Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1886-07-15
should the state Teach RolIgious

Seh ehPiosSIFation. ne naS ampnneu ms
remarks in a paper in the July number of
the Forum.
His argument is that because Of its Sc
cularization popular education has sig.
nally failed to produce the good results
expected from It, Crime and vice, paup.
erism and vagrancy, insanity and suicide
are all increasing in our best-educated
States. ''The two institutions upon which
the very existence of society depends are
property and the family, rsays President
Seelye, "but there has certainly never
been such war against these as in this
enlightened nineteenth century, and no.
where is the struggle carried forward
with such fierce animosity as in the cities
and States most conspicuous fer their
culture" The more we expend for edu.
cation the more the trouble seems to him
to increase, so that II has become ques-
tion whether I'VE are not lighting the
torch of the incendiary rather than that
of the guide'
President Seelye then proceeds TO lay
down the proposition which he regards as
almost self-evident, that the religious in
struction of a people is indispensable, not
merely to their welfare, but to their very
existence Accordingly, even if other
agencies could perform the work, he
holds that "the undertaking is of such
transcendent importance to the State, is
so truly the one work upon which the
very salvation of society depends, that
the State cannot afford to leave it in any
other hands than its own" The theory
on which the State gives education to the
people is that thereby they are made bet
ter citizens. "But better grammarian,
a better arithmetician, better geograph-
er, is not, as such, better citizen. He is
the better citizen only as he is the better
man, and he is the better man only as he
is the more loyal to truth and duty-in
other words, only as he is the more obe-
dient to Cod"
Education without religion is therefore
TO President Seelye's thinking no proper
education at all, and instead OF benefiting
the citizen and the State it may prove
harmful to both. The objection that
State religious instruction would invade
the conscience of some of the people he
meets by the declaration that "no wise
Government will let the conscience of its
subjects control its public policy" as it
an injustice, he asks, "to tax the Quaker
for the military and naval defences by
which the country is preserved from in
vasion, cOnscientiously opposed though
he be to war and all its machinery? And
is it any more of an injustice to tax an ir-
religious person for the religious instruc-
tion of the people, by which alone their
existence Is 10 be maintaincl?,'
But what religion shall the State teach?
The religion Of Jesus Christ, says Presi-
dent Seelye. Hence l say" are his
words, "that the State should provide for
instruction in the Gospels, for its own
preservation. If the life of Julius
Caesar is taught in our schools, he sees no
reason why we should not teach the life
of Jesus also, for "the life of Jesus
Christ is, to say the least, no less authcn.
tically recorded for us than the life of
julius Caesar.
This would be all very well if the peo.
pie, who make the State, were agreed as
to the religion of Jesus, and the proper
manner of teaching it, or if the vast ma.
jority of them were so agreed. But, in the
first place, large part of the inhabitants
have no belief in that religion. There are
Jews, pagans, and infidels, and they re-
fuse to accept "thc general historical &C.
curacy of the Gospels" though President
Seelyc says 1t "is no longer doubted by
intelligent persons" Then there is the
division between the Catholics and the
Protestants, and the Protestants are sub
divided into numerous conflicting sects.
They all believe in the Gospels, 1t is true,
but they differ radically as to their inter.
probation and the methods of teaching
them. Catholics would rather have their
children go without any education at all
than send them to schools in which the
religion of Jesus was taught otherwise
than in strict accordance with Catholic
doctrine; and Protestants, of course
could not endure schools that would sat
isfy Catholics.
The State, therefore, can have nothing
to do with religious education, but must
leave it entirely to the Church, unless,
indeed, Church and State are united; and
President Seelye's argument is really IN
argument for such union.
A more important article on the same
general subject is contributed to the July
number of the Catholic World by the Rev.
Patrick f. McSweeny, the rector of st.
Bridget's Church. Father McSweeny
puts the Catholic demand thus: Either
give us our share of the school tax or do
not tax us for the Schools" and he in
cludes in his article correspondence
which took place between him and the
Rev. DR.. Howard Crosby, wherein he ex.
planned and justified that demand, mn
plifying it thus:
Let the State say to the churches:
feel the necessity of having the children
taught to read and write; If your members
do not wish to send them to only purely
secular schools, let them get UP their
own. | will look at the results, and if
they are as good in the secular branches,
| will not refuse to pay for them simply
because the children have been brought
up Christians rather than infidels."
DIR. Crosby replies that Father McSwee.
ny's plan would produce endless Strife,
while what is needed is peace between
Catholics and Protestants. He contends,
besides, though with great good temper,
that If the Government should subsidize
Catholic schools lit would helm a Church