The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1874-10-04

| food it dies too. But the death of the soul
| is far, far worse than that of the body, for
| the death of the soul is the utter destruc-
| tion of the whole man, body and soul.
What are the food and clothing OF the soul
I answer, the food and clothing of the soul
of man is education. Unless you instruct
the child and improve it to fulfil the pur-
poses for which it was sent on earth, yon
give it over to a certain and speedy death.
For the mind of man was made to be i'm
proved that he might know.
AND TO KNOW is THE GREAT AIM OF MAN.
If you do not educate the mind, you
greatly destroy its power. And what is
the consequence The consequence is that
the child grows up an ignorant and savage
man. The body grove as the child comes
to youth, and the youth to manhood; and
in the growth is only to be observed an un-
instructed ard debased nature. And how
could it be otherwise for the growth and
nourishment of the soul is education. The
soul remains in it's infant state, though the
body grew-in its infant state of i'm becility
and darkness. No food of light was
thrown upon it, no generous impulses were
instilled into it. No sweet influences sancti
fed it, no tender thoughts or purposes
we're implanted upon it. 1t remains still
in the dark because uneducated. Oh, what
is the man who has grown up in such
state and with such soul Without any
hnO"leuBS 10 Sulu0 d SldNo u HIS US-
based inclinations and passions without
good or holy thought to direct him to good,
or prevent him from evil. He has fallen to
be the basest of creatures, and on q level
with the mere brute. You have indeed the
man, but you have nothing but the mere
corporeal body. What follows from this
1t follows that such man, utterly unin-
structed, is the enemy of society. For all
human society is based upon respect for
law and order but this ignorant man can
not respect the law, of which he knows
nothing. He has no idea of it, further per
haps than an indistinct notion that it by
force restraints his angry passions when they
interfere with his neighbor. That unedn-
Gated man turns upon society fiercely when
it endeavors to curb him. He hates it, and
he becomes criminal man. More than
this, he cannot go out from himself, for he
has gone against the purposes of law and
order and feels guilty. And when he looks
in upon himself, oh, he finds so~ittle there,
for his soul has never been enlightened;
he has never received any education. His
bad passions rise before him, for Eis good
principles have long been trampled away.
Every thing good aud noble falls away
under the terrible slavery of his passions.
He loses all that had made him the image
of God. My brethren, do you believe all
this Oh, look behind you little into the
past. Who were the men who raised dis
turbances in the best cities of continental
Europe, and by mere brute force brought
ruin and disgrace upon those nations that
owned them They we're the ignorant, the
aeglected children who had never received
ray of knowledge.
WELL, EDUCATION COMES IN AND HEALS ALL
THIS
world says it must be training of the
mind to all knowledge, and then all is COM
pleted. Give US education, say these men
of the day give US knowledge; we ask no
more. We ask no more! Will this do
Will this do to those people what the God
of knowledge intended them to bef Ah,
no! Ignorance is great enemy to the
kingdom of God. The mere education that
only develops the mind of man is not
enough. True, it gives him power; for
education is power, it is true. But educa-
tion alone, without religion, does not teach
man true power. 1t does not give him
strength to suppress his passions-it does
not save him from sin--it does not teach
and improve his moral powers; it leaves
the moral part untouched. or what avail
is such sn education to our children Z Will
it make them better conducted No, for
some of our best educated men are the
worst conducted, the greatest Williams that
are on the earth! Will such an education
made our children chastef No, for educa-
cation does not make a man curb up his
passion. No, for some of the best educated
men in the world have been of the most
impure lives. When was the world 80 edu-
Gated as in the famous reign when Christ
was on the earth Z The arts and sciences
were flourishing, and Greece and Rome
were in all their=maiesty, and in all tLeir
strength of learning and perfection of
knowledge, to which men are at present
but striving to attain. But the times then
were bad the people were debauched; St.
Paul said they had not God amongst them !;
they were guilty of crimes which were so
great that am forbidden to mention, and
you are not to hear them. They were en-
tirely reprobate. Oh, my dearly beloved
friends, of what avail is it to US that our
children should have such knowledge, such
education Such knowledge as gives no
revivifying principles4 What avail is it to
us that each and every child amongst us
should be educated it that would only
make him the
MORE CLEVER IN HIS IN1QUITY, IN HIS SIN !!
But there is another important point 10 au
educational system, and it is that which
lays hold of the young child, and takes