The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-05-07 00:00:00

GOLD AND SILVER LACE,

DIES SUNK TO ANY STYLE OF ARMORIAL BEARINGS.•
Gentlemen residing in the country can, on application, have
a plan of self-measurement sent free by post.

INFLUENCE OF PROTESTANT EDUCATION ON
THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF ENGLAND.

On Tuesday evening, the Rev. D. James delivered
lecture on the above subject, being the first in connection
with the recently formed Church of England Institution.
Alderman E. Molyneux presided, and there was an ex-
cellent attendance. The following is a portion of the
reverend gentleman's remarks :
If we looked at the condition of savages in a country
where education was unknown, we found great intellect
evinced in conjunction with warm feeling and the lively
sensations, nevertheless, the savage,— because he had not
been instructed to look beyond the sphere in which he
moved,—was accustomed to value everything that came
under his immediate notice as of paramount importance.
That which gave him pleasure was the most valuable
thing in the world, and he repulsed with every effort of
his mind, and of his energy of body, that which was
likely to inflict upon him pain. This accounted for the
fact that there was a great strength of feeling amongst
savages, both of the benevolent and malevolent kind.
But let education come to an individual like this, and by
dividing the attention of the mind between the different
subjects presented to his notice, he was taught at once to
consider the relative value of things in the world, and to
consider the general bearing of events and circumstances,
and their relation on the welfare of the community, and
on the world at large : and, though these things divided
his attention, his own enjoyment, on the aggregate, was
greatly increased, whilst by the division of his attentiott
his attachment to any one subject was in the same ratio
diminished, so that his judgment became calm, and his
passions subject to the sway of reason. (Hear, hear (i
This was the advantage now secured to the inhabitants of
every country where education was carried forward on
sound and wholesome principles. Children might be con-
sidered as resembling savages very much when a subject
is first brought under their notice. With children every-
thing was new, everything called forth their strongest
emotions; but as the progress of education advanced the
little philosopher became capable of judging of the rela-
tive value of things. He rejected trifles and retained
those things which were calculated to do him good and
benefit his fellow-creatures. In discussing the subject
further, we were to consider what were the great elements
of education. The great elements of education were
three—politics, literature, and religion. He was only
anxious at the present time to consider the question whe-
ther the education of children should be conducted on the
ground of literature, without a mixture of religion. It
was one of the questions of the day whether education
should be without religion, and should only embrace li-
terature in its widest range. There were two classes who
advocated this idea and this measure. The first, and by
far the largest class, consisted of individuals who had
never felt the value of religion, who had never gathered
the sweet fruit of religious education, and therefore knew
nothing of it. There was another class of the community
who were advocates of national education, without re-
ligion, who professed to be religious themselves, who pro-
fessed to be advocates of Christianity. who professed to
believe that Christianity was divine, but whose envy of
the established religion of England, and hatred to it, was
far beyond their love of truth; and, therefore, they were
determined to set their faces against everything that was
likely to keep the Church establishment in its present
position, and retain its stronghold on the English mind.
If they asked these gentlemen who advocated education
without religion, if they thought that education without
religion had at all the aspect of infidelity ? they shrunk
with horror from the charge, and said, no such thing ; and
yet, if they argued the question closely, and looked into it
as it ought to be looked into, they would arrive at the
conclusion that it was a kind of modified infidelity to say
the least of it, and led to infidel results. (Applause.) The
rev. gentleman proceeded to contend that putting religion
aside and passing it by had an infidel tendency, and was
expressly condemned by the Word of revealed Truth.
They ought, therefore, to be careful how they should lis-
ten to such arguments or such sentiments as these, when
advocated in favour of education based on literature, and
from which religion was to be excluded. He was anxious
also to skew that the influence of education without reli-
gion was likely to prove injurious, inasmuch as it would
lead people to measure every advantage likely to be de-
rived from their education by the extent of benefit likely
to arise in this world, without looking beyond the present
scene into that future existence to which every man was
heir. If man was to be considered simply as an inhabi-
tant of the world, and not en heir to immortality, then it
might be right to give him all the advantages which would
render him useful in this world ; but if man was to be
considered only as a pilgrim on the road, passing on to a
better world, where he should live for ever, it was quite
clear his education ought to take in those momentous
truths which were calculated to improve him for the world
to come, as well as to render him a useful member of so-
ciety. They were well aware that literature could not of-
fer these advantages. Literature enlightened the under-
standing, and gave a wide range of knowledge; but reli-
gion alone removed his guilt, purified his heart, elevated
his thoughts, and removed those principles which were in-
herent to man's fallen condition. They saw by this that
education assumed a very important aspect indeed, and,
therefore, ought never to be without a mixture of religion.
The question next arose, what form of religious instruc-
tion should be even to children ? Were they prepared to
go back to the superstitious system of popery ; to the pes-
tiferous marshes of Italy, instead of drinking from the
limpid streams of their own mountains? (No, no!)
There was a time when England was subject to the sway
of Rome. There was a time when the religion of England
was Roman Catholic, and those were times of affliction,
when England was struggling with difficulties, and was
unable to shake off the trammels and chains which had
been thrown round her by a foreign potentate ; but, when
the Reformation came, the strong man armed broke in
England the chains of superstition, and freed the land
from captivity. England was liberated from the thral-
dom of spiritual captivity, and from that moment to the
present had England gone on rising in the scale of civili-
zation and of nations, extending in empire, increasing in
power, increasing the happiness of her people, and relax-
ing those laws which were considered hard and grinding.
and introducing amongst all the fullest enjoyment of
civil, social, and religious liberty, in order that England
might for ever be free. (Great applause.) The rev.
gentleman then instituted a comparison between the con-
dition of the Protestant and Catholic states of the world ;
in the one the condition of the inhabitants was prosperous
and happy, in the other miserable and degraded ; and
attributed the prosperity of the people of Protestant
countries to the influence of their religion, and argued
from this that the high social condition of the people of
England was attributable to the influence of Protestant
education and the Protestant religion. It was in the
Protestant religion they found the greatest comfort and
the noblest prosperity ; it was in the Protestant religion
they found the truth of God brought home to the con-
Bei ence, the heart, the understanding, the soul, the will ;
and it was in this proof that they found there was a road.
to eternal life, that life which they all hoped to enjoy
when they had done with the present. (Great applause.)
During the delivery of the lecture, the reverend gen-
tleman had an attack of illness, which compelled him to
take a seat for a few minutes ; but owing to the painful
sensation under which he laboured the matter of the lec-
ture was rather disarranged. A vote of thanks to the
lecturer and to the chairman were then passed.