The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1875-12-03

IonaI Educational Serious Charge
An Emphatic Protest Against thc
Retention of the Bible in the
schools.
From the Brooklyn Times.
In Plymouth Church yesterday the rev
Henry Ward Beecher selected Us his
Thanksgiving sermon the question
| of the Public Schools, diScussingat length
| the problem of Religious education IN the
| schools, and declaring emphatically in IA.
vor of Secular education. Mr.. Bcecher
! announced rs his text, Isaiah XNNIIl, b:
| And Wisdom and knowledge shall be
! the stability of thy times ana strength VI
I salvation.
| At the outset Mr.. Bccchcr showed ina
| the natural tendency OF democratic inSti-
tutions and the evident drift of our age
was in the direction of universal touca-
ton. The progressive Intelligence OF the
whole Of Society is, he said, the peculiar
work OF our age. Weare not the hrSt WI"
/ thought education necessary to man, ou'
we are the first who have attempted 10
| carry out the noblcr proposition that
l.
In every age there have been efforts to ed
ucate classes of men for the public veal.
But only in our times has there been ell
fort TO educate society itself Mr.. Bcccher
then, after acknowledging the necessary
of special institutions. for instruction IN
special departments, referred to the re
uuent recurrence OF those epOchS OF en-
thusiasm known as revivalS, and said ::
We have political enthusiasm, and carry
society through most dangerous passes 10y
it. We carry society over new roads hard
and rough to travel, by enthusiasts, We
have commercial enthuSiaSmS and we
have their rcjectionS, and great depart
ments in human industry have in turn
their enthuniaSm, We have enthusiasts
in morals-by 1t temperance to-day BE-
comes a thing of national thought. we
have enthusiaSms of amuSement-n"w II
iSmusic, and all the world sings, or whiS-
ties; now il is billiards or rinc-ShootinG:
and then il is boating and batting. Now
We must have
A REVIVAL IN OUR COMMON SCHOOLS.
| We have never had an enthusiasm OF
| this nation in its Wilderness on that sub
jcct. We have the material in this na-
| ton for the most tremendous ground
swell that any nation ever felt in the
mattcr.t intelligence such rs shall max"
this nation what 1t never has been and
never will be without 1t. \ nation OF
men uneducated is like an iron mountain
whose ore is unwrought. -Four things are
necessary TO common schools: lD mat
education shall be common a2l that it shall
be- conducted so as TO enable men OF all
political faiths to unite In the system; 81
that it shall unite in sympathy all religious
sccts;, & that by its intrinsic merit 1t con-
tinuc Ia feed national confidence and nat
ional enthusiasm. In reference 10 The
first of these points, Mr.. Beecher urged the
importance ofproviding by national syS-
TEN for the educational wants of the
whole community, so that outlying and
scattered districts might have the same
educational advantages as were possessed
by large and wealthy communities. He
denounced as a shame and n crime the
system OF ovcrcrowding by which school
houses were rendered unwholesome and
the children
SUBJECTEDTO SLOW POISONING.
1t is shame, he said for the cities of
New York and Brooklyn, To make jails
and call them schools, to make holes and
call them halls, and To take teachers in
nroportion 10 their chrapneSS. Leave thc
children 1.-THE vast Democracy to IhcS"
Iaz,r-houSCSi II is an abOminat ton. In
behalf OF the great unthinking and isno,
Innt masses, ever common School Shoulu
he made 50 rich and so large that YOU can't
rn,kru private school live under 1t. We
arr. hound To make our common schools
ample because there are results poiltlchl
and social coming ola system nl cdUcatlnS
tnurthrrthc children OF all gradcSin So
cirty. orall political pRrtirs.and of all re-
/ ligiouS >rCtS. Children must learn 10 c>-
tcrrn and To SympathiZc with each other III
regard To the fundamental elements OF hu-
man life. In passing through The common
! schools, cNrrybOdy'S ounces in-puttiug
| your ounces and my ounces ana every
body 5 ounces where they don't weigh one
whit more for their name, where they are
no richer than the Spec!inE-bOok makes
them, where each has to make his place
in the school by what he is am what he
can dO-tnlS lSan infucnccthat tends 10
smooth attIitiou>, and tends 10 generate
, the SympathtcS that hold men together.
The common schools the holding trough
where We make up the old origin al batch
and the whole Of IL ought To be dough of
one kind. Swcctcn IL as you have mind
TO attcrward, but there il should be- pure
simple flour. Mr.. Beecher bitterly pro-
tested against
THE INTERFERENCE OF PETTY POLITICIANS
in the management OF the schools, de-
nourring such interference rs q sin against
tho HOLY Ghost ofintelligcncc; parties, he
drclasrtd, ought to be considered as doiuga
religious crime that undertake to put the
management of education into the hands
ufmcu with foul mouths and foul hands.
/ And when know that in places not lar
from this men have been appointed 10
the general conduct of schools who make
the qualification of their lust the pre-" OF
appointments as teachers in those schools
when know what iaVoriti>m has Dccn
used 10y those that have been put as hlsh
priests over culture, am glad that II was
enough only 10 see past the corner of the
screen. In regard 10 the question of the
BIBLE IN THE SCHOOLS.
Mr.. Bcccher said OF popular education: :
II i secular; and must be kept secular and
defended against anything that will make
ii Othert than secular. Only on TINT ground
can you have national schools. Ills not
just and fair that should be taxed for the
education of my boy when cannot send
him IN The common school f.ur Ia 10 -,