i " B t p i d o +iet>r«-< A . m— c h n 5 f i « W . . H A D J 9 M M 9 Christian Education N E C E S S A R Y TO T H E S T A B I L I T Y OF T H E S T A T E BY IRt . I R e v . m o i j e i a n o r I H e n r p a . B r a r t n , D . D . Rector of St. Agnes' Church, New York. New York II be ©auliet iPress 120 West 60th Street Christian Education N E C E S S A R Y T O T H E S T A B I L I T Y O F T H E S T A T E BY RIGHT REV. MONSIGNOR HENRY A. BRANN, D.D. Rector of St. Agnes' Church, New York. New York T H E P A U L I S T P R E S S 120 West 60th Street 1916 C H R I S T I A N E D U C A T I O N N E C E S S A R Y TO THE S T A B I L I T Y O F T H E S T A T E Y Christian education we mean the inculcation of Christian doctrine and morality into the minds and hearts of children simultaneously with their purely secular training and culture in the school. Christian education implies a reverence for God and thé inspired teachings of the Bible, a recognition of Christian symbols and of all that Chris- tianity holds sacred, the study of the catechism and the recital of Christian prayers in the school. It is not my present intention to prove the necessity of this education for the well-being of the individual or of the family. That point is generally conceded. I propose to deal with the question chiefly as it concerns the State and interests all our citizens whether they be Christians or infidels. It is true that infidels might ob- ject to having their children forced to learn Christianity in the school. Their case is an exceptional one in a Christian country and deserving of exceptional con- sideration, for the rights of conscience and of parents must always be respected. But the case of infidels in regard to education is only a side issue in a Christian State, and does not directly bear on our subject. W e are writing to Christians in a conservative or sensible Republic. Our subject is limited to the necessity of religious education for the stability of such a Re- public; and by religious education we mean Christian education. IO Christian Education But first we must answer some preliminary ques- tions. What is the State? What is its purpose? Upon what does its stability depend? The State is a union of a multitude of independ- ent men for the purpose of more easily and more ef- fectually procuring their common safety, prosperity and progress. But as these human beings have been created by God and endowed with reason, the civil society which they form must have God for its ultimate purpose, since He is the final end of all rational beings. In civil society He is the indirect and ultimate, while in the Church He is the direct and proximate end of mankind. That God is the immediate end which the Church has in view follows from her mission, which is to save souls ; that is, to unite them to Him here and hereafter. The end of the State is the same, although more remotely attainable. Temporal happiness is not the final destiny of man. God never intended the temporal to be any- thing more than a preliminary means of eternal felicity. He owns and directs human nature with all its faculties. The State is God's, for it is the result of desires, aspirations, propensities and necessities implanted by Him in the human heart. The State therefore can and should have for its ultimate aim the carrying out of the divine plan and purpose. Therefore to obtain the tem- poral happiness of the community is the direct aim of the State, while to obtain the eternal happiness of man- kind is the direct object of the Church. The same man who belongs to the Church belongs to the State. He is a one and indivisible person. He cannot be split into two moral parts. His obligations are various, but he has only one personality and only one moral responsibility. The Church was made for him by God, and imposed on IO Christian Education him with the obligations of belief and obedience. The State man made, but subject to God's laws and purposes. If man should dare to make a State hostile to God, man and the State would be in sin and out of harmony with the divine plan, which is simple, hierarchical and uni- form. Besides the State made by man can have no ultimate end different from man who made it—God, the creator of all, the conservator of all, and the ultimate end of all. The two distinct but not separate purposes of the Church and of the State do not legally conflict with each other, on the contrary they are ancillary to each other. T o attain its purpose, the State must be se- cure and prosperous: secure from physical and moral evils, and prosperous because of good government, wise lg.ws, respect and protection of mutual rights and by the promotion of all that tends to the comfort of the people. The State's right to action is not merely nega- tive, limited to protecting the community from physical and moral evils. Its action must be also positive. It must promote the welfare of the people by furthering everything conducive to their temporal happiness. The State must not only punish the murderer and the thief, protect by quarantine and sanitary inspection the public health, but it must make general improvements, build roads and bridges, promote commerce, industry and whatever else may tend to insure the happiness of the community. Since this temporal happiness of the people is the purpose of the State, the attainment of that happi- ness must be the aim of all civil rulers. Towards that goal they must steer the ship. But on what does this temporal happiness depend? It depends not only on those things in the physical order which we have just enumerated, but chiefly on IO Christian Education certain things in the moral order which can be found only where the Christian religion is the soul that ani- mates the body politic. The chief of these conditions are three—respect for law, respect for right and respect for the sacredness of an oath. Law, right and an oath are the trinity of human ethics affecting