Public School Education Part 5

Generally the world's cold, nipping scorn, combined with ill-health and dest.i.tution. A girl would much rather work in a factory, or a 'saloon,'

because she can be called 'Miss,' dress finer, and imagine she will be thought a _lady_! Poor girl! It is this delusion, this false pride, that crowds the streets nightly with pretty young girls, some of whom count only twelve short summers. With Hamlet, I exclaim, 'Oh, horrible! most horrible!' I lived in a house in which there was a girl, Annie C., not seventeen, and she attended in a restaurant. I once said to her, 'Why do you not take the situation of a seamstress, or a nurse in a gentleman's family?' She turned upon me in the most insolent way, saying, 'Me be a servant! That will do very well for Irish, or Dutch, or English girls, but I am an _American_, and feel myself as _good as anybody_.'

"However, this girl afterwards went as a ballet-girl at one of the lowest places in Boston; and the last account I heard of her was, she was travelling with an Ethiopian troop _alone_. Poor young creature!

what will be her end? The truth is, that after a girl is fifteen years old, in this country, she considers herself a person of _sound judgment_, and the parents look up to these sprites with a sort of deferential fear. These girls are simply living pictures walking about the earth, deriding everything they are incapable of understanding. And who could be charmed with such women? with such 'Grecian Bends,' Grecian noses? The genuine well-bred woman will shine out from beneath the plainest garb; and shoddy vulgarity, even should it be incased in rubies and diamonds, will only be rendered the more obvious and conspicuous to those who at a glance can discover the difference--to those who cannot be deceived, even by the radiant sparkling of these richest of gems."

This sort of women wish to have the "women's rights." They would like, if they knew how, to turn the world upside down, and inside out. This great desire among a certain cla.s.s of women, to have the world think that they possess masculine power, generally proceeds from persons who wish to create a sensation, and fail to do so in the station they belong to. When a woman wishes to go out of her natural element, she shows that her intellect is shallow, and she is desirous of being thought greater than her s.e.x generally; while, in reality, she discovers to us her own littleness. These people seem to wish to be what it is impossible for them ever to become--"men."

"When G.o.d created man in his own image, He said, 'It is not good that man should live alone: I will make him a helpmeet.' Now, had G.o.d meant to create merely a companion capable of following the same pursuits, and capable of the same herculean labors that evidently is meant to be man's destiny, why, He would have made _another man_. But no! When G.o.d caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, he took out one of his ribs, and made a _woman_--a being in EVERY WAY THE COMPLEMENT OF MAN. And, after they ate of the tree of knowledge, G.o.d said to the woman, 'Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall RULE _over thee_.' And unto Adam he said, 'Because thou hast _hearkened_ unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree which I commanded thee, saying, _Thou shalt_ not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;' thus plainly demonstrating to us, that MAN was meant to _rule_. Bear in mind that G.o.d was _angry_ because Adam HEARKENED unto the voice of his WIFE; and Adam called his wife Eve because she was the mother of all living. So it is clear to be seen, that woman was meant to attend to the duties of a mother in caring for her offspring, and man was intended to labor as the provider for her whom he chose as a helpmeet, as well as for the entire household. Woman has natural nourishment sent to her for the babe long before she is able to leave her couch. Does not all this prove to every thinking person that woman's sphere and calling are _widely different_?"

The good and perfection of women consist in remaining contentedly in the place which G.o.d has a.s.signed them, and in performing well the duties of their divine calling. If the hand wishes to be in the place of the eye, and the eye wishes to be where the hand is, they become burdensome, and disturb the good order and harmony of the body. Now it is the same with the members of the social body. If women are in the place, or engaged in the occupation which G.o.d has chosen for them, they enjoy a profound peace; they rest under His protection; they are nourished by His grace; they are enriched by His blessings, and work out their eternal happiness with but little pain.

This truth, however, is considered by many women as one of trifling importance; they seem not to care as to whether they live up to their divine calling or not. The Holy Ghost, however, admonishes every one thus: "Let every man abide in the vocation to which he was called" (1 Cor. vii. 20); for, "Blessed is the man that shall continue in wisdom--and that considereth her ways in his heart."--(Eccles. xiv. 22, 23.) Blessed that woman who well considers her divine calling, penetrates into, and admires its greatness, and endeavors, with all her strength and heart, to comply with all its duties. One of the most usual temptations which the arch-enemy of mankind makes use of to shake women's happiness, in the present day, is to excite in them disgust and dissatisfaction for their divine calling. Hence it is that we so often hear them complain of their state of life; they fancy that, by changing their condition of life, they shall fare better: yes, provided they changed themselves. Would to G.o.d they were sworn enemies of these useless, dangerous, and bad desires! G.o.d wills to speak to them amidst the thorns, and out of the midst of the bush (Exod. iii. 2), and they will Him to speak to them in "_the whistling of a gentle air_."--(III Kings, xix. 12.) They ought, then, to remain on board the ship in which they are, in order to cross from this life to the other; and they ought to remain there willingly, and with affection. Let them not think of anything else; let them not wish for that which they are not, but let them earnestly desire to be the very best of what they are. Let them endeavor to do their best to perfect themselves where they are, and bear courageously all the crosses, light or heavy, that they may encounter.

