utter a word of warning to
the effect that "marching on" in
events has some of the dangers
incidental to all "marching on."
~he ~ood w.:e get from the world
of advancement will in some
measure be conditioned by our
personal attitude to what is happening.
The best things in life
may not bring us the best results,
but may become chains
about our feet through our own
folly and selfishness. Our fellow
men may provide for us great
liberating forces, but our silly
and self-indulgent response to
these may leave us farther removed
from the highest and the
best, and more deeply immersed
in the things that are unworthy
of nature's noblest product.
The term "marching on" may
be fittingly applied in general to
all those happenings which tend
to . relieve mankind from drudgery,
pain and poverty on the
one hand, and to bestow on the
other, opportunities for freer
and fuller thinking, to give to
men an open door to wider horizons
and loftier skies, and to
provide a definite stimulus to
nobler feelings and diviner longings.
I ask you, then, to recall
with me some things in recent
years which have tended to
bring such conditions about.
Think of the striding steps in
the field of medical science, controlling
disease, relieving pain
and delaying the inevitable approach
of death. Recently the
life of mankind has been, by the
hand of medical science and
sanitation extended from an
average of forty-five years to an
average of fifty-four years. Just
think of it, a decade more for
rounding out life's claims on us.
Then recall again how the advancing
inventions have come to
vox 9
I
relieve men and women from
the long and wearing hours of
toil. What it required twelve
hours of hard depressing manual
toil to accomplish a short time
ago can be done with comfort in
six hours and still leave the
worker fresh for other helpful
undertakings. Formerly, evening
found the worker too weary to
want anything but sleep. Today
the day's work is such as to whet
the appetite for better and
brighter things. Man has been
rapidly becoming master of his
destiny through the release of
nature's secrets.
Contemplate for a moment the
income secured just a short time
ago by the ordinary laborer. Until
two or three years ago, people
generally never had, in such
abundant form, the means to relieve
poverty or delay its approach.
When distress came in
the past the sufferer had no
place to look for assistance except
to some charitable institution.
Recently things have entirely
changed and the government
has stepped in and has
assumed the responsibility, and
now pays out of its treasury
money to meet the pressing
needs of those who for various
reasons are suffering for want
of sustenance. Such a situation
is surely a socialized state of
society, and yet we have dropped
into it and accepted its operation
as a regular piece of mechanism,
and society generally has
raised very slight protest against
the increased burden put upon
it by increased taxation. The
only thing that people strain at
is the shirking imposter who
seeks to thrive on the misfortune
of others.
Think on the other hand of
all that has come to bring pure
enjoyment, to stimulate helpful
thinking and to waken and sustain
the nobler feelings. Many
things have marched into our
lives to establish selected contacts,
in a remarkable way, with
both the living and the dead.
These include the radio, the
aeroplane, the automobile, the
telephone and telegraph. The
marvels which these instruments
of human thought have
wrought in the conquest of distance,
and in the subduing and
harnessing of nature's factors
and forces make one wonder if
we are living in a real world. In
this area we have one invention
linked up with another "marching
on" to liberate the mind and
the heart and the conscience
from the prison house of narrowness
and isolation.
Recall again not only new inventions
and new discoveries,
but think of the new laws enacted
for social betterment, see
the forward movement which
has been set forth in Old Age
Pensions, Minimum Wage Regulations,
Mothers' Allowance,
Workmen's Compensation, Child
Welfare Enactment, and Prison
Reform. All these are linked up
in a forward march to banish the
fears and anxieties which torture
many lives as they face the
grim problem of getting a living
in advancing years. Through
this legislation a new era has
dawned for toiling men and
women and for dependent, delinquent,
neglected and illegi...
timate children. The Juvenile
Court, first instituted in Manitoba
slightly over a quarter of a
century ago, has put the delinquent
child in a new social posi-
(Continued on page 31)
10 vox
Some Essential Principles For Life*
"Quench not the Spirit; d-espise not prophesyings; prove all
things; hold fast that which is good; abstain from every form of
evil."
(1 Thes. v. 19-22)
RT. REV. T. ALBERT MOORE, D.D.
AD these phrases been
written by Channing
they would be called a
"symphony." Had they
been written by VAN DYKE VanDyke they
would be titled "Guides on the
Footpath to Peace." Had they
been written by Dr. Sparling,
the first Principal of Wesley
College, they would have been
named "New Century Ideals."
They are worthy the best place
in every life. They contain five
vital, essential, virile, correlated
and interlocked principles for
the building of character, the
development of worthy citizenship.
The text is not the only
Scripture that says these things,
and it does not say everything
-but what the text does say is
vital to the highest achievements
in life, character and citizenship
for our youth.
The first principle is that life
is essentially spiritual.
The fool hath said in his heart
there is no God. The religious
faculty is present in every human
breast. The sincere efforts
to satisfy their natural propensity
to worship are revealed in
the grotesque forms of worship,
the rude carvings which they
call "God," and in many other
ways, among peoples and nations
in other than Christian
lands.
There have always been systems
of religion-yet it is only
the .Christian religion that is
able to declare its invaluable
worth for the life that now is '
and the life which is to come.
Standing on the threshold of
your lives-the past a preparation-
the future beckoning you
onward, life in its morning. the
whole horizon is roseate with
promise arid hopefulness. My
first appeal to you is, Quench
not the Spiritual. Your lives will
be higher in success, happier in
achievement, if they are spiritual
in all their ranges and relations.
Give the primal place to
spiritual influence and possession.
The Spirit must not be
quenched. Life is always the
loser when the spiritual is given
a secondary place or is quenched
in any way.
The divine immanence must
mean something far better than
the occasional breaking into particular
regions or particular periods
of human life. It must
mean the permanent permeation
of all life with the divine presence
and power. This must not
be quenched any time, anywhere
in the life of a man, or
the life of a church, or the life
of an institution, or the life of
a nation. This is that fundamental
matter, never more needed
in our national life than today.
The second vital Life Principle
is that life must be guided
-Baccalaureate Sermon preached before the United Colleges graduating classes in
Young Church. 19th March. 1933. abridged for publication.
vox 11
by Right Teaching. "Despise not
Prophesyings."
Paul wrote out of a living experience.
Even then there had
appeared some who professed
to follow Christ, who placed all
their emphasis upon certain
formulas and certain forms of
service. He sought to correct/the
errors i n t rod u c e d into the
Church through untaught, unregulated,
untested "visions,"
"revelations" and "spiritualities."
To be intelligent successful
followers of Christ we must
despise not prophesyings and
teachings. The loyal Christian
will listen to the voices of the
ages and of the sages, to the
teachings of wisdom, to the influences
of others whose lives
are spiritual and whose utterances
are inspired by the Spirit
of God.
Prophesyings are not mere
foretellings--they are forth-tellings;
they are not merely prediction-
they are instruction.
We never reach the limit for
instruction. We climb the steps
that indicate progress, but these
are merely the evidence of having
lifted ourselves into larger
privilege for better understanding,
and more complete reception
of the voices of instruction
and of prophecy.
The graduate has reached the
place and receives the diploma
which warrants that his ear has
become attuned to hear, and his
spirit trained to give heed to the
voice of prophecy. That life thus
attained realizes the true meaning
of the voices and influences
of the Spirit and the teaching
of all them with whom God has
dwelt and to whom he has
spoken.
Spirituality is always a men-ace
when without instruction.
The teaching of God keeps spirituality
safe and sane and
strong. On the other hand prophesying
instruction has little
value in a living soul when the
spirit has been quenched.
The third Principle is one that
is vital toa successful life. It applies
to spiritualities and to instruction.
Every professed spirituality
and proclaimed teaching
must answer the question, Are
they good to live by, to live with,
to live on and to live for? This
exhortation to prove all things
is not an apostolic warrant for
recklessly experimenting with
everything under heaven. Men
have been ruined by that practice,
the practice of trying every
new teaching, every alleged vision
that comes along. This text
has been widely used as the
apostolic warrant for freedom of
inquiry and research-as though
they needed any warrant! And
it has been used' by others as
the apostolic injunction to bring
things to the test of logic-as
though the deep things of -life
-could be proved by logical forms
or processes! Some of the most
logical systems of the world
have been repudiated because
they were not good to live by,
not good for life. There is a real
truth in pragmatism. The name
is long and not attractive, but
there is a real truth here. This
text hints at it. Truth is something
more and better than a
correct philosophy, _an accurate
collection of facts. Truth, in
Christ's use of it is good for life.
It sets life free. And the final
test of Christianity, its Bible, its
message, its practices such as
prayer and fellowship, lies here.
These are all good for life.
Christianity's visions, its spiritu-
12 vox
alities, its prophesyings are good
for life. Being proved they make
for character. If there were any
other force or teaching that
would make better men and a
better world Christianity would
be superseded.
If I knew any book better for
life than the Bible I would use
it; any way better than prayer
I would walk in it; any teachings
better than the Master's I
would accept them; any spirit
better than the Holy Spirit of
God I would dwell in it; any
person better for life than Jesus
Christ I would follow and obey
Him. Bible and prayer, teachings
and Spirit, and the Master
Himself, brought to the test of
life are proved to be good. This
is the vital test.
The Fourth Principle herein
voiced is unshaken adherence to
the things that are good. The
limits of time prevent elaboration.
But what need? It is a selfevident
and vital principle. It is
not an academic matter of holding
fast to that which is true, it
is a life-preserving matter of
holding fast that which is good.
That principle settles many
things. Is a thing good for life,
good to live by, to live with, to
live on, to live for? Has humanity
always found it good? Then
let nothing shake you loose from
it; no mystery, no perplexity, no
difficulty, no fancied advantage,
no anything! Faith in Jesus
Christ, obedience to Him, fellowship
with Him in suffering
and service, in purpose and practice
are good, are always good,
proved good when brought to
the test. Hold fast this faith,
obedience and fellowship because
they are good. Life has
nothing better to live on.
Let go everything that is not
good for life, everything that
lowers the tone, weakens the
fibre and destroys the integrity
of life. Bring your visions and
dreams, the teachings you· hold,
the things you believe and the
things you doubt, your' relationships,
your friendships, your
hates and loves, all to the test
of life. Do they strengthen what
is good in you and drive out
what, is bad in you? Are they
good when proved in life's
crucible? If they are not let
them go, swiftly, surely and forever.
If they are good hold them
fast. As God lives, make permanent
what is excellent.
The Fifth Principle is the corollary
of the Fourth. Abstain
from the very appearance of
evil. The apartments ot life are
not water-tight. Evil everywhere
spoils it all. Do not say
one word for evil. It is the ruin
of spirituality, the foe of the
Spirit; it vitiates and perverts
teachings and prophesyings; it
destroys the test and. weakens
the hold on goodness. Have nothing
to do with it. Cut it all off
and all out. Probably no one is
as bad as he can be, as full of
evil as he might be, but the evil,
the untruthfulness, the malice
that is -in a man, the impurity,
spoils the man. It permeates his
whole being.
These five principles are interwoven
in the processes of character
construction, indispensable
among the influences which conserve
good citizenship. There
are other principles, but these
are inseparable, invaluable, and
necessary to life's success. As
we have seen them they do make
a "symphony," they are "guides
(Continued on page 35)
vox
. UNITED CHURCH
of
CANADA
WESLEY COLLEGE
Affiliated with University of Manitoba
WINNIPEG, MAN.
Portage Avenue at Balmoral
ARTS
SCIENCE
THEOLOGY
COLLEGIATE
13
14 vox
A Vision of the Future"
PROFESSOR G. B. KING
Mr. Toastmaster, Students and
Friends:
FACE this task tonight
of replying to the toast
to the Faculty a little
conscience-stricken. My
thoughts go back to my student
days when I sat through a series
of Graduation dinners, inwardly
groaning during. a succession of
long and tiresome speeches from
professors who were even more
boring in their capacity as afterdinner
speakers than they were
in their classroom lectures, if
you can imagine such a possibility!
I used to wonder then what
a Graduation dinner would be
like, with a full complement of
toasts, but the speeches taken as
read! At any rate, I determined
then that never, under any circumstances,
would I be inveigled
into inflicting an afterdinner
speech upon a suffering
group of students. Of course, at
that time I never dreamed that
I would fall so low in the social
scale as to become a professor.
