home and looked to it
as the source of its authority. And such it was. The point is this: the
home was the original educational institution and, as well, the original
religious institution. At first it alone performed the work of all
three: it was our home, our church, and school all in one. It finally
established the others and merely delegated work to these supplemental
agencies, so, at any time, it may withdraw that work from them. It is
master of the situation. This withdrawal may be done either by the
collective home or by any individual home. If any home represented here
this evening, for any reason whatever, wishes to resume the religious
function and alone direct the religious development of the children, no
one can say it nay. And it is the same in regard to the school. If any
parent here wishes to withdraw his children from the school and himself,
either directly or indirectly, provide for their intellectual
development, he has a perfect right to do so. Our compulsory attendance
laws are satisfied when evidence is furnished of the child's
advancement. Of course the church and the school, in this primitive
stage, were both exceedingly crude--corresponding to the crude notions
of religious and intellectual development then held by man, yet playing
the same great part as now in the drama of life. I suppose it is true
that these differentiations were at first only semi-conscious, but
nevertheless they were real differentiations and had large influence
upon the development of man.

To trace the development of the church thru its early stages is not
necessary for the purpose of this address, so I pass at once to the
establishment of the Christian church which is in reality our
representative of the same fundamental institution. Like the home and
the school, the church began in a very humble way, and during the
progress of the centuries passed thru many vicissitudes and underwent
many changes. Let me speak very briefly of four stages, or periods, of
the history of the Christian church: first, the primitive stage, that
period of about 350 years following its birth when, in the main, motives
were pure, ambitions unselfish, and ideals high. But, tho it was founded
to provide the means of securing the religious development of the child
and the race thru the perpetuation and extension of the teachings of
Christ, and tho it was launched forth into its great career in the
spirit of love and meekness and fellowship that char