The Bible in State Schools

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 126, 3 April 1886, Page 4

The Bible in State Schools

Lecture by the Bishop of Melbourne. (Continued). Naturally and unconsciously a man says before children the broader and more ethical aspects of divine truth. It would require an effort to become denominational in such teaching. But the most conclusive answer to this objection is lumishert by the experience of the mother country. There the law requires that in board schools the, teaching shall be undenominatisal. Such teaching has been given since the year 1870 ; and it has been a great success. (Applause.) Teachers have given it without difficulty, and all classes of the community have received it without a murmer.' What is the value of mere platfbnri carping in the face of such a fact 'as that? (Hear, hear.) .Nay, the experience of the board' schools at Eng» land goes further than to answer this objection: It established the fact that the' Bible is the most interesting and stimulating of manuals of. instruction. The ciiildren loveit, for it lifts them out of the' "dusty air of mere secular life into a clearep atmosphere and a better world. It op'ens i to them a larger outlook; allures them into a sphere of grander and more exciting-interests, and answers thus those deep, dim longings which are blindly seeking tor contentment. (Applause.) Again* the teachers prize it; for where else can they get so fair an opportunity of leading: children into that fairy region of the past, upon which modem dis^ coveries'have been throwing so wonder©vi.a: light? Egypt and Assyria and Persia; the Hittites and the Phoenicians, and the Romans— they are all theie; and in the hands of an intelligent teacher, their story may be made to give to the child such a breadth of historical view, and such a sense of human solidarity, as the study of no other book can furnish. (Hear, hear.; I say nothing of the literary charms ot the Bible, and of our ] wonderful version of it ; though these in themselves are a delight and an education, not the less precious and valuable because to a great extent unconsciously received. Are our children and teachers to lose all these advantages because some instructors are sceptical and some parents unbelievers P Ninety «nine out of a hundred would welcome such teaching, audit is easy to relieve the small minority with a conscience clause for teachers and scholars. (Hear, hear.) Few, indeed, are the schools in which some of the teachers; would not be ready to take the religious lesson ; and for those few I doubt not that the churches would provide. (Hear, hear.) But I must enter my - protest against the representation that Jhe churches would provide the whole -re^pous instruction apart from the State, hear.) I have already intimated my belief that such an attempt even; if, it. could be reasonably made, would be in the highest degree inexipeds ient. (Hear, hear.) It would be both an iujury and an indignity to the teachers. "When such a proposition was made in Prussifu.ail the national schoolmasters protested again 3t it on the ground that it carried the implication that a layman was net fit to give religious instruction ; and that, further, it threatened to rob the teacher of the most interesting and important portion of his work. (Hear, hear.) But, in^truth, if no such objedion existed to it, such a scheme, would in this colony be impracticable. The schools of the colony .require more than 4000 teachers, and there are in Victoria only a little more than 700 ministers of religion more than 170 of whom are stationed, in Melbourne and the suburbs. How can this small body of men attend in their ' spare time to the religious instruction of schools needing 40H0 secular teachers? (Hear, hear.) In the country districts, where the need is greatest, everyone admits that voluntary teaching is im« possible. The clergy cannot do it, and they' cannot" get lay helpers among the hard-working people of their scattered populations. Equally impossible would it be for churches to maintain a body of paid instructors in those districts. It is with the greatest difficulty that they afford to their ministers a scanty and insufficient . maintenance. (Hear, hear.) I'be case of the large towns would seem to be more hopeful, and yet, even there, in spite of the strenuous efforts of some noble men; the attempt to cover the ground by voluntary teaching has proved a failure, (Hear, hear.) 1 have just received a fairly complete return of all that voluntary teaching has been able to effect in one of the rural deaneries of Melbourne, and I find that out of 14,000 $tate school children, only a little over 2000 are reached by voluntary teaching— little more than a seventh «f the whole. Can jou: wonder at this? With the full command of the children's time, you are obliged, to pa»s a compulsory .clause to bring them to school, (an you expect children to stop for religious instruction of the?r own free will when they have been tired by the labours of the day P (Hear, hear.) In some special parishes I know the proportion of children taught is much larger, but even there the religious instruction seems to me to be very inadequate. What is half an hour a week for the implanting of religious prim eiples? (Hear, hear.) (To he continued).