BIBLE IN SCHOOLS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 37, 7 November 1919, Page 8

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS

THE CHURCH AND NATIONAL EDUCATION ADDRESS BY REV. W ; GRAY DIXON A stirring plea for tho introduction of the Bible in schools was mam; by the Moderator (the Jiight liev. \\. Gray l)ixon, M.A.) of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of New /lealand, at the oilicial opening of the new ' Scots College at Miramar last evening. For what, ho asked, did the building stand ? It stood lor tho wholesomeness of lil's, and lor this id life's momentous beginnings. A school might and ought tu ue all tnis without being specifically a Church school, and it could 110 c be less than this and justly claim to beanationa school. A school was not truly national ii 1 it came , short of that wholeness of life to which the child of tiie iwtion was entitled. "That is our complaint against the present so-called national system," said the speaker. "Were it really nation- , al none would delight in it more than !we of the Scots Church heritage, for if ! there was ever a Church and nation that ! took a stand fpr national education anil • astonished the world', by the success ot i that national education, it is t he_ Scottish ! Church and nation. So instinctively de- ■ -voted are we to the national school ideal that we are disposed to wink at defects in any system established by the Slaw so long as the system is radically soitnd. We can hardly hope, in the mixed communitv of New Zealand, to sec a national system so entirely to our liking as might bo one established in Scotland; but that does not seriously trouble us. HV aro I lar from stickling about, our own jjreicienees. We rejoice in tho best national system we can get, so long as it is a genuine national system." Tho great feature of the State system lit New Zealand was that it covered the ground, it ensured that the education oi 110 child in the farthest backblocks should be altogether neglected. That was ii great feature and well hold tnem back from being severely critical of it. The State system covered the ground. But what if it covered the ground with the wrong seed? That was wnat troubled them. Significantly enough, it was a great German who said; "If a man sows exile from God he cannot but reap'tho same." Even if the area sown had to be reduced —which may Clod forbid! better a limited area sown if it wore with the seed that fructified into wholmess and wholesonieness of a really national life in the fear of God. first of all, then, devoted as they wero to the national ideal; they did all they could to persuade the authorities of tho State to see to it that the seed sown was sound. This they did by repeated agitations at tho cost of enormous energy and expenditure and of strenuous reasoning that was unanswerable. And if they failed to persuade the authorities to make their system really national what then. 11 Vu' lG they to abandon the hope of t pi ,fn ldmg tho children of this so potential young nation with tho priceless boon of real y national training? That would be to abandon reason, conscience, and the sacred mission of the Church, alike oi their own particular Church and cf the entire Catholic Church, lioman and lieformed. The Church stood immovablo for tho education' of the complete personality, tho drawing out, that was of every capacity of the child s being, with the capaoity for God as central and as all-pervading, and if the State would not listen to her plea then she pdst m loyalty to God, tho child, nnd the luttion establish her oini school*. In the national life of Christenikm it was the place of the Cnurch to be central and all pervasive. Now this centrality and. all pervasive of the Church did not mean that 1, was tne function of the Church to do evcrytmng, but it meant that the Church was entrusted in everything that was done, it dul not mean tnat we Church liecessar.iy undertook the education of the people, but it certainly meant, that the tnurcli look heed that the thing was done, and that if the State would nut do it or any other body, the Church did it itself, lhe State had been .'aught in the tide oi a tendency which had been increasingly manifest ni Christendom for the past two cent uncs, the tendency to make the organisation of life more and more secular, tolTetach it froi'i God, and drop it to such material ends as finance, commerce, and industry. The common idea had been to get along 011 these low levels rather than to get up to the heights of the idea 1 and eternal. In conclusion, the speaker said that it would bo astounding if the Stato continued to drift in i hat false current after the war had revealed to it so tragically whither that current ran. The war had found them still true in the main to the Divine ideal, aud evon 011 scoulaiism was less secular than logically it might have been. Whatever Ibe State may do the Church's duty was clear. To all secularism and ■ semi-secularism she must say we cannot live, tho child cannot live, the n/.tion Mimot 'ivo in your standardsGod is caP.iiig us.' (Applause.) .