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 Authority and Knowledge. 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 Preached in the Parish Church of S. Deiniol, Hawarden, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 §ebenth (Suniiag after ^rimty, 
 
 JULY 23rd, 1882. 
 
 THE REV. EDWARD STUART TALBOT, M.A. 
 
 Warden of Kehk College, Oxford. 
 
 PRINTED BY REQUEST. 
 
 SPENCER, PRINTER AND STATIONER. 
 1882.
 
 With Mr. Hurlbutt's Compliments.
 
 Authority and Knowledge. 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 Preached in the Parish Church of S. Deiniot, Hawarden., 
 
 ON THE 
 
 cStbenth ^nniag after %xxxa\% 
 
 JULY 23rd, 1882. 
 
 THE REV. EDWARD STUART TALBOT, M.A. 
 
 WarAm of Kehle College, Oxford. 
 
 PRINTED BY REQUEST. 
 
 ^•atovtrliett : 
 
 SPENCER, PRINTER AND STATIONER. 
 1882.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 A true estimate in English homes of Authority and 
 Knowledge would be of priceless value to the country. 
 To contribute anything to such an object would be a 
 great privilege. 
 
 But perhaps it is more practical to hope that the 
 Sermon may be of some service in a Parish to which 
 I am very closely bound, by suggesting some ways in 
 which the two influences of home and school may be 
 brought into closer alliance, and do thereby better 
 work for the children than they can do apart. 
 
 Not that I should have printed the Sermon 
 by my own act for either of these objects : and 
 if, by God's blessing, it should in any degree serve 
 them, this will be due entirely to the kindness of a 
 Parishioner who requested and undertook the printing 
 of it. 
 
 Keble College, Oxford, 
 
 September, 1882. E. S. T.
 
 % 
 
 u»uc 
 
 V„/
 
 A SERiMON 
 
 '"He went down with them and was subject unto 
 
 them and increased in wisdom.'" S. Luke ii, 51, 52. 
 
 |T falls to me this morning to ask you to 
 give your help liberally towards the bur- 
 then of the cost of the Schools in this 
 Parish. You do not n^ ed, I am sure, to be re- 
 minded that a good School, well ordered, and well 
 taught, is an immense blessing to a place. You see 
 the proof of it in your children. Those of you who have 
 ever lived where there were not Schools, or where 
 they were bad, will see it doubly by the contrast. 
 From what I hear of this Parish, with its eight or 
 nine Schools under one management, you seem to 
 be singularly favoured in this respect : and the fact 
 which the Rector mentioned to me this morning, 
 that in the last few years ^5,000 had been spent 
 upon Schools in building and enlarging alone, 
 apart from all other outlay, does seem to me a 
 strong call to you, to make the most of so good a 
 provision as you have, and to do all that you can 
 for the maintenance and efficiency of that which 
 has been so provided. Nor will you doubt that 
 your Schools should be Christian Schools, through 
 which the Church's little ones shall be trained
 
 6 
 
 in the nowledg e of her Holy Faith, and through 
 which the Church's pastors may begin to do 
 their duty to the lambs of Christ's flock. You 
 will feel, I am sure, that you owe whatever help you 
 can give to the clergy, upon whom the Schools cast 
 such a heavy care, to those who, with the clergy, 
 undertaeon your behalf the management of your 
 Parochial Schools, and to those who daily discharge 
 the duties of Teachers, so sacred and happy, and 
 yet also so toilsome, so trying to strength and 
 spirits, temper and self control Help them by 
 your prayers. I hope many of you, in your private 
 or family prayers, often use such words as these, 
 "for the Schools of this Parish, and for those 
 within them, both teachers and learners." Help 
 them by your money ; (whether or no you are parents 
 yourselves, and so directly benefited by the Schools.) 
 because you covet the unseen, but sure blessing 
 which Christ has promised to them that give ; and 
 because you know that the gift of good and Christian 
 Schooling is as good a gift as you can give in 
 Christ's name to the people of your parish, and 
 especially to those whom Christ has told us that He 
 most loves, the poor and the little ones. I may say 
 with all truth and reverence that this is a service 
 for which our Master asks you through me to-day. 
 
