BIBLE IN SCHOOLS

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2182, 22 June 1914, Page 6

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS

YESTERDAY'S ADDRESSES tSANON GARLAND AT ST. JOHN'S. Preaching at St. John's Presbytoriau Church yosterday morning, Canon Gar- • land took for his text tho command to Israel by Moses to teach the commandment of tho Lord diligently. Ho point- ; cd out that tho command was given to • tho nation, that it was given by and through the civic ruler, and not through ecclesiastical authority. In New Zealand thoy were now asking for -the national voice to be heard as to whether tho commandments of tlio Lord wero to be taught to the children of the schools. Thojy-wpre seeking for the voice of tho nation.' to ;ba . expressed, not in any " ■•party sense, not by. a handful of people, • - not by one church nor by n combination of , churches, but by the wholo of the • petjplo. Ho olaiined that the imposition/of tho entirely secular system had ' never been the expression of the national will—qui to tho contrary—but had ' boon imposed by a mero party in Parliament. They had to approach Parliament in order to obtain ihe nccessary machinery to ascertain the national . voice on tlio subject. What was Parliament ? Tho belief in the divine right of kings had gone for efer, and in its place was the theory, for . good or ill, 'that/'the pcoplo governed . themselves ; 'thr6jigh : se'ryants whom thoy employed '• '•for. .'the' and who .constituted ' Parliijiiieut. But tho abandoned theory was to be found in tho case of some of • . those temporary servants' who thought aml : acted as if they wero possessed of the divine'right of, kings, and imposed their 'will in air arbitrary and auto- ; cratic manner' upon the : people! For a liioinber of' Parliament to ' refuse a referendum bccauso ho did not himself bejlievd.in it, or to refuse bccauso ho did ..not approve of Bible in schools, was sot- ; ting.'up a claim' to rule by .divine right T 'and' in : a degree worthy of. the worst «• thing said, of l the, divine right of kings. THE SPECIAL SERVICES. " Special prayers wore, made'.and sermons we're-. preached in the following churches yesterday:—St. Paul's,' Eov. ('. H.'fiarvcy.: St. John's Presbyterian, Canon Garland; All Saints'. Kilbirnie, Cjiijfiij .QgrlunO i Tinakori Boad; Roy. 'KtjS.- Baniett; Trinity .-Methodist, Newtown,' Rev. J. Ward; St. .Tames' Presbyterian, Nowtown, lie v. W. Shirer;. Island.Bay.Methodist; Eev. J. Ward-; and Petone Methodist, .Rev.- J.' J... Lewis', whoso sernion' ivas, "The Bible, tho Parr lianientj''and ! the People." .' , »„• •