Why should God have provided that so many hours of every day should be occupied with work?  It is because

          WORK MAKES MEN.

A university is not merely a place for making scholars, it is a place for making Christians.  A farm is not a place for growing corn, it is a place for growing character, and a man has no character except that which is developed by his life and thought.  God’s Spirit does the building through the acts which a man performs from day to day.  A student who cons out every word in his Latin and Greek instead of consulting a translation finds that honesty is translated into his character.  If he works out his mathematical problems thoroughly, he not only becomes a mathematician, but becomes a thorough man.  It is by constant and conscientious attention to daily duties that thoroughness and conscientiousness and honorableness are imbedded in our beings.  Character is

          THE MUSIC OF THE SOUL,

and is developed by exercise.  Active use of the power entrusted to us is one of the chief means which God employs for producing the Christian graces.  Hence the religion of a student demands that he be true to his work, and that he let his Christianity be shown to his fellow students and to his professors by the integrity and the conscientiousness of his academic life.  A man who is not faithful in that which is least will not be faithful in that which is great.  I have known men who struggled unsuccessfully for years to pass their examinations who, when they became Christians, found a new motive for work and thus were able to succeed where previously they had failed.  A man’s Christianity comes out as much in his work as in his worship.

Our work is not only to be done thoroughly, but it is to be done honestly.  A man is not only to be honorable in his academic relations, but he must be honest with himself and in his attitude toward the truth.  Students are not entitled to dodge difficulties, they must go down to the foundation principles.  Perhaps the truths which are dear to us go down deeper even than we think, and we will get more out of them if we dig down for the nuggets than we will if we only pick up those that are on the surface.  Other theories may perhaps be found to have false bases; if so, we ought to know it.  It is well to take our soundings in every direction to see if there is deep water; if there are shoals we ought to find out where they are.  Therefore, when we come to difficulties, let us not jump lightly over them, but let us be honest as seekers after truth.

It may not be necessary for people in general to sift the doctrines of Christianity for themselves, but a student is a man whose business it is to think, to exercise the intellect which God has given him in finding out the truth.  Faith is never opposed to reason, though it is sometimes supposed by Bible teachers that it is; but you will find it is not.  Faith is opposed to sight, but not to reason, though