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BABRIS'JEft-AT-LAW. 
 
 .^'- 
 
 i 
 
 HAINT JOHN, Nr B. : 
 
 'EBB, 
 
 1876, 
 
 J. A A. MoMILLAN, PRIIfTBRS, 78 PBTWOE WM, STREKT. 
 
 5* 
 
 
 >V,-.!ji- 
 
 
iht 
 
 €k\m\i i\\t ^\i\% m\l tl|«^ ^(\ml 
 
 
 BY 
 
 I. ALLEN JACK, A. B., 
 
 BARRISTER-AT-LAW. 
 
 SAINT JOHN, N. B. : 
 
 J. i A. McMillan, printers, 78 prince wm. street. 
 
 1876. 
 
I 
 
 iiUMJA**,^ 
 
I 
 
 i 
 
 BY 
 I. ALLEN JACK, A. B., 
 
 gartisttr-at-^atD. 
 
 (From the Maritime Monthly for Aprils 1875.) 
 
 "VTEAKLY' nineteen hundred years have passed since the wise 
 "^^ men from the east s-mght the star which stood ahove tlie 
 resting place of the child Christ, the long expected Light of the 
 World. No anxious seeker now gazes at the midnight heaven for 
 that star; the bodies of those wise men have long since been 
 mingled with the dust of the ancient dead ; but the name of the 
 Bethlehem infant is hallowed among all nations, and His light has 
 penetrated the darkest corners of the earth. The light which 
 camh with Christ, unlike the glimmerings of former ages, was 
 destined never to expire, never to be more than momentarily 
 dimmed; its influence was all-pervading; and individual, social, 
 and national character, through its means, has ever since been 
 changed. liCgal codes, before the Christian era, approached per- 
 fection ; systems of philosophy revolved round truth, distant at one 
 time, near at another, but never touching ; those who sought to 
 be wise were often true to manhood, virtuous, and benevolent, but, 
 l)efore Christ came, they were at best in spiritual and intellectual 
 darkness. The possible results of a life spent in search of virtue 
 and wisdom were most vaguely guessed, and the shadow of the last 
 dread messenger hid no certain brightness from the eyes of the 
 dying sage. He thought that he would pass the Stygian stream, 
 but poetic legendary, or his own speculations, only told him what 
 there was beyond its gloomy waves. 
 
 That the principles of philosophy never can be generally applied 
 towards the proper regulation of human conduct, is very certain, 
 although it is admitted that systems of religion, formed by philo- 
 sophical thinkers, have largely influenced the actions and motives 
 of mankind. Philosophy asks no one to take for granted that which 
 cannot be proved ; and, as only the well grounded student can pro- 
 perly devote attention to the subjects suggested by philosophers for 
 
4 The Church, the State, and the School. 
 
 inv»'sti^atioii, the ignorant or pjirtiiilly educuteil man, wrapped up 
 in wordly affairs, or lied to a roiitiue of duties engrossing all his 
 time, must remain ignorant, or, at best, can only learn to shake 
 off old ideas without comprehending new principles. Hence it is 
 c\ ident that the masses ot" mankind must learn t'roni some source, 
 wliich they must admit to be trustworthy, if not infallihle, and hy 
 the most simple method, the results of certain actions and coursea 
 of conduct. The oracles, the divinations of the priests and sooth- 
 sayers, and, in a few instances, written religious codes, avowedly 
 j)rocured from supernatural sources, partially supplied this want, 
 and, to some extent, restrained humanity from commission of 
 crime and indulgence in vice, and assisted governments in pre- 
 serving social order. That even the teachings of Socrates and 
 Plato would have had an ill effect upon the morals of the multi- 
 tude seems very clear, as the tendency of their teaching, although 
 contrary to their intentions, was to encourage disbelief in the religion 
 upheld, if not established, in the State. To suggest a motive for 
 living well, and to prove the certainty of reward after death for a 
 well spent life, were the great difficulties which presented them- 
 selves to both pagans and philosophers; for few, even of the 
 former, believed that the life of man was limited to this earth, 
 and, at least some of the latter, maintained the complete immor- 
 tality of the soul. 
 
 Men, according to the great philosopher, were as though in a 
 vast cave, where, in miserable darkness, tliey attempted to dis- 
 charge their duties and provide for their wants. At length, he 
 says, a few wise men groped their way towards the light at the 
 mouth of the cavern and emerged into perfect day, After gazing 
 at the wonders exposed before them, they returned to the darkness 
 within, and attempted to persuade their comrades to seek the 
 sunshine and the beauteous world outside. But their companions 
 would not hear them, and called them fools and blind, because the 
 sunlight had so dazed their eyes that they could not pick their 
 way or see the different objects in the gloom.* Yet even Socrates, 
 whose sight was clearer, and who saw in brighter light than his 
 companions, was conscious that there was a greater luminary than 
 he had seen, by means of which the uncertain paths would be 
 made plain to the seekers of wisdom. Thus, after uttering the 
 grandest moral precepts ever heard in the times of almost universal 
 
 * Plato's Bepublic. 
 
The Church, the iState, and the School. 
 
 [J 
 
 |''W'P''<I lip 
 'K' all liis 
 
 to sliake 
 <?»»ce it i8 
 H; source, 
 N and hy 
 
 t'oiiitiea 
 
 1<1 Sdotli- 
 
 i vowed Jy 
 >>« want^ 
 ssion of 
 in pre- 
 tes and 
 ' multi- 
 
 Ithoil^rJi 
 
 relig-ion 
 tive for 
 h for a 
 
 them- 
 of the 
 
 earth, 
 minor- 
 
 1 in a 
 
 dis- 
 til, he 
 tt the 
 azing^ 
 kness 
 
 1 the 
 lions 
 3 the 
 their 
 ates, 
 
 liis 
 han 
 : he 
 the 
 rsal 
 
 Ijeathcnisin, he concludes, — "But, my friends, we cannot know 
 wliat thiuj^s are true unless it be revealed to us hy a (lod." 
 
 To render tiieir reli<^ious or philosophical principles practically 
 useful to society was an obvious duty to the earnest social leaders 
 anionj^ the (ire«*ks and other classic nations, and they necessarily 
 recognizeil the desirability of implantinjjf those principles in the 
 minds of the younj;. In youth a man learns what he slxtuld do; 
 in manhood he is expected to remend)er and act inider his early 
 teachint^s. Or to (juote the words of a great writer on (christian 
 ethics, — "'The former part of life is to be considered as an impor- 
 tant opportunity which nature puts into our hands, and which, 
 when lost, is not to be recovered. And our being placed in a state 
 of discipline throughout this life for another world, is a providen- 
 tial disposition of things, exactly of the same kind as our being 
 placed in a state of discipline during childhood, for matnre age, 
 our condition in both respects is uniform and of a piece, and com- 
 prehended under one and the same general law of nature." * 
 Amongst the Athenians, who are here selected because they con- 
 ceived and practised systems for state, social, and individual 
 government, which always will be considered models of excellence, 
 when a youth could read with fluency, he was set to learn by heart 
 passages selected from the best poets, in which moral precepts 
 and examples of virtuous eonduci were inculcated and exhibited. 
 At the age of eighteen or twenty the sons of the more wealthy 
 citizens attended the classes of the rhetors and sophists, who gave 
 tlieir lectures in the Lyceum, Academy, or other similar institu- 
 tion ; a course somewhat analagous to entering a university in our 
 own times. Here the young man studied rhetoric and philosophy, 
 under which heads were included mathematics, astronomy, dialec- 
 tics, oratory, criticism and moraU.] 
 
 It will be observed that, throughout his entire course of instruc- 
 tion, the young Athenian was taiight morality, or, in other words, 
 the religion of his day, Hparta alone, of all the Grecian com- 
 munities, adopted what may be termed a general system of educa- 
 tion under the special control of the State, but, throughout the 
 whole of Greece and in Rome, the instruction of children generally 
 claimed the attention of the leading minds. It would be tedious 
 to investigate the systems of instruction pursued among the various 
 
 • Butler's Analogy, Cap. V., Part I., Sec. 3. 
 t History of Greece, by William Smitb, LL.B., pp. 387-388. 
 
 ''■,Md^*,&/X.: 
 
6 
 
 The (Jhnn'h, the, Sfate, and (he School. 
 
