True education is , in one sense, a spiritual process. It is the nurture of the soul. Education is the nurture of a spirit that is rational and moral. in which conscience is the regulative and imperative faculty. The proper purpose of conscience, even in this world is moral.
But God is the only Lord of the conscience; this soul is his miniature likeness. His will is the source of its obligations. Likeness to him is its perfection, and religion is the science of the soul's relations to God. Let these statements be placed together, and the theological and educational processes appear so related that they cannot be seperated.
It is for this reason that the common sense of mankind has always invoked the guidance of the minister of religion in the education of youth... Every line of true knowledge must find its completeness as it converges on God, just as the beam of daylight leads the eye to the sun.
R.L. Dabney on "Secular Education"
