American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1866-06-27

not be "a child" Intelligence and Cod
illness must permeate the entire body po-
litic--pervade and leave the whole mass;
in fact, there must be mental and moral
activity throughout all the ramifcations
of society, or riM IT'S, those conditions of
the governing power are wanting, that
| secure the stability of a nation. This
being true, it was we'll that ours was the
age, and ours the land, and where such
wide diffusion of knowledge is possible
We were standing IN history where self
and representative Government, freedom
of conscience, the separation of ecclesi-
astical and civil power, and education ior
the masses are no longer Utopean dreams
of wild enthusiasts, but realized matters of
fact, challenging the world s recognition.
Ii was true curse is in the world for
plucking fruit off the tree of knowledge,
yet that forbidden indulgence SO perver-
ted conscience and beclouded reason, that
to-day, ignorance was the curse of God.
Tne world was being slowly educated up
to this idea. To this the race had been
tending for centuries, and men were be.
ing compelled to admit that in the broad
est and highest sense ignorance is in
deed the curse of God--knowledge the
wing wherewith wo fly to heaven" The
reverend gentleman adverted briefly to
discovery, invention and reform as sever.
ally contributing their quota toward this
desired result, showing that wherever the
governing power lies, there must be III
teHiyence to discern and yirtue to adopt
that which is wisest and best that gov
ernment must be thus conditioned OF free
dom is lost in anarchy or despotism. The
dangers that had threatened our Ameri-
can national life in the past had arisen
in large part from ignorance. Where
ever discussion had been the greatest,
mind the most active, knowledge the
most universal; wherever the cause of
general education had been best support
ed, there the pillars of State had stood
the frmest
But, the education, he said, must be OF
the heart as we'll as of the head. Moral
as we'll as mental activity must character
ize the governing power. Religion was
no less essential than intelligence. We
needed and must have sauctified schol-
arship. Our philosophy-so much of it,
at all eventssA is political and practical,
must be pervaded by the philosophy Of
the Gospel and baptised with the spirit
and power of true Christianity. An ed.
ucation with no heart in it was perilous
thing. Knowledge without reli gion was
Goddess education. History has scored
with her most precious curses" "God
only is great" said Massilon. True, and
hence man is only truly great as he is like
God. Revolutionary France declared
the throne in the heavens vacant, and
made proclamation that there is no God.
The Sabbath was changed to decade,
and the sanctuary TO stable. The Bible
was paraded through the streets in mock
solcmnity and placed on pyre to be
burned. Society was reft Of its safe
guards; the goddess of reason was en-
throned for worship, aud the maddest VII
olencc committed under the sacred name
Of liberty. IF VIC would pcrpetuate the
basis of our government we must shun a
goddess education and a perverted chris
tianity. A genuine christianity keeps
side by side with learning. There must
not be the least compromise with inf 1el-
ity or skepticism. A president of one Of
our colleges rings out the true doctrine
when be says: ave shall not apologize
for christianity, nor treat it even as a
handmade of natural science, but as the
queen regent over all our studies and our
lives; our richest possession in time, our
only hope for eternity" Hc wished for
the ear of every man of wealth in this
begrimed and busy city, and exclaimed
20, that ths great beat of our trip-ham-
mers, and the busy ring of our anvil, and
the rattle of our machinery, and the buzz,
and whirl, and roar of our busy life could
be arrested long enough to make man feel
THAT investments for mind and heart yield
a richer return and pay a better per cent.
than Investments for stomach and pocket
that this community would be far more
advanced to-day, even in its material in
tcrcsts, If its accumulated wealth, long
ago, had been freely given to build up a
university for young men and a college
for young women, that should have COM
PEELED for the State and nation their rec
oguition as among the foremost and most
distinguished of the homes Of seience
and of sanctifed scholarship in the land. "
Mr.. johnson then briefly discussed
the nronos;tiou that the individual should