BRITISH AND FOREIGN SCHOOL SOCIETY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 208, 31 August 1872, Page 2

BRITISH AND FOREIGN SCHOOL SOCIETY.

The sixty-seventh anniversary of the Society was held at the. Society's House, Borough-road> on Monday, May 6, 1872; The Secretary read the following letter from Earl Russell, the President of the Society, wherein he regrets his inability to he present— which) with the accompanying resolution, and extracts from speech.thereon, by the Rev:. Thomas Binney , will he found interesting to many of our readers. I, remain faithlul-to the principles, of the society. For many years I have contended for 'those principles against the partisans of "secular teaching on. the one hand and on the other against the adherents of the rules of the National Society, which impose, the obligation of learning, the cate- . . chism on .week days and of attending the worship of the Established Church on Sundays. It has appeared to- me that any system of teaching which omitted religious instruction must be faulty and inadequate. ,It likewise- appears tome to >be necessary that the society should adhere, with the most simple comment and explanations, to the words of the Bible. I' therefore trust that the society will continue its labors, and that they may be more and more successful. In various ages of Christianity doctors invested -with • the authority derived "from the Pope, or placed' in their hands by the schools, have added to the Holy Scriptures, and interpolated doctrines for which no sufficient warrant could he found in the Bible; The attempts to, make, such doctrines a part of the education of these Islands have of late years had much influence on persons of authority, civil and ecclesiastical. The Jesuits of Rome are endeavoring to gain possession of the ireans of education in Ireland, and, the Jesuits of Oxford are working hard to acquire control over the education in England. Let lis hope that- these machinations will be resisted by the lovers of ; religious liberty in England, and in Ireland. It is to be hoped that next year the members of the Government will declare themselves enemies to all oppression of Dissenters, for they cannot expect a Baptist parent will be satisfied to pay a. tax for the promotion of infant baptism, , or that a Presbyterian will be willing to, send his son to church to pray for a blessing on the order of bishops. These attacks on- freedom of conscience may be relinquished, and probably will be, before any long time shall elapse. The state of Ireland is more critical. Unless speedily checked by the House of Commons, tbe Ultramontane party, who had so signal a triumph last year at Home, will next year gain a triumph equally signal at Dublin. For my part I will, only say that this is not.a time, when either the liberal clergy of the Establishment or the Protestant Dissenters ought to go to sleep. Let them be up and active. The following resolution was moved by the Rev. Thomas Binney ;— That this meeting, believing that the reading and ■ study of 'the Bible, without the' use of " any formularies, secures what is most important in the religious. teaching of the schools, both elementary and normal, commends the plan of the British and Foreign School Society to the friends of education Of all sects and parties as the most satisfactory basis of union. With respect to the existing controversy of the present day which is separating cheif friends and is producing, I had almost said, : rancour and bitterness, and cerlainly has produced some utterances which are not to be admired, I should say it |s of yery great importance, that the parties should honestly try to understand each other. One of the first thiogs "which, ought to be done (though generally one of the' last things that is done) by any man who enters into a controversy is to try and put himself on the ground occupied by his opponent, and to look at things through his eyes and apprehend them by his understanding. Now. let us be honest and- just to both parties. They who are at: present on the other side of us do not object to the teaching of the Bible from : ahy.ehmity.to the Bible itself, nor from indifference to religion. I put aside that small minority which takes the.;fbroad positive secular ground from enmity and; dislikejpf the Bible and what the Bible teachesf The majority do not object to religious teaching, frofm any feelipg but of the very solemnity with^trijeh, they regard' religion, from tjie yepy importance which they attach to it, _rp.m.t_te, spirituality and majesty. o£ its nature, ami! from ?, the 'feeling^they/have; of the, state of mind and heart required in the persons who ought to teach it,. They haye such feelings of reyerenae and' regard for' religious Instruction' thai;' jfoey think it should not -be brought by government and by law into ,or^inasy.. sohobls, because they, think that God himself has laid the solemn obligation of trainiogthe children in the nature and Forjmainder.oftiewseeifaurth page.