Yet here I am, such a creature,
and with all my good resolutions
gone by the board!
I have long been a student of
that peculiar type of literature
which finds an embodiment in
the last book of our Bible, the
Book of Revelations, a literature
which has to do with red and
white horses, lions, bears, mysterious
human figures, palm-trees
and vines, all of it conveying
truth for the times to him who
reads with attention. There is
a great deal of this literature
and in every case the message
is conveyed to the writer concerned
in vision form. He is lying
upon his bed, it may be, troubled
with his problem, and falls
asleep. In a dream an angel
comes and resolves his problem
for him, and when he awakes he
goes to his countrymen with the
message that has been given
him.
This winter I have had a class
in this apocalyptic literature, as
it is called. I do not know
whether or not it was under the
influence of this recent study,
but last week I sat at home musing
upon what I could say in
this speech. I was alone, a not
unusual condition at our place.
Mrs. King was away attending
a meeting of a Committee for
the Removal of Belligerent Bombast
from School History Books.
Brock was out at the U.S.S.R.
Being a modern father, I have
never enquired into the meaning
of these cabalistic symbols,
but I understand them to mean
"The Republic of Unusually Serious
Students." At any rate, I
was alone, sitting at slippered
ease before the fireplace, with
the flames licking their way
up the chimney and casting.
chequered shadows on the wall
opposite, but "my thoughts troubled
within me," to quote one of
the old apocalypses. And while
I sat there, becoming exhausted
with the untoward task of thinking
that this forthcoming serious
speech of mine was imposing
upon me, I fell asleep. In my
·An address delivered in reply to the toast to the Faculty, at the Grads' Dinner,
Fort Garry Hotel, 17th March. 1933.
vox 15
sleep I had a VISIOn. I would
like to think it came by way of
an angel, but truth to say, I have
my doubts. -The figure that appeared
to me had a long, flowing,
white beard, and so far as my
researches go, angels and beards
hardly go together. Then I
thought I caught in his eyes a
faint resemblance to an old caretaker
who used to haunt the
halls of Wesley College long ago,
but I had forgotten the name
and I feared to ask the ghostly
visitant. .
Angel or not, in my vision this
figure conveyed me, by the hair
of my head, as seers of old, to
the land of Palestine, to fulfil a
long-held ambition of mine to
travel and study in the Holy
Land. Now I quite admit without
argument that if celestial
journeys depend upon the possession
of hair, we must fear for
some of our faculty! That aside,
however; an opportunity arising
for so doing, I remained in Palestine
for a term of years, I
know not how long. Then, just
as unexpectedly, I was whisked
back to Portage Ave., Winnipeg,
and to Wesley College.
Did I say Wesley College? My
wondering eyes beheld a busy
row of stores and offices along
the whole Portage Ave. front.
Midway of the block a noble
arch permitted a sight of what
bore some resemblance to the
old main building, which was
flanked on either side by beautiful
stone structures. My ghostly
guide had accompanied me on
my return, and him I now addressed.
"Venerable sir," I said,
"I knew this college many years
ago, but whence came these offices
and these stately structures
I see at hand?" "Why," he an-swered,
"Winnipeg took a sudden
boom when the United
States went into bankruptcy at
. the end of the Great Depression
years ago. Land values soared
here, and the Doctor sold this
frontage at a fabulous price and
these fine buildings are the result-
Library, Science Building,
Museum, Residences."
With the venerable figure as
my guide, I entered through the
archway, and proceeding up the
broad avenue, approached the
museum on my right. I cannot
take time to recount all its wonders
and delights. Two things,
however, I must relate. In a little
alcove, severe against a background
of purple and white, and
with a brilliant light playing
upon them, were a reading desk
and a stepladder. In great curiosity
I asked what they could
be. "Once upon a time," said my
guide, "there was a beloved professor
at Wesley College who
used this reading desk for his
lectures, who .indeed could not
lecture without its aid. This
stepladder here, being inadvertently
left one time in his lecture
room, he mounted, and discoursed
from the top. Desk and
steps are now kept as momentoes
of his." "He is not dead?"
I reverently enquired. "Oh no,"
was the answer; "he will never
get that old; he is now head of
the Overseas Education League
and lives the life of a country
squire in England."
As I left the building, I saw
near the entrance a long brass
tablet on which were inscribed
a list of languages. Beginning
with English, it swept through
the gamut of ancient and modern
languages, a bewildering list.
Recalling the Doctor's interest
16 vox
in the British and Foreign Bible
Society, I thought it represented
the languages of which the Society
had printed editions and I
so remarked to my guide. "No,"
he answered, "it is a list of the
languages whose poetry one of
our professors has translated.
The translations are now housed
in a special wing of our library."
"He isn't dead?" I hopefully
asked. "Far from it," came the
answer. "Having exhausted the
list of available languages, he is
now engaged in inventing one of
his own. Having experimented
with it for several years upon
the students of Wesley College,
he hopes now to give it to the
world, declaring that if college
students can understand and use
it, then certainly the general
public can."
From the museum I passed
into the rotunda of the main
building. It presented considerable
changes from the past, the
whole lower inside having been
altered to conform to the extended
wings. On the left, however,
I heard the murmur of a
voice, and looking in through a
crack in the door, I beheld a figure,
bowed with the weight of
years and with a few scraggy
hairs on his chin, lecturing to
one lone student, who sat listening
in a sort of mesmeric trance.
I caught a sentence: "In preparation
for tomorrow's lecture
you will read the shelf of books
on the subject which you will
find in the library. I want them
read too. I'll be damned if I am
going to lecture to students who
do not show interest enough in
the subject to do the reading I
assign them." I tiptoed away.
"That's the head of the History
Department," said my guide in
awed tones, in answer to my unspoken
query. "They have raised
the standard in that department
until they have but the one student
who can meet the grade.
They hope to ease him out next
year."
"Of course, Dr. Riddell is still
directing the affairs of the college?"
I asked. "No," answered
my guide, "he had seen his fondest
hopes for the college more
than realized and retired to enjoy
his well-earned honors."
"Then who is the new President?"
I wanted to know. "We
haven't any," he proudly remarked.
"About that time Comrades
William Onions and Mervyn
Sprung returned from a sojourn
in Russia to pursue postgraduate
studies at Wesley College
and they seized the reins of
authority and set up a soviet of
students to run the college.
They, of course, are no longer
here, but their pictures, beards
and all, hang in the chapel just
over the dais, where they are
visited by thousands of worshipful
students from all parts of the
world every year, for while all
educational institutions are now
run along soviet lines, this was
the first institution to adopt that
form of administration. Some
of the rules which were adopted
in their day still hang upon yonder
wall."
I made my way to the point
indicated and read the following:
RULES FOR PROFESSORS
1. Professors who are late for their
classes will be severely dealt with by
the Soviet Student Council. Students
may enter classrooms any time after
a lecture begins. Indeed, it is advisable
that all students should do this
occasionally, as an expression of the
vox 17
liberty we have gained over our former
tyrants.
2. No professor may offer a term
test to a class unless he has himself
written on the test before the Soviet
Student Council and taken a mark of
at least 55% upon it. Questions which
a professor wishes to ask in class
must also be submitted the day before
to the Council.
3. Deans of the men's and girls'
residences must be in by 11 p.m, unless
given special permission to remain
out to a later hour by the Soviet
Student Council. A list of their
callers must also be submitted to the
censorship of the Council.
There was much else along the
same line. Then in an inconspicuous
place adjoining I saw
this sign:
RULES FOR STUDENTS
There are no rules for students.
I turned away in sadness. To
what had the college come! I
thought to relieve the tension
created in my mind by having a
little fun with my guide, so I
said to him: "There used to be
a hybrid professor here in my
day, part Arts, for he taught
New Testament Greek, and part
Theology. Did he come to the
bad end that was predicted for
him?" He turned a face of horror
to me at the question. He
tried to speak, but no words
came. As I stared at him,
tongues of flame flashed before
me, the walls rocked, and then
crashed down upon me. With
an unearthly scream, my ghost-·
ly visitant vanished. I awoke,
to find that my hearth fire had
burned itself out in one expiring
burst of flame, that I had slipped
off my chair onto the floor, and
in so doing had sat upon the tail
of my dog who had been sleeping
companionably by me.
My speech hastens to its close
and I am reminded that I have
given the graduating class none
of that grandfatherly advice expected
from speakers on such
occasions as this. It is too late
now to do much about it. The
faculty are grateful for the kind
words expressed by the mover
of the toast; they believe they
came sincerely from the heart.
In their turn the faculty wish
to thank you for the pleasure of
your company in their classes
and to assure you that all the
past has been forgiven and relegated
to the limbo of the forgotten.
They wish the graduating
class the greatest joy in the new
life that lies before them.
A college is only as great as
its students. The college that
may be can only be the creation
of its students, past as well as
present and future. May we beg
your continued interest in and
loyalty to the college in the
years ahead of you? That dream
of mine in its essential features
is not an impossibility-Wesley
College as a well-equipped and
efficient unit of a great federated
University. You may help to
bring it down, like the New
Jerusalem of John's vision, from
the realm of the skies to the
solid, tangible earth.
A.M.S. (during History seminar):
"In this essay, I haven't
said anything -"
Dr. Lower: "Unquestionably,
Mr. Smith."
Mr. Pickersgill (before Xmas
exams): "I don't give a damn
what marks my students make."
Mr. Pickersgill (after Xmas
exams): ". . . . and in Second
Year, McGavin made 92%."
•
18 vox
Valedictory - Theology, '33
Delivered at the Theological Convocation, Knox Church.
By LLOYD C. STINSON
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:
It has fallen to my lot to say a few words of
farewell on behalf of the graduating class in
Theology of the year 1933. I am grateful indeed
for this privilege, and I hope that I shall perform
my task to the satisfaction of my classmates,
anyone of whom might have been
selected for this honor. It is, however, a matter
of the greatest difficulty to speak on behalf of
such a class, for every man speaks for himself.
If you have ever had the opportunity of listening
just outside the door of a certain lecture
.room you will realize the truth of this..
It has been said that true eloquence consists in saying all that
is necessary and nothing but what is necessary. Such a definition
should meet the demands of those who have said that I must be
brief and confine myself to what is essential, not making great
what is small, nor small what is great. With this in mind, Mr.
Chairman, I promise to do my best. Do not be surprised, however,
if I meet with the same difficulty that a certain preacher once experienced
when delivering a special sermon before his brother
ministers. He had made a good start, and for a time everything
had gone well, until towards the close when he began to flounder.
In great disgust he exclaimed: "Brethren, I had a great subject,
but it has caved in on me."
We come tonight, to the parting of the ways. Like the ancient
god, Janus, we face in two directions, compelled to look both backward
and forward. Behind us are seven years of College Life,
and before us an open door into the future. Naturally it is with
regret that we bid farewell to a life which has been such a happy
one, and to which we can return only in memory. We have been
here so long, we have attended so many lectures, written so many
examinations, and made so many friends that it seems strange to
leave it all, realizing that very soon it will be a part of the past.
Naturally, the question arises: What will our memories be of
our sojourn here? Very likely many of them will be of our activities
and escapades as a class, especially those planned in the famous
Theological Club Room. Long after we have forgotten the
difference between Pauline and J ohannine thought, the memory
of Room 9 will remain. After lectures have been forgotten, professors
will be remembered. And here let me pay our tribute to
the Theological Faculty of United Colleges. We believe that the
impact of their collective personality, for that is what a Faculty
is, has been of the greatest importance in the formation of our lives.
vox 19
They have guided us along many precarious roads during these
years, and we wish to thank them for what they have done for
us. We have learned not only to respect them but to think of
them as true friends. There was a time, of course, when we thought
they were old fossils, interested only in the fine points of an ancient
theology, but that mood has passed, and now we regard them as
men of broad interests and high character, tolerant, sympathetic,
and friendly. We go out feeling that their interest in us will be
a lasting one. Our hope is that we may merit the confidence that
they have in us.
It is inevitable, Mr. Chairman, that tonight we think of these
things, after seven years of contact with the professors and students
of United Colleges. We feel that we are somewhat more
worthy to face the issues of life because of this experience, for we
have shared in the intellectual and cultural advantages of College
Life. We feel that our lives have expanded, that we have a broader
outlook, a deeper intellectual life and a higher ideal, because of
these privileges.