all the private and social relations of human life. Without respect for them friendly intercourse, business, or commerce would be impossible among men. But law, right and an oath have no foundation without the sanction of religion; and therefore religion is necessary to the State. Conse- quently the State must protect religion. In furthering the interests of religion the State is helping to per- petuate its own existence. A short analysis of the na- ture of a law, of a right and of an oath will shqw this clearly. A law is a rule of action for man, or an ordinance of reason for the commonwealth, promulgated by the power which has the right to govern the State. A law implies a superior who has the right to make it and through it to impose an obligation on an inferior. But from a purely human legal standpoint no man is superior or inferior to another. Our American Declaration of In- dependence asserts that " all men are created equal." This proposition is not universally true; but it is true in face of the civil law. Who then creates the superior? Citizens indeed elect him and put him in office, by virtue of which he may impose fines on delinquents, incarcerate or put to death the violator of the law. But these penalties are all external. They are merely human and cannot touch the inner and hidden forum of conscience. No man of himself can impose an obligation there; no human power can invade the sacred precinct of the in- IO Christian Education tellect or the sanctuary of the will. God alone .can do that. He is the only superior who by right of creation and absolute ownership can impose obligations on the intellect and will of man, and make him conscious of guilt or sin. Where there is only external sanction to law it will always be purely penal. In that case man will have no guilt to fear but only discovery. God must stand behind the human lawgiver to give sanction to his enactments. If the origin of law were in man alone and went no higher, it could never oblige con- science, which is a law unto itself, a lawgiver and a sovereign to itself, admitting no human superior. Man will never oblige himself to curb his inclinations or to restrain his passions, except through fear of a power higher than himself. Conscience bears witness to the fact that the true sanction of law is in God and not in man. Fear of man in authority begets indeed external obedience in the subject; fear of the penalty forces sub- mission ; but the realization of guilt as a consequence of infraction of law comes from a higher source, from be- lief in the existence of a Supreme Judge of right and wrong, of things lawful and unlawful; of a Judge who can scrutinize the secrets of the heart and punish even internal transgressions. Just as the existence of con- tingent, that is, of changeable, finite, limited and imper- fect, beings implies the existence of a necessary, im- mutable, infinite and all-perfect cause, so the existence of secondary laws and secondary legislators implies the existence of an eternal law which is promulgated by an eternal and supreme Legislator, the source and sanction of all law. This eternal law we feel is imposed on us, from without, independently of human action, and obliges us because it is from God. He Himself has said, IO Christian Education " By Me kings reign and lawgivers decree just things " (Prov. viii. 15). Duty and obligation are not de- rived from any human law, but. from its conformity with the eternal law. For the law to be obligatory must be just and rational, as its very definition implies " an ordinance of reason for the common good." If the law be just and rational although merely human, it partakes of the eternal law which is supreme reason ; and by the eternal Legislator the obligation of obedience is stamped on the human conscience. The same line of argument holds good in regard to right and the obligations of justice. What is a right but the moral power to do some act, or to obtain or to retain something; an inviolable power which none can lawfully oppose, but which all are bound to respect? To every right there corresponds a co-relative duty, not only in him who possesses the right, but also in those against whom he enforces it. Thus the right to property implies the obligation in the owner of not abusing it, and in the community of not taking it away from him without legal compensation. But all right, like all law, has its root in God. The first human rights are the rights of parents over their children. These rights are from God and limited by His ordinances. Parents are not the absolute owners of their children. If the parent were the absolute owner of the child, the parent might, for example, put it to death to escape the burden of its support. A child considered without relation to God might have no right to life or support in the eyes of an infidel parent, who denied any lawgiver to the universe or above himself. Did not and do not pagans still murder their children on the false belief that children are the absolute property of their parents? W e must IO Christian Education look to the God of Christians, then, as the source of the rights and duties of parents and of children. So it is with other human rights, as, for instance, with the right to property. The foundation of this right is in the natural law. But this law is the voice of the Creator speaking in the human heart. Since all men are created equal, in a legal sense, how can any one of them claim a special right which his neighbors are A bound to respect unless it be granted by the Creator? He is the first Being and the first Cause. Men and their rights are His products, for He created them. The natural inequality among them is from Him. The dif- ference between mine and thine is lawful, because God has decreed and sanctioned it, not because men admit it. A third condition necessary to the stability of the State is respect for the sanctity of an oath. Without regard for