ELEVATING THE PROFESSION OF THE EDUCATOR. 125 



Orrauz and Ahrimanes is realized as a truth by a christian people 

 in the nineteenth century. The genii of good and evil are eter- 

 nal antagonists ; the temple of the moral Janus is thrown open, 

 never more to close (until a better and v^^iser education is coalescent 

 with truth)j and man thus sacrifices himself to a perpetual warfare. 

 Education, as it exists among the wealthier portion of the nation, is 

 absurd and sinful. The huge collective vice of selfishness prevails 

 throughout society, and effectually disassociates mankind ; by the 

 unrestrained contention of private interests community is exchanged 

 for congregation, and every man's hand is against his neighbour. 

 This selfishness of the man is the full-grown habit of the child, and 

 the arts and cruelties and selfishness of the " play-ground'^ are the 

 same, but with a wider expansion, acting in the world. The pro- 

 fessions, spiritual and secular, which involve the compound interests 

 of man, are, by this same original sin, taint and corrupt even to 

 their centre. The christian minister, whose sacred office calls for 

 an advocate omnipotent in virtue and humility, whose soul from in- 

 fancy, kept apart from vice and the defilements of sin, has grown 

 up into a voluntary coalescence with the divine spirit, exhibits to 

 the world the exemplar and mirror of Christ, and his conduct, 

 more than his preaching, is eloquent against sin. Can this sublime 

 exaltation of the moral nature be discovered in any minister of reli- 

 gion ? Let experience testify : but that they do not attain this 

 christian eminence and moral purity is their misfortune rather than 

 their sin. How many are there who preach (and with a perfect 

 will) the doctrine of universal love, yet exhibit a paradox in prac- 

 tice ! how many dwell in admiration upon the virtue of humility, 

 who betray too much of the world's pride ! while others, in the con- 

 tinual strife with their besetting, because long habituated vices, 

 sink into a despair of their own salvation. Such are the evil con- 

 sequences of a corrupt education in childhood. Pure and undefiled 

 religion has no corresponding reality, but is turned from the efficacy 

 of a living example, to the inert service of a dull formality. Sel- 

 fishness (the sin of the world) predominates over the christian 

 church. " Under a pretence of zeal to God, bigotry violates the 

 sanctuary of conscience, and creates an inquisition in the midst of 

 the church. Erecting its own creed into a standard of universal 

 belief, it would fain call down fire from heaven, or kindle a fur- 

 nace seven times hotter than an ordinary anger would demand, for 

 all who presume to question its infallibility ; thus justifying the 

 world in representing the odium theologicum as a concentration of 



