Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-06-15
CHRISTIAN CHARACTER
IS PRE-ENINENT.
Continued from Page / Column I.

passed, and successfully passed.
through your elementary grades, and
for this reason we are here tonight.
your teachers, your parents. your
friends, 10 congratulate you. and we
do so most heartily The milestone. as
said. serves a double purpose, it in
dicates not only the road you have
traversed. but also the ground still TO
be covered and for that reason gradu-
alton day is often called. and fittingly
so. Commencement Day. II indicates
the beginning Of the more important
part of your career. What you have
already accomplished is but the
foundation upon which you are to
build. The other day Secretary Dan
iels of the Navy while addressing the
graduates Of the Naval Academy read
an important message from Vice Ad-
miral Sims. in charge of naval opera
tions overseas. and the burden of that
message was this. My dear young
men. / trust thar you will look upon
your training in the Naval Academy as
merely the foundation laid good and
strong, / hope, merely the foundation
upon which you are 10 build your fu-
ture career. and it is only in consider
ing il in this light that you Will be
come efficient naval officers and be
ranked in the category of those great
men who have reflected credit and re-
nown on the Navy.
This advice may be given in a GER
tain sense to all the schools and col
leges whose graduates come forth
from the classrooms and enter the uni
versity of life. Don't be deluded by
the thought that you have acquired all
the knowledge that is necessary, all
the experience requisite TO have sue
cessful career in life Remember well.
bear well in mind. there are many mug
gets of knowledge and veins of val
ued experience that lie below the sur
face of things and il is only by close
application and constant study that
you can succeed and The labor will
bring you pleasure and profit. May
you succeed in extracting those mug
gets of knowledge.
There is one thing that I want to
impress upon you tonight, and it is
of such importance that I viii make
it the burden of my closing remarks,
my farewell remarks to the dear chill
dren of St. Mary's. You have been
trained mentally. you have received
an intellectual education in the ele-
mentary studies that compares favor
ably with the best in the land, and for
this you are deeply indebted to the
noble Sisters who have devoted their
time. their attention, their heart and
their soul to your welfare and l trust
that you will ever be mindful of the
fact. 1t is not to that ! refer. | refer
to the moral training you have re-
ceived from the first day you stepped
into the classroom of st. Mary's
School. ! refer to the perfecting and
development of your Christian char
acter, for that is pre-eminently the
characteristic of parochial school edu-
cation. the formation of noble Chris
tan character. In this connection |
recall little conversation I had some
years ago while engaged in missionary
work in one of the Middle States. The
parochial school had been torn down
10 make room for a larger one, more
in keeping with the requirements of
the growing parish. / had finished my
work, I was going to the station and
I CHANGED to meet the superintendent
of the public school, very fine gen
tleman, and he said to me, Father, |
have had the children of the parochial
school under my supervision for the
past year, as you perhaps know the
children have been removed to our
school Now that their own school is
nearing completion and they are going
to leave us / must say that ! am sorry
to see them go. They are bright,
CHEEKY and responsive lot OF young
hopefuls, they enter heart and soul
into everything, when it is time to
study they study we'll when it is time
to play they give free vent TO the en-
thusiasm and exuberance of their
youthful natures, and yet l have no
ticed there is always about them
something indefnable. a certain de-
gree of self-control that kept them in
due bounds, a degree Of self-control
that l must say is remarkable in chill
dren of that age, and a beautiful con-
for the feelings of others.
I know it must be attributed to their
previous moral training, and my ex
perience with these children has only
confirmed the conviction l have long
that an education to be an
must have as one of its
elements a moral train
ing, and that moral training 1 con-
slider absolutely essential l thanked
him very kindly for his remarks in
TO the children and said to
him. that is just what we are striving
for. that it what we have maintained,
and most thinking men of every creed
are coming to realize the absolute ne
cessity of a moral training and devel-
opment of the heart as we'll as the
head. Education must be rounded out
and perfected TO equip the child for
the duties and obligations it will meet
when it steps out into the world.
They used to say that the foundation
of a good education must have the
.hree R's-Reading. Writing and Reck- |
1ning. We maintain that a good solid |
education must be a training in the |
fundamentals of the four Rs, and they
are Religion, Reading, Writing and
My dear children. as a /
,a ring word I hid Won let YOUR religi- |