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The subscription recommended by the Committee on Resolutions, and by the Executive Committee, was then entered upon. The General Secretary stated that he had already received many and generous contributions from earnest friends who could not be present at the Convention, and after stating a number of instances of commendable liberality, read the following paper which had been placed in his hands:

By the Grace and Providence of God enabling me, I will contribute to the Treasury of the National Association for securing the amendment of the Constitution of the United States, the sum of five hundred dollars, annually, until an amendment (in substance such as at present proposed by this Association) shall be made to the Constitution of the United States.

If this amendment is not made during my lifetime, I shall hope to continue the aforesaid annual payments through the agency of the legal representatives of my estate.

"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.' Philadelphia, Feb. 26th, 1873.

JOHN ALEXANDER.

The impression produced by the calm and devout earnestness of this paper was deepened by the stirring speech of Walter T. Miller, Esq., of New York, who named twenty thousand dollars as the amount which can, and ought to be, raised this year for the work of the National Association, and who pledged himself to give the twentieth part of all the receipts of the treasury for the year.

Mr. Miller and Mr. James Wiggins, of New York, each subscribed $500, the latter also promising to give one-twentieth of $20,000. Henry Martin, Esq., and lady, of Cincinnati, subscribed $300; Dr. Magee, of White Ash, Pa., one-third of $1,000, the other two-thirds of which are to be given by Messrs. David Torrens, Jno. McWilliams, and some other liberal gentleman whose name we have not before us. We might go on and give the names of friends who this year, as heretofore, have given $100. But enough has been said to show how generously the response was made to the call for funds for an expansion of the work.

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It is but due to Mr. Alexander, whose contribution of $500 is to be continued annually until the movement is crowned with success, to state that for this year, in addition to the five hundred dollars, he has most generously agreed to give $1,000, if by this additional contribution the whole sum for the year can be raised to $20,000. The amount subscribed, apart from all sums promised conditionally, was $5,360.00. The receipts of the Association, from ordinary sources, will no doubt be larger this year than ever before. . The National Association thus has placed at its disposal, for this year, two to three times as much as it has ever heretofore employed in its operations for a single year.

The President then introduced the Rev. H. H. George, President of the Geneva Collegiate Institute, Ohio, who spoke as follows:

ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT H. H. GEORGE.

The question of education is one that is fundamental to the interests and prosperity of any nation. To one, especially, whose government is by the people, it must be prejudicial to misconceive the importance of it, and only suicidal to ignore it. It requires no far-sightedness to perceive that as the youth of a country are educated, as their intellects are cultivated, and their moral natures are bent, such must sooner or later be the cast of the institutions of that country. Give me the vast multitudes of children in this land to control and educate as I will; let me prescribe the system of rules by which they shall be trained, furnish teacher and text-book, and I care not what your institutions are to-day, I will give such as suit myself before the lapse of many years.

If any man or party of men had it in purpose to revolutionize the government of a country, no more favorable point of attack, no more hopeful starting place, could be selected than the youth of that land in their first and most susceptible years of training. A great orator of this country has said: "The man who sets an idea on two feet, and bids it travel from Maine to Georgia, has done more to revolutionize his country than if, to overthrow the Capitol, he had put powder under the Senate chambers." And where can that molding, revolutionizing idea be more certainly and successfully started, than in the minds of the children as they learn their first lessons at the common schools?

The keen-sighted enemy of the Bible who hates the religion it inculcates, has fully comprehended this truth, and hence his first and furious attack is upon that Bible in the hands of the little boys and girls of our land just as they are learning to read. Well he knows the power of the leverage of the youthful mind, in his attempts to put down the Bible and secularize the institutions of the country.

But let us notice the prominence given to the moral and religious features of state education upon the page of history:

"Religionibus et artibus sacrum" has been written on the portals of schools, academies and colleges from time immemorial.

The schools of the ancient Grecian philosophers were devoted mainly to the study of the nature of the gods, and the spiritual nature of man.

Pythagoras taught the harmony of the universe, man's immortal destiny, and the paramount importance of his moral nature.

Aristotle taught to the Athenian youth a philosophy in which theology bore a most conspicuous place.

