BIBLE-IN-SCHOOLS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1791, 2 July 1913, Page 3

BIBLE-IN-SCHOOLS.

Sir, —X beg to be permitted as a New Zealand settler of upwards of fifty years' standing) nearly nil of them spent in Turakiim, to contribute through your columns a few observations upon this most important topic. Deeply interested in tho future of the Dominion, I am satisfied that mere wealth and material advantage will count for little in the. years which l'« before us without, that righteousness which alone "exaifceth a nation." How is it to to obtained? Certainly not bv the exclusion from the State schools nt' the Great. Moral Text Book. Boys und girls wo Kfowio? uj> ojxjuod as into men

and women, woll equipped as far as their training for life's ordinary avocations is concerned—of tine physique and altogether .1 product as far as appearance goes well cut out to maintain the best traditions of tho race, but, alius, poorly acquainted tho most of tlieni with "tho scrolls that teach us how to live and die." I have been a Sunday School teacher for upwards of forty years. I have found it almost an impossibility in 0110 hour in the week to impart oven the most rudimentary knowledge of tho Scriptures to children in many- of Whose homes a Bible is never read, if it is to be found. In many instances bag boys and girls would require, sa dense is their ignorance, to ]>:■ putdown into what used to be known as "The Mother's Catechism." Well, how is such ignorance to be dispelled? What has tho State to do with it? are the questions frequently asked. Of -jour.-o the State has got to do with it. The State is indirectly interested that the boys ami girls growing up should be God-fearing, obeying the mandates of the State, not with eye service or merely keeping within tho letter of tho law 01" reckoning it a most venial ofi'ence to cheat the Ga'veni,- | ment. A moral text-book with the authority of God's Word, which lays down "Render therefore unto Caesar the things whichi are Caesar's" and "Fear God; honour the King," ought to be of some value to the State. Anything which we can do in the way of placing and maintaining those high standards before the boys aud girls will be woll worth doing. Would to God that we had the "appetite" for God's word - which, characterised tllo men and women of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Look how much our young men and women are wanting in reverence aaid obedience in all that in days gone by was embraced in the term piety! How well if we could hark back to that state or condition of affairs. I do not, cannot, think that our advances in the material sciences at all compensate far our loss of tho many virtues which distinguished our forefathers. I can /look back as a boy to a certain staidncss and integrity and dig:m'ty amongst them which are sadly wanting in.this generation. Obedience to parents was a virtue or quality which has for years been sadly 011 thedecline. The authority of God's Word would restore tlnit to many homes. Archdeacon Willis, of Cambridge, lias written a very, convincing tractate upon tho whole question, citing a number of authorities, ancient and modern, one of his first citation's being the Roman Pontiff, Gregory the Great, who spoke of the 'Bible in words which follow: "What is Scripture but God's letter to His creatures. Study them, I pray you! Meditate daily 011 your Creator's lyords." I think, sir, we must have fallen upon degenerate times. What- would the men and women of tho sixteenth and seventeenth centuries say to us or think of us: that it should bo necessary to offer reasons or arguments why the Bible or lessons therefrom should have a place in the common schools? Notwithstanding llio wonderful strides which science has made in the. Victorian Era, adding "wonderful wireless" to its many conquests, I consider we are immeasurably behind men and women of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when tho English people, had becoino the people of one book, and that baok the Bible. _ Green, the historian, author of a short history of the English fieople, opens liis eighth chapter "as folows:—"No greater moral change ever passed over'a nation than passed over England during the years which parted the middle of the reign of Elizabeth from the meeting of the Long .Parliament. England became the people of a lfook, and that book the Bible." Again, "As a mere literary monument, the English version of tho Bible remains the noblest example of tho English tongue, while its perpetual use jnade it from the instant uf its appearance tho standard of our language." And, sir, what that Book did for the men and women of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it is well able to do for our Ijovs and girls in New Zealand in the twentieth, oniy we must see to it that it lias free course. Again, I repeat from my -experience of forty years, as a Sunday school teacher, ithat an hour a, week,'with very little, and sometimes 110, encouragement, in the homes is quite insufficient to give the ordinary boy or girl even a rudimentary knowledge of Holy Scripture; whereas if lessons extracted : fromi.the Bibb -bo embodied in the school curriculum, something worth while in the shape of scriptural knowledgo may be- attained. The fears that, the platform of tho Bible-in-Schools League would, if it were adopted, have the effect of breaking up our national school system, are, I am -sure,' basaltis. On the contrary, it will tend to -jlrengithe.'i tho -national system. 111 New South Wales, Western Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, and Norfolk Island it works well, awl there is no reason why it should not lit equally well in our Dominion. There is testimony that so far from cm--phasising sectarian differences, the right of entry of the ministers has an eli'cct in the opposite direction. Teachors also who •were, opposed have oli'ered their testimony in its lavour, and their surprise that it could.bo handled so easily. There are, of course, sir, numberless objections', all of them, to my mind, trivial as compared with the inestimable Iwon of making the rank and file of our future thousands acquainted with tho letter of that Word of the living God which iiveth and abideth for ever. I will conclude this long letter, -which, after all, covers very little ground, with the words of the Roman Pontiff 1 ..referred, to before, and which I conceive ' would 'be as applicable to the boys and girls of our Dominion as they were,to thebeautiful slaves in "tho Roman market: "Not Angles, but angels if they only were Christians.''—l am, etc., JAMES BRUCE. : Wanganui, Juno 22, lS)i3. Sir,—The Bible-in School controversy has been engaging the public eye for same time past and even into the remote back-blocks canvassers have made their way soliciting names to be added to the petition to be presented in its favour, likewise donations, ts- carry pn the work—the purse is over, to the fore. This is a democratic country, and wo have no endowed State. Church. I suppose our schools are conducted 011 democratic lines. Then why liavo a "State form of religion" tucked on ? Various denominations attend our public schools. I for one strongly protest against the introduction of one religion into a mixed community. In Ireland at one time, to my knowledge, ,tho Bible was rgitd at a stated hour. in. the national schools; all those who did not wish to bo present could leave during the religious instruction time. Sequel: at times all the children would take advantage of au extra play time, and often tho teacher has been left to read_to himself, aud I opine ib would be the same here. Again ./ ask, if same were to suggest: "Yes, let the Bible be read, but lit it bo the Douay version," What an avalanche of invective would follow from these advocates of Bible iu schools. 1 maintain "home" is the proper place for children to rcceive their religious instructions and training, and their parents or guardians the proper intructors. If these advocates for Bible in schvols, instead of endeavouring to upset our educational system, were to devote their time and eoyi in providing clergy to visit the back-blocks, then indeed their energies would be put to some. use. Nearly three years have I been in this remote spot, but never a parson of any kind have I seen. I was in another district for twelve years, where, as 110 clergvman thought it worth while to visit, the children had to be packed out to be christened. Surely here is a field for labour, and who batter suited to carry out this good and necessary work than those who are now vaunting the "Bible-in-Schools" banner—l. am, etc., WYBIUNTY OLPHERT. Juuc 20, 1913.