this sanctity courts of justice become a farce, and the crime of perjury will be common. Witnesses having no God to fear, no future punishment to dread, will swear falsely whenever their perjury cannot be de- tected or whenever their interests or their passions re- quire it. God and religion alone can efficaciously in- fluence conscience. " M e n swear by one greater than themselves, and an oath for confirmation is an end of all their controversy," says St. Paul (Heb. vi. 16). Hence in the code of laws given by God to Moses on Sinai, the logical and real connection of human right with divine laws is clearly laid down. The priority of the divine is asserted in the First Commandment: " I am the Lord thy God." Because He is the Lord God men are forbidden to take His name in vain, and are com- manded to keep holy one day in the week in His honor. Thus are the rights of God first declared and IO Christian Education established. Af ter them comes the assertion of human rights: " Honor thy father and thy mother." " Thou shalt not kill." " T h o u shalt not commit adultery." By these commandments the rights of persons and especially of the family are protected. " Thou shalt not s teal ;" here we have the palladium of the right of property. " T h o u shalt not bear false witness;" by this perjury and defamation of character are prohibited. But all these prohibitions derive their sanction from the First Commandment: " I am the Lord thy God." Being the Lord and Creator, He im- poses laws which bind the human conscience. To show this more forcibly He prohibits in the last two com- mandments even acts purely internal, which no human eye could see and of which no human tribunal could ever take cognizance: " Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife." " T h o u shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods." God is thus the fountain of all right and of all law. Take Him away and the State can make no law which binds in conscience, and is thus deprived of the influence of religion in enforcing justice; an influence more po- tent than the fine, the jail or the scaffold. Thus, then, the infidel is logically an anarchist, because he denies the value of law in denying the existence of the Legisla- tor who is the source of law. The anarchist asserts a doctrine directly opposite to that of St. Paul who says: | Let every soul be subject to higher powers; for there is no power but from God, and those that are ordained of God. Therefore he that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist, purchase to themselves damnation" (Rom. xii. i ) ; and " W h e r e there is no law there can be no transgression," says the same Apostle (Rom. iv. 15). IO Christian Education The infidel should also logically be a socialist. The socialist denies the right of private property; the land socialist denies to any individual the right to own even so small a portion of the earth as would be sufficient for a grave plot. The socialist is right if there be no God, for no man can derive the absolute right of anything from his own powers. Even the right to the products of labor is based on the right to own the raw material on which labor is employed. But the raw material is God's. " T h e earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof" (Psalm xxiii. i ) . He created it; and no man has the right to a bit of it unless in virtue of the exi- gencies of his nature or from direct concession from God. The natural law from which is derived the pri- mary right to private property is but the voice of na- ture. But the voice of nature is the voice of Him Who created nature. If, therefore, anarchy and socialism, the two greatest foes of the stability of the State, are the logical out- come of infidelity, it follows that the antidote for in- fidelity is necessary for the stability of the State. Now what is this antidote if it be not an education in which the principles of Christianity are inculcated? Anar- chists and socialists, themselves, recognize in Christian education the greatest obstacle to the realization of their plans, and consequently they make war on it and rejoice when they find among Christians misguided allies who seem not to see that they are undermining the State when they attack the Christian school. Even in a community brought up as Christians, vice and error will powerfully assert themselves, and constant care and watchfulness are required to prevent the evil from overcoming the good. The taint of original sin is in human nature. In IO Christian Education spite of the influence of the Christian school and of the Christian Church the rebel vices of humanity fill the prisons with their victims. But if the conservative in- fluence of Christian education be taken away, how much more rapidly will the pestilential microbes multiply in the body politic 1 " For if in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry? (Luke xxiii. 31.) It is true that this education might be divorced, as it sometimes is, from secular education, and be given in the school before or after school hours, or in the home, or in the church. But such a mode of proceeding would be wrong in principle. In such a system religion would not get the place to which its dignity and importance entitle it. Religion would become in the mind of the child an accidental, instead of being considered a sub- stantial and essential part of his training. If religion be necessary to the stability of the State, as we have shown, why should the teaching of religion be expelled from the school in which young citizens are being formed ? Can any Christian hold that the knowledge of God and of Christian morality is of less consequence to the young citizen than a knowledge of reading, writing and arithmetic? Does not the knowledge of God and obedience to His laws elevate man's intellect, spiritualize his mind and help to control his evil inclinations and passions; inspire him with respect for his