But I see
no such danger in the Catechism. I see in the Catechism; in its
freedom alike from sentimental horror and sentimental raptures; its
freedom alike from slavish terror, and from Pharisaic assurance; a
guarantee that those who learn it will learn something of that sound
religion, sober, trusty, cheerful, manful, which may be seen still,
thank God, in country Church folk of the good old school; and which
will, in the day of trial, be proof against the phantoms of a
diseased conscience, and the ravings of spiritual demagogues.
And therefore I preach gladly for this institution; therefore I urge
strongly its claims on you, whom I am bound to suppose honest
Churchmen, because the fact of its being a Diocesan Board of
Education is, at least in this diocese, a guarantee that the schools
which it supports will teach their children, honestly and literally,
the Catechism of the Church of England, which may God preserve!
Not that I expect it to teach only that. I take for granted, that
that will be its primary object, the guarantee that all the rest is
well done: but I know that much more than that must be done; that
much more will be done, even unintentionally.
For, shall I--I trust that I shall not--make a too fanciful
application of the last fact recorded of this great miracle, if I
bid you find in it a fresh source of hope in your work?
'And they took up of the fragments which were left seven baskets
full.
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