Page:The Conscience Clause (Oakley, 1866).djvu/86

74 no means to widen them; believing that if the clergy persist in refusing to recognise the rights of conscience, the denominational principle itself will go to pieces in their hands, and a system of compulsory and undenominational education—which I here neither denounce nor defend—will be forced upon them; holding that a last opportunity of effecting a national system of religious education is now offered to us by the clause, and that with its rejection not only that opportunity, but that also of realising a truly National Church in modern times, will be lost for ever; I do implore the clergy and laity of the Church of England to regard this question as one not of a partisan character, but of national importance; to hesitate and reflect before they force on so dire a revolution as the divorce—even in the matter of education—between the civil and religious power; or, to speak more accurately, between the State and the present Church of England.

FINIS.