St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-01-04
DUNN'S DELIVERY.
Eloquent Sermon on the Training of Our
Children.
Necessity of Samaritan Work Among
the Idle and Ignorant.
General Church Gossip--stillwater
News--PersonaI Points.

General Church Gossip--stiIlwater
News--PersonaI Points.
Rev DR.. Dunn delivered the third Of a
series of lectures in the Methodist Episcopal
church last night TO the young people. The
subject was, Our Children and Youth in
Their Relation to Our City's Future. or the
Children on the Streets. The church was
crowded and the lecture listened TO with in
tense interest from the beginning TO the
end. The following is an outline Of the
excellent lecture:
In prophetic vision the seer saw the typi-
cal city Of to-day when he wrote: And
the streets of the city shall be full OF boys
and girls playing in the streets thereof. F"
The children in the streets Of a city are an
index of a city's character. and largely
affect the morals of il, while the habits of
Incidence and crime formed by the young
are the germs of future desolatiOn 10 them
and the generations following. The infiu-
ence, examples and precepts of street life
are against moral living and perfect habits.
Were this not true the highways of city
would be as safe as the homes for the sports
of childhood. Zechariah called Jerusalem
"a city Of truth" in which Gods laws were
obeyed. Give us such a city, in which
Christianity gets an even chance with evil,
and we will soon have a city in whose
streets it will be safe for young children TO
play, and where your young men will find
protection and help. Give US a city
of rural principles, let us have
the help of parents, and our city
would not be much improved by st. Johns
heaven with golden streets and gates OF
pearl. And science, philosophy and law,
singlY or combined. are poweries to achieve
great things in this work. Increasing in
ventions. or perfecting your laws, or so
equaliZing property that not poor family
may be found amid your city, all these are
poor substances for the principles OF truth
which must perneate and regulate the
youth about our streets, if we would make
them what they should become and secure
our city's future. You must make char
acter, beginning early, where life begins, in
the child. The Scotch have a proverb,
''an ounce of mother is worth pound OF
clergy" The influence of the home Is not
computed. And it is among the children of
the so-called
DANGEROUS CLASSES
that this formation of character must
especially be begun and completed. We are
taxed for criminals and pay out large sums
for their support, while the youth of our
cities, from whom these criminals mostly
come, we studiOusly neglect. We pay little
attention to the boys until they
commit some crime, which sud
denly awakens us, and then
we punish them for our neglect.
The legislature has the power to place an
offender behind the bars. 1t has the right
also to provide work and instruction for the
vagrant children running on our streets,
but waits until the boy has broken some
law which makes him eligible TO the priyil-
eye of work and training. Why not save
him before this arrest? Crime moves from
bottom to top in society. 1t commences
with early life. BY placing principles of
truth and honor before the boy you avoid
the crime. These thousands of children in
our streets can be reached, not by legisla-
ton altogether. but by using christian
truth, which works only by its own agen-
cies, one of which is the Christian Sabbath.
When we let the Sabbath go, we let go the
children. We can never care for our youth,
as a city, without this day. When your
streets are lined with saloons and other evil
influences. il is plain that these streets are
unsafe places for your boys and girls. Nor
can the church ChristianlZe these children
when she is hindered. and when the city Is
without sympathy in her mission, and while
her Sabbaths, the channels of her influence,
are legally profaned and unprotected. Is
the church not crippled in her energies over
the young people who. while they attend
no school, are learning too well the habits
of idleness, ignorance and profanity? Here
the speaker showed the necessity of
SAMARITAN WORK,
and how easy il could be done by united,
willing public; that this was good field
for those to work who wish to protect the
industries of the country and to better the
condition of the workingman. Let the
laboring classes assist the churches in pro-
tecting and observing the Sabbath, which
is an agent of all true. noble work. That
political economy is the sarest and safest
which is ChristianiZed. After the recent
disclosures before this city in our police
court we dare not shut our eyes to the
perils which surround our boys. Nor can
we say we are unaware OF their
existence. Great responsibilities as cit
liens. parents and Christians are over us.
shall our voice be unheeded? The evils
which confront us are crafty and deter
mined. The time for action is at hand. If
this opportunity TO save the young passes
us unused, the very stones of our streets
will cry out to condemn US, and the hills
about us will echo to the cry. Do not by
common consent consign your boys and
youth to moral death, in a city whose in
fiuence should be right and whose children
should be trained for the city's future, and
for the reward of faithful servants"
DR.. Dunn's next lecture will be The Rela
tive Duties of the Employer and the En-
ployed.