Not that we for one moment regard ourselves as the finished
product of education. Far from it, for we have come to realize
that education is a process, and we have made only a beginning.
But we have achieved this, I think, that we have laid a foundation
upon which to build an edifice of Christian character. We are
trying to see life in its true perspective. Our aim is Self-Mastery,
in the light of the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.
Tonight we are on the threshold of a new life. What form
it will take can only be conjectured. But we are eager for the
struggle. Phillips Brooks once said that the real test of any life
is its expectancy. Our mood tonight is one of expectancy. The
thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts. The eye of the spirit
sweeps wide horizons. Weare about to enter a world that challenges
the best that is in us, for it is a changing, moving, dynamic
world. It is a world that has had to withstand many tremendous
shocks in the past, and it is not necessary for me to repeat what
we know so well, that we are living in a world of political incoherence,
social disorder and economic depression. Would it be too
much to say that it is a chaotic and bewildered world?
This is the challenge of 1933. And the Church must face it.
We must accept it. The world expects a great deal from the Church
and we dare not fail. The Church is challenged to re-think her
teachings in terms of social reconstruction, and to serve a perplexed
people. It is a tremendous challenge and we are humbled by it.
The Church is challenged by the problem of war. The world looks
to the Church for leadership, and we must do our part to tear the
mask from this hateful thing which civilization has so long tolerated
in its midst. We must teach that the truest patriotism demands
a repudiation of the whole war system. We must not be
afraid to echo the words of that great revolutionary, Thomas Paine:
"The world is my country, mankind are my friends, and to do good
(Continued on page 39)
I
20 vox
Valedictory-Arts, '33*
& bnmlnr l11n.lltrl.ll. bux hnnr grrgt.ll nn.lltrt• .rt nns amtrt nmn.r.lll
BROCKWELL C. KING
It is with a feeling of trepidation
that I propose to deliver the
Valedictory Address of the year
Nineteen Hundred and Thirtythree,
for I am fully sensible of
the honor which has been bestowed
upon me in making me
Valedictorian. Yet I feel it would
be almost obscene for me to give
utterance to certain custom-defined
and saccharine platitudes
which mouth well but pass off
as quickly as the present moment.
If I launch forth into the
realm of the serious and of the
speculative, I shall, therefore,
make no apology to the graduating
class if I miss saying thereby
nice things about our happy
memories of Betty and Dorothy
and Hank and Sam, and the
night we men put the Dean's
bed in the shower-room. I shall,
too, make no apology to my professors
because this speech may
sound like one of their lectures
-it cannot be so very grim that
it will compare unfavorably.
One of the difficulties of the
older generation at present is to
prevent their own uncertainty
from seeping through to the
younger lot. And yet the quiescence
of the university stu':'
dents today is truly remarkable.
With chances three to one that
they will not find gainful employment
when they leave college,
and though they find themselves
in a world which they had
no part in creating, they seem
nevertheless content to listen
open-eared to the counsels of
their elders, and' take them at
their face value. I would like
this evening to make some observations,
not about our social
structure, but about the institution
from which we are now
emerging after four years in the
chrysalis or pupa stage, the
stage in which we were pupils,
if you will. These observations
on the university must of necessity
be of the briefest sort, and
they may satisfy no one but
myself.
The Bishop of Croydon remarked
last year that "there is
going to be a race between education
and catastrophe." H. G.
Wells said in 1924 that "The
hope of the world lies in a
broader . and altogether more
powerful organization of education,"
and farther on he said that
"the education of a fully educated
man is not conspicuously
better than it was two hundred
years ago." Wells believed that
not one person in a hundred
adults were mental workers, and
he predicted the time, no doubt
when his Cosmopolic comes into
being, when one in eight or one
in five would be engaged in
"Delivered at the Grads' Farewell. Wesley College, 30th March. 1933.
vox 21
work requiring the use of the
intellect. That there must be an
educational thrust in western
society, just as there was an industrial
thrust in the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries, seems
inevitable if mankind is to survive:
and it seems right that
you n g university· graduates
should be in a position to discuss
it, especially when so many of
them will become teachers, or
would like to do so.
There have been in the past
som.e three important philosophies
of education giving individuals
a personal interest in
social relationships. For the sake
of brevity I shall quote John
Dewey speaking of these. "The
Platonic was found to have an
ideal formally quite similar to
that I have stated, but which
was compromised in its working
out by making a class rather
than an individual the social
unit. The so-called individualism:
of the eighteenth-century
enltghtenment was found to involve
the notion of a society as
broad as humanity, of uiiiose
progress the individual was to
be the organ. But it lacked any
agency for securing the development
of its ideal as was evidenced
in its falling back upon
Nature. The institutional idealistic
philosophies of the 19th century
supplied this lack by making
the national state the agency,
but in so doing narrowed the
conception of the social aim to
those who were members of the
same political unit, and reintroduced
the idea of the subordination
of the individual to the institution."
Through this alliance
of education with the national,
education has made good material
progress, but has found her-self
enchained by her benefactor.
Possibly no more powerful
ally could be found for the cultivation
and exciting of patriotic
passion than that instrument
which takes a child at his
most impressionable period, and
only releases him when his prejudices
have been fully formed.
As Julien Benda has said in his
"Great Betrayal," "Today political
passions show a degree of
universality, of coherence, of
homogeneousness, of precision,
of continuity, of preponderance,
in relation to other passions, unknown
until our times." And
this has come about largely because-
of the conception and prop- .
agation of nationalistic propaganda
on the part of the scholarly
class of the community, the
class Benda designates by the
term "clerk." We in North
America can scarcely begin to
realize what the force of these
"clerks" is, for so far all we have
needed is an injection of the Imperial
serum to keep us ready to
fight for King and Country
when it is deemed necessary.
But there will be no chance of
a Wellsian Cosmopolis so long
as the learned classes of the
world prostitute their art for a
worldly cause.
Perhaps the monster which is
most hostile to the spirit of education,
from the bottom to the
top, is the materialistic philosophy,
which has to the present
day shone forth as the beacon
light for the mass to follow.
Here again the State impinges
with its local and partisan demands,
asking our educational
institutions for men fitted with
an apparatus best suited for
practical work-it is the same
22 vox
thing as Mussolini asking Itallian
matrons for a healthier lot
of Italian babies and a higher
output per capita. If we can
graduate a thousand hum a n
beings whereas only nine hundred
went out the year previous
we have achieved success: and
we have in our frenzy even gone
the length of allowing women to
take the same work as men, in
order to raise the numbers.
There is the other viewpoint,
namely that of cultivating culture
for its own sake. Here
there is a differentiation, one
view being that the primary aim
of education is the acquisition
of knowledge, which historically
has been represented by the
schools of Humanism and Scholasticism;
the other view is that
the aim should be the formation
of character, for which the cudgels
of the schools of Naturalism
and Monasticism have in the
past been raised. To which of
these views we should subscribe,
I do not wish to say here, though
I would suggest that the dice
should not be loaded in favor of
the latter-there is still a good
deal to be said for knowledge
for its own sake, despite what
our practical fanatics have to
say-at least, it is conceivable
that among our student group
knowledge and the result of the
distillation of knowledge, wisdom,
should be desired first. I
recall a remark of Woodrow
Wilson's: "It is in conversation
and natural intercourse with
scholars chiefly that you find
how lively knowledge is, how it
ties into everything that is interesting
and important, how intimate
a" part it is of everything
that is 'practical' and connected
with the world." Is the practical
the right merely because it has
the imprimatur of the modern
world?-for that is maintained
by many philosophers today.
Surely, theory and the ideal
should take first place.
If we look around us over the
North American continent we
see everywhere the mad scramble
for the material in life, and
the mad scramble for facts in
education; yet the frenzy with
which we pursue our mad way
leaves us no time to explain the
motives for our actions, either
to others or to ourselves. Dr.
Abraham Flexner, in his book
Universities: American, British
and German, writes of the "wellnigh
universal striving for education,
the well-nigh universal
naive faith in being taught, as
though education were really a
matter of taking courses, being
instructed in person or otherwise,
passing examinations, and
storing up 'credits.' Information
can, perhaps, be measured by
'credits'; not, however, education.
Education is something
for which the primary responsibility
rests upon the individual,
and a wise teacher will realize
the narrow limits within which
he can be useful."
We may want to congratulate
ourselves in Canada that such
a system of ad hoc courses are
not found on Canadian curricula
as appear on those of American
universities. We may exclaim
that we are more like the British
type of university than the
American. We may say that the
British university turns out men
with some aim in life, not automatons
fitted for some one mechanicaloperation:
and we may
quote Goethe by way of proof,
who said to a friend who told
Goethe that he did not believe
young Englishmen were more
vox 23
clever, more intelligent, better
informed, or more excellent at
heart than other people: "The
secret," said Goethe, "does not
lie in these things, my good
friend, neither does it lie in birth
and riches; it lies in the courage
they have to be that for which
nature has made them. Thereis
nothing vitiated or spoilt about
them, there is nothing half-way
or crooked; but, such as they are,
they are thoroughly complete
men. That they are sometimes
complete fools, I allow with all
my heart; but that is still something,
and has still always some
weight in the scale of nature."
British universities are now facing
the problem of their relation
to the State, and they may
change slowly towards the
American concept, whereas the
American will probably swing
up towards the British ideal. It
will, however, be quite some
time before British students will
be required to turn in treatises
On "Our girls and what they tell
us." Concerning the position of
Canadian universities in the
scheme, the present Rhodes
scholar of Manitoba, William
Morton, has written: "Canadian
universities, like most Canadian
institutions, are a six of one and
a half a dozen' of the other combination
of thesetuio concepts of
the university. The European
ideals have been imported, especially
-in denominational colleges,
and have - preserved our
universities from many of the
unfortunate excesses of those to
the south. Nevertheless, contiguity
and the force' of similar circumstances
have led to the
adoption of American methods
of administration, and to a similarity
of student social life, and
these have proved a great force.
In general, Canadian universities
may be looked to evolve a
fairly distinctive Canadian concept
approaching more and more
to the American by reason of
like conditions, as the latter
slowly raises its standards and
develops universality -_of o.utlook."
We have no right for
holding that Canada will produce
a culture fundamentally
distinct to that of the United
States, although many Canadians
would want to claim it possible.
Weare not a hive of
Britishers up here in Canada, although
otherwise informed foreigners
think we are-Western
Canada no longer is peopled
by a m a j 0 r i t Y of AngloSaxons.
At the same time, we
should not desire to copy the
British model, and turn out British
gentlemen, for the benefit of
the subdued races on the globe
or for the benefit of the hunting
tradition in England. We have
a chance, however, to develop
what would be a sort of amalgam
of the British and American
type, with more than a dash
of a new element thrown in.
This amalgam will of course
never be produced by our Stateowned
institutions of higher
learning, and it will only be the
denominational or endowed colleges,
if thereare any of the latter
in Canada, which could possibly
produce a new type.
The custom of taking courses,
of rushing through subjects at
break-neck speed, and finding
in the end that we are just
where we started, is patently
out-of-date. We generally admit
that the system of credits
is slightly old in the field of education,
but we go blithely on,
trying to think the whole thing
(Continued on page 46)
24 vox
Address to the Theological Graduates*
REV'D. J. W. CLARKE, M.C. Rsv'n. J. W. CLAaKE, M.C.
S it is my desire to be helpful
in a very practical way,
~mj) I shall speak to you to-night
.... out of the experience of my
ministry, for in the final analysis,
that only is authentic which comes
out of life.
As you are about to enter your
ministry, there are certain things
which should be in very clear outline
before the eyes of your mind,
certain centralities which you should
grip and by which you should be
gripped.
