THE BIBLE AND EDUCATION.

Clutha Leader, Volume IV, Issue 166, 7 September 1877, Page 6

THE BIBLE AND EDUCATION.

TO TKB EDITOR,

Sir, — So, .after all 3 our clear, old Bible, with its precious old old story, its ancient histories, its magnificent . poetry, its pure morals and grand doctrines, precepts, and promises, is nothing; nay, worse tliaii.

nothing, it is an obstructionist, barring the way against all reforms ~; an instigator; ofpunishment to all truth -.tinders -(witness Galileo): an abettor of " the votaries of superstition, in causing the burning of old won) en accused of witchcraft. It is -not a •work; on ' geology, neither is it a natural history. Does it over pretend to be so? We can. by searching, imd out am!-pre-pare natural histories, &c,. for ourselves, but it tolls an what we could by no searching find out— ifc tells us of the love of God in Christ' Jesus to us tho children 'of me% If '-Reason/ 1 would take- the .Bible in the spirit of humility, and road the Old Testament in the light of the New, then he would

find it what it really professes to be ; but; if he reads it all, it is in the light of theo-r retical science, vain of his knowledge and

determined beforehand that if it does, not square, as lie culls it, with such and sucli theories, ho will condemn it'lfco . the .very, lowest. Now, theoretical science in rather an uncertain light to read the Bible- by. < One scientist declares for Evolution ; another declares it to be an impossibility ;. one will fix dates almosb to a minute for millions of years back'; another , will, without ceremony, lop off a few millions and jl>i the date again. Even our immaculate Kew Zealand scientists differ as much aa ages about when the Moa existed. " Nemo " says" tiro" science of 'geology is in

its infancy. I. for one, will not pin my faiih io an infant's pinafore, even if. it

should be a precocious one. Did geolo-? gists never find mare."' nests, in. the shape of bricks that tliev calculated it had taken

hundreds of thousands of years to cover ■ up to the depth tit which they were found, and 10, .when their unifies came to be deciphered, it wag found they had been made at comparatively a recent dale ; and we are asked to cast aside the sure word of prophecy for all this uncertainty.' 11 Reason " challenges proof that any teaching of the Bible gives the hint to the discovery of any scientific fact. Well, i will give him a quotation from a Avork on geography by the pen of a very able writer — v The more attraction of the sun, coupled with tho effect of an original impulse in the direction of a tangent to its orbit, is sufficient; to preserve tho earth in its orbitual motion in empty space," Hence the sublimity and truth of tlic ancient passage in the "Book of Job : c - Hp stretchoi.h out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing," This passage is viit'jularly true in regard to the iirst sentence as well as to the second, for the a:ris of tho earth is inclined to the i plane of its orbit at an angle of 00 degreed 32 minutes, that is, rather more thtui twothirds o£ a right angle ; so that literally and truly, tho " north is stretched over the empty place," and not over the body oi the earth itaelf, in cither of its motions, whether 'axial or orbitual. I rather think "Season" has tried to prove too much for Ms assertion about escape from the dominance of tho cloirgy. Ma^-na Cliarbn was forced when the clergy j nst had the dominance. Who and what was Stephen do Laugton ? lam a thorough Protestant, but would give honour where honour la due to tho Roman Catholic clergy. And when tho Bible came to everyone, what a turning point in Britain's history ! Then the people came to know what place they should hold, and that it was one of their privileges to bind or depose kings that oppressed them. Who opposed the doctrine of the divine right to rule each after the bent of his own inclination — who but tho rjeople who had been taught by the blessed Bible '] ft hag now become tho fashion to rail against our forefathers, who bled and died to secure the liberty we are now enjoying. We can sit in peace \iuder our vine or fig tree, and, with mental microscopes, examine into, criticise, and condemn the conduct of those heroes who tower above the Evolution scientists of our day, as far as JMouiit Everest docs . above a mole hill. "Reason" may A\ r cll twit us with believers trying to square the i Bible with evolutionism.. That is to mo a j proof of the trail? of the "Bible, when I hear of ministers giving lectures trying to prove our descant from r/ioiykeys, and again attending -spiritualistic seances. I remember tho Bible tells -us about teachers who Were to arise having itching ears, always learning and never coining to a knowledge of the truth. It is well known that all believers in the Bible have been expecting a flood of infidelity to come, such an is now on the lace of the earth, and no doubt it will got worse. I am sure, Mr Editor, you must feel yourself crushed after baing shown your ignorance. Poor me ! I thought you were proving your position nicely, and rejoicing that we' have one newspaper in New. Zealand whoso editor was 'using his pan in, the right direction, and thinking your arguments were quite incontrovertible; It would take too much space to answer | all " Nemo's" arguments , but I think he has given his -Evolution theory a knock [ on the head when lie speaks of man having been an inhabitant of the earth, at aperiod so remote that Hebrew clironology is a mere unit to measure by. Why, when ' did Evolution begin ? Sometimes people use two-edged werfpems; 1 remember ' reading an article where an M.'D." says no one would believe. in the existence of soulin man had they dabbled as much in "brains as he had done, because the forcin of man is so like the brain of any other animal. I should have thought. ;that would have proven the existence of something in man— -a -spirit too fine to be profaned" by tho touch o£ his materialistic finger, or else whence man's -superiority ?." .A little knowledge makes ss Nemo" very!

