Following lengthy preamble in which. reference ig made to the unpre-dented crime-wave sweeping over Amer-iva, to the increase of—prison-popula~ tion in South Dakota by almost 100 per cent. to the multiplicity of bills ofter: ing. methods of remedy, without effecting any. real solution, the Senate of the State of South Dakota, with the House of Represe natives concurring, recently expressed the opinion that only religion could meet the need, and passed re+ solutions calling for an intensified work of the Churches and agencies of religious education. The last two paragraphs of the preamble and the resolutions were as follows: WHEREAS, the efficiency of any republic, a gover by the S ample: "Jepends on the best development of that people, which experience has demonstrated, and history shows, cannot be without religion. The strength of a republic is in the charac: ter of its citizens, their intelligence and their morals, inseparable from their religion.
WHEREAS, is uniformly conceded that the remedy must be effected through the inculcation of morality, spirituality and conscience in the young, in charch, school and home; therefore be it RESOLVED: That the people of South Dakota be enjoined to at once address themselves' to renewed effort to restore the balance between the spiritual and the material, that our children be reated up in the principles of fundamental righteousness.
That' parents be adjured to exert effort to restore th old-time influence of the home in moul ding the lives of their children, for the development of conscience and morality; that the family-altar be restored, and that in self-sacrificing love the little ones be trained in the simple virtues of trathfulness, honesty, and respect for the rights of others.
Phot the schools - promptly reform their methods, so that the rudimentary studies, as well as the sciences, taught only in subordination to right-oonsness. That the emphasis be laid on morality, good conscience, respect for Parents, reverence for age and experience, and that all learning is but the handmaid of eternal goodness.
I make no apology for quoting this remarkable document at length. If I do nothing else, -I have done you ai service. The best thing that could happen would be for these Senators to make a tour of the world, with the final sentence of their resolution as text. We all need it as well as their own country. Dr, R. F. Horton, of Hampstead, may be taken as 'a representative Briton. He said in November, "We have seen ever since the Armistice an unbroken' succession, of crimes of violence, such as murder and suicide, and the most astonishing revelations of dishonesty and embezzlement on a@ great scale, so as to shake tha confidence of man in man; while the divorce courts have been so crowded that the judges despair of getting through their lists of case."" One cannot but admire these Dakota Senators for saying officially what afl serious people are thinking. It is very rare nowadays—more's the pity—fon legislators to name religion. Thesa Dakota men are men of courage.
You see what their remedy is—faith in a Holy God and His Law. They say education at the present time is upside down, that the first thing to impress on the young is the moral law of God. That eeries before mere book knowledge. They say, in-a golden sentence, that "all learning is but the handmaiden of eternal goodness." I wish some poet would take that and "wed ib te immortal verse." They mean that plain right and truth cannot maintain themselves without faith in Ged, and fellowship with Him to keep our faith from drying up, and becoming useless, They say that society will fall to pieces, all the moral cement will go when religion goes, as a vital force in society.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.