Religion in National Life.

Southland Times, Issue 9574, 20 July 1887, Page 3

Religion in National Life.

As the question of Bible reading in Stale schools is being publicly dtecussed, the following remarks of Canon Liddon are worthy of consideration, as bearing upon the subject : — " Certain it is tbat national life, whether at home or in a rising colony, can only be strong and bealthy while it steadily recognises the Invisible God ; that every society, like every individual, should learn the meaning of these pregnant words, ' I have eet God always before me ; for He is on my nght band, therefore I shall not fall ;' that in the youngest cobny, no less tban in the oldest of European countries, the inheritors of transmitted advantages, and the quiet students and thinkers and writers who undertake to form opinion, and the men of action, whether statesmen or merchants, or philanthropists, all need as citizenß the controlling, saving, hallowing icfluence upon which, in a sense vastly deeper and more personal, their eternal salvation as Christians depends. What is that influence but the continued light of the Almighty, A ll wise, All-holy Being, as He has revealed Himself to man ; lhe Eternal Father, Maker of heaven and farth ; the Eternal Son, who has redeemed us by His blood ; tbe Eternal Spirit, who sanctifies us in His church , three Persons, but One God blessed for evermore ?"