Let them _believe that this is the leading principle, and yet the one least understood in the Christian life_. Every one follows his own taste; very few place their happiness in fulfilling their duty according to the pleasure of our Lord. What is the use of building castles in Spain, when we are obliged to live in America? "As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that leaveth his place" (Prov. xxvii. 8), his occupation, or station of life. Let every woman remain firm in her calling, if she wishes to insure her tranquillity of mind, her peace of heart, her temporal and eternal happiness.

To become unfaithful to their vocation is for women to suffer as many pangs as a limb which, through some accident, has been wrenched out of place. They are continually tormented by evil spirits, who have power over a soul that is out of its proper sphere. They are no longer under the protection of G.o.d, since they have withdrawn from His guidance, and voluntarily abandoned His watchful Providence. They fall often into grievous sins, because they are not sustained by the grace which belongs to the state in which G.o.d desires them to be. A woman, therefore, can never show her superior intellectual powers better than by cheerfully accepting the calling for which the Creator evidently intended her; that is, for _woman, wife, and mother_.

CHAPTER VIII.

EVIL CONSEQUENCES OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM CONTINUED.

Few questions affect so directly the welfare and interests of the people as the question of education; and a.s.suredly, in this country, there is none of more moment as regards the well-being and permanence of our national inst.i.tutions. These, our inst.i.tutions, our prosperity and civilization, depend for their permanence and perpetuity, not so much on the culture of the arts, sciences, literature, or philosophy, as on the general diffusion of the salutary and vivifying principles of religion.

History tells us in its every page, that the decline and downfall of nations have ever been caused by irreligion and immorality.

Indeed, it is not the State that has made men free, nor can it, on its own professed origin, keep _itself_ or _them_ free. It has no mission to reform men or manners; its boasted material civilization is no civilization at all. For steam, railroads, telegraphs, printing, and in fact all the arts and natural sciences, have never civilized or converted one man, not even a naked savage, and never will. They are the results of civilization, and even then the least part. Nor are they adequate to maintain or preserve the State. What is called _material civilization_ is nothing else than _polished barbarism_,--a kind of monster, with the intelligence of a man, and the cruelty and instincts of a beast. It may flatter the vanity of modern nations to think they are superior to the ancients in scientific and industrial developments, but if they rely on this alone, they are greatly mistaken. I admit the superiority of the moderns, but not on this account. In the first place, many arts and products of head and hands have been lost, but even those that remain are the envy and despair of modern compet.i.tors. Besides, every age must be judged by comparison with its contemporaries. Yet they have fallen; and antiquarian travellers search in vain for the ruins of the proudest and greatest cities of the past. The nation and people--the most gallant and accomplished of all antiquity--who engraved their names on the imperishable fields of Plataea and Marathon, who conquered at Salamis, or died at Thermopylae--that carried eloquence, heroism, and art to a pitch never since attained--the age which boasted of Pericles and Praxitelles, of Plato and Aristides--perished from excess of its material civilization, deprived, as it was, of the vital element of true religion. Without this no nation can live, nor exhibit in its actions true grandeur, or n.o.bility of character. There is among such a cruelty, a perfidy, and a beastly l.u.s.t, which sooner or later bring on their decay and ruin.

Look at ancient Rome, the once proud mistress of the world. In her palmiest days, amidst her thousands of marble palaces and triumphal arches, amidst her innumerable temples and altars, there was _not one to Mercy_. Nor was there, amidst all this barbaric display, a single _hospital_ for the poor of any age or condition. The Roman eagle was carried at the head of victorious legions to the "_Hither Inde_," and far beyond the depths of "_Hercynian forests_." Conquered kings marched at the head of subjugated nations to swell her triumphs; the wealth and strength of the then known world lay at her feet.

