The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1899-05-13

Jephthah's VOW. First, he ought never
to have made it. Next, having made it,
it were better broken than kept. But
do not take on pretentious airs and say:
IL could not have done as Jephthah
did, If in former days you had been
standing on the banks of the Ganges
and you had been born in India, you
might have thrown your children to
the crocodiles. 1t is not because we are
naturally any better, but because we
have more Gospel light.
Now l make very practical use of
this question when l tell you that the
sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter was a
type of the physical, mental and spirit
ual sacrifice of 10000 children in this
day. There are parents all unwilling
ly bringing to bear upon their children
"a class of influences which will as GER
tainly ruin them as knife and torch de-
stroyed Jephthah's daughter. While /
speak, the whole nation, without emo
ton and without shame, looks upon the
stupendous sacrifice.
In the first place, | remark that much
of the system of education in our day
is a system of sacrifice. When children
spend six or seven hours in school and
then must spend two or three hours in
preparation for school the next day,
will you tell me how much time they
will have for sunshine and fresh air
and the obtaining of that eXuberance
which is necessary for the duties of
coming life? No one can feel more
thankful than do for the advancement
of common school education. The
printing of books appropriate for
schools, the multiplication of philo-
sophical apparatus, the establishment
of normal schools, which provide for
our children teachers of largest caliber,
are themes on which every philanthro-
pist ought to be congratulated. But
this herding of great multitudes of
children in ill-ventilated schoolrooms
and poorly equipped halls of instruction
is making many of the places of knowl-
edge in this country huge holocaust
Politics in many of the cities gets into
educational affairs and while the two
political parties are scrabbling for the
honors Jephthah's daughter perishes.
1t is so much so that there are many
schools in the country to-day which are
preparing tens of thousands of invalid
men and women for the future; so that.
in many places, by the time the child'a
education is finished the child is fin
ished! In many places, in many cities
of the country, there are large appro-
priations for everything else and cheer
full appropriations, but as soon as the
appropriation is to Ire made for the cdu-
cational or moral interests OF the city
we are struck through with an economy
that is well-nigh the death of us.
In my parish in Philadelphia little
child was so pushed at school that she
was thrown into fever, and in her
dying delirium, all night long, she was
trying to recite the multiplication ia
BILE. In my boyhood remember that in
our class at school there was one lad
who knew more than all of us put to-
gether. If we were fast in our arith-
metic, he eXtricatcd us. When we stood
up for the spelling class, he was almost
always the head of the class. Visitors
came to his fathers housesan he was
always brought in as prodigy. At IL
years of age he was an idiot. He lived
ten years an idiot and died an idiot,
not knowing his right hand from his
left or day from night. The parents and
the teachers made him an idiot.
You may f'utter your pride by forcing
your child to know more than any other
children, but you are making sacrl
flee of that child if by the additions tc
it's intelligence you are making sub
traction from its future. The child will
go away from such maltreatment will
no exuberance to fight the battle o.
life. Such children may get along very
well while you take care OF them, but
when YOU are old or dead, alas fol
them if through the wrong system o
education which you adopted the,
have no swarthiness or force OF charac
ter to take care of themselves! Be care
full how YOU make the child's head ache
or it's heart futter. | hear great dea
about black mans rights, and China
mans rights, and Indians rights, ant
woman's rights. Would to God tina
someb body would rise to plead for chill
dren's rights! The Carthagians use'
to sacrifice their children by putin;
them into the arms of an idol whicl
thrust forth its hand. The child wa
put into the arms of the idol, and M
sooner touched the arms than it droppe'
. into the fire. But it was the art of tn
mothers to keep the children smilin
and laughing until the moment the
died. There may be a fascination an
hilarity about the styles of educatlo
of which l am speaking, but it is onl
laughter at the moment of sacrifice
, Would to God there were only on
Jephthah's daughter!
| Again, there are many parents VIII
, are sacrificing their children wit
/. wrong system of discipline-too grea
rigor or too great leniency. There al
7 children in families who rule the house
: hold. The high chair in which the il
7 FAINT sits is the throne, and the rattle
the scepter, and the other childre
|, make up the parliament where fathe