THE BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXXVII, Issue 11743, 20 September 1902, Page 7

THE BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

REPLY TO,, MR DEWDNEY

To the Editor

Sir, —Mr Dewdney says that it is in the Northern Canon that the 'eness to Christianity is found, and it is tl-ese MSS. that Professor Max Muller declares scarcely one, is more than 500 years old. This is the-answer to Mr Talbot's letter. Now, sir, if Mr Dewdney wilL read my letter again, he will see that Max Muller distinctly says that the Buddhist Canon, in which so many coincidences are found, was certainly reduced to writing in the first century before the Christian era. Mr Dewdney appealed to the authority of Max Muller, and as the above quotation shows, it troves he has no case. But apart from all MSS., we have what is more reliable, the testimony of inscriptions upon rocks as to the priority of the Buddhistic .coincidences. Dr Paul Cams says in his work on Buddhism and Christianity that the Buddhistic Canon was settled at the time of the second council, which took place about 250 8.C., and Ashokas Rock inscriptions, which contain the gist of Buddha's doctrines, date from the same period. This excludes at once the supposition that Buddhism is indebted to Christianity for its lofty morality and the purity of ite ideals. The same writer says that the Southern Canon has preserved the old traditions more faithfully than the Northern Canon. Mr Dewdney thinks it is absurd to think that Buddhistic information should have reached Palestine. But there is nothing impossible in that hypothesis, considering that the great trade route from Chaldaia, Persia, and India to Ecvpt was ri^ht through Palastine. Information would naturally flow through such channels to western peoples, and we find a great resemblance between the religious ideas and habits; of the Buddhists and the Essenes, who were found in considerably more numbers in or near Palastiiie. Still, after all, what does it matter if Christianity has borrowed from other religions-. It is the ethical spirit of the teachings ascribed to the Prophet of Nazareth that is of real value to humanity. While the letter is certainly but an imperfect vehicle, and should be less dwelt upon, the spirit of Christ's teachings commends itself to all thoughtful men. The idealised figure of Jesus Anil live for ever in the hearts of all men and women, who aspire to live a life of righteousness and service to their fellow men. Let the old dogmas be dropped, and allow the* fresh air of scientific thought to flow through the pulpits to the truth-hungry congregations. The ethics of "Christianity are, after all. that by which it must stand or fall, and. rationally expressed, are in accord ' with a scientific conception of morality. 'As J. S. Mill has well said, "In the golden

rule of Jesus of Nazareth, we read the complete spirit of the Ethics of Utility:

To do as you would be done by, and to love your neighbour as yourself, constitutes the ideal perfection of Utilitarian morality.—l am, etc.,

ARTHUR TALBOT