ve, it is impossible. If the
religious foundation offered by the teacher proves no foundation, proves
a mere meaningless excrescence upon the time-table, then a religion will
be sought and found elsewhere, even though it be, as is most likely, a
religion such as is generally classed as no-religion, mere worship, as
Ruskin called it, of Britannia Agoraia, Britannia of the Market Place,
the Goddess of Getting-on. That, it is to be feared, is very much what
we have at present, for the religion of the divinity lesson is usually
nothing at all, and the religion of the school chapel has hardly got
beyond the tribal stage, and does not suffice for the modern man in his
maturity, nor for most types of thoughtful schoolboy. There are some old
boys, perhaps many, who have a strong sentimental regard for "the old
chapel"; but it is as a venerable symbol of the corporate life of their
boyhood that they regard it, not as a place of divine worship. The
religion they carry away from the school chapel has very little
connection with the message of the gospel they heard there: it is a
religion not of Jesus Christ, but of Alma Mater. Their attitude to it is
not strictly religious at all, but romantic.

It is easy to write with a certain irony on this subject, but that is the
last thing we want to do, for the problem of the public schools is here,
as elsewhere, a profoundly difficult one, and many good men have devoted
the best of their life's energies to it, and have achieved here and there
a fine measure of success. But their success has been personal and
exceptional. The rule is what we have just described. Indeed, the
problem of the schools is but a single aspect of the problem of the
Church and the world at large. Two years ago the National Mission came,
proclaiming that the Church had been a failure, and so much has recently
been written on these lines by the leaders of the Churches themselves
that it is unnecessary for us to enlarge upon the well-worn theme.
Nominally the schools are "Church" schools. "Chapels" are as compulsory
as football, and all boys, with a very few marked and conscious
exceptions, are confirmed and expected to become communicants. But in
actual fact, many of them come from homes where connection with the
Church is purely nominal, even if it exists at all. Thus a dangerous
element of formalism and make-believe is introduced from the start. The
masters again;--fifty years ago they were parsons almos