admonition of the Lord on the patent and on the Church-, aodthey,, therefore, .think that if Govern-; merit 'is to' establish a system of education in a country, like ours, its proper/sphere is in the secular part.' lam not saying whether the men are right or wrong; but simply that they should be fairly dealt -with and that we should honestly understand- each other. They think, I imagine, that if the school is entirely confined to what is secular in teaching and training, they have some method by which they can fully and completely supplement it, and provide for the religions teaching. You will observe that these men do not believe that religion is the basis of education, nor doll. Do the men who talk about religion being the basis of education mean that the common, ordinary instruction of a school should rest upon that? Ido not see any sense in that ; for a child may be taught arithmetic without knowing anything about the outer and inner parts of a Sacrament. If they mean that religion is the basis of education, properly so called, then I do not understand them, because, instead of thinking that •Teligious culture is the basis, I think it a grand part, the noblest part, the greatest, that -which is to culminate and beautify the whole. I, do not think, therefore, that religion is the basis of what they call education in that sense, but that it is the mistress and queen of all parts ; the part -which most be developed if a man is to be a complete man, and to have his whole faculties drawn forth, and education properly means that. There is another thing -which I might have said, with respect to the party whose ideas we have been inquiriug into. It is that we should not forget that when law and Government come into contact with religion and are observed in action by these men, then conscience, the great troobler, tronbles them. They want to be equitable to all. They want to be just, to God's truth ; they want that the men of the nation should te just to one another and that' the Government should be just to all. Therefore it is they eay, " One man ought not to be taxed to support and propagate those views of another which he may consider unscriptural and dangerous." They urge that if they have money to support and spread their own views, any other denomination, say the Roman Catholics, may with equal justice claim it ; and feeling as strongly, as . some of them do, that Romanism is a system not only untrue in its doctrines but opposed to the civil and religious liberties of mankind, they say they will rather not take any support themselves than give, a precedent for supporting Romanism. (Great applause.) I give them credit for all that, but I still stick by the old ship, just because I believe what my friend. Mr. Reed has said, that the teaching in our schools ought to have a moral influence, and include something of moral culture, the establishment of moral principles and moral habits, in addition ' to the mere teaching of the three R's. The system in our schools should not he one of rr.ere teaching, but also of discipline, a drawing out and developing of faculty, affection, and moral feeling, as well as a putting into the intellect and understanding. I hold that that is best done by the employment of the Bible as the instrument of moral culture. I am not superstitious about " the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible." The Bible should not be made a common school book. I like better to have selections, and extracts containing interesting facts, beautiful biographies, the golden words of Jesus, with accounts of God's government and law. These things put into the hand of a child and taught in the school may produce in ( the miod of the pupil a feeling of reverence for the Bible and a' desire to know more of ' its contents; whereas how often has it been where the Bible is made a school book, and sometimes, even a task book, there has been produced a feeling of loathing for it ? (Hear hear.) I think that is what we do in our schools. We have a good selection of extracts from the Bible, such a9 we think suitable to the minds of the children and calculated to form the elementary basis of a divine life and religious development although we *do not object to our teachers selecting other extracts if they like. I do not think that our system of inculcating religion by such judicious study of the Bible could be made by any denomination, even the Catholics, the basis of a claim for a Sectarian system. I hold to the principles developed in the resolution because the plan of the secularist party would keep from the ranks of teachers those earnest, God-fearing men and women who are most required there. If the wish of the party to prohibit the teacher from ever opening his mouth to his pupils about the Bible or religion were carried into effect, who