Year: 1877

and puzzled look during a portion
Of his lesson but reiterated assu-
RANGES of his bravery, his beauty,
and his babyhood, induced him to
.'perk up,' as the nurses say, Won
derfully."


Is Conscience Matter of Educa.


tiOn?


Beecher is a great philosopher
and great thinker. 1t is none of
our business to inquire beyond this.
He prOnounces conscience matter
Of education, and, talking about it
last Sunday, said that, after 5000
years, after society had gone up
stage by stage until the top and
bottom wore leagues apart, and all
relationships had been changed,
doctors of divinity need not tell us
that because Abraham owned slaves
slavery was right now. The stra-
tum of society was not two inches
thick IN Abraham's time, while
now it was twenty leagues. So be-
cause man was conscientious it
did not prove that he was right.
There were men who in the family
were the very souls Of honor; they
would look with horror on the
thought oil telling a falsehood in
the family, but their conscience was
not alarmed at all when they looked
customer in the face and told him
hideous lie in the way of business.
Such men had a special conscience.
There were men who had a con-
science toward God and toward all
holy things, but in their relations
to mankind almost none at all. An
Italian bandit went to his bed with
remorse because he did not pay
vow to the Virgin Mary, but he
would wipe bis dagger that he had
stabbed a man in the back with in
sense of having performed vir-
tnous action. In anything pertain
| ing to religion he was very consci-
entious, but in all that related to
men his conscience was dead. Men
say" life is a game of skill (; the
strongest and cunningest must win;
let everybody take care of himself
and then everybody will be well
taken care Of" but then men
would go up to the judgment seat
carrying their vials of progress,
and the Lord would say, 81 was an
hungered and ye gave me no meat;
sick and in prison and We did not
visit me-" and they would reply:
/" Good Lord, what are you talking
about? When do we recollect ever
to have met you before ?" Laugh
ter. So there were very many
persons very conscientious in mat
ters of religion that in business
scarce had any conscience at all,
and there were men who had a con-
science about pins but not about
crow-bars. 81 think" said Mr..
Beecher, "that our times need a |
training in social ethics more than
in intensity Of spirituality. Not |
that | undervalue true spirituality F.; !
not that | regard men who aspire
to it with pity or contempt; not
that | underyalue prayer or trust
or faith-all these | value; but | |
remember the words of the Lord, |
If thou bringest thy gift to the
altar, and then rememberest that |
thy brother hast aught against thee,
leave there thy gift, 90 first and be
reconciled to thy brother and then
come and offer thy gift Morality |
is the foundation of spirituality,
and in the times in which we live
the questions of right and wrong,
the questions of simple truth and
equity-these questions are so null
tiplied and multiplying that men
need training in conscience a great
deal more than they need spiritual
izing. They need both, but the
one should be the foundation of the
other. BY reviyals of religion we
are perpetually stimulating men to
higher religious emotion, on the
supposition that all spirituality car
ries morality with it. We are re-
versing the order of nature, 1t is
from morality that spirituality is
developed. That which we need
especially to-day, as is proved in
commerce, in politics, in business,
is for men to be grounded in the
simple principles of truth, Of hon
or, of justice. This is the need Of
our time, and the want of this
training is the weakness of our time.
This training must first be in the
household it is tho mother's work,
the fathers work, and in that mat
ter the law is uniYersal-be your
sell what you would have your chill
dren be. 1t is no use telling over
the ten commandments ut the break,