Trace the historic page from the Christian era, and we find religious teaching a predominating element in almost every century, and at no time was it considered less important than secular instruction.

Recognizing the fundamental importance of education, and especially its moral and religious character, those modern nations that have led the van of civilization and improvement have given it a distinct prominence in their systems of government.

In Dr. Stowe's report, a few years ago, to the Ohio Legislature, he says:

"In Germany the school system embraces a course of eight years, making four divisions of two years each." And after summing up the branches taught in these respective divisions, he adds: "In the first is given religious instruction and the singing of hymns; in the second is religious instruction in select Bible narratives; in the third is religious instruction in the connected Bible history; in the fourth division, including children from ten to sixteen years old, is given religious instruction on the religious observation of nature, the life and discourses of Jesus Christ, the history of the Christian religion in connection with the contemporary civil history, the doctrines of Christianity."

Barnard, in treating of the subjects and methods of instruction in Prussia, says: "That every complete elementary school in that country gives instruction in religion and morality, established on the positive truths of Christianity." "In the public schools of Berlin instruction is given in the Bible, the Catechism, the positive truths of Christianity."

"In Switzerland a teacher must have a certificate from the clergyman of his own church that he is fitted, both by character and education, to conduct the religious instruction in the school for which he is designed."

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In Russia it is assumed that religious teaching constitutes the only solid foundation of all useful instruction."

Following the example of those olden nations, and learning a lesson from the pages of history, almost every State in our Union has made salutary laws concerning both the matter and the manner of the education of its youth. Let the constitutional provision of the noble State of Ohio suffice for illustration here:

"Religion, morality and knowledge being essentially necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of instruction shall forever be encouraged by legislative provision not inconsistent with the rights of conscience."

Based upon this and similar provisions in the various State Constitutions, the public school has become one of our grandest and noblest institutions. Its influence for good has simply been incalculable. It has contributed largely to the moulding of our civilization, and has done much to elevate us to that honorable position we occupy among the nations of the world. Nor has it been hindered in its noble services, save only as the modern philosopher has come forward to call its founders fools and madmen, and to startle the world with a new 'light and a more liberal philosophy.

But let us inquire for a moment what is education. Webster defines it to be "a comprehension of all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth, and fit them for usefulness in their future stations." He adds: “To give children a good education in manners, arts and sciences is important; to give them a religious education is indispensable."

But a more elaborate definition is given by one whom all will admit to have been among the ablest educators of his day, Horace Mann. Says he: "All intelligent thinkers upon the subject now utterly discard and repudiate the idea that reading and writing, with a knowledge of accounts, constitute education. The lowest claim which any intelligent man now prefers in its behalf, is that its domain extends over the three-fold nature of man; over his body, training it by the systematic and intelligent observance of those benign laws which secure health, impart strength, and prolong life; over his intellect, invigorating the mind, replenishing it with knowledge, and cultivating all those tastes which are allied to virtue; and over his moral and religious sus

ceptibilities also, dethroning selfishness, enthroning conscience, leading the affections outwardly in good will toward man, and upward in gratitude and reverence to God."

This definition is complete and exhaustive. There can be no other correct view than that it extends to the entire three-fold nature of man. And education short of this must be only partial, limited, dwarfed, one-sided, and may be, in its operations and results, a greater curse than a blessing. Suppose, for example, we should disregard the mental and moral natures, and educate our youth only in the physical (and if we may neglect one, by the same rule we may another), what would be the result? There might be produced a race of athletes suited to the old games at Olympia, or a generation of Kings and Heenans, the champions of the modern prize ring-men largely animal, with feeble brains, and less morals. But again, should we develop the mind alone, disregarding the physical and the moral, we might have giant intellects, men who are able to wield the powers of government or shape the diplomacy of nations, yet they might be physical dwarfs, wrecks of disease, and, worse than all, moral pests upon the earth.

But still again, should we develop the physical and intellectual both, discarding the moral natures, as the enemies of our schools will allow, we might have stalwart bodies with giant minds, but no morals; mighty agents for evil, feeders on corruption, enemies to God, and destroyers of their race.

