The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1868-05-27

their denominational schools and are SLOW
ly but surely absorbing much OF our pest
material. These schools are snowy, attrac-
tive and cheap, aud our people send tneir
children, especially their daughters TO tnem'
from various motives, at that precise Stage
of life when the deepest impressions are
made. Removed from the influence OF their
own Church, and subjected to other iorms
and teachings, the attachments that new
tably spring up in the school are trans
ferred to the Church, and when they settle
in life, they abandon the Church OF their
parents and unite with that of their teacn-
ers and are thus lost to us permanently. LIS
this stranger Is it not the simple WORK
ing of that great law on which all education
rests, that as a child is trained, SO Will 1t
go as the twig is bent, SO the tree Is IN
clined The losses to our Church WITHIN
the last thirty or forty years from thus
source would startle us if the STATISTICS
were presented. There are single chprches
In our connection that have lost II that
time nearly the numberof their present
f6sssb erskiB, sjasf - i1LzHay. The loss
has been 50 gradual hi 1t has mot
been noticed, but the aggregate Is s1lor-.
nous if it were summed up. Let any pas
tor take his church register and trace the
history and present relationships of all the
families belonging to it for thirty or forty
years, and the result will amaze him. This
loss is due mainly to this educational in
fuence in some form. Presbyterians weak
ly Welded to the clamor against what was
called "sectarian education," more than
other Churches, and the practical result has
been simply to transfer large number OF
their children to "sectarian education"
of another kind, such as they could not ap-
prove, whilst they gained nothing of value
for what they thus lost. The amount OF
this influence is vastly greater than most
persons are aware.
A recent article in one of the most in
fuential monthlies of the day, designed to
show how admirably the Roman Catholic
system is working in its aggressive move
ments in this country, describes in glowing
terms the snowy attractions of the convent
and parochial schools, and states as the re-
suit of actual investigation, that Gone
fourth, and perhaps one-third of all the
pupils in them are children of Protestant
:" and further on adds that, "pro-
badly seven of these Protestant pupils out
of ten become Catholics sooner or later"
If this be true, can any one wonder at the
growth of the Church of Rome. Now add
to these losses those caused by other de-
schools, and the result will
show the annual sacrifice that our Church
is making by its abandonment so largely of
the principle of denominational schools,
primary schools, and female
schools of a higher order. There is no
finer tribute to the wonderful energy of our
Church, and to its steady growth, than that
it should have borne so long and SO well
such drain as this, drain that will con-
tinue until we provide schools of our own,
where our children shall not be educated
tn he icnoran+ ~ oohov"aa nf tho -gr.md d-nld-
martyr Church of their fathers.
But it may be said, all this is very well
but it is too costly, and hence Utopian.-
So far is this from being true, that it is not
nearly so costly as the present system, con-
the work done. The water that
now flows idly through meandering channels
in neglected meadows, if gathered into a
mill-race and turned upon turbine wheel,
will do the work of thousand men, and
yet do all that it is doing now. So the
money that is given and frittered away in
mere isolated, Individual action, will set
and keep in motion Divinely constructed
machinery that will do vastly more than is
done now by this wasteful individualism.
Let the money that is now paid for chari-
table and educational purposes by the men,
bers of any given Church be collected and
used by that Church in an awakened activ-
ity and it will accomplish vastly more than
is now done, and do it better. A very SIM
pie calculation will demonstrate this clear
ly.
Let us select the church in which we are
now meeting as an illustration. Suppose
that we guarantee to the members of this
church, that we will perform all their pres
ent charities, provide good ordinary edu-
cation for all their children, support their
pastor and church enterprises as well as
they do now, provided they all give us a
weekly instalment of money, and such time
and labor as living, working church can
easily give, and not neglect a single secu-
lar duty. Might not ten persons in this
church, in that event, give $40 per week,
twenty persons $5, fifty persons So, and the
rest 81, by doing as the primitive Church
did, laying by on the first day of the week
as the Lord had prospered theml Would
this be an exacting scale! Is it not less
than some of you now give! Yet probably
few persons would be able at single con-
lecture to come near the amount that would
be raised by this single church, of four
hundred and thirty members. The amount
of these weekly instalments for one year,
from this single church, would be $36,400.
Now let the other Presbyterian churches
of the city give in the same way, and add
to that the princely donations that individ-
ual Christians of large means and large
hearts would make, and you have an ag-
gregate that is enough to educate every
child, care for every widow and orphan,
sick or friendless sufferer, save from ruiz
every outcast, penetrate every street and
alley with healthful working agencies, and
leave large surplus for wider operations.
All this you would have without feeling it,
by simply using this principle of corporate
life in the church, securing the result of
every member of the church working and
paying in that corporation just as men
work and pay in manufacturing or financial
corporations. But suppose instead of work
ing and giving without feeling it, these
members worked and gave until they did
feel it, who can compute the result then!
Here then we have the working of this