THE BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 208, 18 December 1869, Page 4

THE BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

To the Editor of the Marlborough Express. Sir, —I have no desire to see the columns of a newspaper converted into a polemical arena, and, though I am not a little surprised at the manner in which my kite opponent has retired from the field, I should nevertheless have pocketed my inglorious victory, and

“ 1 ike some schoolboy on a rainy day, AYho finds his playmates wo'ild no lunger play, He takes the hint himself and walks away.” —so should I have gone “ out of print,” but on looking over the pages of the Nelson Examiner, 1 saw in the report of the Synod now sitting in Nelson., that the Yen. Archdeacon Butt moved, and the Tudor seconded a resolution, having for its object the petitioning of the Government of this Province for such alteration in the Education Act as will enable them to thrust the Hebrew Scriptures, usually called the “Bible,” down the throats of all the children in the Province nolens volens ! Now Sir, I would ask those Rev. gentlemen if they imagine such a course is calculated to make the Bible more popular, or likely to strengthen its hold on the hearts of the people ? Do they think that the strong arm of the law is the best vehicle for religious teaching ? Let them look at, and think of, what is doing, and has been done in the world around them, and halt before they answer. There is utility as well as fun in an incognito ; to a certain extent it does—

“ The giftie gi’e ns To see ourselves as others see us ” —and I have had the pleasure of hearing myself abused as a fool, and something worse, because I object to the Bible as a class-book for children. The ablest, as well as the weakest defenders of the Bible admit that it contains much which they cannot understand ; if they cannot compass its meaning, how can our children be expected to do so ? And if they cannot reply in the affirmative to the question, “ Understandest thou what thou readest?” where is the utility of readingit? Again, I ask any man, or woman either, if there are not many passages and verses in the Bible which, if they were between the covers or any uiim UuuK, they would not blush to read ? I refrain from directing public attention to the actual texts, but let those’who have read the Bible as I have, only exercise their memories for a moment, and I defy them to say that they cannot understand the passages I refer to —the language is too plain,— and thei’e are very few, I think, who would like to explain them to their little ones. As to the “fundamental truths" I must leave “ those who have authority,” and “sit in high places” to decide on which are and which are not “ fundamental,” as each of the hundreds of sects into which Christianity is split up claims some peculiar “ truth” as it’s own. So long as my children are taught sound moral truth, I care not whether it is from the Book of Proverbs, the Koran, The Sermon on the Mount, or the writings of Confuscius that the teacher gathers his moral honey. To make them good citizens, which is but the fulfilment of their duty as sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, and parents —teach them to do these things, and creeds and dogmas may be scattered to the wind. “ Creeds are the weights dead casemen wear When they are buried from lone ships at sea, Freighted wherewith they never rise again.” ***** •• Oh how vain creed building looks to free and cultured minds.” I am, &c., Philo Veritas. Dec. 13th, 1869.