Evening High School - Owl Yearbook (Reading, PA)

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84 THE OWL has you may, about what you deem graver matters, toil, and study, and discuss,bring your strong keen intellects to bear upon the world's politics, but stand aside and let, above all, the children come to Jesus. Stand aside and let the Amer- ican youth come to J esus! We are Working for the world's future. What can come of that future without those child- ren, without that youth whose future is- OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD. On this does their well-being depend-that when the passions that slumber now shall have awakened in their maturity, and shall hunger for their evil food, they may be children still in heart-children be- cause having been suffered to came to Jesus, they shall have been furnished with a rule to guide their reason and a spell to still the tumult of awakening passion. There is not, there cannot be, any question more important than the question of religious education and Christian morality, whether to the individual, or to the society of which he is a member. I have no hesitation in asserting that the most momentous work upon which society can be engaged at any given time, is the education of children and youth, but this education supplemented with religious principles and morality. There is an instinct within us that prompts us to work, not alone for the present, but for the future - not alone for our own selves, but for the community of which we form a part. This is, in tact, the history of any civilization - the effort of one generation to leave an inheritance to the gen- erations that are to come after it. Where this effort has been made, civilization has ilourished - where it has been neglected. civilization has perished. Hence, you see that there is no greater work in which society can be engaged, if it wish to increase and to perpetuate the advantages it has inherited, than the work of education. But there remains to be said about this education a thing which we oft-times have taken for granted-namely, that any education that is to be of advantage to man or to society must be grounded on religion, intermingled with religion, directed by religion. We are doubtlessly aware that Satan, as fatally successful as he was with the world's First Parents, still seeks to cor- rupt the hearts of the rising generation-the children and youth, by oifering bribes to their intellect, that the tools

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THE OWL , 83 us-my first word upon the subject must needs be a word of congratulation. We all know the sad story of the persecution suffered by our Pilgrim fathers in the olden time. How they braved death and torture for the faith and religion they loved 5 how fire, and the sword, and the gibbet, and the prison were tried, and tried in vain, to shake their allegiance to their Godg how persecution beat upon them, like the rock, unmoved. Oh! my brethren, there is not a lonely hillside in our land where our fathers have not met to worshipg not a mountain cavern that has not echoed with the voices of their secret prayer, the green sward of our country might well be red, because of the religious blood it has hidden. And, oh! is it strange that I, a priest, standing in this stately room to speak to you about education, should deem it fit that my first word upon such a subject should be a Word of congratulation, and a word, too, of solemn warning? We stand to-day released from the bondage of the past, one by one the chains have fallen from our limbs, We raise our brows and lift' our free hearts to heaven. Oh, my breth- ren, if we suffered ourselves to become indifferent about the religion to which we have won the right, would we not de- serve to be forgotten by the God Whose hand guided us in our history? You remember how on one occasion our Blessed Lord was surrounded by admiring crowds, who hung enraptured on His sacred lips. His disciples thought He was engaged in' matters of deep moment, and so He was. But they thought, too, that these matters were of too deep moment to be interrupted by the intrusion of children, and when some mothers broughttheir children, that He might lay His hands on them and bless them, the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus, who knew so well the value of children's souls, spoke the words that stand as an everlasting testimony of how the Saviour of the World regarded the welfare of children: Suf- fer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of God. Yes, I say to you, you workers of the world, be solicitous

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TI-IE OWL 85 who do his evil work are iilled with ecstasy at the 'beauty of a godless education. When we put our hand to such a work as education, we are prone to think that we cannot do better than put it under the protection of religion and God-that unless we do so we cannot do even well. We know that the young soul that is to be educated for social purposes has not only the social end, but also an individual end that is eternal. Hence, it would be ill for a youth, even though he were fashioned into a perfectly educated gentleman, to lose-nay, even to risk his salvation in the process of his education g we know, that if it were needs a question of choice between intellectual culture and eternal salvation, the only wise thing to do would be to choose the latter. Education, religion and God are not incompatible, but they are mutually helpful, and even humanly speaking, the man is best educated who has been educated most religiously, most god-like. The greatest blessing that has come to us from the cen- turies that passed is the Holy Faith of our Fathers-the Faith that comes to us, made even dearer by the tears and blood that its transmission cost. The highest duty that we can owe to the centuries that are to come is to hand on to them that sacred deposit unimpaired. Now, to fulfill that duty there is but one way: to do our part in procuring for ourselves an education for the little ones amongst us, who, in a few short years shall take our vacant places, and be the men and women of the future. To you, dear graduates, I commend this work, knowing, as I know, that the interests of our Holy Faith are very dear to your hearts, knowing that there is not, nor can be, any of these interests more important in itself or in its consequences than the interest of education and religion. And I commend this sacred cause of religious education, and I ask you to join me in commending it to the protection of that Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, who is the infinite source of all knowledge-human and divine-that he may bless this work in this our land, and that we may obtain in heaven the reward of those of whom it has been written : They who instruct many unto justice, shall shine as stars for all eternity.