superiors, with charity for his fellowmen and love for his country ? Have not the greatest patriots been those who were taught in Christian schools that it is a sacred duty to die for one's country? How can a man be true to his friend, to his family, or to his country, if he be not true to his God, Who is the source of every moral obligation IO Christian Education in the family and in the country? Will not the exam- ples of both male and female patriots recorded in the Bible—of Deborah and Judith; of Jonathan and David and the Machabees; of Our Lord, Himself, weeping over Jerusalem—fill the minds of the young with love of the flag that symbolizes the glory and the honor of their native land? If religion be taught only before or after school hours, the study of it becomes an odious task added to the pupils' daily toil. Religion then grows to be as distasteful to him as the unnecessarily strict observance of the Puritan Sunday became to the young New Eng- lander, who, in consequence, frequently grew tired of his father's religion, threw it away and became a rationalist. Religious duties are not holiday clothes to be worn only on festivals. God rules and governs mankind every day as well as on Sunday; every hour of the day as well as before the opening and closing of the school. What will children think of religion if the law forbids the mention of it or the study of it during the most important hours of the day? Besides, in the home it is often impossible for the parents, especially if they are poor and have many children, to find the time necessary for religious in- struction. The hard working father has often to labor late into the night, and the overworked mother of a large family is not equal to the task. The duty of Christian education to be properly performed requires virtue, intelligence and leisure. But in the parents either one or all of these conditions is often lacking. More- over, there is no more reason why religious education should be exclusively confined to the home than that secular education should be exclusively given there. IO Christian Education Why should religious education in a Christian com- munity be relegated to the home and a ban put on it in the school, as if Christianity were something despica- ble or of secondary importance?' The family gives character to the State. Is not the Christian home the model home, and the Christian State the model State, and are not both the fruit of Christian education? We grant that Christianity should be taught in the home and in the Church, but it should not be restricted to those places and banished from the school. If the cate- chism must be taught only in the home, why not limit the teaching of reading and arithmetic to the same place and thus abolish the school altogether, and tak'e off the burden of taxation for education? This would be in accordance with the theory of many able Ameri- can writers and statesmen, who have held that the State has not the right to assume the role of an educator, as such a role is beyond its competence. The school is a supplement to the home and an an- nex to the Church. The schoolmaster represents the parent and the priest represents Christ. Both school- master and priest are therefore bound to teach the knowledge of God to their charge. Religion should find a sanctuary in the home and in the school as well as in the church, for in these three places are souls made by God to know and love Him here on earth and after- wards, by keeping His laws, to enjoy Him forever in Heaven. The rights of God know no geographical boundary. The more of this religious education the child obtains the better it is for soul and body. His knowledge of God helps to make him a man of virtue, and virtue is not only good for the soul but also for the body. The virtues of the pure and temperate man IO Christian Education bring happiness to himself and benefit all who come near him. Thus, then, religious education blesses the in- dividual and the family and consequently the State, which is their creature. The citizen cannot be divorced from the Christian in the same individual. Whenever nations have lost religious convictions they have decayed. The acme of their greatness was that of their religious belief, for there is even in false religions a recognition of the Supreme Being Who rewards those who obey and punishes those who violate the laws. Even amid the superstitions of paganism the sanction of laws by a Supreme Being, upon Whom all depended, inspired respect for them among the people. Hence no great lawgiver ever made a code of laws for the government of a nation without recognizing God and religion as essential elements to the sanction of the laws. Solon, Lycurgus and Napoleon acclaimed God and religion. Contempt for the gods and decay of patriotism kept pace in the history of pagan nations. The nation might make the laws but religion loaded, aimed them at the goal and made them effective. The Hebrew people became weak and were sold into slavery when they neglected to serve God. In Christian nations those show most signs of dissolution in which traitors to Jesus Christ are the most numerous. In- fidelity, by destroying the responsibility of man to God, enervates character. It is universally true as a his- torical fact that nations obedient to the laws and obser- vances of religion ever produce the bravest soldiers, the most law-abiding citizens and the most devoted patriots. This universal fact also argues the necessity of religious education for the prosperity and stability of the State. The Christian religion as the noblest and the grandest IO Christian Education of all has created a superior type of manhood. The Christian type is divine; the God-man Christ. Under the influence of His invigorating and sublime teaching, civilization has progressed and man has advanced morally and mentally. Where Christian education is general, children in the school are trained from