RELIGIOUS TEACHING

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 3, 4 July 1922, Page 6

RELIGIOUS TEACHING

IN THE SCHOOLS

BISHOP SPROTT HAS HIS DOUBTS ,

ABOUT IMPRESSING THE PEOPLE.

Religious teaching in Stt-te schools w; . discussed by Bishop Sprott in the course of his owning address a., tl._ Diocesan Synod this afternoon. ' His Lordship quoted the two resolutions on the subject, which were passed at the General Synod, and drew attention to the fact that Under the first the rigH ,of entry for ihinisters of religion disappears. The Education Department as d the school' teachers are to be consulted before any action is taken. "I suppose the hope is that if some system of teabhing could be devised "which is-acceptable to both Department and teacher's, • there would be little' difficulty in practically carrying it out," remarked D-., Sprott. "The new suggestions nhply a conscience claude for teachers, which i was not provided in the old programme. "I sympathise to the full with 't>-e reluctance of the Synod to abandon the effort to Beeure religious teaching in the State schools. It is this .reluctance, of course, which explains the seeming inconstancy in the Synod's educational policy. The Synod's policy h_s been' constant throughout, viz.,. to associate religion with the national life through the national education. Where the Synl d has varied, has been in the methods successively adopted to obtain this end, and as one after another has been .tried and failed. I confess that my experience' of the two previous campaigns, extending over fourteen years, does not lead ma to be over-sanguine regarding this new effort. , THE CAMPAIGN FAILED. ■"You will remember that in both the previous campaigns we seemed to obtain widespread support throughout tie Country. Thousands upon thousands of people were ready to sign petitions and cards, bub when the decisive moment came, viz., on General Election day, to make their signatures effective, they failed,and so the campaign proved abortive. I confess I cannot think it likely to be otherwise in the near future. I find it difficult to imagine religious'teaching in schools bulking large, or having any decisive effect, in the next ' General Election, or the next after that. We a'l know that for some years to come, perhaps many years, quite other issues will seem to our .people to be paramount. I know it is being asserted now, 't w;-, asserted' in the General Synod, (hat there is a more widespread desire fo„ religious teaching in the State - schoo. 3 than has existed in past years. If this growing desire, supposing it to be a fac , is due to a fresh conviction of the truth of Christianity and the recognition ■ f its claim to rule all departments of human life, then indeed there is grc i hope. But I cannot help wondering whether this growing desire, again supposing it to bo, a fact, is not, in part at' least, simply due to a feeling that sows sort of religious teaching might prove \a useful check to the anarchic tendencies which are so prevalent in the world (->- ---day. , If this at all be so, then I cannot count s the growing desire for religions teaching in schools of much value.CHRISTIANITY AND ANARCHY. "It.is indeed-true that the spirit of Christianity and the anarchic spirit are wide as the poles asunder. Christianity, as I und*stand itj has no belief in anarchy as a means of establishing the Kingdom of' God in the' world or any better order of human society. From the Christian point of view anarchy is evil and only evil, and Satan cannot cast out Satan. If any good has ever seemed to issue from anarchy, that has not be^n because of any innate tendency in anarchy to produce good, but because the issue has been overruled by a most merciful providence, and the good could ha'.-e been secured more easily by other means, All this is m66t'true._ But Christianity is not 'a form of magic; it is effective only where.it is sincerely believed and received, and any attempt to exploit it as a political expedient, in the spirit ol the Magistrate of the. decadent Roman Empire, to whom, as Gibbon says, all religions were equally useful—useful, that is, to keep people quiet—is pre- - doomed to failure. Tlie Almighty cannot', be elected, whether by States or Churches, to the. 'vacant office ;of Master of Police.' I am, however, sure that many people have a high and' disinterested desire for reliidous teaching.in th* National schools. The questjon is whethei .there are enough such. " jWe muslj hope there are." • , / The second of the General Synod resolutions urged the clergy to make, all possible use of existing facilities for giv ing religious instruction in the schools, and, if possible, to organise and equi- < parochial.bands of teachers to assist- them in the work. "I have been, and sti!l am, somewhat,sceptical as to the reality of-such facilities over wid.'areas of Nei. Zealand." remarked His Lordship. "Brj if/arid where, such facilities do'exist,- no doubt the clergy will give due consideration to the' recommendation' of the General Synod : though I' can quite understand that in particular instanced a clersvman might well he in doubt as *o whether better Tesults misrht; not be obtained by devotiner the time'and ene'rrv required, to making his Sunday scho.l' more efficient. THE BIBLE CLASS MOVEMENT. . "The whole situation may well be mo"« hopeful than it appears to me to be. But I confe6f I look' with more hope upon tho Bible Class movement recently initiated, provided it be the Bible that is studied, and studied not merely to. obtain a certain amount of useful information—even religious information—but so as to get into touch with the essential spirit of its writers, their profound con< sciousness of God, their ardour of righteousness, their' personal devotion to the Lord .Testis Christ. It is true that in such classes we reach directly only the few. But is not that the characteristic of all our work juet now? Save in the mission field, the day of mass-nioveiuents seems past. The influencing of a few, who in turn may influence others, seens to be our present task. Nor is it a discouraging task, if only the influence Vo livingT For Christianity is. above all things a life—a manner of livine; and always and everywhere life begets life: indeed it is only so that life is propaga,ted. as J. H. Skrine writes-— 'Even ds on our .hearths.coal kindlesfrom coal, the black from the glowing; as at a. touch of the lirht and heat which is already, the condition of the live ember, there sprincrs in the dead substance, beside it a like condition: so at the touch of living spirit comes alive a spirit. Ever since' the dsr of Prometheus man has tyiown that life is fire \ and fire life is indeed, this way.' Here lies our hope, if only we be ourselves—alive unto God."