SCIENCE IN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. 453 



Even if there were unity of belief in Christianity, the existence of 

 other religions in the world, supported by millions of people, is of itself 

 sufficient to make the man who loves truth above all things demand 

 for higher educational institutions something more truly catholic for 

 an aim than the promotion of any one religion. If the highest truth be 

 coincident with Christian doctrine ; then, if truth in itself be made the 

 chief end, the only result is to advance Christianity also, while there 

 is no possible ground of reproach on the score of sectarianism. Such 

 a reproach is not alone liable to come from atheists and agnostics, who 

 may be considered possibly to have no rights which Christians are 

 bound to respect. There happens to be in Christian communities a 

 large class of people of the highest degree of enlightenment to whom 

 the central doctrines of Christianity are repugnant , and who are de- 

 voted to a religion of their own — the religion, indeed, out of which 

 Christianity sprang, but a religion which does not recognize any divine 

 character in Jesus of Nazareth or any divine mission in his career. 

 Such people are not atheists or agnostics. They worship the same 

 God as the Christians do ; and they adopt as a sacred book more than 

 half the Christian Bible. In former times Christians used to treat 

 them with the greatest contumely, scarcely as human beings, in fact ; 

 in some parts of the world to-day they are persecuted. But in coun- 

 tries where equality before the law is the rule, they have the same 

 rights as other people ; and their religious views ought to be recognized 

 in those institutions to which they contribute. The existence of a 

 large number of believers in the Jewish religion is certainly an addi- 

 tional argument against dogmatic religious teaching in any seminary 

 of learning which seeks or obtains state aid. It is also conclusive 

 against the claim that to promote Christianity is not a sectarian aim, 

 for by the expression not alone practical or humanitarian, but doctri- 

 nal or theological Christianity is always intended. 



Yet this contention that they are in no wise sectarian or partisan 

 continues to he made by distinctively Christian colleges. Under this 

 declaration, they open their doors to the world and profess to give the 

 youth all the higher instruction he needs. They claim to teach knowl- 

 edge, science, truth. But they certainly would not allow anything to 

 be truth which militates against Christianity as an exclusive religion, 

 as the only hope for mankind — this hope lying not in the spirit of 

 altruism pervading Christianity but in loyalty to Jesus Christ person- 

 ally as the sole Redeemer and Saviour. The Jewish view of Jesus would 

 not be tolerated for an instant ; the Unitarian belief is not less obnox- 

 ious ; the agnostic humility is thought blasphemous. The possibility 

 of the " orthodox " principles and facts being error is not to be allowed 

 or considered ! The chief business of these institutions is to maintain 

 the truth of their religious creed as a postulate not to be questioned, 

 as an assumed point of departure for all acquisition of knowledge, and 

 as the supreme end of all learning. For instance, President Adams, of 



