The New Bible-in-Schools

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 15, 11 April 1907, Page 9

The New Bible-in-Schools

The' clerical leaders of the" old and now- happily defunct- Bible4n-schools movement were firm believers In perscnol effort and sacrifice for God's little men and. maids at school. ' But they as firmly believed that * the other fellow ' (the State teacher, to wit) ■'should put forth all the effort and make all the sacrifice, while ' they snuggle " into their eiderdown cushions and go nid-nM-nodding like the dormouse yinv in 4 Alice '—for the glory of the Lord. But there is, thank God, a body of earnest non-CatholUc clergy who do not believe in abdicating so elementary & -thity of the Christian ministry. We learn irom the .'"Outlook ' of" April 6 that they are bent on utilising ' whatever facilities) are offered- for giving Bible lessons out of school hours.' ' The Ministers' Association at lnvercar^LU, 1 says our esteemed contemporary, ' have taken this matter up, and are organising so a-s to reach every public school within' their district, all the ministers, including the Anglicans, having signified their willingness to give assistance. !So soon as the necessary -detail arrangements have been made and the ' co-operation of head-masters and School Committees secured, there is every reason to hope that regular Bible lessons will be $.yen in each of the public schools ati Invercargjll. And ajlt'hiouigh one half-hour a week is an infinitesimal amount of time to devote to inculcating the lessons to be learned from the pages of the Book of Books, yet even this is something to be thankful for.' Thus far the ' Outlook.' We may remark incidentally that the Catholic clergy of Invercargill, as well as of the rest of New Zealand, have^ long been . setting an example which deserved' earlier and better imitation by the spiritual guides of other faiths. One half hour of religion in the 120 hours of the school-week is indeed 'an infinitesimal ' dose of spirituality to a vast bulk of secularity — a small half-penny worth of bread to an intolerable deal of sack. There is (according to an official return pre-, sen ted to the Legislative Assembly on November 2, 1903) one non-Catholic clergyman to every two State schools in New Zealand. From the same official return ,it that only about one in eight of them 1 took the trouble to impart religious instruction to the little members cf their flocks in the public schools. The new Bible-in-schools movement will, "perhaps, remove that reproach. At any rate, it is a good be- ' ginning, and may possibly lead to 'better - things than 1 those engaged in it at present foresee. It took the . non-^Oatholic clergy a long time to find a hole -in the 'Education Act. When foumd, lhay spent an" unconscionable t»ime in tinkering at it in the wrong way. They may yet -find the true remedy for the defect through which Christian belief is last leaking out of their various folds. '-