 I 
 
 anciunt luitions; l)iit it may be j(enerally stated tliat every 
 cnliyjlitencd dynasty en(!o\ira{j;('d tlie instruction of sucIj of its 
 youth us were destined to liave any voice in the conduct of puhlic 
 atTai's, or to occupy any responsible and independent position in 
 society ; and that the systems of instruction pursued were of a8 
 perfect a description as the existinj^ state of knowledge could 
 supply. The reasons which would induce a government to interest 
 itself in the education of the young are various; as to tlie manner 
 and extent of State intervention, in such education, we shall refer 
 hereafter. In the first place it is absolutely necessary, in a well 
 regulated State, that every man should be al)le to distinguish 
 between right and wrong ; that he should be made to fully com- 
 prehend the consequences, both temporal and eternal, of every 
 bad action which he commits; and that he should learn so to act, 
 in regard to his own affairs, that he does no injury to his neigh- 
 bors. It is also essential that he should have sufficient knowledge 
 ♦o enable him to maintain himself and those depending on hi;n, 
 and to lay by enough to support himself and them in case of his 
 sickness, and to assist in sustaining his family in case of his death, 
 otherwise the burtlien of such support must necessarily fall upon 
 the public. Finally, it is highly desirable that he should be 
 capable of comprehending and exercising his rights of citizenship, 
 and his duty towards the State as a voter and possible representa- 
 tive of public opinion. To discharge these and other offices which 
 we have not enumerated, we maintain that his instruction should 
 be essentially of a religious character. We have pointed out the 
 glaring defects in the heathen religions of the past and in philo- 
 sophy. These defects may, for the sake of convenience, be classed 
 together under one general head, — uncertainty as to the object 
 and destiny of human life. Socrates and Plato saw in what 
 respects the then existing philosophy ana religion were defective, 
 and it is quite certain that revelation alone could render either 
 perfect. If, then, the wise men of long ago taught their children 
 all the spiritual and intellectual wisdom then attainable, and, if 
 these wise men saw that their systems were defective in the 
 particulars to which we have adverted, should we, in any way, 
 hinder the children of this age from using the perfect light v/hich 
 God has given for their use ? Should we keep them in a moral 
 cave and not suffer them to pass from out its gloom ? 
 
 A system of education which does not comprise religious instruc- 
 tion, is not only religiously wrong and incapable of transforming a 
 
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 The Churchy the State^ and the School. 7 
 
 youth into a pious man and good citizen, ])ut it is also scientifically 
 imperfect. Religion is so intermixed with every duty of life, that 
 we might as well attempt to make a man an artist, by teaching him 
 how to draw and how to color, without teaching him the laws of 
 perspective, as to expect him to do right without knowing the 
 laws of God, and the. nature and condition of God's relation to the 
 human race. 
 
 ('ompare the Revolution in France, in the time of Louis XVI., 
 with that in England in the time of Charles I. : in the former 
 case the philosophers instigated the movement, in the latter 
 religious zealots; in the one case there was wild confusion, terror 
 and crime ; in the other order and speedy tranquility. Philosophy 
 is generally incapable of training men for the duties of this life, 
 and does not prepare them for the life hereafter ; and education 
 is n<»t worthy of the name if it does not point the way through 
 this world to the world to come, and if it does not treat our 
 present existence as a state of probation and discipline preparatory 
 to a life beyond the grave. A system of education, which merely 
 endeavors to prepare a child to battle with the present life, is 
 therefore low in its aims, lower indeed than the better kinds of 
 philosopliy, and is necessarily hostile to the true idea and method 
 of Christianity, as explained by Butler and all other orthodox 
 Christians. 
 
 The quantity of education which a child receives must necessarily 
 vary with the means and position of himself or his parents; but, 
 whether instruction be imparted in school or college, it should 
 always be in its degree, of the very best quality. To be so, it 
 must be religious and, we need scarcely add, denominational : 
 otherwise it is of too confused and indefinite a character to be 
 capable of guiding the motives and actions of the person taught. 
 8ome persons, from natural kindliness towards their fellow men, 
 and hatred of polemics : and others, with too great a respect for 
 the intellectual powers of man, from that misconception of science 
 which leads them to consider revelation and the dogmas of faith 
 subservient to scientific teachings, believe that mankind may be 
 made religious by means of the ten commandments, the Lord's 
 Prayer, and belief in a supreme but undefined deity. There are men 
 who claim to be considered preeminently liberal Christians, when 
 they have thrown aside those principles of their faith which are 
 opposed to the views of others with whom they wish to associate 
 
 m 
 
8 
 
 The Churchy the State^ and tlce School. 
 
 as fellow-worshippers and workers. If there was nothing in the 
 words, — " The Faith once delivered unto the Saints ;" if there was 
 nothing definite and imperative in the command to hold fast by 
 that faith and to walk in the ancient paths, we might grant 
 that the design of such persons is deserving of commendation, and 
 that it is desirable that the Christian world should assist them in 
 carrying out their plan. Religious unity however can never be 
 accomplished through such a method as that to which we have 
 referred, except by a woful sacrifice of creeds, and an utter stifling 
 of individual consciences. No unioA can certainly be accomplished 
 between the iconoclasts and those who invoke saints; between 
 Univerealists and the Calvinistic churches ; between the Unitari- 
 ans and the vast number of believers in the Trinity ; or between 
 the Baptists and the denominations which practice infant baptism. 
 And these are only a few of the leading differences existing in the 
 religious world. It would be extremely difficult, with the greatest 
 care and caution, to frame a prayer, except of the most general 
 description, being at the same time non-committal and meaningless ; 
 and it would be simply impossible to interpret scripture, without 
 offending seriously and with reason, more than one of the religious 
 sects, if they were all assembled together for the purpose of 
 joining in prayer and hearing such interpretation. That all this 
 is generally admitted by educationalists is certainly true, and, for 
 that reason it may seem unnecessary to point out these difficulties. 
 We do so however, because we think their magnitude is not fully 
 appreciated, or rather because we believe that many persons are of 
 opinion that they do not present obstacles to the success of purely 
 secular week-day schools. This brings us to a most important 
 part of our argument which must be discussed before we consider 
 the duties and capabilities of government with regard to education. 
 Those who assert that religious instruction can be sufficiently 
 imparted to a child at home and in the Sunday-school, necessarily 
 assume that the child has at least one parent or guardian ; that 
 the parent or guardian is religious, that he is capable of teaching 
 and has the time to teach ; and that the child, not otherwise 
 religiously instructed, or, in part instructed religiously at home, 
 attends the Sunday-school. In reality all of these condia^ns 
 rarely exist together, and in many instances, none of them exist at 
 all. Some children are orphans ; others have depraved parents ; 
 and a large proportion of children have parents who, from want of 
 
The Churchy the State, and the School. 
 
 9 
 
 
 knowledge or teaching capacity, cannot train their children 
 properly ; while a very large number of children, not otherwise 
 religiously instructed, do not attend Sunday-school. Sunday- 
 school teachers know well the utter ignorance, in religious matters, 
 of many intelligent children of even respectable parents, and they 
 also know the hopelessness of attempting to teach such children 
 the most simple truths in the brief time allotted for such a purpose 
 once a week. The only effectual aid to the Sunday-school, in 
 cases where children attend such an institution, must be the week- 
 day school, and the efforts of its teachers should be in a great 
 measure subservient to those of the solely religious instructor. It 
 is argued by the secularists that at least some, they do not say all, 
 branches of education are disconnected with religion, and we grant, 
 that, with regard to a very limited number of such branches, 
 considered solely as independent subjects, it may be truly stated 
 that they are not connected with religion. We think, how- 
 ever, that those, who endeavor to argue in favor of purely secular 
 education upon these premises, entirely lose sight of the principal 
 functions of the teacher. A good and effective teacher in a day 
 school should do more than merely give instruction in the ordinary 
 branches of learning. He is not only an instructor but a discipli- 
 narian, and, as such, he should primarily correct the faults and 
 endeavor to cure the vices of his pupils on sound religious 
 principles, and should necessarily be enabled to explain, why 
 certain things are w'rong, and why a certain course of conduct 
 should always be pursued. We also conceive that it is his duty to 
 instruct the scholars as to the use that they should make of their 
 acquirements, and to explain that learning may be dangerous to 
 the individual as well as to the community, if its possessor does 
 not recognize his obligations to his God and to his neighbor. It 
 is moreover quite apparent that the historical text book, and all 
 historical teaching, must be imperfect to a great extent, and color- 
 less, and must be deprived of half cheir interest, with the exclusion 
 of the religious denominational element, when it is well known 
 that the struggle of creeds has been the chief cause of the greater 
 number of historical events. Again we conceive that it would be 
 most dangerous to teach the physical sciences, without explaining 
 fully the harmony which exists between them and revelation, but 
 which is certainly not apparent to one who studies the one without 
 the other, and, in this matter especially, the necessity arises for 
 
tm 
 
 10 
 
 The Churchy the State, and the School. 
 
