XV THE SCHOOL BOARDS 395 



for the Being thus defined and described by 

 theologic science would be properly termed re- 

 ligion; but it would not be the whole of religion. 

 The affection for the ethical ideal defined by moral 

 science would claim, equal if not superior rights. 

 For suppose theology established the existence of 

 an evil deity — and some theologies, even Christian 

 ones, have come very near this, — is the religious 

 affection to be transferred from the ethical ideal 

 to any such omnipotent demon? I trow not. Bet- 

 ter a thousand times that the human race should 

 perish under his thunderbolts than it should say, 

 " Evil, be thou my good.'^ 



There is nothing new, that I know of, in this 

 statement of the relations of religion with the 

 science of morality on the one hand and that of 

 theology on the other. But I believe it to be 

 altogether true, and very needful, at this time, to 

 be clearly and emphatically recognised as such, 

 by those who have to deal with the education 

 question. 



We are divided into two parties — the advocates 

 of so-called " religious " teaching on the one hand, 

 and those of so-called " secular " teaching on the 

 other. And both parties seem to me to be not 

 only hopelessly wrong, but in such a position that 

 if either succeeded completely, it would discover, 

 before many years were over, that it had made a 

 great mistake and done serious evil to the cause of 

 education. 



