BIBLE-IN-SCHOOLS SUNDAY

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15483, 15 December 1913, Page 5

BIBLE-IN-SCHOOLS SUNDAY

SERMONS IN THE CHURCHES. CHARACTER-BUILDING BOOK. ITS EDUCATIVE VALUE. There was a -.widespread observance yesterday -of Bible in-State-Schools Sunday by the. several denominations participating in the movement, and by the Salva: tion Army.'' Owing to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian' Church meeting at present in Christchurch, many of the ministers, of that ■denomination were absent-from their pulpits, but they- will, preach on behalf of the league on their return. . In all,'sermons on the subject were preached in some .200 churches in the province, about 70 of .which were "'in the city and suburbs. ;■ '..'.■. '.'/•■■'■ '■ . The .Rev. A., Richards,, who has had many years' practical experience- of .the' working of. the New South Wales system of religious education in the State schools, occupied the pulpit at- St. Sepulchre's Church' in' the evening. '..'ln the course of his remarks' he said that the Church-. once had the ■- monopoly, of education;'-it was her's no more. The State had en- ( tered into the field, and claimed the children as her own; Rut '.' what right," it had been asked, " has the State to take money from my pocket to educate I my neighbour's child?" .The answer was thai ignorance. was a bad thing for-the I State and dangerous to democratic insti--1 tutions. But there were worse things than ignorance. The State had more to fear from non-religion and non-morality than from non-education. This Dominion had adopted an "entirely secular" system of education,, which was becoming more and more discredited in ail progressive communities. . The religious condition of the children, and their leakage from Christian influence was such as to cause great searchings of heart, continued the preacher. The sole responsibility for this should not be laid upon the State schools. The State ought not to teach theology or ecelesiasticism. ' But it was easy to"differentiate between theology and the facts of religion. • Effective moral teaching could only bo possible by an appeal to religious motives and authority. Power and Beauty of Scriptures. In the course of his sermon on the common subject, at St. James's Presbyterian Church in the evening, the Rev. R. L. Walker spoke of the universal belief in the inspiration of the Scriptures, and went on to speak of their beauty when judged merely from the point of view of literature. For this reason alone, although it was regarded as the lowest ground, the Bible should be included in the school curriculum. The Bible was a character-building book. Of late, the rulers of the three greatest nations in the world—King George, the President of the United States, America, and the German Kaiser—had borne their sincere and ungrudging testimony to the formative power of the Bible in their lives. To refuse knowledge to the child, to deprive him of this heavenly horizon, and thus to cut his budding wings, was not to educate him, but, rather, to lower or debase him, the preacher declared. The Bible was profitable for teaching, for warning, and for guidance.

Apathy of Church People. | Preaching at the Mount Eden Methodist Church in the forenoon, the Rev. W. A. Hay said the Word of God was the basis of all true and permanent morality and progress. The result of the opening of the Bible to the people was an expansion of mind and enlargement of outlook, a new consciousness of personal worth, which led to the moral and literary culture of the English people. There were many movements and tendencies to-day which contributed eloquent evidence "that as people broke away from the great principles contained in the Bible they moved upon troubled waters without chart or compass, There was a non-ethical movement abroad, subtle and sapping, which was making sober men afraid, and the refusal to open the Book of Wisdom to the growing mind, as the ground of ethics, was a sign of decadence which ought to awaken every professing Christian to activity on this matter. It was difficult to understand the apathy of Church people on this question, in view of present conditions. The State and the Child. At the Tabernacle Baptist Church in the evening, the Rev. Knowles Kempton stated that the State realised, as never before, the value of the child, and it was becoming more and more impressed with the value of the Bible. It was asking with an earnestness unparalleled in NewZealand's history, " How shall we order the child ?" To the question three answers were given. The first was, " Have nothing to do with the Bible and religions instruction." This was the answer of the agnostic, and the out and out secularist, "who contended that it was not the function of the State to teach religion. The secularist was confronted by the anomally that the prison walls rang with the Name that in the school might not be mentioned, and the agnostic did not want the Bible anywhere. The advocates of the Nelson system in effect answered, Permit, but "do not provide, religious instruction." The Nelson system had much to commend it; there was no segregation of the children and denominational differences were not in evidence; but the moment it was adopted by the State it would become the national system, and as such it would be inadequate, for the Roman Catholic had no place in it. The third answer was that returned by the Bible in State Schools League, "Provide religious instruction, with tho conscience rights of parents, children, and teachers, safeguarded." Another Advocate's Views. At the East Street Mission Hall in the morning the Rev. George Bond, chairman of the Methodist Church in the Auckland district, gave reasons why it was sought to have Bible teaching in the State schools. Firstly, he said, it was because the Bible holds an important and unique place in our national life. We were a Christian nation, and the Christian religion was acknowledged at the coronation of our kings, tho installation of our governors, the appointment of our judges, and the empanelling of our juries. Tho Bible was found in our Houses of Parliament, courts of law, on our warships, and in our prisons; indeed, the only place from which it was excluded by Act of Parliament was the place where of all places it ought to bo found, namely, the public school. If the young were to grow up with a due sense of the dignity, privileges, and responsibility of citizenship in a Christian State, said' tho speaker, the scriptures must be restored to their rightful place in the schools. The most virile, thrifty, and prosperous peoples had been and were those who had accepted the scriptures with their pure molality, holy sanctions, and noble ideals as the ru'lo of life and conduct.