BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

Motueka Star, Volume III, Issue 128, 4 November 1902, Page 4

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

A PRESIDENT PLEADS FOR ITS RESTORATION. “ Quarreling among the religious sects and the churches about interpretation has stricken the Bible from the reading of the American people. Sectarianism has brought about such a serious condition in this nation that the English Bible is no longer known as literature, and consequently the people cannot understand the basic elements of our civilisation. This is what Dr Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia univeisity, told 8000 persons at the general session of the National Educational Association at Minneapolis. He made an impassioned appeal for the restoration of the English Bible in the sohools, not from a religious standpoint, but from that of a book which had been the foundation of Christian civilisation, and the inspiration of the best in English literature. His appeal was interrupted by tremendous applause from all points in the Exposition building. Dr Butler spoke on “ Some Pressing Problems in Education,” and that of the Bible he considered to be of vital importance.

“ I am not talking of the Bible now in the sense of using it for religious instruction, or for the promotion of theology,” he said. “ My thesis is that the neglect of the Bible catteed- by sectarianism has incapacitated the rising generation from knowing the beauties of the greater writers of the English language, fiom Chaucer to Browning, and from understanding as well as placing them outside the pale of knowledge of their own civilisation. Without knowledge of the Bible one cannot read and understand the glories of Milton and Shakespeare and Tennyson. I read the first 12 lines of Paradise Lost to a group of college students one day, and none of them could understand the reference to biblical history. ‘•When visiting Jerusalem I witnessed a most disgraceful scene during a most solemn Christian ceremony. Christians were fighting and struggling among each other to see the procession, and the sneering Mohammedan soldiers, the miserable Turks, were push-

ing the unruly Christians back. This is a sample of what we have here. The Christians are fighting among themselves over their interpretation of the Aible, and are gradually driving it out of mind.

“ The present condition is shameful. We have and are impoverishing life and literatute by burying our treasurehouse under the dust of theological discussion. The Bible is the inspiration on which the best English style has been built. Even the no.n-Christian has to read the Bsble in order to understand history without reading the Yedas, nor Grecian history without.. knowing something of Greek'mythology.”

THE JEW AS A COLONIST. _ While in London Mr Seddon was interviewed by a representative of the Jewish Chronicle, and apropos of the denthof the Hon S. E. Shrimski, of which cable advice had been received, said that the deceased gentleman “was an upright man—a man with the natural shrewdness of his race. If he was your friend he was your friend for ever. He was instrumental in the abolition of Civil servants’ pensions, holding the view that the civil servants, after the completion of their service, should be able to look after themselves, inasmuch as they were not beset with the anxie ties, and the fluctuating fortunes, of business men.” “ What of the New Zealand Jews as a body?” asked the interviewer. “ They are mostly,” said Mr Seddon, reflectively, “ in good positions. There are scarcely any poor Jews in the colony. As a rule they follow merchant pursuits—the brewing business seeming to be specially attractive to them. The principal brewers in Auckland are Jews—Mr Arthur Myers and Mr Moss Davis. again, in Christchurch there Louisson in the same trade. Another business which they affect very much is hotel property and that too, notwithstanding local option. They seem willing to take the risk.” “Do you regard the Jews of New Zealand as a desirable class of colonists ?” was.the next query, to which Mr Seddon replied, “Yes, they are a desirable class ; they are a law abiding people.”

“ Have they, in your opinion, contributed to the building up of the colony?” “ Certainly ; they have performed their part. They did good work in the early development of the mining industry. Pollock and Bevan is a very large firm on the West Coast, and' one of the oldest.”

“In politics ?” « Oh, in politics the Jews take an active part. They have decided views, which they uphold, whether popular or not.” Asked for an example of Jews throwing themselves against the popular passions of the hour, Mr Seddon merely smiled and left the point.” “Mr Shrimski,” he continued, “ was nominated to the Legislative Council, and so was the Hon JVlr Louisson, but the former was the only Jew elected to the popular Chamber.” “ What about Sir Julius Vogel?” the interviewer ventured to put in. “Oh yes, Vogel was another.” “ New Zealand knows no racial or religious quarrels ?” was the final query. “No,” replied the Premier, with an emphatic sweep of the hand. “Jew or Christian, it is all the same with us.” [Mr Seddon, in the hurry of the moment, overlooked the legal and medical professions in which the Jewish coloMst has long taken an honorable position.]