THE EDUCATION BILL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5129, 31 August 1877, Page 3

THE EDUCATION BILL.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sin, —Will you kindly allow me space for a few remarks on a letter in your last issue, signed “ Wairarapa,” dealing’with the Education Bill now before Parliament, which it is not my intention to discuss, further than to remark that with some modifications I believe it will be found to answer the end in view; whilst personally I, should prefer seeing the clause relating to the reading of the Bible in public schools expunged, believing that the religious instruction of the young would be better left in the hands of the different religious bodies, and thus in some degree remove what promises to be a root of bitterness if retained in the Act in its present form. It is to one portion in particular/d “ Wairarapa’s” letter that I wish to draw attention, it being a direct attack on the truth and inspiration of the Word of God which, as a Christian and a lover of the Bible, I think should not be passed by in silence. I will take the liberty of quoting the passage to which I allude : —“lt is necessary to remind the Hon, Mr. Bowen that to a large part of the educated world what he is pleased to call Holy Scriptures is so much ancient Hebrew literature, with no more authority attaching to it than would attach to so many Latin or Sanscrit authors bound together heterogenously, and that such persons very much object to see these books, full'of idle legends as they are, held up to the children of the land as a sacred book, manufactured in some supernatural manner, and to be listened to as of Divine authority. I say it is necessary to remind the Hon. Mr. Bowen and others that besides the Latin and Anglican Churches, besides the Presbyterian and Wesleyan communities, there exists a great scientific church—the church of scientific students—not less intelligent and not less influential than these others, and that these will object to encourage what they believe to be superstition in the way the Hon. Mr. Bowen’s Bill proposes.” X do not belong to any of the religious bodies named by “ Wairarapa,” nor, I am thankful to say, am I a member of the “ great scientific church,” of which X have no doubt he is a shining.Hght; but I do feel grieved that the Holy Bible, to which as Britons we owe so much of our national privileges and position, and for which our forefathers bled and died, our real. “ Magna Charta,” should be rudely assailed by men who, if they carried out their scientific researches in a proper spirit, would discover in them a confirmation of the truths of revelation, and of the existence, power, and wisdom of that' Divine Being in whom we live and move and have our being, and by whose inspiration all Scripture was given, who

by the mouth of His own Son admonishes us to “Search the Scriptures, ’’ because in them are to be found, and in them alone, the words of eternal life. Sir, I have no more fear that the Bible will suffer from the attacks of such writers than I have that its Divine author can be hurled from His throne by their impious hands ; but I do fear lest any unstable souls should be fatally allured into the chilling regions of doubt and infidelity, by the writings of such members of the “ great scientific church” as “ Wairarapa and to one and all of my fellow colonists I would affectionately say, “ Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good.” Apologising for trespassing thus far on your space.—l am, &c., Masterton.