Education and Religion; Their Mutual Connection and Relative Bearings. With the Way Out of the Religious Difficulty

It is deeply to be regretted that the claims of education are so

frequently overlooked or disregarded by those who profess a

It is with ignorance, prejudice, and error, as existing amongst pro-
fessing Christians, that the friend of education has now chiefly to
contend

Not only in opposing the establishment of an efficient system of

national education do many religious persons do injury to the

cause of education, they do so likewise by not conceding to it its

proper place in the building up of the Christian character

Many believe that nothing can be done in the way of the spiritual

edification of a child till it has received a "new heart:" it is

growing up to be "converted;" and consequently it is of little or

no moment what its previous life may have been

Thus, instead of training up their children in purity and holiness

from their earliest years, they are allowed to grow up pretty much

as they please, till "God's time comes to give them a new heart 129

But God's time is ever the most suitable time, the time when most

elements combine to bring about the desired result; and what time

can be more suitable for the conversion of children, for rooting out

the evil principles of their nature, and turning them from sin to

holiness, than the season of infancy and childhood, when their

natures are plastic, and their faculties most pliant for good?

It is in childhood and early life that we are particularly to look for

the blessing of God upon our children, and it is by means of

careful training that we may expect to lead and to keep them in

the right way

It is from neglect of this that, as is frequently remarked, the chil-
dren of pious parents so often turn out ill

The error arises from looking at Christianity in the present day too

much in the light of its first appearance

In those days conversion to Christianity was really a conversion; it

was the giving up of one religion and the adoption of another,

the giving up of idolatrous rites and ceremonies for the worship

of the true God

But when children came to be born into the early Christian Church,

a distinction was made between them and those who came

into it as converts from heathenism, for there was not looked

for in their case, as in the other, any of the marked features of

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conversion, but they were considered rather as having received

with the first dawn of consciousness the regenerating influence

of the Holy Spirit, which, through careful education, was to be

the means of overcoming the evil principles of their nature.

Indeed, the importance attached to education as a means of grace
was one of the leading characteristics of the early Church

In all ages men have been too much given to look upon Christianity

as something fixed and established, something that cannot change,

that is incapable of progress

In revealing His will to man, God had to stoop down to his limited
capacity, and had to employ means that were suited to his cir-
cumstances

The earlier revelations of God to man were therefore simple, and

suited to his comprehension

Religion, which to the Jews was a thing of rites and ceremonies, is
to Christians a matter of the heart and life.

There is no reason to believe that Christianity attained to the

summit of its development in the time of the Apostles, or that

even now it stands revealed to us in all its perfection and beauty 140

On the contrary, we know that there are many points of Divine

truth, now plain to us, that were unknown to those of the early

Church; and it cannot be doubted that, as knowledge extends,

much that is at present hidden will at a future time be revealed . 140

One would naturally expect that, with the extension of our know-
ledge of God's works, our knowledge likewise of His revealed will
and character would be promoted .

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142

One of the chief arguments for the truth of Christianity is its
admirable adaptation to the wants and necessities of our nature 141
The very fact that we are to look for no farther revelation of a direct
kind must lead us to expect our future progress in Divine know-
ledge to result from the improvement of our understandings and
the extension of our natural knowledge.

The sacred Scriptures were originally communicated to a particular

people living at a particular time, and to those living in other

times and under other circumstances much of their original

beauty and force is lost; but on the other hand, with advanced

knowledge and more highly developed faculties, other beauties

of a higher and purer nature are revealed

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145

There is a deep-rooted objection in the minds of many persons

to the application of reason to matters of religion

But religion has more to fear from a dead formalism, or blind senti-

mentalism, than from any proper use of the reasoning powers

Our ideas and conceptions of Divine truth must of necessity partake

of the imperfection of our nature, and be subject to the like errors

and prejudices that characterise our judgments on other things 145

One has only to look at the history of Christianity for abundant

evidence of this in all ages

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Nor, so long as this exists in the nature of things, is it to be regarded

as evil; and, after all, Christianity is not so much a theory as a

life.

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147

It is as the natural result of the means which we see existing and at

work around us,-the advance and spread of knowledge, particu-

larly as brought to bear upon the education of the young, that we

are to expect a future millennium .

In view of the progressive nature of Christianity, it comes to be an

important question whether we are sufficiently alive to this

feature of its character.

The commonly received view of conversion loses sight of what is so

frequently alluded to in Scripture, that God deals with families as

well as individuals.

Neither in Providence nor in grace is God a "respecter of persons

in the sense that many persons hold

In the philosophy as well as the theology of the present day there

is too manifest a leaning towards individualism

Man is regarded merely as he is in himself, without respect to the

times in which he lives, the influences that are around him, or the

qualities which he has inherited

But man is no such isolated being

Every one forms, as it were, the centre of a stream of influences which

took their rise in the beginning of time, and which, going out

from him, shall continue to flow till time shall be no more

As not here, so neither in the next world can there be any indi-

vidualism, for they that sow and they that reap shall rejoice

together, or they shall mourn together.