 denominational effort, as it is well known that the churches differ 
 among themselves as to the proper acceptation of the miracles, 
 and the harmonizing of apparent differences between the teachings 
 of the scientists and of the Bible. Difficulties of this kind may 
 not be so great in the primary bchools, but, in the higher educa- 
 tional institutions, they must occur; and, under a pure non-sec- 
 tarian system, must produce tlie very worst consequences. And 
 yet we are told that the intelligent and careful parents, who are 
 assumed to exist, and the Sunday-school teacher, who is also 
 assumed to intervene, in the brief moments at his disposal for this 
 purpose out of liis liour or so once a week, can repair the damage 
 done in the day-scliool, and supply the deficiencies in the education 
 of the child which the non-sectarian day-school cannot supply. It 
 sliould also be remarked that children are naturally inquisitive, 
 especially with regard to matters of religion, and that a child 
 requires information upon almost every conceivable subject, and, 
 for the purpose of obtaining such information, will constantly put 
 questions to his teacher, many of which may be absurd, but none 
 of which sliould be unanswered. Under the non-sectarian system 
 of education, however, many of such questions cannot be answered 
 by the teacher, who strictly adheres to the principles of that sys- 
 tem. And hero again it might be urged, with every show of 
 reason, that not only the pupil, but also the teacher, suffers from 
 the workings of the system. We all know under what restraint 
 persons vX times are placed, on account of some topic being 
 excluded from conversation, during the presence of one or more 
 individuals. A constant guard must be kept in such case, not 
 only upon the words, but upon the very thoughts : the effort to 
 talk becomes painful, and the withdrawal of the persons concerned 
 is felt to be a great relief. Imagine then the restraint which is 
 placed upon the teacher, by the mandate that he shall deal with 
 no religious dogma in his school. Surely the difficulties in the 
 way of establishing a perfect, unreserved sympathy between teacher 
 and pupil are great enough without erecting this barrier. The 
 result of the system is clearly to lead the child to think that 
 religion is not in any way connected with his school hours or 
 duties ; and we may be thankful if he does not learn, in the non- 
 sectarian school, to think that Sunday only, or even no day, is 
 God's day, or that it is better to avoid acquiring knowledge of a 
 subject, which the Senate of his country seems to consider it 
 
 
i^ap 
 
 The Church, the State, and the School. 
 
 11 
 
 
 unadvisable for him to attempt to know. Thii3 a great modern 
 thinker writes, who, from earliest childhood, was taught nothing 
 of religion : " I was brought up from the first without any religious 
 belief, in the ordinary acceptation of the term. My father, edu- 
 cated in the creed of Scotch Presbyterianism, f d, by his own 
 studies and reflections, been early led to reject not only the belief 
 in Revelation, but the foundations of what is commonly called 
 Natural Keligion. •*♦•********** 
 He found it impossible to believe that a world so full of evil was 
 the work of an Author combining infinite power with perfect good- 
 ness and righteousness. ****** pjjg aversion to reli- 
 gion, in the rsnse usually attached to the term, was of the same 
 kind with that of Lucretius : he regarded it with the feelings due 
 not to a mere mental delusion, but to a great moral evil. He 
 looked upon it as the greatest enemy of morality ; first, by setting 
 up fictitious excellencies, — belief in creeds, devotional feelings, 
 and ceremonies, not connected with the good of human kind, — and 
 causing these to be accepted as substitutes for genuine virtues ; 
 but above all, by radically vitiating the standard of morals ; making 
 it consist in doing the will of a being, on whom it lavishes indeed 
 all the phrases of adulation, but whom in sober truth it depicts as 
 eminently hateful. I have a hundred times heard him say, that 
 ' all ages and nations have represented their gods as wicked in a 
 constantly increasing progression, that mankind have gone on 
 adding trait after trait till they reached the most perfect concep- 
 tion of wickedness which the human mind can devise, and have 
 called this God, and prostrated themselves before it. This ne 
 plu8 ultra of wickedness he considered to be embodied in what is 
 commonly presented to mankind as the creed of Christianity. 
 ****** The time, I believe, is drawing near when 
 this dreadful conception of an object of worship will be no longer 
 identified with Christianity ; and when all persons, with any sense 
 of moral good and evil, will look upon it with the same indigna- 
 tion with which my father regarded it."* The ideas conceived by 
 this illustrious thinker demonstrate to a large extent the result of 
 purely secular teaching, and also the necessity for carefully guarding 
 all teaching from the possibility of a like result. It is fortunately 
 true that few children, like John Stuart Mill, are led to hate 
 or despise religion, but it is certain that the non-sectarian school 
 
 * Autobiography John Stuart Mill, pp. 38-41. 
 
 I '*r'n-.rw 
 
 mmmm 
 
 ■■ 
 
 mmmmm 
 
 npM 
 
12 
 
 7'he Church, the State, and the School. 
 
 is not calculated to create or foster in the minds of the young 
 either respect for or belief in any definite religion or, we might 
 say, any religion. The morality which is there imbibed, by a 
 large number of children, is also of the most meagre description, 
 and merely assists in promoting scepticism without engendering 
 those philosophical ideas, which, when acquired by a highly culti- 
 vated mind, sometimes produce, as in the case of Mr. Mill, a 
 comparatively wise and useful member of society. Who can say 
 what influence for good Mr. Mill lost by the sad defect in his 
 early training? We think it is Joseph Hume who, when speaking 
 of the Established Church in England, enunciates the sentiment, 
 so often quoted, — " That the union of State and Church should be 
 maintained, not because it renders the Church political, but 
 because it makes the State religious." If these are not his words, 
 the careful reader of his history will at least discover that the idea 
 contained in the phrase is Hume's. Probably for the same reasons 
 which we have urged, in an early part of this article, although 
 opposed, for the most part, to all revealed religion, he apparently 
 disagrees with the more modern thinker, and gives religion a 
 certain position, not from the good which he receives, or expects 
 to receive from its teaching, but from the assistance which it 
 renders the preservation of order in society. A most learned and 
 Christian American clergyman,* formerly a member of the Uni- 
 tarian body, thus forcibly expresses his views upon the matter, 
 wliich must commend themselves to every modern religious 
 observer: "A penetrating thinker of the Continent of Europe 
 inquired some years ago, what all the popular plans of education 
 would be worth to a nation, if they only instructed its rogues 
 how to pick its locks and outwit its police. Sooner or later 
 the people will wake up to the plain old fact that knowledge 
 needs iaith to make it strong, or safe, or happy ; that man 
 is a living soul as well as a calculating machine; that science 
 is not salvation ; and that the glory of learning is to render 
 men not merely knowing, but wise. The controversies that are 
 going on, r i both continents, respecting educational economics 
 and cons -clauses, are, for the present, concerned about dif- 
 
 ferent interpretations of Christianity. But before long, as we 
 already begin to see in some of our cities, the question will be 
 between Christianity itself and Atheism. In that alternative, a 
 
 il 
 
 * Dr. Huntington, 
 
r"m*5^ . 
 
 The Churchy the State, imd the School. 
 
 13 
 
 ^6 young 
 
 ed, by a 
 scription, 
 endering 
 liy culti- 
 MiJJ, a 
 can say 
 t in his 
 peaking 
 timent, 
 lould be 
 'aJ, but 
 s words, 
 he idea 
 jfeasons 
 though 
 arently 
 gion a 
 xpects 
 n'ch it 
 id and 
 > Uni- 
 latter, 
 gioua 
 ^irope 
 ation 
 
 »gues ' 
 
 later 
 edge 
 man 
 ince 
 ider 
 are 
 lies 
 lif- 
 We 
 be 
 a 
 
 50- 
 
 f 
 
 t 
 
 bare formal reading of aorae garbled copy of the Scriptures will be 
 a poor security to our children's faith ; nor do the Sunday-school 
 and the family as yet furnish all the Christian light that these 
 children need." After a careful review of the whole argument, 
 we are driven to a conclusion, to which there is no alternative, — 
 That no system of education can be considered good, unless accom- 
 panied by sound religious and moral training. 
 
 ( )f recent years it has been asserted that the State is in duty bound 
 to provide means of obcaining an education for all its subjects, and 
 80 often, and with, such marked emphasis, has this dogma been 
 repeated, that in large communities it is generally treated as a 
 truism, and an undeniable basis for an argument in favor of common 
 free scliools. Whence came this dogma we have never been able to 
 learn, but we know that it is opposed to the ideas of the best 
 modern thinkers, and that it has not been recognized in those 
 countries where education is in the most perfect condition. We 
 would suppose that where a religious dogma clashed with a dogma 
 promulgated by a secidar authority ; where both dogmas relate to 
 the same sulyect matter, if any effort were attempted towards 
 ,efFecting a compromise or concession, the sacrifice would be made 
 not of the religious, but of the secular principle. Strange to say, 
 religious men, who readily admit the necessity of amalgamating 
 religious with secular instruction, give their adherence to the 
 State when it says we will educate all our citizens, but not on a 
 religious basis. We shall now proceed to investigate the true 
 duties and powers of the State in regard to public instruction, and 
 to ascertain in what particulars a free non-sectarian school system 
 is compatible with such duties and powers. Mr. Herbert Spenser 
 enters very fully into the discussion of National Education, in an 
 article, which contains views with which we do not coincide, but 
 wiiich, with reference to the capacity and responsibility of the 
 State in this matter, is thoroughly sound, and will be found most 
 difficult to answer. He says : " Were there no direct disproof of 
 the frequently alleged right to education at the hands of the State, 
 the absurdities in which it entangles its assertors would sufficiently 
 show its invalidity. Conceding for a moment that the government 
 \z bound to educate a man's children, then, what kind of logic will 
 demonstrate that it is not bound to feed and clothe them? If 
 there should be an Act of Parliament provision for the develop- 
 ment of their minds, why should there not be an Act of Parliament 
 
 mm 
 
14 
 
 The Churchy the State, and the School. 
 