 But over what is so plain as this, we ought 
 not to spend our time ; the fewest and simplest 
 words will make those who have any love of our 
 Lord, and willingness to spend for His sake, give
 
 7 
 almost above their power ; and those who have no 
 such spirit, will give no more for much speaking. 
 Nor have I much regard for the extra tritie which 
 the urgency of a preacher draws out of peoples 
 pockets ; unless it comes from hearts touched with 
 some true sense of the privileges as well as duty of 
 Christian giving. 
 
 Leaving therefore the subject of to-day's 
 Collection, I would rather go on and ask you to 
 think for a few minutes, of some of the deep 
 thoughts which a Christian school suggests. Such 
 thoughts go beyond the schools ; for a school is a 
 picture, a parable, a miniature of life : the princi- 
 ples at work in a school, are at work widely in life, 
 among the grown, as well as the children, though 
 in different forms. But though they go beyond the 
 schools, these thoughts have a most practical bearing 
 on the duties of those who have to do with the 
 Schools and with the children who attend them. 
 
 For what ends now does a School exist ? 
 It exists because we count two things good for 
 children : and it aims at those two thino^s. The 
 first is Discipline: the second is Knowledge. 
 When you send a child to school, you mean him 
 to learn first his letters, then his reading and figur- 
 ing, afterwards his geography and history, and all 
 through his Bible teaching. That is the Knowledge. 
 But also you hope he will be trained. If a child 
 is noisy, or untidy, or saucy before he goes to 
 School, you look forward to that being cured by
 
 •8 
 
 the regular ways, and good order, and firm 
 authority of the School : if he has some fault 
 such as deceitfulness, or a passionate temper, or 
 spitefulness to other children, or disobedience 
 which vexes you, and against which you make your 
 prayers to God, you hope that the influence of 
 the schoolmaster, and perhaps of a good tone in 
 the school, will help to cure him of it. This 
 is the Discipline. 
 
 There is Authority in the School to give 
 the Discipline : and there is Teaching to give 
 the Knowledge. 
 
 Two great matters surely: Authority and 
 Knowledge : the objects of our Schools, but going 
 far beyond our Schools Authority, which sits 
 on thrones, and is exercised by Governments, and 
 speaks through magistrates, and courts of law, 
 and officers of state, which speaks in the Church 
 through the pastors whom God has set over His 
 people : which rules in the home, in the loving 
 and protecting rule of husband over wife, of parents 
 over children. And Knowledge of which the things 
 learnt in the Schools are the simple beginnings, but 
 which runs up and branches out into all the sciences, 
 which scales the heavens to count the stars, and runs 
 through the depths and intricacies of creation ; which 
 is the secret of power, and is ever putting new 
 powers into our hands ; which tasks the comprehen- 
 sion, and kindles the imagination, and points to the 
 true satisfaction of our instincts and desires ; which
 
 I 
 
 9 
 rises to things so high and magnificent and divine 
 and yet comes down to matters of practice, and 
 divides itself into as many kinds of knowledge 
 and skill, as there are professions or crafts and 
 works. 
 
 Authority and Knowledge. These are the 
 two ; and the questions which I wish to ask you 
 about them are, 
 
 (i) Is either of them certain to be a good 
 to everyone ? 
 
 (2) If not, what is it which makes them 
 good ? 
 
 (i) Authority. How does it act? We 
 see in our Schools that it acts by power. We 
 have power in the Schools over the children, 
 power to order, power to reward them, power 
 to punish and expel them, if they disobey. 
 Authority everywhere rests on power, and works 
 by power. The government has power at its 
 command, soldiers, police, the action of the law : 
 even in the home the father is the strongest : 
 and can enforce, if need be, his will. 
 
 (2.) Kiiowledge. Knowledge, to put the thing 
 simply, is that by which a man finds his way. 
 We are born into the world as it were like a 
 person lost in an unknown land, of which ha 
 does not know the country or the language 
 And all the knowledge that is given us is to 
 help us to find our way : we learn what sort
 
 lO 
 
 of a place the world Is, and how we are to 
 live, and what is useful, and what brinj^s money 
 and a living. All kinds of knowledge, reading 
 and summing, and learning how to handle a knife 
 and fork, or sit on a horse, up to the know- 
 ledge which fits a man for a great post and 
 enables him to earn a large salary, all are 
 parts of this learning our way. Even the high 
 sciences are the same : Astronomy teaches us 
 whereabouts we are in the great Universe, what 
 sort of a place it is to which our little world belongs : 
 and Religious knowledge helps us to find our 
 way in another and yet higher sense. 
 
