BAPTISTS AND BIBLE IN SCHOOLS TO THE EDITION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 34, 10 February 1913, Page 3

BAPTISTS AND BIBLE IN SCHOOLS TO THE EDITION.

Sir,— lt i& :eported thai -Ihe late Rev. C. H. Spurgeon said that all Chrutian Churches tave the Quakers and the Baptist* had, at some period or other of their history, persecuted other Christian Churches, and he added, rather wittily and significantly, that the Bap tUts had nevtr had the power to do'eo., Mr. Spurgeon had a profound knowledge of human nature, \ad he knew, at per haps no one else knew, the .power and the weakness of the Baptist people. Did he realise that co soon alter his death many of his beloved iellow Baptists would, at the invitation mainly of the High and Ritualist paitieu nf thy Hugbean Church, join hands in persecuting those who did n<jt approve of the St&te meddling with religion? 1 do not think that he would have believed ii possible. It was once said that there were no Nonconformists in Xew Zealand. How could " there be Nonconfoiruuts amongst us when the State did not inmt on conformity? If, however, the Bible-in-Schcols League succeeds there will be "Xon* conformists," and most of the Baptist*— not all—will not be among the Xonconformists; they will have swelled the ranks of the Conformists— the High Churchmen, the Ritualists, the ErasUan Presbyterians, and those Methodists that have a hankering after the " Church " and its special privileges in England. Even the Salvation Army has added to its task of saving the fallen the coercion of the State to teacli religion, and has thus forgotten the object* that it set out to accomplish. The question the Nonconformists have to ask themselves is this : Has all our past been a mistake? Has the State a right to teach • a particular religion if the majority favour such teachings? If they answer that question in the affirmative, then all their past history has been a big blunder, and it is right and just that the Chinches now by law established in England should remain established. If they answer the question in the negative, then they ought not to be members of the Bible-in-Schools League. 1- wonder, if the Bible-in-Schools League gets # its way, what chance a Noncoii> formist teacher will lm-e of employment in a State school? However, that is a minor matters the major point is that some Nonconformists are willing to enforce o State religion in our schools. ,In 1870, in England, the Nonconformists said : " The payment of money out "of the rates to the denominational schools would be an infringement of the rights of conscience." If that system is wrong, can a system that teaches the religion of the majority of State officers out 'of State funds not be an infringement? Have, the Nonconformists in New Zealand forgotten their principles, or have they taken up their attitude without realising that in so doing they are proving false to the freedom of thought and action that the'nartie Nonconformist implies?—l am, etc., NONCONFORMIST. Wellington, 7th February.