ther. The founders of the
Republic had no theory of education from which religion was divorced.
But the influx of millions of people of other faiths compels us to
revise our methods and to test them by our principles, the principles of
a free Church within a free State. Roman Catholics and Jews object to
our traditions and charge us with inconsistency. If temporarily we
withstand their objections, we feel that a great victory has been won
for religion when a psalm is read and the Lord's Prayer said at the
opening of the daily session of school. We still have "religion" in the
publie school.

But the problem remains. On the one hand, those who doubt the propriety
of introducing any religious instruction, however attenuated, into the
public school, are not satisfied with the compromise. There are judicial
decisions which place even the reading of the Bible under the head of
sectarian instruction.

On the other hand, those who believe that religion has a supreme place
in the education of a child, and that provision should therefore be made
for it in its school life, realize the inadequacy of the present
methods.

As Herbert Spencer says: "To prepare us for complete living is the
function which education has to discharge." Character rather than
acquirement is the chief aim of education. Hence we cannot ignore the
place of religion in education without doing violence to the ultimate
purpose of education.

The importance of the question is admitted on all sides. But it remains
a complex and difficult problem. Thus far, with all our talent for
practical measures, we have not succeeded in reaching a solution.

In New York, in common with other churches, we have the Sunday School.
We do not undervalue its influence and cannot dispense with its aid. But
does the Sunday School meet the requirement of an adequate system of
religious instruction? It is an institution that has endeared itself to
the hearts of millions. Originally intended for the waifs of an English
manufacturing town, it has become among English-speaking people an
important agency of religion. Apart from the instruction which it gives,
we could not dispense with it as a field for the cultivation of lay
activity, and a practical demonstration of the priesthood of all
believers. Nevertheless its best friends concede its limitations. From a
pedagogical standpoint, no one thinks of comparing it with the secular
school. With but half an hour a week for instruction,