So it proved, not long ago, with an unhappy wretch, the child of parents that had forgotten the law of their God, and sent her to one of the Public Schools in a town on the North River. She played the harlot, when she grew old enough, and then sought to add to this the crime of a horrible _murder_--the murder of the child that was of her own flesh and blood. In procuring its murder, she lost her own life. In the den of the monster-abortionist, and finding herself dying, one of the vile attendants now declares that she shrieked and begged for a Catholic priest. The Jew into whose murderous gripe she had put herself, found some means to quiet her cry, and she died without seeing a priest. God will keep His word! He has said, "Because _thou_ hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will _forget thy children_!" I do not say that Catholic parents are obliged, under the pain of mortal sin, to have _any_ secular education given to their children. But I do say that they _are forbidden_, by the law of the Catholic Church, to send their children to _any_ schools where the Catholic religion is not _practised and taught_. If neglect to comply with the law of God and of His Church, neglect to receive the sacraments at certain times, and under certain circumstances, is a mortal sin, is it much less a sin to neglect the proper education of our youth, upon which, to a great extent, their entire future depends? And if the sacraments are refused to persons persisting in sin, should not a sin of this great character be also considered in the conditions requisite for the worthy reception of the sacraments? I hesitate not to pronounce this matter of education a matter of conscience, and it should be treated accordingly by those who have the charge of souls. We see ecclesiastical edifices of great magnitude, splendor, and expense, erected everywhere by Catholics, but for what purpose? To attract non-Catholics? Bosh! A Catholic can hear Mass in caverns, in catacombs, or under hedges, as they have often been obliged to do; but if we lose our children there will be none to hear it anywhere, nor any to offer the Holy Sacrifice, even in our most gorgeous cathedrals. Where will be our Catholics? Scandal and disgrace will be the order of the day. I do not wish it to be understood here that I entertain any, even the least, doubt of the indefectibility of the Church, or of the faithful fulfilment of the promises of Christ; for the Church will exist in spite of man. But again I say that Catholics are violating a most sacred duty in not providing facilities for Catholic education. This, O Catholics! is what the money you are making so rapidly ought, in generous part, to be devoted to. So _you_ will think, at a day fast coming, when your bodies will be buried sumptuously, your souls forgotten by the living, and the estates you have hoarded with so much industry shall have become, perhaps, the objects of disgraceful law-suits among your heirs.