336 RELIGIOUS AGENCIES 



leave the rest of us far behind; their hospitals are numbered by 

 hundreds, and their asylums and orphanages are legion. 



Of the great number of Catholic religious orders which are repre- 

 sented upon the soil of this republic, not a few are devoted to the 

 care of the sick and the unfortunate. Some good beginnings have 

 also been made by other Christian bodies in the organization of 

 deaconess homes and sisterhoods, through which the churches stretch 

 forth the hand of compassion to the suffering and the sorrowful. 



It would, however, be impossible, in the time at my disposal, to 

 give even the slightest descriptive sketch of the manifold philan- 

 thropic enterprises, the cr&ches, the homes for children, the schools 

 for nurses, the industrial schools, the medical missions, the social 

 settlements, which are under the care either of the local churches or 

 of the denominational organizations. All that I can do is to mention 

 them as part of the fruitage of the religious life in its organized form. 

 The church, as the chief religious agency, has found expression 

 for its life not only in philanthropic work, but also in educational 

 work. From the earliest days of our colonial life education has been 

 a chief care of the churches. In those days the church and the town 

 were one; there was no separation between secular and religious 

 agencies, and a careful training in Christian principles was a princi- 

 pal reason for the establishment of the public school system of New 

 England. It was " in consideration of a religious care of posteritie " 

 that the people of Roxbury voted to establish a school. The time has 

 long gone by when the churches used the public schools for religious 

 purposes, but the time has never come in which the churches have 

 ceased to put forth their energy in behalf of Christian education. 



The Roman Catholic church still maintains that religion is an 

 essential part of all education, and through its parochial schools it is 

 making vigorous efforts to give its children a thorough religious train- 

 ing. Many of its strongest religious orders are mainly devoted to the 

 work of education. Not only in its parochial schools, but by means 

 of a great array of colleges and conventual seminaries, it is devoting 

 its resources to the work of educating the young. 



The Lutherans to some extent sympathize with the Roman 

 Catholics in their view of education, and, in some parts of the country, 

 their parochial schools are maintained at a considerable sacrifice. 



For the most part, however, the Protestant denominations have 

 left to the state the work of primary education, and have devoted 

 themselves to the business of providing the secondary and the higher 

 education. Into this work the state has also entered of late with 

 great vigor, and in many parts of the country the state universities 

 and the public high schools now quite outrank the institutions under 

 denominational control. But the churches are still very actively 

 cooperating in this work. The academies and seminaries for both 



