RELIGIOUS EXERCISES IN SCHOOLS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20222, 7 October 1927, Page 6

RELIGIOUS EXERCISES IN SCHOOLS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —In your issue of September 28 Sir Robert Stout says that I charged him with quoting the Revisers’ Preface "fully so far as it, he thinks, serves his purpose.” He returns to this in your issue of October 5. He wants me to show him that this is so. Let him turn, then, to that Preface (New Testament), p. x, section 2. Surely his ne; charge against me about some imaginary blunder of mine has got muddled up in the transit, for it is all sheer nonsense, as I have made no such statement as he alleges. I must keep Sir Robert to his two errors which 1 have proved to be cuch over and over again from undoubted authorities viz.: (1) On August 8 his wrong statement that “ ‘ Deliver us from the evil one [that] is the only possible translation ol three Greek words”; (2) his statement on July 25 that “ to teach morality in the schools then the Bible is not a proper class book for that purpose . . . it is entire'v unsuitable for the moral training of youth.” This opinion of the right honourable gentleman I have shown by numerous authorities and by the practice of three Lord Chancellors to be quite wrong. I am not concerned with modernism now nor witli his modernist friends whom lie quotes. I might remind him of the recent dictum of a greater (intellectually) modernist than those he refers to, that “ self puts forth an exaggerated conviction of pre-eminence and self-assertion which not infrequently may show itseli in harsh ideals or in destructive action. This well expresses the position of those out to-day to attempt to. destroy the Bible. Will Sir Robert carefully weigh the evidence of the ex-chief inspector of schools (Mr T. R. Fleming) that "the present system of secular education had shut God out from the children, and when the children left school they had little left on which to base their future life ”? There still remain, in spite of all attacks on the Bible, the words of one of the greatest brains of the last century as follows: —“ Good and holy men. and the best and wisest of mankind, the kingly spirits of history enthroned in the hearts of mighty nations, have borne witness to the influence of the Bible, have declared it to be beyond compare the most perfect instrument, the only adequate organ of humanity—the organ and the instrument of all the gifts, powers, and tendencies, by which the indivichr is privileged to rise above liimself, and to leave behind, and lose his individual phantom, in order to find his true self in the ever-living Word, the Eternal 1 Am, of whom all the elect from the Archangel before the Throne down to the poor man in the cottage are all faint and still fainter echoes.” —I am, etc., The Archdeacon of Invercargill. October 6. .Sin, —There is no need to apologise for referring to the silence of Rationalist writers concerning archceological discoveries as suggested by a correspondent in Gisborne. It will require more than mere Babylonian tablets to upset the authority of tho Scriptures The Encyclopedia Bri tsnnica is certainly of great importance, and contains no doubt a world of information, but there is no “ Thus saith the Lord ” about it. It is not inspired. Christ placed His imprimatur upon the Old Testament Scriptures, and sceptical searching among the ruins of Babylon will find nothing at variance with the Old Book. While the enemies of the Bible repeatedly affirm that there are other books equal in value to tho Bible, or imparting moral teaching, they will not commit themselves when asked to name these books. The wonderful discoveries that are being made in Palestine and other places affirm rather than destroy the truth of Holy Writ; and while in these “ last days ” the Word is being so bitterly attacked evidence, upon evidence, is being piled up confirming the truth of all that was written by tho Prophets. In tho Great Pyramid wo have Gods’ witness in stone mentioned in the Old Testament, whose marvels are coming more and more to light, and confirming the truth and authority of the Bible. Why anyone should feel so bitter towards God’s Word is a mystery for it wishes and promises nothing but good to us if we obey its teachings. Education without a believing knowledge of the Bible will in the end leave a man stranded.—l am, etc., Supporter of Bible in Schools. October 5.