their earliest years to reverence God, love their fatherland and to respect their neighbors and themselves. Two sym- bols in the school are put before their eyes as having claims on their loyalty: the crucifix, the symbol of their religion, to stimulate their faith, and the flag of their country to rouse their patriotism. Christian teachers in correcting the vices, mistakes or short-comings of their scholars, find the application of religious principles a powerful aid in the arduous task. The young human animal with undeveloped intelligence and strong appetite, requires the curb and the check to break him into obedience and respect for law. The most potent curb and check on growing passions is the moral law based on the doctrinal code of Christianity. Without its controlling influence, genius or talent is like a blooded steed without a bridle or a rider. The State is therefore unjust to the teacher when it prevents him from appealing to religion as a means of preserving order and discipline in school, and forces him to hide his re- ligious convictions in the discharge of a sacred duty. It is also unjust to the child who is thus deprived of the. beneficial influence of religion, during so many hours, days and years of his young life. He is deprived of the most timely opportunity for the cultivation of Christian faith and virtue, so necessary to sustain him in the struggle with the temptations of after life. The moral training of early youth influences for good IO Christian Education the whole life of the man. As the inspired writer puts it: " A young man according to his way, even when he is old he will not depart from i t " (Prov. xxii. 6). The mysteries of Christianity are the foundation and the incentive of private and public morality. Since Christians believe that the Son of God became man, suffered and died for the salvation of mankind; that He shed His blood for the remission of their sins and that all are in consequence of the mystery of the Incarnation the adopted sons of God and the brothers of Jesus Christ; that whatever is done for the poor is done for Him; that Christians are the temples of God and the dwelling places of the Holy Ghost; they are filled with charity towards their fellowmen and strongly impelled to cultivate virtue and abstain from crime and iniquity. Our ancestors understood the importance of this train- ing of Children, and consequently always taught Christian doctrine in the schoolroom. In New England in the olden time the schoolmaster was usually a theologian or the minister of a parish and the schoolmistress. was his wife. The New England " hornbook " or primer, the first book put into the hands of the child, was chiefly of a religious character. Two-thirds of the pictures in it " represented Biblical incidents " and the reading lessons consisted chiefly of the " Lord's Prayer," " the Creed," "Watts ' Hymns," and the whole of the Prot- estant Catechism.1 It concluded with the benediction: " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with you evermore. Amen."2 A writer, George H. Martin, in the New England Mag- 1 History of the People of the United States, by John Bach Mc- Master. Vol. 1., pp. 10-22. 'Idem., vol. 11., p. 570. IO Christian Education azine for November, 1893, tells us that while he was a boy he was obliged to learn in the public school in Massachusetts " T h e Westminster Shorter Catechism," and that he " wondered" what a longer one could be like. He also quotes a contract made in those days with a teacher of a grammar school in Roxbury. This con- tract compelled the teacher " t o use his best skill and endeavor, both by precept and example, to instruct the children in all scholastical, moral and theological dis- cipline." After the primer, the boys in New England were compelled to study the Psalter and the Bible; the only books necessary " till they go to college." The public schools were all Christian in those days. The schools, says this writer, " were under the constant and vigorous supervision of the ministers. The minister visited the school regularly; sometimes he questioned the children on the sermon of the preceding Sunday; he regularly examined the children in the catechism and in a knowledge of the Bible." So the children were per- petually enveloped at home and at school, week days and Sundays, in an atmosphere saturated with religious forms and ideas and services and language. The law of 1789 in Massachusetts embodies the spirit of all her for- mer school traditions. This law breathes Christianity in every line. Section X V . : " It shall be the duty of the president, professors and tutors of the University at Cambridge and of the several colleges, of all preceptors and teachers of academies and of all other instructors of youth, to exert their best endeavors to impress on the minds of children and youth committed to their care and instruction the principles of piety and justice and a sacred regard to truth; love of their country, humanity and universal benevolence; sobriety, industry, frugality, IO Christian Education chastity, moderation and temperance; and those other virtues which are the ornaments of human society and the basis upon which a republican constitution is founded; and it shall be the duty of such instructors to endeavor to lead their pupils as far as their ages and capacities will admit into a clear understanding of the tendency of the above-named virtues, to preserve and perfect a republican constitution and secure the blessings of liberty as well as to promote their future happiness, and also to point out to them the evil tendency of the opposite vices." The patriots of Massachusetts showed by this law that they knew that the Christian virtues were necessary to the stability of the State; consequently that the young citizens should begin early to learn them in all the schools of the State. The early Dutch settlers rivaled their New England brothers in zeal for religious education as a necessary part of public education. Up to the time of the English occupation of New Amsterdam the branches generally taught in school were reading, writing, arithmetic and the catechism of the Dutch Church. When the English came into power in New York, they also taught religion in their schools. The standard studies were similar to those of the Dutch schools: reading, writing, arithmetic and the catechism of the English Church. " In 1789 the Legislature of New York set apart certain portions of the public lands for gospel and school purposes."3 In the year 1806 the trustees of St. Peter's Catholic School, which had been founded in New York City in 1800, applied to the State Legislature for a portion of the school money proportioned to the number of scholars.4 'Encyclopedia of Education (Kiddle & Schem, New York 1877), page 636. 