RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN STATE SCHOOLS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 436, 23 August 1877, Page 3

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN STATE SCHOOLS.

(To tho Editor of the Mgunt Ida Chboniclb.) Sie, —I for one quite agree with the greater portion of " Alpha's " letter re the above. Our State school teachers, any more than our Sabbath school teachers (who, by the way, in the absence of supervision may be teaching the most damnable doctrines), have had no special training for this subject; and although the individual who had the misfortune to lose a leg or an arm or both was at one time considered competent to measure lands, " terms and tides survey," yet that idea has long since passed, and the training fnr a schoolmaster is now as definite and distinct from a minister's as the routine required to bo undergone l'or any other profession. Perhaps, however, the clergymen would still entrust not only the secular but the religious education of the young to " the maimed, the halt, and the blind," provided the stipend was not interfered with. It seems to me that the principal reason which can be assigned for the deplorable state of religious ignoranco is a want of method on the part of those in whom we have trusted too long and deemed able and willing to manage this most important of all branches. It is also questionable and very much to bo doubted whether ministers are earnest in the great work, and it is evident they know not whether they are doing the human race good or ill. Each and all of them can state, and in some- cases do so too frequently, or get it done for them, that they have travelled so many miles and preached 80 many sermons during the year;—very good. I think, however, " Alpha " hits the nail on the head when he suggests they should give us a little

occular demonstration as to the amount of religious knowledge they have instilled into the rising generation or into the risen one. "By their fruits ye shall know them." If they could show us that sixty or seventy per cent, oi the children belonging to the members of their individual congregations knew the Bible as a text book well (either King James' version or the other as the case may be) then there would be a proof positive that something had been done in lieu of the remuneration which they have been receiving and which hitherto has been ungrudgingly given. Perhaps the divineu at present occupied revising King James' version of the scriptures may revise it into a Duay, and this would simplify matters greatly in furthering a general scheme. It is to be hoped, at least, that all portions unsuitable for perusal by the young may be expunged. I suppose they'll be at the " Confession of Faith " next, tooth and nail. It will stand some pruning. N.ot to digress, however, lest I fall into the too common error of losing the text altogether. It must be matter of regret to many that we have been leaning on a " broken reed," and supporting a system so rotten a3 the ministry is now shewn to be. There is something extraordinary, ridiculously nonsensical, in one profession calling on another to help them; and, when they go the length of bahooing to the State, every statesman would be justified in tendering his advice that they should despatch a messenger to Hercules without delay. Imagine a tailor asking a doctor to help him to stitch a pair of unmentionables, for God's sake, because trade was brisk J I think I see the doctor's grin and look of astonishment ! This is virtually what minister's desire. State teachers receive smaller salaries than clergymen if I have not erred in my calculations, and according to the provisions ot the new Bill are required to give instruction in a great many subjects. Were they to protest and petition that the clergy,. who are only in charge of " one little ewe lamb/' should be asked to put their shoulder to the wheel, that would be excusable. For my part I cannot see that it is mor6 difficult to teach a child the Biblical stories, plus the morals, than it is to teach him his ABC, and judging from the proficient state of secular education in New Zealand, as shewn in the reports recently issued by the Education Board, it is clear that if State teachers had only been required to communicate knowledge in Biblical truths fewer ministers would have had cause to feel ashamed of themselves. There ij nothing so interesting to the young as gospel stories and the lessons to be deduced from them. The stock is unlimited, and clergymen would become quite popular with children if they were to serve up one every evening. There might then be danger that secular subjects would be neglected. It is pitiable to see numbers of children attending church Sabbath after Sabbath, and listening, till wearied out, to the only discourses our divines have as yet thought it worth their while to provide for them. One cannot help considering them, and noticing how earnest ia their attention to know what it is all about. They cannot understand a sentence, the more especially a3 the discourses are not unfrequently too cheesey to puzzle the mental digestion of older and wiser heads than theirs, and the officiate would actually be doing them a kindness if he were to tell them to stay at home, as he had nothing to give them till they were old like their fathers and mothers. Perhaps you will allow me to remark that pictures of scriptural scenes, such as the raising of Lazarus, the healing of Jarius' daughter, &c, ad infinito, might be turned to profitable account if arranged along the dingy walls of our sacred edifices. The scene would be indelibly stamped upon the memory of soma boy or girl while their parents were receiving their "feast of fat things." In the home circle the Bible, in some cases at least, would be produced and the particulars relating to the story read, discussed, and let us hope remembered, and old and young benefitted. Such pictures could be shifted from time to time. I put a very fair question when I ask if the children in this country are young heathens. I fail to see where they get their Christianity. Is it at the Sabbath Schools ? Hon, me miserum ! The remarks of a clergymen in high standing at the recent meeting in Dunedin, and to which evidently refers, would seem to imply that parents, from the nature of their occupation, cannot attend to this matter and do not. Ere finishing I have another suggestion to make, viz., that the time has come for the assemblies of our various religious denominations taking into their consideration the expediency of allowing members of congregations the privilege of expressing their approval or otherwise of what they are listening to in a quiet, civil sort of way of course. This would be an incentive to those who deserved approbation, and a check and perhaps a preventitive to some who from lukewarmness or any other cause were careless or indifferent. In conclusion, I trust we shall have more muscular Christianity, and fewer shams. Let palaver be left to old wives and mothers' meetings.—l am, &c, Hoch Hey!