IMPORTANCE OF BIBLE

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 200, 22 May 1944, Page 4

IMPORTANCE OF BIBLE

Introduction In Schools PULPIT REFERENCES “Today throughout New Zealand people will be reminded again that, next Io tbe gift of his Son, God's greatest gift to man is the Bible, and we must remember the inestimable privilege which is ours in being able to obtain and read God's word without let or hindrance,” said Brigadier W. H. Smith at a session yesterday of the Territorial Youth Year Congress of the Salvation Army, his remarks being prompted by the fact that references were to be made from the pulpits of various churches to the Bible-iu-schools movement. "Why does this Book hold the place it does in the world today?” asked the speaker. “Why was the Bible proved omnipotent against all file centuries of attack that man has been able to make? Because it is divinely inspired and came from God —Jesus said, "The Comforter should bring to their remembrance all that He had said to them.” Brigadier Smith concluded by urging his hearers to determine to make it more than ever their personal possession. "The best translation ot the Bible,” lie said, “is that seen in your life. You arc the sth Gospel, read and known of all men, and specially by those who know you best.” Place In Schools Urged. “Can such a book be kept out of our schools?” asked Cation N. F. E. Robertshawc, referring in a sermon at SC Murk's to the Bible and its place in education. “Men are increasingly asking, What arc we human beings? Whence do we come? Why are we in this world? Whither are we going after this life? Aud shall wc call it a true education which does not bring these great subjects before the minds of the boys and girls of New Zealand? In the Bible, we find that man is more than an animal, that he is a human being into whom has been breathed the breath of life, that he is a living soul. He comes from the hand of a Divine Creator. Tn the beginning God created:’ “Our purpose in this world is to realize our divine origin and to follow the example of the one perfect man, Jesus Christ. Man is made in God’s image and this image in us is to grow more and more into perfection. Finally, man’s destiny is not to be found in this material world. Here man is a sojourner who must use the material things of life because his human nature needs them; but his true home is eternal, in the heavens, in the presence of his Creator.” Dr. E. N. Merrington, emphasizing the " importance of the home in the early development of the character of the child, at a family service at the Seatoun Presbyterian Church, also urged that next in importance to the home and the Sunday school was the kind of educating given in the day school. The secular tendencies of education in the schools had come down from generation to generation, and one result had been that Christian influence had been partially dried up in many homes. The Bible-in-schools League over many years had done much to remedy that serious defect, and they had not been without good achievements in the cause of true and all-round education. YVith the example of Great Britain’s new Education Act before them, providing religious teaching in all schools. New Zealanders might confidently hope that the barren conception of education would more and more yield to the fertilization of the spiritual element in the national system. That was the critical issue in a long-term view of rehabilitation and post-war reconstruction. “Key of Knowledge.”

“The key of knowledge,”, was the term used for the Bible by the Rev. C. G. H. Bycroft, chairman of the Congregational Union of New Zealand, at the Cambridge Terrace Church. It was the key that unlocked the door to all human mystery, he said. It answered every great question of the soul; it solved every great problem of life. Its wisdom was commanding, its logic convincing. “The Bible,” the speaker said, “is the only book that gives the world an intelligent origin, and which reveals the origin of life, that God iathe original qause and Creator. It was the key of knowledge in the spheres of sanitation and medicine, of law in the governing of people and nations. of the love, mercy,,, righteousness and justice of God, of human nature, of sin as the transgression of God’s law demanding an infinite sacrifice, of salvation and the future life. The Bible was therefore indispensable in both the home and the school.”'