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Show A Perilous Situation. Speaking recently of- the religious education of children, President Faunce of Brown university said: "In the mediaeval age, both education educa-tion and religiou were expressed thrgouh the one institution the church. The school and the church were one, as church and state were one. But now, In that differentiation of function, that development of special organs for special tasks, which so clearly marks modern life, there has come about not only the momentous change which we crudely called the separation of church and state, but another change hardly yet recognized, but far more momen-toust momen-toust he separation of religion from education. The public schools, which once taught every child that 'in Adam's Ad-am's fall we sinned all,' now teach nothing of Biblical history or of Christian Chris-tian truth, and the indispensable task of Christian education is falling between be-tween church and state to be undertak en by neither. The state has handed religion over to the church, and the church had handed religion over to the state. Who, then, is henceforth responsible re-sponsible for religious education? The state saith, 'It is not in me'; and the church saith, 'It is not in me.' Hence we have In America millions of children chil-dren growing up without any religious training whatever a situation which would have seeemed inconceivable to ancient Athens or mediaeval Florence, a situation such as no pagan nation ever tolerated, a situation today incomprehensible in-comprehensible to Berlin, or London, or even to Cairo or Constantinople, a situation more perilous than any other with which the republic is now confronted." |