Although the country is of the Roman Catholic form of religion, the Constitution allows full liberty of worship to other sects, within their respective churches, but forbids acts subversive of public order, or which might invalidate any civil or political obligations.[45] Notwithstanding this liberty, there is, I believe, but one Protestant congregation worshipping in the republic. It seems that the offices of religion are used most by women and by the dying. Guatemala certainly cannot be called a religious community. The ruined churches, crumbling to dust and serving only as cemeteries of the dead, are monuments of a departed worship. Perhaps some day a purer religion may rebuild these fair temples and call within their walls all the Guatemaltecan children of the Great Father, to be refreshed with new life and courage. In sad contrast with the religious life of Guatemala is the military vigor. It is difficult to obtain the exact statistics of the army, even in a time of peace; but it is said that the standing army numbers twenty-five hundred rank and file, with eighty jefes and two hundred and fifty-three other officers, while the militia, including all males not physically exempt, between the ages of eighteen and fifty, amounted in 1883 to 49,835 men. Under control of the War Department are the police, street-lighting, and the Polytechnic School. While it is possible that the army does not cost so much in proportion to the population as in some of the other Central American republics, it is nevertheless a terrible drain upon the resources of the people, apart from the bad moral effect of a military life, as seen in all history. May the time soon come when this beautiful republic shall throw off the incubus and devote all her energies to the development of her vast resources! I pass to a more agreeable theme, the foundation-stone of a republic,—public instruction. On Dec. 13, 1879, President Barrios by decree established the present excellent system of compulsory and gratuitous elementary education. Under this in the primary schools are taught reading, Spanish, knowledge of objects, writing and linear drawing, geography, history, morals, and politeness.[46] For those who wish to go beyond these elements, equally gratuitous facilities are afforded for learning Spanish grammar, book-keeping, elementary natural history, geography, and history of Central America, and some other branches (complementary).