"A mariner must have his eye on the rock and the sand as
well as upon the North Star."
--Maxim of the Sea.
IT IS time now to point out, what many never seem to understand, that
Secular instruction is entirely distinct from Secularism. In my earlier
days the term "scientific" was the distressing word in connexion with
education, but the trouble of later years is with the word "Secular."
Theological critics run on the "rock" there.
Many persons regard Secular teaching with distrust, thinking it to be
the same as Secularism. Secular instruction is known by the sign of
separateness. It means knowledge given apart from theology. Secular
instruction comprises a set of rules for the guidance of industry,
commerce, science, and art. Secular teaching is as distinct from
theology as a poem from a sermon. A man may be a mathematician, an
architect, a lawyer, a musician, or a surgeon, and be a
Christian all the same; as Faraday was both a chemist and a devout
Sandemanian; as Buckland was a geologist as well as a Dean. But
if theology be mixed up with professional knowledge, there will be
muddle-headedness.* At a separate time, theology can be taught, and
any learner will have a clearer and more commanding knowledge of
Christianity by its being distinctive in his mind. Secular instruction
neither assails Christianity nor prejudices the learner against it; any
more than sculpture assails jurisprudence, or than geometry prejudices
the mind against music. If the Secular instructor made it a point, as he
ought to do, to inculcate elementary ideas of morality, he would
confine himself to explaining how far truth and duty have sanctions
in considerations purely human--leaving it to teachers of religion to
supplement at another time and place, what they believe to be further
and higher sanctions.
* Edward Baines (afterwards Sir Edward) was the greatest
opponent in his day, of national schools and Secular
instruction, sent his sou to a Secular school, because he
wanted him to be clever as well as Christian. He was both as
I well know.
Secular instruction implies that the proper business of the
school-teacher is to impart a knowledge of the duties of this world;
and the proper business of chapel and church is to explain the duties
relevant to another world, which can only be done in a secondhand way
by the school-teacher. The wonder is that the pride of the minister does
not incite him to keep his own proper work in his own hands, and protest
against the school-teacher meddling with it. By doing so he would
augment his own dignity and the distinctiveness of his office.
By keeping each kind of knowledge apart, a man learns both, more easily
and more effectually. Secular training is better for the scholar and
safer for the State; and better for the priest if he has a faith that
can stand by itself.
If the reader does not distrust it as a paradox, he will assent that the
Secular is distinct from Secularism, as distinct as an act is
distinct from its motive. Secular teaching comprises a set of rules of
instruction in trade, business, and professional knowledge. Secularism
furnishes a set of principles for the ethical conduct of life. Secular
instruction is far more limited in its range than Secularism which
defends secular pursuits against theology, where theology attacks them
or obstructs them. But pure Secular knowledge is confined to its own
pursuit, and does not come in contact with theology any more than
architecture comes in contact with preaching.
A man may be a shareholder in a gas company or a waterworks, a house
owner, a landlord, a farmer, or a workman. All these are secular
pursuits, and he who follows them may consult only his own interest. But
if he be a Secularist, he will consider not only his own interest, but,
as far as he can, the welfare of the community or the world, as his
action or example may tell for the good of universal society. He will do
"his best," not as Mr. Ruskin says, "the best of an ass," but "the best
of an intelligent man." In every act he will put his conscience and
character with a view so to discharge the duties of this life as to
merit another, if there be one. Just as a Christian seeks to serve God,
a Secularist seeks to serve man. This it is to be a Secularist. The
idea of this service is what Secularism puts into his mind. Professor
Clifford exclaimed: "The Kingdom of God has come--when comes the Kingdom
of man?" A Secularist is one who hastens the coming of this kingdom:
which must be agreeable to heaven if the people of this world are to
occupy the mansions there.