A FREE BIBLE.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVIII, Issue 4743, 6 November 1872, Page 3

A FREE BIBLE.

To the Editor : Sir, — I feel obliged by your notice of my letter to the Bib3e Committee, but I would beg to offer a few remarks in explanation. I ■ urged the teaching of the Bible in our public aohools, not on the ground ( of expediency, but aa a moral duty, that cannot be neglected or evaded without certain damage and ultimate ruin to the p common wealth. If we, aa a people, ignominiously strike the flag of truth, we may ask as he of old, "To whom shall we go ?" What will he the result ? Instead of truth, we shall have error ; instead of light, dark.ness ; instead of liberty, corruption of , manners and spiritual tyranny; instead of the economic, gentle voice of mercy and reason, we shall have the fierce coercion of ( forca and violence, with its heavy demands on the public taxes, and all the concomitant evils arising from these spring heads. France furnishes a notable example to the point. , • Having destroyed, massacred, and banished all her best people, they tried the (alternative for nearly a century : the> dire results we have seen. The lesson has not been lost upon, the present French Government, for in the forefront of the new Eduoation Bill , they provide for a ' ' moral and religious'' education. Again, I plead for<the Bible not being merely read but taught in the schools, and that diligently ; for in proportion as proper 'diligence is used, combined with sound wisdom and prudence, we may confidently expect that our youth will become good (Citizens : thus the State will be consolidated and liberty ensured. Further, this will give - the- death-blow to - sectarianism and -which are increasingly ram,pant among us. If this principle is not 'acted upon, those i will again gat the upper hand and enslave and corrupt the people. — I ana, &c,,, S. Kempthorne. i