 And now I ask my first question ; is 
 it certainly good for every one to be under 
 authority and to possess knowledge ? You will 
 be inclined to say 'Yes, to be quite undisciplined, 
 or quite ignorant must be wrong ; Rule and Know- 
 ledge are sure to be good for everyone.' And 
 yet I shall venture to answer that they are not 
 certainly good. 
 
 Surely there are cases when subjection 
 to power and authority brings mischief and not 
 good ; for we have about us a feeling of inde- 
 pendence and freedom, a sense that each man 
 or each child is given by God his own life, 
 and belongs to himself, and not to any one else. 
 And if Power comes down upon us, and with 
 no questions asked or answers given, sets us
 
 1 1 
 rules or orders, and compels us to obey, and 
 forces and punishes us till we do ; what follows ? 
 Is this eood for the one who is under rule ? 
 Possibly it ma\ be answered that obedience and 
 discipline are such good things, that if he is 
 wise, he will submit and be the better for it. 
 But then I am not asking whether authority is 
 good for the wise, but whether it is good for 
 all. And I think you know how easily a man' 
 or a child either (for their childish sense of what 
 is fair and just is very keen and quick j may 
 easily gain much harm rather than good by 
 being under the rule of an authority which he 
 does not see to have any right over him but 
 what power gives. He chafes under it, and 
 grows sullen : he escapes it by lying, and 
 grows deceitful ; or he breaks out against it 
 and his temper gets spoilt and soured. This 
 is the way in which bad schools and harsh 
 schoolmasters, bad homes and cruel parents 
 have ruined children, and bad kings or tyran- 
 nical governments have ruined nations. This Au- 
 thority of might without right was the curse 
 of that slavery which England in this century 
 did away with, by the grace of God, throughout 
 the dominions of the Queen. 
 
 No : rule is not in itself a certain good. 
 No more is knowledge, A sharp man is not 
 necessarily a good man. Villains may use skill 
 and science for villainy. And without being b
 
 12 
 
 villain, it is easy to be spoilt by knowledge 
 if knowledge is treated merely as a means of 
 getting on ; if a superiority in knowledge is 
 valued as a ground for boasting over others, 
 or for " cutting them out " ; if great and glorious 
 subjects are learnt and studied not for their 
 greatness or glory, but for gain or show, or pride 
 
 Authority then and knowledge may be an 
 evil and not a good. Yet we send our children 
 to school to be under authority and learn know- 
 ledge. What is it then which is needed to make 
 authority and knowledge good ? 
 
 Here again I must speak first of one and 
 then of the other. 
 
 Authority then, to make it good and whole- 
 some for those under it, needs to be rightful : 
 It needs to be such as they can respect and 
 acknowledge : such as may be kicked against by 
 what is evil in them, but not by what is good, 
 not by their conscience, and their best selves. 
 It must rule not by force alone, but by right too. 
 
 And knowledge, if it is to be a good, 
 must be seen to be precious, to be worth some- 
 thing for its own sake : this is what it wants to 
 prevent it from seeming a mere task set for no 
 reason by a master's caprice, or from being degra- 
 ded into a kind of cash, to be paid in buying repu- 
 tation or success. Is any master a good teacher 
 who does not give the pupil an interest in his
 
 13 
 subject but only crams him for a Prize ? So it 
 
 should be with knowledge everywhere. A man 
 
 will hardly be able to succeed with a subject of 
 
 knowledge unless he cares about it ; but tven if 
 
 he does so succeed, he himself will gain no real 
 
 good from it. To do us good, knowledge must 
 
 have a value of its nwn, and be felt by us to 
 
 have it. f 
 
 Let us apply these thoughts quickly In one 
 or two ways. 
 
