Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-10-14

find place. No child should be compelled to
read it who objects. but no child should be
forbidden to read it who desires Secularism
must not be allowed to become as in France it
is. and &C in Victoria it has been. a fetish and
a tyranny. If l had time / might point out
that the peril of higher education, the educa-
ton of our colleges and universities. is that
1t sleeps the memory and Inauguration
of our youth in what are too often
the foul waters of heather literature. Authors
are read and studied in our universities under
the disguise of dead languages, which. if
printed IN honest English would be prosecuted
by the Society for the Suppression of Vice and
Heather Ideals, of craftsmanship, of conduct
| of public duty, are thus impressed upon the
minds of those who in future years have a
place in what are called the ruling
classes. l must, however, conclude by say
ing that in the religious training of the young
there are in brief three problems. First, how
to use for childhood the great teaching func-
ton of the church itself and to make Christ 8
church shelter and school and home of chill
dren everywhere. Second, how to keep the
ideal of parenthood clear and high and in har-
mony with Gods own plan. And third, how to
insure that the new education, which like a
tide is flowing through all the channels of mod
ern civilized life, shall flow Christward.
MR.. APpLEGEr ON "rHE FAMILY"
'The Family" was the topic of the first IN
vited address of the morning. 1t was by Rev.
Thomas Appleget, president of the New Jersey
conference, Methodist Protestant church. In
the course of his remarks Mr.. Appleget said:
Il am to speak of the family as u factor in
the religious training Of children. l cannot
then eucroach upon the discussion OF tomor-
| row, when the training of children outside OF
lence upon the subject of mission schools and
children's homes be interpreted as showing any
lack of hearty sympathy in the work OF those
| noble men ami women wLc are doing SO much
| to find homes for the homeless and to rescue
| the forsaken. the neglected and the fallen
| My only theme Is the family relation with ref
| erence to the salvation of the young in Chris
tian families
..Methodism has always been a household re.
hgion. II one change more than another came
| to England in the revival OF 1885, and to the
| world since, it was not in the theological iusti
| tutions nor in churches so much as in the home
| aspect of religious life. The home circle be.
| came at once prayer circle and a love feast
John Wesley learned religious truth and gained
the impulses of vital piety at the knee Of his de-
vout mother. and most appropriately has one
great branch of Methodism honored its mos,
recent and most promising organization OF
young people by giving it the name of that
| Epworth home.
"God gave the child to the parent and says
nurse it for me. God lays the duty on the
| church, and says: OF such is the Kingdom
suffer the little ones to come; feed my lambs.
| And just SO far as any effort for the spiritual
| training of the child recognizes that the duty
OF such training begins at home on the one side
and the object of such training is to be church
| membership and religious life at the other
only SO far can there be strength and safety In
| the effort.
Let Christian parents and the Christian
Church remember that the blessing promised
| to you and to your children can only be fully
secured when the sacred and solemn obliea-
tons of the parental relation are fully realized
and the tender ties Of tho home circle are M DOL
| carefully protected.
| I'm the holy ordinance which makes of twain
| one flesh; in the abiding love and tender pity
of parents for children: in the quiet and retire
ment Of Christian homes; in the sweet com
munion of. freside affections; in the gentle re
| straints Of the household; in mothers kiss and
father counsel; in the daily reading of thu
family Bible; in the sacred breathings AROUND
the family altar, here are the springs of thu
great river which is to bear our children int<
the church and unto good. And every blow
at the natural or legal protection Of these deal
! home interests is vandsl act: ,
| crime that must bring to society and tn.
church its certain and banefnl result Well tfer
may the Christian look with horror 1t the con
stantly increasing tendency to loosen the mar
riage tie, and am glad that 1t has come TO pas
that an American judge. in one OF these Unite<
States, has dared to say: There can be M
legal dissolution Of the marriage tie except b,
death in the state Of Georgia
| ''ls there not growing tendency to abandon
! that good old Aethodist custom Of takinI