Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1891-11-09

training; it is to be feared that the best of
homes too frequently furnish them. And
this spirit of selfishness in home govern
ment is productive of a code of morals
amazing in its contradictions. Freely,
but ingeniously expressed. it would run in
part as follows: "My son, honesty is the
best policy but business is business;
therefore, do not be fool and let a good
bargain slip by being overscrupulous.
Blessed are the peacemakers,' but if an
other boy strikes you or insults you don't
be arcoward; knock him down, even if he
strikes you in return. Be a man, for this
is noble. Remember the Sabbath day to
keep it holy therefore do not make a
noise, for it disturbs me. Remember
that the Sabbath was made for man, and
not man for the Sabbath therefore, if
the weather is fine and fishing is good, let
us go a-fishing." Hence, repeat, that the
Sunday school as one department of the
church must hold up the true ideal of mo-
rality and religion.
What kind of laborers we shall make in
this portion of our Lords vineyard de-
depends very largely upon our conception
of the work and our deep realization of
its needs. When the electricians strung
the electric wires through Bsrtholdi's
Statue of Liberty, it was not for the sake
of putting the wires through it; not even
for the sake of conducting the electric
current, but in order that the torch in
Liberty hand might flash the light over
land and sea- And SO the work of the
teacher is not for the sake of the work
alone; still less for the sake of maintain
ing the Sunday school, but to kindle, by
divine help, a light within souls that by
and by shall flood with its benefeent in
fluences the world of society, business and
pp1ifiaS Politicians at t'Sun-
day school politics" but the world is rap
idly waking up to the fact that the perpet
uity and prosperity of the state will de-
pend more and more upon Sunday school
politics"
Uncompromising skeptics acknowledge
the necessity of the church to the state as
police agency if nothing higher. Re
spectacle men would not like to settle in a
community where there is no church.
Every pastor knows that many times the
Sunday school serves as an open door into
the church. DR.. Stephen II. Tying said
that in thirty one years of experience as a
city pastor he received into the church
over three hundred directly from the Sun
day school, and believed that two hundred
more, at least, were added because of
the previous influence of the Sunday
school, DR.. Archibald Maclay, once
pastor in New York, says that during
ten years five hundred We're added to the
church through the Sunday school, eight
cen of whom became ministers of the gos-
pei Scores of ministers could bear like
testimony.
To bring the morally untutored and
neglected children into the Sunday school,
where at the most receptive and impress
sionable age they are instructed in what
men of all shades of opinion concede to
be the most exalted standard of ethics,
viz, the ethics of Jesus Christ, is directly
and incalculably to benefit the state, and
to insure its permanence by solidifying its
foundation and superstructure. The eth
les of Christ are the cement of society
the mortar that holds the materials of the
state together. To many this will seem
the merest truism; but, like many anoth-
er, it needs to be kept to the front, that
the Sunday school may find that support
in motives of patriotism that it fails to
receive in some quarters on the grounds
of religion. a. S. GUMBART.