Here was exhibited on a scale--the grandest the world ever saw or will see--the triumphs of "_material civilization_." Yet all this crumbled and fell before the rude hatchets of the long-haired "_barbarian hordes_," coming they knew not from whence, and going they knew not whither, only able to give the single answer, that they were "_the scourge of G.o.d_." Where, then, was the power to save? It was not in their material civilization, nor in their impotent and terrified legions. What all these could not do was accomplished by an unarmed man--Pope Leo the Great, speaking in the name of that mighty G.o.d, unknown alike to Attila and to Roman wisdom. That G.o.d still reigns, and Him it is the State would exclude from the Public Schools! thereby denying alike the lessons of history and its Christian duty. These United States, or no existing nation (relatively to the age), has never attained the point of artistic, aesthetic, social or material perfection of the Greco-Roman States; yet they fell, as I have just said, to slavery and ruin, not so much from the blows of the barbarians, as from the dissolving influence of a _material civilization_, resulting inevitably in public and private impotence and demoralization.

Only keep up the present G.o.dless system of State education, and depend on it, as sure as effect follows cause, every species of villany and defilement will flood the land. It is certain that all education which is not based on religion is heathenish, and must prove destructive in the end. It will destroy the very people whom it was expected to save.

It will consume them as a fire.

Nor can it be otherwise; for what brought on the "Cities of the Plain"

the material fires of heaven? Or what were the sins and crimes of the Gentile nations that called forth the terrible chastis.e.m.e.nts predicted by the prophets? Why, the self-same pride, worldly-mindedness, ambition, sensuality, and _disregard of G.o.d and His laws_ which is at this hour taught in the Public Schools. This, I am aware, is a grave charge, but it is made with all deliberation and sense of responsibility. Indeed, the ancients were in many respects more excusable than we are. They had but the Old Law, always incomplete and obscure, whilst we live under the fulfilment of the new law, with all its aids and graces. Now, if G.o.d did not spare the "Cities of the Plain," if He destroyed the ancient nations in punishment for their wicked lives and disregard of Himself and His law, what reason have our modern heathens and infidels to escape G.o.d's vengeance--they who in every respect are more guilty in His sight? Let the measure of the evil consequences of the Public School system become full, and rest a.s.sured the wrath of G.o.d will not fail to come down upon the American people. The late American war was a great punishment for the whole country. Thousands of men were launched into eternity unprepared to appear before their Eternal Judge. Yet this punishment is only a forerunner of a far more terrible one. The Lord is patient, and slow in punishing a whole nation, which He may spare for many years for the sake of His just. Yet for all that He will not fail to punish private families, fathers, and mothers, and children, if they have no regard for Him and His law--if they are practical infidels, and give themselves up to their beastly pa.s.sions. Let me give you some instances, taken from the little book "Fate of Infidelity," by a Converted Infidel.

"You all have, undoubtedly, heard of Blind Palmer, a professed infidel.

After he had tried to lecture against Christ he lost his sight, and died suddenly in Philadelphia, in the forty-second year of his age. You will also have heard of the so-called Orange County Infidel Society. They held, among other tenets, that it was right to indulge in lasciviousness, and that it was right to regulate their conduct as their propensities and appet.i.tes should dictate; and as these principles were carried into practical operation by some families belonging to the a.s.sociation, in one instance a son held criminal intercourse with his mother, and publicly justified his conduct. The step-father, and husband to the mother who thus debased herself, boldly avowed that, in his opinion, it was morally right to hold such intercourse. The members of this impious society were visited by G.o.d in a remarkable manner. They all died, within five years, in some strange or unnatural manner. One of these was seized with a sudden and violent illness, and in his agony exclaimed: 'My bowels are on fire--die I must,' and his spirit pa.s.sed away.

"Dr. H., another of the party, was found dead in his bed the next morning.

"D. D., a printer, fell in a fit and died immediately, and three others were drowned within a few days.

"B. A., a lawyer, came to his death by starvation, and C. C., also educated for the bar, and a man of superior intellectual endowments, died of want, hunger, and filth.

"Another one, who had studied to be a preacher, suddenly disappeared, but at length his remains were found fast in the ice, where he evidently had been for a long time, as the fowls of the air, and the inhabitants of the deep, had consumed the most of his flesh.

"Joshua Miller, notorious as a teacher of infidelity, was found upon a stolen horse, and was shot by Col. J. Woodhull; N. Miller, his brother, who was discovered one Sunday morning seated upon a log playing cards, was also shot.

"Benjamin Kelly was shot off his horse by a boy, the son of one Clark, who had been murdered by Kelly; his body remained upon the ground until his flesh had been consumed by birds.

"I. Smith committed suicide by stabbing himself, while he was in prison for crime.

"W. Smith was shot by B. Thorpe and others, for robbery.

"S. T. betrayed his own confidential friend for a few dollars; his friend was hung, and he was afterwards shot by D. Lancaster.

"I. V. was shot by a company of militia. I. D., in a drunken fit, was frozen to death.

