The Education Question [pp. 504-544]

The Education Question.
to impart that kind of education which is necessary to secure
the ends of good government. The State does in a multitude
of cases assume the whole work of education; it gives all the
instruction which a large portion of the young receive. But
such education if merely secular, is conceded to be "irreligious
and godless." No sane man will maintain, that the State is
bound, or has the right, to train up the young in irreligion and
atheism. If, therefore, the work of education is, by the providence and word of God, thrown upon the State, it must be
an education in religion. The State is bound to see that
the true religion is taught in all the schools under its control. This is the common sentiment of all our great men of
the last generation, from Washington to a late period. All the
early advocates of popular education, the authors of the common school system, as adopted in our several States, have
insisted on the vital importance of training the young in the
principles of piety and morality.* Those among ourselves who
have arrayed themselves against "Denominational Education,"
have done so on the ground that our "common Christianity,"
our " common Protestantism," as Mr. Colwell calls it, or "religion"-" revealed religion," as the Southern Presbyterian Review expresses it, may be, and should be made a prominent
subject of instruction in all our institutions, from the primary
school to the University. It is a new, and a latitudinarian
doctrine, that the State cannot teach, or cause to be taught, the
great truths and duties of religion.
All the arguments which go to prove the right and duty of
the State to provide for the education of the people, go to
establish the right and duty of making that education religious.
If the design of the State is the promotion of the public good;
if religious education is necessary for the attainment of that
object, and if such education cannot in a multitude of cases be
secured otherwise than by State intervention, then we must
either admit that the State is bound to provide for the religious
education of its members, or assume the absurd position, that
the State is not bound to answer the very end of its existence.
It may be objected to this argument, that since the preaching of the Gospel is essential to the public good, the State is
* * See abundant proof of this presented in Dr. Cheever's able and important book.
1854.]
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