31 MARCH 1906, Page 13

DENOMINATIONALISM AND SECULAR EDUCA- TION—A PERTINENT QUESTION.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Many strenuous upholders of denominational religions instruction declare that pure secular education in our schools would be better than secular education combined with funda- mental religious instruction. In London in the Board-schools from 1870 to 1903, and in the provided schools since 1903, such fundamental religious instruction has been given. Do these zealous champions of denominationalism think that it would have been more for the furtherance of the religion of Jesus Christ if the hundreds of thousands of children who have been educated in the London Board-schools for these last thirty-five years had received no religious instruction at