The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1868-11-25

I'd. Now this commentary, is not to
ceproace you with inquisition or in
5ruslOn even upon the personal or
official affairs of the Board, but to
call your attention to the control it
to exert over Public Educa-
ton, You look to see whether "Re-
ligious services are allowed; and if
you had official or religious control
would not you and each of you see
strictly to it that Religious services"
were performed according to yOet' |
understanding of what true Religion
is and of what the only proper forms |
of service are? And when you three |
Pastors representing the four Protest |
ant churches of the city come to dis
cuss that issue would you, could you |
agree among yourselves? f-.I. %.
You might agree to the Rule that |
prevailed before the enactment of the
18th Rule and up to the year 1885,
That the Lords Prayer and a reading
of a chapter out of the New Testa-
ment should open the exercises IF the
different departments of the schools.
But there sit beside your children the
children of Israel, who do not ac-
knowledge Christ to be the Messiah
nor the New Testament to be a Rev.
elation at all from Jehovah.
LOdUDlGo
be represented by a cOmmitte from
some Synagogue protesting that the
Messiah has not yet come and that
they should not be called on to pray
the prayer taught by one they call a
Pretender, or to have the Testament
of an Inpostor, in their belief whom
their fathers crucifed as a Traitor to
God unworthy TO be a Teacher of
men ? This would make the Jews
retire from the Public to their own
Teachers, and burthen them with the
double tax of public and private
schools. Is that what the laws of
Ohio meant to allow? Did they not
mean rather to initiate Christ and to
draw Jew and GENTLE together for
common instruction?
3. But your second objection goes
farther. None of the members of the
Board understood that all instructions
from the Bible was to be prohibited
in the Schools. But grant for the
argument, what is not true is fact, that
all instruction from the Bible was
meant to be prohibited. What is
your sense of instruction from the
Bible? Does it mean reading simply
from the Bible? No. 1t means in
depreciation, teaching of the true text
and meaning of the Text of Scripture.
You come first to the letter and spirit
of the Old Testament. Would the
Jews have you teach any other Text
or meaning of the Prophets than
| their received version and commenta-
| ry authorized and would Christians
have you teach any other than Christ
crCcified,' to the Jews stumbling
| block and to the Greeks foolishness 2
Do you say: "Aye, Christ must be
| md fay1nhf fn oil mon at all
| hazards, ard if his name and prayer
| and testament drives out the Jews,
then let them go out" If driven out
from the schools, then the Jews must
not be taxed surely. But drive them
out, what then? 1t is a school for
christians only do you say? Christ
| ians only then should be taxed for
their support. Do you say agreed 3;
rather than not have Christ-Hot de-
MED but not acknowledged? =? Suppose
this to be the rule of law, what then ?
| Do you say the schools are for all
| Christians? Let us see than whether
| the reading or the instruction from
the Bible would suit all or any two
sects. The first chapter of the New
! Testament tells of the Birth of Christ.
of His generation and incarnation. If
must be interpreted. What christian
must tell the mystery of the "wond-
rous tale" which the "morning star
took up?" You read about this ser.
mon on the Mount. Oh how variant
from and adverse to all that human
nature ever knew or worshipped-be-
| fore in any idea or form as wisdom
and virtueI What does this plain
and simple yet cOmprehending Di.
yinity mean? None says the Catholic
can or shall tell you truly but st
Peter and his canonized successors
He alone and his church of the Apos.
ties can interpret and no other inter.
prefer is authorized or allowed, and
private Interpretation is forbidden
You come to sacraments and ceremo
malls, especially the Eucharist. Is the
bread and wine verify "BodV and
Blood ?' Who shall interpret? To
the Communion of Saints to the pray.
ers of patron saints-to the symbolic
worship of images-to the infinite
and vital questions of eternal full
salvation and of Purgatory-to the
Confessional to AbsolutiOn of Sin, In
a word, every chapter, verse and Tex
taps the "drum eclesiastic'' of embit
tered controversy between Catholic
and Protestant. Who shall have the
interpreter and teach the school
| You are Protestant Pastors and yoU
will doubtless claim that the Protes
tant interpreter shall of course. /
he alone is to teach, or give instruc
. tion, the Catholic will be driven cut
and must not be taxed, for he must
not be taxed to pay for abusing his
creed, his faith, his forms, his worship
his sense of scripture, the denial O.
his only one true church. The teach.
er being Protestant, which Protestant
Protestants are greatly divided. There
are first, PrOtestants from the church
of Rome, Calvin and Luther and
Melancthon and their cOmpeers pro.
testing against the religious services
of Popes and Cardinals and Councils
& Prelates, They did not protest
against the true Apostolic Religion o1
Rome or COnstantinople they protes
ted only against the abuses of the
Church Militant. They became sects
on the European Continent and won
from Rome the German Empire o1
Religion. The Reformation, not the
NeaO- formation of the church of Rome,
progressed to the isle of the Ocean,
and took the church in Great Britain
from Pope and handed over the
keys of Peter to the Blue Beard ty-
rant, Henrythe 8th of En- gland. The
abuses of his Popeship soon raised up
Covenanter and Congregationalist,a and
Quaker, and Presbyterian and Baptist,
and Methodist Protestants, whose
thunders uttered against the Cathe-
dral Of st. Paul at London from the
trumpets of such as John Knox and
Whitfield and Wesley, We're as loud
and crushing as those of the Reform
ers on the Continent against St. Peters
at Rome The Romish Church was
not more denounced by Calvin, than
the Episcopacy and Prelacy of the
I Church of England were reviled by
the Reformers IN Great Britain. The
English Episcopal church was partly,
especially in the State of Virginia,
established in the Colony. The Re-
formers of the English Church of
Episcopaey protested against its Di-
vine and sole authority with a burn.
ing bright zeal which consumed some
things in Religion and religious in
struction which were good and whole
some to the souls of meu, An Epis-
copacy or Prelacy, a church establish.