 provision for the development of their bodies? If the mental 
 wants of the rising generation ought to be satisfied by the State, 
 why not their physical ones? The reasoning which is held to 
 establish the right to intellectual food, will equally well establish 
 the right to material food ; nay, will do more — will prove that 
 children should be altogether cared for by government. For if 
 the benefit, importance, or necessity of education be assigned as a 
 sufficient reason why government should educate, then may the 
 benefit, importance, or necessity of food, clothing, shelter and 
 warmth be assigned as a sufficient reason why government 
 should administer these also." The writer further argues that 
 State education is wrong, because it interferes with parental 
 rights; because it cannot define the quality and quantity of 
 education to be imparted ; because it obliges the State to set 
 up a fictitious model of citizenship; and because it unwisely 
 obstructs individual development. * Mr. John Stuart Mill, 
 whose views upon this and kindred subjects, not connected 
 with or considered irrespective of religion, are entitled to the 
 highest respect, thus lays down the principles applicable to 
 this subject. " If the government would make up its mind to 
 require for every child a good education, it might save itself the 
 trouble of providing one. It might leave to parents to obtain the 
 education where and how they pleased, and content itself with 
 helping to pay the school fees of the poorer classes of children, and 
 defraying tbe entire school expenses of those who have no one else 
 to pay fo; them. The objections which are urged with reason 
 against State education, do not apply to the enforcement of edu- 
 cation by the State, but to the State's taking upon itself to direct 
 that education, which is a totally different thing. ***** 
 An education established and controlled by the State should only 
 exist, if it exist at all, as one among many competing experiments, 
 carried on for the purpose of example and stimulus, to keep the 
 others up to a certain standard of excellence. Unless, indeed, 
 when society in general is in so backward a state that it could not 
 or would not provide for itself any proper institutions of education, 
 unless the government undertook the task ; then, indeed, the gov- 
 ernment may, as the less of two great evils, take upon itself the 
 business of schools and universities, as it may that of joint stock 
 
 * Social Statics, by Herbert Spenser : New York, D. Appleton & Co. Part III., 
 Cap. XXVI., on "National Education." 
 
I 
 
 The Church, the State, and the School. 
 
 15 
 
 tbe mental 
 ^ the State, 
 
 is held to 
 
 ^ establish 
 ^rove that 
 t. For if 
 'gned as a 
 
 way the 
 elter and 
 vernment 
 ■ues that 
 
 parental 
 mtity of 
 e to set 
 in wisely 
 t Mill, 
 nnected 
 
 to the 
 ible to 
 lind to 
 elf the 
 iiu the 
 f with 
 n, and 
 le else 
 eason 
 
 edu- 
 
 lirect 
 
 * » 
 
 only 
 snts, 
 the 
 eed, 
 not 
 ion, 
 ov- 
 the 
 ►ek 
 
 tl. 
 
 companies, when private enterprise, in a shape fitted for under- 
 taking great works of industry, does not exist in the country. 
 But, in general, if the country contains a sufficient numljer of 
 persons qualified to provide education under government auspices, 
 the same persons would be able and willing to give an equally 
 good education on the voluntary principle, under the assurance of 
 remuneration afforded by a law rendering education compulsory, 
 combined with State aid to those unable to defray the expense." * 
 The Reverend Dr. Rigg, a distinguished Methodist clergyman and 
 writer. Principal of Westminster Training College, and Member of 
 the London School Board, fully endorses these ideas. A student 
 and teacher through all his youth and early manhood ; afterwards, 
 during more than twenty years of very extensive and various 
 intercourse with the middle and lower classes of the people, in 
 most parts of England, and among mining, manufacturing, and 
 agricultural populations, as well as in large middle-class towns, 
 continually intent upon the study of social and educational facts 
 and needs, and holding the position of Principal in one of the 
 largest Training Colleges in the kingdom, his opinions must 
 necessarily carry the greatest weight. After quoting the above 
 extract from Mr. Mill with unqualified approval. Dr. Rigg, writing 
 in 1873, continues: "There was, then, a truth at the bottom of 
 the position as to national education held by the ultra voluntary 
 party five-and-twenty years ago, although they knew not how to 
 define and limit it, and, in consequence, applied it so blunderingly 
 as to bring upon themselves a decisive practical refutation of their 
 strong assertions, and to drive many of them, in defeat and con- 
 fusion, to the contrary and much more radically untenable position 
 which they hold to-day. There are still amongst us, however, men 
 who, having been moderate and wise in 1846, remain wise and 
 practical to-day. Dr. Binney refused, thirty years ago, to unite 
 with those who deprecated and denounced all government inter- 
 ference in matters of education. To-day he equally refuses to join 
 with those around him who would do away with all voluntary 
 action or responsibility in regard to public education. He declares 
 that, in his judgment, it is no more a primary duty of the State 
 to provide a child with school education than to supply a child 
 with bread ; though it may, in special circumstances, become the 
 duty of the State to do both the one and the other, as it is 
 
 * Estay on Liberty, John Stuart Mill. 
 
 ppao 
 
 mmn 
 
 ■HP 
 
16 
 
 The Church, the State, and the SchooL 
 
 certainly its duty to make sure that tlie child has what is abso- 
 lutely needful, whether in the way of bread or of schooling.* But 
 if these principles are right, free education for the wliole people at 
 the cost of the State must be altogether an untenable claim, must 
 be an unwarrantable demand. I know, indeed, of no theory, of no 
 principle, on which such a claim can be supposed to rest, with any 
 show of stability or authority, except thj communistic theory or 
 principle, such as was ideally exemplified in Plato's ' Kepublic,' 
 and was to some extent practically carried out at Sparta, and such 
 as forms at this day a part of the platform on which the Inter- 
 national Society takes its stand. This Communism of the Inter- 
 natioHal Society proclaims that not the family, but the individual, 
 is the unit in the national system of society ; that the State is not 
 built up of families ; that the nation is a mere numerical aggregate 
 of individuals. It denies parental claims ; nay, it denounces them, 
 and even reviles the family institution, as selfish and tyrannical. 
 ***** Here v/e have the real source and inner meaning 
 of those ideas as to necessary and universal uniformity and gratuit- 
 ousness of education, which have been so loudly insisted upon by 
 some recent educational agitators. # * * « * j^ April, 
 1870, I had an instructive exemplification of what I have now 
 been stating. I was passing down the Rue des Saints P^res, in 
 Paris, and was attracted by a bookseller's shop, of which the desig- 
 nation was, ' The Library of Social Science.' In the window of 
 this shop I was struck to see the announcement that there was 
 lying there for signature a petition to the Chambers on behalf of 
 universal, compulsory, and gratuitous education. I went to the 
 shop and bought two of the publications on social science, which 
 were lying there. I found in both of them, taught in the most 
 unblushing and audacious manner, the view which I have been 
 describing; the foulest contempt and abuse poured upon the 
 marriage institute and family life, and the doctrine expounded 
 and insisted on that the individual exists only for the State ; that 
 there is no such thing as family sanctity or family rights ; that 
 the State must rescue the units of the nation, the children who 
 happen to appear upon the earth, from all parental pretensions, 
 and educate them gratuitously, compulsory, philosophically, on the 
 ideal plan and pattern, for the State. Nowhere else in Paris did 
 
 * See " The British School," by T. Binney, the well-known Congregationalist clergy- 
 ttiRn. London : Hodder &, Stoughton. 
 
I>at is abso- 
 ing.* But 
 le people at 
 claim, must 
 leory, of no 
 't) with any 
 - tlieory or 
 liepublic,' 
 ^ and such 
 tile Inter" 
 the Inter- 
 ndividual, 
 ate is not 
 aggregate 
 ices them, 
 ^rannical. 
 meaning 
 gratuit- 
 iipon by 
 n April, 
 ave now 
 *^res, in 
 e desig- 
 Qdow of 
 ere was 
 Jhalf of 
 to the 
 , which 
 e most 
 e been 
 m the 
 unded 
 ; that 
 ; that 
 a who 
 fiions, 
 >n the 
 Is did 
 
 slergy- 
 
 i 
 
 The Church, the State, and the SchooL 
 
 17 
 
 I see any announcement as to universal, compulsory, gratuitous 
 education. T foimd after this a meaning and a context for this 
 dcniiuKl of gratuitous universal education, which I had not seen 
 before." * So fully and so forcibly does the learned and reverend 
 writer state the case, that we find no room for comment on words 
 which express our own sentiments exactly, and in a manner which 
 needs no improvement. 
 
