The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-11

can say when 1t grows up that it has seen in the father and in the monther,
 models of virtue and goodness, and mod els of exacttude and fidelity to religious
 duties. My friends, if you, as patterns, try to build up the character of the child
 in religion by words alone, and by the example of your life show carelessness and negligence in the practice of your
 religious duties, then you are simply thwarting by your example what you
 teach by your mouths. You are simply tearing down with one hand what you build up with the other hand. First of all. therefore, get into your minds and your religion as well into your con victions that you must be good practical Catholics good practical Christians, if you want to rear up your children in the gospel that Jesus Christ has taught you. And my friends, then comes the work or teaching by word because faith comes by hearing, as the apostle says. Now, you first of all, as parents are obliged to teach your children of God, to teach them their religion, teach them the prin- ciples of their faith If you do not do it yourselves, you are obliged to see that it is done in the school or the Sunday school, but on no one can you throw that burden, and in way can you shirk that obligation, for just as sure as God re- quired of the servant, accounting for the talent he had received, just as sure as he required 1t at his hands, so he will require an accounting at your hands for the most prescious gift that has ever been given to any one, the soul of the child. Therefore, your responsibility, my dear parents, Is to see that the child is properly trained, first of all, in it's religious duties.
 You may indeed give it the accomplish ments that society requires, you may give 1t the necessary culture to get along we'll in the world and be successful in the affairs of fortune, you may give 1t such a training, so that it may appear well before the world to the best advantage, but if you neglect its religious training, it's moral development, then you have neg lected the best part of its nfe-the foun- dation of its life and nothing else can matter. For what will the fame of the world amount to, and what will the ap- plause of the world amount to, and what will temporal fortune and success amount to, If, my friends, that child, in its con science. and in it's despair when it comes to face its God in the next world, will desecrate and execrate your name for not having given it its first birth-right, for not having given 1t a knowledge of it's God and its future? It is all right enough to teach children the science of numbers, 1t is right enough to teach children the beauty of literature, 1t is all right enough to teach them how to become successful, prominent men and women in the world, but you must teach them something more-something more substantial, something that will remain with them when they have passed away from this world and something that will make theu better in this world; some thing that will make them good citizens, and good, honest. upright members of society. You should remember in the train ing of your children, what the father of your country has said that both reason and experience teach us that no nation can long endure to the exclusion of re- ligion. My friends we can have no foun- dation for morality, we can have no foun- datlon for honesty, and we can have no foundation for all these things that hold and cement society together, and send 1t onward in civilization and development without religion. Everything that is beau tiful in civilization today everything that appeals to the heart and conscience of man, everything that appeals to the best that is in us, rests on the foundation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and therefore. the first right of every child, and the first duty of every parent Is to have the gospel of Jesus Christ brought to the mind of the child, written upon 1t, impressed upon it. so that 1t will grow up in 1t and with 1t, and the child's mind will be moulded in the beauty and goodness of the Savior s doctrine. You, my friends, know that it has been well said that the child Is father of the man, and as the child is trained, generally speaking, so will the grown in- divldual be. If you train up the child in principles of morality, In the love of God, in the prospect of heaven, then you will have society that is God-fearing, a so- ciety that shows forth on it's face the brotherhood of man: you will have a so- elety that believes In the Fatherhood of God where all expect to be united for ever, as reward for the goodness of their lives. If my friends, the child be not taught to fear some power beyond this world-if it be not taught the hope of a reward beyond this world. then you let 1t live as society does not expect it's members to live. What Is there to promote man to goodness in the face of the low tendencies of passion, unless he knows that there Is reward awaiting goodness. and unless he knows that there Is a pun ishment that awaits the wicked There Is no lever, my friends, in the world, that will lift mans soul to the plane of the good and the beautiful and the true so- | ciety, except the fear and the love of God. Take God out of the world and. as Napoleon said, we would have to create a new god, because men would never hold together in society because the homes with us in the world today would fall to ruin from the want of principle to sustain it. The principle that sustains the best in the lie Of man today, Is the principle of a living and personal God that tells man in his conscience that He will reward him for the good he does, and tells him
 that He will punish him for the wrong he does Therefore. my dear friends, in the training Of phildrpr young mind to look off towards heaven as the place of reward, and teach them
 to fear wrong doing, because there will come final and eternal punishment upon It. And then, as your children grow m. they will grow up to respect you because you have taught them to respect a higher power; they will grow up to respect so- ciety, because they will know from what you have taught them, that all society is founded on religion; they will grow up to ! respect the state, because they will know that the state Is under God and it's power | comes from God for the betterment of hu- , manity
 Real Patriotism.
 | That is the real patriotism to teach q child. The mere demonstration on a ma l tional holiday. and the mere waving of a i flag, the mere talking about patriotism. | will never rear up child in the truth and justice of good citizenship. Unless | you tell him what the flag means to him: ! unless you tell him that the white on | it's folds means the integrity of good moral citizenship: unless you tell him that | the red on it's folds means for him to he | ready to shed his blood in the cause of | right: unless you tell him that the stars | in the fold point out that heaven which is II, a,I ..f