v.iin. He thinks it is quite uiideiiionr, • ; strable ■ to • an >; uneducated- ~t v s, tic;:thai,.' the.same law, that causes an .apple t|> fall, to the ground ..keeps • the,. -planets.; in / .tjiqir ' | courses. : -Why, . 1 can scarcely: rqinemjb.elv ! the time.as & 'very child I did ,-nofc .under.r ! staiid ;that- as ■■ well a& •1" ■ do- J now ; ; that ■' is* ; nothing to 1 boast of: He" seems great- on" geology:'" Could he inform [me K where 5 the " coal cairio from that the. Polar! expedition 'found in th'o^ Arctic i*egions ? .CiroumV stances being always the same, there '^cair newr rhave been; any •-vegetation there'; that has puzzled; me,, but then I ana <an ; uneducated 'rustic "''As for the proof ■ 'of , A personal God,, .v:e- think we have ;that. ; in His .word and in liis works ; and jbee<|»\ise there. is, eyil. -in vthe ; wprld, and. -the Bible •tells. us the cause of at, wo : believe in a pei'Bonal : Devil. And so " Nemo".. is -an .adult, arid our fdrefath era with their gir. ganiic intellects we're mere children j-.not . fit to be fed with the same food/.' Nemo's" digestive organs are quite equal toi Weil, well,: the conceit !• I fear, however,* : - some of the food 'they had would be rather strong' for "Nemo." He has a very bad opinion of the. world in general, and thinks that is strong, against the Bible .because 'it does not force people to bo better. That is another • armament that will cut both ways. May it iioi rather "be explained by tho introduction of such'thobi'ios as his into the' world. The good and evil waysare sot before mail in God's word, and Ke saySj Choose which ye will follow ?, If we choose the evil, we cannot hurt him'; if His word is believed, and received as s'ach, it 1 will be the saviour of- -life linto life, otherwise it is the saviour of 'death unto death. A tree is" known" by its' fruits. ■WhaiTwilJ be the. fruit .of Evolution? Why, ifc Ins already counselled the da-r struction of aged relatives and' delicate children. " I think the liberty of tho Press is too great when it is 'allowed to counsel murder : awl mch murder — the kilmig, of those whose claims to the fccndcrosfc love and care cry aloud in every heart where God's likeness is not completely obliterated. My God, can such things be 1 Is it not a hideous dream 1 Is that thp practical use " Nemo" would put Ms theory to ? " Are tlioso the pompous tidings ye proclaim, Lights uf tho world ami demigods of famo ? Is Uns your triumph, this your proud applause, Chililrr'u of ' Trutii,' and cJiampioiia' of her cansn ? ' •

For this hath Science searched, on weru-y wijisr. ,Uy slioro vaul sea, esich muio and living thing?" And has it really nothing bettor to tell Uii 1 Wore Ito believe it, I -would rather be tho monkey from which I have descended, living out my little day contented and happy, grinning and chaptering to my ■fellow baboons, than live a life with a continual craving for' something higher and bet Lor than is to bo found here, and to know that ifc is never: to be realised. But wo have foioli that there are better times in store for the world : oh ! that' they were here.—-! am. itc. ; ' An U^kditcatdd Kustic."