I. THE PURPOSES OF YOUR
MINISTRY
i. Redeemed Men. Who will deny
the need of redeemed men in this
day? On every side of us there are
. ,. lives pounding on the iron-toothed
rocks of habit, deluged by the green combers of desire, and the bitter
cry of the spectators is raised, "A wreck! A wreck!" I don't care
what theological termor name you apply, whether it be the new
birth, conversion, salvation, changed lives, the plain fact of the
need is evident.
ii. A Redeemed Society. Man has always been following the
cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night; his reach has always
been longer than his grasp; his vision further than his sight. The
vision of a new heaven and a new earth will not let him go. Because
Christ took man and put him at the centre of life and because
man of necessity is a dweller in an environment, we demand an
order that will make it easy for him to be good, and hard for him
to be bad, and we purpose to register our protest against things
as they are in the name of something fairer- and nearer to Christ's
intention. Your mind will change on many things, but I trust you
will never permit this dual purpose to fade, but that you will succeed
in carrying it, like Peter's white bird, through the crowded
market place, with wings ruffled and bruised, it may be, but
unbroken.
II. THE PROBLEMS OF YOUR MINISTRY
You are entering upon a calling which has many difficulties.
As honest men, you cannot evade them. The first is that of your
emotional and intellectual. integrity. I trust you intend to be com-
-Delivered at Knox Church. before the United Colleges' graduating class in Theology.
Friday, 31st March, 1933.
vox 25
pletely honest. That as people look at you, they will know that in
your heart-down in the crypt and abyss of your soul-you are a
believer. That there is nothing else in the world comparable in
importance to you with your faith and gospel. That as you stand
before them, no matter what your intellectual range or limitation
may be, they will know that you are aware of the unseen and happy
in the knowledge of it.
This integrity is expressed in two ways, emotionally and intellectually.
We heara great deal about "pure reason." There is
no such thing. The intellectual can never be separated from the
emotional side of man's nature. There is a time for restraint in expression,
but there is also a time when all such restraint must be
swept aside, and as you do smartingly feel, so will you speak. You
do not need to be afraid of passion in the pulpit. You are not a sawdust
doll or a frog, or a cold-blooded fish, but a man-of heart, blood,
feelings. The church was born in a great passion.
At the same time, you will remember that this day is distinguished
by its superficiality of thought, its intellectual confusion
and its moral weakness. It has an inordinate desire for riches without
industry, and it has just emerged from a yesterday when the
gambling passion swept like hot lava through its veins, and when
it despised those protective conventions which were built up out
of the wisdom and bitter experience of many years. It should not
be, therefore, an unexpected thing that the cry is for an easy gospel.
Your gospel can never be that. You see, therefore, gentlemen, your
calling and election. It is an election to a moral ministry-moral to
the very core. You are "compelled men"-necessity is laid upon
you. You are doomed to certain things. You are not concerned
with what the people want, but with what they need, and whether
they bear or forebear is no business of yours, for you are not worshippers
at the altar of expediency, but at the high altar of the
Divine Command. Like John Knox, you say, "I am one who has no
option but to speak the things God has given me to speak, and to
fear no flesh on the face of the earth."
But intellectual integrity possesses not only a moral content.
You have also to make men think seriously. As a working minister,
I find myself confronted with a very elusive thing-the refusal to
think seriously, logically and continuously about life. Congregations
accept the more genial side of the Christian revelation, but
it is difficult to get them to face the great peremptory and solemn
facts of the soul. They refuse to deliberate upon those disquieting
possibilities which should make the heart of an honorable man
shake, and which, I believe, Christ came from God to appease. You
must be pitilessly honest and true in your own intellectual life, for
your task is to stab the minds of men to life; to create a stir down
to the lonely and awful depths of the human spirit; to disturb people
in every condition and posture of the soul which is untrue to reality;
to purge them with many stripes, if need be, so that they will
be stripped of that light, jaunty attitude which is unworthy of a
decent man. There, gentlemen, is your problem-the problem of
26 vox
your integrity. The pulpit is no place for a stammerer or a compromiser.
Your business is to let in the light and screw in the truth.
<CIt is required of a steward that he be foundfaithful.~' Francis
Thompson's couplet should ever be in your mind,
"That my tone
Be fresh with dewy pain always."
There is also the problem of the emphasis of your ministry. I
believe that two things determine this.
i. The location of your ministry. ii. The conditions of your
time. The world moves and changes, and the problem of one age or
century is never precisely the problem of any immediately preceding
time. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Reformation
Church's problem was the right of access by the individual soul to
God. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the church's problem centered
around the fresh knowledge secured by the enquiring mind of man,
and which seemed to produce a clash between this new knowledge
and religious ideas. In this century, the Church confronts an expanded
universe on the one hand and a contracted universe on the
other. The soul of man is shuddering in the presence of a magnifled
world, and at the same time, the inventions of man have closed
it like a concertina.
If these things are to be faced honorably, and the soul of man
renewed and refreshed, the old shibboleths can no longer be reechoed,
or the former battle-cries resounded. Your emphasis must
be for this day and its conditions, and must naturally be along the
line of your personal qualities and gifts. Assuming on your. part
common sense, historical knowledge, and the recollection that
Christ dealt with great principles and not methods and formulas,
I would urge you to utter your soul though the pillars of the house
shake and the heavens fall. Don't be afraid of being original. Be
yourself. .
III. THERE REMAINS THE TECHNIQUE OF YOUR
MINISTRY
There is a tendency to despise this, to state that ideas are
supreme. This is largely, 'but not wholly, true. Why should the
truth be arrayed in a ragged coat or with its shirt sticking out of
its ,trousers? Why should not truth be arrayed in silken dress and
silver slippers? As one who has not yet attained, but is striving,
I would urge you to refuse the temptation 'to disparage technique,
and the acquisition of', the graces of preaching. Remember, the
Church began with a sermon and a sacrament. I think this is the
preacher's day, and the frequency of our poor preaching is pathetic. '
Pope cried,
"Gracious God,
What lunre I done to merit such a rod,
That all this shot of dullness now should be
From this, thy blunderbuss, discharged on me?"
The people are entitled to good preaching. Out of their hard-
Senior Hockey (Champions)
Second Row-J. Benson, E. Musgrove, G. Gilbart, J. Walley.
First Row-A. Cunningham, M. Shaw, J. Coulson, C. Gerry, R. Rutherford.
Junior Hockey
Second Row-J. Walley, G. Steele, J. Sword, H. Allen, R. Ransby, C. Gerry.
First Row-W. Farley, B. Swyers. H. Horne, W. Stevenson. M. McIntyre.
I r
\.
Men's Basketball (Champions)
Second Row-D. O'Brien. W. Weekes, J. McFetridge, G. Fryer.
First Row-M. Best, D. Elliott, D. Young, T. Saunders.
Co-Ed Basketball
Second Row-G. Henderson, E. Elson, E. McClung, K. Cadwell, E. Termuende, F. Shears.
First Row-M. Setter, B. Carpenter, M. Sprung, N. Miller, M. McKim.
Senior Soccer
Second Row-E. Cummings, D. O'Brien, H. Duckworth, E. Hawkins, M. Best.
First Row-A. Curtis, H. Harland, J. Booth, T. Saunders, J. Baskerville.
Junior Soccer
Second Row-K. Meadow, F. Hunisett, K. Potter, W. Neil, W. Sangster, M. Best.
First Row-G. Fryer, A. Cunningham, M. Shaw, B. Swyers, G. P. Crombie.
Men's Track
Second Row-M. Best, C. Gerry, W. Sangster.
First Row-Q. Anderson, E. Leveille
Co-Ed Track
Second Row-J. Hunter, E. McClung, F. Argyle, I. Broad.
First Row-I. Lowe, L. Coo, G. Johns, D. Yates, S. Laidlaw.
vox '27
earned wages they provide for our keep.. Surely the least we can
do is to make the great intangibilities real and the impalpable values
vivid. Our ideas should be stated in words that walk up and down
the human heart. "Oh man, speak things!" cries Emerson to the
preacher in a passage that might be carried in the memory. "At
church today. I felt how unequal is this match of words against
things. Cease, 0 thou unauthorized talker, to prate of consolation,
resignation and spiritual joys in neat and balanced sentences. For
I know these men who sit below. Hush quickly, for care and calamity
are things to them. There is the shoemaker whose daughter has
gone mad, and he is looking up through his spectacles to see what!
you have for him. Here is my friend whose scholars are an leaving
him, and he knows not where to turn his hand next. Here is the
stage driver who has jaundice and cannot get wen. Here is B, who
failed last year, and he is looking up anxiously. Speak things or
hold thy peace."
You will also remember that Christianity captured the world
by caring for individuals. You are about to occupy what has been
beautifully described as a "Cure of Souls." Final judgment will be
passed on you, not by what you do in the Presbytery or on the quantity
of committees upon which you sit, but on what you do with
your own people. Your first duty is here. Is there any more tragic
cry than, "Mine own vineyard have I not kept"?
In conclusion, believe me when I say that in addition to the
purposes and problems and technique of your ministry there are
its comforts.
Paul cried, "I render thanks to Jesus Christ our Lord, Who considered
me trustworthy and appointed 'me to the ministry." I do
not speak untruthfully when I declare that not a day passes, but
that I thank God that I am a Christian minister. Harry Emerson
Fosdick declared, "If I had a thousand lives to live, I would use
them in the ministry." Who has such friendships as the minister?
Who has such a field of service in the community? Who has such
steady work? Upon whom is the eye of kindly expectancy turned
more frequently-the troubled, the sick, the aged, the little children
look to us. When you go into your new congregation, the best
people in the community will be there to hear you. Is it not an
amazing thought that week by week you will be contributing to
their total force, to the direction of their spirits, and helping them
to resist the threats of the world? They will trust you, they will
wager their faith on you, you will represent God to them.
I wish you well. My prayers will follow you. Carry with you
Carlyle's description of the speaking man.
"That a man stand there and speak of spiritual things to men,
it is beautiful-even in its greatest obscuration and decadence, it is
among the beautijulest, most touching objects one sees on the earth.
This Speaking Man has indeed, in these times, wandered terribly
far from the point; has, alas,as it were, totany lost sight of the,
(Continued on page 45)
I
28 vox
Rev. R. H. Lowry, I).D. (Honoris Causa)
By PRINCIPAL JOHN MACKAY, D.D.
splendid singing voice and a
great love for music, he was a
leader in all musical events during
his College days, and since
his ordination he has raised the
musical appreciation of each of
his congregations to a marked
degree. In his present charge at
Gladstone, Man., he has not only
developed a splendid mixed
choir, which delighted a large
audience at the Summer School
in Wesley College last summer,
but has trained a community
male voice choir which ranks
among the best in rural Manitoba
and an orchestra which is
discovering and developing a
great deal of musical ability
among the young people of the
community. His wife is also a
trained soloist of great ability,
and they are much sought after
for duet and solo work.
The most recent graduate of On ordination Dr. Lowry was
Manitoba . College to receive called' to WeIwood, Manitoba,
the D.D. degree, Rev. Robert where he served with marked
Hamilton Lowry Hamiltort Lowry, was born in success for two years Ireland, where he was trained was called to Knox Church,
as a teacher 'and taught for eight Brandon, where he remained for
years before he heard the call thirteen years. Here he found a
for mission work in Western young congregation, not far beCanada.
After spending some yond the mission stage, and built
time 'on Mission fields, he en-.it up until it is now a strongly
tered Manitoba College, from·' organized and efficient congrewhich
he graduated in 1913. In gation.
his college course he showed In Brandon Presbytery Mr.
marked ability as a student, Lowry took his part in unassumleading
his classes during every ing fashion in all the work of
year of the course. Since gradu- the Presbytery, but his main ination
he has kept up his studi- terest was his own congregation.
ous habits, being among the best He and his wife threw themread
of the younger men of the selves whole-heartedly into all
Conference. the organizations of the congre-
He has always been deeply in- gation, paying special attention
terested in music. Gifted with a (Continued on page 47)
(Continued on page 37)
was football, being captain of
Wesley's senior team in his final
year.
Swan River was his first regular
pastorate. He started work
there in the summer of 1903. In
November of that year he was
married to Jessie Alice Lamb of
Newdale. Since leaving Swan
River he has been a minister at
Arden, Roland, Baldur, Hartney,
Stonewall, and now, at Birtle,
where he has served for the past
seven years.
Mr. Lane has been active in
the administrative life of the
Church. Prior to Union he was
a member of the Board of Publications
0 f the Methodist
Church, and at various times
served as District Chairman and
Conference Secretary. Sin c e
Union he has served as Chair-vox
Rev. John E. Lane, D.D. (Honoris Causa)
By A. D. LONGMAN, B.A.
