BIBLE TEACHING IN STATE SCHOOLS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1011, 29 June 1911, Page 4

BIBLE TEACHING IN STATE SCHOOLS.

An up-to-date review and appeal by the Yen. Archdeacon Willis, Cambridge.

Article I. THE IMPORTANCE OF BIBLE KNOWLEDGE.

In this year of Grace, 1911, after 300 years’ possession of the A.V. of the Bible one might almost have taken for granted that everyone would have subscribed to the truth of the title of this article without any special pleading. But how are we to do this if Bible knowledge is declining, as I believe it undoubtedly is ? This being so, it is well for us to be reminded ot what the Bible has done, and does, and can do for men and nations. I adduce the following testimony :

POPE GREGORY THE GREAT, who said of the English that they were 11 not Angles, but angels," spoke of the Bible in the following words: “What is Scripture but Goa’s letter to his creatures? Now, if you received a letter from your earthly emperor you doubtless would not pause a moment, you would not rest, you would not sleep until you bad learned what this earthly emperor had written to you. The Emperor of Heaven, the Lord of man and angels, has sent you His letters for the saving of your life. Study them I pray you ! Meditate daily on your Creator’s words.”

THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. when recently presenting a copy of the Authorised Version to King George, said: “The growth and strength of the Empire owes much to the English Bible. It (the English Bible) has sweetened home life ; it has set a standard of pure speech ; it has permeated literature and art; it has helped to remove social wrongs, and to ameliorate conditions of labour ; it has modified the laws ot the realm, and shaped the national character; it has fostered international comity and good will among men ; above all it has made accessible to us the revelation of God our Father in His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Its truths, as long as they are made the standard of life, will preserve the glory of our Empire through generations to come.”

HIS MAJESTY THE KING, in acknowledging the presentation, said; “That world-famous translation of the Bible into our tongue gave freely to the whole English people the right and the power to search tor themselves for the truths and consolations ot our faith ; and during 300 years the multiplying millions of the English speaking races have turned in their need and drawn upon its inexhaustible springs of wisdom, courage and joy. It is my confident hope that my subjects may never cease to cherish their noble inheritance in the English Bible, which in a secular aspect is the first of national treasures ; and is, as you truly say, in its spiritual significance the most valuable thing that this world affords.” THE MAROUIS OF NORTHAMPTON, in his message of this year to the Bible Society, of which he is the president, said ; “ No nation or Empire owes more than we do to the Bible. It has been, and is, the inspirer of all that is best in our national life, in our governing powers, in our laws, and in our individual character and action. The debt which the British Empire owes to the publication ot the Holy Scriptures is incalculable. The key stone of its mighty fabric is the open Book.” THE LONDON TIMES of March 24th last, in an article on England’s Bible, said as follows :—“ Now that we have so many cheap substitutes for literature it is more than ever necessary that every one from childhood should be familiar with the Bible as a book that says what is best worth saying in the best possible way—such a familiarity with it ought to be considered the foundation of all culture among us ; and we ought to learn it at school as the Greeks learned Homer ; and to be able to quote from it without any false shame, and without suggesting any controversy about theological matters.” AND AGAIN : “ The Bible read in childhood makes us love those things which are best worth loving, and it has been tested by the experience of ages. The fact that it comes from the East and has been naturalised in the West —that tLe Englishman has fathered what the Jew so long ago begat—is a proof of its universal value. It has endured a severer struggle for life than any other book. Living as it does iu our language, and more vigorously than even the greatest works of our own vvriiers, it gives us a living memory of the central past of the world, so that we who came into history so late, and out of a dark northern by-way, can look back across the shining Mediterranean to the primeval Mesopotamia as if it were the cradle of our own race, from which we had

wandered, carrying with us westward, stories which were to last for ever through all the vicissitudes of time and place.” Yet,

TO THK DISHONOUR OF PROGRESSIVE; NEW ZEALAND,

in this important Dominion ot the greatest Empire of the world, the greatest Book in the world is withheld from' the great body of the people. The Bible is not allowed to be taught iu New Zealand as part of the State School work. In my next article I will show that the Bible must be taught iu the State schools of the Dominion, if the people generally are to have any adequate knowledge of its contents.