'Idem., page 637. IO Christian Education The assemblymen and senators of those days were so thoroughly convinced of the advantage of Christian education that in spite of their anti-Catholie prejudices, they voted the appropriation by a large majority. " In the senate there was only one vote against it."5 The people of that period had strong religious convictions. The orthodox and conservative spirit of the first settlers had not been watered with the foreign infidelity which has been gradually making inroads upon the Christian faith of the country. Even so late as fifty years ago the great leader of the Republican party, William H. Seward, had the courage to sustain Archbishop Hughes in his fight for Christian schools. There were few citi- zens at the time who would agree with the teaching of the late superintendent of our public schools that " the intellect is not to be cultivated by means of religious instruction."8 The idea of a public school without re- ligion would certainly not have been tolerated by the Americans of Washington's time. Foreign masonry, foreign infidelity and home bigotry have been among the chief causes to weaken the love of the American people for the old-fashioned Christian school. That was. the school in which Washington and his soldiers had studied. Did their Christian faith weaken their love of their country, or render them less fit to be freemen than those who eliminate God and religion from social life? His- tory answers no. Washington, like the true gentleman, the true Christian, the true patriot that he always was, considered religious education necessary to the stability of the State. "History of Catholics of New York, by John Gilmary Shea, page 597, published by Goulding. 'Cyclopedia of Education (Kiddle & Schem), page mil Mr. Kid- dle became a spiritualist. Mr. Schem was not a native American. IO Christian Education In his Farewell Address, in which he pours out his heart in love for his country and his fellow-citi- zens, we read these words of solid sense and patriotic wisdom: " Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indis- pensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and cherish them. Let it be simply asked where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation deserts the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge in the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclu- sion of religious principles. " 'Tis substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of -popular government. The rule in- deed extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric? " What could be clearer than these immortal words ? What excuse, then, can certain misguided citizens make who, by driving God and religion out of the school, drive them out of the mind and heart of the young American? Should they not blush to charge Catholics with foreign- ism for putting into practice the advice of the Father of his country and perpetuating the true American tradi- IO Christian Education tion of the union of religion and science in the school? If he were to come back to life again would he not grieve to see the State schools drifting farther and farther from religion and becoming more and more secularized through influences hostile to Christianity and to the true interests of the Republic, which he had done so much to establish? He would see anarchy and so- cialism looming up in the distance as a consequence of this decadence of education and threatening the safety and stability of our free institutions. Loud professions of patriotism or of loyalty to the flag could not deceive him. He would look for the solid virtue and the firm religious convictions which were the basis of his own and which are the basis of all true patriotism. These principles and that virtue he would find inculcated in the parochial school; the same principles and the same virtue which adorned the character of his well-tried Catholic friends, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, Arch- bishop Carroll, of Baltimore, and the gallant John Barry, the first commodore and founder of our navy. Wash- ington would find in these schools proficiency equal to that of the well-paid State institutions; unselfish and untarnished patriotism among these loyal Americans. The Catholic Americans make great pecuniary sacri- fices because with him they believe that " of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports ; " be- cause with him they cannot " indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion ; " because with him they believe that " virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government " and that " rea- son and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle." IO Christian Education Oh, that some great American statesman would arise to reassert the views of Washington and Seward; to champion Christian faith, to insist that the school shall become again Christian, and thus to keep our free insti- tutions safe from the onslaughts of infidelity, socialism and anarchy! 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