CORRESPONDENCE.

Evening Star, Issue 7337, 8 October 1887, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

[Wc do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions expressed by our correspondents ] THE BIBLE IN SCHOOLS. TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—People are beginning to wa*>e up to the fact that their children have been deliberately and wilfully defrauded of the best half of their education—the education of ,their moral nature. Said a Freethinker to me: "I don't caro for the Bible myself; but I don't want my childiea to be brought up without it. I think it is a great factor in their moral education." A second said: "You who call yourselves Christians are incoD&istent, if not false to your principles. If the bible is true, that truth should be taught in the schools." A third said: "The Bible is the inheritance of our children. A great wrong has been done them in the shutting it out of our schools, if only for its moral effect upon them." When Freethinkers speak thus it is time for Christians to wake up. There is now a petition t for the reinstatement of the Bible in schools; and if those who profess to love their Bible love it well enough they will have no difficulty in getting signatures. People are ready and eager to sign. One lady got four forms, and could have got four more filled if she could have got the forms. I myself might have got a dozen filled; but where are the forms to be got? They ought to be in Borne well - known public place, such as the Bible Dep6t. But they have only the one for signing there. All that were at the Young Women's Rooms have been caught up; but at the "Christian Young Men's" room, they appeared not tj have heard of it. By-the-byp, are the " Christian Young Men " going to take any active part in this movement, or are they going to leave the women of their households to trudge about in the wet and cold while they roll in their rocking-chairs, smoke figars, and read yellow-baoks? Bueh "Christian Young Men" would do well to remember that if there is one thing that God hates, it is Laodiceanism—the religion that trims its sails to suit the world's wind 5 that floats with the world's tide—carpet-shoes and rocking-chair religion. Let them, too, wake up and take their place in Christian work. "Christian Young Men" are not meant to be mollycoddles or shirkers. They are called to be heroes for the faith. And the Y.M.O.A. ought to be the headquarters of all religious movements. The crown is " to him tLat overcometh," not to him who is overcome, or to him who doesn't fight.— I am, eto., Peter Greephe. Dunedin, October 8.