The Bible and Education

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 18 June 1913, Page 3

The Bible and Education

\ Contributed.) Preaching on the above theme at the Church of Christ Mr Milner said :—" In speaking of the Bible and its relationship to education I do not intend to refer to it merely as an intellectual study, nor to consider it purely for its literary magnificence, for valuable as these may be, to me its religious influence is of primary and more prominent importance^ Huxley spoke of ' religious feelings ' as the " essential basis of moral conduct," and the tributes paid to the Bible as a modeling, constraining and controlling power in the matter of morals are multitudenous and well exampled. In the concise words of Goethe "It is belief in the Bible which has served me as the guide of my moral and literary life." I wish, j then,, to ask your attention to the Word of (rod as a religious influence i —, and as such a morally ennobling influence and therefore of vast im> importance in considering th.9 question of education In the 0. T. wo have precept and promise suitable to a primitive people and the doings and God's dealings with man in a crude and fallen state of nature : we have much sublime pnotvy and many rapsodical unfold* ings of tho heart. It was Carlyle who wrote '* David's life and history," as written in those Psalms of his, which I consider to bo the truest emblem ever given of a man's moral progress. All will discern in it the faithful struggle of an earnest soul towards what is good and best." The N. T., having sounded a note of warning against sin and of judgment to come, expands out into a j glad and glorious harmony, which i seems to quicken every emotion of the human heart, to unfold the Divine attributes of the soul and to repair and cause to vibrate once more chords of sympathy and love that have been broken by sin and crushed by the tempter, It removes the scales that have long limited sight 19 j tiie temporal and baser things of life and givos a visi >n of things eternal: it unstops the ears until one passes beyond the charming sounds of j nature's praises, and catches the sweet i refrains of heaven's music. The religion of the Bible has ever been, and still is a reaching out toward and the attaining of the better and higher ideals of life, the letaining or regaining of tho purity of the heart and mind, and the continuing of a right attitude toward God ani of a loving relationship to one's fellow men. Of bourse it has often been degraded and narrowed down to the mete observe anca rfa few pet customs and dogmas, but on the whole history and experience prove that ob?ervanco "of Bible teaching has resulted in a pro-> gression toward a higher and nobler standard of living.

Monsieur Biran, in his journal, has laid bare the menial stages by which he passed from one philosophy to another until he came out of darkness into the full light of the Christian truth. He was a deep thinker, a keen obferver, an earnest student of human nature, and he has distinguished for us the stages in the moral growth of mau. The first is animal (To be continued.)