"I. B., and I. Smith, and J. Vervellen, B. R., and one other individual, were hung for heinous crimes they had committed. N. B., W. T., and W.

H., were drowned. C. C. hung himself. A. S. was struck with an axe, and bled to death.

"F. S. fell from his horse and was killed. W. Clark drank himself to death; he was eaten by the hogs before his bones were found, which were recognized by his clothing. J. A., sen., died in the woods, his rum-jug by his side; he was not found until a dog brought home one of his legs, which was identified by his stocking; his bones had been picked by animals.

"S. C. hung himself, and another destroyed himself by taking laudanum.

D. D. was hired for ten dollars to shoot a man, for which offence he died upon the gallows.

"The most of those who survived were either sent to the State Prison, or were publicly whipped for crimes committed against the peace and dignity of the State."

This is a brief history of the Orange County "Liberals," as they called themselves. To the infidel and evil-doer, it presents matter worthy of serious reflection, while the believer will recognize in each event the special judgment of G.o.d, which is too clearly indicated to be doubted by any honest mind. I ask, will the Lord fail to visit with similar judgments all those who are guilty of the same crimes? Will the Lord fail to visit with similar judgments all those who, by keeping up and defending a G.o.dless system of education, prepare the young for infidelity, and all kinds of crimes and iniquities? If the Lord punished so severely the King Antiochus for carrying away the sacred vessels from the temple of Jerusalem; if He sent so many plagues upon the Egyptians, and drowned, at last, the King Pharaoh and his whole army in the Red Sea, for refusing to let the people of G.o.d offer sacrifices where and in the manner the Lord desired it, what will be the punishments for those who, by a G.o.dless system of education, abolish religion? If G.o.d slew twenty-four thousand men of the Israelites for having fallen into fornication (Numb. xxv.), with what punishments will He visit those who add, to the sin of fornication and adultery, even the crime of child-murder! Numberless child-murders are committed daily in the land.

a.s.suredly the voice of these innocent victims will cry to heaven for vengeance, and the Lord will not deafen His ear to their voice. If the American people will not soon put an end to the G.o.dless system of education, if they permit any longer the rising generation to be raised to infidelity, the wrath of the Lord, enkindled against them ever since the introduction of the G.o.dless system of education, will fall upon them. In former times, when the Lord threatened the people with His chastis.e.m.e.nts, they entered into themselves, and did penance, because they had faith, and the Lord was appeased. But our modern heathens laugh at the very idea of doing penance. So the wrath of the Lord will surely overtake them when they least expect it.

CHAPTER IX.

THE STATE.--ITS USURPATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS.--ITS INCOMPETENCY TO EDUCATE.

It is certain and undeniable that two orders of things actually exist in this world, the natural order and the supernatural--nature and grace.

These two orders have the same ultimate end, though, in themselves, they are distinct. Nature is, and must be, always subordinate to grace; the natural must be always subservient to the supernatural. This is G.o.d's immutable decree. Hence religion must always hold the first place in everything. A system of education that places the natural and the supernatural on the same level is absurd, and must be condemned; but a system of education that ignores the supernatural altogether, is, if possible, even more wicked and detestable. Yet this wicked, detestable, irreligious system, diabolical in its origin, and subversive of all political, social, and religious order, is imposed by the State upon all Christian denominations, whether they approve of it or not. Now the State has no right whatever to force such a G.o.dless system upon its subjects.

For the right understanding of this most important point, I attach great importance to a clear understanding of what is commonly called the State.

_What is the State?_

People in general have a vague and confused conception of this matter.

You will hear the people talk of the "sovereignty of the State," "the life of the State," "the power of the State," "the absolute authority of the State," "the paramount allegiance due to the State," etc., etc. Not only the Public at large, but even those who a.s.sume to lead and direct public opinion, are constantly blundering on this subject.

There is nothing so _fertile_ as an idea; it will, like every other germ or seed, bring forth in time according to its kind. If it be a good one, it will bring forth good fruit; if it be a false or bad one, it will spread its evil fruits over society. Be it one or the other, it is never barren; sooner or later, the idea or maxim takes form and substance in an _Inst.i.tution_; then it operates, in a material manner, for good or evil.

To ill.u.s.trate: a false conception of the nature and authority, of the legitimate functions, rights and duties of what is called the "State,"

has led, and will, if not corrected, ever lead to the most deplorable political, social, and religious disorder and oppression. As diverging lines in mathematics can never approximate, but must continue to widen as they are extended, so a false departure from a political "standpoint"

can never be rectified unless by a return to correct first principles.

This is what is meant by the democratic maxim, "that a frequent return to first principles is necessary to secure the ends of public liberty."