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PUBLIC EDUCATION./:;^^ ^Ij' /

SERMON,

IMIEACHED IN THE

PARISH CHURCH OF HEMEL HEMPSTEAD,

ON SUNDAY, DEC. 22, 183!).

J. H. BROOKE MOUNTAIN, B.D.

" Religion ^vithout Education is too simple to bo «afc, and Education
without Religion is too subtle to be sound."

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON,

ST. PAUL'S CHUUCH YARD,
AND WATERLOO TLACE, FAM- MALI.-

1840.

t o N i> n N :

(ill.UlCKT & KlVINCiTON, PRIMT.ItS,

ST. John's square.

Some of the Congregation who heard the following
Sermon, having expressed their opinion that its
circulation in a printed form, at the present crisis,
may be advantageous to the interests of Religious
Education, the Author feels it his duty to neglect no
means, however trifling, which can tend to diffuse
sound notions on this most essential subject.

Lately Published,
BY TH?] SAME AUTHOR,

SUMMARY

OF THE

WRITINGS OF LACTANTIUS.

In 8vo. 55. 6rf.

SERMON.

1 Thess. v. 21.
'♦ Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good."

There is a daily growing tendency, in " the Spirit of
the Age," to divest religion of all controul over the
practical principles of mankind collectively and indivi
dually.

Collectively, we are now told, men are to have no
religion : for this is the plain meaning of the trite
fallacy that " religion has nothing to do with politics."
The salt of the earth is not designed to counteract the
corruption of society in the mass ! Individually, the
same notion is somewhat differently expressed.
Moral worth, it is said, must not be estimated by
speculative opinions. Men are not to be judged by
their creed, but by their conduct. And so forth.

Upon th's system, the public teachers of religion
are prohibited, by public opinion, from a very wide
field of instruction, which, as ministers of the gospel,
they are strictly bound to cultivate. They are
censured as political preachers, if they presume to
teach the duties which men owe to society, in the

capacities of subjects and citizens •, and they are con-
demned as uncharitable bigots, when they inculcate
the scriptural doctrines of unity in religion and
church communion : they are visited with reproaches
and revilings whenever they venture, in a conscientious
discharge of their responsibility, to point out the
mischievous and impious character of fashionable
opinions, and prevailing modes of argument.

But " woe be to us if we preach not the gospel,"
" through evil report and good report :" woe be to us
if we shrink from a fecrless, yet candid and charitable,
avowal of those great truths, which are " the same
yesterday, to-day, and for ever," whilst " the fashion
of this world passeth away."

Among many subjects of Christian edification, thus
interdicted by "the Spirit of the Age," which will
bear no contradiction, is the important topic of
public education : and certainly it does require some
portion of moral intrepidity to face the charges of
intolerance, of the love for darkness, of selfish in-
terest and tyrannical design, which are poured upon
us the moment we dare to insinuate that the basis of
all Education, public and private, ought to be, and
must be, if human virtue and human happiness is its
object, based upon the Christian religion. It is how-
ever the unquestionable duty of a " good soldier of
Jesus Christ," to disregard all this shower of fiery darts,
and to set before those whomheis appointed to instruct,
the eternal and unchangeable principles of truth,
" whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear;"

and he is to do this, as, on the one iitind, without any
pusillanimous fear of the resentment he may provoke,
so, on the other, without prejudice, passion or exagge-
ration.

I shall, therefore, beg your attention, and your in-
dulgence — I will bespeak the forbearance of any who
may dissent from me — whilst I endeavour, however
feebly, to fulfil, what appears to me, my indispensable
duty, in laying dov/n those principles of education
which the gospel of Jesus Christ enforces, and which
His true church, in every age, has laboured to carry
out in practice.

