The Portland daily press., 1898-04-29
LAWL ESS.
Rev. Mr.. Wright's Fast Day Sermon at St.
Lawrence Church.

At st. Lawrence church last evening
there was union service held of the
church and the Congress St. Methodist.
Both pastors, Rev. Messrs. A. II, Wright
and W. f. Berry, were present, and there
was large congregation. The music
| was fine.
| MIR. Wright took for his text John
IIII:4-"Every one that doeth sin doeth
also lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. "
The preacher said that it was well that
| this proclamation for day OF fasbing
and prayer came close on the Nation S
proclamation of war. and it would be
still better if the spirit OF prayer should
possess the Nations heart and solemnize
and sanctify the rampant war spirit.
There is noble spirit of loyalty to the
government manifesting itself today in
the heart OF the people, but it is allied
with a spirit of deep regret and sadness.
1t was the strong hope of the nation that
the war would besaverted, and that peace
full arbitration would prevail. We have
been plunged into war with Spain many
say by the hot temper of our Congress,
but how do we know that the invisible
hand of Providence has not led us into
this unwelcome contlct that the nation
may be Gods servant to draw the sword
to do His will and his wish as the
Assyrians were his servants to humble
recreant Isreal. God grant that it may
not prove itself to be in the eyes of the
CIT nf nr
conquest but holy unselffish war for
the welfare of humanity and the world.
If every lawless spirit could realize the
truth of the text it would cause all wars
to cease. Lawlessness is the essence of
sin; it leads to the transgression of all
law, human and divine In domestic life
it wrecks thousands of peaceful homes
every year. 1t conspires against the leg
islation that protects the home from the
saloon and brothe1 and the preservation
of q Christian Sabbath, and growing
power of women. 1t is entrenched in our
noble institutions of learning where deeds
of violence are perpetrated against per-
sons and property. 1t breaks out in our
Legislative halls in exhibitions Of insane
wrath that causes the nation unspeakable
shame.
The speaker said he especially wished
| to call attention at this time to the
Juvenile lawlessness that prevails to-day,
/ where boys and girls meet together In
the public streets after nightfal1 in
the glare of the electric lights training
themselves in vandalism and vice. Only
| the other day Prof. Charles Eliot Norton
felt called upon to sound an alarm against
"Hoodlum1sm. When the chief of police
of Massachusetts, attention was called to
the matter and his opinion asked he at
tributed the trouble to the fact that SO
many parents are lax in the bringing up
of their children and called attention to
the streets of the city at night where the
lads were taking lessons in "Hoodlum-
ISM" 1t seems to me, said the speaker,
that this irresponsible, unchecked and
UNPUBLISHED lawlessness is deplorable
prophecy of the future of the state and
nation. The beginning of the trouble is
in the homo and the spirit of lawlessness
often overcomes the benefcent teachings
of the Sunday school because it is learned
| in the home. Some faithful teachers have
had to give up their classes in despair.
| OF the 81 or more millions of Protestant
school children in the United States more
than l11-2 are outside all Sunday
School influence, outside of Christian
homes and destitute of moral instruc-
! ton.
What are the remedies? 1st, More prac-
tical and persistent efforts to reform the
home from which the evil emanates. ID.
| The aims of our Sunday schools must be
changed. Let them always be religious
school and strive to gather in the I'M
taught children of irreligious and neglect
| full families. Sd. We must insist on sys-
/ tematic moral training in the public
1 schools. The state requires morality as
4 we'll as intelligence in it's citizens. 1t is
/ we'll that neither our religion or our NOR
ality demands that the Bible should be
studied as q text book in the schools or
used as a manual of devotion. But one
thing we should not conDede; the duty OF
personal obligation to the Supreme Being
must not be eliminated from the moral
GrdlnluG OF UU6 puUllC sOAooA' Ah'S AoIAAs
the basis of all pure and permanent NOR
ality. Herbert Spencer insists that the
altruistic feeling must be cultivated as
the great hope of sound and we'll bal
anced education. Other great educators
take Spencer's views This is simply a
plea for the teaching of goddess morality
in the public schools
The true theory of education is the re.
ligious theory, viz: Subdue nature and
make her the servant of intelligence and
will in the moral training of mind and
heart. Character building is the.end OF
all learning. President Elliott of Harvard
the oher day spoke of this effect. Oul
school methods should be established for
the formation Of right character as wei
as the cultivation of strong intellect. AL
highly educated Intelligent men are moi
necessarily moral. The school must de
the work that unworthy homes and the
IGNORANT narents fail to do, t~e,s