INTERVIEWER: What was the spiritual life of the campus like?

MACKNIGHT: In my day the spiritual life was very high. It was...the vast majority of the students were spiritually-minded, interested in Bible study, interested in evangelism, interested in missions. There were just very few who were sort of rebels. Very few though, a very small percentage, I think. In those days we...we went to chapel every day. Chapel services were always completely full and everyone participated. The coming of war made that even moreso. I...I still remember the morning. I could go to the...to the very seat in Pierce Chapel where I was sitting the morning that FDR [Franklin Delano Roosevelt] made his famous "day of infamy" speech. And they brought a radio into chapel and the whole chapel sat there and listened to that speech, you know [clears throat], which was a very solemn occasion. But, because the spiritual level of the College was so high, people, men volunteered. There was a great desire to be a part of defense of the country and so on.

INTERVIEWER: Now, what was the...you mentioned Roosevelt's speech. What was the...what was the feeling on campus, you know, at the time of Pearl Harbor?

MACKNIGHT: It was a te...it was a shock. It was really a great shock. I remember when I first heard it too. The speech was on Monday. Of course, Pearl Harbor was on Sunday, and some of us were driving to Mooseheart [Orphanage] to teach Sunday school that morning when the news came on the radio that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. Well, I'm sure that the atmosphere was solemnity and sadness that this had happened but there was also a very strong evidence of faith and, as I said before, patriotism.