In order to lay a distinct foundation for these evan-
gelical principles of education, I must, in the first
instance, be permitted to point out the fallacy and
the pernicious tendency of .hose which " the Spirit
of the Age" is working to introduce in their room.
The prevailing error is, that the fashionable system is
new ; that it is the result of increasing intelligence,
and more extended information ; whereas, in truth,
it affords a striking example of the adage, " there is
nothing new under the sun !" So far from being a
step in advance of our former position, it is a retro-
gradation to a point occupied before the light of
Cnristianity broke upon the world ; and not the first
retrogradation either ! The Gospel found men in a
high degree of iw^ec^wa^ cultivation — (a degree which
we shall not readily surpass,)— combined with a deplo-
-g^ijig state of moral darkness. The Gatechists of the
Church, in its pure and active condition, that is for

five or six centurioH, rotormed this falso system of
('(lucatioii, and i?i their numerous ami ably conducted
scIiooIh, they introduced a complete training in that
science, of all others confessedly the most important,
the science " how to live ;" how to live so as to secure
our own ultimate happiness, by contributing as largely
as possible to the happiness of others : and the axioms
of this science they founded, not upon utilitarian
investigations, but upon the will of an all- wise and
all-good Deity. But as religion became corrupt, and
consequently lost much of its just and salutary in-
fluence upon the mass of society, men gradually
relapsed, in what are, somewhat presumptuously,
called " the dark ages," into a duller and more un-
couth form of the ancient errors, and began again,
in the schools, to cultivate the sharpness of the in-
tellect ; and to neglect the culture of the affections,
and the regulation of the passions, by the rules of
Christian duty.

On this point let us hear the complaint of an
eloquent and profound scholar, who lived at the close
of the period to which I am referring. " The times
in which we live (says H. Stephens) labour under
many complaints in the education and training of
youth, but especially under this most fatal and grie-
vous malatly, that the essential part of education, in
which the foundation should be laid, is wholly
neglectet and left out of the account by some
teachers, and is by others regarded in the light of an
appendage or trapping. For some impart to their

jmpilH not Olio jot of tin* <loi;iii.is of (Jliristianity;
whilst others, vvlio omit no nicoty of porfection in
mere human science, inBtruct thcni in divinity, as it
wore in [jassing, and as opportunity offers, disparaging
its sanctity."

At the Reformation a new era commenced in edu-
cation, or rather, in this, as in other matters, the
Church reverted to the principles and practice of
primitive times. The will of God, and the consequent
duties and interests of man, were made once more
the leading subjects of public instruction ; and the
State, by enacting that no one shonld teach a school
without the licence of the bishop, secured, as far as
in it lay, the soundness and uniformity of the doctrines
conv( yed in the education of the i)eople.

But as the Reformation became more and more per-
plexed by the abuses of private judgment, it was found
impracticable to maintain this salutary check. Dissent
reared its hydra heads, and demanded, as an unalien-
able right, to instruct its own disciples, in its own
way ; and since the first race of Dissenters adopted
all the creeds, and many of the articles of the re-
formed Church, the rule was the more readily relaxed
in their favour ; and having once been virtually con-
ceded to them, it became worse than nugatory to
enforce it upon members of the Church. But though
the iLile was abandoned, its spirit long survived, and,
God be praised ! still survives, in most of the great
seminaries of learning, and in the majority of paro-
chial schools, though with a weakened force, and
waning lustre, down to the present day.

The cry, therefore, which is now raised, and the
fashion which threatens to prevail for the secularisa-
tion of education, by depriving it of what is called
" the sectarian spirit," that is, of all distinct religious
doctrines, is nothing new. It is reverting, for the
third time, to a system which has twice before been
tried, found wanting, and abandoned.

The system, in effect, is, to substitute for the prm-
ciple of religious duty, as the spring of human action,
a refined and enlightened and calculating selfishness ;
in other words, to take the result of our own calcula-
tions, instead of the rule of God's Will. " Not con-
tented," says Mr. Gladstone, " with excluding religion
from the province of government, * the Spirit of the
Age' struggles, with not less zeal, to introduce, as
its substitute, education : that is to say, the cultiva-
tion of the intellect of the natural man, instead of the
heart and affections of the spiritual man — the abiding
in the life of Adam, instead of passing into the life
of Christ."

" The modem supposed improvements," obsarved
Scott, " of science, philosophy, and human reasonings,
carry large numbers as far from Christ, and from the
apostolical doctrine, as popery itself does." And, had
he lived to this day, he might have added, much
further ; inasmuch as the total abandonment of reli-
gion is worse than its partial corruption.

