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Show -THE UTAH EVANGELIST- <br><br> NEW WEST EDUCATION COMMISSION. <br> I. HUSE, JR., FIELD AGENT. <br> This Commission was started in the year 1879, in Chicago, by gentlemen interested in Christian education, and its work has steadily increased, until from three or four schools the Commission now has 28 in Utah and Idaho, besides nine in Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. <br> Of these in Utah of which we write, four are academies-i. e.*, those at Salt Lake, Ogden, Lehi and Park City-the others act as feeders for these, although, of necessity, some advanced instruction is given in most of the schools. If our friends who aid in this movement could see the eagerness of the most of our pupils for first-class instruction, they would not begrudge the money given to push this educational and Christian enterprise. In a great many places the children have been accustomed to harshness or indifference, and to find a lady interested, intensely so, is a marvel in their eyes. Our highest school of instruction, Salt Lake Academy, is in charge of Prof. Edward Benner, whose careful and painstaking work is shown in his scholars. He is assisted by Prof. C. E. Allen and three ladies, Miss Nina L. VanVoorhis, Mrs. Kate M. Ashley and Miss Minnie Emerson, also Miss Lizzie Almy gives instruction on the piano to such as desire. The Academy has for its local habitation a noble building, costing about thirty thousand dollars. Of this, ten thousand was the gift of Col. Charles G. Hammond, of Chicago. <br> The regular attendance at the Academy is from 225 to 250. At Ogden, last autumn, Prof. Ring started a school of only thirteen to commence with, but soon we had eighty, as many as we could accommodate, and even now (July 5) applications are made for admittance next September. But before we can accommodate more, we shall have to build an addition, or a new building. Nothing can be more fallacious than the idea that second-class- work will do for the "New West."At Park City, a mining town, there is much rivalry and competition, for besides one district school, there are two other schools in running order, one being under the care of the Catholic "Sisters." At Lehi our Academy has held its own in spite of competition, and has a bright future before it. It is not necessary to speak of all our schools in detail. Our northernmost one is at Oxford, Idaho, about 25 miles over the line, and our southernmost one is at Provo, near the middle of Utah. School work by Christian denominations in Utah, meets with peculiar obstacles. First, a sort of indifference to steady school work, and secondly, the opposition of the Mormon Priesthood, which knows that Mormonism and intelligence, in its truest sense, are enemies. It is delightful to see, however, the the joy and pleasure of a great many of the people of the country towns at the prospect of a first-class school in their midst, and those who oppose us at first, generally become our best friends. It is useless for any one to go into a town in a belligerent attitude, and expect to do good; but kind, christian words and actions must, and do, make a great impression upon those who either are indifferent to Christianity, or who are the firm supporters of a bogus one. In one of our schools the teacher was telling some of the young girls about the near visit of Mr. Bliss, our Secretary, and one said, who, by the way, came from a family who bitterly opposed our school at first, ‘‘I don't know who Mr. Bliss is, but I know he must be an awful* good* man* to start such a good school as this." In connection with our day schools are Sunday Schools, and thus those who attend these are afforded wholesome religious instruction. Truly, a brighter day is dawning upon "this Kingdom." <br><br> GERALD MASSEY AND THE DEVIL. <br> If there is any advantage to be gained from the lectures of the learned, we of Salt Lake have had abundant apportunity [sic] of late to obtain knowlege [sic] of many things whether we increased in wisdom or not. Some of the lecturers are almost world-renowned. Mr. Cook gave us his views of Truth on some points; Mr. Gough gave us something interesting and practical, as was verified by his own observation and experience; Mr. Massey has labored to disabuse our minds and relieve us from the ignorance and prejudice and superstition in which we have been bound and fettered, by the false teachings of our ignorant mothers, who had derived these falsehoods from the old Grannies who had preceded them for perhaps a thousand generations. <br> I do not like to acknowledge myself as being entirely stupid, and do not believe I am, for I did understand what Mr. Cook and Mr. Gough aimed to present, but for the life of me I could not perceive the bearing of Mr. Massey's learned disquisition, and I much fear that we of common minds experience very little benefits from his learned efforts to enlighten us. <br> Shakespeare tells us of those who, afar from public haunts, find <br> "Books in the running Brooks, <br> Sermons in stones and, good in everything," <br> and I have found it to be truth, as well as poetry; but I fail to find any good in the stones or Hieroglyphics, which have made Mr. Massey so wise. <br> The high laudation of the Tribune* makes me think that he made himself understood, and I want enlightenment. He set out (as I understand him) to answer the question of Robinson Crusoe's man Friday, why God did not kill the Devil? and he cuts this Godian knot very easily by showing that there is no devil to be killed, and no God to kill him-both being mythical personages, the Devil being merely a scare-crow stuffed with "sawdust"-but before he is through he "raises the Devil" again, not as the Old Boy himself, with hoofs horney and forked tail, breathing fire and brimstone, but as the evil principle in man, "his depraved human nature," thus making us all devils of different degrees and magnitude, but still real live devils after all. <br> The Chinese agree with Mr. Massey so far as that firty [sic] years ago they called all foreigners "Foreign Devils"-and the Deseret News*, perhaps, would not be far out of the way in ascribing the damage done to the Liberal Institute to the devils, though they were mistaken in ascribing it to the little Presbyterian Devils, who happened to be in the vicinity. <br> Mr. Massey seems to me to present still another idea of the Devil, to get rid of his personality, viz.: that Darkness is the Devil, or the Evil Principle, and Light is the Good Principle, or God. Scientific men tell us that light is a substance and darkness is not, but merely the absence of light. This would dispose of the Devil very effectually. <br> But Mr. Massey does not deny that there is evil in the world, and I presume he admits its universality. We are suffering from its effects, and ask for its origin, and how we are to find relief. Am I to understand Mr. M., that its origin is in the false teachings I received in my childhood at my mother's knee, strengthened afterwards by the teachings of "the Hireling Priests," whose livelihood depend upon their successful perpetuation of the fraud? This might account for the perpetuation, but not the introduction of evil, and yet this is all I am able to see of Mr. Massey's theory. As for the remedy, what does he propose? We need something positive. Will he tell me I am ignorant, and that I must be enlightened? Who will do it? Who will instruct my ignorance? Has Mr. Massey accomplished the object of his mission in the world, when he has told me that the evils of life which I experience in common with my fellow-men, are caused by the false teachings of my Christian mother, when she to the best of her ability, answered my inquiries, "What am I? Whence come I? Whither am I going?" That but for this, I would have been capable of the full enjoyment of the perfectability of humanity in this life, and for boundless expansion in the next life, if there should prove to be any such. <br> I am not a scholar nor a philosopher, and I have no disposition to expose my ignorance, by criticising the performance of those who come before the public as lecturers; but I feel that I have the right to require, that what they present should be so done, that it could be understood and be instructive, and this rather than a captious, fault-finding spirit, has led me to write the foregoing. A New England farmer, took a long journey to hear Daniel Webster's oration on Bunker Hill. On his return home, his neighbors inquired how he liked the great man. "Well," said he, "I don't think him a great man, for I understood everything he said." Judging from that plain farmer's rule, I shall have to admit the greatness of Mr. Massey, for I failed to gather an original thought, or one with which the world was not familiar some years ago,-before he was born. <br> M. B. O. <br><br><br> * words and titles are italicized <br><br> |
