THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1877.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2524, 7 February 1877, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1877.

The Synod of the Church of England now assembled'at Nelson have determined that religious instruction ought to be given- in . our : public schools. ; v 0n this point all were unanimous; the Question to decidewas, how much religious instruct tion—that is, we presume, how much time; . for religious instruction—wasr to'be; asked for; and,onj:his point there .were naturally enough differences of opinion. What, to one parent mighty seem a very scanty f allowance, of , timevto -be-rbestow.ed.pn a study of the Bible, might.to another seem too much) and he might argiies that he sent his, children.;to a> day-.school to fit them for-the. duties, of after life,' content that they should receive such religious instruction as himself could "be-= stow, aided.by a weekly visit to a Sunday gclioolp fiThis as^oneof' the difficulties; which the. advocates' o| religious instrjic-j .tion woulcl Havd 'to encotfn|er| %iz., the great x impr I qbability; there, would? bejof all; the parents being satisfied with the tiibel so spent. Anbtherdiffidulty.would arisej from this, that in'mixed schools jrochl a«j:x-3aip9'oouf>'i ;pflhJicLß schools;: i itwould certainly -be^ .the case that the parentii' '■ of those ' children who; were of .frjam, the| -maßCerwould bbject'Whare itn'eir'xihfldreSi taughtiTjyl one? holding views other than *their bwte;:: : -iT-ro6; rit v '!nig'h!t>-bdl!'Ba,i& Ith'at' the m Tasf;er snould"Be prdlredtb teach the! Bible f in - tne- same ',*? ay as He would t e,#eh! &e,,h{story : Jbf f England or any wprk^hijij similar/kin^4 confine;: himself .strictly toj fact?; arid refrain from "commenting or in-? terpifeting any "passage in any way whatever. But;.this, though apparently satis- • factory^in||hedry-^satisfactojgr:,that is to; those who approve the plan—has been; $pu.iid /fio, jWprk; very^adjyiin.ypractice. .Sc«neJjQ#| or : others iespecially if asked a; •question by an intelligent child,-the 'pas;! sage'is iriterpreted^BCc&rdihg to Wei views] ,of...the. mastery/ 'and "the interpret'atiott \ ijsp£ai£e,o li, .if not by the; chUtl, gitsejfy! .by some "other child in the class, and f if', ifebej notiin efccbrd witfi'the;view's held<by sbmej of whbihear, ;it/ dbw]a come | letters "of :;ci)niplaint^ "j^inpni|i^anc6si,! threat s!.bf.re^ inittee,j&c.,'sometimes■ f venappeals to:tfcei committeej and-the unfortunate; master is\ harassed and badgered simply because he transgressed tn6:'strict lettir' of {th'if-law,- : itid; imagined r he was but doing Tiis duty in trying to 1 explain a passage f t 6, a cfiild '. who he could «cc was trying hard to learn, jj The x>nly way we see out of the difficulty, I assumin^as; -.jfip tfiink are. right in i doing, that the.majority of parents would gkdly see the Bible ma^e,- an element, of j insti*uo"ti()h; in? bur Schools; is'f6r i3tlie: clergy to become the teachers them-; selves^ and this ttie Education 5: Act! permits under certain conditions. It: would not be much to ask of-4hein 3 to/devote an hour twice, or ..thrice.,a week, or' even more if thej could, to the religious training of the youth of .their congregations, and*the children mightifor that hour be divided intor: classes according 'to the rarioris denominations "to' which^their parents belonged. All the Episcopalians. forming one,class ; all the ; Presbyterians another; all the Boman Catholics a third, and so on. Of course this hour of which we speak, would have to be the first hour after the opening of the school, or the last hour at the conclusion of the day's work, and for these reasons. In the first place, the parents of these children, if any, who did not wish their children to receive religious instruction need not send them until the expiration of tbe first hour of school work in the morning, should that be the hour fixed on for religious instructions, or might require them to leave before the last hour, if that was the hour appointed for such. This is a plan which has been adopted in nearly all Board schools in England, and' been found to work with success. Or, if the parents did not care to let their children lose an hour, and still objected to religious instruction, they might still be sent to school and. employed either in learning their lessons more perfectly, or in writing or arithmetic, or any study which would not occasion much speaking and interfere with the lessons given by the clergymen present. This,,we think, would solve the difficulty, and, in fact, is the only solution of it which we can at present see. That religious instruction is demanded, and imperatively demanded, on week days as well as Sundays, is the opinion of a very large'majority of people. The question is, how to administer it without offending the scruples of some and the prejudices of others, and thereby causing dissensions and divisions;* and the answer we have endeavored to give seems a plain and practicable one. . . !