The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1888-11-15
THE DAILY
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER Is, 1888.

THE position of the ADVERTISER as an
advocate of secularism in state educa-
ton has been already announced, and
| some of the reasons for our opinion
stated in brief outline. In further illus
| tration Of our ideas, we will offer the fol-
| lowing quotation from recent writer /:
cat the foundation of any system OF
state education, however simple or ella
! borate. lie these two ideas: First, that
! the welfare OF society and the state re-
! quires that the people composing that
state shall be possessed of a certain degree
of education; and, second, that the people
| themselves cannot be depended upon, at
least at present, to provide that educa-
| ton for themselves" By the statement
that the people cannot be depended
upon to provide the necessary degree Of
! education for themselves, we understand
simply, that the proportion of children
| who, owing to either the poverty, the
| ignorance, or the indifference of their
parents, would be left without any ade-
| quate mental training, would be suff-
| GENTLY large to constitute grave public
peril. 1t may be said that the welfare of
society and the safety of the state re-
quire that the people shall possess other
! qualifications besides a certain amount
| OF secular education, and that sound
ideas of religion and of religious duties
are one of the most important of these.
n Gin ovNlxy hot n
school system supported by taxation,
and enforced by law cannot, without in
| justice and oppression to some portion of
| the community, 90 much beyond those
matters about which there is substantial
| agreement among the individuals of
whom that community is composed.
Concerning the subjects with which an
ordinary secular education has to deal,
there is such substantial agreement.
Concerning religious ideas and opinions,
there is not, and so far as any of US can
see into the future, there is not likely to be.
Even were it possible, which it evidently
is not, to arrange programme OF religious
teaching which would be agreeable to
both Catholics and Protestants, we have
still the Jews, and the Mormons, and
the representatives of almost every form
of religious belief, shading off gradually
into no belief at all, and downright mate
rialism. Again, most, if not all, of
those other matters which may be
named as essential to good citizenship
can be reasonably we'll provided for in
other ways, but experience has shown
that if the necessary facilities for the
acquisition of the ordinary branches of
secular knowledge are not provided by
the state, there is no other organization
or agency which ever has, or can now,
or is ever likely to make good the defci-
ency. So far as religion is concerned, it
is for the purpose of preaching the Cos
pei, and intoxicating religious truth, and
matchmaking the young with sound
ideas of duty, and fostering devout and
earnest spirit, and assisting in all good
works, and laboring to destroy the works
of the devil. and thereby saving men,
both in this world and the world
to come, that we understand churches
to exist. So far as they are really divine
institutions, and actuated by the spirit
of their protested Master, they can be
depended upon to do this work, and do
it well. In so far as they come short of
it, they may be regarded as failures,
needing an accession of earnestness, and
faith, and spiritual power, and not addi-
tional machinery provided for their use
by the Government. These are views,
which, admitting our share of the natural
human liability to err, we hold con-
scientiously and firmly. Our editorial
course will be in accordance Herewith. |
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