BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1588, 4 November 1912, Page 2

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

ADDRESS BY CANON GAB-LAND. Ths B-er. Canon Garland addressed a. large gatherm# nt, the Y.W.C.A. yesterday (ifternon on tie subject, of "Women's Work and Influence .on the Keligious Education of,the Young-." He BniiJ..that, woman has the cure of the child [ committed tp lies. . We know that no' matter bow good the influence of a father may bo there is no- influence like the mother. - And it is not so.in childhood only, but all through life. Mother's, influence is there as long as the child lives and is something supreme over anything, else to the end._ The mother, more than the father,' trains up the .moral nature, of the child. Why this is so is one iof the secrets that is yet unrevcaled. God has given to .the woman a peculiar work for Him. God can't do- His best without women. The God who made the great world can't do Without our co-oporatioiu If tho corn falls out on to the rotid or into bush it soon becomes Wild oats.. Man is needed for the cultivation of • the' seed. God can't'do His best in certain directions till -man helps Him, because He has limited Himself. He could send an angel to meet each one of t.us face id face, but this is not His way. How much the world owes to woman! God limited Himself till woman had done her best. It was woman who would found all our civilisation and who would do the big things) in. the work of the world. Amidst all arguments used there is a feeling that women. will Uphold and' see through this campaign and have religions instruction in our schools. Opponents say: "Let the mother teach the child at home." What about the mothers who were never taught themselves and cannot teach ? The State .'comes and insists Upon taking tho child's best hours of tho day from tho ago of : five or thereabouts. - When tho. State takes the child from the mother's care for tho best hours of the day it is too tired for religions instruction • afterwards. The State must (jivo it that which it has taken i away from'it. What is education? Not training of body Or mind apart. Tho child has more than niind and body—a soul, and tliis'soul needs educating. When the State says: "I'll tako tho child from the mother to educate it," it.is not doing that when it neglects the soul. Tho State says it will give the child an English I education. Can it understand Tennyson or tho great writers of English literature j which is so frequently quoted ivithout understanding the Bible P It cannot understand the best literature of fo-dny if we loft re out the foundation book of it alli In the New Zealand school books there are lessons on the religions of Japan j Is it fair to give them a knowledge of a religion we believe to be false and to keep from them ft. religion lhat wo believe as a nation to bo true?. What can women to-dny do? Itestore.to tho children in the New Zealand State schools the Bible. This is «. religious movement; not : a political movement. j