ST. BRIGID'S CHAPEL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1044, 6 February 1911, Page 6

ST. BRIGID'S CHAPEL.

OPENING CEREMONY. ABCHBISIIOP .REDWOOD ON EDUCATION. The new' St. Brigid's* School Chapel at Wudestown was opened yesterday afternoon by Archbishop Redwood.'After the . formal opening, tho Rev. Father Hickson, S.M., made a statement as to tho financial position, and announced that tho total expenditure on land and buildings had been .£OOO, of which «£GSO had been received, leaving a debt of ,£'2so. Father, Hickson then invited i;his Grace to address those present. Archbishop Redwood said that education wtas the preparation for life—the lifo of .the child, the youth, tho man—and consequently tho true goal of euucalion was determined by the true goal of life. What,' ;then, was: tho true goal of life? Wliat was man's ultimate or last end? Had man no other life-aims than some form or other of utilitarianism, or of mere enjoyment, and then the blackness ot extinction?' Had man no pother ultimate destiny than that of tho apo or the ox or the ; pig? No, lie had not, if ono credited N that . shifting Proteus called modern philosophy in the shapo of positiv-, ism, pantheism, aenosticism. Yes, ho had, according to Christianity, according to that noble system based upon tho;deepseated religious instincts and .'intellectual .nps(i3,Qrmnnx'and ? practices <vhich'were tho Immemorial possession of the,,.race,.; Man was . made for a super- • natural - , end;- fo ; serve God for a time in tl.is'ivorld* and'to bo happy with Him for ever in the other world to come. The child, then, had a religious as well as a dccial nature find destiny. Therefore, in nny complete education, the religious nature of tho child, still more than the social,-must, receive its due. development <ind direction. The' child must share in tho spiritual and social and political inheritance of the human race. The greatest of . the spiritual'inheritances of mankind was .that of .entering into right relation's -with'-God. This religion was no mere part of. general education, 110 mere :depnrtmeht-ofdifef-no-mere - special training as for law:.or.medicine. Religion hefonged t6 man as man. It dealt with the ultimate ground of our being, of all ecntingent things with the divine origin of the uuiverse,,, by *<rlnch wo were to understand and measure everything that is. Tt penetrated into every relation of man and touched his very ideal and aim and act. It should, therefore penetrate the. preparation of life, wluce.tion, as it penetrated life itself. Religion education in the complete pen«o of that term. Education was not chiefly a scholastic affair. The mere .knowlodge of accumulated facts was. not ethical.' bettiuso'a; man might 'he gorged with knowledge anrl . yet. really unedu- . eated. Even the knowledge of the deetrines'of religion was n«t education or rel(ifiion, for a man mirrht bp a master of j I theological science and yet V>* thorrowWv 1 j irreligious. Of course, * religious truths must be, taught a 5 necessary, ha sis of moralitv, but religir.ivwas more than mere • instruction. Tt \vn* not n nvore lr*«nn W:e a lesson in geogrnn]iy. Religious., doctrine, hn ?ran?ed, wasa les-on, but religious' doctrine was . not religion, though religion could .not• istand without..doctrine. Religion'was a'virtue, and virtue beine e .bnWt, and a h°.hit Iv-'ng fonred bv a repetition of acts fand that forma-ion poinrr on wh rt n the chad's end the youth's nature was plastic) it bo a. .main object of the educator -to form his- charge to tho virtue of religion. Tho child was' not born with linbite. either of virtue or vic<\ hut r.riviyn the m-HVi ranar.itios. propensities, and pTed'cpositiojn trnxVirrlq bntfi virf'y and vic«\ mn*'n function of. education to guide t.h*** <viraciH°s and prpdi«.nn«ti«a* intn the •ripht- cvnrc*. to convert t l - o ''" info hr>lvK«?. and liaVts of virtue, bv fr** aivl rc"ncatod nota of tho MiVhT Tim ltnVf thns orn*ivred f^r Tood. it to ?»ct nnd to ,»»ond offopf dp;\liv»<* f" v Hior with edncaHon, hi? Grpro hr pfntinrr if \rAitld ■no,effort to *** nt a alan'"* that- the c«cnLir t-rsfern of education in "nomipinn was .•nt ,iit f er variance with the true nrincinV* r^V^ioni ,, pdncation'^nnd: f 'tKcr/>forn > ! tbf.y r>c rothol'cs wore, and mncf Vp iv> prinopposed to it as regards their own n.hfdr°n.'' At. the conclusion of the addrc.es a col'rption was up,'. fh« re c,, H that i«ef. ov«r .-efiO wn's linked in. Tho proceedings closed with a v benediction.