THE CHAPEL HABIT.

Appleton Chapel is now supported by a small but earnest group of men who have--so to speak--gotten the "Chapel habit." They go with more or less regularity. The occasional visitor who attends once a week, or once a month, or once in two months is rare.

In other words, Chapel takes strong hold of many of those who have given it a fair trial,--the most eloquent of arguments in its favor. The reason for the small support is not the indifference of the Harvard man toward religion, nor yet the essentially pagan tenor of his mind. The student should rather be blamed for allowing an asset, as a correspondent this morning puts it, to go unappreciated. Plenty of men in College have never been inside of Appleton, and a lot more have never been there under favorable circumstances. The average student has no conception of what Chapel means or may mean--because he has never taken the trouble to find out.

The University is wise in not forcing attendance. When men are herded to church, they lose most of its benefits because their attitude is wrong. Chapel, after all, is a frame of mind, and not a daily task. As a mental condition which does not begin at 8.45 o'clock nor cease at 9, but carries over through the entire day, it is an asset. Religion is not a state of coma, a pleasing reverie, but a positive and driving force. It is energy. If this is the case, the Chapel habit is at least worth investigating, whether it finally proves of practical value or not.