Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1876-02-24
CKURCH---STATE--SCHOOL.
Bishop McQuaid Oh the Public
school System---EXfracfs Of His
Sunday Lecture i'm Boston.


1t is conceded by Free Religionists, by tht
ablest Of the secular press, by many repre-
t sentative ministers of the Evangelical church
eS, and by large numbers of the people, tha
to tax Catholics, Jews and Infidels for schools
In which the Bible is read and religious exer
cises are held, is wrong, an act of injustice
form of tyranny. So understanding thu
case, the cities of Troy, Rochester, Cincinnati
and Chicago have forbidden religious services
Of any description in their common schools
This is confession that would not have beer
made thirty years ago. 1t is partial repara
ton of the past. The Catholic, however, is
equally unwilling to transfer the responsible
ity of the education of his children to the
State. His conscience Informs him that the
State is an incompetent agent to fulfill his
parental duties. While the whisperings OF
his conscience are clear and unmistakable in
their dictates, it pleases him to hear what
others, non-Catholics, have to say on this inn
portant aspect of the subject. Herbert
Spencer, Gerrit Smith,, and the New York
Journal Of Commerce were cited in support of
this view) Our argument now is with the
Secularists, pure and simple. What is meant
by secularism in the schools? President
Grant defines it to mean the exclusion from
the schools of the teaching of any religious,
atheistic, or pagan tenet. Evidently the Pres
ident has never been school teacher, or has
never tried to teach anything, save the multi
plication table TO bright, intelli-
gent boy, brought up in q Christian
family, on the plan here laid down.
Commanding armies, handling a hun
dred thousand men, is child's play in compar-
isen- God, Christ, sin, conscience, religion,
heaven, hell, would meet him at every turn,
and to flank them successfully, without in
sinusting Christian, a pagan, Or an atheistic
tendency of thought, would give him more
trouble than he experienced in outflanKing the
strongest army that ever met him on his on
ward marches. The teacher who honestly
means to teach according to the principles of
secularism will find himself in continual en-
barrassment. If he but mentions the name of
God, of Christ, with reverence, he leads his
bright pupils to infer that such being exists;
if ne invades question about God, he indi-
Gates doubt; if he speaks the name with a
sneer on his lip, or shrug of the shoulders,
he inculcates to young, impressible minds, his
contempt for such a belief. Secularists must
not attempt to escape the logic of their own
demands. They ask, in the language of the
President, the exclusion of all religious, athe-
istic and pagan tenets from State schools, and
where this doctrine lands them they must be
pleased to stand. They scout the idea that
merely excluding the Bible means secularism.
This is the vain hope of Evangelicals, and
that with this concession they will be left free
to make compilations from the Bible-elegant
extracts-to keep up appearances. They do
not comprehend the nature of the controversy.
The dread of "Popery" blinds them. They
will not be let off without swallowing. in all
its bitterness, this pill which they have helped
prepare.
SECTARIANIsM.
The greatest abuse Of language is in the
popular meaning of the word sectarian. On
the frenzied brain of many it acts like the cry
of :'mad dog" in a crowded street. Who in
quires into its signifcation Light thrown
on it would only weaken its power for mis-
chief. The analyzation of the word by John
c. Spencer, Secretary of State of New York.
and one of the ablest lawyers the State has
produced, dissects it thoroughly, and exposes
the erroneous sense in which it is used. After
saying that ''Religious doctrines of vital in
tcrest will be inculcated, not as theological
exercises, but incidentally, in the course of
literary and scientific instruction" and that
such teachings are sectarian, he goes on to
say: ''It is believed to be an error to suppose
that the absence of all religious instruction, if
it were practicable, is mode of avoiding sec
tarianism. On the contrary, it would be in
itself sectarian, because it would be conso-
nant to the views of particular class, and
opposed to the opinions of other classes. \ n \
His only purpose is to show the mistake of
those who suppose they may avoid sectarian-
ism by avoiding all religious instruction"
The public school system, as advocated by
many to be imposed on all the citizens of this
Republic is nothing else, in my judgment,
than huge conspiracy against religion, in
dividual liberty and enterprise, and parental
rights. 1t is monopoly on the part of the
state, usurping to itself the entire control OF
The teachers business, driving out competi-
tion, herding the children together in large
numbers, working all alike as so many bits of
machinery, instead of having them in smaller,
family and neighborhood schools, acting on
the children according to individual character,