THE EDUCATION QUESTION.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2579, 24 May 1871, Page 2

THE EDUCATION QUESTION.

To the Editor. Sin.—The question of religious and secular education being one of the foremost in public circles here, ninny of the disputants would not do amiss to inform themselves and others as exactly as possible, by taking up some points, as to what they understand by religious training. Define say a few of the mo n e graphic teachings which it is considered desirable should be maintained in our public sshools. The Rev. Mr Sutherland and Dr. Moran are the champions in this species of warfare, going forth conquering and to conquer ; mi l they can perhaps deal with the following questions ; Mr Sutherland says—“ Shall a man rob God ? ’ The sense of the query is by no means self-evident.

Is it the opinion of the Church that God came down to earth some 1800 years ago, and clothing Himself in human four, wrought at the trado of a carpenter for a I»riod of years, and was eventually put to death by some of h : s fellow beings ? Bearing in mind the relationship which subsists between time and eternity—that the entire period of the world’s history bears the same relation to eternity, as a mathematical po : nt boars to an infinite line—it follows that this world was created the day before yesterday, aud will come to a close the day after to-morrow. Are we then to understand that the reign of grace is confined to that mathematical point and its fortunate gathering.', and that the whole of the endless remainder stretches out into the domain of relentless ire? In other words, that this semi-inen - c ;ivahle po nt, representing either a moment’s duration on a small elect number of persons, is the definition given by the Church of “infinite ” extension ? These are the adorab'e attributes of Deity :—Omniscience to forsee and plan ; Omnipotence to compass all things and carry out; loving kindness and teud«r mercy to render happy ; and justice to mete out acc waling to the circumstances of all. Arc these attributes all arrested ere their display has well been exhibited ? Are these irresistible forces thus to stop short, and still to be accounted “irresistible, universal, and boundless ?” Shall the foolish unequal warfare between a finite being, or finite beings, and Omnipotence, not result in victory eventually, aud Deity be all in all, the whole arcana of the universe, dead and living, converging to a picture of surpassing loveliness ami glory,J equal to the’ pure and adorable attributes of the Great Creator ? or shall it be the reverse ? A li tie light on these questions would materially help the public to judge as to the expediency of engrafting the religious system of our l ical churches upon the secular system of our schools. I am, Ac., Zenophon.