Bible-in-schools Again

New Zealand Tablet, Volume 31, Issue 44, 31 October 1907, Page 9

Bible-in-schools Again

The following Press Association message from Wellington appeared in last Monday's daily papers :— ' During the past twelve months the Citjzens' Bible-in-Schools Committee sent out about 5000 circulars and letters, and placed*" itself in communication wi«n the Education Department of every country in the world. 1 Tfie Hon. G. Fowlds will te one'of the deputation that waits on the. Fremief on Monday .to ask that the Bible bfe read" as a classic in the scTTools of the Dominion. ' We rather think - that the people of this Dominion would be vastly more interested in a statement as to the number of children^ lif .any) in the State schools that the members of the Citizens' Committee instructed during the past twelve months in the teachings of .the Sacred Volume. The same remark applies to the. deputation that, with sundry discordant vitews,, (entreated! the Prime Minister to have a sectarian version of the Holy Bible taught 'as a classic ' in the public schools of New Zealand. An interesting report of the proceedings! will be found in another column. • Our views on this 1 curious proposal hajve been placed Before our readers eleventy-'leven times. We are glad to find them supported by an eminent American-educationist, who'writes as follows :—: — 1 Such a study ' (,of the Bible merely ' as a classic ' in the schools) l is, of course, practically useless from) {fie religious ' point of view ; moreover. . . .' it is wrong in principle and mischievous in its consequences. _It is a deplorable degradation of the Sacred v olume to put if, on ja par with profane writings, be the^eyen of the highest type, as the dramas of ShakespeareToT the poems of Tennyson."" This scheme would tend to destroy entirely the reverence due._to the Bible. Besides, no literary study is" possible without explanation of the contents of the work studied ; but it is absurd to attempt an explanation of the contents of- the Bible without trespassing on religious ground. Rightly has the " Bibiical World " observed ~ that culture is not the chief end of man, nor the primary function of the Bible. The biblical books are indeed masterpieces of literature, but they have a much more important service to render to the world. The Bible is first of all for religious and moral instruction, a guide-biook to religion and morality '. • 1 Religion ', says Matthew Arnold, 'is the simplest thing in the world as far as the understanding is con- ; as regards doing, it is "the hardest thing in the world '. . To the half-hearted and thfe un- - willing the doing may, indeed, be ' the hardest thing in the world '. It is ever, for instance, harder to drag one's" cross than to carry it; But for.those who have loved much, the yoke is sweet and the \ 'burden light— i even whenit is a "question of .the religious education of the young. They are cloubtless well-meaning folk, according to their lights, who are intent upon forcing a Protestant version 61 the as • a text-book' into our public schools. • But they will never,' we ween, seriously influence public sentiment until as a body they realise, much Better than they have yet done, the connection that exists between'faith and works, r'between sentiment, arid action. (__ ' Say-well and do-well end with one letter ; Say-well' is good, do-well is better. Serious and . sustained self-sacrifice, one school regularly visited, one group of children ~instructed in the Word -of Life, wouß be worth more as a test of sin-, cerity than barren .transports of spiritual exaltation, or " the issue of a barnful of circulars, or the holding of a deputation the tail of which would straggle out to the gates of the setting sun, or all the empty oratory of

the past thirty years, that (to use a Carlyleian expression) has passed like jl snowflake on the river or the foam of penny beer.. —- * We entertain a high respect for those few earnest men and women who, in sundry parts of the Dominion, take advantage of the facilities' afforded by the present Education Act for imparting biblical knowledge to> the children of their various faiths in the public schools. Wfiy do fnV-Talking Leagues, Committees, etc.; so commonly fail to seize tfrese opportunities for putting their schemes into effect, so far as they legally and properly iray ? John Wesley exercised a deep and wholesome influence upon the children, as well as upon the adults, - of his day. But where John Wesley built a meetinghouse, he also 'built a school. He had enough hard sense to know that his revival of religion in England , would produce no lasting .impression unless its perma- ■ nency was secured by educating the young generation ■, day by-day in his View of the Gospel ; and he and '-the :; people called Methodists ' in his time had enough of .' earnestness and of the spirit of self-sacrifice to put their faith' lo the test of works. O guam mutatus ab ■' illo ! How different is the spirit that animates the - bulk of our BTsle-in-schools advocates nowadays ! Like the captive squirrel in his cage, they.,gei into a whirl now and then, but always end where they began. The end, like the beginning, of their', movements is. words, words, words. In Aesop's fable,- ilie hunted fox t was permitted to take shelter in the "woodman's hut. Pre- i sently, up thunSered the huntsman" with his -hounds. To his inquiry, the w;oodman replied that he had not " seen J the animal. But, as he ( spoke, he kept pointing to the :< hut where the fox lay hid.. The' huntsman took the woodman's words at par value, paid no heed to the j pointing hand, and went his war. When hunter and hounds were out of sight, the fox scurried away with- -' out a word of thanks. To the indignant remonstrance of the woodman, he replied : '..Indeed, I should have thanked you fervently, if your deeds had been as good as your words, ana if your hands had not been traitors to your speech \ 1 The Bearings of this observation lays in the application on it '. . • . \;