Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1903-05-22
of the schoolhouse


small Ohio city. Every year he sent a
large donation TO all the different
churches, mot" said he, because L
am processing Christian. but because
1 believe the church does more to emp
ty our tails and poorhorses and crimi-
nal resorts than any other power on
earth" The church Of the Lord Jesus
Christ Is the great cornerstone OF a
pure home. We do not have TO argue
here for one moment to try to prove
this statement. 1t is an axiom, a self
evident fact. Now, my brother If
the church OF God makes your clerks
more honest and keeps the messengers
OF crime from Off the streets. where
they might destroy your sons and
daughters; IL 1t Is the foundation stone
of a strong national government as
well as that Of the home; IL 1t is the
great enemy of ignorance and the lead
er in all movements that look to the
purifying and spiritual elevation of the
human race, do you not believe that
you should cast your influence into its
work? Do you not owe ii M inestima-
BILE debt? Should you not try to broad
en- It's teachings and through it try to
disseminate the gospel redemption
which will save men this side of the
grave RS well as upon the other sido?
Spiritual Education.
A big debt for gospel education 1
find charged against us all In the di-
vine ledger. The struggles of poor
boys for a college education offer some
OF the most pathetic OF illustrations.
Harry is a farmers boy. He lives In
the country and wants to go to school.
but how can he? Try as hard as the
family may. they can just make ends
meet and no more. But get an educa-
ton he will. He works on the farm
during the summer and teaches school
during the winter, After awhile, by
night study. he fits himself for "a
academy. His little savings he hoards
like miser. He enters the university
Then perhaps he comes up to gradual
tion with hacking cough or ruined
eyesight and with his physical health
wrecked. All. that is patheticl That
is a sacrifice that is being made in ev-
cry part OF the land.
But IL II Is pathetic to see q poor
boy struggling for an intellectual edu-
cation how much more pathetic is il to
see ore struggling for D spiritual edu-
cation when he has been born In the
cradle of sin? When 1 go down the
street and see men and women whose
faces from early childhood were Scared
and married with sin, often say to my
self, what chance have those poor
mortals?' Their fathers perhaps were
jail birds. Their mothers were disso-
lutte and deserted them perhaps on the
day they were born. Their companions
from youth have been thieves and rob
bers. And yet some OF these poor
wretches, born In sin, have struggled
up by the grace of God into the light
They have. by slow and painful stages,
won a hard earned spiritual education,
like "Oid Phil" for many years the
doorkeeper Of the Jerry McAuley mis-
sion, who was thief and had served
seventeen years in Jail for his crimes
They struggled on and up, battling
their way step by step, fighting against
all the Inherited tendencies of their
past lives. They struggled up out OF
the hovel and the saloon and the gut
ter and the poorhouse. Like the de-
mon possessed Mary, at last they be-
! came the sainted Mary, as spotless and
pure as the driven snow.
But, thank God, none OF us-no,
believe not one-ever had to go through
such a struggle for spiritual educa-
ton. We had that in the days of our
childhood We were born i'm Christian
homes and reared at the knee of Chris
tian mothers. Shall we not be willing
IN hon q
Because lie has given us that spiritual
education free. so that we can discrim-
mate between right and wrong, shall
we not now be willing to pay some
thing at least for our past Christian
| tuition?
How can we pay God back for this
! spiritual education OF our childhood 2
i will tell you, In the same way L ex-
pect my children to pay me back for
| their intellectual education. Some
years ago had my life insured on the
tontine plan. These premiums at times
have been very hard TO meet. But
when we come up to them 1 always
say to my wife: This money will come
due when am forty-four years of age.
That is just the time we shall want to
send our boys and girls to college
Then, after they have had their educa-
ton, as we'll equipped men and women
they can go forth to the battle OF life
| and DO intellectually good men and
women" / am going to get my pay
back In the good that / hope my chill
| dren may be able to do. And so God
expects his pay for our spiritual educa-
ton In the moral, pure, consecrated
lives We should, by the grace OF God,
| live for his service. Are you and L,
my friends. doing what we ought to
do? Are we truly living the Christian
lives which our early bringing up
should justify?
| Debt We Owe to God.
| A big debt we also owe to God for
the blessings which come to us from
our living loved ones. Strange is the
fact that we rarely appreciate a dear
one until she is gone. There are plenty
or monuments and memorials erected
for dead men, but very seldom any for
the living. One of the most remarka-
BILE statues in this country is that
raised in the Brooklyn Prospect park
to James s. T. Stranahan. 1t was I'M
yelled while the grand old man of
| Brooklyn" was alive to see it with his
own eyes and with his own ears hear
the eulogies of his ife's work. We
would be willing, IL our finances would
warrant 1t, to endow hospital or IL
brary or founding home to the menu
DRY Of n dead child. DO we not owe
God any debt of gratitude to the loved
ones who are still by our side? Shall
ya<>t ffls4 .atI .Ar a
needs to make some acknowledgment
for the children and the wife who DOW
sit with him at the table and bow with
him at the family altar? oh, my
Christian friends, do not believe we
are fntrinsically mean. 1 do not and
VIII not lower myself to the belief that
we have Intentionally gone to God
heretofore only as beggars. Most OF
us have not stopped to think with how
many blessings God has surrounded