Mexico weekly ledger., 1891-06-18
CHURCH AND STATE.
j. N. Basket VS.. DIR. Cave-A
Splendid Christian Paper,
Worthy Close Study.

Worthy q Close Study.
]. N. Basket, of this city, who
is a member of the Board of Cura-
tors of Central College, Fayette,
Missouri, responded to the toast,
Church..and State, at the Aristotelian
banquet in Fayette last week. The
Howard County Advertiser pub.
fishes his toast and says:
Below we give space to the toast
delivered by Hon. J. N. Basket,
of Mexico, No.. Mr.. Basket is a
member of the Board of Curators
OF Central College, and is a con-
tributor to some of the best pc
riodlcals in this country. His oc.
casional contributions IN the South
ern Methodist Review easily rank
him as a literateur.
CHURCH AND STATE.
Mr.. Toast-master, and members
of the Aristotelian Society:
This subject is one specially con-
genial to me. 1t may be that the
tendencies that 1 shall antagonize
are within themselves suicidal or
already daed, but am in the posi-.
ton of the boy that a man found
pounding a lifeless woodchuck. He
said, "My son, why are you beat
ing that woodchuck? He is already
dead" "Maybe he is" said the
boy. "But I want him to know
there is hereafter"
Aside from salvation, education
has been the great need of every
age. Secondary and subordinate
to the former it may be the means
of mans highest good; but an edu-
cation that conflicts with the first
great blessing can be nothing but a
curse.
The Church and the State! Here
are two great agencies interested
alike in a common cause, the one
the highest expression of earthly
altruism, the other the noblest in
stitution of human self-interest.
Widely contrasted as they seem,
He who taught that to lose life was
to save it taught that the grandest
polity of self-interest lay in the
most abandoned self-denial. AL
truism was the genius of the Man
of Gsllilee.
So, while Church and State may
have different provinces in this
matter they should never differ in
end and purpose. Some one has
recently said that the precepts of
Jesus Christ cannot be applied to
the policies of State; that if the
citizens of a nation were of the
kind that turned the other cheek
when one was smitten, that country
could not long maintain its inde-
pendence, but we forget that the
education of the individual in
strict conformity to the Sermon on
the Mount will educate the smiter
out, and that throughout the earth
the socialism of applied Christian
lty is the true ideal Of the State.
The highest organization of society
cannot resist the Nazarene though
it take them at secondhand and
credit them to other sources.
What, then, is the cause of
the apparent antagonism to the
chureh's influence in the channels
of public education2 Practically
it is largely due to jealousies of
sectarianism. Eliminate denomi-
national strife and the purpose of
Church and State are one in this
matter of common good. Let Pro-
testant Christianity-the Christ
ianity that glories in the education
of the masses, that is not afraid of
the education of the masses-let
this agree upon concensls of the
teachings of Gods Word and
throw it upon the State, thus en-.
dowing it with system of ethics
that all the 'osophies of the earth
cannot equal. 1t has been decided
in supreme courts that the Bible
can be used in public schools as a
textbook on morality. Morality
is surely public need; why
should not the State teach il? The
moral purity of the citizen is the
bulwark of our stability, and the
burthen of our political wailing is
the corruption in high and low
places. Why, then, at least should
not the State establish chairs of
manhood in its public institutions?
| Gan its interaata Ea daoDar in o,y