Few students have the unique
experience of graduating at the
dawn of a new century, and a
very much smaller number have
the distinction of being honored,
at the close of the first third of
that century, by honorary degrees
from their Alma Maters.
But Rev. John E. Lane has experienced
both. He graduated in
Arts from Wesley College in
1900 and was awarded the de~
ee of Doctor of Divinity, honons
causa, at the Convocation
held in Knox Church on March
31st.
Mr. Lane was born near St.
Mary's Ont., in 1874. He :ob~
ained his elementary education
In a one-room school in that locality-
a school attended at the
same time by a boy who was
later to become prominent in
Canada's political affairs. That
boy was Arthur Meighen, with
whom Mr. Lane has maintained
a valued friendship. At the age
of 17, John Lane came with his
family to Manitoba and settled
near Virden. He attended the
Virden High School and the
Virden Normal School.
After teaching school for two'
years he entered Wesley College
in the fall of 1896, with the
first classes to meetIn the new
Portage Avenue building. He
took the General Course in Arts,
an.d .ranked high in his work,
wI.nnmg a scholarship in his
th~rd ;year. Following his graduation
In Arts, he spent part of his
time on mission fields and part
at college, graduating in Theology
.in 19.03. The principal
sport m WhICh he participated
29
I
30 vox
Clear Thinking and the Depression
By BEESEAKEAJH
Goodness knows, I've forgotten
how the conversation
changed from pruning gooseberry
bushes to the depression,
but I thought Joe said a very
significant thing when he said
that after all it was only by our
own individual action that we
would get out of the slough of
depression-slough, I thought
that was quite good. And as I
watched Joe pruning away in
his deep bass voice ( Get it? Ha!
hal), the lesson sunk-sunksunk
home. After all, you can't
cart water by leading it before
a horse. I admit that the world
is made up today of entities, but
even after entities were discovered
it was still the individual
man who counted. You go out
into the country today, and if
you're lucky you'll find a farmer
on the land, working away with
Nature all around him. No wonder
our Back to the Land Movement
is succeeding so well when
you think of the bees and the
trees, and the brooks and the
crooks-that is, for the sheep,
you know. You'll find that the
farmer is in tune with Nature,
working away· with his plow
and his blither and scythel.
There's something awe-inspiring
. about our great prairies:
something that grips you about
the throat if you know what I
mean, but that's not it exactly.
Of course there are many parts
of Ontario that have prettier
countryside, but Ontario helped
to put in Mr. Bennett, and-well,
I mean. Now, I think Mr. Bennett
has a very flexible mind. If
_ you've got enough pull, you can
stretch it any way you want; the
only difficulty is that it might
snap back again. Our Prime
Minister seems to be doing the
best he can, and he sticks to his
guns when it seems necessary.
That's the way with Japan. But
if she had gone into China with
missionaries like we did, she
could have done the country up
brown, instead of bothering the
League of Nations so much, for
the Assembly is just about
ready for a rest, what with their
regular session last fall. We have
no idea how hard our great
statesmen work, and not even
the conferences are enough to
give them a chance to make up
on their sleep.
There is a lesson in this for all
of us. You know that the Duke
of Devonshire was the only man
who yawned when he was making
his maiden speech in the
House of Lords: and the Lords
reverenced him for it! We hear
so much talk these days about
working our heads off trying to
get somewhere. That's just Progress;
and what is Progress? I
always ask that question of people
who say that prosperity is
j. a. t. c. I get desperate sometimes
with these people who, in
throwing out the bath water,
throw out the baby, as it were.
As a practical illustration,
take the case of Britain going off
the Gold Standard. We must admire
the pluck of the great National
Government, which by
the way is made up of men from
all ranks of life and all walks
of party. You can't help but
cheer when a man like Mr.
vox 31
Thomas gets up and says "Humbug"
in order to show up another
man. That takes plain grit, the
kind of grit that urged men to
travel the seas, the kind that got
an Empire founded, than which
there is no whicher. What right
has Mr. De Valera to stand up
and say that Ireland won't kick
in with her money? By the way,
De Valera isn't an Irishman after
all, but he goes on Erin his views
just the same.
Well, the point is, and I think
it is clear now-the keynote of
the modem age is co-operation.
Self-sufficiency unto himselfishness
is a thing of the past, begob.
That's why I think so well of
the Corporate Consumptive-or
rather the Corpulent-the C.C.F.,
you know. After all, what is our
party system today anyway but
a lot of dyeshirts and stuffed
hearts? As I was saying to Joe
when the conversation drifted
into gooseberry bush trimming
-we need men in this country
who can face a question squarely,
can think clearly and can
know enough to keep their
mouth shut. I think that if-
MARCHING ON
(Continued from page 9)
tion and has given him a new
door of opportunity in life.
These laws are surely fine evidence
that society is "marching
on," to care for human needs
and provide against disaster.
Lift with me your eyes and
see that great national highways
have been constructed at the
nation's expense and how these
have operated to dissipate the
cold shades of isolation and to
relieve the dull routine of ordinary
life. Now the humblest
citizen can bundle his whole
family into a, Ford car, go away
on a joyous holiday, forget the
care of his life and do it all for
the expense entailed in the travel
of one in years gone by.
In days gone by, we thought
in national terms and talked in
national tongues and labored
under national limitations. Now
our· national boundaries for
many . purposes are being demolished
and we are thinking in
terms of the wide, wide world,
and in the language of human
needs and human sorrows. How
has the whole thing come about?
It has slipped in upon us with
such little observation that we
have scarcely noticed its coming.
Weare waking up to find out
how far we have travelled and
how much we have gained, and
sometimes we are reluctant to
bear the expense of the gain.
We are short of money. We
cannot spend as much as we
once did, and so we are making
a: loud complaint, oblivious all
the time to the priceless gifts
which have come in such abundance
to us in recent years.
These have marched into our
lives through science, invention,
legislation, medicine, world-wide
thinking and world-wide planning.
Can anyone deny that the
world is "marching on," moving
upward in great rising spirals
towards that era of which poets
and prophets and reformers
have dreamed, outward "to the
federation of the world and the
parliament of man"?
A woman writer says' there
are many people who cannot
live on an income of ·£5,000 a
year. Box says it's a cinch, he
can't. Ugh!
vox
Came the Dawn (April 28th)
-A.M.S.
daily routine kept us busy.
Chapel at 8 a.m., breakfast at
8: 15, volleyball at 9: 00, group
meeting 9:30 to 10:45, volleyball
en masse, more groups, dinner,
more "Bears," walks along
the shore, talks on the steps,
sunburn, forum at 5: 00, supper
at 6: 00, games, chats, new-found
friends, the evening talk and
discussion, the sharing of the
day's thoughts, prayers. A final
rush to the kitchen for lastminute
eats, a walk in the moonlight,
and so to bed, dreams, indigestion,
and "B ear" calls.
Burrs in the bed, thistles, dead
fish! Oh, well!
This all is camp from the
"outside." Now let us view the
inside, the real camp. There was
a deepening of life, a building of
character, a revision of values,
and a closer and finer contact
with J esus,altogether inexpressible.
We, one and all, found an
old religion and built a new life.
Dr. Vlastos, the most loved
member of the camp, captured
our hearts and minds by his
sympathetic understanding, and
wealth of experience in the deep
things of life. To him and to our
other leaders we took all our
troubles, little and big and were
helped and strengthened.
But why go on with words
which can never say. what we
want to express? We can only
say that no one of us, unless he
be a traitor to his better self,
can but build spring camp into
his life and live toward those
new worlds and new ideals that
were so well given to us during
that week, the finest week we
have ever spent.
32
VERYTHING was hustle
and bustle. Bun dIe s ,
bags, and boys loaded on
fCO,~..A:I a truck and away to the
beach. Autos came and departed
northward, hauling their howl-
, ing hosts. Finally we all got
there. Over a hundred of us.
Robertson House, Gimli. And
the S.C.M. spring camp was under
way. The lake was a solid
mass of ice and a rather chill
wind blew up and that night we
shivered at the prospect of undressing
and getting to bed. A
few had brought hot water
bottles-they just couldn't take
it. Then we finally crawled under
a great mountain of bed-.
ding and dozed off. All was
silence except for an occasional
high hysterical giggle from upstairs
or a deep bass chortle
from downstairs, which, however,
soon died away and all
was peace. .
Thus began one of the finest
spring camps held in Manitoba,
with the finest members of the
university present. The camp
leaders came from all sides. Mr.
MacLean from the First Presbyterian
Church, Canon Herklots
from. St.John's College, Mr.
and Mrs.. Andrew Stewart from
the University of Southern
Manitoba, Mr and Mrs. Homer
Lane from points north, east,
west, and south. Murray Brooks
from the S.C.M. offices, Toronto,
Dr: Vlastos fom Queen's University.
Jobs were portioned out
amid .much wailing and gnashing
of teeth-water, wood, potato
peeling, dish washing, table
waiting (not to mention table
lifting by the "Bears") . The
vox
The Place of the S.C.M. in the University
33
. The highest single honor tenable
by a student in a university
is the Rhodes' Scholarship. Selection
is made by noting whether
the student conforms to the
four standards of good citizenship;
namely, intellectual, social,
physical, and devotional.
The university ably looks
after the three of these standards,
but only in an obscure
way is the devotional side attended
to. Thus in brief we may
state that the Student 'Christian
Movement tries to add and build
up the fourth side of a rounded
preparatory training.
Referingagain to a proper
type of scholar we find he should
possess qualities of manhood,
truth, courage, devotion to duty,
sympathy for and protection of
the weak, kindliness, unselfishness,
and fellowship. The fourth
clause in Mr. Rhodes will (not
recorded here) does set the
Rhodes Scholar apart from his
fellow-students, but clause three
as stated should be the goal and
ideal of any seeker who wishes
to develop himself or herself
for public duty after graduating.
The contribution that the Student
Christian Movement offers
to any student may fittingly be
described in clause three. It
does not mention religion, but it
does mention the attributes
which make up a good Christian
life. This is what the S.C.M.
is trying to do. It wants the
. student to link himself up with
God: to try and see his life in
relation to his fellow human
beings; to set aside a brief period
each week for careful thinking
about Christianity and modem
social problems; to bring his
own mental and physical qualities
to bear on his own life adjustment
by a serious and conscientious
desire to better his
spiritual understanding' of the
"why" of a university student.
The S.C.M. can provide this
brief period of training in a suitable
environment better than
any other council or body of students
can. The S.C.M. as a movement
has a world-wide concept
with strong organizations in all
the great countries of the world.
Many religions and races are
back of the movement. Surely
such a wide background is
worthy the support of every
university student. The movement
is not founded on creed,
but rather on a desire to further
the botherhood of man as exemplified
in, the life of Christ, and
to promote a greater self-realization
of human beings. The right
social conception and adjustments.
The S.C.M. has therefore a
very important :place in the
University and if any student
seeks the gateway to true wisdom
and understanding and a
realization of a need for training
for later public, duties, let
him study the aims and ideas of
the Student Christian Movement
and seek to ally himself
with it.
Frosh: "Why is it that a black
cow gives white milk that makes
yellow butter?"
Soph: "For the same reason
that a freshman turns red when
he is green, sap!"
34 vox
Buried Alive
Da Is place of which we
speak has a name of its
. _ own, but for the time
"' being let us call it
Euclid's Point-"having position
but no magnitude." Euphemistically,
it is referred to by the
local proletariat as "the town."
Actually, it is a rather hideous
huddle of a hamlet whose name
might be construed as Spanish
for "No Paint." Specifically, it
is a group of, perhaps, a score
of bare wooden buildings, of
various degrees of ugliness,
housing a population representative
of several nationalities. The
chief reason for its existence
seems to be the fact that apparently
it wasn't considered worth
while to extend the railroad any
fur the r and thus "Euclid's
Point" is really one of the terminals
of a great transportation
system-although it looks more
like a butt end, one of those
places where one may get off the
train and then .wonder why!
Apart from the two events provided
each week by the railway
company there are three main
attractions-two gas pumps and
a beer parlor. Beverage by the
pail is obtainable from the community
waterworks, at the corner
of Main Street and the Great
Beyond.