 First, they suggest something as regards our 
 Schools, for parents and for those who have to 
 do with the children. You send them to gain 
 knowledge, and to be under discipline. But it 
 rests with yourselves in great measure what they 
 think of the knowledge, and how they take the 
 discipline. The Schoolmaster is for them a 
 power, a force, a stranger who can punish. It 
 rests with him of course to gain by degrees 
 over them, through earning their respect, an author- 
 ity of a gentler and different kind ; but it rests 
 with you also to make them respect him from 
 the first. God has taught them through the simple 
 instincts of their hearts, until you forfeit it, respect 
 {or you. If they hear you speak with respect of the 
 
 t This will not be pressed in an extreme way as though, for example, children were 
 able to judge fully of what it is good for them to learn, and nothing were ever to 
 be taught against the grain. The early and more mechanical parts of the study of 
 Language supply a very plain instance of a subject which is taught and has to be 
 taught without the learner being able to understand what it will afterwards give him 
 and offer to him. In all learning, perhaps, there is room for the principle 
 " we walk by faith and not by sight '
 
 H 
 
 Schoolmaster, if when they begin to complain, or 
 j-ebel, you, instead of encouraging them, gently 
 show them that they are wrong, and make them 
 feel that the master's authority is a wise and 
 right one, they will give him some of the respect 
 which they give to you : his discipline will seem to 
 them not of might only but of right, and then 
 it will be for their good. So, again, with their 
 knowledge, show them that you care about it. 
 I have always remembered what I read some 
 years ago in the report of an able Inspector 
 reporting to Government on Scotch Education. 
 He was speaking of the great superiority of 
 Scotch Schools, and the reason which he gave 
 for this was the great interest taken by the 
 parents in the work of the children at School. 
 At home in the evening they would question them 
 about their work in the day, showing their own 
 interest in the subjects taught, and encouraging 
 industry and proficiency by their approval. VVe 
 have something to learn here. Shew pleasure 
 to the children if their reading has been good, 
 their writing neat, their lessons accurate, their 
 knowledge of Bible and Catechism reverent and 
 intelligent. Show them (they will be quick enough 
 to see the difference) that you value these things for 
 their own sakes, because it is always worth while to 
 do a thing well if it is done at all, because knowledge 
 of the things in this world is a knowledq-e of what is 
 very good, because a knowledge of all that concerns
 
 15 
 man is full of deep and tender interest, because in 
 particular to know the thing-s of God is the highest 
 thincr o-iven to man. Shew them this out of School 
 and you will not only double the value of their School, 
 but you will be shaping their character for life ; and 
 instead of shirking idlers, or else sharp, calculating, 
 forward prigs, you will make them earnest, solid, 
 reverent- minded men. 
 
 But further, upon what does your own 
 authority in your homes rest ? and upon what 
 higher authority than yours does the master hold 
 authority over the children ? Does he stand for 
 you only, or for a Power higher than you ? 
 Brethren, do you not see that the root of all 
 rightful authority, be it of parent or teacher, ruler 
 or king or priest, lies in this that it comes from 
 the One Authority, viz God ? His Authority is 
 perfect, not only because He is all powerful, 
 but also because He is all good. His rule 
 is perfect right, as well as perfect might, for He 
 perfectly deserves to rule : we can give our whole 
 hearts to Him, and not lose our freedom, for 
 slavery to Him, is freedom for the slave. And 
 those to whom any authority is committed, do not 
 diminish, but increase it^ if they remember them- 
 selves, and let it be seen by those over whom 
 they rule, that they are " over them in the Lord," 
 that their authority is from God. Such authority 
 is natural and right ; it appeals to the conscience 
 it trains, but it does not crush ; and it lasts when
 
 i6 
 
 the authority of mere strength would long ago 
 have been laughed at or defied. Do you not see 
 then how necessary it is that parents should 
 train their children in the knowledge of their 
 Father above, and that they should so use their 
 own authority as those who are ruling for Him, 
 who do not order about and scold and punish 
 their children ' for their own pleasure,' but guide 
 them with a quiet, firm, loving authority, which 
 may be their first simple lesson of what a Father 
 in heaven is, and which the simple reverence and 
 faith of children will quite readily take for what 
 indeed it is, that is for an authority speaking from 
 God ? So also with our Schools. Do you not see 
 how precious it is to us that they should be 
 Christian Schools, that their authority over the 
 children should speak as it were for God, and 
 should be set over them by God? Sooner 
 probably, and more deeply than we at all think, 
 there sinks into their young conscience a sense 
 that it is a good and right power which is over them, 
 that it is one which they ought to obey, and 
 not only one which they must obey perforce till 
 they can deceive it or escape from it. I 
 think if we had secular schools we should 
 see the difference in the children's tone And 
 so as to the knowledge, is it not a precious 
 thing that the knowledge should come to 
 them not from an ' Education- shop,' where they 
 buy so much, to spend it again in other things,
 