The advocates of this dangerous system £-e not,
however, in general, to be suspected of a deliberate
design to supersede Christianity. They are the short-
sighted tools of master spirits. The plausible pre-

text for the omission of fundamental and essential
truths from the education of the people, is a plan of
comprehension to include all denominations of Chris-
tianity. All denominations ! But a moment's reflec-
tion will convince any reasonable mind that this is
nothing less than a covert mode of shutting out Chris-
tianity altogether. Such a comprehension can have
no limits. It has indeed been atic.xipted to exclude
Socinians. But this is in manifest contravention of
the principle, and could never be maintained. If you
draw any line of demarcation at all, you admit, at
once, the necessity for exclusion to preserve true
doctrine, and you justify all the precautions recom-
mended by the Church.

Besides, how will you hold to any rule of exclu-
sion the sects who profess no creed, and have no
fixed principles? We hear indeed much of the three
denominations of Protestant Dissenters; and the
leaders of this union are much more intolerant towards
the sects not included within their pale than the
Church is ; but of the three denominations, it is
notorious that one, still called Presbyterian, has be-
come Unitarian ; and that pure Deists are admitted
into its councils. If therefore the system of com-
prehension be attempted at all, it is vain to seL any
limits to it. You must admit all men, and all opi-
nions, without restriction, and throw open the doors
to the infidel and the socialist.

But this would be gradual Some limits, however
inconsistently and even unjustly, would be set in the

1-2

first instance, and would yield by degrees to the
pressure of opinion, and to the evident impossibility
of defining them strictly. The omission of one point
of discipline and doctrine would follow after another ;
the Christian motives of action would be left out of
sight, and Christian rules of conduct would meet
with objectors who have framed their social system
upon the calculations of political economy, instead of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For let it not be too
hastily taken for granted that all mankind are agreed
respecting practice ; and that our differences of opi-
nion respect only speculative topics. It is not
so. Without adducing the insane abominations of
socialism, it is obvious, to a very cursory observer,
that men of different shades of doctrine, all profess-
ing to make the Scriptures the rule of faith and of
practice, have adopted various and even opposite
views of public, if not of private, duty; that one
sincere Christian denounces, as profane and dis-
honest, the very course of conduct which another
extols as self-devoted and independent; that the
latter condemns as oppressive and unjust, what the
former holds to be an indispensable part of the duty
which he owes to his Church and country. And
these topics are neither so few, nor so inconsiderable,
that they could safely be left out of a course of
moral instruction, even if it were possible to hope
that the party spirit of the age would not render
them unnecessarily prominent. It is, I think, suffi-
ciently clear that the proposed system of compre-

■tfcia*-

hension will resemble the toes of the image in Nebu-
chadnezzar's dream— " partly iron, and part miry
clay," and that the incoherent materials must speedily
fall asunder, and the whole fabric become a heap of

disorder.

There is also another and a vital objection to the
comprehensive system, in the danger— I consider it
something more than danger— that the necessity
which it imposes of passing over slightly all those
doctrines, however essential, upon which mankind
are not agreed, should train up the youthful mind in
an habitual indifference to religious and moral truth ;
and that instead of " searching the Scriptures daily
whether those things be so ;" they should acquire the
habit of " caring for none of those things." Will
not the art of reading distinctly and fluently, for
example, be thought of more importance than the
doctrine of the Atonement, by children who hear all
persons of all denominations daily and hourly incul-
cating one, whilst they studiously keep the other out
of sight ? Will not writing and arithmetic be looked
upon as more essential acquirements than prayer and

praise ?

It is no answer to this objection, that the parents
and the ministers are left at liberty to teach their
own pecuUar doctrines out of the school. The school
is the place of education, and if the school is not
conducted upon religious principles, the education
cannot be religious. We know that the parents of
the poor generally do not, and to any considerable

extent, many of them cannot, instruct their children
in religion. They leave this duty, unhappily too
much, to the clergyman and the schoolmaster. But
the clergyman's opportunity, his only opportunity, of
discharging this important function, is in the school,
and during school hours ; and if it cannot be done
then, it can never be done at all.

