The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-10-19
Or. Thompson Thinks His
Doctrines Dangerous.
A PLEA FOR IGNORANCE
HIS LECTURE ON CHRISTIAN ED
UCATIoN CRITICISED.
COVERT DEFENSE OF GOLD STANDARD
Sermon at Central Methodist Church Sunday
Morning A Bible Prepared For the
Public Schools Danger.
Gus Book.

Public Schools Danger
GUS Book.
Rev. Jno. C. Kilgo. DID,. president of
Trinity College, preached sermon Sun
day morning at Central Methodist
church on 1.-The Resurrection" and at
1ignt lectured at Edenton Street Metho-
dist church on "Christian Education"
The lecture created a profound sensa-
ton and was much discussed and Sc
verely criticised yesterday.
He began with a tribue to the Chris
tan religion No religion could super
eeed the Christian. If this is a failure.
the problem of the world would be a
failure. All other processes had failed.
"I'm tired of this going up and down
the country crying out that this nation
is going to the bad. Anybody can criti-
else. 1t takes neither brains nor char
acter to find fault with existing condi-
tons. / want somebody who can give a
remedy. I'm sick of men bowling ca
tamity and stirring up the people. Ii
you can't solve the problem quit max
ing them. Quit this eternal mourning
and crying hard times.
"These are not ignorant men, either,
who ara doing this wailing; they are
educated men. They are not fools. You
never find dynamite in the hands of
negro"
HeIe le took a whack at calamity
hoalers ana labor agitators.
He spok9 Of North Carolina and its IL
htelacy, ami yet he said he preferred
North Carolina with her illiteracy to
Massachusetts with her loose morals
and catalogue of crime. He was not
afraid Of iliteracy so much as education
without Christ. He considered the
swamp negro and the ignorant noun
taineer less dangerous to the body po-
Lite than a sharp, shrewd, educated bad
man. No education was better than a
non-Christian education.
Ignorance is not the cause of crime,
it's meanness. Your education will not
get rid of the meanness. 1t may develop
it unless the education is Christian edu-
cation. Christian education cannot be
got from q school whose teachers are
simply Christians. 1t is to be had only
from cshools whose teachers are Chris
tians and whose foundations are laid for
the sole purpose of giving Christian ed
ucation."
He said, in the course of his lecture,
that Trinity had made very great prog
ress. Whereas six years ago it was val
ued at only $4,000, row is $4OO, 900;
that it's attendance is better than at any
former time in its history and that the
boys are about as well behaved and NOR
al as any like number Of boys you'll find
anywhere; as good, indeed, as you can
expect under tile circumstances.
The hope Of Christian education, be
said, was through UNCONVENTIONAL
schools, and that -he church should do
the teaching to the exclusion of other
systems of education. The Baptist,
and Presbyterians were eulogized in
glowing terms of what they were doing
towards Christian education.
DIR. THOMPSON'S CRITICISM.
These sentiments and others in the
lecture were much discussed yesterday
Secretary of State Thompson, Attorney
General Walser, Superintendent Mebane
and others being especially sharp in their
criticism.
Asked what he thought of the lecture,
DIR. Thompson, Secretary Of State, and u
leading member of the Methodist church
said:
II went especially to hear and to de-
termine for myself whether the criti-
cisms which have been made to me upon
DR.. Kilgo's lectures on christian Ed
ucation'' were just or unjust to him. 1
listened to him carefully. At first
thought he had been misrepresented. As
he went on and concluded, / was con-
WINGED that, as had been reported to me,
there were four things in his address,
to wit: ~ A covert plea for monomet-
alism; (2) a somewhat holder plea for
monopoly; 81 heartless attack upon the
university and public education; az d
very eloquent and masterful plea for
ignorance.
''No other conclusion can be derived
from his address than that he is at var
lance with and opposed to the funda-
mental principle of personal liberty
which is the very germinal idea of all
this great American republic. He finds
fault with the religious federation of our
constitution, while at the same time he
appeals to Methodists to stand by Trim
ity to Presbyter:ans to stand by David
son and the Baptists to stand by Wake
Forest
'If he had lived in King James time
and could have preached before him, the
king would have wanted no better adj
vocate of the divine right of kings and
would have made Of him not only a
bishop. but an archbishop. If he knows
he seems to care nothing for popular
oppression or human misery. He pleads
for every existing political evil, emitting
the liquor traffic. Any cry of burdened
humanity, I gather from his address,
awakes in him only the ennui Of the
well.fed churchman, who would cry
peace when there is no peace. In the
face of all that DIR. Josiah Strong has
said. from the standpoint of a loving
and broad minded Christian soul. DR..
Kilgo cries ont: L am tired Of having
men. with their hands upon the fevercd
brow and pulse Of this nation predicting
evil
"With all the eloquence he can COM
mand he CRIES: 'Hushp in the face of ev-
cry wall of human bitterness. He damns
the spirit of discomfort with present
attainments-discont which alone
-. b;r+b m prouraSS and phOph q lac