Untitled - Electric Scotland

532 LI KM OK ARCHIMSHOI TAIT [CH. xvm.
led some of his friends to suppose that he would agree
with them in deciding to cut the troublesome knot by
making the education in the proposed
schools secular
only, and leaving the religious teaching to be given at
home or elsewhere. The Bishop hastened to assure them
that such was not his view :
" MY
The Bishop of London to the Rev. W. Rogers.
"LONDON HOUSE, S.W.,
April 3, 1866.
DEAR ROGERS, I have read an article in the Times of
to-day on your scheme of middle-class education. Some remarks
in this article make it necessary for me to remind you that, when
I consented to connect my name with your scheme, I stated as
distinctly as I could that you must adopt a system of religious
instruction. ... I am as distinctly convinced as I ever was in
my life of the following axioms, which I inherited from Dr.
Arnold, if I did not receive them long before I came under the
influence of his great authority :
"
education.
\st. That a system of mere secular instruction is not
"
2dl\. That there can be no real education without religious
teaching, and that such religious teaching must be based on
doctrine, in the highest and purest sense of that word.
"
$dly. That when circumstances make people rest satisfied
with a system of mere secular instruction in any educational insti
tution, they consent to act under a great disadvantage, to which
they ought not to subject those whom they would instruct with
out a proved necessity, and without taking other means to fill up
the deficiency.
"4////V. That it is quite possible to give a sound Christian
education and instruction, based on the great Gospel verities,
which shall include the mass of English children, even those who
do not belong to the Church.
"
No\y I do not see any necessity for so great a sacrifice as a
purely secular system implies in the case of those for whom you
wish to provide. The large number of Jewish children can well
be provided for by an authorised exemption.