11 JANUARY 1873, Page 3

At a meeting held at Tiverton on Tuesday, to promote

religious instruction, the Bishop of Exeter (Dr. Temple) pressed with his usual force the necessity of letting religious instruction be given by rue of strong personal religious convictions,—which is also the argument used by the Nonconformist party, but by them it is used against the denominational schools, and in favour of separate religious instruction in Sunday schools and like places. Only the difference between the two principles is this :—The Bishop of Exeter's view is, that you .should have as far as possible religious-minded teachers for all subjects, and let really religious masters teach not only secular subjects, but religion, instead of tabooing the ground of religion to the man who has gained his pupils' respect by thorough teaching on other ground. The Nonconformists wish to sepa- rate altogether between the religious and the secular, and to deliver over the religious teaching to a special class,—ministerial, or, if not, still of the popular Sunday-school type of masters, and to associate it chiefly with the Sunday. This plan would really leave the religious teaching to the professionals, and go to strengthen the idea that religion depends for its support solely on its - standing army," as Mr. Gladstone calls it, of priests and ministers. To silence the scientific and literary teachers on the subject of religion, is to suppress the full play of character in those who exercise far the most influence on the young ;—for to those the young owe their freshest ideas.