The Irish standard., 1904-11-19
IN RE EDUCATION
An Inspiring Address by the
Archbishop Of St. Louis.

An inspiring Address by the
Archbishop Of St. Louis.
Au Occasion Marking Diamond
Jubilee Of the University.
AT the diamond jubilee celebration
of st. Louis University, st. Louis, Mo-,
a splendid sermon was delivered by
Most Rev. Archbishop Glennon. He
eulogized the work of the Jesuit pio.
neers in the cause of education, and
spoke as follows on the need of relig-
ious training:
"If there is anything today OH which
people are united it is in proclaiming
the necessity of education, but if you
ask them what they mean by educa-
ton, then you will find nothing but
disagreement and division. The say
age wants his child educated, but the
education he desires may rise no high
er than the incubation of stolid pa
thence and the ability to kill his enc
mics. From the savage upward,
through all degrees of civilized life, the
demand increases for education with
the years. So universal has this clamor
become that today there are many who
think that education will furnish the
solution for all our social ills.
Are the people poor? They say edu-
cation will make them rich. Does
crime exist? They say under the
reign of education crime would be i'm.
possible. Are people seditious? They
say education would bring about uni
versal peace and order. Thus, it be-
comes in their minds, the panacea for
every ill, and it's universal incubation
would bring about new order, where
in there would be no more sin, no more
sorrow and all would be happy with
the happiness of millennium. In some
instances people otherwise sane and
democratic have under the stimulus Of
these extravagant ideas, advanced to
the most extravagant measures for
their realization.
"While educational theories are
many and varied, still we may classify
all the systems together under two
headings: One is known as a system
of education that is purely secular, the
nhioaf nf vr1ia1, ic k0 ~ ~
such knowledge as comes within the
limit of the NATURAL; that limits it's in
quiries to phenomena, and that, if it be
true to itself, must carefully ignore
first causes or associations higher than
here or now.
"The other system is also a system
of secular education, but it adds there
to religious and moral training. This
second system do not want just now
to call purely religious system, be-
cause were 1 to do so, many might
think that, under it religious instruc-
ton alone was impaired, and indeed
this very narrow conception of the So
called religious schools today is sedu-
ously. cultivated in the public mind,
thereby endeavoring to make the curri-
cuium of such religious schools consist
Of the catechism and little theology
Now, the truth is, that under this
second system, the secular instruction
goes hand in hand with religious train
ing and both are united, as are united
the warp and the wool, completing in
their weaving that cloth of gold, a per-
feet education.
''Thus, to this system we adhere, be-
cause we believe that knowledge
ought not to be disjointed; that educa-
ton ought not to be limited, that for
their souls sake as we'll as for their
temporal well being, men ought to have
some idea of the problems of time and
eternity; of the duties they owe to God
and to man and the virtues arising
from his relationship both to one and
the other.
And of the first system we can only
say, as it must, as system, fail to
place before the child those important
truths of faith and morals, it must, in
so far at least be limited and imper-
feet, and that its clients can scarcely
expect the best results from that which
is necessarily one-sided and incomplete
Bearing in mind this simple distinction,
which is easily understood, now re-
turn to the accusation that we are not
in favor of education in it's broadcast,
truest and most liberal sense is unlim-
tied, that we, as civilized beings and
as Christians and Catholics, believe
that one Of our greatest enemies is ig-
norance; that as Christians and Catho-
lies we do believe in knowledge, re-
ligious as well as secular; that we be-
lieve in education that is deep and
broad enough to include not only the
things that we see, but the causes of
these things; the earth that we cult
vate and the motive for it's cultivation,
and that we are not afraid to include
in the scope of our knowledge, in so
far as God has given us to know, earth
and air and sky and such things as
God has whispered to the heart of man,
Snch things Ms through God's nrovi