RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CI, Issue 11887, 10 May 1899, Page 5

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

Ir4s strangle that the local representatives jßif a ChnrcS winch has probably done more -jfenfc of if? contemporaries to maintain the principle of religious liberty should be among the most persistent advocates of Bibte-teacfaing in the State schools. At the meeting of the Christchurch Presbytery yesterday it was solemnly resolved that a comjßrttieft should be appointed to renew the attack upon the secular character .of. the present system of education. It is true, that the gentlemen who decided tapon this step did not appear to bo very .clear as to what they really wanted. One of them had no hripfe, he said,-of getting the Bible into the schools ; but he thought that the Churches might compile a book of extracts for themselves wMdb toroid be acceptable to a majority of the parents and beneficial! 'fin all-4,he children, ‘Another looked upon ’.the religious instruction of the young as -ft matte# of <f fraiitotridbrit and ft third considered that the Bible should find a place in every public school if only for its great None of them, so far as we can gather .freon the report of their Bamarks, made any attempt to meet the arguments that have been - advanced against frWr proposal, They seem to have taken it for granted that they represented all the Christian thought of the day, and that the only objection would come from ungddly pcopfe'whose prejudices were not worth considering! There was only one of their number who frankly admitted that it would be to, teach religion in the public schools without dqing a. great injustice to a large section of the community, “ The .Churches,” the Rev J. Maxwell very sensibly observed, “will have to take up the task themselves.” This is the only conclusion that any unbiassed- man who has studied the subject can accept. The members of the {Roman Catholic Church would indeed have a grievance against the national system of education if it allowed any part of its funds to be-eixpended upon religious teaching. The secular character of the system cannot be ■ impaired in the slightest degree without enormously strengthening the claiin for 'jgrahts -to denominational schools; in fact, it would be impossible to deny subsidies of jsome kind' to these institutions if religious toachmg were admitted to the State schools. It is'ftbSdrd to talk, as the Rev Gt B. Inglis ffid yesterday, of making the teaching acceptable to'all therCEurohes ; but even if this ; were practicable, it would still be necessary Id consider the scruples of those people who belong: to no Church at all. The country Is taxed for the purpose of bringing a sound 'gamfcor education within the reach of every ofriift in the community, and it is of the first Importance to the Churches, an well as to the general public, that the system should be preserved from the taint of sectarianism,.