The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-26
ing shaped by her influence for a good

fish is a stage through which the child
goes even now. The fetishism Of the
Semitic races is repeated in our chit
dren in every stage.
The next stage seems to be to extend.
The things outside are seen, in the
clouds, and in the folk lore we have
still maintained this idea. Water lore.
water fairies, is reproduced in wealth
of natural religion in children. The
wind and thunder gives a sense of
something real above. Children pass
through stage in which the moon has
face. They make wishes to it. 1t is
a visible deity. The moon is a near
neighbor, and it exercises a great ir-
fluence on the earth. The moon has
been a center of much moon lore. 1t IS
rather a disillusion, in view of all this
interest in the moon, to know that it is
the deadest, most embarrassing thing
in the universe. Shall we tell the child
just what the moon is, or should we
let the child pass through the expert
ence of loving the moon and pass grad
ually, as reason dawns, into the knowl-
edge of the real moon? The same is
true of the sun.
There are stories of William Tell in
Switzerland but now we know that he
never existed. He is the same as Jack
Frost, the same as Achilles; he is a sun
myth. The sun has shaped the lore OF
man. What is said to have happened
everywhere happened nowhere. The
ancient Greeks had no higher delties
than the sun and moon. The effect of
these objects in shaping the religious
consciousness of children has been uni
versal. 1t is hard to say what we
should be without it. The same is true
for all the celestial bodies.
Nature was the child's first religion,
and when we teach this, we are plant
ing religious feelings in the child.
At the dawn of adolescence, a new
sentiment comes in. The idea of other
people, the feeling that we have to die
sometime, the dawn of a. higher con-
cept, which often overlaps into tran
scendentaL
We have the high and low criticism.
but we have a new study of the Bible.
There are attempts to edit the Bible
for children, and it is seen that the
Old Testament is liked best by young
children and the New Testament for
adolescence. The stories Of virtue are
coming to have a part in child relig-
ion.
The Catholics recognized that there
was peculiar high type of heroism in
virtue, and 400 years ago began to pre-
serve the life of the heroes of virtue.
There have been attempts to edit the
lives of some of the saints for Protest
ant children.
In adolescence there should be study
of the humanities, not omit the sci
ences, but teach the humanities first.
The idea of the Sabbath must be un-
derstood from the standpoint of phi
losophy of history. 1t began in time
when man lived close to nature; it
is one day set apart to the higher life.
1t is a. day sacred to philosophy when
everybody should take the highest
views.
The church is a special place set apart
and the concensus of opinion is that it
should be on hill, should be dim and
restful. 1t should be place of refuge,
dim. The altar, sacred to many peo-
pie, is place for men to take their
highest thoughts. The confessional
has played a large part in the relig-
ions. Large colleges have boards of
advisors, which listen to what the stu
dents have to say about higher things,
and to advise them in things of philo-
sophical nature.
Confession is one of the great cults
of the world; it is one of the cures.
Numbers of diseases start from moral
causes, and to obtain confession from
the patients will often cure them
We have a great many conceptions of
an ideal church 1t would not be q
church to suit everybody. 1t would be
endowed; the result of careful study
as to location, to decoration,
arrangement, music, the reading, what
should be read, the prayers
Prayer is an attempt to supplement
the actual experiences of life by a con-
ception Of the ideals. Our hymns are
unpedagogical, archaic, sometimes act
ually fetishistical The hymns of the
future need careful pedagogical study.
The music of the church is sometimes
neuratic and exciting, giving fatigue
instead of rest.
About missionaries, how can funerals
be made most comforting to the mourn
ing friends and to tell what is best
IN the life of the deceased?
me Catholic university at Washing
ton has mapped out several courses
which are full Of import on the new line
of theological teaching. We have a
great deal of the study of sociology in
our theological schools, and MANY 81
them are beginning to establish psy-
GEOLOGY and philosophy. In one dfrec-
ton the most advanced work is heinz
done in Paris, in the Museum Guinet
where the professors are engaged in
gatherlng the best of comparative re-
llglon. The spirit Of liberation seems
to be born there.
Religious views must always have
presented to them something that has
greater promise, or the views will NOT
cnange: Religion appeals to the heart
The school educates the head but
nothing but religion can educate tbe
neart. The more we come to know Of
religion we know that it is the senti-
ment. The new psychology has restated
what the philosophy of religion really
is.
We have. the eo-Chr1stian movement
in France, where 500 students are band
ed together to live pure lives and to be
reverent, be religious without regard to
| seotarian differences
The Vedouta philosophy Of India car
RES on the sentiments of the Veddas
and gives higher philosophy, and Max
Mueller says that this is the best edu-
eaton and we in America need it. Every
one VINO has been a college teacher
knows what struggle some young men
go through with in the passing from
the faiths of the childhood to the higher
thoughts. This is what the r1eo- Chris
tan Is trying to do.
There Is a great deal OF literature
which deals with the transcendental
that there is transcendant world
where all things are different from
| things in this world
The historical uses of the transcen-
dental world are eminent. 1t gives a
leverage on the soul such as nothing
else had done. This began in the idea
of animism, then to rewards and pun
ishment. There has been an attempt 10
coordinate these ranscendentalisms
and this is the best test of an ethmic
stock, to make monotheism of polythe-
isms.
There is a great new field here that
is beginning to shed out rays of pro-
mise, and no education Is complete
which does not include religion. Relig-