If State education must result in sending forth such characters as any or all these to the world, it will not take long to decide that it is a most dangerous and damaging institution, and ought at once to be abandoned. Were the question proposed to the people of the United States to-day-schools without morality and without Christianity, or no schools at all? the Christian people of the country ought not to ask a moment to decide, no schools at all. Better far that our noble fabric be demolished, than that it be converted into an enginery of immorality.

But let me here remind the advocates for an education divorced from all morals and religion, that their demands are not only absurd but an absolute impossibility. All nations on the face of the earth have some standard of morals. Some sort of morality is of necessity interwoven into their whole machinery of government, and to attempt to set up an institution of education without that morality would be like setting up a machine without its masterwheel, or an engine without its driver.

If it be a Mormon country, the government and all its institutions are founded on the basis, and administered according to the standard of a' Mormon morality. Even its trade, its manufactories, its improvements, its trials before courts of justice, its pains and penalties, all, all are in accordance with Mormon right. If it teaches its children at all, it must teach them according to the standard of Mormon morals.

It is precisely so in Mohammedan countries, and in all Pagan countries, and can it be less so in a Christian land? Verily not. To attempt a system of education in any country, wholly divorced from the morality and religion of that country, is not only unphilosophical, but it is irrational. Were education only the combination of letters, and giving to these when combined a certain sound (little more than we could teach a parrot), or were it in addition the tracing of these letters upon paper; in other words, were it only the art of reading and writing, it might be separated from all morality and religion; but

when we remember that these are not education at all, but only the mechanical apparatus by which the child is enabled to acquire it, we dare assert that the moment you enter the domain of education, that moment you unavoidably have to do with some standard of morals.

The meaning of many of the choicest words in our language is inseparably connected with morality and religion; for example, such words as just and true, and right and wrong, in a Christian land, differ infinitely from the same words in a Mormon, a Mohammedan, or Pagan country. And it is absolutely impossible to teach a child the meaning of them in a Christian land, without teaching it according to the Christian moral standard. If morals and religion are to be abolished from our schools, not a few of our choicest and best words must go out in the same abolition sentence.

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But could a child be taught the meaning of words, there is not a step in science, there is not a step in philosophy, there is not a grade in history, that can be taken without a standard of morals. The effort to secularize our schools is only a covert attack upon their life principles, a deadly aim at their very existence. The heart purpose of the projectors is not written on the forefront of their movement. It is deeper than it proposes. As infidelity always does, it is fighting under a mask. David Hume left some infidel manuscripts with directions that they should be printed and published after his death. Says Dr. Johnson: "He loaded a blunderbuss, directed it against Christianity, and sneaked into the grave leaving another to fire it off." No less sneaking is the confederacy of the Jesuit and Jew, infidel and atheist, in their attacks upon the Bible in our schools. They are no friends of each other. They are really not in sypmathy. They have not the same ultimate object in view; but they have stricken hands like Herod and Pontius Pilate in the common work of crucifying Christ. The Jew would not object to the Bible if it were his own part of it. The Roman Catholic does not want a school system without religion. He has never said so; he dare not. To ask it would be to belie the tradition of his church for sixteen hundred years. Archbishop Purcell has given the animus of the movement on the part of the Catholics. Says he : "The entire government of public schools in which Catholic youth are educated cannot be given over to the civil power. We, as Catholics, cannot approve of that system of education for youth which is apart from instruction in the Catholic faith and the teaching of the Church." It is not a Bible the Catholic opposes so much in the schools as it is the Bible. It is not religion he opposes, but it is Protestanism; and so deep is his hatred to that, he will join with infidel and atheist in their opposition to all religion, in order to put it down.

It is safe to say that the Jesuit has a secret and concealed purpose to overthrow our entire school system, in the hope of securing pure and unmixed Catholic schools, untainted with the breath, or presence, or influence, of Protestantism. It is no slander to say that Roman Catholics have been the persistent and untiring enemies of our schools, and gladly embraced the opportunity to strike hands with any party or parties in their destruction.

But bound together, Jew and Jesuit, infidel and atheist, they have made the attack. By a counter-movement on the part of the friends of our school system, the matter has been carried into the arena of law. The question is stated, can we have the Bible in our schools by law? Is it in accordance with the genius of our Government? This question has already stood the test of debate before the Superior Court of Cincinnati, where some of the ablest

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