are therefore anxious to destroy
the students' own convictions and customs, in order to replace them by
others which they think better. This is especially the case in countries
like India, where the boys are of many religions. Unless the teacher
studies sympathetically the religions of his pupils, and understands
that the faith of another is as dear to him as his own is to himself, he
is likely to make his boys unbelievers in all religion. He should take
special care to speak with reverence of the religions to which his boys
belong, strengthening each in the great principles of his own creed, and
showing the unity of all religions by apt illustrations taken from the
various sacred books. Much can be done in this direction during the
religious service which precedes the ordinary work of the day, if this
be carried out on lines common to all; while each boy should be taught
the doctrines of his own religion, it would be well if he were reminded
once in the day of the unity of all religions, for, as the Master said,
every "religion is a path to the highest."

An example would thus be set in the school of members of different
religions living happily side by side, and showing respect to each
other's opinions. I feel that this is one of the special functions of
the school in the life of the nation. At home the boy is always with
those who hold the same opinions as himself, and he has no opportunity
of coming into touch with other beliefs and other customs. At school he
should have the opportunity of meeting other ways of believing, and the
teacher should lead him to understand these, and to see the unity
underneath them. The teacher must never make a boy discontented with his
own faith by speaking contemptuously of it, or by distorting it through
his own ignorance. Such conduct on his part leads a boy to despise all
religion.

Then again there are many different customs which belong to the
different parts of the country. People often exaggerate these and look
on them as essential parts of religion instead of only as marks of the
part of the country in which they were born. Hence they look with
contempt or disapproval on those whose customs differ from their own,
and they keep themselves proudly separate. I do not know how far this is
a difficulty in western countries, but in India I think that customs
separate us much more than physical distance or religious differences.
Each part of the country has its own peculiarities as