TRUE WORDS FROM AN UNEXPECTED QUARTER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 71, 5 September 1874, Page 10

TRUE WORDS FROM AN UNEXPECTED QUARTER.

" Thb Fbttit op SuctriAn Education."

and cre^tottrlirS te^T/onT "* "W^ well-being of a nation than thaUf he oath The 3? J \ >° *? justice, which involves the protection of the weak aSSn f' 0 "/ encroachments of the rich and powerful • the seUHn A?T **T ?" tween citizens ; the security against official h,,S? J 8 <>f deputes beselfishness, are all more or less depenS on ff evils of statements. In a word, there I no^incipU watch humanV •T™ at P re3ent organized, can ao illy afford to rdinoSS, . ?w i °W» M by the apostle to the Hebr 9 ws (clmp T i i 6)i 6 ) .'T?^ .t. th f afc -^*»« tion is an end of all strife." But what is th« ™ ?• for conformaprinciple when men daily lift the r hand taSfJ T^ Va \' lo ° f tM3 nouncin^ the Divine fa™, and impS A^e DWintT' they fail to speak the truth to the best of their Wl a S v°2 ld and then deliberately color or deny the trutli f^ g ° and bell . cf 7paltry consideration of moneyor reputation for * h ° comparatively citizens may be quickened by° the c^LT^TT ° {^ S*™ 0 jury are not oulymeannees, but sm-not onlv t ■ d \ ahoneat y and V er ' God-God, who is retribu ive in \h d UnlT^i™"' but againsfr « will by no meuns clear the guilty " g Wlth hlB creatUre3 « ««* juring themselves Bui examples f K^got^SfoMES" ous education is incapable of curing erH w uT. L g hoover, *,at the ver> smaUe^mbt religious education. There is a profession of reltbn Xch is like ?h« nas been us careluliy trained as the intellectual. And SjftZ SSr" " dl> ° Pped by a * arent o" Sunday-sE There is, perhaps, no country in which the oath is administered so frequently, and for such trivial causes, as in our own, and yeUherS is none wmeti guards so carefully against sanctioning the inculcation of tuose doctrines oi religion without a name, to which the oath is degraded to a mere iaree. it it bo true, as Montesquieu observes, that « religion is the best secunty we can have of the probity of men" can the°State afford 5 be aeverly neutral m regard to it?' There is no principle, however souud in general, that will not produce evil if allowed to work itself out, without regard to other equally sound but countervailingpnuciples. Just as there is a point at which civU liberty passes over into license, and ceases to be liberty at all, so it is possible to carry religious liberty to such lengths that it becomes the instrument of deduction to religion itself. Tinker and reform on eduatioa system as we may we will either have to bear the reproaches of sin or conform to the principles that " righteousness exalteth a nation," and that ■'• the fear of the Lord is the beginning of the wisdom."—' TlieLucherau.'

True : But who is to teach th.it •• rigJiteousness" ? The Church, ? .1 ti mu e «r T( ? who , m was the commission given by our divine Lord? The Lutheran does not affirm that it was given to secular authorities. And if not, then according to the 'Lutheran's' own arguments, the secular authorities are guilty of usurpation in the public schools j aud yet, according to the same argument, the State, by the purely Becu>ar education," imparted in the public school is undermining those religious convictions with which even the State cannot afford toto dispense ; and, moreover is guilty of gross injustice in compellingCatholics to sustain those schools. And this compulsion the State does exercise by tue school-taxes, which by law it levies and collects. Will the ' Lutheran ' consider this and unite with us" in opposing, the present it/stem of public schools ?— Philadelphia • Standard*'