would be a teacher? I quite admit that in a day school a teacher is not in loco parentis, though in a boarding school he is. I dare say that little Saul of Tarsus was sent to a heathen school to learn rhetoric and grammar, though his father took care that at home he should be well grounded in the truths of the sacred book and holy religion. • Agreeing as. we do in" the great principles contained in the Bible,' it ought to be taught and expounded. If hot done in our schools, where will it be.done? Have our friends on the other side provided the instrumentality? Are they ready with the means of doing the great work which they wish to take out of the hands of the teachers ? The parents and the Church, they say. A vast number of the parents who could do this, work do not ; and as for the poor waifs and strays, whom we get into our schools 'that they may be placed under moral influence, they have either no", homes, or homes whose atmosphere will not allow the growth of . such influences. (Hear hear.) Do they depend, again, on the ministers and the clergy ? If they expect dissenting ministers to go night by night into a school to teach, they are leaning oh a bruised reed. (Hear hear.) Ministers have far too much to do- already. With the clergy it is somewhat different. , A rector has one or two curates, and they learn a lesson which our youug dissenting ministers never learn ,; for the rector tells them "Do this," arid they do it. We can - not get that} you know. (Laughter.) In such a case as I have mentioned the clergy can be always in the school supplementing /the labors of the teacher.'' ;I again ask' those who are foremost „ the dissenting agitation, where in the world —the teachingis-to-come from ? - It is no use de? pending: upon: Sunday-school teachers or - ministers.- ' Therefore, considering the impossibility of the work-being done by these, and believing, that it can be consistently and properly 1 done by the instrumentality we have at our command, I heartily support the resolution. (Applause.) -;; '•]''']■ P__B_a>iNa fob ; Yot_sS.— The following telegram ; dated > Wellington August 26th .appears itr the <?; _5;; i-r^ws.-— -The 7wc?e^ s.thi£Wea-\ support the ;teoverhmeEit^;> Tt sayß' the that Mry ■ GurtiOlWi S ''.Titk'vfc^ : /B-t^tilttJb^ whole* tffito y?Bt "Coast members in an effort to

retain the ; existtog\G'ov6rnn_ent: in office. Even if Mr Curtis should not take s seat in tbe New Ministry, it is certain he is far to prominent a supporter of Mr Stafford, and will possess altogether too much influence with him to allow of any hope that the- unification, of the West Coast Gold Fields will be carried out by Mr Stafford's Ministry. Can ant Good Thing Come out of Nelson?-— The' West Coast papers are generally so rabid and unreasonable in their abuse of all that pertains to Nelson that it is quite refreshing to find ia the Cr. B. Argus an acknowledgement : that there is one thing of which the touchmaligned province may be proud. Our contemporary speakß thus of our educational system : — ln seeking severance from Nelson, the population of the West Coast is "seeking that for which there is, in many particulars, admitted necessity, but it must be admitted that there are institutions in the Province of Nelson which it is highly desirable to retain and to extend over the whole area of the proposed new Province. One of these is the educational system which has long been the pride of Nelson, and which, though indifferently carried out on the Coast, is infinitely preferable to the absence of all system, aud it has hitherto been the unfortunate and discreditable fact in Westland that a system of education has been conspicuous by its absence among the social institutions of the district.. It would, in fact, well become the inhabitants of Westland, even if it should never be extended beyond its present, geographical limits, to take lesson by the example of NelsoD, and make provision for the education of tbe young in. a manner more liberal and satisfactory than provision has hitherto been made. At present education may be said to be provided solely by private enterprise. The assistance given by the Government is but " a drop in the bucket ;" there is no system of school inspection existing ; and the small amount of public interest taken in the subject is far from creditable to the community. In Nelson, fortunately, a different aud a beter state of things prevails. Though exhibited less on the Coast than in the vicinity of Blind Bay, there is active interest taken in the subject by the people themselves ; liberal provision for the purposes of e ucation is made by the Provincial Council ; and by the employment of an energetic Inspector there is maintained amoDg the teachers a healthy esprit de corps and a systematic supervision of all the schools of the Province,