even better pleased, for
then he feels that his reader thinks the matter worthy of personal
discussion and of freely exchanged opinion. I have lately written an
article on "Life and Liberty" as proposed by some earnest clergymen
for the English Church, and an article on Mr. Fisher's Education
Bill, in which I avowed my dislike to all attempts on the part of
the State to teach religion. Both these articles have brought me
a good deal of correspondence, both friendly and hostile. The term
allotted to human life does not allow one to enter into private
controversy with every correspondent, so I take this method of
making a general reply. "Life and Liberty" are glorious ideals,
but, to make the combination, perfect, we must add Justice. Hence
my title.

The State consists of persons who profess all sorts of religion,
and none. If the State compels its citizens to pay for religious
teaching in which they do not believe, it commits, in my opinion,
a palpable injustice. This is not merely a question between one
sect and another sect. It is, indeed, unjust to make a Quaker pay
for teaching the doctrine of the Sacraments, or a Unitarian for
teaching the Deity of Christ; but it is equally unjust to make
an Atheist pay for teaching the existence of God, or a Churchman
for teaching that curious kind of implied Socinianism which is
called "undenominational religion."

The only way out of these inequities is what is commonly called
"Secularism." The word has some unfortunate associations. It has
been connected in the past with a blatant form of negation, and
also with a social doctrine which all decent people repudiate. But,
strictly considered, it means no more than "temporal" or "worldly";
and when I say that I recommend the "Secular" system of education,
I mean that the State should confine itself to the temporal or
worldly work with which alone it is competent to deal, and should
leave religion (which it cannot touch without inflicting injustice
on someone) to those whose proper function is to instil it.

Who are they? Speaking generally, parents, ministers of religion,
and teachers who are themselves convinced of what they teach; but
I must narrow my ground. To-day I am writing as a Churchman for
those Churchmen whom my previous articles disturbed; and I have
only space to set forth some of the grounds on which we Churchmen
should support the "secular solution."

A Churchman is bound by his baptismal vows to "believe all