110 Timehri. 
“Indeed, half an hour a week of Bible study will never make strong Christian 
“ men and women out cf our children. Now, I am going to say something, you 
“may not agree with me in, and which will shock some of you here present. 
“The only Church, which is dealing with the spiritual development of her 
“ children aright, is the Catholic Church. The Catholic priest says ‘ Let me 
“mould the child up to twelve years of age and I care not who has the child 
“ after that.’ And, mark me, on account of the parochial school the Catholic 
** Church is to become the universal or the conquering Church of America’s 
‘* future. And when I say this I am not attacking the Catholic Church. Mr. 
‘ Beecher used to say that some people had two requisites for heaven : ‘ First, 
** do you believe in Chiist 2? Second, do you hate the Catholics? Well then 
“pass into heaven.’ Like Mr. Beecher, I am no bigot, I would infinitely prefer 
* one of my children to be a Catholic rather than have him go to no Church at 
“all. Indeed, I would prefer one of my boys to be a good Catholic rather than 
‘a poor Presbyterian, although I would prefer to have my children good 
“Presbyterians, than good anything else. But whether I like the Catholics 
‘or not, one fact is certain, the Catholics train their children for the Church. 
“The result: the Catholics are simply going ahead by leaps and bounds. 
“The coming universal creed of this land is the Catholic creed, unless we as a 
“Church have the brains of the Catholic priest and put the chief emphasis of 
“ our spiritual work into moulding our children under twelve years of age for 
“God.” 
The speaker of the above clearly admits the necessity of religious teach- 
ing in schools, if the spiritual and moral welfare of the children is to be 
provided fcr. 
Ruskin says : “‘ Education does not mean teaching people to know what they 
“do not know. It means teaching them to behave, as they do not behave.” 
“The same sentiment is expressed by a recent writer who remarks: “A 
“school system, which gives the child no instruction of a definite and earnest 
“kina in conduct, as well as in knowledge cannot but be regarded as defective.” 
On these principles the different religious denominations of the colony 
admitting their duty of contributing, as far as they can, to the moral and 
spiritual training of the children, have gone to the expense of opening schools, 
It may be objected, that in spite of the denominations having such opportuni- 
ties, the moral standard of the people is deplorably low. That must be admitted. 
There is, however, much to be said in their favour. The circumstances under 
which they were living a century ago were such as to tend rather to their moral 
degradation than elevation. They were kept in ignorance ofall religion. Since 
then little has been done directly by the Government for their spiritual and 
moral elevation. And the example, of many of the Europeans, has not been such 
as to put higher ideas, either of spiritual purpose, or of morality before them. 
If the schools, instead of professing a religious purpose, had been merely materi- 
alistic. the state of the people would have been far worse. 
The system also leaves very much to be desiderated. Only of late years, has 
the system aimed, at all, at anything beyond the mere mechanical reading and 
writing, and working out arithmetical problems. Practically, till the Jast 
