[What Is and What Might Be by Edmond Holmes]@TWC D-Link book
What Is and What Might Be

CHAPTER II
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The second, that right knowledge of God and correct information about God are interchangeable phrases.
The third, that correct information about God is procurable by, and communicable to, Man.

From these premises it has been inferred that if Man can be duly supplied with correct information about God, and can be induced to receive and retain it, he will be able to "save his soul alive." The difference between the two schools is, that in the Legal School the information supplied to Man has been largely concerned with the _Will_ of God, so far as it bears on the life of Man, and has therefore taken the form of a Code of formulated commandments; whereas in the Ecclesiastical School it has mainly been concerned with the _Being_ of God, as interpreted from his doings and especially from his dealings with Man, and has therefore taken the form of catechisms and creeds.

And there is, of course, the further difference that in the Legal School Man's acceptance of what he is taught has taken the _practical_ form of doing what he is told to do, detail by detail; whereas in the Ecclesiastical School it has been mainly _oral_ (though also partly ceremonial), the business of the disciple being to commit to memory the creed or catechism which has been placed in his hands, and recite it, formula by formula, with flawless accuracy.

But the difference between the two schools is wholly superficial, being, in fact, analogous to that between the conventional teaching of Drawing, in which the pupil finds salvation in doing what he is told to do, line by line, and stroke by stroke, and the conventional teaching of History and Geography, in which the pupil finds salvation in saying what he is told to say, name by name, and date by date.

The relation between the two great branches of education, the education of Man by God, and the education of the child by the man, is one, not of analogy merely, but also of cause and effect.


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