Bible-in-schools

New Zealand Tablet, Volume 07, Issue 45, 7 November 1907, Page 9

Bible-in-schools

Panurge, in Rabelais' fantastic work, once got the father and mother of a roasting from a Turkish Bashaw. But (said he to Pantagruel) ' this roasting cured me entirely, of a sciatica, whereunto I had been subject above seven years before, upon that side which . my roaster, by falling asleep, suffered to be burnt '. During the past twelve days or more, the remnant of the Bible-in-schools party have been getting a rather severe • rib -roastiiag from politicians and from the secular press of the Dominion. It will probably cure them, for some considerable time to come, of their desire to capture the public schools for sectarian purposes. The latest application of blister ing comment comes from Christchurch ' Truth '. it - says in part :—: — c After many hopeless efforts to come to some common understanding they have got down to this • that the Bible should be read as a classic, presumably in the same fashion as any secular literature. But the : very fact tliat it had to be read at stated times, and apparently as a preliminary to the day's work, shows that the whole idea of the " Bible as a classic " is a subterfuge and a device to conceal the ulterior object of the Bible-in-schools parly. If ministers of religion were actuated by any genuine desire to ge- hold of the children in the day schools and impart io them a knowledge of tHe principles of Christianity, there is nothing to prevent them doing so, ancl most school committees and teachers 'would gladly co-operate by encouraging the children to come half an hour earlier for the purpose. But Ihe Bible-in-schools advocate" rarely betrays any desire to add to his duties ; he would rather thrust them on to the shoulders of the unfortunate school teacher, who has plenty to do already for the inadequate pay that is the reward of his services.' ' But it will come back to us again ', says a Northern religious contemporary. IX will come back, we ween, as from the wars came back MaPbrouck in the old French popular song. The comforter spoke to the lady that watched from the tower-top for vie home-coming of her warrior-lord :—: — ' 11. Keviendra a Paques, Ou a la Trinite ' (," He will return, lady, "by Easter, or at latest by Trinity day'). But his place knew him never again ; his fate was that of the fair one who—in the old Virginny plantation chorus quoted by Burnand—' never came back no more '.