BIBLE IN SCHOOLS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13430, 11 July 1914, Page 8

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS

(To the Editor 6f the Herald,) , i&iv,— h great detil is being written, m your columns about a "mutilated Bible," by which •is meant /the proposed Text Booic of extracts ; fi om the Bible, lyivrely a' moment's tKtji^ht 1 will convince*anyone that Hhid ii?, under the ciicumstarieesv a- mere catch -phrase.-. It '-.vs. obvious that the whole of' the IMblk'can■not be, vtkid' m the' Schools, ' and. which is tlie Wiser <>t. more convenient "method, to leave the i+elcction at tlip sweet will of the teacher or, an is -proposed j,tj> ,have a selection prepared of the Choicest, passages xipon tli<J coiLstiuction ■ofwliicJi-aU branches, of tho Church are Hgrefotli and whioh, cannot by any .stretch ,of ftho ima-ginatjoin. be. termed sectarian/, iS'ir, I liare the deepest Reverence, for the Book a'» a Whole and , jn every part, but to refer to the proposed Te.^t Book/as "the miitlliiteH y Whfo" is simply absurd, and will' be -xWogliiHecl as such W the vast majority o£^ ypUr readers," even of .those to whoj/L the Bible is the..doaitejat tiring m life.. : v 7" - :!..■:■/■■■■*•> ■ • . .v: .' '■;■: Mi- WAipwrightiAys thnt "'wo Baptists obje^i. a)iA' ahyayV havo , objected, to the 'nsei'of .-f».ubjic tJloney for teaching; religion." ;1-6 . that .tbo answer is ' that we ■do not ask for' public money to teach religion, a» tyidei? the jjropdsed system avich 'teafch'iii^ ' 13 given voluntarily, by recognist'd vt'ligio'tis teachers, ...^wliile.-; the Scripture lessons from, the Text Book iu'o veatl thoi ; children ;>-ithovi^a?ty; comment- 'of a: «€ftlariaii iiatnre, and.VjO; child is ■ 'tiompeilticl'';' to, iittciidi- The' Que^iialand' Baptist Associfiwoii,. 1 at its aiiniial .assembly iiearly three years a;jo, passed the following resolution : ''That, this AMemUly desires to' express it» fl-P-: preoiatioiV of the >Scrh>ti»rf rea<lings pnplished by the Department of. Public Instruction, for tlift ii^e of Schools/ |nd urge* the ministers of the denbmina-;| lionVa^ far as poKsiblo to take advantage of the oppbrlunitios offered fco theni for the religious instruction of tho younir by regularly visiting . the.schooh m theiii respective '<lißtrictß." This', shows that, at any rate, m lands where ,tih~t» system is ; best known, Baptists : are., m . favor of it:~-T am, etc., -■■■■■■■ : ■'■■ '<: i \''-' : '^