After passing seven buildings
in any direction from the one
man-power water supply system
one is beyond the suburbs and
out in the open country, such as
it is. It really is quite open, although
many other descriptive
adjectives have been used in
reference. In most sections there
is enough soil to keep the stones
from touching each other, but
scarcely sufficient to keep the
farmers off the rocks. Low, rolling
ridges are clothed with just
enough scrubby bush to suggest
that the face of Mother Earth
needs a shave. From the lowlying
meadows, wide-ranging
cattle secure almost enough feed
to repair the wastage caused by
flies and mosquitos, while here
and there are patches of land
with foundation-fragments sufficiently
far apart to encourage,
at least for a time, hopes and
hard labor. To have taken such
land away from the natives
seems a real dog-in-the-manger
trick, and as for rationing it out
to ex-soldiers as a fitting recognition
of their services overseas
-well, if that is gratitude, what
would ill-will have done? Yet,
it is settled with scattered homesteads,
often two miles from
house to house, connected by
roads that are called such by
courtesy and isolated by distance
and occupation from a
great deal of social activity common
to older and more prosperous
communities.
To one accustomed to city life
existence in such a district might
well seem to be not merely "exempt
from public haunt," but
quite "outlandish." Many whose
experiences and preferences are
bound up with the conveniences
and advantages found in large
centres of population regard an
appointment to such areas as a
great misfortune, and express
commiseration for friends thus
"buried alive" in "that awful
place."
But the extent to which solicitude
and pity of that kind are
justified or wasted depends almost
entirely upon the supposed
victim, for whom such a situa-
]
.1
vox 35
tion usually is a good test, and
may be largely beneficial. At
least it should make clear the
truth in the saying, "Be your
own palace or the world's your
jail," truth which applies equally
to life in city or country. And
nowhere does the true value of
e d u cat ion appear to such
marked advantage-if it be education
that is .something more
than mere technical preparation
for money-making-as when a
cultured personality is set down
amid an environment of the kind
indicated. The advantages of
college -training are then seen
in clearer light and truer perspective,
and may be much more
fully utilized for enrichment of
Iife than amid the many competing
factors of the throbbing
activities of the city.
And there is another point for
consideration, better illustrated
than discussed. At just such a
place as "Euclid's Point" there
is a high school teacher "buried
alive," who volunteered for
work in just such a human backwater.
because he felt that he
had a contribution to make to
communities of that kind. In a
quiet, kindly, unobtrusive way
he has realized his ideal of service
where leadership often is
most badly needed, an ideal
born of the idea that education
involves some measure of obligation
to share its benefits with
the less fortunate. It is an ideal
that does not necessarily involve
a lifetime spent on the frontiers;
it does demand some sharing,
and some service where the need
is great. "We laugh at his little
peculiarities, but we love him
just the same. He has done a
great deal for this district." Such
is the tribute paid to one whose
own theory of education is that
it should make monetary considerations
relatively unimportant.
People of this type may be
"buried alive," but surely pity
is not to be their portion. And
they put a new and vital meaning
into situations to which that
commiserating phrase is usually
applied. Long life to their interred
animation!
T.A.P.
SOME ESSENTIAL
PRINCIPLES FOR LIFE
(Contiued from page 12)
towards peace," they are "new
century ideals."
Jesus Christ is their living
definition.
In His life, the Spirit never
was quenched.
In His life, instructionsprophesyings-
were never despised.
In His life, everything was
brought to the final test.
In His life, He held fast to all
that was good for Himself or for
others.
In His life, He was so free
from evil that no spot of. wrong
ever stained Him.
The sure way· for success in
our lives is that we shall individually
accept Jesus Christ as
our Lord and Master, follow
Him in our lives, and become
His followers in fact as well as
in the formalities of life.
Stark (in second-hand book
store): "Have you Dickens'
'Cricket on the Hearth'?"
Salesman: "No, sir, but I can
show you a very good table tennis
set."
36 vox
The Theological Race
On your mark! Get set!
Ready! Go! They're off! Around
the track they tore with seven
laps to go. Tore? No, in truth
they really jogged along, quickening
their pace at intervals of
half a lap. Yes, seven years ago
a group of theological runners
bravely started out; and now
that group, or what is left of it,
has reached the finishing tape.
Kneeling, waiting for the starter's
pistol that day, were four
stalwarts: W. Conly, J. Brown,
R. Peden, and H. Harland. One
or two more were running along
the sides-later to join the race
-at that time frisking along like
March hares or spring colts. For
anyone who had ears that could
hear the still, sad music of humanity,
could have picked up
the sound of one running as
though he "had tidings in his
mouth"-making record time up
Matriculation Grade, to arrive
one year late to be in line. Sam
Parsons, for it was he, was not
daunted by this handicap, and
set out to run the race anyway
-what was a mere year to him!
The number of contestants increased
after one lap. As they
came around, R. J. Love, and K.
McKillop, who had been taking
it easy, got up, yawned and
stretched and swung into line,
getting into step nicely in spite
of all customary verdant idiocyncracies.
About that time L.
Stinson, who had been doing
nicely, taking his distance beside
them on the sod, decided that the
footing was better on the track,
and so he, too, got into line.
On they went, lap after lapand
all was quiet on the Western
front, save where the peace was
somewhat disturbed by the distant
rumbling as Sam came
streaming on-yet a long way
behind. Brown, being an Irishman,
in some manner obtained
permission to get the cart before
the horse, to the end that he
missed the third and fourth laps,
going on with the fifth, agreeing
to run with one foot in the third
and fourth, while the other did
duty in sixth and seventhwhich
performance he pulled off
nicely, displaying his acrobatic
gifts, finishing his last lap one
year before his prosaic fellowrunners.
Four laps proved so strenuous
that Peden called time; and is
still getting his breath. McKillop
also took the count of 365
but came up one lap later as
fresh as a daisy.
The boys burst forth in the
fifth lap with renewed energy.
Their ran k s were suddenly
swelled. One must have a thorough
knowledge of Relativity
and plane geometry to understand
it all. Parsons all at once
appeared in line-doing the distance
behind him and ahead of
him at the same time, smiling
as the distance behind relatively
approached zero. Joe Wiznuk
appeared as a bolt out of the
blue, Calder waved a magic
wand-and presto there he was!
A. M. Smith-a Scotsman with
an English accent! - measured
their stride for a lap, and then
knowing the pace, went back to
show the boys in the earlier laps
what speed really was! Coming
in at a tangent to join the company
appeared Dunc Wilkie Dune W.ilkie vox 37
Stan Knowles, two well-tried
distance runners, having come
from Brandon to test out a new
track. To their surprise standing
by the roadside pawing the
ground impatiently was Bill
Hughes, who had been over to
Edinburgh 'and back while waiting
for them to catch up.
On they went: the cinders
whistling under their feet. As
they neared the tape, Knowles
set the pace, arrived first, and
copped off the medal. Sam
crossed next-he is a type all
his own. The others, Stinson,
Hughes, Love, Wilkie, Conly,
Calder, Wiznuk, and Harland
also .ran, each drawing a deep
breath when the line was
reached.
So the race is ended.. On
Memory's book is written its
story which time may fade but
never erase. The Theological
class of '33 has reached the tape.
The race will serve but as practice
in the great Race which life
will afford. The end is in reality
the beginning. On your mark!
Get set! Ready! Go!
-H.J.H., Theo. '33.
REV. JOHN E. LANE, D.D.
(Honoris Causa)
(Continued from page 29)
man of the Presbyteries of the
districts in which he has been
located.
When the Senate of Wesley
College conferred the degree
upon Mr. Lane, it honored the
college as well as the recipient.
His interest and efforts on behalf
of higher education have been
continuous and fruitful. Wesley
College has reason to be grateful
to him for the number and
type of students which have enrolled
in her classes from the
various fields on which he has
served. Not least among those
who came to Wesley from these
communities were his son, Rev.
Homer R. Lane, a graduate in
Arts of 1925 and in Theology of
1929, and his daughter, Miss
Gwen J. Lane, a graduate of this
year.
In the seven communities
named, and in others far beyond
their borders, are a countless
number of people who have seen
life's meaning more clearly, who
have felt life's .experiences more
deeply, and who have lived their
own lives more worthily, because
of their contacts or associations
with the sincere, wellbalanced,
and unselfish life of
John Lane. And in all this
splendid ministry Mr. Lane has
had the loyal and self-sacrificing
support of his sympathetic and
courageous associate, Mrs. Lane.
Theirs is a fine companionship,
and with their mutual understanding
of individual needs and
community problems, the work
which they are doing becomes
increasingly important in these
distressing days.·
Vox joins with a host of
friends in extending to Dr. and
Mrs. Lane its most cordial congratulations
and sincere good
wishes.
R. Mc.: "There are lots of girls
who don't want to get married."
Bews: "How do you know?"
R. Mc.: "I've asked them."
Room: "Hey, there! Don't spit
on the floor."
Mate: " 's matter? Floor
leak?"
38 vox
In Our Backwoods
By C. C., 3?
CULTIVATION:
1904-Howdy, Jim! See you've got the shack built and the garden
clearing ready."
1911-"Five acres under crop; we're gettin' there!"
1918-"Got 40 acres under cultivation now, and ten more to break
this summer."
1925-"Seeded 180 acres this spring; got 29 bushels to the acre."
1933-"This here grubbing away don't pay. I'm taking a little trip
back East this summer to see the old folks."
* * *
SOCIAL LIFE:
1904-"We'1l hook up the team and all go over to Clark's barn dance.
It's only 30 miles."
1911-"Guess we'd better take in the box social down the river.
It's only ten miles."
1918-"Let's go over to the schoolhouse, for the looks of it at least
-it's only three miles anyway."
1925-"Morgan's having a party. They've one 0' them new-fangled
radios."
1933-"These country dances are the berries. Let's drive to town
and go to a talkie-then out to Mack's Road House for midnight
supper."
* * *
TRANSPORTATION:
1904-"Goodness gracious! A brand new wagon! Things is lookin'
up!"
1911-"What? a buggy? Gee whillikins!"
1918-"By dad, an automobile!; toney's the word now!"
1925-"Gol darn! another flivver? Why, last year's wasn't hardly
worn a bit."
1933-"Yes sir, John, she's got eight cylinders."
* * *
MAIL:
1904-"Wished we could get some letters through. Ain't heard
from the folks for nigh on two months."
J9ll-"Can you squeeze our letters in somewhere, Cy? No mail
for a month."
1918-"By gum! That new Post Office acrosst the river oughta get
us mail every fortnight anyhow."
1925-"Mail once a week is too slow. They's circulatin' a petition
to get it twice a week."
1933-"That mail driver's the bunk. Late twice this week. If he
ain't on time tomorrow . . ."
VOX 39
EDUCATION:
1904-"I'm sendin the kids down home to the folks to get a mite 0'
schoolin'."
1911-"By gum, the schoolhouse's finished at last!"
1918-:-"Six months a year ain't enough. We oughta keep it open
eight at least."
1925-"Mabel's engaged for next term. She's the third local
schoolmarm." .
1933-"Bill and Grace took honors at college this term, and ~ohn
won a swell scholarship."
VALEDICTORY-THEOLOGY, '33
(Continued from page 19)
is my religion." We are convinced that there is work to do, and
our hope is that we may play a part, great or small, in helping to
establish a Reign of Justice,
Thus we look to the future with mixed feelings of expectancy
and hope, and yet with some perplexity. But there is an urge from
within to take up the challenge of life and enter the great struggle.
Throughout the whole of nature there throbs this surge of power,
urging life on to its self-realization. There is some curious instinct
within the world that is not meant to stagnate and die. Call it
the principle of Evolution, or call it God, it sweeps through the
whole of life. It is the urge of the soul for its completion, the quest
of the soul for God. That conviction comes pulsing up in the hearts
of men, beats in the music of the poets, takes wings in the dreams
of the idealist, and is justified by the stern voice of science. It is
the push and pull of potentiality calling us on to higher service
and nobler regions of thought, feeling and achievement.
With this I conclude, and on behalf of the graduating class,
bid you farewell.
I Met a Bonnie Lass
Bmet a bonnie lass;
She seemed a trifle shy.
I eyed her long and wistfullyAnd
passed her by!
