BIBLE READING IN SCHOOLS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1315, 14 August 1886, Page 2

BIBLE READING IN SCHOOLS.

(contributed.) When this subject came before the Upper House some time ago an article appeared in your columns which was unfavorable to the adoption of the measure.

No more has been hoard of the matter,

and yet we know a large proportion of the parents are favorable to Bible reading in school i. That the matter should

bo let alone ia not surprising It is not pleasant amid the bustle of life to agitate a question on which friends diaagree. Others are disposed to let matters alone for the sake of peace. Moreover, it ia a large question, with complications and difficulties, and it ia not easy to treat of it iu brief apace with due regard to the grave interests involved. Nevertheless, it is a question which, as a matter of fact, It not being let sleep In those British j communities where no satisfactory arrangement has been come to; It will not be let sleep in New Zealand, its importance demands consideration, and the difficulties ought to be faced, A. groat deal of misunderstanding and variance has arisen, which may be removed iby a clear statement and candid consideration of fie matters in - Ivolved; For example, I have heard it ■aid, and I have seen it in newspaper articles, that ministers, Sabbath school teachers and parents should do theli duty and the difficulty would be removed Again, I have seen this put forward: thai the State has nothing to do with religion Now these are mere assertions, eminvtla. in most oases ; I presume, from those wh have never had any prao'ical acqnalnt anoe with the subject. They seem t take for granted that what is aimed a ia the conversion or spiritual well-being c the children only, which we grant are to I sought for by ministers or parents whereas it can bo shown that educatic

ihaa a moral aide, and, the State, having taken it in hand, haa to do with religion In that aspect, for the well-being of the State itself. This la so well understood In a Ohrlstaln country that the question may well be asked, bow came it about that ibe reading of the Bible waa ever excluded from the day schools. Was It the wish of the people? No, It arose g from the exigencies of party' strife In 5 1877. The result has not been satisfactory. Coming, aa most of ns do, from 1 lands where the Supremo Being la recogI nlsed, where the Bible is honored, it is not to be expected that In the land of out adoption, where the Bible had a place in the State schools from their very establishment, that its total exclusion I could be accepted «aa a solution of the difficulty. Under what pretext then has this been brought about iu a Christian Country. dl. It was said to!be unjust to the Bomat Catholics. They objected to the Prctss taut Bible being read in the schools—it was an offence to their conscience. Thi difficulty could have been met, eithe by the withdrawal of the children daring the reading of Scripture, or th rights of conscience could have beei preserved by the use of the Dona Bible, or of the old Vulgate, tram lated la the 4th century by Jerom under Pope Damascus; But provlslo has been made all along for sue conscientious scruples. The presence ( the children of the Roman Catholic or t the Jew has never' been insisted npoi Whose conscience then is offanded ? Bu ' If regard has been had to the cot Bclentlous scruples of the Roman Catholh no regard has been shown to the cot scientious convlclions'ot those who deah ’ that which tends to the best welfare < 1 the State and of society. The Roma Catholicsaroconsistentin their demand thf religion bo connected with education, bt if our statesmen thought to reconcile thei to our school system by the exclusion ( the Bible they made a greivoos rnistaki The attempt was made In Cincinate, wit what result the words of the Tabl will show —“ We see from the papers tt 1 School Board has voted to exclude tl Bible and all religious instruction froi • the public schools of the city. If this hi been done with a view to reconcile > Catholics to the common school syslei 1 its purpose will not be realised* To t 1 godless schools are still less soceptab than sectarian schools, and we objei I Ibs t) the reading of King Jame Bible, even in schools than w t do to the exclusion of all religioi instruction.” The prohibition of tl > Rihlo. than, has not mot with the aoorov;

* been that Lave not ceased to despise ' them as *• godless,” and to regard them as being deprived of one element which * makes them valuable as a means of education in the eyes of all men of an? religious belief ; and their zeal in establishing schools of their own order is a rebuke , to all other denominations. But what . underlies this objection is the alleged t injustice of taxing them in common with ! others for the support of schools not under 1 the control of their own Church. ;n discussing this question we have really nothing to do with the justice or injustice of the mode of taxation any more than it would be binding 'on those who feel it their duty to protest against French occupation of the New Hebrides to assist the Premier in providing against a flood of convicts coming to these colonies ; or, to use another illustration more apropos of the circumstance, the inequality of incidence of taxation is no more an argument for the exclusion of the Bible from our schools than it would he an argument for the prohibition of the sowing of the finest wheat among the cereals. Any just claims the Bounin Catholics have ought to be recognised ; but that canrot bo accepted as a solution of the question which, in having regard to onetwentieth of the community, does violence to the' conscience of the great majority The exclusion of the Bible could only be viewed with satisfaction by a na'ion of Freethinkers. It cannot be right for our statesmen to shelve such a question became it is beset with difficulties. Neither would it be right for us to rest contented with matters as they are. 2 It has been urged that the Bible is sectarian Now, that which is sectarian belongs to some particular body or sect. But the elementary truths of religion are common to all sects, and unless all religion be sectarian the Biblo cannot be excluded under this plea. (To be continued )