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religious, viz., that the Scriptures be read daily in the school. The Parish School is not a place for reading the Scriptures in, apart from the Church's exposition of the Scriptures. Reading the Scriptures is not teaching or learning religion, least of all is it teaching or learning the religion of the Church of England.
The first and second rubric at the end of the Catechism show plainly enough what the mind of the Church is touching the duty of the Curate—of him i.e. who has the cure of souls, and what is the duty of the people committed to his charge in respect of school teaching.[1] At the time when the rubric was made it is true there were no Parish Schools; but neither, so to speak, were there any Sects. Does any man say that the fact of there now being Parish Schools, and the fact of there being sects, makes any difference in the duty of the Curate? He is not, I suppose, ordained to teach one thing in the Parish Church, and another thing in the Parish School? He is ordained to teach one and the same thing in both alike, only in the school he has to see, so far as he can, that whatever secular instruction is needed to prepare a child to do its duty in that state of life to which God shall call it, is not put in the place of religious teaching, but built up upon and added to the religious teaching. I say, then, that the Curate has nothing to do with the children of the Sects, unless they be committed to his hands to be brought up in "the Doctrine of the Sacraments and the Discipline of Christ."
- ↑ "The curate of every parish shall diligently upon Sundays and holy-days, after the second lesson at Evening Prayer, openly in the Church instruct and examine so many children of his parish sent unto him, as he shall think convenient, in some part of this Catechism.
"And all fathers, mothers, masters, and dames, shall cause their children, servants, and apprentices (which have not learned their Catechism,) to come to the Church at the time appointed, and obediently to hear, and be ordered by the curate, until such time as they have learned all that is here appointed for them to learn."