 but from the hand of those who give it in God's 
 name because it is good, because God who made 
 the things of knowledge, and made men's hearts 
 and minds to know, would have us use those 
 minds, and gain the interest and enjoyment* 
 and wisdom which true knowledge rightly given 
 always brings ; for " man shall not live by bread 
 alone, but by every word that proceedeth out 
 of the mouth of God." (i.) 
 
 The preciousness of Discipline when we 
 see God's Holy Hand in the discipline, the 
 preciousness of Knowledge when we see in it 
 a schooling by God in things which at the 
 bottom of them are of God, these are the truths 
 which we have reached : we have seen that 
 these are the secrets of all true authority, and 
 true education ; we have claimed for Christian 
 Schools that these are their double foundation : 
 we have seen too how these should mould the homes 
 of Christian children. But they have their word of 
 counsel for every life and every soul. Are we 
 not all our lives under discipline ? and what is 
 life but a time allowed us to grow in knowledge 
 and increase in wisdom ? (2). Under discipline we 
 must be, some of it, as we think, just, some 
 of it unjust or seeming so : truths and doctrines 
 checking our thoughts ; rules checking our wishes; 
 the wills of others, their selfishness or their 
 necessities or their comfort hampering' and lim- 
 iting us, want of money or health or time hindering 
 
 (i), Matt, iv, 4. (2), Luke ii, 52.
 
 i8 
 us from what we would do ; bereavement and 
 tr>aible taking from us what we would keep; our 
 path and our fortune shaped for us, more perhaps 
 than we shape it for ourselves. Is all this discipline 
 certainly good for us ? No ; if we take it only as a 
 rule of force, as that to which we must yield, 
 because we can do no other, as an iron necessity, 
 it will harden us, or sour us with the bitterness 
 of a restless and unsatisfied spirit. But if we take 
 it for what it is (however it comes, even when it 
 comes through the sins and selfishness of others) 
 and see in it a discipline from the one rightful 
 and loving authority, the authority of our Father, 
 then most assuredly we shall prove the blessing that 
 is in it, its wise correction, its light and profitable 
 yoke ; ' subject to' it we shall ' increase in wisdom.' (i) 
 For indeed the two lie very close together ; the 
 heart which is lowly to submit is open to learn ; 
 and all through life the opportunities lie thick 
 around us of a knowledoe which is wisdom. 
 
 & 
 
 What we need for reading it is not cleverness 
 so much as faith ; for each man there is wisdom 
 enough and to spare, if he v/ill gather up the know- 
 ledge that comes to him from every side, not to trade 
 in it, nor to tickle his curiosity with it, nor to cut a 
 figure by help of it, but for the divine meaning and 
 value that it has : if, as life goes on, he willtry to be 
 ever learning, pressing on to get at the meaning of 
 things, by putting together what he sees without him, 
 
 (i), Luke iv, 51, 52, (the text).
 
 19 
 
 and what he feels within ; by turning from experience 
 to conscience, and from conscience to the Word of 
 God, and from the Word of God back again to his 
 own heart and to the thoughts of men in books, and 
 the experience of men in Hfe : valuing all, because in 
 all there is one divine "wisdom sweetly ordering al] 
 things"*''; Athirst for knowledge, " because athirst 
 for God *^'. To him that believes through all know- 
 ledge God is known, or at least we draw onwards 
 towards knowing God. Lead me in Thy truth and 
 teach me ! On Thee do I wait, all the day " *^' ; 
 "give me this " and every " day " my " daily bread " ; 
 " that which I see not, teach Thou me " *+'. 
 
 (x), Wisdom, viii, i. (2), Psalm xlii, 2, (P. Book Version.) 
 (3), Psalm XXV, 5. (4,) Job xxxiv, 32. 
 
 FINIS
 
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