I am aware that it is proposed to allow religious
teachers an opportunity of instructing children of
their own denomination, at certain hours, and under
certain restrictions, in the comprehensive schools.
But this concession has been reluctantly made to
parry the indignation that was roused by the incau-
tiously abrupt abandonment of all doctrinal instruc-
tion ; and I hope I am not uncharitable in believing
that it must have been made with the assurance, that
it can never be carried out into practice. Let any
reasonable person, of the slightest experience in
parochial education, attempt to frame to himself the
details of such a system ; and he will speedily come
to the conclusion, that no " sincere milk of the
word" can ever be imbibed in the Babel of univers
toleration, and universal indifference.

I shall not now notice other, and grave, objections,
to a scheme of which the only merit, in my miiid, is,
that it cannot possibly last. Let us turn from this
unpleasing side of the question, to consider briefly
the true and scriptural principles of religious educa-
tion, based on the practice of the Christian Church
in its best ages.

" The true excellence of man," observes one of the
most thoughtful of modern writers, " appears to be
mmmh not intellectual." The approaches towards a
higher nature, and a nearer knowledge of tbe Creator,
are to be made by moral cultivation; and this culture
is, in effect, the best training for the intellect also.
Mere science may sharpen the powers, and expand
the faculties, but it does not tend to improve the
judgment, nor to mature those habits of mind upon
which tbe regulation of conduct, and consequently
the happiness of mankind, really depends : whereas
the knowledge of God, and of our relations to Him,
and to each other as social beings, and of all the
duties which spring from those relations, not only
tends to purify the heart, and exalt the affections,
but, in its operation, exercises and strengthens the
more exalted powers of the human mind, and pro-
duces real tone and dignity of character. And this
truth is particularly applicable to the case of persons
whose lot it is to earn their daily bread by the labour
of their hands. The little time which such men
have to bestow upon intellectual pursuits, if it be
devoted to acquire a smattering in the practical
sciences, renders them only shallow, self-conceited,
and mischievous ; whilst, by absorbing all their lei-
sure, it deprives them of the only knowledge which
is really valuable to immortal beings, and leaves
them in utter ignorance of the Will of God, of their
own high destiny, and of those duties by the per=
formance of which that destiny is to be fulfilled.

But, if the brief opportunities for learning, afforded
to the labourer and the mechanic, be employed on
the noble science of moral and religious truth, they
will be raised at once in the scale of being to a level
with the more affluent classes, who are compelled, by
the necessities of their station, to bestow much of
their time upon their more intellectual but still pro-
fessional and secular pursuits.

Following out this view, then, we hold, that the
true way to raise our fellow-creatures, who labour
for us, to their natural level with ourselves, is not
by an impracticable attempt to make them adepts in
science, leaving them in moral and religious dark-
ness, but by imparting to them as much as possible
of that kind of mental improvement upon which we
feel that our own superiority rests,— that is, a more
extended and accurate knowledge of God and man,
which I take to be only another form of expression
for a better acquaintance with the Gospel of Jesus

Christ.

The Clergy of the Church of England have been
charged with maintaining, that all sciences should
be taught from the Bible. This is wilful misrepre-
sentation. But certainly we do contend that the
Bible contains the noblest of all sciences,—" all that
it imports man most to know." Hence we desire to
make the Bible the ground-work of public education.
Here we lay our foundation. And to this extent we
have many coadjutors who are willing to build upon
the same common ground.

But when we begin to raise our superstructure, it
is " the beginning of strife." We go back to the
primitive system of teaching by Catechisms. It is
manifestly impossible to give children a coirnected
view of the contents of the Bible without abridging
them. A summary of those various doctrines and
rules of duty which lie dispersed in the Sacred
Volume, is indispensable to systematic instruction.
An abridgment of its history appears equally neces-
sary to fix the leading points in the memory. An
explanation of ancient usages, and modes of speech,
is essential to a right understanding of the whole*
A comparison of correlative passages is the only safe
guidance in cases of obscurity and difficulty.

