SECT VERSUS SCRIPTURE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 142, 16 June 1906, Page 9

SECT VERSUS SCRIPTURE.

The Westminster Gazette draws attention to the astounding fact that the fiercest opposition to Scriptlure-teaching in schools comes not from Secularist sources but from the' less" tolerant section of Churchmen. .It says : — Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the Church of England protests has been tho atteek made 'on "Cowper-Temple teach'r ing," as it \i& convenient to describe the religious instruction given under thb Cowper-Temple clause of the Act of 1870. 'i'iiis~is, broadly speaking, Bible teaching. It may not be teaching of a "catechism or religious formulary' which is "distinctive of any particular denomination" ; it is the teaching whicli has since the Act of 1870 been given in lihe board schools, and since the Act of 1902 in the council schools. It is now held up to public "ridicule, hatied-, and contempt" as being nothing more than a new State religion, for the teaching of Aonconfarmitfy and 'the destruction 'of Churchmanship. One Unionist journal speaks of , "the establishment and endowment of Nonconformity in the schools" ; another assures us thaO "all citizens are to- be tared and rated for the purposes of dissent" ; a third goes so far as to say that if Cowper-lemple teaching "does nob secure that the child when come .to years of .discretion shall be a full member of any one of the Frejß Churches, at . least it does all thai is humanly possible to prevent, hia becoming a- msmbar of the Anglican Church." A rectoT speaks of 'it as "undermining" what, is taught ia Church Sunday-schools ; a vicar tells us that this Bible teaching is ''a Nonconformist and undenominai tional caricature -of the Christian faith," and "as a form of religion infinitely wonse [ than Secularism." 'The Bishop of 'Birmingham insists tlhat nothing is worth, any thing 'save what is dogmatic and denominational : "A religion which is worth, having for the mass of men 1 must be a religion, such as Scotch Preebyterianism, or Roman Catholicism, or .the Churchmanship of tTae Catechism, or „ Wesleyanism — a religion of membership, with, definite beliefs and definite moral duliea and definite ">-eligicus obligations. 'It" is the exact opposite of this that we ar« now establishing, in our schools, not as a more expedient for filling up the gaps where nothing better can be provided, but as the kind of religious teaching to which we give the preference, which, as I saj, we make the established religion of our schools." The short answer to this is that . the State does not profess to give the child "a religion"' (in this sensfi) by giving simple Bible teaching, any more .than ib does to provide it .with a party because it teaches tlie duties of citizenship. The State assumes (rightly we think) tihat it ..may properly allow the Bible to bo taught to childien of all denominations. We cannot believe that the bulk of Churchmen really sympathise wiifli this I violent indictment of Cowper-Templs j teaching. Sit William Anson, at any rate, has expressed his 'satisfaction thai it is to be retained, and we remember thab the late Bishop of Dnrham, Dr. TVe.*tcoit, in discussing the Bill of 1896, said : — "When iolid and reverent instruction was given in .the Holy Scriptures, such, as ho firmly believed was given in theboard schools of ajl their large towns, lie did not think ib would be interfered with. Such instruction, indeed, was not all that they required, but what wag wanting could be supplied elsewhere, and, speaking from direct knowledge of the subject, he believed that greater completeness would be very dearly purchased by interference • with the regular course of Tho school. So in Church 6chools, if the instruction given wae Spiritual aLd noncontroversial, as he believed it was in neaily all cases, it would continue in the futtore to be just as welcome as 'it had been in the past." ■It is really an amazing thing tlsat Churchmen should be driven to dis,:aiage the effect- of Bible teaching, and" their zeal to insist on the Prayer-book may not inconceivably lead to the - Bible . being (driven out of the schools — against as wa axe convinced, the wishes and ' better judgment of the parents and of the nation as a whole.