What reason, then, is there for believing that conversion must in

every case be a personal matter?

May not faith in Christ be transmitted from parents to children by

ordinary generation, as physical, moral, and intellectual qualities

undoubtedly are?

The consequences of Adam's sin are communicated to his posterity

by ordinary generation, and may not the righteousness of Christ

be imparted to the children of such as are of His adopted family

in the same way?

And may we not look forward to the time when the evils that have

so long been transmitted as consequences of Adam's transgression

shall have to give place to the benefits purchased for us by Christ? 164

Opposed to this view is a doctrine of original sin, which regards all

the human race as guilty of Adam's sin, as thus born in a state of

sin, and turning to God a conscious and deliberate act in each

individual

Christ is the second Adam, and as such comes in place of the first,

and is entitled to the same rights and privileges

The consequences of Adam's sin pass to his posterity by ordinary

generation, and if the righteousness of Christ may not be imparted

in the same way, then is the latter placed at an infinite disadvan-
tage, and the parallelism so frequently drawn in Scripture between
the two is shorn of its principal features

Such a view of original sin does not detract from its heinousness in

the sight of God, while it incalculably magnifies the Redeemer's

work

We believe that when our first parents sinned, their nature became

at once degenerate and corrupt, and that this degenerate and

corrupt nature passes by ordinary generation to all their posterity,

rendering them obnoxious to the sight of God, and unless a remedy

had been provided, banishing them entirely from His presence

When Christ assumed our human nature He deprived it of its sin-

fulness in the sight of God, who no longer saw in it only the

consequences of the fall, but beheld in it the presence and work

of His Son, and could contemplate the perfection to which it was

again to be raised

By taking our nature upon Him, Christ sanctified not only His own
body, but the bodies also of all who should believe on Him

Further, we believe that we have been made partakers in the sin of

Adam in order that we might in like manner be made partakers

in the righteousness of Christ: that the law was made the

means of transmitting sin and death, in order that it might

afterwards be the means of transmitting righteousness and

eternal life

It is to this law of hereditary transmission that we are mainly
indebted for our present advanced state of civilisation.

From this we derive our faith in the future, our hope in education;

we believe that as men become better, their children will come

into the world better, until at length they will cease to be born

with tendencies to evil, but only to what is good and right

Such is the bright and glorious future before the educator: the per-
fection of humanity is the goal towards which he is to strive

Every one in his sphere exerts an undying influence upon others

The good or evil effects of education extend and spread in an ever-

increasing ratio from one generation to another

To the parent this should be full of fear and hope, showing him

that the evil effects of his teaching and example must extend to

future generations, and also giving him the hope of, in some

degree, mitigating the sad load of evil that he entails upon his

offspring

We all exert an influence upon others; and a law of mutual de-

pendence pervades humanity which cannot be shaken off

From this we learn the comparative insignificance of what merely

concerns self in relation to what may be for the benefit of many.

No one can be in the highest sense a moral or religious man who

does not feel the chief object in life to be to strive for the good

Selfishness at the root of most of the sin and evil in the world
Vicarious suffering generally pervades humanity

Were these principles more generally recognised and acted upon, a
vast improvement would be effected in education.

We protest against any religious doctrine that interferes with earnest

and unceasing effort in the education of children.

When children are believed to be growing up to be converted, the

tendency is for parents to neglect their duty in regard to their

moral and religious education

Conversion is the abnormal or non-natural way of coming to Christ,

and is only to be expected when the natural means have failed

It is one thing for a parent to live among his children, believing that

they will grow up in righteousness and holiness through the

proper use of means; and quite another to view them as by

nature sinners, enemies of God, and servants of Satan

They have a very false notion of religion who view it as something

outside of reason and beyond experience, or who see in it anything

to supersede human exertion

So long as this is the case education will not occupy its proper place,

nor be engaged in its proper work

Education is a divinely instituted means put into our hands for the

improvement and regeneration of the race, and by using it we are

employing God's instrument and doing God's work

Were Christians to exert themselves more in the cause of education,

and not seek to screen themselves from exertion with ideas of

man's helplessness or human depravity, the world would soon be

better

While education is a necessary part of religion, religion is no less a

necessary part of education

Man is a religious as well as a thinking and acting being, and

this side of his nature requires to be educated as well as any

other

But while religion is a necessary part of education, it by no means

follows that its teaching should form part of the business of the

ordinary day-school

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On the contrary, we believe that it has been very much to the
injury of religion that this is so generally the case
Division of labour is one of the main causes of our advance in the
arts, sciences, and civilization: men thus confining their attention
chiefly to certain branches, for which they are specially qualified
by natural aptitude or long study and practice
For the right teaching of religion special qualifications are required
in the teacher, and special modes of teaching

One of the evils resulting from the present state of things is that

the natural and proper religious educators of the young consider

that they acquit themselves of their duty by devolving it upon

others

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Education and Religion; Their Mutual Connection and Relative Bearings. With ...