BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11188, 10 August 1898, Page 7

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

•. , .... , ~r ,j TO. THE EDITOR. ~.. ;.■■■],..■: •-:, Sißj^i'.am quite at one .with your .corre--: spondentti' * Pippa " mi bis • opinion, that ; moral; ■ and-reli^du.s riihstruction sboulj3"T)e ■giveri'^b; the'scholars 'in our publio schools, aria in his' making ho. objection to the .use: of the Irish' ' Scripture Le&bn 'Book. 'His. opinio'iij how,-• 'eveV^tiiat Mi}s in.aedc-Mance,Wth\'ditf, jpttfe1' "sent educational :sykem''';is' gebuftar, .Seeing 'that^tlie act'by which It was established W !clares "the teaching shall be-entirely, of », ■■secular/character? Does "secular' teaibv 'ing eii(ibrp,ce moral and religious instructiOJ?.-' In the New South Wales." Education '4°t^ 1.1880," it is declared (clause 7), *' In all schools, under this act the leaching shall be strictly non-sectarian, but the words ' secular instruci. tion'- shall.be held' to include general reli-:.i I gious teaching as distinguished from ddgmafe- j cal or polemical-^heology,. ' But there is no such interpretation clause .in theNe^r Zealand act. To.hold, therefore, in the absenps. | of any; such clause, tlwt teaching entirely of 'a secular character "includes moral and re r I ligioiis instruction" may be satisfactory to- " Pippa,!'. but is.utterly at variance-with the General opinion -which has prevailed Wong f'men no lees competent ,ao-judge th*n_ "Pippa " ever since the act came into force. ,' Of covirse, he may say they are all wrong, but I youv readers can judge. There are •uniortu- ;•. -nates, who think all the. world mad but theni; i selvep. . ■ . j.:. "•■ .. , . ■:■ •■ 1 I observe a new prophet has arisen signing, ! himself "Veritas Vinoit," whose prod is, U.r Clifford. Dr Clifford's opinion of the HcriDj. ture Lesson Book, according to JVe"IBB,---must be implicitly accepted by every one who. is "susceptible to reason." He forgets there, are other people in the world quite as capable as Dr Clifford of forminp: a.correct judgment of the merits of the Scripture Lesson Book, who have formed a very different opinion.; It; he looks at the list of the OoMmissioners of National. Education in Ireland, who . earn: estlv and unanimously recpmmended these lessons to bensed in all.schpols repeiying aid from: them,',' L .he may find the, names of. men-, who,.were no,less, competent,and .trustworthy;, than Dr Clifford; .The approval.oUhoj.epresjentatiwt assembles of the Anglican, PresbyMethodist Churches may weigh,, little with "yeritas," but many others Avho, are " susoeptible to reason ' will regard it as of greater weight than the mere dictum of Vr Clifford.—l-am, etc., ■ ■ r A ..' ! Ja.keß Copland. ,