# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1916_S60
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

60 Proceedings of the twenty-sixth convention

care of our confirmed youth have become more watchful and more zealous and more active. Quite a number of congregations make great sacrifices there, spare no trouble and labor in working with the young people, that they may remain with the Word and with our Church. And that is praiseworthy and right. In this we want to go on, and not only go on but become ever more zealous. In this field too there is still room for improvement. There are without doubt still some congregations and pastors who do not yet do here what they ought to do. Let us care ever better and more wisely for our youth, and let us also draw their attention especially to the dangers that threaten them from the side of Rome! But how do matters stand among us with regard to our parish schools? We may say, with thanks to God, from whom this good gift also comes, that in many places, in many congregations, a lively interest in the Christian school is shown. People do not shrink from the great costs, they are ready to make many other sacrifices for it as well. Yes, in some places the interest, the zeal for the Christian weekday school has been newly awakened. But on the other hand we must not conceal from ourselves that there are also growing signs that in quite a few places the zeal is flagging, that the parish school is felt to be a burdensome and useless load, that in some cases people are hostile to the Christian school and work for its abolition. That is exceedingly sad, especially for our struggle against Rome. Let us consider what an important weapon we give out of our hands thereby, the thorough influencing of our youth, a large part of their Christian education. Let us consider how zealous the Roman Church is in the field of schooling, what a far-reaching, deep-reaching influence it exerts thereby on the whole people, in that for years it instructs about one and a half million children and young men and young women, and not only such as belong to its Church but also strangers, in its errors, and trains them to high reverence for the Pope and his priests! Let us not let this weapon be taken from us! The Jubilee Year of the Reformation ought to awaken in all of us a new zeal, a new interest for our whole school system, for the lower and the higher, so that the pure Gospel may remain also with our descendants, and they too may learn to guard against this wicked and dangerous enemy, the papacy at Rome, founded by the devil.

So we have now set before our eyes again our important struggle against Rome. If we fight rightly, if we keep the good, long-proven sword of the Gospel and use it rightly and faithfully and diligently against the Pope, apply the Gospel first of all to ourselves, practice it diligently in prayer, if we proclaim and spread it until its bright light shines from one end of our country to the other, if with this light we expose the soul-