The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-05-31
A COUNTER REMONSTRANCE,
NORTH EAST, Nd, Nav 10Th,

North EAST, Nd, May 10Th, 1878.
ED. WHIG:-,S,r:-In late issue of your
paper l notice letter callingm me to account
for abandoning the "trade of teacher.
did not certainly leave it with any " re-
gretful bitterness" My worst regrets are
that ever began to teach. When any one
makes complete failure at anything, a
due regard for common honor compels an
admission of the fact.
Each one seems to have some especial
place that he or she can fill better than
any other, and half the misery of life is
caused by people trying to fill places for
which they are entirely unfit. There may
be one in ten who would make a good law
yer, one in twenty-five who would make a
tolerably moral preacher but there is not
one in thousand who will make a success
full teacher. | learned my incompetency
and abandoned business for which 1 am
satisfied l am unfit.
A public school is no place for theologi-
cal teaching. In speaking of reading the
Bible in the school did not mean to en-
dorse the principle that keeps it there
Secular education is as much for the Jew
as the Christian. We are not Christian
nation, and a Mohammedan citizen would
have as much right to demand the reading
of the Alcoran as the Presbyterian Of the
Bible. The man who asserted that there
was as much need Of the Bible in the pla-
ming mill as in the school room was right
If the pure morality and equal justice of
that grandest Of all sermons-Christ' upon
the mount, could be carried into all the
avenues of life, it would be well for the
world. While every position in life should
be full of the pure teachings of the Naza-
enc, it is forcing the Bible upon those who
do not credit its inspiration to which
object. There are chapters in that book
which pure minded man or woman would
no more read to school than half page
of the "Days Doings."
The church has no doubt been exasper-
ated by the Remish attack upon the Bible
in the schools. Few are capable of seeing
that the attack is not upon the Bible, but
upon the schools themselves. The. great
effort Of Romansm has always been to
stitie free thought, and to crush the Bible
is part of the same programme, that
would crush all liberal thought. Protest
antism goes at once to the ether extreme
and insists on reading the Bible, not as a
means Of familiarizing schools with its
teachings, but as means of showing their
stubborn self-will.
Romanism and rationaism represent the
extremes of the thinking world. While
one would stihe all freedom of thought and
ask the world to bow in blind submission
to single faith, the other accepts nothing
as true until it is proved. We have no
fears of the Bible; while we deny the right
of any one to say where it shall or shall
not be read, we would make the world as
familiar with it as possible. The Bible
Society is the rationalist's truest ally
What we want, is for people to read it and
decide for themselves as to it's claims. Our
creed is free investigation, full discussion,
not blind unreasoning credence-misnamed
faith.
"The teacher is preacher, whether he
will or not" GA. A. c." could not have
written a truer sentence. l will carry it
still farther. Every one is preacher, every
one is teacher, no power can absolve any
one from that necessity. 1t does not mat
ter what creed we believe, what book we
hold as sacred, whether we worship at Cal
vary or at Mecca, whether we hold as sacred
the writings Of Paul or Confucius, it is our
daily life among our fellow-men that de-
cldcs our influence for good or ill, Tenny-
son is right in his assertion that:
"Tis only noble to be good,
Kind hearts are more than cOronets,
And simple truth than Norman blood"
Lot US have all the good that may be in
the bible incucated and carried out in the
real life, not only Of the school-room, but
the planning mill as well. If our average
Christians could carry little religion into
their daily life, not theology ready to call
hard names the moment any ono ventures
to dissent from their views, but the religion
of tie Sermon ON the mount and the " Col
Gen Rnle," it would be much better for
humanity.
Give US less theology, less cant, less
churchly pride, less blind faith, more true
religion, more labors for the good of the
public, less seltishness and more humanity,
and we will be better men, even if we read
the Alcoran and do not execrate the men,
DRY of Parker. Yours truly,
JOHN A. CALHOUN.