 We cannot however leave this branch of the question without 
 citing another eminent authority, who is not unfrequently but most; 
 improperly classed among the supporters of the free and common 
 scliools. In the course of a debate in the British House of Commons* 
 on Mr. Foster's Education Act, Professor Fawcett said: "That he did 
 not wish to enter upon the religious difficulty, but he trusted the 
 House would permit him to insist on what he regarded as by far 
 the most serious objection to the system of the payment of the fees 
 by School Boards, which offered such a premium to free education 
 that, if the clause were continued in force, and if the central 
 authority did not exercise a greater control than heretofore, a system 
 of free education would be established throughout t&e country. 
 There was nothing he should more regret than such a result. In 
 the first place it would weaken parental responsibility, the most 
 valuable of all social virtues; secondly it would exclude what had 
 already produced sufficiently baneful effects, viz., the taxing of 
 prudent individuals still more heavily than at present for the sake 
 of the improvident ; and, thirdly, it would increase the tendency 
 which was growing up in this country of people making others pay 
 for that which they ought to pay for themselves. This tendency 
 he regarded as the prominent characteristic of modern Socialism. 
 It should not be forgotten that free education was the first plank in 
 the programme of the International, which was pervaded through- 
 out by the same principle. The State was to provide land for the 
 people at a low price ; the State was to provide houses for them at 
 a cheap rate ; the State was to lend capital to co-operative associa- 
 tions; and if this demand for free education were not resisted,, 
 encouragement would be given to Socialism in its most baneful 
 form." f The term communistic, it may be remembered, is gener- 
 ally considered most incorrect and opprobrious when applied to 
 
 * National Education and Public Elementary Schools; J, H. Rigg, D.D. London : 
 Straban & Co., pp. 219-222. 
 
 t See the Report in the Times for March 6tb, 1872. 
 
 2 
 
 mam 
 
V I 
 
 18 
 
 The Church, the State, and the School. 
 
 the free and common school system in vogue in parts of America, 
 but, according to the above leading authorities, it cannot be said 
 to be misused in this connection. 
 
 A government which levies an iissessment, directly or indi- 
 rectly, upon all rate-payers for the purpose of sustaining 
 schools under the exclusive control of the State, and open to 
 all children in the State, is therefore clearly liable to censure 
 in more than one respect. By carrying out such a measure, 
 it adopts the policy of one of the most dangerous societies 
 of the present day, and consequently invites its members to 
 attempt furtlier propagandism of their other baneful principles; 
 it encourages the idle and lazy to place tlieir dependence on pub- 
 lic assistance instead of providing for themselves; it deprives the 
 parent of the whole or a portion of his means, reserved for the 
 education of his child in accordance with his own ideas, and thus 
 virtually ignores parental authority ; and it moulds general educa- 
 tion into a set and, we fear, imperfect pattern, by which the intel- 
 lect is fettered and original development of genius is prevented. 
 Again, if, as is in some instances the case in a country peopled by 
 members of various religious denominations, it adopts a non-sec- 
 tarian system of education, it repudiates the claim of the churches 
 to educate their members ; it excludes religion from the schools, 
 thereby imperiling the souls of children, and ungratefully refusing 
 the aid of an institution which hac always been the main prop of 
 the State; and it treats the consciences of parents and of their 
 spiritual advisers with contempt. The authority and rights of 
 the parent, with regard to the custody and management of his 
 child, have been fully defined and confirmed for a long space of 
 time, and, in England, are treated with such respect, that, only 
 in case of gross immorality or incapacity of the father, will the 
 Court of Chancery remove the child from his care. Nor is the 
 claim of the Church less deserving of consideration. The Church 
 of England and the Church of Rome, in express terms, admit 
 the child to church membership at its baptism, and the greater 
 number of the other religious bodies accept the infant into their 
 ranks by the same rite. On the admission of its new member 
 we certainly con'^eive that a reciprocal responsibility is created 
 and rests upon the two parties to the contract thus formed, under 
 which the Church is bound to teach and the child to observe the 
 rules and teachings of the Church. A Divine of the Protestant 
 
 1 
 
 imm^mm 
 
of America, 
 inot he said 
 
 'y or indi- 
 
 Hiistaining 
 "'1 open to 
 
 to censure 
 ^ measure, 
 '^ societies 
 
 embers to 
 principles ; 
 '6 on puh- 
 Piives tJie 
 2d for the 
 
 and thus 
 ral educa- 
 the intel- 
 >re vented, 
 copied by 
 
 non-sec- 
 churches 
 i schools, 
 
 refusing 
 I prop of 
 of their 
 ■ights of 
 t of bis 
 space of 
 at, only 
 will the 
 r is the 
 Church 
 
 admit 
 greater 
 their 
 lember 
 sreated 
 under 
 ve the 
 estant 
 
 • 
 
 The Churchy the State, and the School. 
 
 19 
 
 Episcopal Chtirch of the United States thtis states tlie duty of liis 
 Church in this respect, and we apprehend that otlier Churches are 
 equally bound to its observance : " We suppose no Churchnum will 
 dispute the statement that it is the business of the Church to 
 educate her children. 'Feed my lambs' was one of the most 
 solemn injunctions laid on the great Apostle. Whomsoever else 
 we may free from the responsibility of training the young, we 
 cannot free the Church of God." lieferring to the iiuality of 
 education imparted by the State in his own country, the writer 
 observes: "It teaches the child reading, writing, arithmetic, 
 geography, and the rest, and gives him generally a yard of some 
 sort to exercise his limbs in, and goes no farther. About Cod 
 and his own immortal nature ; about moral sanctions ; about 
 justice and righteousness, and their grounds, the State is pre- 
 cluded from speaking. It necessarily leaves these things to the 
 Home and the Church. It claims, too, that it is right in doing 
 so. Rut it would be a very obvious reply that an institution 
 which confesses itself unable to train the being it takes cjiarge 
 of in matters most essential, has certainly no right to undertake 
 that training at all. * * * * Education of the intellect is 
 only giving a man tools. How he will use the tools depends on 
 the education of his moral and spiritual nature. The more com- 
 plete the tools are, the more dangerous they are, if the man is 
 about to use them for evil. An educated villain is vastly more 
 dangerous than an ignorant one. He is dangerous, too, in exact 
 proportion to his education. Now all that the intellectual educa- 
 tion of the schools, whether State or otherwise, can do, is to furnish 
 the weapons and train the hand to their use. How they shall be 
 used depends on the education of the spiritual nature, the Keason, 
 the Conscience, and the Will. Who shall educate these ? There 
 is but one answer. Reason, Conscience and Will belong to the 
 religious nature. Keligion is needed for these. A being possess- 
 ing these must be educated by a Church, real or quasi — by some- 
 thing in the nature of a Church, true or false. And as these give 
 character to the man, as these are not attainments of learning, 
 but the very manhood or womanhood itself, their education is the 
 important part in the process. Whatever has had the training of 
 these has given all the moral value to the life, has determined its 
 bias, and decided its course and issue. But as this training is not 
 only the most important, but the most minute, as it requires daily 
 
20 
 
 The Churchy the State^ and the School. 
 
 piitit'iice and hourly watchfulness, it is manifest that the Church, 
 to carry it out, ought to have tlie child under her control, and 
 hi TM'lf undertake the whole husiness of its education, intellectual 
 as well as moral. The trutlj is, as we see, there is no real educa- 
 tion possible that does not go upon the basis of religion. A 
 religion — some eteruiil jtrinciples, some spiritual foundations for 
 the facts of life — must be held and taken as fixed and taught, or 
 education degeiu'rates into the business of teaching a parrot to 
 chiitter, or a monkey to perform tricks. Therefore the Church 
 has, in all ages, held it her duty to educate the young. She began 
 her (Miurch schools in the very fires of her persecutions. She 
 sustained them and kept the torch of learning alive through the 
 disastrous darkness after the Empire's fall. In lier schools she 
 tiaiued Europe into civilization, and developed the intellect of the 
 existing world. In her weakest and lowest fall she has never 
 denied her duty as an educator, and has claimed the young for 
 her own."* Dr. Kigg refers to this branch of the question in 
 more than one portion of his work, and certainly fully coincides 
 with Dr. Thompson. Dr. Kigg says: "The choicest and most 
 influential spirits among the brotherhood of teachers must still be 
 gifted and enthusiastic Christian teachers. We must justly rejoice 
 accordingly, that whilst Scliool Board schools are to be multiplied, 
 the distinctive religious schools of the various Christian Churches 
 are to be left free — as is their right — to take the leading part 
 which befits them in the work of national education," and that 
 " as a matter of fact, there has hardly been an effective national 
 system of education anywhere that was not denominational." f 
 " The question is," he says, " whether the Christian Churches, 
 which, in this country and on the Continent, have thus far acted 
 as the pioneers of progress and popular education, of every grade 
 and kind, are henceforth to be dismissed from the State's educa- 
 tional service, and not permitted to bear their share in the great 
 work which needs to be done." X Canon Barry, speaking upon the 
 subject of education before Convocation, enters into the main 
 points of discussion with great eloquence and ability, and it is 
 with regret that we feel obliged to confine ourselves to a few short 
 extracts from his speech. " We shall all acknowledge," he said, 
 " that education in the largest sense, and the development of the 
 
