BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10441, 22 April 1912, Page 1

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

ADDRESS BY THE REV T. TAIT. At St Paul's Presbyterian Church last evening the Rev T. Tait addressed a ltirge congregation on the significance of the Bible in State Schools League, recently formed. He referred to the success of the movement ill Queensland, where the league had llhree distinct planks in its platform—provision for Scripture lessons in the schools by State schoolteachers, permission for clergymen to give religious lessons in school hours, and a conscience clause for parents objecting to have children taught. The preacher stated that what the local League had agreed on so far was the general "principle involved in the Queensland scheme. He took the parable of the Prodigal Son,_ and showed that it could be taught in two ways, dogmatically and pcdagogically. The method was to take a definite cut and dried meaning from the parable, and exclude all original interpretations as incorrect.. This was the method the League did not believe in. It believed in the pedagogic system, by which certain latitude of interpretation was allowed, and in which the thing to be aimed at was tho inculcation, not of the dogmatic assertion, of the underlying moral principle. Ordinary education was divided into physical, intellectual, and moral, and admittedly the moral was the most important. In the present educational system of the dominion this fact was not lost sight of. In the school books the word "God" was not excised, as it had been for a time in Victoria, and Biblical references were not excluded. The system could not therefore be called a godless one. It allowed the teacher to cite various types of moral greatness and heroism in such a subject as history, but did not permit him to illustrate or amplify his remarks by reference to the exemplar of Christianity. He did not dare to introduce lessons that could only be obtained in the New Testament. Yet could anyone say that such a lesson as "The Prodigal Son" could do any harm to any child ? Would any man deny that it was capable of doing a child a great deft'l of good? Even if tho lesson itself did 110 good, it at least created a different and a better atmosphere. Moreover. the rigid exclusion of the Bible wns apt to create in the child's mind a bias. lie was likely to regard the liihln as a luxury which could be dispensed with, or even to jump to the conclusion that, because _ it was excluded, il was un evil thing, and was pill, jn I lie class of prohibited literature. One of the best arguments .for I lie teaching was that such schemes lu<| licen in existence for over fortylour yen rs ill New South Wales, West Ani'lndia, and Tasmania, and, far li<.lll lustcring sectarian bias, had had ||ie effect of breaking down the barrier.-; between all denominations and developing greater amilv. Iu Queens-

land tho scheme,had been submitted to a referendum of all tho votes, and carried by a large majority. While he would not bring a charge against the youth of the dominion, he must say, and everybody must admit, that there was plenty of room for improvement in their morals, and it was the duty of the State not to Viesitate to introduce any instrument likely to improve their moral fibre, and tho general moral atmosphere.