RELIGION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 256, 5 November 1878, Page 4

RELIGION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The Spectator is not a journal usually given to fjusliin;?, and yet this is what it says of tha religious instruction imparted in the schools under the London School Bonn! : — (i Tiie day begins wilh the BiDginu of a morniug hymn, and with eiinple prayer that God would bless tho day's woik, and help the teachers to be diligent and the children to be obedient. Selections from the Bible are read in clasß, the children are made acquainted wilh eo much of its history, its poetry, and its language, and ot the life and teaching ot our Lord a9 is suited to their age and comprehension; but creeds, and all instruction on those points of' faith and practice whi3h divMe the various Christian Churches are avoided." " Teaching of this kind," continues the. Spectator, •• is fouDd to be acceptable to 99 per cent, of the scholars, the remaining 1 per cent, being made up of Jews, Catholics, and those who object to religious teaching in schools altogether. For them the law has provided the protection of a conscience clause, and it is the duty of the Board to Eea that this protection is real and effective. But the unity of the schools is virtually unbroken, theological differences are unknown, anJ yet the whole of the "work is pervaded with a serious and religious spirit, which distinguishes it in an unmistßkeable way from a purely secular eohool."