 *Rev. Hugh Miller Thompson, D.D., in the Church Journal, July 31, 1873. 
 t National Education, John Rigg, D.D., pp. 402-403. \ Idem, p. 404. 
 
 a 
 
 iPiil 
 
 mmffmmr 
 
 "ST 
 
'»e Churcli, 
 )ntroI, and 
 ntfllectual 
 enl educa- 
 'gioD. A 
 Htiona lor 
 taught, or 
 parrot to 
 e CJmrcJi 
 >lie hegan 
 ma. .SJie 
 t>iigh the 
 lools she 
 ct of the 
 as never 
 )ung for 
 stion in 
 oincidea 
 id most 
 still be 
 ' rejoice 
 tiplied, 
 lurches 
 »g part 
 d that 
 itional 
 •nal." f 
 irche?, 
 acted 
 grade 
 duca- 
 great 
 n the 
 main 
 it is 
 short 
 said, 
 ■ the 
 
 The Churchy the Shitej and fhr S'hool. 
 
 LM 
 
 factilties in manly contact with the truths and influences of 
 nature, man, and God, is simply an obedience to a f;r(>at law of 
 His Providence, followinjjf, as usual, IM.s guidance, and leaving all 
 the issues to Him. We shall all acknowh'dge that the tirst 
 inalienable duty of carrying out that law is laid upon the parent 
 by that parental relation which is the ultimate fact of human 
 society, and that the whole community is called upon to aid and 
 to guide, or, if it must be, to stimidate or to supply, the place of 
 that natural agency. We shall all here acknowledge that the 
 community, which is to undertake what is in its essence a spiritual 
 work, entering the inner shrine of thought, conscience, feeling, 
 must l>e a community which has spiritual life in it, and recognizes 
 spiritual bonds, knitting it together — that, accordingly, in tlic 
 ideal condition in which the Church should embrace all the 
 people, it should be the work of the Church as a Church — that, 
 even in the actual condition of things, the Church has a duty in 
 this matter to the whole nation, and has powers to carry it out 
 which no other body can wield — that, in proportion as we approach 
 to or depart from that ideal, her leadership becomes easy or diffi- 
 cult, fruitful or unfruitful of blessing. On these main principles 
 time allows me not to dwell ; but we must take them with us as 
 living truths in the performance of that duty which circumstances 
 now force on us in special urgency — in the attempt to further and 
 to direct that great educational movement which is passing like a 
 wave over the waters of our English society. ♦ * * * 'p j)g 
 Church and the clergy were leaders in the work of education, while 
 other agencies slept, or were but half awakened : now that these 
 other agencies are roused and peacefully at work, is she to leave 
 the work to them, or confine herself to her own department of the 
 work, t[nd leave their action unaided and unguided ? I venture 
 to answer emphatically, No ! to both these questions." * 
 
 The religious leaders of almost all denominations in England are 
 strongly wedded to the idea that the schools should be denomi- 
 national, and, as a natural consequence, we find that the Board 
 Schools, which are called non-sectarian, but which in fact are 
 not in all cases non-sectarian, are numerically weaker than 
 the denominational schools, and are decreasing in number before 
 the strenuous efforts of the supporters of the latter. It has been 
 proposed by the extreme Radicals in England to make the Board 
 
 * See the Report in the G-uardian for October 14, 1874. 
 
22 
 
 The Church, the /State, and the School. 
 
 m 
 
 Schools purely secular by excluding the reading of the Bible, but 
 a movement of this kind will be met with the fiercest opposition, 
 and cannot be successful. " The instruction " in the Board Schools 
 is called "unsectarian ;" but to a Roman Catholic it is sectarian, 
 being a form of generically Protestant instruction out of the 
 Scriptures. So also to the Deist, the Rationalist, the " advanced 
 Liberal" Unitarian Christian, it is a form of sectarian dogmatic 
 instruction, opposed to his " conscientious convictions." So far 
 as the instruction goes, it is a broad Protestant form of Biblical 
 Christianity, and favors certain Christian sects in common, to the 
 exclusion of other religious communities, professedly Christian, or, 
 perhaps also, professedly non-Christian." * 
 
 In general accordance with the ideas of the writers already 
 quoted, the English system of education is far from being 
 either universally free or universally non-sectarian. By the 
 provisions of "The Elementary Education Act, 1870," any 
 school, denominational or otherwise, containing a sufficient 
 number of pupils educated to a fixed standard, receives a Par- 
 liamentary grant of so much for each pupil, which increases in 
 amount to a certain maximum in direct gradation with the 
 educational acquirements of the pupil. In consideration of this 
 grant, and subject to its withdrawal in case of the infringement of 
 the condition attached, the school managers undertake that direct 
 distinctive religious instruction shall be given only at a stated 
 time, and that, during that time, any pupil may be withdrawn 
 from the school ; and that no pupil, in opposition to the wish of 
 his parent or guardian, shall be subject to any religious test or 
 compelled to attend any religious service or place of worship. The 
 selection of text books, and the general power to direct and control 
 the character of the education, subject to the above restriction, 
 which merely prohibits the inculcation of dogmatism, is left 
 entirely in the hands of the managers of the school. 
 
 Thus has a Parliament, comprising men of most diversified and 
 of no religious views, but in the main strongly Protestant and 
 opposed to ecclesiastical claims, met a difficulty which some politi- 
 cians, either wanting in due respect for religion, or devoid of 
 courage or capacity, pretend to consider insurmountable. English 
 statesmen gladly receive assistance from the Churches in the great 
 work of national education, because they recognize the services of 
 
 * National Education, John Rigg, D.D., pp. 355-3. 
 
' ^"^mm'" 
 
 The Church, the State, and the School. 
 
 23 
 
 iWe, but 
 position, 
 
 Schools 
 ctarian, 
 
 of the 
 dvanced 
 ogmatic 
 
 So far 
 :5iblical 
 
 to the 
 lan, or, 
 
 ilready 
 being 
 Jy the 
 any 
 ficient 
 I Par- 
 ses in 
 h the 
 •f this 
 ent of 
 direct 
 itated 
 Irawn 
 sh of 
 st or 
 
 Tlie 
 aaol 
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 left 
 
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 and 
 liti- 
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 lof 
 
 the Churches in former ages in the cause, and because they know 
 that tlie Churches are able and the State is unable to train a child 
 into a good and useful citizen. English statesmen also see the 
 downright wickedness of opposing the conscientious ideas of 
 parents ; and hail the assistance which the Churches afford, solely 
 in an intellectual point of view, in developing genius, n ' in a 
 single channel, or by a single method, but by varied methods, each 
 of which is likely to possess some special merit. That the system 
 is successful, and that it meets with general approval, is very 
 certain. The Established Church and the more considerable bodies 
 of Nonconformists are very generally supporting schools sustained 
 in part by Parliamentary grants, and are working heart and soul 
 under the system in generous rivalry. The principal persons indeed 
 who oppose the grants to denominational schools are the extreme 
 radicals and the members of the religious bodies too weak numeri- 
 cally or financially to establish their own schools in more than a 
 very limited number of districts. 
 
