Luxemburger gazette. [volume] (Dubuque, Iowa) 1871-1918, 1893-11-21

heroes and with all the models of true
greatness furnished by history. From adj
miratiOn imitation Is but q step. Ii he
does not form Christian character, who
will? If in five days of every week and
six hours a day for seven. eight, or nine
years such a man with his ability, oppor-
tunity, and many advantages will not pre-
pare youth for manhood, who will? Will
you take the work out of his hands and
and give it over to parents, labOrers, brick
layers, carpenters, plaSterers, painters. etc ,
etc, and to many. many fathers who can
only make a flying visit to their little fami-
lies once Il week or once Il month, or to the
average priest who says, and says truly,
that he cannot get the children for instruc-
ton?
THIS FoIM OF INSANITY SEEMS TO PRE-
VAIL.
Remove religious education from the
school aud you do away with it altogether.
To refer it to the home and the church and
the Sunday school is a mock provision that
will deceive only those who are willing to
be deceived. Danish religion from the
school and you leave the intellect of the
pupil without the knowledge of God, his
heart without the love of God, his will
without motive or desire to obey or serve
God. Danish religion from the school and
you leave the supernatural or divine life of
the SOU received in baptism-the only true
life, the only life that is crowned with
glory without the nutriment and the care
that every kind of life needs. You leave
the germ of faith and love which should
grow up and acquire strength in intellect
and will in a comatose condition; you leave
the soul without moral or religious princi-
pies, and therefore without conscience.
Heaven and hell and purgatory and judg-
ment are but n~ameS-wordS, that are used
after the prevailing fashion. Meanwhile,
give the best secular education you can.
Fit a youth as best you may for what is
called success III life, for a career of pros
perity. Teach him history, and the sci
enceS and the arts, social and political
economy, natural and mental philosophy,
ETC., etc. Sharpen the intellect, enrich the
imagination, cram the memory, and what
do you do but give light and strength and
cunning, strong mental powers, to a man
without faith, or love, or conscience. That
is like giving tools TO a burglar, or firearms
to a tootpad. You prepare the way for ac-
cOmplishments which when discovered are
sometimes sent for a time for safe keeping
to states prison. With the growth of the
body that shoots up like a plant, and the
growth of the soul in secular knowledge,
the animal ~propensities gain strength daily.
Freed from all control they grow apace
What is true of one child is true of all
They have the same nature and are SINH
larry circumstanced. These appetites are
stimulated by association, fomented by the
surroundings and fed by the five senses.
The sensational novel, the columns of scan
dial in the daily papers, which are devoured
with avidity, the low theater, street scenes,
indecent pictures, and the ways of the
world, do their work in contributing to
their growth. They crave indulgence, the
same desire is on all sides. Why should
they not be gratitied, the ways of the world
followed, its pleasures enjoyed?
HI EVIL y IS NEITHER IDLE NOR IG-
NoRANT.
His suggestions succeed. Every indulgence
Is as oil on the flames which blaze more
tiercely. Demands for pleasure are more
strong and frequent; repeated acts become
a habit, and habit, like that of intemper-
ance, is a tyrant that holds its victim in the
tolls. Thus the youth of eighteen or
twenty, a graduate with honor OF some
high school or college, but at the same
time the slave of bad habits, without
faith or love or conscience passes out into
the world, into the farish day of public
life, aSsOciating with the multitudeS who
are struggling or striving for the good
things of this life, with scant respect for
the Decalogue, to complete his education
among them and become a man of the age.
Is this to be the type of the coming man,
the father and head of the Christian fam
lily, the proud citizen of the great republic?
Is it on such as he we base our hopes of
cOuntry's future, its prosperity, its
progress, its civilization? Progress and
civilization, which are the outcome of great
virtues, never were and never will be the
product of such factors. Lecturers sub
yersive of religion md morality. of the
foundation of society, because they deny
or question the existence of God, which
forty years ago, if heard accidentally.
would have been Kissed and hooted with
yirtuous indignation by an honest, Chris
tian community, are now listened 10 with
pleasure and received with thunders of APP
plauSe by tens of thousands all over the
land. Crimes are committed to-day that
excite no surprise, so common are they,
which in times within our recollection
would have so shocked the public that some
good people would begin to think that
AntichriSt was let loose and the end of the
world was at hand. Witness the mania for
suicide as the climax of great crime, the
silly reasons for its commission sometimes.
the startling methods of Self-deStruction
and their horrid originality. Public NOR
atty does not seem TO be improving, nor.
due regard being had TO varying popula-
ton, does crime seem To be decreasing.
And yet within the time before mentioned.
schools, high and low, have been multi
piled by the hundreds, they cover the land
and billions of money have been expended
on their support. Everything that can be
thought of,
SAVE THE ONE THING NECESSARY,
is done to improve them. Themselves and
the system on which they are conducted.
are lauded 70 the stars by press and pulpit,
and a certain class Of speakers and writers
point to them with pride as the bulwark of
the commonwealth. What is the matter
with public opinion? How explain facts
that stare us in the face? \ good tree does
produce bad fruit. Let people say what
they will or act as they may, education
without religion, that is without God, is
a good tree, it is a body without Il soul,
a corpse.
Even in the department of secular or sci
entiic studies it is defective. How can
you study nature properly, ii you put out
of it natures God, or the lives of men, If
you make no account of Him? Though
God was never absent from man whose BIZ
ography if history, not even for a moment,
though God was always with the race of
men, with the individual, the family, the
community, though the philosophy of his
tory is the tracing of the action of God in
society, shaping and directing its course
without detriment to free will-though
Gods Son on the cross r%edeeming the
human race is the central figure in history.
Jesus Christ yesterday, to-day and forever,
the very soul and life of it as He is of