"The cry that so-called secular education is Atheistic is
hardly worth notice. Cricket is not theological; at the same
time, it is not Atheistic."
--Rev. Joseph Parker, D. D., Times, October 11, 1894.
NOR is Secularism atheism. The laws of the universe are quite distinct
from the question of the origin of the universe. The study of the laws
of nature, which Secularism selects, is quite different from speculation
as to the authorship of nature. We may judge and prize the beauty
and uses of an ancient edifice, though we may never know the builder.
Secularism is a form of opinion which concerns itself only with
questions the issues of which can be tested by the experience of this
life. It is clear that the existence of deity and the actuality of
another life, are questions excluded from Secularism, which exacts no
denial of deity or immortality, from members of Secularist societies.
During their day only two persons of public distinction--the Bishop
of Peterborough and Charles Bradlaugh--maintained that the Secular was
atheistic. Yet Mr. Bradlaugh never put a profession of atheism as one of
the tenets of any Secularist Society. Atheism may be a personal
tenet, but it cannot be a Secularist tenet, from which it is wholly
disconnected.
No one would confuse the Secular with the atheistic who understood that
the Secular is separate. Mr. Hodgson Pratt, a Christian, writing
in _Concord_ (October, 1894), a description of the burial of Angelo
Mazzoleni, said "the funeral was entirely Secular," meaning the ceremony
was distinct from that of the Church, being based on considerations
pertaining to duty in this world.
In the indefiniteness of colloquial speech we constantly hear the
phrase, "School Board education." Yet School Boards cannot give
education. It is beyond their reach. Most persons confuse instruction
with education. Instruction relates to industrial, commercial,
agricultural, and scientific knowledge and like subjects. Education
implies the complete training and "drawing out of the whole powers of
the mind."* Thus instruction is different from education. Instruction is
departmental knowledge. Education includes all the influences of life;
instruction gives skill, education forms character.
* Henry Drummond gave this definition in the House of
Commons, and it was adopted by W. J. Fox and other leaders
of opinion in that day.
The Rev. Dr. Parker is the first Nonconformist preacher of distinction
who has avowed his concurrence with Secular instruction in Board
Schools. When Mr. W. E. Forster was framing his Education Act, I
besought him to raise English educational policy to the level of the
much smoking, much-pondering Dutch. "The system of education in Holland
dates from 1857. It is a Secular system, meaning by Secular that
the Bible is not allowed to be read in schools, nor is any religious
instruction allowed to be given. The use of the school-room is, however,
granted to ministers of all denominations for the purpose of teaching
religion out of school-hours. The schoolmaster is not allowed to give
religious instruction, or even to read the Bible in school at any
time."*
* Report from the Hague, by Mr. (now Right Hon.) Jesse
Collings, M. P., May, 1870.
No State rears better citizens or better Christians than the Dutch.
Mr. Gladstone, with his customary discernment, has said that "Secular
instruction does not involve denial of religious teaching, but merely
separation in point of time." It seems incredible that Christian
ministers, generally, do not see the advantage of this. I should
probably have become a Christian preacher myself, had it not been for
the incessantness with which religion was obtruded on me in childhood
and youth. Even now my mind aches when I think of it. For myself, I
respect the individuality of piety. It is always picturesque. Looking
at religion from the outside, I can see that concrete sectarianism is a
source of religious strength. A man is only master of his own faith
when he sees it clearly, distinctly, and separately. Rather than permit
Secular instruction and religious education to be imparted separately,
Christian ministers permit the great doctrines they profess to maintain
to be whittled down to a School Board average, in which, when done
honestly towards all opinions, no man can discern Christianity without
the aid of a microscope. And this passes, in these days, for good
ecclesiastical policy. In a recent letter (November, 1894) Mr. Gladstone
has re-affirmed his objection to "an undenominational system of religion
framed by, or under the authority of, the State." He says: "It would,
I think, be better for the State to limit itself to giving Secular
instruction, which, of course, is no complete education." Mr. Gladstone
does not confound Secular instruction with education, but is of the
way of thinking of Miltou, who says: "I call a complete and generous
education that which fits a man to perform justly, skilfully, and
magnanimously all the offices, both private and public, of peace and
war." Secular instruction touches no doctrine, menaces no creed, raises
no scepticism in the mind. But an average of belief introduces the
aggressive hand of heresy into every school, tampering with tenets
rooted in the conscience, wantonly alarming religious convictions, and
substituting for a clear, frank, and manly issue a disastrous, blind,
and timid policy, wriggling along like a serpent instead of walking with
self-dependent erectness. This manly erect-ness would be the rule
were the formula of the great preacher accepted who has said: "Secular
education by the State, and Christian education by the Christian Church
is my motto."* Uniformity of truth is desirable, and it will come, not
by contrivance, but by conviction.
* The Rev. Joseph Parker, D. D.
Some one quoted lately in the _Daily News_ (September 19, 1895) the
following sentences I wrote in 1870:
"With secular instruction only in the day school, religion will acquire
freshness and new force. The clergyman and the minister will exercise
a new influence, because their ministrations will have dignity and
definiteness. They will no longer delegate things declared by them to
be sacred to be taught second-hand by the harassed, overworked, and
oft-reluctant schoolmaster and schoolmistress, who must contradict
the gentleness of religion by the peremptoriness of the pedagogue, and
efface the precept that 'God is love' by an incontinent application of
the birch.... It is not secular instruction which breeds irreverence,
but this ill-timed familiarity with the reputed things of God which robs
divinity of its divineness."
The Bible in the school-room will not always be to the advantage of
clericalism, as it is thought to be now.
Mr. Forster's Education Act created what Mr. Disraeli contemptuously
described as a new "sacerdotal caste,"--a body of second-hand preachers,
who are to be paid by the money of the State to do the work which
the minister and the clergyman avow they are called by heaven to
perform,--namely, to save the souls of the people. According to this
Act, the clergy are really no longer necessary; their work can be done
by a commoner and cheaper order of artificer. Mr. Forster insisted
that the Bible be introduced into the school-room, which gives great
advantage to the Freethinker, as it makes a critical agitation against
its character and pretensions a matter of self-defence for every family.
Another eminent preacher, Mr. C. H. Spurgeon, wrote, not openly in
the _Times_ as Dr. Parker did, but in _The Sword and Trowel_ thus: "We
should like to see established a system of universal application,
which would give a sound Secular education to children, and leave
the religious training to the home and the agencies of the Church of
Christ." It is worthy of the radiant common sense of the famous orator
of the Tabernacle that he should have said this anywhere.