All this seems undeniable. x\nd if we admit this,
we, in effect, admit the necessity for an interpreter
of Holy Scripture. And the office of interpreting
the Word of God is evidently one of such vast im-
portance, and awful responsibility, that we do not
see how any human being can presume to take it
upon himself. In truth, no human being ought to
do so. The Scripture itself has appointed its own
interpreter. That interpreter is the Church, kept in
check, and prohibited from adding to the Word or
taking from it, by the right bestowed, the duty im-
posed upon the people, of referring every thing back
to Scripture. In the Catechisms, in the Articles, in
the Creeds of the Churchy we have the authorized
interpretation and summary of the Bible. They are
not intended to supersede the use of the Bible, much

less to modify its contents, but, on the contrary, to
enable the people to examine the Sacred Writings
with advantage, by affording them a short and clear
Table of Contents, lucid in its arrangement, and plam
in its illustration. Here we come to narrower
■rround. We are assailed by a hott of objectors, and
faintly supported by the great body who still adhere
to us, not so much, I verily believe, from disaSection
to our system, as from ignorance and inconsideration

of the subject.

But here we must take our stand. Not only must
the Bible be the ground-work of education; but the
Creeds and Articles wHch embody its doctrines,
which possess the stamp of truth, and the sanction
of primitive antiquity, must be adopted to convey its
force and meaning in a condensed form. Nor can
we consent, under any imaginable circumstances, to
forego that admirable "short Catechism," the legacy
of our spiritual Fathers, the Reformers of the Church
of England ; or to exclude from the course of reli-
.iom instruction the explanations of that Liturgy,
thich is to form the young mind to habits of devo-
tion, and to become its means of communion with
God We cannot allow our scholars, (as far as m us
lies to prevent it,) to grow up in the ruinous habit of
using forms of prayer without understanding; and
we must, therefore, make it part of their education

Prayer.

We can consistently admit of no compromise, we

d
n
1-

can assent to no plan of comprehension, which goes
to deprive us of the least of these advantages. We
do not desire to compel those persons, who unhappily
misunderstand and object to our system, to entrust
us with the education of their children. We do not
desire to throw any obstacle in the way of their edu-
cating their own children in their own way. But
we do insist, (woe be to us if we fail to insist^ and to
" contend earnestly^) that the youth of the Church of
England shall be brought up in its principles, trained
in its doctrines, formed in its practical duties, made
perfect in all " the nurture and admonition of the

Lord."

That this has hitherto been done very imperfectly
we acknowledge, and deeply lament ; that, with all
the pains which we are now taking, it will still be
done imperfectly, we have too much cause, from past
experience, to apprehend ; but we shall never con-
sent to the abandonment of a sound and Scriptural
system of education, on the ground of that imper-
fection which attaches to all human performances.
We wiU do the best we can in this world, and trust
to attain perfection in a better.

The children of our Church shall be gathered to-
gether under the wing of our re' -ed Mother, and
taught the way of life under her eye. Establisned,
or not, by the law and constitution of our country,
she stands on higher ground, and will not « fear what
man can do unto her." The Church to which we
belong, is the mystical and visible body of the Lord.

Its membei-H are, not the clergy only, but the wholo
of its people, who have, no less than their ministers,
their proper share in its privileges, and in its govern-
ment ; and, if they rightly understood their position,
a common interest in its preservation. Deeply,
indeed, are they concerned in maintaining, in im-
proving, in extending, its system of religious educa-
tion. On their growing sense of this vital interest
we rely for support. But supported, or deserted, we
are firm to ' our cause. We ynmj be defeated ; we
may be overwhelmed for a season in that delusive
impetuous torrent which wears the smoothness of
liberality on its surface, whilst it gathers the dark
waters of infidelity below ; but, defeated and over-
whelmed, we will be found faithful : faithful, and
protesting to the last against the restless « Spirit of
the Age," "the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience." There is, however, no ground for
despair. Let us do our duty zealously, cheerfully,
and hopeftilly. We have many encouragements,
many blessings, for which to be thankful ; for which
we may well praise God whilst " we humbly hope
for more." Let us do our duty. " God shall bless us,
and all the ends of the world shall fear Him."

THE END.
I

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