The Teaching of Religion
By L. A. S.
IN religion, truth is received not through human research and discovery, but through the revelation of God to mankind, accepted by faith. The human intellect could not of itself comprehend the truths of salvation from sin, nor could such truths be discovered by any means of knowledge at man's disposal. It is necessary that they should come to man by direct revelation of God, and should be accepted by man on the authority of God's word alone, without demonstration. Religious truth therefore can not be taught as those truths are taught which depend upon actual demonstration for their acceptance. A mathematical truth is arrived at only by a process of demonstration. Any scientific truth, any historical truth, is accepted only after it has been subjected to some test of its correctness. Only in this way can the knowledge of such truths be obtained. But to treat religious truth in this way would certainly prevent the knowledge of it from being received at all. In other words, if man depended on his own faculties for the discovery of religious truth, he would forever remain in ignorance. Worse than this, he would be led to accept as truth doctrines altogether false, for the real truths of man's relation to God lie beyond the reach of the human intellect. To lead the mind to a knowledge of the sciences and arts, a human teacher is sufficient; but in religion only a divine teacher can lead the mind to truth. Such a teacher God has appointed—the Holy Spirit. God gives the Holy Spirit to them that ask him; and of this divine teacher, Jesus said, “He shall guide you into all truth.” But the Holy Spirit can not be subjected to any human control. The State can neither provide nor direct this indispensable aid to religious knowledge. No person or organization can provide this indispensable Teacher for the seeker after divine truth. Only God can do this, and only by the individual exercise of faith can he be received. These are considerations which are necessarily involved in the question whether the state should or should not provide for instruction in religion. In view of such facts it must be evident that any attempt of the state to teach religion must fall infinitely short of the result desired, and so far from enlightening the mind of the student, can only darken it with error. Such attempts should therefore be opposed in the name of Christianity. The propensity of human nature to rely upon human authority in the place of divine authority, and the disposition of the mind to demand a demonstration for anything it is asked to accept as truth, which disposition is strengthened by the process of acquiring secular knowledge, admonish us that religious instruction can not safely be committed to such an institution as the public school. Where the experiment has been tried, furthermore, as in France, the result shows that under such a system the people are led to regard religious teaching as wholly an affair of the state and of the priest. Such a system does away with faith, dispenses with the Holy Spirit, and bases religion upon human wisdom and authority altogether, and shuts out completely the light which should come direct to the soul from the throne of God; and with that is shut away the salvation which is unto eternal life. As Christians, we must protest against that which is contrary to the Christian and Protestant rule,—no teacher but the Holy Spirit, and no authority but the Word of God.