Now she's a wedded wife,
But single still am I:
Because I eyed her wistfully ....
And passed her by!
-T. S., '35.
40 vox
This Intelligent Generation
The myth that man is a rational
animal should be pretty
well exploded by now. This
pretty legend goes back to the
Greeks-according to Aristotle,
reason was the differentia that
set man off from the lower animals-
and all the chief philosophic
schools down to our own
time have perpetuated it. Now,
however, we know better. The
modern revolt from reason
starts with William James-man
is no longer a reasoning being
who foresees ends and fits means
to ends in a purposive, meaningful
attempt to reach the ideal
ends his reason has prescribed
for him. He is the victim of halfsubmerged
instincts and irrational
emotional complexes-no
longer can we expect him (as
Aristotle did) to think things
through and act in accordance
with right reason-he is at the
mercy of all-powerful forces
below the level of consciousness,
and those stronger powers are
at the mercy of-but we must
not anticipate the argument.
Now we have only to look
around us today to see the effect
that this changed view of human
nature has had upon our social
and economic life. It is taken
for granted that ordinary men
and women do not think, and so
far from any attempt being
made to stir them up to thought
"popular newspapers and politicians
seem to accept with resignation,
if not with positive joy,
the unthinkingness of their
readers and hearers and devote
themselves to exploiting and
playing upon it. They study
feverishly the psychology of advertisement,
suggestion and
salesmanship. Strange doctors
of philosophy in the U.S. and
elsewhere write books to show
that people will buy more bad
pills or bad books or vote for
more bad politicians if those objects
are praised in red letters
on black or black letters on red,
or green letters on gold, or if
they are associated with pictures
and stories that excite sexual interest;
or if the contrary course
can somehow be associated with
something which they already
know and dislike, such as indigestion
and rheumatism." (Gilbert
Murray). Here there is no
appeal to the reasoning powers
of the human being-rationality
is far below par-what we suffer
meekly from advertisers
both in the press, over the air
on hoardings and elsewhere,
would put to shame a really intelligent
generation and would
make the Greeks blush for the
future of the race. After perusing
some common advertisements
it is a wonder that any of
us feel fit to live. (Perhaps we
are not, by Jove!)
The advertiser affects such a
concern for our welfare that it
seems crass ingratitude not to
buy his product; it is a feat of
the intellect of which few of us
are capable to realize that he is
merely concerned with the profits
accruing from the sale of his
wares, that as long as he can
"sell" the idea to the public he
cares little how misleading the
advertising is, or how low the
emotion to which it appeals.
Nothing, surely, would explode
the theory that man is a rational
animal like the study of this
modern social disease called advertising!
The tragedy is that
the very people who succumb to
vox 41
this disease are in their political
rights, sovereign communities
supposed to have power ~nd
ability to guide a .great.natI?n
in its destinies and to adjust Its
relation to the wider interests
of humanity as a whole. Here
the advertiser knows us better
than did the Fathers of Democracy!
Yet the politicians have never
been under any illusion as to the
rationality of human beings. He
has always made his appeal to
the sub-human. The problem is
whether reason can take over
the helm before instinct, passions
and popular prejudices
carry us on to the rocks of destruction.
Consider the General
Election in Great Britain two
years ago. The Conservative
Party spent thousands of pounds
pia s t e r i n g brick walls and
hoardings with a picture of
Stanley Baldwin smoking his
favorite briar. To what purpose?
In what way could that be considered
as suggesting an intelligent
reason why people should
vote for the "National" Government?
But, of course, the idea
was not to get people to think
-rather the reverse-the idea
was so to play upon their emotions
and natural impulses as to
get them to vote in a certain
way. Hardly the manner in
which our forefathers expected
democracy to function! (Though'
Carlyle tried to warn them).
Nevertheless, here we are-we
face a world in chaos, seemingly
insuperable difficulties await
solution and politicians and industrialists
climb to power and
wealth by ignoring the reasoning
faculties of the electorate
whom they are supposed to
serve and whose will is sovereign!
To quote Professor Murray
again: "Are we reany such born
fools? Are we content that this
should be so, content that people
who wish us to buy their goods
or vote for their interests shoul.d
be able to twist us around thetr
fingers by playing. on ot!ter ~nthinking,
unreasomng ammal tnstincts
below the threshold?
Surely if the psychologists have
shown us that we are mostly
guided in our actions by. an
kinds of blind and unrealtzed
forces that should only awaken
us td our extreme danger?"
Does not the University graduate
come in right here? He, unless
he has wasted his time,
should have some conception of
an end in life other than the
mere making a living. "There
are two ways of living," says
Julian Huxley, the biologist, "a
man may be casual and simply
exist or constructive and deliberately
try to do someth~ng
with his life. The constructtve
idea implies __constructiveness
not only about one's own life,
but about that of society, and
the future possibilities of humanity."
Men and women who
have enjoyed the privilege of a
University training should be
a bulwark in society against the
encroachments of an irrational,
debasing and dehumanizing political
and economic system.
They should be concerned wit~
the qualitative not the quantitative
side of life; that is, they
should have standards and the
courage to bring all life to the
test of those standards.
This is what T. H. Huxley
many years ago called "the
checking of the cosmic process
at every step, and the substitution
for it of what may be called
(Continued on page 47)
42 vox
To Our Graduates
OX offers its congratulations to Class '33
-the largest class ever to graduate from
this institution. The Theologians who
complete their course this year are also
a more numerous body than in recent years-to
them Vox extends its best wishes for joy and
success in their work.
Graduation is often referred to as from a particular
University. It is really nothing of the sort
-one graduates into a University as the Chancellor
utters those magic words, '''1 admit you." We
can wish nothing better for our graduates than
that they should remember this and ever carry
with them the ideals and vision they caught at
college, striving always to be worthy of their
Alma Mater, to whom forever they now belong.
This year, the numbers of our graduating classes
have swollen so considerably that it has been
found necessary to abandon the traditional grad
"write-ups," and the special inset which follows
has been substituted.
It is worthy of note that students of United
Colleges have in the past year acquitted themselves
particularly well in the academic field, thus
bringing to their AZma Mater distinction in keeping
with her enhanced status 'in the University.
Winners of Isbister Scholarships are recorded
elsewhere, but we must particularly mention here
Donald McGavin, who headed all students in the
University for second year work, and Gertrude
Parsons and Frances Weekes who, in that order,
led all other first year students. This has indeed
been a year of achievement. May the future find
here some of that inspiration necessary for even
greater accomplishment.
Alex Calder William W. Conly
William H. Hughes Stanley H.
Knowles Hartley Z. Harland
UNITED COLLEGES G. Duncan Wilkie
Dr. John Mackay Robert Love
THEOLOGICAL GRADUATES
Lloyd Stinson Laura Sharpe Joseph
Wiznuk Boris McCulloch Samuel
Parsons
United Colleges Graduates 1-9-3-3
7trts
Arts Graduates graduates
First Column:
MORRIS A. ALPERT, B.A.
SIGRUN ANDERSON, B.A.
SARA C. AVERBACH, B.A.
GILBERT BOX, B.Sc.
EILEEN BROAD, B.A.
Second Column:
LILLIAN R. BUGGEY, B.A.
JOHN M. CONKLIN
MARGARET L. COUPAR
M. MURIEL DAVIDSON M. MURIEL DAVIDSqN, WARD DUNSHEATH, B.A.
1
7lrts
Arts Graduatesgraduates
First Column:
" ALLAN L. DYKER, B.A.
MARJORIE C. ELLIOTT, B.A.
RUTH M. ELVIN, B.A.
CONSTANCE FRASER, B.A.
JEAN A. FRASER, B.A.
Lady Stick
Second Column:
CLEVE C. GERRY
HELOISE GOLDSTEIN, B.A.
LYLA M. GRAHAM, B.A.
ARCHIE G. GREENAWAY, B.A
W. ARTHUR HAIG, B.A.
)
:7lrts
Arts Graduatesgraduates
First Column:
CUTHBERT R. HOOLE
EDNA J. HOWLETT, B.A.
.JEAN C. HUNTER, B.A.
COLIN E. JACK
(4th Year Honors)
RAGNA JOHNSON, B.A.
Second Column:
BROCKWELL C. KING
(4th Year Honors)
STANLEY H. KNOWLES, B.A.
(Candidate for M.A.)
ALEXANDRA KRETT, B.A.
WALLACE J. LANDRETH, B.A.
GWENDOLYN J. LANE, B.A.
Second Column:
E. NADINE LUSH E, NADINE LUSH, B.A.
KATHARINE E. MacKAY, B.A.
LILLIAN G. MACKENZIE LILLIAN G. Ma~KENZIE, B.A.
GRACE T. McCLELLAN, B.A.
MABEL A. McCONNELL, B.A.
)
Arts Graduates :J(rts
graduates
First Column:
BONNIE LEVIN, B.A.
ROBERT J. LIBERT
ADA LOBAN, B.A.
M. RAY LOREE, B.A.
JESSIE H. LUDWIG, B.A.
7lrts
Arts Graduates First Column:
ROBERTA MacDOUGALL, B.A.
ELSIE E. McLEAN, B.A.
JACK A. McMURPHY, B.A.
IDA V. MEDOVY, B.A.
ALICE MILLER, B.A.
Second Column:
HELEN MOFFETT, B.A.
ALICE E. MORRISON, B.A.
HELEN E. MORRISON, B.A.
HELEN D. MORTON, B.A.
ANNIE M. MURPHY, B.A.
:J{rts
Arts Graduates graduates
First Column:
CONSTANCE OFFEN, B.A.
WILLIAM G. ONIONS. B.A.
MAISIE PANAR, B.A.
VAUGHAN H. PERRY. B.A.
ALICE E. POOLE. B.A.
Second .Column:
GERALD B. PUNTER. B.A.
LILLIAN RENNIE. B.A.
EDNA M. REX, B.A.
ZELMA RIPSTEIN, B.A.
JAMES B. ROBINSON. B.Sc.
I
MABEL WILLIAMS. B.A
Second Column:
LILLIAN STEPHENS. B.A.
HELEN M. TEMPLETON. B.A.
JANET F. WALKER. B.A.
CLARICE WHITTEKER. B.A.
MIRIAM L. WILDER. B.A.
First Column:
M. ALICE SHANKS. B.A.
. WILLIAM M. SHAW. B.A.
KATHLEEN M. SINCLAIR. B.A.
G. MERVYN C. SPRUNG. B.A.
(President, Fourth Year)
PHILIP J. STARK. B.A.
Senior Stick
7lrts
Arts Graduates , ,
Collegiate Department Graduates
Alexander, Margaret
Anderson, Dorcas
Anderson, Orde
Andrew, Edith
Barber, Elaine
Bell, Frances
Bjornson, Gudmundur
Blake, Margaret
Bowes, Frances
Bowley, Helen
Boyaniwsky, Taras
Burnett, Irene
Buschau, Reynold
Carson, James
Comba, Stewart
Crombie, Hector
Davies, David
Demitrak, William
Dewar, Neil
Drulak, William
Eustace, Alice
Fahrni, Phyllis
Farndale, Audrey
Fenny, Walter
Fletcher, Evelyn
Gallop, Hubert
Gayfer, Margaret
Gerrie, Dorothy
Gibson, John
Gorski, Michael
Gustafson, Milton
Argue, Robert
Black, Elizabeth
Bowering, Reginald
Carberry, James
Cawthorne, Henry
De Jong, Johanna
Donahue, Ruth
Earle, Allan
Earle, Marion
Friebert, Anthony
Hagel, Donald
vox
GRADE TWELVE
Halls, Raymond
Harasym, Jennie
Hart, David
Henry, Betty
Hladun, William
Horne, Marion
Houston, Lorena
Howe; Margaret
Hunkewich, William
Hunter, Georgina
Hunter, Meta
Jackson, Kathleen
Jamieson, John
Jones, Thelma
Kinley, Ross
Krawchuk, Olga
Laidlaw, Margaret
Lewis, Queenie
Liddell, Gwendolyn
Lloyd, Lillian
Lough, Spencer
Ludlam, Vera
Lymburner, Amy
MacGregor, Marjorie
MacLean, Margaret
Manning, Marjorie
Markovitch, Fred
Martin, Mildred
Maxfield, John
McRae, Donald
Merryweather, Hazel
GRADE ELEVEN
Hagel, Frank
Haig, Allison
Halloran, William
Hughes, Dickson
Lough, Spencer
Low, Thomas
MacFarlane, John
McGregor, Donald
McKidd, George
Manning, Marjorie
Park, Velma
43
Miller, Margaret
Murray, Harold
Nixon, Kathleen
Nixon, Wesley
Norman, Osborne
Olsen, Kristin
Owen, Elena
Pelton, Edward
Price, Beryl
Pugh, Stewart
Robson, Clifford
Rowley, Minnie
Sangster, Richard
Schwartz, Patricia
Segal, Sarah
Side, William
Sim, George
Stevenson, Olga
Stokes, Frank
Strong, John
Taylor, Betty
Thibadeau, Eleanor
Wach, John
Waddell, Duff
Watson, Mary
Webster, Constance
Wellwood, Eileen
White, Robert
Wilkinson, Dorothy
Williams, Sarah
Young, Robert
Reeves, Kathleen
Sagness, Leslie
Sharp, Margaret
Shoup, Helen
Simmons, Lloyd
Smith, Ernest
Solilak, Nicholas
Stephens, Ann
Wolfe, William
Wright, Hamilton
44 vox
About Nothing in Particular
I was coming into Winnipeg
from my home town in the
country for convocation. I hadn't
been thinking much about it,
but left alone with a magazine
in the hot, dusty day-coach, I
could think of nothing else.
