The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-09-05
WHOLE WORLD WILL
 PRAY FOR SCHOOLS
FROM AT LEAST 2,5OO PULL PITS SUNDAY.

All the world will pray for the pub
 llc schools on September g. From at
 least 2,500 pulpits in America and :1s
 many more in other countries a sinul- taneous prayer for free education will go up from millions of lips and the event will become an annual custom if the efforts of the National Reform
 Association prevail
 This universal prayer is a definite
 part of the tremendous movement
 which will culminate in the Second
 Worlds Christian Citizenship Confer ence, to be held in Portland, Oregon, June 8-July 6, 1913, which has been in the process Of organiza ton for nearly two years past.
 ucation generally and the public schools in particular loom up large in this work and many of the most prom
 1nent educators in the world will dis cuss the whole vast subject of educa- ton from the Portland platform.
 September has been selected as the date for this universal prayer be- cause it precedes the opening of the public schools in the United States E.booI1 by onIy ara few days; the the sqnday ance and the teachers of both are keyed up for their years work and stand atune with the. world and this sim ultaneous prayer is to bid all of them Godspeed in their work
 When discussing this vast and in teresting undertaking Rev. James S. who has organized the world for this prayer, said:
 How can the sschool year be better children and the youth of all nations who are seeking education?"
 The magnitude of the moral and spiritual interests involved in tl,is vast work of education or affected by it, comments this suggestion to all Christian citizens. For more than 70 years the Day of Prayer for colleges has been observed by the Christian people interested in these institutions and fncalculable results for good have been vouchsafed in answer to these in the United States numbers not far from 100000 persons, there are nearly seventeen millions in the common schools of the nation. For every stu professional schools there are eighty in our public schools. When we add the private schools, which with cer- tain classes. take the place of the public schools, have before us an agency which gathers under it's infiu- ence, with significant exceptions, the steadily making it's work more thor ough and complete, and which is con- fessedly one of the strongest mould ing forces at work upon the character of the nation.
 What ought to be the bearing and effect of this great agency on the morals and reHgion of the people? This nation is, in important respects, a Christian nation. The education provided for her future citizens ought to correspond to the national charac- ter in this respect, and should aim to that character to the coming generations. The supreme need of the na ton is not for intelligent or mental culture in her citizens, important as these are, but that they shall De men and women of good moral character, able to distinguish the difference be- tween right and wrong, and resolved to do what is right and to avoid and resist wrong.
 The chief end, therefore, of the schools to be held supreme above all mere intelligent culture, is to develop the moral nature of the pupils. If that any proposal to divorce education from the general, fundamental, unsec- tartan truths of religion, to make our merely secular, and to ab- solve the teacher and the school from all responsibility, except for the intel ectual development of pupils is sub versive Of the true American idea of education, and fatal to the chief in terests for which our schools were And yet this bald secu- lar theory of education is accepted in wide educa tional circles. Many cities and many whole states are moulding their school systems in accordance with it.
 This very disa greement as to the true nature and objects of education grave peril to the schools. Those who believe in GodsI and in the efficacy of prayer, will nentous and so urgent os these ought, by a, Christian people, to be spread before the Hearer of Prayer.