 It is much to be regretted that the "unsectarian" Board Schools 
 exist 1*' ill, but their existence must be considered as a compromise, 
 which perhaps cannot be avoided, between the denominations in 
 districts where religious divisions are numerous and the inhabitants 
 poor. We now turn our attention for a brief space only to the 
 consideration of the condition of education in the United States, 
 where the secularists profess to have found all the appliances for 
 producing honest, virtuous and good citizens. Before doing so 
 however we would invite our readers to consider for themselves, 
 and to compare the results which may, in part at least, be attributed 
 to the educational influence of the British or American systems of 
 education. We would suggest the following as interesting 
 subjects for investigation in this connection. Is orthodoxy 
 in faith stronger and more general in England or in the United 
 States of America, and which of the two countries contains the 
 greatest variety of religious sects and unbelievers ? In which of 
 the two countries do Mormons, Free Lovers and Spiritualists 
 find most sympathy and encouragement? Are the average 
 United States Senator and Congressman superior or equal in 
 honesty to the member of the House of Lords and the repre- 
 sentative in Parliament in England? Is the average contractor 
 or trader in the United States superior or equal in integrity to 
 the contractor or trader in England ? We will not suggest replies 
 
24 
 
 The Church, the State, and the School. 
 
 to any of these queries, but we think we may he pardoned in 
 referring to the performances of the Tammany ring and to the 
 Beecher-Tilton scandal, as incidents in the social history of Ame- 
 rica for which ifc would be difficult to find parallels in the 
 past or present annals of the mother country. A most learned 
 Congregationalist writer who, as an ecclesiastical historian, 
 is considered by some to rank before Neander, in 1853, says 
 of the United States: "It cannot be denied, that the new 
 world, in its youthful buoyancy, undervaluing the past, reach- 
 ing restlessly into the future, disposed rather to make than 
 contemplate history, is by no means favorable to historical 
 studies in general ; and the lamentable divisions of the Church 
 into denominations and sects, which in this country, under the 
 protection of an unbounded freedom of conscience, is more consist- 
 ently carried out than in Europe, calls forth, in itself considered, 
 investigations of merely sectional and local interest, and party 
 representations, and these, it is true, in abundance ; while it con- 
 tracts and damps all sympathy with the one universal kingdom 
 of God, the communion of the saints of all ages and climes." 
 After referring to the condition of popular Protestant theology in 
 America, the writer continues : " In proportion as we despise and 
 reject, in false independence, the experience of eighteen centuries, 
 and the voice of universal Christendom, we rob the present also, 
 and private judgment, of all claim to our confidence, and, as we 
 shake the authority of history, in which we all strike root, we cut 
 off the sources of our own life: for the individual believer is just 
 as dependent on the whole Church and her history, as the branch 
 on the tree, or the arm on the body." * 
 
 The utility of building religious character upon a fundamental 
 knowledge of ecclesiastical history is also referred to by a writer 
 who long labored in the cause of the broadest of theologians. 
 " Recurrence to the Bible," he says, " as the great authority has 
 been accompanied by a strong inclination, common to all Protes- 
 tant countries, to go back in every detail of life to the practices of 
 early times." f The result of the neglect to master or to attempt 
 
 * History of the Apostolic Church. Philip Schaff, D.D., Professor of Divinity at 
 Maryland College, Pennsylvania, pp. 131-2. See also Address of Henry B. Smith, 
 Professor of Church History in Union Theological Seminary, New York, entitled 
 Mature and Worth of the Science of Church History, Andover, 1851, where the same 
 ideas are forcibly eipressed. 
 
 t " The Education of the World," Frederick Temple, D.D. Essays and Reviews, p. 51. 
 
 i 
 
The Church, the State, and the School. 
 
 25 
 
 1 
 
 to master the principles of faith, as treasured and developed by 
 the Church in past ages, is to a large extent an indifference to 
 religion and its claims, and it is not very surprising that the 
 descendants of the Puritans, after the lapse of a century or so, 
 have displaced the old master who formerly ranked next to the 
 minister, and was indeed a religious teacher. The change that has 
 taken place in the Massachusetts school system is somewhat start- 
 ling, when compared with the views of the General Court of that 
 Commonwealth so far back as 1647, expressed in an order regard- 
 ing education which begins in the following terms : — " It being 
 one chief project of the old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the 
 knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times by keeping them 
 in an unknown tongue, so in these latter times by persuading them 
 from the use of tongues, that learning may not be buried in the 
 grave of our fathers in the Church and Commonwealth, the Lord 
 assisting our endeavors. It is therefore ordered, that in every house- 
 hold in this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath increased them to the 
 number of fifty householders, shall then forthwith appoint, &c."* 
 A recent writer in the United States, who is equally distinguished 
 for the moderation and correctness of his sentiments, and who is 
 one of the choicest spirits in the band of Congregationalist literati, 
 charming modern readers with their excellent productions, cannot 
 refrain from touching upon the present moral status of his country. 
 He says we have lost faith with superstition and gained toleration, 
 enquires whether toleration is anything but indifference, and con- 
 cludes. that everything is tolerated now but Christian orthodoxy.f 
 It is possible, and even probable that foreigners may be largely 
 influenced by prejudice against the institutions of the great, but 
 even yet experimental Republic ; but we need not seek for expres- 
 sions of outside opinion, while we hear in all directions the 
 protests of large and respectable bodies of Christians against the 
 existing state of education in that country. 
 
 A Committee appointed by the Protet'tant Episcopal Church in 
 the Diocese of New Jersey, to consider the subject of Christian 
 Education, and the means of securing its greater ef!iciency, pre- 
 sented to the Convention of 1873 a voluminous report, which is 
 equally startling in its statistics and its deductions. We can only 
 make a few selections from this document, but should desire the 
 
 *Report of the United States Commissioner of Education, 18G8, p. 327. 
 t Dudlej Warner, in Back Log Studies. 
 
26 
 
 The Church, the State, and the School. 
 
 thoughtful reader to obtain and peruse the entire report. " Our 
 popular education system," the Committee states, "as a whole, is 
 thoroughly unsectarian. About fifty years ago it was first advo- 
 cated, under the leadership of a woman of rare genius, a celebrated 
 Scotch woman, Fanny Wriglit, and by others of similar views. 
 These promoters of the system ostensibly purposed to make war 
 upon ignorance, but, as it is well known, they entertained the most 
 infidel and anti-social theories in regard to marriage, property and 
 Religion — and under cover of an excellent object, under the pre- 
 tence of spreading education and waging war against ignorance, 
 war was to be waged against religion ; infidelity and the most 
 anti-social theories were to be spread, — and to accomplish this, 
 they knew well that time would be required, that a coming 
 generation must be trained and prepared by a system of common 
 schools, from which all Religion was excluded. Julian, the apos- 
 tate of old, knew that the only effectual way to put out the sacred 
 Faith, was to provide that it should not be taught, and therefore 
 he forbade it ; so Fanny Wright and her coadjutors endeavored to 
 get rid of the marriage covenant, the rights of property, and the 
 Christian superstition, as they called it, by devising for all the 
 people common schools, in which Religion should not be taught. 
 It is a matter of history that a secret society was widely organized 
 in order to establish the system. Fifty years have passed away, 
 but the direction of popular education has fallen into far other 
 hands. And so far are we from charging its present advocates 
 with any such motives, that we acknowledge among them some of 
 the best and most philanthropic men of the age. It would be as 
 untrue as unjust to charge upon them base infidel purposes, yet 
 the principle they advocate to-day is so faulty in results, that it 
 furnishes a powerful motive for great zeal in Christian Education. 
 Their position taken is this : " Individual, domestic and political 
 evils are due to ignorance, and can only be prevented by high 
 intellectual culture." The experiment has been trying during the 
 past forty years. And have the evils they seek to prevent, and 
 the wrongs they would redress actually decreased? * * * * 
 What evils then has this unsectarian system prevented ? It has 
 promised to bridge over sectarian differences and bring about a 
 national unity of Christians. But what has it done to fulfil this 
 promise ? How many new sects has it prevented ? Are there not 
 to-day in proportion to the increase of populatiou half a dozen 
 
 ( 
 
Tlie Church, the State, and the School. 
 
 27 
 
 ( 
 
 sects where there was one fifty years ago ? It is to be acknowledged 
 that in one way it has accomplished much on the line proposed, 
 for in its efforts to bridge over sectarian differences, it has helped 
 to smooth much of sectarianism down into nothing arianism and 
 unbelief. * * * * There are to-day in the United States 
 twenty millions who profess the No Religion. What a reward for 
 the labors, and what a testimony to the shrewdness of that female 
 atheist, Fanny Wright. 
 
 What has the system done to prevent a dangerous literature ? 
 Has it not rather given a fresh impulse to trashy literature and a 
 keener appetite for it, — "a literature which, while enlarging upon 
 the dignity of human nature, and the inalienable rights of men 
 and women, says but little in favor of the duty of obedience to 
 authority, patience under reproaches, and contentment under the 
 State in which Providence has placed us, — a literature exalting 
 political activity and disparaging the life which is without excite- 
 ment and sensation," — a literature freighted with the spirit of 
 licentiousness, — a literature which is the stuff out of which comes 
 Socialism, Communism, Internationalism, and Prostitution. 
 
 And what is the moral condition of our country to-day ? Is not 
 our civilization growing more material and less moral, society less 
 stable and less secure, individuals more lawless and anarchical? 
 Are not fraud and bribery and robbery, in places high and low, 
 ubiquitous and practised almost as a common trade? Witness 
 the contrived insolvencies and adroit embezzlements of the public 
 funds. Do our public men give us examples of a higher moral 
 tone than existed before the days of public schools ? Is there a 
 true American who does not blush when he thinks of the last 
 Congress ? Do not some of us remember the time when the per- 
 petrators of comparatively small peculations so outraged the public 
 sentiment that they fled the country and died in exile ? Whereas 
 the most extreme offenders now with impunity flaunt their crimes 
 and stolen wealth in the face of a helpless community. How 
 cold-blooded murders multiply so fast that we have grown habitu- 
 ated to them, and the page of the daily journal recording their 
 frequency and atrocity have grown stale ! Witness the shocking 
 suicides that desolate so many once happy homes with shame and 
 misery I Do not the laws in many of our States, by providing 
 facility for divorces, put marriage upon the footing of a simple 
 contract, and legalize adultery and grant to lust the widest range ? 
 