Magazines are unsatisfying at
the best of times with their
highly dramatic tales, all of the
same calibre, except for an occasional
change of scenery, or
a slightly varied crisis, or the
suspense shortened or protracted.
They all deal with a
heroine or hero into whose
places we force our own personalities,
whether those same people
are attractive or otherwise.
But, as I said before, I began
to think of graduation. Is there
anything quite so discouraging
as knowledge? It's so elusive!
Here was I, worried by thoughts,
sitting opposite a man and
woman, who weren't, because
they hadn't. been trained to
think. Were they not happier
than I? They could find satisfaction
in a True Story Magazine,
or the ordinary chit-chat
of the erstwhile acquaintance of
a train trip. They could interest
each other in the doings of
Garbo-the time the train would
arrive-whether the wife of
So-and-So was one of the Suchand-
Such of Hickville, etc. The
pensive-faced girl on my magazine
cover, with the wavy auburn
hair didn't entice me in the
least, not even enough to make
me wonder whether I could
make a dress with sleeves like
hers.
As I was saying, knowledge is
discouraging. Graduation seems
to make only the first milepost
on a journey ending in infinity.
If we were to advertise knowledge,
we might say, in the jargon
of a biscuit company, "Eat
more-want more." Most of the
grads have reached the goalpost,
having just had a taste:
they want to eat more, but how
can they get it? You can't display
knowledge: what good is it
to. recite to your friends that you
have graduated in Latin or Economics
or History, when you
have only touched the outer
boundaries of such vast subjects?
What have we got to show for
four years in doing something
presumably worthwhile, but a
graduation picture or a white
evening gown? People tell me
I should be pleased and jump
for joy on reaching graduation.
They believe I'm becoming sceptical,
and perhaps I am. Scepticism
has been well described
as "the raw attempt of the
worldly man to appear wise," so
I quickly changed the subject
of my thoughts.
Isn't it queer how the things
seem to jump at you when you
pass them on the train? The
fence-posts and telephone poles
are like the hands of the clocks
that jump a minute at a time.
My thoughts turned from such
material things as telephone
poles to the landscape, on which
I pondered in my usual deep
fashion. One of my great loves
is the Manitoba countryside. I
know there are grasshoppers
and mosquitoes and dry years
and parched grass -and flat
places, but love is blind- and I
see only the fairylands. After
all, anywhere you go, you can
see what you want if you look
vox 45
for it (for example, the beginning
of a scandal) .
The rain, one of the first spring
showers, had ceased, and the
world was all bright again and
smiling. It's rather odd about
the first spring rain. All nature
seems to be a little afraid of it
and cringes a little, seeming to
dread that it may be a little
touch of winter once more, but
after the first shock is over, all
the crocuses and leaves and
grass perk up and ask for more.
The dainty spring greenness had
only appeared about a week before.
The little valleys with their
baby rivers were so pretty. A
little pond where I am sure
many frogs sang, had a fairy
ring of feathery willows and
poplars aiming ever higher and
higher to the white clouds. Trees
are so much like people. Some
are ugly, some are ordinary,
some are perfect in their beauty.
But they all know they are part
of a big picture. They have their
joys and sorrows and struggles.
Some of the ugliest ones are the
happiest, for often they possess
the best nooks for the nests of
birds, while their beautiful
neighbors are absolutely ignored
and are denied the glory ofservice.
What does it matter if a
tree is bald, or withered, or in
a poor situation or crowded by
others. Mankind might grumble,
but not so the tree. It hangs on
to life in the hope that it may
be a shelter or decoration or may
even serve by its death in firewood
or paper.
Here and there are black fields
with a soft green hair of grain
which makes you feel like stroking
it. The cows are glad to be
out in the spring air. They lazily
gaze at the train rushing by, and
wonder placidly at the thoughtless
burrying existence of men.
C.O., '33.
ADDRESS TO THE THEOLOGICAL GRADUATES
, (Continued from page 27)
point, yet at bottom whom have we to compare with him? Of all'
public functionaries boarded and lodged on the Industry of Modern
Europe, is there one worthier of the board he has?"
Gentlemen, the preacher who is the minister of God is the real
master of society, because he forms its ideals and through them
rules and guides its life. Let no man take thy crown.
Prairie Crocus
Crocus by the road,
Couched in SONY grass:
Sunbeams on the wind
Kiss thee as they passWoo
thee as a Zad
Woos a bonnie lass.
Crocus by the road,
Live thy fill today!
Sunbeams on the wind
Kiss thee on thy way.
Wooing days are fewYonder
passes May!
-T.S., '35.
46 · VOX v·o-x
VALEDICTORY~ARTS,'33-···,-r·
(Continued from page 23)
is doing us some good. That the
unit system is effete is recognized
by more progressive universities
in the East; yet we shall
in all probability have to wait
until any change has swept the
Western States before we can
have any hope of its penetrating
here. Wisdom and knowledge
cannot be mathematically calculated.
Besides, with set units of
work to be gone through in the
usual perfunctory manner for
the edification of the dullards,
the more intelligent strata lose
interest in the work, and if the
effect of the opiate is kept up for
four years, a potentially intelligent
mind may be ruined for
life. At the same time the person
with the dull mind gets out
on the streets, finds he cannot
do anything, and has articles
written about himself in the local
newspaper, saying what a
terrible institution university is.
Oil and water do not mix, and
we might as well recognize the
fact. If Wesley College dared,
she could set up an institution
of which there would not be another
similar. on the continent,
outside of Dr. Flexner's experiments
in the graduate sphere. It
would probably necessitate the
breaking away from the State
university, but such in the end
would be highly beneficial, to
Wesley. Johns Hopkins Medical
School started up in a small
way, refused to compromise its
high standards by uniting with
anyone else, worked for a' decade
in a modest way, began to
receive gifts, was accorded recognition,
and today has become
one of the most potent and influential
forces in the world in
the field of.medical science. Why
must we in Manitoba clothe ourselves
in the outworn garments
cast off by bolder institutions in
the East?
The numbers allowed to attend
our ideal college must be
very much fewer than at present,
for a province as small as
Manitoba; and those who are
not admitted should pursue directly
instruction in a chosen
profession or line of direction. A
diminution of numbers would
probably not be necessary as
concerns the present classes that
are attending Wesley; but it is
conceivable that at other times
there would not be such a brilliant
group. If culture is very
dry for many, culture should not
be comprorriised so that the
many may imbibe it in a diluted
form. It is better, I think, that
we should discriminate at college
rather than place a graduate
school above the college. For
by the time a man.leaves a graduate
school he is well on in his
twenties, and especially in an inland
district, it is necessary that
he should travel as soon as he
turns his twenties as possible.
He should travel for about three
years, then return and carryon
for a year as a scholar or as a
cultured gentleman in the practical
world.
I am making a plea, ladies and
gentlemen, for the hallowing of
our temples of wisdom, the preservation
of the treasures therein
and the adequate training of
the Vestal Virgins to preserve
and add to the treasures. If it
is a race between education and
catastrophe, catastrophe will
only be hastened if we demean
VOX 47 the universities to serve the purposes
of the grosser members of
mankind. We must plan now,
we must plan new courses in
every subject of cultural value
that we might have funds for
carrying on, we must do away
with all student activities and
let students organize voluntarily
whatever society might actually
be useful to them. We must do
away with the course system,
we must allow a student to leave
college when he pleases, our
study must centre around an enlarged
library, but in doing that
our tutors will really have a
more significant part to play in
our education than they have
now.
I dare say you would have
passed off my remarks as nonsense
in, shall we say, 1913: or
even in 1929. But whether you
agree with me or not, ladies and
gentlemen, at least you will
listen to me; and I rather fancy
that some of you will agree with
me. I believe the world will follow
any leader today. Only a
man with a" deep knowledge of
philosophy, history, English and
the sciences can hope to find a
way out. Our universities must
refuse to train our democracies
down to a Procrustean level of
general uselessness. Nor should
we be content with anaristoeratic
minority of supermen. Education
may only rest satisfied
that it has done iis elementary
.work when all have reached the
summit, out of the pit. If we accept
progress in this sense and
not in any hazy sense that democracy
must be served, we may
say with Browning:
""Progress is
The law of life, man is not Man
as yet,
Nor ,shall I de~m hi$ object
served, his end
Attained, his genuine strength
put fairly forth,
While only here and there a stur
dispels
The darkness, here and, there a
towering mind
O'erlooks its prostrate fellows:
when the .host
Is out at once to the despair of
night,
When all mankind alike is
perfected,
Equal in full-blown powers-then,
not till then,
I say, begins man's general
infancy."
REV. R. H. LOWRY, D.D.
(Honoris Causa)
(Continued from page 28)
to the musical services, and the
devotional life of the people to
both of which they made great
contributions.
Since. coming to Gladstone
five years ago, Dr. and Mrs.
Lowry have won for themselves
a large place not only in the
congregation and town, but
throughout the countryside. Dr.
Lowry has led the musical services
of most of the Conferences
since union, and the opinion of
all is that United Colleges have
honored themselves in honoring
one so highly esteemed by all
his brethren.
THIS INTELLIGENT
GENERATION
(Continued from page 41)
the ethical process." Never was
this task more necessary than in
our own day, and it is the task to
which University graduates in
particular are committed if thev
are not to prove traitor to all
that is best in our human heritage
and in ourselves.
48 vox
Registrar's Report - "Cog" Night, 1933
In a survey of this kind, an attempt is made to present in a
general way information regarding the student body so that a
clearer understanding may be had (1) of the influences which come
with the young people to our halls, and form the background of
their thought and action, and (2) a clearer understanding of the
scope and nature of the work the college is endeavoring to <to.
Since we now have statistics covering the last decade or more,
it is possible to present an idea of the growth of Wesley College.
In the departments which were operating at the beginning and
at the close of the decade, there is an increase of 57.87 per cent.
The Collegiate department has grown 8 per cent. and the Arts and
Science department 49.6 per cent.
In the total registration for the present session there is a decrease
of 12 students. Last year the attendance reached the highest
point recorded, viz. 710. Even though there is a slight decrease
in the number of students there is a larger volume of work carried
on due in the main to more of the students registered taking complete
courses in the classes of Wesley College.
The student body still remains almost equally divided between
men and women. At the beginning of the decade 47 per cent. of
our students were women. The percentage for last session, as well
as for this session, remains constant at 52.
The ancestral background and the racial cultures from which
these students have come are qualifying influences in our college
life. Last year the report pointed out that students were readily
adopting the designation "Canadian." Ten years ago 40.7 per cent.
used this to indicate their present nationality; during the present
session 58 per cent. The number so designating themselves is 387.
The second largest group, 90, claim England as the land of their
forefathers. The next in order is the Scotch, 61 in number. The
Irish comprise a group of 30 and the U