28 
 
 The Church, the State, and the School. 
 
 Nay, is not divorce becoming an institution and free love its 
 development. ♦ * * * w'e would gladly believe, if we could, 
 that the uiisectarian system of education is in no way responsible 
 for this state of things; we would gladly discredit, if we could, 
 the report recently made by Prof. Aggassiz, who, after having 
 examined the causes of prostitution, learned, he says, "to his own 
 utter dismay, that a large proportion of these miserable women 
 traced their fall to the influences that met them in the Public 
 Schools."* 
 
 That the sentiments contained in this Report are not peculiar to a 
 single Church is evident. The Zion's Herald, an influential Metho- 
 dist journal, published at Boston, edited at that time by the Rev. 
 Dr. Haven, who has since been appointed a Bishop, in 1871, com- 
 menting upon certain State appropriations towards the support of 
 denominational education, contains the following strong expressions : 
 " The State shoul :! exercise its judgment on all such cases. The State 
 in all ages has helped Church education. It probably will in all ages 
 to come. Refusal to do it gives education to the infidels, who get 
 help on the plea that they are not sectarian, as Cornell" (Uni- 
 versity) "has done, and Harvard, while the best schools are unaided. 
 Better help the College of the Holy Cross than Cornell : better 
 Christ, with j\[ary and the Pope even, than no Christ at all." f 
 Again the Bishops of the Southern Methodist Episcopal Church of 
 the United States in their address, delivered at the General Con- 
 ference of the Clergy in 1874, thus express themselves : "We do 
 not hesitate to avow that we regard the education of the young as 
 one of the leading functions of the Church, and that she cannot 
 abdicate in favor of the State without infidelity to her trust and 
 irreparable damage to society. The reason for occupying this 
 ground which inhere in the very nature of this interest, and in the 
 relation of children to the Church, all are intensified by the anta- 
 gonism of modern science, and the outcasting of the religious 
 element from all the school systems fostered by State Legislation." 
 We might multiply quotations from native sources to show that 
 the system of education generally adopted throughout the Union is 
 most unsatisfactory ; but we think the extracts which we have sup- 
 plied, conjoined with the knowledge which the reader, of even 
 average intelligence, possesses of the true status of modern 
 
 * Journal of the Annual Convention of the Diocese of New Jersey, pp. 160-3. 
 t Extracted from Dr. Eigg on National Education, p. 235. 
 
 
The Church, the State, and the School. 
 
 29 
 
 i 
 
 (I 
 
 American society, are quite suflEicient to show that the system in 
 question is at least a fair subject for criticism if not for censure. 
 Judged by its results we cannot well see how any honest educator 
 can advise the adoption or sustainment of the United States 
 method of education, and we cannot understand why those results 
 should be quoted except to sustain an irresistible argument against 
 non-sectarian education. It is a strikingfact in connection with this 
 momentous subject, that no religious body, as a whole, has boldly 
 opposed the effort to exclude religious teaching from the schools 
 except the Church of Rome. This we suppose is mainly attribu- 
 table to what is to a certain extent true, that tiie Protestant deno- 
 minations have a community of sentiment, and do not disagree so 
 much the one with the other, as they disagree, in the aggregate, 
 with the Roman Catholics. Hence, we presume, they are enabled 
 to foresee a remote prospect of an introduction into the secular 
 schools of a broad system of Religion, which will not be sectarian 
 with regard to many Protestants, and which they falsely presume 
 will supply the place of denominational teaching. It is also very 
 certain that many members of the Protestant religious bodies see 
 in the non-sectarian system a grand opportunity for breaking 
 down the barriers and gradually imdermining the structure of the 
 Church of Rome, by educating its members to such a degree^ and 
 in such a manner, that they will at length depend rather upon 
 their individual knowledge of right and wrong than upon her 
 dogmatic teachings. To such persons we would reply in the 
 words of the truly Protestant, but also truly liberal, Edmund 
 Burke: "That were it possible to dispute, rail, and persecute the 
 Roman Catholics out of their prejudices, it is not probable that 
 they would take refuge in ours, but rather in an indifference 
 to all religion ; and that were the Catholic religion destroyed by 
 infidels, it is absurd to suppose that the Protestant Church could 
 long endure." * 
 
 If a law were enacted compelling all citizens to contribute to a 
 general dinner of roast beef on Good Friday, it would be mani- 
 festly unfair to the Roman Catholics, who are compelled, by the 
 rules of their Church, to fast upon that day. It is equally unfair 
 to compel them to support schools to which they cannot in con- 
 science send their children ; and it is at the same time most 
 insulting and most untrue to say that their conduct in this matter 
 
 * Burke's Life. By James Prior, Fifth London Edition, 1867, p. 413. 
 
30 
 
 The Churchf the State, and the School. 
 
 is not influenced by conscience. The present Earl of Shaftesbury, 
 a tliorough Protestant, nay more, a strong anti-Papist, thankfully 
 acknowledges the benefits of the stand which the Church of Rome 
 has taken against non-sectarian education, and calls upon the 
 other religious bodies to follow her example in this matter. It is 
 nothing but sheer tyranny on the part of the State to compel the 
 members of that Church to assist in sustaining a system which is 
 calculated to sap her foundations, or to curtail the means at their 
 disposal for supporting those schools which she has always possessed. 
 
 We will conclude our argument on this branch of the subject 
 by quoting from the immortal statesman to whom we have before 
 referred. " Bad laws," says Burke, " are the worst sort of tyranny. 
 In such a country as this they are of all bad things the worst, 
 worse by far than anywhere else ; and they derive a particular 
 malignity even from the wisdom and soundness of the rest of our 
 institutions." * " In the making of a new law it is undoubtedly 
 the duty of the legislator to see that no injustice be done even to 
 an individual ; for there is then nothing to be unsettled, and the 
 matter is in his hands to mould it as he pleases." " All religious 
 persecution," he continues, " Mr. Bayle well observes, is grounded 
 upon a miserable petitio principii. You are wrong, I am right ; 
 you must come over to me or you must suffer. Let me add, that 
 the great inlet by which a color for oppression has entered into 
 the world, is by one man's pretending to determine concerning the 
 happiness of another, and by claiming a right to use what means 
 he thinks proper in order to bring him to a sense of it. * * * 
 If he be before hand satisfied that your opinion is better than his, 
 he will voluntarily come over to you, and without compulsion ; 
 and then your law would be unnecessary ; but if he is not so con- 
 vinced, he must know that it is his duty in this point to sacrifice 
 his interest here to his opinion of his eternal happiness, else he 
 could have in reality no religion at all." In another place he 
 observes with marked emphasis : " Religion, to have any force on 
 men's understanding, indeed to exist at all, must be supposed 
 paramount to laws." f 
 
 After a review of the whole subject of this article in all its 
 bearings, we are led to the following conclusions : — That the State 
 has the right to require that all its members shall be educated to 
 
 * Burke's Works; by Prior. Speech at Bristol, Vol. II., p. 148. 
 t Burke's Works by Prior, " Tracts on the Popery Laws," Vol. VI. 
 
The Church, the State, and the School. 
 
 31 
 
 a certain extent ; and, as a natural corollary, that it may withhold 
 from them, until they attain a certain educational standard, all 
 positions of trust imder government, and even the right to exercise 
 the franchise. That the State should afford pecuniary assistance 
 only to such children as are not provided with pecuniary means 
 to ohtain the requisite education, and should permit the guardians 
 of children receiving this assistance to select their own schools 
 when possible. That the State should aid all scliools, denomina- 
 tional or otherwise, materially aiding the cause of education of an 
 approved character, which afford opportunities for acquiring educa- 
 tion to any child, without interfering with the liberty of conscience 
 of such child or of its natural guardian. That the State should only 
 form schools of its own, in cases where the particular community 
 will not supply tlie educational need ; and that, in such instances, 
 every effort should be made to meet the religious ideas of such 
 community as to the character of the education in its scliools. A 
 general system of government inspection of all schools receiving 
 State aid, with regard to the intellectual acquirements of the 
 pupils, would also be desirable if not essential ; and any effort on 
 the part of the State, calculated to stimulate educational progress 
 and elevate the intellectual standard, should meet with universal 
 favor. That a change will ultimately be effected in the generally 
 existing condition of national education we most firmly believe, 
 but we think that reliance should be placed rather upon the efforts 
 of the large and progressive bodies of Christians, in which the life 
 of the respective nations really lies, than upon those of the various 
 legislatures. Nor do we think that America will be behind hand 
 in the work of religious education. The wise men of the west will 
 rise at last, and, like the eastern magi, will acknowledge that both 
 intellectual and spiritual wisdom culminate in the infant of 
 Bethlehem.